March 2003 - Sinister - missprint.org

Sinister: expectations
by chippy eileen 29 Mar '03

29 Mar '03

the young ones darling, we're the young ones and the young ones shouldn't be afraid.. the voice of cliff richard drifts up the stairs from the living room. to me, its just an old song with nice lyrics. to frank and margaret its another place and time. those early, early days. trips to london they thought their parents didn't know about (separate rooms, of course, these were different times). stolen kisses. a time when everything seemed full of possibility, and promise. a time when just being alive held its own magic. their freedom stretched out before them, and, apart from a few rather difficult months in the early 1970s, they would share their freedom, compromise it for one another, forever. i have the night off from work. saturday night. i should be out, surveying my own freedom. perhaps finding that somebody to compromise it for. not tonight, though. not for a while. east langerston is a small village (two pubs, a chip shop and a woman who no longer goes from house to house cutting old ladys' hair, because she has her own salon.) and small villages leave nowhere to hide. especially when you find you have become bigger than you ever meant to be. i'll explain. an ink polaroid. this is me and shelley macdonald sitting in the bull. shelley has changed a little from the days before i left. i remember her, the girl she once was. minette, her mother wanted to call her. minette...its exotic. minette would stare at me disparagingly from under layers of eyeshadow. the shining lips would purse, and she'd look away, in search of better people. you'll see she's changed in this picture. yes, that's her, on the other side of the table, drinking a pint of cider which she's too young to buy. a friend cut her hair. spiky, mostly black, except for the the blue she put in herself, just after she had her upper ear pierced. yes, that does say 'system of a down' on her t-shirt. most of the people in the pub look away from us. some regard us, and shelley in particular, with thinly disguised sneers, similar to the sneer she once wore herself with such aptitude. i'll play you the ink cd. it will make things clearer. 'but eileen, if you're gay, you shouldn't be ashamed of it. you should just admit it. be what you are. don't be afraid to stand out.' 'shelley..i'm not gay' 'look, i don't know why you're denying it. this is me, remember. you could tell me anything. if it wasn't for you i might never have changed. god, i look at the way i was then and i can't believe its the same person.' i'll skip this track, she has had too much to drink, and continues in this vein for a while. in the end, i just let it wash over me. it is nice of her to say i inspired her personal changes. apparently, it all stemmed from the day i made her listen to a looper album. how this led to the vision in black she has now become is somewhat mystifying. she says it 'made her listen to weird music'. in the year since, she has progressed from looper to korn. not, in my view, the best progression. but that is her decision. she admires me for prompting the change. i tell her she would have done it herself, given time. so.. when she tells me i shouldn't be afraid to be different, she means it. i am letting her down by insisting on my heterosexuality. she is disappointed, and i am tired of the conversation, but i only have myself to blame... another ink polaroid, and cd. same table, same pub, a week earlier. andy has returned from london for the weekend. he has asked me out specifically. for the sake of old times, i have accompanied him. i enjoy his company. i always did. although the memories of a night left alone, picking at a vodka bottle and contemplating the virginity he'd so thoughtlessly left me with still remain. but he thinks everything is okay now. he has discovered my 'secret': 'for god's sake, eileen. if i can do it, why can't you? can't you at least be honest with yourself? look, just say it. all you have to do is say it. you know i won't tell anyone.' 'andy...' 'it wasn't easy for me, either, you know. but it will get easier, over time. people come to accept it..' 'oh for god's sake. yes, andy, if it makes you happy.. i'm gay. gay gay GAY GAY GAY! i'm a GREAT BIG BLOODY LESBIAN!' the people in the pub stare just long enough to let me know they have heard, and then return to their lives. some of the older regulars tut. somebody, somewhere, mutters 'tell us something we didn't know..'. i pick up my coat, and i leave. to confront margaret, my adopted mother who, for reasons best know to herself, has asked my gay ex-boyfriend to coax me out of the closet. so far, it has been a difficult year. the young ones shouldn't be afraid to live, love there's a song to be sung.. it was the night of my last post when frank asked me: 'that woman you lived with... you weren't just sharing a house, were you?' as simple as that. he told me he'd love me whatever, and i should try and be happy. he cried a bit. later that week, margaret cried a lot, and told me i had to follow my dreams. she has spent the last two months trying to procure me a girlfriend. i am disappointing them all by refusing to acknowledge my true self. if they can accept it, why can't i? the last time i was in the bull, jason baggs came to sit with me and bought me a drink. i remember jason. most girls from our school do. he was in the year below me, but he'd sit behind me on the school bus, with the older girls who would compete for the empty seat beside him. i was suprised to find myself a girl again.. intimidated, blushing, knocking the drinks back too quickly... laughing at all of his jokes, pretending i found his conversation interesting.. at the end of the night, i gave him my mobile number. i only heard a snatch of the conversation as i left the pub.. 'but she's .... isn't she?' 'she won't be after i've finished with her..' and they cheered. i was a challenge. i tore his number up. i am a challenge. but not in the sense that they might think. 'cos we may not be the young ones very long..' the song played, as frank patted me on the arm, and told me he understood. his favourite song. i hope i didn't spoil it for ever. i know where the song used to take him. i remember, a month or so ago, late at night after the chippy was closed, when he and margaret had both had too much to drink. we turned off the television and they put on old records. i sipped at my glass of baileys as they held each other and swung unsteadily from side to side, their eyes full of another time. but i suspect that there will be times, when that song plays, when he finds himself in the back room of his house, talking to his adopted daugher about her lesbian lover. comforting her as she cries, and trying to hold back his own tears. i never wanted to be this big. i never wanted to feel this large in the lives of those around me. i shall put on my own records. i shall block out the world. i shall let them take me to the places they used to take me. i will sit in the darkness again, waiting for the sound to hit my eardrums. i will find the old eileen. the one i left several months ago, to find a new life, in the big city. i miss her. i want songs of small towns, and small minds. i want songs of individuals refusing to be what everybody thinks they should be. i want songs of people who just want to hide, and be quiet, and be true to whatever exists at that moment in time. i will sit in the darkness, and i will contemplate having a boy, on that last bus out of town. or perhaps a girl. just to make them all happy. eileen __________________________________________________ Yahoo! Plus For a better Internet experience http://www.yahoo.co.uk/btoffer +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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: Plant Eating Cats...
by Mayfly5502＠aol.com 27 Mar '03

