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I Spent All Night Riding Around London in an Uber Pool

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We millennials—we love to share, don't we? "Hey Tom, give us some fries." Sure. "Tom, can I borrow five bucks?" Yeah, go on then. "Hey Tom, because of spiraling inflation and stagnant wages, is it OK if I forego ever owning a car and/or house and instead just rent forever and use app-based services like Uber and Airbnb?" Erm, I guess so. Seems like an odd question to ask, but yeah, whatever.

This reliance on the sharing economy is one thing. But with the introduction of Uber Pool in December 2015, we've now taken to sharing within the sharing economy, hopping into taxis with complete strangers who are heading in vaguely the same direction as us. This is great for our wallets and the environment and the general well-being of Earth, but also capable of inducing sheer panic in those who don't like interacting with people they've never met before.

Because "sheer panic" is my middle fucking name, I decided to ride shotgun in an Uber Pool around London for an entire Friday night. It used to be that we were warned against meeting people online, or getting in strangers' cars, but we now actively and regularly get into the cars of strangers we've met online, with other strangers, without giving it a second thought. I wanted to see how we got to that point, and how—if at all—it's changed how we interact with one another.

A very friendly guy named Jonathan welcomed me into his car. He told me that, like most Uber drivers, he used the company as a source of extra income to top up his main job as an actor/DJ. He had a set the following night in Streatham, which sounded like it would have been a vibe.

Our first customers were two brothers from Sheffield, Hamza, and Waqas. They said they'd just come down to London for a couple of days to check it out and were now on their way back home after having a couple of drinks. They seemed very happy to talk to what was essentially a weird bearded man breathing heavily and holding a long-lens camera, but then they were northern, so maybe weren't as awkward as Londoners are.

An interesting fact I learned from Hamza, who was studying medicine: Apparently doctors play table tennis a lot to help with hand-eye coordination. Hamza reckoned he could kick my ass at table tennis, but I seriously doubt that because I'm sick at it and would have definitely whooped him.

Next up were the happily merry James, Yvonne, and Jin, who were all artists of some kind and had again been sinking a few drinks at some swanky-looking bar. James was quite reluctant to talk to the weird guy pointing a camera in his face, but Jin told me a delightful tale of a former Uber Pool ride she'd shared with a woman who was talking very loudly about politics and toilet sex. At the end of the ride, she had invited her back to a party, but Jin politely declined, which, to be honest, was probably for the best.

We then deposited James and picked up Mei, who was in London from Sydney for a few months for business. Despite being the most talkative of all the people we picked up, she refused to have her picture taken—but was more than happy to explain how the English are incredibly hard people to talk to and how London is nice, but that Australia is so much better in pretty much every way.

So far, the majority of people had been very up for a chat—more so, I thought, than they might have been had we just met on the street or in a smoking area. They divulged personal details more readily than any strangers I'd met before and were a lot more forthcoming than anyone I've ever tried to chat with on public transport. I wondered if there was any psychological reason for this—if sharing a space as enclosed as this might encourage people to open up quicker. That, or everyone was just a bit drunk.

Next, apropos of nothing, it was time for some public nudity on the streets of London. I had no idea what was going on here, but some people on one side of the road were shouting at these three semi-naked people.

I don't know why they had so little clothing on, or why the other guys were so angry about it, or how the man in the foreground of this picture knew I was about to take a photo and managed to bust a pose so quickly, but it did remind me that London is simultaneously one of the best and most terrifying places to wander around in on a Friday night. You never know what's around the corner.

After getting stuck in some traffic for a bit, our next customers were the lovely Irene and Daniela, two Italian girls who both worked at a restaurant. It was getting past midnight, and they'd both been through what sounded like a busy shift and wanted a quick, easy, and safe way to get home, adding that they usually take Ubers after late shifts as they worry about their safety on public transport—a depressingly common complaint from the women I shared the pool with.

Sitting in the front seat of a cab for an entire night is a very effective way to see how a city's nightlife morphs from borough to borough. Clapham's Pull & Bear brigade gave way to the suited company men in Bank and Monument; Shoreditch played host to Hertfordshire girls on hen-dos and indie guys in Johnny Borrell hats, desperately trying to find their place in a city that gave up on guitars half a decade ago.

Our last customers of the night were three Brazilian women who we picked up outside Vodka Revolutions, two of whom, Laskara and Olivia, were celebrating their birthdays. And boy howdy, they seemed like they had really celebrated. I got along so well with the lady on the right that she handed me a card with her number on it as she got out, which—for the purpose of this story—was great. I'd read in various places that Uber Pool could be "the new Tinder" and that it has "become a hook-up service," which seemed a lot like piping hot bullshit, but it turns out there might be some truth in it.

By the time we'd dropped off my three new friends it was getting pretty late and I had my own party to attend, so I had to part ways with Jonathan, who I'd now grown extremely fond of. We even had a little hug and everything at the end.

If I took anything away from my night in the Uber Pool, it's that London isn't the chilly, antisocial place so many people make it out to be. Ignore listicles that tell you the 17 Things You Need to Know About London, which all turn out to be "Londoners are rude dickheads." They're not; they are absolutely normal human beings who are just as capable of talking to strangers as people from, say, Lincoln, or anywhere north of Wakefield.

What part the sharing economy plays in all this isn't immediately clear—I suppose sometimes you might share a cab with a talkative person, sometimes you'll share a cab with an introvert who won't once look you in the eye for an entire 40-minute journey. But if my admittedly brief experience is anything to go by, know that sharing a confined space with a bunch of strangers isn't nearly as terrifying a prospect as it might seem.

Follow Tom Usher on Twitter.


Watch the Week’s Best New Trailers

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The best thing about the end of summer is the flood of new trailers as studios scramble to meet the impending shitty weather with their awards season bait. This week's batch is toploaded with Oscar-driven schmaltz, but it's still August so there are some car chases left to satisfy us plebes.

Manchester by the Sea

Ahhh shit. Why does this stuff always get me? By now we should all be immune to the old, your brother/best friend/sister died and now for some weird reason you've been named their legal guardian even though by any measurement of adulthood you're a feckless loser. But there's something about Casey Affleck's hard-done by shoulder stoop and his dragging accent in Manchester by the Sea that just makes me fucking weep. This is the hot trailer everyone is sharing this week and it's not hard to see why. 10/10 would watch this trailer again.

Mr. Church

Honestly, I'm so sorry for making you watch these two trailers back to back but it's Friday, your co-workers expect you to cry at your desk. I had low expectations for this one and there are problems, lots of problems. But I dunno man, Eddie Murphy looks great! Britt Robertson is a delight! Who is Mr. Church? Are we all Mr. Church? LET'S FIND OUT!

Planetarium

Rebecca Zlotowski's Planetarium is a moody mystery about two sisters scamming their way through Europe. They think they can communicate with the dead and their bond is tested when they run across a producer who wants to put their act on film. Most of this trailer is in French so I'll just assume it's very good and serious and important. Johnny Depp's daughter Lily Rose Depp stars opposite Natalie Portman so expect it to be buzzy once the English version is released.

Sully

Tom Hanks IS Captain Sully Sullenberger! Clint Eastwood IS old man yelling at cloud! Together they ARE the minds behind this fall's least-anticipated movie, Sully! The great thing about making a movie about a viral moment in recent history is that not enough time has passed for us to care and yet too much time has passed for us to care. Well done, everyone. Spoiler alert: He landed the plane in the Hudson. No one died. The end.


Kidnap

LOL. Ok where do I even begin? I mean, I have seen this exact movie before when it was called The Call starring Halle Berry as a determined 911 operator who keeps a kidnap victim alive during a high-speed freeway chase. But of course there is nothing new in the world so I'd still be willing to give Kidnap starring Halle Berry as a determined mom trying to keep her kidnapped son alive during a high speed freeway chase if the entire thing didn't look laughably implausible. No one in the busy park stopped to call the cops or help you as you went screaming down the parking lot hanging off the side of a shitty sports car? There's no amber alert? No one's pulling either of you over even though you're wildly careening down a busy highway? Nah. That being said, I will watch this as soon as someone rips the DVD online.


