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Sinister: "I'm just a little 2 up/2 down..." (yes it's me again and it's a long post and i'm sorry)
by Ola Szkudlapska 03 Dec '01

03 Dec '01

dear sinister, my mood has now balanced after all mad swings of the last days, after my gig-excitement and exam-stress. only the exam-stress has evolved into post-exam stress, with me being catastrophic and thinking i'll fail the CPE (which is very important for me). (cpe-certificate of proficiency in english. half of the people from my class are taking it this december. comprises 5 parts - speaking, listening, writing, reading + use of english. boring intro bit over) the 'speaking' part was on saturday. 2 people and 2 examiners in a room. talk about some pictures, passages; discussion, etc. one is supposed to be fluent and use sophisticated words and structures. and i HATE oral exams. i get mega-stressed and forget everything and probably come across as a stuttering idiot (which i'm not. i usually don't stutter) i did, however, try and un-stress myself, and here's how: 30th november, according to an old tradition, is a fortune-telling day in poland. :) it can be quite fun, provided you're not on your own. so, i went round to Charming Kamil's place, and we amused ourselves by taking part in the most common fortune-telling practice... olala's fortune-telling know-how: 1.take some old candles and melt them in a pot. 2.prepare a bowl full of water. 3.find a key with a hole (it's not that difficult, honest. maybe you're shutting your cupboard with one every day, take a look around :) 4.ha, now's the best bit! ;-) you've got to pour the melted wax through the key hole into the bowl, wait a moment for it to set, and see what shape the now-solid wax makes. :) lalala :) sounds exotic, doesn't it? ;-) apparently, a star or a human are good omens, a heart means you'll find love in the coming year, and a ramshackle house symbolises danger and all things bad. hm, wonder how one can recognise a ramshackle house in a lump of wax ;-) ooh, and the wax can't be too hot, because a) you may set your kitchen on fire (almost like me, when heating oil on the pan a few weeks ago ;) ooh the big flame that burst out! so beautiful! ;-) b) when it's too hot, the wax doesn't really make interesting shapes, it just spreads on the surface of the water. kamil and i initially made that mistake, and all we got were flat nothings. ;) however, we did get some fascinating shapes in the end. for example a swan (according to kamil) or a turkey (according to me), and a small lump on a flat piece of wax that we (ok, i) named: A Marmot On A Desert. not sure what that symbolises. ;-) i also got a heart, but not the heart all valentine's cards are shaped like - just the muscle that pounds when you (ok, *i* ;-) see my name mentioned in lovely Rachee Fruitee-Loopee's post :) so it probably doesn't symbolise love. damn! perhaps it wasn't even shaped like a heart, only like a liver. i never was good at anatomy. kamil got a human-shape twice, though! :) one was a Sculpture Of A Man Who Sits Thinking also known as The Witch Without A Broom, and the other was Zorro With A Crippled Leg, who turned into A Man, Billows Of Cigarette Smoke Surrounding His Head when looked at from a different angle ;-) he now occupies the privileged spot on Charming Kamil's fridge :) lalala, and music was also played a lot. mr k introduced me to some lovely bands (mascot, jack, girlfriendo etc. - there was more of them, only my silly self is too silly to remember names correctly) and i played him some songs by birdie. i only discovered them recently and am truly infatuated. oh, and i'd like to sound like their singer. :) hm, the super-fab mood i was in after that pleasant time was spoilt a bit by mum, who was really angry for some reason, and started yelling at me as soon as i walked into our flat. so i decided to go to sleep. -------------------------- friday was a fab day, but then came saturday, and the Horrid Exam. 'what one should do to fail an exam', courtesy of miss lala in the morning: get stressed get very stressed get so stressed you actually start to shiver and can't string 2 words together find out you had forgotten to wash your b&s t-shirt and therefore can't wear it as a lucky charm during the exam: stutter say rubbish forget what you wanted to say and only remeber it after the other person had said it let the other person speak twice as much as you do quote the smiths find out the examiner doesn't know what you're talking about and probably thinks you're an idiot stutter some more after the exam: burst into tears as soon as you leave the room and escape from your classmates ummh, i actually *cried* because i was so UPSET after an *EXAM* now that's not very james bond-like, is it? ;-) not very normal either. and i'm supposed to be all rational and grown-up in less than 2 weeks. tut tut but hey - speaking of which, you're all invited to my birthday party! :) i'm turning 18 on december 12th, and have invited loads of nice people over for 15th. and people say my flat is nice. (i'll tidy my room, promise). and i've got some nice cds. and my friends are farr more interesting/witty/pretty/clever/talented than myself, and you'd get to meet all of them :) come on, flights to warsaw can't be expensive, and you'd have free booze/birthday cake/tour of warsaw the next day ;-) mm? and i keep using 'and'. AND i'd like to END this ridiculous mail by sending e-mail hugs to all my friends.. most of whom aren't on sinister, but shh. 'i love you all', as cuddly damon gough sings. thankyoui'mnotworthy. special hugs to johnny, andreea and olivier 'strawberry boy' (one of the most gorgeous lurkers around :) and also to chris j, ulla (sorry i haven't mailed in ages!) and robert s. and a biiig hug to the whole of sinister, thank you for making my inbox so full of beauty, amusing anecdotes and detailed descriptions of the new b+s songs i probably won't be able to hear for ages. oops no, that last bit was not supposed to appear here ;-) have a nice day, olala/rachola cinnamon ps: stacey - i'm full of admiration for your child-controlling skills. :) i'm so terrible with kids, they just get bored and then play havoc with my room :) -- Tego nie znajdziesz w zadnym sklepie! [ http://oferty.onet.pl ] +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: karate
by Tyler Rentz 03 Dec '01

