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Are you, or have you ever been, a member of sinister?

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Come on, 'fess up, sinister (the mailing list for people who like belle & sebastian) has now unoffically taken over ILE, after secretly running the UK indie/interweb scene for the past three years*. Is there anyone left who hasn't been on it at some point? also those of you who have, extoll the virtues/point out it's not as good as it used to be/explain how it changed your life to the rest (bonus point for first description of grange hill syndrome).


*It is my hypothesis that there are only 70 UK indie people on the interweb, and certainly all of these have been on sinister at one point...

― CarsmileSteve, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

What do you take me for? No no and thrice no.

― Pete, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

New tweekids answers!

― CarsmileSteve, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

what the ?!>@32#*

― chaki, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

On the contrary Carsmile, it is we who have lured the Sinistah flock into our scary world.

No I have never been a member of Sinister BUT someone pretending to be me signed up and posted that indie kids article and got a bollocking for their impersonatory nefarities. I've never found out who it was.

― Tom, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

You ARE kidding, right?

― Andrew L, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I did think about joining for real I have to admit, but partner- swapping isn't my thing, dig?

― Tom, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

For a very very short while back in 97 or 98, but unsubscribed because I was very busy and decided to get rid of all my mailing lists. I had the mistaken impression that it was horrible, but Nick put me right and I guess it was one of my other mailing lists.

― Nicole, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Yes. Remember Jasper Buckaroo and Toby Titwank? Although its all this type of crap these days. Needless to say I unsubbed a while back after actively disliking it for a long time. I'm not going to go any deeper into it as although that list brought SHEDLOADS of GRATE things into my life (including some of you lot) it also brought a load of hideous crap which thankfully I can now leave behind.

― Sarah, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Yes

ILE = Sinister Sunset Home, innit!

BTW, Welcome Linda/Lulou/Occasional Sinister List Mum :)

― David, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Oh no Sarah! It has inspired some people to be creative and make things that you don't like!

I know I'm always bloody literal and po-faced, but I think it's great. I've been an active member for 4 years; I went to the first picnic, and have barely missed one since; I set up a club night bascially for the sinister massive, which has been a decent success; I've travelled to America and relied on the comfort of strangers of a sinister nature; I have pulled, including one member of THIS community and also my recently-ex long-term girlfriend. I have made literally dozens of friends, and several very good ones. I have been spurred to do any number of things I wouldn't have done through lazinees, apathy or ignorance, including writing, travelling, playing football, clubbing, sweet lovin' and for that and more Sinister has been a massivley important and positive part of my life.

I'm not going to bang on about the bad things, as I know there are many others who'll do it for me. But don't anyone dare dismiss it - it's been a complete (and very much for the better) life changer.

p.s. Archel's on it too.

― Mark C, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Yeah yeah. I'm also a member of the Bilderburg Group. And a Mason.

― Archel, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

yes, I was sinister v. briefly in early '98 and have been there more or less continuously since April 2000. I've met a lot of great (should that be GRATE?) ppl through the list and if it hadn't been for the link to ILM from Carsmile's blog I would never have been on ILE. How many other ppl took that route I wonder? My gig-going (esp. London gig-going) has increased quite substantially since joining sinister. Quite possibly I would never have seen Camera Obscura, Vermont, Ballboy, Baxendale or Sodastream, plus countless other bands I've forgotten, were it not for the list. It's good to see Linda here and Archel and Bappsy...who'll be next.....?

― MarkH, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

i are haf NEVAH been on Sinistah as a lot of them (NB. not my grate mates MarkC, Cabbage, the Mell St Boys, G and anyone else i know and love that is also on Sinistah) seemed to be like the indie MAFIA, there definitely seemed to be the prevailing attitude that you COULD NOT criticise anything that B&S ever did and that even Stuart Murdoch's flatulence was like holy wind or something. if you didn't turn up to "do"s in the REGULATION flat shoes and hairgrips and cardigan and hello kitty gear the girls would sneer at you and the boys would snub you. given my healthy disrespect for UNIFORMS, man, and equally healthy lack of reverence for B&S i always felt like i wouldn't fit in (even though i like Hello Kitty but like AFRO KEN more). there were certain people affiliated with the sinister crowd who quite literally made my SKIN CRAWL. having said that if it wasn't for Sinister i wouldn't have met my wuvvly boyfwiend. so there.

― katie, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

**Camera Obscura, Vermont, Ballboy, Baxendale or Sodastream**

Oh Lord. Someone tell me these bands don't exist!

― Dr. C, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Sinister = Britain's largest internet child porn ring (sez FatNick)

― DG, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Mark: I have a right to say what I think about it. Fine, you've not had huge fallout from it, I have and I'm glad to be over it. The good things that I have had from Sinister have all been in the past and I think it's a lot healthier for me, personally, clinging onto something which is not at all good for me, anymore. I would never dismiss what it was, but I couldn't give a monkeys what it is right now apart from the odd gawp in fascinated horror.

― Sarah, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Although this thread is hitting my head with a HUGE HAMMER saying 'dammit mail your ex-sinistah friends who you haf lost contact with' chiz. Awww feel the WUV.

― Sarah, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Sinister RoXoR.

― DV, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

a funny thing about sinister is that even my friends on there always had a go at me for liking the "wrong" type of music (in one notable case, Yo La Tengo) and now they all love this music. i just found it cliquey and narrow-minded to a large degree. and my experience of the "creative" side of it was that when a friend of mine started a band and happened to slag off B&S at around the same time, everyone just rounded on him and slated his band. not nice.

― katie, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

No. Or not really anyway. Toyed with the idea of subscribing in 97 (maybe 98) after falling in love with The State I'm In, but got the ph34r after browsing through the archives. My memory is a bit fuzzy about this tho, it might have been the case that I subscribed but ran away before I got posting rights rather than just looking at the archives.

― RickyT, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Camera Obscura, Vermont, Ballboy, Baxendale or Sodastream

Ah, but they do. And at least one of them are very fine indeed.

― RickyT, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Who are belle & sebastian? (I didn't click on your link)

― Jeff W, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

i ph34r the can of worms that Jeff may have unwittingly opened... they are a twee Scottish band who have made a couple of almost perfect records and also ARGUABLY a big load of old dross. there, that should cover all bases.

― katie, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Yes. Either it's not as good as it used to be or I just can't be bothered/don't have the time to read it all anymore, although I do try and keep up infrequently. Though possibly my lack of time is because of all the other directions it has sent me off in.

Basically, I wouldn't have a life if not for Sinister. Sad but true. So I am grateful.

― Ally C, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Aw Ally. I'm sure you would - it would just be very different and poss not as enjoyable (read: 'full of mentalists). Yeah, I see what you mean about being grateful for what it did. Blah. I feel wrong in the head.

― Sarah, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

mmmmm...worms

so there's like 2 of 'em, is there? belle and ...

― Jeff W, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Yes. Maybe I'm a bit thicker skinned than some sinister folk, but the bad things about it bounce off me. You ARE allowed to delete the badly written/boring/obnoxious posts that occasionally get sent. On the plus side I also have 'pulled', had footy matches (one in particular springs to mind!) and spent some lovely afternoons. It's not fair to say that everyone on S is regulation Indie. My little brother joined and he's a townie.

ILE (which I mostly just read and not contribute due to my wordage defficiencies) is a more intimidating place if you ask me, but that's cos it's more growndup.

I'm off back to my dingy bedsit to cry and listen to B&S now....

― bappsy, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

NO! jel = sinister free!

― jel --, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

ILE (which I mostly just read and not contribute due to my wordage defficiencies) is a more intimidating place if you ask me, but that's cos it's more growndup.

ILE growndup????

― Nicole, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I think ILE probably is more intimidating, but that's partly because it's not actively trying to be inclusive or make people feel welcome in the way that a community generally does. It's still in the stage of being a community by happy accident, whereas Sinister has accepted its community-status and is I suspect much more welcoming.

― Tom, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

No never, I own one B&S album, which is pleasant enough.

I had never heard of Sinister until I discovered ILE.

I defend my right to make my own lifestyle and go to the SECOND weekend of All Tomorrow's Parties without jaws hitting the floor at my freakish choice.

― Anna, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Nicole - ILE growndup????

Yeah, in it's willingness to discuss E!V!E!R!Y!T!H!I!N!G, and stimulate the mind, as opposed to the *sometimes* introverted insecure tendancies of sinister. ILE is still erm playful, but it has got over itself if you know what I mean? I don't think sinister has.

― bappsy, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

That sounded a bit harsh. Too tired. Sinister conversation often gives me the feeling of having missed a week of school and not being quite able to catch up.

― Anna, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

the lizards reveal themselves!! blimery that was quick i bought a book by chomsky on 9-11 only LAST NIGHT!!

― mark s, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

But but but ILE has Simpsons porn! And I do not say that as any sort of recommendation or compliment, either...

― Nicole, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Tis okay Sarah. You got the bad side, I never did (excepting the odd ANNOYING CRETIN not any of you lot I hasten to add), so I live in ignorant bliss. Mmmmm.....ignorant.

― Ally C, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I was on the Sinister list from Jan '98 until late summer 2000. It played host to a bunch of fantastic comic writers during much of that time (and possibly still does), which was my main reason for hanging around; many of them are now here. The discussions, when they centred on B&S at all (which wasn't often), were scurrilous, irreverent, and sometimes downright filthy (hello Susannah, wherever you are).

I suspect that the sort of stuff I couldn't really stand to read (and, which, towards the end, I was deleting without even skimming) is now in the ascendancy and, to be honest, has possibly always defined the list (and B&S fans in general) in the eyes of the casual observer. Or maybe it's still full of hilarious folks, all too young for me to understand.

I'll always be eternally grateful to the Edinburgh McCartneys for keeping it going - it did, after all, provide me with an instant social circle upon moving to London in '98. Some of these people even still talk to me.

― Michael Jones, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

The lizards live under sinister sub-sinister stones, as it happens.

Sinister brought me all kinds of good things, including some of my best friends. I met at least five certifiable (in one sense or another) pop geniuses through my involvement with that list. For a while it seemed a surprisingly broadminded group of variously benign and malign nutters, and the funniest / most exciting place on the ENTIRE INTERWEB! Now, I feel much the same way about it as the lying cur Ally C does.

Katie: your friend publicly criticises B&S / "they all" (really?) publicly criticise your friend's band. Who was supposed to be in the wrong in this exchange?

― Tim, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I meant, uh, what Jonesy said. I think Susannah might like ILE.

― Tim, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Mr Hopkings: well my point was really that the Sinisterites involved couldn't stand to see their darling slagged off (though to be fair my friend, who was a member for ages and then left about a year ago, was probably being deliberately inflammatory) and so instead of being reasonable just slagged off his band WHO THEY HAD NEVER HEARD... it's just that kind of indie crap that i can't be bothered with. "my band's better than yours" it's sooooooo ugh.

― katie, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

um also, when i say "slagged off" probably just gave a bad review of Jonathon David or something...

― katie, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Sarah, I was just referring to the link you provided rather than to your attitude to Sinister as a whole. I wholly agree you have the right to think whatever you like - and I also agree that there are people on sinister who don't even understand that concept. However (and I seem to make this excuse increasingly often) the average age on sinister is probably a good decde younger than that of the active posters here, and they have a lot to experience, many of them.

But regardless of the chaff, as Tim, Mike and others have said, the good stuff that's come out of Sinister is Very Good Indeed. It's a bit of a shame that many of the amazing scribes and comic geniuses of the list have moved on - there is a slight feeling of self-fulfilling prophesy when many of the naysayers no longer posting contributed hugely to making it what it is/was at its peak, and are sadly missed as a result.

If I had my way, Tim, Mike, N., Sarah, Edna and Ally would all post regularly and make my little heart bounce for joy*. Peter Miller IS back, though, so if that's a reason to re-subscribe...

*see, this wonderful metaphor is a reason I are now a pro writx0r.

― Mark C, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Oh - quick meta-question - those on Sinister, do you by and large allow your Sinister chums to meet your non-Sinister ones? And if so, does it work?

― Mark C, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Is there any other kind of review of Jonathon David?

― Pete, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Are Jonathan and David in this band too then? I'm confused.

― Jeff W, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

ISTR Starry saying something nice about it in the last focus group, but otherwise no.

― RickyT, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I like it! So does Fred Solinger, who was nice about it on NYLPM.

― Tom, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Nope.

― Samantha, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I liked it - and I still do! I thought it woz a possible return to some kind of form but sadly not. I still think it's a very good pop song, but then again it does have some emotional context to me now so perhaps without that I'd see it as the same old mimble.

― Sarah, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Is Pauline L Shivers on ILE too?

― Evangeline, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Ha ha ha ha. 'Non-Sinister friends'. Ha ha ha ha.

― Ally C, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

"The artwork for TORI SPELLING reminds me of Strawberry Switchblade, which reminds me of Young and Foolish, which reminds me of The Duke, which reminds me of Life Without Buildings, which reminds me that WE ARE DOOMED TO SPEND ETERNITY TOGETHER even if we unsubscribe. No wonder nobody wants to play for ILM." (Sister Disco aka ...)

― youn, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

(grrr life without buildings)

Hey Youn, did you get my email? Sorry we didn't get a chance to meet up but easter weekend arrangements got the better of us... I love the Pichu though! He lives on my desk and brings me glee :)

― Sarah, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

IIRC, the person who slagged J off is now a regular ILE type, who i don't think actually meant it. they have yet to appear on this thread, but they have been mentioned...

― CarsmileSteve, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I am not on Sinister nor have I ever been. But I am left handed if that helps.

― Emma, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

until very recently I was on Sinister yes, but leaving work forced me to unsub, which I thought was quite sad until I checked the Sinister box in my lotus notes when I was wiping my computer clean and it was largely unread, only maybe one in ten posts were read. I don't know, it just isn't the same as it was when I was first lurking and then subbing in 99-00, now it's all far too twee and simpering and frankly, odd.

But.... I have met so many good friends and done so many cool things because of sinister that I'll always get slightly misty eyed about it, so yeah, huge props to those that know.

― chris, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Sarah, yeah, I did get your email. Thanks. Everything was all sort of last minute for me, too. I'm glad you like the toys.

I listened to LWB yesterday, and I almost agree with you. I can see what's good about their album, but how will they ever make another one?

― youn, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Errr... how painful can it be to have your music slated by someone who's never heard it?

― Tim, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I should have figured as much :) Starry should write for Tanya.

― youn, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Odd, innit? Mind you, if we're thinking of the same person, he has been known to google the name of his band and then write rude missives to anyone who hasn't been entirely complimentary.

