Robert Shuster

Our Favorite Books of 2012

Voice writers offer their picks from the year

This Week in the Voice: The War on Mexicans Has Gone Too Far

This Week in the Voice, out today, the Village Voice Media series "Crossing The Line" offers several different perspectives on U.S. immigration policies. Chuck Strouse writes of Sunday voting bans: "In a brazen attempt to steal this fall's election, Florida's Republican lawmakers have outlawed votin ... More >>

This Week in the Voice: Rikers Violence, Out of Control

This week in the Voice, out today: Graham Rayman has obtained photos of Rikers inmates with severe knife wounds and beatings to the face, neck, and arms, writing: "Four years ago, the Voice first wrote about the violence at Rikers, which was not only condoned but also promoted by jail officials in a ... More >>

This Week in the Voice: Sandhogs Under Second Avenue

This week in the Voice, out today: Sean Manning follows the Second Avenue sandhogs: "Here for 470 million years there had been rock, there are now two 20-foot diameter, butter-smooth concrete tubes--a giant, mile-long double-barrel shotgun buried 100 feet below the Upper East Side... Scant attention ... More >>

This Week in the Voice: The Nonprofit 1 Percent

This week in the Voice, out today: Steven Thrasher discovers that some nonprofit managers in New York -- including at the Jewish Guild for the Blind -- aren't just rich, but among society's wealthiest: "Although he runs a nonprofit, Alan Morse is comfortably in the 1 percent that Occupy Wall Street ... More >>

This Week in the Voice: Online Poker Kings Get Cashed Out

This week in the Voice, out today: Chris Parker details the Feds' crackdown on online gambling. He says of players' hopes: "When you've turned nothing into something once already, you tend to feel like you can do it again. There's faith your luck will turn. Perhaps it's delusion. But for a professio ... More >>

The Best Books of 2011

Voice writers pick their favorites of the year

This Week in the Voice: Brian Wilson's Songs

​This week in the Voice, Stacey Anderson writes about an encounter her father had with Brian Wilson -- and why she has the melody to "God Only Knows" tattooed on her shoulder. Anna Merlan introduces us to Solange Lambert and Cosmo Salerno, residents of Surf Manor, an adult-care home. Both So ... More >>

The Best Art of 2010

Village Voice art critics pick their favorite shows of the year

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 in the Voice

​In this week's issue of the Voice, J. Hoberman helps us understand the year in film that was 2010. The Social Network is this year's top choice in the annual critic's poll. Hoberman also provides an amazing top 10 list of the year's best films.

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: Best of NYC, the Fall of TVT Records, Corin Tucker, Kermit Ruffins, and More

Corin Tucker, closet Twilight fan. Photo by John Clark.​In this week's Village Voice, we present our annual Best of NYC issue! Relevant to SOTC readers will be Rob Harvilla's sublime essay on Nicki Minaj and our fulsome Arts & Entertainment and Bars & Clubs sections, but be sure to consult Peo ... 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 >>

This Week's Voice: Fall Arts Guide, Interpol, Karen O's Style Guru, Robyn, Vijay Iyer, Matthew Dear, and More

Adios Carlos D! Photo by Lee Gwyn.​In this week's Voice, we present our fall arts guide: Mikael Wood on the return of Interpol, sans Carlos D; Angela Ashman goes shopping with Karen O's style guru, Christian Joy; Aaron Hillis interviews director Oliver Stone; James Hannaham talks to author Mat ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Jim Jarmusch and All Tomorrow's Parties, Katy Perry, !!!, and More

Tom Waits wants to glue this man's hair to the wall. Illustration by Diego Tripodi.​In this week's Village Voice, Christopher R. Weingarten sits down with director Jim Jarmusch to talk ATP and the time Tom Waits tried to kill him, Ryan Dombal scales Fame Mountain with Katy Perry, and Andy Beta ... 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: Laurie Anderson, Devo, Theo Bleckmann, Omar Souleyman, and Ahem, "Jersey Shore"

Carrie SchechterIf you think I could possibly resist using this cover, you're wrong ​In this week's Village Voice, Rob Harvilla interview Laurie Anderson, Francis Davis visits the Murray Hill apartment of jazz vocalist Theo Bleckmann, Richard Gehr basks in the sheer urgency of the polarizing 'Syr ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Summer Guide!

