Village Voice Media being acquired by New Times very soon

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.

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

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...

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"?!?!

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

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

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

Van De Voorde called Hoffman "a writer and editor with experience in hard news" who would help City Pages do more investigative reporting and narrative writing -- two New Times hallmarks.

Since CP does plenty of investigative reporting and narrative writing, who knows wtf this is supposed to mean. Unless they want CP to start writing, you know, dumber.

trust me -- i join you all in hoping to christ the VV papers stay exactly as they are in that regard. i want matos/sylvester/eddy exactly where they are, only more so.

-- awful bliss (harvill...), October 25th, 2005.

riiiiiight.

But hey at least there's still music ... I caught up and heard the Christina Aguilera for the first time this week. Surprisingly great.

i just started seeing it a few weeks ago, but this week i saw issues of it EVERYWHERE. i guess they think the city pages is vulnerable or something..

Yeah, it's supposed to sound that way. "Some Loud Thunder," the title track off CYHSY's sophomore release, is a fun, crisp pop song—all hand claps and cowbells and jangly guitar—fed through a haze of radio static, like it's crackling between AM channels on a long drive through the desert. A nostalgic gesture, I guess. But it's also hard not to be skeptical. This is a band that emerged in 2005 as though genetically engineered in some East Village basement to generate blogger appeal. Their first, self-titled disc was packed with all the hippest rock references—Talking Heads, Neutral Milk Hotel, etc.-—but instead of being angular and crisp, those influences sounded as if they'd been left out in to the sun too long and melted into something warped and druggy.