And shake the foundations from the sky

Omg.

You guys.

Seriously.

THIS IS SO FUCKING AMAZING!!!!!!

I started with the DVD because I was most looking forward to the documentary. I was hoping it would go into detail with every track, but this was sadly not the case. It was pretty much the same footage from The Great Pretender. And it's not that it was bad footage, I was just hoping that it was merely scratching the surface and giving us fans something to really visually look forward to with Barcelona.

The CDs failed to disappoint, though! I put both the proper album and the instrumental version on my iTunes and played them through my headphones. Obviously I adore the original version to the moon and back, but I can't pretend all the genuine orchestral instruments don't blow my mind. Jim Beach said all the arrangements done for 2012 were faithful, and I had some reservations, but the man speaks the truth. There are even some added touches, like a koto in La Japonaise and a wave/church organ in The Golden Boy. Rufus Taylor (Roger's son) replaced all the machines with actual drumming, and John Deacon's bass is left in in How Can I Go On.

I think my favorite thing so far is that the orchestra also tinkered with Exercises In Free Love so that it sounds a bit more separate from Ensueno. I heard the original some years back and was impressed with it, but in its new incarnation it's so gorgeous and moving that I come close to crying every time I hear it. Not that I'm "too manly" to cry, but it doesn't come very easily to me.

Also! You guys! The orchestra actually performs Overture Piccante!!! You have no idea how badly I'd love to see this entire album performed live (obviously with Freddie appearing via video)! JIM BEACH, MAKE THAT SHIT HAPPEN!

SO glad I was able to make this purchase! Here's a really cute picture of Freddie and Montserrat!

New year

Hey, folks! My typing indicates that I'm back!

My December holidays were fantastic. Thanks to my wonderful grandmother's generosity via Amazon giftcard, I'll soon FINALLY own the 4-disc set of Barcelona! It should arrive sometime in the next week or so.

At the end of December, I went to see the ever-awesome Gunpowder Gelatine at Johnny D's. You guys, they played I want It All and they ROCKED IT! I mean, they rock everything, but that was probably the tightest I've seen them perform in general. Obi Fernandez got on stage before them, followed by a Van Halen cover band called Van Railin'. Try as I might, I'm not too into Van Halen, but I could appreciate Van Railin's' dedication and talent. I didn't stick around to see Power Of Love, but I'm sure they were excellent. Maybe next time!

Also, Allison dresses like John Deacon and that makes me ridiculously happy :-)

My New Year's Eve was also exciting since I got to spend it with my girlfriend. She was in London, UK last year having fun and getting me a Sixpence like Brian used to use as a guitar pick. This year, we listened to A Night At The Opera and played Cards Against Humanity while drinking hard cider. I typically don't drink, but yum. There were also cupcakes with pink frosting. And glitter. Glitter cupcakes. Damn delightful!

That Guy's cat

Because my cat is awesome.

I hope you all enjoy your respected December holidays! Thank you for helping make mine more awesome :-)

21 years

RIP, Freddie.

Thankful

It's Thanksgiving/National Day Of Mourning here in the US, and I wanted to take a minute to say that I'm thankful to have you reading and following my blog. I'm also thankful for Queen's music - but that should go without saying. I know these days a lot of Queen fans piss me off, and that makes me appreciate the ones that don't that much more!

Here's a video of Jimmy Fallon and The Roots performing (read: miming) We Will Rock You at the Macy's Day Parade this year.

For fuck sake

This is regarding the use of the N word in the track, The March Of The Black Queen. I'm not saying that this isn't a good song (it fucking rocks), or that people shouldn't listen to and enjoy it (I don't want to know anyone who wouldn't!), but Freddie using that word was wrong.

Oh humor me, what is the meaning of the song that makes you so sure Freddie was being racist? And think this, if Freddie had used the 'mother fucker' in his song, would you have considered that he was talking about somebody who fucked a mother? And why (or why not?) - serenadeyoursilence

Freddie using the N word was racist. Context and intention aren’t necessary to keep racism thriving.

Obviously I can’t convince you that this kind of shit is problematic. Conversely, you can’t convince me that words that harm and oppress minorities are completely innocuous. Stalemate. We’re done here.

- That Guy Who Really Likes Queen And Doesn’t Need To Come Up With Irrelevant Hypotheticals To Derail The Issue At Hand And Justify His Ignorance And Bigotry

--

It's not at all my intention to turn this into a social justice blog. Although since I'm big on social justice (liberal, intersectional feminist, and proud of it), it's only inevitable that sometimes my critical thinking will intersect with this blog. Queen's music means the whole world to me, but it is in no way sacred. If you want to disagree with me, that's fine, but please don't waste my time and energy with mental acrobatics to defend using racial slurs and other hate speech.

Follow-up in my Ask box

IMLHO, you can't take a word out of the whole song. And you also should consider the circumstances when the song was written. These days, people are so politically correct, they try to find anything to justify the opinion. Don't use this, don't use that. Words are shaped and raped in ways that fit to their pov. In the end, words lose their meanings. I'd say, shove it. - serenadeyoursilence

It’s really easy to dismiss the weight of words that have never applied to your lived experience, isn’t it? One of the MANY joys of any sort of privilege is being able to completely ignore shit that doesn’t personally affect you. What continues to amaze me is the “The N word is completely meaningless and should be given absolutely zero attention and critical thought, BUT OMG WHY CAN’T I SAY IT EVEN THOUGH I WANT TO??11!!!!1” response so many “I’m not racist, but…” white people have when they’re told that that word isn’t theirs to say.

If I’m able to continue to do the work involved in unlearning racist shit and acknowledging my white privilege, you can too. And if you don’t want to put in that kind of effort, then you have absolutely nothing of value to contribute to any discussion about race and should therefore sit down, shut up, and let the grownups talk.

- That Guy That Really Likes Queen And Has Zero Patience For Your Bullshit

Seriously, not singing along to that word will not ruin the integrity of March Of The Black Queen.