― the pinefox, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― chris, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Funnily enough, I quite like the Guide, partly because Joe Queenan and Byron Coley sometimes write for it, partly because it means I no longer have to buy that useless piece of toss Time Out anymore.
― Andrew L, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― james e l, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
1. The simplification of the accusation may just echo what it asserts about the target (just as 'Dumbing Down' is a dumb, dull phrase);
2. If I don't like Triviality, why don't I read nothing but 10-page reports from the former Yugoslavia? It would be hypocritical of me to say that I simply wanted them to be SERIOUS and SOLEMN and RESPONSIBLE all the time. No, that's not it.
What I mean, I suppose, is that too many features, esp. in G2, now look dashed-off - half-hearted, half-baked, unconvincing, just cliché pies really. Today's Lara Croft piece was just the latest of a million examples. It feels (the terms are problematic here, I know) JOURNALISTIC in a bad way - trite, unconsidered, full of crowd- pleasing Received Ideas - rather than JOURNALISTIC in a good way (that is: dogged, resourceful, brave, mentally agile, snappy and what have you).
It's the world of second-hand Lifestyle phrases that bugs me. The way that adults can still write a phrase like "*that* dress" and not hang their heads in shame.
A rider to all my bile, though, is that my previous, more impressed impressions of the Guardian may just reflect youthful impressionability. (Sentence!) Maybe the same kind of crap used to impress me that now feels rubbishy, faux-zeitgeisty and embarrassing? Maybe, but I suspect it's a bit of both.
I agree about Queenan too. But most of all, I agree about Thomson. There's almost no point having a thread about Thomson, because people who know what they think about him already know it all and would just send in superlatives.
― mark s, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
What the paper still has going for it: George Monbiot's column, the Diary, Steve Bell, giving review space to Ians Sansom and Penman, and the tv columns of Nancy Banks-Smith. (When N B-S finally pops her clogs I will have to think very hard about buying the paper.)
What is leading the paper ever closer to the abyss: consistently terrible pop coverage (honorable exceptions: Maddy Costa, Betty Clarke); the fatuous new Saturday mag (Zoe Ball on dressing? match the celebrity with the pet? that awful woman talking about words that should be banned??); Charlotte bloody Raven.
― stevie t, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
I agree with you there. They sucker you in with the G2 front cover (and the masthead of the main paper), but when you get to read the cover story it often appears cobbled together and lightweight. I imagine it must be difficult to fill that space with high quality stories day in day out though.
― David, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
I actually like Peter Preston's awkward, staccato opinion pieces, come to think of it. But not the pompous ones of Hugo Young. Freedland is sometimes good at summing political issues up, but usually he 'sums up' too much - there's too much glibness in the way he marshals it all. (I admit again, though, that it's easy - even glib - to call someone glib.)
Penman strikes me as a red herring. I can see that he doesn't do that to you, cos you have some kind of investment in his career. I agree about Sansom (great left-back, mean penalty, blah blah) - in fact I think that the whole Saturday book reviews section is quite possibly the best feature of the paper. EXCEPT of course the footy. Heroes? How could I forget David Lacey?
BUT I think that you are wrong about N B-S. It doesn't surprise me that older folk make that judgement about her; it does rather surprise me coming from you. She has skills, I guess, but she's terribly repetitive; uses the same lines on the same topics year in year out. It's all too - yes - glib and easy, while dressed up to look aged and thus wise.
― jamesmichaelward, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
I only read it for the Guide and the job listings. Not that either has been particularly helpful lately... ;-)
― masonic boom, Wednesday, 4 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Richard Tunnicliffe, Wednesday, 4 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― tarden, Wednesday, 4 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Mark Morris, Wednesday, 4 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Friday, 6 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
There's a lot of irritating stuff, yes. My favourite columnist is George Monbiot, by a mile. Something I like about the Independent when I do get it is that its liberalism is less metropolitan and more about the common good. Needless to say, though, the Guardian's series of articles on public service under that very title were awesome.
― The Hemulen Who Loved Silence, Friday, 6 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Today's G2 seems designed to add fuel to my (f)ire: one page of 'Style' after another, including a column on Why We're So Disappointed That Madonna Employs A Stylist.
― the pinefox, Friday, 6 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― blue veils and golden sands, Friday, 6 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Also good in Guardian: John Patterson re. cinema.
oh god, ask hadley today is just... tooth-grinding.
― Tracer Hand, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:17 (sixteen years ago) link
"today"
― Dom Passantino, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:17 (sixteen years ago) link
"At what age is a man too old to wear band T-shirts?"
