February 2003 - Sinister

Sinister: I could tell you a story that will make you cry
by James Thorniley 24 Feb '03

24 Feb '03

Hello sinister Oh how I have neglected you.. Missing all the recent fun. I noticed the biannual forbidden furore over what we are allowed to say on the list has gone by. No major casualties this time though I regret, its almost as if we all like each other now. I'm surely not the only one whose favourite ever sinister moment is this post: http://www.missprint.org/sinister/mhonarc/200101/msg00348.html Ok so maybe it caused some anguish and offense at the time but in retrospect its dead funny in its pure stupidness. Ooh! I really hope I can make the gig. And Glasgow! Again! Yay! Glasgow! So my attention was distracted from Sam Walton's enchanting eyes (I assume you all saw "15 to 1"?), by melanie laubach's amazing story: >>facing the oral part...we got started and it was just a bit of small >>talk...about...gender trouble...but not that strange...must have been >>less than ten minutes...i'd passed...out...keeping on yelling...i made >>it...i passed! Oh sinister please tell me a real smutty story so I don't have to garble peoples words. Incidentally melanie your english is very good and congratulations. And here's a fun thing to do with the time - look up list celebrity's first posts. I quite enjoy the first post of Mr Kenneth P Y Chu (http://www.missprint.org/sinister/mhonarc/200003/msg00084.html) who takes, count them, a whole 7 lines before he tries to hit on a girl. Smooth! Now is the point where normally I would promise that next time I will send a relevant and interesting post, but frankly, I'm not going to. The next post I send will most likely be more garbled nonsense. Sometimes I wonder what people must think of me... but I normally try not to be so vain. James x +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-+ Snipp snapp snut, sa var sagan slut! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: picnics, anthems, and blog rings
by Retro^Sec 24 Feb '03

24 Feb '03

Lucy said: I feel all excited and bouncy. I think we should have our picnic somewhere with a netball court so the girls can wear little skirts and knee-high socks and airtex shirts and have their hair in bunchies. I wanna know what the boys will wear. I'd suggest they go in birthday suits, but I don't fancy seeing a lot of weedy skinny indie boys with shrivelled bits (May is still practically February). So I shan't suggest that. 17TH may, is of course, NATIONAL NORWEGIAN DAY! Which is wonderful. Its to celebrate the day when Norway got independence, which isn't totally true, cos it was 17th of May 1814, when Norway got independence from Denmark, but went slap bang into union with Sweden. A consolation prize for being on the winning side of the Nepolonic Wars and losing Finland to Russia (Denmark had backed the wrong horse). But its the date celebrated anyway. As I recall the Norwegian parties we held at uni, it always involved vast quantities of booze, and usually more booze, and a bit of singing of national anthems, which I won't indulge you with cos I only know the first line. Anyway, its about mountains and hills and mums and dads and how they're all ace in norway, you know, the usual anthemy shit. My mum can play it on glockenspiel. Its a real girlie anthem, in terms of being able to get the right pitch. Talking of Norway, my mum is watching some film from Norway right now, and I swear, theres this bloke who looks like a cross between that dude from Ed TV, the Wedding Planner and Stuart Murdoch. Prrrr. Anyway, I shall be there, with or without bells on. My mum won't, she'll be giggly drunk by 10am and possibly sitting on the lap of some Norwegian boy student in his 20s. Every year. Sheesh. Anyway, Apart from that, I've begun a wee blog webring for sinister. Its still in the "being built" process, and you can view my progress at http://www.geocities.com/retrosec Its in progress, so hold your horses with the criticism. Hold your horses with the criticism anyway, I don't like unsolicited advice. Yes, I am ungrateful that way. I want to keep it simple, and basic becuase I can't be bothered for complexities that take forever to learn and hours to figure out whats wrong with it if something goes wrong. Ta idleberry x ===== <a href="http://retrosec.blogspot.com/">http://retrosec.blogspot.com/</a> thoughts __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Everything you'll ever need on one web page from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts http://uk.my.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 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-+ Snipp snapp snut, sa var sagan slut! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: I'm always willing to learn when you've got something to teach
by Christine Irene 24 Feb '03