― RickyT, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

about them. (grrr)

― RickyT, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

RickyT: am talking about entirely different instance. and slagging off music when you have not heard it IS annoying actually. sorry gotta be terse, things hitting the fan at work, byee!!!

― katie, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

But you just turn around and say: 'ner, you haven't even heard it, you fule!' Pretty good defence, I would have thought.

― RickyT, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Whot? I've heard Life Without Buildings in the live rock music environment you know and I still thought they were bobbins.

― Sarah, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I have been on the sinister list for a while now. I wish Keith, Tag, Joss and WarranderJ still posted. They introduced me to a lot of great music and were never pretentious or exclusive. I don't think they wore Hello Kitty either. :)

― Genevieve, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I am confused.

― RickyT, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Sorry, Sarah! Wasn't paying attention! (And was unfair to Tanya, as well, cos she obviously listens to the stuff she hates.)

RickyT, pls. just ignore my last post (if you're confused by Sarah's comment).

― youn, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I am confused too, but on current balance my feeling is that the notorious case of Katie's friend's band versus Schminister was probably an annoyingness draw.

I've never noticed the sneering at dress sense thing, either (and have more reason than most to be sneered at). But maybe that was down to insensitivity or insensibility. Last time I saw any Schminister people en masse it was them who were being sneered at, funnily enough.

Hello Genevieve!

― Tim, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

the "wrong" type of music (in one notable case, Yo La Tengo)

Hmm.

Anyway, me on Sinister -- yes, that's a possibility ranking up there with me on a Black Crowes list, so never mind.

I will say, though, that the vaunted sense of community sinister has can be found on other lists, I'd be willing to bet. A fair amount of the description, pros and cons alike regarding meeting people and so forth, reminds me of the Oasis list I run, right down to the current laments over how 'it's not the same anymore' regarding both band and list (and with the return of long-standing list elders, etc!). The parallel isn't exact, but still.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

OK i am back!! Right um. i have decided not to argue this point as i was not actually there never haffing been on sinistah and my friend is well known to be an AGITATOR. from what he said though, people were pretty horrible to him, accusing him of list abuse whenever he mentioned his band and that's why he unsubscribed. what RickyT was saying about the googling stuff is true but is unrelated to any sinitah action as far as i am aware.

no it's the arrogance and ignorance of ppl who slag off music never having heard it that annoys me. people who are all too ready to just say "oh that's shit" and have the nerve to call it an opinion. if you're gonna hate something fine, but at least hear it first!!

― katie, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Keith has Hello Kitty Angel tattooed across his forehead these days I hear. Ever wondered why he has that floppy fringe? That's why. Warrender John now there's a geezer who had slipped my mind. I hear he and Tag are occupying their time skipping barefoot through the fields of Chorlton hem hem.

― Sarah, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

(and i do not understand, i certainly never accused Sarah of slagging off stuff she hadn't heard and wasn't trying to imply that this was the case? what is going on?)

― katie, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Yeah, almost any successful mailing list or discussion site is going to evolve a sense of community - Sinister strikes me (from an outsider perspective) as unusual in the extent to which it becomes central in its members' lives, which I suspect is a by-product of Belle And Sebastian's position in the music industry (big enough for a sizeable fanbase to exist, small enough to still inspire a fierce private loyalty).

― Tom, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

(ah i see what happened, by the ingenious idea of READING THE THREAD PROPERLY. sorry!)

― katie, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Grr I think Ktee was insulting me and I didn't even notice :) Heh do not worry I think cross posts haf caused the havoc. I WUV insulting bands who I've nevah heard though - saying it's only about the music is rather dull. It's also about their artwork, their half arsed ramblings in the modern NME and if they are willing to buy beer. For me :)

― Sarah, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

big enough for a sizeable fanbase to exist, small enough to still inspire a fierce private loyalty

Yeah, I'll go with that. A description that actually reminds me of another list in particular, but anyway. ;-)

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Sarah's last post is 100% OTM. Actually listening to these wretched groups before slagging them off is just so damm ROCKIST!

― Andrew L, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Oh - quick meta-question - those on Sinister, do you by and large allow your Sinister chums to meet your non-Sinister ones? And if so, does it work?

why would I have friends who aren't on Sinister?

― DV, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

DV IS NOT MY FRIEND. *stumbles into corner, weeping pathetically*

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

so why's it called Sinister then, this imaginary mailing list?

― Jeff W, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

From the Belle And Sebastian album 'If You're Feeling Sinister'. Ned is currently wishing it is only imaginary.

― Ally C, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I don't wish the list was imaginary, I wish the *band* were imaginary. Hm, you know, that would actually be something cool, an obsessive mailing list/community dedicated to a totally nonexistent band (and I'm not talking the likes of the Monkees or the Carry Nations either).

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Jeff - Johnathon Belle and David "Angry" Sebastian were a very popular and famous skiffle, I think they come from Penzance. I saw them at the Lizard "This is skiffle" Festival in 1986, they were pretty great! I think they might have split up since then!

― jel --, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Can we stop talking about Sinister?

I can see why it's important to a lot of you, but for those not involved it does give out a kind of 'you were last to the party' vibe.

― Anna, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

So what do you talk about on the list?

― Jeff W, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

The best thing about Sinister, by far, has to be... me. Because I have to be popular, otherwise I don't like things. I just keep posting on ILE hoping that you all will realize how great I am. If you don't, soon, like, start liking me lots, I think I'll probably be found dead at the bottom of a well.

― Mandee, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I'm sorry, you are?

And Anna, surely a thread about sinister must *talk* about sinister.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I know. And I wouldn't be reading this thread if it wasn't where most people were. No people on other threads lessens message board interactivity.

Oh ignore me, I'm leaving work now.

― Anna, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I THINK YOU ARE GREAT CHRONIC UGLY-FACE GIRL. PLEASE DON'T DIE IN A WELL.

― Ally C, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I think that Sinister should talk about the exploits of Mr. Sinister, the mad X-Men villian. Ooh, someone shouls smack Belle and Sebastian around the head and shoulders with the bruised and bloodied corpses of Andrew WK and Dido.

― Dan Perry, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Thanks, Ally. I am a little less away from dying in a well now! The chronic ugly-face thing is still a problem, though.

― Mandee, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

DAN PERRY SPEAKS MY MIND. It is for this I love him so. And fret not, Anna, we lurves ya. :-)

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

You and Dan should get married! But let's talk about me some more, shall we?

― Mandee, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

The name Mr. Sinister always struck me as just a little bit too much of a giveaway, arch-villain-wise. I mean, wld you trust someone called Mr. Sinister w/ yr bombs/money/top secret plans?

― Andrew L, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Gosh, thanks jel. This is all so exciting!

I have lots more questions:
I only just joined the list, can I see what's previously been sent?
If someone mentions something on the list and I can't remember when or what they said - can I ask again?
I just noticed that when I send a reply to the list the address my mail program decides to send to if I don't change it is stupid! Why don't replies automatically go back to the list?

― Jeff W, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

You and Dan should get married!

There is no provision for gay incestuous twin marriage, I'm sorry to say.

But let's talk about me some more, shall we?

Yay Mandee the Great and Good!

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Sending replies to the sender rather than the list by default is one of the Sinister list owner's strokes of genius: it virtually eliminates those inappropriate one-liners and "oops I meant that just to go to XYZ sorry" mails. Asking people to decide actively whether they want their pearl of wisdom to hit everyone else's mailbox is quite right, it seems to me.

― Tim, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

(I'm sorry, I can't keep up this pretence anymore. Have a good weekend, you mad B&S freaks :-))

― Jeff W, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

i was on it for a little while a few years ago, BUT my inbox got overloaded, and i just didn't have the time (or the patience) to read every email. some people say all them sinister folk are FREAKS. others say they are GRATE. of course these are all gross generalizations. i can't really say though, as i've not met anyone through the list, although i know people on it who i knew before they joined, and they are lovely and not FREAKS at all.

also, can i just say i think jonathan david is an excellent song and always puts me in a cheery mood.

― sandy, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Older viewers may like to know that I bumped into Jordi yesterday at the cinema. I was coming out of a film about a stripper who shags a teenage boy in his barn and gets raped by his mates and Jordi was on his way to see a film about a little boy and a choo choo train. At least that's the impression I got from the poster. The film ('Do You Remember Dolly Bell?') had put me in a coma, so it wasn't a very enlightening conversation, but it's safe to say that if it wasn't for Sinister I would have just walked past his hulking presence. Needless to say, we talked about YOU, because some of you had seen him last week.

I once met a Sinster person who came along with a non-Sinister friend and I think we all got along quite well.

Come baCK mR dANDYCOCK, ALL IS forgiven.

― PM, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I had n3\/3r heard of thiz "sinister", 'till it got mentioned here. "sinister" to you probably = "analogue heaven off-topic list" to me, FWIW

― Norman Phay, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I was a member for about 4 days back in '99 or something and I couldn't cope with the wetness. It was way, way too drippy for me to deal with, and I've been on the indiepop list for fuck's sake. These days I'm completely list-free.

― electric sound of jim, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I live with two other sinister'ites... All-in-all, sinister has been pretty good to me. I've met loads of nice people, like Starry... and only a few bad apples - like that guy who kicked me out of his house into the rain at 4am because I wouldn't give him a blowjob.

― phil-two, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Wow, they got some dickable hoes on the pic page huh......and a lot of those dudes are surprisingly rugged looking for B & S fans.....usually I see a B & S fan and I'm tempted to drop severe elbows on the kid, dislodge faceplates supreme.....like what's he gonna do, right?

― Ramosi, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I've never been on the Sinister mailing list, but a girlfriend coaxed me into attending a list picnic at Griffiths Park last a summer wasting. I tried to get other members from the Maladjusted list to crash the meet-up, eat up all the strawberries, and make the Sinister kids cry, but the Maladies in the area preferred to stay at home alone.

― Melinda Mess-Injure, Friday, 12 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

i've never been on sinister, BUT...

flat shoes and hairgrips and cardigan and hello kitty...

maybe, i could start now, yee-ah, bring on the dancing girls!

― gareth, Saturday, 13 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Ramosi, have you seen the Body parts page? It's got, like, dicks and tits!

― Mark C, Saturday, 13 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

And they're ALL MARKS.

― Ally C, Saturday, 13 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Not true. Only one of those pictures is mine, and I'm certainly not saying which one.

― Mark C, Saturday, 13 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Ooooooooooooh! I know which picture is of Mark! Can I tell, please, S. Cazz, er Casarotto?

― David, Saturday, 13 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

oh, GO ON Mark C. surely you can't keep us all in suspense, not after we've seen those photos...

i propose you tell us whether yours is one of the NAUGHTY pics or the nice ones.

― sandy, Saturday, 13 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I am not, nor have I ever been, a member of Sinister for why because of me not liking B&S though a couple of summers ago, I did gatecrash a Sinister picnic after bumping into some friends of mine in Camden who were going along and asked me if I wanted to sit on the grass and drink boozes. This sounded like a good plan until they explained that everyone there would be schmindie kids but anyway, it was still fun, schmindie kids or no.

― jamesmichaelward, Sunday, 14 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Sandy, the pert bosoms and milky-white skin - that's me.

Of course you can Daddy M.

― Mark C with folks, Sunday, 14 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

aha! so i guessed right then

― sandy, Sunday, 14 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Jim, you can stand the indiepop list but couldn't phantom sinister? my mind boggles. even worse: the hefner list. makes me want to puke coat hangers.

― Mandee, Sunday, 14 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Ha ha ha ha. Coat hangers.

― Ally C, Sunday, 14 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I could never find the Hefner list. Shame, really. I think an ex- girlfriend of mine might be on it though so I probably should avoid it

― electric sound of jim, Sunday, 14 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Anyone want to watch "The Peanut Butter Solution" with me? I was just now reminded of it because there is a dog in the movie named Jim. No offense, Jim.

― Mandee, Sunday, 14 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

None taken. I'm a James, really.

― electric sound of jim, Sunday, 14 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

This is going to be a bit of an anti-climax, I'm afraid. Mark is Chest-01

Sadly well-covered (by a T shirt - you can't see all that bodyhair in this picture)

― David, Monday, 15 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Aw bless, I knew this would be a good thread :)

I must say the one thing about sinister (apart from the meeting loads of people without whom one wouldn't have a social circle of any description) is that it does teach one about e-mail ettiquette and composing thought through emails rather than just firing one's rabid opinions into the ether (well it did for me anyway).

oh I just realised I haven't answered my own question yet. Yes I am a member of sinister and have been since the day after b&s won the Brit award (ie three years), it was the first mailing list i'd been on, so i didn't really know what to expect, but certainly not something that would (big cough) actually change my life (pls note, i joined abt 3 months before i got married, so i havn't been involved in any of that smuttiness one hears so much about ;)), which it has done because, for whatever reasons, it's more of a community than other webby things...

― CarsmileSteve, Monday, 15 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I think the fact that sinisterines have picnics on a regular basis is one of the best things about the list. Picnics are a great way to meet people. The fact that they start around lunch-time means there's plenty of opportunities to combine them with gig- going/indieschmindie discos and pub meet-ups later on, those who are so inclined can play footie/fly kites etc and if you find the atmosphere too intimidating you can always hide behind a tree ;). I still remember the first sinister picnic I went to, in Greenwich Park in May 2000, going up to a random group of ppl at a picnic table and asking, "Excuse me, are you Sinister?"

― MarkH, Monday, 15 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Hahaha I remember a comment about the Sinistah List I haf may made very well in May 2000 - poss even earlier - that the problem with the Sinister List was with people going for bladdy picnics rather than going to the pub, heh heh.

― Sarah, Monday, 15 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Mailing List get-togethers are always so damn UK- or US-centric so losers like me stuck down here never get to go :(

― electric sound of jim, Monday, 15 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

This is why *I* am coming to visit, you crazy man. So I can bring some of that love.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 15 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Aaaw Ned, are you going to be reprazenting Sinister for us? don't forget to take a guitar for the obligatory "Judy and the Dream of Horses" singalong :-)

― Mark C, Tuesday, 16 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Kill me now.

― Ally C, Tuesday, 16 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

NO!, Ally.

At least spare yourself until someone pulls out a fucking recorder.

― David, Tuesday, 16 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

unfortunately, i fear i am far too twee for sinister

― gareth, Tuesday, 16 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Aaaw Ned, are you going to be reprazenting Sinister for us?

Only if I can make a campfire out of Stuart Murdoch's bones.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 16 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Sinister: hard-drinking, sexually overactive, dissolute, knowledgeable, cynical, articulate, diverse and NOT TWEE

― Archel, Tuesday, 16 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

That picture was the twee-est attempt at being non-twee I've ever seen.

