tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post4786931506821197495..comments2023-08-14T11:44:27.299-04:00Comments on Jeremiah's<br> Vanishing New York: Village VoiceJeremiah Mosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11791516443125872364noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-41029574780012879412017-09-02T23:14:58.690-04:002017-09-02T23:14:58.690-04:00It was primarily seven years of reading the Voice ...It was primarily seven years of reading the Voice by subscription that gave me the courage to finally move a thousand miles away from home to NYC twenty years ago. As a new arrival to the city, I, too, waited with a small crowd at the Astor Place news stand to grab the new issue, and I write now from the same apartment that a Voice classified led me to rent in 1997. It was distressing to watch as the paper lost so many contributors through the years. I recall a conversation with a neighbor from about a decade ago, after another long-time staffer was fired, in which my neighbor said, "It's over for the Voice." I said, "No. When Nat Hentoff goes, then it's over." And in time, Hentoff went, while an ever-diminishing, less relevant Voice staggered on. I have a mostly favorable opinion of the changes and improvements the paper made in the last year or so, even as the number of pages seemed to shrink each week. I suppose I will have to follow whatever the Voice becomes online, as I still consider it an essential part of my life in the city. The many Voice contributors from the past have my eternal respect and gratitude, for I can truly say that their work helped me steer my life to a better place.erichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10643652626529853465noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-52710540087948757862017-08-30T09:19:35.610-04:002017-08-30T09:19:35.610-04:00I'm feeling deeply offended, disgusted, immers...I'm feeling deeply offended, disgusted, immersed in the negative. Taking away the print version of the Voice makes total sense for a class of people who don't read. Let's face it, the new class "skim" articles online, or on their phones. They don't care for print versions of anything because the print version is heavy, laden with details. They have to carry it. They have to stop to read it. These people scoff at things they do not understand. These people have no patience. They want their wine in five minutes. They want it all now. They're animals. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-31101071077768486972017-08-26T23:03:52.264-04:002017-08-26T23:03:52.264-04:00I first started reading the VOICE in the library o...I first started reading the VOICE in the library of my Junior College in Jacksonville, FL in 1973. I still remember reading James Wolcott's review of the Ramones in the VOICE in the Spring of '75, and I followed the paper's coverage of the "NY Underground rock scene," as it was known before John Holmstrom's magazine PUNK gave the scene and the world a name for an emerging generation of avant garde and ironic young pop musicians. In the Fall of '75 I transferred to the University of Florida, where I could buy the VOICE at a bookstore across the street from the University's main entrance. Two friends I made at UF moved, first one, then the other scant months later, after graduating. I stayed in Florida another couple of years, but finally moved up here in May '81, after two test visits in June 1979 and August 1980. I bought the VOICE every week for years, and continued to pick it up when it became a free paper, (copying the upstart NEW YORK PRESS). I stopped picking it up a couple of years ago when it became really bad, but I have been getting it weekly for the last year, as it seemed to have improved and started featuring real journalism again. I'm sad it's print edition will end, but, it has discarded all of its recognizable writers and cartoonists, and one has to admit this was inevitable.Robert Cookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06951286299515983901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-31431351916292048022017-08-24T23:44:49.498-04:002017-08-24T23:44:49.498-04:00The first thing I thought of when reading this art...The first thing I thought of when reading this article was "I found my first apartment and first job out of college in the VV", and it's nice to see others with the same sentiment. While I pick up the 2 little papers in the morning in the subway, I admit it's been a while that I picked up the Voice. 