Is the Guardian worse than it used to be?

Low point of my guardian reading year was flicking through the G2 a few weeks back and my eyes alighting on Hadley Freeman using the word 'obvs' in her SHIT FUCKING FASHION ADVICE COLUMN.

Can we all agree that the G2 is the thing that annoys most about the Guardian?

so glad someone else hates that column. she hasn't got a fucking clue.

I quite like her other pieces but she just doesn't really seem that interested in fashion.

this is the thing, she pretty much is annoyed by almost every item of clothing that anyone ever asks her about. irritated both by trends and by... jeans.

Can we all agree that the G2 is the thing that annoys most about the Guardian?

I thought this was a universally recognised truth, Fridays excepted.

i never buy the physical paper so it's sort of hard to tell

Pretty sure that 90% of the matey "I know right?", Guardian We-type lifestyle articles that are linked here are from G2. That sort of writing is terrible in all broadsheets though, I hate the assumption that you all de facto agree with the writer's opinions and share their lifestyle at the same time.

isn't that the agenda of all lifestyle/culture/commentary-based journalism in general though?

Can we all agree that the G2 is the thing that annoys most about the Guardian?

― Blue Collar Retail Assistant (Dwight Yorke), Tuesday, December 4, 2012 9:42 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well there's that and steve bell

and martin robbins

A Sideways Look At The News

steve bell is so bad

there are bits of G2 I actually quite like. It's a fairly predictable read, but y'know. Steve Bell can go suck a fuck though.

In a Paris attic apartment decorated like a 19th-century dandy's den, a rottweiler snores on a velvet couch and dozens of candles give out a half-light. Pete Doherty kicks an apple core round the living room rug and chats in broken French to a friend on his cracked iPhone. Balzac novels are stacked high on the window ledge.

This is Paris Pete, the rocker who now sings solo as Peter Doherty, writes poetry, paints and has made his debut as a French arthouse-cinema actor.

that was a pretty good piece i thought, not the writer's fault the subject is such a tool

Doherty's Old Albion Englishness – the William Blake allusions, the pork-pie hat, the "tickety-boo" expressions – that seemed a bit fantastical at home are lapped up in France. He plays up to the Englishman-in-Paris tag. "I go into the newsagent and say: 'It looks like rain today.' And they're saying: 'You can't talk about the weather, this is the country of revolution!'"

lol "arthouse-cinema actor"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/04/russian-embassy-responds-to-guardian

god there really is no sympathetic side in the Russia vs HM Gov vs The Graun throwdown is there?

No. The Guardian's Russia coverage is absolutely abysmal so it's understandable the embassy is narked but if they stopped publishing outlandish rumours and slanted thinkpieces and just reported what the Russian government was actually up to it'd make Putin look even worse.

Think I would take the Graun over Russia in this one tbh, annoying as the former often is.

that was a pretty good piece i thought, not the writer's fault the subject is such a tool

seconded

i haven't read the piece but i dunno why you'd want to write about Paris Pete in December 2012

406 comments and 789 Facebook shares, i guess. He's still a draw.

truly he is our generation's Osbert Sitwell

Oh Christ this intro

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2012/dec/05/david-mamet-anarchist-broadway

*facepalm*

That's Mark Lawson-level.

musta took brass balls to write that

I was just going to mention Mark Lawson. His tortuous Front Row intros often beggar belief ... but I kind of admire them.

Ramen: the cult Japanese dish that's big in Britain too

The tasty noodle broth offers a punk rock twist on comfort food – and it's increasingly popular in the UK

Oh yeah, that was a good one.

while establishments such as Wagamama, Glasgow and Cardiff's Ichiban restaurants and Birmingham's Woktastic have been offering bowls of ramen-style noodle soups for years, finally, the proper stuff has arrived

It's true that something only can truly be said to have 'arrived' once it reaches London - the (urgh) provinces don't count.

Fish and chips: the cult British dish that's big in Japan too

The tasty fish supper offers a punk rock twist on tempura – and it's increasingly popular in Japan

It's true that something only can truly be said to have 'arrived' once it reaches London - the (urgh) provinces don't count

Wagamama's is in London, plus the point being made is surely that the named establishments don't serve "proper" ramen (whatever that may be). No idea whether this is true or not but the writer's point has nothing to do with London vs. provinces.

Being a cutting edge ultra-hip guy I have been to two of the capital's newest Ramen wonderestaurants and tbh they are head and shoulders above yr regular wagamama fare.

which ones? interested

maybe take it to the london restaurants thread

yh the stuff at yr fancy new ramen places is very different from the "ramen-style noodle soups" you get even in uk japanese restaurants like, e.g., london's Taro. I've never been to an ichiban but from their website they seem to use the same stock for ramen and udon and soba, which very heavily implies they're not doing "proper" ramen.

i mean, yes the idea of ramen as "cult" in japan is ludicrous, and london-centricity is eternally annoying, but we haven't had shops before that have really paid attention to making ramen they way you'd get it in a ramen-ya.

Was the headline "Let's get to ramen" ?

I was just going to mention Mark Lawson. His tortuous Front Row intros often beggar belief ... but I kind of admire them.

Know what you mean, he's like the McGonagall of militantly middlebrow arts journalism.

those ramen places are good, whatever language the guardian coats it in. tonkotsu all the way.

wagamama and ichiban are both woeful.

Fish and chips: the cult British dish that's big in Japan too

The tasty fish supper offers a punk rock twist on tempura – and it's increasingly popular in Japan

ha ha

describing fish and chips as a "cult British dish" just seems so wrong.

...

lol c#

fish and chips is more probably more 'cult' in the uk than ramen is in japan

"cult" seems to be used to describe anything/everything.

our local "cult" cinema club showed Die Hard last week