Sinister: Belle and Sebastian related post...

[Robin Stout]

... for once.

Lying in bed late night, looking at the place where the lampshade would have 
been if the lights were on, I decided that I haven't written an email about 
The Songs of Belle and Sebastian recently. So I've decided to write one.

Firstly, I've been wondering whether many people like "Fold Your Hands..." 
very much because I do and I have a feeling that creeps onto my forehead 
sometimes that most people don't. I like it more than TBWTAS, even though 
some of its songs aren't so great. Don't ask me why because I've thought 
about it and I don't know. It could be the yellow cover. I like that a lot. 
And the hopeless folly of Beyond the Sunrise I like too.

Secondly, I was thinking about the spirituality of B + S and their songs. 
It's something that's usually only whispered about around here. I think 
Belle and Sebastian's music has a spiritual element to it that is not 
explicit but is pretty profound. It is the spirituality I feel when I walk 
past the Church of This and the Church of That and the Society of Friends 
off the High Street, that are identical to the dentists and the vets except 
for their hanging signs - "The Church of This Welcomes You". Like bubbles of 
radon trapped in their grey, cold stones, this is the spirituality I can 
hear. It isn't what the songs are about, but is in the leaves if the song 
sings of trees, and in the glittering spokes if it sings of bikes. And I 
used to think it might be my record player, but it's somewhere behind the 
sound as well. Could Struan write these songs without knowing his own 
spirituality? I don't know. But I think it is a big part of that something 
that sits in-between the words of the songs that we can't put our fingers 
on.

Jen Owl:
>A big part of my holiday story involves illegal things like underage
>drinking...

"Special" Ribena, I presume...

Corduroy Boy Tom:
>I work in a box factory and
>we make boxes. Big boxes, little boxes, long boxes, brown boxes, white
>boxes... fox in socks in cardboard boxes...

I've never worked in a box factory, but I did once work at one that had a 
Box Department. The thing to do is to find a really big box and hide in it. 
They won't find you for hours.

It's almost Sinister's fourth birthday. Is Miss Print going to throw (hurl, 
possibly) a birthday party? When I was four I cried at my party because 
someone burst my birthday balloon. But still, to be four is quite an event. 
Just think, we'll be stringing coherent sentences together soon. I think 
that on her birthday, as many lurkers should come and knock on Sinister's 
door as possible. And we can all give them a big collective kiss. Maybe 
there will be so many emails the list will explode. It'll be just like my 
birthday balloon. When that balloon burst my heart was on the ceiling.

love from Robin

PS: I don't much like list arguments, but the current one has been pretty 
funny to watch. Those crazy Yanks!

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