Follow Amil on Twitter.

A Night with the Rescue Teams Looking for Survivors of Italy's Earthquake

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During the nightly rescue operations following the earthquake that hit central Italy on Wednesday night, the small town of Amatrice experienced several aftershocks. All photos by Alessandro Iovino / Cesura.

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This article originally appeared on VICE Italy

The earthquake that hit the center of Italy early Wednesday morning has so far claimed 241 lives, while 264 people are injured. Rescue operations in and around Amatrice are still on the way. The small town is tucked away in the mountains and has been reduced to a pile of rubble after the earthquake.

The only way to get there or to leave is with a minibus from Civil Protection—the national body coordinating rescue operations. Every bus is packed with rescuers and journalists and drops them off at a spot about half a mile outside of the town—driving any further isn't safe.

Injuries are treated in field hospitals nearby, while people who need more care are brought to hospitals in Rieti, Norcia, or Rome—43, 34, and 87 miles away respectively. The fact that the town is so hard to reach explains why rescue teams were so late in the initial aftermath of the earthquake.

When I arrived in Amatrice at 7 PM on Wednesday, policemen, firemen, soldiers, and Civil Protection units were digging in the rubble and trying to coordinate the operation. Rescuers have come from all over the country: I met Red Cross volunteers from Rome, firefighters from Milan, and civilians who were trying to help the best they could while being kept at a safe distance. Rescue operations continued throughout the night, while the stadium—the only spacious structure still standing in Amatrice—was turned into a makeshift camp. Those camps provided temporary shelter to people who just lost their homes, or were waiting to hear if their loved ones were still alive.

I stayed with the rescue teams in Amatrice until dawn the next day.

Ellen Page and Ian Daniel Are Back for an All New Season of 'GAYCATION'

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Last season on our Emmy-nominated VICELAND show GAYCATION, actress Ellen Page and her friend Ian Daniel brought us all around the world to meet people from different corners of the LGBTQ community.

Now the duo is back for an all new season, taking us along as they visit countries where homosexuality is illegal, as well as areas of the US struggling with anti-LGBTQ legislation, hate crimes, and tragedy. We'll witness stories of struggle and triumph, and explore the multiplicity of the global LGBTQ experience.

Check out the trailer for the new season above and make sure to catch new episodes starting Wednesday, September 7 on VICELAND.

The VICE Guide to Right Now: Baltimore's Streams Are Full of Meth

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Photo from Baltimore Zoo via Flickr user David

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The water flowing through Baltimore's streams is tainted by meth and speed, according to a new study published in Environmental Science and Technology, CNN reports.

The study's researchers found that water samples from six separate streams around Baltimore contained amphetamines, especially waterways within the city itself. To test if the small amounts of uppers were negatively affecting aquatic life in the streams or just giving fish a little vim and vigor, researchers built a duplicate stream environment in their lab, complete with rocks and living organisms, and seeded the thing with a sprinkle of ice.

They found that the drugs drastically altered the stream bacteria and minimized the growth of biofilms (the stuff that makes river rocks slimy). It also altered the growth and development of bugs in the stream.

The amphetamines most likely wound up in the water thanks to sewage leakage—people either flush the stuff down their toilet to get rid of it in a hurry or just pee it out of their body naturally, and the drugs eventually wind up in the streams.

As CNN points out, previous studies have already documented the presence of pharmaceuticals in rivers and streams around the country, but this is one of the first times the focus has been turned on illicit drugs like methamphetamine.

Read: A Brief History of Meth

​Suburban Alberta MP Resigns

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Farewell, sweet prince. Photo via CP.

Stephen J. Harper, Member of Parliament for Calgary Heritage and noted recluse, announced he would be resigning his seat on Friday.

The long-time MP and noted pleated slack enthusiast announced the news over Facebook, broadcasting not-live from Parliament's historic Chair Room.

Alone with his chairs, the politician bid farewell to his Calgarians, said goodbye to his fellow Canadians, and bid adieu to his $170,400 salary.

Harper, in recent months, had rarely been seen outside of his office. Apart from the occasional cries of the damned emanating from his fifth-floor office, the entire hallway leading to his door—and the service elevator that he would frequently take to the back entrance of Parliament, so as to avoid curious onlookers—was quiet.

The Calgary Heritage MP was popular within the party but often had a hard time connecting with non-Albertans.

The local politician is now set to set up an international consulting firm, where he will advise foreign leaders on how to do politics good, like he did.

Harper, the Harper in Harper & Associates Consulting, will be joined by his Associates — Jeremy Hunt and Ray Novak.

Those two men are no slouches. They used to work for the prime minister of Canada.

According to Hunt's LinkedIn page, his skills include 'Politics,' 'Public Policy,' and 'Government,' while Novak once lived above Harper's garage. So Harper has two employees who will definitely government well.

Follow Justin on Twitter



It Is a Shit Time to Be a Bear in Canada

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Photo via Pixabay

Remember the time when bears were respected and harnessed as tools of revenge to maul dozens of youth because they dared to insult the baldness of a biblical prophet?

Those days are, very sadly, no longer. In fact, it's a real bad time to be a bear in Canada: If a whooping bodybuilder isn't hurling a GoPro-equipped javelin at you, another nine of your black bear buddies are being shot in the span of a week for munching on some delicious garbage and fruit.

The slaying of those black bears is, of course, very horrible and shocking and quite rude.

But it's actually the plight of the grizzly bear in Western Canada that is most concerning for conservationists. For while there are around 150,000 black bears galloping around British Columbia and Alberta, only 15,000 or so grizzlies remain in the area.

(To put it in context: While the execution of Harambe the beautiful and sacrosanct Western lowland gorilla was unfathomably sad, it was statistically meaningless compared to the near-extinction of mountain gorillas—a distinct and far less populous species—in Central Africa.)

The problem returns, of course, to settlers. We are very, very bad at living with bears. Case in point: grizzlies used to live and thrive on the prairies, but were effectively extirpated—made locally extinct—with the arrival of Europeans. Yeehaw.

"Any biologist will tell you the key to grizzly bear recovery is managing human access in grizzly bear habitat," Jeff Gailus, author of The Grizzly Manifesto: In Defence of the Great Bear, told VICE.

That means greatly limiting interactions including poaching, the use of motorized vehicles, presence of industrial workcamps and spilling of grain near railroads (which attracts bears and can often lead to grisly deaths).

Alberta has the highest amount of human disturbance in Canada, which has led to a drop in population from about 6,000 in the late 19th century to around 700 today (around 1,000 are needed for a genetically diverse population). Hunting grizzlies has been illegal in the province since 2006; the species was declared "threatened" in 2010.

However, recent population numbers are vague estimations at best.

Katie Morrison, conservation director of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society in Southern Alberta (CPAWS SAB), says the province doesn't measure population trends in grizzlies. That can lead to statistical differences between the occasional studies that do take place (which are further distorted by untracked migration and relocation).

"We don't know whether they're increasing or decreasing or staying the same as far as numbers," Morrison told me. "We do know that the major threats to grizzly bears, which is human access into grizzly bear habitat, has not improved. It's definitely a big concern for us."

British Columbia houses a great majority of the remaining grizzlies, mostly in its north and centre; Joanna Skrajny, conservation specialist at the Alberta Wilderness Association, says the province "really values its large forests and natural areas."


But that certainly doesn't mean it's worthy of admiration. Gailus says there are nine subpopulations in the province that have effectively been designated as threatened yet nothing has been done to recover them. Trophy hunting of grizzlies is still sanctioned. Some Indigenous communities in northern BC fiercely oppose the practice and recently banned it within their territories.

Yet there's very little political will in either province to implement the kind of meaningful reform that has resulted in population recoveries in the United States' Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem and Greater Yellowstone region.

BC appears to be holding steady; it seems likely that any changes won't come until after the 2018 provincial election.

Meanwhile, Alberta's in the process of redrafting its recovery strategy.

