Is the Guardian worse than it used to be?

"I kept smiling at him, longingly, however...."

"...imagining how I could feed my crack habit with the bulging contents of his wallet."

I remember getting really cross about that technique when I was at the NME in the mid-80s: several writers would use it to gotcha interviewees after the fact. It's a real dick's trick IMO: pick them up on it t the time, going back to it if you don't want to break the flow -- and if you didn't think of it at the time (=you are as bad as they are), fkn say this. Don't abuse yr power: it guts any politics you profess. (Well, not any politics...)

Slot it on the list next to "Change the question to make the answer look more xxxx in your article"

I expect quite a lot of these writers were influenced at an impressionable age by the malign nature of eighties NME/Blitz/Face interview techniques. The thing that always bugged me about Morley’s Ask – recently confirmed on re-reading – is that, boiled down, the only question PM ever asked anyone was: “why aren’t you me?”

I was going through my garage, and actually found my copies of "Ask" (I forgot I had one), and the original press of "Rock and the Pop Narcotic".

So, shall update myself re:it.

(My memory of other interviewers: The Stud Brothers' only question was "Why aren't you Front 242?")

The other 'refresher' was watching some of the extras on the "Stone Roses" 2DVD set, where Ian and john were being 'interviewed'. Of course, surly/shy/reticent was the order of the day, but blimey the questions were all totally hopeless. "What do you feel like, about how long it's taken to be critically acclaimed, do you think?"

http://legalbizzle.wordpress.com/2011/11/15/comment-is-free-but-woo-is-sacred/

am all for printing both sides, but where do you draw the line? these guys were just talking obvious shit

I've spent some time corresponding with 'freemen' (for work). They are kinda endearing but they are talking absolute bollocks of course. There's no way the Guardian should be publishing it really.

Freemen who think they are clever by quoting legal stuff are tedious fuckers. The ones who get really obsessed with language and writing names in capital letters and putting punctuation in odd places are interesting (but generally appear ill).

I'd never heard of them until Ben Goldacre started tweeting about this stuff.
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Freeman-on-the-land

In my experience they are usually mentally ill people, but there are a few who are just stupid/sad/idiotic anarchists.

website front page is currently v much worse than it used to be.

all better now.

Via Matos, the film and music section is no more after today: "They're folding it into the rest of the paper, doing more online, that sort of thing."

It's going into Friday's G2 from next week.

Think some things will still disappear? There's no Tom Ewing column as of now sadly.

And as this seems to be my last column for the Guardian (the first paper I read seriously), I say farewell in the hope that you have had some pleasure from it.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/jan/05/david-thomson-on-michael-fassbender/print

COPYING AND PASTING IS NOT PERT HUMOUR

DON'T FUCKING DO IT

xpost: From what I've heard, almost all of Friday's G2 will be Film & Music, except for Marina Hyde at the front and presumably the telly at the back. Dunno about specific regular features from the old F&M, though.

It's going to be most of Friday's G2, as Mike says. New commissioning and editing model, in which "pod heads" for film and music - for music, that's Caspar Llewellyn Smith - commission in their subject areas, and then Monday-Friday print editors take their pick of what they want. So G2 editor will compile F&M from stuff commissioned by others.

"pod heads"!

The question we've all been asking: Why doesn't Ireland do musicals?

We aren't lacking in raw materials, after all. Aren't we the country that brought you Enya, Sinead O'Connor, Westlife and U2?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/theatreblog/2012/jan/11/ireland-turned-off-musicals-bono

queequeg7

11 January 2012 6:50PM

Because musicals are generally shite

otm

are guardian comments always this stupid and annoying?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/jan/12/voivod-to-the-death-demo-metal

Generally only happens when the articles are linked on the front page. You get a lot of people who don't usually comment on the music sections.

normally the comments are really good

Well, you don't get people coming along to say 'WHO? I have never heard of them!" all the time.

yeah usually they would just blame pandemics on THE JEWS

You're thinking of Oi VeyVod

Oy not Oi obv

lol caek

The Guardian's picture editors, at least, are getting better:

http://twitpic.com/87r4fh

Wikipedia will be joined in its 24-hour protest by top news sharing site Reddit and the popular Cheezburger websites, which attract 16.5 million visitors a month to look at funny cat videos and photos.

so I actually quite like the new G2 film & music format. It's much more tube-friendly. Had a good chortle at Marina. However I did shed a tear due to the lack of my Friday dose of Private Lives & Pamela Stephenson page - I shall miss reading "my son is masturbating to gay porn" and "my teenage son is rank and is going to Cambridge but I want him to leave now" etc. Perhaps it's some ploy to get me buy the monday editions as well.

snickid

28 January 2012 3:21PM

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AJWEBERMAN

28 January 2012 3:42PM

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william

28 January 2012 3:44PM

Gingrich can't become president; he's not American.
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AVoiceFromAmerica

28 January 2012 3:45PM

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amities

28 January 2012 3:58PM

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i actually think its kind of cool that the graun deletes the more batshit racist/sexist/homophobic shit on their comments page but ymmv

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/jan/29/ting-tings-nowheresville-interview

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/shortcuts/2012/jan/29/pass-notes-brooklyn-3115

I’ve had a blog for a long time but only started to take it seriously a couple of years ago when I published a series of photos of Londoners wearing hats in their ordinary lives.

"some sweaty bopping in a Smiley T-shirt to "Ebeneezer Goode" in the 1990s"

has Barbara Ellen always written in that horrible Littlejohn-esque 'one sentence per paragraph' fashion btw

she's always been the Happy Shopper Julie Burchill so yeah

one cliche i wish would die - photographers taking photos of photographers, cameras pointed at cameras.

Azealia Banks – whose sound is reminiscent of 90s rapper Missy Elliott – Azealia Banks – whose sound is reminiscent of 90s rapper Missy Elliott – Azealia Banks – whose sound is reminiscent of 90s rapper Missy Elliott – Azealia Banks – whose sound is reminiscent of 90s rapper Missy Elliott – Azealia Banks – whose sound is reminiscent of 90s rapper Missy Elliott – Azealia Banks – whose sound is reminiscent of 90s rapper Missy Elliott – Azealia Banks – whose sound is reminiscent of 90s rapper Missy Elliott – Azealia Banks – whose sound is reminiscent of 90s rapper Missy Elliott – Azealia Banks – whose sound is reminiscent of 90s rapper Missy Elliott

^ subeditor

Call me a luddite, but just as I like getting my vegetables delivered in a box direct from a farm in Devon, I love knowing that the puppets in War Horse are handmade in a workshop in Cape Town.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/feb/12/revenge-muppets-puppets-kermit-war-horse

"luddite" wdn't be my first choice word

yes, i can think of a few others

Ugh...

Scream, Clueless, films like that were just as sly and arch in their message as new films such as Juno and Superbad, but without the irony.

;/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2012/feb/11/90s-revival-music-culture