For this episode of VICE Talks Film, we meet up with Oscar winner Benicio Del Toro to discuss his latest filmthe atmospheric, morally complex drug-trade thriller Sicario.

Sicario follows a young FBI agent, played by Emily Blunt, who is enlisted in a secret CIA task force to eliminate a Mexican cartel boss along with Del Toro's ominous character, Alejandro.

We talk to Del Toro about his perspective on America's drug war, the hurdles of being a minority actor in Hollywood, and how eating 16 donuts a day prepared him for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Sicario is in theaters around the country now. This interview contains minor plot spoilers, so don't say we didn't warn you.

Some juice people who are not affiliated with the crawl but are probably just as miserable and alone as the rest of us. Photo via Getty

Sunday afternoon. Union Square. ReebokFitHub. A rubbery oasis of CrossFit propaganda, stretchy fabrics, and sneakersthe color of Lucky Charms marshmallows. All around the room, mannequins performtriumphant feats on top of platforms. Painted on a wall, in all caps, somethingdumb and grandiose about togetherness. Survival. Transformation. Outside, lifeis tedious. You are frail and ordinary. In here, you can dress like anastronaut and learn to climb mountains.

Standing in a circle, halfa dozen blonde girls wait to begin a pilates class. "I have a friend who does CrossFitand she's like, jacked," one of them says. They all nod.

Across the room, Today Show correspondent Jenna Wolferecites slightly modified versions of the same bit for a camera crew: "A 45-minutecardio workout? I gotta earn my juice!" Jenna has tan calves and perfectforehead skin and hair knotted back in a way that expresses both softness andcompetence. Sometimes she says "juice" and it has 13 syllables. Sometimes shepronounces "juice" as if she were reading paternity test results. Juice? I can't believe you're not my dad,Juice. The key to being a television human is perfecting the art offabricated astonishment, dismay, confusion. Canyou BELIEVE it? Fourteen inches of rain tomorrow in DES MOINES. Hervocabulary is all gosh and holy moses and neutered Ned Flandersy exclamations. Forthe next four hours, this will be our narrator, our documentarian; a walking,breathing text message from your mother.

Read on Munchies: The Dangers of Juice Detoxes Are Terrifying

We have gathered herein this Reebok FitHub to do pilates together, and then go on a Juice Crawl, whichis like a bar crawl, only with juice instead of all the means to make ruinousromantic decisions. The concept was devised by Anna Garcia, a woman whosekindness is so immediately evident I feel slightly ashamed addressing theabsurdity of this event. About four years ago, Anna developed severe cysticacne and was told by a doctor that she was almost pre-diabetic. She became avegan, stopped drinking alcohol, and along the way conceived of this nutrientand friendship extravaganza.

"Did you guys see the Seth Myers thing aboutjuice crawls? It was kind of hilarious," another one of the blonde girls says justbefore we begin pilates.

And so, here we are, TheWhite Experience, 2015: $57 for juice, isometric exercises, and asides about late-nighthosts making lukewarm jokes about minor phenomena in an internet economy thatburns through Drake gifs and ukulele covers of Fetty Wap songs like coal. Theseare a people obsessed with challenging the limits of their own randomness, withriding the hardest for the softest shit. Treasure hunts, ugly sweater parties,dressing your dog up as Walter White, singing the Fresh Prince theme atkaraoke.

After pilates, we line up at the FitHub exit and do twotakes for the Today Show cameras.Anna shouts some generic Journey-at-the-Meadowlands "Are you guys ready?!" incitementsover an actually-operational megaphone, and then, one by one, we leave.

The first bar we visit is Juice Press, the Starbucks of this whole racket, with over two dozen stores and a valuation of $100 million. Everything is meticulously designed to crack into that place in your brain defenseless to idiosyncratic fonts and nostalgia and tiny containers. There are charming, bubbly cursives and Vital Information Helveticas. ProViotic supplements in matte silver canisters at the checkout counter with official-looking science symbols on them. Every juice bar's ethos is a mix of vague nutritional science, spiritual hokum, puns, and employees who seem relentlessly enthusiastic about being a part of The Revolution. At Juice Press there are booklets by the door that use words like alkalize and synthesis and distillation, blurbs about the grave dangers of protein consumption, convincing you of an ugliness and a wrongness so that it can sell you rightness and beauty. There is an implication the moment you walk in the door: join us or... if not die, then witness your libido vanish and your epidermis become slack yellowed clumps. You realize the message is always the same, whatever the product, wherever you are, no matter how bombastic the literature, no matter how much potassium in the antidote: would you enjoy fucking hotter people?

The juices themselves ranged in taste from "slightly melonish"to "what if you could drink your grandfather's arm hair?" The vast majoritywere complex and interesting and at times irresistible. But there was somethingdistinctly unsettling about an event, an experience, a moment so conscious ofitself, so programmed to be Discussed, to possibly-infuriate, a slow-lob morselinto the teeth of Going Viral. Jenna peeling off with various participants andasking them to describe the thrills of drinking juice and eating quinoa withall kinds of manufactured disbelief; staged "chugging" contests; participantstaking "shots" together.

On a previous crawl, participants were each given a pair ofheadphones with a synchronized playlist so they could all wander from bar tobar listening to the same music. At one point, they entered a Samsung store andbegan to dance around a security guard. Drunk on righteousness andhey-everyone-look-at-us is hardly different than drunk the old fashioned way.At least those people eventually go to sleep.

It is the feeling of cornball recreation disguised assomething more substantial. Passing curiosities elevated to crusades,"wellness" and GMO awareness and Making a Difference. People particular aboutpulp removal and aggressively trying to avoid making phallic jokes aboutzucchinis. At one point, at the second bar, Jenna said, "Remember, there's nobathroom in this place, so let's keep the drinking to a minimum, or I'm gonnahave to, you know." *crowd chuckles*Television people: just like us, bladders and everything.

Related: Watch our documentary about dating apps, 'Mobile Love Industries'

There are two types of juice shop aesthetic: fruit stand andlaboratorial. One is rustic and wholesome and wooden. The other is industrialminimalism, stainless steel and exposed air ducts, bushels of banana sitting onshelves, like they just decided to put up a factory in the heart of a jungle,and now things fall out of a tree, through a purifier, and directly into themouth of someone with strong opinions on cacao nibs. Everything has an architecture,from the menu arrangements to the tiny spoons with the complementary saladsamples in 2 oz. souffl cups, this sort of endearing Leslie Knopeishmaybe-on-purpose-maybe-not silliness. The magic of these juice bars, somethingso precious and impressed by itself, is to insulate you from the foxholes ofyour real life. Here is your need. Here is a chart that explains why this isimportant. Here is a vial of liquefied cucumber for $9.

All of it is an infomercial for being better than you arenow, better than you were yesterday, better tomorrow than you could havefathomed, working up a sweat as you thunder through your microscopic problemsand emerge with the corpses of your SoulCycle class and his ambiguous responseto your dinner invite in your rearview mirror. On the horizon is nothing but #riseandgrinds,every single recipe you will never attempt, every quad exercise you will putoff till tomorrow, every baby mobile made from refurbished doorknobs you willnever have one day, but in this moment you will, you are the perfectestmarketing professional in the history of your suitably gentrified neighborhood,and it's Sunday, and tomorrow you have to work, but not right now.

We enter the last bar, Terri, on West 23rd. It is bright andnarrow, with rows of plastic cups half-filled with lush red and green andyellow liquids on a counter in the back corner. Participants take as many asthey like. Jenna and her producers convene to discuss the narrative of thesegment. They need an ending. They look for a bathroom, presumably to stage anI-can't-hold-it-anymore scene where Jenna bursts through the door. There is nobathroom. She wanders back to the middle of the room. Standing there, Jennachews her bottom lip, eyes wide in concentration, searching perceptibly for analternative. She is puzzled, Real Human puzzled now, turning over ideas semi-audiblyin the crowd, her back to the counter. Outside, the sun is setting, everyone ishungry, it is getting cold. Across the street, booze and toilets andcharbroiled animal flesh. Sometimes there are no fake answers, sometimes themirage takes the day off. The world is a motherfucker, even when we try to makeit otherwise.

Follow John on Twitter.

I'm the type of person who would rather stare at ads on the subway than accidentally make eye contact with a stranger. There have been times when I opted to gaze at a candy wrapper on the floor of a streetcar in lieu of catching someone's glance. When I heard that there was going to be a global eye contact experimentand that the city I live in, Toronto, would be includedI immediately thought it was going to be like being stuck in an Upworthy video.

The World's Biggest Eye Contact Experiment was held on October 15 at over 100 cities globallyincluding those in Asia, South America, and Europeby the Liberators International, a social movement collective from Australia. The day was set up with the aim of engaging people in deeper connection with themselves and others in their communities.

Where HAS it gone? Photos by Allison Elkin

Despite some of my friends commenting about how gross it sounded, and that it betrayed the part of me that sometimes hates other humans, I decided to go to Christie Pits, a public park in Toronto where the experiment was taking place. There was a small area sectioned off with signs and populated by paired-off, child-sized hula hoops for participants to sit as afternoon rush-hour traffic whizzed by. I sat down at an empty spot and waited for someone to approach me. I was so nervous when Clive, a guy who looked like a hot dad with speckles of gray in his hair and light grey-blue eyes, took the place across from me. All I could think about was the deep regret I felt about my sobriety at the moment.

After about 20 seconds looking into Clive's eyes, I couldn't help myself and burst out in chatter; I was moments away from have a full-fledged panic attack. He told me in the nicest way possible to shut the fuck up, and after, we began to hold hands while I grinned like an idiot. I began realizing just how different each person's eyes truly are and entered a wormhole of an embarrassingly corny internal thought process about humanitysomething I'm pretty sure I've only done while in the grasp of mind-altering substances. After breaking eye contact, I stood up and, alarmingly, I realized how high I felt. My face was tingling and reddened, I was warm all over, I couldn't stop smiling yet was extremely calm, and slightly nauseated.

Tharshiga Elankeeran, a therapist with a special focus on holistic practices like meditation and reiki, initiated the event in Toronto. I found her as she was walking around handing out shortbread cookies, and told her about how high I felt after doing the eye contact experiment as I ate one covered in pistachio crumbles. She said, "I don't have an explanation for you, but I felt that as well. Definitely after my first one when I first started, I was like, 'Wow, what's going on?' Like I did feel a high."

Experimentation with eye contact is definitely not a new concept. In 2010, Serbian performance artist Marina Abramovi sat in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in silence during museum hours each day for a duration of three months and made eye contact with whomever decided to sit across from her. But was she really just getting on a three-month bender fuelled by eye contact?

Twenty minutes after I arrived at the Toronto event and had done just one session of eye contact with a random, a torrential downpour complete with autumn leaves swirling in hurricane-like wind infringed on my high-ness. Most of the 30-some people at the event gathered under nearby trees, unable to avoid being rudely sprayed with cold droplets of rain. Others held umbrellas over themselves and stayed put, cross-legged on the ground, unwilling to break their gazes.