03 Dec '01

Hello I'm not much of a contributer to this here list, but, i have to send some insignificance into cyberspace about the show i saw tonight. The band is karate. The music is....inspired. I love these guys, and it turns out the singer is almost my neighbor. How cool is that? Anyway, had to tell someone before i exploded. thanks _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister(a)missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo(a)missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: Lewis Carroll sucked at scrabble
by Stankin' Cooter 03 Dec '01

03 Dec '01

My sweets: I managed to buy the new single the other day, and Ive been listening to it as well. When I first heard Jonathan David, I thought it was complete rubbish, and now I absolutely adore it. When I first heard Im Waking Up To Us, I felt sort of indifferent to it, and now I quite like it in a vague sort of way that doesnt really seem to matter, somehow. Its a tidy unit: the B-sides are both worthy, and I like dogs as much as the next chap. Even if the next chap is someone who has a rather particular fondness reserved especially for dogs. Itll almost certainly be the soundtrack to a few things that happen over the next little while, but it hasnt impacted on me in quite the same way as some other things Ive heard this year. Hearing some of the earlier records was like getting fitted with a new pair of spectacles. Some things became clearer, and other things went all fuzzy. Ive been looking through them for some time now, so I suppose I shouldnt grizzle that the new record seems more like a matching jaunty hat than a new prescription. Yikes, Im writing to Sinister about Belle and Sebastian, arent I? I feel all dirty. Lets move on. Love and Christmas. There seems to be a fair bit of both about at the moment, so Ill just briefly have my say. Because I can. Love is a curious thing, and means different things to different people. Theres been a lot said on the list about it lately, and I agree with all of it unreservedly. For me, love happens in the summer, and Ive certainly been enjoying it much more since its involved people Im not directly related to. Theres a lot of anticipation, and wondering what am I going to GET?, but inevitably you just end up mopping the grease off your face and dozing in front of the telly, wondering whether youve seen this Bond film before, or whether its just a lot like that other one you saw that other time. I pulled a cracker last year, but on the inside, there was just a bad joke and a general feeling of bloated disappointment. I think I had Christmas once, but its hard to be sure. Id like to have one again at some stage, but Ill be far more careful who I spend it with. I like the gifts and everything, but when its over, theres just a great big drunken mess left to deal with. Next Christmas is going to be perfect, and its going to last forever. I may not have that quite the right way round. After all, its a confusing time of year. On Christmas morning this year, Im going to wake up extra early and catch a taxi to the airport. Then Im going to spend all day sitting about with bags and my Gameboy and a headache and small collection of the more fashionable phobias, alternately in lounges and on aeroplanes, heading away at varying speeds from the rut in which Ive spent this past year. What Im heading towards is far more exciting, so I shouldnt let the fact that its scary and uncertain worry me overly much. Im actually hoping that the experience will help me to decide what to do with the next little bit of my life; Im sure that in one way or another things will be clearer then than they are now. Or at least different. Or maybe Ill just be less tired; who knows? In any case, travel seems to put a different sort of perspective on things. So does meeting beautiful girls that youre crazy about. Ive been off the fags for two months now. As a result, Im not nearly as sexy, but I do smell a bit nicer. Um, Ive been a bit crap about sending packages lately, and there are FOUR people on this list, would you believe, that are patiently waiting for items that are STILL sitting in neat little piles on my bedroom floor, rather than winging their way across various large bodies of water (and some land-y bits as well, I suppose) towards their intended destinations. This is not by any means indicative of a lack of loveliness on the part of the recipients, let me assure