Sinister: it *was* a brilliant career

[Sam Walton]

hello sinister

i've spent this morning reading the archives. and quite a lot of last night, too. and, i suspect, i shall read the archives some more this evening while keeping one eye on the mayoral erection results coming in. thank you to honey for doing all the housework.

if you haven't had a look at them, you really should. maybe everybody just likes looking at old photos of themselves at some level (and, i admit, i'm quite amused by my own posts), but there's something more than that going on here – honey's right about them being a massive historical document, but not just in terms of b&s's (and their fans') progress and the history of the social web. they're also really interesting reflections on the news in general: the posts that immediately followed 9/11 (and 7/7 to a lesser extent) are beautifully written and fascinating to look back on with 7 years' hindsight.

then there's all the little memes that ran around the list: i came across juicy lucy's poetry parrot somewhere, and a particularly eloquent ink polaroid by stevie trousers somewhere else, and remembered what an education the list gave me. and, in fact, leafing through the archives again, i'm being educated a second time round.

and then of course there were the fights. i always found these quite funny, in the same way that i smile whenever i see footballers kicking chunks out of each other – it was always so petty and sniping, and distance has only improved it. but rising above the general ire, always, was mark casarotto's utterly brilliant bolshiness (for just one example, try this for size: http://www.missprint.org/archives/html/sinister/2003-03/msg00020.html). quite spectacular at times. i remember thinking that i quite wanted to be him in 2001 – i was quite a fan. as the art of writing a snotty email has been rarefied in recent years, as everybody learns the nuances of email and how to stick the knife in electronically, casarotto really was ahead of his time.

reading the archives has really made me want to see some sinister people again, but unfortunately i can't come to the picnic. it's my girlfriend's birthday on saturday and i don't think it would wash if i changed our plans so that i could go and hang out with some people i met on a belle & sebastian website 8 years ago. but if anyone's going to see tindersticks in the evening, who knows, you might bump into me – please, do come and say hello.

but go on, read the archives. reward honey's hard work in restoring it all, and reward your own hard work that you put in 5, 6, 7 or however many years ago.

love,

(never thought i'd type this again) asm.x





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