Issue 05
SWINDLE meditates on fantasy. This issue, we take a look at the growing culture of cosplay in America—a Japanese tradition of dressing up as anime/manga/video game/J Rock characters. We look at Coney Island’s Mermaid Parade, in which people dress up as sea-inspired characters like Neptune, and sirens. And punk is back! Billy Idol and Steve Jones sit down to reminisce about the years that brought them from punk’s heyday to where they are now and we discuss nonconformity and cultural instigation with Malcom McLaren. Who says you can’t live in someone else’s reality?
Malcolm McLaren
By Shepard Fairey
Portrait By Ryan Murphy
Who is Malcolm McLaren? The white, English eccentric who formed the Sex Pistols? The art -school anarchist who lost his virginity to fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, married her, and opened a punk boutique in London where “nothing was for sale”? The cultural alchemist who was asked to “re-brand Poland”?
Jung-Il Hong
By Caleb Neelon
Photos By Adam Wallacavage
The creative capital of New England over the past decade ha been Providence, Rhode Island, regardless of whether anyone out side the city has noticed or not. Ten years ago, the city’s center was a crater. Cheap warehouse spaces abounded, and, since nobody seemed to be watching, it was a relatively consequence free environment.
Burn to Shine
By Neil Mahoney
Photos By Jim Saah
Illustration By Garrett Morin
There’s something eerily attractive about abandoned houses. They’re kind of ghostly, like fossils and museums. People desperate to escape authority have sought them out for criminal privacy and stolen-liquor make-out parties since the beginning of time. In the DVD series Burn to Shine, released by the Trixie music DVD label
Two Stroke
By Neil Mahoney
Photos By David Jiro
Illustration By Blake E. Marquis
In this age of $3-a-gallon gas prices and scarce fuel alternatives, the appeal of the scooter—from the classic Vespa and Lambretta to the modern Honda and Yamaha—isn’t just a product of it shipster-chic style, but rather it s practicality, standing as the most fuel-efficient motorized vehicle to be had.
30Yrs Of Bollocks
By Caroline Ryder
Photos By Piper Ferguson
Illustration By Shepard Fairey
Put Steve Jones and Billy Idol in the same room, and a beautiful big brother-little brother thing happens. Never mind that they were born less than three months apart in 1955 in the suburbs of London. And never mind that Idol is the more recognizable star by far.
John Van Hamersveld
By Jeff Penalty
Portrait By Aaron Farley
When people think of hippie s, they tend to conjure an image of a shiftless, paranoid, drug-crazed, patchouli-wearing, granola-eating, self-righteous know-it-all who won’t stop lecturing you about how evil your car is. John Van Hamersveld is most decidedly a hippie, yet he is none of the above.
The Fiction We Live
By Ian Sattler
Photos By Elena Dorfman
America is officially out of ideas. Even a passing look at the cultural landscape of the country will show a veritable wasteland of creativity and artistic ingenuity. Movie theaters are crammed to the gills with remakes of other movies and old TV shows.