you, just of a general laziness and disorganisation on mine. Im deeply sorry, and (it should go without saying) a truly awful (though dashingly handsome) swine. Alright, thatll do for now. Embarrassingly long and almost uncomfortably tight hugs must go to the kind few that responded so delightfully to my last post. Youre good eggs, the whole job lot of you. God bless your cotton socks. Cotton sock blessings also go to Honey for (along with, you know, everything else) the #sinister stats page, which is my new obsession. Id like to see a punchy half-hour programme, shown weekly on the television, giving a rundown on the big movers in the chart, and spreading wildly inaccurate gossip about the celebrity #sinister types. If you didnt know me, youd think I should get out more. Stay stuffed with breadcrumbs, sage and onion, and oven roasted until cooked through, yet still moist and tender. Bulk love, -David. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister(a)missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo(a)missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: Here's the Irony
by Max421＠aol.com 03 Dec '01

03 Dec '01

Hello Everyone, This is my first post. I've tried to do this about ten times, but it never seems to come right. Despite being a lurker and religiously drawing solace from reading your wonderful posts, I'm confused as to how to address you all, how to NOT comit list abuse, and how to make myself understood as someone worthy of your time. As some have you have probably figured out by know, I'm max, rachel grapenut's and Hye Min's friend. I've had a horrible week. Ever since mid september, I've been hopelesly in love with this beautiful freshman at school. He's thin, and lanky and has beautiful gray eyes and incredible longer than average blond hair. He also doesn't know that I exist. We've never spoken, but I just KNOW that he must be a wonderful person with great taste in guys and a secret love for Belle and Sebastian. I know I shouldn't make assumptions like this, but I just know that he's gay. There's no way that he isn't...but him not being open about it sort of nullifies the whole thing. In the last two months, its grown from a casual attraction, to a full fledged obsession. I find myself writing about him in my free time, and actually coming face to face with him has become such a painful experience. At the beginning of the week, my eyes started tearing whenever I saw him...as the week progressed I found myself in severe physical pain everytime I saw him. I feel my heart and stomache are being ripped out of my body, and that I am! disappearing. becoming negative space. I hope some of you can empathize for one reason or another, with this mutual pain and exhiliration you receive when there's someone out there you love, and just doesn't love you back. Things picked up on friday afternoon. I got a job at the housing works bookshop and cafe (to fulfill a community service requirement). I've always wanted to work at a bookstore, and I'm glad to be making money for a cause that I find important (treating people for HIV and helping them kick drug addictions). Wonderfully enough, the store is located in soho, and I can frequent expensive clothing stores and my favorite CD shop, rocks in your head, on a regular basis. I bought the sing....and I was so moved by "I'm waking up to us" and "Marx and Engels". I don't love the cover art...but I thought that the single was just as great at Jonathan David, If not better. I spent saturday with my friend saya...so uneventful... Then sunday, Rachel (my partner in life) came back and we trapsed around the village. I bough a Jeff Magnum live Cd. Everyone should listen to Neutral Milk Hotel (aeroplane over the sea) and Olivia Tremor Control (dusk at a cubist castle). I also aquired a beautiful pair of pants, that I'm waiting to wear, because tomorrow I must make a statement by wearing purple pants. We also went to chinatown, where we bought some delicious chinses candy. I think artificial strawberry coating is an abusable substance. Well, on that note, I'm off to go hit myself on the head with the frying pan of reality a few times before school tomorrow. ~Max~ P.S. I think that joe vester is BRILLIANT P.S.S. I butcher puncutation, and I have no remorse :::""!@ P.S. S. S. I want scarf guy too!!! +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: Hefner and bananas
by Katia913＠aol.com 03 Dec '01

