Quantcast
Channel: VICE CA
Viewing all 38002 articles
Browse latest View live

Desus and Mero Talk About That Guy Who Stole an ATV for a Naked Joy Ride

0
0

On Sunday afternoon, a Missouri man decided to steal a bright yellow ATV, strip down, and go on a ride, leading to one bizarre police chase and a video of his commute that soon went viral. Johnathon A. Menth—who was, you guessed it, under the influence at the time—was charged with sexual misconduct, property damage, tampering with a vehicle, and burglary.

On Tuesday's episode of Desus & Mero, the hosts discussed Menth's wild ride, the soiled ATV, and how the suspect's name sounds suspiciously like what they think his drug of choice might be.

You can watch last night’s Desus & Mero for free online now, and be sure to catch new episodes weeknights at 11 PM on VICELAND.

This article originally appeared on VICE US.


Nikolas Cruz Had Swastikas on His Ammo Magazines, Cops Say

0
0

Suspected Parkland mass murderer Nikolas Cruz may have tried to break a third-floor window at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to create what law enforcement sources described to CBS News this week as a "sniper's nest." However, the teenager eventually abandoned his gun and ammunition—both of which included magazines engraved with swastikas, cops told CBS and also CNN.



More details have emerged about the school shooting that left 17 people dead and more injured on February 14 as officials and witnesses familiar with the investigation leak information to news outlets. For instance, an Uber driver who said she picked up Cruz at about 2 PM the day of the shooting told CBS Miami the teen was carrying a large object and mentioned he was headed to music class. Once he was dropped off, the 19-year-old apparently headed to the freshman building, where officials now say it seems like he tried to shoot through the window but might not have been able to do so because it was hurricane-proof.

Law enforcement also suggested the shooter's gun may have jammed before he abandoned it and a vest he was wearing to blend in with the crowd and flee. He had an additional 180 rounds that might have been fired.

Although a neo-Nazi group called the Republic of Florida previously tried to claim Cruz as a member, its leader has since walked back his statements. Police in Tallahassee, Florida, where the group is based, suggested the shooter was not overtly involved with the group.

The 19-year-old is currently being held without bail in the Broward County Jail, where he's awaiting trial on 17 premeditated counts of murder. His next court appearance is scheduled for Wednesday.

Sign up for our newsletter to get the best of VICE delivered to your inbox daily.

Follow Allie Conti on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on VICE US.

The Incredible, 180-Year History of Brooklyn's First Black Enclave

0
0

Growing up in New York City and going to public schools until I dropped out, my knowledge of the history of black people in America was painted with images of violence and struggle. As a black person on my own path of economic freedom and education, I discovered Weeksville by accident. For nearly a century and a half, people have stumbled on this Brooklyn enclave that now serves as a repository of black culture. Conversely, Weeksville also represents how white supremacy can practically erase a small section of one of the busiest cities from the map.

In 1838, in Bedford Hills of Eastern Brooklyn—today the border between Crown Heights and Bed-Stuy—a historical purchase of land launched one of the largest free black towns in existence prior to the Civil War. This oasis from white terrorism and chattel slavery was founded by and named after James Weeks, a longshoreman and former slave from Virginia who scraped together enough money to buy land with other black men who understood the world they lived in. By 1830, the United States had over two million slaves, while only around 300,000 black people were considered free depending on what state they lived in. In New York, slaves were gradually being granted freedom since 1799, with grassroots abolition movements coalescing into government policies. This made Weeksville an attractive place for black slaves escaping to freedom, and free families looking to settle down in peace. At that point in 1838, the scale of abolitionism was rising, making Weeksville’s formative years a collaborative experience among black people with money. Income and property were not only necessities for daily survival, but for electoral rights to continue the movement to end slavery because only land-owning black men were allowed to vote.

I found myself in Weeksville in 2006, helping set up email and file storage servers for the Weeksville Heritage Center. At the time, it was an office in one of the four restored homes from the original town. I nearly spent the night there, waiting for computer applications to install and back up. The house sat along an old Native American trail that once led to Jamaica Bay, Queens, and further on in the 1600s became a trading route for the Dutch called Hunterfly Road. For me to soak in the atmosphere meant feeling centuries of human history and a connection to the respite that black people received in Weeksville.

Weeksville allows, encourages, and celebrates a continuation of perspectives that counter colonial and imperial narratives. With the creation of black businesses, churches, and social organizations, it became a hub of economic and intellectual prosperity. It included a hospital and one of the first integrated schools in the United States: Coloured School No. 2. The town represented black nationalism figuratively, with an office for one of the country’s first black newspapers, The Freedman Torchlight. With a population of over 500 black families by 1900, which included tradesmen, laborers, ministers, teachers, and doctors, black nationalism was also a reality in Weeksville.

New York City simultaneously changed with the completion of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883. All five boroughs consolidated into one city in 1898, and the city landscape changed rapidly, almost completely wiping away Weeksville by the late 1930s. Its curvy roads through Brooklyn’s hills and valleys were absorbed by a grid system of streets. The goats, chickens, and farmyards vanished. Small, low row houses and majestic churches made way for tall Affordable Housing facilities. What once started as a black separatist community became peacefully integrated with European immigrants who were also escaping poverty and hardships. By the 1950s, Weeksville was forgotten, its buildings left in disarray. As a testament to the resiliency of the black spirit and a curiosity to piece together our fractured past, however, Weeksville was rediscovered.

In 1968, while flying in a helicopter to prepare a weekend urban studies course about local Brooklyn history, Pratt Institute professor James Hurley, a black man, discovered four Brooklyn buildings that were completely off the grid.

Trekking behind overgrown grass and a high metal fence, Hurley found four rundown row houses that were built between 1860 and 1930. A family was even found still inhabiting one of the homes. From there, many gathered to survey the site. There were neighbours and retirees, plus archaeologists from local universities, and even black Boy Scouts. Together they found a large range of artifacts from the town, including slave's shackles and a photo of an unknown, well-dressed black woman. In 1970, the city's designated the Hunterfly Road Houses a protected landmark. While Hurley led its rediscovery, Dr. Joan Maynard led its restoration and its evolution into the 21st century.

Dr. Maynard, a black commercial artist, then founded the Weeksville Society. She raised money, at times including her own personal finances, to restore the Hunterfly Road Houses. The houses, however, continued to be vandalized since their rediscovery within the blighted community. Finally in 2005, private and public funds granted millions of dollars for the four Hunterfly Road Houses to be restored and reopened to the public. The Weeksville Society changed its name to the Weeksville Heritage Center, entering a new phase. This is where I found myself in 2006, working for a non-profit technology workforce program called NPower. It focuses on training at-risk young adults and youth with technology skills, and was the program that helped me out of homelessness. I helped to install and update the Heritage Center computer network for the administrative operations of the property. On hallowed ground, in my own techie way, I continued in the tradition of helping to maintain Weeksville.

Dr. Maynard’s legacy of restoration work led to the transformation of the Heritage Center into a 19,000-square-foot education center and arts performance space, as well as a museum. A town that once served as protection from roving white mobs during the New York Draft Riots of 1863 now offers educational classes and tours, documents the oral histories of local Brooklyn folks, and hosts a farmer’s market and free concerts during the summer.

To lure more black people to move to Weeksville, some of the original founders would put ads in black newspapers across the country. This marketing campaign even reached the New York Times in 1855, with an ad posted by Sylvanus Smith that boldly stated, "FOR SALE TO COLOURED PEOPLE." More than 150 years later, this campaign stays forever relevant "FOR BLACK PEOPLE AND ALL PEOPLE" to come down to Weeksville, a town that continues the mission for human rights and racial equality.

Sign up for our newsletter to get the best of VICE delivered to your inbox daily.

Messiah Rhodes is an associate producer at VICELAND and the host of Black Trademarked Photo Editing Software History. Follow him on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on VICE US.

Nazis Explain Why They Became Nazis

0
0

This article originally appeared on VICE Germany

In a 1934 letter to American sociologist Theodore Abel, Helen Radtke explained why she had joined the German Nazi Party. She wrote that she was a politically active person who had sat in the public gallery of her local state parliament to listen to the debates held there, and attended as many political rallies as possible in search of a party that was "nationalist, but also cared for the poor". Eventually, she wrote, she found just what she was looking for in Hitler and his movement.