I had invited my friend Chris along with me, but when we tried making eye contact for 60 seconds, I didn't really feel as much as I did with strangers. We've known each other for several years; maybe it is something specifically about the interaction with someone we don't know that makes it more intense, kind of like how some people are really into one-night stands. After that, I got back to connecting with randoms in an attempt to figure out if I only felt the strange sense of being high with certain people.

As I took shelter, I spoke to another attendee, Jeffrey, who looked like the kind of urban hippie you would find at Burning Man, accompanied by his dog, Taurus, who kept going up to pairs of people mid-eye contact trying to lure them into playing frisbee with him. Jeffrey told me his profession was "combating negativity," using his plans to start communal fire with the goal of bringing people together at places like city hall as an example. Somewhat unintentionally, I ended up doing the eye contact experiment with him as I asked him questions. "That's really why I think people do certain substances: they're trying to connect to the space inside," he told me. "That's actually why we're all here, is for each other, so that we can experience this feeling of aloneness together."

Laura, right, smiles and makes eye contact

After the rain died down, I sat with Laura, a young woman who just started university, and continued to feel the same altered state as I did initially. Laura, however, said she wasn't feeling the same way that I described. Next, I locked eyes with a man in his 60s with thick glasses named Nelson, a retired teacher who takes clown classes in his spare time, and was able to feel something else from himlike sensing the immense number of experiences, and pain, he had gone through in his life. I stared into the eyes of a woman with green-blue eyes who hugged me after, and thanked me for being who I am and for sharing the experience with her. I watched people around me in every range of emotions, some with tears streaming down their faces and others laughing hysterically. At one point, a couple of curious police officers came and tried out the experiment for themselves, and those strangers who paired with them

Nelson, left

I'm still trying to puzzle out to myself just why I felt the way I did and why some others felt it too. Surely it must have something to do with a biochemical reaction, perhaps one involving the "love hormone" oxytocin, known to be associated with positive eye-gazing experiencesafter all, contact of this type is usually only done with someone you love. Still, other scientific studies say that personality affects the way we respond to eye contact. But as a man named Mark who I locked eyes with last said who's had a similar reaction to me said, "I've done a fair amount of drugs in my life, and this, this is way better."

Follow Allison Elkin on Twitter.

MRI of a human head. Image via Wikipedia

You know the story. The one that says some drugs are soenjoyable, so insidious, that just one try will get you hooked. And you'd beforgiven for believing this as the media really backs the theory. "TheDanger In Just One Hit of Cocaine," reports the Daily Mail. "Official: 1-HitAddiction to Meth No Myth," announces the Times Daily. "It Only Took One Hit toGet Hooked," writes news.com.

But is itactually true? Can a person become addicted to a drug after using it a single time? Before we begin to answer this question, it's important to understand howaddictive substances, such as meth and heroin, work on the brain.

Though their mechanisms differ, most addictive drugs act to release theneurotransmitter that makes us feel good: dopamine. For example, opiates likeheroin bind to opiate receptors and block the release of neurotransmitters thatcounterbalance dopamine release. With the checks and balances turned off,the brain gets flooded with dopamine. By contrast, amphetamines (which are similarin structure to dopamine) enter brain neurons by diffusing directly throughneural membranes. Once inside, amphetamines both release dopamine and preventit from being withdrawn.

When aperson takes drugs repeatedly, their reward circuits become desensitized.Because there is more than enough dopamine around, the body stops making itsown and simultaneously down-regulates the number of dopamine receptors. Thismeans the person needs drugs just to bring their levels of dopamine back tonormal. Without drugs they start feeling flat and lifeless. The person may evenbegin to experience symptoms such as nausea, chills, cramps, and sweating. Itis the presence of these withdrawal symptoms that indicates a physical dependence.

Read on Motherboard: Heroin, Cocaine, and Weed Are Stronger, Cheaper, and Easier to Get Than They've Ever Been

Now, backto the question. Dr. John Edwards and Dr. Peter Connor are addiction medicinespecialists working at both the Cambridge Clinic and Abbotsford Hospital inWestern Australia, and I've had the privilege of spending time with them aspart of my medical degree. They both agree that first of all, addiction isn'treally a great word because it brings with it a lot of stigma. Putting thisaside however, to be diagnosed as addicted you need physicalsymptoms of tolerance (you require more of the substance to achieve the desiredeffect) and withdrawal, alongside impaired control, social impairment, andrisky behavior. No drug will achieve this combination after just one hit.

Drugs can't change brain chemistry fast enough to make someoneinstantly dependent. Indeed, a British study of 72 heroin users in2002 found that it took on average more than a year for people to become hookedto heroin, and none claimed to have been instantly addicted.

However,some research suggests that while a single hit might not make you and addictstraight away, it may "prime" the brain for addiction. According to a study published in Nature in2001, taking one dose of cocaine may "throw open a window ofvulnerability" during which the brain is acutely responsive to furtherdoses. However, as the lead researcher Dr. Antonello Bonci described to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation,"This is not saying that if you try cocaine once you'll be hooked.Millions of people have tried it once and never gone back."

Related: Watch our documentary, 'The Hard Lives of Britain's Synthetic Marijuana Addicts'

Also, check out our documentary on the rehab industry: Dying for Treatment

It isimportant to state at this point that being physicallydependent on a drug doesn't necessarily make one an addict. People suffering from chronicpain who take high levels of opiates will experience tolerance and withdrawal,but are only considered addicts if their behavior towards the drugs starts tochange. This includes behaviors such as stealing extra prescriptions orspending their time trying to obtain money for drugs.

Anotherbuzzword that often comes up when people talk about drug addiction is"psychological dependence." This is when a drug becomes central to aperson's thoughts, behavior, and emotions. Even though a person mightunderstand the drug is harmful, they feel a strong pull to use it because ofthe way it makes them feel or the promise of escape it might provide.

I've alwaysbelieved that it was plausible that a person could become psychologicallydependent after one hit. But Connor and Edwards are of a different opinion, and Ihave come around to their way for thinking. "You're still not dependent atthat point. You might change your mind the next day," Connor explains."It's this element of choice and control that exists early on that means aperson is not dependent: once you are dependent, you lose that ability."

John likensthe situation to buying ice-cream. "You walk past a Ben and Jerry's stand,have some ice cream and really enjoy it. Then the next day you walk past andthink I could really go some more ice cream. Even though you want andenjoy the ice cream, you aren't emotionally dependent on it."

Soaccording to the experts, you can't become addicted to drugs after one hit.

Why then do one hit addiction stories and headlines exist?From my conversation with Connor and Edwards, as well as my own medical experience,it likely comes down to two things. Headlines like these play to fears (especiallyfor parents) and therefore make good copy. And then there's a generallack of understanding about how these drugs work, which leaves a void forpeople to believe the headlines.

Whateverthe motivation, I'm going to leave the final words to Connor. Heexplained that while you can't get addicted from one dose, "you can't getaddicted without at least one dose."

FollowMatilda on Twitter.

The author's profile on Toluna, which is as sad and empty as his soul

This article originally appeared on VICE UK.

As a writer, I love to have my voice heard. It is my raison d'tre, my modus operandi. But even normal people who aren't cool professional writers want others to know their thoughts, which is why we have Twitter and Facebook statuses and LiveJournals and stuff, so the regular everyman can bark their nonsense into the vast black whirlwind of nothing that is the internet.

Sadly, however, the everyman doesn't have the enviable level of intelligence us writers possess. So where can the everymanthis husk, this poor, sad saphave his or her voice heard while also receiving the minute and disappointing payment so familiar to professional writers? The answer is, surely, doing loads of online surveysthose multiple choice questionnaires that promise to pay you "up to 60 e-voucher for a company called My Photobook, where you can get photobooks made. My journey to the heart of surveys4pay was over and I was none the richer. I was wiser, though, and I'm going to use my voucher to make a photobook of pictures of wartime vivisections to teach me never to play with such a dull flame again.

Follow Joe on Twitter.

Images courtesy of Greg Lonsdale

The festive season is nearly upon us. Which means so too is the period in which you have to buy gifts for extended family members you only see that one day of the year, because turning up without something for your five-year-old cousin is a real dick move.

If your budget doesn't quite stretch to whatever's flying off the shelves at Toys "R" Us this year, there are alternativeslike this: My First Grow, a "cannabis grow kit for kids." Retailing at 7.99 impossible with our product anyway. It's about breaking outdated taboos. Today's children are the next generation of farmers, builders, and doctors; they will belong to industries that can be revolutionized by legalization.

Children learn that "cannabis is bad" at school from a young agehowever, they are being denied the full spectrum of information. I believe that everyone, including children, deserves to know the truth about cannabis today if we want half a chance at a legalized tomorrow.

My First Grow appears to be marketed at children, but the website claims it's an adult souvenir. Which one is it?
My First Grow is a creative way of highlighting society's cognitive dissonance when it comes to the topic of cannabis. I simply used children as the vehicle to start the discussion. Adults buy the product for its novelty, but the discussion it encourages is a serious one.

A tweeter who wasn't pleased with My First Grow

Have you encountered any backlash?
Yes, but the backlash is interesting because it highlights a collective ignorance that needs to be addressed. For example, our website has been shared on social media significantly more times than people have even visited the site. It appears people become outraged by the evocative headlineCannabis Grow Kits for Kidsand share it in disgust without even investigating what the site is even about.

The website, until yesterday, had a promotional video on the front page. This has now been taken down by YouTube for apparently violating its community guidelines, specifically showing "harmful or dangerous content involving minors." The video showed kids gardening. Not harmful. Not dangerous. Yet again, ignorance prevails.

Please educate yourself.

Where do you currently ship to?
I'll ship anywhere in the world, although I'd encourage my customers to get legal advice before purchasing as I don't want to get them into trouble.

How long does it take to grow a My First Grow?
In the UK, I'm not entirely sure. This is because my short-sighted government have outlawed the act of putting a hemp seed into soil. You need a government-issued license; something I don't have yet. However, during a recent trip to Colorado, I saw a sprout pop through the soil after five days. My return flight was later that afternoon, but three months later, Josthe manager of the motel I was staying attells me he now enjoys the company of a six-foot green friend in the motel reception.

What would happen if I smoked the hemp?
Jos tried this, actually. He told me it made his throat hurt.

Related: Watch VICE's documentary, 'Stoned Kids'

When should kids be able to buy cannabis?
If kids can buy over-the-counter herbs and spices, they should be able to buy hemp. However, for cannabis, I'd support age restrictions.

Have the police been in touch? Are you worried?
No police attention thus far. But if they come knocking, I'll invite them inside for a nice cup of green tea.

What's your vision for the future of My First Grow?
I want to start a not-for-profit company to grow and produce hemp products in the UK. I believe that in order to build a sustainable future for our children, we need to rid ourselves of fossil fuels, and hemp is a very real and viable alternative.

Follow Sirin on Twitter.

All screens from "Polarized," courtesy of Dontnod/Square Enix

Now that Parisian studio Dontnod's five-part adventure Life Is Strange has wrapped, its final episode "Polarized" having popped up for download on October 20 and been greedily consumed by an audience that's grown with every installment, we can look back at the last 15 hours or so, the last nine months, and conclude: yes, that was a video game. Well done everybody, onto the next.

