Category: Penthouse

Warrior Wire: We’ve Got Their Backs … And Their Tits & Ass

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I recently read a story about New York Times columnist Nick Kristof, and how he writes his columns about specific people and not merely the broader issues because readers have an easier time relating if the story is about a singular person than about the hundreds, thousands, or millions actually impacted. At first, I was kind of annoyed. It seems ridiculous of people to think that way, and I didn’t want to believe that that’s how we really react to news. But then I realized that that’s exactly how I write, too. Which brings us to my latest Warrior Wire column.

Every couple of years, someone decides that Penthouse should be banned on military bases and we get kicked out of the PXes all across the country. In the eight years I’ve been with the magazine, I’ve seen us banned two or three times, and heard about people wanting to ban us at least twice as often, probably more. The reasons are always a little absurd. I read something once about how a woman complained and fought to ban the magazine because she was in a PX with her child and saw a soldier buying the magazine, and she didn’t want to have to explain to her child what the magazine was and why this (grown) man was buying it. This startled me for a number of reasons. First off, all Penthouse magazines sold on newsstands are polybagged, which means you can only see the front and back cover. And, I’m sorry, but our cover is no more risqué than Cosmopolitan or Maxim or any other (wo)men’s interest magazine. Even our cover lines aren’t that racy. Again, no more so than any other magazine that you can find on the shelves. But, also, if your kid asks what Penthouse is, you can simply say, “It’s a magazine for grownups.” That’s what my parents did, and it’s what I do when I have to explain to underage folk (the kids of family and friends) what I do. And it’s always enough to end the conversation with them, because, really, they don’t care. And if your kid is old enough to care, they’re going to find a way to get their hands on some dirty magazines no matter what you do. (Don’t act like you didn’t steal your dad’s Penthouse or your friend’s dad’s Playboy. We all did it.)

Anyway, when I was asked to write this editorial, all those things came to mind. But my being pissed wasn’t going to do much, because I’m the writer. Of course I’m mad when people can’t buy my magazine. As a writer, I’m annoyed because it keeps people from seeing my writing, and I work really hard on every article. And as an employee, I get irritated because by not selling the magazine that pays my rent, they’re possibly cutting into my ability to pay my rent down the line. (Note: Jerks!) So I knew I needed other voices. And this brings us back to my earlier point. When I write, I write about people. Sure, sometimes I write about people who need better health care, or people who don’t want their retirement benefits cut, or even simply people who like music, but every story I’ve written has been, at its heart, about people. Because as it turns out, I’m one of those people who cares more about an issue when I can connect it to a person, a face, a name, a story, then when all I’ve got are statistics and hard facts.

I was surprised with how many of the vets I’ve talked to actually got back to me when I sent out an email asking for their opinions on the latest Penthouse ban. I’ve been lucky to always talk to people who are willing to help me out whenever they can, but this seemed like an odd story, and I really didn’t expect many responses. The four people included in this article—Jenny, Jesse, Geoff, and Justin—had the strongest opinions of all of them, and they also all had great ways of expressing those opinions. I had already written a rough draft before hearing back from them, but adding their statements really made this article come alive for me. Without them, it felt like just me being ranty, and outside of email chains with my friends, I try to keep my ranting to a minimum because who the hell am I? But with their voices, it became an issue, one that I thought people could understand as being about more than a magazine staff being upset that sales numbers were going to drop a bit.

Some of the quotes I got made me think differently. One of the reasons suggested for the ban was that magazines like Penthouse are a root cause of sexual assault, teaching men that women are merely objects. Jenny mentioned that one of the reasons that our magazine couldn’t be blamed for military sexual trauma (MST), though, was that MST also happened to men, and I hadn’t really thought about that before. And Geoff and Jesse both brought up points about how the military was so concerned with banning a magazine, but had yet to address the real issue of MST, which is that it’s underreported, and when it is reported, it’s almost impossible for the victims to get justice because they have to report to their chain of command, some of whom are the ones committing these assaults. But my favorite quotes came from Justin, who in our interview said basically all the things I wanted to say, but better. He brought up points I wanted to bring up, and basically could have written the editorial himself if I’d let him. He also had a great line about how it’s unfair that he can serve in the military, fight a war, risk death, but they won’t let him see a pair of tits. … And, okay, I’ll admit it, part of me was excited to be able to use words like “tits” and “balls” in Warrior Wire, since those articles are usually more cut and dry—and less vulgar. So, there’s that, too.

