Gothamist: Village Voice Writer Caught Making Up Stuff

Dan Tolumbro

Sat, 25 Nov 2006 01:25:05 -0500

I've met Neil Strauss personally, and I can assure you that he's the real deal. I wouldn't say he's the best pick-up artist in the world, and it is true that there are some major exaggerations in "The Game," but you gotta respect the guy for what he's done for the community. As for having non-biased people writing these books, it would be really hard for someone to be this deep in the inner circle of dating coaches without being one himself. Dan Tolumbro.

rofl

Sat, 18 Nov 2006 09:44:37 -0500

rofl what a bitter tone the author has you can tell hes biased, sounds like someones girlfriend dumped him jake, i'm sorry that you're never gonig to be intimite with anything other than your hand, but please move on in your life

Asian Playboy

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 22:31:32 -0500

Alderaan, You've got your unbiased piece from Dolly, who was extensively quoted in the article. She's someone who isn't paid for her opinion, who accidentally ran into real PUAs while being an active single, and found that she actually liked them. Dolly (who directed you to her link) wrote a letter to the editor. Namely calling him out on his BS as well as pointing out that his portrayal of the pick up artists was opposite of her real life experiences. Namely that now that she's met quite a few, she has found the NYC PUA scene to be full of some really cool, fun guys. I'll use the same argument and comment that I used for someone else who was talking about this: It all depends upon if the guy learned successful sociailizing, networking and flirting at an early age. You can call it games and manipulation, but it's simply learning the social code of the underlying structure between men and women. These are simply average guys who were typically never that successful with women to begin with adopting the same mannerisms and behavioral patterns that Naturals, a pick up term for guys that always seemed to be good with women, learned when they were young. It's generally about self-improvement: internalizing different behaviors, emulating successful people (whether it be with women or business), effective, successful habits, and gaining the confidence necessary to put one's ego on the line time and time again. Granted, some of the techniques are more outlandish than others, but in the end, it's mostly about conveying your personality and identity through the most efficient way possible to create attraction. One thing to also consider is the fact that attractive women ALREADY have these techniques, tricks, and methods down. You may not think of yourself as playing Games, playing The Game, or using these tactics, but in reality you/they are. Attractive women were born into the Game, raised into, exposed to it from magazines like Cosmo and their girlfriends, and daily hit upon by men. Their level of Game far outstrips the average, nice guy who turns into a wannabe PUA in order to effectively compete on the same level playing field. Asian Playboy

paul

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 17:32:13 -0500

He's the douche bag that blabbed on and on at the Plug Awards. He embodies all that is bad about journalism and basically all of Pitchfork. http://noonecaresaboutyourblog.blogspot.com/2006/02/pitchforkmediacom-proves-equally.html

FictionWriter78987865554

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 15:28:30 -0500

i think the editor that was suppose to edit him, call him out on his shiiit and fact check him should have a spankdown too. how many hands did this story go through? and, if you fire all the fact checkers, don't cha think someone else might have to checkity-check the facts (or lack of)? the Voice is nothing but a sausage factory, circle jerking itself to death.

Gabe

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 15:16:44 -0500

Hate to chime in again - nothing upturns sanity quite like comment stalking - but how in the current environment of wide-bore publicity campaigns and pay-for-play PR is an up-and-coming writer looking for initial exposure not going to devolve into a "pathelogical bullshit artist"? Not that PR people are all bad - some of the more motivated and talented people I've run into work for "the dark side" - but they are paid to push their wares and if editors always say yes... well you see the results. Just as Gothamist can't scrape by without periodic nods to PR mass emails (note the air-guitar competition piece) in order to keep the lines of communication open, so too will print publications and writers find themselves serving half-baked bullshit brownies from time to time. All I'm saying is Sylvester is just one player and there's a whole game out there to hate.

