QUEEN - Hungarian Rhapsody/Live In Budapest 9/20/12 Ziegfeld Theater, New York City

It was a great joy to return to the Ziegfeld theater after a time span of about 35 years, I saw Star Wars here in 1977 which was probably the second movie I ever saw in a "movie house", the first being a double feature of "The Land That Time Forgot" and "Frogs" so when choosing a New York theater for this screening I chose the Ziegfeld over the more intimate Chelsea Cinema for sentimental value alone. The theater hasn't changed much in all this time remaining a real 1970s classic.

Jotting down the address to the theater before leaving my house I got my signals crossed and wrote 141 West 45th street whereas the Actual address is 141 West 54th street so I power walked over and Jamie was already at the box office window chatting with the ticket booth clerk.



Come 2012 and the QUEEN Live In Budapest film and VHS tape release has been digitally remastered for clearer image and sound and retitled "Hungarian Rhapsody" and they indeed did a great job with it. The audio was superb in the theater and for once no one had to grumble "Turn It Up" as oft happens at these concert film events. The concert was preceded by the 25 minute documentary "A Magic Year" that chronicled the year leading up to the concerts in Hungary beginning with the Live Aid performance, this will be an extra feature on the upcoming DVD release.



QUEEN in alphabetical order.



Classic shot of Freddie at the keys with his Heineken and water (or is that vodka ?)



On the way in I snapped a pic of the promo poster and on the way out due in no small part to Jamie's collector's mentality we grabbed these very copies off the glass, mine is now proudly framed and on display.



two typical QUEEN fans, one of us looks like a Blueberry Muffin.




Taken from my seat, Just wanted to share the Theatrical Experience folks.



Prior to my getting to the theater I had a Lunch Special of Sweet & Sour Pork with Pork Fried Rice and my cat also almost had some as well.

QUEEN ONLINE PRESS RELEASE

Flash Gordon - JGM Remaster

In these days of digital storage and the information highway its easier than ever to catch slight differences in detail. Actually, I havent changed and was of a sharper mind thirty years ago when I would just be comparing liner notes on vinyl LP's but I digress.

Queen is celebrating the 40th anniversary of the band's existence with an exhibit, T.V. Documentary, a book or two, fan club merchandise and of course a slew of remastered back catalog of the records that brought them success and infamy in the first place.

Staring at the tracklisting in my Itunes concerning 1981's Flash Gordon soundtrack Right away I notice some type of discrepancy in the track titles as I have lived with this record for thirty years now, aside from the bonus material on the new editions (and thankfully the excising of the awful 1991 Hollywood Records bonus track remix of Flash's Theme) There are four tracks entitled Flash Gordon 1,2,3 and 4

This is because I have the rare JGMusic remix bonus tracks as well and after getting in touch with JGM I am informed that this keeps the tracks fluid and continuous. That Jim is an Awesome Editor.

Q40

My Favorite Band Ever if I was Absolutely Forced to pick.

Brian May Lecture/Signing - A Village Lost & Found 7/23/10 Metropolitan Museum Of Art, New York City

Always a joy to meet Mr. May and in this case attend a short lecture as well in a lecture hall proper at the Metropolitan Museum of Art during a promotional trek for the art book "A Village Lost & Found" which celebrates and archives the stereographic pictograms which T.R. Williams spent his life creating. I was a little surprised to see that most of the crowd seemed to be "stereoscope" enthusiasts as opposed to the expected QUEEN fan but this gave a satisfactory feeling at the proceedings to pronounce the book a success in its own right without a Red Special Toting Curly Haired Rock Star Icon name checked as an author to pre-merit the books quality, popularity and appeal.





I had no idea what to ask Mr. Brian May and being exhausted with pedestrian QUEEN questions I went with the obvious.

me: "On a completely unrelated subject have you been following the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva ?"

Brian May: "From a Distance"

e.g.-(The upcoming experiments at the Large Hadron Collider have sparked fears among the public that the LHC particle collisions might produce doomsday phenomena, involving the production of stable microscopic black holes or the creation of hypothetical particles called strangelets)



Of course Jamie not only got her book signed but also her complimentary 3-D glasses, ticket stub and needing something QUEEN related, Her last minute purchase of a QUEEN(s) book (see below).

I was there as Jamie asked "Would you sign my QUEEN book?" to which Brian May took a brief gander at and replied "I guess so" we knew Mr. May would be good humored and accommodating but this also leaves Jamie with a highly collectable "one of a kind" piece within the "arcana" set as well (see below).

For those with NO Sense of humor write me or figure it out for yourself (see below).

Prized Possessions - QUEEN Autographs

From Myspace Blog 1/26/08 and hastily composed too.

MEETING QUEEN IN 1982 -

Yes, i will never forget meeting QUEEN. they were in town for 3 nights at Madison Square Garden on the "Hot Space" tour. Roger was on a local news program "Live at five" the day before and the reporter mentioned the in-store at Crazy Eddies.
I was one of the first people down there (around 10 a.m.) and hours later QUEEN arrived and got out of their cream coloured limo to much applause from us.
Brian raised his fist in the air to show approval. Very Cool to my 16 year old mind (actually still cool)

As we made our way to the room upstairs (complete with video monitors,TVs in those days playing "Queen's Greatest Flix") the staff informed us that we were only allowed one autograph per person!!! WHAT TO DO?
Brian is my favorite but even then I knew Freddie would be the toughest one to get a signature from in the grand scheme of things.

I placed my plain piece of copy paper in front of Freddie and he signed it (I didnt say anything, I was very shy and a bit starstruck). Next John asks me very nicely "would you like me to sign this?" I probably nodded yes and he did. On to Roger (who wound up being very cool) and by this time I got some courage up. I mumbled "I saw you on live at five yesterday" to which Roger replied "sorry" he didnt quite catch what I was saying and to a New Yorker's ears "sorry" was quite exotic and British compared to the typical "excuse me". I repeated myself and Rog told me "I was bloody tired" (mind you he said it very good naturedly). Finally on to Brian to whom I mumbled "Your my favorite guitar player" But alas he didnt hear me (also how many times has he heard that!!!) and I went on my way totally satisfied that I got all four signatures and met the band.

I distinctly remember having one last look back at the band sitting there and thinking "WOW Its QUEEN"

I did take some photos that day but lost them years ago. Im sure they will turn up some day,one day.