Hello Sinister, (Why hello Kara!) ahem, yes well I've been meaning to post for absolutely ages about a number of things. Today is my birthday so I thought it might be a particularly good day to post. I just got a particularly nasty happy birthday from my mom because I told her I didn't want to work the same office job that made me want to kill myself with my letter opener again this summer. Sigh. Oh, the bit at the end is of some import so if any of this gets boring just skip ahead. I was going to defend Christmas. I'm sorry but saying that Christmas is too commercial is dying your hair blue and thinking that you're "totally fucking their yuppie system." Shopping malls, not Christmas. Ads trying to get you to go shopping, not Christmas. The malls and the ads are always there, and they're always like that. We just have to go to the stores to get presents and there is a definite value to presents. When you know someone well enough to get something that you are so positively sure is perfect for them that it makes you feel wonderful then I think something pretty great has happened. You're happy because you've been given a chance to prove that you can make other people happy. And therein lies my point. I'm not at all religious but I still feel something at Christmas. There's a sort of energy humming through the stillness that's there even when everyone is rushing around. It makes you want to do something great, something worthy of all the faith and emotion that's poured into religion, and making a friend or family member happy is definitely a step in the right direction. Of course this doesn't have to be done with a present. I also meant to post after I went to see the moldy peaches and the strokes. My friend who I went with was going mainly to see the strokes. She now admits that she had alot more fun during the peaches set. There was dancing, acting, acrobatics, freaky costumes and general wonderfulness throughout the peaches show. I heard a person behind me remark "I can't even describe what I just saw" once their set had finished. I don't think there can be a better compliment. Then the peaches came out and my friend and I got lots of hugs and they said they'd try to do and interview for mine and Peter's fastcow webzine. They were some of the most genuinely nice people I've ever met. Then the strokes came out and all the little girls in their sparkly tops and their sparkly make up shoved forward and I ended up crushed into a metal fence all because half the people there thought they desperately needed to sleep with the band. Yay. And the act...how many times have we seen this drunken, angsty act before. Ooh, you broke your beer bottle, I marvel at your badness. You're smoking pot on stage. No way! Take that system! And then they knocked their instruments over. Christ, could they be any less original? By the end of it I was left with a strong desire to give them all a swift kick to the groin and tell them to get humble real quick. The Important Part Ok, now that I'm done ranting and whatnot, some of you may remember that I made plans to make a sinister mixtape. It is still in the works but requires one final ingredient, a little bit of you. I had originally planned on quoting sinister mails but I'll be honest, I am not going to read everything in the archives and if I don't then I'll think I've missed something good. Or I'll think I have the perfect quote and the person who wrote it won't want me to use it or something like that. So, if any of you could be so kind, I'm looking for tapes you saying something sinister. Anything really, you could talk about sinister, b&s, your life anything. Kind of like sinister itself. This tape is supposed to be basically about you guys so I think that this is the most crucial element. You can tell me about your gerbil. Your gerbil can tell me about you. I'm game for pretty much anything. I have but one warning. Any tapes telling me why you love Isobel so much will be shot out of cannons into a rock quarry. I will then hire fifty people to point at the battered remains of the tape and laugh. I'm sorry to those who this may hurt but it's my tape so the fun part is I get to make the rules. The same thing goes for tapes about how cute stuart is. Though I may not shoot them into rock quarries. You've got to stay original in the mixtape business. That will be all from me now. I hope you all had lovely holidays. Oh, I'm going to England tomorrow. I know all you British people are now working hard to control your excitement at the prospect. And failing miserably. I kid. Anyway, everyone, have a beautiful day. Kara Jean* +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+