The Most Well Connected Poorman in America

		NEWSLETTER DOS & DON'TS If girls could go inside your brain and roll around in all the garbage that’s going on there, they’d come out looking like this. Enlarge/Comments DOs & DON'Ts Not to seem like shills for the peacoat industry, but in the same way that the camera adds 10 pounds, girls should be advised that those long poofy down coats add about 60 years and sometimes even a Ukranian accent. Enlarge/Comments DOs & DON'Ts MORE FROM THIS ISSUE LITERARY Book Reviews - The Design Issue VICE FASHION - THE DESIGN ISSUE Photos by Milos Mali Styling by Hayley Callander ... I'M DYING OVER HERE There are people in the funeral industry who really piss me off.... VICE FASHION - FUNCTIONAL FASHIO... Photos by Kristian Bengtsson Styling by Frida Bard ... ELECTRIC INDEPENDENCE Have you seen the packaging for Richard D. James' new Analord se... FREE PIMP C! The Benefits of a Well-Designed Life GROSS JAR Due to overwhelming amounts of reader mail requesting its return... WE'RE JAMMING Hope You Like Jamming Too MORE FROM VICELAND MORE FROM VBS MORE FROM THE CREATORS PROJECT MORE FROM MOTHERBOARD
IN THE MAGAZINE LONG GONE JOHN Published December, 2004 Photos by Dan Monick I love waking up every day and being hit with sensory overload. I treasure everything—art, artifacts, junk—it's all the same. I go out every weekend to swap meets looking for more stuff to bring home. That's what I work for and what makes me happy. As a child, I collected matchbook covers and discarded bus tickets I found on the ground, but I've been seriously collecting and acquiring since I was about 17. My first apartment was decorated with stuff from people's trash. I was in Japan one time and saw these statues in a store window in Shinjuku. I was in awe. I've collected figures of anime girls for years, so these were the Holy Grail. I took photos of them, and when I got back home it took over a year to finally get them. When I moved in, the fireplace was a big, flat, nasty beige slab with no mantel. It was very modern. A friend and I designed the mantel and I had it carved, then I changed the opening and put in Italian marble. The big yellow guy is Eugene the Jeep. He was created by E.C. Segar, the guy who made Popeye and Betty Boop. He's my favorite cartoon character of all time. He is a good little guy with a happy-go-lucky demeanor. He lives on a diet consisting entirely of orchids, and he has the power to disappear and re-appear in a different location. That makes him one of the earlier comic-strip advocates of teleportation. My version of him was made in 1951. It was based on a toy from the 30s made for the president of Colorforms, and it stood in their showroom window until he retired and took it home with him. I guess he finally died and it ended up at an antique toy show. I paid a fortune for it and have never regretted it. That painting is by Mark Ryden. He's my best friend and coincidentally my favorite artist. The painting is six feet by eight feet and called Snow White. Long Gone John is the man behind the Sympathy for the Record Industry label. ADDITIONAL PHOTOS

Read the rest at Vice Magazine: www.viceland.com

"And His Long Gone Home"