There are still some blind spots—our searches didn't turn up any coverage of Norman Mailer's 1969 campaign or the Stonewall riots, which the Voice dubbed "the Great Faggot Rebellion" at the time. And there's not much on Rudy Giuliani's mayoral bid. There is this hilarious 1956 farewell column from Norman Mailer after he got fed up with all the typos Voice editors were inserting into his copy, but there doesn't seem to be a way to link to it:

Voice editor Tony Ortega recommends an Andrew Sarris profile of Herve Villechaise; we recommend James Wolcott trying to argue in 1975 that New Wave was fundamentally a conservative movement. Good times.

Full disclosure: The Village Voice does too still matter, because your blogger's wife works there. But still—nothing is what it used to be.

The last person to write an item here tagged with Ortega's name on the site? Oh, you guessed it: Ian ("Village Voice Continues To Collapse," March 29, 2008). Notes Ortega,

"Normally, we would contact Gawker for some sort of comment on this kind of thing. But in this case, it seems best to post first and ask questions later — hey, just like Gawker does it!"

Harsh. Nah, but really, aren't old crunchy media people funny? They still believe in nonsense like paper goods, and that people still think inner-media buttfuckery is worth reading or writing about. Sigh. This is a throwaway item. And no, Ortega, we're not giving you the link. Our readers can Google it if they want.

Update (Not Really): Fine, Tony, we'll give you the twenty hits you'll get from this. You could probably use 'em.

Former Gawker Writer Bemoans The No-Benefits Denton Plan [Dr. Tony Ortega's Sing-a-Long Blog]

"[T]he Voice is now FIFTH in terms of ad sales amongst the entire chain," the insider tells us. "We used to be first, and now we are FIFTH. Kansas City['s The Pitch] does better than the Voice in ad sales. The [New Times] has proven over and over and over that when they go into anything other than secondary markets, they fail because they apply their boneheaded editorial strategy to the big papers, ignoring what actually worked for those cities. That's why San Francisco was their biggest money loser, because they didn't seem to get that no one wanted their cookie cutter philosophy in such an individualist town."

"While Christian says that the art at the New York galleries he critiques is in a separate sphere from the type of art that would appear in the fairs, we don’t want to put a reviewer in a situation that calls for an ethical juggling act. Since Christian has made it clear that he will continue to fill out the terms of his art-fair contract, we wish him great success, thank him for the excellent work he has done, and feel disappointment that he will cease writing for us."

Sources say Ortega was none too pleased by the revelation; according to one, Viveros-Faune was "working the phones" last night, spreading the word that he was getting some serious flak. We give the Voice plenty of flak ourselves, but we're impressed with how promptly they dealt with this one.

Previously: 'Voice' Art Critic Takes Heat For Conflict Of Interest

Reports in the New-Times over more than a decade have detailed Arpaio's backroom dealings, his mistreatment of prisoners under his watch and his general scuminess. Prisoners at his county jail get only two meals a day, must wear pink underwear, and live in tents outside the jail where they work seven days a week in chain gangs, digging graves for the indigent.

An investigation by county prosecutors into the paper's reporting began when New-Times published Arpaio's home address on its website in 2004. A little-known Arizona statute dictates that it's legal to publish the home address of a law enforcement agent in print, or on the radio or television, just not on the Internet; when the print article was uploaded to the New-Times website, prosecutors pounced.

Lacey and Larkin's "first joint byline" in 40 years of working together came after the two decided the special prosecutor leading the investigation was operating outside ethical boundaries—according to Lacey and Larkin's piece, he had made ex parte advances toward the judge and subpoenaed "all documents" related to the paper's stories, as well as analytical information on the Internet activities of the paper's entire web audience, including IP addresses and "contents of electronic shopping carts." All you people who've bought that bestselling "How To Assassinate a Maricopa County Sheriff" are in big trouble now!

"In our deliberations, we faced the obvious: A grand jury investigation is a fearsome thing; a tainted grand jury is a tipping point," Lacey and Larkin write. "We intend now to break the silence and resist." They did so with the 5,000-word piece and were answered with a night in jail; they were released early this morning on $500 bonds.

New Times was born out of Kent State rage, and we're pretty sure Lacey and Larkin, while not wild about the whole jail thing, are kind of loving fighting the man again, though Lacey had enough decorum (shocking, really) to tell off reporters outside the jail: "The problem is that it takes me being arrested for you guys to show up. This is a story we're all involved in. Those subpoenas are what you should be writing about."

