Sinister: what's in a name?
i'm tempted to give a semantic explanation for the oddness of the title. a superficial mental perusal of their discography and of song/album titles, in general, leads me to the conclusion that it's on account of it being a sentence. most song titles seem to be noun phrases, if one accepts that titles like 'going nowhere fast' are nominal gerunds. this is appropriate since the title names an object, albeit an abstract one. if the title is a sentence, especially an imperative one, the only way one can assign it a reference is by imagining a context in which it could be uttered. so stuart is challenging our imaginative resources: it's not an object, it's an entire context! if the rumour (please forgive me for calling it a rumour if it really is an established fact) that stuart found it in a bathroom stall is true, then it has the flavour of the piece of lore about David Bowie coming up with songs by picking words (or lines?) randomly. sort of John Cage-ish, like (here i'm pretending to be well informed about things i don't necessarily know that much about - i saw an exhibit once, which was really neat, but that's about it)? i think it's ok to think of the titles in and of themselves. i would never have imagined that 'the boy with the arab strap' would be my favorite song, the only one i really like, in fact, on that album, based on the title. and even if you don't like felt, wouldn't you have to agree that their song titles are amazing? but 'judy is a dick slap' is awful, sounds misogynistic, even though i don't know what 'dick slap' means. on the plane i read _the rachel papers_ by martin amis, which was really good. don't you always find yourself liking earlier works better than later ones, with books and with music, though in the case of music, it might take a few releases, i guess cos it's easier to put out records than get published? even though it was supposed to be from the 70's, it didn't sound that dated - only the fact that he kept on calling everyone a hippie. so the 60's were perpetually out of favor thereafter, i gather. but on the sheet of 60's stamps i got, the barbie in a pillbox hat is really cool. cheers, youn +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+
i'm tempted to give a semantic explanation for the oddness of the title. a superficial mental perusal of their discography and of song/album titles, in general, leads me to the conclusion that it's on account of it being a sentence. most song titles seem to be noun phrases, if one accepts that titles like 'going nowhere fast' are nominal gerunds. this is appropriate since the title names an object, albeit an abstract one.
i'm willing to agree with your entire analysis, esp the part about offering an entire context instead of merely a name...that's clever says i. however, if the fact that the title of the new record is remarkable by virtue of it being NOT a noun phrase what is to be made of 'if you're feeling sinsiter' which is not merely the album around which their entire discography spins (this is debatable but ...) but it is also a Compliment Phrase or CP. essentially the 'If' at the front is modifying an already exiting sentence being 'you are feeling sinister') and making it conditional....it almost begs one to say "well i'm not so fuck off." i'm not sure where i'm going with this but i just saw an opportunity to open my linguistics text so i suppose that can't be a bad thing (as exams are coming up). also.... hary hunt in his 'graphic porn, free pimms and world peace' magnum opus stated that:
act, sound, etc. Smell, that's different, smelling nice is dignity, not pride.
yes yes yes....i view it as actively rude of someone to appear smelly and in public. they are going to get it. also, for those new Torontonians to the list, they will be thrilled to know that there is a thriving sinister commune here in toronto (well a community maybe, commune is stretching it because we don't all live together and grow our own food) and usually things are stage managed by DebS and Diana who run things in this town. check the jeepster meetup board for deets. also, i'll be at the smiths night tonite wearing a lavender shirt and dancing my legs down to the knees, or possibly just scowling and being drunk....who knows. steven +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+
Dear all: On how bizarre but captivating this peasant title is.I wrote with the magnets on our fridge yesterday : 'Modern Life is Rubbish.Hand the DJ!', instead of cleaning all the spots and stains up.I was to write 'Burn your mobile' instead of 'hang the dj' but there were no enough letters available. Graffitis make good titles, maybe fridge messages too. A good title to a book,song,album or anything is a merit and artwork even itself.In Spanish, John Irving's book is called ' Princes of Maine, Kings of New England', much more poetic than 'The cider house rules'.I truly enjoyed the book when I was thirteen, so I am not going to see that film,because they would have managed to slaughter it as 'The End of the Affair',sure.That is when my 'Great Expectations''obsession arises from. This FYHYWLAP title is gorgeous, and it sounds like a Welsh village,sure.Maybe it is a signal from Stu to tell fellow Torontonians where they should set up their commune in case they finally organise one and become all hippie. But it is too long for my decreasing magnetic alphabet. As result of my disordered checking and reading last few days, I really have lost the plot on Reynolds' lines and teenage musical reviews, both metaphorical and in real,hard life.Hope we can retake the discussion at the Vic in Camber Sands, I will prepare my research carefully and carry my notes!To fully grasp all the concepts my A-level Philosophy knowledge will have to be dusted off,too. Arantxa +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+
participants (3)
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Arantxa Sanz -
Steven Kado -
Youn J. Noh