A picture of Kermit the Frog plummeting down a shadowy stairwell has perfectly captured the internet's feelings when it jumps into an alluring but dangerous situation, consequences be damned. Ate a whole bag of Pirate's Booty by yourself? You're Stairwell Kermit. Clicked a three-hour conspiracy theory video in the middle of the workday? You're Stairwell Kermit. Spent the day searching for new memes on the world wide web? I'm Stairwell Kermit, too.
Jim Henson's mild-mannered muppet is nearly as versatile a meme as Spongebob, whether he's sipping Liptons and calling you on your bullshit, or giving voice to the evil in your head. He's instantly recognizable to millions of people of all ages but remains relevant, even successfully transitioning to the brave new world of VR Chat memes. Making a whole new Kermit formula is as easy as buying a cheap stuffed frog, and that's exactly what Meme Insider, the volunteer-run online publication grown from Reddit's r/memeeconomy forum, did to birth Kermit's latest leap into memedom.
The site produced a two minute video that drops our amphibious hero into a purgatorial world of anxious dreams and French new wave vibes. The screencap in question was grabbed from a dream sequence at the beginning of the video where Kermit finds himself falling, falling, falling into an abyss, then waking up in his own bed with a sweet match cut. The whole thing acts as an overwrought prequel to the viral vine of Kermit jumping off the roof, which you can watch above.
It's incredibly simple to make Stairwell Kermit memes because you just have to dwell on whatever mistakes you've made recently—if you're like me, you're doing this constantly—and slap your self-flagellation at the bottom of the steps. Here are three I made from this week alone:
Kermit is a stand-up member of society and a role model to kids who grew up on Sesame Street and The Muppets. Compared to Fozzie Bear, Gonzo, and Elmo, he's the responsible adult in the room. Kermit jumping down a stairwell is a reminder that even the people who look like they've got their shit together make mistakes, and wind up stuck at the bottom of a stairwell of their own making. In short, it tells us that we're going to fuck up, but that's OK—even Kermit gets caught in an internet k-hole or watches all the special features on Lord of the Rings when he should be working sometimes.
As with most memes these days, Stairwell Kermit went meta immediately. The same thing happened with Who Killed Hannibal? and This Is America, both of which went strong long after some people declared them dead.
At the end of the day, everyone feels overwhelmed by the infinite bad decisions there are to make on any given day. This meme will live on.
Jason Windsor’s "The End of the World" was never meant to end up on the internet. Somehow, in 2003, a user got a hold of it and posted it to eBaum's world, where—in a flash—the low-budget, animated video quickly became one of the first ever clips to go viral. "The End of the World" (or "End of Ze World," as it's commonly known) made its way to YouTube and around the web, gaining millions of views and spawning catchphrases that left an indelible mark on internet slang, long before the rise of the hashtag.
On this episode of The Story Of, VICE meets up with Jason to hear what went into creating "The End of the World," and to talk about his newly released sequel: “End of Ze World... Probably for Real this Time.”
While Spike Lee was busy calling Trump a "motherfucker" and Lars von Trier has been tied up watching 100 people walk out of his disgustingly violent new movie, John Travolta has spent his time at Cannes promoting Gotti, in which he stars as the head of New York City's Gambino crime family. The movie, from director Kevin Connolly, premiered at Cannes on Tuesday night, capped off by an afterparty where, for some inexplicable reason, 50 Cent put on a concert.
Apparently feeling 50's "Just a Lil Bit," Travolta decided to join the rapper onstage—and thus, arguably the greatest moment that has, or ever will, grace the grounds of the Cannes Film Festival was born. Behold:
Fortunately for us, and unfortunately for John Travolta, it seems the dancing days of Saturday Night Fever (and that one scene from Pulp Fiction) are long behind him. Now, apparently, he's lost touch with his gift for boogying, and can only manage to get his groove on as well as any other white, 50-year-old dad. Case in point: What the hell is going on with his neck?
Ah, one-night stands. We've all been there. And as the gap between puberty and settling down gets ever wider, more of us seem to be going there than ever before. Mind you, some one-night stands attain a higher level of rowdiness than others: while most are essentially "down shots and get naked in front of a stranger", sometimes there's blood involved, or machetes.
Below, I spoke to some people about their wildest one night stands.
KIM, 23
We met on Tinder: he was 38 and I was 21. We decide to meet for lunch in Soho. While we're waiting for our food he tells me he that he has a son, who's 19, and wants to check that it doesn’t make me feel uncomfortable because I'm roughly the same age as his child. I was so attracted to him I didn't care, and after lunch we get a black cab back to his insane art-filled townhouse in Hackney. When we get there he makes us gin and tonics and runs us a bath with candles and the works.
We get out and he's put on a Prince record and has made a fire, with actual logs. We proceed to have sex on a rug by the fire, then he brings out some coke and we carry on doing coke and fucking until like midnight, at which point we move into the bedroom and carry on. Eventually morning rolls around and he makes me a coffee, calls me an Uber and sends me home. The next day I get a text from him saying I gave him a midlife crisis and he shouldn't be hanging with girls a similar age to his son. I never hear from him again.
NICK, 25
I was at a party when I was a student, and all the boys there wanted to get with this Sasha Grey-looking chick. Everyone there was mad rich – she was friends of a friend who lived next door to John Terry. Anyway, they were all playing dead-out acoustic guitar around a campfire while me and this other dude were chugging Polish lager and trying to chat this girl up. Eventually we all kinda pass out in a bedroom, and around 5AM I get up to go for a piss when she knocks on the door behind me. I let her in. I didn't even get to wee yet, but she starts kissing my dick and we end up having sex in the toilet, thinking we're being mad stealth. We finish up and go back to bed, and find everyone wide awake laughing. Turns out we were fucking against the other side of the wall they were all sleeping on.
SASHA, 25
This boy was in my Snapchat a lot, doing wyd's and eye emojis at my selfies. After about two weeks of this I invite him over and he's so peng – beautiful face, beautiful smile, gorgeous. Anyway, we get down to it and he comes in my mouth but keeps his dick in there and holds my head really still and says "keep sucking, yeah" – but I can't move my head and he's not doing any moving either, so I'm basically just suckling on his dick. I stay there for like five minutes, just suckling, until he comes again.
After that he starts billing a spliff, charging his phone, making some calls, whatever. I'm doing my own thing on my phone, then he goes, "Do you got a wipe?" so I get a baby wipe out from beside me, thinking he wants to clean up a little, but when I turn around to look at him I see he's backed out this fucking HUGE knife – the biggest knife I've ever seen. I pass him the baby wipe and just don't say anything, because I don't know what to say: there is a boy polishing a fucking machete in my bed. He gets up and puts it in his sleeve, gets dressed, tucks the knife into his trousers and asks me if I want anything from the shop.
When he leaves I realise he's left his iPhone, so I go to my housemates and tell them what's going on. and one of them is like, "He's not coming back in this house," which is fair enough, but his phone is here. Half an hour later he comes back and my housemate gives him the phone and sends him away. Half an hour after that I get a Snapchat message from him saying, "Sorry I just had to pop shop," and that was it. I never saw him or his machete again.
SEB, 29
I'd got home from work one night, just had a shower and was about to settle down to watch Eastenders when my phone rang. It was a girl I'd spoken to a bit on Tinder but never met. I answered and she was very frantic, telling me I had to come over and help her because someone was breaking into her house. While I'm trying to figure out what the fuck to do, it transpires she was just horny and wanted me to come through. I wasn’t really in the mood, but eventually my dick bullied me into it and I got in my car and drove to some place with a TW postcode. It just kept getting bookier from there: first, she told me to meet her on a bench just up her road, then she directed me to a car park in a leisure centre and told me to park my car there.
I park, and follow her to the edge of some water. She starts winding some big metal wheel on a wooden post, which draws a little raft on chain up to the edge, and then does the same to a wheel on the raft to pull ourselves across the water. Now we're on the other side on, like, a little island of wooden chalets. We get to her chalet and it's quickly apparent that it’s her family home. I meet her step-mum and it's awkward. We go to her room and she explains that her dad is a big drinker and won't be home until 3AM, and won't get up until after we've left, so I won't meet him and it's fine. We open a bottle of port, barely chat and just have sex. Afterwards she decides to have a shower. She asks me to come shower with her, but something in me tells me to decline.
Suddenly the front door goes and her dad comes home, three hours early. I hear him muttering, "Who the fuck's showering at this time?" He opens the door to the bathroom and they start having a blazing row. I'm on the other side of a thin unlocked door, like, 'shit, shit, shit', trying to get dressed silently in case he comes in, cursing this fucking weird little chalet bedroom for not having any windows to climb out of. In the end he didn't come in, but I had to listen to them rowing about the fact I was there for about 40 minutes. Eventually, after another half-hour of him hanging around the kitchen outside her room, opening and closing drawers, he went to bed. I crept out at like 6AM, rafted back across the water to my car, which was surrounded by 30 people in lycra with a boom box thumping out deep house, doing a dawn aerobics session. I got in, drove back to the ends and went McDonald's drive-thru. Mad.
