2010 Year in Review: Queen

While most fans expect that 2011 will be an exciting year for Queen, given that it marks the band's 40th anniversary, personally 2010 was a rather marvelous year for me.

Of course, the big news is that in July, I met Dr. Brian May, Queen's guitarist. Click here to read my account of the day.

Though I didn't go into detail here, my encounter with Dr. May did not end that evening at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The next morning, I emailed Dr. May and thanked him for signing my book and CD. I also provided him with a link to my blog entry about meeting him with the explanation that I thought it might provide him with a bit of amusement.

To my surprise and delight, Dr. May responded! His message was short and simple, but enough to give me a thrill. Many fans have contacted Dr. May on a variety of topics yet a very small percentage report receiving any type of reply.

And believe it or not my excitement didn't end there! Later that weekend, I received another email from the woman who designs Dr. May's website. In her email, she wrote that Dr. May had in fact looked at my blog post and rather liked some of the pictures that Husband had taken of the lecture. She asked if I could send larger versions of the pictures and if I would allow Dr. May to use the pictures on his website.

Of course, I agreed and sent the photos along. Sadly, the lecture at which I met Dr. May was right in the middle of a busy touring schedule and once he had time to make a decision about using the pictures, it was too late. In fact, he never even wrote about the New York book signings on his blog (a highly unusual occurrence as he typically documents all his comings and goings in his Soapbox).

Just knowing that he had actually laid eyes on my blog though, even if it was just long enough to admire Husband's pictures, provided me with another great thrill and made my experience of meeting him even sweeter!

In honor of my momentous meeting, I spent the year thinking "all foxes, all of the time" (as a nod to Dr. May's Save Me campaign which hopes to prevent the return of fox hunting in the U.K.) Anthropologie was more than happy to help feed my new fetish and had an entire line of fox themed clothing and housewares this fall.

Sadly, I was sized out of the Fox tights, which ran a bit short and my evil evil evil sister had the nerve of fitting into the lone size Medium of the Wily Sweater left in my store (I'd tried it on earlier in the season but needed a size Large. See her review of the sweater here.) The fox candles were a Christmas gift from my mom as was the ornament which is now proudly displayed in my office next to my photograph of Dr. May. The children's sweater was adorable but unfortunately too pricey for any little boys that we know. And the button.

HEY!

RT, how did you sneak that button into my photo montage of fox items at Anthropologie?

The button was also a Christmas present, from my sister's two dogs Jack and Docker. I laughed for a good five minutes after opening the package and the button is now up in my office bulletin board.

The rest of the year was characterized by lots of frustration and lots of waiting. Waiting for the RT solo album that he originally began promising in November 2009. Waiting for news of the band's new record deal with Universal. Waiting for the release of the Hammersmith Odeon Christmas Eve concert from 1975 which has been rumored since last Christmas.

We did receive a new Rock Band track pack, which as far as I'm concerned was worth the wait. In addition to new lesser known songs like Tenement Funster, Now I'm Here, and Keep Yourself Alive, I can finally sing harmonies on previous Rock Band favorites like Somebody to Love and Killer Queen. I also convinced Husband to download the track pack early enough that I was ranked #2 on Pro Drums Expert for We Will Rock You. Not too shabby.

And though the boys weren't in the studio working on their own solo projects or Queen material, they did find time to play on a few albums released over the course of 2010. Both RT and Dr. May appeared on Taylor Hawkins' side project Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Rider's second CD, Red Light Fever (click here for a review of that CD and the concert that Husband and I attended in May). And Dr. May produced and played on Kerry Ellis's CD Anthems which was released this fall in addition to finding time to play on Meatloaf's album Hang Cool Teddy Bear.

We'll see what 2011 has in store for Queen fans. Personally, I'd love the opportunity to see the boys play live though I recognize that any shows would likely be abroad. With that in mind, I'm also hopefully that We Will Rock You, the musical, finally makes it to Broadway and when it does, rest assured, I'll be in the front row cheering ecstatically!