Radtke's letter was just one of 683 personal accounts sent to Abel in the years after Hitler was elected in 1933. Last January, the Hoover Institution – a public policy think-tank based at Stanford University in California – published 584 of those letters online. These personal testimonies are not only useful in understanding why so many people were attracted to the Nazis in the 1930s, but also provide insight into the minds of the millions of Germans today who are still turning to far-right political parties, like the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD).

Around a year after Hitler became Chancellor, Theodore Abel wanted to know what had motivated so many people to support him. After Abel failed to get any of the estimated 850,000 Nazi party members to agree to an interview, he came up with the idea for a fake competition, where he offered 125 Reichsmarks to whomever could write the most beautiful, detailed description of why they had joined the Nazi Party.


WATCH:


At the time, the prize money was worth more than half the monthly average salary in Germany, and even Joseph Goebbels – the Nazi Minister of Propaganda – publicly supported the contest. The submissions ranged from handwritten love letters to Nazism, to 12-page testimonies, while participants represented a cross-section of German society, from soldiers and SS officers to office workers, housewives, children and miners.

Many of the letter writers were happy to see the end of the Weimar Republic, which was founded in 1919 after the German defeat in the First World War, and which they blamed for the economic state the country was left in after the war and for the Great Depression. The writers were excited by Hitler's promise to introduce strict political order; Bernard Horstmann, a miner from Bottrop in western Germany, wrote that he thought the previous government had promoted "the betrayal of the people and our fatherland".

Horstmann went on to call a professor who thought the First World War was unjustified a "poisoner of people's minds". Before joining the Nazis, Horstmann was a member of the antisemitic nationalist group the German Völkisch Freedom Party, but soon, he wrote, the group's ideologies became too tame for him.

A letter from Ernst Seyffardt from Duisburg, another city in western Germany, was titled: "The Curriculum Vitae of a Hitler-German". Seyffardt wrote that he joined the Nazi Party because he wanted to contribute to "bringing back peace and order in our homeland".


WATCH:


At the time, left-wing groups tried to counter the surge in nationalist support. Fights would often break out between Communist Party members and thugs from the Nazi paramilitary wing, the Sturmabteilung (SA), while some more liberal groups called for the boycott of shops owned by Nazi Party members. But that only seemed to make Hitler and the Nazis more appealing to many. "It was because Adolf Hitler and his party faced so much criticism and resistance among the press that I became particularly interested in joining their movement," wrote a party member named Friedrich Jörns.

The letters Abel received reveal that the right-wing information bubble prior to 1933 largely stemmed from the weekly newspaper Der Stürmer, Hitler's Mein Kampf and Nazi Party rallies.

One member, named Schwarz, explained how reading Mein Kampf had caused him to not only distrust most mainstream newspapers, but also Jewish and Polish people for the way their "catastrophic, mole-like activities have ruined the world". Even though Schwarz went on to admit that he had never had personal contact with anyone Jewish, and that he couldn't prove that Polish people were "unreliable", he wrote that he "trusts his instincts on the matter". Nurse Lisi Paupié clearly agreed: "The Jews are our misfortune, that much is clear," she wrote in her letter to Abel.

Recently, the German television show Panorama had three actors read out some of the letters, partly to show how the rhetoric used – "old parties", "dreadful press", "poisoner of minds", "betrayal of the people and fatherland" – is similar to that used by the AfD. And the segment proved its point: those terms are still worryingly relevant almost 85 years after Theodore Abel decided to trick some Nazis into writing their letters.

This article originally appeared on VICE DE.

From the Inside, the White Nationalist Movement Looks Like a Total Mess

0
0

Vegas Tenold is a tall, bald Norwegian who blends in just fine with neo-Nazis. He found his calling as a journalist in 2010, when he emailed every address on the National Socialist Movement's (NSM) website looking for an interview. A paranoid dude who called himself Lieutenant Duke Schneider of the SS invited him for pastries near Ground Zero in New York City, and, eventually, to a rally in Trenton, New Jersey.



The march—now known as the Battle of Trenton in far-right circles—descended into chaos when Antifa-style activists showed up, a preview of the violent clashes that would come to define the resurgence of the white nationalist movement in America. It also had a pretty big influence on Tenold's life—he spent the next seven years embedded with fringe groups like the NSM, the Hammerskins, and the Ku Klux Klan. He also watched Matthew Heimbach, who became infamous for starting a White Student Union at Towson University, try to make his toxic ideology palatable to average, disaffected Americans in Appalachia and beyond in the lead-up to Donald Trump's election.

Tenold's book about the experience, Everything You Love Will Burn: Inside the Rebirth of White Nationalism in America, came out this month. I called Tenold up to ask what changed in between the Battle of Trenton and the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville last August, why young men in America are attracted to right-wing extremism, and the best way to get under a neo-Nazi's skin.

Here's that conversation, lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

VICE: What did you learn about what attracts foot soldiers to this movement?
Vegas Tenold: I think a lot of it is that old chestnut: that people want to belong to something. People want to feel that they're part of something bigger. The world is a confusing place these days. There are a lot of reasons for unemployment, for the lack of social mobility. There are a lot of big, big issues we are dealing with that are many-faceted. And so if someone comes in and says, "Well, no, it's because of the Jews and the Mexicans," that's a very alluring, tempting solution to buy into. It's also a higher purpose. If you believe that your race and you are persecuted, then all of the sudden you're not just some hapless guy without a job, you're a warrior.

Do you think white nationalism would lose its appeal if politicians addressed some of the problems of working-class people who've become increasingly desperate in the past decade?
It will exist regardless, because selfishness is such a profound force in driving people. I'm from Norway, which is arguably the richest country in the world, and we still have our fair share of nationalists and other assorted assholes. But I do think that the devastation of the middle class [in America], the lack of social mobility that's possible now, the lack of the social safety net, it makes it easier to say people: "You don't have much now, but here come the Mexicans to take what little you have." That makes it easier for nationalism, for hatred, for bigotry to spread. I think in an ideal world where education and healthcare were taken care of, it would be easier to [contain].

So you argued a couple of times in the book that Antifa was more of a unifier for the right than Matthew Heimbach himself. Should we be having a serious conversation about whether or not they should stop kind of martyring these guys by attacking them?
I think so. First of all, I don't think Anitfa is a homogenous group. But I think that a major moment in the last couple of years for the far right in America wasn't the election that Donald Trump, or the inauguration. It was Richard Spencer getting punched. And you know, sure, I get the temptation to punch Richard Spencer. Who doesn't want to punch a Nazi? But it really made them all feel that they all got punched. It allowed Richard Spencer to rebrand himself as a kind-of warrior priest of the far right. It really did rally the troops.

Right—people thought he was a dandy, and now he had street cred. So what gets under these guys' skin, then? If the move is not physically threatening them, is it just not showing up to their protests at all?
Now, when he does a talk, he'll roll up the sleeves of his shirt. It let him rebrand himself into this performer, this leader of men. When he used to be a glorified blogger.

I think there are much better way to deal with these guys than violence. If you listen to what Richard Spencer and Matthew Heimbach say, their arguments aren't that good. We can defeat them with words and with rhetoric. We don't we don't have to elevate them by presenting them as an existential threat to civilized society, which is kind of what we do when we attack them. We need to show them that we are stronger than them that our ideas are better, that we can do that through peaceful protest. We don't need to stoop to their level of violence.

If no counter-protestors showed up at Charlottesville, would all the neo-Nazis really just have gone home?
That's hard to say, because I do think we should make it abundantly clear that we don't accept that kind of rhetoric. I don't claim to have the answer to that, but one episode I'm very fond of is, I was have having coffee with Richard Spencer in DC at a coffee shop at one of the college-y parts of town. And we're in this little room, and Richard speaks fairly loudly, and he was talking about something awful, something like, if it were up to him, that women shouldn't be allowed in university. And as I'm sitting there, I see there's a table of young students, a few of them women, and they're kind of listening in. And as he goes on, one of them, a young woman probably about 20, just comes up and says, "Excuse me but who the hell do you think you are? You can't say things like that." And she just tore into him with arguments and with words and the guy shrank to nothing in front of my eyes. And then, after like, three or four minutes, she said, "I'm done with you. I don't want to talk to you anymore." And we were just sitting there, and we were going to leave anyway to go put money in the meter, and I said to Richard, "Do you want to go?" He said, "Well, no, we can't go now. She'll think she won."

