Hello Sinister! On a rooftop in Lewisham, months ago, I promised the Pinefox that I would post to Sinister again when he posted again. I didn't mean to let him down; I won�t disappoint the PF, if I can help it. So, here I am� rock you like a hurricane. In mid-April, I moved to London from the Los Angeles suburbs. The two are not remotely similar. I brought Bapps with me, on account of him being my husband and we�re continuing to get on so well, and because he�s English and the reason I got a VISA. Can I tell you, moving to a different country is NOT easy? It is not easy. Moving isn�t easy, especially for me. It takes me a while to adjust to changes and feel comfortable. I knew I�d be starting over, but when I got to London I was shocked. Luckily, Ben and I found a flat right away and that helped me to settle down a bit. Once Ben and I got jobs, it helped even more. But there were a good 3 months before we got jobs when I felt as if it could all unravel at any point. I�m feeling the benefits of living in London now, and really enjoying myself. I love seeing so many great friends that I have made from Sinister on a fairly regular basis these days. It makes it even easier to adjust to life in a different country. Summer�s hastening on, and I�m wrapped up in books. I�ve been reading so much since I�ve moved here. I just have more idle time, especially now that it takes me over an hour to get to and from work on the buses and tube. I started reading Stuart David�s �The Peacock Manifesto� yesterday morning and finished it today. It�s a great book and quick to read. I especially liked it because of Peacock�s reactions when he travels to different U.S. cities that don�t live up to his expectations. I�ve had a similar feeling occasionally on road trips. Graceland is really small inside, I was hoping that Peacock would actually take the inside tour of Elvis� house and then bitch about it! Despite this omission, I think Stuart D is a very good writer. I'll read 'Nalda Said' next. I almost feel in writing this that I�ve shown up to a party wearing an outfit that is highly inappropriate for the occasion. I�m sure that most of you don�t even remember me. Which is quite a strange thought since my life wouldn�t be what it is today without Sinister. I suppose I am to blame for losing touch. I got a husband out of the deal and then jumped ship. I�ve been here the whole time, really, though, I�ve just been lurking. Maybe the stories of mailing-list romances just got to be too much. I can�t quite remember. What IS fresh in my mind is Belle & Sebastian at Somerset House on the 17th July. It was brilliant. I really enjoyed The Shins set as well. Ben said the singer of The Shins looks like Kevin Spacey and it made me giggle. When b&s arrived on stage and began playing songs from Tigermilk in succession, I didn�t think it could get any better. The most fascinating part was the shift in their sound when they played "Stay Loose", which is still my favourite song on DCW. I was dancing like mad, but I almost felt as if I was watching this on TV. It is awful to say this, but the previous times I had seen them in L.A. had been so laden with personal interaction with the band that this time almost felt like I wasn�t really there. This occurred to me as they played �The Wrong Girl� and I remembered dancing on stage to it three years ago � it is so far away, it�s as if I just made it up. Last year�s treasure hunt planning and t-shirt designing with Stuart Murdoch made seeing b&s live into much more of a production for me. This time, I didn�t even bother to meet up with anybody for a picnic beforehand. Ken did, however, bring his 2 pint glass over to stand with me and Ben for most of the show (that�s where he disappeared to, Stefano!) My anti-social behaviour made it easy to just soak in the performance, as simple as that. It was perfection, the picturesque setting and the music melted together and carried me away. By the end, I didn�t feel the need to speak to anyone from the band or create any other corresponding event to make the day complete like I may have done in the past. Does it mean that I�m getting boring? You tell me... Love, Rachel fruitloop-Apps __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - 100MB free storage! http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+