Village Voice Media being acquired by New Times very soon

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How nice that his fantasies are more valid, apparently.

They're more egalitarian, at least.

Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 14:15 (nineteen years ago)

Are they or is it just fetishization?

Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 14:45 (nineteen years ago)

ned adores his manolo blahniks

timmy tannin (pompous), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 15:17 (nineteen years ago)

I adore my Manolo Blahniks too, but I'm more impressed by people striving to create than people striving to be served.

Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 17:39 (nineteen years ago)

While I am as well, I'll be damned if I see that as a sign of moral superiority. (Which may not be what Doughty is trying to convey, I'll grant, but the aftertaste is there. Doughty himself was never a 'kid' or anything, oh no.)

Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 17:41 (nineteen years ago)

i don't think he's trying to convey moral superiority so much as "what made ny cool and a great place to live for me and people i know is changing"

s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 17:43 (nineteen years ago)

which is a very personal lament and not an objective moral critique.

s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 17:43 (nineteen years ago)

Well, fair enough. But I get the same feeling like what Todd Haynes did at the end of Velvet Goldmine, namely that *he* felt the art while the 'kids' are just sheep. Charming, maybe unavoidable, and I'm hardly guiltless I'm sure. But it's ugly and I will call it out.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 17:45 (nineteen years ago)

(I knew that old article I wrote for FT on said film was around somewhere, here it is.)

Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 17:48 (nineteen years ago)

Ned looking down from his lofty computer shocka.

shookout (shookout), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 17:54 (nineteen years ago)

"But it's ugly and I will call it out."

Not that I like the Soul Coughing guy much, but I don't see much ugliness in that bit. Mostly just resignation to the fact that the city's changed.

Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 18:02 (nineteen years ago)

ha, coincidentally i'm working on something about haynes right now (immersed in safe at the moment, soon to move on to vg. i think you're right about that moment, ned, and i think what makes the difference between haynes and dery is that haynes' sadness is personal -- the things that mattered to him have been degraded and usurped. but he doesn't allow that to be an all-encompassing condemnation, or rule out the possibility of other things meaning something to other people that they don't to him. which, at least on the basis of your dery quote, it sounds like dery is. anyway, you've made me anxious to finish up my safe section so i can get on to goldmine.

gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 18:06 (nineteen years ago)

you could put the quote into the mouth of someone like Stephin Merritt and I don't think anyone would blink

Hee hee hee.

I feel like the point of Goldmine was less about the particular genre of music and more about aging. Maybe that's too optimistic though.

Eppy (Eppy), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 18:20 (nineteen years ago)

i'm with ya on the dery thing, Ned, but the reading into the Parks quote is really ssstttteeeeeeeeeretching it. Do you still stand by that?

i need to see VG again, i liked it at the time but felt it was only 75% successful (that citizen kane rip thing was not so good). SAFE pwns pretty much everything else he ever did, except maybe the Karen Carpenter-as-doll opus.

timmy tannin (pompous), Thursday, 7 September 2006 06:05 (nineteen years ago)

i think safe is a better movie -- it's an amazing movie, really -- but i enjoy velvet goldmine more anyway. i'm pretty much a fan of everything of his except poison, which leaves me cold. (it's interesting, but not interesting enough.) the karen carpenter movie is great too.

gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Thursday, 7 September 2006 06:21 (nineteen years ago)

(looping the haynes discussion back to the voice, didn't the voice critics poll name safe the best film of the '90s?)

gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Thursday, 7 September 2006 06:31 (nineteen years ago)

i don't like Poison either.
i would definitely have Safe in my top 5 of the 90s. (and i'm glad hoberman lives on, but it's probably a matter of time before he bites it too, no?)

timmy tannin (pompous), Thursday, 7 September 2006 06:34 (nineteen years ago)

that the only letter re: xgau xit they published this week says 'it's only a matter of time til hoberman's fired' certainly doesn't seem a vote of confidence. safe was the voice's pick for best flick of the nineties, obv incredibly great movie.

j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 7 September 2006 11:02 (nineteen years ago)

such a wonderful blend of bergman and crichton. definitely one of my fave movies. i've always considered it a great feel-good movie. it never fails to cheer me up. (i had to try really hard to get to the end of velvet goldmine. i knew it had to end eventually.)

scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 7 September 2006 11:53 (nineteen years ago)

Safe is awesome! watched it again last year on somebody's bigscreen TV, liked it even more. I really wanted to love Velvet Goldmine, maybe I need to see it on something bigger than my TV.

m coleman (lovebug starski), Thursday, 7 September 2006 12:00 (nineteen years ago)

safe is such a great movie to watch stoned. along with persona and the andromeda strain. make it a triple-feature!

scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 7 September 2006 12:32 (nineteen years ago)

from the webpage

2006-09-05: Reports of My Dismissal Have Been Reasonably Accurate

On August 31, I was terminated by the new owners of The Village Voice along with four other senior editors, two gifted designers, and half of the two-person photo department. The mass layoff was characterized as a "restructuring," but I was fired "for taste." Because our union long ago anticipated the possibility of this kind of drastic overhaul, a contractually mandated severance arrangement will give me some time to get my economic future in order. But the specifics of that future probably won't be clear for a while.

The Voice changed a lot over the 37 years I wrote there and 32 years I was employed there. I haven't approved of all those changes, especially over the past decade. But for most of that time, with our unionization when Rupert Murdoch purchased the paper in 1977 a turning point, the Voice paid me to write well. My old bosses always understood that constructing a well-informed essay takes time, and that sorting, grading, and saying something honest and original about an incomprehensible plethora of records takes forever. I am grateful for the support my editors gave me, although I certainly believe I gave them surplus value back. But how my worklife is to proceed remains to be seen. I'll be letting you know in this space when I know myself.

Let me take this opportunity to say how very grateful I am, first simply for the interest all the visitors to this site have taken in my work, but especially for the labor volunteered by a few. Tom Hull's contribution is of course inestimable. The condolence notes Tom has forwarded to me have been much appreciated. I'll be OK. Like they say, it's too late to stop now. Or was that can't stop won't stop? Either way, both ways, I'll be in touch, and I'll be listening.

gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 8 September 2006 19:27 (nineteen years ago)

The thing is, even if the Voice were still at its peak of quality, it wouldn't be at its peak of hip credibilty and influence, because things are so de-centralized now, with the Wuh Wuh (incl that thread about current proliferation of zines, even)And that was kind of true even when most people weren't online yet, there were hell of a lot of zines by the mid-80s, at least. So, it's not as devastating (or significant) as would have been some years ago.

don (dow), Saturday, 9 September 2006 04:15 (nineteen years ago)

Which not to say I don't feel bad for Bob and Chuck and many others who have gotten canned.Glad to see Chuck's back writing there (and elsewhere).

don (dow), Saturday, 9 September 2006 04:18 (nineteen years ago)

the new (new) village voice = the new (old) pitchfork!?
http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0637,cavalieri,74418,22.html

Sterling Clover (s_clover), Friday, 15 September 2006 18:01 (nineteen years ago)

hahaha, they've even got ott

running in circles (running in circles), Friday, 15 September 2006 18:19 (nineteen years ago)

Oh man, the comments on that one.

Eppy (Eppy), Friday, 15 September 2006 18:20 (nineteen years ago)

from cherry picking pitchfork to taking their table crumbs

j blount (papa la bas), Friday, 15 September 2006 18:21 (nineteen years ago)

Everybody plays the fool, sometime.

Run Ruud Run (Ken L), Friday, 15 September 2006 18:23 (nineteen years ago)

a plague o' both your blogdoms!

Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Friday, 15 September 2006 18:26 (nineteen years ago)

safe is such a great movie to watch stoned.

Oh, so THAT's why it sucks. (the 2d half anyway)

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 15 September 2006 18:38 (nineteen years ago)

I travel to the Jersey shore about once a month, and I used to look forward to picking up the Voice, which you could find at almost any convenience store. Sad thing is, the last couple of visits I haven't been able to find it *anywhere*.

I mourn, but also wonder; been killed vs. been dying a slow death for years?

safe is such a great movie to watch stoned.

Oh, so THAT's why it sucks. (the 2d half anyway)

-- Dr Morbius (wjwe...)

That's a bit like saying the second half of A Clockwork Orange sucks. Sure, there are tone shifts, but they're necessary and integral. Safe in my top 10, too, though I'd hazard against watching it stoned (at least the first time). I would like to hear Scott expound on its uplifting qualities, however...

