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Sinister: the trouble with me is that i'm trouble (detroit & chicago attendees)
by marie elia 04 Apr '02

04 Apr '02

oh for heaven's sake. i don't post for over a year -- a fucking year! -- and here i am with boring, location-specific drivel. but first! holy fucking shit! i'm going to see belle & sebastian live! european listees will yawn, but for years i've been professing that surely the band must be a figment of our collective imagination, despite photographic evidence featuring one ginger fellow with our own curled_up carey. and now my theory is blown completely out of the water. okay, my main point: any of you cats going to the detroit and/or chicago shows (i'm going to both! thanks to princess christiaan and his birthday gift of tickets!) who want to make a sinister weekend out of it, email me because i have a little mailing list set up. i'll add you to it. oh and if anyone wants to sell me their chicago ticket for my poor friend cecilia who is dead broke but who was lured away from her crust-punk ways by the gentle siren song of the twee glaswegians, let me know. xo! ree! ===== . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . "to me she was just marie." -mersault . . . . http://home.earthlink.net/~marieelia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax 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: Date: Thu, 4 Apr 2002 19:10:44 +0100
by rASKol 04 Apr '02

04 Apr '02

hello little sinister-village people i havent written to the list in absolutly ages, and the reason for that is that the part of my brain that comes up with all the sinisteresque things to say has been otherwise occupied in a correspondance with somebody twee-as-fup. And she sucks all my sinister posts out of my head before they make it to the list. ***godspeed***** I was wondering has anyone been to any of the GYBE! shows, i just attended the one in dublin, and although i was spellbinded and knocked into a very pleasent introspective coma for the evening i couldnt help but notice that the listening public werent quite as cool as i expected them to be. In fact they were a mixture bedroom spanking greasy spotty guys and lots and lots of short men who kept crossing in front of me to get beers and because they couldnt see. It certainly wasnt a place for spotting nice corderoy wearing girls. Although one of the people i was with spotted a nice goodlooking man that he kept finding excuses to pass and stare at. i wont out him on the list though as he does subscribe. Has any of you heard of an oxford band called "meanwhile, back in communist russia"? *** I love my car*** A car has always held an element of wonder for me, this is not due to any mechanical interest or fetish but more to a fascination with the reality or universe it creates within its steel frame. A minor reality can be created and kept from the outside world. To drive on the rough tarmac and stare semiconsciously and passively at the hedgerows and telegraph poles slide by in a fluid like conveyer belt motion. To count the poles or cut the trees with a minds-eye scythe and enumerate the cats eyes. It has this delicious element of childhood, these little universes of music as we drive, talking and arguing with my siblings, and parents. Being sad and silent as we drive away from some place or other, or being quietly happy about some trip, full of planned out scenarios that in themselves could have been great works of fiction and unreality. I so often see a car drive by me and wonder about what goes on in its little world. Seeing some brief flash of people, one looking dreamily out of the window, the others talking or arguing. Arguments always seem worse in a car. I think it is because there is no escape. In fact it was while driving me somewhere that my father always saw fit to have a 'little chat' with me about something or other. Those 'what are you doing with your life chats' that make you wish you could disembark the hurtling carriage in dramatic Bond style. But alas once a little dynamic steel framed world is created, there is nothing to do but wait until it reaches its natural conclusion, your destination. It is only then that things all seem much bigger, less confined and more real. Some of my most poignant and unusual memories took place within these parallel dimensions. One such memory took place just after one of the biggest terrorist bombings that ever took place in the north of Ireland. It was the bombing of Omagh. I remember sitting in the car driving along, with 3 other people. The radio was on and blurting out some murmured