Girl Writer: LA's Museum of Broken Relationships Is a Reminder of All Your Horrible Exes

All photos courtesy of the Museum of Broken Relationships

At first glance, the Museum of Broken Relationships in Los Angeles seems more like a collection of household items than artifacts of heartbreak. In fact, if the space itself were any less posh, it would look like a yard sale. There's a Betty Boop plush doll opposite a dinosaur piñata; on one wall, a plain blue blouse is on display. But when you look closer, you notice that beside each object is a story about where it came from.

The museum, originally formed by artists Olinka Vištica and Dražen Grubišić in Zagreb, Croatia, is now opening a second location in Los Angeles. Vištica and Grubišić were themselves a couple once, and the museum was designed as a way to "overcome emotional collapse" of breaking up. The Los Angeles iteration sticks to this same theme. The museum's director Alexis Hyde and her staff sorted through more than 250 donated artifacts, each with their own sad tale, to create the museum as it can now be seen in its new Hollywood location.

"It might not look like it, but everything here is one of a kind," Hyde told me. "It's not priceless, but it's irreplaceable."

Once I began reading the stories for each object, it was hard not to think about the objects I've kept from my own broken relationships. Turns out, I don't have many. My most recent ex bought me a kit to make whip-its, which I never even used, and then asked for it back after we broke up. The closest thing I have to an object from a previous relationship, aside from a few pairs of underwear accidentally left behind in my apartment, is a photo from the time the guy I was dating peed my name on a sidewalk. It's not tangible, sure, but I still have that image saved on my phone, and I'll probably never delete it.

Related: We Asked Our Exes What It Was Like to Date Us

That's what's so fascinating about this place: It not only proves how universal heartbreak is, but more importantly, how universal it is to not want to let go. We invest so much of ourselves in relationships that when they're over, we need a souvenir—a reminder that it wasn't all for nothing. It feels unnatural to get to know someone so deeply, and let him or her get to know us deeply, then completely cut him or her out of our lives. These dispensable objects are a stand-in for our memories, and even the most painful ones can be difficult to surrender.

But the whole point of the Museum of Broken Relationships is that surrendering can be therapeutic.

"I've had people bring objects in person, and as they handed it to me have cried or been hesitant," Hyde told me. "I always ask, 'Are you sure?' And I see the relief that washes over them. They're happy to have let go of it, but it was a fight."

"Everything here is one of a kind. It's not priceless, but it's irreplaceable." — Alexis Hyde

Take the antique coffee grinder on display. "I sent him snail mail and a vinyl of Ella Fitzgerald's 'Dream a Little Dream of Me,' and he sent me an antique coffee grinder," reads the description. Then, according to the text, they ended up going to Iceland together before saying their final goodbyes at the airport (cue a Decembrists song as the credits roll). Other objects were tinged with neglect, deception, and betrayal. The blue blouse on display was worn by the woman who submitted it on the day her husband told her he was leaving her. In another part of the museum, there was a comic from a woman who explained: "I spent an entire summer making this birthday present, and he left it in my car."

It's hard not to put yourself into each of the stories, even if your own exes weren't nearly as romantic and/or terrible as the ones represented by the objects. A story that evoked anger in me might make another person feel hopeful, depending on how you see yourself in the story and how it makes you feel about your past relationships. "It's almost like a good abstract painting," Hyde told

On Motherboard: I Paid This Company $30 to Break Up with My Girlfriend

After snaking through the museum and reading the stories of real people being discarded and clinging to the objects that were left behind, I was on the verge of a panic attack. I mean this literally: My heart started racing, and I struggled to keep myself from breaking down and crying right in the middle of the museum. I kept asking myself, How do I avoid being one of these stories? Can I avoid it? At the same time, every object on display was a reminder that all relationships are doomed to fail.

I left the Museum of Broken Relationships feeling like I'd just left a therapy session. That's what's so important about a museum like this: The objects inside are both universal and deeply personal. And, hopefully, if I ever return, I'll see these objects and their stories in a whole new way, because I'll have a new perspective on my own love life.

The Museum of Broken Relationships opens to the public on Saturday, June 4. For more information, visit its website. If you'd like to donate an object from a failed relationship, you can do so here.

