On Nov. 10 and 11, the British pop singer and cultural icon Morrissey played two sold-out shows at the Hollywood Bowl. I attended both shows, admittedly with reservation: Morrissey, my longtime favorite singer, lyricist and hair icon, is making headlines again for his questionable comments, this time about Muslims, migrants, multiculturalism and men behaving badly.

I write very openly in my book, “Mozlandia: Morrissey Fans in the Borderlands,” that I have been a Morrissey fan for decades and have no plans to stop. But my fandom ebbs and flows. These days, it ebbs. So, when Nov. 10 came around — Morrissey Day, no less, as declared by the Los Angeles City Council — I needed something to remind me of why this man, deep down, still mattered to me and the thousands of fans who packed the Hollywood Bowl that day and the next.