Sex, Drugs, and Corey Feldman: The Vice-iest Vice Features of All Time

Founded in 1994 as Voices of Montreal, the “alternative” news empire Vice Media has found its niche market. Vice always finds the quirkiest, strangest, and simultaneously gripping news stories to report. Their particular brand of journalism as well as their meteoric rise in popularity has inspired us here at www.equities.com to make a list of their “Viceiest” features.

Corey Feldman’s Birthday Party

Actor and singer Corey Feldman may be most well known for his roles in The Goonies and Stand By Me, but I bet you didn’t know about Corey’s Angels. Yes, Corey Feldman has made his own version of the playboy playmates by surrounding himself with gorgeous women and dubbing them Corey’s Angels. Vice got a firsthand look at Corey Feldman’s birthday with a piece of investigative journalism no mainstream journalist has touched, but certainly one that’s causing journalists to kick themselves for not thinking of it first.

Vice’s Guide to North Korea

This is one exactly what it sounds like. Vice founder Shane Smith and his crew of equally crazy journalists and cameramen ventured halfway around the world to a place where being a journalist can actually get you killed and/or sent to prison. The resulting video provides Westerners an in-depth look into one of the world’s most isolated countries.

The Japanese Love Industry

Vice sent Ryan Duffy to Japan to explore Japan’s booming love industry. Japan is one of the few countries around the world where population growth is actually negative. At the end of this century, their population is projected to be half of what it is right now. The reason is that people just aren’t marrying and procreating. Obviously though, the sexual desires are still strong, just not quite in the way Westerners would think. Hostess bars, anime porn, and cuddle clubs (yes, you pay money to have someone cuddle with you) are just the tip of the iceberg in this exposé.

The Mexican-Mormon War

In this piece Shane Smith ventures down to Juarez, Mexico, which is even more dangerous for journalists than North Korea, to get a firsthand look at the drug war between Cartels and the…Mormons, some of whom are related to Mitt Romney! Mitt Romney’s family is from Colonial Juarez with George Romney being born in a Mormon colony in Mexico. These Mormon groups are still in Mexico and they’re actively fighting the drug cartels.

Experimenting with Powdered Alcohol

It’s called the future of drinking: powdered alcohol. Any time, any place, and anywhere, you can snort, lick or eat alcoholic powder and get drunk. Vice released an incredibly detailed and wildly explicit article detailing writer River Donaghey’s first experience mixing the recipe necessary for powdered booze. If you’re a fan of shock and awe, you won’t be disappointed.

The Vice Guide to Getting Beaten Up

While it’s generally a good principle to avoid physical fist fights to save yourself potential injury as well as legal consequences, sometimes our rash impulses get the better of us, and we decide to fight even though we know it’s the wrong thing to do. For those moments when common sense goes awry, make sure to consult The Vice Guide to Getting Beaten Up, which gives helpful tips not only on how to fight, but also where to fight and the proper post-fight procedures.

Life as a Truck-Stop Stripper

In true gonzo journalism fashion, two of Vice’s female correspondents went to the place “where strippers go to die,” according to The Ultimate Strip Club List. These reporters showed clear dedication to their job, going undercover as strippers, just to get a firsthand look at one of the worst jobs a woman can have in America in one of the worst strip clubs in America. This piece is a nice combination of the “alternative news” idea as well as the “shock and awe” factor.

Surveillance City (HBO Series)

In the season two finale of Vice on HBO, Vikram Gandhi went out to America’s murder capital in Camden, New Jersey to see the results of a new 21^st century method of policing firsthand. This method involved a surge in the number of police officers, surveillance cameras on every block, and other cutting edge technology.  A topic largely overlooked and forgotten by mainstream media, the new surveillance technology could have a huge impact on the future of policing all across the country.

Vice just wrapped its second season on HBO and with the success of the television show and the growing popularity of their website, Vice is well-positioned to continue to grow in popularity moving forward.