The store and magazine I loved to hate and hated to love. You can still catch their nastiness @ Viceland cept’ now they charge $30 for the RX. Gee, the old days were fun. Every month you used to pick it up at their storefront on Lafayette; where today a pricey vintage shop sits. I used to write nasty editorial bits on their pieces a la the Dead Rat Issue and Who is Erik Lavoie?  They bit back and it was funny.  The foam trucker hats and hipster followers of Vice were easy to pluck from a crowd (prompting one of my Spring Street friends to don “Foam Free in ‘03″ stickers).
the visceral who is erik lavoie issue.

the visceral who is erik lavoie issue.

Plucked from their own site: “What started out as a few Montreal drug addicts scamming welfare make-work programs back in 1994 has become a global empire of hedonism known simply as VICE. From a 16-page newspaper about punk bands and violence to stores, a clothing line, VICE Films, VICE TV, VICE Records, viceland.com, etc., VICE has become much more than a way for three guys to get laid. It’s become a lifestyle of sex and drugs and rock and roll and death.”

UM…RIGHT RIGHT.

Flash-forward: It’s as if the boys who started a movement have now sold out to subscriptions + real interviews a la Radar.  Maybe they just left the downtown New York scene because it was without a scene.

Now the hipsters almost seem to be missing…although many are still hiding out along the streets of the Lower East Side.