In a few months time, Parliament is expected to approve C-45, also known as the Cannabis Act. True, Health Canada’s proposed packaging looks like an ambitious crossover between David’s Tea and your local hospital’s medical waste disposal department. But, on the bright side, there’s never been a better time to finally kick that weed-smoking habit and pick up a cannabis vape instead.
The Cannabis Act will legalize the use of recreational marijuana for adults aged 18 years and above. You can read all about the proposed regulations and limitations here. As you all know, weed is one versatile plant. Roll a blunt, DIY yourself a bong, get mashed on some hash brownies, or even sneak a suppository in your vagina—the possibilities go on and on. Over in the US, a handful of states are already fully recreational and some weed smokers are switching to vaping. Sure, everyone loves to laugh at cloud-chasing e-cigarette dickheads, but when it comes to cannabis, vapers might have the last laugh. Why? It’s less smelly, more economically efficient, gives a cleaner high and is probably much better for your health.
Unfortunately, scientific research into cannabis vaping is somewhat limited by its illegality around the world. So, we had a quick (unscientific) chat with three US weed vapers to find out why vaping is their preferred method of herb consumption. Thirty-year-old Denver smoked weed for around eight years before switching to vaping four years ago. Twenty-year-old A.V., who runs his own vape info website FMVaporizers, only smoked for a couple of months and picked up vaping two years ago. Mark, 43, smoked for seven years and discovered vaping back in the early days of 2004. He now runs a small business 420EDC selling US-made designer portable vapes.
Each of the three vapers have noticed a marked change in their general respiratory health since they switched over. “I've not experienced any of the negative side effects of cannabis smoking since dedicating my regimen to vaporization,” Mark tells me, before listing a number of regular smoking side-effects, like chronic coughing, wheezing, and coughing up phlegm. A.V. explains how his lungs and throat would ache during that short stint of smoking cannabis. “Vapor is much cooler in temperature and allows for long draws without any of the pain of smoking,” he says. When it comes to e-cigarettes, scientific reviews tend to indicate that they’re less harmful than smoking.
Another key feature of vapes is that they don’t stink the place up. “Smoke is stinky and gets on your clothes, car, hair, face, whatever,” says A.V. “Vaporizers produce a smell that disappears in around 15 minutes.” This view is shared by other vapers, such as this one on Drugs Forum, who claimed that his handheld device created the innocuous scent of popcorn. In his own words: “Perfect for a movie theatre.” As a result, you won’t have to worry about making the wrong impression prior to that big interview or first date. Plus, you can happily enjoy your weed in public without drawing unwanted attention.
If the above two advantages seem somewhat obvious, this next one came as a surprise to us. When you smoke a spliff, you expose your cannabis to something like 426 C. “Vaporizing is more efficient because you are not literally burning half the material trying to get to the benefit of the other half,” Mark explains. Alongside extracting 70-80 percent of the cannabinoids—the parts of the plant that give it flavour and get you high—you can also cook edibles with the leftover vaporized material. A.V. agrees with Mark on this point, suggesting that he uses 1/10th of the weed in his vape compared to what he was previously filling blunts with. And, as Denver tells me, this also means that you’ll be saving money by not visiting your local dispensary so much. “A small amount of weed goes a long way when vaping!”
A final benefit to vaping cannabis is that it gives you a cleaner high. “Usually when smoking, you’ll feel a rush to the head, sometimes your eyes will even get watery,” Denver says. “That's not part of getting high, you’re inhaling all the toxins that come from combustion.” On the other hand, vaping highs tend to feel more subtle, although they’re not necessarily any less powerful. “The high is more pure, lasts longer and is much more functional compared to a high from combustion,” Mark adds. As well as reducing the number of toxins, many devices allow you to vape at specific temperatures. THC (the psychoactive constituent that makes you feel stoned) is initially released at a temperature of 157 C. CBD (the psychoactive constituent that makes you feel mellow) is activated later at 180 C. By controlling your vaping temperature, you can moderate your high.
Jean-François Etter, professor of public health at the University of Geneva, broadly agrees with the benefits that the three American cannabis vapers outline above. “In our survey, some users also said that vaping cannabis helped them reduce their total cannabis consumption,” he explained over email. “They smoke fewer joints and do not completely compensate by vaping.” In addition, he told us that some stoners are attracted to vaping because it allows them to use cannabis where smoking isn’t permitted. Etter also described a few disadvantages to vaping weed in e-cigarettes, such as equipment becoming clogged and batteries running dry while users are out and about.
So far, the Canadian federal government has been fairly coy about cannabis vaporizers. A recent report suggests that dry herb vaporizers would be categorized as accessories and be available for purchase if safety-approved and appropriately labelled. Anyone seeking to vape liquid concentrates would need to wait another year while more specific regulations are developed. There’s no direct advice on vaping cannabis, but perhaps this will change as increased research is carried out. Regardless, it’s worth thinking about buying a vape to celebrate this year’s summer of bud.
According to the Russian government, a Chechen woman named Koku Istambulova is 128 years old, which would make her not just the older person on earth (the current title holder being Chiyo Miyako, at 117 years old), but older than anyone on record in recent history. Her age is impossible to verify because her documents were lost in the Second Chechen War, but her internal passport reports her birth date as June 1, 1889. And to hear her tell it, she's hated just about every minute since.
"I have not had a single happy day in my life. I have always worked hard, digging in the garden. I am tired," Istambulova told the Daily Mail. When asked about her secrets for longevity, she said, "It was God's will. I did nothing to make it happen.... Long life is not at all God's gift for me—but a punishment."
Nineteenth-century Russia was, obviously, a pretty rough place to grow up, and Istambulova has lived through some of the worst incidents of the 20th century. She survived World War I, the Russian Revolution, World War II, and Joseph Stalin's deportation of the entire Chechen nation to Kazakhstan and Siberia ("we felt how the Kazakhs hated us," she said). She remembers being beaten by her grandmother for not dressing modestly enough as a child, and constantly digging holes and planting watermelons. Her children have all died, including a daughter who lived until she was 104.
There's no lesson here, because, well, that's life. "Looking back at my unhappy life, I wish I had died when I was young," she told the Mail. "When I was working, my days were running one by one. And now I am not living, I am just dragging through."
These incidents, all from within the past month or so, have variables, of course. Besides the settings, methods of violence, and kinds of weaponry used, distinct agendas seem to have undergirded them. But they all appear to generally fall under the far-right ideological umbrella.
They also have something important in common: They were all committed by young white men who had apparently been radicalized online.
That’s no accident. The surge of radical-right organizing by the mostly online alt right in recent years has, in fact, been consciously directed at precisely that demographic: white men between about 14 and 30, underemployed and frustrated with their lives. This radicalization, in and of itself, is not breaking news. What does seem novel to me, as a longtime observer of far-right organizing, is that the violence that always lurked under the surface of such rhetoric is now increasingly manifesting itself in extreme acts of lone-wolf aggression.
The details of some of the motivations involved in recent incidents have not been entirely settled. 29-year-old Travis Reinking, the man accused in the Waffle House case, claimed a background of at least marginal involvement in the far-right sovereign-citizens' movement. But it's not at all clear that ideology inspired him to act out murderously, even if the fact that the dead were all black or Hispanic raises the distinct likelihood of a racial motivation in that crime. Reinking awaits trial in Tennessee.
It’s also not clear what it means that Rex Whitmire Harbour, the 26-year-old accused of opening fire on passing cars on a Georgia freeway, venerated Parkland suspect Nikolas Cruz and left-behind a "hate-filled" message. Still, latching onto a notorious alleged mass shooter who reportedly had swastikas engraved on his ammo clips fits the general pattern here, as does Harbour's apparent fascination with historical figures from Nazi Germany.
Meanwhile, because of social-media messages and other evidence, it’s fairly clear that accused Toronto van attacker Alek Minassian, 25, was enraged by his lack of romantic success with women. He posted sympathetically about incels like himself, and wrote warmly of Elliot Rodger, the 22-year-old who in May 2014 carried out a mass shooting in Isla Vista, California, that left seven dead (including himself) and more wounded after expressing similarly deranged ideas about sex. Then there's 19-year-old Jakub Zak of Illinois, who stands accused of stockpiling weapons illegally as part of his fascist ideology—he was reportedly an active member of Patriot Front, an online hate group—and may have been involved in a number of other crimes as well.
