Village Voice Media Inc.

River Phoenix's Dark Blood: Not the Epitaph He Deserves

The Dallas Observer Has New Owners; Village Voice Media, Backpage Split

The longtime owners of the Dallas Observer have sold the paper and its 12 Village Voice Media sister publications to a group of VVM executives, creating a new holding company and cutting ties with Backpage.com, the controversial classified advertising company. So: We have new owners, but the same o ... More >>

Freedom Under Fire: A Village Voice Media Special Report

Here's All Those True Crime Yarns in One Fancy E-Book: Seven Sins

Every week writers for Dallas Observer and our parent company, Village Voice Media, produce elegant magazine-style feature writing -- a gritty portion of which comes in the form of true-crime stories. Now VVM has collected some of its best recent true-crime yarns into an ebook: Seven Sins: A True ... More >>

SXSW Coverage Ahead. Plus, We're Sponsoring 50 Cent, Big K.R.I.T. and More

"What I want from each and every one of you is a hard-target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in that area." -- Tommy Lee Jones, The Fugitive You don't have to spend much time at South By Southwest to know that all of the above building ... More >>

Das Racist's Crazy-Ass Combo

Village Voice Media Responds to Clergy Attack Ad in Today's New York Times Over Backpage

​Today 36 clergy affixed their names to a paid ad and open letter to the Village Voice, the Observer's New York sister paper, and the classified ad site Backpage.com. The full page ad was published in the New York Times. The religious coalition demanded that we close down our legal, adult cla ... More >>

My Final Top 10 Observer-ations

Last week's cover. Irony is funny.​​10. As of this morning, the Dallas Observer is out of the sports business, at least on a full-time basis. Though I'm not technically being fired ("laid off" is supposedly less damning), the paper and its owner, Village Voice Media, have decided to el ... More >>

Dude, Where's My Peer Review? Celebs, Media Scare America With Bogus Sex-Trafficking Stats.

Ashton and Demi's charity guru says sex trafficking is, like, the new Darfur. ​In this week's Paper Version of Unfair Park, you'll find a story about underage sex trafficking from the Village Voice, our big sister in New York (she's very sharing, that sister). The story details the recent fascinat ... More >>

Presenting! Burgers Across America: A Village Voice Collaborative

Katharine ShilcuttTouche, Houston Press.​So, the weather cleared up in time for Memorial Day. Which means you can do the whole Bobby Flay thing. Grill, we mean. You can grill. Not embarrass local chefs by out-cooking them at their own dish. You could do that though, if you wanted. Anyway, it' ... More >>

VVM Vet Joe Tone Named Observer Editor

New Observer Editor Joe Tone: We're thinking the empty glass on the table is a good sign.​Joe Tone, a Village Voice Media veteran and former editor of the Pitch Weekly in Kansas City, was named editor of the Observer today. His first day on the job is Monday. Tone brings a broad mix of report ... More >>

Mark Donald Resigns as Observer Editor

​As I write this my farewell post, I keep hearing in my head the lyrics to a song from the Marx Brothers classic film Animal Crackers: "Hello, I must be going/ I cannot stay, I came to say/I must be going." Similar to Groucho's character, Captain Spaulding, it seems as though I just said hello, ju ... More >>

The Best Of SXSW Thursday: Damien Jurado and Hangover Tacos

Nick RalloDamien Jurado, the minimalist, at the Swan Dive​Moving forward.There were a number of un-missable day parties with good lineups yesterday, including those from Pitchfork, Paste Magazine, Brooklyn Vegan and, of course, the Village Voice Media SXSW Showdown (with Wu-Tang Clan).So, Pete's w ... More >>

At The Village Voice Media SXSW Showdown and...Fireworks!

Nick RalloAnd the hommmme of the...​Bones and walls are rattling. There's thundering everywhere!The bass thunder is coming from the Village Voice Media SXSW party, which kicked-off 'round 5 p.m. with the awesome rock of Ume and will continue with Trae Tha Truth, Yelawolf, Fishbone, and Wu-Tang Cla ... More >>

Pazz & Jop 2010: Kanye Had The Best Album, Cee-Lo Had The Best Single. You're Surprised?

​ Late yesterday afternoon, our colleagues at the Village Voice up in New York City released the annual beast that is the Pazz & Jop poll, which, in short, accumulates the year-end lists of hundreds of critics from around the country and compiles them into a database that helps determine a cri ... More >>

Mass deportation, strict border enforcement, amnesty. What will comprehensive immigration reform look like if the feds take action--or if they don't?

Ethical Meat and Ethnic Eats: Why Don't We Worry About the Chicken in our Pad Thai?

