Hi, all you lovely people. This is my first post, so bear with me. My name is Vegard, Im 26 and living in Trondheim (Norway). After the noisy Swells/NME debate, I dont know if I dare to tell you my current occupation. Im a mainly a music journo (dont kill me, please), but because I work as a freelancer in a daily newspaper, I also write about a lot of other stuff. Im just back from a weeks binge with some mates from back when I was a student (2 years ago). I always look forward to these meetings. Mostly because I get the chance to see my beloved friends again, but also because I know Ill be drunk for days. I guess we have this "romantic" view about some bohemian lifestyle. One of my best friends have this dream: When he gets old and rich, hell buy himself a house on the French Riviera. Then hell sit on his porch, look out towards the sunset and the sea, writing bad poetry and drinking himself slowly to death on expensive wine. We get all misty-eyed when we talk about this. A stupid dream perhaps, but it never fails to lift our spirits and help us down another drink. I also went to a class reunion this weekend (10th anniversary), and it was really a great experience. Almost everyone had done fairly well, even the "trouble makers". Everyone said I had changed the most. Not so strange, as I was just a tiny, invisible toe-rag back then. The situation reminded me a bit about the liner notes (or whatever youd like to call it) on IYFS, you know the part about Chris Geddes, him playing the piano on national radio while the casuals are sweeping up in Burger King. Not that Ive ever been close to playing the piano on national radio, of course. But it was really strange to see this newfound respect in their eyes. I dont really bear grudges towards any of them though. They never bothered me much (I was just anonymous, not very geeky). One of the guys, who used to be the hardest in the class, a real pain in the ass, explained how hed been totally neglected by his parents when he was a kid. He was so proud because hed managed to get a steady job, a girlfriend and a kid he loved. He got really soppy, and it was a moving moment for a guy like me, who strongly believe that every human being has the potential to do good things. So, thats the "once a cunt, always a cunt", theory down the toilet. Some of the people who didnt do very well in school had great jobs and nice families as well. I also had this long, nice talk with the girl who was my girlfriend when we were 12 (we hadnt seen each other at all for the last 8 years). You know, back then we didnt have the nerve even to hold hands, and we certainly didnt kiss (I remember just the thought of it used to make me so nervous I got sick). We really hit it off, and we ended up snogging. She said it was "pleasant" to see me again. In a strange way, I think thats the nicest thing a girl has said to me for a long time. Certainly better than "cute" (a word all the girls used about me in school when I was nothing but a tiny mascot. I wanted to be "handsome" and "desirable", not "cute"). The downside of it (theres alway one, isnt it?): Her (huge) boyfriend plays centre-back for my beloved local football team. Maybe hell find out, get sad and play like shit for the rest of the season? Oh dear... Well, thats enough from my messy head for now. I guess Ill try the chatroom soon, but it really scares the hell out of me. Ive never tried IRC before in my life, you see. Im afraid itll all be in-jokes and slang I dont understand. But some of you have been kind enough to invite me already, so itll be nice I guess. Love, Vegard *** Take me out tonight Because I want to see people and I want to see lights The Smiths *** P.S. The subject line is taken from a song on the latest Mojave 3 album. Its lovely, and all of you should buy it ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the undead 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 +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "peculiarly deranged fanbase" "frighteningly named +-+ +-+ Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+