Again, the behavioral pattern we’ve seen intensify in recent weeks is not a brand new one. The modern archetype may have been set back in 2015 by Dylann Roof, the then-21-year-old South Carolina white man who walked into a black church in Charleston and murdered nine congregants. The rootless Roof, officially unaffiliated with any hate or extremist groups but a participant in their online activity, seems to have been driven to seemingly random violence at least in part by his absorption in conspiracy and online forums and chat rooms dedicated to hateful ideologies.
Since then, at least 27 people were murdered and 52 more injured in attacks by mostly young men linked to the alt right and its online radicalization process before the incidents of the past month. They included a conspiracy theorist who allegedly stabbed his father to death at the height of an argument that appears to have been about Pizzagate, a Maryland student who allegedly stabbed a black man to death after he refused to move out of his way, and a Portland drifter accused of stabbing two commuters to death when they attempted to shut down his anti-Muslim tirade.
Some incidents, including the Parkland shooting itself, remain fuzzy. On social media, Cruz was seemingly obsessed with violence, guns, and race, once posting on Instagram that "I hate Jews, niggers and immigrants." It remains unclear to what extent that hatred fueled the shooting rampage. Likewise, the motives and intentions of a young white man who accidentally blew himself up while making bombs at his Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, home, remain under official wraps for now.
Even so, the mechanism for this kind of radicalization is uniform: Disaffected young men are recruited by overt appeals to their egos and desire to appear heroic. The appeals often employ transgressive rhetoric, with everything from racist humor to threats of violence, making participants feel that they’re being edgy and dark. The main fodder for their evolving worldview, however, is conspiracy theories.
These theories all tell the same larger narrative: That the world is secretly run by a nefarious cabal of globalists (who just happen to be Jewish), and that they employ an endless catalog of dirty tricks and "false flags" to ensure the world doesn’t know about their manipulations, the whole point of which ultimately is the enslavement of mankind. Each day’s news events can thus be interpreted through the up-is-down prism this worldview imposes, ensuring that every national tragedy or mass shooting is soon enmeshed in a web of theories about its real purpose.
The precise far-right cause in question often seems less important than the broader resort to inflicting harm.
"Glorification of violence generally among the estranged is its own ideology," said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State University in San Bernardino. "So, people with amorphous or offbeat philosophies often embrace violence as an ideology, not just a method. And they’re comfortable with dovetailing philosophies."
This radicalization appears to be spreading like kudzu: A young Montreal alt-right activist was recently outed by student journalists as one of the leading propagandists in the online neo-Nazi forums Iron March, working to signal-boost racist groups like Atomwaffen Division. Along similar lines, ProPublica recently exposed the membership of some Atomwaffen activists among the ranks of active-duty American military.
The target demographic for online far-right radicalization could not be more clear. As Andrew Anglin, publisher and founder of the neo-Nazi site the Daily Stormer, put it this January, "My site is mainly designed to target children." Likewise, at the annual white-nationalist American Renaissance conference in Tennessee last month, longtime supremacists bragged of their recruitment efforts among younger people: "American Renaissance attendees are now younger and more evenly divided among the sexes than in the past" one speaker noted, before gushing over the white-nationalist college campus group Identity Evropa.
When Americans have talked about online radicalization in the recent past, most of us tended to think of it in terms of radical Islamists from groups such as Islamic State, who have been known to leverage the technology to their advantage, particularly social media. But a study by terrorism expert J.M. Berger published way back in 2016 found that white nationalists were far outstripping their Islamist counterparts: "On Twitter, ISIS’s preferred social platform, American white nationalist movements have seen their followers grow by more than 600 percent since 2012. Today, they outperform ISIS in nearly every social metric, from follower counts to tweets per day."
Heidi Beirich, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center—the watchdog group with which I am affiliated—told me it "is definitely the case” that the violence SPLC has long warned against and carefully tracked is increasingly manifesting itself right now.
"Online radicalization seems to be speeding up, with young men, particularly white men, diving into extremist ideologies quicker and quicker," she said, adding, "the result seems to be more violence, as these examples indicate. It is a serious problem and we don’t seem to have any real solutions for it. These cases also show that an era of violence brought on by the Internet is indeed upon us, with no end in sight.”
Yet the response to the string of acts has been strangely muted in the mainstream media, especially on cable news, where most discussions of the events have focused on issues around gun violence, or on the particulars of the noxious incel phenomenon. The online-radicalization thread that connects all these stories together is the gorilla that everyone tiptoes around in the room—and one America ignores at its own peril.
I heard from a friend who likes to fornicate in public that there’s an art collection at Toronto’s “water themed adult’s playground,” Oasis Aqualounge. Scheduled between events like Bukkake Night In and Dungeon Etiquette 101, they offer life drawing classes (their “muses cum in a beautiful range of shapes and sizes”).
Oasis Aqualounge is a well-respected community space known for inclusivity and focus on female/trans folk safety. They clearly do sex well, but I wanted to find out what their art looked like. Would it be suggestive O’Keeffe-style bursting flowers or more straight-up drawings of Ps in Vs? Turns out that it’s the latter, and they feature one artist drawing the world’s most ridiculously proportioned women this side of a Barbie doll.
My tour of the sex club’s art collection was super friendly, and every naked person politely moved off the wipe-downable furniture so we could take photos of the work. Granted, it was a slow day, but the most scandalous sights were in the picture frames. Some of these images shocked me more than anything I’ve seen in a gallery (and people, like, roll around naked in blood in galleries all the time). So I showed the collection to art consultant Devan Patel of Project Gallery to get an expert perspective on my reaction.
He suggested that the obvious pairing of sexual images in a sexual space limits the ways you can interpret the work. “It comes across as vulgar or ‘getting down to brass tacks’ because even a simple portrait of a nude becomes hypersexualized in this context. There are artists that maybe create similar images, but it’s within a context of a broader dialogue,” he told me. Basically, in a gallery, someone rolling around naked in blood could be about the government or childhood memories or oppressive violence—but in a sex club, this work is purely sex for sex.
I wanted to learn more about Oasis’s art collection, so I called up their curator Grace E. Love. We discussed why people buy art after sex and how you can get your art on the walls. She also gave her expert advice on decorating for a gangbang, which is the biggest day of the month at Oasis and an opportunity for art sales. Usually selling art takes a lot of schmoozing and building of long-term relationships, but maybe gallerists would have an easier time if they offered “a night dedicated to women who enjoy the company of multiple men.” Something to consider!
VICE: Hi Grace! Why is art such an important element of Oasis Aqualounge? Grace E. Love: Our community has many artists and it often comes up that people draw or paint or do performance art. We’re a very inclusive space, so we want them to have a little sparkle within the club and show their work. It’s exciting for them to see their art hanging up there, and when it sells, it’s even more exciting. At the same time, the art works as a souvenir system for those that visit the club. They want to take something home with them, a little memento from here.
Yeah, I was thinking that when I visited the club. If you have a magical moment in the dungeon, you could literally take a piece of the club home with you. It’s not so much the piece is from here, but what it means to them. It’s about the night they were there—maybe they met someone important right beside that artwork.
I was also thinking that art could be a good entry point for awkward people. They could be like, “Hey, whaddya think of that painting…” Yeah, that happens all the time. There’s a painting in the red bar of a female-presenting person that’s chewing cherries. It’s a popular starter piece for conversations. People are like, ‘The colour matches the room—everything is red up here!’ That sort of thing.
That’s a standard way to hit on people in art galleries too. But I guess you’re more down if you’re already in a sex club. For me, no matter where I am, it’s important that someone shows an interest in art, because I have an art background. When someone says something like that, it shows they have a different level to them and I want to know more about them.
So, I have to be honest with you, I’m surprised by the heavy focus on unrealistic female bodies in these works—very small waists with cartoonishly big boobs and butts. It doesn’t seem to vibe with Oasis’s mission statement. Interesting—no one has ever said that. Right now I’m working with an artist that’s making work catered towards foot fetishes. She’s going to paint feet in shoes, or feet playing with genitals, that type of thing.
I know I’m a giant prude, but when I was looking at the art, I felt embarrassed by some of the images. Those spread eagle paintings...they shook me, Grace. Are there any images in the club that shock you? No, no. I’ve been in the art world for a long time and I’ve done a lot of performance art where I’ve been fully naked. I’ve grown to appreciate the body and its lines. Another part of my job is coordinating the spectator sex event; it’s for couples who want to perform in front of others. I usually book five couples and the other day there was such a sweet couple performing. I’m watching and say to my friend, ‘Look at those lines in her body, it’s so beautiful, look at her back.’ I look at the body with the eye of an artist. Yes, it’s sexy, but there’s also an energy that comes through which is pretty prominent within the lifestyle, and the community that is part of Oasis. I’m appreciative of the energy.
When would be a good time to see the art? Gangbang night is always busy and always creative. It’s a safe space for women to experience multiple men. The promo team organizes games.