24 Feb '03

G'day to all of you in sinister land. Here I sit, in weather conditions far different from those mentioned in my last post. It is around 18 degrees and snowing. sodding snow. grr. I hope that all of you had a nice weekend. I did, nothing too glamorous. shopping for flax seeds and jelly bellies, supermarket shopping for vegan cheese, soy milk, and fresh dried chammomile. a lovely lunch, some oscar wilde reading...you know, the usual. a funny thing. most everyone i know loves "The Royal Tenenbaums" When I first saw this movie, with Chris :o), I liked it well enough....I just thought that "Rushmore" and "Bottle Rocket" were far superior. Since then I have watched TRT several times and, ind myself liking it less and less. I don't think the charecters are in any way likable or interesting, and the film just bores me. I keep watching it thinking that I am missing some nuance or aesthetic that will make me understand what the bloody big deal is. I just don't see it. I start school in 2 weeks time. I am, in a word, PETRIFIED!!!!!!!!! I mean this is it, put up or shut up....etc. I am just a scoach intimidated about being the only girl, and I pray that there are people there with far less experience than mine, so I don't feel like the Forrest Gump of the class. Oh well, My 2 year old associate has just informed me that it is time to put the mac to sleep.. :o) I hope this finds all of you well. in the words of oscar wilde "Vivian, You're a FASCIST!!!" :o) ~stine __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more http://taxes.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 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-+ Snipp snapp snut, sa var sagan slut! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: provincial picnicage agogo
by R.Playforth＠sussex.ac.uk 24 Feb '03

24 Feb '03

OK, you can come down off your tenterhooks now. The fourth (?) official Brighton pic/pubnic is going ahead as planned this Saturday, 1st March, St David's Day etc. It will begin with me gathering up whichsoever of you are coming on trains at the station, at 3pm or thereabouts depending on train arrival times. Then I imagine we will hit The George, a nice pub at the bottom of Trafalgar Street (left turn down the hill outside station.) From there, who knows? The beach will be involved I dare say, with melancholy inspection of collapsed pier included. Also DDR and related FUN. Speaking of which, I nominate KEN as London co-ordinator person... so contact him to make arrangements for travelling together? I can put up a few people at my flat, but only 3 or 4 really, so let me know if you need to be one of them! My phone number is 07944 074873 and I hope you realise just how trusting I am of you all to give out that information :) So that's: Brighton Saturday 1st March 3pm onwards And I'll confirm all this again before the end of the week. Hope to see you there! Love Archel ****************** Visit www.buzzwords.ndo.co.uk for the best new writing on the web. Email submissions(a)buzzwords.ndo.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 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-+ Snipp snapp snut, sa var sagan slut! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: In Be-TWEE-n Days, or something
by Paulo Stinsoni 24 Feb '03

24 Feb '03

Twee? When I was a young(er) man, me and my friends would listen to music branded as "twee". They were such wonderful collaborations as "The Field Mice", the beautiful "Tallulah Gosh" (and "Heavenly" of course), the "Haywains", the "Fat Tulips", "BMX bandits", (none of those would get through the Pop Idols process, thank God) oh lots of them, and I can't remember them now, as is often the case when you try (I suppose if I didn't try to remember, I wouldn't fail). Anyway, now I hear all you youngsters throwing the "T" word about like a comfy old cardigan, and I like it. When I first heard B&S I was falling asleep in a young lady's room, and as I listened to "Is it wicked not to care" it was a like falling back in time as I fell asleep. All those old fanzines, the Whaaa CD, compilation tapes, flexis, Sarah records, it all drifted back as I drifted to sleep. Putting it all together it got me thinking. How old are all of you out there? (I am 34, can I look down at you all as a granddaddy of twee? Probly (I like to misspell that word) not, but I bet I'm in the upper quartile) Do you remember the old twee days of the late 80's early 90's? If you do remember then tell me what you miss, I want to know. Thanks for listening Paulo PS Laura Llew - I haven't got a trading card, am I missing something? (other than the trading card, and your love) PPS Yazaar! _________________________________________________________________ Overloaded with spam? With MSN 8, you can filter it out http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail&pgmarket=en-gb&XAPID=32&DI=1059 +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-+ Snipp snapp snut, sa var sagan slut! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: postmen and parallel universities
by Alex Goffey 24 Feb '03