Anywho, the point of the editorial is that people (who are of age and legally allowed to do so) should be able to buy Penthouse if that’s what they want to do. Especially people who we’re willing to send off to war and who may come back injured or maybe not come back at all. So, yeah, I think if you’re allowed to go to war, you should be allowed to read a fucking “dirty” magazine. And if you don’t want your kids seeing the magazine, then don’t buy it (or do, but just hide it really well). Other people shouldn’t have to give up simple pleasures like this because other people are too fucking afraid of sex to know how to explain it to a child or, I fear, to have it explained to them. [End rant]

Now, if you want to read the actual editorial, and see what the vets I interviewed had to say about whether you—or they—should be allowed to buy Penthouse on military bases, check out my/the magazine’s editorial, “We’ve Got Their Backs … And Their Tits & Ass” from the June 2014 issue of, you guessed it, Penthouse. 

Warrior Wire: Denied Till They Die

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When I started working on this article, I honestly thought I’d be writing about something else. I’d been contacted by Tracee Beebe, a filmmaker who was working on a documentary about Vietnam veterans, and she told me that they were being denied benefits from the VA because their military records didn’t reflect their service accurately. I was intrigued, and I pitched my editor the story. At the same time, my father had just been awarded disability compensation by the VA for exposure to Agent Orange, something that he’d been fighting for since he returned home, and I had pitched another story about that issue. I even thought I might interview my dad, make him tell me all the stories I’ve never heard, and all the ones I have that I want to hear again.

Then I started doing my interviews for this piece. It turned out that all the vets I was in touch with were trying to get benefits for exposure to Agent Orange, and all of them were being denied because they didn’t have “boots on the ground.” The story had changed.

My dad helped me out with a lot of the research as I worked on the story, and he sent me every scrap of paper and internet link he had that had some useful information. But because he’d (finally) been given a disability rating, he was no longer part of my Agent Orange story. And, actually, I was glad. Not because I didn’t want to interview him or hear his stories. We talk every week, multiple times, and I love hearing his stories. No, I was glad he was out of the story because of how hard it was to talk to the men who hadn’t gotten a rating and weren’t receiving benefits. Some of them cried when we spoke. Sometimes, I cried after I hung up. One man who’d agreed to an interview died before we could actually talk. That was tough. And all of them sounded a lot like my dad.

Tracee had started her documentary because of her father’s experience with the VA and Agent Orange, and when she and I spoke, it was like we were talking about the same person. The way she described her father—his attitude, the things he said, the way he thought about his service, the worries he had—sounded exactly like my dad. All of the men, really, were similar to my father. Maybe it’s just that they all come from the same generation, or maybe because they all fought the same wars, literally and figuratively. Whatever it was, it was like talking to and about my dad, all day, every day, while I worked on this. Except that my dad wasn’t sick like they were. And my dad wasn’t still waiting for someone to admit that something had happened to him and he deserved to be compensated. My dad, unlike some of the men I spoke to, was doing better than ever.

I know that there are so many more issues out there, and with wounded troops still coming home from Afghanistan, and the VA still mired in scandal, Agent Orange seems like a minor, far-away issue. But it’s still something that so many men (and women) are battling. And Agent Orange doesn’t only affect the veterans who were exposed, but their children and grandchildren. And while the number of people affected dwindles every day, as the older generations die off, it doesn’t make the issue go away. If we’re still fighting to get vets taken care of more than four decades after the Vietnam War, how long will this newest generation of vets have to fight to get the care they deserve?

While we wait for that answer, I’d love it if you’d take a minute to read my article, “Denied Till They Die,” from the May 2014 issue of Penthouse. You can read it by clicking the above image or by clicking here.

Warrior Wire: Diet COLA

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I don’t really have a lot to say about this article, especially since it’s kind of old news by now. I had written this when the COLA cuts were still an everyday news item, and it was the hot-button veterans issue of the moment. Now, with the VA scandal going on, this feels ancient. That said, I still think it’s worth a read.

