May 2000 - Sinister - missprint.org

Sinister: list crushes are fab
by amy_jackson0 06 May '00

06 May '00

i got matched with jarvis lalalalala!! +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the undead Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister(a)missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo(a)missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: another picnic
by amy_jackson0 06 May '00

06 May '00

hello! this is only gonna be short and probably not very interesting, but if anyone is going to t in the park on the sunday, we should all have a sinister picnic, even though b&s won't be there (but i wish they would go..) so what do you think? hi to jarvis btw, you're soooooooo lucky!!!! ;) adios, littlebelle (making noise since 1983) +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the undead Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister(a)missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo(a)missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: I blow Buffy Summer's Nose
by Kenneth P Y Chu 06 May '00

06 May '00

Hi, Sorry if this is old news.... I just went to Jeepster's website and the artwork for LEGALMAN is out... I'm happy because it's quite funky, I'm unhappy because it looks all different from the old CDs (you know how they're all monotoned in some colour... well this one still is but it's not quite if you see what I mean) But that's just nit picking, the fact that they look like Charlie's Angels is pretty cool. Thanks to all of you who kindly consoled me after my traumatising experience in the last post.. and sorry again for publicly looking for sympathy like that. I promise not to do that again (unless something real bad happens) I still haven't got the This is just a modern rock song CD, the mokes at 101cd sent them to my term time address during my Easter break, and my Uni hall says that they've never received it, and e-mails to 101cd got no reply.. ah well, at least I've managed to listen to it now before I buy legal man so I'm happy. Being slow as usual I'm going to comment about B&S selling out.. I don't know what is meant by selling out but as long as they produce the same stuff that touches my heart and make me both laugh and cry like they used to then I don't care. Enough moaning now the sun is bright outside I'm going to forget about my woes and take my dog on wheels down to the road. Or I might just do some juggling instead.. Flowers and Redbulls, and remember, stay legal.. Ken ====================================================================== They got the drugs I could use but then I don't want any All that I want is a photograph of Photo Jenny How will I get one I don't know, How will I get her to strike a pose? - Belle & Sebastian +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the undead Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister(a)missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo(a)missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: what is proper
by Youn J. Noh 06 May '00

06 May '00

Dearest Sinister, Nick wrote: My own feeling is that the key members of the band were never satisfied with the way the early records (so beloved of the duke) sounded. See I think they always wanted to transcend the folksy arrangements and lyrical concerns of the first two albums. Weren't they really unhappy with the way songs like 'Get me away from here, I'm dying' got recorded? They wanted a bigger, Stax-y sound didn't they? And look at how they go out of the way to choose diverse, never-indie records when they're invited onto radio shows. Wasn't it some time ago that Stuart was quoted as saying that in the past he'd write the words first (or little acoustic strums), whereas lately he'd been trying to writing 'proper songs'? I think the songs on "Tigermilk", "If You're Feeling Sinister", and the eps are proper songs. As far as I can tell, the music is not amateurish. It is true that some songs are spare, but more is not always better. "If You're Feeling Sinister" is probably the record considered to have 'folksy' arrangements. I always thought that was when Belle and Sebastian found their sound. It's the record that sounds the purest. How have the lyrical concerns changed across the span of their work? They seem to have stayed pretty much the same, but dwelling on the same themes made the lyrics less inspired and anemic or deliberately obscure. Joan Didion wrote: I think we are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind's door at 4 a.m. of a bad night and demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to make amends. I am sorry that Stuart said that he no longer felt the need to write stories on CD sleeves. I can't find the quote or report, but it was in a recent email about the press conference. I don't want to misquote him, but I think he implied that he looks back upon these stories as self-absorbed. I think the stories are funny and are written in a way so that everyone could relate to them - or at least those who like their music. Glen reported: At the press conference thingy, Stu said about the Stone Roses, "They got fame and started doing interviews and they started to get a bit self-conscious and to me that's rubbish. What they had at the start was magic and powerful." Does Stuart think that being self-conscious is under one's voluntary control? Can't find it now, but one of the things I liked best from Stuart David's book after "Ink Polaroids" was the account of a meal in NY restaurant: Stuart M ordered eggs, the waiter asked how he wanted them, he said however, the waiter said however (as a question or confirmation), and Stuart was charming enough to get embarrassed about it. In an interview from a web site in the Tigermilk web ring, Stuart said: I love English fans. I love the boys who write letters but when you see them in the flesh they are gentle and stand offish. There are a lot of very cool American fans, we don't get to meet them much because they are cool. We get the frantic puppies who want to eat you! The crazies! How did Stuart feel when he went to meet Lawrence? The regrettable thing about turning against your former self is that you turn against people who remind you of how you were. Ian wrote: and here on the sinister list we ape our heroes ,of course, as mindless saddos do. we talk about hello kitty and nice little bunny rabbits and generally exchange whimsy with one another. and this is what we know, and this is what we like. It can't be helped that people present themselves in this way, but I don't think that is how people on this list really are. Sometimes when people stick around, I think you get a better sense of them. Regarding what PF wrote - so now the intended audience is between the age of 7 and 17? When I was in London last summer, I foolishly attended this Belle & Sebastian night at some club. Their songs sound awful played as dance music. Prosaically yours, Youn +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the undead Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister(a)missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo(a)missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: I'm just a gelatin pipe and I twist within an inch
by Melissa Williams 05 May '00

