Friday, 14 March 2014
Wednesday, 12 February 2014
Ahahahahahhahaha!
AA Gill wins 'Hatchet Job of the Year' for his review of Autobiography.
I read the review and all I could think was, 'ZING!'
I read the review and all I could think was, 'ZING!'
Thursday, 6 February 2014
Oscillate Wildly
So Big Daddy reckons I should blog about stuff that isn't SPM. Like, change the name of my blog and everything.
I don't know how I feel about this.
I don't know how I feel about this.
Friday, 24 January 2014
I'll bet he orders the nut roast.
Are you familiar with Jim'll Paint It? I first learned about it when so many of my Facebook friends had liked it I couldn't ignore it anymore. In fact, just yesterday My Favorite Humanities Simon (MFHS) was wearing a Jim'll Paint It t-shirt.
R. Kelly Andy* found out about my blog and immediately sent me Jim's painting of 'Morrissey Ruins Christmas.' I dig it.
And of course SPM orders the nut roast. I mean, I'll admit I've never eaten a nut roast but it sounds awful. Is it more awful than turkey? I don't know, perhaps. If I'm going to have a Christmas meal I want it to be ham, goddammit! Prime rib is also acceptable but I'm not a fan of turkey.
I also don't like mushrooms, Brussels sprouts, or Yorkshire puddings. Basically I'm not interested in your vegetarian Christmas options!
*Additional Cast Members
Lovely Ros: she's lovely (obviously) and I'm sure she'll turn up in the blog soon enough. In fact, she's already been in it INCOGNITO. We met powerlifting and I basically heart her. She doesn't like animals in clothes. We differ massively on this because of course I love animals in clothes. Especially theme costumes. I'm undecided about dogs with nailpolish.
R. Kelly Andy: I don't actually call him that but I've forced him to love 'Ignition (Remix)' through some kind of musical Stockholm Syndrome. Toot toot!
My Favorite Humanities Simon (MFHS): Simon is my favorite Humanities Simon. There is one other, who I actually like a lot, but MFHS is my favorite.
R. Kelly Andy* found out about my blog and immediately sent me Jim's painting of 'Morrissey Ruins Christmas.' I dig it.
And of course SPM orders the nut roast. I mean, I'll admit I've never eaten a nut roast but it sounds awful. Is it more awful than turkey? I don't know, perhaps. If I'm going to have a Christmas meal I want it to be ham, goddammit! Prime rib is also acceptable but I'm not a fan of turkey.
I also don't like mushrooms, Brussels sprouts, or Yorkshire puddings. Basically I'm not interested in your vegetarian Christmas options!
*Additional Cast Members
Lovely Ros: she's lovely (obviously) and I'm sure she'll turn up in the blog soon enough. In fact, she's already been in it INCOGNITO. We met powerlifting and I basically heart her. She doesn't like animals in clothes. We differ massively on this because of course I love animals in clothes. Especially theme costumes. I'm undecided about dogs with nailpolish.
R. Kelly Andy: I don't actually call him that but I've forced him to love 'Ignition (Remix)' through some kind of musical Stockholm Syndrome. Toot toot!
My Favorite Humanities Simon (MFHS): Simon is my favorite Humanities Simon. There is one other, who I actually like a lot, but MFHS is my favorite.
Sunday, 5 January 2014
Autobiography reviewed by the Daily Mail
Now, The Daily Mail and I are pretty much diametrically opposed in terms of the way we view the world. Their scaremongering bigotry is not really my bag but Big Daddy found a review of Autobiography last night and I had to share it. I think it's spot-on but can't figure out why the reviewer gave it two stars (out of five) instead of one.
This charmless man.
My favorite bit:
Though he can’t stop ranting against Mrs Thatcher (‘Dispassionate and obviously mad... a swamp of tormented revenge’ etc, etc), his admittance to Penguin Classics represents the triumph of Thatcherism, proof positive that there is now no citadel immune to the demands of commerce.
There's the odd sentence with which I disagree but, mostly, I could've written this review. I would have liked to have found another publisher, though.
This charmless man.
My favorite bit:
Though he can’t stop ranting against Mrs Thatcher (‘Dispassionate and obviously mad... a swamp of tormented revenge’ etc, etc), his admittance to Penguin Classics represents the triumph of Thatcherism, proof positive that there is now no citadel immune to the demands of commerce.
There's the odd sentence with which I disagree but, mostly, I could've written this review. I would have liked to have found another publisher, though.