news program. It was on merely as background noise of some routine little trip. I suddenly became interested in the program, as it was the first count of how many dead had been recovered from the bombing. The atmosphere of the broadcast suddenly changed and so to did the voices. As one by one with excruciating pauses between each and every name of those killed was read out one after the other. Usually as do most people I adopt the detached 'oh that 's awful' and the head shake view of such atrocities, because although I do think it is awful it doesn't affect me or my life. If I shed a tear for every tragedy of the world, rivers would burst there banks and seas would rise. After the names were read, a minute's silence was observed on the radio. A silence is something of everyday life, but radio silence is something so stark and unusual as to stop you in your tracks. It is not like having the radio off because there is that expectant little crackle that emanates from the speakers. A pregnant pause on the airwaves is like no other. Usually a radio is a device that can fill a car or a house with voices of opinion and reason, or music and stories. One can rarely be alone when they have the radio for company. But this channel to an external universe filled our universe with a profound sadness. No one in the car said a thing the radio uttered nothing but hiss. Outside people blurred past in oblivious movements and with smiling faces. As a tear ran down my cheek I felt this unreasonable anger toward them, as if they should somehow know what was happening in my little universe. But they couldn't. Another of these universes was affected by a mobile phone call. I had been on a trip to see some relatives and had settled into a nice milieu of atmospheric music on my personal stereo and the sight of the wind and rain furrowing a fierce weathered brow and building to catharsis with my well-timed music. I received a phone call from a friend, absolutely distraught. Another friend had been attacked and murdered and he was ringing me in the confusion. I hung up and couldn't quite focus on what I had just heard. We pulled over at the side of the county road, as other little worlds flitted by in fleeting soulless blur. Had I really heard that? Had the channel to my movement reverie world been accurate? The wind seemed to be getting stronger and in a half thought I felt it too fitting for the occasion and moment. For a second it felt horrifically staged weather, like some trite movie where someone would say something terribly moving and comforting. But it didn't happen, we sat by the side of that road in utter muted disbelief. The music still whirring with the wind in the background from my earphones a remnant of my now broken reverie. After a minute or so we started the car again and continued to where we were going. It was too late to turn back. Many people have emotional attachments to their cars; they give them names and nurture them like some kind of life form. Others view them as some sort of statement, with wide wheels twin enlarged exhausts, and stickers that utter such statements as 'no fear'. Large bass speakers in the boot and tinted windows effuse questionable statements about the owners. But a car for me is a forced reality, a dynamic sub-culture with its own subtexts and subplots. It will always remind me of the excitement as a child of going on a trip and the sad punctuations of tragedy, when someone outside the car will catch a glimpse into another world and shake their head and say; 'oh that's awful' and go about their business. ****umm something********* As i walked the other day to the sounds of the new boards of canada album on my minidisc. I noticed this construction site has erected these huge white hoardings to cover the buildings. THere was three winos standing there drinking out of brown paper bags and one had a permanent black marker and was writing these elaborate trigonometry proofs and pointing out to his compatriots the certain parts like he was teaching them. It made me think of a maths genius that lived as a hobo that i read about years ago. I wished I'd had my camera, iwished I hadnt been too shy to go and talk to them. It made me feel sad. There was also some graffiti that said slow graffiti. ****jimmycake**** has anyone heard of them/seen them live? they are really excellent. Im Speaking mainly to dublin people here.. R I C H A R D* raskol +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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: life without buildings would be a bit messy
by Hannah Louise Brown 04 Apr '02