What do you mean games—duck, duck, goose? Mainly ice breakers. Banana-eating games and naked Twister.
Do you have any recommendations for art or interior design types for people hosting their own gangbangs? How do you get that Oasis Aqualounge vibe at home? Beautiful art on the wall is a must—something you appreciate and love and it inspires you when you look at it. Candles and different levels of lighting. People have this idea that sex clubs are very dark and you can’t see anything, but having different levels is sexy. You shouldn’t have bright lights like it’s a lab or something. No one likes that. I’d recommend a nice paint colour on the walls—an eggplant purple or grey. In your house, you can include leathers that you like and plush carpets. We have to be careful of those materials in the sex club. The plush things are harder to keep clean, of course.
Police have identified the third suspect in an assault on a man with autism at a Mississauga, Ontario, transit terminal on March 13. That suspect is Jaspaul Uppal, 21, of no fixed address. Uppal is now wanted on a Canada-wide warrant for one count of aggravated assault.
Police released a video of the attack in March to solicit help from the public in identifying the suspects. The clip showed three people surrounding and beating a man sitting on a staircase who appeared to be putting rollerblades on. The three walked down the stairs, then immediately started kicking and punching the victim
From the video, it wasn’t clear what—if anything—provoked the attack. The suspects quickly left the scene.
The victim, 29, was taken to the hospital following the attack. His physical injuries were serious but not life-threatening.
Two others have been charged in the incident already. Parmvir Singh Chahil, 21, of no fixed address, and Ronjot Singh Dhami, 25, of no fixed address, are facing one count of aggravated assault each.
Urbex Melbourne (if you don't know, urbex is an amalgamation of "urban" and "exploration") established a Facebook page less than three years ago, but they’ve already documented the best large-scale derelict spaces in Victoria, Australia. That’s dozens of properties—from office buildings to quarries—and in doing so they know exactly what the state has to offer in urban exploration.
Like every urbex community around the world, Urbex Melbourne is reluctant to share building names and addresses, or even discuss who’s involved. As an interest group basically built around trespassing, they understandably like to keep a low profile, but they were happy to give some semi-vague recommendations when we asked for their three favourite buildings in Victoria. In no particular order, they nominated a coal-fired power station, a 24-story office tower, and an abandoned laboratory. Here we’ll briefly describe those properties, before we hear from the head of Urbex Melbourne.
The power station: the home of large and mysterious machinery
The Power Station
This is a decommissioned power station that was criticized for its operating costs and environmental impact, before being closed. Virtually left untouched, the tools, machinery and equipment all sit unmoved from the day the place got shut down.
A spooky-ass hallway
The Laboratory
Originally a HIV research center, this incredible building still had power and running water when it was first explored, however it was heavily vandalized and has since been demolished.
View from the roof of the tower
The Tower
This is located in the center of Melbourne. It was notoriously difficult to get into, with a single door the only way in and no way of knowing it would open until you got there. It remains abandoned, however new security measures around the exterior have made access pretty much impossible.
VICE: Hey Anonymous Guy From Urbex, why have you nominated these three places? Anonymous Guy From Urbex: These places all offered something unique. Whether it was the maze of hallways and catwalks in the power station, or the mass of levels in the CBD tower, each had a wealth of areas to explore. They were all relatively untouched as well, which was quite a bonus.
How did you get access to them? The tower in the CBD and the lab had already been opened by previous explorers so we found an unlocked door. But with the power station we didn’t really know how to do until we got there, but often the people before you create entrances—which in this case were gaps under the fences. The power station spans about 93 hectares, so it’s one of the largest sites we've ever been to. It took almost three full days to see it all.
A control room at the power station
How did you find these places? With all three we just heard about them through other explorers. The power station required a bit of research, as it’s rural and you can’t just drive past and check it out before going in. But by the time we were ready to explore, we already had a fair idea of the size and layout of the place, which made a big difference.
And when exploring these buildings what have you found to be the biggest dilemmas in capturing them? Often it's just about safety. You just don't know what's around the corner. A couple of times I have stepped on a dodgy patch of ground and have literally fallen through the floor.
A power station office
What are some tips on getting into a place that’s securely locked up? It's a combination of persistence and luck. For the tower we happened to know a guy who had been through before and he was able to get us in. In other places you just have to be determined and look for any sort of opening. You have to be willing to climb and fit through tight spaces too! Sometimes you won't find a way in so you keep coming back and checking and eventually there’s an entrance.
Which abandoned building will you forever remember as being the most mesmerizing experience? There was this old army base that had been used for weapons manufacturing in the 1900s. It was closed down in the 90s and because it’s such a high profile location, not many people dared to get in. But we explored it and everything was completely frozen in time.
You had these 80-year-old buildings that were untouched by vandalism, and instead were falling apart just through natural decay. The whole place had this amazing atmosphere about it. It was like you weren't even in Melbourne, which was eerie but also kind of peaceful.
A fairly average office except that it's abandoned
Finally, what’s your advice for the budding enthusiast? My advice would be to simply go out and explore the world. There are so many empty buildings in Melbourne that you're bound to find one if you look long enough. Some of the best places are the ones you find yourself. You just have to be observant.
Teachers would save themselves a lot of trouble if they'd just stick to the lesson plan. It's when they get a little too inventive that things can go awry: World War II lectures can turn into class-wide Nazi salutes and biology lessons can end with turtles eating puppies alive. In the latest extracurricular lesson gone wrong, one teacher in Ocala, Florida, may have gone way too far with a hands-on exercise in pest control—allegedly tapping his students to help him drown a few live raccoons.
According to CBS affiliate WKMG, agricultural sciences teacher Dewie Brewton had trapped the raccoons because he suspected they'd been killing chickens his class was raising. On Monday, he allegedly filled a trashcan with water and dunked the caged critters inside—all with help from a class full of freshmen. A video recorded by one of the students shows the kids crowded around the trashcan while one poor raccoon suffers a terrible, watery fate.
"That one's, like, super, super small," one girl says in the video. "That one probably didn't do anything."
While someone holds the raccoon underwater, one student fills the trashcan with a hose, and another points at the poor creature drowning inside.
"Dump that water in there," a boy says.
The Forest High School student who took the video showed it to his mother, who told WKMG he'd come home in tears after what he'd witnessed. According to her, Brewton also drowned a possum that day "just for sport."
"They held them down with metal rods," the mother told WKMG. "And when the raccoon would try to pop its head up they held water hoses in its face to drown it."
Brewton has been placed on leave while the school district investigates what went down on Monday. Meanwhile, the district's superintendent is calling for his termination—and police with Florida's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and Department of Health are investigating to see if brutally drowning a raccoon constitutes a crime.
"Marion County Public Schools is appalled at the actions of an agri-science teacher accused of killing nuisance animals in front of students earlier this week," the school district wrote in a statement. "While law enforcement determines whether this teacher’s actions were legal or not, his actions before students are entirely unacceptable and cause us great concern.”
To be fair, getting up to no good is kind of whatraccoonsdo. But seeing as the cops aren't a ton of help when it comes to corralling the little critters, it's hard to blame Brewton for taking matters into his own hands. The little trash pandas can be pretty scary sometimes.
Before you dig in here, some things you should know: The sci-fi tv show experience is a commitment, and you have to be ready to brave the journey there and back to complete these multiverse-spanning stories. (If not, maybe try the best sci-fi movies on Netflix instead?) You've got action, drama, joy, and heartbreak in these outstanding visions of the not-so-distant future, and it's all right at your fingertips now. Here's our list of the best sci-fi tv shows on Netflix (US) right now (in alphabetical order):
Altered Carbon
Altered Carbon is the perfect type of background programming for cooking, working, or getting over a cold. Set 250 years in the future, the show centers around a previously-dead guy who is hired by a rich guy to solve his own murder 250 years ag...you get it. Now, stir fry?
Black Mirror
The third-most intentionally unpleasant programming on the small screen (No. 2 is The Handmaid’s Tale, No. 1 is CSPAN) is a sci-fi anthology series à la The Twilight Zone, but with a lot more pig-fuckin’—literally. The first episode of Charlie Booker’s nightmarish series will grab you by the bollocks and keep you there, provided you can keep up with the show’s heavy-handedness and ever-intensifying feeling of despondency.
Dark
The fact that there are subtitles (the show’s German) will undoubtedly deter some viewers, which is a shame because the Stephen King-esque Dark is superbly executed. Complex cinematography mirrors a storyline that’s plausible enough that you’ll be looking forward to the second season, which recently went into production. “Plausible enough?” you ask. For a time-travel story, being plausible is enough.
Knights of Sidonia
Not only will you be blown by how good this mecha anime series looks, you’ll be floored by how accurately it sounds like a Gundam fighting a gigantic alien lifeform in space. And you don’t even know what that sounds like!