I had a nasty sinus infection this weekend, so I sought solace in a bowlful of bun bo hue, a spicy broth heaving with noodles, assorted pig parts and congealed pig's blood. I didn't pause to ask my server where the restaurant bought its meat, and I'd be willing to wager none of the other pho diletta ... More >>

We Know What Illegal Means. So What?

Get Happy! And App-y

To get the Happy Hours App, click here or search Happy Hours in the iPhone App Store.​In this week's cover story, Jesse Hughey and the editorial monks working in the stoney basements of the Dallas Observer have cataloged 50 bars and clubs happy hour specials.The really, really awesome ones. But ... More >>

An Opportunity to Stand Up

Ten Headlines You Will Never See Coming Out of SXSW

As imagined by Bill Jensen, with contributions from Erin Broadley, Craig Hlavaty, Nick Rallo, Alexia Tsotsis, and me. All Village Voice Media's SXSW coverage here.Craig HlavatyThis was AFTER we removed the red eye​1. "Random Guy With Guitar On Street Signed To Major Record Label" 2. "AT&T Mak ... More >>

Announcing This Year's Village Voice 2010 SXSW Day Party Lineup: Superchunk, The xx, Surfer Blood and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

Some pretty exciting news out of our New York flagship this early afternoon, as our sister paper up there, the Village Voice, has gone ahead and announced the lineup for this year's Village Voice Media day-party at South by Southwest. And it's a looker, too, featuring some classic indie and some bu ... More >>

Pazz Jop 2009: Animal Collective Had Best Album, "Empire State Of Mind" Was Top Song

​The results are in from our New York sister paper's annual Pazz Jop critic's poll, which aggregates the opinions of thousands of music scribes into one, easy-to-peruse list of the best music from the year that was 2009 (or was it 1901?). In total, some 1,934 albums were nominated for considerat ... More >>

Assisted Boning Community

Jay Reatard

Thursday, December 10, at the Granada Theater

Yes, But Will They Perform "Butter-Bust Jerky" Off Their Hit Album Backwaxed?

By far, the best-reviewed doc of '09 thus far is Anvil! The Story of Anvil, Sacha Gervasi's rockumentary about a Canadian thrash-metal band's fall and rise. Noted The Village Voice's thumbs-up, it's "A Hoop Dreams for heshers," so, ya know, all right, all right, all right. It finally gets a Dallas o ... More >>

The End Of The End Of Year Lists: Pete Freedman's Favorite Albums And Singles Of 2008

Sure, 2008 may be done, but the list-making still continues... This year, five contributors to the Dallas Observer's music section were asked to participate in the Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics' poll, which compiles the lists of hundreds of music critics across the country into one m ... More >>

Florida 38, Oklahoma 30

UPDATE: Our Village Voice sister paper in Palm Beach will be live blogging from the game tonight. Pop Quiz: A) I'm jazzed about tonight's BCS National Championship Game, pitting the two best teams in college football this season. B) I'm mildy interested, even though I think Southern Cal, Texas ... More >>

Dallas Observer's Parent Company Announces Pay Cuts and Layoffs

Twice today I've been asked about several posts on The Latest Word, one of our sister blogs out of Denver, referring to layoffs and pay cuts taking place throughout the Village Voice Media chain. The Dallas Observer, of course, is among the 15 papers in the chain, formerly known as New Times Inc.Spe ... More >>

Getting Knee-Deep In "Stage Dumps"

A Non-Fiction Writer is Mayborn Every Minute During Annual Conference

Observer Writer Jesse Hughey Named Clubs Editor

Everything You Needed to Know About Bible Girl But Were Afraid to Ask

Nashville Byline

When's the Last Time Your Boss Got Arrested?

The Polemicist

Make Your Ears Pretty

SXSW Comes to Unfair Park

To Tie-Dye For

Jupiter aligns with Mars and Hair returns in all its flaxen, waxen glory

Indecent Exposure

The Heartless Bastards

Saturday, January 20, at Good Records, 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. and Sons of Hermann Hall, 8 p.m., with Pleasant Grove

A Most Unusual Christ

Various Artists

Rio Baile Funk--More Favela Booty Beats (Smog Veil)

Grandpunk

Cynicism is a disease that only the Reverend can heal

Bible Girl? Why, Whatever Do You Mean?

Cheap Production

Or, How I Fixed My Engine for $2.50

More Monday for Your Friday

When Movie Studios Attack

Hold, Please

How 34-year-old Craig Finn became famous singing about drug-huffing 20-somethings

Pavlov's dogs