This Week in the Voice: Shock The Junkie with Ibogaine Ingestion

It's common knowledge that kicking a capital-H Habit isn't the most pleasant experience, to say the least. But what if there were a cure for drug addiction out there that only comes with one side effect, that of intense hallucinations? For this week's Village Voice cover story, join Keegan Hamilton as he welcomes you to the wonderful world of Ibogaine: Can it Cure Addiction Without the Hallucinogenic Trip?

Elsewhere in News, the big wide world out there is nothing but a trip:

• Remember ACORN? The community organizing organization took their time gaining prominence as a credible operation, and were felled fast, taking as steep a decline as their rise was gradual. Why? Voice columnist Tom Robbins documents the phenomenon that was Acorn's Long Rise and Fast Fall.
• Voice gossip Michael Musto will narc on you if you're not careful. Who learns the lesson the hard way this week? Per Musto: Colin Firth Said the C-Word!

In Food, we're eating lots of things, hallucinogenic qualities aside (or as added value):

• Voice food critic and de facto outer-borough explorer Robert Sietsema keeps it close to the homestead this week by filing on flashy restaurateur Donatella Arpaia's new Chelsea pizza joint, Donatella, who he says packs some of the best Sicilian dishes in town.

In Film, we're buying the ticket, and taking the ride. Also, ZOMFG HARRY POTTER!!!!!!

• Yes, the first part of the final Harry Potter film is here, and so the magic of Dan Kois' reviews shall live another day.
• Sometimes, reality really is stranger than fiction, especially in the case of those manufacturing our fictions. As Nick Pinkerton reports, For Cannon Films, Chuck Norris + Godard = Success.
• The Voice's own J. Hoberman thinks White Material is "Claire Denis's strongest movie in the decade," also finding a "discomfiting effect" in a restored version of Edward Bland's 1959 manifesto The Cry of Jazz.
• Elsewhere in film, Paul Haggis' new Russell Crowe vehicle of predictable suckage The Next Three Days predictably sucks, there are too many great German movies at MoMA, Austin cinema's new enfant terrible documentarian Bob Ray gets an NYC double feature, a new British movie from the guy who brought you Calendar Girls called Made in Dagenham about angry British women trying to get paid, and so, so, so much more.

In Arts, we don't need to take drugs to see some crazy shit:

• Theater: Celebrated playwright Adam Rapp directs his first play on St. Marks with theater troupe The Amoralists, which actually sounds...just like an Adam Rapp play. Alexis Soloski sees Ghosts in the Cottonwoods. Meanwhile, Michael Feingold does a triple-header of big ticket shows: the new Amy Herzog play, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, and Al Pacino doing Shakespeare. John Heilpern sees some Brits off-Broadway at 59E59, as a lost work of John Osbourne finally sees the light of day in Personal Enemy. Finally, Alexis sees a different stripe of shitshow in the new work of Todd Robbins and Teller. Yes, Penn & Teller's Teller.
• Dance: Garth Fagen's dance troupe has been going four decades strong. Do they still have it? Deborah Jowitt finds out as she heads to the Joyce Theater to check the moves of Garth Fagan and His Veteran Dance Troupe.
• Art: Finally, Robert Shuster sees Richard Garet's 'Electrochroma' at the Invisible Dog; Bernd and Hilla Becher's 'Water Towers' at Sonnabend, and Joe Diebes' 'Chronology' at 9W.

All that, plus more Music, Art, Theater, Film, Books, Dance, Restaurants, Michael Musto, Free Will Astrology, and Dan Savage. And then some.

Here at the Voice, we're not quite the ragged bunch of New York Druggies you think we are. But, you know, close enough. We choose life. What about you?

[fkamer@villagevoice.com]