Lost in Space
“Danger, Will Robinson!” is right up there with “Beam me up, Scotty” and “Luke, I am your father,” as one of the most memorable lines in science fiction. The story is at least as old as 1812’s The Swiss Family Robinson, but the effects in Netflix’s reboot are totally this decade.
Luke Cage
A powerful fugitive becomes Harlem’s hometown hero in Netflix’s adaptation of the Marvel series. While it, and most Marvel stuff, toes the line between action and fantasy, something we can say squarely is that super-soldiers = sci-fi.
The Magicians
The awkward and horny world of SyFy’s “more adult Harry Potter” fits its subject matter, magicians, perfectly. Like magic itself, the series has a lot to unpack: Beth Elderkin of io9wrote that it “might be one of the most forward-thinking shows on television right now,” while The Mary Sue’s Jessica Lachenal found herself “disagreeing with the creative choices” during a scene where a female character is sexually assaulted.
The OA
Brit Marling stars as a disappeared girl who returns home in this multiverse-spanning sci-fi mystery which made its debut on Netflix in 2016. It’s bad-but-good in the same way Roswell was bad-but-good, which is great (if you’re into that sort of thing).
Star Trek
Five of the seven Star Trek series are viewable on Netflix, so take your pick between Deep Space Nine, Enterprise, Voyager, The Next Generation, or the OG starring William Shatner as Captain Kirk. Gene Roddenberry’s beloved space opera, like any long-running franchise, has its ups and downs, but once you’re a Trekkie, you’re a Trekkie for yIn.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
The Clone Wars works like a balm for people who are sore about the lousy Star Wars prequels. It also offers a way-more diverse look at the galaxy far, far away, and busts open a lot of the mythical “good and evil” schtick of the Jedi. Its nuanced narratives lend the whole Clone War conflict the grey area that was lacking from the movies, and Anakin is just so much more interesting.
Stranger Things
This powerhouse franchise about a group of kids who discover a parallel universe plaguing their small town became an overnight phenomenon largely due to word of mouth. This alone should indicate that most people will enjoy Stranger Things—and you might be one of them! Its way of mulching pretty much everything it touches on will likely irk discerning viewers, but it’s worth trying out for the sake of “getting” what everyone else is into.
Sword Art Online
A guy gets stuck in a virtual reality MMORPG and has to crawl his way out only to become “the guy” who goes into different VRMMORPGs to help people out in this adaptation of a “light novel” series. Basically if TRON and Saw had an anime baby, it might be something like Sword Art Online.
The Twilight Zone
Lots of people have ASMR triggers, like gentle breathing or the sound of a makeup brush. Mine is Rod Serling’s foreboding intonation as he warns me of what’s to come. Awash in as many then-common cold war anxieties as it is classical cautionary tales, the godfather of sci-fi TV is basically Aesop’s fables for the modern era. Standout eps include “One for the Angels,” “Five Characters in Search of an Exit,” and the very-famous “Eye of the Beholder.”
Rosemont-Petite-Patrie is not the sort of neighbourhood that often attracts international attention. Bordered by more fashionable areas of Montreal, it’s sleepy in comparison. Gentrification has occurred slowly; rent is still cheap and one of the main attractions is a quirky, half-empty shopping district known for discount bridal and prom wear.
But now the area is in the spotlight due to one of its 140,000 residents. A leading North American neo-Nazi, Gabriel Sohier-Chaput, known online as “Zeiger” and “Charles Chapel” not only lives in the neighbourhood but has reportedly used his home as a meeting place for other like-minded individuals. After the Montreal Gazettepublished an investigation that revealed his identity, activists took the information a step further.
During the past two weeks, posters have blanketed the area surrounding his home that feature several pictures of Sohier-Chaput and detail his involvement with the white supremacist movement. He leads a local group of neo-Nazis, is a prolific writer on The Daily Stormer, and was present at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, VA. The posters mention what high school he went to, where he works, and in bold letters lists his address—an unassuming third floor apartment steps from a major commercial thoroughfare.
Other posters addressed to Sohier-Chaput have appeared as well. One read “We know you are a pathetic Nazi. We know your face and we know where you live. We are numerous and we’re watching you.” Others have been partially covered in eerie-looking hand-drawn eyes. Another poster reads, in part, “one day, you’ll desire one of us, and we’ll bite your dick off.”
The boldest statement, visible to those who head north through Parc Pere-Marquette, past the community garden and the playground, is scrawled in white across a blue dumpster. “Nazis out” it reads in large capital letters. Beside it, in smaller print, “bash the fash,” as in the fascist.
In a neighbourhood where politically-tinged graffiti pops up often, there is something different about this one. If Sohier-Choput were to step out on his back balcony and look towards the park, he would find this oversized message staring back at him.
I’ve lived in Rosemont-Petite-Patrie on two different occasions, resettling here in November of last year. In my apartment building my neighbours are mostly mysteries to me. I couldn’t put a name or an apartment number to a face if I tried. I couldn’t even pick the dog whose barking has woken me up at night out of a lineup, if pressed.
The most recent data from Statistics Canada’s General Social Survey says that 42 percent of Canadians don’t know their neighbours. This lack of neighbourly connection is also widely reported in countries like the United States and the United Kingdom.
Because I live reasonably close to Sohier-Chaput, it’s been hard to escape the knowledge that he’s living nearby. I’ve seen the posters on my way to the Metro and to run errands. They’re plastered everywhere: mailboxes, bus shelters, telephone booths, and utility poles. Over time, some of them have been defaced with black spray paint or by removing the apartment number meaning they may not have escaped his notice.
Knowing that he’s here poses an interesting question. If I know so little about other neighbours does knowledge of this one actually make a difference in how I view the neighbourhood or our collective safety? As a gay man, it’s a bit chilling to know that at certain times there would be multiple people in the area with a professed hatred for my ilk. I’m sure Jewish residents, racialized residents, and other LGBTQ people would say the same. But whether that would somehow put anyone’s personal safety in danger is a series of “what if” scenarios.
On a recent afternoon, a neighbour of Sohier-Chaput spoke to me on their front stoop. Due to safety concerns they asked for identifying details to be omitted, other than the fact that they live on the same block.
They are concerned for their safety because of the potential for vigilante justice on both sides. They suggested that friends or supporters of Sohier-Chaput could do something malicious for speaking out, or that the activists looking for Sohier-Chaput could have ill-intentions, causing harm for neighbours.
The neighbour had no suspicions of Sohier-Chaput’s other life, only learning about it after it became headline news.
While the neighbour recalled seeing groups of multiple people on the balconies at the apartment where Chaput reportedly held meetings with other white supremacists, it wasn’t something that aroused suspicion.
“They look more like geeks than like Nazis, if you ask me.”
The neighbour said that some residents had posters put directly on their doors by activists, yet they hadn’t heard from any other neighbours on the subject, suggesting that some might not have been aware.
“But that was before 100 people gathered in front of the house to protest,” they said, referring to an anti-fascism protest that stopped in front of Sohier-Chaput’s house on Saturday, May 12.
Montreal is no stranger to worrisome neighbours. Convicted killer Karla Homolka has called the region home for several years and periodically comes up in the media as she tries to live a normal life as a mother on the South Shore. A devoted Facebook group follows her moves, which is seen by some as a necessary precaution and by others as an overstep of boundaries and a violation of Quebec’s Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.
One of the “dozens of people” behind the posters told VICE that exposing Nazis and white supremacists to the communities where they live is a long-standing tactic used by anti-fascists. “Doxxing, and helping communities self-organize against the Nazis,” they wrote in an email, “is only one tactic among many that anti-fascists have used in the past and will continue to use to eliminate the Nazi threat.”
Often, revealing these people results in personal hardship that could, in theory, compel them to change their ways. When the New York Times published an article on a white nationalist and Nazi sympathizer he wound up losing his job and his home. Others have been reported losing jobs or being disowned by family.
An online map called FashMap allows people to pinpoint the locations of neo-Nazis in various communities around the world, though at the time of this article, nobody was listed on the map in Montreal.
VICE was told that the responses they’ve heard from residents towards the posters have been positive and that neither Sohier-Chaput nor his family have contacted them.
“And if they did, we would absolutely not respond. We have nothing to say to them.”
"If we cause a media storm every time we put up a few stickers, we'll own the news media," Zeiger once wrote. "[And] if they stop covering our propaganda, we also win; it means the system is now desensitized to hardcore Nazism."
In Canada, we lack some of the deep political divisions that have made the alt-right more fertile in the United States, and we have yet to have an event of similar magnitude as Charlottesville, which is no reason to feel too comfortable. But for some people there is no worry.
Passing by the “Nazis Out” dumpster the other day, I noticed a twentysomething woman sitting down to enjoy the afternoon sun in an adjacent patch of grass, in full view of the graffiti. It seemed an odd spot to settle in.