24 Feb '03

Hello hello, So my life as a lazy uni student on holidays has ended, and as of today, I've reverted back to just being a lazy uni student. Well, maybe I'm not actually *that* lazy, since I bothered to turn up to a 9am lecture on a Monday morning on the first day of classes. So that has to count for something. Nevertheless, it surely has to be slightly better than working in an office job..although, with my current brainless job in a supermarket and working on weekends to actually pay for things, a decent job wouldn't be too bad. I can see my three hour breaks being used for the sole purpose of procrastinatory activities - oh the temptation, good record stores are a 10 minute walk away! On the upside, I get to make videos this semester. And I'm also seeing The Breeders on Sunday. Yay! On the downside, no valentines present has yet arrived for me, despite mine reaching the Perth part of Australia in good time. Boo hiss. I am certain that the mailman conspires against me - once, a mixtape from Sweden took seven months to land in my mailbox. Seven months! Another time a mixtape was sent back to me because the address had washed off. I suspect those conspiring postmen spilt their beer on it...or I shouldn't have written the address in texta. I blame the posties. It's raining outside, and I think it's going to keep raining for the next few days. The best thing about rain is sitting on a train, by a window, either reading or sleeping or looking out, listening to records. Last semester, when I bought 'Tigermilk', it had permanent residence in my discman and hence, helped me survive the semester. I think I'll employ it again this year. Amazingly, today I didn't fall asleep on the train, but tomorrow might be a different story... Oh good, Australia is doing well in the cricket...hmmm well actually, how could we not??? xox Alex p.s. I would just like to declare that Astrid is great, and so are Christine and Elizabeth. Yay! ========================================= The best looking boys are taken The best looking girls are staying inside http://www.geocities.com/veruca_salt_97/ http://darlingalex.diaryland.com/ _________________________________________________________________ MSN Instant Messenger now available on Australian mobile phones. Go to http://ninemsn.com.au/mobilecentral/hotmail_messenger.asp +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-+ Snipp snapp snut, sa var sagan slut! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: The scars of Beckham healed (tho this e-mail is more about GIGGS)
by Kenneth P Y Chu 24 Feb '03

