I Have Fun Everywhere I Go Savage Tales of Pot, Porn, Punk Rock, Pro Wrestling, Talking Apes, Evil Bosses, Dirty Blues, American Heroes, and the Most Notorious Magazines in the World

by Edison, Mike

• ISBN13: 9780865479036
• ISBN10: 0865479038
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-05-12
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Summary

"If your book's subtitle isSavage Tales of Pot, Porn, Punk Rock, Pro Wrestling, Talking Apes, Evil Bosses, Dirty Blues, American Heroes, and the Most Notorious Magazines in the World, you have a lot to live up toand somehow Mike Edison does . . . Edison seems to have nine lives and enjoys every moment of each of them to the fullest . . . His journey takes him around the world, but he always returns to magazine writing, and his insider scoop on these bizarre workplaces is what, finally, makes this memoir truly memorable." Penthouse "Cooler than Toby Young and more credible than James Frey."Bookforum "Will have you alternately envying Edison and being glad you've avoided such encounters." New York Daily News "Gloriously told . . . Surprisingly intelligent." SF Weekly "[Edison's] an engaging, sardonic guide to some of magazinedom's more disreputable territories." Entertainment Weekly "Brash, irreverent, funny as hell and beautifully written."PopMatters

Author Biography

Mike Edison is a writer, editor, and musician. He lives in New York City.  

Table of Contents

Excerpt

The next person who suggests putting Bob Marley on the cover is going to be looking for a new job.

I would get in a lot of trouble for saying things like that, but seriously, Bob Fucking Marley? That’s the best you’ve got?

If you have ever imagined a creative meeting at a magazine to be a bubbling cauldron of energy and hot ideas, with ambitious editors pitching stories and competing to get plum assignments, well, this wasn’t it. My exhortations were greeted by grunts.

After years of pumping out seedy sex books and down-market filth, promoting the careers of devil-worshipping wrestlers and Bourbon Street strippers, I had finally scored my dream job—publisher of High Times magazine. What my grandma used to call “that dope rag.”

Strangely, not everyone wants to work for a marijuana magazine, no matter how famous it is. But after years of cut-rate pornography, drugs were a definite step up.

There was talent in the room, but most of it had been stifled by years of stoner ennui, the unfortunate side effect of working for a pop culture perennial where free weed was a perk. One editor, whose eyes looked like hemorrhoids from years of staring down the length of a water pipe, thumbed through an old issue dispassionately. Another amused himself with a chocolate-chip cookie. The others had about as much interest in my pep rally as a monkey might have in a chess match. I should have brought them a bright red rubber ball to play with. Or a coconut. These guys knew how to make a totally excellent bong out of a coconut.

But the magazine was in trouble. Circulation was flagging. It seemed like they had run out of ideas. Bob Marley? He had already been the cover story. Three times. There wasn’t a whole lot more to report.

When I came on board, the most recent celebrity to have been featured on the cover was Pancho Villa.

Pancho Villa?

Presumably this is why I had been hired—to lead High Times out of the grove of hackneyed pothead icons and dead Mexican folk heroes.

I looked around the room and measured my team. The fellow who had been eating the cookie was covered in crumbs. Everyone looked as if they were just waiting for the bell to ring so they could go to recess.

This was not going to be easy.

 

Excerpted from I Have Fun Everywhere I Go by Mike Edison. Copyright © 2008 by Mike Edison. Published in May 2008 by Faber and Faber, Inc., an affiliate of Farrar, Straus and Giroux. All rights reserved.

Excerpts

Excerpt
The next person who suggests putting Bob Marley on the cover is going to be looking for a new job.
I would get in a lot of trouble for saying things like that, but seriously, Bob Fucking Marley? That’s the best you’ve got?
If you have ever imagined a creative meeting at a magazine to be a bubbling cauldron of energy and hot ideas, with ambitious editors pitching stories and competing to get plum assignments, well, this wasn’t it. My exhortations were greeted by grunts.
After years of pumping out seedy sex books and down-market filth, promoting the careers of devil-worshipping wrestlers and Bourbon Street strippers, I had finally scored my dream job—publisher of High Times magazine. What my grandma used to call “that dope rag.”
Strangely, not everyone wants to work for a marijuana magazine, no matter how famous it is. But after years of cut-rate pornography, drugs were a definite step up.
There was talent in the room, but most of it had been stifled by years of stoner ennui, the unfortunate side effect of working for a pop culture perennial where free weed was a perk. One editor, whose eyes looked like hemorrhoids from years of staring down the length of a water pipe, thumbed through an old issue dispassionately. Another amused himself with a chocolate-chip cookie. The others had about as much interest in my pep rally as a monkey might have in a chess match. I should have brought them a bright red rubber ball to play with. Or a coconut. These guys knew how to make a totally excellent bong out of a coconut.
But the magazine was in trouble. Circulation was flagging. It seemed like they had run out of ideas. Bob Marley? He had already been the cover story. Three times. There wasn’t a whole lot more to report.
When I came on board, the most recent celebrity to have been featured on the cover was Pancho Villa.
Pancho Villa?
Presumably this is why I had been hired—to lead High Times out of the grove of hackneyed pothead icons and dead Mexican folk heroes.
I looked around the room and measured my team. The fellow who had been eating the cookie was covered in crumbs. Everyone looked as if they were just waiting for the bell to ring so they could go to recess.
This was not going to be easy. 
Excerpted from I Have Fun Everywhere I Go by Mike Edison. Copyright © 2008 by Mike Edison. Published in May 2008 by Faber and Faber, Inc., an affiliate of Farrar, Straus and Giroux. All rights reserved.

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Excerpted from I Have Fun Everywhere I Go: Savage Tales of Pot, Porn, Punk Rock, Pro Wrestling, Talking Apes, Evil Bosses, Dirty Blues, American Heroes, and the Most Notorious Magazines in the World by Mike Edison
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.