Ha, YoungWoong (aka Hero, aka Baby Beatles), the talented lil kid above doing his version of Hey Jude that was recorded about two years ago, is already a star back in his native Korea where he has wowed audiences on many national TV variety and talent shows.  And even though he is still only four (he celebrates the big five come September), he is very ambitious, or at least his parents are. They have set up a special YouTube channel called Hero Is Born dedicated to their prodigy and on which they are trying desperately to get Paul McCartney to meet and hopefully collaborate with Baby Beatles.  They write: "Baby Beatles is dying to meet and play with his idol! Do you have any clues on how he may possibly perform with Sir Paul? Please send your email/message to heroisborn@gmail.com."  On that YouTube channel you can also catch Hero interpreting others from the forty odd Beatles songs he knows by heart - many have been recorded more recently and he appears more grown up and is out of diapers.

On Monday (March 24th) the U.S. Justice Department gave the okay to the XM-Sirius satellite radio merger - coming more one year since the two companies first announced their agreement. Read the full story here on Money.CNN.com.

Last week an ATM outside an English supermaket malfunctioned and mistakenly started spitting out twice the money requested. For example if you wanted to withdraw a hundred English pounds it would instead dispense 200 but it would show as only a 100 deducted from your account. As you can imagine word spread quickly and after a few busy hours of use the ATM ran dry.  Since no crime was broken the police in the town of Hull could not arrest anyone but said that those who benefited could face charges, but only if the company administering the machine complained.  Ah, let them keep the money. I say it's theirs to keep if the machine made the mistake.

Happy Valentine's Day!

And remember every day should be an occasion to buy flowers or chocolates or music (at Amoeba of course) or to make dinner reservations, or whatever-however you demonstrate your love for that special person in your life.  

Of course if you have no significant other in your life at this time, today of all days can be a constant reminder (and not necessarily a bad one) that you are indeed alone with no one to call your own.

And if that last bit sounds like the lyrics to some song you've heard, it probably is. In fact it's probably the lyrics to countless songs as there are as many songs out there of love gone sour or unrequited as there are happy songs about being in love.

Personally I often find the sad, anti-love songs more profound since I am of the belief that some of the best art is created under times of heartbreak, upset and anger. Or when, as in the case of Joe Jackson's "Happy Loving Couples," there is no love past or present.  Of course there are some artists whose anti-love songs are thinly masked as love songs; think R.E.M.'s The One I Love. Then there are some artists  who seem to base much of their lyrical content on themes of alienation, unrequited love, and love lost-- think Patsy Cline and Everything But The Girl.

Of course Elvis Costello has quite a chunk of anti-love ditties while some genres (think country) appear to have more than their fair share of sad songs about love and relationships.  Then there's a whole strain of anti-love songs that are laced with irony and/or humor which are most effective. Morrissey and The Smiths, Jilted John, and Loudon Wainwright III would be included in this group.

My love for Morrissey is as strong as ever. Morrissey fans are a very interesting and devoted bunch. Our devotion to Morrissey is strong and never ending. Ask any Morrissey fan and they will try and explain it. But it really is hard to understand unless you are yourself a devoted Morrissey fan. From the first moment I heard him for the first time I was a huge fan. One of my friends in high school made me a tape of Morrissey's first album. From that moment on I fell in love with the man and his music. Some of us may have lost a little interest in his music over the last decade. But we never lost interest in Morrissey. The love and excitement surrounding just the mention of his name was as strong as ever. However, the insterest in his albums was not the same. But Morrissey put out an amazing album a couple of years ago. "You Are the Quarry" came out in 2004. I think he probably surprised some people with this album. He had finally made an album as exciting as those early albums. I think that a lot of fans still loved him because of their memories of his early solo albums and those of The Smiths. Those albums created a lasting bond between album and fan. They sort of became our best friend and were always there for us. Morrissey was great to listen to by yourself in your room. But also to sing along to with your best friend driving around in your car. It was exciting to also have a new album to be excited about. The first single was "Irish Blood, English Heart." I think I listened to it just as much as "Everyday Is Like Sunday" and "Sing Your Life" from the first two albums. Instead of buying every British magazine with articles about Morrissey, I was searching the fansites and blogs and reading interviews online. Instead of staying up late to try and catch videos on MTV, I was watching his videos on YouTube. I was a bit older and the media had changed a bit. But Morrissey was in my life just as he was in 1988.

I wrote about Victor Gastelum several months back when I first starting writing for Amoeba.com. Victor’s iconic art has been used by Calexico, Culture Clash, Greg Ginn, just to name a few. Victor is currently showing in a group show called ALEX STEINWEISS: CREATOR OF THE ALBUM COVER at the Robert Berman Gallery in Santa Monica. Victor is one to show his appreciation for any artist that inspires him. I got him to share his thoughts on Morrissey, his Mexican following and Morrissey's supposed anti-immigrant remakes he made last November.

What makes you a fan of  Morrissey? How did you become one?

I started liking the Smith's right when they were breaking up.  I was starting to make my own art and I found Morrissey’s lyrics inspiring. Not that I wanted to draw what he was describing but that he was telling his own stories.  You got the feeling that he was talking about what he knew.  He along with other artists that I admire made me look at myself, and draw from what I knew about, what I had to offer.  The music was the first attraction to the band though.  I like pop music, especially with clever lyrics and hooks.  The band was tight and at the time there didn’t seem to be anything like them.


Why do you feel that Mexicanos identify with him?

For me I think it might have to do with his outsider, nerdy loser
image.  He made being square and dorky really cool.  He is into all these obscure English pop artists, television shows, and movies that he would make references to. I think it made you place a little more value to the things you liked that most people didn’t know about or thought were lame.  Also the Manchester bands seem to have this thing where they are all homeboys.  Not so much pride or shame, but just an acknowledgement of where they are from.  He put a lot reference to where he was from, places and buildings.  I like seeing that, (for instance) like when an artist is from San Pedro or Long Beach and they throw that influence into their work.

Many of my fellow Mexicano/Chicano peers that have much respect and hold Morrissey in high regard. One of them is L.A. Weekly’s Ask A Mexican writer Gustavo Arrellano. In his excellent article written back in 2002 by about Morrissey and his Mexican following, Arrellano asked then doctorate candidate Colin Snowsel why he thought why Morrissey and Mexicanos were so closely connected.

“Morrissey was, in short, providing to lower- and middle-class Mexican-Americans the same dual utopian message that he had once provided a decade earlier to predominately Anglo fans in the United Kingdom," he writes. And what did he offer Anglos? "Escape from the injustices of a social order that confines them to the margin, but escape also from the limited identity options entrenched in peripheral, working- and middle-class culture."

It was disheartening in reading that at the end of last year. Morrissey was in the news for his comments made about immigration to NME magazine. In the article it suggests that one of the reasons that he no longer lives in England is due to immigration.

“ With the issue of immigration, it’s very difficult because, although I don’t have anything against people from other countries, the higher the influx into England the more the British identity disappears.”

Seems quite odd for someone who resides in Los Angeles, one of the most diverse cities in the world and with a large following of Non-Anglos to say something like that.  Morrissey supporters are quick to mention that he is a life long liberal and defender and lover of people all over the world. In his rebuttal to the NME, Morrissey states that, “Racism is beyond common sense and I believe it has no place in our society.”