England be darned. After four straight days of non-stop football, combined with an uneasy feeling that despite my prediction of a win Algeria would provide difficult opponents, it was time to indulge a different passion: food. Months ago I’d been offered a VIP ticket to the Taste of London food festival and nothing – not even England v Algeria – was going to stop my inner foodie running riot.
I suspect I may be one of the few people on Twitter lavishing praise on what I experienced that Friday evening.
And, yes, because I like blogging about food – and have been cooking a lot recently as well (prawn massala curry and a delicious moussaka have been particular highlights) – all I really want to do is make a few notes on tonight’s food.
Sadly, because I’m an idiot, I forgot my camera. So no pictures.
Easily the best thing sampled was Mennula’s handmade egg maccheroni with braised shoulder of Scottish lamb, pecorino and summer truffle. I can still taste it now and, despite being stuffed, could happily wolf down another plate.
Perhaps it’s because Italy is still a recent memory in my mind, but this was sensational. The pasta was as good as I’ve had anywhere and the lamb was so tender it melted into the maccheroni and onto my tongue, while the truffle just rounded everything off. What’s more, this was a simple dish with bold flavours that I could imagine tucking into at a decent trattoria. Delicious.
Following close behind was The Modern Pantry’s garlic snails with chorizo mash. Frankly, it would have taken some extremely hard work for me to dislike this dish. The snails were perfectly cooked and the garlic sauce slowly seeped into the meaty mash. A complete winner, and one I might try to do myself at some point.
If you’re talking desserts, then the torta al cioccolato con crema di mascarpone from Theo Randall was the kind of gooey chocolate heaven that makes sharing seem like a chore. We were practically snatching the pot from each other to lick out every last drop. And I’m not generally a dessert man.
Predictably Gaucho’s Argentinian black angus sirlon with humitas chimichurri was exactly what you’d expect from a Gaucho’s steak. Tender, grilled to perfection and bursting with meaty goodness. The chimchurri was a nice addition, with a crisp, fresh corn taste that nicely offset the heavier meat. Definitely one of the best steaks I’ve had over the last year.
The Cinnamon Club’s spice crushed bream with masala mash and tomato lemon sauce was the first dish we tried and set the evening up nicely. The flavours were light and playful, while the mash tingled in the mouth and complemented the fish perfectly. It was a delicious concoction, albeit one that would get outshone as the evening went on.
I enjoyed Awana’s Malaysian slow-cooked beef curry with coconut milk a lot, and there was a nice delicateness to the dish (plus it was easily the largest portion of the evening). But given other offerings on show, it trailed down into ‘quite nice’ on the list of dishes tried. A good quality curry, for sure, and no doubt a decent meal but it didn’t have the same spark as, say The Cinnamon Club’s dish. Not that it was in any way bad. I’d have happily polished it off in the restaurant with no complaints.
Bringing up the end of savoury dishes was the pan-roasted scallop with sardine pie and cauliflower puree from The Grill at The Dorchester. It wasn’t that this dish was bad, but I probably expected a little more given the restaurant’s reputation. There was nothing wrong with the perfectly done scallop nor the pie. Both were nice. But they didn’t quite sit together as a dish and I’ve had many more interesting meals involving scallops than this one.
Finally, the biggest disappointment was Asia de Cuba’s Mexican doughnuts with butterscotch sauce and mojito sorbet. Perhaps the cold rain didn’t help the rather nice sorbet aspect, but the whole dish was a bit nothing. The butterscotch barely made an appearance while the doughnuts were… doughnuts. Nice street food, I suppose, the kind of thing you’d buy on a whim from a trader on the South Bank. Given everything else we’d eaten, it just didn’t do anything for me, which is why we made a bee-line for Theo Randall’s for a second dessert.
Sadly, stomachs and funds running low meant there was no chance to try L’Anima’s rabbit Siciliana, a delicious sounding Stargezer monkfish green pea aubergine and corn curry from Busaba Eathai, and Colony’s half shell grilled scallops with chilli, garlic and yuzu butter.
I’m now heading to bed a happy man and, in what’s possibly an omen, my Sky Plus box decided not to work meaning I can’t watch England’s draw with Algeria. Clearly the food gods have decided there’s no point in spoiling my night.