27 Mar '03

Hello Sinister! It is a pretty day in the state of Rhode Island...hope it stays like this all week. About the Radiohead album coming out..I think I have to agree with Stine on that. I didn't vote for either Bush or Gore either..but it would have been the same no matter who got in office. I guess all of this war stuff was inevitable. I just might skip buying the new album and just borrow it off a friend before I dare spend my hard earned money...hah. Even though the sun may shine today...there is some shitty stuff going on. My brother is to be married in May..and shortly after his wedding he has a good chance of having to go out to the war if it is still going on. He's in the Navy..and so is his fiance..I guess they expected it. But if he goes..I will miss him very much. :( I woke up this morning to find that my fat evil cat ate three of my beautiful plants that were in my living room! I was quite angry seeing that he had more than enough food to eat. I dunno..sometimes he is crazy...it is very likely to come home from work every now and then and find him bathing himself in the toilet. This is when I know he wants a bath...very cleanily cat. He doesn't even go outside..but yet he finds it important to shower at least once every two months. The wonderful weather that we have been having lately has put me in wonderous moods. I find that everytime I get in the car to drive somewhere I either listen to tigermilk or the boy with the arab strap. On occasion I enjoy driving and listening to Legal Man so I can sing along. :) Very geeky..but I must entertain myself somehow while driving. I guess I have talked long enough...I hope everyone has a wonderful day! I am off to work for the afternoon/evening. -Diane +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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: radiohead
by Christine Irene 27 Mar '03

