February 2001 - Sinister

Sinister: Not all those who wander are lost.
by Ruvi Simmons 17 Feb '01

17 Feb '01

I feel I really ought to clarify my apparently inflammatory remarks about pretty girls and their capacity to be intellectuals. I doubt it need even be said, but I made a broad generalisation which, of course, is not universally applicable. No generalisations are. However, I offered a possible reason as to why girls more fortunately endowed with physical attributes than others are less likely to feel the need to develop their mental skills. It is certainly not a situation I accept with pleasure, and nor is it one that is confined to women. I will leave the castigation of men for another day, though. As for "pigeon-holing" or stigmatising, that only applies to those who already derive a certain identity with broad social groups. To those who don't, such general, and obviously no infallible, observations wash away like water off duck in a wet suit's back. Since I am sure that what I wrote was not interesting or worthy enough to warrant being paraphrased, I will leave it at that. Besides which, such intellectual semantics are entirely too unromantic and tedious to bother with, although many do (many of them women, I might add). So I shall, if I may, offer a slightly more beautiful anecdote up for whosoever may be interested. On Thursday I visited a friend at King's College in Cambridge and just as I was leaving a fog descended on the quadrangle. It was so thick that the buildings seemed to become less tangible and take on an ethereal mantle. Around the square open ground lay lamps, and they shone through the mist like little moons trapped on earth. Such a scene was enough to make me feel a rising joy, as if I was witnessing a truly precious moment of beauty passing over the earth. But then, to make matters even better (you see, I am not always so negative; things do get better), the organ in King's Chapel began to flood the quadrangle with sonorous sound, like a hypnotic voice beyond speech. I felt, as I stood rooted there, that there are special times, and they occur all over the world and probably have done since the earth itself was a young thing, when events coallesce to form a natural poetry, as if the world itself were conjuring its own verse. And the point of all that? Oh yes, there was a point, it was not just self-indulgence. The point is, I think, to seek those moments out. They can find you, as this one did me, but sometimes they are elusive. They may be elusive, but they are always worth finding. Trawl the world, rove the sky, climb hills, move your body until you find yourself in the centre of natural poetry in action, when the earth recites its own lines of verse. That, I think, was what Walter Pater meant when he said "to burn always with this hard, gem-like flame, to maintain this ecstasy, is success in life". Seek and ye shall find, if I may be so Biblical. Finally, I thought I'd mention one more thing about my dearly departed darling Sylvia Plath. The aforementioned friend once attended a tea party she held when she was studying in Cambridge, and he described her as a self-centred, arrogant litte prig. He was probably right, but that didn't prevent her from being one of the most brilliant, sincere and lyrical poets of the 20th century. I suppose there is another lesson: not all poets are capable of holding congenial tea parties. A lesson worth learning. Ruvi. +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the 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 +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: Vote Murdoch Now!
by Robin Stout 17 Feb '01

17 Feb '01

This morning I received an email entitled "Magnetic Fields" and thought, of course, that it was from the witty and glistening Sinister list and I loosened my trousers. Then I realised it was actually from someone in my department, talking about actual magnetic fields in actual magnets, and I felt stupid and realised I was meant to be working. My clothes are just too noisy. Yesterday I was in the library, trying to be quiet as a hedgehog, but was wearing corduroy trousers and some incredibly squeaky shoes caused quite a commotion. The only other sounds apart from my fizzing trousers and squelching shoes were people turning pages and blinking. Oh the shame of it all! You know, if this town was invaded by Daleks, I'd have no chance. !THERE HE IS! !BEHIND THE DUSTBIN! !I CAN HEAR HIS SQUEEAKY SHOOES! !EXTERRMINATE! I'd never make a spy, either. Who was our cub reporter for the rectorial affair? I should imagine Glasgow is a crazy place to be at the moment, with Stuart visiting hat shops to see which hat makes him look most rectorial, and old women sneakily pasting up Vote Murdoch posters in church halls. Does anyone from Glasgow Uni know what's going on? Robin x PS: George Dickie, are you a Dalek? +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the 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 +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: you were right when you said 'all that glitters isn't gold'
by Emily Wilska 16 Feb '01

