Melissa Anderson

Quartet

This Week in The Voice: 'Gay Inc.' and Free Speech

This week in the Voice, out today, Steven Thrasher wants to know whether "Gay Inc." believes in free speech: "Today's movement is quite unlike ACT UP, the Gay Liberation Front, or the Mattachine Society. In their use of confrontation, those groups looked far more like Occupy Wall Street than the Hum ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Jazz Consumer Guide, Marva Whitney, Our 2010 Film Poll, and More

Pay Marva Whitney what you owe her. Photo courtesy of Marva Whitney/Soulpower Inc.​In this week's Village Voice, Tom Hull's new Jazz Consumer Guide salutes bassists of all stripes, while Phillip Mlynar profiles funk legend and former James Brown protégé Marva Whitney.

This Week's Voice: AraabMuzik, My Chemical Romance, Orange Juice, Bill Frisell, Marc Ribot, and More

My Chemical Romance go . . . Styx. Photo by Neil Krug.​In this week's Village Voice, Brandon Soderberg profiles the 21-year-old rap producer AraabMuzik, Christopher R. Weingarten is not impressed with the new record from My Chemical Romance, Francis Davis praises new efforts from Bill Frisell, ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Kanye West, Jay-Z, Bruce Springsteen, Big L, and More

​In this week's Village Voice, Sean Fennessey plumbs the gorgeous nightmares of Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Zach Baron decodes Jay-Z's Decoded, Michael Robbins sorts through a goofy Bruce Springsteen reissue project, and Phillip Mlynar remembers slain Harlem rapper Big L.

This Week's Voice: Weezer's Pinkerton, Taylor Swift, AfroCubism, and More

Weezer in simpler times, or maybe not ​In this week's Village Voice, Mike Powell hails the reissue of Weezer's Pinkerton, Theon Weber reviews Taylor Swift's sneakily great Speak Now, and Tad Hendrickson chronicles the belated emergence of the Mali-Cuba connection finally captured on AfroCubism ... More >>

This Week in the Voice: Let's Play "Who's My Landlord?"

​Home is, as they say, where the heart is. So who's the guy selling you your Lipitor and what the hell are all these rats doing everywhere? In this week's Village Voice cover story, join staff writer Elizabeth Dwoskin for a rousing, fun, morbid round of the game New Yorkers everywhere can rela ... More >>

This Week in the Voice: Dan Choi, Bad Lieutenant

​Lt. Daniel Choi resembles so many other American soldiers in many, many ways: as a late 20s West Point grad who loves his country, a born-again Christian, as a soldier who's served two tours in Iraq, and as a soldier who's been kicked out of the military. But even that isn't the distinguishment t ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Waka Flocka Flame, Sharon Van Etten, Group Home, Unearthly Trance, and More

BOW-BOW-BOW-BOW. Photo by Donna Permell​In this week's Village Voice, the great Sean Fennessey explains why Waka Flocka Flame is yelling at you, Grayson Currin profiles local ethereal folk lady Sharon Van Etten, Phillip Mlynar on Group Home's tribute to their former mentor, Gang Starr's Guru, ... More >>

Little Catfight on the Prairie

​This just came in: "Melissa Anderson, child star of Little House on the Prairie, yesterday posted a letter on her fan club's website blasting former co-star Alison 'Nellie Oleson' Arngrim and accusing Arngrim of possible slanderous comments. "Arngrim's comments that Anderson was the real ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Nine 11 Thesaurus, Sisters, Salem, Negative Plane, and More

Nine 11 Thesaurus. Photo by Santiago Felipe.​In this week's Village Voice, Andy Beta profiles Bushwick teen rap ensemble Nine 11 Thesaurus and the after-school program that produced them, Ray Cummings talks with Brooklyn noise pop band Sisters, Eavvon O'Neal on Salem and witch house, and Adam ... More >>