27 Mar '03

so someone mentioned the new Rh album....it is being released 9 june apparently. i love radiohead, but have always maintained that thom yorke needs to shut the fuck up. he does nothing but complain about everything. the thing that i find most amusing is, in all of his rants about Bush, he has NEVER given a reason to dislike his administration. He always says something stupid like "he's a dumb fuck" or similar. if this is how you feel, mr yorke, fine, but substantiate a bit more if you wouldn't mind. then i read an interview with him regarding us policies with iraq, he was completely wrong on pretty much each count he referenced. the things being discussed weren't opinions either, they were factual things that he was wrong on. i sent him an email at the radiohead site. i'm sure he'll never see it, but i had to send it. and him always complaining about capitalism? funny, capitalism is great when Capital Records and BMG are cutting him royalty checks. this is why the world is so fucked up. people turn to the likes of thom yorke and whoever their favoirite singer/actor is to get political information. most of them just don't know what they are talking about. i will respect anyone's opinion, whether i agree with it or not, if they can give a valid, factual reason why they hold the opions that they do. most people just say "the president sucks" "the prime minister sucks" "free tibet" "save the spotted owl" whatever, just to make the pages of the NME and sell a few more records. grrr. on top of that, the new Rh album is titled "Hail to the Theif" which i think is just obnoxious. I have always questioned the way we elect presidents in the US. a week before the last election i wrote a dissertation on how annoyed i was that the electoral college, not the people, elect the president. then it became a huge source of contention. the funny thing with the last election was, regardless of who won, people would have said he cheated to get there. regardless of who won, we would still be in this war. at least pres. bush was able to build a good cabinet. i didn't vote for the guy, nor did i vote for gore, but those who say this situation would have been different whether it was gore or fucking snoopy in the white house, need to delve a bit deeper into the history of iraqi/us/world relations in the past 34 years. i am done now. ~stine __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop! http://platinum.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 can't go away with you on a rock climbing weekend* (MELBOURNE MEET-UPS)
by trixie firecracker 27 Mar '03

27 Mar '03

Dear Sinister, Well, more specifically: Dear Sinister Melbourne Massive Members, I wrote last week touting the idea of having a meet-up sometime soon for bowling/picnicing/pubnicing funtimes. I am sure there are some more of you out there who might be interested in this little shindig. Yes? Yes? It has been decided by the committee, that to coincide with the fabulous festivities occurring in the UK, and also the arrival of Mr Lawrence Mikkelsen, our Meet-up will be occurring on the weekend of April 5-6. With the emphasis on SATURDAY APRIL 5. Please email me if you're interested in attending, I shall post soon with proper details of what is going on. Also, if anyone knows the best place for bowling in Melbourne I would love to hear from you. beer & skittles** trixie.x *what if there's a Sinister Melbourne Meet-Up and it's never held again? **there you go Jim, now you have to attend. _______________________________________________ Join Excite! - http://www.excite.com The most personalized portal on the Web! +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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: PenPal-O-Mania
by a.s.t.r.i.d＠nme.com 26 Mar '03

26 Mar '03

Yo Sinistah! (Notice new, fresh hip-hop-stylee!) Yesterday my best friend/ bandmate/ fanzinemate/ dad's girlfriend's daughter made me some really cool stickers for me! She's been doing her working practise (which you in Sweden do when you're 14) at a mediaoffice and they had loads of cool programs on their computers, like the one where she made the stickers in. There are stickers saying: "Astrid - The Twee One", "Amanda - The Punk One" and "Punk and Twee Mix Well Together" and loads of other cool bandstickers. Yay! Stickers are so nice. Now, the subject of my actual post: I hope I don't sound too nerdy, or that it's too obvious that I've been reading too much Stephen Chbosky, but I really would like someone to write letters to. Anywhere in the world. Just because it's fun to write letters. I love sending stuff with mail, mixtapes and stuff like that. Uh-Huh. So if anyone, er, wants to be my new penpal send me an e-mail with your address and I'll send you a letter. Cool. Me and Amanda are listening to her new Sex Pistols-CD. She had it before, but lost the actual Cd so she bought a new copy of it today, some strange sort of compilation with like everything they recorded. We read a very funny story about Sid Vicious digging ABBA. Finally, here are some good Swedish bands (except the slightly over-rated The Hives and TSOOL) that you all should listen to: The Sounds, Mando Diao, Melody club and Caesar's Palace. YEAH. If you live in The States, look out especially for The Sounds. Me and Amanda read their wicked marketingplan for hitting the states. Soon in a hype-magazine near you! Well, sorry for posting so much but the thrill of being back is just overwhelming! Take care all of you, Love, Stars and Punk (at the moment, but in secret: Twee) Astrid ("the twee one"... damn. I thought I was fooling everyone that I was erally rock-chic..!) --------------------------------------------------- Who would you rather be - Ted Danson or Kevin Costner? Fab: Who the fuck is Ted Dancer? Ted Danson. Fab: Oh, Danson. Nick: I think Ted Danson wears a toupee. ______________________________________________________________ For up-to-the-minute music news, reviews and specials visit http://www.nme.com Get free e-mail (anyname(a)nme.com) now at http://www.nmemail.com The sender of this e-mail is NOT an employee or associate of NME, nme.com or any other IPC magazine. +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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: How long must we sing this song?
by Christine Irene 26 Mar '03

