Author-narrator collaboration chat on House of Mystery

 

 

Chat show podcast fun:

 

Listen to 'Now I'm Here' audiobook narrator Tim Curran and me discussing author-narrator collaboration, on House of Mystery Radio on NBC with cohosts Al Warren and Joe Goldberg. 

 

That's it. That's the blog post.

 

 

 

'Now I'm Here' is now an audiobook! My sixth novel is narrated by Tim Curran.

 
Good news, everyone! (I love saying that. Dr. Farnsworth is so silly.) 

Anyway, to get to the point, my sixth novel is now an audiobook, and you can listen to it on Audible. Veteran journalist Tim Curran is the narrator and I had a terrific time going through the book and making slight changes and sharing thoughts on understanding the characters to bring their voices to life. It's really been a great experience and Tim is an audiobook narrator whom I highly recommend. 

 On to the story, which you may know about by now, but I think I'll just share some of the press release below.

 about Now I'm Here

 A passionate story of the love between a Queen-inspired piano prodigy and a pumpkin farmer, author Jim Provenzano’s sixth novel, Now I’m Here has been adapted as an audiobook narrated by Tim Curran, with a November 15 release on Audible.

Now I’m Here is set in the small fictional town of Serene, Ohio, in the 1970s and ’80s. Two boys from different families – Joshua, with his stable middle-class home in town, and David, raised by his alcoholic and abusive father on their isolated farm – discover, then lose, then find each other again. Thirty years later, as the town’s history is slowly erased by fading memories and encroaching suburbia, their childhood friend, Eric Gottlund, tells the tale of their quiet heroism with poignancy and a sharp eye for detail.

Narrator Tim Curran

Combining literature and music, the author blends historic and contemporary topics. In Now I’m Here, two Southern Ohio teenage boys, Joshua Evans (a piano prodigy) and David Koenig (a pumpkin farmer’s son) attend a Queen concert in 1978 on their first date. Their passionate affair grows into a life together full of farming and concerts in their barn.

Joshua’s brief fame as a musician includes an invitation to perform in a Los Angeles talent show. He also gains a bit of notoriety by performing unusual solo versions of pop songs at West Hollywood New Wave nightclubs of the early 1980s.

Fighting religious intolerance, “rehabilitation therapy,” the lure of fame, and the heartbreak of AIDS, the two boys grow into men before our eyes. Through their love of each other and of rock’n’roll, the English rock band Queen in particular, Joshua and David breathe life back into their home town, if only for a while.

Published review excerpts for Now I’m Here:

San Francisco Examiner
The British rock group Queen ­–a touchstone of Provenzano’s adolescence– serves as muse, role model and escape hatch for the rural Ohio teenagers at the center of Now I’m Here, a wrenching love story that delves deep into the experience of growing up gay in heartland America during the late 1970s.

The book and each of its chapters share titles, and themes, with Queen songs. The lyrical prose and fine-grained detail of his novel are a far cry from the jubilant bombast in the film’s trailer. Now I’m Here offers flipside of a biopic, focusing not on celebrities’ lives, but on the faraway lives of people they touched.

 

 San Francisco Review of Books
“California author Jim Provenzano joins the great novelists who have written important and lasting novels about men in love, and while he has won prizes for his work it is now, with his publication of Now I’m Here that he joins the ranks of the major authors who have had a lasting imprint on our society and the LGBTIQ community.

 “Words of admiration and appreciation fail the task of honoring this fine novel. Provenzano knows this period, the highs and lows of two men in love living in a world that simply could not or refused to understand their love. The only entry point into the glow of this novel is by reading it at least once – and probably more. It is a masterwork of the highest order.”

Edge Media Network
“Joshua and David, the brave couple brought to life in Jim Provenzano’s captivating, unforgettable novel, Now I’m Here, manage to experience a quintessential epic romance albeit in just a few short years. Were it not for the admiring (and admittedly jealous) eye of their friend, Eric Gottlund, who meticulously narrates this heartbreaking, breathtaking story, the saga of Joshua and David could have easily gone unnoticed.

