Is the Guardian worse than it used to be?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

My feeling is: Yes, somewhat. But Regular Readers will recall that I am a curmudgeon who doesn't like New Things. So do they really want to agree with me here? Plus, we do have (somewhere round here) a house Guardian expert whose opinion would be interesting.

― the pinefox, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (seventeen years ago) Permalink

Some readers might, conceivably, like to know that the Guardian (formerly Manchester Guardian) is a UK daily newspaper which has for several decades been the main print source / gathering-point, as it were, for those on 'The Liberal Left'. Many UK ILE posters, I imagine, know it very well and have done for many years, so I thought there might be some opinions around.

― the pinefox, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (seventeen years ago) Permalink

I like the Guardian now more than I have for years. Perhaps the restyle of the mag helped, but generally the Burchill thing works for me and I haven't noticed a drop in quality elsewhere. The Guide has always been shite (and I say that working for PA Listings) but the rest seems cool. Can you specify what's gone wrong for you?

― chris, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (seventeen years ago) Permalink

I hate the Guardian - particularly the G2 section, with it's crappy 'think' pieces, terrible arts reviews and smug phillistinism - and have bought it every weekday and Saturdays for at least the last fifteen years. Because, being a bleeding heart liberal and a news junkie, I couldn't bring myself to read any of the other rags (morning papers are somehow part of my going to work coping ritual.) I flirted with the Independent for a while - and the IOS still has the great film critic David Thomson writing for 'em - but I found it to be even more boring than the Guardian. I suspect that I am far from alone in all this, and that the Guardian survives on the unearned good will of the liberal middle classes.

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 (seventeen years ago) Permalink

I've never actually bought a copy of the Guardian, if I did buy a newspaper I'd get the Telegraph, it has a good weather section, obituaries, world news briefs and I like the sports section.

― james e l, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (seventeen years ago) Permalink

I suppose the short answer is 'Trivialization'. One has to be a tad careful using a word like that, because, for instance,

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.

― the pinefox, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (seventeen years ago) Permalink

Andrew L: I know what you mean - the Labour party factor of Nowhere Else To Go? (And brand loyalty, or whatever you want to call it.) There's actually a Verso book out (yet?) which makes a massive attack on the Guardian as home of neo-conservative (ie New Labour) ideas. I find this rather unconvincing and overstated. Even offensive, come to think of it.

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.

― the pinefox, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (seventeen years ago) Permalink

Andrew L, and indeed everyone: cut em loose and let em drown in their own smug laziness!! I stopped buying it a YEAR ago FOREVER and now buy NO NEWSPAPER and am FREE. (Actually I too buy saturday for the guide — and for the food page in the mag, but the mag redesign is utter shit, and the recipes are in fact on long recycle: eg I have seen Lady Llandower's Duck three times now, always copied (of course) from Elizabeth David Salt, Spices and Aromatics...) The age of the newspaper is dead.

― mark s, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (seventeen years ago) Permalink

Something has clearly gone wrong with G2: the other week they ran a page-long feature on the phenomenon of "Jumping the shark" (referring to that moment when a long-running tv fave finally loses the plot completely, apparently derived from a late episode of Happy Days where Fonzie, yes, jumped a shark). This was all well and good (except it was inane and ripped off from a website [this is a whole other can of worms]), but they ran an almost IDENTICAL story in the Guide not two weeks previously. Do they not read their own paper, or did they simply think the readers wouldn't notice?

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 (seventeen years ago) Permalink

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. (Pinefox)

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 (seventeen years ago) Permalink

Stevie: agree about Steve Bell, of course. I mean, if only for the sake of 1981 and all that. But actually, he draws and paints better now.

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.

― the pinefox, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (seventeen years ago) Permalink

I agree with much of what's been said. After Mark Steel and Jeremy Hardy went, it didn't seem as essential anymore. The Observer's the same - just dear old Phil Hogan that still makes me go down the shops Sunday morning

― jamesmichaelward, Tuesday, 3 July 2001 00:00 (seventeen years ago) Permalink

My parents used to get a subscription to the Guardian shipped to them for the first few years they were in the States, because they couldn't trust the US Media. The Guardian just isn't the same when it's not printed on that semi-transluscent airmail paper.

