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Everything just changed today if you read the newspaper food sections in Melbourne.
Citystyle, which I wrote for and was half fashion/half food is no more. It was usually eight pages, although sometime three would be taken with fashion (which I never quite understood).
It never was a match for the absurd F–die weekly Epicure, even though it is wrapped up in the sport section due to some strange quirk of Fairfax’s printing plant.
Replacing Citystyle is extrafood a highly visible 20 page section which mops up celebrity gossip, cartoons, the zodiac, crosswords, a quiz and arts and entertainment as part of a bigger revamp of the daily sections in the Hun.
Including ads and the cover some 11 pages are dedicated to food and drink.
There are three big differences. First, by wrapping everything into this one section it will bring in people who’d never previously read the food and drink pages.
Second, Gordon Ramsay starts a column (helping me represent the under 50s) which will bring more eyeballs.
Third is a major innovation - the launch of eat, a double page spread which this week gives us the top ten country restaurants, 32 one paragraph reviews that rates resturants from one star and dollar sign to five for quality and value and a review of a bar, cafe and pub (in addition to Stephen Downes’ single review). That’s 45on one spread.
I reckon the eat section will substantially increase the influence of the Herald Sun restaurant choice, although the section is aimed at everyday restaurant goers and home cooks rather than the F–die crowd.
One thing that will be interesting to watch is how those restaurants who ban Stephen Downes will be treated. Will they be included in the listing (some are today) and the splash cover features that will follow in coming weeks?
My own column is renamed from Ed lines to extrabite (at one point man bites town was mooted. I liked the idea of man bites chef) and itself, like the section, will evolve over coming issues. I’ve been asked to remember the builders, have a little more space to fill and highlight five food ideas or outlets. Otherwise my brief hasn’t changed too much.
Overall, the section is much more magazine-like with lots of little snippets and information packed in and appears to be more structured than Epicure. But the real test is with the readers.
What do you think? What would you like to see in your ideal food section? Which new features do you like and which are you not so keen on? Has Gordon Ramsay through Channel 9 overexposure jumped the shark?
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I like the extrafood section, the food and foodie gossip part is well done. But please do something about the wine section. It must be some king of joke to review top end restaurants and then give Hanwood Estate Verdelho 5 out of 5 stars. Plus Paddy’s site doesn’t exist…
Dave, maybe I’ll offer Paddy a hand on his site. Meanwhile, I’ll be drinking RKP’s 5 star Arrogant Frog while I save up for my next Spanish splash out.
I’m sure he’ll give you a case or two of the 06 Branrock Station for helping him out. It’s only 4.5 stars, but thats plenty good for me.
I also just notice that the scale goes from 1-3 then to 5 stars….
Hey Ed, I religiously buy the Age on a Tuesday for Epicure and I buy both papers on the weekend so I can have my read, a coffee and a lie-in BUT today I bought the Herald because I saw Gordon and the new lift out… I will religiously buy both papers ever Tuesday from here on… I am converted!!! Vida x
Is all this new stuff anywhere to be found online?
Not that the web version of epicure is up to much but at least it’s available.
Congrats on the expanded space for you, Ed. This could get very interesting!
I can’t believe the ejaculatory gushings I read about the Herald Sun’s, and by extension, Ed Charles’s contribution to the greater knowledge of all things f—ie. Self deception and gratuitous congratulations run rife in this nonsensical tribute to nothingness.
Apart from a double page spread sellng cut price plonk and a few obviously syndicated (and completely irrelevant) paragraphs and a roast lamb recipe ostensibly penned by G. Ramsay esq, what’s changed? Ed’s column inch continues its “who-gives-a-shit” position in ho-hum journalism,Downes perpetuates his Gallic obsession with a simpering review of yet another mediocre FRENCH diner, Kendler enthusiatically flogs Dan Murphy’s bin runout lines and McGhie’s recipes continue to plunder the cookbooks of her betters. And the most curious intrigue of all … the dining guide - a litany of the usual suspects collated by and attributed to god-knows-who.