While conservationists say there are some improvements from the last, largely unimplemented strategy such as an increased focus on "bear smart" education and highway crossings, there are disturbing regressions including the allowing of more linear disturbances like roads and trails through bear habitat, higher rates of human-caused mortality in certain areas and the complete removal of an area as a recovery zone.

In 2010, then opposition environment critic Rachel Notley (and now the province's premier) stated: "until we take real action to limit contact with these animals, they will continue to be killed unnecessarily."

"It's difficult to know what's going to happen with these grizzly bears," Skrajny said.

"They will definitely be put at risk if the current strategy moves forward. Grizzly bears are the template for wildlife. They're the most iconic species: they're the species that people connect with. We need to manage grizzly bears properly, and that will help manage all the other wildlife populations properly as well."

Follow James Wilt on Twitter.

How Scared Should I Be?: How Scared Should I Be of Whippits?

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Time for "How Scared Should I Be?" the column that quantifies the scariness of everything under the sun, and teaches you how to allocate that most precious of natural resources: your fear.

I know what you're thinking: Is there a conceivable universe where whippits—inhalations of nitrous oxide gas, typically sucked out of a whipped-cream can—are scary? Last week, when someone I know asked if it was a good idea to buy a huge box of whipped-cream chargers at a bargain basement price, all I could give him was a hunch: It seemed like it might not be a good idea to buy that many. I wasn't sure why.

Here's what you already know: Nitrous oxide gas makes cream into whipped cream, makes Vin Diesel's car go faster, and makes dental work slightly less awful. And if you take a lungful of it for fun, you'll be like "whoooooo..." for about the time it takes to breathe in and out. That's the whole thing. It's not exactly heroin. Right?

"You can die using it in some circumstances," said Matthew Howard, social worker and editor of the Journal of Addictive Diseases at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Fortunately, he added, "Most people are engaged in intermittent episodic use. That's not nearly as problematic."

To find out more about what kind of drug nitrous oxide is, I spoke to Kate Leslie, head of anesthesia research at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. She said it "puts people to sleep, takes away pain, and it has euphoric effects." She called the amount in a normal whipped-cream charger—three or four lungfuls—"a small-ish dose," but she also said it's "about the same as we've used to put someone to sleep."

Here's a breakdown of how whippits can go wrong. And yes, they can go very wrong if you work hard enough at it.

You Can Fall Down or Puke

When it comes to casual use of nitrous oxide, one of the biggest dangers is probably that you'll "become unconscious, collapse and hit your head, or break your arm or fall off something," Leslie said. If you do pass out, and someone calls 911, Leslie recommended that when the paramedics inevitably ask why you went unconscious, you just tell them "whippits" instead of going, "Maybe I was hungry!" You might end up being subjected to a lot of unnecessary tests if you lie.

The legal consequences of confessing aren't exactly dire. Whippits aren't legal, but prosecutions are very tricky, and the paramedics can help you. "They'll put you on oxygen," she said. And if you're short on vitamins from breathing too much nitrous oxide (more on that below), you can be "topped up" and on the road to recovery in no time.

Another potential concern for casual users, Leslie said, is that "nitrous oxide causes vomiting." (While this is something she and others believe, lab experiments haven't really proven it conclusively.) Still, if you've ever done whippits, you know they can make you feel nauseous, so a little caution in this area is wise. "You breathe in your vomit, and you choke to death. That's the way a lot of people die of drug overdose," Leslie said. So just like when you're super drunk, it's a good idea not to lie flat on your back if you've just been doing whippits.

You Can Run Low on Oxygen

Nitrous oxide isn't oxygen, which is something you need in order to, y'know, stay alive. It's definitely a bad sign if your lips turn blue, but you probably won't die from oxygen deprivation by sucking on a whipped-cream can. It's worth noting, though, that Demi Moore ended up in hospital in 2012 after allegedly sucking on industrial grade whipped-cream chargers.

From here, our definition of "whippits" starts to get expansive. Imagine for a moment, you love whippits so much, you make the decision to toss the whipped-cream cans altogether, and start buying your gas in larger quantities. "The fatal cases usually involve wearing a mask," Howard told me. Generally, the way people die, he said, is that they "kinda knew what they were doing and put on some kind of mask.

"When people pass out, they'll drop the balloon or whatever and start breathing air," Howard said. "If you've got a gas mask on, you won't." This is doubly true if you do what Andrew McCoy of Blacksburg, Virginia, did and put a bag on your head in order to get more nitrous oxide into your lungs. McCoy asphyxiated and died.

So basically, stick to whipped-cream cans and balloons, and open a window.

Having It Around at Work Can Spell Trouble

Whippits are usually something people do when a pool party starts getting weird, not a serious, sit-around-and-do-it-all-day drug. But according to Howard, there are people who can find themselves tempted to do whippits all day every day: those who work with big tanks of nitrous oxide and are prone to boredom. Medical side effects can set in, he said, from "the kind of use you see among dentists, dental hygienists, and people who work in the food service industry."

What can happen to these folks is similar to what happened to patients in early intensive-care units: "Patients developed a condition called Subacute combined degeneration of the spinal cord," Leslie told me. This comes from a vitamin deficiency, and if you get an injection of vitamin B12 soon enough, it can go away. Otherwise, you can wind up with permanently stiff limbs, grogginess, weakness, and tingly hands.

Those Might Not Be Whippits

In 2012, a kid in north London inhaled some kind of gas from a balloon, mistakenly thinking it was nitrous oxide, and then died of a heart attack. An investigation by the Daily Mail revealed that what he'd actually inhaled was, horribly, some kind of comedy prop called a "smelly balloon" meant to stink up a room when popped. It contained butane, isobutane and pentane, all of which are toxic.

And in the course of researching this topic, I noticed that it was common to conflate whippits with the use of other inhalants, including volatile solvents or spray duster. "Those are really, super toxic," Howard told me when we briefly spoke on the subject. They deserve their own entry in this column, frankly.

The Takeaway

It's was hard to take this topic seriously because on one hand, if you're sucking nitrous out of a can every once in a while, you'll be fine. On the other hand, this evil gas of death somehow claimed 17 lives in the UK between 2006 and 2012. Conditions associated with long-term use of nitrous oxide like the aforementioned subacute combined degeneration of the spinal cord, as well as myeloneuropathy legitimately scary, but they're also very unusual.

For God's sake just do it around people. Don't wear a mask. And just generally take it easy with that stuff.

Final Verdict: How Scared Should I Be of Whippits?

2/5: Taking Normal Precautions


Follow Mike Pearl on Twitter.



Photos from London's Protest Against the French Burkini Ban

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All photos by Chris Bethell

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Images of armed police forcing a woman on a beach in Nice to remove her clothing really rammed home the dark absurdity of the country's burkini ban. On Friday, France's highest court struck down the ban, suspending it from Villeneuve-Loubet, and setting a precedent for the additional 23 coastal towns where it's now in place.

The initial ban in Cannes was justified by the head of municipal services, who said the burka is "ostentatious clothing which refers to an allegiance to terrorist movements," while the mayor weirdly said it's "unhygienic" to swim fully clothed. Former president Nicolas Sarkozy waded into the debate, calling wearing bukinis a "provocation" that supports radical Islam.

According to a survey in Le Figaro, a majority of French people oppose the wearing of the burkini on beaches—64 percent favor the bans, while 30 percent give the ruling a shrug of indifference.

Outside the French embassy in London on Thursday, a women-only protest was making a bit more sense than the fashion police on the Riviera. Promoting the hashtag #wearwhatyouwant, they set up a little beach outside the building. There was sand, deck chairs, pool floaties, and people in all sorts of beach wear—which means everything form bikinis to full-cover clothing. We sent a VICE photographer down to check it out.

Words by Mac Hackett

Follow Chris Bethell on Twitter.

Watch This Powerful Video About Black Lives Matter

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We all witnessed worlds divide when black men like Abdirahman Abdi, Alton Sterling, and Philando Castile were killed. We all saw names become hashtags as campaigns for justice took over Twitter. And we all watched as our social media feeds filled with heated debate.