Look at the screenshot of The Sun’s World Cup Blogger Sweepstake above. If you were a PR who’s been pitching football bloggers recently you might skim the blogs and think “Wow, that is a pretty impressive line up of bloggers. They’ve even managed to get some notoriously hard-to-reach, popular and high-class well respected blogs on board. I wonder how they managed that?”
Short answer: They didn’t.
Sure, they spoke to some bloggers. And some bloggers said no, and left it at that. And then saw their blog in the pages and on the website of The Sun.
Chris Taylor from It’ll Be Off was one of those bloggers. He’s not best pleased:
“I ignored this email, hoping that if I didn’t respond, I wouldn’t be involved in all this savage wankery. But sadly I am. My blog is now apparently Chile, and The Sun have publicised this site in a YouTube clip and on their website. I received another email from them yesterday asking for a little coverage of all this on my blog. So here you go:
I want to make it abundantly clear to everyone: I have nothing to do with this. I want nothing to do with this. And I am furious that the good(ish) name of my little blog, that ceased to be a concern some six months ago, is being used by the worst of all tabloids as some fucking publicity machine for their horrendous sweepstake generating iPhone app, and their even more horrendous newspaper.”
The Ball Is Round and twofootedtackle (the latter of whom I write and podcast for) agreed to enter into a prediction league but not the sweepstake and didn’t give their permission to be included or to use their logos.
There may well be more.
So what, you may say. Surely the bloggers should be happy that The Sun’s giving them free publicity. Surely they’ll gain readers and make more money and the like from this?
Possibly in same cases, but that isn’t really the point.
I’ve got no problem with the blogs that were happy to take part and are publicising it on their blogs. It’s their choice and they’re happy to take part. That’s fine.
But for those who declined or didn’t respond there’s several reasons why they’re well within their rights to be unhappy.
First off, The Sun has used their logo and blogs without permission. There’s a huge irony here given their owner, Rupert Murdoch’s, criticism of Google for stealing content on their news aggregation pages. So it’s not ok for Google but it’s fine for News International.
[EDIT: Sian asks in the comments what the legality of this is. I'm not entirely sure. It may be that The Sun haven't done anything wrong, legally, in using the names of logos. I'd be fascinated to hear from anybody who is a little more clued in than me on this]
Also, it’s then incredibly cheeky to use these logos when permission hasn’t been given and then email said blogger and mind if they’ll give it a bit of publicity on their blogs.
Secondly, the sweepstake isn’t just a bit of fun. It’s being used to promote an iPhone app. The implication here is that these bloggers, by taking part in the feature, endorse the application.
This leads to the third point. Several of the blogs The Sun’s included have built their reputation on independent, thoughtful analysis and have positioned themselves very much as an alternative viewpoint to the tabloid football frenzy, often criticising these writers. They are a world away from The Sun and often don’t take advertising and will very rarely, if ever, accept PR pitches, especially for something like an iPhone application.
In short, it affects their reputation. Especially if, in Chris Taylor’s case, they have serious ideological differences with The Sun and are critical of their coverage.
Finally, aside from the above, the whole thing is massively patronising to the blogs involved, especially those whose analysis and writing regularly outdoes the national press.
The “aren’t you lucky to be taking part” attitude sticks in the craw, the taking logos without permission then expecting an uncritical link back is sheer chutzpah and the prize for winning this sweepstake – an interview with The Sun’s chief sports writer – is a piece of condescending bone-tossing from old media to new media, to remind bloggers of their place in the hierarchy.
It does a disservice: to the bloggers involved who said no to the original request, to the readers who will assume that these blogs endorse The Sun, and to any hardworking PR who has spent ages building relations with these blogs for a very tiny mention, especially PRs from other papers.
(Disclosure: I have, in the past, been one of those PRs. And I worked hard to ensure any pitches were respectful and non-condescending and were more than just “we’re a big company, write nice things about us”. And I know several PRs from other papers and similar companies and they also adhere to the above.)
The sad thing is, there are so many football blogs that with a bit of time and research they could have probably found 32 bloggers willing to take part AND promote it on their sites. And if their initial blogger outreach was better and there was a better incentive at the end of it, they may have even got more bloggers onside.
Hell, it could have actually been fun, if you were one of those who wanted to get involved. (I wouldn’t have been but it’s not my place to tell other bloggers who they can and can’t endorse).