24 Feb '03

Hi all, I saw a guy on a tube train with tourettes syndrome the other day and he kept swearing at people. Especially when he kept trying to read this other guy's newspaper, whenever the guy moved tourettes man would should "FUCK YOU" really loudly. And also harassing this girl who liked to sit on the tube train floor, who herself was quite odd indeed for that reason. Fuck. Chris Geddes is a man of taste. He demonstrated this fact when he provided the A for someone's Q at http://www.banchory.net/belleandsebastian/qanda.html ------ <Jeremy Quist - California> Q: My roommate and I just bought a couple decks of your Belle and Sebastian playing cards. We want to play some card games with them and just wanted to know what some of the bands' favorite card games are. <Mick> A: Shithead. That's the name of the game, incidentally. <Chris> A: Late night poker. ------ Ahh, yes, a fellow late night poker enthusiast. The next question for Chris though, should be "Can you explain the dealer button to us?" Chris Geddes is a man of such good taste that I have decided to go and watch the band he is in this May, when they'll be playing! For those who haven't yet signed up to the B&S news email list(http://www.banchoryshop.net/belleandsebastian/list/list.asp) here are some bits that are mentioned on an e-mail from Katrina, and on the B&S Website News Section... >From: <shop(a)banchory.net> >To: <pykachu100(a)hotmail.com> >Subject: Belle & Sebastian support Concern & The Sunday Herald''s Appeal >for Africa >Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2003 12:11:45 -0000 > >Belle & Sebastian are to appear in a concert to highlight the current food >crisis in Africa. > >The band were invited to headline the benefit show at the Glasgow Royal >Concert Hall by the Sunday Herald and Concern who have been working >together to raise funds and highlight the issues surrounding poverty in >the developing world. > >Stuart Murdoch says "We''re really pleased to be able to help out with >this initiative. I''m confident that any money we raise will be used 100% >for the good. It''s maybe not a great time with everyone crapping >themselves over Iraq. In the case of Ethiopia, though, it''s a relatively >simple matter. There''s a lot people who are going to die of starvation >unless they get help. We are in the privileged position of being able to >do something about it, however small, so I''m really glad the Sunday >Herald and Concern asked us to help out." > >The Concern Concert for Africa featuring Belle and Sebastian, The >Delgados, hosted by Karen Dunbar and featuring other very special guests >will be on Saturday May 17th 2003. > >Tickets are be priced at £25.00 and £18.50 (restricted view) and are >available from 10am on Monday 24th February in person at the GRCH Box >Office on Sauchiehall Street, or by phoning the Box Office on 0141 353 >8000. Tickets are restricted to 4 tickets per caller only. There will be >a credit card fee of 50p per ticket, but no charge for cash or cheque >payments at the box office. > >For more information, please visit:- >http://www.concern.net and >http://www.sundayherald.com/ > A couple of summers ago B&S played at the Barrelands in Glasgow, it was really great. I hope this year it'll be even better! There was a massive sinister meetup last time round too... Maybe England vs Scotland sinisterfitba rematch is in order! Fucking A. Ken P.S.: Here is the above e-mail with paragraphing removed for Kieran Devaney's reading pleasure... ================================================= Hi all, I saw a guy on a tube train with tourettes syndrome the other day and he kept swearing at people. Especially when he kept trying to read this other guy's newspaper, whenever the guy moved tourettes man would should "FUCK YOU" really loudly. And also harassing this girl who liked to sit on the tube train floor, who herself was quite odd indeed for that reason. Fuck. Chris Geddes is a man of taste. He demonstrated this fact when he provided the A for someone's Q at http://www.banchory.net/belleandsebastian/qanda.html------<Jeremy Quist - California> Q: My roommate and I just bought a couple decks of your Belle and Sebastian playing cards. We want to play some card games with them and just wanted to know what some of the bands' favorite card games are. <Mick> A: Shithead. That's the name of the game, incidentally. <Chris> A: Late night poker.------Ahh, yes, a fellow late night poker enthusiast. The next question for Chris though, should be "Can you explain the dealer button to us?"Chris Geddes is a man of such good taste that I have decided to go and watch the band he is in this May, when they'll be playing! For those who haven't yet signed up to the B&S news email list (http://www.banchoryshop.net/belleandsebastian/list/list.asp) here are some bits that are mentioned on an e-mail from Katrina, and on the B&S Website News Section...>From: <shop(a)banchory.net>>To: <pykachu100(a)hotmail.com>>Subject: Belle & Sebastian support Concern & The Sunday Herald''s Appeal for Africa Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2003 12:11:45 -0000 Belle & Sebastian are to appear in a concert to highlight the current food>crisis in Africa. The band were invited to headline the benefit show at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall by the Sunday Herald and Concern who have been working together to raise funds and highlight the issues surrounding poverty in the developing world. Stuart Murdoch says "We''re really pleased to be able to help out with this initiative. I''m confident that any money we raise will be used 100% for the good. It''s maybe not a great time with everyone crapping themselves over Iraq. In the case of Ethiopia, though, it''s a relatively simple matter. There''s a lot people who are going to die of starvation unless they get help. We are in the privileged position of being able to do something about it, however small, so I''m really glad the Sunday Herald and Concern asked us to help out." The Concern Concert for Africa featuring Belle and Sebastian, The Delgados, hosted by Karen Dunbar and featuring other very special guests will be on Saturday May 17th 2003. Tickets are be priced at £25.00 and £18.50 (restricted view) and are available from 10am on Monday 24th February in person at the GRCH Box Office on Sauchiehall Street, or by phoning the Box Office on 0141 353 8000. Tickets are restricted to 4 tickets per caller only. There will be a credit card fee of 50p per ticket, but no charge for cash or cheque payments at the box office. For more information, please visit:- http://www.concern.net and http://www.sundayherald.com/ A couple of summers ago B&S played at the Barrelands in Glasgow, it was really great. I hope this year it'll be even better! There was a massive sinister meetup last time round too... Maybe England vs Scotland sinisterfitba rematch is in order! Ken _________________________________________________________________ Worried what your kids see online? Protect them better with MSN 8 http://join.msn.com/?page=features/parental&pgmarket=en-gb&XAPID=186&DI=1059 +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-+ Snipp snapp snut, sa var sagan slut! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: The Walk
by P F 24 Feb '03

