Pulling the plug on VICE
Vice.com is shutting down. Hundreds laid off. [corrected]
One of the three founders, Shane Smith, will somehow still earn $8 million in 2024. He’s free to subscribe and/or become a founding member of this publication.
Wild.
Jesse Pearson who does Apology Reviews and the Apology Podcast and this thing was a crucial steward / editor of the publication. Adding brains, taste, and curiosity. Assigning stories, editing, and publishing many phenomenal writers, and smartly leading a PIVOT TO VIDEO!!! Greenlighting some of Vice’s early video series when it was VBS.tv — creating Soft Focus …
and Guitar Moves w/ Matt Sweeney …
IMHO, Jesse’s labor essentially helped VICE reach its creative crescendo, priming the “brand” for the millions that tumbled their way over the past decade. He left before they raked in over $1 billion. He deserves an honorarium. If only any of it were left.
Anyway…
Thomas Morton aka Babyballs — wrote a lot of great stuff, and his BALLS DEEP series shows he’s also one of the best to do it, ever.
Andy Capper — excellent writer / director. His Swansea Love Story is timeless. A must watch. Like, right now. Drop everything.
And then you had, uh, me.
I wrote about the NYPD auto auction. Bucco Bruce. Hung out with Harold Hunter before he passed away. Interviewed Hunter S. Thompson. Cass McCombs. And Kato Kaelin (who spent some time in my dad’s UW-EC rec leagues before he moved west to become a pool boy). And a bunch of others. I’ll spare you my pilot. Which over a decade later, plays as plodding and way too tame. Hanging out with mildly drunk Colts fans in the Curtis Painter-era. There was an “idea” there. We needed to find more scumbags though, and pick up the pace. You can’t press play on this, for good reason.
And one of the most popular things we did was the sports cards thing. Well before 14,009 instagram handles jumped in. Since Vice obliterated it in a redesign, and even that will be demolished soon, here are some of the highlights. David Roth pitched in on a lot of these, and we even did it live a few times. Carnegie Hall awaits.
I’ll send you a link to the Kato Kaelin or Bob Nastanovich story (who also picked a bunch of horses one year for Vice. So did Steve Dunleavy (R.I.P.) JUST ASK.