30 years ago it was a weekly bible to my 17 year old self, but times changed, I changed, the city changed, and the Village Voice has also changed with the times.AriesRobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14684835084629810494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-36741614076029408512017-08-24T14:13:19.672-04:002017-08-24T14:13:19.672-04:00The Village Voice has stunk for at least 15 years....The Village Voice has stunk for at least 15 years. The writing is terrible, they got rid of real journalism. They fired their really good staff writers of national and local import. They have no say about social issues on a national scale. The real estate section dried up. The art sections were better done by independent Internet bloggers. Art reviews and listing better on blogs.Brianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16018698439789288968noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-56417519451023817422017-08-24T11:04:03.933-04:002017-08-24T11:04:03.933-04:00Has there been a date set for their final issue? W...Has there been a date set for their final issue? While this paper has become a shadow of it's former self it would still be cool to see how they bow out.Conan1982https://www.blogger.com/profile/05158594418556567225noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-62012430025601502352017-08-24T00:16:57.544-04:002017-08-24T00:16:57.544-04:00I'm one of the many folks who used to pick up ...I'm one of the many folks who used to pick up the first run at night to read the job listings. I also got my first apartment through the Voice, while reading it weekly in my hometown in Upstate New York. My first job, and several others, found through the Voice. This was in the late 80's.<br />I read it religiously, and felt like I was connected to the soul of the city because of it. The Voice was a reliable friend.<br />I haven't read it in the last 10 years, wondering how long it could last in print form.<br />Goodbye old friend. <br />R.I.P.Caleohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02444665611094048421noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-51836843489225923552017-08-23T17:45:09.267-04:002017-08-23T17:45:09.267-04:00Thank you for your crankiness and critiques, Jerem...Thank you for your crankiness and critiques, Jeremiah. While the Village Voice has been a shell of itself for some time, it still played a valuable role in the complex media ecology of New York and the US. (As did the now shuttered, quasi-libertarian City Paper before its demise.) When I was in my late teens and early 20s and only visiting New York, I would prize every copy of the Voice that I could get, because it was covering aspects of New York and US culture you could not find in most other US or local publications. I think of Wayne Barrett's political coverage, Richard Goldstein's articles on queer life and HIV/AIDS, Michael Musto's chronicles of New York's underground, Sylvia Plachy's unforgettable photos, Ted Rall's cartoons, Hilton Als' criticism (before he went to the New Yorker), the numerous critics writing about women's issues, the wide array of reviews of music, books, film, art, dance, etc., as well as its incredibly helpful listings, for jobs, apartments, you name it. Who nailed the corruption of one of Giuliani's top officials? Where else did you ever see someone out (legitimately) a right-wing, anti-gay top Roman Catholic Cardinal? Which publication was capturing the shifts in hiphop and rock before any other New York newspaper? One of the first and best reviews of my first book appeared there; the author was then just starting out but brilliant in his reading, is now quite famous: Colson Whitehead. <br /><br />Just as New York has undergone a hypergentrified, neoliberal transformation into a zombie version of itself, increasingly excluding non-elite labor, so has the Voice been transformed, gutted really, by several generations now of management and ownership changes that have decimated its labor force (as Dee says, in 2006 and 2013 among others), and now consigned it to a ghostly, digital existence. Say what you will about the death of print, but while I find I sometimes (often?) cannot open digital files from 20 years ago, and while countless online sites (including whole platforms) are now just blank "error" pages, copies I have of the Voice are still readable as soon as I pick them up. And Scout, digital book sales are actually declining as a percentage of overall book sales, thank goodness!John Khttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08073378940347627766noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-29214510442613501332017-08-23T16:26:34.049-04:002017-08-23T16:26:34.049-04:00I too found my rent controlled apartment via the V...I too found my rent controlled apartment via the Voice. Imagine being the first to show up with the option of taking or leaving it. I took it - $500 a month on East 4th Street. <br /><br />Love that photo of the former Voice headquarters. The lack of pretense and fussiness on the Village streets is palpable. That Jack Delaney's restaurant is now a... Starbucks. I used to go for STD testing in the building next to it, now a Chase Bank. Ah the memories. Ah the STDs!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04647505299908491003noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-31072401260086461962017-08-23T15:45:37.422-04:002017-08-23T15:45:37.422-04:00AGree with Penny Arcade. By the 90s it was already...AGree with Penny Arcade. By the 90s it was already being made irrelevant. I've just looked up what they did to the editors and writers in 2006 and then 2013. It was savage and nasty. Beloved longtime writers and dedicated editors were decimated. I miss what it WAS. Not what it's become.Deehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07308153317324936035noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-73280652348644998812017-08-23T15:38:48.700-04:002017-08-23T15:38:48.700-04:00Glad you're cranky like the voice in a good wa...Glad you're cranky like the voice in a good way. This cranky guy got his first 1 bedroom apartment @ 448 West 46th Street for $423.75 in 1984. And the second one on Ninth Ave. And countless jobs. Yes by waiting on line in the wee hours for the paper to be dropped off at the newsstand in Sheridan Square, then poring over it in Tiffany restaurant across the street.