Well folks, just when the paper's coverage of the post-punk period would be picking up steam, I'm afraid I have to put the kibosh on this
Voice project for the time being. It's not that I don't want to continue--it's that I've run out of source material. From 1979 onward, the archives range from nonexistent (many years are missing altogether) to extremely spotty (you're lucky if there are one to twelve issues available from any given year). The few issues that are up there haven't been transferred well from their microfilm sources, so the resolution quality is even worse than what you've seen already. (And I didn't think it was that bad, until I was contacted by a couple of documentary filmmakers who inquired if I had any higher-res versions since the ones I put up looked so dang lousy.)
I'll certainly keep checking the site regularly for future additions of missing issues. But during the year and a half that I've been gathering these ads, none of the missing material from 1966 through '77 has been restored, so I'm not holding my breath that the archives will be updated anytime soon. I
might be able to work up the motivation to do some old-school slogging through
Voice microfilms at the T.O. Reference Library, but that would strictly be a fact-finding mission. There's no way I could afford to make copies of all the ads I'd want--and if my memories of the Minolta microfilm copy machines at QBPL and NYPL are anything to go by, they'd look like overexposed crap even if I could. Any posts that would result from such efforts would basically be lists of places/names/dates--interesting to a point, but truly lacking in visual stimulation. My curiosity for such data is ever-burning of course, but that inquisitive impulse is at war with my desire to not spend a great deal of my free time cooped up in a library. (Spoken like a true MLS! Just kidding, I love those institutions with all my heart--but I must admit that it's a blessing to be able to do intense hours-on-end research at home.) We'll see which side wins out.
I'm planning to re-do the '60s and 1970 ads, which came out too small for my liking. When I started this project I hadn't yet "mastered" the art of enlarging the images, and also back then Blogger's photo uploader lacked the enlargement capabilities it now has. But I want to get back into writing more essay-like posts as well. If you've got any ideas for places you'd like to see covered here, let me know!
And check out yesterday's
NY Times feature on Bob Gruen.
11/6/78 issue:
11/13/78 issue:
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| I think they've got the ALIAS, that you've been living UNDER!!! |
11/20/78 issue (I double-checked, but found no music listings pages):
11/27/78 issue:
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| "Scenes" column excerpt. |
12/4/78 issue:
12/11/78 issue (music listings were again missing in this issue, as well as in the following two issues):
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| "Choices" column excerpt. |
12/18/78 issue:
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| Excerpt from a special "Arts '79" center section. |
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| Surely not that Dave Matthews Band. |
12/25/78 issue:
Reviews, articles, etc.:
11/6/78 issue:
Abbie Hoffman reviews
The Big Fix for "Scenes,"
Maybelle Carter obit, Mark Jacobson on
Don King, Patrick Carr on
Carl Perkins.
11/13/78 issue: "Scenes" on
Waylon Jennings,
Richard Price on the film version of
The Wanderers, a
Don Cherry recording session in a cave,
Robin Williams profile,
Ace Frehley solo album review.
11/20/78 issue:
Diaries of Joe Orton, a
disco song about Plato's Retreat.
11/27/78 issue: Randy Shilts on
Mae West, Guy Trebay on
Ashford and Simpson at the Palace Theater.
12/4/78 issue: Mark Jacobson on
Bruce Lee,
Peter Stampfel on "Making Music in the Money Business."
12/11/78 issue: Richard Goldstein on
William Burroughs, Lester Bangs on the Clash's
Give 'Em Enough Rope.
12/18/78 issue: Abbie Hoffman's
"Fugitive on the Town," cult movies,
Dick Cavett,
Sylvester at the Capitol Theater in Passaic.
I generally had a hard time finding vids for most of the places I've filed under "other," but here are some Youtube videos for
Talking Heads at the Entermedia Theater, August 1978.
