The Queen Mum just died. "Just" as in "recently", not "just" as in "simply". She died this afternoon at quarter past three, and now, five hours later, every broadcasting station across the land has changed its schedules to run obituaries for the poor girl, or just to play "more suitable" music. My mother commented "They've even shifted Blind Date! Bloody hell - I hope it's not going to be like Diana again", and with that, without realising it, probably made the most poignant piece of social commentary of the day. I'm not writing this post to say that the mourning of a dead person for whome lots of people care is a Bad Thing, I'm just saddened that people are making such a huge fuss over *this* death. Over the last 6 weeks, three famous-ish people died, making little more ripple in the cultural water than a column on page 17 in The Sun. This trio was Spike Milligan, Dudley Moore and Kenneth Wolstenholme (the commentator responsible for "They think it's all over... it is now!"). I would argue really quite strongly that these three men did more in their time on the planet for Britain's national cultural heritage than the Queen Mum ever did, but because they weren't born with a silver spoon in their mouths, their scant obituaries will become tomorrow's chips wrapper. Don't worry though, I'm not going to embark on an anti-royalist diatribe. I recognise that the Queen Mum's death is also a symbolic one - to a lot of people she was the last standing bastion of the Establishment, of the Royal Family as it *was*. So with her gone, we're now left with Princesses who write poor chilren's books for tax right-off reasons and Princes who do dodgy dealings with TV companies. And Prince Philip. Also, there's something really quite admirable to having a life which lasts for 101 years. I'd be proud it. I'm simply posting because as the schedules change from Stars In Their Eyes to The Life & Times Of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and from the White Stripes to Morcheeba, it makes me feel a bit sad. Sad because somebody died, but also because a death like this simply serves to accentuate what a shame it is that people who made something of *themselves* are forgotton for someone who was always destined from birth to have a "celebrated" life. love, Asm.x ================================ "He's strictly a pain in the ass, but he certainly has a good vocabulary" - Holden Caulfield "He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy" - Mary Cohen _________________________________________________________________ Join the world’s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+