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Bridezillation Nation: Interviews With Rebecca Mead
Filed under: On the Spot Tagged: books, Carolita Johnson, cartoons, events, Henry Alford, John Donahue, Kelly Bare, movies, newyorker.com, NYPL, Rebecca Mead, Robert Benchley, TV
I'll be at the New York Public Library tonight with the brilliant and beautiful Newyorkette to see Rebecca Mead's conversation with Henry Alford about her new book, One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding. The talk's sold out, I'm afraid, but the book isn't. Read the top Amazon comment ("Inbel"); it's pretty smart. Hey, Penguin, who did the jacket design? I like it.
Here's an interview with Mead from the Wichita Eagle, or the San Antonio Express-News, or apparently both. A review I wrote for Newsday in 1999 turned up in the Moscow Times just the other day; perhaps all this repurposing is getting out of hand. Kelly Bare interviewed Mead (who says, "There is a culture of weddings that is conspiring to make bridezillas of us all if it possibly could") for newyorker.com.
Other event news: Cartoonist John Donohue is giving a Mediabistro seminar on gag cartoons (those are the kind you see in The New Yorker (where he's published) on June 12, reports Lusty Lady, a.k.a. Rachel Kramer Bussel.
And because I have very spotty television and no cable, I'm thrilled to see that Turner Classics is going to put a bunch of old movies online. Can the Benchley oevre be far behind?
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Emdashes, founded December 2004, is a place where keen and dedicated readers of The New Yorker, past and present, can find related news and commentary: about people, subjects, and ideas within the magazine, and events and conversations outside its pages. Learn more about us and our contributors.
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A few clips
- Report: Learning to read with comic books edited by Françoise Mouly (for Print)
- Interview: Designer Eleanor Grosch (for Print)
- Review: Charles Addams: A Cartoonist's Life by Linda H. Davis (for Newsday)
- Review: The King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
- Review: Does The New Republic's recent redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
- Proposal: A more attractive MetroCard (for A Brief Message)
- Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
- Report: Eustace Tilley spruces up for The New Yorker's website redesign (for Print)
- Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands (for Print)
- Review: books about various New Yorker cartoonists by Liza Donnelly and Iain Topliss (for Newsday)
- Profile: screenwriter and novelist Joe Keenan (for Newsday)
- Review: The Complete New Yorker (for Print)
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They say that dashes “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like em dashes—emphasizes what’s between: in particular, between the lines, covers, and issues of a magazine close to my heart.
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Edited by Martin Schneider, designed by Pretty, and illustrated by Inkleaf. Additional drawings by Carolita Johnson. Kissable pencil girl by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.
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Comments
I sort of hope that Larry Doyle's "Share Our Joy" is a short, pithy summary - in spirit if not in letter - of Mead's work. Because I just can't see myself reading a whole book on the topic.
You're right, that book cover is excellent.
I'm planning to read the book, actually—Mead and Alford were both very witty and full of horrific facts about the grand scams of the wedding industry. Afterward, Carolita and I sneaked into the swanky Nick Denton party on the generous arm of Megnut, and we all enjoyed some wedding cake. It was better than most wedding cake I've tasted, and the event was more fun than many weddings.