22 July, 2010

Because there is nothing more important than this!

As an American, I'm not too familiar with The Daily Mail... because I'm not British and The Daily Mail is... and I will avoid quoting Eddie Izzard, tempting as that is. Anyway! They posted an article of phenomenal importance! Domestic violence, patriarchal standards of beauty physically and emotionally damaging people each and every second of every day, racism, transphobia? THOSE CAN ALL WAIT! Or, THAT KIND OF SHIT CLEARLY DOESN'T HAPPEN IN THE UK! Because BRIAN MAY'S GREY HAIR IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING ANYONE CAN EVER WRITE ABOUT... EVER!



I mean, what the fuck? He's 63 years old! He's probably been dying his hair for the last 10 or 20 years for all I know. I mean, really? Did they think his hair was never going to change? Mad guitar skills != eternal youth!

And the caption beneath the photo? "The rocker's trademark curls seem finally to have succumbed to the ravages of time." Ummm... I'd say he isn't ravaged at all. Mick Jagger is ravaged. Marlon Brando was ravaged. Michael Jackson... well, nevermind. I'm not going to go there. Considering Brian has been in the rock business since the 70's, and has probably done more drugs than he'd care to admit (not to slander the guy, but I'm not stupid enough to think that he didn't party at any point in his career), he looks pretty good for his age. Hell, most rock stars probably look like that in their 40's once you take away the air brush! I also love that The Daily Mail makes a point of quoting Brian that he thinks people talking about his hair is stupid... and they're writing about it anyway...

... I wonder what's going to happen when someone besides me notices that Brian's hair is thinning.

Age isn't an insult. Especially in the rock business where a lot of musicians don't even make it to 50 (like a certain someone we all should know... That's right, Jimi Hendrix). I think it's good that Brian's letting the grey show. And if anyone wants to rip on him, keep this in mind: He's Brian May. He kicks way more ass than you can comprehend. And that's on his worst day. Cheers, Brian!

19 July, 2010

Happy birthday, Dr May!

Holy crap! It's Brian May's 63rd birthday! Fortunately, I follow Queen on Facebook and Facebook made sure to tell me.


I want to say this is circa '81 or '82...?

I'm checking out Brian's soapbox and I figured I'd ask you guys (both my followers and anyone who might accidentally stumble on this blog) to donate to save-me.org.uk if you'd like to do something nice for Dr May's birthday. For the record, I have no personal stake in save-me.org.uk. So if you are unwilling or unable to send the organization any money, I won't be hurting in any way. I just thought it would be cool because you'd be giving Brian a present and supporting the welfare of animals native to Britain.

12 July, 2010

Reviewing my collection, part 3

One of the perks of being a Queen fan is that satisfying feeling one gets when they've got all the albums. The downside is that after owning them for years, after a while they get kind of tedious and maybe a little boring. But then I have the luxury of coming back to them and rejuvenating that joy I felt when I first heard them.


I wonder if John Deacon looks at pictures of himself in the 80's and asks, "Why did I think it was a good idea to have my hair styled that way?!"

The Works is something I've really gotten into lately. I've probably owned it since I was about 14, but even when I first got it I don't recall having loved it as much as I do now. ... However, I find the lyrics in I Go Crazy (B-side) to be extremely problematic, but I'll save that for an entirely separate post. *thinks about it for a second* Yeah, I'm totally going to make a post on that in the future.

Anyway! It's strange. Years ago, I didn't even like Tear It Up, and I didn't particularly care one way or the other about Man On The Prowl. But as of late they've grown on me quite a bit.

What the hell? Man On The Prowl was just a cheap revisiting of Crazy Little Thing Called Love, right?! It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't great either. And now I honest-to-G-d like it!



News Of The World was tricky for me for a while. I have a soft spot in my heart for it because it was the second Queen CD I ever got, but for a long time I felt it was missing that... "fullness" like in every other track I heard (read: a lack of 34758347532453475897 layers of sound Queen was notorious for). But yeah, it's also recently really grown on me. In fact, I'm pretty sure Spread Your Wings is my favorite John track. Don't hold me to that, though. It could change any day.

I did intentionally not listen to this album for a long time, because in the Midwest in the USA, We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions both get really old. Plus, it always infuriated me to hear other people: "I like that song, what is it? The one that goes We will, we will rock you!" But then, I'm that kind of snob that immediately distrusts anyone who declares their favorite Queen song is a Greatest Hit. If you're reading this, chances are you know that there's more to Queen than what you just hear on the radio. And if you don't know that, I don't want to know you.

03 July, 2010

I think I want to start playing Mario now.

[EDIT] Half the video screen I embedded was being blocked off. So if you want to see this video, click on the URL below. You won't regret it, I promise!

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1925506