Today was the day when I remembered why I hate Pennsylvania. For those of you who do not know my exact living situation (shame on you), my parents live in PA, and I live in New York, and I'm now living at home until school thankfully starts up again and whisks me away to the big city. For some reason, my parents decided to repaint my room this summer, probably so they can turn it into some sort of anti-Julie office or study or something once they're sure I'm gone for good. But anyway, in preparation, I cleaned my closet today. I discovered some VERY disturbing things. For one, I own more than 10 pairs of Doctor Martens. My lord! Next, from 1992/93 I subscribed to Propaganda, the U2 fan magazine. I was 13 at the time and can not account for my fanatacism, although my first ever rock concert was the U2 Zoo Tv Outdoor Broadcast tour at Veteran's Stadium in Philly on Sept. 3, 1992. Seven days before my 13th birthday. Obviously, it had quite an impact. Also, I own a number of Depeche Mode t shirts that is nearly unfathomable. Now, I clearly remember my alternateen phase, from around the age of 13 til 15 (which explains the Docs, but not the sheer multitude of them), but I must have somehow blocked the softcore goth phase out. Wait, now that I think about it, I do remember on occasion wearing black eyeliner and dark lipstick at the same time. I think I need to go to rock and roll confession. Forgive me, listees, for I have sinned. Speaking of sins, I also discovered a wee booklet in my sweater (jumper) drawer today which tells me how to Examine My Conscience. It instructs me what to confess, how to confess, and how to save my soul from the fiery depths of hell. My, the mortal sins I've committed. Perhaps you should all examine your consciences as well, just so you're sure you're not in cahoots with Satan unwillingly. The Sixth and Ninth Commandments DID YOU WILLINGLY TAKE PLEASURE IN USING IMPURE WORDS? DID YOU LIKE TO LISTEN TO IMPURE TALK? DID YOU TAKE PLEASURE IN SINGING IMPURE SONGS? DID YOU TAKE PLEASURE IN TOUCHING YOURSELF OR OTHERS IN AN IMPURE MANNER, OR LET OTHERS DO SO TO ME? DID I WANT IMPURE THOUGHTS, AND DID I TAKE PLEASURE IN THEM? Apparently, if you ever sang along with I Don't Love Anyone or you even THOUGHT about why Judy was a dickslap, you're SCREWED. Get thee to a confessional! It's also a mortal sin to get "helplessly drunk", fyi. Another bit of pro-Christian propaganda I found today was a book called Hell's Bells, The Dangers Of Rock n Roll. I remember the exact circumstances by which I acquired this book. When I was 15 I had my first grown-up crush on this boy named Andrew. I met him at camp, and when we went back to our respective states of residence we'd send eachother mix tapes and silly gifts. I sent him a Keroppi notepad, and he sent me Hell's Bells. This book is actually the "study guide" to a video series, so a lot of it doesn't make much sense, but the general loathing of the author towards music in general shines through. The best thing about it is the quotes at the beginning of each section, because in their eagerness to prove how eeeevil music is, they managed to quote some great bands. The Jesus and Mary Chain were sent straight from Satan, as were the Who, the Ramones, the Smiths, the Velvet Underground, The The, David Bowie. And New Kids On The Block...there's a whole section at the end of the book called "But what about NKOTB?", and it instructs you to fill in the name of any other band invading the hearts of preteen girls as time goes by. And there's a marvelous quote about a NKOTB concert that I can only PRAY (to my pagan gods) will be an accurate description of this summer's Belle & Sebastian dates..."It's as if the concert stage were a reef in some Sargasso Sea of raging teenage hormones." Sigh! Okay, now I feel it necessary to express my love for Laura Llew who proclaimed me her list member of the week even though I wasn't subscribed to Sinister at the time. I love you Laura!! Btw, on a Twin Peaks note, Megan and I watched The Trial with Kyle Maclachlan whilst in Russia and although Kyle is a hottie as ever, I much prefer him as Agent Cooper rather than Josef K. Mostly because The Trial was dead fucking boring. Also, Martin Robinson is my hero for buying me a copy of Legal Man, as I went to the only record store in this God-forsaken town that even carries Matador the other day and the Belle & Sebastian section was EMPTY. Aaaaargh. I've placed wee pictures of you both on my pagan altar. Last time I posted I was accused of name dropping, so I'll stop now. Um, and speaking of The Who, what's UP with this fucked up SUV commercial with the polo playing people and Baba O'Riley in the background??? Oy. xoxo Julie "Lips that taste of tears, they say, are the best for kissing." -Dorothy Parker/Laura Llew (From what was my favorite poem long before Trembling Blue Stars nicked a line for their album title) +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "peculiarly deranged fanbase" "frighteningly named +-+ +-+ Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+