Today in Colombia, VBS correspondent Ryan Duffy officially becomes our first employee to take a bullet for the team. And this is no incidental, glacing sort of hit, but a full-on gutshot, fired at him point-blank, by the very guy who designed the bulletproof parka he’s wearing. After an experience like that in most parts of the world, you call it a day, but here it is evidently par for the course to round out a morning of near-death by going on a little field trip to the local burundanga tree with your crazed drug-dealer buddy. Go figure.
Archive for July, 2007
COLOMBIA - BULLETPROOF TAILOR
SCANDINAVIA - BOREDOMS
The Boredoms are going to play a couple of club gigs in Scandinavia for the first time, like, ever (they played Roskilde a couple of years ago, but that doesn’t count). They travel with an entourage the size of a small village and hardly ever go on tour, so this is a rare opportunity to get physically hurt by music. The dates are listed after the jump.
Listen: “Not Boring” - Boredoms podcast
LAURA’S ACCIDENT
On February 3, 2006, two weeks after Laura and Jonathan got married at City Hall, she got into a terrible bike accident. She doesn’t remember what happened and there were no witnesses. They found her lying two blocks away from the restaurant she worked at. She had flown forward straight onto her face without putting her hands out to break her fall. They have no idea what caused it. But it was the most harrowing sight of Jonathan’s life. Not only because of how she looked, but because she was delirious and vomiting blood…
LAURA’S ACCIDENT
On February 3, 2006, two weeks after Laura and Jonathan got married at City Hall, she got into a terrible bike accident. She doesn’t remember what happened and there were no witnesses. They found her lying two blocks away from the restaurant she worked at. She had flown forward straight onto her face without putting her hands out to break her fall. They have no idea what caused it. But it was the most harrowing sight of Jonathan’s life. Not only because of how she looked, but because she was delirious and vomiting blood…
LAURA’S ACCIDENT
On February 3, 2006, two weeks after Laura and Jonathan got married at City Hall, she got into a terrible bike accident. She doesn’t remember what happened and there were no witnesses. They found her lying two blocks away from the restaurant she worked at. She had flown forward straight onto her face without putting her hands out to break her fall. They have no idea what caused it. But it was the most harrowing sight of Jonathan’s life. Not only because of how she looked, but because she was delirious and vomiting blood…
COLOMBIA - BULLETPROOF TAILOR
On THE VICE GUIDE TO TRAVEL we pay a visit to the Armoured Armani, a Bogota tailor who makes fashionable bulletproof gear. Staying in Colombia, on VBS NEWS we continue our quest to sniff out Devil’s Breath aka the evil drug Scopolamine. On a lighter note, on DOs & DON’Ts & FRIENDs, Chamillionaire tells us he is unfamiliar with Pussy.com.
MP3 - TECHNO! UNHHHH….
Our favorite bloody headed, mosh inducing, epic track producing, maladjusted hard core group, Fucked Up, tried their hand at Justice’s "Stress." While Justice’s version makes us feel like we’re in a cathedral full of robots, Fucked Up makes us want to tear the robots apart limb from limb and rebuild a Mad Max world with their insides.
Listen: "Stress" - Fucked Up
AFGHANISTAN - LADS ON PATROL
Today we go to Afghanistan to follow the daily lives of British Army soldiers living in a UK bubble in the middle of the desert. They are stationed in the Helmand district, which is at the heart of the conflict between the Taliban and the West. Photos by Kalpesh Lathigra.
BELGIUM - GOD IS GREAT
There’s a reason why the naked guy is called God by his fans — and it’s not just because it’s short for Godfried-Willem Raes. A composer/performance artist/instrument inventor for over forty years, he is deity-like in the world of experimental music. God has invented over 70 instruments that make sound using things like fire, wind, rain, light, microwave radar and human movement. He’s even got one operated by brainwaves. God has attained a cult following as the leader of the Logos Foundation, a centre for breaking boundaries and blowing minds based in Belgium. When he’s not playing his pyro-electric transducers or testing his acceleration-sensing devices, God is a life-long vegan who enjoys pipe-smoking and dancing the tango. We tried to meet up with God but he was busy, so we talked to fellow experimental musician and long-time partner/muse Moniek Darge.
CONGO - WRESTLING & WITCHCRAFT
In the Congo, wrestling is just as popular as it is in America. The main difference is that the Congolese like to introduce a mystical, magical “voodoo” element to the pantomime. So as well as huge goons wearing spandex and diving off ten-foot-high stages, there’s also the inclusion of “magical traditions” which involve magic powders, spells and zombie-like transformations of wrestlers.
COLOMBIA - SCOPOLAMINE
Today we continue our exploration of the horrifying world of Colombian scopolamine with a visit to the local university’s toxicology expert for a quick primer on the physical effects of the drug and then are treated to a first-hand display, courtesy of our drug-dealer buddy Demencia Black. Never before have we seen a man so live up to his name. We’ve also got the third part of our skate-tour of New York with Steve Rodriguez on Epicly Later’d, as well as another clip from Annihilation Time’s destructive set at the Charleston bar in Williamsburg, and a new round of DOs & DON’Ts & Friends.
NEW YORK - ROOFTOP TOXIC BROOKLYN
Having a bad time on a New York rooftop in the summer is almost impossible unless you’re being thrown off. And if you want to have a really good time on one head down to the Westbeth Artists Community in Greenwich Village tonight (July 26th) to check out a yummy little smorgasbord of short movies presented by Rooftop Films. Tonight’s lineup features a couple segments from VBS.tv’s Toxic Brooklyn series that delve into the oily sludge bubbling beneath Williamsburg’s real-estate boom. There’s also a short about a carny dealing with the gentrification of Coney Island and falling in love with a sideshow freak, another about a sinking ship full of animals, and live music before the movies. It’s a cheap date that someone’s bound to find romantic enough to go home with you afterward, so there’s really no excuse not to show up.
INTERVIEW - LIARS
Art-punk chameleons Liars seem to reinvent themselves on every album. The only common thread that runs through their back catalogue is that it’s great to listen to when you’re baked and staring into space. We met up with the band and talked about their experimentalism.
