Bohemian Rhapsody trailer

IT'S HERE!!!! FINALLY!!!!!

brb - watching the shit out of this all day!

Bohemian Rhapsody sneak peak

YOU GUYS!!!

While we've officially been waiting for this moment since 2009, I feel like many of us have been lowkey waiting for it since the 2004 biopic Ray was released because that film really raised the bar for musician biopics. I remember the Days Of Old on the Queenzone forums when people would post wondering who would possibly play Freddie if a movie were to be made.

Contenders came down to Eric McCormack (older promo shot for Will & Grace because that's what he looked like at the time)...

(Side note: He's also a huge Queen fan!)

... And Johnny Depp, who will not be pictured here because he is an abusive prick.

And then we all know Sacha Baron Cohen was actually slated to play Freddie when the film project was hovering just inches from the ground. And then Ben Whishaw, and that five second rumor that Daniel Radcliff was in the running. And finally Rami Malek!

The poster looks great, but I'm not digging the tagline.

But the sneak peak! I HAVE WATCHED IT MAYBE EVERY COUPLE MINUTES OR SO!

I am BEYOND excited for this!! The trailer will finally drop online tomorrow, after being shown at CinemaCon in April. I won't tell you how many hours I spent combing Youtube for a leak... but I'm sure if Youtube were a conscious entity, it would have said at one point, "For fuck's sake, how many times do I have to tell you that the trailer's not here?! Get a life!"

It's cool if you're not looking forward to the movie. It's understandable to be protective of the greatest band in the universe. What fucking kills me is that Rami Malek said that Brian emailed him after seeing the film that Freddie would be very proud of it, but some fans are convinced that Freddie would absolutely despise it. I think I'm going to go with the guy who's known Freddie for 20 years.

Finally finished What He Left Behind

I enjoyed parts of this book (more on that in a second), but OH MY G-D IT REALLY COULD HAVE USED A FUCKING COPYEDITOR!

Phoebe's first book about Freddie flowed pretty well, but this... This was all over the place, and spelling errors galore! I'm wondering if part of that was a sense of urgency? The Freddie Mercury box set had been recently released at that point, and maybe he wanted to give fans that extra bit of info on Freddie? I dunno.

I also feel like the first book had Phoebe and David Evans working really closely together, but What He Left Behind feels to me like they were both writing stuff and just mashed both projects together, hoping for the best. I think that's the most disappointing part for me.

However! I appreciated Phoebe's compassion for Mary after Freddie died, and his account of what went down at Garden Lodge is way more satisfying than Jim writing in Mercury And Me that she was just a heartless asshole with zero regard for anyone else. THAT SAID, Mary and Jim Beach definitely pulled some dick moves (some were "our hands are tied because legalities and red tape" and others were "yeah, I'm going to be an asshole"), but I don't think either of them set out to be dicks before Freddie's body had gone cold. I'm also trying to factor in how grief played a role, because while Mary made some decisions that are not to be given a free pass, it should be remembered that Freddie's death fucked her up, too. It's very possible that Phoebe could be being generous in trying to explain what Mary was going through, but it's just as possible that Jim's account is so negative because he and Mary probably didn't get along all that well (based on pictures where Freddie's with both Jim and Mary, I always get the impression that there was tension). This, of course, is all up in the air because none of us knows what really truly went down. Anyone can speculate anything at this point, so I think folks should keep that in mind whether they ship Jim or Mary, or even hate them both because you're convinced that the two people Freddie cared about most could only have been using and cashing in on him.

And can I just say? The reviews of What He Left Behind where people are complaining that Phoebe and David largely talk about their lives immediately post-Freddie, and how he continues to impact their lives? It's in the fucking title! So why don't you snag a copy of Phoebe's first book (it's really good!) and shut the hell up?

So there were some good parts to this book and some really good pictures, but the disorganized, unedited writing can be a bit of a turn-off. Still, my only real regret about it is that I don't have a physical copy.

Queen Monopoly

After being super generous to me for my birthday, my grandmother informed me that she also purchased me a gift off of my wishlist. I feel terrible that she spends any money on me at all, but she got me Queen Monopoly so it's hard to stay mad at her.

I've only ever played Monopoly once as a kid, and thankfully we all decided to pack it up before things had an opportunity to get ugly, but I would happily stick this one out for the right people!

Dexter Fletcher replacing Bryan Singer

Here's hoping Dexter Fletcher isn't a fucking gross human being! Bryan Singer being fired from production on my birthday (December 4) was a really lovely and unexpected present!

Feeling gross about Bryan Singer

When Bryan Singer was first announced as the director of the upcoming biopic, my first thought was, "Maybe now this fucking thing will get made!" My second thought was, "Why do I feel really weird about Bryan Singer?"

Why I didn't look it up at the time, I don't know. I mean, I'm online like, ALL THE TIME, so you'd think I'd find the time to do a fucking Google search! Anyway, I follow him on Instagram because I want to be kept in the loop about the biopic. A week or so ago, I clicked on one of the pictures he posted (can't remember which one. Doesn't matter), and I was drawn to a comment calling him a pervert. I read a couple more comments saying pretty much the same thing, and that's when it felt like the wind got knocked out of me.

Bryan Singer was accused of sexually abusing a minor in 2014. His accuser had since dropped the lawsuit - which might help explain why it was lodged in the back of my mind, but this kind of thing should never be made to disappear. Sexual assault is one of the absolute worst things a person can do, and one of my rules in life is to always believe someone when they come forward.

Sexual assault is a pretty hot topic right now in the US. 64 people so far have come forward to say that film producer Harvey Weinstein has sexually assaulted them, and actor Kevin Spacey tried to deflect sexual abuse allegations recently by coming out as gay (as a queer man and assault survivor, I'd like to take this opportunity to say that Kevin Spacey is a fucking trash fire, and I have it on good authority that Spacey has harmed MANY boys and Anthony Rapp's situation was not a one-time accidental drunken slip-up. And I am not only livid about how all of those people have to live with that for the rest of their lives, I'm also livid that Spacey has tried to conflate homosexuality with pedophilia, and I'm furious at the entertainment industry as a whole for protecting people like Spacey (and Roman Polanski, Woody Allen, Sean Penn, James Franco, Bill Cosby, Donald Trump, music producer Dr. Luke - just to name a few). I'm furious that our society demands assault survivors provide every bit of proof even though it will never be enough, when the accused celebrity just simply needs to say, "I didn't do it,", and that's somehow fucking sufficient.

Anyway.

I've been wrestling with myself for days. Is it okay that I'm still excited about the biopic? Would I be indirectly enabling a child abuser if/when I go see and/or eventually buy the movie upon release? Would anyone involved with the film in any capacity continue working on it or allow Bryan Singer to work on it if his behavior wasn't swept under the rug by the most morally bankrupt legal teams and publicists money can buy?

I don't want to contribute to the idea that someone who creates content that brings me joy must be an infallible saint. I don't want to contribute to the silence and weight far too many of us carry because our society treats assault survivors of all genders like garbage.

What He Left Behind

I was hoping to find a physical copy of this somewhere, but no. Oh well. The Kindle app is free, and it wasn’t expensive. Still, I’m bummed I won’t get to physically add this to the book part of my collection.