In the midst of this conflict, many people find it difficult to speak out, in fear of speaking wrong. As a result, this fear has silenced so many from participating in the Black Lives Matter movement.

Three Toronto-based creators, Iva Golubovic, Karena Evans, and Zahra Bentham recognized this fear in themselves and in others, so they worked with their community to create a powerful film expressing their support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The piece features community members of black heritage with notable Toronto artists including Director X, Boi1da, Daniel Caesar, Jordan Evans, Rich Kidd and John River.

VICE spoke with Golubovic and Evans about their video and the Black Lives Matter movement north of the border.

VICE: What's the meaning of this video?
Karena Evans: Essentially, what we wanted to create was an art piece that's a positive message in the midst all the negativity that's going on in the world. We shot a large number of cameos of people in the community who represent the importance of the message that all black lives matter. This piece is a tribute to all black lives. And it's a reminder that black lives are human lives.

How did it come about?
Evans: One of the things we covered when we sat down was that we all have a general fear of saying the wrong thing or being politically incorrect or not knowing the entire story or even the solution. But the truth is we all need to speak out. So this art piece was the only way we knew how to express ourselves as creatives, and that was through art. And we wanted real people who were part of the community and who anybody can identify with so that they carry the message of the video.

Was it difficult to get this many people together, especially the more notable ones?
Iva Golubovic: No. I think that's the most amazing thing about this is that the community came together. When we first talked about this, it was a Sunday, and then the following week we were able to get everyone in a room and everybody was just so willing to support the message.
Evans: We had sort of a list of people that we wanted to reach out to, expecting maybe half of those people to feel the same as we did, and maybe half of those people wouldn't be available. But we had such a positive response from everybody just by reaching out. All we had to do was reach out personally, whether it was through Facebook, Instagram, or text message. That's literally all we did, and they did the rest of the work for us.

Why are you releasing this video now?
Evans: At the end of the video, the first two names that come up are Philando Castile and Alton Sterling. It was those two incidents and also just a build up and build up of so much going on every single day. We were like, what can we do? What can we say? How can we help?
Golubovic: And it's not coinciding with any specific event. It's more so that we've reached a point where we have to say something and we have to say it now.

Follow Ebony-Renee Baker on Twitter.

Dating While Being Broke Sucks, but Not for the Reason You Think

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Illustrations by Julia Dickens

One of the most interesting and simultaneously frustrating things about your 20s (and shit, some of your 30s) is dating while you're broke. Whether you're in school, fallen on hard times, or just haven't gotten your big break, maneuvering around the dating scene is ten times more difficult when you're short on cash. Most people in my age bracket are sifting through tuition or student loans, rent, and/or credit card bills while either making considerably less than our parents did or struggling with an unemployment rate nearly double Canada's average.

Having been at various stages of broke-ness for most of my life, money and its problems have always been at the forefront of my reality, and it's affected how I view dating. We might not realize, it but beyond the struggle of funding date nights, money and serious relationships are much more closely linked than we think. It's not as simple as saying "no" to dating until you have your shit together, but those who earn less aren't exactly jumping into long-term relationships.

Casual dating while perpetually broke is, if nothing else, an exercise in creativity. Doing fun shit is usually expensive and the pressure of wanting to impress the other person is always looming whether we want it to or not. Skipping pricey steakhouses or fine dining in favour of more cost-friendly options is one thing, asking your date for gas money is quite another, so it becomes about striking that perfect balance between being thrifty with money without actually appearing to be. Museums with free admission nights, low-cost but interesting eats, and Groupons can get you through the first few dates, but moving past that "get-to know you" stage is much trickier.

I think about my own broker-than-usual times, working overnight shifts for a few cents more than minimum wage. As a woman, I tend to be on the better end of the dating scenario; more likely to be taken out than taking on the costs of courting myself. I still hated the idea of not leaving the house with what my Jamaican mother calls "vex money"—cash on hand just in case the shit goes south. I tried my hand at being open to dating in general, but was held up by not just the money but the emotional instability that can come along with being in a shitty spot in your life.

During my lowest times, I recall going on a slew of first dates but never going much beyond that. While they gave me a pretty good distraction from the shitshow that was my life, it started to dawn on me how repetitive it was. A combination of things contributed to things never getting anywhere, mainly insecurities about myself, shitty choices I made in past relationships and a growing list of deal breakers. But I could never shake the feeling of not being settled, comfortable or contented with my life as it was; and not making enough money was a huge part of that.

It's hard to have the type of openness you need for real companionship when you're constantly thinking about how you're going to make rent this month. Or the next. Bouncing between jobs that were as unfulfilling as they were low-paying also puts you in the type of perma-misery that can only be tolerated by other people for so long. A while back, I bumped into a former coworker with whom I'd worked in a particularly hellish job for a few years. She left the company shortly after I did for a higher paying one in her actual field. "Ever since I quit that place, my boyfriend says I'm way nicer to him," she told me. "Like, being there makes you miserable to everybody."

For as much as having a partner can make all kinds of terrible situations better, I couldn't get past the idea that I should be doing something more "useful" with my time than entertaining the thought of a relationship. In school and up to my neck in long-term and revolving short-term debt (Payday loans were indeed created by Satan himself), I saw myself as ill-equipped for the type of stability and candidness that I felt like relationships required. How could I talk about building a foreseeable future with another person when so much of my own hinged on making just a little bit more an hour? How soon would I have to get into the specifics of what lead me to my current situation?

Feeling financially stagnant makes it difficult to feel comfortable enough to take relationships to a more serious level—worrying about two people's emotional well-being when you're barely covering one is bad enough. And considering money problems are the most common reason people get divorced, it ends up being the root of way more relationship fights than we care to admit. In a previous relationship, the biggest rift came from lending out money for emergency dental work to my then-boyfriend. Clearly, if screaming matches can ensue over a few hundred dollars, it would only get worse when much bigger expenses like property, cars, and childcare costs came into play.

I also wasn't just taking my own financial position into account, I started to think about the positions of the people I dated. I find that idealists like to pretend as if the income of a potential partner has no bearing on whether or not you would date them, but that's not always realistic. There was no bigger disaster I could think of than two financially irresponsible people floundering around while buried under shitty credit scores and eviction notices at the exact same time, incapable of providing themselves with support nevermind each other. Inching closer to my mid-twenties a.k.a. when-are-you-buying-a-house age (something most millennials will never get to do), combining my own shaky financial history with someone else's seemed unfair; especially if theirs was better than mine.

Getting older also made me realize something new: that uncertainty in my life triggered my anxiety. And badly. Dealing with anxiety is already its own beast when it comes to forging meaningful relationships with other people, but being in a constant state of worry combined with the very real outside pressures of calls from bill collectors and student loan offices make it hard to focus on anything but that.

This isn't to say it's impossible to build meaningful relationships despite these drawbacks; people do it all the time. Sometimes, hardships can be the defining moments that bring a couple closer together, but for others it can feel like love is far outside the realm of what we deserve or can handle when we're broke. And there's no cheap date listicle or coupon for that.

Follow Sajae Elder on Twitter.

Why I’m Tired of Seeing Women’s Clothing Choices Policed

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Photo via AP

When I was a child I used to watch as my mom would secretly go through my sister's closet when she wasn't home—throwing away any jeans that she had purposely ripped or written on. Once she found out, my sister would get angry and sometimes cry, telling me that my mom had violated her privacy and that at 15 she should be able to wear what she wants. I was 11 years old, but I clearly remember the feeling of injustice felt by my sister (I was never into ripped jeans so I did not suffer the same calamity).

Often grounded for breaking clothing rules, my sister began wearing what my parents wanted before leaving the house and would then go to a friends place and change into another set of clothes before she got to her final destination. Although the stakes are much higher, France's latest attempt to control what Muslim women are wearing reminded me of these childhood scenes of wild fights between family members as to who was wearing what and allowed to go where.

