(another disclaimer - i have been touched by lindsay baker's posts this week. none of the following is meant to trivialise what you've been through, love. i can't offer any words of wisdom or advice, but if virtual hugs can help, let me know. i've got a few packets of them around here somewhere) ------------------------------------ Dear Sinister, Why oh why oh why was a perfectly good evening's reading spoilt by gratuitous references to unsanitary parts of the human anatome, in particular those with connection to 'the sexual act'? Imagine my shock when, on settling down for a quiet evening's family entertainment, I am faced with multiple penii and references to homosexual behaviour which I can only describe as grossly indecent. I urge those in charge to put a stop to this deplorable situation immediately. I have made complaints, in writing, to the relevant authorities. Yours Concerned of Wolverhampton ------ ---- Mary Whitehouse died yesterday. Or perhaps it was friday. The weekend has turned into that pleasingly amorphous yet never-quite-big-enough entity known as "the bleurghurhguhgh period". so i'm not quite sure when the poisonous old cow was flung from the face of the earth into whatever festering cess-pit deserves her. but she's dead. that much i know, cos huw evans* wouldn't lie about such a thing. to many of you, this clearly meant nothing. it certainly has no b&s relevance. but i feel it deserves comment and so i find myself writing another sinister-obituary. mary whitehouse was perhaps the most famous "family rights" campaigner this country has ever seen. she was a great friend of margaret thatcher, and enoch powell and she fought a life-long battle to defend the viewpoint such political luminaries espoused, tackling any media unfortunate enough to suffer her blue-rinsed blows. highly politically influential, especially during the 1980s, she brought various injunctions against broadcasters and publishers for the "filth" they peddalled. the most infamous of these was her successful prosecution of the Gay Times for printing a poem in which a roman centurion fantasised about having sex with jesus, this being the only successful prosecution under the UK blasphemy laws ever brought. the editor of the publication in question received a fine and a nine-month suspended sentence and society got the message that gay behaviour was, officially, "obscene" - a court had said as much. and a few more teenagers struggling with growing up gay overdosed, but nobody really cared. and now, she's dead. forgive me for this, but it seems like a highly overdue dose of capital punishment. but i've never believed in that. (i believe in peace- (bitch)). i thought i'd be glad to see her shuffle off this mortal coil (why is it called a coil? should we update and call it a mortal condom? or a diaphragm?). as it is, i'm suprised - pleasantly - that i don't feel happy at her death. i just wish she'd never lived. can the world ever be better off for not having someone in it? in my better moments i like to feel like everyone has something to contribute. but what if that contribution is to bully, restrict, and spread hatred? what if enoch powell had never lived? would we be a happier world? or was there something he did, just once, that was worthwhile? was their contribution to provide something so extreme, and hateful, that it gave people something to rail against? --------------------------------------- nearly done with that subject, you'll be pleased to know. L7's "pretend we're dead" is playing in the background and it seems appropriate. i wonder if that's what the likes of thatcher, powell and whitehouse wanted. a nation of "individuals", looking after themselves, and nobody else, thinking regulated thoughts, living ordinary lives, and staggering towards their graves looking forward only to the sleep they hopedeath will bring. sometimes i look around me, and feel like one of those zombies. so i try to escape the undead state. i've found some fine cures for it, too. notably love, laughter, and music. music is a fine escape. our undead generation, and perhaps a few of those before us, find some life in the words of a certain scottish band. or perhaps a big english band, or perhaps a big american band. if it makes you feel alive, it doesn't really matter. just a momentary connection with life-the only thing bigger than death-is all it takes. because it is when you connect that you're feeling life, rather than just living it. i saw a scene from "the seventh seal" last night on channel 4's 100 greatest movies, death appears to a man on a beach. the man says i know you, you've always walked beside me. and i think its true. death will always be there, offering his embrace. he comes in colours. black - comforting and warm; white - terrifying and painful; red - instant and unexpected. but the thing to do is reject that embrace. because, sooner of later, you won't be able to escape it. and he may never let you go. and, one way to escape it in your waking hours, believe it or not, is belle and sebastian (phew! got in a reference). in fact, this list combines love,laughter and music, so perhaps its the ideal synthesis of all three (can a synthesis have three things in it? i'm not sure) : sarah clarke thinking what question she'd like to ask belle and sebastian, and concluding they'd probably give a boring answer, and making her own up, richard gillanders talking about singing "sexy eyes" to a woman with only one, kirsten kenyon talking about -well, let's face it, she could probably talk about watching concrete set and it would be interesting - all of this recalls me to life. and i thank you for it. i wanted to go over what you've all said this week, but i think i should go now. as the buddha once said: "piss, shit, wank, fuck, arse". oh no, sorry, that was me. ian ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tomorrow will bring happiness Or at least, another day Phil Ochs ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+