Shutting Down the Streets of LA | Sideshow Takeovers

Sometimes I wish I could do so many things at once. Owning a dope with became a lifestyle for me after high school. It was just part of the click I sometimes got up with. We would even trade whips for a day or two. Miss them days, but always creating the new days. This might be nothing like that but I wanted to share that thought. Here's this piece from Vice I just saw about "Shutting Down the Streets of LA | Sideshow Takeovers. Looks like its getting a lot of negative feedback. The first comment is a but funny but probably real spit.

Originating in the Bay Area, “sideshows” are events where participants shut down busy public intersections and perform car stunts such as donuts, burnouts, and drifts.

In Los Angeles, one of the biggest sideshow car clubs is TAKING 0VER and every Sunday, members from TAKING 0VER and other car clubs participate in an unsanctioned sideshow event called Sunday Funday. We visit Los Angeles to spend a day with TAKING 0VER members and get a closer look at the risks they take to put on the sideshows they love.



WATCH NEXT: Nashville's Illegal Sideshow Clubs: https://youtu.be/SvY5v4k44dQ

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Streets by VICE: San Francisco | Market St.

Until recently, San Francisco, California – a small city of around 825,000 – wasn’t though of as a center for business. Rather, it was famed as an artistic, bohemian place with a history of flowing counter-cultures that spilled over America and the world, from the hippies in the hilly region of Haight-Ashbury to the gay rights movement in the Castro neighborhood. Times have changed. San Francisco has become the hype- and capital-fueled epicenter of America’s technology industry, which has traditionally centered on the string of suburban cities known as Silicon Valley 40 miles to the south. Many longtime San Francisco residents worry not only about being forced out of the city they love, but also that their city is being changed for the worse. Others are convinced that the injection of so many young people with technical skills, money to play with and no family ties will spawn a much needed creative renaissance.

Our host Karley Sciortino travels along Market Street, a main thoroughfare that cuts through the city’s historic neighborhoods, to investigate whether the tech boom has robbed San Francisco of its soul, or whether the vibrant and eclectic qualities it is known for remain intact.



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Streets by VICE: Atlanta | Ponce De Leon Ave.

Atlanta is one of the most culturally & historically rich cities in the United States. From it's impact on civil rights history to it's present day dominance over Hip Hop, Atlanta's influence is felt. In this episode of Streets by VICE, we'll be traveling along Ponce de Leon Ave. Although it's not that long of a street many Atlanta residents consider Ponce to be the heart of Atlanta.

The street houses many of the city's most iconic landmarks, and passes alongside it's most notable neighborhoods. During our travels on Ponce we'll meet everyone from civil rights leader, to street artists, to councilman, to some of the most influential hip hop producers in the game, as they educate us about their Atlanta.



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Streets by VICE: Chicago | Halsted Street

Chicago is one of the most diverse in the country, and also one of the most segregated. It is a city neighborhoods with distinct identities, their own celebration and and their own pain. But beneath Chicago’s divisions is a city rich with pride and soul. And Halsted Street, the city’s backbone, cuts through these worlds and tells the story of how people connect in this complicated city.



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Abuso de Confianza | VICE INTL

VICE INTL put four Mexican skateboarders in a van and followed them on a vertiginous one-week adventure.

Max Barrera, Hugo Zurita, Shadi Charbel and Alfredo 'Blunt' Franco went looking for some of the best skateboarding spots in Mexico and visited Cuernavaca, Morelia, Puebla and Querétaro - proving that any place can be good enough for skateboarding.



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Indiegogo Life Is the Newest Frontier in Digital Panhandling

by Mike Pearl/Vice

Indiegogo plays second fiddle to Kickstarter in the crowdfunding world, and it compensates by being willing to fund what Kickstarter won't, including porn, ​energy drinks, and charity drives. Now, seemingly out of the goodness of its heart, Indiegogo has launched something called ​Indiegogo Life, a standalone site that will help people raise money for ​personal causes.