03 Dec '01

Hey all- Long time no see. I've spent quite a bit of time with you folks on #sinister, and I have to say, I might frequent it more often than I used to. Maybe I'll become a real part of the scene. And maybe I'll be quoted by the lot of you. Anyways, I know its list abuse really, but I was out shopping with my mother tonight, and we went to Banana Republic (her fav store) and while I was waiting for her to check out, I read the catalogs they had laying around. By chance, I looked at the CD they have and low and behold, Hefner is playing on it. It was their great song, Level green. They're so corporate. Good for them night all much love Kate +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: Out of the closet skeletons
by AMEBIX13＠aol.com 03 Dec '01

03 Dec '01

Happy Sunday Evening Sinister, Hopefully all of your lives are going well. I just came to the close of an interesting weekend. I haven't talked to my dear, dear Elise all weekend, and no matter how silly it may sound to anyone, it is quite distressing indeed. Although I won't let myself get too upset about it since she is out and having fun, visiting sinister folks around the midwest, which is certainly a cause that I support. I managed to keep myself pretty busy this weekend. On friday I attended a production of Cyrano de Bergerac that one of my friends was in...It was pretty good, and I enjoyed myself. Saturday was certainly the high point of enjoyment for the weekend however. I attended my friend's band's practice in northern virginia, and did hanging out a-plenty as well. My friends play in this *very* intense metal-hardcore band, and it is rather funny that I, with my rather delicate tastes attend most of their practices. Unfortunately for them the rocking out was severely limited by Rebecca's guitar amp breaking...I suppose their intesity was too great...Like Icarus they flew to close to the sun and paid the price. In lieu of practicing they all managed to have a fairly large "battle" involving loads of foam toys. It was fairly amusing to watch, yet somewhat disturbing that they could battle like this for hours on end. Faces were hit, large boys were viciously attacked by tiny hardcore girls, and neighborhood cars were hit. Somewhere during the course of the evening, the most interesting development of the evening arose. One of the cats I was associating with that night was a fellow named Chris, who plays in local hardcore superstar band extraordinaire, "Age of Ruin." Well, when they play live they put on quite a show, they have a fire breather, and people dressed up like skeletons, who stand perfectly still, until the time comes to awaken, run into the audience and cause havoc...Well, I have kindly been nominated to be a skeleton next saturday. It will make me feel rather important, truth be told, since afterall, I will be up on stage, and I will be noticed, although I really won't have to do anything other than look vaguely like a skeleton. Everyone, at least as far as local hardcore fans are concerned, is always talking about how great the skeletons are, now I can dazzle them with the fact that mild mannered me, Sean, Boyfriend of Elise, Fan of such groups and Belle and Sebastian and Pulp, Quiet anthropology student, and generally delicate fellow, is in fact a skeleton in disguise!...After which I will promptly remove my skin and show my true nature. Well, I should be going soon....Even us skeletons have our needs and responsibilities such as Studying, Getting some sleep, and eating delicious Chinese food. Oooh, I sure do hope that Elise gets home early enough to call tonight...I do miss talking to her so much! Hopefully Kirsten and Jimmy are enjoying exactly how wonderful her company is. Luckily in less than two weeks Elise will be out in lovely Baltimore with me, and we will be having the time of our lives. :) Well, it's time for this skeleton to go back in the closet. Loads of undead love to you all, Especially Jimmy, but *Especially* Elise, Skeleton Sean +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: sinister: i know, i know
by Histrianic＠aol.com 02 Dec '01

