Brooklyn hipsters invade North Korea

Wed, 04/09/2008 - 11:45am

Recently, a colleague turned me on to Vice Magazine, a Brooklyn-based project that writes about the underground music scene, extreme sports, and all things counterculture. Increasingly though, as Vice's notoriety grows, it's venturing into territory that is decidedly less fluffy. Incorporating international reporting on areas most people only hear about in wonkier publications like The Economist or The Washington Post, Vice manages to open up new worlds to its urban hipster clientele by maintaining a cynical and subversive edge.

Through print features such as "Moldova: Mental Asylums and Psychadelic Gravestones," their recent interview with the Iraqi Minister of Tourism (um, Iraqi tourism?) and now their new online venture VBS.tv, Vice founders Suroosh Alvi, Eddy Moretti, and Shane Smith have moved into territory previously uncharted, something they themselves have summed up best as "60 Minutes meets Jackass." 

VBS.tv's slogan is "Rescuing you from television's deathlike grip," and features mini-documentaries by staff members exploring news-y topics such as the lost boys of Sudan, or Palestinian media campaigns aimed at luring women and children into committing acts of terror. A documentary of their trip to North Korea features comical mash-ups of North Korean propaganda with creepily orchestrated Pyongyang tour stops and drunken noribong with government chaperones. It is at once inane and fascinating -- the Vice trademark. Check it out.

Caitlin Wall | Permalink | | Comments? Login or register
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Vice Films

by Cquirk on Thu, 04/10/2008 - 11:51am

Vice has also produced a film called Heavy Metal in Baghdad, about Acrassicauda, Iraq's only heavy metal band. The band members are currently seeking refugee status in Turkey. It's a depressing story about a resilient group of young dudes who just want to play loud music and bang their heads.

You can read more about the story here http://carpetblog.typepad.com/carpetblogger/2008/03/save-acrassicau.html

Christy Quirk
www.quirkglobalstrategies.com

Nobody Likes Kim Jung Il or Robert Mugabe...Not even their moms

by blingblangbloo on Fri, 04/11/2008 - 2:52pm

This footage is brilliant, and I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to Ms. Wall for bringing it to my attention.

But seriously, have you ever just sat back for a bit and thought about North Korea? Or Zimbabwe for that matter? What is up with these guys? And I'm not just expressing utter disbelief with how far out of touch with the ebb and flow of humanity these countries are as an American or "westerner" or whatever...I'm saying this as a world citizen and on behalf of all sentient beings with big-brains and opposable thumbs. I mean get your act together people...you're not fooling anybody. I'll try to express this as simply as possible--your countries suck. I say that having spent extended amounts of time living and traveling around both countries regions, coming away with a deep affinity for each. But here is a fact you can take all the way to the fact-checker: Living in North Korea or Zimbabwe sucks. Sure there might be natural beauty or deep-rooted and unique cultural heritage, but its going to always be overshadowed by the fact that people are hungry, everything is broken and you let yourselves be rolled over by the intimidation of a few out-of-touch, greedy alpha-males. Rise up people, read a couple books about the French revolution...there are lots of you and a few of them, remember that the middle/junior ranks of the police and military are really on your side...you just have to remind them, after all they're only making out slightly better than you and it shouldn't take that much to offset the value of contributing to the regime's oppression machines...you're their mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers. Once the corrupt and insufferable upper-echelons are isolated and the will of the people has reached critical mass, the tide will turn. Of course, there will be blood, and there will be those who try to take advantage of the power vacuum, but real leaders will surface, and freedom and national unity should rule the day. The international community will back your efforts (let me let you in on a little secret...nobody likes these guys). But hey, its your bed...however for my money at the end of the day revolution has got to be better than another winter in Pyongyang under the status-quo or having to pay 7,000,000 of anything to get some freaking bread.