And I saw that the second a person just stands up to these people and just calls them on their bullshit—I think it's particularly powerful that a woman did it because they such have outdated views of women and gender. It was like the thing in The Wizard of Oz when someone pours water on the witch and she melts. He melted, and no one got hurt other than his ego.

A lot of the of the book is Heimbach kind of drifting slowly to the right over the course of your reporting. Why do you think that happened? Do you think he grew more extreme in his beliefs because he's kind of spending more and more time with people like the Hammerskins, or because he just wanted to form a coalition with whoever would be willing to join him, no matter how extreme?
There are two reasons. I think [your] last point hits pretty close to home. When you're on on the far right, you have no other way to go than further right. I think it's naive to think that you can form a coalition of like, in America at least, the ultra nationalist far-right people and then try to grow the pie outside the traditional far-right movement. I think Matthew tried for a long time to do both. He believed that he could [get] people to see that the neo-Nazis weren't so bad. I think he misjudged that, yes, people did elect Donald Trump, but out-and-out Nazis is still a bridge too far for most people. And there's a lot of ego in this scene. So if you want to be a leader of a large group, then the easiest way is to take the low-hanging fruit on the right. It takes a lot of skill to persuade people who aren't nationalists or far-right activists to join a group that is.

I almost wonder if there's another world in which Heimbach didn't become disillusioned with Trump over, like, the Syrian airstrike and some other things. Like, he could have become more of an almost credible politician. Right? I can see the reverse being the case.
He totally could of. And I don't think he's planned on this, but his life has been been a steady right-wing trajectory. So it's not as it started when I met him. He started out as a socialist. So he's kind of been heading in that direction all the time. So I know that's just the way he went. And you know he has some opinions that I would say that were incompatible to mainstream politics, but one [politician] in Wisconsin, Paul Nehlen, I mean he's pretty much the same guy ideologically. I think he had an idea of what he wanted to do, and I still think that he feels he succeeded. You know if you ask him, he'll tell you, "I did what I set out to do." And in a way he did. He did build a far-right coalition, which not many people have done that before him. But you've got to say: A coalition of what? Like, what's the point? Yes, you managed to gather the most extreme elements of the far-right, but to what end?

Obviously, you spent seven years hearing these guys out, and I enjoyed reading your book. But yes—these people have no actionable plan. Are we giving them too much attention?
Yes and no. I do think that there are more insidious forms of racism in this country, which is founded on the notion of white supremacy. But I think it's important that we understand [all] racism, that we understand bigotry, and fear. To do that, I chose to seek out its most extreme incarnations. You know, Jeff Schoep, the leader of the NSM, told me 11 years ago that he believes that their ideas expressed by the right person could could get elected into office. And I thought he was huffing glue, I thought he was fucking nuts, but he basically described Trump back then, and I didn't see it coming.

Learn more about Vegas Tenold's book here.

Sign up for our newsletter to get the best of VICE delivered to your inbox daily.

Follow Allie Conti on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on VICE US.

This Rubber Alien Has 1.5 Million Insta Followers and Parties with Rihanna

0
0

He dresses better than you. He makes more money than you. His groupies are hotter than anyone you'll ever land. His name is Lil Mayo, and he's enjoying the rarefied lifestyle of an elite social media influencer. He's also a rubber alien doll.

There's a good chance you've already encountered Lil Mayo, even if you're only now learning his name. Whether smoking a blunt, kitted out in limited edition streetwear, or ordering bottle service in the VIP section of a club, his opulent—yet somehow relatable—existence has been shared and re-memed across all social media platforms, netting him more than 1.5 million Instagram followers, his own clothing label, and opportunities to party with A-list celebrities.

For the first time, the man behind Lil Mayo—the name, a play on the "ayy lmao" meme—is stepping out from his puppet's three-foot shadow to publicly share the story of how a love of dank memes and an alien doll changed his life forever.

By the age of 24, Alex Martyn had all but resigned himself to a comfortable but boring life in his hometown of Gloucester, Massachusetts. Though at one point he'd been a sponsored skateboarder, his childhood dreams of going pro had fizzled. After graduating high school, he took a stable and pragmatic job at his father's architectural company. He was making a decent living, but ennui was beginning to set in.

"I had no idea what the fuck I wanted to do when I grew up, so I just went with the flow and kept working at the shop," says Martyn. "Fast-forward to 2014. I was 24 years old, vice president of the company and accepting that was my golden ticket to a successful life, so I stuck with it. But all I thought about while I was at work was skateboarding and the next time I'd be filming or editing something."

Like any creative stuck in a boring office job, Martyn made it through the long workdays by goofing around online and covertly working on passion projects. In 2014, he created the Instagram meme account @ayylmao.memes, a page of original extraterrestrial-themed image macros all based on the original “ayy lmao” meme. The account got more than 20,000 followers in a matter of months. Though he was gaining fans, Martyn worried about his ability to keep producing content that would sustain the page's growth.

"I would search far and wide for alien photos online to make memes with until I'd literally used all the meme-worthy photo of aliens on the internet," he says. "Then, one day I thought, If I just had my own alien, I could take my own photos and make more dank memes."

After doing some research, Martyn decided the funniest alien for this new venture would be a specific rare and pricey vintage movie prop. Though his father and co-workers thought he was crazy for even considering dropping $750 on a doll, Martyn was convinced of its potential and placed the order in April 2015.

Unboxing Lil Mayo

Inspired by his new muse, Martyn began churning out new content.

"I made him a Snapchat and started taking snaps of him opening beers, chilling on the couch, smoking out of a bong and skating," says Martyn.

One day, while again bored at work, Martyn compiled a montage of those snaps, set to the Future song “56 Nights" and posted the video online. The supercut gained instant traction, being shared by Blac Chyna, WorldStarHipHop, and a number of other comedy pages, netting him millions of views and inspiring a pivot away from still images to the sort of hybrid of rap and skate videos that would become Lil Mayo's signature form of content.

Martyn poured all his free time into creating Mayo videos and growing the alien's popularity, taking him out on the town where local fans could snag and share selfies with the doll. Like so many meteoric rises to celebrity, this hard-partying lifestyle eventually caught up with Mayo and, only a few months after purchase, he was so beat up that Martyn was forced to start looking for a replacement.

"Sometimes I don’t even want to touch him after a night bringing him out to parties," says Martyn. "I don't know what grosses me out more, the beer and whatever else people pour into his mouth thinking he’s actually drinking it, or girl after girl making out with it. Probably the chicks making out with him... I’ve woken up and looked at him on the floor of my living room after a night of partying and he would have actual coke stuck in his nose from people trying to give him key bumps."

Learning from the mistakes of his first Lil Mayo, Martyn resolved to take better care of its replacement, installing an armature to assist with posing and only bringing him out for content creation.

Brands eventually began sending Mayo free clothes and, after Martyn posted an appreciative video of Mayo unboxing and repping their products, the clothing brand RIPNDIP approached him about a potential merch collaboration. During the subsequent visit to LA to design and shoot photos, Martyn realized he'd have to make a permanent move to Tinsel Town if he was going to take his alien to the next level.

Everything Alex brought with him in his initial move to LA

Stuffing only Mayo and some clothes in a duffel bag, Martyn made his way out to LA, leaving his family business and hometown behind, and committing to the alien as a full time job. After he arrived, RIPNDIP threw a party to celebrate the launch of a RIPNDIP x Lil Mayo collaboration.

"The party was one of the craziest things I’ve ever been a part of," recalls Martyn, noting that he had never before been surrounded by so many Lil Mayo fans. "It was my first taste of what his IRL clout was."

With the clothing bringing in funds, Martyn ramped up the production value for his Mayo vids. He says that, because he was plugging Lyft and Postmates on Lil Mayo's social accounts, he was pulling in "a decent sized check every month" for supplemental income.

Mayo in his own brand, Succ.

Martyn eventually made the decision to launch a clothing brand of Lil Mayo's own, launching Succ with Dog Limited founder Andy Paz in March 2017.

"Now, 10 months later, Succ has launched in [skate fashion retail giant] Zumiez and has turned into a full time job," says Martyn. "Me and Andy got our own office space in downtown LA and business is booming. I can’t believe I have my own office in LA because of Lil Mayo. Still mind blowing to me."

Mayo and a fan.