Does a​ four-year-old need reconstructive surgery after being attacked by a dog? Do ​Ferguson protesters need legal fees? Indiegogo Life is there to help! But some petitioners on the site are looking to fund what might be called luxuries—a ​wedding ceremony, say, or a "​guitar for my birthday!" By opening a panhandling platform with no pretense of "funding" anything other than a person's needs or wants, did Indiegogo essentially build an entire site just for the ​potato salad Kickstarter guy?

According to press materials, Indiegogo Life, which launched on Monday, "does not charge a platform fee, enabling fundraisers to keep more of the money they raise" (a third party does charge a 3 percent transaction fee). It's clearly a move meant to raise Indiegogo's profile rather than a bid for short-term profits.

But just a couple days after its launch, the site seems like a messy free-for-all of charity cases, some of which seem suspect. There are no big nonprofits on Indiegogo Life—a company spokesperson said that those organizations would need to use the original Indiegogo platform, where some donations are tax deductible—just a lot of individuals asking for a lot of different things. Take this one, for example:



Raising money for Gaza sounds really important, but how are you supposed to help out Gaza's "homeless & poorly people" when you set your funding goal at a measly $6,000? Donors would probably be better off sending their money to Save the Children's ​Gaza Children in Crisis Fund than handing it over to this mysterious account.

Indiegogo representatives assured me that the company "has a stringent verification procedure that includes a dedicated team of experts, automated algorithms, and other procedures." But even if these campaigns aren't scams, some of them don't exactly describe dire situations that require the kindness of strangers to remedy.

Here's ​a guy who wants a better computer so he can make art:



It's clear that these platforms have enormous potential for allowing people to request money in emergencies, though they also allow people to treat the internet like an ATM. At the moment, the signal-to-noise ratio on Indiegogo Life is terrible, though that may change in the coming weeks or months. Hopefully, the site will demonstrate the internet's generosity, rather than its gullibility.

VICE News | LiveStream from Ferguson After Grand Jury Decision

VICE News reporter Danny Gold is live from the streets of Ferguson to report on the community's reaction to the grand jury verdict in the case of Darren Wilson and Michael Brown.

Ed Templeton On His New Book and Life After Skateboarding

Vice| by Chris Nieratko


Fuck Laws Kid, Portland

Ed Templeton drew the graphic for his first pro model skateboard in 1990. Since then, he has been a regular tour de force in both the skateboard industry and the art world. While almost everyone who rides a skateboard considers themselves an "artist," very few have been able to make a successful leap into the fine art world. Templeton is one of those few. His work has been shown in some of the most respected museums around the globe. From his paintings to his board graphics, to his photography, to his skills as a skateboarder: he is, in my opinion, the best and most multifaceted artist that skateboarding has ever produced.

His latest photo book, ​Wayward Cog​nitions, is a collection of riveting images taken during his travels abroad and stateside. Shot mostly using a Leica M6 with a 50mm lens on film, printed in his home darkroom, and then scanned and laid out by the artist, this book is 100% Templeton's brainchild. Known as the Eternal Voyeur, it's not uncommon to find Ed lurking around his local suburban sprawl, Huntington Beach Pier, or the backstreets of some European town, snapping away whatever passes before his lens. This book shares those captured moments.

I had the opportunity to catch up with Ed to discuss photography, his company Toy Machine, and the legend's retirement from skateboarding.


​Girl On Swing


Deanna


​Man Walks, Sign Flare, Zurich

VICE: Thematically, Wayward Cognitions is a departure from your previous photo books. Can you talk about the process of picking the images for this book? ​Ed Templeton: I just wanted the freedom of not having a specific theme for once. Most of my books are very specific, to the point where the title of the book pretty much explains the subject matter. Those books have come from having a big archive to mess with. I just have fun searching for words and coming up with groupings. Teenage Kissers was born that way. I searched the word "kiss" in my archive and had so many photos of people kissing that I was able to narrow it down to "teenagers kissing"—although technically not all of the people in the book are teenagers.