24 Feb '03

The cold of the morning. The streets of Clive Bell and John Sutherland. The Daily Mirror placards. NO WAR, over a soldier hunkered in the desert. It doesn't make quite as much sense as it could. Still I admire their courage: more than did the many others who carefully, disdainfully rip the newspaper's name from the placards, and carry them thus adjusted. Chanting is a lost art. 20 years ago we would cry "Maggie Maggie Maggie: Out Out Out" - and so on. I tried that today, if only as a scarcely-earned comment on the poverty of the contemporary chant. I didn't get beyond the first line. The best chanters I heard were singers, or rappers, of a kind, parallel to Green Park. They had rhythmic and melodic invention, and seemed to invent their sometimes obscene numbers on the spot. Elsewhere, a pair of girls would start shouting '1-2-3-4: we don't want your fucking war' only under the cover of one of the general waves of noise that would sweep up and down the lines for nearly no reason. Elsewhere again, a lass singing 'Blair the Bomber: can we stop him? Yes, we can', over and over again, aparently oblivious to the rest of the world's refusal to join in. All of this is a deficit. The noise you could make on a protest used to be a major part of its meaning, a royal road to solidarity. That goes for singing too. There was little of either today, on any grand scale. The whistle has taken over, feeling like a shred of club country culture descended to the political streets. Compensation for the sonic deficit: the visual surplus. Certain banners pre-formed: I spent most of the day with a generic bloodstained 'NO'. But so many, so many had coined and made their own. MAKE TEA NOT WAR PEAS NOT WAR WAR <--> TERRORISM, a vicious circle LIBRARIANS SAY SSHHHH, STOP THE WAR NICE BUSH / NASTY BUSH I LIKE MY BUSH BETTER THIS WAR IS UNJUSTIFIED, IMMORAL, FUTILE AND ILL- CONSIDERED (actually I forget the last adjective) I'LL FIGHT CRIME, BUT I WON'T FIGHT IRAQ (carried by... Batman) WAR: NEVER. PEACE: CLEVER. POETRY: FOREVER On screen they look poor enough things. I have forgotten better ones. But to walk back down the line, away from Hyde Park, towards the lights of the Ritz, and see thousands and thousands more still coming past you in the opposite direction, their textual idiosyncrasies as good as infinite, their spirits still high after 3 or 4 hours' walking, their diversity natural, their unity real, their rolling extent phenomenal -- this was among the great political sensations of my life. The overspill and spread of the approach to Hyde Park. The pretty girls in long coats and woolly hats. Speakers, several thousand people away: on screens like Sting or Rod. Relatively anonymous organizers: generalities: 'we're here because we want Tony Blair to listen to us... you should be proud of yourselves: we're proud of you'. Ramblers, people who seemed to trail into irrelevances when handed the microphone. And more familiar faces and voices. Harold Pinter: the anarchists around me pricked up their ears; something felt historic about this intervention. His sentences were barked and sharp and frequently overstated: 'The United States is a monster which has got out of control'. His 'poem' is a mere off-the-chest rant. His one word for Tony Blair, perhaps a joke on 'education', was 'Resign, resign, resign'. Still, he'd known how to catch a moment's drama. Bianca Jagger didn't; Mick Jagger would have been better. But Ken Livingstone: this was another of those episodes not to be forgotten. All these years of compromise and accommodation and, allegedly, cynicism; all the years of back-biting and briefing against him. But he spoke the best on the day, and it came from as near the heart as I need. He spoke like a real politician, a man who's trained for years in speaking to crowds. He pushed buttons to make whistles blow. He spoke as Mayor of London, 'proud to welcome the biggest demonstration to be held in Britain in 2,000 years'. (Really?) He said the cops had told him the march was a million strong, which meant you could double it. And he spoke at times like the Livingstone of old, like it was 1985 - a trick of the light and air, but also many truths in there. Standard wisdoms of the left, about Western hypocrisy over its past relations with Iraq; memories of Tony Benn taking that stand many years ago; outright ad hominem hostility to Bush. You or I could knock out this stuff. Hearing the Mayor of London do it was something else. A lunatic rushed on to complain about congestion charges. Ken paused a moment, then remarked that it was nice to be able to walk through London for once. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Shopping - Send Flowers for Valentine's Day http://shopping.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 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-+ Snipp snapp snut, sa var sagan slut! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: RETREAD w/ added omissions
by Kieran Devaney 23 Feb '03

