Tim Jonze clarifies why he wanted his name removed from the piece:
Morrissey, NME and me - Guardian Unlimited: Arts blog
Every single quote attributed to Morrissey in my interview with him is correct, and I stand by them
· NME
· Morrissey, NME and me
· More News/Media stories
· More Index stories
· Also by davidt
Competing priorities... (Score:1)
A man wakes up in hospital, bandaged from head to foot.
The doctor comes in and says 'Ah, I see you've regained consciousness. '
'Now you probably won't remember, but you were in a pile-up on the motorway.' 'You're going to be OK, you'll walk again, everything, but something happened. I'm trying to break this gently but your willy was chopped off in the wreck and we were unable to find it.'
Now the bloke groans a bit but the doctor goes on, 'You've got £9000 compensation coming to you and we have the technology now to build you a new willy that will work as well as your old one did, better in fact. But the thing is, it doesn't come cheap. It's a thousand pounds an inch.'
The bloke perks up at this.
'So the thing is' the doctor says, 'it's for you to decide how many inches you want. But it's something you'd better discuss with your wife. I mean, if you had a five inch one before and you decide to go for a nine incher she might be a bit put out. '
'But if you had a nine inch one before and you decide only to invest in a five incher this time she might be disappointed.
So it's important that she plays a role in helping you make the decision.'
So the bloke agrees to talk with his wife and the doctor comes back the next day.
'So' says the doctor 'Have you spoken with your wife?'
'I have.' says the fellow.
'And has she helped you in making the decision?'
'She has' says the bloke.
'And what is it?' asks the doctor. . .
'We're having a new kitchen.'
(User #12673 Info)
Heaven forfend (Score:1)
Peter
(User #7815 Info)
I'm Starting to Believe the NME (Score:0)
And I've been a fan for over a decade, have all the albums/singles, been to a dozen shows (some at great distance and expense), blah, blah, blah...I've even met him briefly! So, please, no haters questioning my fandom. Morrissey should know better not to say those things or AT LEAST know when to keep certain thoughts only thoughts and not words spoken to the NME.
Guardian Comment from Levitz. (Score:0)
November 30 22:16
Aol/gbr I have read the full interview with Morrissey as published in the NME, and while I don't necessarily agree with Morrissey's comments on immigration or his nostalgia for an England that has long since past, to suggest that they are racist belittles the gravity of that offence. He talks of immigration, you imply race, the two are not interchangeable.
Tim, I think you are being deliberately obtuse by suggesting his reference to Dublin accents in Zagreb is him likening British ethnic minorities to tourists. Surely it is more likely to be directed at the recent (mutual) opening up of EU borders to the newly joined Eastern Europe countries, i.e. suggesting an economic migration of Irish workers to Zagreb through the same channel, rather than suggesting British ethnic minorities are tourists.
The NME have distorted his words to create an inflammatory situation, the cover quote
'The gates of England are flooded. The country's been thrown away.'
is an amalgamation of two separate quotes. The quotes do not share the same sentence or same paragraph in the interview in fact they do not even share the same interview, the latter quote coming from the follow-up and the intention is obvious. The commentary that surrounds the latter stages of the interview is some of the most self serving, self righteous, schoolboy hackery that I have had the displeasure to read in recent times.
The NME is has not been a relevant music paper for a long time, perhaps if it concentrated on improving it's woeful music coverage rather than stirring up controversy and believing in it's own pompous grandiosity it might have a relevant future.
Guardian Comment from Tesswood: (Score:0)
Comment No. 813030
November 30 22:34
Brighton/gbr Levitz I think you are right about Morrissey's meaning. I can't help but think one of the problems with this interview is that the moment Morrissey mentioned immigration Tim immediately thought "Asians" whereas from Morrissey's subsequent comments it's clear he wasn't thinking of that at all. His comments about the rapid change in London have been echoed by visiting friends of mine who have remarked, neither approvingly nor negatively, that London is now full of European accents.