Only, Life Is Strange was more, is more, than your garden-variety video game. The way it played was nothing unique. You are college student Maxine, 18 and introverted, and where you point your controller's left stick, that's the way she will walk. Contextual prompts appear on screen as you rub Max against bushes and books, doors, and dangers: press X to step out into the corridor, square to pull out your Polaroid camera, and capture a squirrel bounding around the grounds of the fictional Blackwell Academy in Arcadia Bay, Oregon. We've seen this type of game several times before, and it's in no way reductive to make a comparison to what Californian developers Telltale have been doing with the Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead licenses.

Warning: screenshots below might be considered spoilers

The twist, Max's never-explained-by-dodgy-science ability to "time travel"to rewind the events of the last few seconds, or use a photograph (that she's in, or that she took) to beam herself into the scene, into the past, to return to the moment framedisn't new either. Dontnod used something very similar in their debut game, Remember Me, an underrated sci-fi brawler with brains that came out in 2013 (and that I highlighted here as an Xbox 360 game you should play today). And the fantastical is commonplace in video gamingwalk into any CEX and the covers on the shelves scream sci-fi action, monster slaying, and sporting supremacy. It's more unusual to play through something that has a palpable rooting in everyday reality.

Which is where Life Is Strange, for all of its supernatural window dressing and butterfly effect mumbo jumbo, really shines: with its presentation of the stresses and strains that can rock kids leaving home for the first time, dealing with the transition into adulthood, making and breaking relationships, and fucking themselves up on whatever peers declare is the best way to get high right now. Max is at a school where there are bullies and jocks, cyberstalkers and surveillance nuts, friends who want to be so much more, and fragile classmates who could do something deadly if just pushed far enough.

The game addresses the issues of suicide and broken homes, of environmental change, and small-town cliques claiming exclusive status butting heads against other groups of people just trying to live. It views disability through a sympathetic, understanding lens, and asks you to take drastic action to help a friend in desperate need. There were three or four times during my time with the game where I froze, entirely unsure of my direction, the screen displaying just two choices, neither of which I really wanted to take. The biggest of all these wasn't at the end of episode five, which had been telegraphed several hours earlier, but 30 minutes into the preceding one. If you've played it, you know what I'm talking about. If not, I won't spoil anything (beyond what's already been mentioned above, which I hope is vague enough).

It's impossible to really talk about what happens in "Polarized" without spreading spoilers across the page like acne over a puberty-afflicted face. Hell, even these PR-provided screenshots from the game's finale are pretty borderline. But like every episode before it, "Polarized" has other moments where the player is invited to pause, to contemplate, to just steady themselves for a few seconds. These aren't make-or-break decisions that affect everything that happens afterwardsand Life Is Strange is very good at remembering if Max acted like a dickhead three hours ago, bringing your choices back later on to bite her in the assbut opportunities to, literally, sit down.

Article continues after the video below

Related: Watch Part 1 of our documentary on eSports

Life Is Strange is a superb sitting-down simulator. I don't think I've ever played a game that captures the pleasure of simply taking a load off in quite the same way. Even when everything's getting crazy in episode five, there's still time to pause, to let what's happening around Max fade into a just-discernible blur, there's clearly enough but not so much that it's making every sweat gland work overtime. "Max, give yourself one moment to do nothing." In the calm before the eye of the storm, there's reflection, realization: a denouement of sorts before the very final scenes. "Polarized" offers you the option of pressing X to sit down three times, and it's in these snatched seconds of doing nothing that so very much is actually said: about where Max's head is at, what the right course of action is likely to be, and how undoing everything that her time traveling has accomplished might be the secret to saving those she loves (like you hadn't already sussed that out).

For all the action, all the investigating of student disappearances and Blackwell shadiness and Vortex Club bitchiness and Arcadia Bay surrealism, perhaps the most important times in Life Is Strange are when you and Max, you as Max, just sit down. And I love that the game doesn't make you get up. It doesn't once force Max out of her seat. It just moves the camera around the scene as some of its excellently licensed music rises to fill the room. Take your time; or, hurry up. The choice is yours, and that's a choice that so few games provide.

Posted the week of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report's release. Photo via Facebook/Justin Trudeau

Ryan is an Anishinaabe/Metis comedian and writer based out of Treaty #1 territory (Winnipeg, MB).

Well, Canada. You did it.

You got rid of Stephen Harper. Thanks, solid move. If this is step 1 in the reconciliation project of this country, good on ya.

On October 19th, 2015, Canada (and some of Indian Country) voted in a Liberal majority government in a landslide. In Indian Country, we call the Prime Minister a lot of thingsTransfer Payment Sugar Daddy, The Great White Saviour, and The Guy That Represents The Queen. Many of us have a meh/hate relationship with the government. A few of us have a meh/meh relationship with the government. And even fewer of us fly the flag of colonization and assimilation proudlyhello Aboriginal Canadians.

We have officially entered the era of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

For some of us, the last name "Trudeau" gives us warm feelings of the Anishinaabe "Trudeau families" spread out across Unceded Territory at Wikwemikong and other stops along the beautiful Northern shores of the Great Lakes. For others, the name "Trudeau" makes us put on camouflage and light shit on fire as we think of the 1969 White Paper.

There is a NEW Trudeau in town, though: One who would likely be welcomed in for moose stew and hot tea by the Trudeau's that I know in Northern Ontario. One who better not try to pull the same shit his dad did 40 something years ago. One who beat the shit out of Senator Patrick Brazeauwhich many of us in Indian Country were ecstatic about. So, welcome to Prime Ministership, Mr. Trudeau.

As an Anishinaabe person living and working in his Traditional territory, I had to make a very hard decision the other dayto vote or not to vote. In the end, I did, and not just because I wanted the selfie for Instagram. I had a deep-seated fear that Stephen Harper would find his way back into power. I have a hunch he's in for a big pay raise chumping around for oil companies, but I was scared none the less. He had stolen one election, what's a second one?

In February 2015, I interviewed NDP MP Romeo Saganash for my podcast, Red Man Laughing, and I challenged him to convince me to vote in the federal election. I identify as Anishinaabe, not Canadian. I believe in Indigenous Nationhood. My work is centred on my peoples and what's important to us. I'm also a stubborn, pretty angry dude. I figured there was no way I would be convinced. Romeo asked me one question that day. He asked, "What will your community, your Nation and this country look like in 2019 with four more years of Harper?" Not only could I not answer because I'd never thought of this before, but I also couldn't answer because an evil ghostyou know the one, from the Scooby Doo cartoonsclimbed up my asshole and shook me to the core. I was sold.

Not everyone was sold, however. I hang with a pretty diverse group of NDN's. From the Indigenous artists, academics, and grassroots people I run with, they knew betterpoliticians change every couple of years, but bureaucracies do not. The force of capitalism has been felt in Indigenous communities for a few hundred years. Voting in a new guy in a different-coloured tie wouldn't give us the change we're actually seeking in our communities.

However.

There is an idea that we are entering a new era, a time we've never seen before. We are entering an era of reconciliation. Is Canada, as a government, and are Canadian citizens, ready to listen to Indigenous communities? Is balance being restored in this relationship? Are we witnessing history? Are we entering a time in which Indigenous collective rights will be respected? Are we entering a time when Indigenous leadership is free to work under the spirit of treaty enforcement to engage Canada and its responsibilities in this sometimes very rocky relationship? I doubt it. Or, to be fair, I don't knowbut we're likely a few decades away from realizing true systemic change (if that's what we're working towards), if there is any change coming.

On the heels of this newfound push towards reconciliation was the Indigenous Vote movement. The Indigenous vote became a major movement in urban centres, town sites, and First Nation communities alike. Organizing, canvassing, and even running in this election became a normal conversation with friends.

It's clear that policy and law have giant impacts on Indigenous peoples in CanadaHarper knocked the shit out of us for nearly ten years. I have no interest in working for Trudeau of the Liberal Party of Canada, but as I'm committed to the health and well being of my community, and he says he's down with a NEW way forward, I figured I'd throw out a few thoughts on why/how he might fail/succeed.

Still from Searchers - Highway of Tears

MMIW

On the ground, in the communities, there is a divide here. Many believe an inquiry is necessary. Many don't believe an inquiry is necessary. A good start would be to reinstate funding for organizations and non-profits that work with families and grassroots communities around this issue. There is a large body of work that dates back 30 years or more around this issue in our communitiesallow them to continue their important work.

If an inquiry is going to be held, do not put stakeholders (Assembly of First Nations, Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Native Women's Association of Canada, Metis Nation of Ontario) above family members and grassroots and frontline workers, who have committed decades to the issue. THESE ARE YOUR EXPERTS. These are the voices that need to be heard FIRST.

Read more: The TRC Report Is Not Only a History of Residential Schools, but a History of Canada

TRUTH and RECONCILIATION

In 2015, the TRC completed its mandate and gave Canada a solid humblingthis country has work to do. There are 94 Calls To Action that government, universities, communities, and Canadians have to wrap their heads aroundgood thing the TRC has done all the heavy lifting here. In June, the Liberal Party called on the government to implement each and every one of the calls to action. Woof.

The TRC has called for the core of the reconciliation movement to built on United Nation Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). The Harper government would not touch this with a stick, but Trudeau has mentioned that he will implement UNDRIP as a priority for his government.

Here's where things get scary for Canadaimplementing UNDRIP would mean tearing into the constitution (uh oh); allowing Indigenous peoples to have control over the types of development that happen in their territories (oh shit); finally having Indian control of Indian education (high five, Harold Cardinal and team, finally); and essentially moving to a system that allows for self-determining, self-governed peoples. Take a deep breath. This is nuanced and a giant undertakingso giant, in fact, that there would be no end to this paragraph (and I was only given 1,000 words to write).

CHILD WELFARE

There are more children in care today than there were at the height of Indian Residential Schools. This is Canada's national shame. A complete overhaul of the CFS system is needed. The TRC has called on the government to carefully look at the intergenerational effects of Indian Residential Schools when considering the changes needed to support families on a go-forward basis.

The state of child welfare in this country is a hidden shame. Those in this system are trapped in it in perpetuitysupports, programs, mentoring, and Indigenous community control of its child welfare system are all integral.

C-51

There is no doubt the world is changing around us. Technology and all of its comforts are providing new problems for governments. Terrorism and its tactics are changing (maybe) and that has governments worried, rightfully so.

C-51 is a broad, wide, sweeping piece of legislation that could potentially target Indigenous peoples and others who stand for environmental protections, clean water, and a healthy Mother Earth. We, Indigenous peoples, stand in the way of development via that pesky little thing called free, prior, and informed consent. Time and time again corporations and government do everything they can to work around us. We end up in court, we win, they lose.

Don't do that shit.

Turtle Island is the name by which many First Nations refer to what is typically (by white people, at least) called North America. Photo via Flickr user Gerry Thomasen

NATION-TO-NATION

OK. I think you understand what you've agreed to here. Nation-to-Nation, as per the spirit of the pre-Confederation treaties, the numbered treaties, AND the modern-day treaties, is a BIG commitment. It actually means ditching the spirit of terra nullius and the Doctrine of Discovery in which Canadian governments (including many, many, many Liberal governments) have operated, and working with Nations across Turtle Island on a new framework.

