It's good to be home after being away so long, even if away meant O‘ahu, Hawaii.
And it's good to have my computer, iPhone, and other technology items working.
Thankfully, I made it out of technology hell in time for me to co-host
the Insecure Writer's Support Group on the first Wednesday of April.
I struggle with time management, and I know one of the main reasons why.
I can't resist a good rabbit hole,
one that immerses me in an engrossing and time-consuming topic.
Every first Wednesday of the month, I plunge into a number of enticing rabbit holes
dug by the talented and creative members of the IWSG.
Consequently, it takes me a long time to visit around with fellow IWSG members.
One IWSG member's post in particular dropped me into a rabbit warren of tunnels.
I've been stuck underground since April 6th,
racing around and exploring all sorts of topics
as a result of visiting PJ Colando's (aka Talk Lady)
interesting and funny post on exclamation points.
Me being me, I somehow found myself in a previous post of hers Somebody vs. Someone and falling into that damn rabbit warren.
Now you might think that exclamation points and the subtleties of
using somebody vs. someone would not make for interesting and funny posts,
let alone inspire rabbit holes, but you would be wrong.
PJ can make just about any topic she tackles in a post worth your time reading.
The exclamation point is one of her favorite punctuation marks,
and she describes herself as a walking exclamation point
on the home page of her author's website.
At the upper right of my blog, I state that I live my life in exclamation marks!
Points? Marks? Just American and Canadian subtleties.
Talk Lady and I are simpatico!!!
Author Lewis Carroll's Alice
She fell into the original rabbit hole in his children' novel Alice in Wonderland
PJ chose to illustrate her Somebody vs. Someone post with videos
of Queen's Somebody to Love and the Beatles' If I Needed Someone.
I have listened to this Beatles' song hundreds of times during my life,
but I had never heard or seen this video version of Queen's song.
I was spellbound!!!
Freddie Mercury's video of Somebody to Love, recorded at the Montreal Forum
in 1985, instantly became one of my favorite live performances ever,
and I was tumbling down a rabbit hole, a branching warren filled with everything Queen.
(If you'd like to hear the song, click here: Somebody to Love.)
The Rock Group Queen
(with Brian May, Freddie Mercury, John Deacon, and Roger Taylor)
I don't know how many times I've watched this video in the days since IWSG Wednesday.
Mercury is a strutting exclamation mark,
a powerful and intense performer, musician, and singer.
I've been mesmerized watching Queen in multiple videos,
in documentaries, in the movie Bohemian Rhapsody, and in the 1985 Live Aid concert.
Queen's performance at this concert is considered among the greatest in rock history.
Terry and I were among the estimated 40% of the world's population
that tuned in to watch Live Aid on television on July 13, 1985.
Not yet a year into our marriage, Terry and I had spent the day working on our yard,
mowing grass, trimming bushes, weeding the garden, and dividing irises
that had run amok along a fence that bordered one side of our property.
We had collapsed, exhausted and hot, to tune into the show
that I described in my diary as an "incredible concert
and an incredible concept" (raising money for famine relief in Ethiopia).
Sadly, imho, Somebody to Love was not included in the Live Aid setlist.
But, what are you gonna do when you only have 20 minutes to perform,
and the most beautiful song Freddie Mercury ever wrote is seven minutes long?
And you have so many rousing hits to rock Wembley with?
I won't take you down all the tunnels I've wandered through since I last posted:
~ Freddie Mercury's extra incisors and the fossil hunters seeking
the origins of the human lineage in the Afar region of Ethiopia...
~ The bottle of Heineken beer on Freddie Mercury's piano,
and how a bottle of Heineken changed my life forever...
~ Brian May's earned PhD in Astrophysics from Imperial College London
in 2007, Philip Goff's book Galileo's Error, and metaphysics...
~ And, of course, listening to other intense performances
that never fail to lift my spirits... Okay, maybe I'll go here...
I have also been listening to these seven songs over and over all week:
1. Radiohead, 15 Step - live with the USC Trojan Marching Band
at the 2009 Grammys...
This never fails to give me the shivers.
Thom York's moves are as intense and iconic as Jagger's and Mercury's.
I can lose myself in this song for a long time.
(You may have to turn up the volume in the lower right of the video.)
2. Lady Gaga, Edge of Glory - live on American Idol, May 25, 2011...
Literally an over-the-top performance by Lady Gaga.
This was saxophonist Clarence Clemons' last public performance
before his death a few weeks later.
3. Bruce Springsteen, Dancing in the Dark - official video, 1984...
Springsteen looks impossibly young and cute now and so does Clarence Clemons.
4. Rolling Stones, Gimme Shelter - live with Lisa Fischer...
Who outdoes whom, Fischer or Jagger?
"I tell you love, sister. It's just a kiss away. It's just a kiss away."
5. K.D. Lang, Hallelujah - live at the 2005 Juno Awards in Winnipeg...
How can you not get shivers listening to the incomparable K.D.
singing Leonard Cohen's classic song?
6. Van Morrison & The Band, Caravan - live in 1976 - The Last Waltz...
I always smile when I see Morrison cutting loose.
"Turn it up! Turn it up! Little bit higher! Radio!"
7. Some people might be offended by this next video, so be forewarned
(sexually suggestive moves, cross-dressing, semi-nudity).
But its exuberant, over-the-top performance by Steven Tyler never fails
to make me laugh and buoys me up when I'm down.
Aerosmith, Dude Looks Like a Lady - official music video, 1987.
Needless to say, I didn't get much of what I should have been doing done recently.
Good thing Terry is in Vegas with his buds.
It's all good, though.
Somebody to Love and other songs can take me right out of
our troubled world and all my Gotta Dos,
and plunk me into an immediate and timeless present where I can lose myself.
Where would I be without music?
Can you resist rabbit holes, or do you tumble into them a lot?
Are you a longtime Queen fan like me?
Are there songs that compel you to listen to them over and over again?
I'd love to hear your thoughts.
See you next week! Stay happy and safe!
Till next time ~
Fundy Blue
On the Bay of Fundy
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