26 Mar '03

Hello lovelies. How are all of you doing? Me, Myself, and I are all doing well today. I have had some time off from work lately. It's funny, I always desire a holiday and now that I have one, I would rather be working. I am actually at work right now. my computer resides here so I stop by every couple of days to catch up on things. As I sit here, the answerphone beeps indicating that there is a message. I feel tempted to go and press PLAY, so as to prevent the future beeping of that infernal machine. DAMN THAT BOY AND HIS INFERNAL MACHINE!!!! what book is that from? huck finn? i don't suppose he is of relation to neil and tim finn? at any rate. Over the course of the past few days we have had some lovely weather in scenic chicagoish. Unforutunately, geography prevented me from meeting up with the dashingly handsome Kevin Clair. Sort of ironic that he returned to chicagoish from Minnesota...tomorrow i am leaving chicagoish for Minnesota. things that make you go hmmm? Minnesota should be fun. I am driving there tomorrow, by myself. My Gram is tre worried about this. She said that I should not drive there alone. I pointed out to her that I had ventured off to Europe alone, to which she replied "you're probably safer there." hee hee. i love my gram, she is always worried about me. I s'pose that is her job. When I was little, I had this very weird notion. My grandparents, as some of you may know, raised me. I remember I would always ask them to adopt me and they would always evade the proposition. Now I know this was because they would never want to hurt my father like that. Anyway, last mother's day i was talking to gram and i explained that, when i was young, i always thought that when I was made, someone messed up somewhere and i got placed in the wrong tummy. very juvenile i realise, but that is what i honestly thought. i s'pose i still do think that in a way. dirty vicar is officially the most amazing person on sinister! (i realise that that was a complete change in subject. the aforementioned segue in no way implies that dirty vicar had anything to do with whose tummy i was placed in). so i was all disappointed because, yet again, my not living in Dublin has caused me to miss something that i would SO not want to miss. previously these have included the brown thomas show, any film premier in dublin, and the irish music awards. not to mention the fact that i am an ocean away from the epicentre of principle management. anyway, gavin friday (the man himself...professional friend of Bono :o) was doing a guest DJ spot. Funny, when I read that, I was thinking DJing at a club, not a radio show. once again, i put the duh- in dublin. so i sent DV a lil note mentioning my frustration. I get a note back from him stating that he had recorded the show for me!!!!!! yay!!!!!!!!!! i was so happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! dirty vicar is so bad ass, now it is official! let me not forget to give props to the rest of my lovely sinister massive (in alphabetical order) Alex...who I have to write a song about Eoin.....whose name I know how to pronounce Jay with an E.....who keeps playing lyrical ping pong with me Ken Chu....our very own XXX and Laura Llew...my digestive soul mate i do love sinister so. perhaps we should all pool our money (of which i have none, sorry) and build a sinister compound. the sign would clearly read SINISTER COMPOUND so people would be afraid, not realising that inside we would do little more than listen to music, read alound, and generally be acting twee. of course we would have the occasional picnic and bowling tournament as those things seem to follow ken chu wherever he goes. in other news: a girl friend of mine called me yesterday chanting raves of a new book of hers. it is titled something along the lines of HOW TO PLEASE A MAN EVERY TIME or some such thing. she was singing the praises of this book, reading "a few passages" to me (personally, i think she read the whole bloody thing). this stuff isn't rocket science, honestly. i think that there are things one need not be so clinical about, just sort of go with the moment. i dunno, maybe it's me, but as i was listening to suggestions on where to put ice cubes (in places that, for me anyway, ice cubes just should not go) and different techiniques for varying activities involving licking, i was thinking "what the fuck are you on about?" of course, i would have no first hand knowledge of such topics, my non-catholic friends have told me stories though. no sir, my first kiss will be at the altar. weird. the thing i find stranger is that someone would drop 30 quid on that book. so here we are. it is a bit overcast now...grr... i think i shall head out for a run. oh, who am i kidding. i say that i am going to head out for a run. i may even go so far as to actually intend to go out for a run. what will, more than likely happen is that i'll get in my car, get swept up in whatever cd is in play at the time, dream of getting a frosty from wendy's and walk around the park eating said frosty. ah well...best laid plans and all. ~lemon __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop! http://platinum.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: She wore a raspberry beret
by Matt Campbell 26 Mar '03