“This storytelling method effectively and passionately conveys the lengthy, turbulent evolution of their compelling, inspiring and uplifting relationship. The love story of Joshua and David reminds the reader how to appreciate the extraordinary in the ordinary. Professionally speaking, neither of these men achieves fame or accomplishes anything especially newsworthy, but what they share emotionally is nothing short of remarkable. Some books you read for laughter, intrigue, debate or information. Now I’m Here makes you feel.”

Out in Print
“I’ve always marveled at the contradiction of hundreds of thousands of mostly straight sports fans stomping their feet and clapping to ‘We Will Rock You’ as done by Queen, probably the gayest rock band in history with the gayest front man ever. But whatever chord Queen struck, it resonates to this day with both fans and authors. In his newest novel, Now I’m Here, Jim Provenzano uses his knowledge as a fan and his skill as an author to tell the story of two small-town Ohio boys.

“Joshua Lee Evans had a musical gift from the beginning, and was fortunate enough to have parents who encouraged him to use those talents. David Koenig lived on a pumpkin farm and had a hateful, alcoholic father whose wife left him because of his temper and bad habits. It was love at first fight. But the maturation of those feelings was a long road, punctuated by music lessons and farm work. When it finally came together, however, the boys knew what magic it was. A stupid school streaking stunt (popular during the late ’70s and ’80s, when this takes place) puts David in a ‘rehabilitation’ camp for wayward youth courtesy of his father as Joshua leaves town for the big time after graduation, a cover version of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ in his back pocket. They will come together again, rest assured, but even reunions are fraught with frailty in this sweeping, epic romance.

“This story will confound your expectations. If you’re looking for a Happy Ever After, however, forget it. And that’s fine with me. Life does not always have happy endings, and sometimes we have to work to find meaning when our characters are given a less-than-optimal finish.

“All this would mean nothing in the hands of a lesser writer, but Provenzano has honed his craft and takes you on this dizzying ride with the able assurance of a pro. His rendering of the mid-‘70s is deadly accurate, and will bring a smile of remembrance to your face if you were coming of age then. He never missteps or falls short of the mark emotionally, either. The characters are all organic, built and embroidered on with well-chosen detail.

“So, even if you’re not exactly a Queen fan (and why not, I wonder?), you’ll enjoy this supremely well-plotted and populated romance. Highly recommended.”

Queen + Adam Lambert - Rhapsodising over the ‘Rhapsody’ tour

photo: Dana Jacobs

If you know even a little bit about my books, you know my sixth novel, "Now I'm Here," is infused with Queen's music and song titles. 

But it took the reminder from guitarist-composer Brian May himself (okay, one of his staff assistants) who shared my Bay Area Reporter review of their November 8 Chase Center concert, to remind me to share it here:

Themes of science fiction, steampunk and outer space projected onto multiple screens did not upstage the musical artistry of Queen + Adam Lambert at their Chase Center concert November 8. 

With additional musicians – keyboard player and musical director Spike Edney, bass guitarist Neil Fairclough and percussionist Tyler Warren – the band performed an array of classic hits, with recorded audio and video tributes to the late Freddie Mercury.

Even before the concert, a sense of giddiness was in the air as people posed in front of the large billboard outside the Chase Center. The staff was friendly and courteous as we entered and found our seats. While they were fewer festively-dressed fans than at the recent Elton John concert, I learned quickly to not judge by appearances. Two burly men who could have been truck drivers sat in front of us and complimented my vintage Queen t-shirt and my friend’s glam garb as we regaled our tales of 1970s arena rock attendances, including Queen.

In fact, most of the patrons seemed to be in their 50s or 60s and have been Queen fans for decades. There were a few young folks who possibly had yet to enjoy the thrill of seeing guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor joined with Adam Lambert, who proudly announced that he’s been touring with Queen for ten years. His entrance in the first of several glamorous costumes took on a silver gladiator science fiction theme.

photo: Dana Jacobs

The setlist started off in the first section with a bit of “Radio Gaga,” followed by “Hammer to Fall,” a “Stone Cold Crazy” excerpt, and “Another One Bites the Dust.”

Drummer Rodger Taylor took to the mic and drums with his classic, “I’m in Love With My Car” from the “A Night at the Opera” album. Then Lambert reappeared on the extended runway atop a glistening silver motorcycle, in yet more glamorous garb. With a camera set in front of him on the handlebars, his amusing close-ups and hip thrusts brought high camp style.