Another load of shit to step around on the road to enlightenment.
Grashopper,go back to school and improve your comprehension skills. Obviously you run one of those mediocre restaurants than catering to F–dies and cheating the public by not letting Downes in. At least have the courage to show your face or just fuck off.
Vida, glad Ramsay brought you in.
Sawks, I think there is a copyright issue with somecontributions which may be sorted soon allowing it to go online.
Duncan, it’s about a column inch more that’s all. But the whole thing should be interesting.
I should add that Epicure will always, as long as it carries job ads, always be th rag that the industry read. how long will it take for online to takeover?
Congrats Ed, I’d wondered where you had gone. I’m glad to hear the Hun is expanding it’s food section but it will take a lot more than that to get me to buy the rag. Am looking forward to it being online - please let us know when there is a link.
AOF,it wasn’t extrafood taking up all my time. I had al this work come at once including for a new SBS World Food website which is about to launch which will be more to your taste. I won’t mention GQ or I’ll be savaged by a limp grasshopper. Give me a week and I’ll have plenty of time on my hands I’m sure.
Tsk Tsk Tsk Mr Charles. How very sensitive of you, and completely off every mark. Firstly, I don’t run a restaurant, mediocre or otherwise. Im simply a Melbourne punter who eats out occasionally, reads both rags occasionally, and stumbled upon your mutual congratulation society after following one Google link too many. It speaks loudly of your insecurity levels when you canvass opinions and feedback from readers then take such affront at opinions that don’t match your own self-interested position.
Grasshopper - I’m just canvassing opinion on a big change not congratulating anyone. It’s very easy to be a cunt under the cowardly veil of anonymity.
I’m not a food snob by any stretch, but I like my foodie stuff in its own section, separated from the crosswords, zodics and gossip please! Just a personal preference. In general, I say bring on more of everything food and drink, but I do agree with Dave re the wine section. I’m a bit bored with the same old stuff. I’d like to hear more about niche food and wine producers and products, small wineries and unusual wine styles.
Hi Ed,
I’m based in Perth so have not seen the new format. Hell, haven’t even seen the old one. But re Gordan Ramsay’s new column, is that going to be a regular thing? If so, does that mean he’s making inroads into Melbourne’s food scene to add some buzz to his alleged new Ramsay expansion at Crown? I hope he does expand out here, it’ll probably bring Michelin with him. Re the regular column (coming out of London I assume), I’d be interested to see what he’ll write about that’s of relevance to a Melbourne audience. He is going back to London, isn’t he? Isn’t he?!
Cheers
Jen
LOL! Grasshopper, how much hostility do we need?
Either you’re a novice troll or a boof head…
On to extrafood, nice to see some more on melbourne’s food scene but it can’t really compete (at this stage) with Epicure. Lethlean rules the roost, unfortunately but if you are able to scoop him regularly.. who knows
Regardless, I’ll be reading both religiously.
I dont buy papers (I hate having to dispose of them and killing all those trees…) but if it goes online I would definitely read it.
Having said that, now that i blog and read blogs I get most of what I need from them, not epicure (which i only ever read online). I did think it was a good idea for the age to put all the recipes into cuisine.com though.
I do think a separate section would be better.
Hi Ed
I’m pleased for you and your expanded presence in extra food. But my question is based on the idea that The Hun is not for foodies but for the general punter and home cook… does Gordon Ramsay really fit this billing? He may present (with a team of writers/editors???) a simple and obtainable dish in his section but does he see himself as a ‘non-foodie’ role model, I doubt it. Will his restaurant, should he come to Australia, be for the average diner? I doubt it.
Looks like the section claims to be non foodie yet uses a popular celebrity chef that makes multi-millions of dollars a year through high-end food and high-end food programing, sounds like the deliberate differentiation from Epicure is lost when Gordons profile is the draw card.