26 Mar '03

How y'all doing! I'm in a super good mood cause I just finished my last essay before the easter break. However i'm becoming quite suspicious when essay deadlines are set for the last week before the holidays. Next time any of your teachers/lecturers/bosses give out a deadline just before your holiday, try and contain your shock and anger. Instead study his or her face and just wait for a grin to appear on it. To be fair most of them try their very best to hide it but its hard not to crack when you're being so Goddamn evil. I know though that if I'm ever in that position of authority i'll probably be grinning wider than anybody else! My other reason for being as happy as someone who just polished off a bottle of prozac, is that the sun just keeps on continuing to shine. I think for the last week, Aberdeen has been one of the warmest places in Britain. I've noticed that the warm temperatures are doing strange things to people up here as well. As soon as the sun starts shining everyone seems to dive for their sandals and sun-tan lotion. I was walking down the street yesterday following a guy that was completely topless. I mean its warm just now but it definately isn't that warm! Surely someone must have reminded him what month we're in. I'm off so I can spread my annoying happiness to some more unsuspecting victims. Matt x P.S. I was a wee bit surprised to hear Stuart and Stevie say on the bands website recently that If You're Feeling Sinister was the album they were least happy with. I've been listening to it heaps recently and it still sounds spot on. I also think its their best album to listen to on sunny days. __________________________________________________ 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: character does not equal personality
by Kieran Devaney 26 Mar '03

