the sharpening of knives
Another successful week for Laura Barton as she continues her bid to be mentioned here every Friday; another beautifully calibrated 'Hail Hail Rock and Roll' piece today:
"There is a small yet glorious moment in which a band sits before you perfect as a poached egg; hopeful, and unpunctured. This is the morning of your relationship, full of promise, and miles to go before you sleep. Then slowly the knives come out, and your bright yellow bubble is burst by the opinions of your friends, by the snoots in newspapers and magazines, by the snarls and sniffles of bloggers and radio commentators, by the fact that a song is commandeered by a car commercial and played relentlessly on prime-time television. On and on it runs, until you feel the soft flush of embarrassment whenever you are reminded of how much you liked that band, that song, and the embryonic hope that you once felt so keenly trickles away and grows tired and sticky."True.
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9 comments:
You lurve her...
I know so because you told me in the pub the other night. : P
If that mysterious person from the Guardian looks up mentions of Laura Barton again on your Blog (I'm sure the actual LB doesn’t Google her own name.. right?) he, she or LB herself I'm sure will be relieved that the Assistant LB Fan Club is still going strong.
Also I heard her actually speak on a Guardian Podcast the other day (it might've being the Music Weekly one) and she sounded sexy AND sensible at the same time. Far more 'pro' sounding than the tiresomely ironic 'College Kidz' they have presenting most weeks.
Whilst on the subject of Guardian Podcasts, there's a bloke on the news one each day who feels it necessary to say everything in his head in an annoying (there's a good reason he's a Journo and not a presenter) voice in one breath and then breathe back in through his teeth very loudly directly into the Mic! Why the f*ck is this man allowed anywhere near the Podcasts?! You can spot Guardian Unlimited listeners on the train each morning suddenly yanking out their iPod earphones in terror and disgust.
I forget his name, I'm sure he's a respected journalist whose worked for the Guardian for 15 years and won lots of awards etc but it must be a sh*tter working with him gobbing everywhere.
Guardian Spy person, is this true?
I think your request of information from the aforementioned Guardian Spy person might have been a bit vague, seeing as we don't know you mean.
And stop making me sound like a stalker. Laura won't like it, and it may put her off marrying me.
Ah, those poached eggs. But their so delicious once they are punctured, no?
My goodness. Does the interweb enable you to see who visits your blog? I am the Guardian Spy, and I edit the Film&Music section, and I google large chunks of our content to see what people are saying about the pieces I'm responsible for. I am gratified by your love for Laura's column, for I love it, too.
Ha ha, yeah, I'm afraid it does. There are doubtless all sorts of ways that one is able to track visitors, none of which I'm aware of, but I can see a few details when I look at my statcounter and one address states 'guardian.co.uk'. That'll be yours.
The Guardian has several amazing writers - Catherine Bennett, Lucy Mangan, Peter Bradshaw - but I always look for Ms. Barton's articles first; she's the best writer going.
Please never tell her of her saddo internet fan club!
You have rivals out there, I'm afraid. There's another blogger who has an I [Heart] Laura section. And she gets a lot of very personal fanmail for the column. And then, of course, she gets abuse from the mad people on I Love Music who can't bear the idea that she's not fussed about coolness.
Gosh, how creepy (we all are). Lots of 'very personal' fanmail sounds terrifying!
I think we should set up a 'Guardian Spy' fanclub instead! He/she comes and speaks to us, whereas Miss Barton just can't be bothered!
You're very kind: I'd be delighted to have a fanclub of any sort, since I am more used to abuse. But it's not that Ms Barton can't be bothered, I'm sure; more that she writes more for more sections than anyone else on the paper. Stick with her: she's the one who writes like a dream (though I will allow myself a little smug smile than the notion of a column in which she wrote personally about music was mine).
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