Dear Sinister, Allo, comrades, this is my first time writing, and since introductory emails generally make me feel awkward I'll keep the "Love me, I'm new!" portion of this letter to a minimum: Love me. I'm new. Excellent, now that that's over with. I recently moved to New York to attend art school in the east village, and I guess that it was only upon my arrival here that my love of Belle & Sebastian turned into something of an obsession. How could it not, really? In a city that's so easily conducive to both melancholic introspection and passionate wanderlust, how could such music not quickly become a soundtrack to your life? Sure, there were other musical participants. Leonard Cohen, ex-Canadian turned New Yorkian (or is that vice versa?), the Magnetic Fields (who I can now proudly call a local band), Chisel (who I used to call a local band before I left DC), Bjork, the ever-present Elvis Costello .. you know the drill. But none of them really left as strong an imprint as B&S. So if in four years I no longer listen to the music I'm listening to today, if I look back upon my Belle & Sebastian days as nothing more than a fad (heresy?), perhaps I can take reconciliation in the fact that they played an instrumental role in my early New York days. And it's still a bit difficult, I think. This is the first time I've uprooted myself so heavily. I went to college in Iowa for a bit, but it was so isolated and inwardly focused that the difficulties associated with acclimation were minimal at best. I've some lovely people here, as I expected I would, but I still feel straddled between two potential ways of living my life: 1) College Community and Very Little More You know the drill, or can imagine it. The entirety of my social life revolves around my friends in school, and most often around school functions. Parties, lectures, that sort of thing. And while such a lifestyle has its draws, I still feel attracted to... 2) Living My Life as an Independent Entity in New York City I'm cheating myself. I live in one of, if not the, most dynamic city in the states. And yet I rarely, if ever, experience it. I never go out to shows, though I used to attend shows constantly back home - I can just never work up the drive here, I think. I never go out to clubs, though I'd like to. And, most distinctly, I have no friends not currently attending Cooper Union. And that's something I'd like to change. ...Not that I'm hitting you all up for friendship. Only sex! Err, sorry, actually, neither. Before I begin, this may get boring for any of you not in the area, so you can skip down to the ending, where I will attempt to find some clever way of signing off. For those of you in the area, though, a question: where're some nice places to go, preferably in the general area of the East Village? Some clubs that play music other than Madonna remixes. Some coffee shops with nice pinball games. Some interesting little hideaway I've yet to discover. If you've any ideas, please respond via direct email, of course. I'd hate to go down in infamy my first week on the list. To the rest of you, I've really enjoyed reading the majority of the emails the past few weeks. Thanks for flooding me with charming and occasionally dirty bits of text, they've been the saving grace of my inbox. Rapidly contributing to the degradation of Sinister from within, Andy (who isn't ready to send kisses to any of you quite yet) PS: Fiona can be awkwardly fit to rhyme "you own," as in: Fiona my joy, you own this boy ...err .. it helps if you slur the "Fiona." And also if you're drunk. -- andy pressman_________________________________________ http://andy.newdream.net : ICQ 12956959 : AOLim Kid Roboto andy@newdream.net (would you like me to read it now?) pressman@cooper.edu (or shall I get around to it eventually?) +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+