ps - jaffa cakes. are they cakes or are they biscuits? time for a healthy debate please>>> I submit this, quoted in its entirety from my handy desk reference book, “The Oxford Guide to British and American Culture”: “Jaffa cakeä / n a type of biscuit-shaped cake containing orange jelly and covered on one side with chocolate. Jaffa cakes are made by *McVitie’s.” The asterisk indicates that McVitie’s rates its own entry in “The Oxford Guide to British and American Culture”. I think that “biscuit-shaped cake” is a
O, Sinistri-- I should start by saying that I recently discovered that ‘O’, which looks like a vocative, is in Slovene, equivalent to ‘Hi’. So, Hi. There were so many things in the last days’ mailings I wanted to address, but I won’t even scratch the surface here, na zalost. This is a posting of great joy, which may come as a shock to any who regularly read my usual whinging notes. I actually said out loud as I delved through my inbox, really, no kidding, “I love the internet.” What I should say is, maudlin as it may be, I love *you*. Okay. That utter crap, sincere though it may've been, just lost half of my potential readership. In the interest of disclosure, I should also say that a big part of why I love this place is the people who’ve reached out to me, who’ve included me in their worlds, in the music that makes them whirr, and so forth. For this reason, the recent thread of Hornsbyesque top ten discs has gripped me, because in my shallowness of just two years ago when I first became aware of B&S, my main motive for being On The List was to try to cull musical recommendations. Brain-picking. I wanted to know what ELSE I was missing. Also, in my current music vacuum, I need input. So clearly the recent postings from all of you about Spiritualized and Souvlaki and Elliot Smith have made me want to run out and buy CDs (if they were available in TFY and they’re not), but in my scant two years of listing I’ve also learnt that everything you all like is not necessarily what I will like. Still, many people who’ve guided me (and some who’ve done much more than that) have put me onto music that has changed my world. I think they know who they are. But in the interest of disclosure, I should say that a few subscribers will recognise themselves as agents of goodness in my musical soul. Blah blah blah. Everyone who sent me recordings of Hefner, Cinerama, Ant, Low or Travis or even new B&S while I was living in the CD-free zone of Argentina RULZ. I guess that’s cutting to the chase. And any of you who haven't sent such mailings to people in remote parts: get busy. Mailing is cheap in the first world, and there's yet a lot of joy to sow. Other nice news: I learned tonight that I will be travelling to “Spačekijada” on the Dalmatian coast for my five-day May Day holiday. Just in case one or two of you aren’t familiar with the idea of “Spačekijada”, I will explain. The Spaček is a make of Citroën automobile, sort of like the Volkswagen Beetle only boxier, and for a long time it was very cheap and therefore literally “popular” everywhere in Europe, even Yugoslavia. Spačekijada is a big gathering, sort of a Woodstock of owners of these ancient plywood-esque cars, and this year it is being held in Istra, Croatia--at least the local version is; keep your eyes peeled for your chance to attend one closer to home. I am going not because I own one of these crackerboxes, but because my old friend from Sarajevo does, and that will bring him close to me. So we will reunite at “Spačekijada”! (Since I have this weird land-mine phobia). Yet BIGGER news! I am GOING to Benicássim (sources, even Spanish ones, disagree on the accent--grave or acute?--discuss). But yes. I had intended maybe to go in any case, but was feeling a bit wanchancy about it, since driving all the way from Slovenia to Spain is a lot of fuel and a lot of solitude even for me, but I have just received word that a List Friend (the best one, in fact) is, YES! free to visit during my August break, and that wild horses or at least wild dormice would be necessary to keep us from the Costa Brava or Costa Daurada or Costa Blanca or whatever Costa actually obtains in that exact area. I am very jazzed about this idea, and hope to hear from others who will be there. I have a lot of fish to fry in España already, but I am greedy for aún más. This brings me to a question broached by M. Henderson, about (North) Americans’ willingness to drive long distances. Maybe I am still not sensitive to the differences in fuel prices--gasoline here costs at least twice what gli Statiunitensi are used to paying for it, although Slovenija has some of the lowest gas prices in Europe (and nothing I’ve experienced yet compares to the prices Argentines pay), but it seems to be true that distances are relative, and for people used to driving from, for example, Montana to Maine and back, jaunting up to Prague or over to Barcelona doesn’t seem to be a big deal--even though it costs. When I drove down to Rímini recently, to me it was not A Big Deal. People I talked to here acted as though I’d gone to St. Petersburg for the weekend. It’s all about perspective, I suppose, Matt, and growing up on such a gigantic politically contiguous land mass inures us to distance. I guess I need to tour the CIS or Jupiter. And while doing so pull out “London Calling” and “Sandinista!” again--definitely seminal albums in my little life. Thanks for mentioning them and reminding me. Will keep this ‘short’ (at least in North American highway distance terms) and send more vacant thoughts later. Thanks to all who’ve brightened my days with recent posts. Nazdravje! JDS P.S. Oh and this: In response to Dean’s call for a healthy debate re: the nature of jaffa cakes-- pretty clear indication that Jaffa cakes are *cakes*. Conectate a Internet GRATIS con Yahoo! Conexión: http://conexion.yahoo.com.ar +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+