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The VICE Guide to Right Now: Something Is Happening in These New 'Game of Thrones' Photos, I Just Don't Know What

Is there anything more exciting than a new episode of Game of Thrones? How about some photos that make us think about a new episode?! The characters in the photos don't talk or fight or have sex with one another—that's not how photos work—but it's them, your favorites, in some heretofore unseen context. Which ones will talk to one another? Which ones will have sex? Which ones will kill one another? How about all three at once? Find out by tuning into Game, which will be on TV until it stops!

If you can't wait for the images to appear on your screen, here are the photos that HBO has shared for fans of Thrones to enjoy. I hope they give you pleasure, and you know what's happening in them, because I don't:

Photo by Helen Sloan /HBO

Who's this armored-up hottie roaming what I assume is the woods or something with an entourage of other medieval-type dudes? Answer: an actor, and maybe one of the main ones!

Photo via Helen Sloan/HBO

If I had to guess, I'd say this guy is being like, "Whoa, hey, please bald man don't kill me," and the bald man is about to be all, "No!" Then he kills him. Then the dead guy comes back! Game of Thrones!

Photo via Helen Sloan/HBO

It kinda looks like that guy in the background is holding some kind of futuristic gun, but it's actually just a sword because Thrones takes place in the past, not the future (I think?!).

Photo via Helen Sloan/HBO

Is that one of the Thrones the Game is about? If so, I'd say this lady is about to win... or lose!

Photo courtesy of HBO

Whoa, is that a giant? Or just a statue? Either way, pretty cool.

Photo by Helen Sloan/HBO

But the show isn't all giants and fancy chairs. There's also hugging and nuns! Tune in and check this great action out.

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Homeless Dog Owners Talk About What Their Dogs Mean to Them

All photos by John Kilar

Los Angeles' Skid Row is, by many estimates, home to the nation's largest concentration of homeless people. The LA Area Chamber of Commerce estimates that somewhere between 8,000 and 11,000 people live in the roughly 50-block area that comprises the neighborhood.

While it's difficult to know how many of the homeless population of Skid Row own pets, Pets of the Homeless, a national organization that focuses on feeding and providing care for the pets of homeless people, estimates that 5 to 10 percent of homeless people nationwide have pets. If you spend a couple of hours on Skid Row, you'll see at least a few animals (mostly dogs).

Multiple studies have shown that owning a pet has a positive effect on the pet owner's mental and physical health. This is true of the population at large, regardless of their housing status, and in one study was found to be true specifically of homeless youths.

I spent a day on Skid Row, speaking to some of the residents about their dogs and what they mean to them.

Barry with his dog Daisy

VICE: Where did you get her?
Barry: I bought her from a friend. When I first got her, she had mange real bad.

How did you fix it?
I took her to a vet.

Is there a vet close by?
No. I took her to one in Gardena .

Mike and his dog Precious

VICE: How old is she?
Mike: Eight months old. Terrier. She's pregnant right now.

How long have you had her?
Had her since she was a puppy. She does all sorts of tricks.

Sheri (left) and Billy with their dogs Mini Me and Billie Jean

VICE: Is it hard taking care of dogs while living here on Skid Row?
Sheri: It is hard because people want to feed them everything, and they want to eat everything on the ground. We want them to eat their puppy food, and people don't understand why they can't give them people food. But we're moving into an RV on the 16th.

Anonymous and his dog Jazzy

VICE: How long have you had her?
Anonymous: About a year.

Is it hard taking care of dogs here on Skid Row?
Nah. She's a pretty good dog.

Lovey and her dog Puda

VICE: How long have you had her?
Lovey: Only about three weeks.

Have you had dogs before?
This is my first one as an adult.

Were you nervous to raise your first dog as an adult?
I felt so scared! Like this was a baby. She's my baby.

Anonymous and her dog Cha Cha

VICE: Where did you get her?
Anonymous: I got her from a friend. I saw her, and I said "that doggie is going to be mine."

What's Cha Cha's best quality?
She's a listener.

Al and his dog Bobby

VICE: Tell us about your dog
Al: A little girl originally owned him. The dog's father was a police dog. He grew up too quick. The little girl that originally owned him didn't want him.