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 (seventeen years ago) Permalink

Steve Bell is a GOD but apart from that I read it largely out of having nowhere else to go and a worry that I'll become totally detached from the world if I don't read any newspapers at all. I think it might have marginally improved with the loss of Messrs. Hardy and Steel though. Everything they wrote was just as predictable and smug as any of the other writers mentioned above, only with a more left wing stance.

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Wednesday, 4 July 2001 00:00 (seventeen years ago) Permalink

I don't read anything except the Spectator. Hey Chris, if you work for PA Listings then that means you're in the same building as me.

― tarden, Wednesday, 4 July 2001 00:00 (seventeen years ago) Permalink

The Guide last week (or was it the week before) had that BRILLIANT article slamming not just the Strokes, but the entire music hype industry... VERY funny because it was so clearly written by an insider who had been participating in the music hype game for so long.

― masonic boom, Wednesday, 4 July 2001 00:00 (seventeen years ago) Permalink

I'd love to comment, but those Observer commissions are keeping me out of the poor house. Anything appearing in the Guardian or the Obs by my deepest and dearest friends is obviously genius...

― Mark Morris, Wednesday, 4 July 2001 00:00 (seventeen years ago) Permalink

As bad as the Guardian may have become, it's still better than the so-called "best" American newspapers. Or, if you think it couldn't get worse, it could end up becoming The New York Times or The Washington Post.

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Friday, 6 July 2001 00:00 (seventeen years ago) Permalink

Reynard's right about the amount of trivial toss that gets in there. Mark's also right about the decline of the newspaper in general. Reynard's spot on re. New Labour - the Guardian's frequent criticism of some Blairite attitudes is one of the great things about it.

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 (seventeen years ago) Permalink

OK, agree with the Hemulen re. The Common Good.

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 (seventeen years ago) Permalink

Although Toynbee's piece on Labour post-election is admirable.

― blue veils and golden sands, Friday, 6 July 2001 00:00 (seventeen years ago) Permalink

Broadly I agree with her, yes. It feels a wee bit ironic given her immediately-pre-election pieces telling everyone how urgent it was to overcome apathy and vote for the people she's now criticizing. (But actually I think she was right both times.)

Also good in Guardian: John Patterson re. cinema.

― the pinefox, Friday, 6 July 2001 00:00 (seventeen years ago) Permalink

six years pass...

oh god, ask hadley today is just... tooth-grinding.

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:17 (ten years ago) Permalink

"today"

― Dom Passantino, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:17 (ten years ago) Permalink

"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 (ten years ago) Permalink

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 (ten years ago) Permalink

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 (ten years ago) Permalink

dear teh grauniad - a long time ago/we used to be friends...

― CharlieNo4, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:32 (ten years ago) Permalink

It went downhill after I left.

― Dom Passantino, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:33 (ten years ago) Permalink

or were you PUSHED?

― blueski, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:35 (ten years ago) Permalink

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 (ten years ago) Permalink

http://www.abc.net.au/sport/thesportsdesk/images/200607/20060707henrydive_derblog.jpg

― Dom Passantino, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:36 (ten years ago) Permalink

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 (ten years ago) Permalink

Any t-shirt which isn't plain white clearly sucks that's why.

― aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:38 (ten years ago) Permalink

i couldn't agree less

― blueski, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:40 (ten years ago) Permalink

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 (ten years ago) Permalink

Guardian editorial worldview circa 2007:

http://www.astucia.co.uk/images/sce/galibier%20tunnel%20_three.jpg

― tissp, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:41 (ten years ago) Permalink

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 (ten years ago) Permalink

I didn't know it was a band t-shirt okay?

