Publisher of XXXGen Magazine, now Razor, Craig Vasiloff is of the opinion right now, that the less said, the better. But Vasiloff is also of the opinion that his current state of affairs is being blown way out of proportion on the Internet.
"I have a contract with these people [Fantastic] that, basically, they were in breach of. I served them. I left," Vasiloff explained. "They came back with some civil negotiations that were not in the ballpark. While we were still negotiating civilly, I guess they figured they were not going to win that way and tried to go after me criminally. Now I have to go defend myself for something which I don't think I did anything wrong." Vasiloff says he's never embezzled money or made death threats and calls other charges made against him on the Internet, "ridiculous."
"I'm trying to move on with my life and make some things happen," Vasiloff says simply. "This all comes from a contract. I believe I was in the right. There were some certain moneys that weren't paid [to Vasiloff] over a certain period of time. I basically said thanks, I'm moving on. But I'm not a happy guy right now." Vasiloff says a 'mischief' charge was leveled against him. "I guess, according to my contract, all intellectual rights of the company are mine," Vasiloff says. "When I left with my 'data' they decided I was taking company property even though the contract clearly states that it's my property. Now I have to deal with it in the courts."
Gene sez: "This is the context of an interview I had with Vasiloff last week before the Craig-is-in-jail rumors started surfacing. Vasiloff was talking about his new mainstream enterprise, Razor magazine.
Vasiloff: "Razor is one my efforts to keep things moving forward. I don't like to sit still for too long, and what Razor is furthers where XXXGen was going in that we take out a little bit of the adult-stuff. There was still a lot of nudity in there that labels it a 'sophisticate' magazine. But what I've done is take out a little bit of that but keep the same type focus, thus getting a bigger market share."
Vasiloff had originally projected a June target but sounded like he was backing off.
Vasiloff: "At the time I was talking with some potential investors, and it looked like it was a go. But it didn't happen to be....basically Razor's a magazine about music, sex and celebrities. It will have beautiful women galleries and a lot of stuff to do with the adult industry because of the music and adult industry connection. But it will all be presented in a clean fashion - no nudity in it. It will be all left up to the fantasy. That's the aspect we're going to sell. To go along with that will be the multi-media website that will feature live broadcasts and that sort of thing.
"I've worked real hard on the Fantsatic project and the XXX Generation project and to see it fumble...."
G. Ross: "Are you going to revive XXX Generation?"
Vasiloff: "According to the contract I have, I own all intellectual property. I own copyrights of those titles but it never goes the way the paperwork says it's supposed to go. We are actually debating that right now, but in the meantime I'm moving forward with something like Razor. It looks like we can get it up pretty quickly. I plan on having a website up live by June 1. [razormagazine.com]
Vasiloff: "We have the first event kicking off. It will be a live Motorhead concert. That's what the website will entail - a lot of live broadcasts/audio interviews/radio programming, that sort of thing. Motorhead is quite big in Europe and we're hoping that it will bring a lot of European audiences to it. We also have something lined up with Motley Crue in May. There's a lot of that stuff coming up. We're also going to be involved with the Tattoo the Earth festival coming up."
G. Ross: "Are you keeping the same working staff?"
Vasiloff: "I have no working staff..."
G. Ross: "I was under the impression that you had 'people.'
Vasiloff: "I've never really had people. I've pretty much done it all myself, and that's sort of the problem we're having right now is because the copyright is all my name."
G. Ross: "This is the old Hugh Hefner story. You're probably lounging around in pipe, pajamas, and 8 by 10 glossies spread all over the floor."
Vasiloff: "It's a hard battle, but right now there were a couple of people we had with Fantastic that were sort of support staff, but it was run by myself. The magazine was all art-directed, laid out and written by myself. That's why I have the ability I can start tomorrow and not worry about it."