Instead, we’ve got some very unhappy bloggers.
Not, you suspect, that The Sun care much. After all, they’ve got a World Cup Sweepstake app to promote.
“I’m no huge fan of The Sun but it’s not like we’re being hugely exploited here. To be honest, I don’t think anyone who reads the paper gives the slightest shit about any of the blogs and they’re hardly using our logos to make money.”
Which is a fair point and it’s worth putting perspective on this. It isn’t the end of the world. But it’s also very bad practice, not to mention manners and it’s only by pointing this sort of thing out that you might (ha!) get a change of tune. It’s the principal of it all, innit.
He’s probably right that the majority of Sun readers probably don’t really care or read the blogs involved. I’d love to see them tackle one of Brian Phillips’ wonderfully cerebral pieces at The Run Of Play though.
UD 2: Brian’s pointed out that The Sun don’t even do them the courtesy of linking, so none of them have seen ay surge in traffic. It now appears that they do, through clickable images. Although I can’t find this, but I’ll take Brian’s word for it.
And, as Fredorraci points out in the comments below, despite this being billed as the UK’s top 32 blogs, several aren’t based in the UK. Brian’s site, for a start, is an American site.
It also seems that the total amount of traffic blogs have received through this has varied between nothing and not very much at all.
Heard the one about the journalism graduate offered a job for £10k in London? Yes, that is an actual position that came up in conversation with a friend the other day. The experience, work-wise, sounds excellent. The experience, life-wise, probably amounts to renting out a cardboard box under Hammersmith Bridge.
I only mention because ever since last month there’s been an ongoing debate rumbling on, started mainly by Ed Ceasar’s Sunday Times piece, Hold The Front Page, I Want To Be On It, where he details the lengths – and financial pain – journalism graduates have to go through to get onto a national paper. The picture painted was somewhat bleak and depressing.
Since then, others have contributed to the debate. Adam Tinworth notes that Ceasar is very narrow in focus and omits vast swathes of the media:
“Journalism is a very, very broad church – and it was so long before the internet came along to knock down some walls, pop in an extra transept or two, and generally widen the whole place. Radio, TV, newspapers (local and national), consumer magazines, business magazines, niche subscription-only titles. Online news sites. Blogs. And now the whole, growing world of hyperniche and hyperlocal sites.”
Roy Greenslade partly agrees with Adam on this point, but also says that in his experience, most of his journalism students aren’t interested in these opportunities:
“I may exhort them to think about entrepreneurial journalism. They may learn about successful online news start-ups. They often tell me that mainstream media controlled by big, bad, profiteering moguls is a danger to press freedom. But these so-called “digital natives” still want to work for mogul-owned media.”
And Laura Oliver from journalism.co.uk, who is one of those people who, hopefully, acts as an inspiration to other recent graduates feels that the focus of the journalism postgrad courses are too narrow.
“I graduated from City’s newspaper journalism course in 2007. I applied for graduate schemes on national newspapers along with the rest of my classmates, but largely because I felt I had to. I wanted to work online and for a smaller newsroom/company where I hoped I could make more of a mark. But from day one it felt as if the expectations of our course were national or nothing – and I know from speaking to other recently-qualified journalists that it wasn’t just my course that pushed this view.”
Of course, this is nothing new. I sketched out a few thoughts on the subject just over two years ago and it doesn’t seem like much has changed. If anything, the world for new journalism graduates is even more unclear now than it was back then.
There’s a lot I recognise in all viewpoints. Ceasar’s article is all too depressingly familiar and chimes with the experiences of a lot of friends and colleagues.
Even those who managed to get themselves onto the nationals did so with a hideous level of debt that they’re nowhere near to repaying, and jobs in the market aren’t really offering huge salary boosts. When I applied for a interesting position, with an unspecified level of pay, a while back, I backed out after realising I’d have to take an £8k pay cut. And this was for a relatively senior role.
But then again, there are so many more opportunities, so many more publications online and the boundaries of media and the online world are so vague that willing graduates could find themselves in an excellent job that gave them plenty of training and experience if they’re prepared to think beyond the usual suspects.
