I will immortalize you

What I desperately wish was the worst part of my date from the other night:

Guy: I *love* Broadway musicals!

Me: I've only been to one so far, but I didn't enjoy it. It was We Will R-

Guy: Stop right there! I loved it! How did you not love it??

Me: The story was flimsy, the pop culture references were forced, and the protagonist referring to her as "his woman" and that crap didn't sit well with me.

Guy: But that's how it was back then!

Me: The story takes place in the future.

Guy: ...

And then the rest of the evening continued to careen downhill for several reasons that had nothing to do with Queen.

--

As my friend/writing coach/pastor/fellow Queen fan Toni Amato always says: Never piss off a writer! We will make you immortal, and you will not like it!

Some really cool art

I love when people ask me to promote their stuff on my blog. It makes me feel legit!

So Nick Palmer (hi, Nick!) emailed me with a press release and some really kickass work he's been doing. If I didn't like it, I wouldn't post it, but I think it's really clever! Certainly more interesting and creative than most of the official cover art these days! In case you don't know what I'm talking about, the most egregious offender:

What kind of a lazy-ass... You know what? No. I'm not getting into that here. On with the good stuff!

Each song is represented by its audio signature, or waveform, which is wrapped in a circle around the title. This results in a composition reminiscent of a vinyl record.

A small amount of ‘silence’ is inserted at the start and end of the waveform and positioned where the needle would fall on a record player. This silence also serves to draw the eye from the title in the centre to the lyrics at the bottom right.

For many people these songs defined a moment in time, a special part of their lives that will always be evoked by the music. Tuneloop captures that feeling and expresses it with colours based on the original single or album artwork. - Nick

All Tuneloop editions are hand-pulled screen prints made using the finest archive quality inks on 100% cotton, mould-made Somerset Satin paper.

All art on Tuneloop is £85 plus shipping and packaging, and can be shipped anywhere! That's pretty convenient for those who celebrate winter holidays where gifts are exchanged! Also, they're limited edition, so the pressure is ON! You can see more pictures of all sets here.

We Will Rock You in Boston

So Allison (bass player of Gunpowder Gelatine), her awesome wife Amanda, and I got dinner and saw the musical tonight. Ordinarily, I'd wait until the next day to make a post so that my thoughts are collected and fully formed. But I don't think I need to for this.

I will say, before anything else, that the cast's overall musical performance and the accompanying band were really good. However, I wasn't too impressed with the storyline or dance moves (to be fair, I'm not big on choreography in general). By no means am I an expert in musical theater, so it's likely that I really don't know what I'm talking about (I mean, We Will Rock You is over a decade old, so they must be doing something right, right?). But I am a movie geek, so I hope my standards for story structure and plot sort of translate?

Don't worry, I'm not going to spoil anything. But I will say the pop culture references felt forced and the ending was anti-climactic. I wasn't expecting to see the most awesome thing to ever awesome, but it was sad how disappointing those parts were. I probably couldn't do any better if Brian and Roger were to ask me (guys, if you're reading, we should totally hang out, though!), but as a die-hard fan who's heard a lot of hype about this show over the years, I'm sure it's not unreasonable for me to expect a bit better.

Overall, I'm really glad I had the opportunity to go, because my friends are awesome, and it was an entertaining show overall. My dislikes weren't enough for me to completely hate it. But I can definitely see why Roger isn't too keen on it. Maybe I'll have to consider Freddie's words about his music being disposable pop and apply it to this.

But Killer Queen (played by Jacqueline B Arnold) was awesome. Seriously. She gets all the gold stars for her performance.

--

Aside from gabbing about Queen with Allison (Amanda referred to us as "über fans"), my favorite part of the evening was what was in the lobby of the Boston Opera House!

FREDDIE'S KIMONO!!!

LIKE, THAT HE ACTUALLY WORE!!!

Me and Allison. Amanda was kind enough to take pictures :-)

All in all, not a bad way to spend a Tuesday night!

October is awesome, revisited

Between meeting my counterpart, meeting and getting Brian May's autograph, going to see Gunpowder Gelatine at the end of the month, getting a LOT of Tumblr followers (hi, folks!), and my cat willingly sitting in my lap yesterday (she's snuggly, and she'll curl up on my chest, but laps have never seemed to be her thing), I thought I had raked in all the awesome possible for this month! But then I got an email this morning from a friend I pet sit for, offering to buy me a ticket to We Will Rock You in Boston!

Hello, Zander --
Are you interested in seeing the play, "We Will Rock You"? It is playing at the Boston Opera House.
Discounted tickets are available right now on Goldstar and Toni and I would like to give you a mezzanine ticket as a cat-sitter-thank-you. The date available is Tues., Nov. 5th at 7:00pm.
But we understand if you don't want to go alone, or hoof it into the city solo, or if the date does not work for you, so don't feel obligated to say yes.

Tell me what works for you!

My cool and dignified response...

YES! OMG THANK YOU!

--

I'm a believer in karma, so now I'm wondering what I did to deserve such wonderful friends and opportunities. I'm also wondering if maybe something terrible is about to happen (not counting Lou Reed's passing yesterday. RIP) and my interpretation of G-d is trying to soften the blow! But I'm trying to put my cynicism aside, ignore the pervasive thoughts that come with debilitating anxiety and depression, and appreciate what's happening.