Hullo Sinister Kiddies, In case anyone had any doubts, Miss Elise Spry is an angel. Not only did she let me crash on her sofa, but she gave me a grand tour of Madison and took me to the absolute best places for breakfast. Sean's an ace chap as well, and the two of them make an astonishingly cute couple, the other Chicago picnic peeps can back me up on this. I introduced the two of them to wonders of Red Bull and Vodka, because I wish everyone to share in the wonder that is that magickal drink. They were willing converts. I was quite pleased to see that Elise enjoyed the Moldy Peaches. Run, do not walk, to your local record shop (or shoppe) and buy their self-titled album. It is the crowning achievement of skank-rock. My hair goo is ICE Spiker, and I likes it because it makes my hair all spikey without making it all nasty and slimy. It has Elise's seal of approval. The Sinister Chicago picnic went well, even if it seemed like the weather conspired against us. Somehow we survived the mad flooding to meet-up at the Art Institute and go out for dinner. Stine infected me with the phrase "Punk Rock", and now that's become my new exclimation. I intend to infect as many people as possible. If you find yourself shouting "PUNK ROCK!" in an exclimation of happiness, blame Stine, she started it. Also in attendence was the lovely Nikki and Adam, Sinister's Man in Chicago. Adam's got the hook-up, he knows the score. You need to find the subway? You need to find a place to eat? You need to find a table? Adam is the Man with the Plan. Both Elise and Sean insist that I look like 'Jack' from TV's Will & Grace "from the right angle". What angle that is I'm not sure of, and since I've never seen Will & Grace I don't know if looking like Jack is a good or bad thing, but they did seem to find me saying "Just Jim!" extremely funny. Needless to say, the Chicago picnic was a blast and a good time was had by all. Elise and Sean were excellent hosts and made for a very cool weekend. In the world of Sinister Laura Llew mentioned her love of Carson McCullers, a love I share. I do believe I'm the one who introduced Miss Llew to the wonder that is McCullers, everyone should give THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER a read, it's a work of brilliance matched only by CATCHER IN THE RYE and TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. If you don't belive me, just listen to Llew, she wouldn't steer you wrong. Lovely LLew also said: "Plus, HUGE SHOUTS, much admiration, love, hugs, kisses, and general overall worship to JIMMY G who had my future cabanna boy, Stuart Murdoch, autograph a ticket to one of the western B&S shows for me" Awww, she makes me blush, she does. I must admit I didn't mention the cabanna boy business to Stu, I didn't want to tip him to Lil Llew's kidnapping plots. Fear the Llew and her Love Dungeon, it has claimed many a brave soul. Lola mentioned "le fabuleux destín d'amélíe poulaín", I've heard a lot of good things about this, mostly from my UK friends, is this playing anywhere in the states yet? *sigh* I suppose I'll have to wait for the US DVD release. I've been reading a bit of Iain Sinclair this weekend, WHITE CHAPPELL, SCARLET TRACINGS to be exact. Utterly mad stuff and a joy to watch Sinclair do rude things to the English language. Oh, and go see GHOST WORLD, it's ace. If you like it you should buy the graphic novel by Dan Clowes, it's quite ace as well, and the source material for the movie. *sigh* It's almost a shame we're all so scattered across the globe, after meeting up with the absolutly brilliant people that are the Chi-town crew, I almost wish we did have that Sinister village out there somewhere. I think there's only one way to sum up the past weekend and the Sinister peeps: "PUNK ROCK!" Jim "I don't know what I'd do with myself if I had to be on the lookout for the Antichrist all the goddamned time." - Fiddlegirl _________________________________________________________________ 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@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@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 +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+