04 Apr '02

hello, Well, the gig was fun wasn't it. The support band certainly had an infectious kind of energy. I was near the front for a bit but my head felt as though someone had sucked all the juices out of my brain and replaced it with a sort of sticky marshmallow substance, so i retired to the side. It was quite a different gig to the others i've seen, a bit choppy and quiet, i got the impression they weren't really up for playing but decided that the marshmallows in my head were sending out silly messeges so i just danced about and enjoyed it. Kieran, hope the sofa was confortable, i was gonna make some breakfast but you shimmied off, well it was good meeting another sinistereen. hello to everyone, glad i got to see ken before i left. the marshmallows have been replaced with a really clean, green liquid that is making me feel the need to do some work, thanks and goodbye and stuff, hannahxxx +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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: Soundtracks
by Sam Walton 04 Apr '02

04 Apr '02

Hello again. Last night, some popstars played a concert at the Brixton Academy. Before that, some people met up in Green Park, but the Boy G has already told you about that. The gig was good, but different from the last tour there was definitely a change in sound. This is going to sound silly, but it the whole performance sounded like soundtrack music it was a lot more subdued and bare, but still as pretty and beautiful as ever. I have no qualms about this, because I like hearing music that is originally designed as wallpaper played live; you can hear the subtleties that you might have missed when you were watching the film or whatever. They played a very soundtrack version of LLPJ (without Monica Queen), which I really liked the song was performed quietly between Struan and Stevie, it then broke down to just a drum beat, and then launched itself into something huge and anthemic for the ending. Awesome stuff. It was a good gig. Highlights for me were The State That Im In, You Made Me Forget My Dreams and Is It Wicked Not To Care. Metro, the free newspaper commonly found discarded on vacated Tube seats, previewed the band as brilliant but gloriously bonkers. The assembled picnickers in Green Park guffawed at this write-up before the gig, but the description proved frighteningly accurate when, halfway through the set, Stuart introduced a steel band to the show. B&S went off, to be replaced by a bone fide steel band, who played a rather fetching cover of No Woman No Cry. I thought that this was a truly inspired, if slightly random, decision, and they really did funk up the place. Other audience members were not as enamoured with this, and I think it could be safe to say that plenty werent impressed. But the inclusion of the steel band served to accentuate the fact that B&S are no longer just a twee-indie band; theyre growing into a genuinely eclectic outfit. There were so many different styles of music during the gig: the sleazy lounge-jazz of Dont Leave The Light On Baby, the flamenco maracas-fest of Wandering Alone and the punky growl cover of Another Girl, Another Planet, the reggae step of the guest outfit and of course the indie sing-along. I was lucky enough to grab a set-list at the end, and so here is the full set: Sleep The Clock Around Dirty Dream #2 The Magic Of A Kind Word Im Waking Up To Us String Bean Jean Seymour Stein Wandering Alone Dont Leave The Light On Baby The Model <<band leaves, steel band come on>> Yellow Bird/No Woman No Cry <<band come back on stage>> Fuck This Shit <<steel band leaves>> The State That I Am In (or Sinister) * The Boy With The Arab Strap You Made Me Forget My Dreams Is It Wicked Not To Care Lazy Line Painter Jane Judy And The Dream Of Horses The Wrong Girl Theres Too Much Love Legal Man Another Girl Another Planet ** * The played TSTIAI, not IYFS ** As previously reported, this is by The Only Ones. Apparently. Afterwards, I was accosted by Jeremy Breams and Miss Marianna, and offered a Guest Pass so that I could go upstairs for a drink with the band. Despite the extortionate prices (£2.95 a bottle!) this was a real thrill. I got to speak to Beans briefly (although I dont think he appreciated it much he was trying to pull) and to Struan for longer. Thank you VERY VERY much to Jeremy and, more importantly, Katrina for providing the passes it really made my night. Right then. Im off the Albert Memorial for a kickabout Love Asm.x ================================ "He's strictly a pain in the ass, but he certainly has a good vocabulary" - Holden Caulfield "He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy" - Mary Cohen _________________________________________________________________ Join the worlds largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister(a)missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo(a)missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "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: oh my god!
by anakin_sky＠gmx.net 04 Apr '02

04 Apr '02

oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. can't believe you all got to see life without buildings, i discovered them just recently and they are incredible. mmh, if only i had known... anyway, rotterdam will be lovely... -- GMX - Die Kommunikationsplattform im Internet. http://www.gmx.net +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 on another planet with Chu.
by Greg Pallis 04 Apr '02

04 Apr '02

I was a picnic mummy, you know. Responsibility. You know what comes next. Green park. Katherine Whitehorn said "Outside every thin girl is a fat man, trying to get in". Not relevant, but damn fine nevertheless. Archel was the real organiser, and you can colour me impressed, all demure wit and bubbly charm. The books in the bag were impressively obscure. People called me dapper, that was nice. Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go. Can you say Peter Carter? Rachel Sunnyset did. Mao was played: Hannah Brown threw the cards down in a huff. I drank wine from a Powerpuff Girls mug and felt fond of my affectations. Mao was played: Zozmitria, 'Chel (later Apps), Sunnyset. People got some of the rules pretty well this time. Spaniards arrived. Yorkshiremen arrived. A Sarah arrived, from Guildford. Her nose glittered prettily. I was scared to ask if it was a piercing. Mao was played. Pub. The dandies (and dandess) arrived. Ken arrived too, looking quite the Legal Man. He brought labels and pens, the hero. The only thing to do was to make Lo-Fi badges with illustrated puns about our Red Bull swigging hero. So many highlights - I blagged Bapp's masterpiece: "A Ken Chu-ry of Fakers", but there was "Chu Ken Not Be Serious", there was "U!G!L!Y! Chu ain't got not alibi", Ken's own FreakaCHU Pokemon, Nick's "It takes CHU to tango", so many others. I stuck a spare one, another Daphne & Celeste pun, on the Gents' drier - it's time we got serious about our cult, got London asking 'Who Is Ken Chu'? Gig. Gig was flat-out fab. The 'Sebby declined to aim for a total rawk knockout - there were da hits, LLPJ, TWATTYBUS, DD#2, a moshpit-forming Judy and the dream of horses (Chu's "Judy and the dream of corpses" made flesh?). But it was the slowies that stole the show, Seymour Stein (complete with Ultra-Manly crooning), IIWNTC (and I don't care that "and if I was a seagull/ would you love me as an eagle" is wrong, it's still a lovely line). And 'You made me forget my dreams', only presentable on CD, here so wonderful that it ate my heart out with a spoon. It was a Magic Moment, honest. Pour finale, a stomptastic The Wrong Girl, then 'Another girl, another planet'. Which was ace. Duh. Home. Post. Sleep. Now, I'll make like a worried shepherd and get the flock out of here. ---- The Boy G +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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: on brixton
by Amanda Waite 03 Apr '02

