I have to report, hastily, on the Is A Cricket Not A Pear? video, which as Katrina tastily told us UK people, was on Alternative Nation on MTV on Tuesday night. I'm surprised noone else mentioned it, but I completely forgot I'd taped it too, and did a little shuffle with the remote control last night. And lo and behold! there it was, right at the beginning of the program, in prime busty form, looking all and impressive and handmade, no doubt with Stuart's trusty cine camera he keeps in a sponge bag (no joke). Here's a quick run through: It starts off, worryingly, with a quote from Jacques Cousteau, all about hearts. Sorry I meant Jean Cocteau, actually it's a nice thing but I can't remember it here. Then a creaky gate opens in a black n white stylee, and we see Isobel singing to a little toy lion and sitting amongst the grass. The film the video the same day they did the pictures for the TWATTYBUS cover, because pretty soon we see Richard sitting in a deck chair in his straw hat, drinking wine and being serenaded by Stevie on an acoustic. Whenever the camera goes to Richard it gets a Charlie Chaplainesque jitter as he munches thoughtfully; at the same time Chris and Mick are fighting swords on the battlements in kilts (down, boys and girls), and let me tell you, sorry Mick, it looks like Chris was winning. This is interspersed with VERY cute shots of Sarah up a tree in barefeet playing violin a la Dexys, and Stuart David fishing in a grumpy manner. Stuart M is then seen burning insects with a magnifying glass along a little lane. Stuart likes burning insects, he's done it all his life and he likes to see them writhe in pain - it's where he gets the lyrics for most of his songs from. Did I ever mention that Stuart David ever only eats cheese? Through a straw? Actually, Stuart is following a little trail of David and Katrina's super little "Belle and Sebastian" badges (the red and white ones), with his magnifying glass, and we all look thoughtfully and then say "oh yes! John and Oko and the stepladder!". Incidentally, Yoko's "YES" came to the Edinburgh Fruitmarket Gallery recently and they WOULDN'T LET YOU CLIMB THE STEPLADDER! I bet the devil with three horns at Woolies had something to do with it. Anyway, in the end, Isobel lobs a bottle into the water and Stuart David fishes it out. Stuart does the most fabulous, stroke-my-chin-hmm-whats-this acting I've ever seen, akin to one of Captain Mainwaring's performances when his glasses fall off. The gate closes and it says "The End". Linda says it should have said "Fin". It's a wicked little video and loads of fun. If you happened to tape the whole of Alternative Nation (please don't have a go at me if you're not in the UK or you haven't got cable, my legs hurt), you won't find any more B&S, sadly, but don't rub it off! Because later on, aside from something bizarre from Sven Vath, who seems to have stolen Peter Miller's hair, there's a completely fabulous video by the completely fabulous Cornelius, which makes me think "you can stuff your Air up your bum", but then I get some rather nasty pictures in my mind. Nuff to say, it's a great song, great video, and in case you didn't spot it, he's smoking and singing backwards all the way through. the honey who was paul xxx +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list please mail "sinister@majordomo.net". To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to "majordomo@majordomo.net". For list archives and searching, list rules, FAQ, poor jokes etc, see http://www.majordomo.net/sinister +---+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" +---+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+