30 May, 2011

Lady Gaga... and a small tangent brought on by Justin Bieber

I have to give credit where credit is due. I proudly own Lady Gaga's The Fame Monster, but I'm not really in a rush to get Born This Way (click that link to see why). Still, I have tons of respect for her music, particularly the bits where she's clearly influenced by Queen.

... And I rock out to Telephone more than I care to admit.

Anyway. Yeah. Problematic as some of the things she's said and done may be, I still have respect (this may be my privilege talking). The entertainment industry is vicious and the public is even more so. Fucking Christ. Justin Bieber can't even cover Bohemian Rhapsody without Brian getting pestered about it. I don't like Justin Bieber, but I choose to avoid him. I don't get all fucking dramatic over a fucking song cover (Robbie Williams notwithstanding) and wish he'd die a slow and painful death.

29 May, 2011

The film crews for Lifetime will be knocking down Roger's door any minute

... Because there is clearly nothing more tragic than Roger Taylor having hearing loss! Oh noes!

Being d/Deaf isn't a problem. And Roger has access to the best hearing aides money can buy, he can still write and perform music, so I'm not seeing how this qualifies as a "dark secret" or suffering. A dark secret would be if Roger had eaten babies and kept the inedible parts in a storage facility. To be disabled (feel free to substitute that word for whatever works for you) in any way is not suffering. I can imagine that it's a bit of an adjustment on his part, but he isn't writhing in pain or crying himself to sleep every night so... the fuck?

Able-bodied privilege breaks my heart. Roger's "suffering" from being d/Deaf, people in wheelchairs are "confined" to them, and there are billions of other conditions that would take the rest of my life to list, and in Western society we are taught to pity and fear people who cannot do certain things, or have to do them differently, or whatever. And yeah, some people really do see whatever they've got going on as this Horrible Thing, but I just can't. The guy's been playing ridiculously loud drums at ridiculously loud concerts for most of his life, this cannot be filed under "I just don't know how this could have happened!"

I won't lie, I have days where I pretty much say "fuck cerebral palsy! This fucking sucks!" But I'm really just blowing off steam. It's fucking exhausting being treated a little less than just because I use forearm crutches (which, by the way, I've tried to see if I could use one of them as a Freddie mic, but it just doesn't work). At the end of the day, it's never really my CP that makes me angry, it's how I'm treated by everyone else as a result of having CP.

So Rog, congrats on making your deafness public. And wow! I had no idea how different American Sign Language and British Sign Language alphabets are!

18 May, 2011

Great King Rat

I've got so much going on this week that I will not be able to post on the 21st, so I wanted to acknowledge Great King Rat early rather than late.

I probably first heard this song when I was about 13, and I remember being in complete shock that I heard Freddie sing the word "whore." Not that I hadn't heard swears before. Cursing runs in my family, but there was a point where I had it in my head that the band were somehow above using such language (some used to argue that swearing meant low intellect - which is fucking horse shit). I was also convinced that Queen didn't do drugs of any sort.


Those are the collective glossy eyes of sobriety!

I think it's not too far from the truth to say that Freddie's not completely fucked up during this performance, but isn't it pretty fantastic? Admittedly it gets weird in the middle.

And Freddie's totally not coked out of his skull in the Las Palabras De Amor video. Nope. No sir. And Roger was just tired. Yep, that's right. Just tired. Yes, kids - Freddie was a fan of cocaine, though I cannot say to what extent. And Roger... I'm not totally sure about him. But hanging out with Steven Tyler can only weaken the case.



Anyway, happy birthday and RIP to Great King Rat!

09 May, 2011

Do not underestimate the awesome of kids

When it comes to music, some people (of all ages) suck. I include myself in that. But then you do a random search on Youtube for a live version of Brighton Rock and you come across something pretty damn impressive. And yeah, I'm aware that this performance is not perfect, and before you may decide to tear each kid apart for whatever they may be doing wrong, ask yourself this: what have you done lately that's so fucking special?

It's cool, I'll wait.

... That's what I thought. Anyway, this particular group is the Paul Green School Of Rock. Y'know, sort of like the movie.

I so would have hung out with this kid when I was their age! I don't care, that kid's badass. ... And just because I can.

And speaking of badass... But I should end this on a Queen video.