Follow Allegra Ringo on Twitter and John Kilar on Instagram.

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This Stoned Dude Snapchatted for 24 Hours Straight

These guys truly got the complete Toronto experience in 24 hours. Photo via YouTube

Snapchat is an amazing tool with limits that are only as small or big as the mind of the user. Music videos, art, feature films: we truly live in the age of possibility when it comes to broadcasting our lives in ten-second bursts. Most people don't use the app for much more than unintelligible videos of them yelling at the club or twerking to the latest Fetty Wap song, but some people are different. Some people see the potential 2016's hottest app holds.

Last Saturday, Torontonians Kyle Park and Michael Carnevale capitalized on a combination of free time, weed, and friendship to do something ambitious: they spent 24 hours walking up Yonge Street, the longest street in Canada, and Snapchatted the entire thing. The result is pretty epic.

The brainchild of 23-year-old Park (a graphic-designer-turned-entertainer), the walk featured him and Carnevale (a 20-year-old, cowboy hat-clad city worker) interacting with some of Toronto's most vibrant characters as they documented a whole day's worth of pain and dabbing for the Internet to see. A rabid Snapchatter myself, I felt inspired by their experience, so I called Kyle up to learn more about what pushed him and his pal to make the trip.

VICE: What prompted you to spend the weekend walking up Yonge Street while Snapchatting the whole thing?
Kyle Park: Well, I work for a bars and packing everything—we're going to be the party, good vibes only, Summer Sixteen.

Did you guys rest anywhere along the way? It sounded like a hell of a walk.
I didn't realize it but there was this one creek that was part of the sewage system. Anyway, it was flowing water, not stagnant and mossy, so I took a swim in it and Snapchatted that too. I honestly felt so refreshed. Bro, I felt I got born again in the lake of fire. There was also times where we just chilled for a few minutes in different grass patches because, by the halfway point, we were hurting real bad.

What'd you do at the end? Was there a celebration?
Well, the celebration was actually that my aunt has an 8,000-square-foot mansion in Barrie—that's what we were walking too. We just got there and were like, "Oh my god." It's the coolest house I've ever laid my eyes on. It's an absolute palace. We ended up cheersing, kicking it, and having a great time there. We headed back on the Sunday afternoon. I feel so beat now.

You mentioned earlier you don't fuck with Uber or taxis. What's up with that?
I want to bring it back to the roots. I'm all about natural vibes, living that natural life. Back in the day, before cars, before horses, people had to walk. Walking is the most natural state of movement. All the successful people you hear about—Steve Jobs and that—they went for long walks. On this walk, Mike and I got into some really deep topics and hit massive positivity. That's invaluable. In an Uber or a taxi, it's too quick, it's too accessible. How far are we actually pushing ourselves?

Have you thought about writing a motivational book? You seem like the type.
Mike and I have thought about it. Mike and I are all about that, and I think this walk really reflects that we want to bring good vibes, and get people to just walk. The adventure is out there. Everything is Gucci.

Follow Jake Kivanc on Twitter.

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Health: Why I Stopped Taking My ADD Pills

Photo by Lauren Gucik

At age 12, I—the perpetual space cadet who constantly loses my jacket and backpack—am told I have Attention Deficit Disorder, ADD. I'm sitting with my mother and sister, lounging on pillows, and my mother pulls out a book that has an unofficial diagnostic checklist. She's a psychologist, so it's not totally out of the ordinary. Do I go off on tangents easily? Am I more prone than the average kid to make careless mistakes? There is something pleasurable in the yesses. I'm winning at this game, and the questionnaire seems to know me so well. But then my mother tells me there are enough answers to diagnose me with ADD, and my stomach tightens. The stakes, all of a sudden, seem high, although I don't understand them.

I've recently started at a new school, one that doesn't let me wander around during class if I need a break, one in which the teachers don't always let me doodle because it helps me listen. The classes are bigger. There's more homework. Although teachers say I am one of the brightest in my classes, I have trouble keeping up.