 “Fat Bottomed Girls” and “I Want It All” proved to be sing-along favorites after that. 

The third section included “A Kind of Magic” (and Brian May’s “magic” sparks-shooting guitar!), “Don't Stop Me Now,” and a rousing sing-along “Somebody to Love,” where Lambert’s stellar vocals outshone any of the amusing pyrotechnics.

A highlight of that section was also Lambert’s use a close-up camera in front of a “mirror” as he primped and sipped champagne (naturally) for “Killer Queen,” yet another song where his camp sensibility and sense of humor really shined.

 As they’ve done since the 1970s, Brian May, still a master of guitar at 76, then took to a solo moment for an acoustic set with the very romantic “Love of My Life” and his futuristic folk classic, “‘39.”

photo: Dana Jacobs

Roger Taylor then banged out an impressive drum solo, which led into the finger-snapping classic, “Under Pressure.” While former bassist John Deacon was not acknowledged onstage, his presence was felt as the famous bass hook began.

The band then segued into a slightly altered version of “Tie Your Mother Down,” followed by the traditional rhythm, then the Elvis-esque “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” which Lambert  completely mastered. 

The fifth section of the concert started with “I Want to Break Free.” The song’s witty drag music video was a hit on European TV but did not work well for American audiences back in the day. Fortunately, those attitudes are long-gone, at least for Queen fans, who’ve embraced Lambert, an out gay artist.

In this concert version, some lucky (and probably wealthy) fans enjoyed box seats behind the stage as the projections turned the stage into a rococo theater.

Brian May then indulged in an expanded guitar solo as he rose up through (projected video of) outer space as a huge meteor and various planets rose and fell as he guided them. Many fans know that Brian May’s early college studies were in astrophysics, so the outer space theme was totally appropriate and visually stunning.

Originally created for Live Aid, Freddie Mercury’s song, “Is This the World We Created?,” co-written with May, offered a somber tone, followed by the rousing yet haunting anthem, “The Show Must Go On.”

photo: Dana Jacobs

And then, the bands ultimate classic, “Bohemian Rhapsody,” began. As they have done since their original concerts in the ’70s, parts were recorded while the band waited in darkness to resume for the rousing finale. But with this new multimedia tour, we got to not only hear but also see excerpts of the classic music video that brought Queen to great fame.

After a pause, in a digitized version, Freddie Mercury, who died of AIDS in 1991, got to make another appearance with his famous “Ayo!” call and response. And of course, everyone joined in, even the stage crew we could see from a distance.

For the rousing encore of “We Will Rock You,” the projection screens showed an animated version of the iconic giant robot from the “News of the World” album cover. The audience double-clapped along to the reprise of “Radio Gaga” and then sang along to the expected closer, “We Are the Champions.”

After the band took their bows for the traditional recorded playing of “God Save the Queen,” you could feel the sense of warm satisfaction that patrons had as they left the Chase Center. Even the packed Muni train was still full of good cheer as people commented on the show.

https://www.chasecenter.com/events

https://www.queenonline.com/upcoming_shows

Destroyed on the Fourth of July

The author at Ashland Balloonfest 2004

As Americans endure the strangest July weekend in years, I'm reminded of another holiday weekend years ago, in my hometown, where celebrations and destruction occurred within blocks of each other, and how these clashing events became a pivotal part of my most recent novel, but it took years for the anticipated story to finally happen.

With July 4 celebrations on hold due to COVID-19 –except for the multiple illegal noise and sparks that have been going on for weeks in cities across the U.S.– it is a strange time to be celebrating our 'freedom' and 'liberty' when so many centuries of oppression, racism, and capitalist cruelty are being exposed, sadly with little immediate consequence. Our utterly, blatantly corrupt administration and its deranged president continue the neo-fascist insanity at a dizzying pace.

Ashland BalloonFest 2004

Sixteen years ago, I made a rare summer visit to my parents' home in Ashland, Ohio. I'd enjoy a week of humid bucolic semi-rural pleasure with Mom, Dad, and their adorable cats, and the nearby BalloonFest, which had at the time become an annual event, set in a large field near my childhood home.

But the real reason stemmed from a phone conversation with my mother, who mentioned that an entire block of homes near ours was set for demolition to make way for a large parking lot that Ashland University claimed was 'necessary.' I had to witness this massive destruction and displacement.