16 Feb '01

Allo. So much lately has been making me grin, despite the fact that I had to endure yet another V********'s Day without a proper V********. You lot, combined with the armloads of fabulous cd's I've been spending my money on of late, just sort of make me want to go through my days humming. Before I forget: I met my first real live Sinistereen (well, other than myself) a few weeks back. Indeed, none other than Jason the Pickle Prince, who filled the Hush Hush here in San Francisco for his birthday earlier this month. I recognized him by his hat, and got to chat with him and his girlfriend (also named Emily, which caused me no small confusion) about topics I cannot recall. Fun! Then I sat back down, drank more, and eventually left with a tall and lovely Canadian boy, whom I had to stand on my toes to kiss. So much excitement in one small evening. Laura Llew mentioned "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs," which is undeniably one of my favorite children's books. For that mention, Laura, I shall hereby fulfill your request for a mix tape. Just send me your address and 90 minutes of musical glory will make their way to your door within the next week. Anyway. Ruvi said I think the problem is that pretty girls do not make great thinkers. and then went on to say a good deal more, much of which raised my hackles. Without wanting to start a huge debate here, I will just say that filing girls away into either the 'pretty' or 'smart' categories is a massive oversimplification at best. And maybe you were sort of kidding, Ruvi, in which case I'm fidgeting in my chair for no real reason. But if you really believe we're living in an 'obscene society of fleeting images,' would it not make sense to perhaps avoid making claims like those you made? It just seems sort of disappointing to me that even in 2001, and even in a community as ostensibly open and intelligent and feeling as Sinister, one can claim that women are still either attractive or intelligent, with no middle ground. I, for one, think many of the females on this list are proof positive that that sort of thinking just doesn't hold. But off the soapbox. You should all really go out NOW and beg, borrow, or buy (just don't steal) as much Built to Spill as you can get your hands on. Time for more coffee and a nice dose of cold meds. -Emily +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the 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 +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: Electronic Honey 2
by Peter Carter 16 Feb '01

16 Feb '01

Well, I'm at Uni in Bath at the moment, so I can't go to the Electronic Honey thing, but I am told that there is another one is April sometime. I was just wondering whether there is anyone on this list who lives anywhere near Manchester and is willing to meet up... "...and of course everyone felt appropriately shocked and saddened by the women's affliction..." The Happy Reaper +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the 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 +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: Go Baby!
by Lucy Alder 16 Feb '01

16 Feb '01

Q: Which Oxford Sinisterine is best mates with Handy Andy? A: Carol Smillie Steve Hello everyone! Hello Valentine's miserablists! Cheer up, you old buggers, having no sweetheart is only just a little bit worse than living hundreds of miles away from your sweetheart. Didn't you know? Miss Honey's little side project is a great big international indie dating agency. Through the power of the modern interweb and with a little bit of help from Miss Crush, plus the odd bottle of picnic plonk, she's fixed up more than a couple of LDRs (that's Long Distance Relationships to you, baby) and they all sat on their own on the 14th, thinking of people they weren't going to be munching heart-shaped chocolates with. Didn't you? Yes, I'm talking about *you*. And *you*. Don't you love typos? Michelle wrote > Well so I almost kocked him over. I am easily amused. Robin Stout asked if GEORGE HENRY DICKIE was a Dalek and I thought OHMIGOD! Because I always read GHD's posts in a Dalek voice (in my head, not aloud, one has has to be careful of one's reputation at work) but now I think about it, it's less of a metallic Dalek voice I hear and a bit more of a breathy, whispery one. Kinder Buenos are The Best Thing In The World. Better than Jaffa Cakes, better than Irn Bru. Better than Belle & Seb... well no, maybe they're not quite The Best Thing In The World, but they're darn good, I tell you. It's the melty hazelnut bit in the middle that makes my tummy go flippety flop. According to Kevin Hyde, > Belle and Sebastian fans...are a sub-species of indie kids. But no! You're wrong! We're a super-species. A super-duper-species. Yes indeed. I'm off to the place where Apples grow in Stereo. See ya. Juicy Lucy __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail - only $35 a year! http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the 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 +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: we rule the all-girls parochial school
by Michelle R. 16 Feb '01