03 Apr '02

hi there, first post, this that, etc, lurking, so on so forth. brixton academy had 3 huge treats for me tonight (lots of little ones too). the first was seeing life without buildings. i'm just the hugest fan and i had no idea that they were opening. PS Exclusive was phenomanonly fab (they didn't do the leanover though) the second was just seeing B&S for the first time. they were just awesome and stuart forgot nearly all of the lyrics which gave me the giggles for most of the concert. the last was seeing my fav band doing my fav song. they encored with "another girl, another planet" and i just really hope that there is a bootleg. it's a song that has huge significance to me cos' it was used in the film "different for girls" set lists will follow. i only remember the first 4 which were sleep the clock around dirty dream number 2 the magic of a kind word i'm waking up to us they also had a steel band playing "no woman no cry" anyways, see ya mandy +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 question...
by Sillylorna＠aol.com 03 Apr '02

03 Apr '02

Heya, Just been reading some post gig posts and can't help but wonder why so many people left it til ages after the doors were open to even head to the venues? My friends and I headed to the Usher Hall in Edinburgh at least 30 mins before door opening time, worried we'd not get a good spot without having to rudely posh our way to the front, past people who cared enought to queue up early. We were shocked to find we were about 10th in the line! (although I must add about 10 mins after we arrived the place started to fill up. even if some poeple did try to skip forward) Sorry if this sounds like a moan, you'll probably all hate me now but I had to get that off my chest! Lorna PS: His name's STUART! +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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: old hat
by caleb ben moore 03 Apr '02

