Is the Guardian worse than it used to be?

I read a Laura Barton piece by mistake once, something about some piece of alt-country toss evoking the Mississippi and making her soul orgasm blah blah blah. Yuk.

thing is....everyone I know thinks she's shit!

I went out for a drink for the first time with someone I barely knew a few months ago, who likes all the music Barton writes about. It turned out she and her friends post the article on Facebook every Friday to rip the piss out of it.

Good to know that others are fighting the good fight as well!

http://www.hurryupharry.org/2008/10/03/the-guardian-sacks-racist-blogger/

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

It's basically "i had a shit time, inherent problems with the system". I mean much as she might have a point (about Oxford being a haven for poshy-spaz idiocy), this IS, in the end, another one of those "I went to Oxbridge I I I I and here is what happened, btw I'm highly intelligent and perceptive, and could do things better than what the people in power do it" articles, which I can only despise

and ZING:

MrsLong
Oct 02 08, 8:21am

It got you a job at The Guardian

O the pain, the suffering

I went up to Merton College in 1993, a kid who'd got a scholarship to a minor private school.

Get away. Well I never. Who'd've thought it?

most of tanya gold's articles seem to be about some deep seated bitterness/resentment at school bullies or being ostracised.

She coped by becoming a drunk. Where's the downside?

Wonder if I could get a gig writing about some dude I had a fight with in 1983.

"First thing I did on entering college was ask where I could hang my flat cap and if there was a good place to keep whippets."

First thing I did on entering college was be mildly disappointed when I realised Hull didn't have a beach.

"Oxford is hellish. It needs to be broken apart and stuffed with kids who've got a scholarship to a minor private school- for its own good"

six fucking pages of comments, 95% of which are "I went to Oxbridge and had a cracking time!"

5% of which are quality zings

Renoir
Oct 02 08, 11:48am

Czarnykot: naughty but funny and horribly revealing. There's something quite Oxford student journalism about Gold's pieces, which adds to the irony.

Actually, those are some harsh percentages, Miss Gold's getting some great and sustained stick here.

The final paragraph of that blog post is shite of the highest order.

(I mean the 'that liberal media, they love the intolerant Muslims' one, not the 'I spent three years at Oxford weeping into my gin' one).

LOL OMG go to Page 6 of the Oxford article's comments, and check out the contributions from "WorldWide"

Oxford was about Power, Cambridge was about Religion. Both had Soul but were loveless.

This is Bobby Gillespie, right?

"It was as a wee bairn who got a scholarship to a minor public school that I first met Sun Ra, Holger Czukay and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Of course, all them gadgies were listening to the Rubettes at the time. I soon turned them on to the good stuff."

The women/girl students were uniformly ugly but had potential for later bloomage.

Maybe it's Antony Worrall Thompson.

Did this masterpiece get due recognition?
The art of bumping into geniuses

How does ET cope with being the Paul Burrell of music journalism?

How is it that, throughout my time as a critic, I have often encountered unusual talents, geniuses if you will – Jad Fair, Calvin Johnson of Beat Happening, Lydia Lunch, Thalia Zedek of Come, Daniel Johnston – often, early on in their "careers", and yet none of their star or selling power has rubbed off on me?

Wait! I know this one!!

Another 500 word tract on why no one recognises the true genius of ET.

I prefer him when he's in embarrassing ignored namedropper mode to his "Here is my new favourite girl band consisting of a bunch of women who look, dress, and sing like oversexualised toddlers"

"It was as a wee bairn who got a scholarship to a minor public school that I first met Sun Ra, Holger Czukay and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Of course, all them gadgies were listening to the Rubettes at the time. I soon turned them on to the good stuff."

Not quite got the hang of the Glaswegian patter there, Noodle

I'm at work, I couldn't access the standard translation site.

Plus no mention of the Chris McClure Set or Jack McLaughlin

Yeah, can a Sub clear that up please?

How is it that, throughout my time as a critic, I have often encountered unusual talents, geniuses if you will – Jad Fair, Calvin Johnson of Beat Happening, Lydia Lunch, Thalia Zedek of Come, Daniel Johnston – often, early on in their "careers", and yet none of their star or selling power has rubbed off on me?

The AWESOME SELLING POWER of Thalia Zedek (of Come).

I think I'm seeing Thalia Zedek play tonight so maybe I could ask her why none of her star power rubbed off on Everett True

ha xp

Quipped a disgruntled Sun Ra: "Eh! Boaby! Ye telt me ye wis gonnae get Johnny Gilmore tae play tenor in ma band - no Johnny Beattie!"

Johnny Beattie: "Ah cannae get the hang o' this glaikit notation. Can we no' just dae My Woman My Woman My Wife?"

Sun Ra: "AH DIDNAE BEAM DOON FRAE THE PLANET SATURN FIR TAE PLAY FECKIN' JERRY VALE!"

Bob: "Here, gie's a fuckin' brek Sunny, you know how difficult it is tae find a fuckin' Venusian in Glesga? Aye, awright, maybe no' that difficult after a', ah'll put an advert up in Sound Control this efternoon"

Bob: "Tenor Saxophonist Required For Myth-Science Arkestra. Must Be From Saturn. NO CLOWNS OR TIME-WASTERS"

Quipped Arkestra singer Calum Kennedy: "Eh, I'm no' sure aboot a' this Space Is The Place stuff. D'ye no mean Bonnie Bonnie Loch Lomond Is The Place Whur Ah Wis Born An' I Walk They Proud Glens..."

Sun Ra: "Yir FIRED, so ye are!"

'geniuses if you will'

we will not

<3 ET, but that's not one of his better pieces by a long way.

I prefer him when he's in embarrassing ignored namedropper mode to his "Here is my new favourite girl band consisting of a bunch of women who look, dress, and sing like oversexualised toddlers"

― Carrie Bradshaw Layfield (The stickman from the hilarious 'xkcd' comics), Monday, 6 October 2008 09:53 (1 hour ago)

Back in the day it was more american bands with heroinish looking female vocalists I think? The oversexualised toddler thing was just babes in toyland, and courtney love when she was knocking off their look I think? I might be wrong, it was all a long time ago.

Worst thing he ever wrote was when he interviewed ultrasound and compared the bassist's looks to those of myra hindley, and made out that it was a favourable comparison. Eh.

Funny how it helped to be a 14-year-old girl if you wanted to approach ET for a job on Melody Maker back in the day...

i rang him once -- 1995? -- looking for a couple of contacts. he was fantastically helpful. therefore, he will always be prefaced by the words "that good dude" in my mind.

(by which i mean: i rang him out of the blue, and he could very well have gone: "fuck off, son.")

Who here would say 'fuck off, son' if someone rang them at work seeking advice?

*looks round, expectantly*

maybe not the 'son' bit

pinefox: a lot of people working at music magazines would. ET wouldn't (and didn't, to me, over a decade ago) because he is a decent dude. he's also easily one of the best editors I've ever had the good fortune to have worked with, and still one of my favourite writers.

I spend my entire working life phoning up journalists I don't know for contacts and have never been told to fuck off. You'd be surprised how many go beyond the call of duty to help you out.

They're all dead inside, probably searching for someone to save them

DC is surely correct - most people want to be polite.

If someone rang me at work innocently seeking advice and I told them to fuck off, I would expect them to make a complaint and that I would be disciplined. It is just not professional behaviour and should not be tolerated. Do music journalists really behave this way? One of my best friends is a music journalist, and I can't imagine him doing it.