​In this week's Village Voice, we present our annual summer guide, featuring all sorts of seasonal picks for music, film, art, dance, theater, food, etc., not to mention Mikael Wood on the club-pop reboot of Kelis, Ben Davis on Lightning Bolt's Brian Chippendale, Jed Lipinski on Pulitzer winne ... More >>

This Week in the Voice: The 2010 Summer Guide

​As you emerge from the schvitzy oven that is New York's subway system today, indulge in that new heat and sunshine with the help of the Voice's special pull-out 2010 Summer Guide. Keep yourself busy above ground during the three-month sweat-stained shitshow that is a summer in New York City, ... 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 In The Voice: The 2010 Obie Awards

​Every year, The Village Voice holds their own awards ceremony for theater free from the pomp, circumstance, and promotional intent towards profit that most other Dog and Pony extravaganzas do: The Obies. And the awesomeness that was this year's was no exception. Voice theater critic and Obie ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Sam Amidon, Courtney Love, Little Brother, Harlem's Afro-Cuban Renaissance, Roky Erickson, The Human Centipede, and More

Little Brother: happy or not, it's an ending. Photo by Studio Kompleks​In this week's Village Voice, Rob Harvilla falls hard for Sam Amidon, the gentle, affable, R. Kelly-covering young folkie, while Camille Dodero applies a lifetime of Courtney Love-related knowledge to Hole's new Nobody's Da ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Jonathan Richman, John Zorn, Tinariwen, Fool's Gold, Shutter Island, and More

Do not attempt to reach Jonathan Richman around breakfast time. Photo by Santiago Felipe.​In this week's Village Voice, Rob Harvilla surrenders again to Jonathan Richman, Aidan Levy profiles New York's hardest working experimental musician, John Zorn, and Rachel Devitt takes on the delicacies ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Spoon's Transference, Bull Riding at MSG, Weasel Walter, the 2009 New Yorker Cartoonist Final Standings, and More

Spoon, doing less with less. Photo by Autumn De Wilde​In this week's Village Voice, Rob Harvilla on Spoon's defiantly skeletal Transference, Phil Freeman goes bull riding at MSG's arena rock rodeo, and Brad Cohan meets the new kid in town (and old head extremist drummer) Weasel Walter. In Boo ... 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: Fela!, Kid Sister, Rakim, Herzog's Bad Lieutenant, Almodovar's Broken Embraces, and More

West Africa Story: Fela!. Photo by Chad Griffith​In this week's Village Voice, Rob Harvilla writes the back story to and guesses at the future of Fela!, the Fela Kuti Broadway biopic that is every bit as fantastic as it needs to be to survive--not that the fact will necessarily help it, in 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: Fall Arts Guide, The Beatles Box Set, Jay-Z's Blueprint 3, Yo La Tengo, Whitney Houston, and More

​In this week's Village Voice, we unveil our 2009 Fall Arts Guide: Dan Weiss on the Jane Austen alt-rock of Brooklyn locals the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Jed Lipinski in conversation with George Packer on the occasion of the author's forthcoming Interesting Times: Writings From a Turbulent ... More >>

This Week in the Voice

​Fall Arts! Along with looks ahead at the various season highlights, Aaron Hillis interviews Juliette Binoche. Robert Shuster contemplates Sarah Anne Johnson. Jed Lipinski reads Interesting Times: Writings From a Turbulent Decade by George Packer. Dan Weiss takes in The Pains of Being Pure at ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Oneida, Fabolous, ZE Records, Japanese Reggaephiles, Funny People, and More

Lionel DeluyMore like an interpreter of hitmaking: Fabolous​ In this week's Village Voice, Rob Harvilla hops the trans-Brooklyn express with Oneida, New York's finest purveyor of impromptu noise-punk trilogies. Sean Fennessey on Fabolous's new Loso's Way: "A classic mixtape rapper with no cl ... More >>

This Week in the Voice

​School's Out! But the Voice Educational Supplement is in session. When cops made a bogus bust on 32 teens from Bushwick Community High, the kids kept their cool -- and won their case against the NYPD. Why? Because they'd been trained how to respond to police overreach and entrapment by their ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Michael Jackson, 1958-2009

In this week's Village Voice, we remember Michael Jackson: Greg Tate on the man and his legacy, rapper Jean Grae on what Jackson meant to musicians everywhere, and Jessica Hopper, reporting live from Gary, Indiana the night Jackson died. Elsewhere, Rob Harvilla describes the daffy sci-fi audacity ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Das Racist, dead prez, Woody Allen's Whatever Works, New York Asian Film Festival, Peter Terzian's Heavy Rotation, and More