But nothing could have prepared Martyn for the event that launched the alien into a new echelon of celebrity: an invitation to party with Rihanna.

"I thought the email was fake when it said she was requesting Lil Mayo to be at her Fenty holiday party," recalls Martyn. "I Immediately called the contact number in the email and spoke with the manager over the phone."

The invitation was legit, and one of the biggest pop stars in the world spent that evening playing and selfie-ing with a lifeless movie prop.

Tommy Chong, Mayo, and Martyn

Looking to the future, Martyn says he hopes to "ride this wave for as long as possible" and only sees more doors opening up for Mayo and himself.

"My goals are to pop off a Lil Mayo TV show, work with artists and make Lil Mayo a music producer or DJ, do festivals like Coachella and make him the next Marshmallow or DJ Khaled type," muses Martyn with the unbridled but understandable ambition of someone who's somehow leveraged a doll into a successful career and glamorous lifestyle. "I see a lot of potential in so many different avenues for Lil Mayo. We’ll just have to see. Maybe even Lil Mayo for President in 2020."

Sign up for our newsletter to get the best of VICE delivered to your inbox daily.

Follow Justin Caffier on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on VICE US.

Here's What I Learned About Canada From Watching North Korea Propaganda

0
0

Hi, rest of the world! Canadian here to tell you that my homeland is a very, very thirsty country—something that we here at VICE have written about many times.

We are so oft forgotten that whenever we see somebody who is not-Canadian talking about us we lose our goddamn minds. That’s why when I heard that Canada acts as a plot point in some North Korean propaganda I knew that I, a thirsty Canadian, had to watch it. Yes, even if it was a 62-part film.

The film we’re going to be taking a look at is called Nation and Destiny. It’s 62 parts (originally planned for 100) and with each part running over an hour, the project was a massive undertaking by the North Korean regime under the guidance of Kim Jong-il who was a notorious film buff. The films follows a number of characters, including a South Korean military official who defected to North Korea, a composer who travels to North Korea, and, at one point, a taekwondo master exiled to Canada.

The CBC’s Matt Kwong wrote a great article around Canada’s depiction in Nation and Destiny which you can read here. In the story, Kwong spoke to some defectors of the nation who said that this film pretty much built their entire understanding of Canada—an understanding that is intensely limited. This actually offers us a rather rare opportunity to see the world through the eyes of a North Korean and to analyze how they view Canada because—unless you are Dennis Rodman—you most likely aren’t going to make it into the Hermit Kingdom.

First things first, Canada sadly isn’t the central location of the film only really shows up to set up flashbacks. The hero of our story is Choi Hong Hi, a taekwondo master (which is what this section is truly about) and military man, and several portions of the film tell the sweeping epic story of his time in North and South Korea and eventual exile to Canada.

Now, Choi is a real figure and considered the “father of modern Taekwondo.” While being born in 1918 in what would eventually become North Korea, Choi eventually ended up fighting for the South Korean army and raised up the ranks there. After his military career came to an end Choi worked to spread Taekwondo around the world and was eventually exiled from South Korea after introducing the sport in North Korea. Choi eventually returned to North Korea in the 2000s where he died.

OK, now that the mandatory history lesson is over, let’s get into some propaganda. Let’s start with the broad, why don’t we? From the portions of the film that are on YouTube—albeit I don’t know how much I trust the subtitles—you can see that the North Koreans actually kind of like Canada. They talk about it rather nicely but admit it is crawling with South Korean spies.

Tonally, the films are all over the place, they break out into song all the goddamn time, the death scenes are incredibly odd freeze frames, there are some pretty sweet taekwondo fight scenes, and The Bridge of the River Kwai whistle song just starts randomly playing. But we’re not here to talk about tone, we’re here to talk about Canada, and one of the films actually opens with some assuredly stock shots of Canada.

We don’t get to see too much of the country in this film other than the interior of the home Choi and his wife live in before he is whisked away to South Korea where he then tells how he eventually ended up in Canada. The rest of the movie is pretty much entirely a flashback and we don’t see Canada again but the film does end with a song about geese—it’s not exactly about Canadian geese but, hell, we’ll take what we can get.

“Wild geese’re flying high” sounds like a killer country tune. Photo via Screenshot.

In the next film we don’t see pretty much anything about Canada so we’re just going to skip talking about that one. But in the one after that, hot damn, we get us to the coup’d grace of North Korean Propagandized Canada and it’s set to a road trip scene. In our protagonist and his wife reminisce traveling from “Canada to New York.” It’s hokey, romantic and they of course break into song. (I had a whole conspiracy about how West Life ripped “You Raise Me Up” off this song but then I realized it's also the chord progression from “Wind Beneath My Wings” so.)

This scene is by far the most Canadiana we get in this entire 62-part series. It’s a glorious minute or so. Also, while we do know that the filmmakers did travel to film this flick but I couldn’t track down if they made their way to the Great White North, but goddamn if they didn’t they nailed it with their setting selection. It straight up looks like Canada. From the view of the car ripping down a good ol’ Canadian highway—maybe the 401, just outside of Kingston—and we get some nice wheat fields, power lines and at one point there are cows!

Eventually, the duo arrives in New York and this leads to a pretty sweet standoff with another defector on a beach that is clearly not in New York but maybe is in Newfoundland.

And, honestly, this one big sweeping scene about Canada is the last we really see of our nation because, you know, these movies aren’t about that. The next two films in the Choi saga deal with him forming and growing his taekwondo foundation and dealing with the cartoonishly evil South Koreans and there isn’t much notable other than a sweet frontflip Choi hucks over a car.

So, at the end of the day, we know that in North Korea, they know pretty much nothing about Canada based on this movie. We’re practically just a concept to them—just a brief road trip. Nowhere in the film do they state where Canada is other than the fact you can drive from “Canada to New York”—not even a simple “Ontario.” It isn’t too surprising when you think about it, due to the tight state control on media and education most North Koreans just simply don’t have the chance to learn about Canada. And, if they did have the opportunity, they would probably just be like the rest of the world and ignore us.

Anyhoo, thanks for coming on that journey with me through North Korean propagandized Canadiana, gang, I hope that at least you learned something!

I know I sure didn’t.

Follow Mack Lamoureux on Twitter

For the Better: Evelyn Sifton

0
0

In the first episode of For the Better, we meet Evelyn Sifton, a 23-year-old professional cyclist who is equally passionate about combating the prejudices towards the transgender community. We sat down with her two weeks before her operation to talk about how it is to transition in such a competitive world and about the ways she will stay involved in the scene after the procedure, when she won’t be able to ride for months—how she'll be using this moment to focus on helping her team from the sidelines and continue to be an inspiration for the next generation.


Legal Weed Might Be Getting Pedestrians Killed, Study Finds

0
0

With recreational weed just a dispensary away in nine US states, Americans today are more concerned about the harmful effects of sugar than they are of marijuana. But while many people may think that the worst thing that can happen to you stoned is literally being unable to walk down a mountain, a new study has suggested that legal weed may actually be linked to deaths on US roadways.

Pedestrian deaths have shot up in states where recreational weed is legal, according to a report released Wednesday by the Governor's Highway Safety Association. During the first half of 2017, fatalities spiked 16.4 percent in the seven states that legalized weed between 2012 and 2016, plus Washington, DC. Meanwhile, fatalities dropped 5.8 percent across the rest of the country.

It is important to note that we're not looking at huge increases in pedestrian deaths in the states where weed is legal. In Oregon, for example, fatalities jumped 20 percent from 2016 to 2017—but the total number of people killed only rose from 29 to 35. Still, the study's author thinks the link between the deaths and legal weed—whether it could involve stoned drivers or stoned pedestrians—is "a marker for concern."

"We are not making a definitive, cause-and-effect link to marijuana," the study's author, Richard Retting, told the New York Times. "It may be a canary in a coal mine, an early indicator to address."

Aside from any role weed might play in the spike, Retting suggested smartphones could also be to blame: It's hard to look out for cars barreling toward us with our faces glued to a tiny, highly addictive supercomputer at all hours of the day. It's a problem that's recently led some cities to outlaw using smartphones while crossing the street.

Whatever the cause, the number of pedestrians killed by cars nationwide has skyrocketed recently, shooting up by 27 percent from 2007 to 2016, the study found. And with the number of deaths in 2017 on par with those recorded the year before—roughly 6,000—it doesn't look like the trend is going away.