Saturday, 4 January 2014
Perspective: Morrissey doesn't have it
Shout out to one of my favorite bloggers for tweeting this today.
Morrissey: 'I See No Difference Between Eating Animals and Pedophilia'
Yes, you read that right. Morrissey thinks the sexual abuse of children is the same as, you know, the food chain. Sure, the source is Buzzfeed so take it with a grain of salt, but it tallies with basically everything else he says.
He also says, 'If you believe in the abattoir then you would support Auschwitz. There’s no difference.'
No difference.
Jok and I discussed this kind of talk quite recently (I can't remember how it came up but all our conversations are pretty good) and he said, 'people like this don't love animals, they hate people.' He's right, yo! I mean, it would tally with my understanding of (the public persona) of SPM. Misanthropy is peppered throughout his music.
So I read choice bits of this article to Big Daddy and he said, 'what a fucker. I'm going to have to give this book back to Clint because I'm never going to fucking finish it.'
I said, 'yeah, from his interviews it seems Morrissey is pretty much just a racist fuckbag.'
Big Daddy came to SPM's defense (I think this was a desire for a fair and just analysis of the situation and I can totally roll with that) and said, 'there is nothing in this article to suggest he's a racist.'
'No, but the fact he's referred to the Chinese as a subspecies makes it pretty clear.'
TOUCHE, MOTHERFUCKER!
So here's the thing about society I really don't get. It'll start with a digression but I'll get there, I'm sure (I promise?). When I was, like, 10-14 I was mega obsessed with a few different things. One of them was The Phantom of the Opera (Lloyd-Webber REPRESENT! I was totally going to marry Robert Guillaume who played the Phantom the first time I saw it. Whatever, it could still happen.) and then I grew out of that and moved on to hair metal. I mean, shit, Poison were the best band ever.
Digression digression: I still love a lot of the music I loved at this time but Poison, alas, haven't stood up very well at all. Guns N' Roses and Motley Crue, though, are fucking amazing even now. I listen to them all the time.
I remember watching some show on MTV about a girl who was crazy obsessed with NKOTB and there's an interview with her where she says she'd take a bullet for Joe McIntyre. The interviewer (who I think might have been Kurt Loder) is confounded by her insistence she would die to protect Joey-Joe because she loves him that much. I felt that way about Poison.
So I think this kind of thing is totally normal. This all encompassing love of <insert famous person/band/book series> that is, looking back, supremely unhealthy and hysterically ridiculous. What's also normal is growing out of it.
What I see a lot is the internet (things like Twitter seems to be a major one for this) allows these teens in the midst of their obsession a totally new level of access to their celebrity crushes. It also allows them to connect with other people at the same level of obsession. I think this is neat in some ways (man, I had one other friend who loved Poison and it would have been immense to have a network of hair metal lovers especially since Grunge came in and ruined the party just as I was really getting into music) and really damaging in others. I am seeing a lot of normalization of behavior that isn't healthy. The group mentality seems to make people think their behavior is normal, sane and acceptable for way longer than, er, 'normal'. Some of it is normal but a lot of it isn't. It also seems to last longer than it should. It's almost as if groups of people remain in this stage of obsession because everyone around them is in the same place and says it's OK.
Now, I'm not a doctor and I am fully aware that my anecdotal experience is just that. I may only see the most obsessive of fans. I honestly don't know! The whole thing strikes me as concerning.
Note: I use the term 'teens' and 'celebrity crushes' because they're easier. I am fully aware that not all people like this are teenagers and it's not necessarily a celebrity they're crushing on/obsessed with. Book fandoms (e.g. Twilight, The Mortal Instruments, Harry Potter) often show really good examples of this kind of behavior. I know I'm generalizing here. It's easier for the point I'm trying to make. I also know that there is a spectrum of fandom. Believe me, I know. I also know 'normal' is subjective and a terrible word to use here. I was stumped for a better one.
I have also noticed that (and this is not just amongst teens) people really struggle to separate the person from the art. I don't have an issue doing this. Sure, I want the artists I love to be as awesome as their work but they are human and flawed and some of them are super shitbags. Some people are just super shitbags. Roman Polanski is one of my favorite movie directors but the man? Ugh. Flawed is too nice a term, I think. Is my favorite song R. Kelly's 'Ignition (Remix)'? Um, yes! Would I want to know him? No, not at all. The accusations against him horrify me and there are so many of them.