― Matt DC, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:45 (ten years ago) Permalink

because you're cold xp

― tissp, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:45 (ten years ago) Permalink

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 (ten years ago) Permalink

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 (ten years ago) Permalink

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 (ten years ago) Permalink

you wouldn't actually buy a band t-shirt because you liked the design but not necessarily the band tho...would you?

No, plus I've only ever bought them @ gigs.

because you like the music = statement/definition of you/your taste

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 (ten years ago) Permalink

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 (ten years ago) Permalink

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 (ten years ago) Permalink

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 (ten years ago) Permalink

is there a thread for best band t-shirts? must see

― blueski, Monday, 3 September 2007 14:56 (ten years ago) Permalink

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 (ten years ago) Permalink

> 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 (ten years ago) Permalink

Skipping 5457 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

https://imgur.com/a/EJcnf37

― Daniel_Rf, Saturday, 26 May 2018 07:40 (one month ago) Permalink

oh shit folks:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/may/29/online-forums-musical-culture-messageboards-social-media-music-essay

― Toto Cuomo (NickB), Tuesday, 29 May 2018 15:03 (one month ago) Permalink

Haven’t had a chance to read that properly yet, but there’s a nice symmetry to the fact that the starter of this very thread gets a namecheck

― Toto Cuomo (NickB), Tuesday, 29 May 2018 15:21 (one month ago) Permalink

Turrican's name in lights at long last.

Also LOLz @ Is the Guardian worse than it used to be? thread being possibly the oldest thread on ILX in permanent use.

― Poisoned by Johan's pea soup. (Tom D.), Tuesday, 29 May 2018 15:48 (one month ago) Permalink

He wasn't a troll he was a werewolf >:(

― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 29 May 2018 15:58 (one month ago) Permalink

screenshotted!!

― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 29 May 2018 16:11 (one month ago) Permalink

yawn at the fucking beatles being the top thread

― Toto Cuomo (NickB), Tuesday, 29 May 2018 16:14 (one month ago) Permalink

I think the article really needs some Alizée gifs for illustrative purposes.

― how's life, Tuesday, 29 May 2018 16:27 (one month ago) Permalink

nice to see good ol’ barbelith namechecked there, that site used to be v important to me

― i am fast and full of teeth. i willl die in a barn fire (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 29 May 2018 17:26 (one month ago) Permalink

I had a soft spot for it too.

― stet, Tuesday, 29 May 2018 17:45 (one month ago) Permalink

https://media3.giphy.com/media/NB2Wp158kieGI/giphy.gif

Tom clearly never truly crossed over to ILE, as he would've mentioned groovypanda.gif instead

― lbi's life of limitless european glamour (Le Bateau Ivre), Tuesday, 29 May 2018 17:55 (one month ago) Permalink

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1782237112/0021__1_.gif https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1782237112/0021__1_.gif https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1782237112/0021__1_.gif
https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1782237112/0021__1_.gif https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1782237112/0021__1_.gif https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1782237112/0021__1_.gif

jiggly panda that is

― lbi's life of limitless european glamour (Le Bateau Ivre), Tuesday, 29 May 2018 18:01 (one month ago) Permalink

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/01/brexit-shrek-messy-complicated-bad-tempered

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/44d531dcd43647a92497c1264f8cfec3e05e988d/0_0_1888_1133/master/1888.jpg?w=620&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&s=15947e864083567cd9fdba0b17b8ebd4

― Neil S, Friday, 1 June 2018 07:42 (one month ago) Permalink

Brexit is like Shrek: shit

― Karius whisper (Noodle Vague), Friday, 1 June 2018 07:43 (one month ago) Permalink

hnnnnnnnnnggggghhhhhhhhhhh

― capybaras are friend shaped (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 1 June 2018 07:43 (one month ago) Permalink

Shrek, a cartoon character known for his complexity

― Neil S, Friday, 1 June 2018 07:44 (one month ago) Permalink

brb gonna claw every inch of my own flesh from my bones

― capybaras are friend shaped (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 1 June 2018 07:44 (one month ago) Permalink

If you're trying not to look like an out-of-touch elitist it's probably best not to reveal that you've clearly only seen one film in the last 15 years.

