I have been trying out which songs are best to listen to on my personal stereo, whilst walking through town of an evening, and I think that Dirty Dream #2 is just about the best. It works like this: Press PLAY at the beginning of the green album and climb on the bus, listen to it non stop on the way into town. A Space Boy dream is half way through as you get off the bus in town. You listen to it as you stride purposefully round the corner, past the cash machines spitting out money to the Top Shop kids posing beside them. You pass the taxi rank, resisting the urge to jump in a cab for the five minute journey. The Town Hall clock glows about you, you check it, not too late not too early. It chimes for 9.15 pm. Down the main shopping street, skillfully avoiding the buskers and the few homeless figures stretched out in front of the bank. They speak to you but you can't hear a word as the music seeps into your head. A little further, past McDonalds, where the bouncers stand outside, laughing, in their long black coats, their cups of coffee steaming in the air. Past the RAWK club, where you may even end up that night, if you're drunk and defenseless enough by closing time. And then it's time to run the gauntlet. The row of four pubs, each selling cheaper drink than the last. Girls in strappy sandals and boys in identikit shirts and chinos stand outside, pushing each other, seeing how the night is shaping up. Their mouths move soundlessly as you push your way through, with every step feeling their eyes on your battered shoes and non-glam jeans and sensible coat ensemble. You focus on the sound in my head as you breeze by them, and are untouchable. Next obstacle: the underpass. You grasp your keys in one hand, a lit fag between the fingers of the other. That way, you can burn or hit any attacker. Your shoulders tense as you walk down the steps, but then Dirty Dream #2 starts, and you hear the soaring violins, and to be truthful, you think a little about sex and as you walk through the underpass, under the strip lighting, you heart lifts, and you're floating, you're fucking flying and you dare them, dare any single one of them out there to try you now and you're walking on air with this sound in your head and your blood. You leave the underpass, breath a little easier, reaching the canal as The Boy With the Arab Strap begins. You pause to look a moment over the moon on the water and the swams leaving V-shaped paths in current. The recorders are playing as you reach the pub and finally press STOP. You go into the pub and kiss the loved one on the mouth and as you stand at the bar waiting for drinks, you realise that no one else knows how full you heart is, but it doesn't seem to matter. Love Madeleine _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@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 +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+