02 Dec '01

I know I said I wouldn't post *ever* *ever* again, but I'm so tempted. (You lot are so charming that I just can't tear myself away..) I got list crushed again. (my second vote! yay!) I never found out who it was the first time either. And I'd really *love* to know. Come on, 'fess up, 'fess up. (My friends say I give off an aura of 'talk to me and I will set my evil squirrels on you', but I really don't.. I promise not to set them on you lot, anyhow.) So.. belle content: I ordered the new single on vinyl. They shipped it today, they confirm me. lots of love and avocados... cheers h xoxo +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: Toby, Alexander, Linnet
by Will Salt 02 Dec '01

02 Dec '01

A lot happened this week. There was a new single, woo-hoo! And a TV show, woo-hoo! And then I went and reread a favourite book of mine. But more of that later. Last Monday morning, I got up early and went, first-thing, to my nearest record shop; and bought a copy of "I'm Waking Up To Us". I have to say, I like it. After all, before "I Love My Car", the best clarinet solo in a pop song was by Supertramp. I'm sure, too, that many Sinister boys and girls went "Phwoar!" at the sight of Isobel in red leather. Not to mention Stevie and his big friendly Dalmatian. It's getting near Christmas now -- well, it's December at least -- so I wanted to do Christmassy things. I remembered to get out my advent calendar and start opening the doors. I hunted out my copy of the Jeepster christmas album from last year and put it on. I put "Just Like Christmas" by Low on repeat -- as Idleberry said, it's definitely the best song on the album. After the third play, my mad flatmate got herself out of bed (it was 11am) and came storming into the living room. "TURN THIS SHIT OFF!" she shouted. "I'M FED UP OF LISTENING TO IT! CAN'T YOU LISTEN TO SOMEONE WHOSE VOICE HAS BROKEN?" This, of course, made me incredibly confused. I was extremely tempted to say "OK, I'll put a different CD on," and switch to the Low album that has that track on it. But she would probably have smashed the disc in anger. Anyway, she can't talk. She used to be a Hanson fan. So, the single went into the charts at number 39. Oh dear. Never mind, though. I'm sure when the flatmate finds out she will take the opportunity to trumpet how crap my favourite band must be, to only just brush the charts. I wanted to do more Christmassy things. There was a special section in the newspaper the other day, reviewing anything and everything to do with Christmas. What movies to see. What records to buy. And what books to give to people. It had a section on the ten best children's books ever written, and one of them was a book I read and loved myself many many years ago. I remembered it being a beautiful lovely seasonal and christmassy book, so I hunted it down and reread it, and it was just as lovely as I had thought. So I think you all should read it too. It is about a small boy at boarding school, parents in Colonial service, who has to stay for christmas with his great-grandmother in a big, dark, ancient country house. He asks her to tell him stories about the children whose portrait is hung above the roaring fireplace, and she tells him about the family who lived there in the seventeeth century, three children who never grew old, and who still live there. He is desperate to know and see them himself, and disappointed that they hide; but eventually, little-by-little, they show themselves to him too. Back in the 1980s, it was filmed by the BBC and shown on the telly. It was good, but BBC-style man-in-rubber-suit special effects couldn't do justice to some parts of it, like an image of a small girl stood looking out of her window on Christmas night, watching a statue of St. Christopher come alive and carry the Christ Child through a frozen river to pray at Midnight Mass, the ice cracking and crazing around his stone body. i don't know if it's just me, but I always fall for beautiful ghost stories. Not the ones with dark creatures from beyond the grave forcing their innocent victims to blah blah wibble blah, but the ones about ordinary people with ordinary, beautiful lives, who just happen to be dead. I'm not sure why I find them so touching, but I do. That book ws a beautiful book, and thinking about it gives me a pale smile and soft eyes. It is as christmassy as plum pudding, clementines and fruit peel. Go and read it. Go and read "The Children of Green Knowe" by Lucy M. Boston. xx -- Will Salt ICQ 66321009 http://www.btinternet.com/~wpsalt/ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: on other mews...
by Kieran Devaney 02 Dec '01

