Not entirely on topic, but your readers, Kevin, may be interested to see a four artworks from 2002 that represent color-averaged composites of digitized playboy centerfolds for each decade of the Old Gray Hare's existence.

http://www.salavon.com/PlayboyDecades/PlayboyDecades.shtml

Jason Salavon, the artist here, will have a show in town in February.

Thanks for adding that Joesph.

re Playboy Intv being a "pit stop" -- sad but true. this is through no fault of the high minded and always adventurous la editor; it's just a sign of the times. when i started doing the Interview in 1980, they sometimes ran 12-15000 words. verbosity was not unknown. however, today it's 6-7000. is it that intv subjects have less to say or is that the general public has been sold on the idea that they have short attention spans, and are only interested in what the latest actor/sports star/rascal has to say? i think we underestimate people's desire for a good read, an interview of depth that allows more of an interplay between subject and interrogator (sorely missing now). now it's all entry points and short takes. the nicholson intv is bright and the best sheff, a fine interviewer, could do given the circumstance under which we all labor. i value my years at playboy, and the many many Intvs and 20Questions I did, but now it's the ability, in books, to go deeper that has me ... sort of like the Playboy Intvs of old.

Time passes. Things change. Stand in the road and you'll soon get hit by a bus.

My CityBeat media column next week will be on Playboy, just FYI....I won't be able to link it on my site because I'll be in London.

cathy -- i'll be looking forward to it ...

i should add to my post above that the interview subjects are also complicit in the mess we find ourselves in. the rise of the pr faction is overwhelming. no longer is there a sense or a chance of being able to interview and follow up. access and time are tightly controlled. some questions are forbidden. now, as an interviewer, you don't have to buy into the prohibitions. you can meet the subject and judge for yourself in what the publicist said is law or just them covering their behinds. i've found many of my subject much more willing to be open than was portrayed. but in general, in a world in which no one it seems can shut up (the wonderful blogosphere), the interview subject seems to want to say less.

THE INTERVIEW ISN'T WHAT IT USED TO BE BECAUSE THE WRONG PEOPLE ARE BEING INTERVIEWED. INANE QUESTIONS DIRECTED AT FAR TOO MANY ACTORS, ATHLETES, AND OTHER FOOLS WHOSE FARTS ARE MORE INTERESTING TO LISTEN TO THAN ANYTHING WHICH MIGHT COME OUT OF THEIR MOUTHS.