Martin McCall, by email
"About 15 - that young enough for you, Martin? And to follow one rhetorical question with several more, what in God's name is the point of band T-shirts anyway? To show your allegiance to a band? Do you think anyone else cares? To impress onlookers with your esoteric musical knowledge? See previous reply. To make people stare at your bony chest? Again, I refer you to the first answer. To show that you once attended a live gig? Wow, like, a pair of golden headsets to the guy in the Nirvana '91 T-shirt. In case you happen to bump into the lead singer on the street, he sees that the two of you are kindred souls and therefore invites you to join his band and you then go on the road and have all the manly bonding sessions followed by groupies that your heart could desire? OK, I'll give you that one, although this does suggest that you still harbour the fantasy that you might bump into Joey Ramone in Waterstone's.
"As for ladies in band T-shirts, give me a fricking break. First, gals, a badly cut, poorly made, oversized T-shirt is good for nothing other than wearing to bed and the gym. Second, too often women who wear band T-shirts appear to be going for what we shall call Groupie Chic. It is a style amply modelled by Kate Moss in recent years, and can pretty much be summed up as skinny faded black jeans, ankle boots, a ripped band T-shirt and a cropped fur jacket. In other words, a girlified version of Marc Bolan's or Keith Richards' wardrobe, as though the woman has been so busy, um, sleeping on the band bus she hasn't had time to clean her clothes, so she's now wearing ones belonging to her musical companion. This column has no time for such nonsense."
― Tracer Hand, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:19 (sixteen years ago) link
Yeah, because women have *no* interest in music whatsoever except for sleeping with musicians. What CENTURY is this cretin from?
― Masonic Boom, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:21 (sixteen years ago) link
I think I stopped wearing band T-shirts by the time I was 23. It wasn't necessarily a conscious move tho. I doubt I will ever wear one again tho - I guess it seems lame unless it's an old obscure or overlooked thus hip act (even this I dunno about). I don't notice many people over 20 wearing them. Does Matt DC still have that Save Ferris T?
I only want to sleep with musicians if they are hot as they are (their musical ability is pretty irrelevant in fact).
― blueski, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:29 (sixteen years ago) link
dear teh grauniad - a long time ago/we used to be friends...
― CharlieNo4, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:32 (sixteen years ago) link
It went downhill after I left.
― Dom Passantino, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:33 (sixteen years ago) link
or were you PUSHED?
― blueski, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:35 (sixteen years ago) link
http://homepage.mac.com/alexinnyc/.Pictures/Photo%20Album%20Pictures/2007-09-02%2015.37.57%20-0700/Image-D15E03FF59A011DC.jpg
heh. (sorry alex, no harm intended)
― CharlieNo4, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:36 (sixteen years ago) link
http://www.abc.net.au/sport/thesportsdesk/images/200607/20060707henrydive_derblog.jpg
xp
― Dom Passantino, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:36 (sixteen years ago) link
i was being harsh really. i don't care what's on other people's t-shirts that much. just trying to work out why i stopped wearing/wouldn't wear band t-shirts myself.
― blueski, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:37 (sixteen years ago) link
Any t-shirt which isn't plain white clearly sucks that's why.
― aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:38 (sixteen years ago) link
i couldn't agree less
― blueski, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:40 (sixteen years ago) link
I still wear band t-shirts if I like the band. Why not? I don't *define* myself or my personality by my music tastes any more, I haven't done that since I was about 18. But that's not the same thing as wearing a band t-shirt.
I suppose the fashion journalist in discussion cannot fathom the idea that clothes are just something you put on, rather than a definition of or statement about your personality.
This is definitely something that happens as you age - or rather, has happened to me as I aged. There's a subtle difference between Statement Clothes and just things you put on.
― Masonic Boom, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:40 (sixteen years ago) link
Guardian editorial worldview circa 2007:
http://www.astucia.co.uk/images/sce/galibier%20tunnel%20_three.jpg
― tissp, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:41 (sixteen years ago) link
why else would you buy a band t-shirt if not as a statement or definition of personality?
― blueski, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:44 (sixteen years ago) link
I didn't know it was a band t-shirt okay?
― Matt DC, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:45 (sixteen years ago) link
because you're cold xp
― tissp, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:45 (sixteen years ago) link
In the past I've usually just bought them as a keepsake of a gig I've enjoyed. The piece tracer quotes is idiotic fluff, obv. I'd be embarrased to admit I'd written that.