When I was working on this article, something strange happened. A veteran follower of mine on Twitter actually reached out to me to ask me to explain how the COLA cuts were going to work. He hadn’t had a chance to really dig into the news, and he was concerned. Knowing that I followed the issues, he sent me a message asking me if I could put the whole mess into layman’s terms for him to let him know just what to expect. I took it as a compliment, that because of all my work writing and editing the Warrior Wire column the past couple of years, someone actually saw me as some sort of authority on the matter. It felt pretty cool, I must say. Although Penthouse has been covering veterans and the military for four decades, people don’t always take it seriously, and it’s not always easy to get interviews, as some people still don’t realize we publish articles like this. It makes the job of putting together this monthly feature that much harder, but it also makes it that much more rewarding when I get feedback. Whether it’s someone saying they’ve looked up my work and are willing to grant me an interview because they like what I’ve done so far, or someone like this guy who reached out and asked me, because of my writing, to help him understand the issue, it means a lot to know that these articles are getting out there and having some sort of impact. Even if only one person is helped by the work I do (and the work my editors and fellow Warrior Wire writers do), that’s still a big deal.

I’d also like to take a moment here to thank Joe Davis, from the VFW, for all his help with this article. I know a lot, but I’m also fortunate enough to have a really amazing community of people much more knowledgeable than I am who let me pick their brains every month and help me understand what’s going on so that I can share the news with my readers. I’m not exactly an economics wiz, so some of the math-y stuff involved in writing this COLA article was a little bit harder to grasp. Joe took the time to explain it all to me, and his responses to my questions were so in-depth and detailed that I joked that I should give him the byline of the story, since he’d put in as much work as I had.

Anywho, you can read my article, “Diet COLA,” front the April 2014 issue of Penthouse by clicking the image above or by clicking right here.

Warrior Wire: The Art of War

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As a writer, I’ve always been incredibly jealous of people who are talented in the visual arts. That old saying about a picture being worth a thousand words? It’s totally true. Plus, people are more likely to stop for a few seconds to look at a photo or painting or drawing than they are to actually read a thousand-word article. This is especially true in my line of work, writing for a magazine known for its (NSFW) photos, which I’m sure garner a lot more looks than all the words I write on the pages between the photos. So, of course, after my article about veteran writers, it seemed only natural to follow it up with a story about veteran artists.

I don’t quite remember how I first learned about the Combat Paper Project, but I know that right after I heard about it, I couldn’t stop hearing about it. Several people I interviewed for my article on Warrior Writers mentioned it, and then it was mentioned again in the documentary Poster Girl (which you can watch on Netflix), and, in fact, there was a separate short documentary about the project, Iraq Paper Scissors, in the DVD bonus features of that film. Because, of course. It was clearly the universe’s way of telling me what I should write about next.

When I started reading up on the program and learning more about it, one of the first thoughts I had was, “This is f*ckin’ cool!” Because it is. But I also noticed that a lot of the names mentioned in other articles about Combat Paper were familiar to me from reading about veteran activists over the years. So I was doubly excited to get to work on the story. I’d get to pick the brains of talented artists, and talk to people whom I’d been reading about for the past couple of years.

A lot of the talk about the Combat Paper Project was about the cathartic aspect of it, and how it helps people heal. But what I thought was especially awesome about it was how it was producing unique works of art. While some of the men and women who participate do so for more emotional reasons, the fact is, a lot of the participants are incredibly talented artists, which I think gets overlooked a lot. Most stories about veterans’ groups like this one get bogged down by talk of PTSD and military sexual trauma and all the other things that go wrong that make people turn to art to heal. And there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that. Art is healing, both for the artist and, at times, for the viewer. But that’s not the whole story.

One of the artists I interviewed, Eli Wright, who helps lead the Combat Paper workshops at the Printmaking Center of New Jersey, told me that he wondered if people would have considered him an artist if he weren’t a veteran. He’s also not sure he really considers himself an artist because that’s not how he makes his living. The work he’s most known for is a piece called “Open Wound,” which can easily be seen as a statement about his post-war feelings, and he says that more subtle pieces don’t get the kind of attention “Open Wound” does, even though some of them may be better. Then there’s Jesse Albrecht, who has no trouble calling himself an artist. He has his MFA, shows his work frequently in workshop and gallery settings, and has taught art at the college level. His work with Combat Paper is more about the art than anything else.