I’d count Vida as a foodie and she was pulled to the section because of Gordon, so how does this all fit together?
I totally agree with the comments on the wine section and also agree that grasshoper needs to come out from the shadows and share an opinion with his/her name on it.
Jack
PS were is your mug-shot?
The name is Steve, the suburb is Prahran (the street is High, if it’s important). The opinions are mine and carry as much potential for debate as any others here. I will concede one point, however, Mr Charles dealt a mortal debating blow with his final comment on anonymity. I’m simply unable to compare with his depth of experience.
Isn’t Gordon so hot right now! It’s quite a scoop for the paper. I’m interested to read his column and wonder who will be ghost writing it?!
But Steve (Grasshopper), you’re still largely anonymous, and clearly still abit of a cunt.
But Steve (Grasshopper), you’re still largely anonymous, and clearly still a bit of a cunt.
Rena, Isn’t the sharing of a section with other pages only cosmetic and by bringing new readers in a good thing? I think regards the wine section he’s writing with a wider Herald Sun audience in mind. I love those small wineries too but its a very niche product, their home being in The Age perhaps.
Jen, I believe it’s weekly recipes from Gordon so it should be relevant.
Thanks Tan.
Ran, sure it will go on line at some point which will be great.
Jack, I’d thought perhaps that Gordon is too popularist to be foodie but perhaps cuts across all audiences. For now my mugshot isn’t used and I quite like it that way.
Grasshoper, I’m being a bit thick on your point on my depth of experience. I’m just a journalist who just asks questions writes about lots of different things, mostly about business. We still don’t really know you properly though, do we? Many of the bloggers here have links back to their sites or are regulars and by exposing their identity have a few more rights.
Rena, no idea but I’m sure Gordon has a big support team.
That’s thanks twice, Kylie. It does that to me sometimes as well.
For me, Gordon appears to be the ultimate foodie, someone who understands, promotes and works in all aspects of the industry. I hope that what your saying is not true, that just because you have an (very) expanded profile it devalues the quality of your work and passions. Actually, I’m starting to think that we have different philosophies of what foodie actually means…But needless to say, sorry Ed I am still not convinced.
I do buy the Hun just on Tuesdays (and sometimes the weekends when I can’t be bothered with a broadsheet format)for your column, as I love to see the continuation of your trains-of-thought from the blog during the week to the printed paper.
I want to see your mug shot in there, it can’t be as bad as Simon Plants (Sorry Simon!)
Jack
Jack, the mugshot isn’t up to me but maybe this request will be read. I’ll look like something out of Flight of the Conchords with the current length of my buggers’ grips. You must agree that Gordon is very mass market in his appeal outside hardcore f–dies. I’m not sure if he’d describe himself with the F-word. I was at Attica last week (superb 5th birthday dinner to be blogged) on a table including Tony Tan and Phillipa Sibley and no one would admit to being a F–die. We probably do differ on our definitions of F–die and are just the same. I just don’t like the word.
Funny enough, I usually say that I am a ‘food person’ or even better a ‘food nerd’, as foodie is somewhat awkward and often used by people that aren’t.
I’d don’t know if there is a world out there thats right for me, but at lease people get it to some degree when I say that, perhaps saying that i am anti-fuelie would make it clearer. Not.
Jack
So I guess it begs the question: what is the definition of a foodie (or f-die as Ed prefers)? Is it, as Jack says, someone (or anyone) who has a love and fundamental understanding of all things food? Or is it simply another form of high culture to keep the peasants at bay?
Personally, I think Ramsay is doing a good thing in bridging the gap. Although some might not agree with me..guess I’m a peasant at heart.
Jack, maybe that is the problem that a lot of people use the F-word who don’t really know what good food and drink is.