― Dan Perry, Tuesday, 16 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

thats what i mean, too hard for me. i am too twee

― gareth, Tuesday, 16 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

What's going on? Why did no one tell me you were all here? What is this thing? I know some of you through sinister connections. If it wasn't for sinister I wouldn't have a cat called Bobby, or an alcohol problem and I'd never have got publicly reprimanded by Stephen "weesack" Pastel for writing falsehoods about him on the modern super infoweb. Humph. I'm confused. Hello!

― Chris Leonard, Tuesday, 16 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Hold on. In WHAT sense are nipples showing through a bra twee? It's not like she's wearing Hello Kitty hairgrips.

― Archel, Tuesday, 16 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

It is drawn in the style of a senstive, relationship-based underground comic = it is twee.

― Dan Perry, Tuesday, 16 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

HEY CHRYS! How's tricks? How's the cat? How are YOU? When will you next come to London to play?

― Sarah, Tuesday, 16 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

What is a song snake and can we eat it?

― Tim, Tuesday, 16 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Actually I don't know why I even brought the word 'twee' into this. It has no meaning as far as I'm concerned. It's bandied around a lot in reference to Sinister, obviously, but I've yet to work out what it usefully defines.

― Archel, Tuesday, 16 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Doesn't it refer to some young chap called Tewe?

― Pete, Tuesday, 16 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

There are several explanations for the origins of the word 'twee' (including a lisping child's mispronunciation of 'sweet' I think), but seemingly no consensus on what it should be applied to. It's just another lazy label as far as I can see.

― Archel, Tuesday, 16 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

It's not just another lazy label; it's the BEST lazy label!

― Dan Perry, Tuesday, 16 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

And one that should be shared with all and sundry.

Twee need not be an insult in certain contexts. For instance, Andrew WK is demonstrably not twee. He is still horrible.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 16 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Sadly, a false syllogism:

P1. Andrew WK is not twee. P2. Andrew WK is horrible. C. Twee is not horrible.

How many people would call their best friend 'twee' and a) mean it nicely and b) not be twatted, hard?

― Archel, Tuesday, 16 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Ned there is a flaw in your logic.

Things needn't have a consensus or a definition in order to exist, anyway - a know-it-when-you-see-it rule applies. And it's a continuum ha ha. So kite-flying - going and flying kites isn't always twee* but it's twee-er than say training greyhounds.

*WHERE IS THE THREAD ON KITE BOMBERS?

― Tom, Tuesday, 16 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I would argue that flying a razor-edged kite is considerably less twee than putting a fluffy sweater on your greyhound.

Putting a razor-edged sweater on your greyhound is simultaneously twee and FUCKING HARDCORE.

― Dan Perry, Tuesday, 16 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I like Dan's answer best (and yes, it was incredibly spurious logic, but I felt the moment take me).

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 16 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Sarah: Nice to hear from you. Don't know when I'm in London next, I rely on Trousers and hansome Matt Powell for that. Not that Trousers isn't hansome, he's Trousers! You see? Trousers is hansome. Is he here as well? This is confusing me, did I mention that? I hope you are well Sarah. You took a photo of me kissing a boy, you scarlet temptress, you. Cheeky. Tim: Nice to hear from you. I still feel privileged to be one of the very few who has witnessed your record collection with my very own eyes. And miss julia's. And her nose. Tim, I'm confused. You help me, you're smart! Am I allowed to say what i want about....anything.... I.... love??? Oh dear.

― Chrys Lynyrd, Tuesday, 16 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Don't be confused, Chris. You can talk about anything at all. Isn't that exciting? And if a nasty P*stel interferes, a nice man called DG will tell him to go away!

Of course, that doesn't mean you *have* to talk about everything you love. Also, the unoly pact between this board and google makes what you say scarily public.

Are you saying Julia thought my record collection stinks, by the way?

― Tim, Tuesday, 16 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Yes Mystopher Chrys - anything you like. Possibly even M*s M*****h.
Try & get Mr Dandycock to join in too. You know that everyone you know knows him.

― David, Tuesday, 16 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Greyhounds aren't twee. Twee-est dog *has* to be the toy poodle. Extra twee-points for ribbons in its hair. Or one of those little tartan coats.

― MarkH, Wednesday, 17 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Hello Chris! Yes, you should get Mr.Dandycock to join too. I, like you, was confused when I came here. SO THIS IS WHERE THEY HAVE BEEN HIDING! There is a lot of Ph3ar/R0x0r/S0x code that I am not down with yet.

― Genevieve, Wednesday, 17 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I'm not down with it either and I've been here for months!

― MarkH, Wednesday, 17 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Greyhounds aren't twee.

Not by themselves, but a greyhound in a cute widdle fwuffy sweater is.

― Dan Perry, Wednesday, 17 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

What about with cute widdle fwuffy sweater, razor blades, a handgun, nunchukas and a stealth Tanto?

― Graham, Wednesday, 17 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

one year passes...
Yes, Sinister. I was on it. Okay!

― kirsten (kirsten), Thursday, 15 April 2004 15:33 (twenty years ago) link

i was never a member of sinister

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 15 April 2004 15:37 (twenty years ago) link

would i have made it on sinister if my favorite song was "electronic renaissance"? (although I think it might be a tie with "i could be dreaming")

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 15 April 2004 15:37 (twenty years ago) link

yep.

― RJG (RJG), Thursday, 15 April 2004 15:38 (twenty years ago) link

WE ARE DOOMED TO SPEND ETERNITY TOGETHER even if we unsubscribe. No wonder nobody wants to play for ILM.

― the bellefox, Thursday, 15 April 2004 15:39 (twenty years ago) link

Haha! The first time I went to Glasgow, I went to a bar where someone from Sinister was being a DJ, and I was asked if I wanted to hear any B&S songs, and I said "Expectations" and was told that wasn't really "the kind of thing" people wanted to hear, and "Electronic Renaissance" was played instead.

― kirsten (kirsten), Thursday, 15 April 2004 15:41 (twenty years ago) link

i am glad to have been unaware of Sinister until today.

but i used to be on ANIME mailing lists!!!!

― Ian Johnson (orion), Thursday, 15 April 2004 15:41 (twenty years ago) link

That's it. I'm moving to Glasgow, kidnapping RJG and then we can spend our summers in Brno CZ camping and drinking wine.

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 15 April 2004 15:43 (twenty years ago) link

U r all insane.

― Sick Nouthall (Nick Southall), Thursday, 15 April 2004 15:43 (twenty years ago) link

That is a great idea. It wasn't RJG who was the DJ, though.

― kirsten (kirsten), Thursday, 15 April 2004 15:44 (twenty years ago) link

What?

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 15 April 2004 15:46 (twenty years ago) link

haha!

― RJG (RJG), Thursday, 15 April 2004 15:47 (twenty years ago) link

Kirsten, please describe this person

― chris (chris), Thursday, 15 April 2004 15:47 (twenty years ago) link

Male, two eyes, one nose, very nice.

― kirsten (kirsten), Thursday, 15 April 2004 15:50 (twenty years ago) link

However! RJG WAS the person who said, "Expectations" wasn't "the kind of thing..."

― kirsten (kirsten), Thursday, 15 April 2004 15:51 (twenty years ago) link

no mouth?

― jel -- (jel), Thursday, 15 April 2004 15:51 (twenty years ago) link

He hadn't been let out of the nursery yet.

― Mooro (Mooro), Thursday, 15 April 2004 15:53 (twenty years ago) link

Haha, I thought of that right after I posted it. He did have a mouth. And a body.

― kirsten (kirsten), Thursday, 15 April 2004 15:53 (twenty years ago) link

Although I have just been informed that he was never officially on Sinister. Just in the chats, or something.

― kirsten (kirsten), Thursday, 15 April 2004 15:54 (twenty years ago) link

i wonder if i was at this place.. i once went to somewhere where someone djed who has two eyes and one nose a mouth and a body i think, and kirsten was there.

and that man had two arms and two legs too. and two ears. quite well formed really!

not much hair though

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 15 April 2004 15:59 (twenty years ago) link

woah ken, the same thing happened to me, are we the same person?

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Thursday, 15 April 2004 16:00 (twenty years ago) link

i dunno.. how many eyes do you have?

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 15 April 2004 16:01 (twenty years ago) link

Ken, you might have been there! Although I have this fuzzy memory of meeting you at a train station AFTER meeting this DJ person. I could be wrong, though. I'm drunk sometimes.
By the way...Carsmile Steve, do you remember meeting me????

― kirsten (kirsten), Thursday, 15 April 2004 16:02 (twenty years ago) link

i can't resist, i write for the nme, i just got a job at an indie record label (but its on a major) and i know useless gossip about four or five indie labels, am wearing a twisted nerve t-shirt, old flared jeans, indie-regulation glasses, head shaved and today i got happy because i got a bunch of brian eno promo cds. i listened to those and kinski, charlamides, neil hagerty, zongamin, faust and brian eno. at the moment i am listening to alfie. i think i just suck, though.

― doomie x, Thursday, 15 April 2004 20:52 (twenty years ago) link

ha ha. i posted to the wrong thread. that was for the 'how indie'. not only do i suck, i am a tragic fool.

though i did suggest that a girl signed up to sinister to meet fey twee males.

― doomie x, Thursday, 15 April 2004 20:54 (twenty years ago) link

Did she follow your advice?

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 15 April 2004 20:56 (twenty years ago) link

yes and she got a boyfriend through sinister.

― doomie x, Thursday, 15 April 2004 20:56 (twenty years ago) link

BUT WAS SHE INVOLVED WITH THE REISSUE OF THE SUMMER HITS COMPILATION???!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 15 April 2004 20:58 (twenty years ago) link

What a nice story.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 15 April 2004 20:59 (twenty years ago) link

gygax! you are more indie than me. i've never obsessed over the summer hits like that!

― doomie x, Thursday, 15 April 2004 21:00 (twenty years ago) link

I was discussing the insidous sinister takeover of ILX just yesterday, though the person I was discussing it with claims ken chu is definitely sinister (no-one is ex-sinister).

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Thursday, 15 April 2004 21:01 (twenty years ago) link

gygax! i have no idea what is happening -- i think people got ego issues about it and killed it dead. sorry dude.

― doomie x, Thursday, 15 April 2004 21:03 (twenty years ago) link

:_(

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 15 April 2004 21:04 (twenty years ago) link

either that or joe is going to put it out and steal the idea from me. don't care-like. as long as it *eventually* comes out.

― doomie x, Thursday, 15 April 2004 21:05 (twenty years ago) link

guhh...

― mandee, Thursday, 15 April 2004 21:05 (twenty years ago) link

that sucks doomie. tell him to talk to me and i'll set him straight.

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 15 April 2004 21:07 (twenty years ago) link

i.e. i don't know. i was taken out of the 'loop'. he no longer responds to my emails. so i'm just as excited and anxious as you!

― doomie x, Thursday, 15 April 2004 21:08 (twenty years ago) link

yah, it sorta suxxx but i got my dream job so everything is looking up for doomie.

― doomie x, Thursday, 15 April 2004 21:09 (twenty years ago) link

(no-one is ex-sinister).

I am.

― kirsten (kirsten), Friday, 16 April 2004 01:11 (twenty years ago) link

ooh what happenned to that Jayward from sinister. he was so adorable.

― phil-two (phil-two), Friday, 16 April 2004 02:40 (twenty years ago) link

ooh I am very ex-sinister

― chris (chris), Friday, 16 April 2004 07:18 (twenty years ago) link

I'm not sure i was a member of sinister, but I was part of the belle and sebastian mailing list at the start of 1997, when they sent you out nice little coloured newsletters. Then they asked me for stamps, sent me about 3 more leaflets and stole the rest of my stamps. bastards.

ah fuck, they haven't made a good album in 8 years, i'm not bothered...

― Robbie Lumsden (Wallace Stevens HQ), Friday, 16 April 2004 07:56 (twenty years ago) link

I was discussing the insidous sinister takeover of ILX just yesterday

ILX sans Sinister would have been Tom, Pete, Graham and Becky Lucas, which is a beautiful concept for niche-market pr0n.

― Markelby (Mark C), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:03 (twenty years ago) link

Excuse me, but that's a bit NARROW of you, Barry.

― Super-Kate (kate), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:04 (twenty years ago) link

Or Tom, Pete, Gareth, Mark S, Jess, Me, Kate, Ally, Katie, Tad, Sterling, Nitsuh, Tep...

― Ricardo (RickyT), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:08 (twenty years ago) link

What would ILX have been without Star Chamber? I think that's a much more urgent question.

― Super-Kate (kate), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:10 (twenty years ago) link

I would never have been here, even though I was never a part of it.

― Ricardo (RickyT), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:11 (twenty years ago) link

Star Chamber brought us Tom, Ned, Dan, Chris B, Donut Bitch, Starry, and a whole host of other people I'm probably forgetting. I think Star Chamber was really the transatlantic link that took ILX global.

― Super-Kate (kate), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:13 (twenty years ago) link

Starry? Hello??

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:15 (twenty years ago) link

I thought starry came to ilx from sinister??

x-post

― Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:16 (twenty years ago) link

I was belatedly on starchamber, but surely it's really a.m.a at root?

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:16 (twenty years ago) link

I remember Starry being on Star Chamber! I remember when she joined! Oops, sorry for mistaking if she was on Sinister, too.

It's not AMA coz I was barely on AMA. Maybe a lot of Star Chamberites came from AMA, but I came to Star Chamber from the NoFi SP* message boards, so there!

― Super-Kate (kate), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:18 (twenty years ago) link

'Belatedly' a terrible word. 'Latterly', I mean.

Starry was on Sinister from 1997. When did she join SC?

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:19 (twenty years ago) link

I was never on Sinister. Nor was I ever on this Starchamber thing. Nor was I on AMA. I pride myself on this fact.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:20 (twenty years ago) link

OK, I'll give you Starry coz she didn't join SC until I was in the UK which would have been more like 98/99.

But Ally was on Star Chamber so there.

― Super-Kate (kate), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:20 (twenty years ago) link

x-post...

::POINTS AND SCREAMS::

FREAK! FREAK! What are you doing here? FREEEEAAAAAAAK!!!

― Super-Kate (kate), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:21 (twenty years ago) link

starry was both, innit.

hello kisten, yes i remember meeting you, you had two eyes and a nose.

roots of ILX = a.m.a/starchamber, sinister and dunedin.

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:21 (twenty years ago) link

I've been on Sinister since 1999 but I've never heard of this Star Chamber thingy.

