By Drew Grant 3/26 7:59pm

off the record

vice02_tca

The Vice Guide to Serious Journalism: How a DIY Drug Mag Became Serious Business for HBO

When Shane Smith, one of the founders of Vice Media, pitched a television show to MTV in 2010, it seemed unimaginable that the company that came out of Vice magazine could establish itself as a respected informational source about, well, anything (other than how to decorate your heroin stash). And yet the network bit, and The Vice Guide to Everything ran for eight episodes, balancing ridiculous segments against heavier fare.

With its latest television program, VICE, which premieres next Friday, the media company is once again trying its hand at American television. Not just television. HBO. And this time, it’s not trading on its nihilistic reputation. Instead, it’s asking audiences to trust in its international-relations acumen. It wants to be taken seriously. Or at least as seriously as it takes itself. Read More

By Drew Grant 2/28 7:21pm

Kim Jong-fun

BFFs (Getty)

Dennis Rodman and Kim Jong-un are BFFs, Obvs (Video)

Does it seem super convienent that the day after North Korea started letting its citizens use 3G wireless to tweet and send pictures to each other (that’s what wireless is for, right? God, wait till they find out about Facebook!), Dennis Rodman announced that he had become besties with Kim Jong-un, the supreme leader whose government had invited the Worm and members of the Harlem Globetrotters to shoot a VICE TV show about “basketball diplomacy.” Sure. Is it weird that Rodman is suddenly claiming to be friends with the dictator? Maybe, but come on, the guy’s always found weird partners. Remember that time he dated Madonna? Read More

By Drew Grant 2/26 5:10pm

Great Ideas in History

dennis

Dennis Rodman and Harlem Globetrotters Diplomacy Efforts for VICE to End in Detainment Basketball Camp

It’s all fun and games until the Globetrotters have to build a human pyramid to escape a North Korean prison. Today, VICE media sent “correspondent Ryan Duffy, NBA Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman, and select members of the Harlem Globetrotters” along with a film crew to Pyongyang, North Korea for the first ever attempt at “Basketball Diplomats.” This is all part of the new TV show VICE on HBO, which will be an extension of the VBS.tv series on Vice.com.

According to a U.S. state department official, VICE has not contacted them about their trip, nor does it vet private travel to the country, which two weeks ago scared the world by performing underground nuclear testing.

What could go wrong? Read More

By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke 9/14/12 6:18pm

Kickin' It

image

Cat Marnell Gives Up Her Vices

In last week’s installment of her Vice column, “Amphetamine Logic,” Wild child blogger Cat Marnell announced that her time at the hipster web mag was coming to an end.

“I’m writing my last columns,” Cat Marnell explained when we reached her late Friday afternoon .“I almost feel addicted to them, like I could go on forever.”

However, Ms. Marnell, who celebrated her 30th birthday earlier this week, is ready for her next venture. She said she has become a perfectionist. “I’ve  just got to do it right. When you are writing weird, it’s make it good or go home, you know?” Ms. Marnell noted she scrapped this week’s column because she wasn’t happy with it and missed her deadline.

“I miss my deadlines all the time, and my editor just has to deal with me like Jane did.” Ms. Marnell was the Beauty Editor at xoJane.com until June. Ms. Marnell said she still talks to Jane Pratt all the time, and they plan to have dinner soon.

“I love her, she’s the great love of my life,” Ms. Marnell said of her erstwhile mentor. Read More

By Drew Grant 8/29/12 2:54pm

Digital Media

The real money-makers (Vice)

Vice Made $110 Million This Year, Thanks to Long Internet Videos

And they said it couldn’t be done: a sustainable model for making money from videos that last longer than it takes for an adorable cat to try to climb out of a box. Hell, even sites that incorporate short video content have trouble making money off the endeavor, because advertisers still have a hard time figuring out how much one viewer’s time is worth.

