Sinister: Just say what you see

[robin stout]

Hello

The funniest moment on Catchphrase was when the catchphrase was actually 
“Say what you see”

Roy: Here’s Mister Chips. What’s he doing?

Bob: Erm. Saying things, er, “Don’t speak until you’re spoken to”, er..

Roy: It’s close Bob, but not quite right. Just say what you see.

Bob: Er, Mister Chips.. “Chips with everything.”

Roy: Just SAY WHAT YOU SEE, BOB!

Bob: “Speak your mind?” “Think before you speak?”

Roy: SAY WHAT YOU SEE!

Well that was basically what happened. I might have got the words a bit 
wrong, and Roy’s hair might not have been so grey as I imagined, but the 
point is that the contestant was so stupid he couldn’t guess the show’s own 
catchphrase. What I do remember, in lucid slow motion, as if the phosphors 
had burnt their red, green and blue into my brain, is Roy’s face as he 
turned to announce the Ready Money Round. His smile was the same as he 
always smiled on a Saturday afternoon, but it seemed strangely fragile, as 
if his teeth would fall out if he didn’t stand perfectly still, and his 
knuckles were white as he gripped his cue cards. It was the last series that 
Roy Walker presented and I really think that was the moment he decided he 
had to leave. I’d like to think the song Roy Walker was about this moment of 
epiphany, but it probably isn’t. It seems to be more about a man called Roy 
who likes walking.



So I got to listen to the new songs, eventually, and they’re pretty good. 
Live recordings have a bit of extra edge to them, and the whole band sounded 
like they’re having a lot of fun. Let’s hope this is a sign of things to 
come. I think if Belle and Sebastian have lost anything recently it’s 
because of over-production, which has smoothed off a little dynamism and 
passion. Not that they should try to be amateurish, but sometimes songs 
become a bit bland if they’ve had all their bumps smoothed away. I liked 
Desperation Made A Fool Of Me a lot. It reminded me of a Velvet Underground 
song but I can’t remember which one.


I was at the Commonwealth Games last week. The whole thing was very 
exciting. Firstly, I’d never been to Manchester before, and I was looking 
forward to riding on trams. But, more importantly, I was meeting my 
long-lost Uncle Peter for the first time. The story about why he’s my 
long-lost Uncle is too long and I’ve probably told it before, but he 
genuinely is and none of us had ever met him before. He’s also Australia’s 
top diving coach, and had a girl called Irina diving in the Games. It was 
all really good fun, and Irina won two gold medals, but the best thing of 
all was going to the pub afterwards with Uncle Peter. I hadn’t known what to 
expect, really, but suppose I imagined that, being a top coach, he’d be sort 
of hard-edged and focussed. But in fact he was a bit of a softie. Also he 
didn’t seem to be bothered about the diving at all. In fact the first thing 
he told us was a funny story about how the shower leaked in the hotel he was 
staying in and whenever they used it water poured through the ceiling into 
the dining room. So the hotel owner had told them that they should only use 
it at night so the dining hall would dry out by the morning. I like little 
stories like this, and thought it was funny that he ignored all the big 
stories of gold medals and somersault pikes, and told us about things like 
that and about the curry he had last night instead. I liked him a lot.


Hannah thinks baths are overrated. Have you ever tried eating biscuits in 
the shower? Mind you, I do wonder how people read books in the bath. It 
seems like the perfect combination; a good bath, good book and good biscuit, 
but whenever I've tried reading in the bath the pages have got wet and stuck 
together and once I dropped a book in altogether and had to dry it off in 
the airing cupboard. But people read in the bath all the time. Do you? How 
do you do it? I really want to know.

bye

r x

_________________________________________________________________
Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com

+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
        +---+  Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list  +---+
     To send to the list mail sinister at missprint.org. To unsubscribe
     send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to
     majordomo at missprint.org.  WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister
 +-+       "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper           +-+
 +-+  "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+
 +-+    "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000     +-+
 +-+  "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000  +-+
 +-+  "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001   +-+
 +-+               Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa                 +-+
 +-+               Snipp snapp snut, sa var sagan slut!                +-+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+