It´s okay... (Score:1)
& maybe one day he will understand what the controversy was about, maybe he will even understand what the difference is between Morrissey´s words & what´s been read into them.
But I suppose that would mean he has to actually read the article, which he apparently can´t do in a beach internet café in Thailand.
& he would also need to do some reflection on his own interpretations.
(User #18140 Info)
Morrissey Vs The NME again (Score:1)
Huge congrats on the new record deal - let's hope we have another album in the same vein as viva hate or quarry - but no more RINGLEADER - £2.99 in HMv - says it all for me !
(User #16641 Info)
The Man, The Myth, The Manipulation! (Score:0)
1. This could all just be a manufactured non-event designed to sell music mags and redundant best-of compilations. Morrissey is no stranger to the great British tradition of hurling oneself face-first into the bosom of tabloids who simultaneously outrage and titillate their readership. I believe Mr. Morrissey himself also enjoys that kind of relationship with his audience. And clearly, we love it!
2. Morrissey is not really saying anything he hasn't said before. Remember when he decried the rise of dance music and other forms of (truly) contemporary culture? The man has never been fond of embracing change. That's part of the Mozzer package. I don't believe he's actually identified any people in particular that he dislikes. What he actually takes exception to is *change* in all its forms. Whether it's technology, immigration, or the music business he hates movement on any front. He has an ideal in mind and wishes that everything stood still. It's not even the pace of change that the Morrissey personality finds frustrating -- 25 years on and he's yet to keep up - with anything!
Offensive (Score:0)
Jonze political route too! Journalist indeed! (Score:1)
Guess who gets a raise from NME when this is done over?
Hey Tim Jonze - Now my letter to Conor applies to you too. . . .
Furthermore, what Morrissey said is not offensive or "racist." It is an opinion. Folks are allowed to have one without it being sensationalized and called "racist."
First of all everybody in at NME and Question Time needs to take your head out of those PC clouds, wake up and realize that what Morrissey said is not a racist comment! I have no idea what kind of a world you folks must live in - I am starting to think it must be a whole lot of rainbows and butterflies. How can you use the word RACIST regarding what Morrissey said? How is that about race? WHAT DOES IT HAVE TO DO WITH RACE? Is anybody paying attention? Perhaps Tim Jonze and Conor McNicholas need to be shipped off to SUDAN to do some journalism on the situation there... then perhaps they could use their beloved word RACISM.
WAKE UP NME!!!! REAL RACISM HAPPENS AND PEOPLE are sometimes even MURDERED when it happens... and here you go throwing that word so freely about. You abuse the word and to me THAT IS DISRESPECTFUL OF BLACK SUDANESE and what they are facing right now... go to SUDAN for a few years and cover the situation there, then come back and interview Morrissey and try to tell me he is racist.
You are acting like spoiled brats who know nothing about the situations that happen in the world.
And since you think that immigration is a race issue, I will also apply the comparison to cultures that are abused (not race, culture - those are two different things folks;) why don't you go to TIBET and coverthe Chinese government mowing down entire monasteries with machine guns? Why don't you go to India and cover the Hindu's and Muslims setting one another's trains on fire?
I was walking on the shores of the Ganges in Haridwar one morning and the Muslims had taken the hooves of cows and other slaughtered animals and littered the Ganges riverside with them on the dawn of Kumba Mela, the holiday when the vegetarian Hindu's bathe in that sacred river for spiritual cleansing... Have you ever seen that? Have you seen their faces in the morning when they come to bathe? Apparently not or else you would never be tossing that word around so lightly!
Why don't you do something about the situation I saw in the airports of Dhaka in Bangladesh, where thousands line up to board airplanes to work as slaves for Saudi Arabian oil families because their lands have been flooded due to the cutting down of all the trees in the Nepalese Himalayas after they were bought by the Russians?
What do you really know about people suffering because of where they were born, what religion they are, what color their skin is, what their countries economic conditions are? Apparently not much or else you would not be throwing such accusations around so lightly.