― Pashmina, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:46 (sixteen years ago) link
Because you like the design? Because you like the music? Because it was given to you (this is where most of mine come from)? Because it was a souvenier?
x-post
― Masonic Boom, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:46 (sixteen years ago) link
you wouldn't actually buy a band t-shirt because you liked the design but not necessarily the band tho...would you?
because you like the music = statement/definition of you/your taste
given to you = not you buying
― blueski, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:48 (sixteen years ago) link
No, plus I've only ever bought them @ gigs.
Probably yeah, but w/smaller bands there's also the knowledge that in buying it, yr helping to supposrt the tour.
― Pashmina, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:50 (sixteen years ago) link
i actually bought a comets on fire t-shirt solely because the design was so awesome. (it was at a gig, but they hadn't come on stage yet.) then i heard the music and i liked that too. i suppose if i hadn't liked their music, or thought it was boring, it would have posed a problem.
a friend of mine, who shall remain nameless so that alex in nyc doesn't stalk and kill him, bought a huge iron maiden patch when he was 14 and sewed it across the shoulders of his denim jacket. he had never heard a note of iron maiden, but he wound up becoming the biggest iron maiden fan i know, and even sung in a band later, where his vocal style was almost inseparable from bruce dickinson's.
― Tracer Hand, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:53 (sixteen years ago) link
my take on this: do not read hadley freeman.
this resolution made some time ago, stands as strong today as it ever did.
it's a crass and deliberately invidious piece of writing. such an attitude, if sincerely held, could be turned around on pretty much ANY choice of clothing. so forgeddaboudit
― Alan, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:53 (sixteen years ago) link
the last band t-shirt i bought - robyn!
alan i can't help myself, i know i'm sick and need help.
― Tracer Hand, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:54 (sixteen years ago) link
is there a thread for best band t-shirts? must see
― blueski, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:56 (sixteen years ago) link
Taste is something that I have. It does not define me. Clothes are something I wear. The statement I am making is "I don't really care about clothes any more."
If I'm going to make a statement about clothes, I'll wear a bright green paisley jacket to a dronerock festival where everyone else is in leather.
I suppose my Hawkwind t-shirt is a statement, it says "ha ha, I'm wearing a Hawkwind t-shirt, I care nothing for fashion, I am wearing the shirt of a band so deeply uncool you can suck my left one because I love them!" But it's certainly not a statement saying that I want to f*ck any of Hawkwind or that I have a musician boyfriend whose Hawkwind t-shirt I'm borrowing, which is the assumption of that article.
― Masonic Boom, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:56 (sixteen years ago) link
> I don't notice many people over 20 wearing them.
*SOBS*
> you wouldn't actually buy a band t-shirt because you liked the design but not necessarily the band tho...would you?
EAR t-shirt with the putney on the front = great. EAR live = terrible. (EAR on CD = ok, plus pram and stereolab were supporting)
― koogs, Monday, 3 September 2007 15:03 (sixteen years ago) link
I was trying to read it on my laptop. Maybe they've decided they just don't like me.
― man in suit and red tie raising his fist (Tom D.), Saturday, 9 March 2024 15:26 (one month ago) link
I think you can read the Express for free if that helps?
― help me I am in hull (Matt #2), Saturday, 9 March 2024 15:39 (one month ago) link
Still till working without registration for me, but no doubt they are gradually rolling it out. I use it for advanced students, so as long as we don't have to pay I'll still use it with 12 ft wall/archive.
― glumdalclitch, Saturday, 9 March 2024 15:41 (one month ago) link
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/17/birmingham-britain-state-cuts-austerity-local-services
This is all true, but maybe there was something that could have been done 4 and a bit years ago that might have prevented some of the worst of it?
― Critique of the Goth Programme (Neil S), Monday, 18 March 2024 09:58 (one month ago) link
It's the perfect situation for The Guardian. Rant about how things are broken and limit your horizons on how the problems can be fixed.
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 18 March 2024 12:24 (one month ago) link
this moral campaign to get rich establishment women into the exclusive members club for rich establishment men really is some peak grauniad
― devvvine, Friday, 29 March 2024 10:53 (four weeks ago) link
sounds very Helen Lewis
― vodkaitamin effrtvescent (calzino), Friday, 29 March 2024 10:54 (four weeks ago) link
imagine getting worked up that ayesha hazarika doesn't get enough opportunities to chin wag with tory peers
― devvvine, Friday, 29 March 2024 10:55 (four weeks ago) link
Baroness Ayesha Hazarika, to be precise.
