8th
Flashback: The Time Vice Magazine Hurt My Feelings
I’ve been in Vice Magazine twice: once when they published a feature I wrote while on an internship in Kosovo, and prior to that when they straight-up dissed me on the letters page. The latter is a far more interesting story:
It was around 1998, and I was still in journalism school. A (former) friend and classmate who worked for Vice invited me to do some proofreading with him, and I leapt at the opportunity. Back then, writers got paid but shlubs like me didn’t - instead, a few hours pouring over bad copy was supposed to get you some free shwag, i.e. shoes, CDs, etc. Anyway, it was me, this guy, and some woman who knew Suroosh. At the end of our shift, Suroosh tells what’s-her-name that she can grab a pair of Diesel jeans from off the top of the pile. As for me, I left that night empty-handed.
Rather than let sleeping dogs lie, I made the catastrophic error of writing an irrate letter to the editor, complaining about how I deserved something for my hard work. flash forward a few weeks - I’m browsing through Sam the Record Man when a friend informs me that he read my name in the latest issue. Curious, I asked for more details, but he would only divulge that “it wasn’t good.” (Click here for the full-size scan.)
At the time I was devastated, but in a way it’s a badge of honour. after all, someone went to a considerable amount of trouble to inform thousands of hipsters that Chris Paré sucks. This was a pivotal incident in my career as a writer, shutting me out of certain circles while pushing me towards others. I regret nothing.
Oh, and the guy peeking out above the text is Arish Ahmed from King Khan, back when he wasn’t a pretentious rock star.