This Week in the Voice: The 2010 New York Film Festival

​Every year, we descend on Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center to separate the hype from the heavyweights at American cinema's fall classic, the New York Film Festival. This year is no different, as legendary Village Voice film critic J. Hoberman weighs in with the hits and misses of The 2010 N ... More >>

This Week in the Voice: The Endless Bummer of Staten Island

​All the way out on the south shore of Staten Island lies a quiet, tucked-away community called the Cedar Grove Beach Club, a "poor man's Bermuda" for the few Staten Islanders who knew about it and summered there. That's all over now, as the city's Parks Department plans to turn the 200-acre p ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Camu Tao, Keith Jarrett and Cecil Taylor, Bruno Mars, Justin Bieber, and More

Camu Tao: Doing good, even if he's not here to see it. Photo by TONE.​In this week's Village Voice, Phillip Mlynar remembers the departed underground rapper Camu Tao, Francis Davis reviews spectacular new works from Keith Jarrett and Cecil Taylor, Mikael Wood hangs with Bruno Mars out in Los A ... More >>

This Week in the Voice: The Tilda Swinton Moment

​How time flies, right? Eighteen years ago, Sally Potter had her breakout as the writer-director of Orlando, which also starred then-breakout Tilda Swinton. Now, for this week's Village Voice cover story, Melissa Anderson talks with Potter and Swinton about Orlando about their continuing caree ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Damon Dash Resurrected, Best Coast and Wavves, Wayne Coyne, Rick Ross, and More

Dame and Tallulah. Not pictured: Sienna Miller. Photo by Raquel M. Horn.​In this week's Village Voice, Ben Detrick profiles the post-Roc-a-Fella edition of Damon Dash as he haltingly embarks on a kinder, gentler comeback. Elsewhere, Sean Fennessey dissects the two halves of California's pre-em ... More >>

This Week's Voice: The Nitrous Mafia, Big Boi, Kelis, Oneohtrix Point Never, June Jazz Festivals, and More

​In this week's Village Voice, our cover story is on the Nitrous Mafia, the gas-fueled drug gang that is terrorizing music festivals up and down both coasts. Elsewhere, Rob Harvilla talks with OutKast's Big Boi on the long-delayed occasion of the release of Sir Lucious Left Foot, Jessica Hoppe ... More >>

This Week's Voice: The-Dream, Miley Cyrus, the Great Dancehall Freeze Out, Jazz Consumer Guide, and More

Courtesy Def-Jam Records In this week's Village Voice, Rob Harvilla marvels at the brilliant stupidity of r&b lothario The-Dream. Theon Weber examines the calculated rebellion of Miley Cyrus. Jesse Serwer reports on the Great Dancehall Freeze-Out of 2010, during which many of Jamaica's biggest act ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Drake, the Gaslight Anthem, Styles P, a Summer Live-Jazz Cheat Sheet, Revive Da Live, Jason Moran, and More

Gaslight Anthem: New Jersey nostalgia. Photo by Ashley Maile​In this week's Village Voice, Sean Fennessey weights in on the all-encompassing Drake phenomenon, Michael Robbins compares the Gaslight Anthem to Walt Whitman, Ben Westhoff talks to Styles P about the rapper's debut novel, Stacey And ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Sleigh Bells, LCD Soundsystem, Nas and Damian Marley, Obies, and More

Sleigh Bells' Alexis Krauss, meeting her public. Photo by Santiago Felipe​In this week's Village Voice, Rob Harvilla attempts to describe the planet-obliterating joys of Sleigh Bells, Zach Baron on LCD Soundsystem's sardonically devastating This Is Happening, and Sean Fennessey explains why th ... More >>

This Week's Voice: R. Crumb on Genesis (The Band), Green Day's New Musical, Merle Haggard, The Tribeca Film Festival, Le Cage aux Folles, And More

​Lots of great stuff in this week's Village Voice, though it all kinda pales in comparison to the incomparable Ward Sutton, who imagines R. Crumb doing an illustrated history of Genesis -- that's Phil Collins' Genesis, not God's. Elsewhere in music, Harvilla checks out the tremendously profane ... More >>

