Word for today = "casualisation". As I sat on the bus one the way back from Waitrose this morning, I saw a woman holding a leaflet. It announced that today is the "Simon Jones Memorial Day of Awareness about Casualisation", I think it was. I couldn't for the life of me think what it could be about. The picture of Mr Jones was of a young man with a crew-cut wearing a Ben Sherman type shirt. So people are finally rising up against the Reebok-classic-wearing, pissy-lager-drinking, pub-brawling culture that blights our provincial towns? Er, no. It's all to do with casual labour, and the lack of writes and protection the employee has. More about Mr Jones and the ugly side of casualisation can be found at http://www.simonjones.org.uk/latest.htm. I used to know a Simon Jones - but he was a twat. And he's still alive, so it couldn't have been him. Which made me wonder. What do people with really common names do when their mates are Googling themselves? My combo of dull-as-fuck first name and moderately exotic surname makes me fairly easy to track down. There were no Marks among the 31 Casarottos listed in the records of Ellis Island - though some of those 19th Century eye-ties have ker-azy names! http://www.ellisislandrecords.org/search/passSearch.asp? is quite interesting, especially if you're a septic. So. What else is new? I went to ATP. It wasn't great. The line-up was so po-faced and post-hardcore (Steve Albini cloned into a million sour-jawed men with unnecessary facial hair) that I couldn't be arsed to see the great majority of the bands. I know this is anathema to people like Stefano, but it's life. I think most sinisterines had a similar approach :-) However, their was one huge beacon of hope (and I'm not talking about Kelley Deal's arse). The Breeders were SUPERB, and totally made it for me, on a musical level at least. Though if anyone tries to tell you Cheap Trick were anything other than your dad making a 70s rock cunt of himself, they're lying, you know. And we won the football! Again! For bunch of bed-wetters, we can kick a ball passably (and I'd like to see someone call Dr Sean a bed-wetter to his face). Ally 96, big gay Richard, Mr Purple Troosers the skipper, lovely Joss, Dr Sean, Hairy Pat, Jonnie no. 5 and, of course, "Drunken" Matt Powell, manager extraordinaire, who pulled it together when it came down to the wire. Brian. Played 4, won 4; goals for, 19; goals against, 3. I think it's safe to say we're all over the spoon. This is a bit of a prosaic post, really, so I think I'll send it and maybe come back for more later. Mark xxx p.s. I got to SLEEP with David Moore! __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Everything you'll ever need on one web page from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts http://uk.my.yahoo.com +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@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 +-+ +-+ Snipp snapp snut, sa var sagan slut! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+