cinnamon: get original look and feel using xsession

Question

OS: Linux Mint 14 Cinnamon

$ cat .xsession
xmessage -file /etc/motd
/usr/bin/cinnamon

1. why do not I get the same look and feel as i do get without the above .xsession file? it also affects a few things
   • when i open a gnome-terminal, i cannot see the input that is sent to terminal
   • log out button looks different and does not log out on click
2. how .xsession file work in conjunction with selecting a session from the login screen?

• last session
• run xclient script
• cinnamon
• cinnamon 2d
• gnome classic
• secure remote connection

Solution

My ~/.xsession file has one line:

gnome-session --session=cinnamon

I'm running xrdp on the Linux Mint server and connecting with an RDC client. It looks like I'm sitting at the desktop; even my conky script is running on the RDC client.