― robster (robster), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:22 (twenty years ago) link

And Momus fans.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:23 (twenty years ago) link

I think there might be a very small number of Ilxers, myself included, who remember the legendary WANGST. Although in this day and age that might just be myself, j0e and MJ Hibbert.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:25 (twenty years ago) link

Alas, N, that was where it all went wrong. ;-)

― Super-Kate (kate), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:25 (twenty years ago) link

I was cleaning out my hard drive recently, and found a batch of old Sinister posts - early 1998, I think - that I'd never deleted. Out of them, Starry's were definitely the best.

― caitlin (caitlin), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:27 (twenty years ago) link

This is the thread for Interweb Friends Reunited

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:28 (twenty years ago) link

I always like to take 'credit' for bringing over the Sinister hoardes, because I found something via google that Tom had written on the then new FT, which I then linked to on Sinister and said 'This chap sounds interesting'. Jerry the Nipper, Michael Jones and Tim agreed and hoedowns ensued. I don't remember Starry saying 'I KNOW HIM ALREADY' but she can be mysterious.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:29 (twenty years ago) link

I was neither a member of sinister or star chamber (whatever that is) so there!

― Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:30 (twenty years ago) link

FREEEEEAAAAAK!!! FREEEEEAAAAAK!!!!

― Super-Kate (kate), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:31 (twenty years ago) link

Ahem!

― Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:32 (twenty years ago) link

Tee hee.

― Super-Kate (kate), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:32 (twenty years ago) link

I'm technically still a member of Sinister, but I don't think I've actually read anything from it for about 18 months.

― caitlin (caitlin), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:34 (twenty years ago) link

I was under the impression that the Pinefox and JtN were the first people Tom ever met off the Interweb.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:36 (twenty years ago) link

I've been set to 'nomail' for the last four years or so.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:38 (twenty years ago) link

He looked kind of bewildered the first time I met him, at the Notting Hill Arts Club and has subsequently forgotten the encounter. This was a few weeks after JtN had had the first summit.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:40 (twenty years ago) link

The PF and I (and Tim?) were the first of the sinister horde to meet Tom, I think - in a boozer in Notting Hill in 2000. I suspect we dragged him to some dodgy RoTa thing at the NH Arse Club.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:40 (twenty years ago) link

It's funny cause there seem to form little cohorts of people who travel across the interweb together.

There's a gang of people on ILX who I encountered originally on a Blur list, followed through Dandysrule and/or SP*/iMusic boards, who ended up on Twentytwo, and followed through to ILX.

I could make a comment about stalkers here, but ... well. Nuff said.

― Super-Kate (kate), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:41 (twenty years ago) link

If you search USENET for 'Geir Hongro' you find hordes of ur-ILXers attempting to reason with him. RickyT's attempts are the funniest.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:42 (twenty years ago) link

Who are these people, Kate?

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:43 (twenty years ago) link

I saw "Sinister" but thought, naah it's not for me. Can't remember why though...

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:47 (twenty years ago) link

Heh heh. Catty, Charlie No.4, Mr. Noodles, Emsk, and formerly ChrisTT but he doesn't post as much any more. (I know I'm forgetting someone who will probably yell at me.)

There's another one who has followed a very similar path, changing their identity at every step to obscure their activities, but that's another story that doesn't need to be got into.

― Super-Kate (kate), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:49 (twenty years ago) link

is it you kate? ;)

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:50 (twenty years ago) link

or should we say........

― chris (chris), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:51 (twenty years ago) link

I am my own stalker. Wait, wasn't this the plot of that awful, awful Naomi Campbell "novel" or am I getting mixed up again?

― Super-Kate (kate), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:51 (twenty years ago) link

Kate, is the story about the reason why you changed your name really true?

― chris (chris), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:52 (twenty years ago) link

Which story and which name change? Kate is the name on my birth certificate. More people know me by my stage surname than by my father's surname.

― Super-Kate (kate), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:56 (twenty years ago) link

There's another one who has followed a very similar path, changing their identity at every step to obscure their activities

You make them sound like Gollum.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:57 (twenty years ago) link

MDC, do you mean this post, perchance:

[geir complaining about hip hop]

I was going to compose a sensible response to this but I've been
drinking for two days and I can't be arsed, so I'm just going to have
to shout:

FUCK OFF, GEIR

― Ricardo (RickyT), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:59 (twenty years ago) link

Yes, Gollum would be a very apt metaphor...

Chris, are you asking genuinely, or are you taking the piss?

― Super-Kate (kate), Friday, 16 April 2004 08:59 (twenty years ago) link

Kate, the one where you changed from a quite ordinary surname that just happens to be the surname of an indie singer because "she had made it too twee"

I am being genuine yes, no piss takes here, there's a gap as I just had to go and do some work

― chris (chris), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:00 (twenty years ago) link

The quip about the indie singer was a joke. The name-change happened about ... 13? ... years ago. I was in a band called Claire at the time. People were forever introducing me as "Kate From Claire" and someone misheard that as "Kate St.Claire" and it stuck. That is the absolutely honest truth of where it originally came from. I have as many silly joke stories about where the name come from as I have been asked "where did you get the name from..." in interviews.

If you want to have a discussion about stage names and why artists adopt them, that's another thread.

― Super-Kate (kate), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:06 (twenty years ago) link

Did anyone else come *out of nowhere*? ('and I'm going straight back there').

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:06 (twenty years ago) link

well, me, really

― the surface noise (electricsound), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:07 (twenty years ago) link

FUCK OFF, GEIR

So the unnecessary comma thing is YOUR FAULT?!

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:08 (twenty years ago) link

no I just wondered, as I got told it very much that the other singer caused the name change and I was curious.

The stage name thing is an interesting one though.

x-x-x-post,

― chris (chris), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:08 (twenty years ago) link

I think the number one joining method is now RANDOM GOOGLING!!!

― Super-Kate (kate), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:09 (twenty years ago) link

That comma is correct, though.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:09 (twenty years ago) link

,i like to think so

― chris (chris), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:11 (twenty years ago) link

Carsmilesteve is not my real name...

RICKY, do you remember us having a conversation about how we met at ATP but neither of us could really remember, well i found PHOTOGRAPHIC PROOF of it last night (ie you are in one of my photos sat next to matt powell).

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:11 (twenty years ago) link

Cor. Well there you go!

― Ricardo (RickyT), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:12 (twenty years ago) link

"Fay Fife" from the rezvillos was along similar lines.. She was "from fife" in scotland, which is pronounced "Fae Fife" and it stuck, much to her "tsk" nowadays...

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:22 (twenty years ago) link

I've been on Sinister since August 1999 - coming up for my 5th anniversary. Good grief.

Funnily enough, I can remember discussing American Music Club with Ricky T and Katie G in the Betsey Trotwood in September 99 (?) when Geoff invited me along (haha) to some gig. I went with my Italian friend Maureen and was impressed by a the stylishness of a girl in black ballet shoes and knee high socks who was subsequently fought over by Geoff and N.

― Madchen (Madchen), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:24 (twenty years ago) link

I did not fight over her!

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:25 (twenty years ago) link

OK, Geoff threatened to punch you. I believe the same girl also stuck her hand down Ally C's pants at a Tigermilking.

― Madchen (Madchen), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:26 (twenty years ago) link

I was never on Sinister. Nor was I ever on this Starchamber thing. Nor was I on AMA. I pride myself on this fact.

Testify Matt.

― Ronan (Ronan), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:27 (twenty years ago) link

who was this girl?

Geoff punching N? I'd pay a pound to watch the ensuing catfight

― chris (chris), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:27 (twenty years ago) link

Also, Maureen and I decided that we would each have one of the two handsome men standing by the bar. It turned out she got N. and I got the Pinefox. Although we were too shy to do any approaching, so we didn't actually *get* anything. I'm not sure we would had we tried. I'm not sure I've ever told the PF this story and am sorry if it comes as a surprise to him.

― Madchen (Madchen), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:27 (twenty years ago) link

Coffee: meet monitor.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:28 (twenty years ago) link

Where is Katie G these days by the way?

― Ronan (Ronan), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:28 (twenty years ago) link

- Geoff punches N
- Both fall over backwards like feathers in the breeze.

― Madchen (Madchen), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:28 (twenty years ago) link

takin' it easy

(crosspost)

― the surface noise (electricsound), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:29 (twenty years ago) link

This threat was never relayed to me.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:29 (twenty years ago) link

Oh my god, Madchen, you actually remember that! Jesus. After you blanked me on our next meeting I assumed that you'd either forgotten about it, or I'd bored you so senseless that you were choosing to ignore me. Social paranoia brought on by excessive booze intake is a very nasty thing.

― Ricardo (RickyT), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:29 (twenty years ago) link

Blanked you? What? I must have been (a) drunk or (b) staring shyly at my mary janes.

― Madchen (Madchen), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:30 (twenty years ago) link

Sinister sounds more and more... erm *sinister* the more I hear it discussed!

― Super-Kate (kate), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:31 (twenty years ago) link

Katie G is alive and well and living in Shepherd's Bush. After her work enforced lay off from ILE she found it impossible to get back into it. Lucky girl.

― Ricardo (RickyT), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:31 (twenty years ago) link

Lucky girl indeed! What I'd not give to be cured of the ILX Fever forever...

― Super-Kate (kate), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:32 (twenty years ago) link

Does Ally keep a tiger in his pants, then?

― Mooro (Mooro), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:32 (twenty years ago) link

Tigermilking?

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:34 (twenty years ago) link

Ah I'm on ILX till the death now, unless they ban it in pubs.

― Ronan (Ronan), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:35 (twenty years ago) link

They have ILX in pubs now? I HAVE NO NEED OF MY WORKPLACE EVER AGAIN!!!

― Super-Kate (kate), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:35 (twenty years ago) link

It leaves your clothes smelling terribly.

― Ronan (Ronan), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:36 (twenty years ago) link

Oh dear. I hereby apologise for behaving awkwardly in your presence ever since.

― Ricardo (RickyT), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:36 (twenty years ago) link

How long until we jump ship to a new forum en-masse and a bit down the line someone starts a thread going "Are you, or have you ever been, a member of ILX" and we all start getting nostalgic and going "it's not the same these days" and making barely-veiled comments about how everyone was bonking each other senseless, of course.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:37 (twenty years ago) link

Hah! But Charlie No 4 attended a sinister picnic in 1999!!

This is getting really lame, sorry

― Vicky (Vicky), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:38 (twenty years ago) link

3 years.

― jel -- (jel), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:39 (twenty years ago) link

Charlie No. 4 attended the drunken 1998/9 New Years Party at which the Lollies were formed, so he's ours, not yours! Hah!

― Super-Kate (kate), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:41 (twenty years ago) link

's ok, you can have him (sorry charlie, no offense, like)

― Vicky (Vicky), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:43 (twenty years ago) link

I almost went to a sinister thing in December 1999.

― jel -- (jel), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:44 (twenty years ago) link

"I actually went to a FAP in 2004!"

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:49 (twenty years ago) link

Aw, you should have. I'd have fed you cake, probably. Still more or less on Sinister, but v infrequently posting. Since autumn 1997, oh crumbs. That's a whole big chunk of my life, ever since I was first on this here interweb thingy.

I spent ages resisting coming over here although Carsmile kept telling me it was great. I was fule, but maybe a bit more productive, and hey! even managed to get my degree despite champion timewasting efforts.

I too have pulled through Sinister, of course, including the lovely Robster (after much incredibly twee fannying about).

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:54 (twenty years ago) link

I wouldn't be getting married if it wasn't for Sinister /sigh

― chris (chris), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:55 (twenty years ago) link

Wow, I've never pulled through a mailing list.

Oh wait, no, that's a lie.

Dandysrule was a postitive hotbed of smut, and I certainly pulled through that! Wow.

― Super-Kate (kate), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:58 (twenty years ago) link

People pulled through Sinister?

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Friday, 16 April 2004 09:59 (twenty years ago) link

Charlie still hasn't managed to make it to a FAP, hasn't he?

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 16 April 2004 10:00 (twenty years ago) link

Charlie came to one of the Freaky Trigger nights at Parker Place.

― Ricardo (RickyT), Friday, 16 April 2004 10:02 (twenty years ago) link

hehehehe :)

there is now a SINISTER BABY on the way you know.

x-post: *carsmile looks askance at Mr The Nipper...

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Friday, 16 April 2004 10:03 (twenty years ago) link

am I the only person who didn't know anybody from ILX pre-ILX?

― jel -- (jel), Friday, 16 April 2004 10:06 (twenty years ago) link

I know people who got married through the Blur-list. Heck, the closest I've ever come to getting married was through Dandysrule. OK, it would have been a Green Card marriage, but still.

― Super-Kate (kate), Friday, 16 April 2004 10:11 (twenty years ago) link

am I the only person who didn't know anybody from ILX pre-ILX?

I don't think I know anyone and I don't think they know me - but it's entirely possible that I'm wrong on both counts

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 16 April 2004 10:14 (twenty years ago) link

Remember this thread and all the intrigue it caused?

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 16 April 2004 10:15 (twenty years ago) link

I still think Ally was correct first off.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 16 April 2004 10:17 (twenty years ago) link

Ha ha ha ha ha, what a great thead that was.

NOT!!!

― Super-Kate (kate), Friday, 16 April 2004 10:18 (twenty years ago) link

People pulled through Sinister?

Hell, it was rough at times but we pulled through, yeah.

― robster (robster), Friday, 16 April 2004 10:24 (twenty years ago) link

jel: no

― the surface noise (electricsound), Friday, 16 April 2004 10:31 (twenty years ago) link

am I the only person who didn't know anybody from ILX pre-ILX?
Nope!

― Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Friday, 16 April 2004 11:24 (twenty years ago) link

Charlie no. 4 went to a Sinister picnic in June 1998. Vicky really should remember that, all things considered.

There are people whose pulling-via-Sinister figures are in double figures. [looks around pointedly]

Um, wasn't the girl in knee-high socks our very own R*******?

― Markelby (Mark C), Friday, 16 April 2004 11:47 (twenty years ago) link

There are people whose pulling-via-Sinister figures are in double figures

bastards.

― the surface noise (electricsound), Friday, 16 April 2004 11:51 (twenty years ago) link

Um, wasn't the girl in knee-high socks our very own R*******?

Ricardo? Surely not. I think it was M****.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 16 April 2004 12:12 (twenty years ago) link

Grr, the name's on the tip of my tongue. Can I buy another letter?