This Week's Voice: MGMT, Paul Motian, Here Lies Love, Fassbinder's World on a Wire, and More

MGMT. You're wearing two different socks, dude. Photo by Josh Cheuse​In this week's Village Voice, Rob Harvilla on the gleeful self-sabotage of MGMT, Francis Davis looks back on the work of jazz's Paul Motian, and Theon Weber reviews David Byrne and Fatboy Slim's Here Lies Love tribute to Imel ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Alice in Chains, Drive By Truckers, Regina Carter, Greenberg, and More

Alice in Chains get down. Photo by Santiago Felipe.​In this week's Village Voice, Rob Harvilla sees the sorta resurrected Alice in Chains at Terminal 5, Stephen Deusner on the creative nonfiction of the Drive By Truckers' The Big To-Do, and Phil Freeman gets personal with jazz violinist Regina ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Fixing the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Gorillaz, Bob Blank, Liars, SXSW Cheat Sheet, and More

The Liars, acting out a scene from the sequel to The Hangover. Photo by Zen Sekizawa​In this week's Village Voice, Jason Gross on how to fix--or blow up--the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Miles Marshall Lewis plays around with Gorillaz, Andy Beta talks with space-disco-and-beyond-producer Bob Bl ... More >>

This Week's Voice: tUnE-yArDs, Lil Wayne's Rebirth, Alan Lomax in Haiti, Steve McQueen, the Red Riding Triptych, and More

tUnE-yArDs, now proudly R-rated. Photo by Chrissy Piper.​In this week's Village Voice, Rob Harvilla conducts an occasionally embarrassing chat with one-woman feral folk sensation tUnE-yArDs (contains sex talk!), Brandon Soderberg catches up with Howard Stern's favorite headbanger, Richard Chri ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Vampire Weekend, Ke$ha, MC Paul Barman, Rosanne Cash, and More

The cast of Survivor: Upper West Side. Photo by Soren Solkaer Starbird​In this week's Village Voice, Rob Harvilla wrestles with Vampire Weekend's vastly ambitious, vastly improved Contra, Ben Westhoff hangs out in MOMA's outdoor sculpture garden with MC Paul Barman, Ryan Dombal chronicles the ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Jawbox, Pill, Holiday Music Roundup, Best Books of 2009, Avatar, and More

Who had this photo in their office pool a decade ago? Jawbox on Fallon. Photo by Anything Photographic.​In this week's Village Voice, Rob Harvilla ventures up to 30 Rock to have lunch with Jawbox on the eve of the D.C. punk band's one-off reunion on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, while Jayson G ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Rihanna, BlakRoc, Palin's Going Rogue, The Road, the Future of La MaMa, and More

Blakroc. This picture just stays being funny. Photo by Jonah Schwartz​In this week's Village Voice, Rob Harvilla parses Rated R, the new album from "publicly wounded robo-r&b ice princess" Rihanna, Tom Hull returns with another edition of his Jazz Consumer Guide, Phillip Mlynar chats with the ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Michael Jackson's This Is It, the True Story about Girls, Julian Casablancas, Weezer, Luc Sante's My Life in Poetry, and More

Girls, probably telling the truth. Photo by Sandy Kim.​In this week's Village Voice, Rob Harvilla reviews Michael Jackson's mercifully goofy and cheerful This Is It, Reyhan Harmanci does some reporting and fact-checking on the improbably ridiculous backstory of San Francisco duo Girls, Andy Be ... More >>

This Week's Voice: BLK JKS, Pearl Jam, Brooklyn Book Festival, Bright Star, The Informant!, Will Ryman, and More

Vinyl Life: Not just hitting the space bar. Photo by David Herron.​In this week's Village Voice, Rob Harvilla spends an evening at S.O.B.'s with BLK JKS and returns, a bit overwhelmed: "No band on the planet right now is overplaying with the titanic, fearless, stupendously excessive gusto of S ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Nine Inch Nails, Warp Records, Rock-Star Lit, Whit Stillman, The September Issue, and More