I immediately knew these events would become part of my then-in-progress novel, Now I'm Here. Why? Because I predicted them. I'd already considered some form of urban 'improvement' as part of a late chapter in the story. But instead of making it up completely, I presciently knew that this would happen.

Although the smaller, more southern fictional Ohio town of Serene would undergo changes through the story. I hadn't anticipated such a stunning example of municipal mendacity and idiocy.

First, the pleasant part of my 2004 visit. The Children's Home Field, as it was informally known, spread across acres behind a street of homes near ours. At the opposite end of the open area, where as kids we played in summers and winters, was bordered by a small strip of woods that divided the more wealthy Country Club homes.

Sound familiar? That setting was used in my fourth and fifth novels, Every Time I Think of You and in its sequel, Message of Love. The field served as a literal and metaphorical distance between Reid and Everett.

But in 2004, those novels hadn't even begun. I was still considering Now I'm Here as my next book (or another one, which will be out in September 2020-stay tuned for that!).

So, while I enjoyed the colorful balloons with my parents over that July 4 holiday, a mere stroll from our nearby home, less than three blocks away, the housing carnage had begun.

March into the Midwest: Now I'm Here at Prologue Bookshop

Touring bookstores to promote one's books can be very expensive and time-consuming, which is why I'm happy to announce that I'll be reading from and discussing my sixth novel, Now I'm Here, at Prologue Bookshop in Columbus on March 12. That the novel is set in a small fictional town near Columbus, and that I spent a few years at Ohio State University, makes this event particularly poignant. The store will also have a few copies of my first novel, PINS for sale.

GPC coverage of PINS in 1999

The last time I visited Columbus was in December 1999. I read from my first novel, PINS, to an appreciative audience at the now-closed An Open Book (749 N. High St.), and stopped by Cat's Impetuous Books in Stow, where I studied theatre for two years in nearby Kent.

It's hard to believe it's been twenty years since my last visit to Ohio. But with my family gone and few high school and college friends still there, traveling back there isn't as much of an option.

But when a representative from the Columbus Tourism  invited me on a press trip to write about the city's Short North district and growing LGBT community, of course I offered an enthusiastic 'Yes!' and contacted Prologue Bookshop next, because I saw that they host a monthly LGBT book club.

Book Loft, another great store in the area, ordered a few copies of Now I'm Here, which I'll sign on Friday March 13, at around 2pm.

While it's difficult to not feel a bit envious of authors who get national book tours arranged for them by their big publishers, I do feel a sense of pride that I not only arranged those long-ago events myself, but garnered a few reviews and interviews in several regional Ohio publications, including the now-gone Gay People's Chronicle, which gave my event a generous and knowledgeable two-page spread!

This time, I did get a few bites from local media, including this Q&A in City Scene:

"Being openly gay has never been easy, but some eras were more challenging than others. The AIDS crisis and rampant homophobia of the '80s certainly didn’t help the fight for gay rights. Author Jim Provenzano captures a story of love in this tumultuous time in his 2018 book Now I’m Here.

Prologue Bookshop has scheduled Provenzano to read and sign his book on March 12 at 7 p.m. It will be the first time in 20 years that this OSU alumnus will return to Columbus. Using his experience growing up in Ohio, Provenzano creates incredibly realistic characters in his sixth novel."

Prologue Bookshop

Prizm News, the new statewide LGBT publication, also granted me some coverage, with this Q&A:

"The story is saturated with subtle pieces of Provenzano’s past, including a love for Queen music and a unique experience on a pumpkin farm. The narrative also touches on topics of religious intolerance, abuse, and the heartbreak of AIDS."

For directions, visit Prologue's website. You should also follow their Instagram page for fun book recommendations.

If you're on Facebook, RSVP on the event page. If you can't attend, but are nearby, please order a copy of Now I'm Here from the store.

Naming; the Seeds of Character-Building

As Halloween celebrants set about carving up pumpkins in creative ways for the holiday, consider extracting the many seeds from the gloppy guts of your purchased or homegrown gourds. Yes, they're tasty when baked and salted. But for me, those seeds represent another form of organic growth, related to the very important artistic process of writing, particularly the naming of characters.

