Peter Miller did not not reply to the questions because he was being evasive. He did not reply because he was not yet ready to Report Back. I think that this has to be cleared up before any more damage is done to his name. I mean, 'Miller' - that's bad enough. Alice Virginia (what a name!) said that she was living in the wrong place and Long Island was dull. (I don't know what 'lipliner' is. I am translating Roughley, I mean, roughly). I think she should stop worrying about that. Where I come from we think Long Island is the height of glamour. It has its own sound, too, I mean, Sound. Glasgow had to work for years to get the Glasgow Sound, but Long Island produced the Long Island Sound immediately. Her other name is the Merry Prankster, which as Ciaran Carson might say reminds me of Joan Didion, whose White Album I was reading yesterday, which reminds me of Lloyd Cole (of course) and - Peter Miller. It all works out. Didion talks about 'jaycees' and I had to wonder if these were named after the editor in The Bell Jar, who turns up, by the way, in diluted and diminished form, on the last song of I Think You Dropped A Moonbeam, whose last song is named after something that Esther Greenwood says to her. Speaking of that, I have finally found that Irving Berlin record I have been looking for. Whoever can tell me what the best 5 Irving Berlin songs are wins a prize from the Irving Berlin foundation; at least, that's what they tell me. I cannot yet work out whether Berlin was a) a subtle, classy and moving songwriter or b) a sort of high-kicking sloganeer. I am beginning to think that the critics' easy coupling of him and Porter is a bit of an error. A record which is quite good is Bruce Springsteen's TUNNEL OF LOVE, which features tons of pleasures. A band who like Bruce Springsteen are Deacon Blue. The good news for pop fans is that they are back, I mean, de retour. Like B&S they are making great play with their Glasgwegian origins in between-song banter. Their set is roughly as follows: YOUR TOWN RAINTOWN TWIST AND SHOUT LOADED REAL GONE KID WAGES DAY [two or three new songs] WHEN WILL YOU MAKE MY TELEPHONE RING? FERGUS SINGS THE BLUES DIGNITY HOMESICK encore: CHOCOLATE GIRL I'LL NEVER FALL IN LOVE AGAIN QUEEN OF THE NEW YEAR I cannot imagine why anyone would give away their copy of the Raintown LP. It is - I now realize - a pretty high quality debut. Whether it is as good a debut as Tigermilk, I am not sure. A critic who is quite good is F.R. Leavis? Or is he? I have been rereading him and am still not really convinced. I have also been rereading Lionel Trilling, but I don't intend to start that one up again. Kermode update: as far as we know, Professor Sir Frank, whose imprimature still appears on the back of The Crying of Lot 49, is still alive. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger http://phonecard.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 +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+