― Matt DC, Friday, 1 June 2018 10:06 (one month ago) Permalink

shit that looks like a Resistancehole article but isn't

― Pardew to Megson: "you've stolen my New Orleans bounce" (DJ Mencap), Friday, 1 June 2018 10:43 (one month ago) Permalink

Denim, "Best Song in the World"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE8sl5slQLE

― Poisoned by Johan's pea soup. (Tom D.), Friday, 1 June 2018 11:10 (one month ago) Permalink

Oops wrong thread!

― Poisoned by Johan's pea soup. (Tom D.), Friday, 1 June 2018 11:11 (one month ago) Permalink

two weeks pass...

i absolutely loathe grace dent. didn't she used to be okay when she wrote that soap column? now she's all gloating about mulberry handbags and how expensive the trinkets are at persham nurseries in order to make it known that she goes there in the first place while superficially making out that she disapproves of people who shop there. she makes me sick.

― Britain's Sexiest Cow (jed_), Friday, 15 June 2018 18:20 (one month ago) Permalink

She’s been a lamer ever since she took money for writing a YA book called Diary of a Chav.

― suzy, Friday, 15 June 2018 18:23 (one month ago) Permalink

where's the gloating article?

― kinder, Friday, 15 June 2018 18:52 (one month ago) Permalink

The restaurant column on Saturdays (I'm guessing)

― koogs, Friday, 15 June 2018 20:23 (one month ago) Permalink

Friday (today). I can't find the one where she was going on about her £800 handbag. Today, conversely, it's frowned upon to spend £800 on a garden feature but only so readers know that you've been there many times because you like *that* kind of life.

― Britain's Sexiest Cow (jed_), Friday, 15 June 2018 20:42 (one month ago) Permalink

xp I'm assuming it's the one mentioned upthread where she mentions the name of her handbag in that brand-referencing style she does.
I'm no Grace stan, and 'Diary of a Chav' sounds horrendous, plus I have no idea what a Persham nursery is, but women are constantly policed re spending money on things viewed as frivolous by serious males.
I'd never even contemplate spending £900 or whatever it is on a handbag but ffs no-one pulls up blokes for mentioning (gloating about) their Arsenal season ticket or ridiculous Audi or limited edition trainers or whatever else they enjoy and can afford. Of course it's obscene and won't somebody think of Darfur but it's nearly always one-sided.

― kinder, Friday, 15 June 2018 20:55 (one month ago) Permalink

hang on, she went to this place for her job?

― kinder, Friday, 15 June 2018 20:57 (one month ago) Permalink

It’s Petersham Nurseries , the posh one’s just outside Richmond and is very bunting/shabby chic-oriented; the review was of the ‘branch’ of the restaurant in Covent Garden (no gardeny shite there).

Banging on about the cost of a handbag is very non-U (Petersham Nurseries people have wellies and Daunt Books holdalls FFS) but what do you expect from somebody who badly channels Elsie Tanner as part of her (cough) personal brand?

― suzy, Friday, 15 June 2018 21:45 (one month ago) Permalink

'We like a party!' – why is Scottish pop so potent?
It all started 60 years ago with the line: ‘There’s a moose loose aboot this hoose!’ But is the eccentric spirit that unites Biffy Clyro, Orange Juice and Ivor Cutler dying out in the age of Calvin Harris?

― Britain's Sexiest Cow (jed_), Tuesday, 19 June 2018 16:18 (four weeks ago) Permalink

Biffy Clyro eccentric? What the actual fuck?

― We can be herpes (Tom D.), Tuesday, 19 June 2018 16:43 (four weeks ago) Permalink

you would have to be fairly eccentric to enjoy their work

― The Savic Detectives (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 19 June 2018 17:33 (four weeks ago) Permalink

well, i've never heard them but i agree.