16 Feb '01

Oh soo tired...midterms week is over thankfully. This morning I opened a car door and almost knocked over a passing bicyclist..did I spell that right..um. Well so I almost kocked him over. I laughed a bit, not at him, but at the fact of my own stupidity for not looking out before I did open the door. So I laughed, and he turned around and gave me the dirtiest look as if saying "stupid bitch." THEN..I laughed at him. Why did I share this story? I have no clue. Did I mention this is my second post? Well I agree with Ozma about Catholic school girls. I used to go to a catholic grade school, and an all-girls high school. It's funny how I'd hear people saying that it was such a great school, and be thankful that you go to this school..etc etc. Meanwhile 15 year olds were talking about how their freshmen friends were in rehab, exploits in the bathroom between girls which can be classified as soft porn, lunchtime conversations that mothers would cry about, etc etc. I'll leave the rest up to your imagination. Although in retorspect, it's typical high school behavior, but people thought we were a boring bunch. Ooo Oprah's on. I wonder how long B&S will be working on this soundtrack. I seriously doubt they'll tour the US(hopefully one day I'll say..."Oh well I was wrong"). I think it would be nice to travel around in a bus going to B&S shows all over the country..kinda like the Dead heads used to do. *reconsiders* Well, um, traveling around to see them would be nice. Belleheads hmmm. Michelle ===== " If you don't like the sea and don't care for the mountains and don't like the big city either, go hang yourself!" -A Bout de Souffle __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail - only $35 a year! http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the 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 +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: right, write
by Kevin Hyde 16 Feb '01

16 Feb '01

Yeah, thought so. I was trying, with little success it appears, to be somewhat sarcastic. apparently though, this does not translate well into email. David White wrote: As for B&S fans, what difference does it make whether you are a fan who likes them a little bit or a fan who likes them a lot, surely you're still a fan? This kind of music snobbery is disgusting. Surely if you find somebody who likes the same kind of music you should be happy, not immediately want to belittle them for not being a real fan or because they like other bands as well that you might not. I am a fan of B&S, I wouldn't say I was their greatest fan but I like them, just like I like a lot of other bands and other kinds of music, probably bands which rule me out of your so-called "sub-species". ummm. yeah. if you look at my message, the language I use is a little less than serious. especially the "those who REALLY like Belle and Sebastian". that is, as you so astutely and eloquently said, a load of shite. well. i won't be sarcastic from now on. only earnest and logically consistent posts from me. apologies to those who were so deeply offended. Kevin +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the 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 +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: Indie Schmindie
by David White 16 Feb '01

16 Feb '01

You know all this Indie stuff that has been mentioned recently really bugs me. Why do people feel the need to pigeon hole themselves into categories according to the music they like? It's mad really, you don't see old ladies hanging around in groups because of the television programmes they watch, you know the Eastenders posse at one side of the post office dissing the Coronation Street massive on the other side on pension day, or certainly not where I live anyway. Kevin Hyde wrote: "there are people around where I go to school who call themselves indie, but they're really just punk kids who pretend. I think Belle and Sebastian fans (the ones who REALLY like them- you know who you are) are a sub-species of indie kids" No offence mate, but I think that's a lot of shite. Firstly, who defines that someone is "punk" and someone else is "indie" and why can you not be both if you want? Some things in life are inevitable as a result of genetics, taste in music is not, to the best of my knowledge, one of these. Secondly, who decides what criteria are required to be a member of either tribe? Is there a book out there instructing kids what clothes they must wear according to the music they listen to? Thirdly, why do you care what music other people listen to anyway? Listen to what you like, nobody can stop you, but leave other people to listen to what they want and have the opinions they want, it's none of your business. As for B&S fans, what difference does it make whether you are a fan who likes them a little bit or a fan who likes them a lot, surely you're still a fan? This kind of music snobbery is disgusting. Surely if you find somebody who likes the same kind of music you should be happy, not immediately want to belittle them for not being a real fan or because they like other bands as well that you might not. I am a fan of B&S, I wouldn't say I was their greatest fan but I like them, just like I like a lot of other bands and other kinds of music, probably bands which rule me out of your so-called "sub-species". There's a lot of good music out there, music which doesn't always fit with what you might percieve as your taste but which nonetheless you might like if you took the time to listen rather than let your narrowminded prejudices prevent you from listening. David White www.belleandsebastian.freeserve.co.uk +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the 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 +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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None
by Marshall Tindall 16 Feb '01

