LOUISE GRAY IS WILD 'N' ROMANTIC

We had an opportunity to look back at the madness with British designer Louise Gray, a dynamic fixture of the East London fashion scene. She recently wrapped up London Fashion Week and is currently showing at Paris Fashion Week, but took a few minutes in the midst of her hectic schedule to talk with us.

CHILDHOOD TRAUMA THEATER: ALIEN AUTOPSY

In honor of our Film Issue we thought we’d resurrect Childhood Trauma Theater,  a fun game in which we force our friends to confront the moving images that left their deepest scars pre-pubes. Alone. While stoned. Let’s find out how it went with Alien Autopsy…

WHEN DRINKING BECOMES ART AND ART BECOMES AN EXCUSE TO DRINK, AKA HOW TO FILM A DRINKING BATTLE

Excessive drinking paired with art has always been deeply entrenched in any city’s culture. Berlin’s best proof is the cinematographic document Berlin Drinking Battle by Rolf S. Wolkenstein and Wolfgang Hogekamp. The film was made in 1989, just one night before the fall of the Berlin wall. Obviously, they managed to somehow document their benders on video (even if that was before the era of digital cameras) rather than being sensationalized as binge drinkers in the tabloids. We wanted to know how they got this show on the road and met up with Rolf S. Wolkenstein to have a sober little chat about schnapps and the 80s film scene.

MELBOURNE – JOHN SAFRAN BRACES HIMSELF FOR THE FALLOUT

It’s two weeks exactly until John Safran’s new series Race Relations goes to air and it’s already been labeled by someone from the Australian Family Association as “the lowest point in Australia's television history.” Are you fucking serious? Have you turned the television on recently? Programming here is hideous, almost without exception. Anyway, we have a feeling that John’s new show is going to set a new benchmark for Australian television and we can’t wait to see him try to determine, via a series of excruciating experiments, whether he should marry a Jew or a Eurasian.

FILM ISSUE - DEPPS OF THE WORLD

According to the internet, there are currently 11 Johnny Depps living and acting around the world. These foreign Johnnies can generally be described as actors who a) are cool, b) are talented, c) choose quirky roles, d) look good with long hair and stubble, and e) are like, totally dreamy. As a one-off Vice Film Issue special, here they are, all in the one room for the first time ever. It’s kind of like a Miss Universe for softly spoken rebels in denim jackets.

LONDON - SHANE MEADOWS WON’T DEAL WITH HOLLYWOOD

Shane Meadows tells us how, by rejecting some of the more diabolical temptations of the industry, he manages to make so many good British films – something that is very rare.

GOT ENOUGH WATER IN YOUR TOILET MATE?

Are Canadians and New Zealanders pretty much the same? Australians seem to think so. We asked a Canadian based Kiwi for her NZ$0.02.

After living in Toronto for three months, the novelty of real live black people and Dairy Queen has worn off, but there is still a shit load of difference between here and home that doesn’t cease to amuse me. Some people say New Zealanders and Canadians are similar. Some people are wrong. Canadians don’t have meat pies, they don’t say "heaps", there is no yeast extract spread for my toast, and there is so much water in their toilet bowls I’m scared I might drown if I slip. And that’s just the beginning.

AMSTERDAM - THE GLOWIEST PLACE IN TOWN

Meet Nick Paladino, a Hendrix-obsessed American who drained an Amsterdam basement all by himself in order to create Electric Lady Land, a museum where everything but Nick is fluorescent--although we haven't seen him in the nude. Mieke Lindeman traveled to the museum for further inspection. Here's what she came home with.

MEET THE NIERATKOS - SEÑOR SCHNITZEL

Dear Vice readers, I am on paid paternity leave, helping my son milk my wife’s breasts. To ease you into the awesomeness that is my drawering for an Etnies ad in next month’s 15th anniversary issue of Vice, I present to you my world-famous, half-Mexican/half-German time-travelling detective, Senor Schnitzel, as seen on my Canadian friend’s website, King Shit.  

VBS - A SHOT BY SHOT HISTORY OF WODKA

The 1891 Treaty of Madrid was the first bilateral agreement to recognise France’s sole right to use the word Champagne. Since then, a slew of other rulings have followed, cementing that agreement in pretty much every market in the world. That’s why these days, when you think of Champagne, you think of France. What this is getting at is that in 1977, when Poland tried to claim the sole production rights of its national drink Wodka, it wasn’t such a crazy idea. Certainly not as crazy as Cadbury trying to trademark the colour purple. Sadly for them, the superpower formally known as the USSR saw it differently, successfully contesting and defeating Poland in an international court. Naturally, poor Poland has been griping about it ever since. (That and everything else, seriously, what’s with Polish people and griping?)

All racial stereotypes aside, what if that ruling was wrong? What if the Poles was robbed?