Gavin McInnesRecensioni

It's hilarious

Interesting, although excessively raunchy (particularly his sexual exploits, but also drugs). What I liked was learning about how he took advantage of the Quebec government to start Vice, and their multiple rounds of boom and bust. Also interesting how he inevitably became more (socially, personally) conservative after getting married and having kids.

Anyone who's familiar with Gavin McInnes' output knows that he says whatever the hell he likes. I've become a fan of his through his political videos on Rebel Media, and his comment that he "speaks in public the way people speak in bars" gets to the root of his appeal. Still, even though I knew his views ('politically incorrect' doesn't begin to cover it) and was very much aware of his shameless (and fearless) approach to entertainment (see the videos 'How to Fight a Baby', 'How to Piss in Public' and his film How to Be a Man), I was still surprised – positively scandalized – by The Death of Cool. Sometimes it makes the gonzo journalism of Hunter S. Thompson or the dirty-old-man fiction of Charles Bukowski look like free copies of The Watchtower.

It's essentially a memoir of his hard-drinking, hard-shagging, hard-living life, an unashamed chronicle of "no-holds-barred, asshole mayhem" (pg. 232) which somehow also included co-founding a media empire. Here's a summary Gavin gives as early as page two:

"After discovering pussy, I dropped acid, started a band, got beat up, ripped my foreskin, went to jail, planted trees, dealt drugs, got tattoos, squatted Europe, got hustled, had some threesomes, farted, watched my friends die, lived in China, played some pranks, started a multimedia global empire, got on TV, gave myself gonorrhea, got beat up again, invented hipsters, went broke, got rich, got married, got knocked out, and had some kids."

And there's a lot more besides. It's a colourful life, to be sure, but what makes the book is just how honest Gavin is about it all. He'll tell a story regardless of whether it casts him as an idiot or an arsehole or a coward, so long as it's funny and/or interesting. Some are gruesome (for example, the frenulum story) and some are hilarious (the time he gave himself gonorrhoea – of the throat), whilst others are momentous (watching the World Trade Center collapse from the roof of his New York apartment block, or the New York blackout party of 2003) and surprisingly touching (Dr. John the tree-planter). And through it all Gavin's candidness is heightened by his genuine storytelling ability and the occasional delicious phrase ("It was colder than a dead slave's eyes that night" (pg. 194); "adrenaline had my knees jiggling like a pair of tits" (pg. 61)).

Given that Gavin states at the outset that the book was called The Death of Cool "because it's ultimately about the party years of your life and all that dies when you become a grown-up" (pg. v), I was a bit disappointed that he didn't really go into how he matured and turned from decadent all-night partying to loving husband and father seemingly on a dime. He claims it is because he doesn't want his children in the same pages as dead junkies (pg. 269), but it could just as easily be because it is less marketable and objectively interesting. (Similarly, I was interested to know all the ins and out of how he built up Vice, but I didn't get it – rightly or wrongly, amusing anecdotes take precedence.)

But greater emphasis on how his family anchored him and changed him would have, in my opinion, sunk more depth into the main purported theme of the book: not only the death of the 'cool' phase in life, but the rebirth into a new phase. To be fair, he does touch on this ("although I wouldn't trade those days for the world, I just traded them for a whole new world" (pg. 266)) and the paragraph after that line in which he compares the highs of drugs to the highs of fatherhood ("Having a baby fall asleep on your chest feels like heroin") is very neat, but I for one would have enjoyed a bit more on this noble, catch-rainbow-trout period of domestic bliss. That must be what it's all about. Or maybe I'm just gay.

If you liked I hope they serve beer in hell you will like this book. This is about the author Gavin McInnes and goes from when he was a teenager in Canada to his 40th birthday. The chapter "The Time I gave Myself An STD is is so gross, and so funny I could not stop laughing. Read this book.

Have you ever driven by a horrific accident and stared at it, knowing you should look away, but you can't? That's what comes to mind when I think of this book. "Street Boners" is a picture book full of terrible fashion "mistakes" and the most rude and crude comments about the photos that one can imagine. Some photos contain nudity and the book is stuffed full of obscene language. This is meant to be funny, but it really missed its mark in the humor department.

If you are entertained by fashion mistakes that the stars make, you'll enjoy the photos. There are some pretty interesting outfits that make you wonder if they were for a costume party, or if they were really worn as every day clothing. Like a bad accident, once I pick this book up, I find myself leafing through it and looking at more and more of the photos. It's awful, and somewhat humorous, and sometimes downright shocking. Sadly the language really ruins what could have been a very entertaining book.

Parental note - This book is NOT for children. It contains very offensive material - both in language and photographs. Book contains nudity.

This was very entertaining. My favorite part of gossip magazines is the fashion sections where we get to see the starts hits and misses. What could be better than a whole book about fashion hits and misses? Not much in my opinion.

There were a few pictures that were just gross, but for the most part it was pretty tasteful. And if you're familiar with Vice Magazine, you're probably expecting that anyway.

There were so many pictures in here that I had to dogear to show other people because I just had to validate that I was seeing what I thought I was seeing. I think some of these pictures can only be explained because the people wearing the outfits don't own mirrors... Some of them were just hilarious, like they tried really hard but just missed one very important part.

Not to say that I'm the best dressed person around (believe me I'm far from it), but if I ever decide to leave the house in some of these outfits, just lock me up.

While the outfits were entertaining enough they added comments to make it that much better. I laughed out loud quite a few times with this one. It was a perfectly executed picture book. Although some of the Do's took me a minute to figure out what they did right, as at first look they appeared to be Don'ts but once I figured out their rational behind the ratings things just started to fall into place.

Very entertaining! It was also a great one to share with others to get their reactions to some of the Don'ts. I think a fun night could be had by all just passing around this book. And if you have a friend that's a don't I think this book may help with the fashion intervention.