Following the 2010 French high court's decision to uphold the banning of the face veil, new

and distressing images of Muslim women in France being forced to strip off their burkinis and handed fines by armed officers have caused an uproar. There was even a Wear What You Want protest in front of the French embassy in London this morning where protesters brought sand and flotation devices—rightly ridiculing the burkini ban.

French municipalities have now taken it upon themselves to try and de-Islamize their beaches by making Muslim women the targets of their racism and xenophobia by launching a campaign against the burkini and implementing laws that ban the all enveloping swimwear and although France's high court overturned the ban, it still send the message that Muslim women have no place in French society.

Invented in 2004, the burkini, a wet-suit like outfit which covers the entire body and, according to its founder and manufacturer, Aheda Zanetti, was created "to give women freedom, not to take it away."

More than a dozen of France's beach towns had banned the burkini, citing that the swimming outerwear disturbs France's secular foundation. French Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, even voiced his support for the ban by saying the burkini was "not compatible with the values of the French Republic." And the banning of this garment is now calling into question the very fabric of French society.

One Man’s Quest to Let People Play Games on Their Crappy Computers

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Images of 'Grand Theft Auto V' by Lukasz Pilch

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Grand Theft Auto fan Lukasz Pilch owns a shitty laptop. It shouldn't have been capable of running Grand Theft Auto V, a huge and sprawling technical marvel. And yet, thanks to a series of tweaks that purposely make GTA V look like garbage, Pilch managed to beat it.

"I literally closed my eyes and launched the game while praying for it to work," he told me, recalling the moment he decided to download a copy of GTA V and load it up on his machine.

As he booted it up, menu after menu proclaimed his laptop could not pull this off. But Pilch was not deterred. Miraculously, the game launched, and Pilch almost jumped out of his seat. Then, reality set in: Even with everything brought down to the lowest possible settings, it wasn't playable. At times, the game was crawling forward at a ridiculous eight frames per second. On PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, GTA V runs at 30 frames per second. Eight is not very good.

"I live in Poland. Laptops and PC hardware aren't really cheap here," said Pilch. "Building a decent PC costs way more than in the US or other countries in Western Europe."

Pilch scoured the internet for tools that could help him to... well, make the game look worse! By using hacks to turn off the fancy effects that make modern games so pretty, it stands a chance on old hardware. The images in this article are taken from Pilch's playthrough of GTA V, but it's not how the developers pitched their game. Though the creators of GTA V may be happy to take Pilch's money, they may be less happy to see the game looking like ass. But hey, now he can play it.

Eventually, Pilch got the frame rate to hover between 13 and 27 frames per second. Good? No. Acceptable for someone who's used to playing games this way? Yes. There were tons of unexpected glitches—cutscenes would get wildly out of sync, some roads simply disappeared, the game would appear to freeze for nearly a minute, before sputtering back to life—but it ran.

"I did actually enjoy the game," he said. "It was an ugly mess with horrible input delay, but the story, the characters, the soundtrack, and fun physics were still there. Maybe someday I will revisit this game in all of it's glory."

"I was immensely frustrated by the existing and currently very strong narrative online of PC gamers being the 'master race.' That didn't really represent my experience."—LowSpecGamer

Pilch thanked one person in particular for making his GTA V experience possible: the YouTube channel LowSpecGamer, which focuses on helping games run on old computing hardware.

LowSpecGamer, a.k.a. Alex, runs the channel from an apartment in Spain. (He requested his last name be left out of this story.) Originally born in Venezuela, Alex discovered that living in a developing country and loving games proved a challenge; getting access to the latest releases or hardware at affordable prices was largely out of the question. When Alex went to college for engineering, his parents gave him a laptop, but he quickly found out it wasn't equipped for games.

Undeterred, Alex dug around the internet for solutions to his problem. Surely, there had to be people who'd found clever ways to make games run better. But what he found wasn't useful.

He said, "I was immensely frustrated by the existing and currently very strong narrative online of PC gamers being the 'master race.' That didn't really represent my experience."

One day, Alex spotted someone on campus playing a first-person shooter on a laptop. It ran like crap, but Alex looked at his face and noticed that "he didn't seem super bothered." The same week, a cousin shared how much work he'd done to hack into The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim in order to make it run on his computer. This seemed like a sign that he was onto something.

"I'm not the only one who's willing to go as low as possible just to get these experiences," he said.

Alex had recently installed Batman: Arkham Origins on his computer, but surprise: It didn't run well. After he started tinkering around with settings buried deep within the game, stuff the developers don't intend for you to play around with, he managed to make the game playable. The process is a game of trial and error, with Alex needing to tinker with a game's resolution, texture quality, shadows, and countless other settings—including those hidden in .ini files and other less accessible places—just to make incremental improvements. Even with a ton of experience, it's not always clear what will make a meaningful difference.


It doesn't look pretty, but that's besides the point. You can play! "I have discovered that when you play a game that looks like complete shit," he said, "you pay attention to other things."

Some games are easier than others, as not every game will let you tinker with settings. Others, like Mad Max, are programmed in a way that such changes make them unplayable. Alex often waits until modders crack a game, revealing new ways to change how it looks. Some games, like Batman: Arkham Knight, have proven a lost cause. Arkham Knight infamously launched on PC in a botched state, unable to run on even the most capable of computers.

"I consider it my white whale," he said. "I still haven't given up on it. Even all this time after launch, I'm still working. I'm very close to figuring some stuff out that other people haven't... I need to do it just to sleep at night."

His hard work has been rewarded with nearly 100,000 subscribers on YouTube, enough that he's considering making videos full-time. At the Gamescom convention in Germany earlier this month, a fan walked up to Alex and gave him a bunch of old computer parts to test out.

Another encounter at Gamescom gave him pause, though. While playing a game, a designer and artist who worked on it approached him. (He declined to reveal what game.) As Alex began to explain what his YouTube channel was about, the designer playfully nodded along.

The artist, however, was not amused.

"The main artist stares at me and goes, 'Why would you even do that?'" he said. "Because I was asking him, 'Is there any way I can disable the lighting system?' He just stares at me with horror... That dichotomy inside of a team is interesting to confront because some people see some of the things in their game as carefully crafted art pieces and seeing someone do something unintended ."

Others have been more helpful. When a fan asked Alex to look at Oddworld: New 'n Tasty, a remake of Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, the developers not only reached out and provided him with a copy of the game, but pointed out the kinds of hidden tweaks he's always looking for.

Alex argues more developers should pay attention to this; his videos suggest there are tons of people who want to play games but cannot. Overwatch, for example, is a game specifically engineered to run on as many machines as possible. When a new game comes out, Alex studies what it takes to run it. He was shocked at how little was required to play Overwatch.

"No one talks about this, which is amazing," he said. "I think it's a big part of its success."

Even now, Alex still doesn't own a very powerful PC. He recently borrowed a more capable laptop from a friend, but only so he could edit videos faster. It doesn't have a high-end GPU. It's not VR-ready. He practices what he preaches and wants to shift people's expectations.

"I can't remember who told me," he said, "but there was some creator who once said that they created stuff because that's what they wanted to see out there for themselves... I just didn't know if anyone would care about it."

With nearly 100,000 YouTube subscribers, it's clear that Alex is onto something. Though PC gaming may be marketed as a high-class alternative to consoles, the customization of PC hardware is, by definition, what a person makes of it. Sometimes that means running a game at 4K resolutions at 120 frames per second. Sometimes it means making games look like crap simply because you want to do the most important thing: Play the damn game.

Follow Patrick Klepek on Twitter, and if you have a news tip you'd like to share, drop him an email.

The VICE Guide to Right Now: Students Learn More if Their Teacher Is Hot, Study Says

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Original image via Flickr user Micah Sittig

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According to a new study from the University of Nevada, students actually learn more and score better on tests if their teacher is attractive, the Miami Herald reports.

The university rounded up 131 students in their 20s—86 women and 45 guys—and administered the same online lesson on introductory physics. Half of the students heard a male voice, and half heard a female voice. As the students listened, 69 participants saw a video of a very attractive teacher, while the rest were stuck watching an unattractive teacher—as determined by a separate student panel. They weren't allowed to take notes, and they had to take a 25-question quiz following the lesson.