Anything short of this would NOT be a Nation-to-Nation framework. The danger of co-opting buzzwords and present-day Indigenous concepts is a real concern hereso let's be clear on what we mean when we are talking about Nation-to-Nation.

We'd have to put the Indian Act on the table for dismantling (eventually), treaties would have to be fully realized to settle claims to land, solve Indigenous governance issues, and create economic certainty for communities and and and. You see. This is huge. Not impossible, just huge.

FIRST NATIONS EDUCATION

On average, Indigenous children and youth being educated on reserves are funded $4,000 less, yearly, per child than children going to provincially run public schools. Youth across Canada are still being shipped off to far-away schools, curricula are steeped in colonial thought and process, and Indigenous ways of learning and teaching (land-based education and alternative education programs are doing incredible things across this country) aren't respected as viable options to mainstream educations.

Funding is crucial, but maybe more important is an open communication process with communities when it comes to fixing the education system for Indigenous learners. Talk with teachers and learners on reserves and in communities. Again, these are your experts. They know what's broken, what needs to be fixed, and how to fix it.

First Nation schools should reflect their community, languages, cultures, and unique place in the Indigenous paradigm to provide a safe and inclusive place for learners.

VICE Canada Reports - Canada's Waterless Communities: Neskantaga

CLEAN DRINKING WATER

I'm not even going to write anything here. What can be said? Get this done. There are no challenges too big to not get this done. Just. Fucking. Do it.

HOUSING

The argument of market-based housing and housing as a treaty right has got to stop. Housing on First Nations communities is a right that cannot be argued by government. Adequate funding for housing must flow in order to get proper housing for those most in need.

A good place to start here might be a national roundtable on Indigenous housing. Some communities are getting this righta group of First Nations in Manitoba built their own sawmill, cut and used their own tree resources, and built homes for community members (of course, the government has tried to put a stop to this practice as land in question is embroiled in a land claim).

In short, there are solutions to the housing crisis in First Nation communities. Once again, the solutions are in the communities. The needs of those who are couch-surfing or dying in tar-paper shacks must be heard, and a process needs to be built in order for this to happen.

So let me just say, Prime Minister Trudeau, that many of us, for the first time in our lives, participated in the Canadian democratic process. Many elders and community members I spoke with did so in good faith as treaty partners and as people with great interest in witnessing the revitalization of Indigenous communities in Canada. We are in a time we have never witnessed before. There are leaders at the table that have solutions, communities that are ready to take control of their lives, and an engaged and focused indigenous youth community that is depending on you working with us to create the pathway forward we were promised upon Confederation. When you looked into the eyes of residential school survivors, I hope you're aware of what you promised to do.

Best of luck, Prime Minister Trudeau. Don't fuck this up.

Follow Ryan McMahon on Twitter.

Let's just open with a fucking cold, iron fact: "Bennie and the Jets" is, with ease, one of the top ten songs of all time. Go and listen to Elton John's greatest hits, right now. There are so many greatest hits. Don't come at me with any chat about "Bennie and the Jets" not being one of the greatest songs ever written; I will not endure any anti-Elton sentiment. I am extremely here for Elton John.

But can we just talk briefly about this, please:

I cannot stop laughing at this. This is the greatest image I have ever seen in my life. I want this printed large on a canvas and stretched above my bed. I want this image to replace the Union Jack as the UK national flag. Dive into this image of Elton John and swim around in it. Cool off with a little breather by the pool. Dry your hair off. Then run and bomb in again. Drown yourself in this album cover. Lifeguards are assembling in a panic. You've been down there so long. But you're not coming up. You're not coming out of this alive.

First fucks: Wonderful Crazy Night. Those words set the tone for this entire party. Wonderful, yes: but also very crazy. Is this image not simultaneously wonderful and crazy? It is. It is both of those things. This is the perfect album title/album cover combination.

A lot of you are in bands, aren't you? You all like music and you all have hopes. You know six chords on the guitar and you know a singer. You reckon you might get a synth player from another local band to defect to you. Your band is called "Shillsmiths." Right? It's cool, manI had dreams once, too. The point is: Kill your dreams, because your shitty band will never have a more perfect album cover/album title combination than this, not if you make a million albums, not if you take a billion years.

Each passing week sees anew front open up in the battle to stop arresting people for weed. On Wednesday, insurgent Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders expressed support for legalization, a position that's also on the agenda of Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party, which prevailed in Canadathis past Monday. Virgin's Richard Branson, meanwhile, recently made headlines by leaking a document indicating there is now a robust debatewithin the United Nations over the decriminalization of all drugs.

The debate has alsobeen playing out on the streets of New York City, where despite a recent shifttowards decriminalization, police reform activists are raising fresh questions about disparities when it comes to pot and the law.

Last November, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner BillBratton announcedthat the NYPD would move away from marijuana arrests and instead issue moresummonses, which are similar to traffic tickets but require an appearance incourt.

And it's making a difference: So far in 2015, according to state data, pot arrests have declined by over 40percent, and likely will total between 14,000 and 16,000 for the year. Summonses are up by 25 percent and on pace to reach nearly 17,000 by the end ofDecember. All told, the combined number of punitive interactionsarrests plussummonsesis on track to decline by about 25 percent from 2014.

"The de Blasio administration definitely deserves credit formaking good on its promise that there would be fewer arrests," says AlyssaAguilera, political director of VOCAL-NY, which advocates for drug law reform."But the patterns of enforcement remain exactly the same."

To illustrate that point, VICE compared four NYPD precinctsin Manhattan and Brooklyn. In the mostly Latino 23rd Precinct (EastHarlem) as well as the mostly black 71st Precinct (Crown HeightsLeffertsGardens), historically high arrest numbers have dipped, replaced by a growingnumber of summonses. In both precincts, the combined number of punitiveinteractions is on track to be nearly the same between 2014 and 2015, with roughly500 in the 23rd and about 700 in the 71st.

Meanwhile, in the mostly white 24th (Upper WestSide) and 78th (Park Slope) precincts, much lower arrest numbershave given way to a comparatively small, but rising number of summonses. Thetwo-year total of interactions in the 24th projects to remain around150, and while there's been an uptick in the 78th, that will only amountto about 130 encounters this year.

In other words, you're three times more likely to get bustedfor marijuana on one side of Central Park than the other, and in Brooklyn, it'ssignificantly safer to possess pot in Prospect Park (the 78th) thanacross the street from it, on Ocean Avenue in ProspectLefferts Gardens (the 71st).

As is the case with many other areas of low-levelmisdemeanor enforcement (a.k.a. broken windows policing), marijuana violations continue to be handled differently according to neighborhood demographics. And in this case, the problem is even more glaring, given thatwhites smoke marijuana at greater rates than any other group.

"Marijuana is de facto legal for white people in New YorkCity," says Queens College professor Harry Levine, perhaps the city's leading marijuana law scholar. And in his view, allneighborhoods should experience "the same level of respectful policing as theUpper West Side or Park Slope."

While violations that result in a summons are not considereda crime, they do come with significant collateral consequences. Recipients mustappear in a court in downtown Manhattan on a scheduled datethey can't just puta check in the mail. That means taking off from school or work or having tomake special childcare or other domestic arrangements. The ticket itself comeswith a fineof $100 for first offense and $250 for a second offense, plus additional court costs tacked on of another $120. That's serious money forpeople living in places like East Harlem and Lefferts Gardens, where poverty rates far exceed the national average.

Watch our documentary about hunting for rare pot strains in Colombia.

People who miss their court date, as is common, usually have a warrant issued for their arrest. Currently there are 1.2 million outstandingarrest warrants in New York City. This means that you can be collared at anytime you have an interaction with the police, even if it's simply to report acrime. Those pinched on such warrants typically spend 24 hours in jail and court for what was originally a non-criminal offense. Andunscheduled arrests can result in the loss of a job, childcare emergencies, andsocial stigma and embarrassment.

There is a groundswell of support for marijuana legalizationon the City Council, including from Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito (whosedistrict includes the 23rd Precinct). But as Elizabeth Glazer,director of the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice, recently told a councilhearing, "Decriminalizing marijuana entirely... is not something thisadministration supports."

Most critics see Bratton, not de Blasio, as the drivingforce behind the city's current marijuana policy. At a recent talk, Brattoninsistedcontrary to scientific studiesthat marijuana remains a "gateway drug."

Bratton also relayed an anecdote about how earlier thatweek, he had encountered a college student smoking pot in Lower Manhattan, butrather than issue a summons or order her arrest, he put out the joint. Along with a growing number of local elected officials, VOCAL-NY supports Colorado-style legalization, but in the meantime, Aguilera says, "Bratton's action that day essentially should be NYPD policy: Tell people to put it out and move on."

Theodore Hamm is chair of journalism and new media studies at St. Joseph's College in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. Alex S. Vitale is associate professor of sociology at Brooklyn College.

All illustrations by Alex Jenkins

Though it's still in its very early stages, the current presidential race is rapidly approaching "dogs and cats living together" levels of mass hysteria and unpredictability. We all thought Joe Biden was going to run, but that didn't happen. We all thought Jeb(!) Bush was going to waltz his way to the Republican nomination, but given his poll numbers that's far from certain. Donald Trump, a man whose entire vibe is essentially "walking wrestling storyline + thinly veiled racism," is the Republican frontrunner, and the guy in close second, the sleepy logic machine that is Ben Carson, has never held political office. And Bernie Sanders, despite being a grouchy, 74-year-old guy from Vermont, is the de facto champion of young radicals everywhere. In order to accurately predict what's going to happen next, you'd basically have to be a psychic.

Luckily, I happen to have the number of a psychic named Don the Love Guru, and he's a damn good one. Don the Love Guru is a seventh-generation psychic clairvoyant empath from India who specializes in "understanding, feeling, and acknowledging others' emotions and intentions," based on "optic range and voice vibrations, as well as crystals, tarot cards, runes, and numerology." Based in the Topanga Canyon area near Los Angeles, Don claims to have a strong connection to life and death"I actually remember dying in my last lifetime and I can remember being born," he tells meand excels when conducting readings of a person's energy armed with little more information than their name.

I asked Don about each of the candidates in as neutral a tone as I could muster in order to prevent him from intuiting any positive or negative bias I might have toward a particular candidate. Don internalized each of the names, picking up on the energies that are associated with them, and then conveyed their auras' messages to me.

VICE: Have you been paying attention to the presidential race?
Don the Love Guru: There's a lot of mud slinging. Everyone is gunning for credibility, everybody wants to be absolved of whatever bad they've done. And it's like, "Look at me! I can be president and I can take us out of where we are right now and lead us to better days." But their pasts are uneasy.

What kind of energy does that project into the world?
Insecurity. Insecurity. Harboring something bigger, deeper, more cumbersome.

Do you think that energy is a good foundation to base a presidency off of?
No. Not at all. Not at all. Finger-pointing won't get you anywhere! If anything, I think finger-pointing only says , "OK, yeah, I'm wrong but this is what I think is wrong about you." It's acknowledging what the person was basically accusing him of. Not acknowledging and just laughing it off would actually serve a better purpose. But when you have millions and millions of people watching you for the debate, you know, it's not just about getting the message across.