02 Dec '01

Yesterday i made pretend candles out of strips of white cardboard and shiny paper for the frames. Why? I didn't really have much choice to be honest, we were making a Harry Potter display at work, to go in the childrens library section. I only managed to get a bit part in this charade which was making the cardboard candles, which are to hang from the big frames suspended from the ceiling. I imagine the effect will be most underwhelming, but thats beside the point. I've told them often enough that we shouldn't be jumping on this Harry Potter bandwagon; i wont pretend it was me who wrote that the books leap into the mainstream is "symptomatic of the infantilisation of a semi-literate culture" and i wont pretend i disagree either. I know i'm taking them too seriously, but the reason i like working in the library is because most of the time it's a step aside from the heady worlds of advertising a profit making, a haven from commercialism. But not anymore it seems, the library where i usually work has recently started getting copies of Q magazine, nintendo magazine, vogue and other staples of the WHSmith diet. Not good at all. Anyway, i was in for the whole day on saturday, so at about quarter past nine i settled down to do some checking (which is just making sure the books are in the right order), on the adult fiction section. I love doing this because i can take my time and have a look at books that interest me and decide what i'll read next and so on, but i had only got as far as the b's when i was churlishly dragged away and instructed to make candles for the Harry Potter display. "Can't we do a Jeanette Winterson display instead?" I should've asked. But i didn't. I don't know what you'd put on one of those anyway, some oranges certainly; but what else? Another thing that annoys me about Birmingham Libraries (and i'm unfortunately ignorant as to whether this is the case in other places) is the way fiction which is deemed 'gay or lesbian' (by whom? is there a panel?) has to be separated from the rest and hoarded together and put on a display shelf under the cringeworthy title 'Loud and Proud'. Surely segregating it in this way is missing the point of such literature? Ironic indeed, and as Ms Winterson herself wrote "...what makes life difficult for homosexuals is not their perversity but other people's." Enough of that anyway, back to Saturday and making candles. I had found a failrly satisfying method of card candle production, and the end result was rather nice, considering the frankly shoddy materials i had to work with. But apparently there was a much faster way of making them, and the girl i work with (who occasionally sports a Harry Potter tshirt of all things) showed me something that could quite easily have been cobbled together by a 5 year old. "oh" i said, because at least my candles looked vaguely like candles and had some semblance of artistic credibility. I likened my plight to that of so many, where speed of production, mass production takes precedence over creative endeavour. I felt like the caring small business owner being elbowed out by the multinational. I'm worried too because i don't think i saw one book i knew to be of literary merit being checked out or in all day. A few explanations present themselves, perhaps i only served the mills & boon/western/detective novel reading dullards (a generalisation if ever i saw one, but one i wont lose any sleep over having made) and the people who were borrowing the good stuff were served by the other staff, or the people of yardley are reading lost classics that i haven't heard of yet. These both seem unlikely. There are romantic notions attatched to working at a library are there not? And perhaps if i worked at central library in the middle of birmingham i would regularly be approached by intellegent articulate people about interesting subjects. But local libraries are not the centres of culture and learning they might appear to be. When i was there during the summer a girl asked me if we had any books on lino printing, "i don't think so, there might be something in one of the brittanicas tough." there wasn't. But, since i know how to do lino printing i offered to tell her, "haven't you got any books on it?" she said "no" i said "but i can tell you how to do it, i'll draw a picture if you like" "it's ok" she said and left. I tend to get that a lot. This is starting to sound whiny now, but i do really like working there, being surrounded by books and so forth. And the pay is quite good. It's just that sometimes, and this happens to all the other staff too, you try to help