The cathartic aspects of art shouldn’t be entirely ignored, however. Drew Matott, who helped start the Combat Paper Project, started the Peace Paper Project not too long ago, which focuses on helping people heal from traumatic events through art. Veteran artist Jon Turner, who also worked with Combat Paper for several years, helps teach the Peace Paper veterans’ workshops. The focus there is more on the healing aspects of the artistic process, though they certainly produce some beautiful art, too.

Whether you prefer to look at the created pieces as art or as a means of finding peace, it’s worth checking out the art and artists who make up the Combat Paper Project. You can see more of their art here and here, and you can find out their workshop schedules here and here. And you can check out the Peace Paper Project here. And, of course, you can read my article about the Combat Paper Project, which appeared in the March 2014 issue of Penthouse, by clicking right over here.

Warrior Wire: Fightin’ Words

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If you read my last post, you may have noticed a sidebar in my article “The Write Stuff.” In it, I gave a short rundown of five of my favorite veteran-written books. I chose five because that’s what I knew could fit in the space I was given, but there are so many more good books, and I want to share those with you, too. So here’s a little bit about how I chose the books that made the cut, as well as some further recommended reading:

During the earlier years of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, I didn’t read books or watch movies about the wars. I devoured the news like a junkie, and my college roommates suffered through lots of CNN and stacks upon stacks of newspapers. My cousin, a Marine, did three tours to Iraq, so I was always a little worried about him and didn’t want books or movies to make me even more tense. I’d always been a big news junkie, though, so that I could handle.

My cousin had just finished his last tour when I got my first Warrior Wire assignment, and my editor has asked me to interview Paul Rieckhoff of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. I knew of him, and I knew he’d written a book, so I read his book before our interview. It was easier now that my cousin was home. I loved Paul’s book, so I sought out more.

In true Jen fashion, I bought dozens of books, more than I could read in any reasonable amount of time, and have continued to do so. If someone I interview recommends a book, I pick it up. If I read a good review of a book, it’s in. If a book lands on my desk at Penthouse for review or I stumble upon one during my annual trip to Book Expo America, it becomes part of my required reading, too. So in the past few years, I’ve acquired quite a collection. I’ve read about a third of my collection now, maybe a little more. (I read other things, too, and I can only spend so many hours with my nose in a book.)

There are so many great books out there these days. Especially about our most recent wars. There are books about policy and practice, there are memoirs, there are accounts from journalists and photographers. I’ve found books that I love and books that I only kind of like, and books that even people who have no interest in the news or the wars can read and understand (and I’m not above forcing people to read books for their own damn good). There are also more books than ever out there about and by veterans.

My all-time favorite, and the first war book I ever read, is Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, about the Vietnam War.

Here’s a list of my favorite Iraq/Afghanistan books by vets:

Chasing Ghosts: Failures and Facades in Iraq: A Soldier’s Perspective
(Paul Rieckhoff)
My dad said the a lot of the scenes were reminiscent of his time in Vietnam and he could really relate to it. My first and favorite Iraq war memoir.

My Share of the Task: A Memoir
(Gen. Stanley McChrystal, Ret.)
Heavy on the policy and so full of jargon that you might have some trouble if you’re not fluent in military lingo. That said, it’s also got some great humorous moments, and was a far more enjoyable read than I’d ever anticipated.

Fire and Forget: Short Stories from the Long War
(editors Roy Scranton and Matt Gallagher)
The first fiction I read about the recent wars. Absolutely superb read. It introduced me to some great writers I may not have discovered otherwise and really made me think.

An Angel From Hell: Real Life on the Front Lines
(Ryan A. Conklin)
If you watched MTV’s Real World: Brooklyn a few years ago, you may remember Conklin as one of the housemates that season. His book, like his role on the show, is goofy and a little immature, but it has its deeper moments. It’s a good book, but I chose it for my article in large part because it’s a book that a lot of younger readers will find accessible because of their familiarity with Conklin from his television appearances.

The Yellow Birds
(Kevin Powers)
War fiction by a war vet. This was probably my favorite book that I read in 2013, about war or otherwise. Whether you’re interested in war/veterans or not, any fan of good writing must read this.

Fobbit
(David Abrams)
This is the Catch-22 of the 21st century. It’s a hilarious take on life on base in a war zone. I laughed out loud frequently, which definitely made my fellow subway riders curious about the book.

