The secret to cultivating a bad attitude is not to overstay your welcome. There’s a fine line between being obnoxious and…uh, being obnoxious. The losers at Vice magazine manage more often than not to be crass and appalling and nasty while maintaining a readerly pace. They make full use of eye candy (naked people and creative graphics) to stimulate a readership weaned on remote controls and Sega. That they can successfully do this while also giving column inches to the deepest corners of the underground (zines, drugs, music, porno, crime, you name it) is worthy of recognition no matter how distasteful you might find the publication. If only more bad-assed, indie publishers could sustain such a editorial stance. The Drippy Gazette is not as dirty or offensive (or funny) as Vice, but they’re trying (and smart alecks have to start somewhere). Shorter articles and interviews would improve things a lot. A newspaper page and a half of Bobby Conn is a page too much. Opinion pieces and columns could be tightened up. The content is fine. A modicum of judicious editing is required. Oh yeah, and more nakedness. That’s what put Vice over the top. (TD)
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