​ ​For this book, I had a title in my head before I even started thinking about what would be in the book. I was thinking about how my style of photography produces a lot of stray thoughts. All the photos that I shoot that are not shot for any reason or theme—which is most of them—are just stray dogs with no place to go. I just walk around shooting people, and most of it does not fall into the category of something that I will use for a future project. So that was the spawn of the title, Wayward Cognitions, which is a more poetic way of saying stray thoughts.


Woman and Monkey, Santa Monica


Puddle Woman, London

The bulk of your book seems to be strangers passing in front of your lens, many of whom don't appear to realize you are taking their photo. Have you had people freak out on you? ​I don't use a flash for the most part—only natural light. Also, I have developed a few techniques that make my shooting fluid and essentially unnoticed for the most part. Or even if you did see me, you would have some doubt over whether I was shooting you or something else. There's some acting involved sometimes, other times Deanna [Templeton's wife] helps me by throwing a screen, or talking to me really loudly so we look like we couldn't possibly have been shooting someone else.

​ ​I also feel hyper aware of all the people around me. I'm not only thinking about the person I'm shooting but about the people possibly seeing me shoot them, including their partners. You can't go in with blinders on. That homeless guy passed out might have some buddies across the street watching him, or that girl doing cartwheels in a bikini might have a meathead boyfriend waiting to stomp some ass, so you have to be aware of the whole scene you are a part of. I pick and choose my battles for sure. I have passed on photos to avoid a likely confrontation. It's not worth it, there are other photos down the block. The times where I have just said screw it and went in shooting regardless of my surroundings have mostly turned out OK though. Nobody has freaked out on me.

My in-laws know I write about naughty topics, but we don't ever discuss that side of my work. I've always wondered if it's the same for you. You put images of your lovely wife, Deanna, in various states of undress and even occasionally in the throes of a sexual act. What does her family think about that? ​It's strange. I kept everything from my grandparents, including ​the b​ook Deformer, which is essentially about them and how they were instrumental in shaping me as a human. They would have really enjoyed seeing me published and have some degree of success at what I'm doing, but the nudity in there would be beyond their comprehension. I can't picture my grandfather being OK with photos of my naked wife with my penis in her hand no matter what the explanation. He has since died. My mother and grandmother are still alive, and they don't see any of my books or shows.

​ ​I have not seen my dad since I was eight years old—I have no idea if he knows anything about my artwork and I don't care. My Aunt Margie and Uncle Bob are both super hip and have seen my books. Uncle Bob even came out to my last photo show in LA. But they are the only non-Christians in the family. The rest are certified born-agains. Deanna's brother and his wife would probably be pretty tripped out. I suspect they have googled me and seen some stuff, but they have never brought it up. My niece is 13 and she's on Instagram now, but she's not allowed to follow me. One time she was going to do a report about me for school, but then suddenly she said she couldn't, and that's when I think they Googled me.


Boy Watches Graffiti, Barcelona

I believe you to be one of the best, if not the best, talent scouts in skateboarding's history. Since the inception of Toy Machine you've always had the best guys riding for you. What's your secret? What do you look for in your riders? ​It's sort of a gut feeling. I don't hang out in the streets with the guys and I'm not a hands-on team manager, so I need a rider who doesn't need to be babysat, who is out there doing shit on his own. You have to be able to blend well with the team, too. So talent is only part of it. I'm not going to sponsor the best skater ever if they are an asshole to be around. I would rather have the second best guy who's fun to be in a van with, and then use his own personality to promote him. I like to coax out the character of each rider and not have them be faceless rippers who nobody really cares about. You have to put yourself out there, that's what people connect with. I honestly don't know how I do it, there's no formula. Luck is part of it. Being open to weird shit is part of it. I want the freaks. I think good skaters seek Toy Machine out actually. We are not the big bucks type of company, so if you are riding for us it's because you want to.