JSL, F–die started out as a joke in the 1980s created at the same time as the Sloan Ranger. I feel that admitting to being a F–die is a bit like admitting to being a Sloan and has negative connotations. I just happen to have very strong views on what I like and don’t. I’m fairly discerning and quite fussy with, I hope, a reasonably trained palate. I’d regard myself more of a food snob more than anything else, a food fascist perhaps and certainly intolerant. I think F–dies are a bit less discriminating when I look at some of the people who claim to be F–dies. I’ll admit Gordon’s recipes are fairly detailed for a home cook but don’t people just read these sorts of things in a porny sort of way rather than actually engage? The good thing about him and his shows is that he is getting the message about good produce and simple preparation across to a wide audience
The new section and its promotion sum up everything that is going on in nervous-nelly tabloid newspapers right now.
Hello, focus group; goodbye intuitive editor. The ridiculously broad mix of subjects in the new section is only right when idiot focus group interviewees say they want all their ‘favourite’ things to read in ‘one easy-to-read grab’. In print it just looks wrong. An editor with balls would tell the focus group-obsessed marketing department to fuck off.
The very idea of using a non-Australian TV megastar to promote and launch a new food section in the best-selling newspaper in Melbourne - Australia’s food capital - also speaks volumes. I like Gordon Ramsay, but is there nothing or no-one innately Melbourne that could have been used? Where is this city’s pride in its food scene - markets, restaurants, dining culture, cafes, dinner parties - that rivals the world’s best?
The Herald Sun has never done supplements or even ‘lifestyle’ well. Its last attempt didn’t know whether it was about witlof or winter coats, brasseries or boots, cafes or catwalks.
I’m a regular critic of The Age and its lofty opinionism, but Epicure looks, reads and feels right as a food section. It’s its own supplement. Like Green Guide, people take it home. You see them on the train with it in their bags, off a circulation base around 200,000.
Whether people do the same with extrafood (complete with an idiotic lowercase name that makes it look like an advertising liftout rather than real journalism) will be the acid test for the Herald Sun - off a circulation base of 500,000-plus.
I’m with kitchen hand on this — the Gordon Ramsay thing does sit strangely, but hey, it’s about readership and advertising, so either the people who strategise have their numbers right or…
As for FOODIE, honestly, who gives a f@ck. THere’ll be lovely people here and elsewhere who use that label and who are knowledgeable, interesting, whatever, and equally there’ll be ignorant money-spenders who feel just at home with the label. It’s a bit like ‘democrat’, ‘chef’, or ‘lover’… a wide range of people use these terms for themselves or others despite having at times wildly varying definitions.
Oh oh Duncan, you have to swear on Eds site, it helps his cuss-o-meter!!
hehehe
Jack
Kitchenhand, I think all newspapers not just tabloids are nervous right now. Fair points though. I’m with you on focus groups but who can get away with gut feeling nowadays apart from us bloggers? The problem is there is no-one of Ramsay’s profile locally and that his high rating show has put him front of mind for now. He’s also a cookery columnist on the Sunday Times in London,obviously quite successful (I think there was some controversy over him taking over from Jill Dupleix who’s now in Epicure)Perhaps she and Terry could return to Melbourne and she topple Gordon this time. There’s an idea.
Duncan, Jack is right you have to help my cuss-o-meter which hardly even registers. I guess I’m just being elitist the way food snobs are and perhaps even do Epicure a disservice calling it F–die.
Fucking hell, even kitchen hand has joined in the cussing. Sorry, I can’t have an opinion just yet, thinking Wednesday was Tuesday, so no paper for me - I blame the queen for that. But isn’t that it right there, we have a holiday to celebrate the queen and completely ignore the 3rd December (Eureka Stockade), which many think is the date of the birth of democracy in Australia. Little wonder The Hun chose Gordon to lead off with, we don’t have enough faith in home grown. Why is it that no one here has developed a profile anywhere big enough to be considered in Gordon’s place? Maybe Neil Perry, but until he loses that ponytail, Melbourne will like him well enough, but never love him. About time some Melbourne chefs stood up and forced people like LifeStyle FOOD to put them on the telly. I, for one, would love to see Greg Malouf have his own show and I reckon that Robin Wickens would have a red hot go too. Even if he is a Pom, he’s ours now - just like Ed.
