Sinister: Sydney Devine

[Ian Nicolson]

...and then that Sir Francis Drake, right, him that recorded the album 'Pink 
Moon' about the time that Catherine the Great rode through Coventry on the 
back of a naked horse called Lady Godiva on the way to the Crimean War...oh 
hello there!

I was feeling rather pleasant this afternoon, which was a surprise as I was 
at work. "Jings!", I thought, "I'm feeling rather pleasant and I'm at work. 
What a surprise!". So I decided to look at my emails, which I really 
shouldn't have done since interweb access was restricted to lunchtimes a 
while ago by the people I work for because people (mainly me, I imagine) 
were using it all the time and not doing any work. The shower of bastards. 
But I looked anyway and there was one email, a post by our antipodean chum 
Helen McLean, which I decided to look at because her surname matches my 
middle name. And Helen used the word 'pleasant' in her post, which made me 
realise how pleasant I was feeling. Reading her post reminded me of the time 
when I used to read Sinister posts all the time, when I was at college and 
had nothing better to do. And it was funny to feel like that cause I've not 
really been keeping up with Sinister very well of late.

I like John Cale.

I'm not sure if I like John Cale actually. He might be a bit of a wank. Has 
anyone on the list ever met John Cale? Please tell us if he's a bit of a 
wank. Go on! It's these little things that keep us together. I should have 
said I like John Cale's music. That's not entirely true either. I like some 
of John Cale's music. The bits of John Cale's music that I like are the bits 
that aren't wank. A John Cale song that I like is called 'Sylvia Said'. It 
really reminds me of a Welsh viola player singing a song. It doesn't remind 
me of Belle & Sebastian very much. Is a viola player called a violainist? 
Someone once (only once) asked me what the difference between a violin and a 
fiddle was (is?). I thought it was going to be a joke, but was sorely 
disappointed. If anyone can think of a punchline then you can win all our 
admirations and rest in the knowledge that you're far funnier than me. Or at 
least cleverer. I went to see John Cale a couple of years ago. He was 
playing music to a crowd assembled in a hall, so I didn't get the chance to 
find out if he was a wank or not. He didn't play 'Sylvia Said', but he did 
do 'Hallelujah' which is another song he sings which I like, but he didn't 
write that one. It reminds me of something that a Canadian Jew might do. Or 
is it a Jewish Canadian? I don't want to offend anyone. 'Hallelujah' doesn't 
remind me of Belle & Sebastian either.

Another thing I like is the song 'The Trees' by Pulp. It's spiffing! I like 
it because it's about trees and it sounds big. If you like big sounding 
songs about trees then you might like it. What it doesn't remind me of is 
Belle & Sebastian.

Have I ever told you how much Richard John Gillanders really doesn't remind 
me of Holden Caufield?

I hadn't realised until today just how sticky-out Serge Gainsbourg's ears 
were. They're huge! I think I prefer the version of 'Je t'aime...' that he 
did with Brigitte Bardot to the Jane Birkin one. Belle & Sebastian should 
cover that song, if they haven't already, with Stevie doing the Serge part. 
Because he loves it. Sometimes I think I'd like to be French. My brother's 
going to France tomorrow. I'll ask him if I'd like being French when he gets 
back.

I spent a lot of time on this. Don't blame me.

Ian N.

ps Is Clive of India still on this list? I do miss his posts.

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