Sinister: Wolstenholme, Milligan and Moore R.I.P.

[Sam Walton]

The Queen Mum just died. "Just" as in "recently", not "just" as in "simply". 
She died this afternoon at quarter past three, and now, five hours later, 
every broadcasting station across the land has changed its schedules to run 
obituaries for the poor girl, or just to play "more suitable" music.

My mother commented "They've even shifted Blind Date! Bloody hell - I hope 
it's not going to be like Diana again", and with that, without realising it, 
probably made the most poignant piece of social commentary of the day. I'm 
not writing this post to say that the mourning of a dead person for whome 
lots of people care is a Bad Thing, I'm just saddened that people are making 
such a huge fuss over *this* death. Over the last 6 weeks, three famous-ish 
people died, making little more ripple in the cultural water than a column 
on page 17 in The Sun. This trio was Spike Milligan, Dudley Moore and 
Kenneth Wolstenholme (the commentator responsible for "They think it's all 
over... it is now!"). I would argue really quite strongly that these three 
men did more in their time on the planet for Britain's national cultural 
heritage than the Queen Mum ever did, but because they weren't born with a 
silver spoon in their mouths, their scant obituaries will become tomorrow's 
chips wrapper.

Don't worry though, I'm not going to embark on an anti-royalist diatribe. I 
recognise that the Queen Mum's death is also a symbolic one - to a lot of 
people she was the last standing bastion of the Establishment, of the Royal 
Family as it *was*. So with her gone, we're now left with Princesses who 
write poor chilren's books for tax right-off reasons and Princes who do 
dodgy dealings with TV companies. And Prince Philip. Also, there's something 
really quite admirable to having a life which lasts for 101 years. I'd be 
proud it.

I'm simply posting because as the schedules change from Stars In Their Eyes 
to The Life & Times Of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and from the White 
Stripes to Morcheeba, it makes me feel a bit sad. Sad because somebody died, 
but also because a death like this simply serves to accentuate what a shame 
it is that people who made something of *themselves* are forgotton for 
someone who was always destined from birth to have a "celebrated" life.



love,

Asm.x





   ================================
     "He's strictly a pain in the ass, but
      he certainly has a good vocabulary"
               - Holden Caulfield

     "He's not the Messiah, he's a very
      naughty boy"
               - Mary Cohen


_________________________________________________________________
Join the world’s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. 
http://www.hotmail.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!                +-+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+