05 May '00

Dear Stranger: Hi. I'm new. I don't know whether I should tell about myself or not, but I'm going to, cause damned if I can think of a single interesting thing to say about Belle and Sebastian. So. I'm 19 and I would be in my junior year of college, but I'm living with my family instead right now. This is not by choice. They're all okay, but I live in the armpit of the United States (Henderson, North Carolina. Anybody on this list live close by?). I work at the library in town. The rest of the time, I read like a maniac. Right now I'm reading a book about the history of psychiatry and _Ulysses_, for the 7th time. I am not kidding when I say that I'd die for that book. This isn't because I am some sort of prodigy who understands it or anything crazy like that. I just think it's the funniest and most beautiful and most perfect book there is. If you let yourself be confused, it stops being intimidating and starts being a blast. Okay. When I'm not reading, I'm often writing (just poetry; good prose is beyond me). I like to sculpt and paint and play the flute and all that artsy stuff. I'm a big dilettante, but only because I don't have any talent for anything in particular. I like the Beatles and Bob Dylan and Mozart and Bruce Springsteen and Dvorak and pretty much any music from the latter part of the sixties. I'm learning auto mechanics, so sometimes I work on my car when it's warm. When I was in school, I majored in English and German, but I want to go to med school. My big dream is to be a pediatric psychiatrist, but I'm not convinced that it'll happen. If I can't do that, I'll probably be a writer (just not the kind I would like to be). I smoke a lot. I have depression and OCD, and people scare the shit out of me, but I'm lucky in that I have a really fabulous psychiatrist. I'm still pretty lonely and unbalanced and all that, but my chemical problems are starting to clear up some. Okay, that's enough. I'm sorry for being lame and talking about myself for forty-seven years, but I think maybe this way someone who likes the same stuff as me will email me. I had this crazy dream last night for the second time in a few weeks. In the dream, my nipples had turned into full-sized antlers. Yes, antlers. (Dream nipples don't count as a body part mention, do they? Well, I'll take my chances.) They were all blackened and they were molting (that's what it's called, right? Where that velvety stuff falls off?). They were huge and they kept getting all tangled up in each other. I couldn't wear a shirt, so I was walking around bumping into walls with these huge antler-nipples. The worst thing was, they weren't made out of bone, or whatever it is that real antlers are made of. They were just regular nipple material. So all the bumping into things _really_ hurt. I know that it all means something very important, but what? The Shadow knows... All right, that's all. Time for a cigarette. Take care... Melissa W. ******************************************** * "Are you the ring in the peacock's tail, * * the round stone temple on an arid * * mountain, the black belly of a fish * * in moon rings? Are you a footprint * * glazed on the urn of the sand, * * the litter-shield of a warrior's body, * * a bride in a white hut, * * the drum or its message of love?" * * * * -Jay Wright, "Inscrutability" * ******************************************** ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the undead Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister(a)missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo(a)missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: Welcome to my world
by elenita99 05 May '00