A behavioral pediatrician diagnoses me officially, and prescribes me medication. It's 1994, and the prevalence of ADD diagnoses are about to increase in kids my age, reaching 15 percent in boys and 7 percent in girls by 2013. In New Jersey, where I am, about a third of those will be medicated.

Each of my Dexadrine pills is a capsule containing tiny peach and orange balls. I take one every morning. I wear a locket to school that I got to pick out, with paisley swirls in its metal, that holds my afternoon dose. Each day I swallow the second pill at the water fountain. My teachers fill out forms that rate my attention and focus. ADD, the adults tell me, is just like an illness; you have to take medicine to make yourself better.

The medicine helps me focus in class, on homework, on chores. It is easier to get through my homework and pay attention in class. As I continue taking it, through middle school and then junior high, a question bubbles in the back of my mind: Where does the pill end and I begin? If my achievements are enabled by medication, are they truly mine?

The author at age 12

I continue taking the pills through high school, though I switch to small round white Ritalin, then blue oblong Adderall. I study psychology and sociology at a good college. I learn that mental "disorders" are socially constructed and historically specific. What is "crazy" in one culture or time may be normal or preferred in another. Diagnoses often include nebulous criterion like "clinically significant impairment," subject to interpretation.

I have long known that ADD people don't suffer from a lack of attention; when they're interested in something, they can hyperfocus, focusing for longer periods and more intensely than other people. Medication for ADD begins to seem more like a quick fix that avoids the main problem: School is often rote and only works well for linear learners. It's more complicated and expensive to create compelling curriculum, or dispense with classroom learning completely, than to feed kids pills. The prevalence of diagnosed adults is 4.4 percent, which suggests that people age out of the disorder. It could also reflect that many adults learn how to structure their lives around their tendencies better and don't seek out treatment. I start to understand ADD as a personality type, not a disorder.

I start writing fiction. I take creative writing workshops and become devoted, obsessed. While churning out short stories, I notice that Adderall doesn't help me write, but interferes. I start skipping my medication when I'm writing.

In the fall of my final year of college, I do a research project on medication for ADD/ADHD. There are myriad studies about the positive effects of medication—at least partially a consequence of the extensive research funded by pharmaceutical companies—but I seek out the negative effects. Some research suggests that better behavior, as reported by parents and teachers, is associated with higher anxiety. Other research suggests that for non-creative people, stimulant medication can enhance creative thinking, but for creative people, it can impair it.

A larger understanding begins to click into place: Medication interferes with both my creativity and the identification of my true interests. It has allowed me to focus on anything, inherently reducing the pull of those topics I find truly compelling—like fiction writing, like art, the things on which I hyperfocus.

During my research project, I stop taking the medication, to the chagrin of my parents. The next couple of years are rough. Without using medication as a crutch, I must repair broken skills: how to have a conversation with someone without interrupting him or her, how to sit still and focus on my work, how to remember my appointments and organize my things.

Like many other ADD people, I learn by trying things out. Over the next decade, I try on careers: teacher, organic farmer, sustainability consultant, landscape architect, graphic designer, salmon fisher. None stick, but at least I am eliminating possibilities.

My story, and my decision to stop medication, is shaped by privilege. If I don't make rent, I can stay with friends and family. I don't have dependents. I've graduated from college. I'm smart and have connections. My friends are all weirdos and accepting of my quirks. If any of these things weren't true, life without medication might feel like too much of a risk.

WATCH: Confessions of an Addict

Being ADD and unmedicated carries tangible perils. People with ADD are more likely to struggle with addiction, drop out of school, have few friends, and become pregnant as teenagers. If I had not been medicated for the first ten years of my life, would I have suffered these fates? What choices remain for those stuck in a broken educational system, in a culture that favors linear thinking over creative?

I fall into journalism accidentally, starting a project with a friend, interviewing female street artists. It grows into a book. Focus on the project comes easily, because I'm obsessed with the task. I dedicate my life to nonfiction writing, and doors open around me. I wonder how many people have been medicated out of this journey, have popped a pill that allowed them to clock in at an unsatisfying office job to pay the bills. I have never met a dull person with ADD, one without passion. If they cannot focus on their work, I believe either they haven't found their calling, or it's difficult or impossible to center their life around it. I do not believe that ADD is an illness or disorder, but that its "symptoms" are the real drawbacks of having one type of unconventional mind.

