Nobody suffers as he suffers.

Which is why he is the best person EVER to listen to when you're feeling down. Because you can't be as depressed as him, so just start laughing. And singing along. Possibly with sweeping, dramatic hand gestures.

Possibly with sweeping, dramatic hand gestures.

Well, heaven knows you're miserable now. Yes, you must make the swoopy hand gestures. You should see the Morrissey live DVD in Manchester that came out this year. Kind of sweet watching this stadium half filled with midlands soccer hooligans singing their hearts out to "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out."

Other key videos of the evening: "Big Sky" - Kate Bush (they never show that one) and "Love's Easy Tears" - Cocteau Twins (with Liz sporting one of her more distinctive hairstyles. But pretty still.)

"That's a different sort of whiny. It doesn't make me want to hit people."

Whioch is true, because while Morrissey might whine, but he doesn't sound like a spoiled five-year-old when he does it.

I definitely remember how tricky it was eyeballing where the 45 was supposed to be placed in absence of a spider.

The trick is to start the 45 spinning and use your finger along the edge of the hole to adjust it. Most people try to adjust from the outside of the record and that rarely works well.

I actually get a bird's eye view of the top and align it visually. I'm usually right on it.

Even though I know I will never need this information (my remaining 45s are for entertainment purposes only) I am gratified to know it! Thanks Jon!

I have decided that I am going to add one more CD to my Xmas list: The Best of Roger Miller. Don't laugh! I mean, you can laugh, 'cause Roger Miller is funny, but don't laugh in the Nelson way.

He knows how Joan of Arc felt, when the flames rose to her Roman nose and her Walkman started to melt.

Hearing aid started to melt, right? Morrissey is so miserable he wears a hearing aid as an affectation.

Dude, all the real miserable middle-aged hipsters use hearing horns.

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First the Walkman, then the hearing aid. He's terribly sensitive.

IIRC from one of Hec's Remedial Pop Literacy lessons, the hearing aid is a callback to an early rockabilly performer who wore a hearing aid as an affectation.

Jilli, the SP videos are gorgeous, and they'd probably be just as ravishing if you looked at them with the sound turned down or the winsome/mournful/tormented/glamourously swooning musician of your choice blasting instead. Oh, so pretty. I wanted to jump into them and roll around and snuffle them up like an eager (but gracefully tormented) puppy -- possibly a brindle greyhound puppy.

I have decided that I am going to add one more CD to my Xmas list: The Best of Roger Miller. Don't laugh! I mean, you can laugh, 'cause Roger Miller is funny, but don't laugh in the Nelson way.

I own that. Should I toss a little Roger Miller onto Buffistarawk to whet your appetite? I also have Roger performing live at The Big TNT Show. R.E.M. covered "King of the Road" - one of the better earworms out there.

IIRC from one of Hec's Remedial Pop Literacy lessons, the hearing aid is a callback to an early rockabilly performer who wore a hearing aid as an affectation.

Johnny Ray. Not a rockabilly singer, but a pop singer with a highly emotional style that was considered kind of controversial. Which is 50s coded language for Gay Gay Gay Gay Gay. He used to break down sobbing on stage while he sang. Morrissey wore the hearing aid as an affectation/tribute; Johnny Ray actually needed it.