Tuesday, September 5, 2006

Sam Machkovech Update

Firing may indicate an overall shift in Village Voice arts coverage

By Mike Orren

Following his unexpected firing from the Dallas Observer last week, Sam Machkovech has announced that he'll continue covering the local music scene on his new blog, Big D little d. In his inaugural post, he broke the news that drummer Paul Burrough has left Pleasant Grove and dropped some educated speculation on an upcoming label signing for The Strange Boys.

On the new site, Sam said:

He also was on KTCU's The Good Show Sunday night, for an interview that covered the situation as candidly as possible. The entire show is available online, and Sam has posted an interview-only clip (YouSendIt registration required) on his site.

Who the hell doesn't like Sam Machkovech in roller derby girl garb? Look at the Hooters girl not looking at Sam because she's intimidated. Haha! Take that you Hooter girl, goin' round those tables teasing fat guys with piles of wing bones staring at the sauce stains on their fat faces into thinking they could go out with you if only they didn't weigh 400 pounds and weren't losers who hung out at Hooters more than they should.

In the interview, Sam said that he was fired by Village Voice brass: "No one in Dallas, as far as I'm concerned, had any say." The reasoning Village Voice management cited for the firing was "Lack of diversity in the section, lack of experience on my part ... and performance issues that had been addressed on previous occasions."

Despite Village Voice policy of providing annual employee reviews, Sam said he did not receive one in his fourteen months as editor. "If there were boundaries, they were not told to me."

Phoenix-based Village Voice media owns the Dallas Observer and sixteen other "alt"-weeklies. The company was formed by a merger-in-name between Village Voice and New Times, the Observer's longtime owner. The company took on the Voice name, but is controlled from Phoenix.

Sam made it clear in the Good Show interview that he did not have a clear one-to-one correlation in mind, but noted that he had no pushback from management until his column criticizing Club Clearview / Liquid Lounge / Curtain Club ("the pus-ridden, scabby knife wound of local music"). After that, Sam said he "started hearing from offices outside Dallas ... about the critical bent of the section." The clubs ran an ad criticizing Sam and then three weeks ago moved their advertising from the Dallas Observer to Quick. According to Sam, his replacement was hired a week later -- one week prior to Sam's firing.

Sam said conspiracy theories about his firing were legion, but the only indication of any creedence he gave them in the interview was that the day of the firing he received an unusual email from John Kirtland of Kirtland Records saying nothing but "Good Morning. Have a Great Day." Sam had criticized several  Kirtland bands in the Observer.

Perhaps most interestingly, Sam's firing is not an isolated incident, and may indicate a shift across the Village Voice chain. In the past week, arts editors have been fired in NY and Seattle over "matters of taste." Eight were "laid off" from the Village Voice, including noted pop music critic and senior editor Robert Christgau. 

Sam said that there were indications that the firings might spread to other Village Voice papers. (I've contacted VV executives to ask about this and will update this story when I get a response.)

In addition to the new blog, Sam said that he wanted to put together a local best-of compilation sometime in the near future, noting that the area hasn't had one since Tales from the Edge and the Observer's Scene Heard.

However, he also said that he could likely have to move away as there are not a lot of writing jobs in town now, especially given the buyouts at the Dallas Morning News. For now, Sam is going on a trip to Africa with his girlfriend's family and plans to formally launch his new site on September 28th.

The photo above is our favorite snap of Sam, shot by Blair Lovern at this year's Dallas Observer Music Awards.

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