someone find information and they throw what you've found back in your face because it doesn't exactly match what they asked for, even though it might be just as good. But as i said, no more whining. Or maybe just a little bit more. On Friday there was an awards night at my school. They call it speech night, and it happens every year. What was unusual was that i was there. I didn't want to go, in fact i only went to appease my parents. And it was truly terrible, but you will require some background to understand quite why: The school i go to is unusual in that it is a grammar school - you have to pass a test to get in. There aren't many of these schools left in England and they're quite unpopular in certain educational circles anyway (the opinion that they're elitist and generally a bad thing is one i've been agreeing with for quite a while now... but there wasn't any chance of me leaving at all). It's also an all male school. These are facts but the rest of what i'll say is just conjecture. Because friday night will undoubtedly be heralded as a success even though it was a dramatic failure. My prize was for french, the Scott memorial prize in fact. I didn't ask who Scott was, in fact i tried to turn down the prize, because i didn't want it at all - not just because the exam result which got me the prize wasn't reward enough in itself, but because the whole idea of having to collude in that back-slapping ritual was not an attractive one. But i wasn't allowed to refuse the prize... such is the price of success. Or perhaps it isn't even success, i know i hardly felt elation when i got my exam results (AS levels by the way), in fact i just felt empty. Exams don't really mean much to me, even when i do well in them, they are too shallow an artifice for me to pin my hopes upon. Back to friday though. The school i go to is part of whats rather dauntingly known as 'the kind edwards foundation' made up of some of the grammar schools in birmingham. Every school in the foundation has one of these evenings at around this time of year, and theres a 'healthy rivalry' between all the schools in it. The headmasters of these other foundation schools were all there on friday. What this boils down to then, is simple competition - which school has the best award ceremony, and the winner is... Well nobody actually. The whole principle of the evening works on the basis that everyone looks as smart and uniform as possible, everyone smiles when they get their award from the smug looking bailiff. The bad jokes in the speeches get laughs - laughs tinged with a nervous edge i might add. It hurt me to have to participate in this awful show, i felt like crying - we had to sing he national anthem, and the terrible school song, and people did, with put-on vigour and passion. And thats what was so sad about the whole charade, none of the feelings expressed in the speeches were entirely true, they were fabrications - the truth stretched to fit in with a hundred year old ideal that no one could hope to meet. The school captain, vice captain and the headmaster all spoke of what the school had achieved, as if this could be pinned down and quantified, as if a school can be summed up in ten minutes. They thought it could, and they tried to. That they failed is irrelevant, it will be heralded as a success... history might be written by the victors, but what defines victory? The people who proclaimed victory the loudest in some cases. And on Friday there was no case against the school, no moment of protest at the ridiculousness of this stroking of the schools ego, this propagation of all the stereotypes about old boys networks and arcane ceremony that surround grammar schools. Unfortunately these stereotypes are true. I'll shut up about that now. Belle and Sebastian were fab on Jools Holland, even if Jools didn't particuarly look like he enjoyed them. The first "Hey! Cut me loose" sounded a bit shoddy, but it was all uphill from there. I'll agree with everyone else in saying that three songs wasn't nearly enough though. I found that link i was on about in my last mail by the way: http://www.framleyexaminer.com/ It comes highly recommended, a good way to use up an hour or so of your time. This mail has been remarkably self contained and whingy. For that i can only apologise, but i hope you got something of vague interest out of it. peace and love - kieran _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister(a)missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo(a)missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Sinister: twelve thoughts..
by idleberry 02 Dec '01

