Can't remember who wrote this haiku, but it's great. Cold frosty morning Sparrows sitting together Without any necks The magnolia trees are in bloom, but I fear for the flowers' future over a cold and windy Welsh weekend. It's only from this time on that one notices magnolias, as their bare trunks are a bit twiggy and nondescript, although individual branches are nicely sinuous. Presumably they grow much better in the west of *Great* Britain than in the east, as I don't remember seeing many when I was living in Kent. Sweeping generalisation from paltry personal experience! Still, it's more humid here (understatement), which might account for it. "Scent of magnolia, sweet and fresh; Then a sudden smell of burning flesh; Pastoral scenes of the gallant South, The bulging eyes and the twisted mouths." Not very nice, but "Strange Fruit" is a sad and beautiful song, and never more so when sung by Robert Wyatt, in my biased opinion. You may mutter of Billie Holiday, but I stick with the old man, if only in homage to his version of "Shipbuilding": more tales of social injustice. Must buy some Elvis Costello rather than just listening to covers of it, but I haven't got around to it yet. Kieran said: <<Ive been told, too, that if you take photos from inside a bus, the camera will focus on the pane of plexiglass in the window, rather than the intended target, which will appear in fuzzy soft focus at the back of the photo. How sad.>> Having made a practise over the past few years of taking photos from buses, kindly heed my *wisdom* O People. 1) Get a decent camera with manual focus! That is, if you can find one that isn't computerised to the nth these days. I got my lovely SLR some time ago second-hand, and it was fairly ancient then. Weighs a ton, too. Still, good cameras age well if you treat them nicely. 2) Unless you're careful with your angles, you'll pick up reflections from the insides of the windows, particularly if it's a dull day. But sometimes that can be good, as you get interesting ghosts of the people on the bus superimposed on the exterior view. 3) Oh, and you should use a fast film, as, well, buses are moving moderately speedily in general. Like. Of course, I'm too swanky to travel on buses these days :) Trains are the way to go. But I do like the National Express for its comfy squalor. The drawback is that on a journey of any duration one is pretty much bound to go through or change at Birmingham bus station, which mings like the biggest badger you ever did see. Was listening to the Catchers in the car this morning. Early 90s jangly pop, gotta love it. Nearly as fey as the Field Mice, but more, well, Irish. And the REM influence in the vocal lines is almost comically apparent, but it's still great. Ooh, nostalgia for something that I wasn't that aware of at the time. I was more interested in Green Day, tragically. But these things are sent to try us. Hmmm why am I so conscious of nasty green small hatchbacks these days? Brixton. Belle and Sebastian IN THA GHETTO, innit. Caitlin me duck, pink nail varnish goes with _simply everything_. I'm going nowhere fast. Love to you all, but especially *you* Liz :x *** 97. Things that give a clean feeling An earthen cup. A new metal bowl. A rush mat. The play of the light on water as one pours it into a vessel. A new wooden chest. The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon ** _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+