[Pink Culture] The One and Only Freddie Mercury

Freddie Mercury by Gabriela Rondon via Flickr.

So this past week I finally got to watch Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender, which is a 2012 feature length documentary about the life of Freddie Mercury, particularly focused on his efforts to have a solo career. Most folks remember him as the front man for British rock band Queen. But this feature looked a little deeper into his personal life - something that has largely been rather private given Freddie Mercury's seemingly unusual shyness in contrast to her public persona.

And the whole feature got me thinking about my own love for Queen and ultimately Freddie Mercury given his tremendous contributions to music and more importantly for how his many songs just felt like they really spoke to me along with everyone else who came around to loving their music. And while Freddie Mercury may be considered a somewhat controversial figure in LGBT history because of how he handled his sexuality as perceived in the public.

But I think they really broke the mold when Freddie Mercury came to being and he certainly had some interesting and quite unique methods of personal expression that really blew the imagination away.

[Movies] Flash Gordon (1980)

In trying to figure out what older / potentially classic movie to post a review for, my cursory Google searching had me stumbling on a certain image (I can't even remember what it was now) and then starting to him the classic rock anthem theme song from the Flash Gordon movie. You know - the one by Queen that probably defined the movie a heck of a lot  more than its actual story or actors.

And darn it, I really like Queen. And I'm man enough to admit that on the internet!

So I first caught this movie during some lazy afternoon during that sad period when HBO seems to play the worst movies every. You know what I'm talking about right? Those dead hours in the early afternoon when they shuffle the slow-moving stuff from their archives given most people are still enjoying a late lunch or possibly an afternoon siesta at that time. But despite the lure of a nap, I remember plowing through the movie for the heck of it.

And to this day, this movie remains one of those that remain inanely memorably, although primarily because of the wicked cool soundtrack.

Oh yeah, you go rock on, Freddie Mercury.