Pride and Shame for Queen Me

For three of my undergraduate years at the University of Utah, my roommates and I hung a Queen poster in a prominent place in our home. It was always where it would be seen when someone would walk in. It looked like this:



Since I consistently lived with three other dudes, it was only natural that we would each choose one member of the band who we would re-personify (because they are/were already people). My roommate Neil originally owned the poster and he bore some resemblance to him, so he got to be Freddy Mercury (in yellow). Clark was the only blonde and at the time his hair was fairly feathered, so he was the dude in the black track suit. I had a flowing mane at the time so I was the dude on the far left. He is also wearing some sort of lab coat which makes the choice seem more appropriate now, because the pharmacist is often associated with a lab coat in our society. Paul rounded this out by being the dude on the far right. He didn't really look like the guy and he didn't look like he was wearing diapers either, but that dude was all that was left.

As roommates moved out for varied reasons (i.e. marriage), they were replaced and the new roommate would take over as the recently de-re-personified band member. Due to my extraordinary ability to not get married, I was the only roommate to last the entire era. (When I moved out, the 4 roommate structure was dissolved and the poster band broke up.) My endurance as the only original re-personification brought me a certain amount of pride and some shame.

The poster was moderately amusing to my roommates and me because of its allusion to homosexuality. Sometimes people would come over and say, "Nice poster," while making a raised-eyebrow expression suggesting that we didn't get what Queen symbolizes. We would then act like we didn't know what they were insinuating and everything was perfectly normal about it and we just liked Queen or we thought it was a cool picture. It was something of a mind game that worked to expose people who wouldn't get what we were about and to make a good joke for people who did. Incidentally, we also hung an Aaron Carter poster in our bathroom that looked like this:


This further supported the ambiguous sexuality that was part of the joke. (I'm laughing out loud at this right now.)

I was proud of being the dude on the far left, who I found out today to be named Brian May. He was the lead guitarist. I was also somewhat ashamed because he looks like such a geek and he was also part of Queen. I tend to identify with types that are more macho and handsome who don't have both hands in the front pockets of their labcoat and a goofy expression on their faces (unless its a joke, in which case I'll identify with them for years.)

The point of it all is that I read on the internet today that Mr. May recently submitted his doctoral thesis in astronomy. I actually experienced a small bit of personal satisfaction in this. Maybe there now exists a connection between our minds like Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort. I do have a scar on my forehead.