1. The other day, when I watched Rocketman, I realized I'd never watched the movie Bohemian Rhapsody.
So, today, I did.
I didn't expect the movie to move me the way it did. I realized, upon reflection, that Queen's music transported me back to when I was first engaged to be married and to the early years of my first marriage. I remembered that my former brother-in-law loved Queen. He was younger than my first wife and the stereo system in his bedroom was always on. Visiting my fiancee's family meant hearing Mott the Hoople, early ZZ Top, Genesis, among other bands I wouldn't have heard otherwise, and Queen.
Today I discovered that listening to Queen from about 1974 until about 1980 had gotten inside of me more deeply than I realized at the time. Memories of the best days of my first marriage, going to school, living, and working in Spokane, and of thumbing through bins of lps in record stores came back to me and, with so much time having passed, I've hung on to memories I enjoy, that fed my nostalgia.
I didn't actively seek out Queen's music once "We Are the Champions", "Another One Bites the Dust", and "We Will Rock You" became ubiquitous songs. I didn't have to seek out Queen. It seemed like those songs were playing everywhere and my interest in Queen diminished.
As I watched this movie today, I had no clue what would make a good Queen movie or a good Freddie Mercury story. So I took it in, enjoyed the tale the movie told, gave myself over to its emotional power, shed some tears, and enjoyed reminiscing about the presence of Queen in my life -- both when they were a welcome presence and when I just got tired of the thump thump clap in stadium after stadium of "We Will Rock You"!
2. On Facebook today, Colette posted a contemporary picture of Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox, a photograph, I'd say, celebrating that they are both still alive and paying homage to the popularity of the movie, Back to the Future.
I saw Back to the Future upon its release in 1985. I've also been aware that this movie has remained very popular over the last 36 years. I remember laughing at the movie's Ronald Reagan/Jerry Lewis joke, but nothing else about the movie really stayed with me. I know that nothing about it, unlike, say Harold and Maude, moved me to watch it repeatedly.
So, after talking to Debbie on the phone and finishing my viewing of Bohemian Rhapsody, I went down to McDonald's and ordered a bare, no cheese quarter pounder with fries and a Coke, brought the burger home and dressed it my way (ketchup, mustard, dill pickle disks, and bread and butter pickles) and rented Back to the Future.
My experience watching Back to the Future was mostly on an even keel. I admired the screenplay and the movie's careful plotting, the way all its pieces fit together perfectly. I enjoyed musing from time to time on its philosophical content, in much the same way I have enjoyed thinking about what day I would like to live over again after I've watched or read Thornton Wilder's Our Town -- and wondering if I'd be disillusioned in the way Emily Webb was when she relived her 12th birthday.
I enjoyed getting caught up in the movie's suspense and felt relief that it ended the way it did.
I'm done with Back to the Future, though. Nothing in this movie compelled me to want to watch the sequels.
I've got a long list of other movies I'm eager to see for the first time.
3. After Back to the Future ended, I wasn't quite ready to go to sleep.
The other day, I purchased a streaming copy of To Russia...With Elton.
It's about an hour long documentary of Elton John performing without a band in Russia in 1979, accompanied in a handful of songs by the animated and precise percussionist Ray Cooper.
I watched half of it tonight. It's a pleasure to watch and listen to Elton John perform by himself at a piano and I enjoyed the digressions the film took into giving viewers a snapshot of life in the the USSR in 1979 and what risks those in power might have been taking in allowing Elton John to perform in their country.
Here's a limerick by Stu:
Sure, Popeye thinks Olive is “Cutah”!
Just an issue if also says "Blutah"!
So they fight, it's a rout,
'Til the spinach comes out.
Popeye's punch ends the "Blutah" "Disputah".
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