Grasshopper Steve, I love anyone who can use the word simpering, but how about a little less through the glass darkly and a little more agape. That’ll get you further on the road to enlightenment.
But Jack and Ed, I’m a lady. I just can’t bring myself to swear…. though someone did once teach me to say ‘fuck your female progenitor’ in Croatian. Woopsy!
@Neil: It is a pity we aren’t creating our own megastar chefs (notwithstanding the bitching we’d all do if there were one). I think Greg and Robin are probably just too mild-mannered. Ray Capaldi was probably the best candidate, but he’s much quieter now and tends to be so bluntly honest that he’d probably not be interested in stuffing around on television. I’m kinda surprised Shannon hasn’t taken that path. But then, maybe Melbourne just has great chefs who aren’t interested in wasting time being media superstars. Anyway, Australia just doesn’t like the egos required for that sort of enterprise, I think. We’re used to it from foreigners, but not so comfy with it from our homegrown candidates. Odd, isn’t it.
Neil, it’s taken Gordon ten hard years of swearing since Boiling Point first aired to get where he is today. I think local chefs are more democratic and against that French kitchen hierarchy that means everyone needs to have their balls broken. The trouble is locals are a bit wooden.
Duncan,forgiven.
But what’s with our obsession for British chefs. Before LifeStyle FOOD I had no idea that anyone in America or Australia for that matter, could even cook, as all the chefs on free-to-air were Poms. At least they have tried to get Aussie chefs on screen with some success, some others less so, but they are having a crack. If our chefs are coming across as wooden, it’s not all their fault, I don’t imagine that TV presenting is something that comes naturally to most people, but with the right direction and a bit of time, it can be learnt. Look at Jacque Reymond, he was definitely from the Geppetto workshop first time out, but in his latest series he looks far more relaxed and at home, the same with Maggie Beer. If they can find the right vehicle for him, Simon Bryant is one to watch. We just need more faith in ourselves. We’ve got food writers who have made it internationally, I’m sure there is some chef here waiting to be discovered.
Maybe it’s that we have a small market and people look to Europe andthe USon food. Which food writers were you thinking of?
The one you mentioned, Jill Dupleix, who seems to be semi regular on Market Kitchen, and hubby, Terry Durack.
Neil, through the grapevine though i hear although they are successful on the surface and high profile here they find it tough and the success is moderate I think compared to other writers. Terry writes a column once a week and a a freelance writer needs a lot more than that to make a living. Hence the rumours of them returning where the problem is that the town is very small.
Ed what a great post & what a great outpouring of emotion! I laughed out loud with ass-hoppers comments, they seemed designed to sting. My advice, take it or leave it, when you have a critic such as this, is best not to respond, it might be challenging but no matter what you say, wont change their position, in fact it encourages ‘em.
Good luck with the new format at the Sun. I will confess, I never read it. I prefer to read you blog unadultered & away from the corperate teat & all its responsibilities.
As to the choice of Ramsay for a celebrity column its all a game of numbers. He’s the most recognizable of all the food people in the universe next to Jamie perhaps? In Oz who’s next, Stephanie, Neil, Maggie, Bill, Kylie? Its not about a cultural cringe but more about global influence & like it or lump it, our team Galacticos aren’t quite global household names, yet. Everyone here at least knows who Ramsay is.
I would like a wandering column that focuses less on the cult of celebrity, perhaps from people out there who are home cooks, preservers, bottlers & curers? After all, they’re the ones who we’ve all been plundering recipes from for years.
perhaps George Biron,
Well well well what a lot of kerfuffle.