I recently saw a discussion on the ol' Facebook about this very thing. I have a lovely friend who can't separate the person from their work (this is an oversimplification). She and I have discussed this at length and while I can understand her position I don't share it. But the ol' FB discussion brought up something with which I heartily disagree. I'm paraphrasing here but it was, 'their flawed nature may be why they make great art.' To which I say, 'fucking bullshit. You're just romanticizing them and doing a disservice to their victims by making their flaws OK because it might make them great artists.' I mean, that's a gross and scary way to talk about someone who (in this particular instance) was accused of multiple counts of statutory rape.
Anyway, SPM is an especially interesting one to me. His music has touched a massively diverse population of people so deeply that I completely understand why people hold his work up as this crucial element of their survival. I know what it's like to have a song save your life. Shit, Indeep sang a song about it! His lyrics are so goddamn poignant and Johnny Marr's guitar playing just elevates it to the point where it's like shakubuku. You hear the wail of the guitar in 'How Soon is Now?' and you know SPM gets it. This particular song was used to great effect in The Wedding Singer.
So his fans, who have felt isolated and alone at some point in their lives (I am comfortable with this statement because his fans are all human beings and everyone has felt this way, some more than others) have found in SPM a kindred spirit. Someone who says it better than they ever could. And it's not just that they love the music, SPM touches on some of the hardest emotional shit there is. He does it in a way that is both funny and incredibly bittersweet. This creates an intense, emotional connection. Who knows better than SPM about not wanting to be alone anymore?
Note: That clip is such a good use of the song. Seriously, the music in that whole movie is fantastic. The movie is fantastic.
But this intense love of SPM (because of the aforementioned emotional connection) means people want him to be perfect. I suspect (and I'm just going with a little armchair psychology here) it's because, maybe, when someone knows how you feel maybe even better than you do, they are just like you! And who wants to be someone who compares the Holocaust to an abbatoir or pedophilia to eating meat? Not many.
Anyway, this is the weird cognitive dissonance I've seen with SPM's fans. Defending the indefensible (I see this with fans of football teams and players, too). It makes me sad because I wish for everyone to be comfortable with loving the art but not liking the artist. There's no way you can really slice it: if you think eating meat is the same thing as pedophilia then that is super fucked up and disturbing. I won't even go into how it belittles survivors of abuse. Just, ew. EW.
Maybe I'll get Jok to try reading Autobiography. He tried but hated it. PERHAPS HE SHOULD TRY AGAIN.
Morrissey: 'I See No Difference Between Eating Animals and Pedophilia'
Yes, you read that right. Morrissey thinks the sexual abuse of children is the same as, you know, the food chain. Sure, the source is Buzzfeed so take it with a grain of salt, but it tallies with basically everything else he says.
He also says, 'If you believe in the abattoir then you would support Auschwitz. There’s no difference.'
No difference.
Jok and I discussed this kind of talk quite recently (I can't remember how it came up but all our conversations are pretty good) and he said, 'people like this don't love animals, they hate people.' He's right, yo! I mean, it would tally with my understanding of (the public persona) of SPM. Misanthropy is peppered throughout his music.
Did I ever tell you by the way? I never did like your face
So I read choice bits of this article to Big Daddy and he said, 'what a fucker. I'm going to have to give this book back to Clint because I'm never going to fucking finish it.'
I said, 'yeah, from his interviews it seems Morrissey is pretty much just a racist fuckbag.'
Big Daddy came to SPM's defense (I think this was a desire for a fair and just analysis of the situation and I can totally roll with that) and said, 'there is nothing in this article to suggest he's a racist.'
'No, but the fact he's referred to the Chinese as a subspecies makes it pretty clear.'
TOUCHE, MOTHERFUCKER!
So here's the thing about society I really don't get. It'll start with a digression but I'll get there, I'm sure (I promise?). When I was, like, 10-14 I was mega obsessed with a few different things. One of them was The Phantom of the Opera (Lloyd-Webber REPRESENT! I was totally going to marry Robert Guillaume who played the Phantom the first time I saw it. Whatever, it could still happen.) and then I grew out of that and moved on to hair metal. I mean, shit, Poison were the best band ever.
Digression digression: I still love a lot of the music I loved at this time but Poison, alas, haven't stood up very well at all. Guns N' Roses and Motley Crue, though, are fucking amazing even now. I listen to them all the time.
I remember watching some show on MTV about a girl who was crazy obsessed with NKOTB and there's an interview with her where she says she'd take a bullet for Joe McIntyre. The interviewer (who I think might have been Kurt Loder) is confounded by her insistence she would die to protect Joey-Joe because she loves him that much. I felt that way about Poison.
