We recently discovered there’s a pretty intense Morrissey scene amongst young Latinos. In fact, one filmmaker saw fit to make a documentary about it a few years ago entitled, Is It Really So Strange? William E. Jones spent years befriending kids with pompadours in Los Angeles. Some of whom even say they adopted Morrissey’s alleged practice of sexual abstinence (*coughbullshit!*) and kept his career alive during the lean years of his West Coast obscurity (of which there were many) by attending his concerts and developing tribute bands like the Sweet And Tender Hooligans. Jones comes up with a couple of theories to explain why the kids love him so much. One is that Morrissey grew up Irish-Catholic in England, which is not too dissimilar from growing up Latino-Catholic in the United States. And another is that Morrissey’s asexuality is a relief for some gay or sensitive, male teens who are saddled with traditional gender roles by their family. (We knew it. Everyone’s gay.) The scene most likely had more than a little to do with his resurgence last year. We, of course, were way ahead of this curve as we were into Morrissey his first time around in the eighties, but we didn’t get our own documentary. And now that we’ve told the internet how very old we are, we are going home to sit in the dark and listen to “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now.”

Mad about Morrissey [Guardian Unlimited]
Is It Really So Strange? by William E. Jones [ShiftlessBody]
Sweet And Tender Hooligans [MySpace]