Tina ChouTrent Reznor says hi​In this week's Village Voice, Rob Harvilla is live from Nine Inch Nails' retirement party at Webster Hall: "And then, our stick-figure arms raised ironically heavenward, our fingers clenched into tight, bone-snapping balls of cartoonish fury, we all scream, 'FIST ... More >>

This Week in the Voice

​Mark Farese "stole $150 from his grandfather to buy his first pair" of premium athletic shoes, specializing in the Air Force 1 variety. Now he has 1,400 pairs, and Nike sends him advance copies of new models. He is the Mayor of the fascinating world of sneakerdom, where pre-teens and grown-up ... More >>

This Week in the Voice

​New Yorkers can do a lot of things other people can't: ride the Staten Island Ferry at midnight, have lunch in Central Park, etc. But we can't buy a damn bottle of wine at the grocery store. This year we had a chance to change it -- but the state's liquor stores and their lobbyists blocked it ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Wussy, Vision Festival, The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow, Ron Currie Jr.'s Everything Matters!, 'The University of Trash,' and More

Summit EntertainmentWatch out: Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker In this week's Village Voice Music Section, Rob Harvilla on the cheerfully combative Midwest noise-pop of Wussy. Ira Kantor follows the thread from deceased cult-folkie Laura Nyro all the way to her gritty rapper son, Gil-T. Larry B ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Summer Arts Guide, Bjork and Dirty Projectors, Dan Graham's Whitney Retro, Green Day's 21st Century Breakdown, Cam'ron, Lit Seen, Summer Hours, and More

In this week's Village Voice, we unveil our 2009 Summer Arts Guide: Stacey Anderson on the constantly curious and enduringly romantic Malian duo Amadou & Mariam, Jed Lipinski on author Lawrence Osborne's delightfully vulgar Bangkok Days, Aaron Hillis in conversation with Surveillance director Jennif ... More >>

This Week in the Voice

Photo by Star Foreman. You're going to love Zoe Kazan. She's Hollywood royalty (granddaughter of Elia Kazan). She's been on Broadway and in movies, one of which, The Exploding Girl, debuts at the Tribeca Film Festival. Melissa Anderson interviews her. You may also view Star Foreman's photo slidesh ... More >>

This Week in the Voice

Remember the epidemic years of AIDS, when infected New Yorkers fought to get into untested drug trials? People fought to get infected babies into those trials, too. Some of them, because of the nature of the trials, were given placebo drugs. Some made it, some didn't. Not much has been written abo ... More >>

This Week in the Voice

The American military presence in Afghanistan costs about $16 billion a month. What are we getting for the money? "Afghaniscrewed: How I Spent My Fall Vacation" by P.J. Tobia. When Alan Hevesi was the city's, then the state's comptroller, Jack Chartier and Hank Morris were his "two loyal gatekeepe ... More >>

This Week's Voice: "New Directors/New Films," DOOM, John Updike and John Leonard, Goodbye Solo, Best in Show, and More

Clockwise from top left: Autumn, fest-opener Amreeka, Alexis Dos Santos's Unmade Beds, Cold Souls, and Mid-August Lunch. In this week's Village Voice Music Section, Phillip Mlynar asks DOOM, rap's biggest enigma, if he's heard any good jokes lately. Larry Blumenfeld crosses borders, hearts with th ... More >>

This Week's Voice: David Byrne, Revenge of the Nerds, Watchmen, Rip Torn, Tokyo!, and More

Daniel S. Neuner In this week's Music Section, Rob Harvilla remains in the light with David Byrne as the once-Talking Head indulges old neuroses and gorgeous new hymns at Radio City. Andy Beta on the joys of DIY disco, courtesy of Revenge of the Nerds. Jesse Jarnow goes up against the anarchic to ... More >>

In This World

Rappers in Cuba, pilgrims in Mecca, killer fish in Tanzania, James Carville in Bolivia