willhines.net

Seven Fights is tonight, people. 8pm at UCBT. Let’s enjoy some sketch comedy.

Saw Morrissey Friday night. He was great; I coulda used more Smiths, but who couldn’t? One of the best parts of the show was the strange film clips they play instead of house music. Among the footage: a stilted wardrobe test of James Dean and his co-star for East of Eden; a clip from the old tv show The Untouchables with Eliot Ness and his boys talking about a thug named ‘Morrissey’; and a German variety show featuring a performance from The New York Dolls.

I also loved how Morrissey’s six nights in New York seemed to be required viewing for many of my friends. Everyone has been checking in with their Morrissey report.

Although I like him, I’m not among the super-devoted — of which there are many. I came to liking his stuff pretty late — in July 2003, actually. I was stuck on the Williamsburg Bridge in traffic and WFUV played The Smiths’ The Queen is Dead in its entirety, and I loved it.

The strange thing is I’m the right age to have loved The Smiths when they were around. I was 14 when their first album came out — prime age to fall in love with a band. But they were too fey; too British and I spent my time memorizing Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen instead. I do remember the artsy girls in my honors classes all loved Morrissey, though. In fact, I distinctly remember in March 1988 when one of these girls played “There Is A Light That Will Never Go Out.” She proudly played the song, and I laughed openly at the absurdly over-dramatic lyric “If a double-decker bus crashes into us, to die by your side is such a heavenly way to die.” Laughing at things was sort of my only strategy for getting attention at that time. She was rightly pissed off.

But on Friday night, twenty years later, I was standing there wishing he’d play it above all other songs! You win, artsy girl! You win, Morrissey!

This post has both a picture of me in tights and also a picture of Morrissey. Let me state for the record that I am a heterosexual.

| Tags: decoster, morrissey, music, sketch, ucbt