Hi Sinister,
this is a much belated official report of the SF sinister picnic. due to a set of spectacular directions leading all to a very small spot within a very large park, the sini-picnic was also, for many, a sini-marathon.
I did find the children's park in the end, but I started late from the wrong side of the park. A girl eating a peach on the bus told me where to get off. She and her friend got off at the same stop as me, but they said goodbye to each other and walked off in opposite directions. I thought there was something romantic about that. Maybe they modified their routes to be together.
intended to walk 5 miles that afternoon. the pickle prince even scaled a mountain in his search for picnicness.
The layout of the park is awkward: it's more for drivers than pedestrians. Hills, yes, then the children's park appears in a sort of valley. Stray birthday balloons tied to trees, limp by then - it was late afternoon. I thought of the fun you must have had. But I can't say that I expected to find you. Too much time spent dawdling on the way up, dreaming of girls with flowers in their hair. Two lovely children, a boy and a girl, stood by a fountain, and an elderly woman, perhaps their aunt, observed them from a bench. I wanted to take their picture, but you just can't do things like that. They were so golden, they made me think of the children in 'The Turn of the Screw'.
girls thinking, "i want britney's body," in all it's delicious ambiguity!
Yes, it seems right for girls to be lovely, to fill out their skirts and blouses, and for boys to be charming and gentle, asking their sisters, "Shall I tell her some jokes?".
smiling fools
And I thought of 1491 things, naturally.
Obsessed with numbers. (See, I watched 'Gregory's Girl' the other day.) Narcissism - I don't know if there's much fun in that. (But I don't know if Kyla's saying it will end up that way.) I was going to catalogue all of the charming things Stuart did onstage, but David Moore was right - say no more. (It's commendable that he has managed to appease us all these times with just the right details, faithful, but giving nothing away. A fourth job, writing for the society pages? Sometimes a list of names will do.) When I first subscribed to sinister, someone asked for suggestions for something to read at a wedding. I had this in mind then, and the news of Ailsa's wedding brought it up again. It's from the end of 'The World Is A Wedding' by Delmore Schwartz. "'In the beautiful picture by Pieter Breughel [...] you can see a squatting child on the floor, sucking his thumb which is sticky with something sweet. Standing by the table are two musicians, bearing bagpipes. One is young, handsome and strong; he is dressed in brown and his cheeks are puffed out. The other musician is unkempt and middle-aged. He looks far away as if he were thinking of his faded hopes. The serving men are carrying a long tray full of pies. The bride is seated beneath the red-white mistletoe and on her face is a faint smile, as if she thought of what did not yet exist. The bridegroom is leaning back and draining down the ale from a fat stein. He drinks as if he were in the midst of a long kiss. Nearby is a dwarf and at the head of the table a priest and a nun are conversing with each other. Neither of them will ever have a husband or a wife. On the right hand of the bride, an old man looks ahead at nothing, holding his hands as if he prayed. He has been a guest at many wedding feasts! He will never be a young man again! Never again will youth run wild in him! 'Opposite the bride are the fathers and the mothers, all four. Their time is passed and they have had their day. Yet this too is a pleasure and a part for them to play. I can't tell which is the suitor whom the bride refused, but I know he is there too, perhaps among the crush that crowds the door. He is present and he looks from a distance like death at happiness. Meanwhile in the foreground a handsome young man pours from a jug which has the comely form of a woman's body the wine which will bring all of them exaltation like light. His bending body is curved in a grace like harps or violins [...]'" Congratulations, Ailsa! +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+