Ben RowlandDas Racist, not thinking Arby's In this week's Village Voice Music Section, Rob Harvilla chats with geniuses behind "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell," otherwise known as Das Racist. J. Pablo takes a stroll through Bed-Stuy with dead prez. Bret Gladstone with the Avett Brothers at I ... 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's Voice: Ciara and Chrisette Michelle, Bob Dylan, Outrage, Ben Greenman's Please Step Back, Stephin Merritt's Coraline, and More

In this week's Village Voice Music Section, Rob Harvilla takes a trip to the r&b salt mines with Ciara and Chrisette Michelle. Edd Hurt on Bob Dylan's Together Through Life, during most of which Dylan apparently carries a gun. Justin Farrar laments the end of USA Is a Monster. Brad Cohan anticipa ... More >>

This Week in the Voice

Is it Trekalicious? Or Trek Jerky? Robert Wilonsky weighs in on the Star Trek movie, in which Spock is a "tormented youth in revolt." Ward Sutton does the funny cartoon version. We're accustomed to think of William Thompson as Mr. Clean. But he's a friend of William Howell, and as city comptrol ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Neko Case, Asher Roth, Sonic Youth and Merce Cunningham, Tribeca Film Festival, Tyson, Lit Seen, and More

In this week's Village Voice Music Section, Rob Harvilla joins with the rest of Neko Case's lovestruck/dumbstruck audience. Zach Baron on the upper-middle-class and rising rapper Asher Roth. Rob Trucks walks down Broadway with Scottish indie-pop enclave Camera Obscura. Jason Gross at Merce Cunnin ... 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

50 Cent and Rick Ross have a beef. Will it be settled with guns? Actually, it will more likely be settled with internet videos and rapid response units. What what? Erik Parker explains the new state of the art. Burial societies are supposed to assure their members of a grave when their time comes. ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Rock of Ages, Anvil! The Story of Anvil, Bat for Lashes, Battle of the Country Hunks, and More

David Sherry In this week's Village Voice Music Section, Rob Harvilla on '80s musical Rock of Ages' evolution from so-bad-it's-good to good, period. Adrienne Day mourns lost love and a lost vision of New York with Bat for Lashes. Chuck Eddy: Battle of the Country Hunks! In Film, J. Hoberman basi ... 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: Spring Arts Guide, Wells Tower, Metric, Soderbergh, Britney Spears, Will Oldham, Mary Gaitskill, I Love You, Man, and More

Frances Llewellyn In this week's Village Voice, we unveil our 2009 Spring Arts Guide: Stacey Anderson on Metric's dreamy new Fantasies, Zach Baron on author Wells Tower's Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned, Aaron Hillis in conversation with Steven Soderbergh, Robert Shuster on sculptor Chakaia B ... More >>

This Week in the Voice

When you think about out-of-control parents and coaches in little-league sports, you probably think of the suburbs. But right here in the city, there are sixth-graders playing 12 months a year, with sponsors like Nike, signing bonuses -- and out-of-control parents and coaches. This is Elite Youth ... More >>

This Week's Voice: U2, The-Dream, the Pogues, Private Century, Kat Long's New Book, and More

Courtesy Def Jam In this week's Music Section, Rob Harvilla takes U2's new No Line on the Horizon, force quits, and moves to trash. Restart and reboot yourself. Clover Hope on The-Dream's sublime new Love vs. Money. Tad Hendrickson rolls triumphantly forward with The Pogues, eyes as glassed over ... More >>

This Week's Voice: The Roots, K'Naan, Leonard Cohen, Examined Life, Best in Show, Mourning Becomes Electra, and More

Chad Griffith In this week's Music Section, Rob Harvilla profiles the new kings of late-night, the Roots, as they prepare to take Manhattan. Peter S. Scholtes on the shifting republic of K'Naan, a deft Somali rapper risking wackness in the name of peace. Kevin O'Donnell introduces the ball of exc ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Hipster Runoff, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Great Depression Double Bills, Piero Manzoni, and More

In this week's Village Voice Music Section, Rob Harvilla gives us "Hipster Runoff Explained (Maybe)," a possibly illuminating chat with the Internet's latest mystery man. Stephen Slaybaugh investigates the sweet pop pleasure of the Pains of Being Pure at Heart. Aidan Levy on the ambitious 'Searc ... More >>

This Week in the Voice

Graham Rayman has been following the "Fight Club" cooked up by Rikers Island guards for a couple of years, and the Bronx D.A. has started dishing out charges. Inmates used and rewarded as enforcers, beatings arranged so as not to leave marks, victims intimidated into silence (and a few killed) -- t ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Fall Arts Previews, Juliana Hatfield, The Game, Sonic Youth, Hitchcock and Truffaut, and More