"It’s downright disturbing," Retting told USA Today. "People outside cars are dying at levels we haven't seen in 25 years."

Sign up for our newsletter to get the best of VICE delivered to your inbox daily.

Follow Drew Schwartz on Twitter.

Related: Driving While High Versus Driving Sober

This article originally appeared on VICE US.

Meet the New Wave of Women Skate Photographers

0
0

Photographers and skateboarders have had a long symbiotic relationship. From Glen E. Friedman shooting the early Dogtown days to Grant Brittain capturing Del Mar Skate Ranch or Mike Blabac clicking the shutter as Danny Way jumped the Great Wall of China, photographers have played a critical role in documenting skate history. But just as skateboarding has been traditionally dominated by men, so too has it usually been men behind the lens. Now, with women’s skateboarding growing fast, a new wave of female photographers is emerging alongside it.

When I started covering women’s skate competitions in 2012, I was one of only a few members of the press around. Since then, the scene has developed considerably. At last September’s Street League stop in Los Angeles, I was mesmerized by the female photographers working around the course. One of them was Nam-Chi Van, who’s been photographing most of the X Games and Street League stops for the last four years. She told me that lately, “There are a lot more women photographers… I have met so many more women who are just trying to do the same thing I am. It’s really cool to see the community growing.”

Alexis Sablone putting her board together. “To me, capturing events are more than the actions shots. I love getting behind-the-scene photos that tell a story and can show viewers a different perspective.” Photo and quote by Nam-Chi Van

Photos by women like Nam-Chi are a key part of why women’s skateboarding has progressed so much in recent years. There’s a direct correlation between photos of women skating, the amount of coverage these women receive, and the number of girls who take up skating. “We have to persuade others who don’t skateboard that women’s skating is important and that it’s progressing.” Nam-Chi said. "A lot of people think She’s a girl, she can’t kickflip. But if we can get the content out of a girl lipsliding this huge rail or hardflipping a ten-stair, it’s real.”

As Olga Aguilar, another photographer, puts it, “Photos are important because they inspire [women] to get out there in the competitive world and to be recognized.”

Zorah Olivia
, whose portraits of Andrew Reynolds and Kadar Sylla were featured in the August issue of Thrasher, has had a similar experience. At her first contest, the 2015 X Games in Austin, she says, “I was the only one shooting photos for the women’s events.” Since then, she too has noticed the uptick in interest in women’s skateboarding. “So much has changed in such a short period of time. It’s only going to get better from here.”

The Worble's New Driveway Video Ad - Thrasher magazine, August 2017 | Photo by Zorah Olivia

Australian photographer Sarah Huston is another woman who's been working hard to increase the exposure of women’s skateboarding. She founded “Yeah Girl,” an annual international exhibition featuring photos of female skaters shot by female photographers. “Now that girls have visible role models in skateboarding, the number of girls on boards has increased,” she says. “Don’t get me wrong, the inequality is still there and it’s still really tough for women to make a name for themselves in skateboarding, but there have been some big steps in the right direction.”

Below are some photos shot by the women leading the charge in the new generation of skate photographers.

Samarria Brevard Steeze. Photo by Nam-Chi Van
Lacey Baker and Vanessa Torres. Photo by Nam-Chi Van
Stella and Andrew Reynolds. “I’ve never witnessed a father/daughter dynamic like theirs, it’s truly inspiring. I started shooting photos of Stella skating my first summer in LA. Her progression is remarkable, there’s no doubt in my mind that she’s going to grow up to be one of the best female skateboarders to step on a board.” Photo and quote by Zorah Olivia
Jenn Soto - Downtown LA Gap. Photo by Zorah Olivia
“Sage Williams was a local ripper from the Seattle area. Her unique style of skateboarding and being a great human being made her stand out in the scene. This picture was taken in May 2017. In October of the same year she was diagnosed with cancer and lost the battle." Photo and quote by Olga Aguilar
Poppy star. Photo by Olga Aguilar
Luiz Flavio, rock n’ roll, Adelaide Airport. Photo by Sarah Huston
Tessa Fox, boneless, Copenhagen. Photo by Sarah Huston
Stas Provotorov, kickflip, Moscow. “I shot this photo in Moscow in 2016. I love that the huge, elaborate, and somewhat intimidating building is still, to a skateboarder, a playground.” Photo and quote by Sarah Huston

Sign up for our newsletter to get the best of VICE delivered to your inbox daily.

Follow Hannah Bailey on Twitter
.

This article originally appeared on VICE US.

The 'Jersey Shore' Reunion Got a Second Session Before the First One Even Aired

0
0

New Jersey is not known for its endings. At 68, Bruce Springsteen still performs four-hour shows and stars in his own Broadway productions. Artie Lange continues to have a career. David Chase didn't even write a conclusion for The Sopranos. And now, as we all know, Jersey Shore is coming back—and, by the looks of it, not going anywhere either. According to Deadline, MTV has already booked a second season of Jersey Shore Family Vacation before the first—the upcoming reunion in Miami—hits TV.

It's unclear if the gang's next trip will be back in Florida, the beloved Jersey Shore house, or Italy, but everyone must have gotten along well enough this time that MTV felt confident enough to book another get-together before seeing this seasons's ratings. It seems that Mike "the Situation" and Ronnie, thankfully, have made amends, considering they were spotted test-driving Lambos and not drunk in their South Beach apartment throwing furniture at each other recently. The duck phone, always a high point for drama, has apparently reappeared without causing a permanent severing of relationships. Did Mike spare Snooki and Deena a hilarious prank and restrain from calling a cab company to take them to Little Rock? (Maybe he's already got enough drama in his life.)

This is the first—and now second—season in what will hopefully be a long resurgence. Just imagine Mike, fresh out of a New Jersey correctional facility at 60, joining DJ Pauly D as he calls out bingo numbers. Or Vinny, in 2058, advising the SoundCloud rapper who's become our president about why we should have been worried about biotic processes decades ago. Or Sammi, just showing her face at all. Try to convince me you're not pumping your fist.

What more is there to say? Just grab a chair and plop down in the sand because Governor Christie was wrong: We're staying the hell on the beach.

Sign up for our newsletter to get the best of VICE delivered to your inbox daily.

Alex Norcia is from New Jersey. Follow him on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on VICE US.

Expert Advice on What to Do About a Low Sex Drive

0
0

One common complaint some couples face is a disparity in desire: One person wants to get it on while the other can’t conjure any interest. For many, a lackluster libido could be biological, as our sex drives decline naturally as we age. Studies show that testosterone production in men decreases by about 2 percent a year. While in women, menopause severely limits estrogen production, which lowers a woman's interest in sex. In both cases, hormone therapy can help stabilize levels.

Lifestyle choices and our environment also affect our libido. Everything from what we ingest (alcohol, drugs, and food) to where we live and how much stress we have in our lives can impact our levels of lust. It doesn’t help that our entire modern lifestyle can aid in making our sex drive plummet lower than the ratings for a Jeremy Piven–led procedural on CBS. For others, there may be no discernible reason for the indifference toward sex. Just as we have happy and sad days, you can expect your sexual appetite to have both surges and retreats, too.

According to a new study published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, Americans are having less sex overall: “Those born in the 1930s (the Silent generation) had sex the most often, whereas those born in the 1990s (Millennials and iGen) had sex the least often.” Married couples took the biggest hit, having sex an average of 56 times a year in 2014, down from 67 in 1989.

However, just because it’s normal to feel “meh" about getting it on doesn’t mean you won’t feel concerned if it’s your first time experiencing a change in your (or your partner's) sex drive. We approached sex coaches, relationship therapists and psychologists and asked for their best advice about how to handle experiencing a dip in desire. Here’s what they said.