02 Dec '01

1. Tigermilker Mark is a cheeky wee so-and-so. Did I get him back for making all kinds of suggestions? No, I just charged him for services rendered. Darling, you owe me �1.25 for last night. 2. Paul Laird- first of all, that Jeepster record you're giving away? um, got it thanks. I dunno if you'll find anyone on here who hasn't got it. And the best track has to be the Low one. second of all? you better not be that bloke I went to school with, otherwise I shall be watching what I say from now on, and squirming uncomfortably. WHO ARE YOU????? 3. After god-knows how many hours hard work and realignment of stuff and things, I've finally got my wee fanzine printed off. So, if anyones interested, issue three features an interview with Mark Jones of Jeepster giving advice how to get signed (and mentioning things about the acts he's already got signed); Aether Flux interview; interview with The Clean; interview with John Uchurch (dude who designed Shellac and Tortoise covers); tons of reviews, demo section, quick fire interviews with bands nobody's heard of and a whole bunch of other stuff. �1.20, green cover. Previous issues are available too, cos I've got some more published. 4. Viruses? urgh. I've had three I've deleted this week alone. Its a nightmare. They go for your address book you know. Be warned. The ones I've had, have been with "re. " in the subject line, with nothing more than re. Second thing, there has been no body to the message, just an attatchment with an odd ending. If someone has sent you something genuine, and you know who they are. you can always e mail them and ask before you open it. 5. Sorry for the last multi post. Deja vu, anyone? what can I say... it kept telling me the connection had timed out. 6. dress down day, and I got told my belt was unsuitable for work. And yes, it really was a belt, not an extra short skirt or something. How sucky is that? 7. I keep having these wierd moments. I keep seeing this staircase bar in my mind, in my imagination, it just strikes up, like its somewhere I've been or somewhere I've seen, and I can't make it out. It just leaves this peculiar feeling inside me and I don't know any more. Its an odd thing, I just get flashes of this place, and htis feeling to accompany it. Its really getting quite strange. Its not something I think about, it just jumps up mid thought and goes. 8. My story is coming along really well. I've come up with stuff for it. y imagination seems to hav found a new lease of life. 9. Ken Chu, its not Christmas I find depressing, its the feelings that accompany it of regret and wonder and thoughts about all the little things I should have said and done, I just never took the time.... Hmm. 10. Did anyone think that Jools Holland looked odd when he walked away from Belle And Sebastian? He had this fixed smile on when they finished one song, then walked off, towards his piano I think, and looked at the floor with this "good grief, who asked THEM on? I can't believe I have to fake joyity about some ofthese bands sometimes.". It was that slight slight look, when he looked at the floor, the way his face just dropped the smile as quickly as he could get away from them. I thought it was quite funny. Or am I over-analyising things again? 11. When is he right time to start sending Christmas cards? 12. Yeah, I'm going to the QMU gig as well. It took my brother 1 and a half hours queueing at the QM on Wednesday, only to find out they weren't on sale yet. And then he said he was told it was students only. Of course, I think he just got it wrong. Eventually, i sent him off to Virgin to get one. :) I owe him big time now. I think it was a good idea though, to call him and bark instructions from my desk at work while he was with this girl, who I think he fancies. So I think he did it to impress her with his sensitivity. I must remember to exploit this as much as possible. Okay, thats it. Love, idles ===== http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/corduroysmoke and the world did get covered in a thick haze of corduroy smoke. And it felt good. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Buy the perfect holiday gifts at Yahoo! Shopping. http://shopping.yahoo.com +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister(a)missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo(a)missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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