Researchers found that not only did the students with the attractive professor score better on the test, they rated the professor higher than the not-hot one, even though the lesson was the same.

The study suggests that students, regardless of gender, pay more attention and are more engaged in a lesson when the instructor is good-looking—suggesting that the connection isn't necessarily sexual in nature.

"The failure of either instructor gender or participant gender to influence this performance suggests that this effect is driven by processes independent from human sexual attraction, such as attention and motivation," the study reads.

While having more attractive teachers in classrooms might make for a more titillating school day, R. Shane Westfall, lead author of the study, told the Washington Post that more training and elevated staff experience would probably be more beneficial for students than just a slew of hot ones.

Read: I Slept with My High School Teacher, and It Sucked

Sipping and Spilling Tea with RuPaul

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Illustration by Lia Kantrowitz

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At 8:30 AM, the set of RuPaul's Drag Race is relatively quiet, save for burly crew members lumbering across the show's iconic catwalk, their masculine frames kissed by a purple glow from the stage backlighting. Even in the still of a pre-shoot morning, Drag Race performs subtle acts of gender-fuckery.

A man emerges from behind a black curtain, and it takes me a minute to realize he is RuPaul. Ru's gowns and lashes are absent this morning, and he wears instead a simple black button down shirt, with dark pants and his signature oversized frames. But even in simple garb he projects every ounce of his significant charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent.

RuPaul first sashayed onto the pop culture radar when his club anthem "Supermodel (You Better Work)" became a crossover hit in 1992. Ever since, he has flirted with mainstream acceptance—today, he has risen to become one of the best-known drag queens and media personalities in America—while refusing to compromise his uniquely subversive worldview. Now, with his first Emmy nomination this July, Season 9 of RuPaul's Drag Race in production, and spinoff Drag Race All Stars 2 set to premiere on Logo tonight, Ru's rebellious worldview is poised for more mainstream recognition than ever before.

Just because the establishment has recognized The Queen doesn't mean she's drinking their Kool-Aid—Ru's beverage of choice has always been tea. And Ru was candid as ever in our condensed and edited interview below, in which he described "Hollywood diversity" as a capitalist construct, called bullshit on the gay community, and explained what we can all learn from a man named Danny The Wonder Pony.

VICE: Thank you for meeting me at the ass crack of dawn.
RuPaul: Well, this is like noon for me. I usually get up at 4 AM.

Jesus—what are you doing then?
Well, first you stretch and pray and meditate, then you go to the gym and do some emails, then go on a hike, and then you go to work.

Do you have a specific meditation practice, like Zen Buddhism?
There's no real brand. Any way

Well, con-drag-ulations on your Emmy nomination! As much as we talk about diversity in TV, there aren't many exclusively queer shows on television—why do you think that is?
Well, the entertainment business is a business, and the bottom line is about money. If any group wants to have a niche in the industry, they have to buy the tickets. It's not a moral obligation that Hollywood has, it's a monetary obligation. People mix that up too much. They say, "well it should be this, it should be that." If you want it to be that, then buy a fucking ticket and you'll make it that. The industry is not a human with a consciousness—it's corporations with a bottom line.

Tell me about your personal history, specifically with famed 1980s/90s party scene The Club Kids. How did coming up in that scene shape who you are today?
Well, we all had a common starting point—we were all devotees of the Andy Warhol experience of pop culture, where you could move to New York, change your name, become very fabulous with your clothes and attitude and become a superstar in your own right. We all shared that idea of this guerrilla approach to creating a persona, your own superstar. Before you needed someone else to discover you, but with the Club Kids, you could discover yourself. You know, as humans evolve on this planet, all roads lead to "you are God." You are the architect of this experience.

Obviously, The Club Kids were a huge part of your rise to fame. But I also imagine that the gay community was a crucial part of your development as well?
With the gay community, that's a tougher question, because when you talk about community, you're lumping everybody in together. I remember thinking when I was young, "Well, I think outside the box because I'm gay." Then when I entered the gay community I thought, "No, you think outside the box because you are an outside-of-the-box thinker. And it just so happens that you're gay." I realized that a lot of the gay people I knew in my youth really just wanted to be straight people who suck dick. It's like in Orwell's Animal Farm, how the characters begin the book with the mantra "four legs good, two legs bad," but in the end, they really just wanted to be Farmer Jones. I've seen it throughout history—it's a component of human experience. It's not just gays, it's everyone. And it's a rare occurrence when people have the ability to cut their own swath.

What is drag's purpose in 2016?
It's to remind people not to take life too seriously and that this body you're in is temporary. You are an extension of the power that created the universe, and the mission statement is to experience life. It's nothing more than that. Experience it. Use all the colors, touch all the toys and lick all the candy! Do it all. There's no judgement, right or wrong.

Drag queens heckle the whole idea of identity. They say, "look, I'm a boy! Look, I'm a girl!" Back in the Club Kid days there was a guy called Danny The Wonder Pony, and he would walk around the club with a saddle on his back—and it was a fetish thing, but still it didn't matter, you could be whatever you wanted to be, no judgement. That's what it's about.

The tagline for this season of Drag Race All Stars is "Lip sync for your legacy." What do you want your legacy to be?
Well, my legacy is definitely RuPaul's Drag Race. It's launching the careers of, at this point, 100 queens. But in terms of how I'm remembered—that's really none of my business. My mission statement is: I came to this planet to have a great time, have fun, meet people, do fun things. And this body or experience isn't the beginning or end of me. I really don't care how history remembers me—I won't be here. I need to make today, this moment, the most fabulous moment ever. And that's really what it's about.

Now, you'll have to excuse me—I'm gonna go put some eyebrows on!

Follow Jonathan Parks-Ramage on Twitter.


Perverted Photos of Ronald McDonald

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All photos by Marina Fini

It was late spring, and hot as all hell, when Marina Fini and I first worked together. We were working on a music video in the desert outside of Palm Springs, California, and the 26-year-old Los Angeles-based photographer was wrapping the exterior of an ice cream truck in strips of holographic adhesive vinyl.

Much of Fini's work is like this—a collision of light and color that feels almost like a portal to the future. Last year, she organized Motelscape, an art show that reimagined hotels as neon-splattered wonderlands. And in February, she lent her futuristic, alien-like aesthetic to "Clitopia," a musical ode to the female sex organ.

VICE sat down with Fini to talk about her most recent project, The Ronalds––a bizarre, provocative photo series of America's most famous mascot, Ronald McDonald—at the Clown Motel, in Tonopah, Nevada. The project is a collaboration with artists Dorian Electra, Weston Getto Allen, and Michael Zarowny, cast as a trio of Ronalds who are rambunctious, perverted, and love the Clown Motel.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

VICE: How were the Ronalds born?
Dorian Electra: Michael, Weston, and I have been friends and worked together for a long time. One year, it was Halloween, and we all wanted to dress as three of something. Originally, we wanted to go as three John Lennons. The fact that him, and the Beatles, have become so iconic and representative of peace, and love, and psychedelia in mainstream culture is almost a parody of itself. But we were worried people would just think we were the Beatles––or three of them––and it would be awkward, or too hard to communicate. Then someone mentioned Ronald McDonald. Like, what if we were three Ronald McDonalds? And we all just started laughing.

What inspired you to shoot these new characters at the Clown Motel?
Marina Fini: I'm very interested in public interaction with performance. Setting your work in—or even just visiting—bizarre, middle-of-nowhere places can be very inspiring. People who visit museums are already expecting something when they go, but exposing people to art who may not necessarily desire to be a part of it, at least at first, can really start a conversation. To be immediately immersed in an experience, without choice, is challenging, and can be an adrenaline rush. Pursuing characters such as the Ronalds feels more risky, or exciting, as a photographer. I enjoy the on-the-spot, improvisational aspects of projects like this.

