29 June, 2011

More follow-up

In the Days Of Our Lives documentary, Brian had said in the 70's that people of all sexes were their audience.

All sexes. Not "both." I can't say whether this was a slip or totally intentional, but as someone who's aware that there are more than two sexes, it means the world to me that he said it.

27 June, 2011

Follow-up

I finished watching the US premiere of the Days Of Our Lives documentary. I'm awfully glad I caught it on Youtube because the BBC Two version seems less censored (for reals. They fuzzed out the single cover for Fat Bottomed Girls. SHE HAD PAINTED-ON PANTIES, FOR FUCK SAKE!). Also, the US Biography channel doesn't seem to have a sensible rhythm for their commercial breaks.

Still, it's a pretty amazing thing to watch. I tried "pre-gaming" and watched my copy of The Making Of A Night At The Opera, and got through less than ten minutes of the special the A&E channel ran on Freddie in 2009 (thank you, Youtube!) and got bored and annoyed. I've always believed that Queen fans should always be consulted on these things. The narrator mentioned Freddie's father and instead of showing that grainy picture of Freddie sitting with his dad in the 70's, they had a picture of Roger Cooke, Freddie's brother-in-law! Christ! It's one thing to get a date wrong, but holy fucking hell!


Jer Bulsara, Freddie, Bomi Bulsara


Roger Cooke, his and Kash's son, Jer Bulsara, Kashmira Cooke

Note how un-Freddie-like Roger looks! Good god...

Haiku

Freddie Mercury,
The greatest singer ever.
What more can be said?

-

Red Special guitar
Screeches like a symphony
It used to house fire

-

Drummer from Cornwall,
Roger Taylor, can make a
Snare puncture ear drums

-

He doesn't say much
But lurking beneath the bass
Are some epic songs

-

Now I'm curious to see how many of you write any sort of poetry!

20 June, 2011

Days Of Our Lives

I got word that Days Of Our Lives will be premiering in the US on June 27, 8pm (20:00) EST. I'm really excited to tune in but I'm also impatient, so I caught both parts on Youtube (the poster was extraordinarily gracious).

Being a Freddie fan, I actually really like that it wasn't essentially The Freddie Mercury Show. But I would have liked to see more archived interviews with John (by the way, the dust jacket on the book by Mark Blake doesn't even fucking mention him. WTF, Mark??!!). Although I'm willing to bet that he didn't really do a lot of interviews. Sad. I won't spoil anything, but there was a small part where a bunch of fans were singing Killer Queen and it reminded me that Queen fans were my first community... or at least a sense of not being totally alone (a mixture of pre-teen angst and being queer and growing up in the Midwest). Granted, I don't like a lot of them and as a result, I come off as a sanctimonious prick, but the first ones I met on OIQFC still make me smile, even if I haven't talked to many of them in years. Good times!

What was really strange, after I finished the last part of the documentary, I turned on my favorite radio station just in time for A Kind Of Magic to start playing! It was weird and awesome!

Peter "Ratty" Hince has a book publishing in October this year. I'm not sure if I'll buy it (right away), but it's pretty exciting. Also, I caught Thomas Crane's performance of Radio Ga Ga a couple days ago, and I laughed so hard when one of the judges was surprised that Thomas was doing "something phallic" with the mic. Because Freddie Mercury would NEVER have done such a thing!









Maybe those are all just coincidences...

Oh shit (00:14).

12 June, 2011

Jimi Hendrix, he was good

I've been listening to a lot of Jimi Hendrix lately, and it's really fun to think about listening to the hero of my hero. But not in a "OMG FREDDIE AND I ARE LIKE SOULMATES!" sort of way. That's just stupid and creepy.

I'm still reading the book by Mark Blake and I really enjoy reading about when my music heroes were nothing more than enthusiasts gushing over Hendrix. Every time I hear Castles Made Of Sand I can't help but picture Freddie sitting on a floor in front of a record player and annoying his flat mates going, "Listen to this! Just - just listen! Are you hearing this??"

That must have been awesome!

Also, Thomas Crane has talent! I wasn't expecting him to be that good! I mean, wow! In my opinion it's a really high contrast to the Queen medley performed by the judges on the US show The Voice. I love me some judges to various extents when they perform their own shit, but this medley is poorly arranged and sounds like something that would be done on American Idol. And to be very clear: That is not a compliment.