B EAST Magazine website

Feb 8, 2010

By Vijai

Reading the respected German weekly, Der Spiegel’s article on Europe’s Dying Nightlife this week felt vindicating. Time is so speeded up these days that Spiegel toeing the B.East line on Europe’s nightlife feels a bit like Galiloe living another 150 years to witness the Church finally drop its ban on a heliocentric universe. Even just five years ago, when we launched B.East, our contrarian views that the vibe in the East is punchier, sexier & fresher than the hyped scenes in Paris, Amsterdam & London was heresy to many. However, things seem to have gotten a lot worse even since then for a mainstream newsmagazine like Spiegel to crow out in its lead paragraph, ‘Europe’s nightlife is under threat and Amsterdam is no exception. Restricted opening hours, rent hikes and increased policing are all serving to dampen the party spirit in the Dutch article.’ The article goes even further, stating in a later paragraph that ‘Paris’ nightlife is on the brink of death.’

This is all sweet music to our beastly ears. Bohemian Rhapsody. However, there’s no reason to be complacent. Many of the cities in Eastern Europe have also been gentrified and sterilised since joining EU. There’s just a whiff of the zany, mad Prague in today’s picture-perfect Old Town. Riga & Tallinn have gone into hibernation and also restricted opening hours & embraced smoking bans and alcohol restrictions. The energy’s moving even further East, to Kiev, Moscow, Shanghai, Mumbai, and other places most people haven’t heard about. Which is why we moving East also, embracing the energy of the rising East in our future issues. B.East is going to be just about the East in future, whether it’s China or East London. We’re there where things are most raw. That doesn’t mean we’re abandoning East Europe. It’ll still be our primary base and the lens through which we view what’s happening elsewhere.

Stay tuned for news on our upcoming Black&White-out issue.

Sep 18, 2009

Never believe the hype? Or, in this case, the hyped-up diss. With the jaw-dropping GDP contraction in the Baltic States making the rest of the world feel better about their economic woes, the global press has been rife with depressing stories from that part of the world, especially Latvia, which is doing even worse than its neighbors. Newspapers talk about stores closing, glum residents, doom and gloom, and a general party pooper vibe. Few mention that Latvia’s capital Riga hosted a flamboyant Blond Parade this May to cheer up the city’s residents. Seems that others are busy lifting the Baltic spirit. The dynamic editors of Jaffa Mag, Latvia’s cool countercultural rag (which comes out even less frequently than B.East!) organised the country’s first Folk Dance Flash Mob in the center of the Old City. As my mate from Amsterdam said when watching the video, ‘Quite a few cuties there.’ Cuties or not, check it out here.

May 31, 2009

We’ve been all over Riga’s full-on blonde parade because it’s just so beasty, hilarious and politically incorrect. Just as Latvia is reeling from its worst economic crisis since independence from the Soviet Union, hundreds of blondes decided to march through downtown in skimpy clothes to cheer up the populace. Well, why not? Perhaps Riga will inspire a string of blond parades across recession-hit Europe. Listen up, Iceland!

Our intrepid B.East photographer, Karen Oganyan was at the march today and captured the zaniness of the event for us. Check out his photos below and his mini-dispatch from the front lines.

hundreds of blonds age 13 - 50 walked through riga’s old town on a gorgeous warm and sunny sunday.
perhaps in hugh hefner’s wildest dreams he couldn’t anticipate so many attractive and sexy girls altogether.
being a part of it was a lot of fun.