Sergeant Rex: The Unbreakable Bond Between a Marine and His Military Working Dog
(Mike Dowling)
First of all, it’s about a dog. What’s not to love? But really, it was a great, quick read. And, yes, the man-and-his-dog story is heartwarming as hell. It’s one of the more sentimental war memoirs, but also one of the easiest to get into. You can’t not like this book.

My War: Killing Time in Iraq
(Colby Buzzell)
Buzzell has written several articles for Penthouse‘s Warrior Wire column, so of course his book made my list. But it’s also a good book. It’s a little non-linear, being based on the blog he kept during the war, but his voice is familiar and likable. He references a lot of punk music and frequently points out how he doesn’t necessarily fit the soldier mold (whatever that may be these days), and reading his book felt like binge-reading emails home from my cousin, so it won me over.

Honorable mentions:

Thank You for Your Service
(David Finkel)
Not by a veteran, but an embedded reporter. It’s an honest look at what happens when soldiers come home with PTSD and TBI. It will totally break your heart a half-dozen times, but you’ll be all the better for it.

War
(Sebastian Junger)
Even people who have no interest in war will be able to get lost in this book by one of my favorite writers. He skips all the acronyms and over-thought explanations of why and how and simply tells a good story.

Generation Kill
(Evan Wright)
If you hate books, you can watch the HBO miniseries
of the same name. It’s as close to the book as anything I’ve seen, and doesn’t require you to read the book before you watch it. But if you pick the book, you won’t be sorry. Wright has no shame in pointing out all the times he was scared, or discussing the nitty-gritty details of war, like where you go to the bathroom when you’re camped out in the middle of nowhere in the desert.

If there are any books you think I should read, please leave me a comment, tweet me, or email me.

Warrior Wire: The Write Stuff

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Warrior Writers is an organization I first learned about after looking up veterans’ groups that needed volunteers. I got busy not long after contacting them, but I subscribed to their newsletter and followed what they were doing. Then, last year, when I was trying to come up with articles to pitch, I remembered them and reached out. I was excited to profile an organization full of writers, which I thought was an incredible addition the non-profit scene, but I was even more thrilled when I saw the list of members.

When I wrote my first Warrior Wire article, “War Songs,” back in 2008, I tried to get in touch with Garett Reppenhagen, who’d penned the Bouncing Souls’ song “Letter from Iraq.” Unfortunately, I could only find an old email address, and we failed to connect. I’d had him in the back of my mind ever since, and I kept wondering if I’d ever find another article to write where I could include him. Well, four years later, I finally got my chance, because he happened to be a participant in Warrior Writers.

Also on the list was Geoff Millard, whom I’d interviewed for that very first article I wrote. He’d been a really good interview, and we’d had a great chat back then, so I was looking forward to reconnecting. He didn’t disappoint.

One of the coolest things about this article, though, was getting to talk to these people one writer to another. Writing about writers was easy. And daunting. Because these guys (and ladies) would know if I fucked up. Still, it was nice to talk to them about how they get their ideas and inspiration and what drove them to writing. Some of them want to write professionally, while others are satisfied with keeping their journals private. Some are artists or writing coaches or have degrees in English literature, and others are volunteers or work in non-profits. What they all have in common—and what I share with them—is a need to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard, as the case may be) to express their feelings, either for themselves or for the world to read.

Since writing about Warrior Writers, I’ve discovered other similar writing groups, like Words After War, Veterans Writing Project, and Veterans Writing Workshop. Each has its own focus and goals, but they’re all equally worth checking out.

To read my article about Warrior Writers, from the February 2014 issue of Penthouse, you can click the image above.

Warrior Wire: At Their Service

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Since I started writing for Penthouse‘s Warrior Wire column, I’ve really gotten to know a lot about the veterans community. I’ve always had an interest in vets’ issues because of my dad (a Vietnam vet) and my cousin (who did three tours during the Iraq war), but writing about it means I have to really know my shit.

Part of what I’ve learned in the past five years (my first Warrior Wire article, “War Songs,” was published in the March 2009 issue of Penthouse) is that there are a ton of organizations dedicated to helping vets with various aspects of their lives. Some provide financial aid, others are for health care, some fight for vet-friendly legislation, and still others are simply aimed at helping returning vets have a little fun. And there are, of course, the old standbys, the VFWs and IAVAs and American Legions, who do a little bit of everything. So when my editor asked me to put together a column of some of the best, I really had my work cut out for me.