23 Feb '03

(i *****H8***** that crazy transmogrification of inverted commas - i've heard it happens to men a lot but, well, that was my first time. honest. here's how it should have looked folx) Afterwards we stood outside, sorting things out, weighing them up etc, it was late, the music on the system had been fun, I think Id enjoyed it more than the others or in a different way perhaps. Typically I couldnt concentrate on the conversation, instead turning my thoughts to the late night mobile greasy spoon cart parked just outside, a scrap of a queue bustling round it drunkenly food nobody needed, that theyd regret whenever. We had torn posters down from the walls, Ive done it myself, things saved, and they never check your bag here, in or out. And the plight of the man with such unsociable hours, out in the muggy heat of his portable kitchen, out in the dead cold of the early hours began to bother me, that he could only catch the tail end of peoples fun, all those snatches of conversations, ours included, must be a world apart to him, a world he might make a living out of, but isnt a part of. I wondered how you could romanticise this, if it was possible, Roddy Doyle came close, but then I suppose his books always do. I thought a picture might suffice, but I didnt have my camera with me, perhaps next time. I glance back to hear someone ask me a question; I nod in reply, a yes. Then we part ways, half this and half that. I walk home very slowly and in near complete silence with K and M, who are staying over, K is in a bad mood, but thankfully not with me. When I wake up the next morning theyve both left and gone without a trace. Jay organised the Sinister Valentines Exchange and though I am unaware of what inner machinations were taking place, it all went swimmingly from my end, despite the long address. A big thank you to Jay for all that. Recently Ive taken to (no matter how I phrase this its going to sound weird, however liberally I employ scare quotes, so Im just going to go for it) borrowing peoples disks that get left in computer rooms around the university its becoming a habit, and not a very pleasant one at that. It started quite innocently, as these things so often do, with my accidentally shoving a disk which had been left in the drive of the computer I was working into my bag on a couple of weeks ago. Arriving at home to find the rogue floppy I, out of pure curiosity and I suppose the hazy notion that I might be able to discover the identity of the owner and return the disk to them, put it into my computer here and had a look. Now you might be expecting me to have found some almighty revelation or piece of blackmail-worthy salaciousness. But no. What I did find was a CV, an application form to work on the tills at Morrisons (and you wouldnt believe the questions you have to answer to land one of those oh so desirable positions, they want to know your shoe size and everything!) and a couple of charts and tables for, I presume, some Chemistry experiment which meant nothing to me really. The overly intrusive questions from the people at Morrisons aside you might be thinking there was nothing of interest there at all except you wouldnt because, well, you arent stupid (thats not my official line on Sinister by the way, just for the purposes of this), and Ive already told you that it *was* of interest. Quite why is more difficult to tally without seeming creepy or, worse still, sinister (ahem). But I suppose it stems from ideas about public and private, about how the way people write differs from how they communicate verbally, how people want themselves to be perceived, what exam grades and former employments tell us about a person, what an essay tells us about a person, and so on, Im really not doing it justice here, I suppose I have to include the illicit thrill of intrusion, of being a voyeur too, that does it. And in this chemistry students list of menial jobs versus really quite impressive exam grades (including an A* at art for GCSE) versus her predictably MOR list of interests (the novels of Terry Pratchett and swimming) was a kind of insight that you cant really get anywhere else, anonymous and incomplete, more the bland negative table space than actual pieces, just a glimpse or a snatch of overheard conversation a bit like the people swishing past my friend and I at the train station that I found fascinating and he found dull. The next morning I put the disk back more or less where found it, hopefully she hadnt gone back for it before that Ive put all of them back so far, its only fair, they might be in need of the information, or just not inclined to retype it all, or it might be their only disk, or whatever. But since then I have found a clutch of disks left lying around all over the place (youd be surprised how many people are so neglectful), and have read all sorts of bits and pieces, a girls geography essay containing the most unenthusiastic call to arms to save the planet that Ive ever come across, a Muse discography copied from some fansite, various graphs and charts which, with no frame of reference, I have no hope of decoding. Sometimes without names, or even indications of personalities a set of unmarked, unannotated graphs lumped together with a photo of Angkor Wat at sunset. I think I want people to surprise me, but then Im glad when they dont, or when they only do a bit, in a non-threatening way. I cant help it I was shocked when I heard Eminem swear, so used was I to hearing the cut versions on the radio that when I downloaded that Kid 606 song where he speeds up the vocal on Purple Pills it honestly threw me ditto when I heard the uncut versions of those much loved singles also on the download. God bless the interweb. I was thinking, perhaps in an attempt to reign-in this vaguely worrying use of my time I might invest in some cheap disks and then leave them lying around with, I dont know, something elaborate but ridiculous, theatrical but non-threatening on them and stick an email address on too and see if I get any replies. Disk art. Something like that. Im going to give this a rest now before I start sounding like the guy from Teeth n Smiles who went around with a severed finger in his pocket in order to seem interesting. Bloody medical students. Today was, I think, the best day of the year so far. Weatherwise that is. I went out for a long walk, taking routes I dont normally bother with. It was nice. I wont bore you with the details, except one. The route that I chose took me through some of the more well to do areas of Sheffield, replete with big gaunt houses set away from the pavement, big, lush gardens and so forth. So there I was wandering through there thinking how pleasant it all was, not a soul about or anything, not even cars, when across the road I spot a boy, who cant have been older than fifteen I dont think, perhaps not quite as young as he looked (but whoever is in this day and age? Oh ho ho ho!) given that he was sporting what I can only describe as the most massivest mohican haircut I have ever seen. Even two superlatives dont do its biggest-ness justice. Huge it was. And dyed every conceivable colour except, perhaps, yellow. He was attired in classic punxor chic (er, whatever that is) I wanted to take a photo, but I thought it might seem entirely rude, and as he passed I noticed that he had Crass who I quite like, written in tipp-ex on the back of his studded leather jacket, along with a slew of other bands Im not so familiar with. I thought briefly about shouting Fight war, not wars! after him, but that passed quickly enough. What does it mean to rebel like that anymore? To be different. Duffle coats dont even mark you out as an indiekid anymore do they? Everyones got one. How out of place did that kid seem amongst the Sunday afternoon birdsong and posh houses? How out of place indeed. Perhaps that wasnt what he wanted anyway. I bet he doesnt even like Avril Lavigne. In other news, how homo-erotic is Moby-Dick? They left that bit out of The Pagemaster didnt they? Im still reeling. Also Ive been reading John Cage and am planning on writing my next post with the aid of the I Ching. Well, again I'd like to write more on this one too, but I'm sure you wouldn't and plus they've kicked off with Van Morrison next door or across the way, loud enough so I can't tell, so I'm off to do something else. And there are disk drives that need checking. Mind Out, - Kieran _________________________________________________________________ Overloaded with spam? With MSN 8, you can filter it out http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail&pgmarket=en-gb&XAPID=32&DI=1059 +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-+ Snipp snapp snut, sa var sagan slut! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: a frisson of vicarious transgression
by Kieran Devaney 23 Feb '03