I'm a freelance writer and editor now, with odd jobs thrown in to pay the bills. I don't have trouble focusing on writing, though I still lose track of my notebooks and drift during conversations with others. I lose water bottles at a rapid clip and have trouble sitting through an entire movie. Though I try to adapt to the world, these traits and tendencies are a fundamental part of me, not something I'd like to erase anymore than I would the freckles on my shoulders or my angular nose. None of this adds up to a normal job or life, and I'm not sure I'll ever have one. And in a few years, I may decide to change my focus. But now the pieces of me that sometimes seem like liabilities—hyperfocusing on what I find interesting, my intense curiosity and obsessiveness, my stubbornness—have become assets. I may struggle to structure my life, but I have complete clarity about what I want to do with it.

Follow Rachel Cassandra on Twitter.

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Judges Ruled a Woman Can Sue the Website She Says Enabled Her Rapists

Image by Andrew Brookes/Getty

In 2011, an aspiring model we'll call Jane Doe flew from Brooklyn to South Florida to meet a man she thought was a casting agent after talking to him on a website called Model Mayhem. Instead, she met up with Lavont Flanders, a former cop, and Emerson Callum, better known as the Jamaican porn star Jah-T. After they slipped her a Xanax, the two men filmed her rape for a porn series called Miami's Nastiest Nymphos.

Doe was one of about 100 people who had been victimized by Callum and Flanders, who were sentenced to 12 consecutive life terms in 2012. But her story didn't end with her predators' convictions—that same year, she sued the company that owns Model Mayhem for knowing that rapists might be lurking the site and not warning her about it.

At the time, it didn't seem like she had much of a chance: Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) means websites are very rarely liable for anything people post on them. The majority of experts agreed that the case would soon die as a result, and the fact that tech giants like Facebook, Craigslist, and Tumblr filed briefs in support of Model Mayhem didn't seem to bode well for the plaintiff.

But in a surprising decision yesterday that one day could have reverberations across the internet, a three-judge panel in California decided the case will proceed. It's the latest chapter in an ongoing debate about how much responsibility websites, apps, and sharing economy startups have when bad things happen to people while they're using these services.

"Congress has not provided an all purpose get-out-of-jail-free card for businesses that publish user content on the Internet," Judge Richard Clifton wrote in the panel's decision.

Read More on this case: The Rape Victim Who Is Challenging One of the Fundamental Laws of the Internet

Critical to understanding this case––and what makes it different from, say, someone suing Craigslist after buying a bicycle off a classified ad and getting in a crash while riding it––is a legal concept called failure to warn. Callum and Flanders were arrested in 2010 for pulling a similar rape scheme with a handful of victims, but the case proved difficult to prosecute, and they were released. Doe is alleging that Model Mayhem, knowing they were on the loose, should have warned users not to fall for similar scams in the future. The judges said that the CDA does not bar claims based on failure to warn, although they didn't specify exactly what Model Mayhem was supposed to do.

"This is an important decision that will impact both users and service providers," Jeff Herman, the sexual abuse attorney representing Doe, told VICE. "I think it's fair to call this the internet accountability decision since websites are no longer free to ignore known safety risks without potential liability."

Many First Amendment defenders say that if the CDA is challenged in any way, it could have a chilling effect of speech on the internet because companies will be unwilling to expose themselves to lawsuits over users preying on other users. To that, Judge Clifton said that making Model Mayhem liable would be only "marginally chilling."

Eric Goldman, a law professor who specializes in tech issues and is a proponent of Section 230, says he doesn't really see the case as a First Amendment issue, but rather one that could affect companies like Airbnb and Uber––both of which have faced accusations from users who say they were sexually assaulted. He said that eBay has claimed Section 230 immunity for 15 years, and that it makes sense that companies in the sharing economy do the same.

The decision could be devastating for dating apps, Goldman added.

"There are regulatory efforts to require online dating services to do mandatory screening of members," he told VICE. "If coupled with potential failure-to-warn liability, it would put the online dating services in an untenable position. They would be charged with knowledge about everything they learn in the screenings, yet in theory they would be obligated to disclose every bit of screening information about each member to ensure they satisfied an obligation to warn other members about any potential problem, no matter how remote. I don't quite know online dating services would manage that risk, to be honest with you."

