There is Escape
Jun. 18th, 2025 05:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
setsuledI was watching some vintage commercials this morning, getting ready for an activity in class to-day where the students are going to write commercials. I found this Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial from 1967 impressively creepy:
Next they'll be wearing trousers!
Amongst the cheap, provocative spam Facebook occasionally puts on my page, I saw that once again the media had its ax to grind with Morrissey. Googling now, I see the Guardian has an article called "Nick Cave says he declined Morrissey’s request to sing ‘silly anti-woke screed' on new song" and Rolling Stone has an article called "Nick Cave Did Not Want to Read Morrissey's 'Silly Anti-Woke Screed' for New Song". What did Nick Cave actually say? The source for the articles is the recent Red Hand Files in which Cave said:
I’ve never actually met Morrissey, which is probably why I like him. He is undeniably a complex and divisive figure, someone who takes more than a little pleasure in pissing people off. As enjoyable as some may find this, it holds little interest for me, but for the fact that Morrissey is probably the best lyricist of his generation - certainly the strangest, funniest, most sophisticated, and most subtle. We had a few pleasant email exchanges last year in which Morrissey asked if I’d sing on a new song he had written. I would have been happy to do so, however, while the song he sent was quite lovely, it began with a lengthy and entirely irrelevant Greek bouzouki intro. It also seemed that he didn’t want me to actually sing on the song, but deliver, over the top of the bouzouki, an unnecessarily provocative and slightly silly anti-woke screed he had written. Although I suppose I agreed with the sentiment on some level, it just wasn’t my thing. I try to keep politics, cultural or otherwise, out of the music I am involved with. I find that it has a diminishing effect and is antithetical to whatever it is I am trying to achieve. So, Astrid, I politely declined. I said no.
A few articles elaborate further to show this isn't actually the beginning of a feud as the article titles suggest. But how many people are going to read past the headlines? With war between Israel and Iran, and ongoing between Ukraine and Russia, the media still has time to kill picking fights with Morrissey. I can't help thinking of one of Morrissey's own lyrics, "There's so much destruction all over the world and all you can do is complain about me."
X Sonnet 1946
A giant kitten's face replaced the wall.
No clocks could count above the critter's eye.
With clouds below, no angel thought to fall.
But something tempts about the earthly pie.
So spiralled down, the airy spirits drop.
About the kitchen crowds the seraphim.
But local gossips call a nosy cop.
The streets were washed in klaxon siren's din.
Their pearly robes would thwart the feet of grace.
In haste, they dash across a private field.
The godly herald falls upon his face.
But fertile ground to gods would ever yield.
As Heaven merged with Earth without a fight,
The morning light reveals a hybrid wight.
Next they'll be wearing trousers!
Amongst the cheap, provocative spam Facebook occasionally puts on my page, I saw that once again the media had its ax to grind with Morrissey. Googling now, I see the Guardian has an article called "Nick Cave says he declined Morrissey’s request to sing ‘silly anti-woke screed' on new song" and Rolling Stone has an article called "Nick Cave Did Not Want to Read Morrissey's 'Silly Anti-Woke Screed' for New Song". What did Nick Cave actually say? The source for the articles is the recent Red Hand Files in which Cave said:
I’ve never actually met Morrissey, which is probably why I like him. He is undeniably a complex and divisive figure, someone who takes more than a little pleasure in pissing people off. As enjoyable as some may find this, it holds little interest for me, but for the fact that Morrissey is probably the best lyricist of his generation - certainly the strangest, funniest, most sophisticated, and most subtle. We had a few pleasant email exchanges last year in which Morrissey asked if I’d sing on a new song he had written. I would have been happy to do so, however, while the song he sent was quite lovely, it began with a lengthy and entirely irrelevant Greek bouzouki intro. It also seemed that he didn’t want me to actually sing on the song, but deliver, over the top of the bouzouki, an unnecessarily provocative and slightly silly anti-woke screed he had written. Although I suppose I agreed with the sentiment on some level, it just wasn’t my thing. I try to keep politics, cultural or otherwise, out of the music I am involved with. I find that it has a diminishing effect and is antithetical to whatever it is I am trying to achieve. So, Astrid, I politely declined. I said no.
A few articles elaborate further to show this isn't actually the beginning of a feud as the article titles suggest. But how many people are going to read past the headlines? With war between Israel and Iran, and ongoing between Ukraine and Russia, the media still has time to kill picking fights with Morrissey. I can't help thinking of one of Morrissey's own lyrics, "There's so much destruction all over the world and all you can do is complain about me."
X Sonnet 1946
A giant kitten's face replaced the wall.
No clocks could count above the critter's eye.
With clouds below, no angel thought to fall.
But something tempts about the earthly pie.
So spiralled down, the airy spirits drop.
About the kitchen crowds the seraphim.
But local gossips call a nosy cop.
The streets were washed in klaxon siren's din.
Their pearly robes would thwart the feet of grace.
In haste, they dash across a private field.
The godly herald falls upon his face.
But fertile ground to gods would ever yield.
As Heaven merged with Earth without a fight,
The morning light reveals a hybrid wight.
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