Sinister: "language lessons" - inspired words, from a man who knows how to ski

[David Hewitt]

G'day Sinister.

HIC!

I've got the hiccups. (Editor's note: I attempted to punctuate this email 
with hiccupping noises, but it was extremely annoying and not at all 
amusing, so I took them out. Just one more way in which the Internet is 
better than real life. Right, readers?)

WHITE SPACE

...makes posts more readable. Because we get the sun down here while most of 
you lot are sleeping, or out dancing or something, I normally read your 
emails in a big batch, when I've just sat down at my desk of a morning, and 
I'm still a bit bleary-eyed. Help us out, yeah?

DON'T GO!

Oh, and while I'm bleating - no more of this "it's not you, it's me ... I'm 
leaving" nonsense. If we didn't like you, we don't care that you're leaving, 
and if we did like you, we end up saying "please stay!" and it gets all 
messy and difficult. Just take a step back and lurk for a bit (nobody'll 
know), and then come back when something catches your interest again. It'll 
seem like a nice surprise. They all seem to come back eventually anyway. If 
you don't, you probably weren't ever really here.

DCW

We've got Diet Coke With Lemon here now, and also Diet Coke With Vanilla. 
They're both pretty tasty. They're "DCWL" and "DCWV" for short. So "DCW" is 
like me standing in front of the fridge in the Deli, making my mind up: 
"DCW...?"

Oh, but that's the extent of my review for the moment. I still haven't heard 
so much as a note of the thing.

BROWN PAPER PACKAGES TIED UP WITH STRING

I love ordering things online, even though it doesn't always quite pan out 
the way it should. Having said that, I want to get this new Camera Obscura 
album and single that the kids are so keen on these days. If they're half as 
good as the previous one, I'm sold. Can anyone recommend somewhere decent to 
order such things from, that will ship to Australia? Thanks very much.

KEN CHU

Is he alright?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

To Laura and Rachel, perhaps somewhat belatedly, but with heartfelt 
sentiment. You're both divine, and I'm wholeheartedly behind another year of 
the pair of you.

There must be 4 or 5 Sinister birthdays most days of the year, I suppose, 
given how many of us there are. Happy birthday to the rest of you as well, 
then. Have a drink for me.

"SGS SHOULD POST MORE"

...said the inimitable Mark Casarotto. And so say I. He also took the piss 
out of Archel a little bit, but I doubt she minded.

I actually had to think for a really long time when I read Archel's post, to 
figure out whether it really struck a chord with me, or whether I violently 
disagreed with it. It's definitely one of the two, and nowhere in between, 
but I'm still not quite sure which. How strange.

I don't think that music defines me any more, either, I suppose. The sort of 
song that would encapsulate me these days would be pretty rubbish, I reckon, 
and you sure as heck couldn't dance to it.

As much as there's a place for 'frothy' pop, though, there's still a way in 
which I still need 'serious' music to remind me of things, even if I now 
know them deep down. I guess it's just not quite such an urgent need as when 
I was finding out these things for the first time.

Dammit, I was all set on being opinionated, and I've ended up somewhere in 
the middle, after all. Anyway, there still is music that I let sit inside 
with me, looking out at everything else. And I still seek it out like a 
drug.

HEY, THAT'S MY MISSUS!

Dirty Vicar said:

"I don't think I'll go to the UK to see B&S this year. If they want me to 
see them play they will have to come to me. but I am reminded of one thing 
from a while back - remember how the B&S manager person laid into some poor 
American who was all sad because B&S weren't coming to her town? He said 
that the band had played there before and were now more interested in 
playing in places they hadn't been to before, like Reykjavik. Since then the 
band have basically ignored Reykjavik and played a succession of gigs in 
towns they've already played in. If I lived in Iceland I would be very 
annoyed. "

And you know what... he's dead right. Fuck you, Belle and Sebastian. And 
play in Australia while you're at it, you sorry bunch of bastards.

NEW SLANG

Just when I think I'm getting the hang of this whole 'X0r' thing, 'izzle' 
comes down the pipes. Crap.

HAPPY VS. SAD

The Duke of Harringay said:

"I was having a discussion on the way home from school today about art, and 
I was saying how in general a lot of artists in a variety of media make work 
which is about 'dark' or melancholic themes, and that it's a lot easier to 
do that than to capture the idea of fun (this is why most of my own stuff is 
kind of world weary - I'm just too lazy to try anything different or more 
challenging). When people do 'happy' it tends as often as not to be clichéd 
and shit and shallow... "

Which I thought was a very good point, well made. I reckon there's perhaps a 
bit more to it, though.

I think the ideal state in which to be creative is when you're fairly 
miserable, but not quite so miserable as to not be able to be bothered. I 
mean, when you're happy, you're hardly analysing your inner state, and 
pondering how and why you've become that way, are you? You're out doing fun 
stuff, not incisively documenting it.

When you sit down to write, compose or paint (or whatever) about something 
happy and fun, it's already a contrived sort of act, isn't it? You're making 
yourself do it, because you think it will be worthwhile, perhaps in terms of 
what you produce, or perhaps in terms of what you stand to earn by doing so. 
So it's bound to be more frivolous or more cliché. When you're dealing with 
darker material, you sort of need to get it out, to externalise it. Sort of 
like how you might choose to have a wank, but you really NEED to do a poo.

I've spoiled it now, haven't I? Ah, well.

CHEQUE PLEASE

I guess that'll do me for today. Take care all.

Bulk love,
-Vanilla Flavoured David.

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