Sinister: Ramble with 22 percent B and S content
Hi everyone Traffic chaos round Covent Garden right now, as there's some kind of student march going on. They've got huge drums and everything, like a south american football crowd. They seem to be protesting about tuition fees. I think there should be a minimum age of 25 for university entrance. That way you might actually know if you really want to go or not. If most people got jobs (or whatever) between the ages of 18 and 25, I bet they'd be a lot more sorted at the end of it. Oh dear, I have a feeling this isn't going to be a terribly popular point of view. Everyone I knew at university (in Newcastle) had no real desire to study - we were just wasting precious time. Fun, yeah, but a waste of time. Towards the end, I taught groups of first-year students English Lit, and none of them gave a monkey's about reading the books or thinking. We used to end up talking about Neighbours. Perhaps this is a reflection of my appalling teaching skills. Anyway, moving on to the point. This is a very dull question, but there's some interesting shit around it. What is the best concert/gig/commercial rock-oriented event you've ever been to? The thing is, I really like plays and drama, but I have never ever seen a piece of theatre that has made me feel amazing. Whereas I've seen loads of mediocre bands who have, somehow, made me scream, cry, jump up and down like a supergrass video, and so on. It's always odd bands like the Paris Angels that stand out in my memory. And the Waterboys at Oxford Apollo in 1989: absolutely bloody incredible. They were really on to something for a while there. I saw the smiths three times, and I long to say that they knocked my little black socks off, but they didn't. I was too excited to enjoy them. That sucks, doesn't it? I think the best concerts always involve some form of euphoria. Paris Angels did (drug-related, maybe) and the Waterboys in a (god I hate this word) spiritual way. Which leads me to B and S. I must have seen five or six hundred bands over the last fifteen years, but nothing remotely comparable to our hero/ines. How can this be explained? Are there any other people on the list around the age of 30 who feel the same? Jon.g and bethey are only fifteen: do you understand quite how unique this band are? Even though they shamble around on stage like a bunch of fools, the end result astonishes me every time. I'm going to have a lie down. You need an afternoon nap at my age. Lots of love, apologies if this seems aimless. DAVID ----------------------------------------------------------------------- . This message was brought to you by the Sinister mailing list. . To send to the list please mail "sinister@majordomo.net". . For subscribing, unsubscribing and other list information please see . http://www.majordomo.net/sinister . For questions about how the list works mail owner-sinister@majordomo.net . Listen, this is pish, I think I'll leave -----------------------------------------------------------------------
First, the (arbitrary) 2 per cent B & S content. My favourite book. Russell Hoban's 'Riddley Walker', the tail of a boy struggling in a future post-apocalyptic Britain. It's written in a 'worn down vernacular', a kind of pidgin English, where places and events that we know today have have been handed down, mostly by word of mouth, and as such their meanings have been transformed. It's fairly hard to get into at first, but after a while you fall into the rhythm of the language. Anyone who's read Trainspotting will probably know what I mean (although I hasten to add it's many miles from that book in just about all other respects). It's quite the most beautiful thing I've ever read, and I can't help thinking about it when I hear the beginning of 'The Boy Done Wrong Again', my favourite B & S song. For the rude people on the list (and some of you seem schizophrenic in your abuse of the medium) the next bit is not B & S related, but is related to a post sent in recently. Anyone who still takes exception will be a first-hand witness to a my refutation of the phrase 'violence solves nothing'. For half an hour. Up and down the Uxbridge Road..So cock off. Noddy. DAVID wrote:
I think there should be a minimum age of 25 for university entrance. That way you might actually know if you really want to go or not. If most people got jobs (or whatever) between the ages of 18 and 25, I bet they'd be a lot more sorted at the end of it. Oh dear, I have a feeling this isn't going to be a terribly popular point of view.
This is a similar view to that espoused by Rober Pirsig in 'Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance'. He argues that people learn much more when they actually have a desire to learn, rather than being told 'these are the years you go to school - you gotta listen' or 'you gotta get a degree to get on'. He goes on to champion a greater emphasis on teaching for people who have found their 'vocation' and need training to further themselves. Certainly in Britain 95% of the emphasis in teaching and training seems to be (rather haphazardly) aimed at actually getting a job, rather than (more accurately ?) at job/self furtherment. that's it for another six weeks, yerluvinuncleTurt Richard Buckner, 'Bloomed' - anyone phucked ? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- . This message was brought to you by the Sinister mailing list. . To send to the list please mail "sinister@majordomo.net". . For subscribing, unsubscribing and other list information please see . http://www.majordomo.net/sinister . For questions about how the list works mail owner-sinister@majordomo.net . Listen, this is pish, I think I'll leave -----------------------------------------------------------------------
participants (2)
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Ian Turton -
Ruth McCurry