Sinister: Tales of Brave Andy, adrift in NYC

[spaceboy]

Dear Sinister,

Allo, comrades, this is my first time writing, and since introductory
emails generally make me feel awkward I'll keep the "Love me, I'm new!"
portion of this letter to a minimum: Love me. I'm new.

Excellent, now that that's over with. I recently moved to New York to
attend art school in the east village, and I guess that it was only upon
my arrival here that my love of Belle & Sebastian turned into something
of an obsession. How could it not, really? In a city that's so easily
conducive to both melancholic introspection and passionate wanderlust,
how could such music not quickly become a soundtrack to your life?

Sure, there were other musical participants. Leonard Cohen, ex-Canadian
turned New Yorkian (or is that vice versa?), the Magnetic Fields (who I
can now proudly call a local band), Chisel (who I used to call a local
band before I left DC), Bjork, the ever-present Elvis Costello .. you
know the drill. But none of them really left as strong an imprint as
B&S. So if in four years I no longer listen to the music I'm listening
to today, if I look back upon my Belle & Sebastian days as nothing more
than a fad (heresy?), perhaps I can take reconciliation in the fact that
they played an instrumental role in my early New York days.

And it's still a bit difficult, I think. This is the first time I've
uprooted myself so heavily. I went to college in Iowa for a bit, but it
was so isolated and inwardly focused that the difficulties associated
with acclimation were minimal at best. I've some lovely people here, as
I expected I would, but I still feel straddled between two potential
ways of living my life:
    1) College Community and Very Little More
        You know the drill, or can imagine it. The entirety of my social
life revolves around my friends in school, and most often around school
functions. Parties, lectures, that sort of thing. And while such a
lifestyle has its draws, I still feel attracted to...
    2) Living My Life as an Independent Entity in New York City
        I'm cheating myself. I live in one of, if not the, most dynamic
city in the states. And yet I rarely, if ever, experience it. I never go
out to shows, though I used to attend shows constantly back home - I can
just never work up the drive here, I think. I never go out to clubs,
though I'd like to. And, most distinctly, I have no friends not
currently attending Cooper Union. And that's something I'd like to
change.
    ...Not that I'm hitting you all up for friendship. Only sex! Err,
sorry, actually, neither. Before I begin, this may get boring for any of
you not in the area, so you can skip down to the ending, where I will
attempt to find some clever way of signing off.
    For those of you in the area, though, a question: where're some nice
places to go, preferably in the general area of the East Village? Some
clubs that play music other than Madonna remixes. Some coffee shops with
nice pinball games. Some interesting little hideaway I've yet to
discover. If you've any ideas, please respond via direct email, of
course. I'd hate to go down in infamy my first week on the list.

    To the rest of you, I've really enjoyed reading the majority of the
emails the past few weeks. Thanks for flooding me with charming and
occasionally dirty bits of text, they've been the saving grace of my
inbox.

Rapidly contributing to the degradation of Sinister from within,
Andy (who isn't ready to send kisses to any of you quite yet)

PS: Fiona can be awkwardly fit to rhyme "you own," as in:
Fiona my joy,
you own this boy
...err .. it helps if you slur the "Fiona." And also if you're drunk.

--
andy pressman_________________________________________
http://andy.newdream.net : ICQ 12956959 : AOLim Kid Roboto
andy at newdream.net (would you like me to read it now?)
pressman at cooper.edu (or shall I get around to it eventually?)


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