So I think this kind of thing is totally normal. This all encompassing love of <insert famous person/band/book series> that is, looking back, supremely unhealthy and hysterically ridiculous. What's also normal is growing out of it.
What I see a lot is the internet (things like Twitter seems to be a major one for this) allows these teens in the midst of their obsession a totally new level of access to their celebrity crushes. It also allows them to connect with other people at the same level of obsession. I think this is neat in some ways (man, I had one other friend who loved Poison and it would have been immense to have a network of hair metal lovers especially since Grunge came in and ruined the party just as I was really getting into music) and really damaging in others. I am seeing a lot of normalization of behavior that isn't healthy. The group mentality seems to make people think their behavior is normal, sane and acceptable for way longer than, er, 'normal'. Some of it is normal but a lot of it isn't. It also seems to last longer than it should. It's almost as if groups of people remain in this stage of obsession because everyone around them is in the same place and says it's OK.
Now, I'm not a doctor and I am fully aware that my anecdotal experience is just that. I may only see the most obsessive of fans. I honestly don't know! The whole thing strikes me as concerning.
Note: I use the term 'teens' and 'celebrity crushes' because they're easier. I am fully aware that not all people like this are teenagers and it's not necessarily a celebrity they're crushing on/obsessed with. Book fandoms (e.g. Twilight, The Mortal Instruments, Harry Potter) often show really good examples of this kind of behavior. I know I'm generalizing here. It's easier for the point I'm trying to make. I also know that there is a spectrum of fandom. Believe me, I know. I also know 'normal' is subjective and a terrible word to use here. I was stumped for a better one.
I have also noticed that (and this is not just amongst teens) people really struggle to separate the person from the art. I don't have an issue doing this. Sure, I want the artists I love to be as awesome as their work but they are human and flawed and some of them are super shitbags. Some people are just super shitbags. Roman Polanski is one of my favorite movie directors but the man? Ugh. Flawed is too nice a term, I think. Is my favorite song R. Kelly's 'Ignition (Remix)'? Um, yes! Would I want to know him? No, not at all. The accusations against him horrify me and there are so many of them.
I recently saw a discussion on the ol' Facebook about this very thing. I have a lovely friend who can't separate the person from their work (this is an oversimplification). She and I have discussed this at length and while I can understand her position I don't share it. But the ol' FB discussion brought up something with which I heartily disagree. I'm paraphrasing here but it was, 'their flawed nature may be why they make great art.' To which I say, 'fucking bullshit. You're just romanticizing them and doing a disservice to their victims by making their flaws OK because it might make them great artists.' I mean, that's a gross and scary way to talk about someone who (in this particular instance) was accused of multiple counts of statutory rape.
Anyway, SPM is an especially interesting one to me. His music has touched a massively diverse population of people so deeply that I completely understand why people hold his work up as this crucial element of their survival. I know what it's like to have a song save your life. Shit, Indeep sang a song about it! His lyrics are so goddamn poignant and Johnny Marr's guitar playing just elevates it to the point where it's like shakubuku. You hear the wail of the guitar in 'How Soon is Now?' and you know SPM gets it. This particular song was used to great effect in The Wedding Singer.
So his fans, who have felt isolated and alone at some point in their lives (I am comfortable with this statement because his fans are all human beings and everyone has felt this way, some more than others) have found in SPM a kindred spirit. Someone who says it better than they ever could. And it's not just that they love the music, SPM touches on some of the hardest emotional shit there is. He does it in a way that is both funny and incredibly bittersweet. This creates an intense, emotional connection. Who knows better than SPM about not wanting to be alone anymore?
Note: That clip is such a good use of the song. Seriously, the music in that whole movie is fantastic. The movie is fantastic.
But this intense love of SPM (because of the aforementioned emotional connection) means people want him to be perfect. I suspect (and I'm just going with a little armchair psychology here) it's because, maybe, when someone knows how you feel maybe even better than you do, they are just like you! And who wants to be someone who compares the Holocaust to an abbatoir or pedophilia to eating meat? Not many.
Anyway, this is the weird cognitive dissonance I've seen with SPM's fans. Defending the indefensible (I see this with fans of football teams and players, too). It makes me sad because I wish for everyone to be comfortable with loving the art but not liking the artist. There's no way you can really slice it: if you think eating meat is the same thing as pedophilia then that is super fucked up and disturbing. I won't even go into how it belittles survivors of abuse. Just, ew. EW.
Maybe I'll get Jok to try reading Autobiography. He tried but hated it. PERHAPS HE SHOULD TRY AGAIN.
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