In the early drafts of my sixth novel, Now I'm Here, at first I used names of actual people to solidify my initial inspiration. A few find/replaces later, I found a somewhat biblical theme under-riding that work-in-progress. Thus the name Joshua for my main character. The piano-playing teenager becomes somewhat zealous in his devotion to music, particularly the rock band Queen.

In these thematic essays, I've focused on the marvelous Freddie Mercury, and the music aspects of the work. With Halloween only a few days away, let's turn to Joshua's love interest, David Koenig.

Omitting the real name of the cute high school acquaintance on whom I had a crush since grade school, let's bump to the second name I gave the character; David. One day, as I stopped at a local small grocery store, I saw bags of edible seeds on display. As kids and as an adult, I had enjoyed home-baked pumpkin seeds, but seeing that bright red, yellow and green bag so clearly displaying the name, I chose the new and final name for my farm boy.

I thought of the biblical couple Jonathan and David, but that felt too obvious. In search of a last name, I pored over my favorite source, Egerton Sykes' Who's Who: Non-Classical Mythology. 

It was in that book that I found perfect names for major characters in my first novel, PINS. Donald Khors' last name, while a known contemporary name, also represents the Slavonic god of health and hunting, and takes the image of a stallion. Many of the names in PINS reflect the equine metaphors and the actual wrestling team name, the Colts. Each of the several cars in the novel also bring horse breeds into the story: Bronco, Mustang, Pinto.

The fun in finding such correlations serves to narrow the symbology of a story while revealing a sort of true nature to a character. While in the writing process, when trying to figure out how a character should or could behave, I found a point of focus by recalling the symbolic/real name.

For David, however, I couldn't find a name in Sykes' book that fit him. I knew I wanted a Germanic or Norwegian name, since many of the southern Ohio farming families of the era had ancestors from those countries. This brings up a character's family history, an essential part of thorough development. Even if it's not included in the published story, an author should know his or her background, at least for a few generations (orphans and supernatural creatures excused, perhaps).

This is why I find so many pop-oriented books, gay romances in particular, to be lacking. It's all set in the 'now,' with little sense of history (unless of course it is historical). When you can't feel a sense of the grounded nature of a character, they seem flimsy and less believable.

Koenig sounded right when I discovered it from poring over a phone book from Ohio that I'd saved for decades in a box of other research materials for Now I'm Here. An online search confirmed it.

König is the German word for king. While David is by no means royal –he's humble, shy, even reclusive– he does 'rule' the fields where his father's pumpkin and corn fields are annually harvested. It seemed organic, true, ethnically logical, and a little bit sexy.

Now I'm Here cover photo shoot

I've humble-bragged here and elsewhere about having worked on a pumpkin farm for a few months in between colleges in 1981. The exhausted, overworked 20-year-old me at the time had no idea those grueling yet satisfying experiences would gestate into parts of what would be my sixth novel. That younger me was still dreaming of the idea of a first novel, in between all the labors.

That's just one story of one name, with a few tangents. I could go on about the nature themes in my two previous novels, Every Time I Think of You and Message of Love, but the two main characters' names, Reid Conniff and Everett Forrester, are pretty obvious.

My second novel, Monkey Suits, refers to Egyptian ruling class versus slave culture (the first and near-final scenes are set in New York City's Metropolitan Museum's Temple of Dendur; pretty obvious!), and when you read it, you can figure out how the four main character's names and natures match the four elements.

For Cyclizen, it's not only about a bike messenger and AIDS activist, but the name puns refer to mythical centaurs, Hercules, and a few other creatures.

This isn't done just to be clever, but to provide me a guide to focusing the story, and keeping the process fun.

But back to pumpkins! Have you saved the seeds? Rinse them, soak them in salt water, or sweeten them with cinnamon or pumpkin spice if you like.

You may not notice the pumpkins on the book cover, but since we shot it in May 2018, I'd saved a few small and big ones from October 2017! One can't just go out and buy pumpkins in Northern California in Spring.

And when you reach the last chapters of my latest, Now I'm Here, I hope you'll enjoy a bittersweet pumpkin and Halloween-related moment in the novel.

And please, do post reviews on Amazon, GoodReads and elsewhere. It's a way of sharing, but also helping get the word out on independent authors' stories.