To choose, I reached out to friends and Twitter followers who were veterans and who had experience with these groups. Then I went gung-ho on the research and dug up everything I could find. There’s a list in my notebook that’s at least several pages long, not to mention the various Post-its (paper and digital) full of names and links. I didn’t want to miss a single one.

Some were easy, like IAVA’s Rucksack program, the Honor Flight Network, and the Wounded Warrior Project. Others, like Vets in Film and Television (LA) and the GI Film Festival were projects I’d wanted to write about for a while but hadn’t been able to for one reason or another. And then there were groups that were entirely new to me but that I fell in love with.

Warriors & Quiet Waters is one that I discovered because of this article, but the more I learned about it, the more I wished I’d known about it sooner. Faye, who is one of the group’s few employees, talked to me about how WQW helps vets and what their mission is, and then she described the typical FX (fishing experience). It sounded like exactly what I was looking for. Then, a few weeks later, a documentary about WQW, Not Yet Begun to Fight, screened in NYC. I was there on opening night with the half-dozen other interested filmgoers, and got to talk to one of the participants. Seeing the film and hearing him describe the experience he’d had on his FX cemented it for me. How could I not include it?

After that, I spoke to DJ Skelton about Paradox Sports. Skelton was honored in Penthouse’s 2011 Badass Issue, and he already seemed pretty awesome. Then he told me about what PS does, helping injured vets by getting them involved in extreme outdoor activities like rock-climbing and ice-climbing. Holy hell! Hearing about how guys with one arm or one leg or prosthetic limbs are hauling ass up these mountains and cliffs was beyond inspiring. So of course they had to join the list.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The other organizations profiled in this piece are: National Veterans Wheelchair Games, Project Sanctuary, Songwriting With:Soldiers and Tunnel to Towers, but there are so many others who I just couldn’t fit.

If you’re a vet, you should check out all of these amazing organizations and see which ones fit your needs. And if you’re a civilian, consider donating time or money to the group that you most connect with. Even if you can only give a few bucks, every penny helps.

And keep sending me info on any groups I’ve left out here. Head on over to my Contact page and email, tweet, or tumbl me your favorites. Or comment below. And make sure to check out the full article from the January 2014 issue of Penthouse by clicking the picture above.

Warrior Wire: Rings of Fire

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I don’t really remember when I first heard about burn pits, though I know I started researching for this article at least a year before it was published, maybe even earlier. I keep a file on my desk of research for stories I want to write, if I ever have the time or opportunity, and when I went through it last fall, I found a printout of a short article about burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan. Next thing I knew, my editor had approved my pitch and I was knee-deep in research.