― Markelby (Mark C), Friday, 16 April 2004 12:14 (twenty years ago) link

"S"

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 16 April 2004 12:17 (twenty years ago) link

2 is a kind of double figure, isn't it?

― Madchen (Madchen), Friday, 16 April 2004 12:17 (twenty years ago) link

can't recall a Mavis on sinister.

― MarkH (MarkH), Friday, 16 April 2004 12:27 (twenty years ago) link

I've been on Sinister since its inception, I think. Posted quite a bit circa 1997, but have been an utter lurker this past half-decade.

― mike a, Friday, 16 April 2004 12:28 (twenty years ago) link

Ma***

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 16 April 2004 12:37 (twenty years ago) link

Mabel?

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Friday, 16 April 2004 12:39 (twenty years ago) link

Madge.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Friday, 16 April 2004 12:40 (twenty years ago) link

"T"

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 16 April 2004 12:41 (twenty years ago) link

Malph.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Friday, 16 April 2004 12:41 (twenty years ago) link

Mar**

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 16 April 2004 12:42 (twenty years ago) link

http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0048356/posters

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Friday, 16 April 2004 12:46 (twenty years ago) link

http://ia.imdb.com/media/imdb/01/I/78/84/60m.jpg

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Friday, 16 April 2004 12:46 (twenty years ago) link

I've never been on sinister or any of the other stuff mentioned. I feel all lonely, as the only analogue heaven mail list member on ilx :(

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Friday, 16 April 2004 12:50 (twenty years ago) link

I used to be pretty good friends with the NYC-Sinister crew, but I haven't seen any of them in ages, except for Ben. Will P0rt3r is getting married in october if anyone wants to go. That's all I've heard.

― phil-two (phil-two), Friday, 16 April 2004 15:02 (twenty years ago) link

mike a, were you on tw33 kitt3n?

― jel -- (jel), Friday, 16 April 2004 15:04 (twenty years ago) link

Tweekitten = guilty. Does anyone still go on there? I order records from Scott, but haven't been to the chat room since the last century.

― mike a, Friday, 16 April 2004 15:17 (twenty years ago) link

I had no idea this thread would be so popular.

― El Diablo Robotico (Nicole), Friday, 16 April 2004 15:19 (twenty years ago) link

speaking of sinister related joy, if those of you after the STEN fun tomorrow wanting more FUN you should come to farringdon for dancing til 1am.

see here

woo!

― ken c (ken c), Friday, 16 April 2004 16:11 (twenty years ago) link

apparently i'll be DJing and some sexellent tunes i do spin.

― ken c (ken c), Friday, 16 April 2004 16:11 (twenty years ago) link

The knowledge that people are still having B&S related nights upstairs in the Betsey is strangely reassuring.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 16 April 2004 16:12 (twenty years ago) link

If by reassuring you mean "demented and sad" then, I guess, yeah... ;-)

― Super-Kate (kate), Friday, 16 April 2004 16:13 (twenty years ago) link

merely having the knowledge isn't that sad really surely.

(thanks for the mail btw kate!)

― ken c (ken c), Friday, 16 April 2004 16:15 (twenty years ago) link

Don't be nasty.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 16 April 2004 16:15 (twenty years ago) link

there are certain ways that it's really easy to get a rise out of me and it's really easy to get me to lose my temper. I have been doing my best to walk away from arguments and ignore provocation and just not get involved and I find it very hard to do that when someone WILL JUST NOT LEAVE IT ALONE... ;- )

crosspost x2

― RJG (RJG), Friday, 16 April 2004 16:15 (twenty years ago) link

Ha ha RJG...

― El Diablo Robotico (Nicole), Friday, 16 April 2004 16:18 (twenty years ago) link

What are the roots of your Belle & Sebastian antipathy, Kate? They predate the Stuart Murdoch as evil soundman incident, don't they?

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 16 April 2004 16:18 (twenty years ago) link

JEEZ, DOES NO ONE ON A SINSTER THREAD RECOGNISE A BREAKFAST CLUB QUOTE WHEN THEY READ ONE?!?!?

And, erm, yeah. The hatred predates the soundman incident. In fact, well, the soundman incident kind of coincided with the "carrying the massive Vox down the stairs" incident so he actually went up slightly in my estimation after that.

― Super-Kate (kate), Friday, 16 April 2004 16:20 (twenty years ago) link

Oh, you never told us about that!

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 16 April 2004 16:23 (twenty years ago) link

Yes I did.

― Super-Kate (kate), Friday, 16 April 2004 16:24 (twenty years ago) link

Anyway, so yeah, what was it before that?

(suddenly I wonder whether you meant he carried your massive Vox down the stairs for you in a gentlemanly way, as I assumed, or if you meant you were impressed by his muscles)

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 16 April 2004 16:25 (twenty years ago) link

Ha ha ha ha ha haaa! Muscles? It was the former. And I wasn't there to see it, I was back at the hospital for a bloodchange top-up. (Not really, but close.)

The music just has very unpleasant associations for me. It's been associated with more than one unpleasant person, and two particularly unpleasant periods in my life.

― Super-Kate (kate), Friday, 16 April 2004 16:28 (twenty years ago) link

Hmm, two years seems to have passed ridiculously quickly.

― Ally C (Ally C), Friday, 16 April 2004 16:32 (twenty years ago) link

let's see what happens, next.

― RJG (RJG), Friday, 16 April 2004 16:34 (twenty years ago) link

The next four will pass in the same time, then next eight etc. You're almost as old as me, you're almost dead.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 16 April 2004 16:34 (twenty years ago) link

you're old enough to be alive.

― cozen (Cozen), Friday, 16 April 2004 16:42 (twenty years ago) link

I know, it's a fucking travesty.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 16 April 2004 16:43 (twenty years ago) link

JUS' BLAZE

― cozen (Cozen), Friday, 16 April 2004 16:44 (twenty years ago) link

Time is certainly speeding up. We're running.

Out.

― Ally C (Ally C), Friday, 16 April 2004 16:45 (twenty years ago) link

I'm ex-sinister since about 2000 or so, and also married to a woman whom is ex-sinister (we did first become 'aware' of one another through sinister although we met in person through non sinister-related circumstances)

― scott pl. (scott pl.), Friday, 16 April 2004 16:46 (twenty years ago) link

Ooh, who's that scott?

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 16 April 2004 16:49 (twenty years ago) link

what age are you scott?

― cozen (Cozen), Friday, 16 April 2004 16:50 (twenty years ago) link

There should be a comma in there, otherwise it sounds like a terrible remake of Madonna's 'Who's That Girl?'.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 16 April 2004 16:50 (twenty years ago) link

c: I'll be 31 in a couple of months.

(N., she's not someone who posted very often and was only on the list for about a year or so. Most of her posts were in tandem with one of her friends. The only one of you UK lot that may remember her is PF - they wrote to one another off the board a few times about Joyce.)

― scott pl. (scott pl.), Friday, 16 April 2004 16:59 (twenty years ago) link

What a nice story.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 16 April 2004 17:00 (twenty years ago) link

I think I know who you mean - those two were cute. Congratulations!

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 16 April 2004 17:00 (twenty years ago) link

yes, that's her and thx! I live in Chicago, went to visit my mother in Atlanta, knew this sinister person lived there, asked her what there was to do down there, ended up meeting out with her and her friends -- that's how that all started! Oddly, the other half of her sinister tandem also now lives in Chicago (and they are still very good friends).

― scott pl. (scott pl.), Friday, 16 April 2004 17:06 (twenty years ago) link

I have never pulled via Sinister or any other kind of interweb mentalism. Somehow I suspect I'm the only one here who can say that.

― caitlin (caitlin), Saturday, 17 April 2004 07:58 (twenty years ago) link

I think it's funny that there have been more posts on this thread in the last couple of days than there have been on Sinister in the last year.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Saturday, 17 April 2004 08:26 (twenty years ago) link

I just remembered I looked at the sinister irc channel once, but one of the several ilx-ers there chased me out of the place pretty quickly!! Bringing the tone of the neighbourhood down, obv!

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Saturday, 17 April 2004 08:28 (twenty years ago) link

My dad, after I (young, idealistic, vehemently pro-Sinister) told him about ILX in the context of the Sini-ILX football game: "They sound just like you, but older."

― Gregory Henry (Gregory Henry), Saturday, 17 April 2004 08:50 (twenty years ago) link

OH THE IRONING

― Gregory Henry (Gregory Henry), Saturday, 17 April 2004 08:50 (twenty years ago) link

(I have been trying trying for days to find a way of saying "Choosing ILX over Sinister means choosing bathos over pathos" that doesn't sound snarky and harsh, I genuinely find all four of these things worthwhile) (Although it works as a double-diss too!)

― Gregory Henry (Gregory Henry), Saturday, 17 April 2004 08:52 (twenty years ago) link

Is this girl with the ballet shoes and knee-high socks going to Chris and Vicky's do?

I was on Sinister before it was Sinister. I probably said that upthread.

Starry Sarah once sent me a tape of Welsh punk and instead of just a normal tracklisting it had little drawings of all the bands. I treasure this memory and wish she would recreate it on CD 'cos I lost it and it was a collector's item. Also it came addressed to Sister Disco.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Saturday, 17 April 2004 09:03 (twenty years ago) link

OK! This is vaguely off-topic, but I don't think it really merits a new thread, so...

Please, please, please, does anyone have the Belle and Sebastian t-shirt with the two people dancing, of whom one was wearing purple flares? Or, better, do you have the image that was on the shirt, in some onliney format? This is sort of hugely important in my life right now - I've spent the last two hours looking for it :(

― Gregory Henry (Gregory Henry), Monday, 19 April 2004 01:26 (twenty years ago) link

i kinda want the yellow bus one. martin & julie (haha!) got me one in glasgow a few years ago but somehow it was way too small on me.

― phil-two (phil-two), Monday, 19 April 2004 03:40 (twenty years ago) link

Greg, I suggest you go here:

http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/corduroysmoke/.

― MarkH (MarkH), Monday, 19 April 2004 07:01 (twenty years ago) link

what was this evil soundman incident??

i remember one time when stuart murdoch was the soundman at the spitz and he TOLD CARSMILE TO SHUT UP! REALLY LOUDLY! haha it was quite amusing.

― ken c (ken c), Monday, 19 April 2004 07:18 (twenty years ago) link

erm as in "told very loudly", as opposed to "to shut up very loudly"

― ken c (ken c), Monday, 19 April 2004 07:20 (twenty years ago) link

....which would be an oxymoron.

― MarkH (MarkH), Monday, 19 April 2004 07:21 (twenty years ago) link

as opposed to a poxy moron

― ken c (ken c), Monday, 19 April 2004 07:22 (twenty years ago) link

Ha ha, he tried to kick us out of our own soundcheck. He wanted everyone in the club (staff and all) at Upstairs at the Garage to leave the room because they were "making his girlfriend (read: him) nervous".

The Spitz incident, I think he was quite justified in being stroppy because he was trying to Phil Spector out in the soundbooth and fans kept coming up to him and pestering him for autographs.

― Super-Kate (kate), Monday, 19 April 2004 07:23 (twenty years ago) link

he was murdering people in the soundbooth?

― MarkH (MarkH), Monday, 19 April 2004 07:24 (twenty years ago) link

does anyone think the whole b&s subculture 'club' would have been so much better if it had been around st etienne, rather than b&s? i guess if st etiennes heyday had been a couple of years later (or internet had been popular a couple years earlier), it would have been

― gareth (gareth), Monday, 19 April 2004 07:26 (twenty years ago) link

"join our club"

― gareth (gareth), Monday, 19 April 2004 07:26 (twenty years ago) link

Yeah, I ended up having to stand guard outside the sound booth because fuckwit fans kept trying to talk to him while the band whose sound he was doing were onstage.

― Ricardo (RickyT), Monday, 19 April 2004 07:27 (twenty years ago) link

i think the subculture club would have been even better if it had been around culture club

― ken c (ken c), Monday, 19 April 2004 07:27 (twenty years ago) link

there are certainly a lot of b&s fans also like St Etienne, self included, but I think the dynamic of the subculture 'club' would be severely unbalanced by the 'blokes who only like St Etienne coz they fancy Ms Cracknell' element of St Etienne's fanbase - certainly when my mate from work and I saw St Etienne just before Christmas we were creasing up coz we were right at the front next to a group of lads who were just staring straight at her, open mouthed, drooling.

― MarkH (MarkH), Monday, 19 April 2004 07:30 (twenty years ago) link

St.Etienne would have been better for *me* as the centrepiece of that kind of "club" aesthetic because they were 1) London-centric as opposed to Glasgow-centric, and 2) made at least *some* acknowledgement that the intervening 30 years had occurred, even though they fetishised the same guilded era of the past.

But I think those two things contributed to the insular club-mentality that made their appeal so specific and so lasting.

― Super-Kate (kate), Monday, 19 April 2004 07:34 (twenty years ago) link

yes, i think st etienne share with b&s a very specific aesthetic, which reaches out into many non-music things, ie, they provide they same introductory manual for people, where a whole raft of things are handed to people on a plate as "this is part of this", they worked, as b&s do as a clubby thing. the exception being of course, that st etiennes was a lot broader, and (for me) mroe interesting. i think if sinister had been a st etienne centred things, i probably would have been a member

― gareth (gareth), Monday, 19 April 2004 07:45 (twenty years ago) link

Bob Stanley was a journo before which may account for some of the broadness Gareth describes. I can imagine numerous posts to a hypothetical St etinne thread on "where did that sample come from then???" in the early days of their career, oh my.

― MarkH (MarkH), Monday, 19 April 2004 07:49 (twenty years ago) link

The founding legend and rumour of Sinister was the unavailability of 'Tigermilk' - you were obliged to join the cult if you wanted to track down a cassette of this mysterious lp - this was dawn of the indienet, but crucially still pre-mp3. I'm not sure St Etienne could have fostered the same elusiveness, whatever the aesthetic similarities.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 19 April 2004 07:53 (twenty years ago) link

St Etienne never won a Brit in (allegedly dubious) circumstances either!

― MarkH (MarkH), Monday, 19 April 2004 07:54 (twenty years ago) link

four words: "i love to paint"

― the surface noise (electricsound), Monday, 19 April 2004 07:55 (twenty years ago) link

There have been a variety of bands which present their fans with a "syllabus" as it were. Bands like early Manic Street Preachers had the same tactic. Their syllabus just wasn't one that appealed.

St.Etienne's "syllabus" was similar to B&S, hence the comparison, but neither band is hardly the first to take advantage of such a tactic.

― Super-Kate (kate), Monday, 19 April 2004 07:56 (twenty years ago) link

To those of you who left Sinister, why did you do so?

