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Post by Supertramp78 on Apr 3, 2011 22:50:23 GMT -5
Reading Playboy that is. I used to subscribe when I was much younger. Lots of very interesting articles were padding that magazine out to a worthwhile length. I was looking back over some records at the people that Playboy used to get for their interviews.
Here is a list from 1963
Frank Sinatra
Bertrand Russell
Helen Gurley Brown
Malcolm X
Billy Wilder
Richard Burton
Jawaharlal Nehru
Jimmy Hoffa
Albert Schweitzer
and a two month long panel discussion with Poul Anderson, Isaac Asimov, James Blish, Ray Bradbury, Algis Budrys, Arthur C. Clark, Robert Heinlein, Frederik Pohl, Rod Serling, Theodore Sturgeon, William Tenn, and A. E. Van Vogt.
1964 wasn't bad either.
Vladimir Nabokov
Ayn Rand
Jean Genet
Jack Lemon
Igmar Bergman
Salvador Dali
Dick Gregory
Henry Miller
Cassius Clay
George Wallace
Ian Flemming
Let's compare that to the people they interviewed last year.
Sean Combs
John Mayer
Robert Downey Jr.
Conan O'Brien
Michael Savage
Josh Brolin
Cameron Diaz
Mathew Fox
Paul Rubens
Sarah Silverman
Cornel West
sigh....
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Post by omaha on Apr 3, 2011 23:16:32 GMT -5
Interesting observation.
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Dub
Administrator
I'm gettin' so the past is the only thing I can remember.
Posts: 19,881 
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Post by Dub on Apr 3, 2011 23:34:50 GMT -5
Welcome to the age of unenlightenment.
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Post by Jawbone on Apr 3, 2011 23:47:57 GMT -5
I always looked for the good articles in National Geographical.
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Post by brucemacneill on Apr 4, 2011 6:28:13 GMT -5
Playboy had articles? Who knew? Actually, I have the Playboy channel and never watch it. I keep planning to drop it but that would restart the DirecTV contract. The people in their shows aren't the "Nice girl next door" types, too many tattoos and piercings for my tastes and just not "Sexy" IMHO. The wife still watches some of the comedy shows but the one I liked, which was the faux-news show the name of which escapes me was eliminated years ago. It's kind of sad really. The original magazine was decent in an indecent way.
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Post by iamjohnne on Apr 4, 2011 7:40:45 GMT -5
I discovered Shel Silverstein from reading my Dad's Playboys. I was grown before I knew about his children's poems.
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Post by Greg B on Apr 4, 2011 8:17:42 GMT -5
That is interesting.
So my question would be: Who would you like to see interviewed?
I tried to make a list.
Christopher Hitchens
Richard Dawkins
Ann Druyan
Brian Cox
Eugenie Scott
Obviously I'm selecting a strong science based list. It's a lot tougher to pick current figures from the political or literary realm. Has our culture degraded to the point where we can't produce a list like '63 or '64? Or has our media simply homogenized to the point where we don't hear about interesting, intelligent people any more?
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Post by Rob Hanesworth on Apr 4, 2011 8:32:49 GMT -5
That is interesting. Has our culture degraded to the point where we can't produce a list like '63 or '64? I fear that is close to the truth. Or at least too many Americans think the likes of Charlie Sheen, Kim Kardashian, Britney Spears, etc. are interesting. |
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Post by majorminor on Apr 4, 2011 9:58:53 GMT -5
Well Tramp for $299.99(but WAIT there's MORE!!!!) you can have the whole archive on a USB key. I was gonna get one for Epaul when I first heard of it but while I like him a lot I don't like him THAT much. www.playboyarchive.com/shop/HardDrive.htm |
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Post by Greg B on Apr 4, 2011 10:50:03 GMT -5
Oh! I just thought of a literary figure for the list. How about Salman Rushdie?
Seriously, who would you folks like to have interviewed?
We lament the coverage of P. Diddy and Cornel West, but who would be this generation's Miles Davis or John Coltrane? Who would be those artist who are taking an existing music genre and taking it to whole new levels without simply throwing away the past and adding a drum beat and rap lyrics?
It's a tough one. The ones I'd like to read about were part of that older generation: Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock. Maybe Jimmy Page would be a good interview. But is he still relevant to this generation?
Maybe the question is how do we choose both relevancy and quality at the same time?
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Post by omaha on Apr 4, 2011 11:08:34 GMT -5
Salman Rushdie is a good call.