23 Feb '03

Afterwards we stood outside, sorting things out, weighing them up etc, it was late, the music on the system had been fun, I think I^Òd enjoyed it more than the others ^Ö or in a different way perhaps. Typically I couldn^Òt concentrate on the conversation, instead turning my thoughts to the late night mobile greasy spoon cart parked just outside, a scrap of a queue bustling round it drunkenly ^Ö food nobody needed, that they^Òd regret whenever. We had torn posters down from the walls, I^Òve done it myself, things saved, and they never check your bag here, in or out. And the plight of the man with such unsociable hours, out in the muggy heat of his portable kitchen, out in the dead cold of the early hours began to bother me, that he could only catch the tail end of people^Òs fun, all those snatches of conversations, ours included, must be a world apart to him, a world he might make a living out of, but isn^Òt a part of. I wondered how you could romanticise this, if it was possible, Roddy Doyle came close, but then I suppose his books always do. I thought a picture might suffice, but I didn^Òt have my camera with me, perhaps next time. I glance back to hear someone ask me a question; I nod in reply, a yes. Then we part ways, half this and half that. I walk home very slowly and in near complete silence with K and M, who are staying over, K is in a bad mood, but thankfully not with me. When I wake up the next morning they^Òve both left and gone without a trace. Jay organised the Sinister Valentines Exchange and though I am unaware of what inner machinations were taking place, it all went swimmingly from my end, despite the long address. A big thank you to Jay for all that. Recently I^Òve taken to (no matter how I phrase this it^Òs going to sound weird, however liberally I employ scare quotes, so I^Òm just going to go for it) ^Ñborrowing^Ò people^Òs disks that get left in computer rooms around the university ^Ö it^Òs becoming a habit, and not a very pleasant one at that. It started quite innocently, as these things so often do, with my accidentally shoving a disk which had been left in the drive of the computer I was working into my bag on a couple of weeks ago. Arriving at home to find the rogue floppy I, out of pure curiosity and I suppose the hazy notion that I might be able to discover the identity of the owner and return the disk to them, put it into my computer here and had a look. Now you might be expecting me to have found some almighty revelation or piece of blackmail-worthy salaciousness. But no. What I did find was a CV, an application form to work on the tills at Morrison^Òs (and you wouldn^Òt believe the questions you have to answer to land one of those oh so desirable positions, they want to know your shoe size and everything!) and a couple of charts and tables for, I presume, some Chemistry experiment which meant nothing to me really. The overly intrusive questions from the people at Morrison^Òs aside you might be thinking there was nothing of interest there at all ^Ö except you wouldn^Òt because, well, you aren^Òt stupid (that^Òs not my official line on Sinister by the way, just for the purposes of this), and I^Òve already told you that it *was* of interest. Quite why is more difficult to tally without seeming creepy or, worse still, sinister (ahem). But I suppose it stems from ideas about public and private, about how the way people write differs from how they communicate verbally, how people want themselves to be perceived, what exam grades and former employments tell us about a person, what an essay tells us about a person, and so on, I^Òm really not doing it justice here, I suppose I have to include the illicit thrill of intrusion, of being a voyeur too, that does it. And in this chemistry student^Òs list of menial jobs versus really quite impressive exam grades (including an A* at art for GCSE) versus her predictably MOR list of interests (the novels of Terry Pratchett and swimming) was a kind of insight that you can^Òt really get anywhere else, anonymous and incomplete, more the bland negative table space than actual pieces, just a glimpse or a snatch of overheard conversation ^Ö a bit like the people swishing past my friend and I at the train station that I found fascinating and he found dull. The next morning I put the disk back more or less where found it, hopefully she hadn^Òt gone back for it