― Ricardo (RickyT), Monday, 19 April 2004 07:58 (twenty years ago) link

syllabus! yes, thats exactly the word i was looking for

― gareth (gareth), Monday, 19 April 2004 07:59 (twenty years ago) link

I was under the impression that the first wave of Sinister posters were mostly people who were just really into the band, and from then on there was an influx of posters who bought into the whole tweepop aesthetic far more and the whole thing became all mimsy and reverential. I might be wrong about that, but this seems to be what happens to all communities revolving around one band, especially when said band stop releasing records (or good ones at least).

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 19 April 2004 08:03 (twenty years ago) link

I haven't left sinister, but I think I'm still qualified to answer the question, Rick. I can discern 3 categories:

A. Narrowness or, perceived narrowness. People want to talk to their new found interweb friends about a variety of topics and some ppl, both posters and moderators get (understandably) hacked off with ppl talking about off-topic stuff the whole time. See numerous posts to sinister which mention band related content, either coz the post lacks it or (oh wow!) contains it!

B. Offence. People are wronged in some way by someone on the list and want nothing more to do with it. Thankfully I have never experienced any ill feeling on sinister personally but I have every sympathy with those who have.

C. Changes in one's life. New 'grown up' jobs, marriages, kids, moving to Himalayan princedoms with no computers ect ect.


of course B & C also apply to those who've left ILX. By its very nature A doesn't (I would think).

― MarkH (MarkH), Monday, 19 April 2004 08:04 (twenty years ago) link

And the revolving-round-one-band thing would also explain why I don't really agree with people who use Sinister as a model for what might happen to ILX. (xpost)

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 19 April 2004 08:05 (twenty years ago) link

Matt is very spot on, everything got so narrow on Sinister it was awful by the time I unsubbed (which I hadn't done purely out of nostalgia but some of the posts? "It's GRATE! being twee ha ha I just ate a whole sherbert dibdab" Tw@T) Another thing that made me walk away was some of the meetups, I felt old and also some of the people there were just unbearable, so effing twee it made me want to crawl into a hole. Of course I've met some of my best friends through sinister though, but it's just no place for an old curmudgeon like me.

― chris (chris), Monday, 19 April 2004 08:16 (twenty years ago) link

>To those of you who left Sinister, why did you do so?

the signal to noise ratio, A in mark's list probably. this wasn't helped by the band doing absolutely nothing for almost an entire year which meant people had very little band related stuff to talk about but insisted on posting anyway. (there was a time when anything was considered on topic if it was posted in Ink Polaroid style, which was fun. the nadir, i think, was the post that read in its entirity 'what is a lemur?' because bothering over a thousand people is always easier than picking up a dictionary)

and 'Legal Man'.

> The founding legend and rumour of Sinister was the unavailability of 'Tigermilk'

'unavailability'? 8)

andy

― koogs (koogs), Monday, 19 April 2004 08:25 (twenty years ago) link

Are you, or have you ever been, a member of the Barry-baiting club?

― Mooro (Mooro), Monday, 19 April 2004 08:25 (twenty years ago) link

That was more for Cabbage than Andy!

― Mooro (Mooro), Monday, 19 April 2004 08:26 (twenty years ago) link

I'm quite surprised by Andy saying the band doing nothing for a year being a reason for the increase in 'noise'. Most bands do nothing for a year, at least once they're pretty established, it's no so rare is it? Not everyone can take Mark E Smith's attitude ("The Fall are a working band. 2 singles and an album a year. I don't have a problem with that"). Even when a band is doing nothing ppl are still discovering their music for the first time and seeking out the back catalogue....and talking about it! And what year is Andy talking about? There were no new releases in '99 (the year I wasn't subbed) yet that was the year Tigermilk finally appeared on cd iirc, and of course it was the year of Bowlie which generated a lot of posts.

the lemur thing made me laugh actually, tho it would be even better if someone and come back with "and can we eat it?"

― MarkH (MarkH), Monday, 19 April 2004 08:35 (twenty years ago) link

I don't think that would be funny.

― Sarah (starry), Monday, 19 April 2004 08:48 (twenty years ago) link

what if it was a meerkat?

― the surface noise (electricsound), Monday, 19 April 2004 08:50 (twenty years ago) link

or a mere cat?

― MarkH (MarkH), Monday, 19 April 2004 08:52 (twenty years ago) link

of course B & C also apply to those who've left ILX. By its very nature A doesn't (I would think).

although ilx (or ilE at least) was supposed to be a message board about everything, when most of the time the topics seem to revolve around a few things (natural as people on the board start to get a common consensus of what the other members tend to like to talk about).

and when a "new" poster comes in and talk about a different subject, you get same the wrath of aggro/jive/nastiness/people threatening to leave/moaning about how it was once good as other internet "communities" do.

― ken c (ken c), Monday, 19 April 2004 09:08 (twenty years ago) link

Do you have an example? The opposite always struck me as something to be proud of in ILX, though it may have slipped as people calcify.

I mean, I'm not counting John Cena/Hair Dye/Pimp Yr. Ride here. Should I?

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 19 April 2004 09:14 (twenty years ago) link

i think sinister is a lot more quieter not because of when the band stopped doing things for a year - in fact i feel the fact that the band are doing loads now is more a reason - like, when B+S did a gig or radio appearance it was like a rare occurance! like omg wtf and it was very exciting to some. whereas now, on a tour of like 50 cities it's hard to feel excited about every one of them anymore.

i went to a meetup the other day and there was not a twee person in sight. apart from david moore.

― ken c (ken c), Monday, 19 April 2004 09:16 (twenty years ago) link

I think what the band is doing has a lot to do with people leaving. Quite a few people left because they didn't like TBWTAS or FYHC. A few of my favourite oldsters reappeared briefly because they thought the DCW was great.

My sinister nadir was somebody playing the recorder down a microphone for a radio reporter who was making some kind of package about music fans - I **HATED** the fact that this idiot was going to be broadcast to the nation as a representative of me and my mates.

― Madchen (Madchen), Monday, 19 April 2004 09:23 (twenty years ago) link

Madchen = otm again, that meet-up was the straw that broke the camel's back

― chris (chris), Monday, 19 April 2004 09:25 (twenty years ago) link

Actually, my sinister nadir was the SMELL OF MAN upstairs at the Betsey Trotwood (windows shut) after the same picnic, at which the chaps decided they would play footie in spite of it being the hottest picnic evah and then did not change into fresh clothing before moving on the da club.

― Madchen (Madchen), Monday, 19 April 2004 09:26 (twenty years ago) link

ahem, I didn't play footie on that one, I'd just like to stress

― chris (chris), Monday, 19 April 2004 09:27 (twenty years ago) link

on to

― Madchen (Madchen), Monday, 19 April 2004 09:27 (twenty years ago) link

Someone brought a recorder to a meet up?

― Ricardo (RickyT), Monday, 19 April 2004 09:28 (twenty years ago) link

Are Belle & Sebastian the footballingest mimsy band ever, or the mimsiest foolballing band ever?

NB: I heart B^S, despite their attempts over the last few years to shake me off by releasing semi-duff albums.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 19 April 2004 09:28 (twenty years ago) link

I think B&S are and always have been utter shit and am not ashamed of this.

Obviously this is an entirely unnecessary and inflammatory thing to say on this thread but B&S are to me as Radiohead are to Cabbage so tough.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 19 April 2004 09:29 (twenty years ago) link

Ricardo, I have seen a certain "internet hardman" playing recorder at a sinipicnic.

AF, Murdoch is no mean footballer, he's a wiry sod.

― chris (chris), Monday, 19 April 2004 09:31 (twenty years ago) link

I am surprised that so many ex-Sinisterites seem to maintain such ressentiment towards the nextgen tweekids. It was a lovely cultural moment, that passed as these things do. ('Why else does cupid have wings, if not to fly away again'). Better to treasure its brief bloom than to mutter about how it withered?

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 19 April 2004 09:31 (twenty years ago) link

I admit to taking a mini disc recorder to a Sinister picnic. I have never taken one of the twittery kind though.

― Mooro (Mooro), Monday, 19 April 2004 09:31 (twenty years ago) link

DC, I will kill you w/ a recorder.

― RJG (RJG), Monday, 19 April 2004 09:31 (twenty years ago) link

i cannot think of a specific thread off the top of my head andrew but i certainly member times when there are geniuinely ok topics (i remember some food topics get a bad press, and lately a couple of personal relationship things when someone asked for advice and got back hysteria) that rather than having a decent discussion people tend to go for the odd nasty snarky comment as if they're just going for that perfect killer one-liner that would get them onto the excelsior thread.

i mean, it's not like it's severe or anything but i do notice a some excessive animosity sometimes. i might just be oversensitive though.

― ken c (ken c), Monday, 19 April 2004 09:31 (twenty years ago) link

Errr... is that on the right thread? Because I'd like to reply to some things in that post, but not here!

― Super-Kate (kate), Monday, 19 April 2004 09:34 (twenty years ago) link

Obviously this is an entirely unnecessary and inflammatory thing to say on this thread but B&S are to me as Radiohead are to Cabbage so tough.

Yes, but Cabbage's views have put him firmly on the outskirts of humanity, whereas you always seemed a reasonable fellow.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 19 April 2004 09:34 (twenty years ago) link

"humanity"

― chris (chris), Monday, 19 April 2004 09:35 (twenty years ago) link

"creepy nutfreakdom"

― chris (chris), Monday, 19 April 2004 09:36 (twenty years ago) link

cabbage is sane and everyone else is nuts.

― ken c (ken c), Monday, 19 April 2004 09:38 (twenty years ago) link

> Even when a band is doing nothing ppl are still discovering their
> music for the first time and seeking out the back catalogue....and
> talking about it!

yeah, i suppose. but it was nothing the rest of us hadn't heard before, hundreds of time, which is 'noise' in my book. there were months on end without a snippet of anything new but the mails from the list just kept increasing. fscking n00bs 8)

my last post to sinister was march 2000 so i guess it was around then, maybe the post-bowlie fallout, that was the final straw. and, rereading my last few posts, the stop-gap that was re-releasing the first three singles as a box set (when they would've all fitted nicely onto a single disk).

― koogs (koogs), Monday, 19 April 2004 09:39 (twenty years ago) link

JtN:
> I am surprised that so many ex-Sinisterites seem to maintain such ressentiment towards the nextgen tweekids.

Me:
> fscking n00bs

oops 8)

― koogs (koogs), Monday, 19 April 2004 09:40 (twenty years ago) link

lately a couple of personal relationship things when someone asked for advice and got back hysteria

Is this the "penetration" thing and KAss's "new boyfriend" thread? The first was a shitstorm waiting to happen and couldn't really have ended (if it has ended) any other way, and the second was marred by KAss being a fool on many other threads at about the same time as she started it (always assuming she exists).

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 19 April 2004 09:40 (twenty years ago) link

Oh never mind, Ken, I just found it. Sorry!

― Super-Kate (kate), Monday, 19 April 2004 09:41 (twenty years ago) link

xpost - Though you are right about the excelsior threads.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 19 April 2004 09:42 (twenty years ago) link

I actually agree about the excelsior posts, as well, which is what I wanted to say. Having one Dan Perry is great and very necessary, but when everyone decides to post "wittily offensive" one-liners, that's just an invitation for someone to take offense, and a flamewar to kick off.

Some people (myself included) are going to spiral out a hundred-post spew whenever their particular Issue is touched. But so many of the "excelsior" style posts are really just unnecessary.

― Super-Kate (kate), Monday, 19 April 2004 09:47 (twenty years ago) link

The thing is that Dan is very rarely, if ever, offensive towards specific people. But yeah, everyone all jumping in at once and trying to make 'hilarious' dick jokes is one of the things that annoys me most about ILE (this is mostly US posters I find).

In the pub on Saturday we discussed jokily the idea of having a designated thread locker to end each thread when it hits its comic peak in order to stop hundreds of lamerz sullying its memory. Needless to say I wholeheartedly approve of this ;)

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 19 April 2004 09:52 (twenty years ago) link

The other thing about Dan is that he's actually funny.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Monday, 19 April 2004 10:22 (twenty years ago) link

(Please do not misconstrue my post as an attack on Dan. It was not. DAN is funny and necessary, but people emulating his posting style, well, they miss the point and it just becomes nasty.)

― Super-Kate (kate), Monday, 19 April 2004 10:24 (twenty years ago) link

Actually, I'm sorry. Tedious, pointless, endlessly repetitious meta-discussion like the one that I'd prolonging is what is clogging and destroying ILX more than anything else. Back on topic:

Belle and Sebastian. They suck big hairy moosecock! But I find their fan community really interesting, and many people I've known seem to have been involved.

― Super-Kate (kate), Monday, 19 April 2004 10:28 (twenty years ago) link

This thread is queerer than I thought it would be.

― the bellefox, Monday, 19 April 2004 10:58 (twenty years ago) link

MarkH, I hug and thank you for finding that image. I may post the results here in a few weeks.

Jerry's last post is urgent and necessary and right.

― Gregory Henry (Gregory Henry), Monday, 19 April 2004 11:35 (twenty years ago) link

Possibly Madchen's tale -

Also, Maureen and I decided that we would each have one of the two handsome men standing by the bar. It turned out she got N. and I got the Pinefox. Although we were too shy to do any approaching, so we didn't actually *get* anything. I'm not sure we would had we tried. I'm not sure I've ever told the PF this story and am sorry if it comes as a surprise to him.

- is the most surprising thing I have ever seen on ilx.

Perhaps I am forgetting some earlier, greater, worse or better, surprise.

I suppose that the incident she describes is, if true, possibly the only time anyone has seen me in a bar and thought about -- approaching me. I don't know which is more a summary of (this dimension of) my life: that fact, or the fact that no-one did approach me anyway.

I am trying to imagine what, if anything, N. was saying to me at the time, if anything. But the results are not encouraging. They never are.

― the bluefox, Monday, 19 April 2004 13:09 (twenty years ago) link

"I don't fancy yours much"

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 19 April 2004 13:37 (twenty years ago) link

There is one thing that ought to be said about the sinister // ilx contrast, which has perhaps not been said. Perhaps it is obvious; but then, so is much else.

The difference is not only one of communities and personnel, but of textual format. Sinister is a mailing list, ilx is a message board. The one (which has a one-post-per-day rule) asks for sustained, continuous pieces of writing, which should stand up to public view for a period of time, gather response and reflection over 24 hrs or so. The other tends naturally towards shorter bursts in quick response to each other -- to dialogue, in fact. Dialogue takes place on sinister, but gradually: people will (would, in old days) respond to several other posters in one post. They would not fire back a response within 5 minutes or 30 seconds.