Dolly D

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 15:09:21 -0500

Since I was extensively quoted for the piece (mind you, nobody contacted me to make sure my story wasn't made up--which it wasn't, but still), I am trying to set the record straight. Here: http://cocksanddolls.blogspot.com/2006/03/letter-to-editor.html And here: http://cocksanddolls.blogspot.com/2006/03/plot-thickens.html ~Dolly

citizen

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 14:46:45 -0500

Nick Sylvester is the same schmuck who wrote that bogus "Room 207" free hotel room story for the Village Voice "Best Of NY" series, wherein he also claims to have been homeless for several months. Does this come as a surprise to anyone? Sounds like he's a pathological bullshit artist. And he "writes" for Pitchfork. What a shock.

Gabe

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 14:24:13 -0500

Jake, While I share your point, I wouldn't go so far as to say, "[the Voice is] about spoiled, rich guys picking up girls. Bah!" Michael Musto still publishes every week, bless his queer, little heart, so that's at least 1,400 words the PUAs won't get. As well, there seems to be an interesting dynamic going on here - the article was not fawning praise of this weird little phenomenon (if it actually exists) but a very troubled piece - as if it were written without will or mandate on the part of Sylvester. As more becomes clear about the piece, it seems certain editors had incorporated it into their agendas for the transformation of The Voice while the author was out of his league with a piece no one should have been asked to write. I doubt Sylvester saw a cent for his work - rather, it seems he was told to write about a trend that either does not exist or isn't really worth talking about and - both disinterested and disheartened - turned in an almost inevitable steaming pile of crap. I feel bad for the guy and only hope that this little scandal puts the Voice back on track.

pugsley

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 14:20:43 -0500

I don't recall a time when the Voice wrote about important political stuff.

I don't get paid to write fiction

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 14:20:13 -0500

this is the definition of pathetic. it was a cover story. ppl just might read it. and you decided to fake a situation but use real names? and you went to...Harvard? i guess his ivy ed forgot to send him the ethics memo and complimentary b*tchslap. srsly. if they hadn't caught this, i'm sure his c*cksure ego would have ballooned into Glass or Blair size. good riddance you elite, hipster riff raff.

kojak

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 14:16:40 -0500

Add Savage Love to that list edEx. And the those call girl ads in the back.... AND the comics

edEx

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 14:04:56 -0500

The Village Voice is good for two things: band listings and bullshit.

Joshua Ozersky

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 13:45:41 -0500

That book is ten pounds of bullshit in a five pound bag. If that shmegegge Neil Straus became a world-class pickup artist, my name is Michael Jordan.

Alderaan

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 13:39:27 -0500

I really enjoyed "The Game" and the Voice article. Who wouldn't enjoy hearing about this colorful subculture? What I would REALLY like to see now is a book or article about the 'seduction commmunity' NOT written by someone who makes a living from selling 'seduction tips'. The author of "The Game" now makes money from running Seduction Seminars. What a coincidence that in his book, the techniques always work. Is there any independent verification? Now it turns out that the author of the Voice article had some serious conflict-of-interest and reporting issues. If "Sarging" really works, surely someone could convince a good journalist that it is worthy of investigation without said journalist becoming a PUA himself. Based on the literature so far, The Mystery Method, etc. is apparently so powerful that ordinary men cannot resist using it and automatically become PUAs, or the PUA community is so full of nonsense that the only people willing to write about it are those who directly or indirectly profit from convincing rubes the techniques work. If the former is true, where are all the seminars for Women on "How to not get fooled by a pick up artist"? If L.A. is 'totally sarged out', someone is going to get very rich at the L.A. Learning Annex running "Beat the PUA" seminars for Women.

z

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 13:29:47 -0500

Very true m Of course Gothamist isn't aiming to be the Voice's heir apparent, or even the NY Press's, for that matter. It's aiming to be a central, slightly gussied-up, ad-supported version of savvy folks' mass emails to friends/colleagues of "cool"/"interesting" things to read/see. Nothing more. -z

m

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 13:02:43 -0500

it's odd that jake of gothamist is criticizing the voice for publishing stupid content instead of hard-hitting political stuff.

b-log

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 13:00:37 -0500

Funny how every bestselling book written by a woman in the last 5 years is the exact same thing. 1- Take 4 blonde, successful women. 2- Write about all the "MEN THEY SLAY!" 3- Some moral conclusion