26 Mar '03

A car drifted by me, the souped up bass searing as the speakers shredded out some big bolshy record that I didnt recognise (perhaps because everything other than the bassline and drums were drowned out) at top volume, driving slow enough so that everyone could see and hear it. Im sure everyones experienced similar. It got me thinking about cars that is, it made me actually aware of the existence of cars, usually they dont really register other than as inconveniences or obstructions, but that snatch of propulsive low end noise, as abrasive and calculated to annoy as it seemed to be really registered. I suppose you have to be of a certain mindset to drive around like that, its difficult to talk about it without being disparaging it seems an adjunct to a part of a culture that Im not very well versed in. One that works to the exclusion of others and other possibilities, one that places the self at the centre and sees all else as a void to be filled with that self. One that sees roads as a silence to be broken. A hole drilled in the exhaust pipe of life. But consider yourself as a part of that for a moment, it shouldnt be too difficult, and imagine marking your territory like that what kind of a statement would playing say, Belle and Sebastian or (I know I sound like a dickhead for mentioning Merzbow all the time, so I wont here), I dont know, Whitehouse at that volume in your car? Or is the content of the noise irrelevant because the point is less what the music says or is about and rather just the fact that the music *is*? It made me think, as I say. When I went on about listening to headphones while out I said I stopped because the natural sounds are regularly and potentially more interesting than any private soundtrack that I could come up with, but here, with the cars soundsystem so heavily dominating, to the exclusion of all other sounds it was almost the reverse of that. Someone elses soundtrack foist upon you, their version of events overwhelming your own. Forcing closure on the openness of history, you might say. People talking had to momentarily suspend their conversations. People stopped. The ambience of the quiet street was threatened for a moment. Theres a kind of austerity in that moment you sense it coming for a time, theres a few seconds of expectation and then, just as the car passes and theres an instant of pure aesthetic asceticism the hollowed out world that is all sound, with all else just reacting to that sound. And then, as red-shift demands, it disappears more quickly than it came, and things return to normal. I wondered about driving myself I might have mentioned this to people before but a few years ago my parents offered to pay for driving lessons for me and I refused, flat out. I hadnt really given it all that much consideration before, but that refusal surprised me somewhat on closer reflection its mostly down to the fact that I have an innate fear of driving, the prospect of being in control, or, worse still, out of control of something as powerful as that petrifies me. Add to that the singular phenomenon that goes with driving which can turn even the most mild-mannered into a raging ball of frustration and stress. My concentration isnt up to driving either, I get distracted and wrapped up in my own thoughts much too easily. Public transport is too much fun anyway, as nice as it would be to be able to stop wherever you wanted and, I dont know, take a picture or whatever, you cant beat a nice train ride can you? And then today the capricious urge to buy a record came over me I havent in what seems like ages what with various expenditures and what have you, and, well, I thought itd be nice to hear something new. Actually what I had in mind to buy was that newish John Fahey record the Red Cross one - which got an excellent write up in Wire and sounds as though it would fit my current, er, mindset quite well. Its been recommended all over the place, youve probably all already got it I expect and all find it passé and have moved on to No Neck Blues Band 7s or Birchville Cat Motel bsides or something similar. But there I was in the fairly aptly named Rare and Racy Sheffields premier outlet for *v*nt g*rd* tuneage. As shops go its a prevalent and very pressing danger in many respects, stocking all sorts of things that look fantastic in principle your man from Add N to (x), Barry7 I think hes called, has put out two records of Italian library music from the 70s Library music that you *actually* want to hear sez Q magazine in the blurb on the front. I was mighty tempted I cant deny. And similarly tempted by silly things like one of the new Keiji Haino records, silly because since I cant read Japanese I dont even know which of the two it was, and various other bits and pieces the sort of things I heard two years ago on Mixing It and noted down, but have since so forgotten that only the name rings any bells. Its obviously great to buy records in that way, but since I was only able to afford one new thing I thought it best to go with something at least a little bit predictable. Boring of me I am well aware, but there you go. Well to move this along a bit I asked about the John Fahey record, which had been in the window for a while last week, but has since been replaced with a display of gardening books a bit late for planting Id venture, but the lush green covers certainly do fit the current clemency of the weather. I mentioned Rare and Racy being a pressing danger, and these window displays are one of the chief reasons its easy enough to walk past the door but, gosh, is that an early Boredoms import in the window? It was, by the way - a copy of Wow2 and theyve had all sorts of things in there that beckon me inside with their irresistible promise of transcendent noise a Sirens simile here would be almost too obvious wouldnt it? So I wont bother with that. But variously featured have been such delectables as those new Acid Mothers Temple eps, all three of them lined up with their pretty holographic covers sparkling away and, well I wont do a boring list, but if Wire gives it a positive review and its not *too* hard to get hold of then itll probably be in the window of Rare and Racy sometime later that month. Oh yeah, I was moving the story along I asked about the John Fahey record and theyd sold the one copy they had, they can get it on order if I want, but I declined, I wanted something *today*. I decided to move down the road and have a look in Fopp records, which is an entirely different proposition altogether. Apparently Britains leading independent record shop, the stuff it actually stocks is pretty disappointing at times. It has everything youd expect, and probably nothing you wouldnt. Or maybe not everything youd expect even just try getting, I dunno, a Heavenly cd there and well you cant, they dont stock them. But I went for my usual half-hearted wander around and thought about buying stuff like the new things by Cat Power and Steven Malkmus I could go off into a detour about why those artists, and some others who excited me in the past, and whose records I still like a great deal just dont really interest me at the moment, but thatd probably be even more dull than this has become already, so I wont. I