I pointed to the graffiti and asked what she thought about the revelation that there was a neo-Nazi in the neighbourhood—that he lived just across the street. She asked what the term neo-Nazi meant. When I started to explain she waved the question off for being too complicated and that she wasn’t interested in talking about it.
What is happening in the neighbourhood is largely a battle between two forces. There are neo-Nazis on one side and there are anti-fascist activists on the other. For many residents who don’t fall under either category it is possible to continue life as usual despite this strangeness going on in the background of neighbourhood life.
It is believed that Sohier-Chaput has left his apartment and gone into hiding. The neighbour who spoke to VICE said the car that was usually there was gone and he hasn’t been seen for several days. This was also echoed by the organizer, though it is unconfirmed.
When asked what their goal was, they said simply “Eradicate Nazis.” While they may not have switched his beliefs, he is assumed to be hiding in another neighbourhood, though that might not remain a mystery for long.
“I saw the sign. Like, Ace of Base vibes,” says photographer Cleonette Harris of the first portrait in her Neon Paradise Los Angeles series. The picture shows her girlfriend and collaborator, Eileen O’Brien, in front of a massive neon display that happens to compliment her zebra-striped dress and shock of yellow hair perfectly. “It was very spontaneous. We were like, ‘You’re cute enough to just get shot in front of it, so let’s just do it.’”
The portraits in the ongoing series set unique individuals against LA's abundance of glowing signage. It's an ephemeral, 3 AM feeling, featuring outfits that evoke Party Monster (well, the good times at least). But, Harris says, the pictures are highly personal and political. We talked to the artist ahead of the opening of the opening of Neon Paradise Los Angeles at San Francisco’s Hit Gallery on May 19, and she gave us a bit about each of her subjects:
VICE: How do you choose who you photograph in your series? Cleonette Harris: I’m focusing on artists who are queer and artists who are people of color because I am a QPOC artist and I believe these are marginalized groups. Their image and story needs to be documented. Part of the goal is to document prominent people in the queer and underground scene and to shine a light on them as such, but also as artists and friends.
You’ve been throwing club events for the past ten years in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, and New York—Club Clit, Club Fist, an annual John Waters party—how does that tie into your work now? That put me in contact with a lot of artists and performers. A lot of the people I shot for Neon Paradise were in one way or another a part of my club event—either I’ve booked them or they were a supporter—so in a sense it is an extension. I’m bringing them into another form of my artistic life.
What’s your approach for who goes with which sign? I try to be kind of crafty in matching certain people with certain signs. It’s a major thought process that I have to sit through and do research on. It’s totally like matchmaking. Some people are really down for the signs I choose for them and some people are kind of like, "Oh, maybe I want this one instead…" People get very picky sometimes. It’s funny.
When did you start taking photos? I started when I was younger. I always had a camera. My dad took photos all the time and I picked up on that. One of my art teachers… I told him I wanted to be a psychologist and he was like "Well, that’s like flushing shit down a toilet…"
Your teacher told you that? My art teacher Mr. Olson. I’ll never forget it. I was like "Well, jeez." But he gave me a camera and was like, "Go and shoot the seniors for their graduation." And I was like, "No way, I’m way too shy, I can’t do that." And he was like, "Well, break out of it." And I did it… I’ve been taking photos ever since.
Below, Harris walks us through the photos of Neon Paradise.
Cleonette Harris: My girlfriend Eileen O’Brien is fashion designer in LA. Half the time she’s making the clothes or helping me with styling them. So she can actually use the photos for her own personal work too. It’s another form of me supporting her as an artist.
James Flemons, 2017. Photo: Cleonette Harris; Shirt: Phlemuns
James Flemons is a fashion designer in Los Angeles, focusing on recycled denim. He’s wearing one of his outfits. It’s very '70s with the hair, with the facial hair, the whole thing together with the Frolic Room. There’s something about that sign and that place that gives me old school vibes. If you go in there, there’s all this memorabilia. Apparently it’s one of the last places the Black Dahlia went before she died.
Jillian Gnarling and Hollow, 2017. Photo: Cleonette Harris
On the left is Jillian Gnarling and on the right is Hollow Eve. They both do drag and are artists in the queer and drag community in San Francisco. The concept behind it was, "Alright we’ve got the Universal sign—what do you think about when you think Universal?" I was like, "Maybe we could do dead movie stars." So we wanted to give you dead Marilyn Monroe and dead Charlie Chaplin vibes.
The Sisters, 2018. Photo: Cleonette Harris; Clothing design and styling: Eileen O’Brien
These three are sisters. Bobbie, in the middle, is a designer and a model, Sohiala on the left is a musician, and the other sister on the right is Ajia.
JAJA, 2017. Photo: Cleonette Harris; Gloves and dress: Eileen O’Brien
JaJa is a trans woman and rapper who resides in Los Angeles. Something about her just says "I can get on a pole and do some tricks and make you stare at me." She’s just very captivating for me, so I had to shoot her at this location: Seventh Veil Strip Club in Hollywood. Most shoots that I have, there’s always someone out there who’s heckling us, but we power through. We get it done. You can see that she’s very strong in the face and she can take a lot of shit, and she does—because as a trans woman that’s what happens.
Austyn Rich, 2018. Photo: Cleonette Harris
Yes. Here we go. I love this one. Can you guess why? Look at him! He’s hella beefy. He’s buff, he’s a dancer, he works on his bod. He’s a really amazing dancer. I saw the sign and I was like, "Who in the hell can I shoot here? I was like I have to shoot Austyn Rich." He’s buff. At first I didn’t want it to be too posey. But I thought it would be funny if he’s like OK lemme show you my muscles because I’m in front of this beefy Arby’s sign.
This is Neon Music. She’s actually from New York. I booked her for Club Fist maybe two years ago. She’s a musician, she’s been in bands, and she’s doing her own solo project at the moment. She also DJs and she’s a designer too. She’s also a trans woman. She’s been a very prominent figure in the punk scene and queer scene. For this sign we thought it was cool to pull a leopard moment. If you meet her, she’s such a strong character. Very glam. She gives you classic rockstar vibes. And considering Vivienne Westwood is such an iconic designer with the whole punk aesthetic, I thought it was perfect.
That’s Sesen D., a model, wearing a jacket and dress that my girlfriend made with her signature crystal nipples. Maybe she’s going to pawn her wedding ring? It’s really up for interpretation.
Dad and Lizard, 2018. Photo: Cleonette Harris
This is the Circus Liquor in North Hollywood, which is down the street from my house. It’s in one of my favourite movies, Clueless. These two folks, Lizard and Dad, are extremely fashionable. They’ve done drag at my club a couple of times. They do a really good job styling themselves, makeup and everything. I just wanted them to give me glam but clown. Like, "Let’s blend in like you’re hanging out with your friend." They gave me the best clown they could. They didn’t want to do too much clown makeup. They gave me light clown.
Celeste XXX, 2018. Photo: Cleonette Harris
Celeste X.X.X. is a good friend of mine and my girlfriend’s. She’s got the contacts in like as if she’s having a psychic moment. Imagine Raven-Symoné in That’s So Raven, where she’s like, "Oh shit I just saw the future." It’s kind of like that. Also Celeste has psychic abilities—we bond on this—so it’s very fitting. She does makeup and she’s also a musician.
Clarys Biagi is a dancer. She was just in one of Janelle Monáe’s latest videos, she’s danced for Beyoncé, and her and my girlfriend are working with Eve right now on looks for the LA Pride Festival, because she’s going to perform there. I love red and green together. People make fun of me, like, "You look like Christmas," and I’m like, "no."
This article contains major spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War.
In Avengers: Infinity War's instantly iconic final sequence, the mad titan Thanos rips the Mind Stone out of Vision's forehead, places it into the Infinity Gauntlet, and destroys half of the universe's sentient life with a snap of his fingers. It is about as incredible as it is devastating; the first time Marvel Studios has let its heroes try, and fail, and die. You get to see a catatonic, uncharacteristically silent Tony Stark on a barren planet, completely out of answers. You get to see T'Challa, currently the most popular film character in the world, turn to ash. (Same with Falcon, and Groot, and Dr. Strange, and Star-Lord.) Yes, they will probably reverse course in the next film and bring all of these guys back to life—nobody stays dead for good in superhero comics—but that won't diminish the shock of the moment.
That said, you have to feel for the parents who unexpectedly walked into a buzzsaw when they decided to take their kids to an Infinity War matinee. Kids are conditioned to think that the good guys always win; when they don't, it's downright disorienting. At theater I saw Infinity War in, all went silent, save for a few trembled sobs coming from a small, young family a few row behind me. The dad had nothing to offer except the vague reassurance that everything will probably be OK, probably by the summer of 2019. There's no easy way to tell a son or a daughter that even Spider-Man is mortal, so I decided to reach out to some parents and ask them how they best prepared their kids for the visceral ending of Infinity War, and what the fallout was like during the ride home.