03 Apr '02

hey-lo all you sinister folk. i know i havent said much lately, and i know how you all fairly yearn for my flowery testaments. :) you'll be happy to know that i am doing well. i recently discovered a mouse in my apartment, which, in addition to the numerous ants and spiders, makes my evenings quite lively. unfortunately i have no b&s content to relate (except another attempt to find out any info about pre/post chicago gig meet-ups???), instead i just popped by to share this letter that i recently read. i know that anything having to do with the whole terrorism issue in the world is considered "old hat", but i feel that all of you will appreciate this very eloquent call to love. its by naomi shihab nye, who as many of you know is a wonderful, wonderful contemporary poet. please email me back with your comments, i'd love to hear how it makes you feel. and, if you feel so inclined, please copy this and forward it to as many as you can. it's a beautiful and tender message that i believe everyone should read. truly yours, .caleb ben An Open Letter by Naomi Shihab Nye TO ANY WOULD-BE TERRORISTS I am sorry I have to call you that, but I don't know how else to get your attention. I hate that word. Do you know how hard some of us have worked to get rid of that word, to deny its instant connection to the Middle East? And now look. Look what extra work we have. Not only did your colleagues kill thousands of innocent, international people in those buildings and scar their families forever, they wounded a huge community of people in the Middle East, in the United States and all over the world. If that's what they wanted to do, please know the mission was a terrible success, and you can stop now. Because I feel a little closer to you than many Americans could possibly feel, or ever want to feel, I insist that you listen to me. Sit down and listen. I know what kinds of foods you like. I would feed them to you if you were right here, because it is very very important that you listen. I am humble in my country's pain and I am furious. My Palestinian father became a refugee in 1948. He came to the United States as a college student. He is 74 years old now and still homesick. He has planted fig trees. He has invited all the Ethiopians in his neighborhood to fill their little paper sacks with his figs. He has written columns and stories saying the Arabs are not terrorists; he has worked all his life to defy that word. Arabs are businessmen and students and kind neighbors. There is no one like him and there are thousands like him - gentle Arab daddies who make everyone laugh around the dinner table, who have a hard time with headlines, who stand outside in the evenings with their hands in their pockets staring toward the far horizon. I am sorry if you did not have a father like that. I wish everyone could have a father like that. My hard-working American mother has spent 50 years trying to convince her fellow teachers and choir mates not to believe stereotypes about the Middle East. She always told them, there is a much larger story. If you knew the story, you would not jump to conclusions from what you see in the news. But now look at the news. What a mess has been made. Sometimes I wish everyone could have parents from different countries or ethnic groups so they would be forced to cross boundaries, to believe in mixtures, every day of their lives. Because this is what the world calls us to do. WAKE UP! The Palestinian grocer in my Mexican-American neighborhood paints pictures of the Palestinian flag on his empty cartons. He paints trees and rivers. He gives his paintings away. He says, "Don't insult me" when I try to pay him for a lemonade. Arabs have always been famous for their generosity. Remember? My half-Arab brother with an Arabic name looks more like an Arab than many full-blooded Arabs do and he has to fly every week. My Palestinian cousins in Texas have beautiful brown little boys. Many of them haven't gone to school yet. And now they have this heavy word to carry in their backpacks along with the weight of their papers and books. I repeat, the mission was a terrible success. But it was also a complete, total tragedy and I want you to think about a few things. 1. Many people, thousands of people, perhaps even millions of people, in the United States are very aware of the long unfairness of our country's policies regarding Israel and Palestine. We talk about this all the time. It exhausts us and we keep talking. We write letters to newspapers, to politicians, to each other. We speak out in public even when it is uncomfortable to do so, because that is our responsibility. Many of these people aren't even Arabs. Many happen to be Jews who are equally troubled by the inequity. I promise you this is true. Because I am Arab-American, people always express these views to me and I am amazed how many understand the intricate situation and have strong, caring feelings for Arabs and Palestinians even when they don't have to. Think of them, please: All those people who have been standing up for Arabs when they didn't have to. But as ordinary citizens we don't run the government and don't get to make all our government's policies, which makes us sad sometimes. We believe in the power of the word and we keep using it, even when it seems no one large enough is listening. That is one of the best things about this country: the free power of free words. Maybe we take it for granted too much. Many of the people killed in the World Trade Center probably believed in a free Palestine and were probably talking about it all the time. But this tragedy could never help the Palestinians. Somehow, miraculously, if other people won't help them more, they are going to have to help themselves. And it will