16 Feb '01

Here, I am in the community centre computer room, with a page left on an essay I don't want to write thats due tommorow and a headache from the cold I've had for too long. I don't mean to sound whiny, thats just the way it is. But at least my girlfriend thinks I'm rather grate. Ahhh....strains of We Rule the School flit through my brain and I relax. I have something special to share with all you sinisterines. Last May I quit the list and rejoined only last month, due to lack of a computer. A lot happened in that time. The most important of which was that I became a father to a beautiful baby boy, named Sebastien. No, he wasn't named after the band, my girlfriend named him and she likes the band but not that much. But...Sebastien was born on September 10, 2000, he was three months premature and stillborn... which made us both very sad, we still are. But he was still beautiful and we gave him a nice funeral, Cordelia (my girlfriend) picked two poems for him and I picked the music ...I picked the Adagio of Mahler's fifth and The Boy Done Wrong Again It seemed fitting as Sebastien's star put mine to shame. None of you may understand but he was very special to me and sometimes though I don't know why I have a hard time admitting that I loved him. Some of my friends were sympathetic, some weren't... My mom was, kinda... she didn't come to the funeral, but she cried, the shame or something was to much for her I guess. Anyway, this wasn't to try to make anybody feel bad or sorry for me, I guess I just needed to get it out. It sounds sappy but live life while you get it, cause some lives are so short and can be so beautiful. Thanks to everybody who reads this ...Bye Sebastien, I love you. Marshall _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the 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 +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: So we paid the leccy bill, we got the shopping (and we still had some)
by rob 16 Feb '01

16 Feb '01

so here i am, roused from the nursery, a little dazed. blink. i had a bad habit, and it involved leaving my new-ish guitar in the corner for weeks at a time. but i snapped it (the habit, thankfully), and have since acquainted myself enough with the open chords to squawk out TIJAMRS. all this leaves the tips of my fingers feeling like i laid them out in front of a freight train. but rehabilitation was not far off, in the form of the enormous thrift store known as The Bins. here the clothes are not on racks, but in deep bins, and fingers are free to roam in search of dirty treasures. shopping's better when you have to wash your hands afterwards. The Bins work like this: employees wheel clothes out, people sift through them for a few hours, then the clothes are whisked to the back where they are compacted into cubes--six feet by six feet by six feet. rumor is that the clothes are shipped off to Africa, but it's a bit of a ways from Portland to there. most of the garments merit immediate incineration. but from amongst those i dug: a spiffy child's tamborine that has feet on it a pair of New Balances a brown and orange beanie a hat that might make me upstanding: labeled "Country Gentleman - Imported British Fabrics" a leather paper-case (this the man at the cash register checked to make sure i was not concealing anything within) the cover to the Human League's "Human" 7-inch. 7 mismatched Argyle socks ("you don't see those much these days" --employee) 1 striped sock 1 cowboy shirt 1 pair, black wrangler jeans all this i had quite a time stuffing into my bag. outside it was rainy, but i got the full fender setup on my bike a few weeks ago, so i put on my red blinkie light and headed home. along the way, i passed over a bridge, and a hulking freight train was passing underneath, so i rode down and watched it trail off. i like to watch the graffiti. Back on the road, some thug in a sedan nearly hit me, and i tried my damnedest to chase him down, to pound on the trunk, but the louse ran the stop sign and sped off. sighs and soap, rob +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the 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 +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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