Did any of your own experiences feed the Ronalds's personalities?
Electra: We met this guy on a train between Chicago and DC. He said his name was Michael Scott Campbell, and he said he was the heir to the Campbell's Soup fortune. He also believed he was Jesus Christ, God, and King Arthur––I'm definitely missing a few. But he was very nice. We ended up speaking to him for a good portion of this 17-hour train ride. Of course, he was totally insane, but also the most creatively inspiring person who I've ever met. He's actually the only stranger I've ever accepted candy from. Weston likes to think the Ronalds are failed experiments, grown in test tubes, or rejects that escaped from the dumpster behind the laboratory.

And you designed the Ronalds' wardrobe?
Electra: We couldn't afford to order costumes, or anything online, so yeah, I just started making them myself. We found the tights and the wigs at a dollar store, and then just cut them to make them fit. We used red duct tape to cover our shoes. Michael wore a raincoat that was really long, so it looked like a dress. Weston had on scrubs, and I'm pretty sure mine was just a yellow T-shirt, with like, a treble clef on the back.
Fini: I like the rawness and jankiness of the costumes.
Electra: Once we shot it, we realized that definitely worked better. It was very janky, and fucked up, but also kind of perfect. Very DIY. The Ronalds are essentially impersonators, but they also feel entitled to free McDonald's food and McDonald's wealth.

Was it difficult tapping into that mentality?
Electra: The Ronalds were the most liberating characters that the three of us have ever done. There was just no filter on anything. We've all done other characters before, but these felt the most natural. What does that say about us? It gave us an opportunity to play these really nasty, wretched people, but also bring some levity to it in a way that is kind of cute.

The photos vary in color and lighting style from shot to shot. What was the reason for this stylistic decision?
Fini: Fast-food restaurants use orange and yellow and red to make people hungry. It's very purposeful psychology. Carl's Jr. and Burger King both do it as well. But the McDonald's golden arches are almost god-like. You can spot them from miles away. When Dorian asked if I would be interested in collaborating on a shoot with these characters, I was immediately down. I thought the location was very fitting to show the creepy darkness that is usually associated with clowns. Because video is so raw, I wanted to explore a more stylized, staged, hyper-reality––that felt like it was part of a fine art, horror movie. I'm very attracted to insanity, mixed with colors. I mostly wanted to document "a wild night with the Ronalds," with the hotel being the Ronalds' go-to spot. Essentially, to have a seance and honor their clown gods.
Electra: I like Taco Bell's purple and turquoise. Purple makes me hungry. Or maybe I just really like Taco Bell. But Marina is right, the glowing golden arches are very recognizable. It's like a cross in the distance.

Ben Parker Karris is a writer and photographer in Los Angeles. Follow him on Instagram.

Chatting with the Man Who Legally Changed His Name to 'Free Cannabis'

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Free Cannabis (Photos courtesy of Free Cannabis)

The whole weed-still-being-illegal-in-2016-thing: it's all a bit silly, isn't it? While other parts of the world take a sensible approach to cannabis – decriminalising and even legalising it – the UK's government continues to plod along, refusing to engage in any kind of sensible debate on the topic.

But it's not just the government: there are also a few odd-bods out there taking the fight against the devil's lettuce into their own hands. You know, neighbourhood watch types. The sorts whose year would be made if they could citizen's arrest someone for watching TV without a license. Earlier this year, there was that guy who complained about the smell of weed at a "cosmic" music festival. Now, a complaint about cannabis plants being grown in Glastonbury council's flower pots has prompted authorities to rip them all up.

The person who sowed these seeds? A man formerly known as "Rob", who has changed his name to "Free Cannabis" by deed poll, for fairly obvious reasons. Mr Cannabis is a campaigner and the owner of a hemp shop in Glastonbury, one of the locations where the offending plants were growing. Free told Somerset Live that all the furore around this news is a "sad reflection of society's hemp-phobia", so I gave him a call to find out a little more.

VICE: Hi, Free. When did you start planting the seeds in the council displays?
Free Cannabis: Since 1998, I suppose.

So you've been planting them covertly?
No. I remember one year we did it where we waved to cameras around town before and afterwards, with mud all over my hands. We had about 20 people planting-up by the main monument. It came up thick and in full sprout, all the way through the year.

So what happened here?
Apparently there was a complaint to the police. The police and the council are finding it a complete waste of time, but some people still get upset about cannabis plants growing in the displays. It's quite a routine thing in Glastonbury and other places in the UK, like Bath. It is a plant, after all.

It seems you've always focused on direct action rather than lobbying.
I have no faith in the criminal system, masquerading as the government. This is a hugely beneficial plant. There were times in my life where I sought arrest – I got arrested six times between 1997 and 2001 – and went to prison three times. Now they leave me alone, mainly because I know far too much information that they'd rather keep from the public.

What kind of information?
They don't want people to know that Cameron's great-great-great grandfather was head of the East India Trading Company . They'd rather it didn't come into mainstream consciousness, but it's out there now.

Okay. On a basic level, why do you grow cannabis?
Basically, we all have an endo-cannabinoid receptor system. Our bodies are designed to function at an optimal level on a diet rich with cannabis. Ideally we'd have it in our gardens, juicing it fresh. Hemp has a multitude of benefits; primarily it is a source of food, fibre, fuel and medicine. Food from the seed, leaf and flower. The seed provides a perfect balance for the nutrients we need. The flower provides cannabinoids to improve cellular function and neuro-feedback to create homeostasis. Hemp paper is far more sustainable and stronger than tree paper, and the fibre can also be used to make Hempcrete.

It's a pretty amazing plant. Reading your story on your website, it generally seems that your trajectory of promoting hemp has been becoming more spiritual? What was the cause of that direction?
After I got arrested so many times, in 2005 I spent increasingly longer times in Spain. In 2008 and 2009 I lived totally wild up in the mountains of Spain, off-grid, not touching money or shops. Just living wild and free and having the most amazing time ever, and having quite a spiritual awakening.

And that was from just living wild, not from any other chemical aids?
From living wild. I have experimented with mushrooms and a bit of acid once or twice, but my days of being quite hardcore into class A psychedelics are in my past now. I am not opposed to them. If people want to take those drugs, that's fine by me. The whole of prohibition is criminal. To be honest, there is more need for regulation of the class As because of the way that the drugs are cut and the criminality its supporting.

Do you have any events or stunts planned in the near future?
On the 28th of September this year – the 88th anniversary of cannabis prohibition in the UK – I'll be marking that out with an endocannabinoid receptor activation ceremony, feeding people with cannabis legally, with CBD truffles.

Cool, I hope it goes well. Thanks, Free!

@kylemmusic

More on VICE:

The NHS Is Trialling a Cannabis Vape Pen, So I Tried It for Myself

Women and Weed: The Re-Emergence of Female Cannabis Culture

People in the West Midlands Are Really Into Growing Weed

First-Person Shooter: Family-Friendly Photos of Life on a Tobacco Farm

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For this installment of First-Person Shooter, we called up our friend David at Hestia Tobacco and asked him if he could send some cameras to any friends in the cigarette hustle. He passed along two disposables to his friend Eddie Callahan, owner of the Opie Tobacco Farm in Durham, North Carolina.

Eddie's family has been in the tobacco growing and harvesting business for over four generations, though he doesn't smoke himself (nobody in his family does, apparently). Regardless, the farmer and well-trophied fox hunter has grown tobacco his whole life, and continues to do so with his own sons, selling the crop to several small cigarette companies throughout the country as a member of US Tobacco Cooperative Inc, a cooperative for tobacco farmers. He says Opie is "above-average" in size, and also that the company is not known as a "Big Tobacco" operation.

On top of shooting a few pics of his sons and employees harvesting tobacco plants, Eddie also took some photos of the tobacco aging process and the large tractors he uses to sort and harvest his crop. He even hand-wrote his answers to our questions and mailed them.

VICE: What's a typical day like on your tobacco farm?
Eddie Callahan, Tobacco Farmer: A typical day on a tobacco farm in mid August usually consists of harvesting green lower stalk tobacco, removing suckers if needed, and irrigating if needed. Also loading, hauling, and selling tobacco.