In your opinion, what was the gnarliest, most heavy-hitting team in Toy's history? ​At one point we had Jamie Thomas, Chad Muska, and Brian Anderson on the team—all dudes who would be megastars at different points in their careers. So there's a strong case for the Welcome to Hell era, but to tell the truth right now is the best team I've ever had. Leo Romero, Collin Provost, Daniel Lutheran, and Jeremey Leabres? And that's only half of the guys. My main job in the near future is laying this team down on tape, er, pixels.

Have there been any guys you can recall that got away? That you wanted on the team but it didn't happen or work out? ​I passed on Chris Cole. Kerry Getz brought me his sponsor-me tape—I still have it somewhere. Bam Margera left the team right before he blew up into mega-stardom. Muska left before he became a mega-star, too. I was after Spanky before he went to Baker. Alex Olson was on flow but he went for Girl. There's more... I can't remember all of them! All of them probably worked out for the best. I think kicking Muska off was a tough one, and I like Alex, so it would have been cool to have him on. But really things work out how they're supposed to.

You mentioned Alex Olson. Long before getting on Girl, Alex went on a Toy Machine tour and was in the running to make the team. Why didn't that work out? ​I'm not even 100% sure. I think for a few reasons. He was essentially couch-surfing from a really young age, and I think me being based in HB as opposed to LA played a factor. Also, I cared maybe too much about him and wanted him to get back in school so he could think about life after skating as well. But that may have been too overbearing for him. Like I said, things work out and he is doing all sorts of stuff outside of skating and will be fine without any help from me. There was no bad blood or anything. When he chose Girl I was sad but totally stoked that he was making moves and starting to go for it. Up until then he didn't even seem sure if pro skating was what he wanted to do, having grown up in it with his dad [Steve Olson] and everything. I was always saying, "You're a natural! You have to try and make it!"


Boy Walking and Smoking in White Suit, Antwerp

​
Handstand, Ohio

In the final part of your ​Epicly Later'd ep​isode, Deanna gets very emotional about the thought of you further injuring yourself skateboarding. You had a severe leg break a few years back. How does it feel now? Are you able to skate again? ​​I skate here and there, but for the most part I have retired. I have other things in my life and I don't need to skateboard for money. I feel very lucky that I don't have that pressure to come back and be a pro skater at my age. I started Toy Machine in 1993 for this very moment. Now that I'm useless as a pro skater, I can still be involved with the thing I love and be able to be around skateboarding.

​The leg is as good as it can be. I still feel it when I take a little impact. I'm sorta scared to try anything that will put big stress on it because there are two plates in there and 21 screws, and they take away the natural flexibility of bones, which makes it more likely that the leg will break again right above the plates. I think about skating all the time. I need to make it part of my routine. My routine now is just to get up and work all day and all night.

What's next for you and Toy Machine? ​We want to finally make another full length Toy video. Our last three have been incomplete because riders were working on other videos. We have been waiting for Emerica videos, Vans videos, etc. Now it's time to start making an official video that will be on the level of Welcome to Hell and Good and Evil.

​
Keegan Points, Grand Canyon


​Balloon Girl



Follow Templeton on ​Inst​agram and pre-order Wayard Cognitions from ​Um Yeah Arts.

More stupid can be found at ​Chrisnieratko.com or on ​Twitter.

Child Bullfighters in Mexico: Profiles by VICE

Michelito Lagravere is 16. The day he was born, his bullfighter father was battling a bull. At four years old, Lagravere would run around his house with a towel and "fight" his pet dog. He killed his first calf at six. At 11, he killed six bulls in a single day. By age 14, Lagravere officially turned into the youngest bullfighter ever.

For this episode of Profiles by VICE, we went to Merida, on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, to meet this young bullfighter, his parents, and his younger brother André "El Galo," who is poised to follow in his brother's footsteps. The Lagravere brothers are destined for greatness in an old (and questionable) Mexican tradition.

