It seems like it's been a while. In the meantime I have done so much, but most of it is of esoteric interest. I went to America for a bit, to observe the election and play pinball. That was fun... well, the pinball was. If I was on a roll I would often get scores of over 500,000,000 and successfully battle the Power of the Twilight Zone, even if more usually the game literally laughed at my pathetic efforts. I was somewhat irritated by the election, though, and the way ANTICHRIST is going to spending another four years in the White House. This is not what Ian Curtis died for. Talking of death, like everyone else I was saddened by John Peel dying. I don't live in the UK and have only on rare occasions been able to get adequate Radio 1 reception, so Peel was not part of my life in the same way that he was for many of you. I mainly remember him from his occasional Top Of The Pops appearances, and things like that all-nighter music video programme he did with the underappreciated John Walters on the night of another election victory for Thatch. I seem to remember him doing a great job of compering the (then) NME stage at Glastonbury one year I went too, which was nice. There was a brief period in the early 1990s when I could actually hear Radio 1 properly, and that led to my enjoyment of John Peel's radio magic. The funny thing is that for all people seem to go on about how he was Cap'n Indie, the things I most remeember from his programme was world music, weird electronica, ragga, and general exotica. For all that I did hear fab radio sessions by the likes of The Sultans of Ping fc and Pavement, the music I most associate with Peel is the jangly guitar sounds of African pop. I like the way that Word magazine that's just come out is not afraid to talk about Peel's nonce shame, something that people have been conveniently forgetting in the rush to canonise him. This is life. In other death news, I noticed that Yasser Arafat finally died last week. Although primarily famous as the leader of the Palestinians, Arafat did acquire some fame in certain quarters as the bass player with popular 1980s indie band Felt, going on in that respect to inspire Belle & Sebastian in much the same way that he inspired countless strugglers against imperialism. I saw some interesting footage of Arafat from the late 1970s and early 1980s, a period when he still had it. I reckon if he had been killed in Beirut in 1982 as planned then he would now be as iconic a figure as Che Guevara and would be staring down from countless student bedroom walls. Instead he got to grow old and his chaotic and incompetent approach to administration and negotiation became more apparent. Still, I had no qualms about signing his book of condolences. And the struggle continues... here in Dublin the ladies of Dublin are struggling for their rights, and I'm doing my level best to support them. They're hosting a lovely festival here called Ladyfest, and in a shocking break with tradition non-ladies like myself are able to go along to see gigs where bands not entirely composed of ladies do their thing. Thus far I keep getting down too late to catch the early birds, but I have greatly enjoyed Americhord's live techno set, the folk-rock adventures of Katell Keineg, and especially Pram's space pop. Today I will be going along to see more lovely ladies play at an all-ages gig which looks like being lots of fun. So, eh, that's all I've got time for. your grubby pal, DV +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +-+ Snipp snapp snut, sa var sagan slut! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+