First of all I’m tickled pink that the Hun is, more or less, goung head to head with Epicure. I no longer buy the Age but usually have a look at it at work or on the net. I like Epicure but it suffers from a total absence of any opinion but its own. Furthermore it takes itself so seriously it’s almost funny.
We’ll just have to see if the Hun attracts readers but it’s a great start.
I don’t worship at the temple of Ramsay. I think cussing is an escape from having to think of more accurate and expressive terminology - pretty boring really
And a final word (or two) Good on you Grasshopper for stirring the pot. I don’t care who you are or where you live it’s what you say that counts - and what passion. Doubtless a psychoanalyst would find the tenor of your remarks fascinating. However I don’t think these guys, the opus of all of whom you seem to be familiar, really take themselves THAT seriously. It’s part of the game.
One more thing
I’d like to see space for readers opinions,or letters or whatever in extrafood and perhaps there would be room for a guest contributor each week for either commentary, a review,or even a really special recipe.
You mean he didn’t lose all his weight from following Jill’s special diet, he was poetically starving in a London garret.
Elliot, ‘cussing’ is certainly not something limited only to those who lack expressive terminology, for fuck’s sake!
Hi Kylie
Whilst ‘cussing’ is not limited to those who lack expressive terminology, it certainly doesn’t feature much in those who are not expressively challenged. The evidence is clear. In the last 2000 years barely any of the great wordsmiths have relied on ‘cussing’ to get their point across.
It makes me wonder how things might have been though.
Would you prefer Romeo Romeo where the fuck are you? or Get the fuck off my hand you grotty little spot or Here’s a cunt of a question to fuckin be or, oh shit who cares.
I am aware that there are some fine exponents of colourful language but your one liner remains just a statement. How abut some evidence!!
Gobbler, there is a bit of the guest spot happening there too. Ramsay took up a fair bit of space in the first one so we won’t be able to get a grip on the new section for a few issues.
neil, Lol!
Elliott, elegantly put the first time.On your second point I’m afraid you are wrong.There are many examples of great literature through the ages using bawdy talk, Shakespeare for one.
There’s a big difference between cussing, which I still contend is boring, and bawdy ‘talk’ which is situational and, except for the narrow minded, often hilarious
“Profanity is recognized in many Shakespearean works, and has
continually evolved into the profane language used today. Some cuss
words have somehow maintained their original meanings throughout
hundreds of years, while many others have completely changed meaning
or simply fallen out of use.
William Shakespeare, though it is not widely taught, was not a
very clean writer. In fact, he was somewhat of a potty mouth. His
works encompassed a lot of things that some people wish he had not.
… In his time, religious and moral curses were
more offensive than biological curses. Most all original (before
being censored) Shakespearean works contain very offensive profanity,
mostly religious, which is probably one of many reasons that his works
were and are so popular.”
More here: http://tinyurl.com/6pvlr6
Last Appetite - try Jo Barnes & Sauce.
Re swearing, bugger Shakespeare. Chaucer wins hands-down on banality.
“And on the quiet caught her by the cunt and said ‘Unless I have my way with you, sweetheart, I’ll surely die’”. - Canterbury Tales (or should that be..? Oh never mind).
Romantic, no?
Jen
JSL,
Yes good old Chaucer. We had all the dirty bits censored at school and they failed us if we mentioned them as then they’d know we’d been using cheat notes. Bloody catholics spoiling the fun.
Yep JSL
No problems with that
I was always immensely amused by the Millers Tale. Still bawdy ain’t cussing
I don’t think this got published so I’ll sat it again
JSL Chaucer is a fine exponent of the bawdy = I was immensely amused by the Millers Tale as a teenager BUT cussing ain’tbawdy!!
Elliott
doesn’t bawdy and cussing go hand in hand?
Not really Ed
Bawdy refers to material or situations that are humourous, risque, lewd or vulgar. Ribald language, indecent or off colour jokes may be involved.