was about to leave when, out of the corner of my eye, sitting in the new releases section was a stack of cds by the unpopular American anti-folk combo The Moldy Peaches. My interest piqued I went over and had a look and well, would you credit it, it was a double cd of live and unreleased material. All those potentially better and more rewarding records that I had seen previously dissipated and in a moment of madness I went and bought it. Now it didnt really occur to me at the time to think about whether I really needed fifty-five new Moldy Peaches songs. Did I? Well, probably not. Which isnt to say its a bad record, Im not sure that its a very good one either the live versions of the songs are predictably a bit more rocking than the ones from the album, the great ones still sound great and the slightly irritating ones are still guess what? It does make me lament the fact that I never got to see the band live though, it does sound as though band and audience alike were having a great time at all of the shows, as with a lot of live recordings its difficult to feel part of that listening at home. Alas. The unreleased tracks are pretty sub-standard fare it has to be said. I think, though, in terms of how the Moldy Peaches fit into whatever musical landscape you care to draw up, this is a fairly perverse release their album from a couple of years ago sounds a bit like a collection of outtakes in itself, few other bands I can think of would release records with the phone going off or whatever in the background, not by accident anyway, but this was, fans of the band, myself included I expect, would argue was all part of the charm, and detractors would argue was part what made them so awful. So I dont expect this collection will win the band any new fans, but then I dont expect that was the intention anyway perhaps its purely a contractual thing with Rough Trade. Which, again, isnt to say that this is a bad record, I just wonder quite what has prompted this release. Oh, and they also cover Hulk Hogans seminal I Wanna Be a Hulkamaniac the prospect of hearing that may have been what swayed me during that brief second while I scanned the tracklisting in Fopp records. Sadly, perhaps even criminally, they dont attempt to replicate Hogans rapping, but instead just go for a couple of blasts through the chorus. A missed opportunity if ever there was one I have to say. In some ways it sums up the entire record for me if the Moldy Peaches were a charmingly bad joke then this new release is that joke taken just that little bit too far. Though perhaps if they wouldve taken the joke a little bit *further* we might have liked them even more. Those kooky kids. Anyway, the other night, on the way home from Leeds, I bought chips from Ainsley Harriots favourite chip shop theres a picture of him in there with all the staff from a few years back. They all look so cheery. Quite satisfying they were too. But thats just detail to ease you into the paragraph really more significantly was my actual return back to where I live and what followed it. Exiting the lift I found the corridor strewn with litter, no less than three Pizza Hut pizza boxes lying outside my door, after thinking something along the lines of Why cant you use the fucking bins? (incidentally, though I rarely swear either in writing or conversation - not through any moral objection, its just nice if it has some impact when you do it I think my thoughts are a veritable post-watershed plethora of profanities, I often wonder absent-mindedly if others are similar, or if people who swear a great deal have relatively cleaner minds), and threw them away myself along with some other stuff. This isnt a particularly rare occurrence, but for one reason or another, probably owing to my tiredness more than anything, it put me in a bad mood. I got in and went to bed. This is where I talk about the perfect digital symmetry of twelve fifty one. If any of you have digital clocks around, and I presume some of you do, then youll no doubt be aware that certain combinations of numbers are a bit special one twenty three (Im talking chiefly about am/pm clocks here, you twenty four hour clock people have a whole range of other interesting combinations, but of course they only occur half as frequently) for example is a pleasant one there are lots and I imagine we all have our favourites. My particular favourite, and it has been since childhood is twelve fifty one go and set your clock to it now and I think youll agree that its pleasing. Done that? Ok, well if I hearken back to my childhood now, as I frequently do then I can remember several occasions, my little head thick with the fug of tiredness and disorientation at being up at so late a time taking some solace in that pretty arrangement of numbers on the clock. Now, pedants among us, I expect there will be one or two might quibble that its not exactly symmetrical because the one of the twelve is a wee bit closer to the two than the one of fifty one is to the five. And thats as maybe, but nonetheless, as such an hour became no longer so alien I found myself regularly transfixed by twelve fifty one, so much so that I often stare straight at the clock for the full minutes worth of its duration, a moment of silent contemplation. On the particular night which I mention, I was in bed as the minute approached and in my tired state I awaited it, thinking that I could finally sleep once it had passed, which comforted me a little. Twelve fifty clicked over and there was some commotion outside people were returning from somewhere, quite loudly, they sounded drunk, quite unusual for a Sunday (though technically it was Monday, but there you go) night they stopped, it seemed, just outside my door and already I was worried that theyd ruin the fast approaching minute. And ruin it they did. Just as the digits changed on my clock (or just digit if youre being technical, but there you go) from outside came the opening bars of Land of Hope and Glory. Matt, the guy who lives across the hall from me had procured this record from somewhere a few weeks prior to the occasion, and it has been the subject of several drunken singalongs in the past, but I did think I had heard the last of it until then. And sing along they did. Given the current political climate, the war and all yknow, I thought it was wholly the most inappropriate thing I had heard in a long time. And there was a venom in their singing, a bitter tone that cut through the drunken slurs and carried on through the next couple of minutes and on to the final crescendos and into their cheers as it finished. Next morning the taste of the litter they had left on the floor still hung in the air. - Kieran xxx Ooh, actually, on a more boring note, I suppose, I should ask if anyone in Glasgow has floor space to put me up for the weekend of the gig. Obviously I'd be eternally grateful and all that jazz. Let me know if you are such a person. Ta. _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail messages direct to your mobile phone http://www.msn.co.uk/msnmobile/mobilehotmail +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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: everyday, it's a-gettin' closer
by patrick doyle 25 Mar '03