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Entertaining Children Is a Nightmare Job

All images by the author

In Toronto there's an infamous dude who dresses up as Spiderman and circles Dundas Square posing for photos, jumping on streetlights, and shooting silly string at passersby. Every so often, little kids will spot this pseudo superhero and freak out. I once saw a boy in a Spiderman outfit legitimately wail when he saw Peter Parkour (which he calls himself... obvi) balancing on a pole while a group of teens snapchatted him. Spidey stopped and spoke to the boy, signed his backpack, and definitely made his entire day. Kids will pretty much lose their shit over anyone who vaguely looks like a character they've seen on television.

No matter where these fictional characters show up, kids are stupidly obsessed with them. These obsessions not only give city buskers easy access to loonies and toonies, but also a quite lucrative children's entertainment business. Numerous companies employ actors and actresses to play popular kids' characters for birthday parties and other special occasions. It's a seemingly niche occupation that's extremely in demand for today's tykes and their eager-to-please parents. VICE reached out to some current and past kids' entertainers and asked them to recount some of their worst gigs ever.

Lauren, 16

VICE: What characters do you dress up as?
Lauren: Elsa, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Ariel, and Belle.

How does your job work?
I usually do it at parties on weekends because I'm in school during the week. A photographer comes with me, and I do the kids' nails, makeup, I sing all the Disney princess songs that apply to that character, and I play games with them.

What was one of your worst gigs?
One time I was doing Elsa—Elsa has magical snow powers—so the little girl said, "Elsa, can you do your powers?" I had to do something, so I said, "I'll make it snow tomorrow." And the girl was like, "No, do it now, Elsa. I want the powers now." I insisted that I'd make it snow tomorrow. And then the mother just went up to her child and was like, "Magic isn't real!" I was so shocked. The poor little girl was crying in the corner, and I was trying to console her, but the mom told me to leave.

Oh my god.
Yeah I felt so bad. The mom was crazy. But the next day it did snow, so.

Mark, 24

VICE: What characters did you dress up as?
Mark: Iron Man, a pirate, the red Power Ranger, Captain America, Spiderman, Superman, Batman, all of them really.

What was your worst gig?
It was my last one actually. I was Spiderman. I walked into the room, and it's very hard to see sometimes in the costume, but I see the kids, and I go over to them. No one introduced the birthday boy to me, but there were two kids there, like three years old. I go, "Heeey! Are you the birthday boy?" to the first guy. And he was just like, "no." So to the kid beside him, I said, "Happy birthday!" He looked at me and just started bawling, like inconsolably bawling his eyes out. Mom and dad swooped in and took him away, so I tried playing with the other kid. He wasn't really interested in playing with me; meanwhile the birthday boy was just wailing. Eventually other kids arrived, and the birthday boy stopped crying. So I go over, and he sees my mask and starts crying again. I asked the dad if he wanted me to take the mask off. He goes, "Yeah that might be best." It didn't work, and he started crying again. The parents just told me to go.

Was he scared of you?
The dad said he loved Spiderman. I think it was like, when you meet your idol and you just don't know what to do with yourself. You can't control yourself.

Did you get paid for that disaster?
I did. Originally I didn't want him to pay me, like it was ridiculous. I was there for ten, 15 minutes tops. I was supposed to be there for an hour.

Jaicyea, 21

VICE: How did you get involved in children's entertainment?
Jaicyea: I was about 16 years old, and I had been learning belly dance. My mom wasn't entirely comfortable with me performing in nightclubs with live musicians, so I really needed an outlet to do my performances. I saw the opportunity to be Princess Tiana, and I got the job right away. I did it for two years.

Tell me about a bad gig you've had.
One of the worst gigs that I've had was one where I think the kids were being overly stimulated. There were jumping castles, clowns, there was a rapper for some reason, and there was me. It kind of sucked because I was just being ignored. Like, you're in the princess costume and you have to play that role no matter what. So there's me being poised and cute, and no one's even talking to me.

Who were they most interested in?
The castle .

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