― The Prime of the Ancient Minister (Tom D.), Friday, 29 March 2024 10:57 (four weeks ago) link
maybe John Harris's gloating has pushed her over the edge
― Bitchin Doutai (Noodle Vague), Friday, 29 March 2024 10:57 (four weeks ago) link
(Not Guardian AFAIK but) TERFs defending the Garrick Club because they think it being in the news is cointelpro to undermine same-sex spaces is *chef's kiss*
― Andrew Farrell, Friday, 29 March 2024 13:17 (four weeks ago) link
It's extremely on brand
― Bitchin Doutai (Noodle Vague), Friday, 29 March 2024 13:29 (four weeks ago) link
If Will Hutton wants to make these arguments about how water and other public utilities should be funded and managed, he should do it under his own name, and not anonymously as The Observer View. https://t.co/Ff8sHyfcpY pic.twitter.com/0b2WfBwILk— Elvis Buñuelo (@Mr_Considerate) March 31, 2024
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 31 March 2024 12:02 (three weeks ago) link
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/mar/30/she-still-carries-an-aura-of-spectacular-failure-why-hasnt-liz-truss-gone-away
As I listened to her banging on, her eyes oddly glassy as though looking for something just over the horizon, she strongly reminded me of someone but I couldn’t put my finger on who it was. Then it came to me. In her mix of utter conviction and utter obliviousness to how she might come across to anyone who doesn’t see the world the way she does, the politician she most resembles is Jeremy Corbyn. Like him, Truss is convinced the policies she advocates are popular with a majority of the public. For Corbyn it was nationalisation of the utilities, more money for the NHS and cheaper housing, all of which poll extremely well. For Truss it is secure borders, lower taxes and an end to burdensome environmental restrictions. In both cases, the explanation for why the things the public want never come to pass is the same: the system is stacked against the preferences of ordinary people.
― The Prime of the Ancient Minister (Tom D.), Sunday, 31 March 2024 12:16 (three weeks ago) link
The whole article is shit, I mean, commenting on members of the audience being overweight?
― The Prime of the Ancient Minister (Tom D.), Sunday, 31 March 2024 12:18 (three weeks ago) link
So weird how they even mention Corbyn's existence
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 31 March 2024 13:12 (three weeks ago) link
the Corbyn leadership is the winter of discontent for the centrist establishment, they will never stop evoking its symbolic horror
― Bitchin Doutai (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 31 March 2024 13:26 (three weeks ago) link
Exactly.
― The Prime of the Ancient Minister (Tom D.), Sunday, 31 March 2024 13:37 (three weeks ago) link
Like him, Truss is convinced the policies she advocates are popular with a majority of the public. For Corbyn it was nationalisation of the utilities, more money for the NHS and cheaper housing, all of which poll extremely well.
In other words they are popular with the majority of the public. Duh.
― The Prime of the Ancient Minister (Tom D.), Sunday, 31 March 2024 13:40 (three weeks ago) link
"David Walter Runciman, 4th Viscount Runciman of Doxford, FBA, FRSL (born 1 March 1967), is an English academic and podcaster who teaches politics and history at Cambridge University, where he is Professor of Politics"
viscount, podcaster, polprof
(i forget if i talked abt this, i was researching something in the british library a few years ago, which required me to read several back issues of the modern review, and found in passing a piece by runciman on BLUR: it was eye-stretchingly bad)
― mark s, Sunday, 31 March 2024 14:24 (three weeks ago) link
i cannot *stand* runciman.
― Fizzles, Sunday, 31 March 2024 15:20 (three weeks ago) link
i now want to read that blur piece.
― Fizzles, Sunday, 31 March 2024 15:21 (three weeks ago) link
i wondered if he was related to Steven Runciman and of course he his, nepo-politics forever
― Bitchin Doutai (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 31 March 2024 15:42 (three weeks ago) link
nepo discourse comes from the aristocracy at last
― mark s, Sunday, 31 March 2024 16:16 (three weeks ago) link
Zoe sticking to the really important issues of the day.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/01/the-wags-are-back-but-i-miss-the-carefree-days-of-posh-and-coleen
― The Prime of the Ancient Minister (Tom D.), Tuesday, 2 April 2024 07:58 (three weeks ago) link
Probably their oddest columnist. She writes a lot about health and fitness and about her personal life.
Alternating between something serious and this.
I read it as some acknowledgement that their politics is too awful to fling on to ppl every week.
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 2 April 2024 09:09 (three weeks ago) link
this may have become distorted in the rear view mirror but as far as I remember ZW was further to the left than most guardian commentators for a long time and a fairly vocal supporter of trans rights. when she started doing what suddenly seemed like loads more lifestyle fluff in a Tim Dowling style, I wondered whose call that was.
