hallo everyone your solitary soul bringing glad tidings and even more full inboxes to all from the increasingly sunny southern tip of africa. ("have you missed me" is the sort of question i've learnt not to ask, and damnit! (sorry) who do i think i am anyway?) well, to start, actually there are several things wrong with the willfully misconstrued and misquoted subject-heading-thingy. they can be listed, in order of no particular significance, as: 1. it hasn't really been that long. 2. i've seen YOU, you just haven't seen ME (as if you've noticed) 3.... okay, maybe not that many things wrong. rest assured, though, it wasn't you, it's been me... in fact, after the whole wtc thing, i didn't want to post, because i feel quite strongly about it, but not in the way it would've done any good to tell all the world about. i am SOOO proud of the way you all reacted though (it's been said before, but not by me) then i went away for a while, and since then have been fighting the backlog of mails in my inbox. for some reason i can't delete any of them without reading them (it wouldn't seem right, and i'd have missed so much!) and so have been about - at least 2 days behind everyone else for the last i don't know how long, and not wanting to post before i've caught on. somehow i can't resisit anymore though. and there have been SO many amazingly brilliant posts (it would be no use trying to even remember them all now, nevermind start mentioning). so many i've wanted to respond to off-list (am i'm so sorry i haven't, but time! time!) and others that are so special... just to say then, in general, thanks for all the uplifting ones, and the witty ones, and the grate stories etc. and good luck and hugs for all the people who've felt sad and who will feel sad, and who are kind to enough to let the rest of us know we're not and will not be alone... i wish i could be as geographically close to all of you as i feel otherwise. oh, the magic of a kind word, but hugs are better, mmh? so where have i been? yes, the correct answer would be at a small arts festival in potchefstroom, which NONE of you will have hear of (steve, apologies if i am wrong). how was it? not very arty, but VERY festive. at least 3 good things happened: made lots of money! (just shows, pick material suited to elderly audiences, and the crowds will come - especially if your venues in an old-age home. we had people with walking-frames in the audience, i'm not kidding, oh my brothers! who'd have thought it, hey, your malenky droog making a living for himself by fleecing starry vetches and ptitsas! - sorry if my nadsat's a little rusty, it's been a while!) secondly i have been completely converted to the red bull and vodka brigade (hats off to you, mr. chu!), and lastly spent a very enjoyable afternoon having coffee with a dancer who must easily have been both the most sexy and the most interesting woman in the whole town. (self- described as the result of a one-night stand between her married german mother and a spanish gypsy!) trust me, you have not lived until you've seen rapid and comprehensive costume changes backstage!!! but what's this? me actually talking to people who both interest and attract me? nonsense! the world would end! but wait... isn't it? anyway, have her phone number (which she volunteered, ha-ha!!!) and an invitation to go see her paintings sometime (although, it should be noted that "i'm not ashamed to say that i'm okay, with the girl next door whose famous for showing her chest" - if only i could find her!!!) amongst other good things to have happened: hung out with a really real and really mad scot for the first time (from dundee), got drunk and broke into the rugby stadium to play midnightly football with a tennisball, then gave it up when we realised visibility was really not what it had been made out to be. bought LOTS of new music and books, amongst which the standouts are the ridiculously marvellous and also japanese pizzicato five (whose insane cheerfulness have been driving my wqrryingly trance-prone brother up the wall) the delgados (which took me a while to get into, but has been more than rewarding), mercury rev (which made me angry in a sort of irrational way, because it seemed at the time that only an international conspiracy of vast - or is that, sinister? - proportions could have kept me from discovering them for so long) apples in stereo. then also an album which would win prizes in my book both for greatest band name, and greates album name also ("lips that taste like tears" by the trembling blue stars). very beautiful. can anyone tell me anything about them though, as sleeve-notes are virtulaay non-existent? i think the name comes from the same neruda poem that someone (madeleine? kirsten? sorry can't remember) quoted after the wtc attacks. lastly, must mention that i FINALLY got the sinister album!!! and it's not been overrated at all!!!! can already play the fox in the snow, and do so constantly (my poor brother - he really doesn't have it easy!) maybe more about that at some other time. just had to write again though - it feels so good. sorry for those of you who have now wasted the time to read this - if you don't feel it's been a waste, then this post is dedicated to you. loved jenowl's smile advice, adn would like to re-iterate it here (i'm sure that she won't mind: there's too much love to go around!) love JohaN ps. hang on nisie. i WILL write again soon, i promise. (exciting news!) +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+