Chris Hawes, Saskatchewan, father of an eight-year-old son
VICE: So obviously there was a lot of hype before Infinity War about how characters were probably going to die. Did you try to communicate that to your son at all? Did you warn them?Chris Hayes: I was familiar with the Infinity Gauntlet comic series and what happened in it, I explained to my son that some of the heroes might not make it through, although I wasn't sure which ones. He went into the movie knowing that many of the heroes weren't going to make it to the end of the movie.
So during that final scene, as a parent, what was going on in the theater? What was the moment your kid started to cry? Were you feeling emotional at all? I was anticipating the "finger snap" scene but wasn't sure how they were going to do it. I was expecting it to be the final scene in the movie, and we wouldn't actually see who would disappear until the next one. When it happened, I was curious who was going to be removed and who was going to survive. Some of the choices surprised me more than others. I knew Iron Man and Captain America were going to make it out, but I didn't expect so many of the Guardians of the Galaxy to vanish and Spider-Man caught me off guard. The theater was silent. As the heroes began to vanish, no one made a sound. The only voice I could hear was my son beside me saying under his breath "No, no, no, please no!" It was heartbreaking to hear him, and I looked over, and he was covering his face with his hat but at the same time trying to keep his eyes on the screen to see who was next. As soon as Spider-Man said, "I don't feel good," he broke down. I had to put my arm around him and hold him. "Not Peter, no! Please no!" He kept repeating that over and over again. I was more concerned about him than the movie. I know Marvel wouldn't kill off that many characters without intending to have them return; no one truly stays dead in comics, so it didn't hit me very hard. To my son, on the other hand, these characters are like gods to him. For him to see his favourite heroes snuffed out at the snap of a finger hit him very hard.
How did you handle the aftermath? How much was your kid crying, and what did you do to try and console them? We sat through the credits to watch the clips afterward, and during the credits, I tried to console him. A friend of mine who came with us tried to tell him that they will be coming back, and even a few other audience members tried to help. The only thing I could think of was to take out my cellphone and show him the Wikipedia article on the next movie and showing him the cast list. I explained to him that they are coming back. I also said that they wouldn't kill off Spider-Man because there was another movie coming out soon, and it wouldn't make sense to make a movie about Spider-Man if he was dead. This seemed to help a bit, but even after we left the movie, he was still very upset. He said that they had better bring back everyone, otherwise he would be very upset. Even when he went to bed he was still visibly upset. I could hear him mumbling to himself from his room saying, "I can't believe they killed Spider-Man!"
Do you have any advice for any other parents who might be dealing with a very sad child after the end of Infinity War? My best advice for other parents is to make sure their children are aware that some of their heroes are going to disappear in this movie. Explain to them that in stories like this, sometimes more popular characters get killed off to give the situation more gravity, but everyone knows in comics, no one stays dead for long. in hindsight, I might have actually thought twice about taking him to the movie with so many heroes gone if I had known beforehand. It can be hard on a kid to see this but knowing that they will come back does help make it easier.
Kyle Hicks, St. Louis, father of a nine-year-old daughter
VICE: Did you try to communicate the likelihood that a lot of the characters were probably going to die to your daughter at all? Did you warn her? Kyle Hicks: Yes, especially on the way to the theater. I had heard a few things but no major spoilers (even went offline starting Monday until we saw it Saturday morning at an 8:15 AM showing). Her uncle and I knew some of the comic storyline, and we had discussed "the snap" prior.
During that final scene, as a parent, what was going on in the theater? What was the moment your kid started to cry? Were you feeling emotional at all? To be honest, my wife and I were just as shocked as the rest of the theater. The two of us have seen every MCU movie in theaters. We started bringing her, I want to say, around when Ant-Man came out so we're all heavily invested in these characters at this point. I would glance over to check on the little one after every death just to make sure she was holding up but at the end it was when T'Challa turned to dust that the tears really began. Like I already mentioned, as bad as it sounds, we were so wrapped up in the end that it didn't even register to check up on her until the end credits rolled.
What was the aftermath like? How much was she crying? She was crying but not too hard until I told her to come sit with me, and then she laid on me and started sobbing. She was upset. Heartbroken. Devastated. So well done to Marvel for breaking the hearts of millions of children. Everything we had done to prepare her for the movie wasn't quite enough.
You mentioned that you pulled back the curtain a bit, and told your kid that there are Spider-Man and Black Panther movies in the works. How effective was that technique? Super effective. The tears quit almost immediately. She's a pretty logical kid. Plus her mom got on her a little bit because she was on the verge of making a scene. Like I said, it was pretty bad. She held it together until she sat with me, and then she let loose. It never got to the point where she did make a scene, I don't think anyone even noticed, but man. We had just lost a family member a month or so ago, so I didn't really feel the need to rehash the whole "death is part of life" thing. She was fine before we even hit the lobby in the end though. I want to go back and see it in IMAX, but she's not ready to see it again. I'm not sure my wife is, either.
Do you have any advice for any other parents who might be dealing with a very sad child after the end of Infinity War? It's a good lesson that you or your heroes don't always win, and sometimes you suffer losses. We're so used to seeing the heroes win that it comes as a slap in the face when they lose and half the universe is wiped out and the heroes aren't exempt. Teach them death is part of life, but you have to go on regardless. Or just copy me and tell them some of the heroes already have sequels lined up.
Artist: Ryan Meinderding. Image via Marvel Studios.
Donovan Lyons, Chicago, father of a five-year old son
VICE: You communicated how the characters were probably going to die to your son before the movie. How did you go about that? Donovan Lyons: When we saw Black Panther, he bawled his eyes during the challenge fight between T’Challa and Killmonger—I wasn’t expecting that because he’d never had that reaction to a movie before. But he really thought Black Panther was going to die. That opened my eyes and I knew I would have to prep him a lot for Infinity War.
So part of it was just trying to tell him that what happened to T’Challa might happen to, well, everybody in Infinity War. I also tried explaining that we know Black Panther, Spider-Man, and the Guardians have new movies coming out, so we know they’ll be OK. His favorite is Spidey, mine is Doctor Strange—and I told him that even Doctor Strange might die as a way to show him I might get sad too, but also that it will all be OK.
As we got closer to the release date and it was becoming apparent it was going to be even crazier than I expected, I actually read him some of the Infinity Gauntlet comics—mostly to show that Thanos might hurt all the heroes, even kill them, but they come back in the end. That also prepared him for the snap scene.
I also made sure to see the movie myself first, so then I basically spoiled it for him and asked him if he still wanted to see it. I stressed that it would be scary and sad and probably the most intense movie he’s ever seen, but he still wanted to go!
So during that final scene, as a parent, what was going on in the theater? What was the moment your kid started to cry? Were you feeling emotional at all? Audible gasps. Then stunned silence. I don’t know that I’ve ever been to a movie where the whole theater was basically silent at the end of it.
I think because of how I prepared him, he was even a little excited for the snap. He knew it was a big deal and an iconic moment. In fact, I think he learned to snap because of this movie. Once people started disappearing though he squeezed my arm and I had to tell him it would be OK, but overall I was impressed with how he handled it. Maybe better than I did!
You mentioned you prepared him well. Does he think those characters died? Or does he think they're instead in another plane of existence or something? How is he coping with the loss? I think he thinks they died but he’s sure they’ll come back in the next movie. Again, I explained to him the concept of sequels, showed him the old comics. I’ve been hyping Captain Marvel a lot for him too (so he totally got the post-credit scene too) and telling him that she might come save the day. So overall he’s coping with the loss very well, mostly in knowing they’ll come back somehow. Also when he plays with his friends at school he likes to be Thanos... So I don’t know, maybe he got the wrong message there.
Was there any specific character's death that he was upset about, or was he positive all the way around? Spidey, of course. But I specifically prepared him a lot for that one after I saw the movie, especially because that one was particularly sad. He loves Black Panther, Falcon, and Bucky and was crying out "Noooo!" during those parts.
When I asked him after the movie what the scariest or saddest part was, it was actually when Thanos turned Drax and Mantis into blocks and ribbons. He said that scared him the most. Maybe because the way they just disappeared at the end was a little more abstract for him, but seeing people crumble like that was a bit more disturbing.
What advice would you give other parents who might end up with a very sad child after Infinity War? Preparation and communication were key, so talk to them before you see it! I wouldn’t go into this movie blind with a young child, but I also grew up with these comics so I at least had somewhat of an idea of what to expect. I mean I basically spoiled the movie for him, but he’s only five so that’s not really a thing he cares about it. But I was basically like, "OK, this, this, and this are going to happen, and it’s sad and scary—do you still want to see this? It’s OK if you don’t, I totally understand."