― verhexen, Tuesday, 2 April 2024 09:32 (three weeks ago) link
Still wrote a ton of lifestyle fluff for the Evening Standard before she joined the Guardian.
― Ward Fowler, Tuesday, 2 April 2024 09:51 (three weeks ago) link
i have a soft spot for zoe williams but dont feel compelled to read her
― plax (ico), Tuesday, 2 April 2024 10:41 (three weeks ago) link
didn't Zoe Williams used to be their sort of voice-of-youth columnist back in the day? Anyway, the oldest Zoe Williams column available on the guardian website is a list of '101 things we don't miss' published April 2001 that includes Roland Rat and Deely-Boppers, so her writing fluff pieces for them is not a new development
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2001/apr/21/weekend.zoewilliams2
― soref, Tuesday, 2 April 2024 11:10 (three weeks ago) link
I know her a little because we have many mutuals and I like her; she has no time for bigots or terfs, especially those in the media. She is definitely on the left despite going to private school in West London. Not crazy about the Poly Filla stuff she is asked to write, though. I say this all the time but columnists get their gigs because an editor becomes fascinated with some aspect of their lives and then they’re in that job forever. One huge reason her output has increased recently is that she has been seconded to Parliamentary sketch person while John Crace recuperates from his heart attack.
― steely flan (suzy), Tuesday, 2 April 2024 11:43 (three weeks ago) link
should i be worried abt the heart-attack rate among senior guardian columnists? god keep chiles safe!
― mark s, Tuesday, 2 April 2024 11:47 (three weeks ago) link
He doesn't have Jeremy Corbyn and Brexit living rent-free in his head.
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 2 April 2024 12:51 (three weeks ago) link
fluff is good again
― mark s, Tuesday, 2 April 2024 13:54 (three weeks ago) link
it just goes to show that centrism is even worse for health than heroin addiction
― vodkaitamin effrtvescent (calzino), Tuesday, 2 April 2024 16:17 (three weeks ago) link
Certainly at a policy level
― plax (ico), Wednesday, 3 April 2024 07:10 (three weeks ago) link
and at a personal cost for Crace, the burden of being a disgusting neoliberal shill led him to get his posh works out again and inject a heart attack inducing speedball into his balls!
― vodkaitamin effrtvescent (calzino), Wednesday, 3 April 2024 07:45 (three weeks ago) link
omglol
― The Prime of the Ancient Minister (Tom D.), Wednesday, 3 April 2024 08:09 (three weeks ago) link
Say what?
Labour’s shadow chancellor says she is William Wragg incident and says it is right there is proper investigation
― Hunky Tory (Tom D.), Friday, 5 April 2024 13:28 (three weeks ago) link
"But Doctor, I am William Wragg incident"
― Ethinically Ambigaus (Bananaman Begins), Friday, 5 April 2024 16:27 (three weeks ago) link
lol
― Fizzles, Friday, 5 April 2024 16:29 (three weeks ago) link
As Rachel Reeves awoke one morning from uneasy dreams she found herself transformed in her bed into William Wragg incident.
― plax (ico), Saturday, 6 April 2024 18:07 (two weeks ago) link
Meltamorphosis
― subpost master (wins), Saturday, 6 April 2024 18:33 (two weeks ago) link
the foul insect-like creature was transformed into william wragg incident. It was a mixed bag but most certainly an upgrade of sorts.
― vodkaitamin effrtvescent (calzino), Saturday, 6 April 2024 18:52 (two weeks ago) link
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/apr/09/m-and-s-invests-methane-burping-farting-cows
― Toshirō Nofune (The Seventh ILXorai), Tuesday, 9 April 2024 11:50 (two weeks ago) link
what a load of bullsh- ah, right yeah, that's literally what it's about
― glumdalclitch, Tuesday, 9 April 2024 12:08 (two weeks ago) link
just clicking on that graun website to see some more smouldering manure
― vodkaitamin effrtvescent (calzino), Tuesday, 9 April 2024 12:26 (two weeks ago) link
Not worse just the same old same old from these double dyed cunts.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/25/frank-field-lib-dems-progressive
― Not waving but droning (Tom D.), Thursday, 25 April 2024 09:04 (yesterday) link
Leaving the politics aside it's a piece of will-this-do crap and as political analysis it's inane.
― Not waving but droning (Tom D.), Thursday, 25 April 2024 09:13 (yesterday) link
Guardian declare for "Sir" Ed Davey now, you cowards!
― Critique of the Goth Programme (Neil S), Thursday, 25 April 2024 09:29 (yesterday) link