About the Book:
This is a 496-page compilation of The Worst of While You Were Sleeping magazine (Schiffer Publishing, 2012). With over 900 images of the graffiti crazed, boozed-up partiers, and scantily clad ladies that were WYWS, this magazine content pushed the envelop of morality, sanity, and maturity. While You Were Sleeping was a graffiti and pop culture magazine started by graffiti supply business owner Roger Gastman when he was 19. Here are some of the greatest stories the magazine ever published-and many that are not so good. From stories on admirable serial killers and interviews with child stars to photos of graffiti and people s naked sisters, this book takes you into the dirty minds of Gastman and his team of juvenile delinquents. You’ve been warned.
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Miss Rosen’s Contribution:
Miss Rosen wrote a short text for The Worst of While You Were Sleeping in memory of one of her favorite magazines.
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Excerpt from Text:
I met Roger Gastman in Chicago at a book trade show in June 2000. He was in the next booth, Soft Skull, with a copy of his first book, Free Agents. He also had a magazine, While You Were Sleeping. It was looking good for both of us.
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I had been a publicist. Or rather, I had just become one, a couple of months earlier. My job was to make connections, put together the perfect pair like Chuck Woolery on Love Connection. I showed Roger a book by Polly Borland called The Babies, photographs of adult infantilists (that is, men with a penchant for wearing diapers, being breast, bottle, and spoon fed, wearing little girl clothes—the whole bit). He was horrified. I always enjoyed that part of the job, the ability to disturb people without saying a word.
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It leaves a lasting impression, much like WYWS, which later published a couple of photographs by Borland—but no copy. That made me laugh. Cat got your tongue…
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—Miss Rosen
Brooklyn, 2011
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Cover photograph courtesy of Schiffer Publishing