Cussing derives from cursing. The langiuage used may be obscene or profane but the essential element of bawdiness is irrelevant to cussing and if it happens to beamusing or vulgar it incidental to its purpose.
well fucking flog me with a wet fucking fish - how did I miss out on all of this excitement?
Too funny that something as silly as discussing a newspaper format has somebody riled, but if they think that this blog is about self-indulgent back slapping they just don’t get it. I’ve noticed Gobsta has a similar “friend”.
I think Gordon appeals across the range - from michelin star diners to his frank manner and manly ways to housewives (remember many women probably hear this language at home too!).
Like jack i don’t use the term f-die, i find it cringe-worthy and most people that say they are, are in my humble opinion, NOT.
enough said
I liked the grasshopper’s fairly savage first post. Spot on really.
And what would people really expect Ed to do on his blog other than rip into someone who dared to criticise his fellow Hun employees, Paddy, Gordo, Downes and McGhie. It would be a bit uncomfortable upon his next trip into the Hun office if he hadn’t shown a bit of solidarity with his stablemates and tried to squash the grasshopper.
The grasshopper also gave Ed a belting over the content of his own newspaper column. And perhaps he is right. I keep coming back to Ed’s blog because it is a good read with plenty of new and interesting content. But his Hun column is boring. Sorry Ed.
Elliot, that was the point of the slab of text I quoted that there was a lot of swearing that was considered offensive then.
Grocer, just got Ken to deal with down here.
Ken, fair enough but I’m not sure where Grasshopper got the “gratuitous congratulations” from. I was just making the point that the Hun had taken a step forward in its food section. True, Stephen is a mate but that doesn’t mean I agree with him. I’ve met Paddy once and Kate twice at events.
I’ve only ever seen inside the Hun office once a few weeks ago. I’m a full time freelance journalist and I write what I’m asked to write to a format which is generally for a mass market newspaper or magazine for money.
This blog is fun and a sort of hobby and as I’ve said before will probably just about make enough money this year to make up for the two features I won’t be writing for The Bulletin because it closed. Actually, I feel I’ve been distracted by deadwood and some new media recently and need to make more effort to entertain here. Keep coming and I’ll try not to mention my employers again.
Thanks Ed - after many years dealing with the media as part of my job I understand the constraints and respect those who have to work within them. For the record, your stuff in the business media is better reading but it is the blog that rocks.
In fact it is really only online media that floats my boat these days. And I am a big consumer of all kinds of media. When I’m not paying out on vacuous morons in the Herald Sun (good morning Bob Hart) you will find me whingeing about the precious leftists in the Age who seem to run the show. I don’t need North Fitzroy freaks telling me not to drink bottled water or insist on Fairtrade coffee.
Blogs are excellent because of the sheer freedom of it all. It is where I find my entertainment and my information these days and actually enjoy it. Sometimes there is some rubbish but there are plenty of gems out there. And on top of all that it is free!
Dead tree media is now run by a mix of self-important elites and moronic marketing drones. And unlike the newspapers I don’t think I have to worry about my labrador shredding my laptop before I get up to read the news.
Keep punching, as they used to say.
Ken, online’s floating me too with those 400 feeds in my reader. It’s interesting how Crikey! has gone downhill since the self important old media Eric Beecher took it over. I’ll save Bob for another time. Funnily enough my foxy shreds the paper if I leave it on the sofa. Computers can be a problem too though - over at Confessions of a Food Nazi I gather there may have been a meeting of cat vomit and Macbook.
Yes not only did I have a joyous night last week of being woken to a feline heaving the contents of her guts out twice (to get maximum human sleep disruption) but woke to find the worst of it was spewed all over my mac book. Fortunately it was closed and turned off at the time but…Not Nice!
Am in sunny (sic) Wellington airport right now. I can report that the cult of Ramsay is alive and well in this neck of the woods. The Sunday paper (I refer to it in the singular, I think this country has only one) ran the same 15 minute Ramsay interview we got in it’s sister paper The Age recently. Good to see recycling is alive and well.