Be choosy about when and where you bring the issue up

Don’t talk about it in the midst of a sexual moment, whether it’s a moment of good sex or a moment of low libido; it’s not the time. Instead, talk about it when you are both calm, sitting or lying together, without any other major stresses on your mind, and you are in a place where you both can be open and vulnerable. Don’t be aggressive, blaming, or belittling. Instead, talk from a place of confident vulnerability. Don’t be offensive, defensive, or offended. Talk in a way that shows you care, and want to help improve your sex drive and find a solution together. Say what you love so much about your relationship, and that there are areas you think would help improve your connection even more. Don’t say that you are unsatisfied. Instead, say you would love to improve what you already have. - Laurel House, celebrity dating coach known as "The Man Whisperer"

Don’t take it personally

The most important part of communicating about libido is that each partner doesn't personalize the other's libido (i.e. your libido is low, that means I'm not attractive enough). I've spoken to hundreds, probably thousands, of people about libido, and it is almost never that reason. Once partners can see that libido itself is a journey, both personal and relational, they can be supportive and curious, ready to find each other's edges and challenge each other to feel and try new things. - Brandy Engler, an LA-based psychologist and author of The Men on my Couch and The Women on my Couch

Engage in kinder, gentler self-talk

Stress is a sex killer. When we are stressed, we may be preoccupied with deadlines, worries about getting through our commitments, and fears about letting people down. We may be hard on ourselves or have thoughts such as, I am not competent to complete these tasks, or, Why can't I just manage my time better? Will I ever learn? Negative judgments about ourselves can directly extinguish sexual desire, and can extend into the bedroom where we might be especially prone to thoughts like, I'm worried I won't have sexual arousal, or, Will my partner leave me if we lack sexual chemistry? Try incorporating mindfulness meditation into your life on a daily basis. Mindfulness reduces anxiety, and can make you more in tune with the sensations arising in the body moment by moment. - Dr. Lori Brotto, professor, psychologist, and author of Better Sex Through Mindfulness: How Women Can Cultivate Desire

Chill (and maybe light up a spliff)

Low libido is not a significant problem in and of itself. It only becomes a problem when your low libido differs from your partner's libido. If your partner doesn't understand that factors outside your control, like menopause and the natural aging process, are responsible for your low libido, then it's going to cause friction. They may mistakenly believe that your libido hasn't dropped but that you are “keeping” sex from them. In these cases, you need to sit them down and explain what's happening and explain why it's normal.

That said, an interesting finding from a large-scale study in 2017 on marijuana use found that using weed is independently associated with increased sexual frequency. Perhaps adding a little 420 to your life is the key to boosting your sex drive! - Sean Jameson, sex coach and the founder of Bad Girls Bible

Sign up for our newsletter to get the best of VICE delivered to your inbox daily.

Follow Anna Goldfarb on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on VICE US.

Ta-Nehisi Coates Is Writing a Different Kind of 'Captain America'

0
0

Roughly two years after he got into the comics game with Black Panther, Ta-Nehisi Coates is teaming back up with Marvel to helm a Captain America comic, a decision that—in an announcement he penned in the Atlantic—one of America's sharpest critics admits might not seem like a natural fit.

He's taking on a character most people think of, as he writes, as "an unblinking mascot for American nationalism"—whereas Coates himself is outspoken on the country's flaws, systemic racial inequality, and current administration. But as he tells it, that dichotomy is exactly why he wants to take over the series.

"What is exciting here is not some didactic act of putting my words in Captain America’s head, but attempting to put Captain America’s words in my head," Coates writes. "What is exciting is the possibility of exploration, of avoiding the repetition of a voice I’ve tired of."

And he's quick to point out that Captain America isn't as much of a blind patriot as he's cracked up to be. Since its inception just after World War II, the character—a supersoldier who was given his powers by the military—has constantly pushed back against the American government, once getting so pissed off at the White House that he ditched the name "Captain America" altogether. It'll be interesting to see how Coates plays with Cap's resistance to the country he was literally engineered to defend, and how taking on a story set in the US differs from his work for Black Panther—set in Wakanda, an Afrofuturist paradise.

Coates will keep on writing Black Panther comics—a series he supercharged long before the movie took the box office by storm—and continue his work at the Atlantic, where he's a columnist. Meanwhile, ahead of the first comic's Fourth of July release, he'll be chipping away at the difficult task of chronicling an American hero as someone who, it's safe to say, isn't exactly psyched about where the country is at right now.

"I’m not convinced I can tell a great Captain America story," Coates writes, "which is precisely why I want so bad to try."

Sign up for our newsletter to get the best of VICE delivered to your inbox daily.

Follow Drew Schwartz on Twitter.

Related: Black Panther Is Basically Afrofuturism 101

This article originally appeared on VICE US.

Greta Gerwig's Catholic High School Is Throwing a 'Lady Bird' Oscars Party

0
0

St. Francis High School, Greta Gerwig's Sacramento alma mater that helped inspire Lady Bird, is throwing a massive Oscars party to celebrate the film—and it sounds way better than just hanging out at the Deuce.

According to the Sacramento Bee, the party will air the Oscars ceremony in the school gym along with a screening of some rare VHS tapes of Gerwig's old high school theater productions she starred in while attending St. Francis, because nothing celebrates Gerwig's accomplishments like unearthing some embarrassing footage of her as a teen!

"We’ve never had an Oscar party," St. Francis High School's MaryAnne Kelly told the Bee, “but we’ve never had an alumnus nominated for five Oscars before."

There will also be a Lady Bird–style award for the best thrift-store prom dress—hopefully purchased from Thrift Town, the Sacramento thrift shop where Lady Bird bought her own dress—and even a life-size cutout of Gerwig herself, seeing as how the writer-director will hopefully be too busy winning some actual Oscars to pop by the party.

Partygoers will also be able to take their picture in front of backdrops of Sacramento landmarks featured in Lady Bird, since the movie has inspired a whole new wave of city pride from its residents. "All of a sudden, you have permission to say, 'I’m from Sacramento,'" Gerwig's high school theater teacher Cheryl Watson explained to Vanity Fair this week. "She wanted Sacramento to have the spotlight. She really wanted it."

And it won't be the last time Gerwig will be pointing a spotlight on Sacramento, either—the director is apparently planning another trio of films set in the city Lady Bird calls "the Midwest of California."

"[Lady Bird] is one part of Sacramento, but there’s a lot of different parts I’d like to explore,” Gerwig said on the premiere episode of A24's new podcast. "I have the inner privilege of being from a place and I’m really from that place. My family didn’t move. My family is still there. My friends are still there. I can actually speak to it with some feeling."

St. Francis High School is expecting around 350 people to show up for the party, which kicks off with its own red carpet walk at 4:30 PM on Sunday. Unfortunately, tickets are almost sold out, so act fast if you want to catch some of those clips of a teenage Gerwig in The Wizard of Oz or whatever.

Sign up for our newsletter to get the best of VICE delivered to your inbox daily.

Follow VICE on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on VICE US.

The New York Photographer Who Finds IRL Optical Illusions

0
0

Sure, fancy photo equipment and years of practice are important parts of building a successful photography career. But as street shooter Jonathan Higbee knows well, sometimes a brilliant photo is born from simply following your instincts. “I think there is an innate sense or vision that is with you kind of naturally, but you can hone it and work it out like a muscle,” he said.

Higbee's Coincidences is a collection of photos taken on the streets of New York City at serendipitous moments: a man in an advertisement seems to lead a pedestrian by a rope; a commuter merges with The Weeknd when he passes behind a poster of the singer; a woman on the subway has a Mickey Mouse balloon for a head. Higbee prowls the city looking for naturally-occurring optical illusions like these, and his patience pays off (to the tune of 32K enthusiastic Instagram followers). Through quirky vantage points, creativity, and a well exercised instinct, Higbee captures delightful shots of everyday city life.

Over the years, Higbee has developed a knack for noticing patterns and anticipating moments. "Usually I do traditional street photo walks, where you just walk and shoot, and walk and shoot, and see what’s around the next corner. But while I’m doing that, I always have one eye out for something that seems to have a lot of potential in it—typically a bold minimal graphic, which I love. Or some really weird advertising. Or some minimal graffiti. Anything like that," he said. "If I see something like that, I’ll stay for a moment and check the flow of pedestrians and traffic to see what kind of people are walking there, how many are passing through.”

Wall Street, 2015. By Jonathan Higbee

This process can take as little as half an hour or as much as four months of dutiful watching, as was the case with his photo of the man being "led" by a rope: “I spent so much time there. And then I finally got that shot—which was perfect because two days later the ad was taken down."

Higbee said that his Coincidences series doesn't have an endpoint; as long as he walks the streets of New York, which endlessly morph based on the flow of humanity through the city, he will keep shooting. “Every time I’m out in New York, even when I’m running an errand or having lunch with a friend, I see the coincidences everywhere," he said. "And I have to photograph them!"

