THE WODKA WARS
August 24, 2009
by Virtue staff
The Vice Guide to Travel
The history of vodka is deeply entangled in European geopolitics, Cold War-era spycraft, and a trademark dispute so old it predates the printing press. In the late 1970s, Poland made a claim before the International Trade Court that since vodka was first brewed within its borders, only Polish distilleries had the right to call their product “vodka.” Everyone else had to use the slightly-less-marketable term “bread wine.” Even the Russians. Unsurprisingly, this move didn’t sit too well with heads of the USSR’s bread-wine industry, who hired a historical ringer to dig through musty old tomes for proof that they were the originators of the world’s most popular breakfast liquor. While the court sided with the Russians, the trade war over vodka has continued to this day, with accusations of forgery and recriminations and the threat of thermonuclear war hanging over the whole proceeding. In order to put all this sordid business to rest, we sent VBS correspondent Ivar Berglin on whirlwind tour of the Eastern Bloc to determine once and for all whose great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents actually came up with vodka. Wodka Wars starts August 25th, otherwise known as tomorrow.
WELCOME TO BLACKPOOL
July 12, 2009
by ANDY CAPPER
Rule Britannia
Meet Vickie and her vibe. Leo Leigh bought her from a gift shop in Blackpool, which is a seaside town in the Northwest of England. Every time I look at it I’m overcome with lust.
I went there with Leo in January 2009 to make a film called Blackpool: Las Vegas Of The North, which you can watch on VBS this Wednesday!
SAUDI AMERICA
June 17, 2009
by D. HADDOW
On my way to a design conference in Jeddah last month the Air Canada ticket lady begged me not to get on the plane, claiming that I would be tossed in a dungeon upon arrival because my skin is pink. She was, of course, retarded. After spending a week in Jeddah, what I found to be most shocking was not the dress code or the peculiar security measures (photographing official buildings is technically espionage punishable by beheading) but more than anything, the place looked and felt almost exactly like a gated suburban community in Arizona, just with less golf and more praying.
Read the rest on the Vice blog
MAMMOTHS AND VANDALS: A FAILED RUSSIAN UTOPIA
June 11, 2009
by VICE BLOG
From the Viceland blog: At some unknown point in the nineties, a well-meaning but stupid entrepreneur decided to set up shop in Niigata. This northern Japanese port city is so listless and dull it’d have you confusing internment in North Korea with Young Jeezy’s coke and sodomy fortress. Recognizing its sea trade routes with those along the Siberian shoreline, this industrious fellow decided the Japanese needed a Russian peasant-themed tourist spot. It was abandoned to the vandals soon after.
See the rest of the pictures from this decaying Russo-Japanese outpost here.
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