Edward III (edward iii), Friday, 15 September 2006 18:58 (nineteen years ago)

o it's been dying a slow death for years, xgau said as much, it's just kicked into hilarious overdrive now

j blount (papa la bas), Friday, 15 September 2006 19:00 (nineteen years ago)

i have to admit i am tempted to stay tuned in to see if the new guard is able to discover a worse writer than amy phillips.

j blount (papa la bas), Friday, 15 September 2006 19:00 (nineteen years ago)

The comment of choice, unsurprisingly:

harvilla on Tue Sep 12, 15:28, 2006, says:
aloha. voice mgmt. here with a message from the honorable nate cavalieri, author of the piece in question. have at you.

--

Ouch! And from a Village Voice Media colleague as well! The indignity!

I was a sometimes member of the Sights between 2002 and 2003, and played a whole bunch of gigs with them. The band exists and is touring still. They've likely played with the Black Keys somewhere along the way, but I don’t recall sharing a bill with the Black Keys during my tenure.

Also, I graduated from Oberlin College in 2000, where I studied music and creative writing, but my folks didn't have to shell out the entire 80k, thanks to a generous financial aid package. According to "the Goog," Denise graduated in 2003, but I don't recall meeting her there.

Finally, I've written about the Black Keys one other time professionally, in an article published in Detroit's Metro Times three years ago called "White Destriples," which reflected negatively on various two-piece garage/blues acts. I’ve written about them in my tear-soaked diary numerous times.

...

..."THE GOOG"?!?!

Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 15 September 2006 19:14 (nineteen years ago)

http://oberlin.edu/student/lfamular/headache.jpg

a name means a lot just by itself (lfam), Friday, 15 September 2006 19:34 (nineteen years ago)

Aw man. "The Gooch" has taken on a whole new meaning now.

http://thisisblythe.com/albums/albuo33/gooch.sized.jpeg

the dow nut industrial average dead joe mama besser (donut), Friday, 15 September 2006 20:00 (nineteen years ago)

arnold and willis will never be able to fight this

the dow nut industrial average dead joe mama besser (donut), Friday, 15 September 2006 20:02 (nineteen years ago)

THE GOOG!

Young Fresh Danny D (Dan Perry), Friday, 15 September 2006 20:03 (nineteen years ago)

What do you guys think about that M.Ward review/launching pad?

don (dow), Friday, 15 September 2006 21:16 (nineteen years ago)

I cringed while copy editing it. The paragraph-long explanation of the game "It" made me wonder aloud if the author was being paid by the word. Struck me as boring fellatio.

Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Friday, 15 September 2006 22:38 (nineteen years ago)

WHITE DESTRIPLES

free the butterfield 8 (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 15 September 2006 22:52 (nineteen years ago)

Oh, so THAT's why it sucks. (the 2d half anyway)

yeah i don't get this. the movie is a coherent whole, separating out the second half doesn't make sense.

gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Friday, 15 September 2006 23:09 (nineteen years ago)

guys, if you're having trouble: The Goog = http://www.google.com/

Wrinklepossum's Awesome Blossom (Wrinklepaws), Friday, 15 September 2006 23:58 (nineteen years ago)

haha leave it to wrinklepaws to decipher this horseshit

katie quirk (dubplatestyle), Saturday, 16 September 2006 00:06 (nineteen years ago)

I thought it had something to do with Mad Max's buddy.

Run Ruud Run (Ken L), Saturday, 16 September 2006 00:13 (nineteen years ago)

guys, if you're having trouble

Wrinklepaws, you sweet darling innocent. Let me send you some Nigerian spam.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 16 September 2006 00:33 (nineteen years ago)

Mmm.

Hoosteen (Hoosteen), Saturday, 16 September 2006 02:08 (nineteen years ago)

Nigerian spam, that is.

Hoosteen (Hoosteen), Saturday, 16 September 2006 02:08 (nineteen years ago)

I don't think I can get my head around the idea of someone who went to Oberlin writing the words "As The Black Key's drummer, Patrick Carney's girlfriend" in a public forum.

Eppy (Eppy), Saturday, 16 September 2006 13:42 (nineteen years ago)


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