While I don't have a problem in principle with a show of this type being open to 'ALL AGES', I can't imagine that a six year old in San Diego will be dragging his/her parents along to see Morrissey (as if a six year old child would discover the music of Morrissey on his or her own in the way that Morrissey himself at that age *supposedly* went out and bought a Marianne Faithfull record); but it's much more likely that the parents will be doing the 'dragging' and inflicting this experience on the defenceless child.
If a child with neglectful parents happened to be sitting up at 11:35/10:35c three weeks ago and caught Morrissey's performance on The Tonight Show, you would excuse the child for hiding behind the sofa once this greying braying spectre appeared on the screen, rather than rushing to iTunes to purchase 'Kiss Me a Lot' and then waking his/her drunken parents to plead with them to accompany him or her to Morrissey's forthcoming Aug. 20th show at the North Park Theatre. Such a scenario simply wouldn't occur in 2015. Once the child viewed this lecherous 56 year old ogre imploring them to 'Kiss Me a Lot' whilst looking like the 'debauched young-old man' struggling to appear youthful from Visconti's Death in Venice, or the fat balding man from the animated Paranoid Android video (with a touch of Zero Mostel thrown in for good [horrific] measure)***, then it would be straight behind the sofa, perhaps with a fainting spell after expelling vomit all down the front of their pyjama top. It would be more frightening to a child of that age than an episode of 'Are You Afraid of the Dark' or Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and certain to induce recurring nightmares, with a disembodied Morrissey head similar to Jimmy Stewart's in the nightmare sequence of 'Vertigo', with painted lips and pallid features whooshing in and out of their frightful dream hissing at them to 'kisssss me a lot'.
And although I see no reason why young children shouldn't be allowed to gain entry to most pop shows [seeing their musical heroes early in life could boost their happiness levels and have a positive effect on their emotional and cognitive development] for Morrissey to open up his performances - which the children are dragged to - to 'ALL AGES' (and I realize he needs the additional ticket sales), whilst knowing that he's planning to show images of police brutality and the torture of farmyard animals on the background screens, is effectively child abuse. In fact,
there is no difference. And Morrissey is responsible.
Not that children can be shielded from these horrors forever (and to gently explain the facts of the meat/dairy industry to them might have its merits, so they don't grow up to be 33 year long cheese eating frauds like child traumatizer Morrissey), but to bombard the unsuspecting child with this disturbing imagery could quite possibly have a negative effect on his or her emotional development and cause the child to slip into an unshakeable depression. Because as we know, even some fully grown adults (if we can use that word - adult - in reference to Morrissey fans; I'd certainly think twice before applying it to the front row) can't handle the brutal sights (I'm referring to the animal cruelty videos here not Morrissey's haggard and dishevelled appearance) with many fainting spells being reported in the audience; how in the world could young children be expected to deal with it? It's just another in a long line of examples of British entertainers abusing their power and 'interfering' with children. So any parents planning to purchase tickets for themselves and their children for this or any Morrissey show should be forewarned: at $85 a pop for a show which carries with it the risk of your child falling into a post-traumatic stress spiral and ending up in therapy, a more suitable destination for your money, rather that placing it into Morrissey's rapacious hands, would be to set up a college fund for your child/children and put the money there, and then maybe take them on a family day out to a screening of Minions.
Morrissey's only concerns are for your $85 and for adding animal rights advocacy to his 'Cultural Capital', not your children's welfare. He's content to subject them to all manner of depraved and grotesque imagery in his pursuit of this: therefore, I must urge you, to teach your children about the meat and dairy industry in your own time, at your own pace, whilst working together with them to adjust their diet accordingly: and make certain to steer well clear of Morrissey.
Kind regards,
and no need to thank me,
Born to Harangue
***[alternative Morrissey doppelgangers] Mr. Sophistication from The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, or a Bobby George lookalike UKIP voter laden down with fake gold jewellery holidaying in Benidorm.
http://archive.org/stream/DeathInVenice/DeathInVenice-ThomasMann_djvu.txt (read chapter three of Death in Venice for Thomas Mann's prescient description of Morrissey, published 1912.)
"
A group of young people formed the company of the first deck [...] One in a bright yellow, excessively fashionable summer suit, red tie, and a boldly bent up panama hat, exceeded all the others with his shrill voice and gayness. No sooner had Aschenbach set eyes on him than he realized with a kind of terror that this ephebe was false. He was ancient, there could be no doubt about it. Wrinkles surrounded his mouth and eyes. The meek crimson of his cheeks was makeup, that brown hair below the colorfully-banded straw hat was a wig, his neck was dilapidated and sinewy, his moustache was dyed, his yellowish and complete set of teeth which he laughingly presented was a cheap counterfeit, and his hands with signet rings on both index fingers were that of a very old man. With a shudder Aschenbach looked at him and his communion with his friends. Did they not know or notice that he was elderly, that he was wrongfully appropriating their garish dress, fraudulently played one of theirs? As if nothing had happened, seemingly out of habit, they tolerated him among themselves, treated him as an equal, answered his teasing nudges without disgust. How could that be?"