Arise, fellow slaves of the sex-industry... Janey Blackall pushed the following note under our doors before slipping into night:

Just a quickie - I seem to remember mention being made of a picnic in Greenwich park this weekend, are there any definite plans on that front yet?

I'm after some advice from the literary crowd out there. I've been asked to do a reading at a friends wedding, and I was hoping somebody out

sinisterland had any suggestions as I know more about pottery than

As definite as can be, Janey. See Jeepster message board for further details (summary: 2pm, Greenwich station, bring some grub). Paul Field had the full support of the parish council when he declared: there in poetry. Then talk about pottery - honestly, it's always best to stick to what you know in these situations. Andy Dean's fashioned a lucrative sideline in after-dinner speaking with his Sarah label-photo anecdotes and Trousers brought the house down at the last Rotarians meeting with tales of Stevenage Bus Depot. If you really do insist on reciting verse, then you could do worse than invest in a slim volume by former Sinisterine Linton Kwesi Johnson. His spell on the list is a fondly remembered one, though I don't think anyone really knew what he was on about. Eventually he fell out with Bob Clearmountain over a uncleared sample of "Inglan Is A Bitch" and they both unsubscribed in disgrace. Bob, of course, re-subbed for the digest posing as former Notts County and Coventry hardman Brian Kilcline, but no-one was fooled. Stephen Hewitt stopped flossing long enough to cast a glance over his shoulder and whisper:

I *do* know a lot about music, but only top twenty stuff, with a side line in nineties alt-pop and I'm sure I must be missing out on loads of ace stuff, even though I can usually work out the 'mystery year' on Simon Mayo within two records.

A skill not to be sniffed at. This morning I had my little pocket radio with me on the train and I failed to recognize 1987 (a Mary Chain song that I mis-identified four times to myself until the 'April skies' chorus gave it away and a Prince/Sheena number featuring the immortal lines "your face was jammin', your body was slammin', let's get to rammin'") or 1993 (a Manics song that sounded like "Sound and Vision" and World Party doing their Kinks pastiche). I may have been distracted by the clown sitting opposite me droning on and on about derivatives and market share on his mobile. Mobile phones in tumour link ? Natural selection at work, surely. Chris Leonard purred seductively:

Stars in Their Eyes is my favourite program ever, and Mathew Kelly is a presenter virtuoso of the highest order!

I think it was Chris who told me about the rules on blacking-up and drag (i.e. you can't do either) - perhaps Elisabeth would like to verify ? Understandable I suppose, though it scuppers my plans to appear as Missy 'Misdemeanour' Elliot on the next series ("Beep beep ! Who's got da keyz to da jeep ? Brrrrmm..."). No Lena Zavaroni either. It would be only be like little Jimmy Krankie in reverse. And *that* counts as family entertainment. Bah. Double freaking standards. Off to practise my "Climate of Hunter"-era Scott. Mike. _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the reborn Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail "sinister@majordomo.net". To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to "majordomo@majordomo.net". WWW: http://www.majordomo.net/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "jelly-filled danishes" +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+