What is your read on Hillary Clinton?
Power. Power, but also fear. I think that the masses do have an understanding that she could do the job. I think that where her flaw is is that shewhat's the word I'm looking for? She's showing that she could be capable of doing everything, but she lost something that Bill had, and I think that's what will hurt her and what the other Democratic candidates are trying to attack. It's her transparency: Why would you have a Blackberry and not link it to a different account? Why did you do this? Why were there lies? Why were there speculations? That's what I really think that they're trying to attack her for.

What about Bernie Sanders?
When you said that name, I felt a chill come up my spine.

Like, a good chill or a bad chill?
Hmmmmmm. I think that it's about experience. I think it's about dedication, and I think it's about intent. What is his true intent?

I don't know his true intent.
Oh, no no no. I was just making a comment in general. When I felt the name, I felt that I'm kind of puzzled about what his true intent is. Is it about helping the United States? Is it about international relations? Those are the things that I'm kind of pondering about with him. I think that he wants recognition and power. I think that he is intelligent. I think there is an amazing mind there, but I think that there are other characteristics that may be lacking.

OK. How about Martin O'Malley?
I have an uneasy feeling. I feel like there is some form of professionalism, but I just feel like he's very obligated. I feel like there is a lot of pressure surrounding this person. So if he does accomplish something, I feel like he owes many people. The problem is that he's running on max, like he's running on all eight cylinderswhich is very difficult for him. I don't think it's his year to be president.

And now, we turn to the Republicans. Let's start with Ben Carson.
I just picked up on some honesty, some sincerity. He wants to do something that's going to help mankind. But I feel like he's going to be drowned out. I don't think that his momentum is going to continue.

Tell me your feelings on Jeb Bush.
No. No. No. No. I really feel an ulterior motive. I get this feeling of I have to prove myself. There's a lot of complexity right there. Even though the United States has mixed emotions about the Bush family in general, they did elect them twice.

What about Donald Trump?
I honestly feel that there is nothing but moneymaking ability there. I feel that running a country, he could do it. But he doesn't have the composure to hold his anger in, and I feel that what he has exercised in his professional life, he'll exercise in Libya or Syria, or some parts of the Middle East... and you can't do that.

Talk about negative energy...
Absolutely. He'll put us a in a world war. We'll be the one to launch the nuke, because it'll be a pissing contest.

What about Ted Cruz?
I got a very different vibration when you said this man's name. I felt fresh thoughts, fresh ideas, looking at this with a new mind, looking at this with... almost like it's unadulterated: "This is what I feel and this is what I feel the United States needs to have happen." I'm also picking up on hardships in his past. I do like his vibrations. The only thing that I kind of questionnot that it's his fault, thoughis experience.

Carly Fiorina.
I picked up on some amazing stuff. She's very articulate. Powerful mind, much more powerful than what people give her credit for. But I feel like she's going to beI don't want to use the word...no, I don't want to say that. I feel like she's going to lose steam. There's something about her personal life that I think is going to have repercussions. I think that there's some hidden issues that are there. I think that this woman honestly is an amazing being who has been broken and has basically been put back together. But we're all a little broken in some way. I think that the pressures of what is ahead of her will stab her.

Marco Rubio.
I think he's going to try to appeal to immigrants, the people who built the United States. He's going to try to get favor and ride by that favor by saying, "I'm going to give more equality to people. I'm going to make..." But I feel like at the end of the day, is he a bad person? No. But I feel that what is happening to him is, "In order for me to ride this, I have to have more than just the secondary votes. I need mainstream votes." I feel that he's changing. He's saying, "OK, I can't do what I normally would do. Now I have to win the Republican party's acceptance, I have to go with what middle America thinks."

What about Chris Christie?
I've been waiting for you to get to him. My personal vibe I'm not going to throw it out there. Honestly, good person. I think that Chris Christie is actually a hell of a man. I respect him on many levels. I think that he does have the ability to run the countryI really do. But I think that where his problem lies is that he will always rely on this one way of getting things done, and I think that's going to hurt him. That's how people view him and I think that's going to be the issue with him.

And Mike Huckabee?
You know, I felt a very unusual vibration when you said Mike Huckabee. I always forget about him. If he doesn't win, or he doesn't get elected, he will come back and do it again.

Last one: Rand Paul.
He's trying to achieve things that haven't been done before. I do pick up that, in his mind, he has a strange idea of what good morals are. I don't feel they're bad, but I don't know if the United States would accept that. I don't know if the United States would understand that. I think that his idea of what middle America should be is a lot different than what middle America actually is or wants. He'll have issues with people understanding what his vision truly is. I think what he thinks is proper, and right, and safe isn't a bad thing. But I think that he'll have issues basically selling what his vision is.

Follow Alex Jenkins on Instagram.

Follow Drew on Twitter.

This article appears in VICE UK's October Prison Issue

As the final whistle is blown in a semi-final between 'Liverpool' and 'Chelsea' it's clear who the man of the match is. He just scored a hat-trick playing in bare feet. Twenty-eight-year-old Benon Luyima has been on Liverpool's books for eight years and still has four left on his contract. "What was your crime?" I ask.

"Murder," Benon tells me. "I caught my wife with another man and accidentally hit her. She died."

"Accidentally?"

"I just didn't mean to kill her."

This isn't a typical sports interview, but then again this isn't a typical sporting fixture either. Benon has just secured his team's place in the final of Uganda's most sophisticated prison soccer tournament, an event that's known not just for its high-quality soccer but also the remarkable part it plays in Uganda's ability to boast the lowest recidivism rate in the whole of Africa.

Benon was sentenced to 12 years in Luzira and credits soccer with teaching him how to control his temper. "When I get out I just want to be able to apologize to her family and hope that one day they will forgive me," he says. I ask him what he'll do if he ever finds himself in a similar situation. "I'll just walk away. I can't come back here."

Benon is one of 3,000 men in Uganda's only maximum security jail. Set on a hill outside the capital, Kampala, its 65-foot-high walls make for a foreboding entrance. On the inside inmates mill around a dusty yard, dressed in either orange or yellow. This used to signify whether someone had been sentenced or was on remand, but since the number of those awaiting trial grew to over 50 percent of the inmate population the system was abandoned.

A focus on work and rehabilitation in Luzira is evident in the prison's carpentry workshop.

Step further into the prison and almost all signs of authority disappear. Guards are nowhere to be seenprisoners outnumber them 35 to oneand it becomes clear that inmates do almost all of the work required to operate the prison. They haul wood through the yard to the kitchen, where topless men wield axes to chop logs into firewood. This is an endless task that feeds the stoves where more prisoners cook in 26-gallon pans. Allotments growing spinach and potatoes are tended by older men and in the sick bay other prisoners administer drugs to patients. Compared to American or British institutions the amount of responsibility handed over to the inmates is remarkable, and so is the lack of aggression.

The officer in charge of the prison, Wilson Magomu, believes that keeping inmates busy is essential to running a positive, rehabilitative prison. Certainly the statistics back this up. Luzira has a recidivism rate of less than 30 percent, embarrassing the UK and the US, where nearly 46 and 76 percent respectively of freed prisoners return eventually. "In those countries, societies tend to be punitive," says Magomu. "People don't think they've got any business with criminals, but the immediate reason they're here is to be rehabilitated. If somebody is not involved in something, if somebody's idle, it's very easy to get involved in mischief."

These men are here for some of the most serious crimesthe accused in the July 2010 Kampala attacks are being held hereand some face sentences of up to 25 years. For this reason, distracting them from an eternity of incarceration is key. "They've been punished already; we're not punitive here." Magomu preaches the liberal approach and says it's the smartest way. "We're only a few; they could easily take over."

At the center of this non-punitive system is the prison's soccer league, made up of ten teams that take their names from European giants. They include Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, and Barcelona. Each team has a squad of 20 players and a fan base made up of loyal followers and fellow inmates.

On match days the main yard is transformed into a soccer pitch. Markings are drawn out using pieces of string, and white flour, and the goal posts, otherwise used as washing lines, have nets strung up beneath them. As the rival teams change into replica soccer uniforms in classrooms-turned-changing rooms, the rest of prison life draws to a standstill as inmates make their way to the sidelines. For the next 90 minutes the prison becomes a stadium as supporters let out roars and cheer their team to victory. Liverpool isn't the only team with a murderer on its side. The other finalist, Manchester United, has a star striker, Jackson, who was a fisherman on the outside until one day, in a heated dispute, he killed a man. He leads us through to the carpentry workshop, where he also works, and explains how he's learned these practical skills here.

It's his, and almost everyone else's, openness to discussing their crimes that makes each interaction here stand out from other prisons I've visited in the world. The staff put this down to respect. They believe that while someone might have killed another person, this doesn't make them a murderer for life. Forgiveness must play a part in everyone's prison experience.

But just as many prisoners still insist they're innocent, like Manchester United's other key striker, Joel. The 21-year-old was arrested for armed robbery and has been waiting over a year for his trial. His story reveals a deeper problem in Uganda, as he's one of over 1,500 men on remand in Luzira, their lives suspended in a legal limbo while the country's glacial justice system struggles to process those charged. Although he believes he shouldn't be in prison, Joel is making the most of his time here and has taken up education, as well as soccer, to distract himself from an indefinite wait. His schooling wasn't bad on the outside, but here he's studying geography and IT and dreams of becoming a computer engineer when he grows up.

I ask Joel if he thinks he needs rehabilitation. "Yes, I think so," he says. "I used to smoke cigarettes, and drink a bit." Typical of Uganda's strong culture of self-improvement and restraint, he sees these minor infringements as something that he can correct while he's on remand.

That's not to say that he and others are complacent about reality in the jail, or numb to the conditions. We see the soccer players' living quarters. Huge wards with no partitions, housing 300 men who sleep on three-foot floor mats. Although the prison chiefs recognize that the overcrowding is inhumane, they blame their inability to do anything about it on lack of resources.

At the start of our visit to Luzira we're chaperoned on a tight leash, but as the days pass we achieve some freedom of our own inside. Inmates begin to approach us to whisper that the conditions are insufferable, and that a culture of control and intimidation is what really keeps the prison in order. They ask us to reveal what life is actually like in Luzira, a prison where inmates receive just one meal of porridge a day, every day. They slip their relatives' phone numbers to us on pieces of paper, scrawled hastily and passed in a handshake, in attempts to get messages out or expedite their cases. They're worried the "spies" who watch our every move will see the transaction.

Fans do laps of the yard-turned-pitch after Liverpool's victory as others watch on under cover of plastic chairs.

When they talk of "spies" they're referring to men like Opio Moses, a former police officer who has served 18 years for murder. After killing his attacker in an act of self-defense, he turned the gun on himself. Having survived the suicide attempt, he was jailed, and is now the head of the psychiatric ward and the CEO of the prison soccer league, Upper Prison Sports Association. He wrote the rulebook on prison soccer and organizes various tournaments and leagues. In return he gets privileges, like the chance to see his son in the flesh rather than behind bars. He also gets more food and a bed rather than a floor mat.

Arsenal failed to make it to the final, an uncanny reflection of their Premiership peers' fortunes of late.

