Bohemian Rhapsody. The year was 1992. An extremely funny (and socially awkward) teenage girl sat in a dark theater watching Wayne and Garth with her friends on Valentine's Day weekend, not knowing she was about to have her mind blown (and get a minor case of whiplash). As hip as I was for someone growing up in suburbia in the 1980's and 90's, I had never heard Queen's classic six-minute ditty, so when those two goofy public-access hosts and their buds burst into the 'mock opera' while cruising around town, the singer in me could barely contain herself. As soon as the movie was over I convinced my friends to track down a CD of the song so we could reenact our own scene from
Wayne's World. Imagine six teenagers crammed into a mid-size car with "I see a little silhouette of a man" blasting from the speakers and you'll get a strong sense of what my Saturday nights were like in high school. Yeah, I know you're jealous. Almost twenty years later I still know every single word of the song and passionately belt it out whenever my iPod shuffles it up. I have a feeling, Jason, that you are just as familiar with Freddie Mercury's bizarre, yet inspired, lyrics, and would indulge me in a sing-along and some head thrashing if the mood ever struck while we were tooling around town in my Outback. And if you happen to go a little overboard with your interpretation of the song, I will gladly rub the crick in your neck or hand you a small cup and, in my best Garth impression, tell you to spew into it. Party on, Jason!
