31 December, 2011

Happy new year

Tenementdrowser wrote down my title and I thought it was too awesome not to share.



I hope everyone has a fantastic 2012!

28 December, 2011

My only living treasure on this earth

Well, okay, it's not living but oh how I treasure it!!

My 40 Years Of Queen book came in! I am not ashamed to say that looking through it made me squee with delight. When I first heard of it, I had assumed it was basically the same thing as Mark Blake's book, so I wasn't terribly excited. But then Brian pimped the shit out of it and I found myself sobbing at my bank account "BUT I WAAAANT IT!!!" Yay for Christmas and Amazon giftcards!



There are posters and stickers and really cool shit in this book, and I'm tempted to buy a second copy just so I can have everything out and on my walls without feeling guilty. I can't wait to read it! I can't wait to flip the fuck out discuss it with my counterpart!

... Yeah. Next month I may have to get another copy :-P

26 December, 2011

Christmas shenanigans

I hope everyone's winter holidays were fantastic.

My grandmother sent me a $50 Amazon giftcard, so I spent some of it on 40 Years Of Queen by Harry Doherty. Its estimated delivery date is either December 30 or 31. It will be a fantastic way to ring in the new year! Cannot wait! While looking through the DVD section to find stuff to add to my general wish list, I came across this:



I've looked at this image at least a dozen times now and it still makes me do a double-take. I wonder if it's actually any good... I also put the Days Of Our Lives documentary on my wishlist. It will be the first blu-ray disc I've ever owned, and all because I want the super extra bonus stuff apparently not on the DVD. I'm such a slut for bonus features. (note to self: buy blu-ray player)

I meant to post earlier this month that I went to a friend's corporate Christmas party hosted by her boss. He had a fabulous home (read: awesome McMansion) that had me and my friends in absolute awe. I even drank some champagne. Not that I drink all that much, but sometimes it's fun for me to remember that I'm above the legal drinking age in the US and I should take advantage - especially if the party host is financially loaded! Lightweight that I am, I got halfway through my glass before I started to feel buzzed (after having eaten a full meal that included REALLY DELICIOUS salmon minutes before). I set the glass down and later went to the bar to get some soda, when what did I find but the brand of champagne being served to all the guests:



Moet et Chandon! I was beside myself with glee and had to take a picture. I have no idea what it cost in the UK in the '70's, but currently in the US, it's about $40.00 a bottle. And I'm sure the more experienced alcohol-drinking guests blew through what I'm guessing had to be something like 20-30 bottles (a very, very conservative estimate). I used to always dream about someday being an adult and buying a bottle to celebrate Freddie's birthday... It doesn't cost anything to dream, thankfully!

24 December, 2011

That Guy's origin story

One of my earliest memories - not the earliest, but pretty early - was watching MTV with one of my much older cousins. The video for Another One Bites The Dust came on (at one time, MTV was not the cesspit that it currently is, and was pretty exclusively all about music), and this was probably 1989/90. This memory is patchy but I distinctly remember seeing Freddie on TV.

Then in 1992, I saw the movie Wayne's World, and my life was changed for the better. Seriously, if Mike Myers or Dana Carvey ever read this: thank you for helping create what's probably the most significant moment of my life. It was unapologetic love at first listen! I'm sure at one point my family found it endearing, their youngest child listening so attentively when those words poured in from my mother's stereo speakers before finally singing all the wrong words with unbridled passion.

Having been brought up on classic rock and heavy metal, I wasn't too aware of what music was actually trendy when I counted my age in the single digits. My musical diet ranged at that point from Metallica to Elton John to what grunge came on the radio to Counting Crows, Melissa Etheridge, Madonna, and Alanis Morrisette. Queen came on the radio, and my parents wouldn't ever switch the station, but until I took notice of them, they were just background noise.

By age 11, it was apparently really uncool to listen to classic rock. My friends had all been getting into the Spice Girls, Selena, and whoever the hell else by the time I'd finally gotten a cassette tape player of my own (these things that came before CDs and MP3s) and got to pick from my parents older tapes. I picked Appetite For Destruction by Guns N Roses, Jailbreak by Thin Lizzy, and Queen's Greatest Hits. I almost skipped over that because I'd never heard the name before, but then I saw that they were the ones who had done We Will Rock You and Another One Bites The Dust, so I absently put it in the pile. Then my mom told me that that tape had what I called "The Wayne's World Song" on it. For some reason, though, she didn't know the name of it (it was written on the tape) so it was up to me to play the whole tape through until I found it.

This was the US cassette release, so it had Keep Yourself Alive and Under Pressure on it as well. Anyway! Bohemian Rhapsody played immediately after the last note in Another One Bites The Dust and I was beside myself with joy. Very soon after that, I decided that Queen was my favorite band ever. Even if that wasn't cool.

Sadly, the tape suffered a tragic and painful death many months later by getting so horribly eaten that the only way to get it out was to rip the film apart. It was hard to cope with the loss until on my tenth birthday that a friend gave me Classic and News Of The World on CD. She was also a Queen fan, but not so much as me. But we bonded anyway as we learned who each band member was and who wrote which songs.

In September 1998 on a Sunday, a former family friend drove me and my mother two hours away to try to meet Brian May at a Guitar Center and get his autograph. That same former friend had also given me his old Queen polo shirt (official fan club merch, folks!!!). Sadly, I did not get Brian's autograph, but I did get to see him in person, and that was pretty fantastic!

Also in 1998, I met my counterpart online. I entered the QFC chatroom and we immediately bonded over Freddie. Finally I had someone on my level! You have to understand that the internet then wasn't what it is today. This was back when dial-up was the norm and DSL was becoming a thing. It's not like today where you can find Queen fans everywhere. You used to have to go to Queen-specific sites and hope that that person's email address was valid and that someone in your house didn't accidentally pick up the phone because that would kill your internet connection. ... That year I also learned that numbers like 10-10-220 dialed before a phone number didn't actually do shit to lessen the long distance phone bill... Kids, be glad Skype and text messaging exist!!

Since then, my collection and knowledge has continued to expand, and I've settled down a little bit. Unless I'm talking to Audrey, in which case I feel like we're both 12 again and being super excited for the premiere of VH1 Legends Presents: Queen (because Youtube and the like didn't exist) - only now we're losing our shit in anticipation of the Days Of Our Lives documentary coming to DVD and blu-ray.

I felt compelled to write this because Audrey got her story published in Bohemian Rhapsodies (click here for her story in all it's fabulous and unedited glory) and I missed the submission deadline.

22 December, 2011

Emerging from the shadows

Wow. So I guess I haven't updated this in a while, eh? Whoops.

Not a lot has been going on that I felt was worth commenting on. "Oh, Queen got another award! Brian was asked about Freddie! Woohoo." But hey - belated hooray for those picked to be in Queen Extravaganza! That's pretty exciting! And this video of Brian holding this hedgehog has totally melted my heart. I've heard he's also no longer using leather guitar straps (can't remember the source). I think it's awesome that he's passionate and concentrates his animal rights activism in ways that aren't just an obnoxious, offensive, and otherwise all out clusterfuck.

I'm also thinking of changing the banner on this blog, and I'd like your opinions if you've got them. Currently it's this:



It's not terrible, but I feel it's a bit too simple. Plus, I feel silly having a blogspot URL on there when I'm also on Tumblr (which links back to blogspot, but still). So I spent some time looking through all my photos and came up with a cheesy collage:



I'm not at all a graphic designer, but you know what? I had fun making it, dammit! And happy fucking holidays to you all!