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14178147585007107809noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-73270944271041297142017-08-23T14:58:28.101-04:002017-08-23T14:58:28.101-04:00Even the Encyclopedia Britannica is pixel-only the...Even the Encyclopedia Britannica is pixel-only these days.<br />I got my first New York job out of the Voice - a rather miserly job in the prep section of a one-story salad place on Sixth and 46th, next to the not-yet-burned-out Performing Arts High School (scene of "Fame"). That corner is a skyscraper now. Luckily, the high school building is still looking good. The Voice, even in 1985, had the feeling of a very old friend who was nearing retirement. It certainly had more pages in it, and people still cared what the cover had on it. The Village Voice was more of a force when I was in college in Ohio - seeing the paper as one of the many beacons from the Great City. It became over-run with free papers (principally NY Press) that also attracted good writers and cartoonists, by the mid-90's. The problem with our current on-line habit is that nothing really conforms to a schedule now. There used to be a tradition where job-seekers would wait out the first printing of the Voice, either very late or very early in the day, to get first-dibs.<br />There was an exclusivity to it, like picking up the Sunday Times on Saturday night. One felt emboldened by having one of these things under-arm for all to see - particularly on the Subway where the light was better. We're just inured to more gratification but with far less substance - like cans of coffee that look like pounds but are only 10 ounces.<br /><br />The Voice has been shaved down to a fraction of its selling weight for years, and the focus of that publication has been on click-throughs and ads for far too long.Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15565030682360603009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-10596641271569389912017-08-23T11:41:35.294-04:002017-08-23T11:41:35.294-04:00Back to the underground! Our Voices cannot and wi...Back to the underground! Our Voices cannot and will not be marginalized and repressed - remember printing your own (or maybe your friends did) newsletter/paper with ditto machines? Original artwork, handwritten, finger-on-the-pulse news. That's where it's at. That's where we have to go now.Cosmohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02520062718515861987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-3468142695124973112017-08-23T10:00:12.740-04:002017-08-23T10:00:12.740-04:00I've always been fond of Penny Arcade - one of...I've always been fond of Penny Arcade - one of the last remaining authentic bohemians in NYC, yet with her eyes open, and ready to acknowledge reality. Yes, the Voice died back in the mid-90s, and we are only now mourning it's corpse. Probably operating at a continuous loss, how it survived this long as a print organ is a miracle. The Voice was connected to bohemianism as well as liberalism. I'm not sure about the latter, but there isn't a shred of real bohemianism in NYC today, merely capitalistic posing.<br /><br />I disagree with the statement "print is powerful." Yes, print was once powerful, but technology and time are leading more and more to abandon it. How many bibliophiles do i know who have gradually shifted their reading entirely to devices, and would never now buy a physical book? Many. Just as gaslight was left behind in favor of electricity, and the horse abandoned for the combustion engine, these are the inevitable ways in which the way we lead our lives changes. And we each have a wonderful choice - use it, or resent it.Scouthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07860208585189661470noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-37264221560182890622017-08-23T09:49:07.859-04:002017-08-23T09:49:07.859-04:00I always remember reading the Village Voice in the...I always remember reading the Village Voice in the library in Miami. It was my connection to NY when I was a kid in the 1970s and 1980s. Tom Falcohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05105803162487364490noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-683382864156505640.post-19861296251998077712017-08-23T09:06:18.916-04:002017-08-23T09:06:18.916-04:00We got the Voice and NYT at my local Ky newstand, ...We got the Voice and NYT at my local Ky newstand, in 1976-77. Used the former to try and find an apt before moving up. Have never seen music listings like that before or since. It was the one thing everyone had in common, up here.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09661749760821663253noreply@blogger.com