05 May '00

Hello fluffy friends, It's been a while since my last post, I have been reading all yours with interest but I guess I was a bit busy to write on sooo many interesting things going on those weeks. I have been arguing with one of my very good friends all week (so I was busy indeed), and it left me very tired and confused and upset, I guess. I say "all week" cos he's in Spain and it's been a sort of virtual argument, you see? email and phone...yerk, really awful. But I will sort it out this week-end, I hope. I hate feeling so upset about it. Anyway, it's sunny today, finally spring is reaching London (I've been waiting for it so much!!!) and makes me feel lighter... I haven't got a clue of what i'm gonna do this week-end (apart from sleeping to recover that long office-week), probably walk around, get a few CDs and get out once, as usual. Isn't it a sort of routine, well I think so...Maybe go to the cinema, yeah... OK stop whining, I'm not such in a good mood today and I don't have to be a pain just because I feel melancholic, have I? Oh, I've been trying to conect to the chat and it didn't work...mmmm...is it me or the server? cos I think I've done everything ok but then...Not my day... Have a very nice week-end, love to you all Elena ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the undead Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister(a)missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo(a)missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: just gimme indi rawk!
by julesmarkham 05 May '00

05 May '00

hi fluffy ones just got back from a trek to London, where i saw Lou barlow on stage for 2 hours singing lots of sebadoh/FI songs and picking up waifs and strays along the way (there was a lad called... Andrew who had a lovely fluffy jumper, so i had to adopt him! and a girl called Sarah who was too short to see Lou over the crowd so, you see, I had to pick her up and carry her around, then Andrew got jealous, so I had to carry him around for a while too, and there was that guy in the queue who sang harmonies really well... ) then I slept on another adoptees floor, and took someone round Camden market. i think i had a few fox days there, I got the coolest job too! I start Monday, selling ice cream from a barrow attached to a tricycle! So if any sinisterines find themselves in Stratford on Avon between now and November, look out for a red haired lass with an ice cream stall flying a kite (gotta have a sales pitch!) jules x (streets are uneven when you're down) +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the undead Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister(a)missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo(a)missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: I know they've got another face / it's not a fault of mine these days
by Scott Plagenhoef 05 May '00

05 May '00

oh, hello: Nick beat me to the punch regarding Chris' defense of the 12´´ extended mix of "Judy is a Dick Slap." Ibiza is seemingly that next easy step in a lightning dance career for B&S (thanks, orson.). Well, if that Barry White-sampled track is set to be the Next Big Thing on the club floor, I guess that swings the door wide for other throwbacks to follow -- including B&S (provided Stevie can fit the sitar through the door jam). Apparently, then the extended dick slap (that never gets old, does it?) wouldn't have excluded them from the charts, and I have to echo Tim's grumblings regarding the price gouging. Let the DJ's get the white label. Pah. Nick wrote: Hang on. Miller's right - the album doesn't come out for another month. How can they have heard it? Can someone explain? An interesting note: Interviewing Stuart David a week or so ago for one of the world's many fledgling 'zines, and it seems he has, incredibly, yet to hear a finished copy himself. Hmm, I have to be a bit confused about the tweehuggers faction of our little world so proudly clinging to *that* word. There is (thankfully) not a single word that sums up our bandor ourselves. For one, I'm hopeful that "twee" doesn't come the closest. Despite Ian's well-written defense of such, B&S aren't the sole property of childhood nostalgia or idealized visions of the world. There is brutality. There is subversiveness. There is smut. Yes, there is a lot of whimsy and grace besides, but it's the blend that makes the magic. Many of the characters in Struan's songs are out in the real world with real problems, few solutions, and too many consequences. It's one of the things that seperates them from other wonderful, but frankly narrower bands' worldviews such as the heart-on-the-sleeve sentiments of the Field Mice or the bedsit lovelorn of Nick Drake. It's a world full la-la-la's , but one in which that whimsical expression of nonchalance can be tossed off after either "get some fish and chips" or "if we killed him now, well who's going to miss him?" (cheers, Sarah.) scott. +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the undead Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister(a)missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo(a)missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: ba,ba,ba,ba,baw,baw,baw,baw,bawbag
by BabyChris Crystalballs 05 May '00

