As I say during the broadcast, I was having a hard time deciding whether I wanted to play ambient music or disco. So I played both. I have trouble with decisiveness, with finality.
To force a segue here, I am confident that someone like Morrissey would have hated this program, and that doesn't bother me in the slightest. This was the night after the day we Found Out (I guess?) about Morrissey through that horrible softball interview on his own website. Finally freed from wilful misinterpretation and journalistic malfeasance, he reveals that he...is Douglas Pearce, basically? Truly uncanny. Being an aesthete, I used to think Death in June was ripping off the Smiths' visuals; I didn't realize it was an exchange.
Hero worship will enable and force you to do some mental gymnastics, and to cling to mere possibilities. Saying that reggae is vile might have been a reference to its patriarchy and homophobia. It's possible that the chorus of "Panic" wasn't about lynching black people. There's a chance that "We'll Let You Know" and "National Front Disco" are not endorsements. [In my defense, this is more of a probability. But there I go. Or do I? I can't tell anymore.] And so on. But that's my problem all along. Post-1976 we are not supposed to have heroes, I guess, but I do. I've never "gotten it."
I could write a paragraph about when I got "woke," because part of me had to know, but who cares? I've been wrong.
Was he ever anything but "devious, truculent, and unreliable?" I would like to think that the person who wrote "Well I Wonder" and "I Know It's Over" was a great chronicler of loneliness. Even fascists get lonely! It didn't occur to me at the time that perhaps he was lonely because he'd preemptively ruled out the possibility of companionship with most of humanity. I'm still struggling with this reckoning. Those Smiths songs must have been the work of a different person. Right?! Sigh.
I would have been better off seeing Morrissey from the start as many of my friends did, as a Ridiculous Person. [And I did, sort of, but I just loved him anyway.] Or just being on Team Robert Smith, though I never quite understood that beef. But things didn't happen that way. As I've written elsewhere, the Smiths came along when I needed something to come along.
What to do now? I wonder if, after a few more similar interviews, Smiths records will become like Death in June records, a kind of eBay contraband. [I'm thinking also of Spotify's new policies regarding hateful speech and hateful behavior.] Probably not, I guess. But they are a kind of emotional contraband. Will I jettison mine? I told you I have trouble with decisiveness and finality.
BOMBAST playlist, 2018 April 18, 2100-2300:
notebooks out plagiarists
https://www.facebook.com/radiobombast?ref=hl
https://twitter.com/KidCatharsis
To Those Who Offend You, Show Mercy: Transmission 381, 2017 November 29
You've Made Me Suspicious of People Who Are Kind: Transmission 380, 2017 November 19
Asterisks in My Eyelids: Transmission 379, 2017 November 15
From Luxury to Landfill: Transmission 378, 2017 November 8
Catharsis Family Values: Transmission 377, 2017 November 1
Join the Queue of Future Has-Beens: Transmission 376, 2017 October 25
Where People Feel No Anguish and Need No Hate: Transmission 375, 2017 October 18
In Fact This Is Very Serious; I Have Nothing To Regret: Transmission 374, 2017 October 11
Question Sessions over Cakes and Coffee: Transmission 373, 2017 October 4
Noodle and Man Are Separated by a Comma: Transmission 372, 2017 September 27
One of the Perks of Being a Radio Personality: Transmission 371, 2017 September 23
Mundane by Day, Inane at Night: Transmission 370, 2017 September 20
Send Flowers, Please: Transmission 369, 2017 September 16
My Skin Is Deeper Than Is Thought: Transmission 368, 2017 September 13
Deep Into the Empire's Ear: Transmission 367, 2017 September 6
For Reasons That Are Not Going To Be Disclosed: Transmission 366, 2017 September 2
Are You Patient and Kind with People: Transmission 365, 2017 August 30
You Think It's Over Now, But We've Only Just Begun: Transmission 364, 2017 August 25
We Smoked in Heaven and We Laughed Off Hell: Transmission 363, 2017 August 23
Everybody Tests the Membrane, But No One Pushes Through: Transmission 362, 2017 August 16
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