In The Name Of the Mozziah

More Ping Pong

A few hours ago @HoarselyCry contacted me in the toilets of The Wrong Arms with news of a photo. Had I seen it? What did I make of it? Questions were asked that I was unready to answer, partly because it was after midnight where I live. After some discussion and a collaboration on the #InTheNameOfTheMozziah hashtag, @HoarselyCry tweeted and I retweeted. And I went to bed. Not alone, but to sleep, without euphemism.

As usual.

Looking in over my breakfast of organic Weetbix, I observed the expected underwhelming response. As I had already noted to @HoarselyCry, my most recent blob post had received no comments (despite posing a highly relevant question to what may laughingly be called the readership), so I didn't expect much action in The Wrong Arms over this.

I mean, the Dramatically Deluded Dozen barely breaths more than Victoria Woods or Prince.

Sorry, that was in bad taste. I should leave those kinds of asides to TRB.

Anyway, having gone to bed, rested and peacefully slept, I woke up with a flash in my tiny mind's eye. Ping pong:

Ra Ra Rasputin last inhaled in December 1916, poisoned and shot several times to make sure. In April, 1999, the popular music combo Electronic (featuring Bernard Sumner and Johnny Marr) released a phonographic album called Twisted Tenderness, which features a poor quality image of Russia's notorious mad monk on the cover, making the sign of benediction (you've probably seen The Pope do it, too). At some point either before or after the publication of said recorded music anthology, the English seminal artiste known as Morrissey was photographed making a similar gesture.

It turns out the guitar player Marr and singer/lyricist Morrissey had also previously been in popular music band together. Since then, it has been documented that the two have repeatedly made public acknowledgement of each other's existence by way of visually replication. Sources allegedly close to being Morrissey call this public, but otherwise private, game ping pong.

This shared gesture of benediction, I humbly suggest, is an example of ping pong. Just who pinged and who ponged is as yet unknown.

How far would you follow The Mozziah?

As soon as an artist, seminal or not, stops breathing for a bit longer than is healthy, out they come.
You know, how Bowie's shacked up with Elvis, or whatever,

Even Our Mozzer's been up to it:

Artists do not die.

— Chairman (@BRSChairman) April 21, 2016

No not literally, but metaphorically. Of course. They live on through their art.

But this blob post isn't about that. It's just an association to some other things that cropped up following Prince's death. Until I saw the TTY statement about Prince, I never realised that he was a vegan.

Which got me last brain cell onto pondering the importance of celebrity in our choices. I'm unashamedly vegan because of Morrissey. Fits of balling on the floor to Meat is Murder (and to Yes, I am blind, as well, little lamb... ) projected my skeptical, rational self emotionally into vegetarianism. Although most days of the week I was vegan, I didn't go fully vegan until I heard that Morrissey (and Marr, too) had made the move.



Whilst obviously exposed to Prince's music, I was never a great fan. It's just not my kind of thing. I don't know if he ever made a vegetarian/vegan anthem, but if I was a Prince fan, and did release such an affecting polemic, then it would probably be enough to propel me along that dietary path.

But how far do we allow our musical heroes define us, how we live and what we believe in? Do you really agree with everything that Morrissey says?

If I was devoted to Prince as much as I am to Morrissey, what would I, a skeptical, rational kind of fella, make of his comments about jet trials in the sky? And as an atheist, about his comments on religion and morality? The 8 Presidents before Lincoln is pretty sharp, though.



Where does such talk lead us to? Cue the YouTube Illuminati wacthers and the MW Twitter account related Alex Jones!


(Brian Force apparently has some annoying side effects, cleverly hidden as benefits - or was that just satire?)

Unfortunately, Prince's musical talents, political savvy, emotional intelligence and moral standards weren't matched by his understanding of logic and science. Not only does he make an argument from ignorance about chemtrails (by way of the anecdotal fallacy), but also totally whacks out the chemtrailer's own timeline by saying that there were chemtrails when he was a kid. He was born in 1958 and was well and truly an adult by the 1990s, which is when the conspiracists claim chemtrailing started. Never let facts get in the way of folklore, but then again he was a Jehovah's Witness.

Is (musical) celebrity comment an argument from authority? Probably not if it's about science, but that's a seemingly radical stance to take now-a-days.

And, of course, we have Morrissey possibly making nods to chemtails via the Joni Mitchell inspired jet trails lyric in Lost and repeated in Autobiography. Nothing direct, mind you, just saying.

So, short of SoLow trolling, how do you take it when Morrissey says something that you disagree with? Do you be yourself, bend or twist?

By the way, didn't Prince have a wonderful speaking voice?