Beneath him are ten other "leaders," who do jobs and act as mediators between the inmates and the prison officers when issues of "injustice" arise. But this only tells one side of their role. In actual fact they monitor life on each ward and report trouble back to the staff. For this they get rewards, too. Beneath them are the team managers, including Captain Brian Massete, who has served 25 years. The players are poached, trained, and incentivized by these managers and the fan groups donate their visitors' gifts as part of this bargaining process.

Arsenal failed to make it to the final, an uncanny reflection of their Premiership peers' fortunes of late.

The Sunday final begins in church, as congregations of various Christian denominations pray. A hum of deep gospel casts a peaceful Sunday atmosphere over the prison. The fans line the perimeter of the pitch, and the referees are brought in from the outside for the big game, which is deemed too significant to be adjudicated by potentially partisan members of the prison's refereeing fraternity.

At half time the heavens open and the next 45 minutes are played in torrential rain. It doesn't stop the DJ who's now banging Mr. Vegas's "Heads High" out of speakers as a carnival atmosphere descends on the prison. People dance with chairs on their heads and, as the final whistle blows, Liverpool is crowned glorious victors, with a single goal nudged into the back of the net by Benon. Pandemonium takes over and theatrical celebrations begin, as if the whole place is congratulating the game rather than a particular side.

For 90 minutes, and then an hour afterward, the spectacle seems to cast a spelleveryone temporarily forgets the urgent lack of resources, or, seemingly, that they are in prison at all. But as the excitement begins to wear off and the two teams stand shivering while they wait for the trophy to be awarded by prison staff and their affiliates, suddenly it's unclear whether soccer is a form of rehabilitation or regimentation in Luzira.

As everyone trudges through the mud to their wards, the lasting image is certainly one of a happier prison for all. But the cold shower and concrete mattress awaiting Benon might have as much to do with his commitment to not reoffending as his performance on the pitch.

VICE's film on Uganda's unique approach to rehabilitation will be out soon, keep an eye on VICE.com for its release.

Photo via Flickr user Emergency Vehicles

The Ontario government has announced it will end "arbitrary, random" carding this fall, but community advocates say the move is more symbolic than anything else.

"We have heard from the community that street checks, by definition, are arbitrary as well as discriminatory and therefore cannot be regulated; they must simply be ended. The province agrees that these types of stops must end," Yasir Naqvi, minister of community safety and correctional services, said in the legislature Thursday.

Carding is the controversial police practice of stopping civilians to gather and store their information; it has been shown to disproportionately target minorities and is considered unconstitutional by many.

In the coming days, the government is expected to release specifics on how the Police Services Act will be updated to reflect the new position on carding.

Neil Price, executive director at Logical Outcomes, a non-profit consulting firm that conducted a study on carding, told VICE the province needs to show that police officers who continue to stop people without cause will face consequences.

"What the police still haven't done is... articulate the purposes of those stops and how those stops actually help to reduce crime," he said.

"If that doesn't happen and the province says that it is illegal, when it does happen there needs to be consequences."

Toronto Police Services suspended carding in January, but Price said residents of areas frequently impacted by the practice are still being stopped. According to a Toronto Star investigation, black and brown Torontonians are far more likely to be carded than white people. Former police chief (and now Liberal MP) Bill Blair told the Star "racialized" neighbourhoodsJane and Finchare often targeted. In Brampton and Mississauga, the Star found black people were three times more likely to be carded.

"If the regulations are not perceived to be strong enough to rein in this practice and actually have police adhere to law and respect people's civil rights... I still think we're going to see the courts weigh in more heavily on this matter," Price said.

Toronto lawyer Vilko Zbogar, who has launched several legal challenges in relation to carding, said arbitrary stops are already illegal under Canadian lawbut cops frequently disregard those rules.

"Police forces across Ontario have not been following the law. They need to be told in very clear, explicit language that the law forbids the kind of arbitrary stop they've been frequently conducting."

Zbogar noted almost any stop that occurs outside of an actual investigation is arbitrary, but some cops try to "fudge it" when justifying their reasons for carding someone.

The province has said it will more clearly define the criteria for stopping someone for "suspicious activity" as part of an investigation.

"There has to be some specific crime. Just hanging out in the park late at night is not a suspicious activity," said Zbogar. "It's not like a white guy in a suit is going to be accused of suspicious activity, it's always going to be a black kid or an Aboriginal kid."

Toronto police spokesman Mark Pugash told VICE the organization's position is in line with what the ministry has said and that it is waiting for the regulations to come out before commenting further.

Alrighty then, Pugash.

Follow Manisha Krishnan on Twitter.

Photo via Flickr user US Department of Agriculture

Read: The Ontario Government Is Banning Police Carding, but No Plans for Punishing Police Announced

Ranchers in British Columbia are complaining that someone is going around shooting their cows and carving out select cuts, leaving the bulk of the corpses behind. The thirst for red meat has become so bad that RCMP Cpl. Trevor Tribes has placed the body count over the past few months at six cows in the Lumby, Lavington, and Cherryville areaa value of around $20,000.

One rancher, Jeremy Wasylyszyn of Cherryville, is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to arrest and conviction of the beef-obsessed cow killer. He described to CBC how, within the window of about two and a half to three hours, he had seen a female cow and her calf alive and well, then returned to the same area to find the tenderloins of both animals removed.

"Two strips of meat on either side of the spine," Wasylyszyn told CBC. "They've cut them out of the cow and the calf... I think they totally had intentions of taking more, but I don't think they realized how much traffic was on the road."

Wasylyszyn's cows weren't the first targeted by the hangry killer; two cattle were found on Coldstream Ranch in the North Okanagan region earlier this fall cut in half, the hindquarters completely removed.

Cattle thievery is an old-time tradition for meat-hungry criminals in Western Canada and the US Southwest. The Western Stock Growers' Association in Canada increased the reward for catching cow thieves 5,000 percent in 2012 due to the massive number of cattle stolen each year: around 6,000 in the prairies alone. Last year in Texas, where you're allowed to shoot to kill if someone has robbed you and is fleeing from your property, 5,800 cows were stolena value of $5.7 million.

One wonders what kind of dish the BC cow killer was so desperate to make that they worked up the moxy to murder another man's livestock and hastily hack off meat from the bodiesperhaps they just wanted to get the freshest cut possible for a lonely candlelit dinner of a creamy stroganoff complete with sauted cremini mushrooms and onions, accompanied by a nice chianti.

Follow Allison Elkin on Twitter.

A still from the film adaptation of 'Kill Your Friends'

Meeting John Niven, I feel like I'm walking into a scene from his 2008 novel Kill Your Friends, a tale of excess, greed, and depravity in the 1990s British music industrysomething he experienced firsthand as an A&R man. Sports cars that cost as much as an outer London flat line the Mayfair street I'm standing on as I watch Niven step out of a fancy seafood restaurant, suited and booted in preparation for a music industry awards ceremony he's going to after our meeting.

Thankfully, Niven is nowhere near as odious as some of the people he creates, including the protagonist of Kill Your Friends, a racist, misogynistic, violent, and generally vilebut often hilariousA&R man, Steven Stelfox, who's played by Nicholas Hoult in the upcoming movie adaptation of the book, set for release on November 6. Niven and I spoke about the film, the music industry, and how the life of an A&R man is an unsustainable one.

The trailer for 'Kill Your Friends'

VICE: Kill Your Friends is set in 1997. What were you doing that year?
John Niven: I had just left London Records and I became the A&R guy at Independiente. I'd just turned 30 and things began to wane a little bit for me. The first five or six years were really great fun as I was in my 20s, but as you get a little olderand I'd always wanted to be a writer, and that was eating away at meit gets a little repetitious and you're not as good with hangovers. Also, I was looking down the line and seeing myself as the guy in the bad leather jacket at the back of the gig who doesn't understand what's happening. I think by your mid-thirties or forties, if you haven't signed the next big thing, it might be time to get out. Music is a young person's medium. Thirty-five is young for a novelist, but it's old for an A&R man.

How involved in other aspects of the film have you been? Or were you hands off other than the writing stage?
In a way it's better to be hands off, because going to the set as the writer can be a mixed blessing. You can't really affect much at that pointyou have to let the director do his job. I often use the analogy that being the writer on set is a bit like going to an orgy but you're not allowed to fuck anyone. It can be extremely frustrating. A visit to the first day's shoot and then the wrap partythat's not a bad way to play it.

Producer Gregor Cameron, Nicholas Hoult, and Niven on the set of 'Kill Your Friends'

Actually liking music isn't really relevant for a lot of characters in Kill Your Friends. Did you step into the role as a fan of music?
I did. I was a guitar player in an indie band and then I worked for an indie label. Then, in 1994, I ended up at London Records, which was a very hit singles-driven label. It was a very vicious, success-driven environment, and to an extent I felt like a vegetarian who had suddenly been forced to work in an abattoir. I was a little appalled with how abhorrently bands were treated, but at the same time it was kind of intoxicating, especially when you had a hit record. The first record I signed was nearly Christmas number one, and we sold half a million singles in the first weekthat sort of thing is a very heady rush, and gradually you slip into that world. Next thing you know you're thinking, Everything we sign has to be big, rather than it has to be good. It took me a few years to go through that and come out the other side.

Are there any parallels you could draw between the behaviors and attitudes of big film industry executives and music industry ones?
To a degree, I think Hollywood makes the music industry look like it's run by a group of focused, well-intentioned people who are really on the case. There's perhaps even more executive paralysis in Hollywood because the stakes are so much higher. If you're going sign a band, you might be rolling the dice on a few hundred grand, but to make a Hollywood movie you could be rolling the dice on a hundred million dollars, so it's basically like setting up a giant corporation that's going to stand or fall on the basis of one product. You can see why people get very gun shy and second guess and hide behind decisions; it's like a labyrinth of a decision-making process. I think the trick with Hollywood, as it is with the music industry, is to maximize your connection to success and distance yourself from failure. Sadly, when you're a writer, there is no such get-out availableyou either go up or down with the ship.

Just how accurate is Kill Your Friends in terms of capturing what took place in the music industry in the 90s?
When I finished the novel and sent it to my friend, he said, "People are going to think you're exaggerating," which I assure you I'm not, especially in terms of the mentality the film displays and the excess of the time. It was like a last days of Rome era for the record industry; there was just so much money. Today, a successful album sells about 100,000 and it costs 7 would get off his nut and stay up drinking whisky and doing cocaine until 5 o'clock in the morning and get about 20 pages done, then he would edit the next day sober and take that down to two, and that ratio can work when you're in your 20s, but it doesn't work in your 40s. You're better off getting up early; I'm often at my desk for 6.30 AM.

What are you writing at the moment?
I'm working on the script for the adaptation of Caitlin Moran's book, How to Build a Girl. I've also started a new novel, No Good Dead, about a guy who runs into an old school friend who is now a vagrant, a bum, and he takes him into his house with hilarious and catastrophic results.

Sounds great. Thanks, John.

Follow Daniel on Twitter.

Hillary Clinton laughs after being asked by Alaska Republican Martha Roby if she was home alone on the night of the 2012 Benghazi attacks.AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

If there was one moment that laid bare the absurd black holethat wasthe House Benghazi Committee's 11-hourinterrogation of Hillary Clinton on Thursday, it came when Indiana RepublicanSusan Brooks reached under her chair and pulled out a map of North Africa."Most of us," Brooks intoned, "don't know much about Libya."