Explain the concept of sequels, that we know some of them are coming back for sure. Like OK, there’s another Avengers movie, then Spider-Man comes out right after—so we know he’s going to be fine, we just don’t know how yet. Explaining to them that they might be on a different plane of existence might be good too, but that hasn't really come up with us yet. Finally, taking them to a toy store and get them a shiny new toy from the movie always works.
Michele Campbell, California, mother of a daughter, age unspecified
VICE: Did you try to communicate the likelihood that a lot of the characters were probably going to die to your daughter at all? Did you warn her? Michelle Campbell: No, I assumed it was just a superhero movie, so I was shocked as well.
So during that final scene, as a parent, what was going on in the theater? What was the moment when your kid started to cry? Were you feeling emotional at all? My daughter started to cry after Gamora died. Mine was Spider-Man. So the last 40 minutes were the hardest. And when the movie was over, the theater was the quietest ever after a movie, even when I know it's going to be sad.
What was the aftermath like? How much was she crying? She cried most of the way home and it took days before she watched another superhero movie. I still don't want to watch any. All five of us that went to the movies were not happy with how the end made us feel.
How did you handle that aftermath? What did you do to try and console your kid? My husband used Groot as an example of how the superhero can "die" and then they be brought back to "life." And he used the Star Wars movie where Han Solo gets frozen then comes back in the next film.
What character death did your kid take the hardest? Gamora, and mine was Spider-Man. We still stayed in the theater till the very end as most of us know that there's a little bit more after the credits. It didn't help the mood at all. It actually made me more irritated. I know it's just a movie, but I don't go to movies to cry or feel upset.
What advice would you give other parents who might end up with a very sad child after Infinity War? I wouldn't tell them to go see it the first place. I really don't have anything nice to say about that movie.
In recent days Canada has been deep in the bowels of a mystery: Why did a woman take a dump in a British Columbia Tim Hortons and throw it at the employees?
If you haven’t heard about this, first off, congratulations on having better things to do than watch a video of (and write a story about) a woman taking a dump near where people get double-doubles, and, secondly, how? The video has gone fully viral—now shared and viewed hundreds of thousands of times.
You can watch the video below, but be aware that it is exactly as advertised—a rather graphic clip of a woman taking a shit and then throwing it.
The clip shows the woman screaming at Tim Hortons workers before furiously untying the sleeves of a sweater around her waist, unbuckling her pants, leaning up against the back of a booth and, well, pooping on the floor. She then grabbed some napkins, picked up her log and whipped it at the employee behind the counter. Not yet done, she grabbed more napkins to wipe her ass, and, like her turd, whipped them at the employees as well.
Social media has been abuzz with this obviously weird incident, leaving everyone with one simple question: Why?
Well, we finally have an answer. Turns out that the Timmies employees wouldn’t let her use the washroom and she really, really had to go (which probably explains why she was able to poop so quickly). Tim Hortons’ washroom policy is that anyone can use it—you don’t have to be a customer—but that, in some franchises, employees have to give you a key or buzz you into the toilet at their discretion.
On Thursday, Tim Hortons responded to the video which has been seen and lampooned widely in Canada and beyond. In a statement, the fast food chain said that they didn’t let the woman use the washroom because of “past behaviour and out of concern for the immediate safety of team members and guests in the restaurant.”
“We are deeply concerned by this video as the safety of our team members and guests is always a top priority for us," reads the statement. "In limited cases across the country restaurants have a restricted access policy for restrooms to ensure the well-being of our guests.”
Police picked up the mad pooper after her public defecation—she was eventually released and has promised to make a court appearance at a future date. The case is being reviewed by the BC Prosecution Service to see whether or not she will be charged.
Meanwhile, Tim Hortons said they will be “looking into this matter further.” Based on the video’s still-climbing view count, so will the rest of Canada.
Vaping was introduced to the public as a buzz that could be achieved in places where people aren't allowed to smoke—a selling point that made the activity massively popular among both nicotine-addicted adults who want to get their fix at bars, and teens who want to get sort-of high inside high school bathroom stalls.
It was also introduced as something that was pretty safe, though that claim is starting to look a little dubious. Since the trend took hold, scientists have warned that vaping could possibly cause something called "popcorn lung," and that some chemicals used to create e-liquid flavors like popcorn, vanilla, and cinnamon can cause tissue damage. But now the journal Pediatrics has published the most harrowing anti-vape cautionary tale yet—the case study of an 18-year-old hostess in Pennsylvania who developed something called "wet lung" after vaping for only three weeks.
According to the case study, the unnamed woman was healthy before she started vaping, but then developed a cough and stabbing pains that were bad enough to land her in the emergency room at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Doctors there found that she met the criteria for acute respiratory distress syndrome, and she was intubated so that they could drain the build-up in her lungs.
"She was unable to get enough oxygen into her blood from her lungs and required a mechanical ventilator [respirator] to breathe for her until her lungs recovered," one of her doctors, Daniel Weiner, told CNN.
Apparently inhaling chemicals gave the unnamed patient hypersensitivity pneumonitis, or "wet lung," which can also be caused by breathing in dust. Lead author of the study, Dr. Casey Sommerfeld, said that it was the chemicals in the e-cigarettes that caused her lung damage and inflammation.
If there's any solace to be had, the woman apparently reported previous problems with light asthma in the past, and research has shown that e-cigarette use can be a problem for those who have that illness. But despite the her full recovery, it's still a pretty scary discovery for people who have made the switch to vaping out of increased awareness of their own mortality, as well as kids doing it for the 'gram.
For decades, setting traps and putting out poison did the trick when it came to getting rid of rats. But after years of city life, some rodents have begun to genetically mutate, developing a resistance to poison and a gift for outsmarting traps. These "super rats" are on the rise in metropolitan areas across the globe and they’re getting smarter, stronger, and larger in number every day.
On this episode of VICE INTL, VICE Japan sat down with a handful of experts studying these super rats to hear exactly how the rodents got so resilient, and find out what—if anything—can be done to get them under control.
For months, those of us in New York have been barricaded inside, sad as hell, and extremely fucking cold, but now finally—thank God—the golden, glorious days of summer are upon us. We're still stuck inside at our desks, but now we're daydreaming of waterslides, eating way too much Mister Softee's, and going on a long-awaited summer trip. So we can sympathize with a man in Australia who was hell-bent on ensuring nothing came between him and his glorious vacation.
According to Australia's 9News, the 57-year-old showed up to Melbourne's airport only to find out he was hours late for his flight to Adelaide. We've all been there, but, unlike most of us, this passenger refused to accept that he'd be trapped in Melbourne for another goddamn minute. He'd set his mind on getting out of there, and he was going to do whatever it took to make that happen.
Presumably psyching himself up with the thought of a glorious, stress-free day off, the guy reportedly lit up a cig (inside!), sprinted to the nearest gate, and barreled out onto the tarmac, making a beeline for the first plane he saw. Be it sheer desperation or some deep-seeded distaste for all the abusiveairlinepersonnel out there, witnesses said he ran up the stairs that led to the plane's door, "scratching and punching" the crew members that tried to stop him. Finally, he reached the door and did his best to just rip the thing open.
Sure, beating up a bunch of innocent airline employees isn't a great look, and yes, this guy caused yetanotherairplane horror for a bunch of passengers by delaying their flight by about an hour. But you know what? We get it.
Like all of us, the guy probably just really needed a break—and when he found out his trip had been robbed from him, he snapped. One look at how forcefully he tries to rip open that door—using all the strength in his back, throwing his leg up on the side of the aircraft, actually almost getting it open—and it's clear. This guy needs a vacation, he needs it bad, and he will stop at nothing to get it. Can't we all relate to that?
Unfortunately for him, his apparent need for a getaway didn't carry much weight with the cops. After a few flight personnel managed to pin him down, police arrested him and charged him with unlawful assault of an airline employee, flushing his chances of getting that sweet, sweet PTO he was after down the drain.
Wherever you are, rogue airplane man, know this: We understand. As much as we'd like to, not all of us have the guts to run out onto a tarmac and try to force our way onto an airplane to make that vacation happen—but you do. For your dedication, for your commitment to pursuing your trip at all costs, and for the lengths to which you went to realize it, we salute you.
Russia is in the news for a lotof reasonsright now, but this story is a little different. Thursday night on Desus & Mero, the VICELAND hosts talked about a bizarre slapping competition that takes place in Moscow. Yep, it's pretty much what you'd assume it is— a bunch of Russian dudes slapping the shit out of each other in a competitive setting.
You can watch the latest episode of DESUS & MERO for free, online, right now. New episodes Monday to Thursday at 11PM on VICELAND.COM.
