Shiny Adidas Tracksuits and the Death of Camp and Other Essays from Might Magazine (Paperback)

~ Might Magazine editors (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This collection of essays from the late, lamented Might magazine deserves a place on any post-boomer's bookshelf. Shiny Adidas Tracksuits bristles with interesting thoughts and novel turns of phrase; most pieces are short (fewer than five pages), and all are well written and precisely observed.

Referring to Might's editorial principles, the editors write: "One rule was that every issue of Might had to have a lot of swearing in it, ideally in the headlines. Another rule was that, even though we had about a month or two to put each issue together, the magazine had to go to press with somewhere between thirty and forty egregious spelling and grammatical errors. But the one rule that really got us into trouble, the one that basically doomed us from the start, was this one: We would not publish anything we didn't care about.... In observing this rule, the one that said we had to like the things we printed, we were precluded from publishing the sorts of things that might have kept the magazine afloat: namely articles about celebrities, clothes, electronics, makeup, cars, video games, beer, nightlife generally, and beer." Instead, the writers in Shiny Adidas Tracksuits and the Death of Camp describe quirky personal quests, examine pop-culture doodads, and spout crackpot theories. The book, like the magazine, somehow avoids the creeping contagion of irony and remains absolutely fresh, vigorous, and friendly.

Apart from David Foster Wallace, most contributors aren't national commodities (which is sort of the point), but they deserve to be, and deserve your attention. This book is a fitting epitaph to a sparkler of a magazine. --Michael Gerber

Review

...thoughtful and wide-ranging essays... -- Entertainment Weekly, Margot Mifflin

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Trade (August 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425164772
• ISBN-13: 978-0425164778
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #753,619 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars eclectic, interesting mix, December 17, 1999

By	ChefBum "chefbum" (Fremont,, CA United States) - See all my reviews

I originally bought this book through Amazon.com because I first learned about it as having an article written by Mark Dougherty, the vocalist for a music group called Soul Coughing. I was intrigued because, in addition to being briliant, wacky musicians, the lyrics to much of their work are some of the funniest, catchiest, nonsensical clips of genius that I have ever heard.

Naturally, I had to read-on.

What I found was something that I didn't even know existed: a semi-underground, irreverent and now extinct publication called 'Might Magazine'. Although I was never exposed to it firsthand, I can see how many might have considered this publication to have a lot of potential, if uneven and frustrating at times.

There is such a thing as too much tongue-in-cheek, and the collective smirk on the faces of all the contributors included in this book could create enough energy to power the sun for a year. This wouldn't be so bad if, after reading all that, one weren't left with the feeling that half these guys are making the smug and annoying assumption that they are smarter than you.

Still, this collection has a lot of things going for it, including some truly quirky and original humor. Three of my favorites are: 'Are Black People Really Cooler Than White People?', the story on Adam Rich's death, and the essay attacking outdoor extreme sports as a trendy fetish. Many others, like the essay on the ubiquity of the American caesar salad, seem truly trivial in a weak attempt at quirky, camp humor. In fact, many of these essays make you wonder, 'Why would anyone ever want to write on this subject?', and on more than one occasion, I sometimes wished that they would stop.

Despite this, the celebration of camp culture is a topic that is very worthy of publication. This book comes as a recommendation largely for that reason alone.

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Two Words: Adam Rich, December 16, 1999

By	Greg Bulmash (Lynnwood, WA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

I purchased this book for one reason and one reason only... Might's post-mortem tribute to "Eight is Enough" star, Adam Rich. Of course, it was just a parody of such tributes and Adam was in on it, but it started one of the better celebrity death rumors to run rampant on the internet.

The other articles range from bitingly funny, to mildly amusing, to the kind of pseudo-intellectual stuff written by people who *think* they're a lot more intelligent than everyone around them. It's an interesting mix.

Overall... I kept it as a bathroom book. Worth the lettuce if you like eclectic reading and have a decent education. But if you listen to Top 40 radio and love shows like "Boy Meets World," it's probably going to be too weird for you.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Be the first one of your friends to buy it!, July 26, 1999

By	[e-mail] (Tallahassee, FL) - See all my reviews

There are two types of people: those who have never heard of Might magazine, and those who think it was the most original and brilliant part of 90's media. Both types will find the essays in Shiny Adidas track suits to be brave, fresh, and most importantly, very funny.