Sinister: the picnic at the centre of the universe

[Jim Sephton]

hello my little scrumptious little gorgeous bits of scrumptious
gorgeousness.
and archel.

i'm about to fly to glastonbury, so i can't stop.  besides, as the buddha
once said 'talk is for pussies, silence is WHERE ITS AT!' or he would have
done, if he hadn't been busily staying silent at the time.

just a quick one, then.  no fucking about

straight to the point..

yeah!

so...here's the point

the one you were waiting for

its here

there will be a PICNIC in BIRMINGHAM the weekend of the 21st/22nd july.  i
haven't arranged the exact date yet, i will do that soon.  the gorgeous
dimitra daisy and sunny set will be coming to visit, and i'm hoping i can
persuade a few others to come too. (taylor, are you reading?)

there will be some room at my house, although not a lot.  the picnic will be
in cannon hill park, because the cinema there has a bar we can go into if it
rains.  and because cannon hill park is nice.  if you stay out of the way of
the roller-bladers and pushchairs.


see you there, or i'll want to know why..
and i don't accept 'i live in a different country' as an excuse.
(speaking of which, will somebody in australia say 'hi' to jeremy for me?)
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one more thing.  some of you may recall a certain cat power gig the night of
the greenwich picnic that i was trying to persuade you to go to.  the
following may be of interest.  or it might if you like cat power anyway.
otherwise, just don't read it.

i would have posted this earlier, but i didn't.



'a cat in the bush is worth.....'   cat power at the bush hall

Sunday 5th May




the bush hall looks like it should be filled with posh ladies sipping tea
and saying 'ooh, baroness jocasta, the working classes are FRIGHTFULLY
presumptuous these days'. tonight, it was full of smartly-dressed scruffbags
and scruffily-dressed smartbags, all looking suitably reverential. they had
come here to worship, after all.

the support act were called 'somebody (dwight? john? malcolm?) yorkston and
the athletes' and they were rather fantastic. they are not exactly
stretching the boundaries of alt. country, but when you can make the centre
sound this fine, that doesn't really matter. clever lyrics, gorgeous tunes.
if you don't hear of them again, then there's no justice in the music
industry.

so, you probably won't hear of them again.

chan marshall, aka cat power, has a reputation for giving 'unpredictable'
performances at gigs. this was my first feline experience. i'd heard she
lasted 15 minutes at one recent gig. i was hoping they wouldn't talk, or
heckle her, or do anything to upset her as she crept onstage with her guitar
and muttered something which everyone laughed at.
it was probably very funny. a shame i couldn't understand it. i've never
been good with muttery people which meant i missed most of chan's asides
that evening. judging from the guffaws which resounded around me, she must
be a Mistress of Wit.

she started off beautifully, delivering material from both 'moon pix' and
her covers album in her uniquely unearthly style, barely pausing for breath
in between numbers. moving between the piano and the guitar, cracking
unintelligable but clearly hilarious jokes as she went, she did a great job
of Impressing An Audience Who Would Have Been Impressed Even If She'd Turned
Up, Blown Her Nose, And Buggered Off Again.

but when you sit in the centre of such a congregation, its impossible not to
end up clapping in time to their tune, and, in this case, it would have been
unjustifiable.

as the gig went on, she got a little more, shall we say, 'quirky', getting
bored of songs halfway through, improvising frequently, appealing for
audience participation (this seemed to involve
sing-a-long-a-can-i-get-a-witness-with-chan on several occasions, and
whistling on command), getting notes wrong, stopping, starting and generally
fucking about. nobody else would have got away with it. she did.

i heard someone else call the gig 'shambolic', and i have to agree. but this
wasn't a lacklustre, unexciting, badly drawn boy shambles. this was The
World Of Cat Power. she drew us in, she played with us, and she showed us
how special it felt to be played with. she broke every rule in the Good Gig
Guide. i can't wait to see her again.

frustrating, hugely entertaining, amusing, disconcerting.

i think i'm in love.

ian

------------------------------------------
Tomorrow will bring happiness
Or at least, another day

Phil Ochs
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