okay, there's a continuation of the twee discussion at the top of this post. if you're bored pantless of that by now (i wish i really COULD bore the pants off people, it'd be a great trick, but anyway, i'm going off the subject) just go to the bottom, where there's a nice b&s song rip-offy type thing. ------------ this may be a shorter post (queue collective sigh of relief) than normal because my arms are hurting from spending the afternoon being very un-twee and a bit macho and cutting branches off trees. not in a random, bad way you understand. in a nice way, so that the sun shines on the other plants a bit more and allows them to grow. there's a metaphor there somewhere, but i can't be arsed to drag it out. there have been some wise words here recently, notably from robin, edda (hi edda) and idles. some wise words, and some misunderstandings. idleberry and robin, whilst you're correct in saying that, to some, tweeness is an affectation it is equally true that to others it is not. the reason that element of belle and sebastian (and i'm not going to suggest for a moment that its their entirety. if the band weren't multi-faceted, they wouldn't appeal to such a wide range of people) appeals to some of us is that it reflects something we feel inside ourselves. yes, some people may be chasing the twee stereotype (and i maintain that there are worse ones to chase) but to others of us, the 't' factor (as we probably won't call it ever again) connects with something fundamental and pre-existent inside ourselves. we don't have twee tendencies because we listen to belle and sebastian but we may find that one of the reasons we like belle and sebastian is that they can, at times, be a bit twee. 'the boy with naivety succeeds at the final moment i cried i always cry at endings' one of my favourite lines and, to my mind, more than a little t-w-e-e. of course you're correct that a lot of it comes down to how you define the word - you may have noticed, for example, that i don't see twee in QUITE the same way as certain others on this list (now, where did i put that paddle?). robin sees tweeness as something shallow, whereas i believe it can be (but is not always) more fundamental than that. and if i seemed to suggest that sinister was entirely twee, then i should not have done so. clearly, that was incorrect. however, to deny that the element is there is equally incorrect: there are those of us who identify with that word, and to whom it reflects something we feel within ourselves. and, when we came here and discovered it here, it was rather a lovely thing to find. so, to be told that what we're feeling within is, in actual fact, an affectation - or some deluded aspiration - comes as something of a shock. after all.. if this is an affectation, what else is? maybe the whole gay thing was a lie too, and i should be out shagging birds (as i believe the terminology goes) as we speak. really... please don't tell me what i do and don't feel within. not unless you happen to be one of the voices in my head. (oh my god, you aren't, are you? did i imagine you all?) but, you're right... , tweeness can at times be an affectation. as can anything. whenever you view the present through what came before it, you don't see the moment for what it is. your view is distorted by previous events, by 'experience', by prejudice and by a pre-conceived idea of what 'you' might be. if you spend too much time building up a 'you', based on ideas of what that should look, feel and think like, you forget that inside there there's a vibrant, sentient being, capable of responding to any moment with freshness and spontaneity, capable of being so much more than you've ever been before as long as you don't go dumping the past or any ideas of what 'should' be on top of it. everything we cling to is affectation. let it go, and become what you are, right now. but that's easier said than done, innit? it may be daft to become attached to a word, but then, that word can offer a lot of comfort. for now, though, maybe its time to let it go. twe e e e e e e e e e e e THUD there. i am no longer twee. i am simply me. ooh, that sounds like a poem. of a sort. and, with that in mind, here's an affectation that i prepared earlier: (OKAY EVERYBODY THAT SKIM-READ THE TOP BIT, THANKS FOR NOT INSTANTLY PRESSING DELETE. HERE'S THE POINT WHERE YOU MIGHT WANT TO START READING AGAIN). you know the tune - tigermilk, track two.. monday morning wake up knowing that you've got to go to work though last night you drank ten pints and acted like a total jerk do you want to be a builder, wear some pants that show your arse? stand on scaffolding, and leer and shout at women as they pass? and you tell them you'll no longer be a queer one any more wearing white and drinking alcopops has become such a bore your obsession gets you known all round the scene for being strange and they laugh and bitch about you when they think you're out of range in the queue for lunch, you change your mind an indie kid you'll be so you throw out all the kylie and you buy an nme and in there you find opinions and you claim them as your own but you keep that barry white tape 'for the irony alone' you're confused, you're being used and you're trying to be something good, something new and if it all seems hopeless now well just be thankful you aint twee-ee monday morning wake up knowing that you've got to go to work so you ditch the denim flares and fumble for a tie and shirt do you love the corporation? cause they sure as fuck love you just as long as you're of use to them, and after that you're screwed tell a mailing list that something doesn't feel so very right and at times it seems existence is a dull and weary fight they'll stick up for you, perhaps, if they see something good inside so you live life by computer - it seems somewhere safe to hide at the end of it, you age, perhaps the layers drop away or perhaps you build identity to help you through the day do you live life for the moment, do you scrabble to pretend? does the answer to that question change the way the story ends? you've been used, you're confused are you me? are you you? write a song, i'll sing along not for a reason, just because, i think that it might be fun to do. -------------- yeah... words, music, definitions... its all so... false...man i think it might have been lester bangs (although, equally, it might have been lorraine kelly) who said that writing about music was like dancing about architecture. and i know that it was edda that said: *I'll admit that telling people that I *listen to indie is more of an statement than a fact, cause I know that even *though they would tell me the same, they are too listening to "crazy in *love" and shaking there booty. Or at least here... I don't know how it is *with you guys.... and she's right. and, somewhere underneath the 'hello kitty' notepaper i never owned, i'm pretty sure there's a destiny's child cover of frank lloyd wright's greatest hits. and i'm just dying to get my groove on. until next time, my dears, all i have to say to you is do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do no, that wasn't it but it'll do xx ian that wasn't a short mail at all, was it? +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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. 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