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Pádraig Collins
Member
Username: Pádraig_collins

Post Number: 545
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Thursday, September 07, 2006 - 03:54 am:   

For the story, go to www.slate.com/id/2148997

His website is at www.robertchristgau.com

His Go-Betweens reviews are at www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=the+go-betweens
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Pádraig Collins
Member
Username: Pádraig_collins

Post Number: 546
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Thursday, September 07, 2006 - 03:59 am:   

I very much like the way he twice mentions his union as positive points in his Village Voice career.
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kevin
Member
Username: Kevin

Post Number: 761
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Thursday, September 07, 2006 - 04:05 am:   

Crikey.

It doesnt actually say why he was fired does it?
I notice he is enthusing about the new Outkast album - I really should listen to it again.

Great quip from Uncle Lou, you gotta love him.
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Pádraig Collins
Member
Username: Pádraig_collins

Post Number: 548
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Thursday, September 07, 2006 - 04:12 am:   

I suspect it's because he has spoken out publicly against the staff cutbacks and pay cuts the new owners foisted on the staff as soon as they bought it last year. Christgau is strong in the journalist's union too, so the owners probably think they'll have less "issues" to deal with from the union if they get rid of him.

It is very sad to see what the Village Voice is being reduced and traduced to. How can the new owners expect to retain the paper's audience if they take away its heart (and I don't just mean RC).
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Little Keith
Member
Username: Manosludge

Post Number: 700
Registered: 03-2006
Posted on Thursday, September 07, 2006 - 05:36 am:   

I never missed his Consumer Guide column in the Village Voice (via the website). Unlike a lot of critics he has a real critical aesthetic - there's a certain intellectual cohesion there, real guiding principles at work, coupled with the ability to articulate them, all laced with a very warm, humanist quality...And, to boot, he gave the Go Bees some of the best notices of their career! Hope he finds someplace to light soon that appreciates him...
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Michael Bachman
Member
Username: Michael_bachman

Post Number: 176
Registered: 01-2005
Posted on Thursday, September 07, 2006 - 05:11 pm:   

His Pazz and Jop polls in the 1980's were music guidelines for many of my album purchases.
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Kurt Stephan
Member
Username: Slothbert

Post Number: 541
Registered: 04-2005
Posted on Thursday, September 07, 2006 - 06:46 pm:   

I wonder if the VV will keep doing the annual critic's poll? Without Christgau, I wouldn't be surprised if they rename it if it continues. And his impossible-to-decipher-but-worth-trying annual essays will be missed.
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Allen Belz
Member
Username: Abpositive

Post Number: 2
Registered: 09-2006
Posted on Friday, September 08, 2006 - 02:54 am:   

I wouldn't say quite impossible-to-decipher...you just needed to read them several times, which was definitely its own reward. I let him make a lot of my record-buying choices (most definitely including the GBs) for more than 20 years, and my disappointment percentage with his picks in all that time was around .00001. I'm sure he'll find a place somewhere else, but this really is the end of an era.
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Pádraig Collins
Member
Username: Pádraig_collins

Post Number: 554
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Saturday, September 09, 2006 - 08:04 am:   

And now, inspired by Robert Christgau's site (not that I'm comparing my writing with him), I have started putting some of my archive record reviews from The Irish Times up at www.myspace.com/padraigcollins Nothing like a little self-promotion!
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Pádraig Collins
Member
Username: Pádraig_collins

Post Number: 556
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Saturday, September 09, 2006 - 08:08 am:   

By the way, for those of you new to the site, my thoughts on Grant's funeral are also on my myspace site, as is an interview I did with Robert and Grant in 2002.

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