Kanye West had a good reason to say "George Bush does not care about black people." NME just sound like a bunch of spoiled brats who are throwing around a very serious word - it appears to me you folks live in LA LA land and you are bunch of spoiled twerps trying to look and sound cool and heroic if you think what Morrissey said is RACIST.
UTTERLY pathetic, political, apparently sheltered BRATS.
Jonze, I am suprised you are in Thailand. I suggest that you take a side trip. Go to the front desk at your little internet cafe on the beach and ask about bus trips to Cambodia. Do a little bit of research and ask some older folks about the Khmer Rouge, take a day trip to Choeung Ek - 1979 is recent history.
I bringing up these things not because I am against immigration in any way - it is simply to take you out of your little bubble and give you a little bit of perspective... You really should n
(User #20478 Info | http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=suparni)
Conor McNicholas Myspace (Score:1)
Why don't you drop him a line?
(User #19949 Info | http://www.moopy.org.uk/forums)
jeesh fellas (Score:1)
they are dumb-headed and wrong. end of discussion.
how can you write a song like Mexico, about poor Mexicans being picked on by evil whiteys in Texas, then piss and moan about all the unwashed scum "flooding the gates" of England? all this while he, a foreigner, lives in Italy.
furthermore, his comments were racist. yes, they were. what is racism if not an opinion? racism is a way of thinking; you don't have to inflict violence upon another race to be racist
i still love the man (second time this year i've had to reassure myself) and always will, but this coming so soon after the dick-move of sacking Kristeen Young...well, maybe the guy oughtta take a vacation and get his head right.
(User #6367 Info)
England Decries Comments by Pop Star (Score:1)
The United Kingdom, a country who back in 2003 sent troops to Iraq and caused the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians and plunged the nation into civil war with no end in sight, decried Morrissey's insensitive comments about the foreign nationals who relocated to the United Kingdom. Many of these "foreigners"-persons who would not have relocated had their countries actually been run by real governments in the post-cold war era and not by the mob-were received with warm understanding in their adoptive countries. All were given the best maid service and trash collecting jobs, and not a single British person grumbled when they had to stand in line behind "one of them" while using the NHS.
Morrissey, a person born of Irish immigrants who ultimately left their home country after British rule had irrevocably damaged the infrastructure which had lasting effect for decades long after it achieved its independence, was called a "hypocrite", "closed-minded", and an "instigator in these sensitive times."
The NME, acknowledged that it made no sense that a man who couldn't stand foreigners has been living amongst foreigners for the last 10 years, but were undeterred. The NME editor complained, "You see? This is proof positive that Morrissey is a racist! He ran off to live in Los Angeles and was surrounded by a bunch of Mexicans for 10 years! Then, he went off to Italy and was surrounded by Italians! Will this man do nothing to get away from the immigrants who live in the United Kingdom? The fact that he forced himself to eat pizza and spaghetti for the last 3 years tells me that the man would rather eat dirt than sit next to a foreigner in the United Kingdom!"
(User #36 Info)
Tim Jonze (Score:0)
oh my (Score:1)
NME must have threatened Jonze to say something like this otherwise he would never ever get work
by musicmags
I have no other clue than this 200% changing words on this matter from Jonze
(User #220 Info)
Tim Jonez doesn't like black people. (Score:0)
England is dead. (Score:0)
I can find no other reason for the countries ass backwards, almost fascist mentality when it comes to free speech.
You guys have bigger problems than this shit, such as actually salvaging your country from what appears to be an Orwellian style take over.
No wonder so many Brits are leaving the country, while the rest of Europe, and Asia moves in. You fight too hard to protect their feelings which only breeds a sense of entitlement.
You can't be serious. (Score:0)
Despite our flaws, we at least have a means to protect our speech from raving mobs of radicals.
"Whilst" (Score:0)
Its culturalism not racism (Score:0)