So who would have guessed that it would be Vice–formerly the home of Canadian junkies who specialized in stories about drugs, sex and how cool they were–that finally broke the code, hitting $110 million in revenue for 2011. And this year, its going to make even more. Read More

By Aaron Gell 8/22/12 2:29pm

The Transom

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Dancehall Days: The Vybz Kartel Record Release Party

A crowd of music fans, including Fab Five Freddy, spilled out onto West Houston Street on a clear night last week. The occasion was the record release party for Kingston Story Deluxe Edition, the latest album by Jamaican dancehall superstar Vybz Kartel, a k a the World Boss, a k a Gaza Don, a k a the Teacher, a k a Adija Palmer. Read More

By Kat Stoeffel 6/27/12 11:30am

off the record

cat-marnell-left

Cat Marnell at Vice: Only ‘Logical’

Ousted xoJane beauty editor Cat Marnell—whose relentless documentation of her PCP and pill habits alternately captivated and enraged the women’s blogosphere—has landed a column at (where else?) Vice. It’s called Amphetamine Logic and its first installment, “The Aftermath,” went online Thursday.

The title refers to Ms. Marnell’s public falling out with xoJane editor-in-chief Jane Pratt and parent company SAY Media, who asked Ms. Marnell to go to rehab a month before she left. She announced her departure (a mutual decision with Ms. Pratt) in a Page Six item, saying that she couldn’t spend another summer meeting deadlines when she could be on the roof of the Standard Hotel “looking for shooting stars and smoking angel dust with my friends and writing a book.”

Talk about red flags. Though hardly known for its strict decorum, Vice does have more suits walking around since partnering with big shot TV executives and expanding internationally. Off the Record asked editor-in-chief Rocco Castoro if he had any concerns about the new hire. Read More

By Drew Grant 5/10/12 4:23pm

Vice

Shane Smith, Vice founder (Getty Images)

Vice TV on HBO: Bill Maher and Fareed Zakaria Join Mad Media Venture

We shouldn’t be surprised that Vice Media’s stunning transformation over the years– from a dirty Canadian hipster zine founded by anarchists and ex-junkies, to a slick site (thanks, Viacom!) focused on original video  content–has lead to a pot of gold.

Since its inception, Vice has been pitching shows to networks, none of which panned out into anything, as the Vice brand wasn’t exactly TV friendly (no, not even to the audiences of Jackass). But 2.0 Vice (and Vice.TV), with its lack of Gavin McInnes and new-found social consciousness, has landed founder Shane Smith his first network show. Forget Vice.TV…this is Vice TV! Read More

By Foster Kamer 3/19/12 12:07pm

That Whole Austin Situation

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A$AP Rocky Reads Austin the Riot Act as VICE’s SxSW Party Ends in Harlem Rap Crew’s Chaos

For a few weeks every year, pity poor Austin, Texas, when South by Southwest results in the tragic occupation of the town by New York City’s hipster and media set. Even Jay-Z was taken aback by the way his hometown was essentially imported to the Lone Star State. Think of it as one big Friday Night Lights fetishist party, or the metropolitan intelligentsia version of Spring Break in Daytona Beach. As they network among the endless river of new media panels, music industry showcases, and food trucks, occasionally something interesting happens.

Like when a Harlem rap crew brought forth absolute chaos upon SxSW’s denizens last night at a VICE party. Naturally. Read More

By Drew Grant 11/10/11 12:54pm

cartoons

getting-marriage-license

Drag Queens and Gay Marriage Featured in R. Crumb's Axed 'New Yorker' Cover

Robert Crumb, the alt-comic writer with a piggyback fetish, has always been ahead of his time. That’s what made his comics–usually featuring giant Amazonian women with humungous thighs as a chronic masturbatory fantasy– so transgressive to begin with.

But for all his former subversiveness, Mr. Crumb is pretty mainstream nowadays. Maybe not New Yorker mainstream though: Vice magazine unearthed a 2009 drawing from the cartoonist that was rejected by David Remnick‘s magazine. Though an answer was never given on why the cover wasn’t run, Mr. Crumb suspects it was because the New Yorker was too afraid of offending people with the image of a (possible?) drag queen and a twee person of unidentifiable sex trying talking to a sweating official from the marriage license bureau, with a sign pointing to a “Genders Inspection” office next to his window.

Below, a high res image of the cartoon, which was discovered at the Venice Biennale in June. Read More