Clearly sinister is at a disadvantage in this respect. The rapid-fire nature of ilx has generated much heat, much light, and much wit. It is no accident that N's comic abilities have been so much clearer, more pronounced, even outstanding on ilx than they seemed on sinister.

Yet we should also note the virtue of the sinister form. For it asked its contributors to produce, ideally, extended, connected pieces of writing: perhaps describing events, days, sequences; perhaps linking together different items and thoughts. Narrative was involved, and extended comic conceits. I recall a long mail from Tim Hopkins about pop stars and defecation that went on at much greater, more loving extent than any single post I can recall from him on ilx. There are kinds of writing that I myself have done on sinister that I could, or would, never do on ilx.

Of course, not all the writing on sinister, from any of us, has lived up to this possibility, or demand. But I think it is as well to recall this structural and textual difference, and to consider that sinister may not merely be more limited than ilx, but may by that token have pushed certain writers toward certain virtues; virtues that they (we) have not always exercised so well here.

― the bellefox, Friday, 23 April 2004 16:27 (twenty years ago) link

I wonder why I cannot post links to specific bits of the archive to give examples of what I mean.

I have just found a classic from N, in which he says

"SPECIAL THANKS TO: Rachel, for starting the whole 'nick's the cutest boy on the sinister list' rumour."

― the bellefox, Friday, 23 April 2004 16:31 (twenty years ago) link

That was a very insightful post, pf.

x-post

― El Diablo Robotico (Nicole), Friday, 23 April 2004 16:33 (twenty years ago) link

Thank you.

Yes, this is all I can get from the archive:

http://www.missprint.org/sinister/archive.html

which ain't much use.

― the bellefox, Friday, 23 April 2004 16:36 (twenty years ago) link

Mr PF: don't take the link from the address bar in your browser. Right click (I assume your using a PC) on the page itself, choose 'Properties' & copy the link from the grey window that appears then.

― Mooro (Mooro), Friday, 23 April 2004 16:50 (twenty years ago) link

Ta. I will take your advice in future.

― the bluefox, Friday, 23 April 2004 16:51 (twenty years ago) link

Hm. This is not working.

O, perhaps it is?:

http://www.nodata.org/honey/sinister/mhonarc/199904/msg00400.html

― the bellefox, Friday, 23 April 2004 16:54 (twenty years ago) link

'Keith, for wanking me off.'

I told you Sinister was great.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Friday, 23 April 2004 16:57 (twenty years ago) link

I can't seem to connect to that. This seems a regular problem for me, when I try to look at Sinister archives. No wonder all the kids have abandoned it for David K1tchen's stinking Union of Democratic Indie Kids.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 23 April 2004 17:02 (twenty years ago) link

I suddenly hate the phrase 'indie kids'. I should have said 'Bed Wetters'.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 23 April 2004 17:04 (twenty years ago) link

Like I said, I'm still technically on the list in digest form, but I usually delete those emails unread. I briefly returned to reading Sinister email when Dear Catastrophe Waitress came out, but stopped again after they toured.

I don't know why I'm still on the list. Most people I knew from Sinister have long since left. Perhaps I'm afraid I'll miss out on something cool, e.g. advance news of a secret gig or a cool object sent out to mailing list members only. But I don't harbor any resentment toward Sinister listmembers, past or current. Then again, my "twee" threshold is higher than most people's.

I met Koogs at the B&S Borderline show. True story.

― mike a, Friday, 23 April 2004 17:05 (twenty years ago) link

There was nothing twee about the first (and only) Sinister picnic I ever went to. I got all cut up on barbed wire and puked in the woods.

― kirsten (kirsten), Friday, 23 April 2004 17:10 (twenty years ago) link

That's totally twee and mischievous!

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 23 April 2004 17:13 (twenty years ago) link

I only just stumbled onto this revival -- I can see the point of the criticism on the 'excelsior' threads and the excessive fishing towards same; at the same I've gone over some of those threads in the past for a laugh and indeed enjoyed some real laughter out of them, well away from any current context and without much in the way of intentional wannabe snarkiness.

The Pinefox's post is interesting and I can draw parallels to another non-sinister mailing list which quite a few folks here were on and sorta still are which had similar differences in dynamic, and appealed more to certain posters than ILX did.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 23 April 2004 17:14 (twenty years ago) link

Haha, just after I posted that, I remembered that I puked from drinking too much vodka and Ribena. Nevermind.
x-post

― kirsten (kirsten), Friday, 23 April 2004 17:15 (twenty years ago) link

Bloody hell this thread is making me nostalgic. I was on Sinister, but I only ever contributed a haiku - which was a mini-trend for about 15 minutes. Hello all, by the way. It's been a while...

― Will McKenzie, Friday, 23 April 2004 17:37 (twenty years ago) link

Will! Hello. I often wonder where you went to.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 23 April 2004 17:38 (twenty years ago) link

I wondered about that as well, when I wonder about where all of the old ilx posters have went to.

― El Diablo Robotico (Nicole), Friday, 23 April 2004 17:39 (twenty years ago) link

I left Sinister when Alexis Petridis left. My Holy Grail now is to find myself interacting with the great man.

I have the same problem, Nick. I mean, N. That is the biggest difference between Sinister and ILX, Nick became N.

Last week I went to my first Sinister Picnic proper, and it wasn't twee at all. Mind you, I would have to say that the highlight for me was when a passing mad bloke decided to join in with the football. There must be a moral there somewhere. It is very strange meeting people for the first time when you've 'known' them for years.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Friday, 23 April 2004 17:48 (twenty years ago) link

Hi there Nick and Nicole, and everybody else (interesting how you both said hi at the same time... are you really Yin/Yang, animus/anima of the same entity??)

I'm in Paris now, in fact, I'm just about to ask a question...

― Will McKenzie, Friday, 23 April 2004 17:54 (twenty years ago) link

are you really Yin/Yang, animus/anima of the same entity??

I like to this so, but I don't think Nicole is so keen on the idea.

I am still Nick.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 23 April 2004 17:58 (twenty years ago) link

OK Nick.

Sadly, the nearest I got to interacting with Alexis Petridis was a mention of Alexis Korner. BUT! Here's Archel:

'in response to alexis, i'd like to say that there's always room for
people wanking off at length on the list.'

Hooray! Tag interacted as well, but not so spectacularly. Also Mick McMick.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Friday, 23 April 2004 18:03 (twenty years ago) link

Keith remotely wanked him, I think.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 23 April 2004 18:04 (twenty years ago) link

I love the idea of 'remote wanking'. Sim. to 'remote working', I suppose. 'Listen, sir, can't come into the office today...'

― Will McKenzie, Friday, 23 April 2004 18:07 (twenty years ago) link

N.'s unclouded enthusiasm in the post The P F linked to is endearing & very affecting. I only wish my gushing of a few days earlier had been so well expressed.

Reading the posts from those of whom I am fond in that month (April '99) has made me very nostalgic for that golden time.

Maybe I am just missing the remote wanking machine.

― Mooro (Mooro), Friday, 23 April 2004 18:09 (twenty years ago) link

I still can't connect to this fabled post of mine.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 23 April 2004 18:12 (twenty years ago) link

You mean you can't click on the blue writing? I thought you meant it seemed like it was someone else. That's the problem I have anyway.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Friday, 23 April 2004 18:18 (twenty years ago) link

I can click, but it then hangs in a mysterious way that is suggestive of inferior blue writing.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 23 April 2004 18:19 (twenty years ago) link

I've noticed that The Pinefox can do italics now.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Friday, 23 April 2004 18:20 (twenty years ago) link

Yes, he's quite the fancy dan.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 23 April 2004 18:21 (twenty years ago) link

Would anyone like to give me a sympathy bid on my inaugural eBay auction?

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Friday, 23 April 2004 18:26 (twenty years ago) link

Not if it's for Sinister memorabilia.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 23 April 2004 18:27 (twenty years ago) link

It's Keith's remote wanking machine.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Friday, 23 April 2004 18:28 (twenty years ago) link

You fucking thief.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 23 April 2004 18:30 (twenty years ago) link

JUS' BLAZE
-- cozen

here! my hero. and the sneers of bell and seb girls are super hot

― prima fassy (mwah), Friday, 23 April 2004 18:30 (twenty years ago) link

I began April of '99 IN Glasgow, on my honeymoon.

I agree. It was a golden time.

― mike a, Friday, 23 April 2004 18:38 (twenty years ago) link

He let me have it.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Friday, 23 April 2004 18:40 (twenty years ago) link

http://images.southparkstudios.com/media/images/405/405_dance.gif

― El Diablo Robotico (Nicole), Friday, 23 April 2004 18:46 (twenty years ago) link

WUV

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 23 April 2004 19:30 (twenty years ago) link

That sums up sinister to me.

― El Diablo Robotico (Nicole), Friday, 23 April 2004 19:34 (twenty years ago) link

N., I couldn't connect to the Sinister archives for a couple of months, but my ability to so so returned mysteriously last weekend, without any ListMum input.

Perhaps you will find it by not looking for it, or something.

How far back does this thing http://www.mail-archive.com/sinister@missprint.org/index.html go? Does it include 1999? I can't find a date index thing.

― Mooro (Mooro), Friday, 23 April 2004 20:19 (twenty years ago) link

1999 is here, Mooro, in handy monthly installments.

http://www.missprint.org/sinister/archive.html

I had no idea that record was by Snow Patrol. Ever since I got digital radio I find out what records are when I see the advert on the telly. So much for scrolling text.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Monday, 26 April 2004 07:59 (twenty years ago) link

I had forgotten (repressed?) I had paid N. 80p to kiss me.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 26 April 2004 08:09 (twenty years ago) link

Did he do it?

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 26 April 2004 08:25 (twenty years ago) link

> I met Koogs at the B&S Borderline show. True story.

it's true. and again later at a party in new york. september 7th the next year. and then nothing. you don't phone, you don't write...

8)

― koogs (koogs), Monday, 26 April 2004 08:45 (twenty years ago) link

I feel a bit sick.

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 26 April 2004 08:55 (twenty years ago) link

I dunno, the pervey part of me quite likes the idea of N and Jerry in strange paid for lezzing up shocka.

― Anna (Anna), Monday, 26 April 2004 09:07 (twenty years ago) link

I think PF is right to draw attention to the format difference. One thing I had plenty of in 1998-9 was time, being an arts student. Time in large blocks, that is, which could be spent in a computer lab composing lengthy tracts for Sinister while it rained heavily outside. Now the format of ILx suits me much better, where I still have free time at work but it comes in the form of odd minutes here and there while the reception desk hits a lull, enough time to fire off a short post or two but not conducive to extended musing.

Looking at the archive index from mid-1999 it feels a bit like Friends Reunited, when you see names you only half-recognise any more and then you try to remember whether you snogged them or not. (Except that I personally have **never pulled via Sinister**, despite having shared a bed with 4 or 5 list members over the years...)

I stay on the list for almost the opposite reasons to mike: I am relatively indifferent to the possibility of secret gigs, exclusive news etc but instead am always hoping for flashes of inspiration or just funny stories from old friends/new voices, I suppose, not to mention invites to the pub etc. I have completely exhausted my capacity to say things about Belle and Sebastian, but I don't think this matters.

(I have been interrupted about 10 times just writing this post; it's no wonder I don't post to Sinister much really.)

― Archel (Archel), Monday, 26 April 2004 09:13 (twenty years ago) link

Archel, I keep meaning to prod you and say "you haven't updated your blog for two months!"

Sinister doesn't just have fewer posts nowadays; it seems to have fewer readers too. It's not only that there are less people on the list, but the ones that are there read a smaller proportion of the posts than they did.

All this about format: I'd argue that Sinister's big community feel really arose in 97-98, before things like the "only one post per day" rule were introduced. The great thing was that it was a mixture of long, introspective posts and short conversational one-liners.

― caitlin (caitlin), Monday, 26 April 2004 09:36 (twenty years ago) link

I am always amazed to see that there are still 1400 people on Sinister. Where are they all?

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 26 April 2004 09:41 (twenty years ago) link

I'm set to nomail.

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 26 April 2004 09:46 (twenty years ago) link

'You've been granted a voice to speak on the Sinister mailing list:
this is probably because someone's spotted your address as being in
the nursery by mistake, you've changed addresses and asked to be
taken out, or just because you're nice.'

xxx

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Monday, 26 April 2004 09:47 (twenty years ago) link

I know caitlin, blogging has been one of the several things to fall by the wayside under the pressure of work, study and a comatose home computer. Sorry!

― Archel (Archel), Monday, 26 April 2004 12:14 (twenty years ago) link

Wow, I don't even remember the party Mr. Koogs mentions. Given the time period involved, it's entirely possible I was quite drunk.

― mike a, Monday, 26 April 2004 14:22 (twenty years ago) link

(Except that I personally have **never pulled via Sinister**, despite having shared a bed with 4 or 5 list members over the years...)

Me too. (Archel was one of my 4 or 5).

This thread made me nostalgic for the old days of Sinister, when I would go down to London to go drinking with interweb mentalists, when it was a proper community. Though I think Bowlie was the catalyst, and if it hadn't been for Bowlie then I feel Ally C may have been the only Sinister person I would have met, and lives could have been vastly different.

I used to be terrifically precious about Sinister, until I grew up and realised I really didn't care about the cockfarmers who were making it dull. I regularly get, and delete, the digests, and maybe once a week or so I look at the archives, read things by people I like, and forget all about it again.

I'm glad this thread made me read everyone's Bowlie posts again. I'd forgotten so much of it.

― ailsa (ailsa), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 20:09 (twenty years ago) link

I sinistered in a minor way. I didn't contribute much but I did stalk PJ Miller via e-mail.

― Adam Faithless (Adam Faithless), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 20:17 (twenty years ago) link

I don't remember that, Adam Faithless. Was it good?

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 10:30 (twenty years ago) link

Clearly not for you! I sensed a kindred spirit with our mutual admiration for Jimmy Webb, FC Barcelona and Mike Brolley and bombarded you with unsolicitated messages. I didn't really "get" mailing lists in those days. Don't worry. I'm not mental. I found this place by googling for The Clientele and finding ILM. I was surprised to see all these vaguely familiar names.

― Adam Faithless (Adam Faithless), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 10:45 (twenty years ago) link

Oh right, I remember now. Were you called Adam Faithless? I didn't mean to suggest you were mental.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 11:16 (twenty years ago) link

I used my real name on Sinister, fear of googling precludes that here, hence the lame pseudonym. I was suggesting myself that the messages I sent in those days could have given the impression of mentalism.