25 Mar '03

I believe it was Marilyn Manson who once said - How does it feel to be one of the beautiful people? Then he started screaming in a highly frivolous manner, I made my excuses and left. afternoon, How *does* it feel to be one of the beautiful people? I guess well soon see, when the most beautiful people of all gather in the name of picnicking, circa May 17th 2003. I believe it was Lucy Alder who first suggested the idea of making a weekend of the Karen Dunbar gig at the Royal Concert Hall and Ive been looking forward to it ever since, even if its fifty-three days away. I shall be there, complete with Physics revision books for my first and last exam on the Monday after the gig. I recently finished my first ever music video, to the music of the Loneliness of a Middle Distance Runner, which has been a lot of fun and has pretty much determined that film production/direction is the kind of thing I can see myself doing in ten years time or so. On the subject of videos, I wonder when the DVD is going to be released; maybe theyll sell them at the Karen Dunbar gig in May, thatd be grand. It was only in February of this year that I realised just how long it had been since Id been to a good old pop concert so I decided to pop along to Hyndland Church Hall, where Camera Obscura, Roy Moller and the Ladybug Transistor played some great little numbers that even got a few of us up and dancing in the aisles. Those clever Camera Obscura folks even managed to colour co-ordinate their fancy new T-shirts to match my Keith FC scarf, I was impressed and even a little touched by their thoughtfulness. Roll on the new Camera Obscura album, I say. If You Find Yourself Caught In Love is maybe one of the best Belle and Sebastian songs Ive heard in a long time, both lyrically and musically superb and dont even get me started on Step Into My Office Baby those Beach Boys-esque tones are enough to make a young boy sigh (a young boy sigh). Roll on the new Belle and Sebastian album, I say. Cheerio Patrick x http://www.secondsoflight.tk _________________________________________________________________ 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: Chilly; Porn; Naked; ladies
by idleberry 24 Mar '03

24 Mar '03

Hiya, its only me... Astrid told us that its been lovely in Stockholm. It impressed me. I remember, back in the days of yore, when I was out in Tromso (approx 400 miles north of the artic circle, chilly fact fans) and how it was starting to get sunny, but there was still a good 3 inches of snow lying on top of 2 inches of solid ice, on the roads, while on the roadsides, it was ooh.. more and more inches of snow. Even when I left in May, the grass was still as clear as mud, and the snow was still laying there. Within the space of a month, it would turn, from being a cold winterland to being summery, with the leaves bursting out of the trees, and flowers finally able to show their little flowery heads, the tulips and the snowdrops within days of one another, like summer and spring were thrown together into a week in June. It was like Mother Nature had a very busy calender, and thought it would be a good idea. David Moore wrote about being called a turkey while bowling. I think the worst insult I have received (this can't be true - there must be worse) from a computerised thingy was a chicken. And to prove its point, it showed a picture of a chicken, just in case I didn't know what a chicken was. That was while bowling also. I was a bit of a chicken the other day though. My laptop, that has more mood swings than I do, started screaming at me. So I ran away, in fear of it blowing up or something. Turned out I had the mic and the speakers on so loud it was getting feedback. Ah.. yes. I thought I'd report back on an unsinister weekend. I didn't do anything remotely sinister whatsoever, not in the mailing list sense. Not unless you count porn. Me and some pals, who I shall call Bernard and Nellie for the sake of anonominity (I always want to spell that as "anonyminty" although I suspect my own spelling is wrong anyway), thought it would be a good idea to go and sit in Borders cafe on a sunny sunday afternoon, and indulge ourselves in watching men looking at mens so-called lifestyle magazines. Then we had a good idea with watching one bloke, who seemed far too interested in some of the mags, in particular, the pictures of naked ladies (*imagines Ken Chu finding this post as he performs -fnar- a search for the words "porn; naked; blow -up; ladies" in sinister*) and we watched him walk around the store for a bit. So my pal thought it would be a laugh to go and set down a soft porn mag - Barefoot Beauties - somewhere on a shelf near the P.J.O'Rourke books this guy was looking at. Sure enough, we enjoyed a full 45 minutes of the guy looking coyly at the magazine laid before his eyes; then picking it up (inside a copy of a book that was much too small to disguise his true "reading" material); rubbing himself against a bookshelf as he did so; putting it down; going for a wander; cooming back to the mag; picking it up; putting it down; going for another wander while groping around in his pocket; showing it to his pal; and then finally investing in some titilating.. erm.. tits. Hey, what else do you do on a sunny afternoon? It was quite amusing, playing gods of some description or nature who get their thrills from people getting their..erm.. thrills. We went out clubbing too, on Saturday night, the traditional sabbath of the boogie generation, but thats besides the point. Anyway. time to go. Love idles xx ===== http://groups.yahoo.com/group/corduroysmoke/ starting playground gossip and passing notes __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop! http://platinum.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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