Video: Google Remembers Freddie Mercury

Freddie Mercury would have been 65 years old today.  To celebrate, Google UK has put together a doodle in tribute of the bisexual rock icon.  He died on November 24, 1991, from complications from the AIDS virus.



On a personal note:  When playing the Google video for the first time, my three year old ran to my laptop and screamed, "Is that Freddie?".  She has never heard that particular Queen track before.  Yes, we play that much Queen in our home.  In fact, she has known all of the words to 'Bohemian Rhapsody' since she was 18 months old.

Secondly, am I the only one that can't hear 'Don't Stop Me Now' without thinking of 'Shawn of the Dead'?

Happy Birthday, Lady Gaga

How could I not let the day go by without wishing Gaga a Happy 25th?  Having such a prolific career in such a short amount of time, she'll be remembered as one of the most poignant and controversial artists of all time.  In just three years, Gaga has not only become an identity, but a brand.

Having accomplished much more by the age of 25 than Madonna could have ever imagined, (Madonna had only released her first album a month before her 25th birthday) Lady Gaga has already gone on to win 5 Grammys, 18 MTV Awards, and countless Billboard awards.  Not to mention, as of August 2010, selling 51 million singles, and over 15 million albums.

She is also one of the most unselfish people in the music industry, becoming one very creative philanthropist.  Just within the last 18 months, she has had a hand in raising over $160 million for AIDS research, raising money for PETA, and raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for the earthquakes in Haiti and Japan.  She's a vocal, very vocal, advocate for LGBT rights, and, some may say, has done more for the cause than many politicians in Washington.

'Born This Way' has really grown on me over the last couple of weeks, but the video has this 3 minute intro that is just to strange, even for my tastes.  Instead, I'm going to play my favorite Gaga video to date, 'Bad Romance'.  In my opinion, it's the perfect dance song.  You can't get any better.  Enjoy, and Happy Birthday, Gaga.

Transcript Of Reagan Era White House Press Conference

Courtesy of Joe My God:

Laughter about dead queers. At the White House. It was five long horrifying and desperate years later before Reagan finally personally addressed the AIDS epidemic, when he came out against a public prevention campaign, saying, "Let's be honest with ourselves, AIDS information can not be what some call 'value neutral.' After all, when it comes to preventing AIDS, don't medicine and morality teach the same lessons?" By then, tens of thousands had died.

Like I said, I hope he's rotting in Hell.

'And The Band Played On' - Reagan's Real Legacy

When the AIDS epidemic was starting in the 80s, I was too young and too sheltered from the outside world to really get the impact of what was going on.  It wasn't until much later that I was able to get a true understanding of how somber of a time it was to live in.  To have your friends, your partner, waste away and painfully die of a disease, while treated like a leper.  Often times alone.  It's disturbing to think that tens of thousands of Americans died that way, just because it was initially thought of as a "gay disease".

I highly encourage you to watch a movie called 'And the Band Played On'.  It was made in the mid 90s and it is a dramatization of the years following the initial AIDS outbreak.  It's shocking to see how the Reagan Administration dragged their feet regarding the AIDS virus.  When it came to their cooperation with the CDC, the Administration lacked funding, resources and compassion.  By the time Reagan even mentioned the word "AIDS" in public, roughly 30,000 people had already died of the virus.  It was inexcusable.  The following is the last five minutes of the film, a tribute to those that died or contacted HIV in the 80s:



I really hope that fucker is rotting in Hell.