The Hot Box Issue
Haircut
We are pleased to present to you a new short story by Barry Gifford, one of the shrewdest and most authentically American authors to ever put words on a page. This short and sweet one is from his forthcoming collection The Roy Stories. It’s...
Show Us Your Pit Stains
It’s the dog days of summer, but not everyone is in the Hamptons cranking the AC... Some of us have to work. Every August, VICE checks out the most awesome pit stains on the sweaty, hardworking men and women of New York City to find the most beautiful...
E.T. On the Street
E.T. was roaming the street robbing homies, when he ran into a dealer and asked him for Reece's Pieces. It didn't end well, but you probably already know that, because this is Johnny Ryan's page, not some 1980s Steven Spielberg kids movie.
Music Reviews
This month around VICE junction, the heavy and weird stuff ruled, and the normal crap and rap music drooled. There are exceptions, of course; A$AP Ferg’s 'Trap Lord' is great; meanwhile, the faster we eradicate Norma Jean from the face of the Earth...
How Do You Kill Giant Cats? Get Some Giant Dogs
The animals in Australia’s Northern Territory tend to be bigger than wildlife elsewhere, so when reports emerged that thousands of feral cats, weighing up to 45 pounds, were roaming around and tearing apart anything smaller than them, it wasn’t exactly...
The Nine-Year-Old Romanian Strongman and His Pissed-off Dad
Giuliano Stroe is probably the strongest nine-year-old on the planet. The Romanian boy started lifting weights when he was two and has set world records for doing push-ups without letting his feet touch the ground, along the way acquiring about 15,00...
Sweden’s Shitty Sewage-Sludge Debate
Using sludge to grow crops has dredged up a lot of controversy in Sweden. Some studies in the US have shown that people who live near land fertilized by sludge have suffered symptoms like burning in their eyes and rashes, and cancer.
Inside the Hot Box: Photographer Giles Clarke on August’s Cover Story
How do you get access to an inhumane El Salvadorian gang prison? We talked shop with British photojournalist Giles Clarke about his reporting in Central America.
"Motorola Queen"
Here are the lyrics to the long-lost classic “Motorola Queen” by the completely unknown white 80s hip-hop artist, Rat Tail, whose current whereabouts are unknown. It was transcribed from a cassette tape discovered last November, wrapped in a ball of...
What's the Frequency, Iasos?
If you’ve ever had a near-death experience, chances are you’ve been fortunate enough—depending on how you look at it—to hear music that sounds identical to the blissed-out tones produced by the mononymous minstrel Iasos.
The Magician's Retreat
A black winged creature flew into the room and fluttered about erratically. “A bat!” I screamed. Transylvanian thoughts caromed through my mind. “No… wait! It’s a fucking moth!” Raf shouted, as it hurtled to a stop upside down in a corner where the...
Babysit My Ass
In April, after a battery of tests, at age three and a half, my firstborn son was diagnosed on the autism spectrum. I should have realized something was up when he lined 34 pancake bites across his highchair tray equidistant apart from each other in a...