05 May '00

I'm a lot happier than last time I mailed. next year, I've decided to travel and work round the world, which, as I am still 17, Is quite scary, but it should be fun. (so I'll have to unsubscribe soon, but I may get some messages forwarded, requesting food and shelter) I've also cried at dumb films. I found the end of cool running really happy/sad, if you get it. top CHOONS!!! 1) entire delgados album, the GRATE eastern 2) your no rock and roll fun, by sleater kinney 3) the new bis material - it's got a real 80's jd sound to it.... 4) beagle man, I s'pose 5) shoot speed kill light I've also begun to learn to drive, in me volvo s40, brand nu. pumping stereo, but my mate gave me sum tips. he said: "I as been driving since I was 12, but recently me desided to get a real driving lisence. However, when I went for a lesson, this ponce sat in me car and tried to make me drive like a batty man. Don't worrie, I gave im a one inch punch like Bruse Lee, but because of this, I as decided to pass on me driving knowlage to all ya massive for free. Read through me tips and than you is ready for even long trips (like down to McDonnalds). Wicked. DRIVING TIPS Tip 1 - Make sure your car is safe You is gonna lose marks if ya car is a wreck. May I suggest you get an MOT first (me mate Dave will sell ya one for 20 squids - just tell im Ali said). Also, make sure all 8 of ya speakers is workin' at there best (be carefull that the clutch pedel don't damage that 20" bass bin). Tinted windows and UV lights may also win you marks wid de instructer. Tip 2 - Make sure its safe for you to drive Its a well known fact that if you is a woman (thats 1 in 2 people in the UK), you will not be able to drive. Batty men shouldn't drive either. Tip 3 - Drinking and Driving You should never drink drive (not even if its rainin'). You could 'it a bump an' spill ya drink - Aye. No, me is messin', don't do it. Tip 4 - Listen for your Instructer If you can hear your instructer shouting at you, then your music aint loud enough you is probably listening to the wrong music, may I suggest Drum and Bass. Tip 5 - Use the proper equipment When your instructer asks you to start the car, remember that you is supposed to use the proper key, not a screwdriver. Tip 6 - Changing Gears This is an important part of drivin' and I hope you is payin' attention. There are two main gears you will use, thats 4 and 5. I suggest using 5th in residental areas, and 4th if you is driving on a field or somthin'. Tip 7 - Breaking and Corners Breaking and corners 'ave alot in common. You need to be usin' the handbreak for both. Tip 8 - Correct Signaling Remember that the horn and headlights aint just for gettin' the attention of that bitch wid de short skirt. They is best used to cuss other drivers if they is goin' too slow (ie 90 mph). Tip 9 - Advanced warning signs and Speed limits I aint sure what these things are. You can make about £30 stealing them though. AYE! Tip 10 - Dat's it, you is now a safe driver. You will be able to spend hours sat in the carpark at MFI wid da Drum and Bass pumpin out. Keep it safe, keep it real..." so, should be speeding in no time at all. to all going to the glasgow meet up, bring some moey and If I like you, you'll get a special surprise. I'm excited about the new album. my sys exams are coming up, but they don't matter, cause I ain't going to uni, next year (I feel like a waster tho', being the only person I'n thew year with 4a's and B and no direction.) bell rung. Maths awaits. I['m leaving next week, probably. so no tears. I know how you all love me so.) chris __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send instant messages & get email alerts with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com/ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the undead Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister(a)missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo(a)missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: if not for explication, at least for explicitation
by P F 05 May '00