Tonight is New Year's Eve and tomorrow is 2011! So exciting!

See everyone next year!

Mally Make-up Review

I used my new Mally make-up kit yesterday morning and figured I'd write out a quick review.

The sampler kit I got is no longer available on the website. I'm not surprised it sold out. They were pushing it really heavily all weekend and seriously for $25, how could I not order it? "Very easily," my husband would say. Be quiet, you!

The kit contains: a mini-mascara, a mini-lipgloss, a mini-eyepencil, and a full sized dual eye compact.

First impressions? The eye compact is nice. It has a nice wide mirror that I can actually see a good portion of my face in. The mini sizes are relatively big. It all came packaged in a pretty pink box (which I'm a sucker for). I'm definitely pleased with the amount of make-up I got for under $30 (remember I did pay like $5 shipping - bah!)

So here I am without any make-up on:

Here I am with my Mally make-up on - please ignore the hair towel. My hair insists that I follow a really specific series of steps when I'm styling it each morning and even photos being posted online cannot deviate from that process:

The eyeliner was really nice. It literally melted onto my eyelid. No tugging or pulling at all. The shade is midnight which is a really dark blue. Normally I stick to traditional browns and blacks with eyeliners, but this isn't totally outrageous so I can deal with it. There was a minor moment of panic initially when I couldn't get the top off, but I finally gave it a little bit of a twist and it slide right off. Crisis averted.

The eye primer and eye shadow seem nice. They are nice big sizes and I really like the compact they come in. I didn't have to use much of either product so I can see this lasting a long time. I can't remember the last time I only used one eye shadow though so I couldn't stop myself from doing a little bit of highlighter (this in Sugar Sugar) along my brow bone and in my tear ducts. Mally sells a product that does similiar highlighting so I'm sure she would approve.

The mascara is really nice. Mally claims that she used to spend hours recreating this look before she invented this mascara. Now, I don't know if I buy that, but I will say that the mascara made my lashes (which are already relatively dark and thick) look pretty darn good. I also didn't have any issues with the mascara clumping off during the day and rendering me blind (which frequently happens when I wear mascara and is one of the reasons why I rarely wear it).

The lipstick is a nice muted pink shade and smells really tasty (I can't put my finger on exactly what it is though). The applicator is a pointed brush so you can use it to line your lips and then fill in the color. I liked the color on but it does tend to come off relatively quickly. By lunch I had already reapplied three times. I guess with a larger size, I wouldn't mind so much but with this mini, I was afraid that the lipstick would be gone at the end of one day! It's still a cute size and a nice color so I'll keep it in my make-up bag for mid-afternoon touch-ups.

So writing the last section about the lipstick coming off made me wonder - what about the rest of the make-up? Mally famously puts eyeliner on her hand and then rubs it furiously, claiming that it won't come off until you take it off. We'll see about that.

This picture was taken at the end of the day. The mascara held up really well (and didn't get in my eye once all day!). The shadow is still there but is covered up by the enormous smear across my eyelid that was my eyeliner. Now, I will admit that I am traditionally very heavy handed with eyeliner and this happens to me pretty much every day. I note, however, that more actual liner appears to have stayed where I put it than usual so that's a good thing. On my next attempt, I'm going to have to use a lighter touch to apply this stuff lest it end up all over my face by the end of the day.

Overall impression? It's a cute kit which I'll definitely keep. If I was a regular mascara user, I'd definitely pick up a full size (and I might become a regular mascara user after today's experience!) I'll probably pass on Mally lipsticks unless she comes up with a longer lasting formula. Eyeliner and shadow are something I could really see myself interested in. I'll give it a few more days of use will determine if I'm ready to make a bigger investment when my current Clinique shades run out.

I intend to spend the morning playing with my new Anthro purchases. If I can't make them into three outfits, they are going back. Last night I had a dream that I returned the cardigan and I wasn't too torn up about that so we'll see how this all plays out.