Other ideas:
- Vince Gilligan
- Boris Johnson
- Ai Weiwei
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Post by Supertramp78 on Apr 4, 2011 11:48:23 GMT -5
The first three interviews were in 1962
Miles Davis
Peter Sellers
Jackie Gleason
Part of all this is that for the time, Miles Davis WAS the Jay-Z of his day. Controversial hip musician. In 1962 he was still about 14 years away from Bitch's Brew.
People I would like to read about today?
Paul Ryan
Bill Clinton
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Post by Doug on Apr 4, 2011 11:53:25 GMT -5
Back when I bought Playboy it was $0.75 and was better than 1/2 in thick, now it is multiple dollars (I don't know how many) and is little more than the thickness of a comic book. Same thing happened to Mother Earth News. Just hasn't been something I would spend money on for years. But if you leave your copy laying around I will look at it.  |
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Post by Cosmic Wonder on Apr 4, 2011 15:13:23 GMT -5
Every Friday on NPR they run this show called science friday. They interview interesting people, who talk of things of substance. For some reason they haven't interviewed Charlie Sheen yet.
Mike
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Post by Cornflake on Apr 4, 2011 15:39:06 GMT -5
This brings to mind a little epiphany I had while reading a review of Keith Richards' book. The reviewer made the point that Richards grew up when cultural offerings (broadly defined) were scarce and hard to come by. The internet has given us an era where such offerings are paralyzingly overabundant. We're no longer all listening to the same few dozen musicians, so it's harder to find consensus "stars" that a lot of people would like to know about or hear from. And it's not just music.
When I think of who I'd like to see interviewed, I mostly get names who started in my own era. People under the age of 50? Except for politicians and a very small number of actors, I can hardly name any that anyone else would recognize.
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Post by loopysanchez on Apr 4, 2011 17:01:54 GMT -5
Part of all this is that for the time, Miles Davis WAS the Jay-Z of his day. Controversial hip musician. In 1962 he was still about 14 years away from Bitch's Brew. Actually only about 7 years. The Bitches' Brew Sessions were recorded in '69, released in '70. I think the "problem" today is that people have so many choices that the majority of those choices appeal to the lowest common denominator, hoping that they can present the same crap in a flashy enough way that they make more money off the public than all the rest. But those choices also leave enough room for plenty of truly interesting, talented people to be seen and heard; you just have to search a little bit, rather than having it presented to you in a softcore nudie mag. ;-) |
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Post by timfarney on Apr 4, 2011 21:00:13 GMT -5
The first three interviews were in 1962 Miles Davis Peter Sellers Jackie Gleason Part of all this is that for the time, Miles Davis WAS the Jay-Z of his day. Controversial hip musician. In 1962 he was still about 14 years away from Bitch's Brew. People I would like to read about today? Paul Ryan Bill Clinton In 1962, Miles wasn't 14 years away from Bitches Brew, he was 3 years beyond Kind of Blue. Many would argue, and I'd be among them, that Miles best work was behind him by the time he got to Bitches Brew. Interviews for Playboy? Philip Roth is still alive and brilliant. It would have been great if they'd interviewed David Foster Wallace a couple of years ago before his demons took him down. Herbie Hancock? Hell yes. Philip Seymour Hoffman would be a good choice. Most of that list from last year is resignation, not reading. I'd much rather look at the pictures than know what's on Paul Rubens' mind. Tim |
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Post by paulschlimm on Apr 4, 2011 21:14:51 GMT -5
Science Friday is a great program. Last Friday they did Science Jokes day, and then interviewed a bee expert. I learned, to my surprise, there are over 19,000 species of bees.
The best science joke? So two atoms are walking down the street. One stops and exclaims: I think I lost an electron. The other replies: Really? Are you sure? The first replies: Yes, I'm positive. ::rim shot::
The best runner up? Did you hear about the new restaurant on the moon? Great food, but no atmosphere.
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Post by RickW on Apr 4, 2011 23:52:14 GMT -5
Playboy deserves a special place just for Gahan Wilson, and "Real Men Don't Eat Quiche."
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Post by Greg B on Apr 5, 2011 9:13:07 GMT -5
I have to agree. The last few albums like Decoy, You're under Arrest, and Tutu were basically Marcus Miller albums with Miles soloing. There's yet another album of that genre called Aura which wasn't even released in America. Somehow, I found a copy. It's pretty forgettable.
But yeah, Milestones, Kinds of Blue, Milestones, Sketches of Spain, E.S.P., all those albums are amazing. I understand that Miles wanted to keep experimenting and changing. But I don't listen to much of his stuff after In a Silent Way.
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