Benghazi is a city inLibya, so you might think it reasonable that everyone involved with somethingcalled the Benghazi Committee should know a lot about Libya. But that's becauseyou don't understand what the Benghazi Committee is about. I, on the otherhand, spent 660 minutes watching GOP members of Congress interrogate the formerSecretary of State,so I can say definitely what this whole affair is all about, and that thing is

Well, actually,that's a tricky question. One thing thesehearings are certainly not aboutis Benghazi, the Libyan city where four Americans, including US AmbassadorChris Stevens, died tragically in a terrorist attack on September 11, 2012. Since then, conservatives have generated a number of conspiracies about the eventsof that day. The main one is thatthe Obama administration, and Clinton specifically, ignored warnings aboutLibya, failed to call in support from the military once the attack started, andthen covered up what they knew on Meetthe Press with dishonest talkingpoints.

Read: We Had a Psychic Read the Energies of the Presidential Candidates

But eighteightinvestigationshave already answered the big questions about what happened in Benghazi. Thosereports disproved the more feverish conservative conspiracies while also findingthat what happened in Benghazi was a massive fuckup, a mess of badintelligence, bad estimates, and bureaucratic bullshit that created a situationwhere a ragtag band of local militias could storm the US diplomatic outpost.

As Secretary of Stateduring that period, Clinton certainly bears at least some responsibility forthat fuckup. But the right wing of the Republican Party wants #BENGHAZI to bemore than just a series of mistakes that ended in tragedythey're looking for a smoking gun, adamning email that says "lol I don't care that Americans died," evidence thatconfirms all those rarely-made-explicit conservative suspicions that BarackObama and the rest of the Democrats are actively working to destroy the countrythey are in charge of running. That motivation turned what could have been a discussionof a disastrous Libyan intervention into a partisan puppet show acted out for the benefit of Facebooktrolls and regional talk-radio hosts. And if you watched any of the HillaryClinton show trial on Thursday, you probably dismissed it as such.

But it didn't have tobe that way. Lost among the chaffabout who Clinton emailed back and how quickly were legitimate questionsabout what the Democratic frontrunnerwill do if she's elected as the next president.

Watch: Benicio Del Toro Talks 'Sicario'

Early on in the hearing, there was a moment when it lookedlike Republicans might actually take this road, and steer the argument towardpolicy as it relates to the world outside of #TCOT Twitter feeds. It came whenCongressman Pete Roskam, a Republican from Illinois, asked Clinton about herrole in the administration's decision to intervene militarily in Libya in early2011. Pointing out that there were several members of the administration whowere against getting involved in the country's civil war, Roskam cast Clintonas the key advisor who persuaded Obama that it was a good idea to lead aninternational coalition that ultimately overthrew Muammar Qaddafi.

Clinton looked visibly agitated. "I think it's fair to say therewere concerns and there were varying opinions about what to do, how to do it,and the like," she said. "At the end of the day, this was the president'sdecision."

But the response rang hollow. Clinton did play a key role in the administration's campaign in Libyashewas one of Maureen Dowd's"Amazon warriors," and her advisors have been touting the accomplishment eversince. Just last week, at the Democratic primary debate, Clinton herself wastalking up the Libya campaign as a legacy-making accomplishment of her tenureas Secretary of State.

And Roskam wasn't having it. "Our Libya policy be couldn't havehappened without you because you were its chief architect," he insisted. "After your plan, things in Libya today are a disaster."

"That's not a view that I will ascribe to," Clinton replied.

The moment went largely unnoticed in the endless hours ofquestioning that followed, but Roskam's point was salient. While the USintervention may have averted the mass killings that Qaddafi had promised towreak on his opponents, his death left a vacuum that the Obamaadministration had no planor political willto fill. The country is now a failed state, a breeding ground for terrorists and human traffickers, ruled bydueling parliaments and devastated by a civil war that has killed thousands ofpeople.

The situation bears a remarkable resemblance to theaftermath of the Iraq war, a war that Clinton voted for and now says that sheregrets. What was the difference? Did the administration foresee any of thechaos that ensued after Qaddafi was gone? Did they have a plan? Or did they, asRoskam later theorized, simply declare success and then lose interest in Libya,even as the security situation there deteriorated?

There is evidence that Trey Gowdy, the Draco Malfoyimpersonator who has taken over as the chief inquisitor of the GOP's clowncourt, tried to pursue this line of questioning. Gowdy, who spent most ofThursday defending his committee's existence, told Politico recently that he wanted to expand the investigation's scope tolook beyond whether the attack in Benghazi could have been prevented, andconsider whether the US should have been there in the first place. According toGowdy, the Obama administration has so far resisted this line of inquiry,demanding that the committee's jurisdiction be limited only to the days immediatelybefore and after the attack.

Maybe it's theexecutive branch stopping the GOP from fully examining the Libyan intervention.Or maybe the problem is that this isn't a good time for dovish talk about the problems with an aggressive foreign policy. Clinton supports a no-fly zone in Syria, but so do the majority of Republican presidential candidates, making further military action in the Middle East all but inevitable. I can't wait for the Syria Committeehearings of 2020.

Follow Grace Wyler on Twitter.

Image via Martin Shkreli's Twitter

Read: Hillary Clinton Wants the US to Launch an Investigation Against Martin Shkreli's Company

Martin Shkreliunrepentant capitalist, head of Turing Pharmaceuticals, erstwhile unlikely patron of punk, guy who possibly once offered his ex 10 grand to let him go down on her, and the man more commonly known as "the $750 pill guy who is the worst"has found himself being undermined even further.

Yesterday, Imprimis Pharmaceuticals announced that they'll start offering an alternative to Daraprim, a drug that fights some of the parasitic infections that patients with serious ailments like as cancer and AIDS are particularly susceptible to contracting. The best part? A 100-count bottle will cost patients as little as $99, bringing the average price of the drug from $750 per pill to 99 cents.

Imprimis CEO Mark Baum was quoted in the announcement as saying the drug was developed as a response to Shkreli's price hike, which was criticized by everyone from Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump. "This is not the first time a sole supply generic drugespecially one that has been approved for use as long as Daraprimhas had its price increased suddenly and to a level that may make it unaffordable," Baum added in a statement. The company also has plans to address other instances of price gauging by Big Pharma through the introduction of affordable generics.

Don't read this as strictly a humanitarian move on the part of Imprimis, howeverthe company said they still plan on making a profit from the drug.

Follow Drew on Twitter.

Photos courtesy of Thomas Iannaccone

On Wednesday afternoon in October, Brendon Babenzian, a wiry,eager 43-year-old from Long Island, sat on a small wooden chair in his newstore, Noah, on Mulberry Street in Manhattan. The store is comfortable, like awealthy person's living room. It was set to open the next day. Babenzian hadbeen the creative director for skate-inspired street style label Supreme onand off for about 15 years. He left in February to revive the brand he started in the early 2000s. Theapple had not fallen far from the treethe Noah store is four blocks away from Supreme.

All around Babenzian, workmen put the finishing touches onNoah: They fiddled with electrical sockets, scrubbed the windows, pleaded withChase to get the credit card machine fixed. He stood up and walked over to ashelf, pulled a shirt off the rack, wrapped himself in it, and swayed from sideto side. He described his mission: "How do I bring people ideas through aproduct?"

During Babenzian's time as Supreme's creative director, the highest creativeposition at a fashion house, the brand became the most intenselycoveted men's clothing label in the world. The notoriously secretive company is owned by its founder, James Jebbia, who appears more focused on management than day-to-day product design. Quietly, Babenzian helped turn alittle shop into an empire. He also pulled off a strange feat: selling millionsof dollars of clothing steeped in anti-consumerist, anti-capitalist messaging tohordes of frenzied consumers. (Supremecan no longer sell certain sneakers at its store due to threat ofa literal riot, and there's even a store that exclusively sells sold out items from the brand at an inflated rate.) Take, for example, the inspiration for thecompany's logo, which was inspired by a 1987 Barbara Kruger artwork:

In recent interviews, in preparation for the opening of hisown clothing store, Babenzian has been fixed on one idea in particular: thatthe clothing you wear might not be crucial and, at worst, might distract fromwhat really matters. "I'd like my customers to take away the idea that whatthey do is more important than what they wear," he told the New York Observer. GQ categorized his ideal customer as " But the thing is, clothes are just an extensionof what matters."

He paused again and looked around the store. "We're nottrying to push tons of crap. If it appeals to you, buy it. But if you're buyingit because VICE says it's cool, don't." (The clothing is cool.)

A few minutes later, he said, "Today, you can go online andfind a million points of style. And society is swinging to a place wherelooking 'alternative' and 'unique' is more and more acceptable. But you look atpeople dressed like the icons of punkrock and their actions don't reflect that ideology. So how that person looks iskind of... bullshit. And then the opposite is true. Some guys who wear suits andties have revolutionary thoughts and they put their ideas into action, but kidslook at them and think, That's just an old man in a suit and tie. Consumingin and of itself isn't bad, but at a breakneck pace, completely blind, it isbad. When we consume in a certain way, we need to get smart about it. We needto do it better. We need to figure it out." Babenzian's paradoxical thinkingalmost seems to be channeling similar thoughts that fueled the style-cum-ideology"normcore." Noah is a clothing line that is dedicated to the idea that clothing doesn't matterthat much, that consumption can be disgusting.

He led me around the store, stopping in front of an oilpainting of an expanse of ocean. Above the waves were numbers. The numbers wererecordings of the ocean's depths at their respective points. "I'm not abig-time art guy. There's a level of sophistication I think I might lack. Butwhen I come across something I like, it's like a revelation." He looked at thepainting. Like the clothesaround it, the painting was about its own hidden depths.

I asked him what he was worried about regarding the store.

"There seem to be some really high expectations," he said,looking down with a hint of frustration. "I've been trying to explain to peoplethat my past is my past. I don't have any money. I'm not a corporation. This isa small business, a family business. And all we're trying to do here is do wellenough to have a nice little life. We can have a successful business withoutselling everything under the sun. We don't need to be filthy rich. But I guessI'm worried that, well, we won't even do well enough to have a nice littlelife. I mean, I have a wife and daughter. I need to make sure they're lookedafter."

He looked around the store again. "For every choice we make,it's a question of money. It's about greed. How much do you need? How much isenough?"

I asked him how much clothing he needs to sell to keep thestore in businessthe bare minimum.

He thought about it for a while. "About $20,000 a month," hesaid.

He continued, "There's something else that's worrying me,and it's something I don't know if I'll ever be able to fix. I don't know whatto do about it." He shook his head. "I recently found out that PETA had outedPatagonia for buying wool from a company with farms where the sheep were beingtreated horribly. I mean, I watched the video and I was holding back tears. Itwas just brutal. It was atrocious. And, to their credit, Patagonia respondedwithin a day. They dropped that company. But upon further research, I foundthat this sort of treatment could be common practice in the wool industry. And,I mean, Patagonia has the resources and the buying power to change theirsuppliers' practices, but for me, I'm too small. So, at the moment, I have noidea where my wool is coming from. I'm like, Do I not sell wool? I love wool.So I'm going to have to find suppliers who treat their animals in a reasonableway, or, you know, take it on the chin."

