What!? I Said, "With All Due Respect!": A Collection of the Weird and Ridiculous (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781467978972)

Good writing should be funny and make you slightly uncomfortable; like a hemorrhoid with a sense of humor. -WB Now 27 years old, Wesley Bauman has found that the only way to weather the storms of his tumultuous industry is to wear a lot of hats. A photojournalist, reporter, and self-published author of Doggy Paddling in the Deep End, Wesley has found that having a variety of outlets for his "different" outlook is the best way to reach a willing audience. Wesley, or Wes, grew up just outside Portland, OR, which stands as a very progressive and forward thinking town. The ethos of Portland impressed upon Wes the need to posess an ever-present, open mind. A self-described "perpetual tourist," Wes wandered the country after high school living everywhere from Wisconsin, Alaska, and of course Oregon. Wes picked up part-time jobs wherever he went including a short stint as a "professionally-unemployed" poker player around Orgeon before finding his life's work behind a camera. Nowadays, he makes his home in Ventura, CA. Wes worked as a photojournalist for the VCReporter for two years, a weekly paper with a circulation of 35,000. Wesley writes periodically for DisarrayMagazine and on his active blog. As a writer, Wes takes his brand of self-indulgent cynicism and socially conscious dragon-prodding from a myriad of sources. From the likes of Jon Stewart and Louis Black he takes a sense of humor for the ridiculous passed off as the status quo. Hunter S. Thompson inspires his rants and penchant for the outlandish and off-color commentaries of the political and social persuasion, while George Orwell and Mark Twain inspire his desire to look further beyond, in to the core realities of men and their underlying motivations for their actions while letting no one off the hook. Honest and unbiased in his photography while scathing and op-ed in his writing, Wes tries to cautiously straddle the old lines of journalism by taking one part "personal insight," two parts "straight journalism," shaking it up, and serving it to you over ice with a beer chaser. He believes that all medicine goes down better with this particular recipe.