Times Square, 2015. By Jonathan Higbee
Garment District, 2016. By Jonathan Higbee
34th Street, 2016. By Jonathan Higbee
Midtown Crosswalk, 2015. By Jonathan Higbee
Life in New York, 2017. By Jonathan Higbee


42nd Street, 2016. By Jonathan Higbee
3 Train, 2016. By Jonathan Higbee
Comb Over 8th Avenue. By Jonathan Higbee
Bag of Surprises, 2016. By Jonathan Higbee
Downtown, 2016 by Jonathan Higbee

Sign up for our newsletter to get the best of VICE delivered to your inbox daily.

This article originally appeared on VICE US.


I Went from Being an Agency Assistant to Writing for 'Atlanta'

0
0

About a year-and-a-half out of college, I was working as an assistant at a talent agency, and I had just met my agent. It was just one of those things: I had written an original pilot, got it submitted to FX, and here’s a young new writer. It was at the same time they were hiring the Atlanta staff, and they were looking for one more writer, a girl, specifically, and it just so happens that I was actually from Atlanta as well. It was crazy—suddenly I was meeting producers, and then I was staff on the show.

Atlanta’s writers' room is super unique. Our process is different. In a more traditional writers’ room, there is more of a structure, more of a “We need to break this specific story today” feeling. Atlanta feels more like friends just hanging out, which definitely helps make the writing process super easy. We come at the show in a very indirect way, and it’s more about us and what we find funny or interesting rather than what we need to do to fit television scenes.

Regarding the "Juneteenth" episode, we wanted a Van-and-Earn episode to bring the audience into the dysfunction of their relationship. Myself and another writer specifically thought, Maybe a really bourgeoise Juneteeth party. When I was a teenager, my mom used to help put Juneteenth events on at the Marietta Square. I remember having to go and it being so hot out in Georgia. I didn’t think that it was a holiday or celebration that anybody except black people knew about, and not all black people know what Juneteenth is, which adds to the “bourgeoise-ness” of the episode. It’s so black, and to me it’s kinda funny. It was so interesting that it's a whole event that happens behind closed doors in this country. It’s such a specifically black experience.

Atlanta writer Stefani Robinson

As far as the "B.A.N." episode, the transracial kid was a conversation that sprung out of Rachel Dolezal. We were thinking, “White people get to do this but we can’t do that.” It’s so frustrating that she thinks she can do whatever she wants. She can be whatever race she wants, when we as black people, or really any people of colour, don’t have the luxury to be like, “You know what? I’m actually white and I actually deserve a lot of money and to not be harassed by cops and be discriminated against.” The episode comes from the idea that it doesn’t go both ways. That’s where the humour came from for us. A black teenage dude can’t decide that he’s just a 35-year-old white guy. That would never work.

Earn (played by Donald Glover) and the mother of his child, Van (played by Zazie Beetz)

In Season Two, we step into Van’s life a little bit more. We get to see a life that isn’t necessarily through the lens of her relationships with men. We see her by herself and with her friends. It’s really important for us to explore the life of a black woman that isn’t contextualized by who she’s dating. Her character can hang out with guys, and she is cool and part of the gang, which I think is also important specifically in black culture: black women are usually just seen as hassling the guys. They’re not cool enough to hang out, they’re always nagging and they’re always on someone’s nerves as far as men go.

There is something a little bit more real about Van and Earn’s relationship. Relationships are complicated and there are some relationships out there that aren’t as easy as “We’re together," or "We’re not.” People are connected for life in a very complicated way, and do still have love for each other. Some people are connected for very strange reasons. Whether it’s through children or whether it's them mentally not wanting to let the other person go, it’s the less sitcom-y way to go.

Earn (played by Donald Glover) and Van (played by Zazie Beetz) at a Juneteenth party in season one

To get more black people in writing roles, it starts with education. A lot of people in general want to get into acting because they don't know what's available to them. When I was a kid, I just knew that I loved movies and wanted to be a part of movies or TV someday. I didn’t really know about any black writers. I didn’t know that was a thing black people did, or know that black people were writing, editing, and shooting things, or that they were designing costumes. If you don’t see something, how are you supposed to know that it’s something you want, or that you can aspire to be it one day? As a young person, acting was the most relatable entry into the entertainment industry. Luckily, I was in a position doing theater and various acting programs and I had teachers who recognized my strength in writing and told me that.

I was fortunate to have parents that guided me in the right direction. As a kid going to film camp, I learned how to operate a camera, how to write for TV, how to edit, and how to direct. I had the opportunity to put myself in these activities where I got somewhat of a full sense of what it would be like to be involved in television or film. From there I was like, “You know what? I do really enjoy acting and I’m pretty good at it, but I have so much more fun when I’m writing." As far as people of color, specifically black kids, go, they need access and they need the opportunity and that isn’t always the case.

I don’t have advice in particular for black writers entering the entertainment industry, because so much depends on luck and a random opportunity, but the thing I will say is to just be prepared and to write. That has been the thing to carry me and still carries me. Never in my life will I be able to manufacture the moment that got me on Atlanta. I was just quite literally at the right place at the right time for that opportunity. The reason I was able to grasp it and to keep it going was because I was prepared. I wrote all the time. I was constantly thinking about ideas. My biggest advice is to constantly be writing, constantly be reading, and then on top of that, to be honest about what you love.

Earn (played by Donald Glover) and Van (played by Zazie Beetz) at a Juneteenth party in season one

What really excites me about writers is when they are authentic to themselves and write about what they want to see on TV. That shouldn’t be based on what’s on right now. They aren’t shy about their inspirations, no matter how dumb. My favourite movie is Austin Powers. It’s a ridiculously dumb movie and I am not ashamed about that—it’s the key that influenced me, it made me laugh, and it made me want to get into comedy. Stay true to what influenced you throughout your life and hold onto those things. Don’t apologize for them or for yourself. It's easier said than done, but that’s what greatness comes from. There's something exciting about reading a script or watching a TV show or movie and thinking, Oh my God no one else could have done that. No one else but Donald Glover could have created the show with these specific writers in the writers room. I think that’s why people are excited about Atlanta: it has the unique voice of the people who write for it.

My mentor is probably Donald Glover, whether he knows he’s my mentor or not. We spend a lot of time together and I look up to him like a big brother. He's so smart, and the thing that I admire most about him is that he’s so open. I had never written anything professionally before writing for Atlanta, and he took a chance on me. He’s genius enough to realize that he needs all types of people, and I think there's something so great about that. I’m constantly watching him and I’m inspired by what he creates.

Paper Boi (played by Brian Tyree Henry) on a fictional Black American Network discussing being "transracial"

If I could have anyone on the show, I would have Eddie Murphy. I love Eddie Murphy. He's been laying low for awhile, but I just think he is so brilliant. I don't know what capacity we would ever use him in, but he is so iconic in comedy, and in black comedy specifically, that it would be an honor to have him on the show.

My goal at FX is to do stuff that hasn't been done before, or done from the voice of a 25-year-old black woman. I'll hopefully be working with people that I love working with, who inspire me and push me to be better.

Atlanta returns Thursday, March 1st on FX.

This story is a part of VICE's ongoing effort to highlight the contributions of black women around the globe who are making a difference. To read more stories about strong black women making history today, go here.

Sign up for our newsletter to get the best of VICE delivered to your inbox daily.

Follow Stefani Robinson and Nakia Swinton on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on VICE US.

Hedley Frontman Is Stepping Down Following Sex Assault Allegations

0
0

The frontman of Canadian band Hedley is putting his career on hold in light of sexual assault allegations—but only after the band finishes its current tour.

Jacob Hoggard, 33, tweeted Wednesday that he has “behaved in a way that objectified women” over the last 13 years. He denied ever engaging in non-consensual sexual activity.

Hoggard said he is stepping away from his career “indefinitely” after the band finishes up its tour later this month.

“The way I’ve treated women was reckless and dismissive of their feelings. I understand the significant harm that is caused not only to the women I interacted with, but to all women who are degraded by this type of behaviour. I have been careless and indifferent and I have no excuse. For this I am truly sorry,” Hoggard said in the tweeted statement.

On Sunday, the CBC reported that a 24-year-old Ottawa woman has accused Hoggard of raping her multiple times in a hotel room in Toronto in 2016. The band has also been accused of harassment and assault via the hashtag #outHedley2k18. Yesterday, Calgary radio host Katie Summers said Hoggard made a remark about her performing oral sex on him when she interviewed the band seven years ago. Summers said he touched her bum after they posed for a photo.