be peace, not violence, that fixes things. You could ask any one of the kids in the Seeds of Peace organization and they would tell you that. Do you ever talk to kids? Please, please, talk to more kids. 2. Have you noticed how many roads there are? Sure you have. You must check out maps and highways and small alternate routes just like anyone else. There is no way everyone on earth could travel on the same road, or believe in exactly the same religion. It would be too crowded; it would be dumb. I don't believe you want us all to be Muslims. My Palestinian grandmother lived to be 106 years old, and did not read or write, but even she was much smarter than that. The only place she ever went beyond Palestine and Jordan was to Mecca, by bus, and she was very proud to be called a Hajji and to wear white clothes afterwards. She worked very hard to get stains out of everyone's dresses - scrubbing them with a stone. I think she would consider the recent tragedies a terrible stain on her religion and her whole part of the world. She would weep. She was scared of airplanes anyway. She wanted people to worship God in whatever ways they felt comfortable. Just worship. Just remember God in every single day and doing. It didn't matter what they called it. When people asked her how she felt about the peace talks that were happening right before she died, she puffed up like a proud little bird and said, in Arabic, "I never lost my peace inside." To her, Islam was a welcoming religion. After her home in Jerusalem was stolen from her, she lived in a small village that contained a Christian shrine. She felt very tender toward the people who would visit it. A Jewish professor tracked me down a few years ago in Jerusalem to tell me she changed his life after he went to her village to do an oral history project on Arabs. "Don't think she only mattered to you!" he said. "She gave me a whole different reality to imagine - yet it was amazing how close we became. Arabs could never be just a 'project' after that." Did you have a grandmother or two? Mine never wanted people to be pushed around. What did yours want? Reading about Islam since my grandmother died, I note the "tolerance" that was "typical of Islam" even in the old days. The Muslim leader Khalid ibn al-Walid signed a Jerusalem treaty which declared, "in the name of God� you have complete security for your churches which shall not be occupied by the Muslims or destroyed." It is the new millennium in which we should be even smarter than we used to be, right? But I think we have fallen behind. 3. Many Americans do not want to kill any more innocent people anywhere in the world. We are extremely worried about military actions killing innocent people. We didn't like this in Iraq; we never liked it anywhere. We would like no more violence, from us as well as from you. HEAR US! We would like to stop the terrifying wheel of violence, just stop it, right on the road, and find something more creative to do to fix these huge problems we have. Violence is not creative; it is stupid and scary and many of us hate all those terrible movies and TV shows made in our own country that try to pretend otherwise. Don't watch them. Everyone should stop watching them. An appetite for explosive sounds and toppling buildings is not a healthy thing for anyone in any country. The USA should apologize to the whole world for sending this trash out into the air and for paying people to make it. But here's something good you may not know - one of the best-selling books of poetry in the United States in recent years is the Coleman Barks translation of Rumi, a mystical Sufi poet of the 13th century, and Sufism is Islam and doesn't that make you glad? Everyone is talking about the suffering that ethnic Americans are going through. Many will no doubt go through more of it, but I would like to thank everyone who has sent me a consolation card. Americans are usually very kind people. Didn't your colleagues find that out during their time living here? It is hard to imagine they missed it. How could they do what they did, knowing that? We will all die soon enough. Why not take the short time we have on this delicate planet and figure out some really interesting things we might do together? I promise you, God would be happier. So many people are always trying to speak for God - I know it is a very dangerous thing to do. I tried my whole life not to do it. But this one time is an exception. Because there are so many people crying and scarred and confused and complicated and exhausted right now - it is as if we have all had a giant simultaneous break-down. I beg you, as your distant Arab cousin, as your American neighbor, listen to me. Our hearts are broken, as yours may also feel broken in some ways we can't understand, unless you tell us in words. Killing people won't tell us. We can't read that message. Find another way to live. Don't expect others to be like you. Read Rumi. Read Arabic poetry. Poetry humanizes us in a way that news, or even religion, has a harder time doing. A great Arab scholar, Dr. Salma Jayyusi, said, "If we read one another, we won't kill one another." Read American poetry. Plant mint. Find a friend who is so different from you, you can't believe how much you have in common. Love them. Let them love you. Surprise people in gentle ways, as friends do. The rest of us will try harder too. Make our family proud. Naomi Shihab Nye ===== "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle." ~Plato "Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction." -Antoine de Saint-Exupery __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax 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: Date: Wed, 3 Apr 2002 18:51:41 +0100
by Gardiner, Stuart 03 Apr '02

