Sinister: Wait for it..Wait for it..There! Actual Content! At the Bottom! A Party Invite!

[Jay Eckard]

Sinister --

  Goodness. In betwixt Miss Llew's and Mr Brier's talk of female 
masturbation I was left all agog. Such talk, honestly! My ears will be 
burning for days. We all know girls are quite lovely, but some things ought 
not to be discussed in a public forum. There are children about (possibly)!
  [It's understandable Laura Llew would mention such things, being a porn 
star and all. You know she is. Look at all the boys and girls positively 
Swooning over her.]
  Fortunately, I was swooning over Miss Rrrobyn* **. I mean, anyone on 
Friendster knows I love a good pair of boots, but then there was Le Tigre! 
And scarves! And THE EAVES! I love the Eaves: their self titled debut is a 
lovely album, with overtones of 80s Synth and bits of Surf Rick guitar and 
Cure-y lushness. I managed to get it on playlist for my radio station WXDU 
(www.wxdu.org/listen) and get tickets for their show. Which they promptly 
cancelled. Pfft to that. I still love them though, especially their sing 
Bird Lawyer. Oh yeah. Dear Rrrobyn, I so want to run away to Canada. If only 
I could deal with the cold in a fashionable manner. Alas, GayJay + cute 
boots + wintry conditions = GayJay on his less-than-fashionable side.
  She also likes "Roy Walker". I though I was the only one to do so. I don't 
understand the objections to it. Am I the only one to remember (selective 
bits of) being 17?
  I always mean to get around to saying something serious, yet my venial 
dedication to the trivial (think that one over) always wins. But here goes:
   I hear over and over again, "The music of Belle and Sebastian just 
doesn't FEEL the same any more."  I think that was what the ever-delightful 
and delightfully fiesty Ms Idleberry*** was getting at when she remarked 
about Tigermilk 5.0.
   Dear hearts -- and I mean this to the folk what remember when Dr Who was 
still bopping about TARDIS-style -- I don't think it's entirely them. To be 
fair, a bit of it is. We can't seriously expect them to keep knocking out 
Sinister-era songs over and over again. The band are artists, after all, and 
we can't expect them to keep mining the same thing. They need to change; to 
move on. Look at Mr Shakespeare. He went from fart jokes in the Comedy of 
Errors to the fascinatingly rich works like The Tempest, Hamlet and 
Coriolanus (His best work. Seriously. Pity no one reads it). Generally 
speaking, I find, like Our Will's plays,  Belle and Sebastian's music to 
have increased in complexity -- and at least to me, interest. [Umm, to say 
nothing of actual performance technique.] And that's not to say that Dear 
Catastrophe Waitress is inferior to If You're Feeling Sinister, no more than 
to say The Comedy of Errors is better than Hamlet. They do different things, 
in different ways.
  But -- and this, like my own, is a rather big but -- like the band, we, 
the fans, have changed as well. God knows, it's been a while since some of 
us first heard those dulcet tones. In the interim, Things have happened to 
us.  I dare say one or two of us have grown up a bit. I pity anyway who 
hasn't managed to change in those years, as they will have utterly wasted 
them. But, if the songs don't reach us like they used to, if they don't MEAN 
what they did, it may be simply that they oughtn't to in quite the same way. 
Maybe we don't need music like a crutch as we once did.
  Maybe wanting the music to be the same is a form of nostalgia, and isn't 
that always a little self-indulgent?
  Not that the music (then or now) doesn't still have power and meaning. I 
see the young people frequently writing into Sinister with a new voice whose 
opnions echoed mine when I was X-teen. I have incredible memories of some of 
the tunes when I forst heard them I'll always carry with me.
  But I keep getting new ones. And new takes on old ones. Does "Seeing Other 
People" mean the same thing to me now as it did in 1997? Hardly. Back then, 
I didn't even /have/ a boyfriend to have a tangled, confused past with. Even 
later, "There's Too Much Love" didn't mean shit to me till I was literally 
broke, friendless and dazed. Then, it when I was, that song was my little 
piece of the world. Now, it shows me what I can do with myself to get out of 
that state (I was in. Sorry. Bad Pun).
  And that, dear tykes, is the mark of greatness. That something can contain 
enough Stuff to have that much meaning -- multiple things just to one 
person, let alone a bunch.

   But then again, maybe I'm just projecting my incipient decripitude on 
everbody here.

  But. Here's the content. Two Fold.

  One -- and this is directed to the South East regional US Folk--Party at 
Mine before the Show! I know a couple of folks rolling into town for the 
show on the 27th. I know more who have a oddish block of time between work 
and Show. What to do? To Que!
  I'm going to have a little Barbeque that afternoon/evening before the 
show. There'll be grilled meat products, cheap beer (Can you say PBR?) and 
amusing local personalities. Come! Invite your loved ones! Gawk at Laura 
Llew! Get trashed and make a pass at a DJ!
  More info to come.

   Two -- and this is dedicate to the Folks in Scotchland -- Does anyone/ 
did anyone attend Glasgow University? Is it a Swell Place? Does it have Good 
Programs? I'm applying there for graduate school (In Dramaturgy) and 
wondered what the local Word about it was.

   That's all.
   Return to your regularly scheduled programs,
     GayJay

*It has been noted (perjoratively) that I get crushes on girls, yet am a 
Poof. Umm, well. I do. It's not a /Romantic/ thing, and 'Crush' sounds much 
more pleasant than 'unhealthy obsession' doesn't it?

**If pressed, my current boy-type crushes are on this Doctor named Coop on 
ER (whom, I might add, I'd punch in the puss if I ever actually met) and 
possibly on Brier Random. Has anyone actually SEEN this guy? If he seriously 
looks like the pic up on the Picture Page,  I am *so* starting to pine for 
him as the moon does the sunset, but as someone once said "No-one on 
Sinister looks /that/ good****."

***Whose 25th Birthday is Saturday. I trust plans are afoot to celebrate in 
a Style She Can Become Accustomed To. My dear, the Hope Diamond was a bit 
pricey -- not to mention difficult to subtly procure -- but I felt it was 
appropriate. I'm sending it over in Joanna Southcott's box with a few stamps 
on. Let me know when it arrives.

****Though I'm not sure of that. I'll need to inspect a few people in person 
before I can issue that particular fatwah. Please make arrangements 
accordingly.

--
"The Posby falls into a Trance
In which it does a little Dance."
                     Edward Gorey

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