Hello (Ignore first paragraph if you aren't from Central Scotland) Do any of you Glasgow types have, or know anyone who has, spare ticket(s) for the Stereolab appearance at the Beat Room special at Cottiers on Thursday? My source has failed to supply the goods, and they are all gone and I am ever so slightly miffed. Anyone? Please? YOU CAN ALL COME BACK NOW! A thought for the lot of you (no! stay! it's not long-winded and ill-thought out like they usually are - well not as bad as the last one !!): Antje said:

I'm only on the list for about 2 months now and I don't know what it was like before, but there hardly seems to be any kind of conversation going on here at all. Maybe there are just too many people on the list now, I don't know. I think the more there are, the harder it gets to get to know each other, too.

There have been what I would construe to be conversations since time immemorial here, why only this week we have been privy to conversations about Dr Pepper, pseudo-twee-ness and whether the list is disappearing up its own arse. The reason they don't always turn into full blown list-wide discussions is because out of 1000+ people, only a few are motivated enough with something to contribute - imagine if everyday everyone carried on every conversation, your inbox would have 1000 mails everyday and somewhere in deepest Edinburgh, Sinister Central would explode. I am moved to reply to things almost every day, but I don't usually do it, as I know nine times out of ten someone else will come along and say it anyway. So I don't. I observe until something comes up I really want to get involved in/share with you all. Hundreds of things I would like to see continued disappear into the mists of the archive unaddressed - if someone says something that it seems only you wish to carry on a conversation about, write to them personally :) That's how I made most of the friends I have here, and it saves occurrences of things like the great Fraggle fiasco of earlier this year - go to the archive, type "fraggle" and see just what an ill-advised conversation can do to people's minds and inboxes. Of course, some discussions, which interest, inform or entertain us should be kept ON the list, but with 1000+ people from diverse backgrounds it's gonna be difficult to stop people chipping in with new threads, especially when they get sick of reading about the same thing for the 400th time that week. But you have people's addresses, and you have the ability to re-introduce a thread if it's not been exhausted, merely dragged down and drowned in a sea of Dr Pepper and Fraggles. The list, as people never tire of saying, is there for you, and it's what you make it. So use your voice constructively. Which is rich coming from me, as all I do is moan, and I also contributed to the Fraggle Rock nonsense. But I'm learning :) Erm, I just checked my inbox and Tim Hopkins has just said that much more concisely while I have been waffling on again. Never mind, eh? My scary double life involving Tim Hopkins (cf my belle and sebastian dreams) continues, as I spent a bit of this aftenoon listening to old records I hadn't heard for ages, one of which was Aztec Camera's "Jump". Mine was inspired by that crappy car advert which has a kid singing "True Colours" by Cyndi Lauper, a song that young Mr Frame gave 'the treatment' to some years ago. I listened to that too, it was fab. There, I have conclusively proved that Francesco is W!R!O!N!G! to say that I am the best writer on Sinister. He's right about me being plain though... And thank you all for ignoring Mark Casarotto's exhortations to vote for me in the list crush. I did what I did for Honey, so if you must vote, vote for him. Or yourselves, you collectively with the guidance of our surrogate mummy do a hell of a lot more for this list than me blathering on about nonsense. Erm, get back to me about the Stereolab thing privately please. That's where I started, and that's where I'll end. I'll buy you beer or something if you can help, or I'll make you a tape containing novelty cover versions. Or something else completely different. Ailsa xx +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the reborn Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail "sinister@majordomo.net". To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to "majordomo@majordomo.net". WWW: http://www.majordomo.net/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "jelly-filled danishes" +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+