Junglepussy | Nah | prod. By Shy Guy

Early into the second song on Junglepussy’s excellent debut album 'Satisfaction Guaranteed,' she raps, “How dope is this?

Teach you how to grow and live.” The line—rapped quickly, with her rollicking flow, kind of like a slinky expanding and contracting with each breath—also works as Junglepussy’s motto.

She’s here to please you, help you, teach you, and, most importantly, introduce you to her tropical lifestyle.



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Losing Millions on the Homie Vending Machine Empire: Profiles by VICE

Losing Millions on the Homie Vending Machine Empire: Profiles by VICE

In 1996 Bradley Ellison, a.k.a. Sugarman, started Sugar Daddies vending company in Staten Island. He placed thousands of machines throughout New York City in pizza parlors, supermarkets, and corner shops.

Due largely in part to a cash economy, his business flourished, shaking down every neighborhood kid for their milk money in exchange for a sticky hand, bouncy ball, or a handful of candies.

In 2004, he finally made it big with the "Homies" series (arguably the most popular vending toy of all time), grossing over $1 million in sales.

We traveled to New York City's forgotten borough, Staten Island, to find out how Sugarman created a small vending empire—and how he subsequently lost it—one quarter at a time.

ResERECTION: The Penis Implant | Profiles by VICE

Penile implants have become a popular treatment option for erectile dysfunction—a health complication that more than 30 million men suffer from in the United States alone. The surgery consists of placing an inflatable prosthesis within a man's member that is attached to a soft ball that sits in the scrotum. When the ball is pumped, the penis remains hard for as long as the man wants.

Most individuals that undergo the operation are satisfied with their implant, but the unlucky two to three percent experience infections that can lead to death, mangled parts, and more.

VICE visited Miami, Florida, to speak to one of the leading penis doctors in the country and find out what it's worth to get your penis operated on.

Exotic Animal Trade | VICE

Wildlife trafficking is estimated to be a $19 billion per year global business, surpassed only by black-market sales and trafficking of drugs, humans, and firearms.

In the United States, regulation of private ownership of exotic animals is determined by each state, allowing for loopholes and oversight. Animals are bought and traded through auctions, backyard breeders, illicit online sales and more. The industry is growing right in our backyards.

VICE travels to Ohio to rescue a cougar, then to Texas for an exotic livestock auction and undercover visit to a gaming ranch where the animals are sold and hunted for up to $15,000 a piece.

Fresh Off The Boat With Eddie Huang: Season Two Leftovers

That's a WRAP for Season 2 of Fresh Off The Boat. This year, we saw some really great moments traveling from Mongolia to Russia to Chengdu to NYC. So much so that we couldn't possibly fit it all into our previous episodes. But worry not, because we're coming at you with a blooper reel containing some of the most outrageous leftovers from the Human Panda and the FOB crew. Watch your boy, Eddie Huang, in the moments where the cameras shouldn't have been rolling. Can't wait to see you next season!

Smoking Weed w/ the President of Uruguay: Full Length

At the end of 2013, Uruguay became the first country in the world to fully legalize marijuana. VICE correspondent Krishna Andavolu headed over to Uruguay to check out how the country is adjusting to a legally regulated marijuana market.

Along the way, he meets up with Uruguay's president, José Mujica, to burn one down and talk about the president's goal of a chicken in every pot, a car in every garage, and six cannabis plants per household.

ProbCause | Chicago Style

Rap Artist/Regular Artist ProbCause hails from Chicago, and in addition to making tracks with hometown hero Chance the Rapper, he's taken it upon himself to deliver a Chi anthem in "Chicago Style," which starts as fairly traditional boom-bap and ends with his hometown's skittering juke style.

Getting High On HIV Medication | Part 2/2

In 1998 the antiretroviral drug efavirenz was approved for treatment of HIV infection, though the drug was highly effective, patients soon began to report bizarre dreams, hallucinations, and feelings of unreality. When South African tabloids started to run stories of efavirenz motivated rapes and robberies scientists began to seriously study how efavirenz might produce these unexpected hallucinogenic effects.