― Britain's Sexiest Cow (jed_), Tuesday, 19 June 2018 17:34 (four weeks ago) Permalink

i wouldn't've done if they hadn't turned up to spoil the Big Weekend last year

― The Savic Detectives (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 19 June 2018 17:38 (four weeks ago) Permalink

Was that on BBC4? That was the first time I'd heard them too and I couldn't work out what they were supposed to be - a heavy rock band with no riffs or a pop band with no tunes.

― We can be herpes (Tom D.), Tuesday, 19 June 2018 17:41 (four weeks ago) Permalink

me and Hannah went to it, it was on telly too. we had to endure that shite so's we could get a good spot for Katy Perry.

― The Savic Detectives (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 19 June 2018 17:43 (four weeks ago) Permalink

Lord Rockingham's XI not Scottish despite being mentioned several times there. Vocalist of Hoots Mon was not actually in the band.

― everything, Tuesday, 19 June 2018 17:47 (four weeks ago) Permalink

what the hell is this.

From Stonehenge to Iceland's Arctic Henge, by motorbike – photo essay

it contains the line “Germany is full of surprisingly green fields”. as someone pointed out it reads like a well-written Year Seven holiday assignment.

also unless i’ve missed something it’s not really a photo essay. i mean it’s got some photos in sure.

it’s an hour or so since i read it and i’m still laughing at “surprisingly green fields”. i’m not sure whether they meant germany is surprisingly full of fields and they are green, or if it was the fact the fields were green that came as a surprise, or the sheer vividness of the green hue came as a shock. all are equally strange.

― Fizzles, Thursday, 21 June 2018 08:35 (three weeks ago) Permalink

When I relocated to Iceland from London in 2015 to write a book

We've all done it.

― We can be herpes (Tom D.), Thursday, 21 June 2018 08:54 (three weeks ago) Permalink

There is something Marilyn Hagerty-ish about it, prose so flat and detail so random you can only assume there's some subtext or other.

― Tim, Thursday, 21 June 2018 09:04 (three weeks ago) Permalink

Actually I know someone who went to live in Iceland, years before it became in any way fashionable, and fathered several children there before coming back to Scotland, throwing an abandoned shopping trolley into the hitherto calm Icelandic gene pool and confusing genealogists for generations to come.

― We can be herpes (Tom D.), Thursday, 21 June 2018 09:04 (three weeks ago) Permalink

I want to relocate to somewhere to write my exhaustive study of the history of m-cat 2006-2009, gizza posh flat, I could do that!

― calzino, Thursday, 21 June 2018 09:05 (three weeks ago) Permalink

i think the subtext is some commissioning person met this person while high on icelandic volcano fumes and thought they had an interesting story to tell. idk then they got hexed or something to force them to publish it.

― Fizzles, Thursday, 21 June 2018 09:09 (three weeks ago) Permalink

They drove past farmhouses.

― Tim, Thursday, 21 June 2018 09:11 (three weeks ago) Permalink

And cornfields.

― Tim, Thursday, 21 June 2018 09:11 (three weeks ago) Permalink

To an ancient Icelandic henge that has stood since 1996.

― We can be herpes (Tom D.), Thursday, 21 June 2018 09:22 (three weeks ago) Permalink

i’m not sure whether they meant germany is surprisingly full of fields and they are green, or if it was the fact the fields were green that came as a surprise, or the sheer vividness of the green hue came as a shock.

Probably the latter. Germany's fields really are luxuriantly green, why because of massive overfertilization.

― oder doch?, Thursday, 21 June 2018 11:23 (three weeks ago) Permalink

I thought that was going to be a Thirty Years' War link!

― calzino, Thursday, 21 June 2018 11:27 (three weeks ago) Permalink

three weeks pass...

Getting quite riled up by this today - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/14/identity-politics-right-left-trump-racism

― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Saturday, 14 July 2018 22:35 (four days ago) Permalink

Can't believe a middle class white person has issues with identity politics

― more like Toss, Ow amirite? (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 14 July 2018 23:17 (four days ago) Permalink

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.