Failed Pilot

I am a member of a somewhat popular music mailing list. This was today’s item, if there was one. The last thing this man wrote of any importance, in my opinion, was his 80’s Record Guide. Still, this may be interesting to some.

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

If this comes completely out of the blue, I apologize.

It is now official–Village Voice Media fired me today, “for
taste,” which means (among other things) slightly sweeter
severance. This despite the support of new music editor Rob
Harvilla, who I like as a person and a writer. We both believed I
had won myself some kind of niche as gray eminence. So I was
surprised Tuesday when I was among the eight Voice employees
(five editorial, three art) who were instructed to bring their
union reps to a meeting with upper management today. But I
certainly wasn’t shocked–my approach to music coverage has never
been much like that of the New Times papers,

Bless the union, my severance is substantial enough to give me
time to figure out what I’m doing next. In fact, having finished
all my freelance reviews yesterday, I don’t have a single
assignment pending. So, since I have no intention of giving up
rock criticism, all reasonable offers entertained; my phone
number is in the book, as they used to say when there were books.
What I don’t need is a vacation–the three of us just had a great
two and a half weeks, and Nina matriculated at BMCC yesterday.

No need to respond. Forward to whoever you will.

Love,

Bob Christgau

That being said (and obvious to anyone slightly close to me), things are on the downslide. The Night Gardener, a book that I finished last night, was the first Pelecanos novel to make me audibly emit an “eh.” I liked it. That’s all I can give. Slow and a little too morally fixated, even for Pelecanos. Many characters are an obvious result of his work on The Wire - not a bad thing, though not really a thing at all within the context of this book. I’m not one to send fanboy e-mails to writers, but I do every once in a while. Pelecanos is the only writer that has been nice enough to return them. That may have something to do with our bylines infrequently appearing in the same magazines/books, you know, writer to writer or whatever. Irregardless, The Night Gardener didn’t feel right; my finger is not on it. The icing on my “eh” feeling came today, after veiwing this. I know exactly what doesn’t feel right about that. You will, too.

…to your right. Check out the latest adventures of my man Skag.