Hamilton Morris travels to South Africa to interview efavirenz users and dealers and study how the life-saving medicine came to become part of a dangerous cocktail called nyaope.

Getting High On HIV Medication | Part 1/2

In 1998, the antiretroviral drug efavirenz was approved for treatment of HIV infection. Though the drug was highly effective, patients soon began to report bizarre dreams, hallucinations, and feelings of unreality. When South African tabloids started to run stories of efavirenz-motivated rapes and robberies, scientists began to seriously study how efavirenz might produce these unexpected hallucinogenic effects.

Hamilton Morris travels to South Africa to interview efavirenz users and dealers and study how the life-saving medicine became part of a dangerous cocktail called "nyaope."

Epicly Later'd: Ed Templeton (Part 6)

In the final part of Ed's episode, Ed discusses the many highs and lows that Toy Machine has faced since he began the company. And when a leg injury sidelines Ed from skating, he and Deanna confront the possibility that he may not be able to stay on the path he's carved out for himself forever.

Snake Island | Full Length Documentary

The highest concentration of one of the most venomous snakes in the world is located about 90 miles off the coast of Santos, Brazil, on a small, craggy chunk of otherwise uninhabitable land. It's known as Ilha da Queimada Grande, or Snake Island, and it's the only place you will find 2,000 or so of the wholly unique golden lancehead viper, or Bothrops insularis.

When you step ashore, with a keen eye you spot one of these snakes roughly every 10 to 15 minutes after clearing the base of the island, and as many as one every six square yards in other parts of the island. This means, as you are walking through the waist-high brush, even with some good boots on, it's like walking through a minefield that moves and, instead of blowing you into chunks, slowly paralyzes you and liquefies your insides, as the golden lancehead does to the migrating birds it feeds on in the treetops.

Well, "liquefying your insides" may be a stretch, but no one knows for sure because no one bitten has lived long enough even to be admitted to a hospital, or at least none of the researchers who accompanied VICE on their journey to Snake Island owned up to that fact. Nor did the Brazilian Navy, who allowed VICE exclusive access to document their annual maintenance inspection of Snake Island's lighthouse—which has been automated ever since the 1920s, after the old lighthouse keeper ran out of food and disappeared while picking wild bananas in a small grove near the shore. According to legend, he and the members of his rescue party died one by one, all alone and in search of one another after each had been missing for some time.

The golden lancehead is so unique and its venom so potent that specimens procured by snake-smuggling "biopirates" can fetch up to $30,000 apiece on the black market (with prices going much higher depending on the location of the rich weirdo snake collector or, some have speculated, the black-market biopharmaceutical chemists attempting to beat Brazil on a patent).



Is that the craziest fucking description of a documentary you've ever heard? The answer is yes. So of course VICE's editor-in-chief, Rocco Castoro, and senior producer, Jackson Fager, had to go there and nose around for themselves. On their return they said things like:

"It was like a David Lynch movie through the prism of Satan's asshole. The anti-Galápagos. Darwin in reverse."

"[It's] cut off from the mainland and perhaps the land of a long-buried pirate treasure, according to the stories from local fishermen. But they also told us there were aliens on the island, so pretty much anything goes. It's scorched earth. It's where I would send my worst enemies to live, and I look forward to setting up a business with the Brazilian government to do just that. After the World Cup, of course."

"What I can tell you is that there are stone fucking steps hand-carved into the face of one of the prominent cliffs, all the way up. But you can't dock anywhere near there. There's also the possibility that [the venom] could be used for an anti-cancer drug, or perhaps anti-aging. Maybe it could save mankind. Whatever. They wouldn't have saved my ass."

"There are blue locusts and so many of these weird, prehistoric-looking cockroaches on the ground at night that it crunches when you walk. Place is fucked. No one is allowed there for a reason. Don't ever go."

"All that said, great shoot. Great diving, too."