before that ^Ö I^Òve put all of them back so far, it^Òs only fair, they might be in need of the information, or just not inclined to retype it all, or it might be their only disk, or whatever. But since then I have found a clutch of disks left lying around all over the place (you^Òd be surprised how many people are so neglectful), and have read all sorts of bits and pieces, a girl^Òs geography essay containing the most unenthusiastic call to arms to save the planet that I^Òve ever come across, a Muse discography copied from some fansite, various graphs and charts which, with no frame of reference, I have no hope of decoding. Sometimes without names, or even indications of personalities ^Ö a set of unmarked, unannotated graphs lumped together with a photo of Angkor Wat at sunset. I think I want people to surprise me, but then I^Òm glad when they don^Òt, or when they only do a bit, in a non-threatening way. I can^Òt help it ^Ö I was shocked when I heard Eminem swear, so used was I to hearing the cut versions on the radio that when I downloaded that Kid 606 song where he speeds up the vocal on ^ÑPurple Pills^Ò it honestly threw me ^Ö ditto when I heard the uncut versions of those much loved singles also on the download. God bless the interweb. I was thinking, perhaps in an attempt to reign-in this vaguely worrying use of my time I might invest in some cheap disks and then leave them lying around ^Ö with, I don^Òt know, something elaborate but ridiculous, theatrical but non-threatening on them ^Ö and stick an email address on too and see if I get any replies. Disk art. Something like that. I^Òm going to give this a rest now before I start sounding like the guy from ^ÑTeeth n Smiles^Ò who went around with a severed finger in his pocket in order to seem ^Ñinteresting^Ò. Bloody medical students. Today was, I think, the best day of the year so far. Weatherwise that is. I went out for a long walk, taking routes I don^Òt normally bother with. It was nice. I wont bore you with the details, except one. The route that I chose took me through some of the more well to do areas of Sheffield, replete with big gaunt houses set away from the pavement, big, lush gardens and so forth. So there I was wandering through there thinking how pleasant it all was, not a soul about or anything, not even cars, when across the road I spot a boy, who can^Òt have been older than fifteen I don^Òt think, perhaps not quite as young as he looked (but whoever is in this day and age? Oh ho ho ho!) given that he was sporting what I can only describe as the most massivest mohican haircut I have ever seen. Even two superlatives don^Òt do it^Òs biggest-ness justice. Huge it was. And dyed every conceivable colour except, perhaps, yellow. He was attired in classic punxor chic (er, whatever that is) ^Ö I wanted to take a photo, but I thought it might seem entirely rude, and as he passed I noticed that he had ^ÑCrass^Ò who I quite like, written in tipp-ex on the back of his studded leather jacket, along with a slew of other band^Òs I^Òm not so familiar with. I thought briefly about shouting ^ÓFight war, not wars!^Ô after him, but that passed quickly enough. What does it mean to rebel like that anymore? To be different. Duffle coats don^Òt even mark you out as an indiekid anymore do they? Everyone^Òs got one. How out of place did that kid seem amongst the Sunday afternoon birdsong and posh houses? How out of place indeed. Perhaps that wasn^Òt what he wanted anyway. I bet he doesn^Òt even like Avril Lavigne. In other news, how homo-erotic is ^ÑMoby-Dick^Ò? They left that bit out of ^ÑThe Pagemaster^Ò didn^Òt they? I^Òm still reeling. Also I^Òve been reading John Cage and am planning on writing my next post with the aid of the I Ching. Well, again I'd like to write more on this one too, but I'm sure you wouldn't and plus they've kicked off with Van Morrison next door or across the way, loud enough so I can't tell, so I'm off to do something else. And there are disk drives that need checking. Et bien, - Kieran _________________________________________________________________ Surf together with new Shared Browsing http://join.msn.com/?page=features/browse&pgmarket=en-gb&XAPID=74&DI=1059 +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-+ Snipp snapp snut, sa var sagan slut! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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