And these kind of roles don’t necessarily mean a job on the nationals is beyond you. I’ve met a variety of people from a variety of ages ranges who’ve all made it to national media through completely different means. And yes, while increasingly a postgraduate is necessary, the path post-degree is of varying length and direction.
But for me, still, what it comes down to is money. Or lack of.
No matter how many different opportunities and different media and organisations there are out there, you still have to pay the bills – and your student debts – somehow. And that’s getting harder to do these days.
Not that pay will rise anytime soon. Universities are still churning out a large number of media graduates and even when you take into account the postgraduate courses, the job-to-graduate ratio is still at the stage where employers can keep their wages low – they’ll always be another talented, well-trained eager young thing willing to get that first foot on the ladder.
This doesn’t even take into account the large number of websites and web-only publications. It’s unlikely many of these will pay vast sums of money, either for freelance pieces or permanent positions. Partly because a lot of these places are so small that they don’t have the cash, and partly because there are enough people who’ll happily accept the odd low-pay commission for a bit of extra cash.
Put simply, no matter what the ideal situation is or how many opportunities there are out there, the economics of media pay do not paint a rosy picture.
As for the national positions – the national papers, the BBC TV and radio prime reporting positions, those big name magazines – those with the talent and drive to get there stand a good chance of doing so, although those with some cash stored away and a place to stay in London will always have an advantage. Unpaid internships and just being able to have that flexibility to come into the office helps.
(Not that it’s much different outside of London. I got my first freelance shifts after essentially coming in and working for free every day for a month at my local radio station. Not that I begrudged this – they didn’t force me and I had nothing else to do that summer, plus I really enjoyed the work. But I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be where I am today if I hadn’t done the unpaid, unrequested work.)
I can’t speak for B2B publications and websites as I don’t have any direct experience of these, although general impressions are these are an excellent place to start on a decent salary, especially if you know finance, economics, or science. They’re also probably a neglected option by many graduates, sadly.
As for locals – and here I definitely disagree – plenty of postgrads I know or have trained with have been happy to go onto the locals. I was delighted to get a job in local radio. It’s an excellent training ground and I’m immensely proud of my work and background there.
As much as anything, just as there were those who were determined to make it to the national media, there were also those who were happy just to get offered a job, or those who saw it as a stepping stone to bigger things.
Locals are a great training ground and, mostly, a great place to work but ultimately, again, money plays a huge part. Salaries are typically low and pay rises are rarely forthcoming.
This is fine when you’re fresh out of university with no commitments and the debt something that can be dealt with at some other time. But eventually you start having to make important decisions like settling down (with a partner), deposits and mortgages, kids, career and just how much disposable income you want.
It’s at that stage where idealism fades into practicality - and pushing yourself to get onto a national has, perhaps, a slightly more limited window of opportunity, if that’s the way you want to go.
That said, I know so many different people who work for so many different media, all of whom juggle the issues listed above that it’s difficult to generalise, as I’ve inevitably done above. But that doesn’t mean that money doesn’t hang over most media professionals’ heads.
To paraphrase one journalist, as we were chatting post-twofootedtackle podcast about the diversifying new media and the number of people prepared to work for free, “The media is changing and I’m not sure if I like it. I’ve embraced it, but I don’t necessarily like it.”
I think all of us have had that thought at one point or another.
A couple of small things to keep this blog ticking over. First off, our final regular twofootedtackle pod of the season was recorded last week, but still sounds fresh as a daisy now. We always go all out at the end of the season, and this was no exception as we got the Sound of Football team in to join us.
Plus, we also taste-tested those special World Cup-themed crisps (except you’re not really allowed to call them that because of merchandising rights, and the like). Spanish Chicken Paella may, quite possible, be the most revolting thing I’ve ever put in my mouth.
I shouldn’t be surprised that these schemes keep popping up. Somebody, somewhere either thinks they can succeed or make money from it but until the solve the annual renewal issue, it’s just not feasible in my book.
My book also reckons they should start a club from scratch, but that’s a completely different post for a different time.
Finally, a few people have asked what I’ll be doing for the World Cup and the answer is sitting around, drinking beer and watching football. That and a few arbitrarily timed podcasts.
I’m probably not going to write much, if anything at all, about the World Cup, partly because there’ll be so many others fighting for your attention, and partly because I don’t feel international football is enough of a speciality of mine for me to bring anything different to the table. That may change if I get inspired, but I’d rather enjoy the tournament rather than worry about spouting the same lines as everybody else.