― Adam Faithless (Adam Faithless), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 11:37 (twenty years ago) link

REVEAL THYSELF.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 12:03 (twenty years ago) link

Is Adam one of StevieT's infamous conquests?

(More to the point, have any of them posted here yet?)

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 12:05 (twenty years ago) link

Oh, please.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 12:06 (twenty years ago) link

(Sorry, ignore the big stirring stick people)

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 12:06 (twenty years ago) link

The spectre of StevieT's conquests looms large over all, Matt.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 12:12 (twenty years ago) link

N. you are a bad man.

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 12:13 (twenty years ago) link

Don't shoot all over the messenger.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 12:14 (twenty years ago) link

I think Adam faithless's real name begins with the letter M, but I'm not sure.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 12:14 (twenty years ago) link

"Like a huge steel cock pulsing pure entertaintment custard into the moist mouth of the sinister massive, Camber Sands has delivered its load"

Michael Jones, you tawdry little man.

― Tag (Tag), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 12:15 (twenty years ago) link

Can we play hangman?

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 12:15 (twenty years ago) link

Mar**?

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 12:16 (twenty years ago) link

No!

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 12:18 (twenty years ago) link

Blimey, I never expected to cause such intrigue. You lot ought to find better things to think about!I really was a very minor Sinisterine. My name doesn't begin with M, but Ms D4plyn did send me a cassette of Tigermilk and I met a few people before the City Varieties gig in Leeds. I have no idea who Stevie T is.

― Adam Faithless (Adam Faithless), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 12:21 (twenty years ago) link

Me either.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 12:22 (twenty years ago) link

I think Adam Faithless had Sky Sport or something.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 12:22 (twenty years ago) link

I was at that Leeds gig. Hmmm...

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 12:24 (twenty years ago) link

were there any sinister people based in Leeds?

― gareth (gareth), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 12:25 (twenty years ago) link

Gerald Krasner

― Dave B (daveb), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 12:27 (twenty years ago) link

He sets 'em up...

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 12:28 (twenty years ago) link

Weatherman, sent me a Richard Harris album featuring such classic tracks as 'A Tramp Shining (with Piss)?

This is a completely different person from the one I was thinking about earlier.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 12:37 (twenty years ago) link

I was a member of Sinister for a while. I got bored with it, so I left.

― David Simpson (David Simpson), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 12:55 (twenty years ago) link

I think that applies to almost everyone here.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 12:59 (twenty years ago) link

This morning I signed up for the Banchory Mailing List.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 13:08 (twenty years ago) link

It's never too late to join sinister.

― the bellefox, Wednesday, 28 April 2004 13:25 (twenty years ago) link

Who here's on Corduroy Smoke?

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 13:27 (twenty years ago) link

The ghost of Raddy Antic told me to say those rude things, Tag.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 13:27 (twenty years ago) link

Let's hope he isn't planning to come haunting round our way.

― the bellefox, Wednesday, 28 April 2004 13:30 (twenty years ago) link

http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,1563,1204829,00.html

France's national manager Jacques Santini yesterday linked himself with Tottenham's managerial vacancy, but the White Hart Lane board is increasingly confident that its principal target Martin O'Neill will join them this summer. O'Neill is believed to be preparing for a return to the Premiership after four hugely successful seasons with Celtic and, though he has yet to accede to Spurs' overtures, neither has he categorically ruled out a move to north London.

Hm - 'increasingly confident' because 'neither has he categorically...'? - Hm.

― the bellefox, Wednesday, 28 April 2004 13:41 (twenty years ago) link

did you post that on the wrong thread?

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 13:43 (twenty years ago) link

No. But in a sense, yes -- I do not mean to derail this one. And if I did, I would not expect to succeed with such material.

― the bellefox, Wednesday, 28 April 2004 13:47 (twenty years ago) link

Stuart Murdoch for Tottenham coach?

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 15:34 (twenty years ago) link

With that, on the other hand...

― the bellefox, Wednesday, 28 April 2004 16:05 (twenty years ago) link

one month passes...
"Hello to dhewitt our latest new list member "

― Madchen (Madchen), Friday, 25 June 2004 14:06 (twenty years ago) link

five months pass...
Greyhounds aren't twee.
Not by themselves, but a greyhound in a cute widdle fwuffy sweater is.

-- Dan Perry (djperr...), April 17th, 2002 9:00 PM.

http://home.earthlink.net/~brinkroad/images/foldingthing.mov

― bnw (bnw), Friday, 3 December 2004 01:31 (twenty years ago) link

two years pass...
just sent this to sinister:

ello babies

The other day it crossed the collective hive mind of the 12 ft lizards that lie unsleeping, deep in the depths of the ocean of sinister, that this August sees the TENTH BIRTHDAY of this list and that appropriate celebrations should take place.

Also that WORD of these celebrations should be spread FAR and also WIDE to gather in those who have strayed from the fold, to the whole variety of Other Places, so we can all come together to have a jolly good time, and probably get too drunk.

AND LO, the details are as follows:

Saturday 25th August
GRATE BIG BIRTHDAY PICNIC
Primrose Hill
That London

Followed by dancing all night at Tigerw@nking: THE RETURN, hopefully at the Union Tavern, Kings Cross Road.

So, y'know, pass it on innit.

thought one or two of you might miss it there though ;)

― CarsmileSteve, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 11:06 (seventeen years ago) link

You know, it's ironic. I missed the Fifth Birthday Picnic because I was in Paris that weekend for my friend Catherine's wedding. Now I'm going to miss the Tenth Birthday Picnic because ... erm ... I'm going to be in Paris for my friend Catherine's flatwarming-slash-anniversary party.

Which wouldn't be ironic, except that I've only ever been to Paris the once.

― Forest Pines, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 11:08 (seventeen years ago) link

Blimey I think I must have been having a bad day in 2002! In 2007 I feel much better and Sinister is great, even the Sillustrations (not that I am going to look at them JUST IN CASE). Argh, 2007!

lie unsleeping, deep in the depths of the ocean of sinister

Is this what we're calling the P1ll4rs of H3rcu13s these days?

― Sarah, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 11:11 (seventeen years ago) link

Do you think former Sinister contributor Alexis Petridish is likely to make an appearance?

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 11:16 (seventeen years ago) link

I met my first internet crush on Sinister!

I wonder what today's equivalent is?

― .stet., Wednesday, 7 March 2007 11:20 (seventeen years ago) link

A slushy comment on facebook? Customising a special "i wuv j00" lolcat?

(I am really quite embarassed about my negative attitude up there - must have been time of the month innit).

― Sarah, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 11:23 (seventeen years ago) link

Someone please make a sinister lolcat!!

― Sarah, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 11:24 (seventeen years ago) link

or indeed alex huntley kapranos

― CarsmileSteve, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 11:55 (seventeen years ago) link

or the guy who played Elliot in ET (allegedly).

― Grandpont Genie, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 11:57 (seventeen years ago) link

maybe Mrs Murdoch will turn up!!!

― CarsmileSteve, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 12:10 (seventeen years ago) link

Rupert's wife?

― Tom D., Wednesday, 7 March 2007 12:12 (seventeen years ago) link

I am going to see Camera Obscura at the Zodiac next month so I might ask Carey if she's up for it.

― Grandpont Genie, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 12:17 (seventeen years ago) link

I THINK YOU ARE GREAT CHRONIC UGLY-FACE GIRL. PLEASE DON'T DIE IN A WELL.

Ally C on Friday, 12 April 2002 01:00 (4 years ago)

still one of the top ten posts on ILE ever.

YES i am rereading the whole thread, WHAT OF IT???

― CarsmileSteve, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 12:34 (seventeen years ago) link

I hope I will be sufficiently recovered to be able to attend with child, and maybe I'll manage to drag my curmudgeonly husband along too! (can't help feeling that I'm being a bit optimistic though, depending on delivery date) Can't see me making the after picnic party though.

― Vicky, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 12:34 (seventeen years ago) link

I can't believe I never posted on it before!

― Vicky, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 12:35 (seventeen years ago) link

i was a member for about a month when i was seventeen. i had discovered belle and sebastian five or six months before and to be honest it was kind of changing my world. (i was essentially on the road to indie-fuxxorism). i guess this was about 1998-99? but despite the warnings on the Sinister website thingy it was just too closed and baffling a conversation for me, so i left!

happy birthday

― sean gramophone, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 12:36 (seventeen years ago) link

I remember seeing it, but it had a "wait 2 weeks to register" so I wandered off...

― Mark G, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 12:37 (seventeen years ago) link

i think that is the feature/rule i like best about s-n-st-r

― ken c, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 13:35 (seventeen years ago) link

It keeps the Random Googlers away, certainly.

― Forest Pines, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 13:36 (seventeen years ago) link

Lucky old Random Googlers!

― Tom D., Wednesday, 7 March 2007 13:38 (seventeen years ago) link

LOL @ DYING IN WELL
i went to 5th anniversary, pretty great! only time i've ever been to primrose hill, too.

― homosexual II, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 14:13 (seventeen years ago) link

i miss RJG, ally c, and kirsten.
i had a dream about genevieve a few weeks ago--weird.

― homosexual II, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 14:24 (seventeen years ago) link

I want to be at big fuck-off party!!! What am I doing in August, let's see....

― Laurel, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 16:54 (seventeen years ago) link

; )

― RJG, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 16:59 (seventeen years ago) link

Laurel in London? Make it so!

― marianna lcl, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:03 (seventeen years ago) link

i would go to this, but i was just in london it seems. maybe in 2009 when i am even older.

― homosexual II, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:08 (seventeen years ago) link

maybe Mrs Murdoch will turn up!!!

my first-firm teacher? now that would be a turn-up.

I'm well up for this, heady memories of Sinister picnics past in my head. It is Reading weekend though, which might be something of a problem.

I can't believe I never posted on it before!

Vicky on Wednesday, 7 March 2007 12:35 (4 hours ago)

huh?! that cert...oh, wait - you mean this thread, don't you? heh.

― CharlieNo4, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:11 (seventeen years ago) link

first fOrm teacher obv. my first firm teacher was miss gibson.

― CharlieNo4, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:11 (seventeen years ago) link

I want to be at big fuck-off party!!! What am I doing in August, let's see....

Hmm. Me too!

― molly mummenschanz, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:16 (seventeen years ago) link

what's happened to the PF?

― ken c, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:17 (seventeen years ago) link

i was just wondering that myself.

― homosexual II, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:18 (seventeen years ago) link

hi dere!
laurel, let's go to london omg!

― rrrobyn, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 18:12 (seventeen years ago) link

oh man

― ken c, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 18:20 (seventeen years ago) link

okay, even though i was half joking, mostly b/c i don't know whether i will have the $$ or not, i now really really want to come over now b/c there is also this:
SONIC YOUTH August 31 London, England Roundhouse performing Daydream Nation
!!!!!!!!!!

― rrrobyn, Thursday, 8 March 2007 06:09 (seventeen years ago) link

oh, except it is sold out :( hm

― rrrobyn, Thursday, 8 March 2007 06:11 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm going to see Sonic Youth performing Daydream Nation on the Friday at the Roundhouse! i will also be seeing them perform it at the Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona.

My Pines compilation cd was delivered to my house yesterday. There's a Young Marble Giants cover on it.

― Grandpont Genie, Thursday, 8 March 2007 10:25 (seventeen years ago) link

I am against all this bands performing classic albums nonsense. Don't look back, that's what I say.

― The Real Dirty Vicar, Thursday, 8 March 2007 11:04 (seventeen years ago) link

you just hate fun.

― Grandpont Genie, Thursday, 8 March 2007 11:05 (seventeen years ago) link

BOOM BOOM xpost.

― Mark G, Thursday, 8 March 2007 11:10 (seventeen years ago) link

okay, but the thing about daydream nation is that it is awesome
xpost

― rrrobyn, Thursday, 8 March 2007 14:52 (seventeen years ago) link

NO

― Steve Shasta, Thursday, 8 March 2007 17:04 (seventeen years ago) link

Oh man, I want to be in London for this! And it is likely to be the only weekend that month when I won't be in furren so...

― Madchen, Friday, 9 March 2007 17:25 (seventeen years ago) link

Be in London! All of you! Yesssssssssss!

― Sarah, Friday, 9 March 2007 17:27 (seventeen years ago) link

Alexis Petridis should know that he would be very welcome.

― PJ Miller, Friday, 9 March 2007 17:51 (seventeen years ago) link

If I divert funds from my 5k charity run, maybe, just maybe, I can be there.

― JPB, Friday, 9 March 2007 17:53 (seventeen years ago) link

i guess this was about 1998-99? but despite the warnings on the Sinister website thingy it was just too closed and baffling a conversation for me, so i left!

Haha! Sorry Sean.

― Keith, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:12 (seventeen years ago) link

or indeed alex huntley kapranos

IIRC, Alex's sole contribution was to try and flog his copy of Tigermilk was it not!

― Keith, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:17 (seventeen years ago) link

three months pass...

I'd forgotten about this:

Sinister village.

I don't really understand it, even! What was the plan?

― Alba, Wednesday, 13 June 2007 00:27 (seventeen years ago) link

I've never seen it before...

― Keith, Wednesday, 13 June 2007 00:34 (seventeen years ago) link

Oh dear lord. Never saw it, either, and I can't figure it out...?

― Laurel, Wednesday, 13 June 2007 00:55 (seventeen years ago) link

Lolz at Koogy on that list :-)

Yep, that whole thing is a Grate Big Mystery to me too. No wonder people think Sinister people are weird though.

Who's letting me kip on their couch for Sinister picnic weekend then? Sorry, PLEASE someone, can I kip on your couch for Sinister picnic weekend? I have been a house guest of several of you lot before, and appear to still be friends with you all, therefore can recommend myself as OK. I can reward you with booze, if that helps?

― ailsa, Wednesday, 13 June 2007 06:47 (seventeen years ago) link

two months pass...

With a fine disregard for deadlines in honour of Tony Wilson, two days before the event, we has a flyer...

http://idisk.mac.com/stephentrousse/Public/acdof.gif

― Stevie T, Thursday, 23 August 2007 12:46 (seventeen years ago) link

eight years pass...

https://newrepublic.com/article/128497/sinister-history-belle-sebastian-email-list

― i like to CH4 CH4 and i am crazy (jaymc), Monday, 14 March 2016 16:29 (eight years ago) link

Sinister posts by (former) ILXors appear as pull quotes.

― i like to CH4 CH4 and i am crazy (jaymc), Monday, 14 March 2016 16:33 (eight years ago) link


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