Sunsat said, about her dad:

I watched as he cleaned the vinyl with a red sponge and plucked stray hairs of the stylus in between tracks.

This made me go all melty inside, as I remember exactly the same thing from my childhood. My Dad would play his records, and if I was really good and promised to be careful, he would let me sweep the brush over the vinyl as he held it. This may sound sappy and useless (in which case, I apologise) but my dad and I didn't get on particularly well until recently. No major fights, but just the lack of comprehension and respect that exists between a twenty two year old girl and her old dad. Within the past year, though, as I've grown up and removed my teenage blinkers (no slight on teenagers at all, just that I was stroppy and self absorbed when I was one), I can really begin to understand why my mum married him and didn't leave as soon as he became a pedantic, work obsessed, moody and slightly autistic old man. I think my attitude towards music has been shaped not only by my folks but by the autistic traits than seem present in my family. The kind of obsessions I develop about things are the same kind of obsessions that my Asperger's brother has (Asperger's is a form of autism). My brother, bless him, has dug out all my old copies of Select, NME and Melody Maker from the attic and memorised them. So I can ask him "Which copies have articles about Belle and Sebastian?" and he says "I'm not sure of the month, but it was 1998 and the cover was orange, with a woman on it". And he wonders off to his room and returns two minutes later with the December 1998 copy, the cover showing Alanis Morrissey on an orange background. The other day my parents sorted out their will, which I suppose is slightly morbid. They did tell me the songs they'd chosen for their funeral though: "Won't Get Fooled Again" by The Who, "Yes" by McAlmont and Butler and "Another Brick in the Wall" (my dad's a teacher). My mum unnerved and probably frightened her solicitor by saying (about her own funeral) "It's going to be brilliant. I can't wait!" Must insert some content. Erm.... I'm going to see Belle and Sebastian soon. It's going to be grand. ANd I'm looking forward to the new single/EP type thingy. Love Madeleine xxx PS A message for Miss Marybeth: expect some post soon. _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+