Dear Sinister and sinistrines This week has flown away! I guess this is just an excuse, as I am trying to find an excuse to secular and pseudosecular intrinsic laziness. … well, anyway, I should have realised by now that the better plans are the unplanned one. In fact, everything started out on last Friday night, after myself and the lovely Mr. Jim Pourpletrousers went to the Magnetic Field in Hammermith. The gig has been absolutely excellent, they played a full acoustic set, in two parts, featuring most (if not all) the songs from the last records and highlights from their back catalogue. I have to admit I didn't have their new album, but was so enthusiastic that I got it almost straight away after that, and there are al least a handful of song which are definitely great. I got the feeling that Stephen Merrith sense of humour is getting sharper and sharper, but, might be is only an impression of mine, not as bitter as it use to be. It reflect quite a lot on the stage performance as everyone looked very relaxed and they looked like enjoying their selves as well, which is always nice to see. Anyway, right on my way home, I realised I had my change of tube line was right a train station, and I couldn't resist all the sensible thoughts about those letters the bank sends to your address and that they call account balance, and just, essentially run, but that was not to let the last service leave the platform without myself, not that it would have mind, but, I would have reasonably had, and got myself a ticket for Glasgow…. There should be something magic about Scotland that I can't define. It can be the endless sunlight in the summer. It can be the Clyde. Can be the fact that there are kids running on the top of the walls of castles and you can spot them from the train window. Well, there should be a reason or not. But doesn't matter. By midday I was happily in the botanical garden. The day has been absolutely brilliant and shiny. So much that I almost got a tan! Not that I am really interested in that, but when I said that to one of my colleagues, Chris who's from Edinburgh, he looked at my in disbelief, and probably he still honestly think, I've actually skived work on Monday because of a drink binge on the coast or on a Greek island… but, let's try to add some content to this randomness. Belle and Sebastian were absolutely great, I think. Might be I'm just letting myself being influence by the rather rare wave of good mood, but not, I think it was very good. Actually, at present, can't wait for the Sommerset House gig which is JUST in a few weeks but looks like an endless time. Miss Ellebelle had a call for a picnic on the occasion: it seems more then reasonable to me, have to say. What a better opportunity for having enjoying the sun with the people in the park? Going back to the gig, I not very good at remembering the song list, and haven't put enough effort to collect one from the sound guys (that by the way, were a lot!) so more or less randomly, they played quite a few from the last record, as obvious, but also a good selection of oldies favourite, including, as far as I can remember, Julie and the dream of horses, the stars of track and field, like Dylan in the movies and dogs on wheels, which was my favourite act, by the way, together with lazy lane painter Jane, when Monica Queen also joined on stage: brilliant! They also looked extremely relaxed even when a football carrying the Brazilian flag colours has start to bounce over the stage, a few times, and particularly when an idiot decided to throw a bottle of water at the band. By the way Steve exhibit in a "superbowl-like" kick of the aforementioned football which could have valued him a convocation for next Scotland international: nice. Camera Obscura played a rather short set, but it was very lovely. Of the bands playing in the early afternoon I have to say I quite enjoyed the red bed society, while I was quite happy of being entangled in possibly the longest queue ever for a toilet, when a band, of which I can't remember the name, but who definitely looked like and sound much like INXS were on stage. Especially the guy wearing a suit, with a white tie, in that hot, needs some sort of compensation from a human right found or something like that… I also try to pretend I knew where to go in Glasgow, and off course got lost, and dragged the shameless Mark Hester with me, in a useless walk to Kelvinhall tube station, when we should have actually walked to Kelvin bridge. The advantage of having a single circular tube line is that you can to the place you need rather quickly anyway and that was the Winchester Club. The flower power were fairly entertaining, Pipas definitely excessively shambling… guess they needed a DJ in between one song and another, possibly the pause being longer then the song their selves which wouldn't have been that bad otherwise… I probably need a little bit more of patience. The club was packed and the DJ choices excellent, I can't remember a great deal, but me and Patrick dancing (alone) on the Clash, was fairly funny! Then it became the hotter spot on the planet, but that didn't keep people away from the dance floor, until the lady on the door almost literally shuffled them off the place. Shame I can't really take a train to Glasgow all weeks… mumble! Gigs gigs gigs! I might imagine some living in London of might like to know that Sodasteam are playing Friday, which is tonight, at the Sheppard's bush hall... I know... I planned to write this on Monday, but then I should have known myself better. I didn't mean to clash with Astrid meet up at how does it feel, but just, you know, I think they are absolutely lovely… and the concert generally finishes early enough that one can get to both places… talking about being sensible: not really. I like the colon today. Only in its grammatical point of view. I suppose. Take care Love and happiness stefano :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-: Stephano School of Biological Sciences Queen Mary, University of London Mile End Road London E1 4NS :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-: Department of Biology University College London Gower Street London WC1E 6BT :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-: E-mail: s.santabarbara@qmul.ac.uk :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-: +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. 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