03 Apr '02

OK, time for some serious reporting back (she said, eating a chicken). There was a gig last night. You might have heard about it. You might have heard everything you want to know about it, in which case you may as well delete this now. On arrival in Manchester, the signs were looking good - they were even playing the Divine Comedy in Burger King. (although quite why I was looking at the signs I'm not sure, since I got there by train). So I headed to the pub to find a gaggle of Sinisterines. Well OK, I actually walked straight past the pub until Amy came running out onto the street yelling at me - obviously putting the name of the pub on a sign above the door would have been too much to ask... Inside were various stars of list and screen. Amongst other discoveries were that brotherly love is still alive and well in the Apps household; and that stars of TV's Holby City like to relax by eating lollypops smothered in Dairylea. Meanwhile, Cay arrived violently, and much beer was consumed. At about 7.30ish, we decided it was about time to head over to the Apollo, so we'd be in plenty of time for the support band. Of course, by the time we'd stopped at a newsagents and a bank, and been lectured on the correct method for making chicken soup by a random woman on the bus (apparently Cay should "find some flour and get her dumplings out"...), we'd missed the support act completely. Oh well, I'm sure they weren't that great. Cay violently managed to get us about 10 rows from the front, which was nice. maybe not so nice for the people standing behind me, but never mind. Didn't someone say there was a sticky carpet in the venue? where we were it was just a slippy floor covered in beer glasses. Which made dancing that little bit harder. The gig started well, with two of the best songs. But then things seemed to get a bit muted. A few people near the front were dancing their cotton socks off, but disappointingly few I thought. Maybe it was the band not putting as much energy into it; far more likely, it was that the audience around me weren't as mad for it (obligatory Manchester reference). I seemed to be surrounded by couply couples, which is never a good thing. Oh, and a ginger goblin standing to my right (if you're on the list, I'm sorry. Actually, sod it, it's as well that someone tells you; very few people look good with a moustache and bushy beard, and I'm afraid you're not one of them). At one point in the gig (I think it was during You Made Me Forget My Dreams), the girl on my right said to the bloke who'd had his arm round her all night (approximate transcription): Her: "Would you get really embarrassed now if I got down on one kneee?" Him: "Not really, why, would you?" Her: "Yes, I would a bit." Him: "That's where we're different. I really do want to marry you." For a while, I was convinced I was going to have a marriage proposal happening right next to me in the audience! After a few quieter songs, Stuart got to the 'audience request' section. His first plan was that since we were in the "music capital of the world" (cue cheers and laughter from different sections of the audience), there must be loads of people there who were in famous bands; so he was going to get them to all come up on stage and do a song. Unfortunately, the best he managed was 2 members of Alfie, so that fell a bit flat. So instead, Stevie did a version of Suspicious Minds, which was suspiciously good and well-rehearsed. The gig then proceeded more or less as expected. Alarmingly few people had the stamina to keep clapping all the way through TBWTAS (and half of them were out of time...), and there still weren't all that many people dancing by the end, but que sera sera. As usual, they finished with Legal Man, but with a difference. During the instrumental break in the middle when they normally get all the string section and so on to bang bongos and cowbells and stuff, a sudden change in the bassline brought the Stone Roses into the equation; and they segued seamlessly into a cover of I Am The Resurrection, quite possibly the greatest song ever to come out of Manchester. Much delirious armwaving later, they went back into the final part of Legal Man to finish. Now I'm not 100% sure about any of this, since I didn't write it down at the time, and it's almost certainly in the wrong order; but the setlist went something along the lines of: Sleep The Clock Around (as always, far better live than the album version) There's Too Much Love The Magic Of A Kind Word (he's still singing "Shake Mother Goose"...) Seeing Other People String Bean Jean I Want To Dance The Night Away (oops, sorry, Wandering Alone, easy mistake to make) Don't Leave The Light On Baby You Made Me Forget My Dreams Is It Wicked Not To Care? Suspicious Minds (Elvis lives...) The Model Instrumental (with Stevie on the harmonica. I think this was previously known as Tigermilk, not sure what they're callling it now - maybe this is Fuck This Shit?) Me And The Major I'm Waking Up To Us Like Dylan In The Movies The Wrong Girl Dirty Dream #2 The Boy With The Arab Strap Legal Man / I Am The Resurrection At the end of the gig, we resisted the arsehole bouncers as long as possible (if they stopped shouting at us all to leave the building, and actually hepled out in the coakroom instead, it'd be a lot quicker...) before wandering back into town. One burger and chips later, time to head for the Star and Garter for the official aftershow party; where more sinisteringes awaited us. After a while, and a few drinks, enough energy was built up which had to be used up on the dancefloor, where we were greeted by a mixture of indie tunes of varying vintage and obscurity; the inevitable Strokes record; and such classics as Teenage Kicks and even a bit of Blondie. Most of the band didn't make it, but Stuart Murdoch was there (obviously the real party animal in the band...). Covert surveillance noted that he wasn't dancing much (not really his type of music I suspect), and spent most of the night either signing autographs on the back of tickets or being chatted up by young ladies (unsurprisingly unsuccessfully). And the real anoraks out there may want to know that he was wearing a white shirt with a black jacket, but no tie. He left at about 2.30, freeing the DJ to put a couple of B&S records on for those of us who were hardy / foolish enough to be still dancing. And then we all went home. Well actually, it wasn't for a bit longer, because the first train back wasn't until 4.30am, and since it was a Virgin train it got me back here an hour later than in should have done, at nearly 9 o'clock this morning. So I'm not feeling particularly awake today (I don't do mornings. Ever. I only discovered about two years ago that 6 o'clock happens twice a day). Hello everyone who was there. And since I'm an impartial sort of person, hello to everyone who wasn't there as well. We missed you. We talked about several of you (you, over there, are a dirty old man. And you, over there, are just disgusting). It was a good night (/ early morning). Roll on the next tour... Big Stu PS We've had IYFS, TBWTAS and FYHCYWLAP; is the new album going to be known as S? +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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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