Besides, things like the unexplained disappearance of Grays Athletic from the footballing map are far more interesting.
You’ll probably have noticed that I’ve got a slight preference for noodling electronica and female singer-songwriters, with an added dash of blokes with guitars thrown in for good measure. It’s nothing if not varied.
A few points to note though:
1. Spotify didn’t have every album I owned. Where possible, I’d try and then find a song off that album and include that in the playlist, so don’t necessarily think I go owning some of the more random albums on there. In particular, I was surprised at the lack of Underworld albums on Spotify. There’s also several obscure folk bands, Roisin Murphy’s Ruby Blue and 4 Hero’s Two Pages missing, not to be found for love nor money. And the Sneaker Pimps track is off a remix album – the original is nowhere to be found.
2. Compilation albums, thankfully, weren’t included in this, although film soundtracks were, hence a few songs from Chicago, Jackie Brown and Kill Bill in there.
3. Yes, there are a lot of greatest hits albums. What of it? I wasn’t exactly flushed with cash and best ofs were often a good way to collect a lot of songs I liked in one place. If you’re wondering why not so much Blur or Suede in there – I owned their albums on cassette tape, until The Great Gary Clearout of quite a few years ago where a lot of stuff I shouldn’t have chucked out got chucked. Including a NES. Boy, do I regret that.
4. Ahem, yes, your eyes do not deceive you. I do own three U2 albums. In mitigation, I only purchased one of them. There are also a lot of albums I own but didn’t buy. I don’t shoplift, I’ve just acquired a lot of free stuff over the years.
5. Sadly there’s no Echo and the Bunnymen in this list. I do not own any album that has The Killing Moon on it, and this makes me sad.
6. I own more albums by Eliza Carthy than anybody else. This is no bad thing. I probably don’t have enough albums by Eliza Carthy, if truth be told. She is excellent and I’ve seen her more times than any other act, bar the Super Furry Animals.
And that’s it. I’m not going to write out the tracklisting as I’d be here for ever. Grab a pair of earphones and have a snigger.
You know how it is: you’ve carefully been saving up a set of blog posts on media and the wider world that are so corking that they may just change the way people think about the world and will surely elevate you to the rank of minor deity, then when you come to sit down and blog all you can think is: “I really, really want to write about Britpop.”
It’s probably my fault for plugging in Pulp on the bus home. Different Class was the first albums I ever purchased and I still know all the words to every track. It may well still be the best album ever made (although Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On gives it serious competition).
When Britpop was at its height you were either a Blur or Oasis man and, being a poncy Southerner, I naturally fell on the Blur side. Looking back, Roll With It is clearly a much better song than Country House, but I was blind to loyalty at the time (although The Universal was probably one of the best tracks from this era of Blur).
Taken as individual tracks, Oasis probably had the edge with several iconic anthems. Cigarettes and Alcohol, Champagne Supernova and Some Might Say sounds just as good today as they ever did. But in terms of overall canon, progression and longevity, Blur have the edge.
But just as I was wrong about the 1995 race for number one, so I was wrong at the time about Blur and Oasis being the best two bands from that period. I’ll occasionally dig out a Blur album, usually their self-titled offering from ’97, or Modern Life Is Rubbish, while Oasis occasionally get fired up on Spotify.
But for timeless classics that never fail to hit the spot and get repeat plays nearly every month, it’s a toss up between the aforementioned Pulp and a band who may never have quite got the credit they deserved – Suede.
Pulp really need no more eulogising. They were the perfect band – a witty, lyrically gifted frontman in Jarvis Cocker, with a stage presence that gave up to all us bespectacled teenagers, while their songs were witty, pithy and said more than Noel Gallagher has managed in his entire career. Common People – need I say more.
Then there’s Suede. Perhaps unfairly maligned for not being Blur or Oasis or Radiohead or Pulp, or as the band that filled the gaps between releases of the others, or a band who peaked too early and then lost their guitarist and were never quite the same. Not true.
Ok, so Richard Oakes was a little showier than Bernard Butler on the guitar and the band’s glam rock influences started to take over by the end, but they could still produce a cracking tune. Coming Up was an amazing album that defies their reputation as a singles band, while Film Star and especially Saturday Night were highlights, while later tracks such as Electricity and She’s In Fashion were Suede playing at being Suede and wonderfully entertaining.
