This Week's Voice: Gucci Mane, Def Jam's 25th, Say Anything, Bill Simmons, Roger Corman at Anthology, and More

He's got more check than a Czechoslavian. Photo by Zacke Wolfe.

​In this week's Village Voice, Rob Harvilla goes abroad with Gucci Mane's Cold War mixtape trilogy: "Funny voices aside, The Cold War isn't a particularly conceptual affair, instead favoring a breathtakingly monochromatic wash of brutally dour but occasionally thrilling trap-rap dirges as Gucci fully explores the widening chasm between his jeweler and yours." Meanwhile, Amy Linden reconsiders Def Jam on the occasion of its 25th birthday, Mikael Wood reviews the newest from Say Anything, and Phil Freeman breaks down the four percussive big shots driving the great jazz-drummer takeover of 2009.

In Books, Rob Harvilla on the Sports Guy Bill Simmons' epic new tome, The Book of Basketball.

In Film, J. Hoberman looks back at the year the nation's oldest film critics' association did not present its annual awards as part of BAM's '1962: New York Film Critics Circle' series, Scott Foundas praises the schlock genius of Roger Corman at Anthology's 'Poe and Beyond' Corman retro, and we review a ton of movies: The House of the Devil, Skin, The Boondock Saints II, etc.

In Art, Daniel Kunitz's Best in Show stars Caragh Thuring, Muntean/Rosenblum, and Justine Kurland.

In Theater, Michael Feingold reviews recent productions of Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs, After Miss Julie, and Ordinary Days, while Alexis Soloski talks to Richard Foreman and Willem Dafoe about what may or may not (again) be Foreman's last production.

Plus Michael Musto on the lesbian star of Glee, Free Will Astrology, and more, here.