Elizabeth Taylor

Elizabeth Taylor passed away today at the age of 79. She was one of Freddie Mercury's favorite movie stars.

She was a rockstar for AIDS awareness as well. Not just for Freddie's sake, but for the whole HIV-positive population. And just a reminder for folks who may be too young to remember/do not have this perspective in mind: It was a huge fucking deal to be an advocate in the late 80's and early 90's because not much was known and there wasn't much in the way of medication. According to Phoebe's book, Freddie was essentially a guinea pig up until the end. And it's recently been suggested that Freddie could have lived longer if he made it to see 1992 (but let's be real: I'm pretty sure if he did live to see better meds and treatments become available, they probably wouldn't have done a whole lot if you consider his state in November 1991).

But getting back to Elizabeth Taylor. I fail as a queer man in the pop culture category because I haven't really seen her movies. But the important thing is I recognize her as an icon. And beyond that I recognize that she was a hell of a movie star in general. Surely that counts for something?

Impulse buy

Just got the second edition of Queen Live: A Concert Documentary by Greg Brooks. I'm surprised by how tiny it is, since the first edition is about the size of a magazine.

I still maintain that this was an impulse buy, but I'm hopeful that eventually I'll be glad to have it. Aside from the difference in size, there's a foreword by Brian. And for the record, the picture on the cover may be my favorite, not because you can see Freddie's ass and obvious underwear line (come to think of it, why was that not a problem when he wore his tights in the 70's?!), but because it's a different angle than what we usually see All. The. Time.

The seller left the price tag, and I just pulled up my confirmation email from Amazon. I purchased this book used at $14.83 plus $3.99 shipping, bringing the total to $18.82. The price sticker on the book is £7.95, which converts to $15.35. I'm not entirely sure why I felt the need to point that out, except maybe to remind myself that buying shit from the UK has its downside when you live in the USA.

Dude...

I'd like to think I'm very open-minded about Queen covers, despite being a bit of a snob. I poked around on Brian's Soapbox because, well, yeah. He posted a really interesting link to Secret Sessions where this week(?) people are taking Queen songs and making them their own. I haven't heard them all yet, but I'm listening to I Am A Camera's take on White Queen for the second time because I'm in love.

For real, I am swooning here. And at the same time I'm really sad. No doubt this will hit Queenzone and some of the members will be frothing with rage for no real reason. There are some really awesome cover versions out there (and some that are not so much. ... YMMV) and as long as the singer sounds nothing like Freddie, or the guitar sounds nothing like the Red Special, or - G-d for-fucking-bid - it sounds different in some other way, it's going to get brushed off because it's WRONG! Doesn't matter if it's actually good, it's just fucking WRONG!

I've posted about this before, as it's obviously something that gets under my skin, but I think as long as this whole, "Queen is the only band allowed to do Queen!" bullshit is still going, I'm allowed to complain.

In other news, I'm currently reading Is This The Real Life? The Untold Story Of Queen by Mark Blake, and I'm pretty impressed so far. Kids, support your local, independent book stores!



I also ordered a copy of the second edition of Queen Live: A Concert Documentary by Greg Brooks. At this point I'm not entirely sure why. I have the first edition, which is full of errors, but it's in fairly okay condition (the tears on the cover caused by my brother notwithstanding). Who knows? Maybe some day (one day. DID YOU SEE WHAT I DID THERE?!?!) I'll be glad to have both editions.

And finally, since Japan is in dire need, consider donating any money you can spare. Japan was where Queen got their jump-start in 1974, and it's always been one of Freddie's favorite places in the world. So there!

Daily Telegraph interview by Niel McCormick

A really nice interview with Brian talking about Freddie despite himself.

"If I am asked once more, 'What was it like working with Freddie?’, I will spew." - Brian May

Dave Grohl stole Brian May's undies

No, really. Here's the article!

I don't think I'll ever be able to listen to Have A Cigar without being both amused and disturbed ever again.

I Want It All/We Will Rock You mash-up

I just listened to a bit of the soundtrack for the film, Sucker Punch and... wow.

I thought I was going to hate it because the last time I'd heard any rap artist sample Queen, it made me want to tear my eyes out (Eminem sampling Reaching Out doesn't count since that's not technically by Queen, but damn, that's a good song). I searched all over Google and checked Queenzone's archives and couldn't find it, but I swear Nelly [ETA: It was actually 50 Cent. My bad, Nelly] had sampled the entirety of Greatest Hits '92 about six years ago and it was the biggest piece of self-indulgent shit I had ever come across (I dare say worse than anything Kanye West has ever done). I remember the front cover looked like Greatest Hits, but it was made to look like someone smashed the CD case in, and on the back was a picture of Nelly [50 Cent. Again, my bad] with Freddie's mustache photoshopped on his face. I listened to 30 seconds of it where the opening piano riff to Good Old-fashioned Lover Boy was on a very badly done loop. Somehow Queen was not ruined for me forever.



But this mash-up had me very pleasantly surprised. I think the first thought to pop in my head while listening was: "This is hot!"

However, I think sticking a verse of We Will Rock You in there seemed forced and didn't fit at all with the track. What may have worked better for me would probably be the stomp-stomp-clap during the chorus. But still, this was really amazing. I think I have to go see this movie.

Mini Red Special

I purchased a miniature Red Special statue on Amazon for just over $30! I'm really excited about it, but it's really fragile (or I'm just paranoid) so I don't think it'll come out it's wrapping and box until I have a proper shelf dedicated to my Queen stuff. But I took some pictures to show how awesome it is!


The box and wrapping


Brian's autograph


The statue on its display stand, next to my cell phone so you can see how small it is

What's pretty fun is the whammy bar can move, and the strings are bits of nylon. But again, I'm not going to mess with it too much. I wanted to order this Red Special wall plaque but I didn't want to deal with shipping overseas.

I'm pretty happy with this purchase :-)