People seem to like to think about Morrissey a lot. What he's doing? What he's saying? Is he sick? Is he well? Does he still not like meat? Well what about chicken? Of all the days to be thinking about Morrissey, this is the best day because today is his 54th birthday.
The first time I ever saw Morrissey in concert was in Chicago, where I lived at the time. I worked at a coffee shop during this period of my life, and I went to the show with a boy named Greg who I worked with. Greg had a fancy silver car that I remember being mildly impressed by at the time, but I don't remember what kind of car it was. I thought about kissing Greg briefly during the time we knew each other, but changed my mind at some point. We didn't talk much during the show. We kind of just stood there. I'm pretty sure people threw flowers all over the place and I thought that was cool. Here's what the ticket stub looks like. I keep all my ticket stubs and have them in a book. I have the stubs for almost every show I've ever been to. This seems important to me for some reason. I like that I have these.
The second time I saw Morrissey, which is also the only other time I've seen Morrissey, was not too long ago here in NY. The venue I saw him at is called Terminal 5, which is notoriously the worst possible place to see a band in NY. Going to Terminal 5 is literally like being in the Thunderdome. The majority of the audience at this show consisted of beefy, drunk men (who were farting, and stunk) and their nameless, faceless girlfriends. The backdrop behind the stage had a huge picture of Oscar Wilde and the words "who is Morrissey?" I bought a shirt that said and looked similar at the end of the night. I went to this show with my boss at the time. At one point during this show Morrissey picked up a young blonde boy with a homosexual seeming haircut from the crowd and held him like a baby for a whole song. Here's what the ticket stub looks like:
Some recent thoughts I've had about Morrissey have been:
1) I hope he's feeling better.
2) I hope he doesn't die.
3) I think I should start collecting all the Smiths albums on vinyl.
The Smiths (which I have to say I prefer over Morrissey's solo stuff, both for sentimental as well as technical reasons) have hands down the best album art. Here are some of my favorites. Some of these may actually be fake because I know people on the internet like to do things like that. But even still, I like the way they look.
On this day, May 22, 2013 I own one Morrissey tshirt, have one Smiths poster hanging in my closet, one Morrissey sweater with his face on it that I made a place in London send me for free, one Morrissey bobble-head from the same place in London, all The Smiths and most of the Morrissey solo albums on my iPod, and The Smiths Meat is Murder on Vinyl, and the Morrissey and Marr book - which someone found in the trash a few months ago and gave to me. I kept the book in my freezer for a week before filing it away in my bookcase because, as you know, NY has a horrible bed bug problem.
Happy Birthday, Morrissey. I guess I've liked you for some time now. Don't be a dick about it.