05 May '00

NOC NOC Hold Lose Gain NOC Waking up in a pile of spoiled ballot papers outside Romsey Town Hall, I found my thoughts drifting yet again to that issue of extra tracks, formats and the like. This business about a 'new single from Belle and Sebastian', about which I'd had pink dreams, struck me as probably a load of mild morning air; certainly I'd seen neither Herbie Hyde nor Tony Hares of it. Anyway, I hazed as I stumbled into the station and awaited the first service out of this place, the point was that some folk, somewhere, some time, had been complaining about the practice of releasing two formats of the same 45, with one track different - or was it one format of the different 54, with two tracks different? Hard to be sure. I hailed a passing Shirley Williams and demanded a strong espresso, wondering when it was that we all started to say 'espresso' rather than 'expresso'. The argument, I recited as I watched green England fly past, the argument is that the kids are in a sticky spot cos they have to buy every release, and thus releasers of multiple formats have the kids over a barrel. But why do the kids have to buy everything? Cos they're hardcore, or softskinned; cos they're devoted, acolytes, apostles as some Northern soul used to dub them (into Romanian). They love buying the records, they live for it: when the relevant Monday nine o'clock rolls around they're waiting outside Spin-a-Disc, liquorice allsorts in hand, about to revel in financial tribute to their heroes. They hand over the relevant fiver with joy. Spending. Buying. Consumption. Blowing cash on what they love - that's what the kids want. The train pulled into Paddington, and I closed my copy of The Revolution In Everyday Life. But hang on, I thought, pulling the emergency cord in my head. If that's what the kids like doing, why isn't a *favour* to them to release things in many formats, so that they can go to Select-a-Toon more than once a week, or two Mondays running? They can stand at the window and wonder which format to go for, till a voice inside says 'I can have both'. - You're forgetting one thing, said a leather-jacketed bruiser as he bumped into me on the concourse. I looked up. It was Joe Strummer, dragging behind him his new combo the Ciabattas. - You're forgettin', Joe went on, that the kids can't afford to buy all these formats. We discussed it over a Jail Guitar Door in the station bar, and Joe conceded that for lots of the kids nowadays, another four quid isn't so much to ask. Apparently, he assured me, they're all selling each other 'drugs' for sixteen quid a go. After three quarters of an hour he said he'd changed his mind, and would release three formats of his new 45 'Gringo Gangster Riot Stabbing Time'. But was it true, I wondered, that the kids actually liked buying multiple formats of things? I decided to find out. It was very hot. In Market Harborough I found kids crying on the street outside Our Price. It seemed that they were upset that the CD version of 'Roll With It' contained all the tracks available on the other formats. - You see, sobbed Hayley (15 - not her real name), we can't justify to ourselves our favourite activity, buying multiple formats of the same single! In the background a live version of 'Live Forever' thumped away. I realized that it was August 1995. Someone told me that the intro of 'Roll With It' sounded like a Who song. I know, I said. I said I know I do. Things were getting hazy. It was very hot. Marc Atkins passed with a camera over his shoulder. We asked the owner of Sell-a-Spinner to play 'Roll With It' at high volume, and agreed that there was a submerged influence coming through from 'Like A Daydream' and 'Taste'. That was the end of the first part of the assignment. In Buxton I passed the fountain in the market square and entered Mr Chippy's. A sign on the wall declared 'It's a Fishy Business'. I stood near the counter, clicking numbers on a counter. The counter told me, when I held it up to the light of a can of ginger beer, that the same bunches of kids had been buying cod and chips, skate and chips, haddock and chips, sausage in batter and chips, and pastie and frites. In vinegar I scrawled on my hand the conclusion. Here too, the kids did indeed like buying the same things in different formats. In Banbury we hung around the second floor of a bookshop. Banbury Books is one of only three shops in Banbury to consist of more than one storey. Odd customers browsed the Literary Theory section. One of them, a young man with a flange and a fringe pedal, bought three books. It was now or never. We followed him down the stairs and into the brilliant light of the street. - I say, I said, could you show me those books you just bought? At a café table we sipped diet pink lemonade at 65p a glass, and studied the books and their contents. They were all by Roland Barthes. One was called 'Infinity of Hesitations', a rarity shipped over from Canada. Another was 'New Critical Essays', the usual thing, if overpriced for a slim volume. The third was a limited-edition Barthes Reader, produced in Doncaster by a Mr K Langley. Why the sudden rush of Barthes? Our young customer confessed: he was such an admirer of the essay on La Rouchefoucauld. Shyly, he drew our attention to one sentence in particular. - I have never, he whispered, found another sentence of such length. It's a one-time thing, I know. We read. We might be tempted to make this degrading relation (since it demotes appearance for the sake of an always less glorious reality) into the logical expression of what has been called La Rouchefoucauld's pessimism; doubtless the restriction, especially if it starts from the virtues to end with the accidents and passions, is not euphoric: in appearance it is an avaricious, constrained movement, it corrodes the generosity of the world, and its diversity as well; but this pessimism is ambiguous; it is also the fruit of a thirst, if not for explication, at least for explicitation; it participates in a certain disillusion, no doubt, consonant with the author's aristocratic situation; but also, surely, in a positive impulse of rationalization, of the integration of disparate elements: La Rouchefoucauld's vision is not dialectical, and for that reason it is a despairing one; but it is rationalistic, and for that reason, like every philosophy of clarity, it is progressive; copying La Rouchefoucauld himself, we might say in the restrictive form so dear to him: La Rouchefoucauld's pessimism is only an incomplete rationalism. Back in London we compiled our results so far. There was no getting away from it: it looked as though the kids actually liked buying the same things in different formats at inflated prices. I took my Courage in one hand and called Tim Hopkins to tell him. Ring. Ring. ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the undead Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister(a)missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo(a)missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+

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