He thought for a second and added, "I'm not a vegan. I'm notgoing to stop eating meat. I would just like for animals to be treated in areasonable way. We don't have to torture them."

I asked him what he wanted to do better at Noah, once theoperation really got going. He wandered over to the T-shirts. One said, "JOCK ORAMA." Another, featuring a modified cross, said, "CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD."They were simple, clever adoptions of long-running, confrontational punkidioms. He picked up the "LESSER GOD" shirt. "It's about the underdog kid," hesaid. They were basic T-shirts that came in a few colors. "The T-shirt is anunderrated vehicle," he said.

"I want to be stronger in graphics. I want to be really goodat creating graphics that are interesting to wear and thought-provoking, butnot preachy. The graphics Supreme puts out are fucking brilliant. No oneeven comes close. They're culturally relevant, aggressive, astute. Especiallyif you look around and look at what other companies are putting out. Do you seethe kind of shit people are wearing?"

A few hours later, in the evening, Noah held its openingparty. I spoke to Babenzian's wife, Estelle, who was sitting on the couch inthe middle of the store. "As soon as we got together, I pushed him to leaveSupreme," she said. She looked determined. "He's a thought leader. His ideasneed to be expressed." It doesn't seem like his ideas were stifled at Supreme,but at Noah, they're not even filtered through a teamBabenzian is Noah's onlydesigner. Estelle paused. "And when you get to a certain age, you can't operateunder someone else's rules anymore."

Outside of the opening party, hundreds of Babenzian'sfriends, including the entire Supreme design team, came to congratulate him.The store was warm and homey, packed with skaters in their 30s and 40s andtheir significant others. Everyone seemed to be hugging. Babenzian held courtoutside. "I'm glad you guys are leavingyou take up a lot of space," he jokedto a group of large men who were on their way out.

Most people wanted to buy something, not just look at theclothes. "Where the prices at, motherfucker? Where the bar codes? I'm tryinn'abuy some shit tonight!" said a guy who was chewing on what looked like atoothpick, but turned out to be a little stick. Babenzian, standing in a circleof guys, told him that the store wouldn't be selling anything until the nextday.

The talk then turned to the design on the shopping bags,which Babenzian had left very simple. They had the Noah logo, but they wereotherwise just brown bags. (They were referred to at the party as"low-key.") "It's just brown bags for now," Babenzian said. They fit the ideaof selling to a customer who doesn't want to be seen shopping. The man he wasspeaking to nodded and said, "Yeah, men's shopping is a gross thing. It's agross concept." He wore a perfectly died pair of jeans, an antique watch, andan unstoppable blue track jacket. He looked super cool.

Follow David on Twitter.

John Borowski has been consuming a diet of macabre entertainment sincehe watched Aliens when he was seven. Raised on the northwest side ofChicago, his older sister introduced him to a variety of horror classics as achild, instilling a lifelong passion for topics that scare the bejeezus out ofmost, such as brutal murders and violent deaths.

As an aspiring filmmaker,he attended Columbia College to hone his craft, where his interest shifted tohistorical horror and documentaries. He started his foray into nonfiction film with a short aboutJeffrey Dahmer, which led to Borowski diving deeper into murderabilia and real-world horror in his work. John's first feature-length documentary, H.H. Holmes:America's First Serial Killer (2004), explored the life of the eponymous 19th-century criminal and won numerous awards in the Americanindependent film festival circuit. Borowski followed this with threemore feature-length docs on other 19th- and 20th-century serial killers.

His newest film is Bloodlines: The Art and Life of Vincent Castiglia, a departure from his previous work in that it focuses onblood in the context of art instead of crime. In the documentary, Borowski profiles the eponymous subject, a painter who creates surreal images images inspired by anatomy, mutilation, and mortalityall designed using his own blood. VICE recently caught up with Borowski to discuss how he got interested in serial murders and how Bloodlines, which will be released in early 2016, fits in with his past work.

'Autopsy of the Soul' by Vincent Castiglia, painted using the artist's blood

VICE: Why did you start making films about serial killers?
John Borowski: When I was a teenager, my best friend and I would mess around and create special effects makeup. As we were getting into it, Jeffrey Dahmerwas arrested. My best friend's father was a cop in Chicago, andone day my friend told me to come to his house. What he had first thought was a catalogfor masks was actually his father's file on Dahmer, which included Dahmer'sconfession and also photocopies of the Polaroids he took of his victimsheads and body parts that he cut up and put in the fridge and on the sink. Thephotos Dahmer took of his victims left an impression on my psyche that I willnever forget, because even though Dahmer stated that his victims felt no pain,the expressions on the heads were that of fear and pain with their mouths andeyes open in extreme agony.

Why did you concentrate on exclusively pre-1930sserial killers in your earlier work?
I find pre-1930s serialkillers the most fascinating of all serial killers. Many times they have gottenaway with their crimes for so long due to the infancy of crime detectionmethods. I had heard somuch about John Wayne Gacy, Dahmer, Richard Ramirez, and David Berkowitz that Idecided to research earlier American serial killers. I was researchingfor an essay on Chicago history and came across the story of H.H.Holmes, who's America's first documented serial killer and laid thegroundwork for how many future mass murderers were caught in thecountry.

Notonly are the early serial killers more fascinating but the crime detectionmethods of how they were apprehended are just as amazing. Considering there wasno DNA typing or security cameras and that fingerprinting was just beginning tobe utilized in America, it was really through tried and true detective workthat these early serial killers were apprehended.

Can you tell me about your new film?
Bloodlinesis about the art and life of artist Vincent Castiglia who paints amazing,moving images either in his own blood or the blood of his collectors. The film,like my other film biographies, follows his life from birth to his currentsituation as a world-renowned artist. We have interviewed many interestingartists and collectors such as Gregg Allman, Kerry King and Gary Holt ofSlayer, Margaret Cho, Tom Warrior of Triptykon, and others.

How does he make his paintings?
The artistworks with a nurse or phlebotomist who draws his blood, which he then holds in a cup and uses as if it were normal paint.The blood dries on the canvas in a sepia tone, and it doesn't crack and staysfixed on the canvas.

His work is pretty dark. What inspires him?
Painting in his own blood comes from a very personal placeof pain and suffering, though you'll have to watch the documentary to find out aboutthese exact events. I will say he has had numerous brushes with mortality in hislife, including an incident when he was eight years old that nearly caused his leg to be amputated. If you look at his work,The Feeding, a woman in the wheelchair has legs that are deteriorated intobones. It's Vincent's art that's kept him going his whole life. He wanted to connectwith his work on the most intimate level and could not achieve that with anymaterial other than blood.

Why do you think so many people are interested in morbid topics like serial killers?
It's true, many people have afascination with the macabre. It's interesting that women make up the largest demographic of people interested true crime. Maybe women want to figure out why women are enamored by serial killers, such asDoreen Ramirez who married The Night Stalker while he was inprison. Many people live uninteresting lives, so maybe learning about serialkillers is something exciting because it's so outside their day-to-dayexistences.

Thereach of true crime is very broad, from law enforcement officers who collectserial killer artworks, to artists who are inspired by the stories of killers.People will always be fascinated by something that is outside of the norm, suchas Vincent painting in his own blood. But it goes deeper than that becausepeople want to know why people kill or do these dark things. For Vincent'sstory, I am attempting to illustrate why he came to paint in his own blood. Forserial killers, unfortunately we have not found a definitive answer as to whythey become human predators. When I interviewed John Wayne Gacy's psychiatrist,Helen Morrison, she stated that she had found no abnormalities in studyingGacy's brain. Thirty-three bodies in his crawlspace and his brain was normal. Try tofigure that one out.

For more on John Borowski's work, visit his website here.

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Singapore is in the middle of celebrating its Golden Jubilee, the 50th anniversary of the country's status as an independent republic. Since its founding in 1965, the city-state has grown from a tiny trading port to a bona fide economic power. Its also acquired a reputation for strict lawschewing gum is banned, for instance, and in 1994 the American student Michael Fay was caned for committing vandalismalong with its cleanliness and wealth.

More Photos: Horrifying Nightmares from Around the World

To find out a little more about this elusive place I asked four photographers who hail from Singapore to contribute images and statements on youth culture and how they avoided canings while clubbing.

Alex Thebez is an Indonesian GIF artist and photographer currently based in New York. He's half of TAGTAGTAG and part of GIFRIENDS.

I moved to Singapore from Jakarta, Indonesia after the riots in 1998. Our family had visited Singapore a lot, as it was a popular vacation destination for the region. Unlike most of Southeast Asia, Singapore was stable and modern.

I became a resident of Singapore rather unwillingly. My parents had decided for me that I should go to school in a country that was not actively trying to kill us every couple of decades. Most of my time in Singapore was spent during the night. We drank a lot (mostly beer, liquor was and is too expensive), went clubbing a lot (only bands like Hoobastank would come play, but I saw Linkin Park that one time), and played a lot of DOTA in LAN shops even though I was really bad at it.

A home that isn't really home, Singapore has maintained a dear place in my memory. For better or worse, the city-state, even with it's glaring issues, has allowed me to walk the streets at night without worry. I made friends who told me about Descartes, went to punk shows with Malay skinheads, and threw up all over the inside of a cab.

The following are a couple of picture from Singapore. I've also asked a few of my closest Singaporean friends below to write their recollections of growing up in Singapore.

Marilyn Yun Jin is a photographer and designer based in Singapore. She is one half of Knuckles & Notch, a Risograph press and publisher.

Growing up during the 90s and early 2000s in Singapore was a luxury and privilege. I loved Hong Kong films, Japanese culture, and MTV. Youth culture Singapore was something that was almost nonexistent at the time.

I spent my teenage years hanging out with different people, having different cliques of friends, investing heavily in relationships that never worked out, playing music, going for gigs, and getting drunk on Wednesday and weekends. Really, just trying to do everything but drugs (capital punishment for drugs in Singapore is pretty harsh"death" harsh).

Dilys Ng is a Singaporean artist-curator working in photography, installation, and publishing. She is also the founding editor of Galavant Magazine.

Growing up in Singapore was kind of like growing up in a shopping mall. Everything was clean, convenient, and expensive, and you would look out from the glass window in your air-conditioned bubble and experience things from afar. For most of my teenage years, I grew up in the nighttime of Singapore.

People like talking about politics and nostalgia while in line for the best Nasi Lemak. They liked talking about money, their children's grades, and how they would never move out of the country.

Chang Ming is a Singapore-based photographer who also runs Nope Fun.

Being a collectivist society, there's quite a lot of pressure to conform in Singapore: pressure to get top grades, pressure to get a "respectful" job, pressure to make lots of money, pressure to get a good partner, and so on. Success seems to be measured in a rather planned-out route, one that's marked by materialism.

Growing up in post-colonial Singapore also meant that I was (and still am) exposed to many ideas from the West, while living out a mix of cultures from the East. No doubt such an upbringing can be advantageous in today's globalizing landscape, but I think it also fractures one's sense of identity, and extends to a cultural dilemma on a larger scale in society: What culture can I claim as my own? Where do I really belong?