I spent more time reading and researching than I had in quite a while. It took me several months to do all that background work and interview everyone, and there were numerous updates that needed to be worked in as time went on. I wanted to make sure I packed this 1,500-word article as full of information as I could, because it really is an important issue. All in all, I think I spent six months working on this article, longer than anything else I’d ever written. (Generally, from conception to completion, I’m done in a few weeks, with the biggest lag coming from the difficulty of scheduling interviews.)
When the article went to the Penthouse fact-checker, she came by to get a list of my sources and all my supporting documentation, and I think she nearly had a heart attack when I gave her the long, long list of articles and interviews she’d need to check. Oops! But I also got to impress her. Everyone in the Penthouse editorial department is pretty news savvy, and we all watch CNN and MSNBC and all that jazz even more than we watch porn. After checking a few quotes with me, the fact-checker wanted to know which of the quotes came from interviews I’d done myself and which I’d borrowed from other sources. I told her all the quotes were from my own interviews except one (which of course had proper attribution), and she asked if it was Paul Rieckhoff’s quote. “No,” I told her, “I interviewed him myself. Always do. He’s the best.” She was surprised I’d gotten someone who’s a regular on all the big news shows to speak to me, and I got to tell her that I’ve interviewed him numerous times. She was understandably impressed. (Hell, I’m impressed every time I realize I get to speak to him, too.)
For me, that’s one of the coolest things about this job: having access to people I admire and getting to discuss the issues with them. Rieckhoff (founder of IAVA) has always been a great interview, and he always takes a few minutes to discuss my other story ideas with me or give me some ideas that he thinks would work. He’s been super supportive from my very first article, and it’s such an incredible honor to get to pick his brain. But I also get to talk to amazing guys from the VFW, like Joe Davis and Ryan Gallucci, who are doing incredible work for our nation’s veterans. Then there are people like Dr. Steve Coughlin and Dr. Anthony Szema, both of whom I expected to shoot me down but who readily agreed to be interviewed. To have these incredible minds on the other end of the line is always astonishing to me, and I love having the chance to learn from them.
I’ve never been interested in meeting celebrities, and aside from a few guys in bands who I interviewed years ago, I haven’t really dealt with them. Don’t get me wrong, all the “celebrities” I’ve met have been perfectly nice, and some of them I really enjoyed talking to (Serj Tankian will always stand out as the biggest celebrity I’ve interviewed, as well as the most interesting), but I don’t get all that excited by the prospect of dealing with famous people. To me, they’re just people. But the idea of interviewing someone who’s doing something important, someone who I know is smart and dedicated, that’s daunting as hell. I get so excited and so nervous. I pull late-night cram sessions to study before the interview, and I dress up—even for phone interviews, lest they hear the disshevelment in my voice—to make sure I look and feel as professional as possible. I set up an iPad full of notes in case I forget something while we’re talking, and I give myself pep talks right before I dial their number, reminding myself that I’m smart enough to hold my own. It’s a little cuckoo-for-Cocoa-Puffs, but it works. And when I hang up the phone or walk out of the office, I always breathe the biggest sigh of relief, amazed that the person I was speaking to didn’t hang up on me or flee the interview as soon as I opened my mouth.
Anyway, you can read the results of some of my favorite interviews in this article about burn pits, “Rings of Fire,” from the October 2013 issue of Penthouse, by clicking right here.

Pet Tweets: Taylor Vixen

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0212 TAYLOR VIXENClick image to open PDF.

I met Taylor Vixen when she was in the running for Penthouse Pet of the Year way back in 2009. She came up to the Penthouse offices with Veronica Ricci and Ryan Keely, and I interviewed them for my old “Pet Projects” column. When she became Pet of the Year a few weeks later, she became one of my most-interviewed Pets. She was everywhere, doing everything, and it was my job to ask her about it. Not that I have any complaints about that. Taylor is one of the sweetest girls I’ve ever worked with. She’s so cute and funny, and we joked around a lot and goofed off and spent way more time on the phone than was necessary for my job. Once, when she was in New York, she came to the office to hang out, and we shared my desk for a few hours. This confused my coworkers, sure, but it also made them jealous. Who wouldn’t want this petite Pet sitting next to them while they worked?

Taylor was also the inaugural Pet to do the Girls of Penthouse “Pet Tweets” Q&A with me. We had a lot of fun with that. Her fans sent in so many questions, and I snuck a few of my own into the mix, too. You can read the article that ran in the January 2012 issue of Girls of Penthouse, or click here to read the full Q&A, which ran on the Girls of Penthouse Twitter account.

Pet Tweets: Emily Addison

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0412 EMILY ADDISONClick image to open PDF.

I don’t officially have a favorite Penthouse Pet, because that would just be wrong. There are girls I’m close with and who are some of my best friends, and there are girls who are super easy to work with, so they get bonus points. But I don’t have a favorite. That said, if I were going to pick a favorite, Emily Addison would definitely be in the running. In addition to being all the things I desire professionally—smart, funny, and really easy to work with—she’s also one of the girls I have a legit girl crush on. She’s incredibly beautiful, and every time she graces the pages of one of our magazines, I’m stunned by how good she looks. As a girl, I find it horribly unfair that she always looks so damn good.

I’m not the only one smitten with Miss Addison, though. When Penthouse partnered with Kelly.X to do a special poster for our readers, Kelly chose to paint a classic shot of Emily. She said she’d gone through dozens of photos of our models and something about Emily spoke to her. That’s probably the coolest compliment I can imagine, and Emily was definitely worthy of the honor.

Emily also happens to be one of the girls who’s been subjected to the Girls of Penthouse “Pet Tweets” Q&A. You can read the version of the interview that appeared in the March 2012 issue of Girls of Penthouse, or you can read the full Q&A—including content that was published directly to Twitter—by clicking here.