The Village Voice's editor, Tony Ortega, knows something about Sheriff Joe Arpaio; while a reporter at the Phoenix New-Times, he investigated the sheriff's abuse of prisoners, and had this to say about his bosses' arrests: "I hope that, whatever other journalists think about the Voice or VVM, they can see that this represents one of the worst abuses of a newspaper's first amendment rights in memory," he told us. Gotta say, we can't disagree with that. Update: Ortega weighs in with his own thoughts on the Voice's website.

Earlier: Village Voice Media Executive Editor Released From Jail and Vows to Fight [VV]

*My former employer

We suspect editor Tony Ortega (Disclosure: a former colleague, who is, I think, not terrible at his job) realized that most of the people who'd contributed BONYC pieces over the last few months had either left or been fired since? Might make for a bit of an awkward staff meeting following publication!

Word has it that pieces from Mara Altman, Adamma Ince, Deborah Kolben, Sean Bosler, Tricia Romano, Keisha Franklin and Laura Conaway make up most of the issue, though you won't find their names anywhere in it.

I'd shoot myself before I had anything like Julia Allison in this paper. What you're pitching sounds like the 256th version of Sex in the City, and that's so played out. I'm satisfied with the two sex columns I have now, and I really don't have room for additional columns at the moment. But thanks for thinking of us.

- Tony

Now, while I appreciate his distaste for a dating column and it being "played out" I don't think he had to take it to "shooting himself in the head" levels. I mean really!!! And while I did mention Julia Allison and the idea that, love her or hate her, she has readers, I wasn't pitching a column LIKE Julia's. I was pitching a relationship column that like Julia's, people would ACTUALLY READ, since I don't know ANY women who are reading the Voice these days. And like it or not, relationship columns are classic and people read them, even if only to make fun of them.

''I had two executive editors, and I only needed one,'' Mr. Forst said, adding that he let Mr. Goldstein go because he believed the other executive editor, Laura Conaway, ''was more valuable, at this point, to me.'' The executive editor is the No. 3 position in The Voice newsroom.

And I will always remember, mostly with fondness, all of the parties and places I've seen: Motherfucker, MisShapes, Siberia, Mama's Bar, Rated X, the Cock, the Hole, Halcyon, Matter:/form boat rides, Bunker at subTonic, the Dark Room, Nublu, P.S. 1, Body and Soul, Shelter, Cielo, Centro-Fly, Luxx, APT, Plant Bar, Filter 14. There are too many people to thank (don't worry, I won't soon forget) and too many moments to immortalize. I'd need three columns to do everyone justice, but I don't have that. Party over: out of time.

Not exactly. Our Trish has, in fact, left the column to take the position of Voice staff writer. No word yet on her replacement as Boswell to Ultragrrrl's Johnson, but, reached for comment, she did have this to say about her new position:

I'm looking forward to losing the 20 pounds I've put on in the last five years due to consuming unhealthy amounts of alcohol, and to getting some pigment in my skin thanks to time spent in the sun (which I've seen for exactly three hours). Next feature: In Defense of Puppies and Kittens.

A Full-Circle Farewell [Village Voice]
[Image: Nikola Tamindzic]

Mr. Ramirez said he asked Mr. Braunstein about getting a book published. Mr. Braunstein told him that nonfiction sold better than fiction, and that The Village Voice (where Mr. Braunstein got his start) was a good place to nurture his writing career, Mr. Ramirez said.

At Trial of Suspect in Sexual Attack, Lawyers Debate Meaning of 'Normal' [NYT]

Sometimes things work out in unexpected ways [This Modern World]
Earlier: New 'Voice' Sex Columnists Make Us Nostalgic For Rachel Kramer Bussel's Cleavage

We promise this is the last time we will mention the Voice today unless their PR chick Maggie Shnayerson rapes and murders Robert Sietsema. Sadly, we can make no such assurances about Sarah Lewitinn's cans, which deserve at least a few more posts.

• It's really, really hard to be so beautiful. Now shut up about it already, Michelle Pfeiffer and co. [Glossed Over]
  
• New Voice editor Tony Ortega doesn't like 19th century words like "unbeknownst" and "albeit." [Weekly Dig]
  
• Kurt Andersen's a bit peeved about Janet Maslin's review of Heyday. [Amazon]
  
• Best Week Ever assesses the 10 Greatest Heterosexual Men of All Time. But, ew, why Adam Duritz as number one? [BWE]
  
• Princeton does a post-mortem on all the coverage of their eating clubs. [Daily Princetonian]