How long does tobacco take to grow?
Tobacco, from harvest to cigarettes, takes two and a half to three years to process, age, blend, and manufacture into cigarettes. Tobacco, once in the ground, is about a five to five and a half month process to grow and harvest. Also, tobacco from the seed to transplanting takes an additional two months.

What got you into tobacco farming? How long have you been farming for?
My family is the fourth generation of farmers, passed down from our great grandfather. I've been farming all my life, although, I was gone from the farm for four years while at Virginia Tech, but still worked on the farm in the summers.

I see a mountain of trophies in one of the photos. Whose are those?
The trophies are from fox hunting. Hunting has been part of our family from the beginning.

Follow Julian on Instagram and visit his website to see his own photo work.

The Owner of New York's Oldest Tattoo Shop Says the Industry 'Exploded Overnight'

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All photos courtesy of Fineline Tattoo

Even though New York City banned tattooing in 1961, that didn't stop Mike Bakaty from opening his own parlor. As the original owner of Fineline Tattoo, the New Yorker illegally set up a shop in a loft on the Bowery in 1976, where he began building up his clientele during the height of the city-wide tattoo prohibition. While tattooing was fully underground at the time, the vibrancy of the subculture remained intact through people like Bakaty, who kept honing his craft despite the possible legal ramifications. In 1997, when the ban on tattooing was lifted, Fineline remerged into the mainstream as a storefront in the East Village, where it still stands today at 21 First Avenue.

Gone are the days of illegal tattooing, and now, four decades later, Bakaty's son Mehai has carried on his father's legacy by not only taking over as owner of New York City's oldest tattoo parlor, but by also continuing to work as a tattoo artist himself. Though Mike Bakaty has passed, Fineline continues to set itself apart from other shops because of its lineage, NYC roots, and the talented ink the artists there continue to produce. While boutique tattoo shops are all the rage today, Fineline stands out for being a "throwback to to the old school, no-nonsense street shops of days gone by," according to Mehai. In other words, clients are offered a balance between great tattoo work and a no-frills shop, with a dash of tattoo history thrown in, too.

Last week, Bakaty and others celebrated the 40th anniversary of the shop's illegal inception with a party. A few days prior, the shop owner and tattoo artist talked to VICE about Fineline's history, as well as how tattoo culture in NYC has changed over the years.

VICE: Congrats on the anniversary! To start, I wanted to ask you about the changes you've seen in the East Village over the last 15 years and what effect they've had on the shop, if any?
Mehai Bakaty: The Lower East Side of Manhattan was always sort of a poor, low-rent district, but over the last number of years it seems to have become a very affluent area with luxury hotels going up all over the place and small businesses folding up left and right due to increased rent demands. But, we're still here through it all, thanks to the support of our customers and the neighborhood, in general.

Fineline was an illicit spot for many years, operating when tattooing was illegal in NYC. What was it like back then? What were some interesting run-ins you had while you were tattooing?

Well the whole city of New York itself was illicit, for most of that time. During the 1980s, cabs would refuse to go below 14th Street. Tattooing during the ban was about keeping a low profile. There was little to no opportunity for advertising, except for on the back pages of the Village Voice. Our ad would appear alongside ads for 1-800-Blow-Me, or whatever sex line was there. Our customers mainly came by word-of-mouth referrals. You really had to be in the know or really want to get tattooed to find someone tattooing, and there weren't very many people tattooing at all in the city during the 1970s and 1980s. Hell, there weren't many people getting tattooed in the 70s and 80s, not like today.

The tattoo shop was in the loft I grew up in, and, yes, it was a real shop built in a professional manner. No kitchen magician stuff. We would have all kinds of people there—cops, teachers, lawyers, actors, drug dealers, people from every walk of life. I remember a few times when members of obviously-rival gangs were in the shop at the same time. There would be high tension in the air, but everyone acted respectfully within the confines of the holy tattoo shop, or something. People were mostly very respectful back then.

How have you seen the tattoo industry evolve since the NYC ban was lifted in 1997?
The tattooing industry, just like the city, was completely different when I was a kid. I think the evolution of tattoo culture started long before the ban was lifted, but I can say that here in New York the whole thing just sort of exploded overnight. Though now that I think about it, it really seems to have exploded all over the world overnight. There's a hell of a lot more interest now than there was 20 years ago, that's for sure.

First day at the 21 First Avenue storefront, 1997.

What are some of your favorite tattoos you've done over the years?


Favorite tattoos? I've done so many. I've covered entire bodies in tattoos. It's really hard to pick like that, but I will say I have developed some very rich and deep relationships with some of the people I've tattooed, and I cherish that most of all. I love my work, and the fact that I get to draw pretty pictures for a living means that my favorite tattoo might just be the next one I do.

What are some tattoo trends you've noticed over the last few years?
Trends in tattooing are interesting. They definitely happen, but generally tend to not last too long. Right now, I would say lettering is huge—quotes and things of that nature—though I'm not too sure that was ever really out of style. We're seeing a huge resurgence in classic Americana-style tattooing these days, though, so I might say the old classic standbys seem to be the current trend.

Do you think there is a specific NYC style of tattooing?
New York-style tattooing is the best example of what has generally been referred to as "East Coast-style," with bold line shading and color. I will say I think the ethnic diversity of New York keeps the imagery fresh and ever-changing. I'll also say New York style is related to global style.

What is one of the weirdest encounters you've had with a client as a tattooer?


Weird is such a relative term... We had one guy come around a couple times maybe ten years ago, or so. We all figured he was homeless or something. None of us wanted to tattoo him, but my dad had a kind heart and agreed to do it. This guy wanted some naked lady pinup on his leg. My dad gave him a price, and he agreed without flinching. So he starts to remove the four pairs of pants he's wearing in the middle of July. The guy smelled so bad from the back of the shop that we had to keep the front door open. Anyway my dad finishes up, the guy gets dressed, and I'm thinking he's about to stiff us. Guy reaches into his pants and pulls out one of the biggest wad of hundred dollar bills I've seen to this day. He pays and went respectfully on his way—though not fast enough for me, due to the smell.

The original Fineline shop at 296 Bowery.

Where do you think Fineline fits into the larger story of American tattoo history?


This is a tough question. You can't really claim history until its over, and we're not done yet, so I'll let the history books figure it out.

What advice would you give to someone getting their first tattoo?


Don't be hasty. Take your time and get something you really want, something you think you can grow with. Then take the time to vibe out an artist to execute it, someone you won't mind spending some quality pain time with. Once you have it, own it and enjoy it everyday.

What's next for Fineline?


Well, we're gonna have a fun party for our anniversary, then it's back to work.

Visit Fineline Tattoo's website for more information on the shop.

Follow Anni on Twitter.

10 Years of Beautiful Men From Gay Zine 'Pinups'

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"The thing about the nude image is that people tend to become confronted by their emotions about sex when they see it," Christopher Schulz, a photographer and publisher who has spent the last ten years producing twenty issues of his gay zine Pinups, told VICE. "It can be primal—it's always an extreme reaction, whether they're excited by it or want to run from it."

There's something transfixing about the format of the centerfold, and Schulz's project, ostensibly a magazine of nude portraits of men, exploits that something in every issue. Yet in a larger sense, Pinups is also an art project about the power of print. Each issue contains 56 eight by ten inch pages, each of which holds photos of that issue's subject(s) on one side and, on the other, a piece of a 56-tile puzzle. In reconstructing the issue into a 70 by 32 inch poster, readers reveal the ultimate centerfold, a paean to the male body to post above their bed, breakfast table or toilet.

Its models are often hirsute and burly, though not always, and Schulz says the only constant among them is that they are friends or people he's admired. For one issue, Schulz flew a blogger he loved from Los Angeles to New York; in another, actor Guillermo Diaz candidly dances to a favorite record. Here, Schulz presents outtakes and favorite shots from 10 years of his project. Its final issue will be released with a party at New York's Printed Matter tomorrow.

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