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The Curse of Living (Forever)—This Week on VICE: Members Only

Two tales of destruction behind the paywall this week: one man tanks his own life and lives to tell the tale, and one writer is radicalized by this summer’s brutal heatwave.

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You don’t get timeless folk figures anymore, not really. For better or worse pop culture has largely stopped producing the Pauly D’s and Katie Price’s of the world. The last time I remember a curious individual being catapulted into the mass cultural consciousness and actually sticking around was Joe Exotic, and that’s only because the global population was caged at home by the pandemic when Tiger King dropped. The world that once produced such sensational personalities no longer exists. Now, we mostly have lolcows and so-called main characters who amuse us from two seconds to a year, and are then swiftly forgotten. When was the last time you thought about Mason Ramsey? The Hawk Tuah girl? Exactly.

If you’re unfamiliar with Mickey Avalon, let us bring you up to speed. Avalon has been many things: rapper,........

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