And then there’s the Bernard Butler era. Animal Nitrate, So Young, New Generation and We Are The Pigs and all outstanding songs while Wild Ones may well be one of my favourite ever tracks.
Put up against other bands from the era, Suede’s tracks seem to have survived the test of time. Radiohead may have been a great band, but their albums are more to be appreciated than subjected to repeated listening while Blur and Oasis, while producing fantastic albums, tend to be remembered for a few select anthems. Pulp, sadly, also occasionally fall into that category, even if their best work – This Is Hardcore and Babies – came after and before Britpop’s peak.
At the time, I’d never have said it, but Suede may now just be my favourite band of the 90s.
Although don’t necessarily trust me. My first gig was The Bluetones.
I’m sat on my sofa writing this at half eleven, the night before the general election. The Sun’s front page for election day, with David Cameron mocked up into the iconic Barack Obama image, is flying around Twitter – mostly to disbelief. Bet their sales go up though. It’s almost as if they’ve deliberately chosen an image that’ll provoke howls of online outrage.
So, yes, I’m sat here still not sure who to vote for. Tomorrow should be interesting, historic even. I can’t wait for the drama and the coverage, although I’m less than sure about 98% of the politicians involved.
It’s been a fascinating election to watch, especially from an online perspective, although I’m somewhat glad I took a holiday in the middle of it all and totally switched off from the entire campaign. Fun as it can be, I can totally understand why Adam Tinworth, and others, have retreated from Twitter for some of the election period. It can get a bit much, really.
Politics is tribal, yes. It also invokes passion. That I also understand. But it’s somewhat unedifying to see people who are already elected representatives or are aiming to become an elected representative – and especially party-supporting people – close up and angry on social sites. This Tweet from Conservative blogger, Iain Dale, being a case in point (although, in fairness to Dale, he did apologise and he’s not deleted the offending Tweet).
Call me an idealist, but given these people are meant to be aiming to change the world for the better and represent our interests, it’d be nice if one or two could rise above the mud-slinging. Really, all it comes across is that these people want power above political convictions (I’m probably doing quite a few a disservice here though). And I’d rather back somebody who is entering politics because of convictions as opposed to a fanatical desire to see their party returned to or achieving power.
It’s not just Dale, who is meant to be one of the online stars of politics, who has forgotten what social media is about. I’ve seen plenty of people, especially on Twitter, who sell themselves as social media experts and, by and large, fall into that category, forget themselves.
Brands should listen and engage is a regular message from social media land. Which is why it’s rather depressing to see certain people shout down and talk at others for having their party’s policies questioned. It’s worse than some of the rather low-brow football banter on the site. Much as I dislike Plymouth Argyle, I wouldn’t go as far as some social media people have gone with politics.
And still the politics rumbles on, the 24 News Channels do their best to make The Thick Of It look like a factual documentary and all the political parties come out with policies with so many holes in them you could drive the entire US marine corps though.
This all probably sounds a bit gloomy and, yes, it’s easy to be disillusioned with British politics. If there was a ‘None of the above’ option on the ballot paper, as they used to have in my old Students’ Union elections, I’d place my cross there without hesitation.
But, having worked reporting two general elections and numerous local elections, 2010 feels like people actually care about the outcome. I haven’t felt the country (at least in my personal sphere) be this engaged with the election.
I’ve had long conversations with strangers on the bus about the election, the result, their hopes and fears. That wouldn’t have happened at the last two elections.
And, for the first time in ages, it’s never been easier to connect with your MPs and other local politicians via social media and hold them to account. Anything that brings the public closer to their elected representatives can only be a good thing. Twitter and Facebook have made this possible.
But the most entertaining aspect has been the humour on social media, aimed at all parties. At least once a day I’ve laughed at something irreverent posted on Twitter or Facebook. It’s made it entertaining. Politics is suddenly fun to discuss.
And it’ll sure as hell be fun to watch tomorrow as the TV coverage gets bigger and probably more bizarre and the results fly in.
That said, it’s now quarter past midnight on election day.
I still have absolutely no idea who I’m going to vote for.
What you’ve been saying