In his statement, Hoggard said, “I was given a position of leadership and power and I mishandled it. I will regret this for the rest of my life. I’ve let down my family, my friends, and so many fans. I’m sorry.”

He noted that he will spend his time off making changes to his life and seeking guidance from family and “the amazing women in my life.”

Despite the serious allegations, some Hedley fans remain devoted to the band. Speaking to the CBC at a show in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan last month, Kerina Powell, 19, said she was not convinced the allegations are true.

“Obviously it is an issue if it happened, but I still love the band and I'm still going to keep coming to their shows and I'm totally still supporting them.”

However, Hedley’s management has dropped them, as have several radio stations. They will no longer be performing at the upcoming Juno awards.

The band’s Cageless tour is scheduled to wrap up at the end of March.

Follow Manisha Krishnan on Twitter.

This Guy Blacked Out in His Uber and Took a $1,600 Ride Across Three States

0
0

Look, it happens. You spend the night out at a couple bars with some buddies, and by the time everyone is splitting up, it's late enough and you're lazy enough to splurge on a car instead of making the slog back on foot. We've all been there. Maybe you wake up the next day and grumble about the surge pricing, maybe you wish you'd just saved the bucks and walked, but then you drown your sorrows in a plate of some egg-based scramble and forget about it.

But last Friday, one unfortunate, shitfaced New Jersey man took an Uber ride that won't be easy to forget, even though he was asleep for a lot of it—because it spanned three states and cost him $1,600.

Kenny Bachman was visiting friends in West Virginia when he dozed off in the back of his Uber after a night of beer-and-shot deals or whatever. But when Bachman woke up, he wasn't nursing a hangover in his friend's place near the West Virginia University campus—he was still in the Uber, on a 300-mile drive back to his home in Gloucester County, New Jersey, NJ.com reports.

Bachman told the site that he woke up after two hours asleep in the Uber XL, completely baffled about why he was speeding down a strange highway in a car early Saturday morning. "I just woke up," Bachman explained to NJ.com, "and I'm thinking, Why the fuck am I in the car next to some random-ass dude I don't even know?"

The driver quickly filled Bachman in on what he missed. According to the guy behind the wheel, Bachman had requested an UberXL to pick him up and had drunkenly selected his New Jersey home as the destination. Oh, and it was Friday night, so prices were surging. At that point, Bachman was only two hours into a five-hour drive, so he could have easily just told the Uber driver to end the ride and leave him at a Rite Aid or whatever, but in his groggy state, he decided to just see the ride through all the way home.

The whole trek allegedly wound up costing $1,635.93, which Bachman initially paid. But once he was home and the hungover haze lifted, he realized that $1,600 was kind of a lot for a trip he didn't exactly want to take.

He contested the trip to Uber, claiming that the driver messed with his phone while he was blacked out, but Bachman says the ride-share company didn't refund the massive fare. Now, Bachman's out more than a grand and probably had to do some explaining to the friends he ghosted in West Virginia—but he still gave the guy who drove him across multiple state lines a five-star rating, because that's just what you do, right?

Sign up for our newsletter to get the best of VICE delivered to your inbox daily.

This article originally appeared on VICE US.

'Ballmastrz: 9009' Is Here to Fill the 'Rick and Morty'-Shaped Hole in Your Life

0
0

Buckle up, kids, because on Thursday, Adult Swim released the trailer for Christy Karacas's new show Ballmastrz: 9009, and it looks like the post-apocalyptic sports programming America deserves. If you're looking for a quarter-hour show to fill the Rick and Morty-shaped hole that no amount of Szechuan Sauce can clog, take a peek at the Superjail! creator's latest carnage-filled show.

It seems like the whole purpose of Ballmastrz: 9009 is to dethrone Superjail! as the most violent show on television. The story follows Gaz Digzy (voiced by Natasha Lyonne), a disgraced superstar of The Game—a blood sport so brutal that it's credited with ending all war. In the year 9009, her bad behavior lands her on the worst team in the league, The Leptons.

Her attempt at Bad News Bears-style redemption seems futile in the mind-melting footage so far, but we do get to see the different ways her slacker teammates are mutilated and quickly healed thanks to googly-eyed amoebas—making Ballmastrz: 9009 a near-infinite canvas for the Walt Disney of ultraviolence.

Titmouse, a studio that collaborates with Rick and Morty and creates some of the most innovative cartoons out there, is producing the show with Karacas. The perpetual champion of hand-drawn animation's style is like cutting-edge anime mashed up with French surrealist art cartoons, so expect Ballmastrz: 9009 to be a feast for the eyes.

Aside from Lyonne, the cast is stacked with Aqua Teen Hunger Force alums Dave Willis and Dana Snyder, Disney and Nickelodeon mainstay Eric Bauza, and beloved Gravity Falls and Adventure Time voice actress Jessica Dicicco. Adult Swim has already announced guest stars like The Walking Dead's Norman Reedus, whose character Darrel would 1,000 percent live like a god in the world of Ballmastrz: 9009.

Ballmastrz: 9009 debuts on Sunday, April 8 at midnight (ET/PT) with new back-to-back episodes each week.

This article originally appeared on VICE US.

Because I Said So: All the Things Our Parents Didn't Let Us Enjoy

0
0

Growing up, you may have had strict rules about what facets of pop culture you could or couldn’t partake in. You weren't alone. Depending on how conservative the home, the more intense parents could become about what movies, books, and TV shows they let their children become exposed to. Steamy R-rated movies, crude cartoons, and even Judy Blume books were strictly verboten in some households. Hell, for some people’s childhoods, entire television networks were ruled out.

Sometimes the suppression was warranted. Other times the censorship seems almost silly in retrospect (“The Simpsons” were off-limits? Really?). And in some extreme cases, the parents’ paranoia borders on hilarious in hindsight. We asked friends and co-workers about what kinds of things their parents banned when they were kids. Here’s what they said.

"Rugrats because Angelica said 'stupid babies.'" - Lauren, 25

"Slipknot. For reasons that seem obvious." - Wilbert, 29

"Degrassi. Still watched Drake get shot." - Anna, 23

Pretty Woman because it romanticized prostitution.” - Jane, 37

"Spice Girls, but Britney was OK?" - Jean, 25

“Anything with a parental advisory sticker.” - Tom, 41

“Video games will rot your brain." - Shelby, 26

“No watching The Osbournes TV show.” - Cristina, 27

The Simpsons. Bart’s a bad influence.” - Mike, 36

“Oliver Stone’s The Doors in theaters.” - Howie, 40

Married with Children. I feel old.” - Elle, 26

Platoon and other Vietnam war movies.” - Megan, 41

“The Golden Girls: too much sex!” - Jess, 38

Power Rangers. Too violent. Go figure.” - Sam, 27

“Beck’s Odelay because of explicit lyrics” - Courtney, 39

Rugrats was banned; encouraged rebel behaviour.” - Eileen, 32

“Literally nothing. Way too little supervision.” - Carrie, 28

Titanic because of all the corpses.” - Charlie, 27

“MTV wasn’t permitted in my house.” - Shannon, 39

“Half of Cartoon Network was out.” - Jorie, 23

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off wasn’t allowed.” - Maggie, 34

“Pokémon, Harry Potter, music with drums.” - Kenzie, 23

"Barney. My mom had 'creative differences.'” - Beckett, 25 (Editor's note: Moms know.)

“The Beastie Boys’ Licensed to Ill.” - Noah, 38

Charlie's Angels: too much sex, violence.” - Ben, 45

“Judy Blume’s book about getting periods.” - Mary, 36

The Simpsons. Madonna. Anything rated R!” - Jessica, 36

“Monty Python's The Meaning of Life.” - Melanie, 40

You Can’t Do That on Television.” - Maayan, 37

Roseanne, Ren and Stimpy, Judy Blume.” - Lola, 33

“R rated movies + Cheers + Reservoir Dogs.” - Kelly, 33

“Definitely MTV, specifically Beavis and Butthead.” - Melinda, 32

“No Netflix comedy specials. Foul language!" - Marcus, 21

Dirty Dancing. I watched it anyway!” - Mary, 36

Follow Anna Goldfarb on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on VICE US.

Viewing all 38002 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images