Happy Halloween!

Farm Living; Is It the Life for Us?

While my sixth novel Now I'm Here focuses on Joshua, a piano-playing prodigy and Queen fan, it also includes almost equal focus on his boyfriend David who is raised on a farm in southern Ohio in the 1970s to 1980s. While the town of Serene is fictional in my book, it's based on my own farming experience, and that of real gay farmers.

This Labor Day weekend, I'm thinking about the joys and struggles of contemporary LGBT people in rural areas, and the current insane political environment's effect on their livelihood.

According to a recent USA Today feature, nearly 4 million LGBT people live on U.S. farms and rural communities. This and other recent articles reflect the finding of a groundbreaking study by the Movement Advancement Project, Where We Call Home: LGBT People in Rural America.

“The report by the Movement Advancement Project puts a spotlight for the first time on a sizable segment of the 19 million LGBTQ people in the USA – or 4.5% of all adults and 10% of youths – who don’t congregate on the coasts or in major cities.

“Rarely do we see images of LGBTQ people in rural areas, and when we do, they are portrayed as the only one there and stick out like a sore thumb or a target of violence,” said Logan Casey, author of the report by MAP, a think tank that researches LGBTQ issues. “It’s a stereotype that’s not the case.”

Two LGBTQ authors in the mix: Jim Provenzano & Meg Elison

Here's a smart Bay Area Reporter Q&A in which I'm paired with best-selling author (and my new coworker) Meg Elison! Her 'Road to Nowhere' scifi trilogy is terrific.

From Arts Editor Roberto Friedman: "One of the perks of our job has been having access to some of our lifelong heroes in gay life & letters. Over the years we've been able to meet and interview some heavy-hitting authors: Edmund White, Alan Hollinghurst, Colm Toibin and Dennis Cooper only start the list. But another side of arts journalism is in knowing up-and-coming voices in gay literature. Right now Out There is working alongside two colleagues who also moonlight as well-read gay authors.

"Multi-talented Jim Provenzano is the Lambda Literary Award-winning author of six novels and a play based on one of them, PINS, that has been given local and regional productions. His latest novel, Now I'm Here, a story of first love, is available in paperback, Kindle and Kobo ebook editions (Beautiful Dreamer Press).

Charismatic Meg Elison has published the much-awaited conclusion to her Philip K. Dick Award-winning "Road to Nowhere" trilogy with The Book of Flora,"available in trade paperback and eBook (47North). 

Science fiction and fantasy devotees ate up the first two books in the trilogy, The Book of the Unnamed Midwife and The Book of Etta.
 
Read the full dual interview here:  https://www.ebar.com/arts_&_culture/books//280352

Read Meg Elison's books here: http://megelison.com/

Still Standing: Elton John's living legacy, and other music lost and found

Fans and critics are raving about the creative and mesmerizing Elton John biopic Rocketman, and comparisons to other rock star movies have led some to say it's what Bohemian Rhapsody could have been. Seeing the film with a musician pal and an appreciative audience at the historic Castro Theatre in San Francisco led me to recall how Elton John's music shaped my piano-playing as a teen, almost as much as the music of Queen. Freddie Mercury and his band's music took precedent as an inspiration for my sixth novel, Now I'm Here. But now I regret not giving Elton enough devotion.

As John, cutie Taron Egerton takes us on a wild journey through John's childhood, early starts in playing for other musicians, and his eventual rise to superstardom.

Rocketman's dreamy Troubadour scene

Among the best scenes are the dramatic and fantasy-styled moment when John's American debut at LA's Troubadour nightclub wowed new fans almost overnight. 

The floating magic moment when it all clicked for the singer-composer is only one of many dreamlike fantasy musical numbers that recall the rock and pop music-filled films Across the Universe and Moulin Rouge.

John's LA debut at The Troubadour is recounted in this sweet article in the LA Times.
Variety compares box office and the PG versus R ratings of the two rock biopics. 
 And the GQ review takes the film to task, yet admits its success in comparison to the Queen biopic:

"In the same way that Bohemian Rhapsody presented the superficial, sanitized version of Freddie Mercury—the one that the living members of Queen wanted the public to see—the Elton John we get in Rocketman seems cleaned up and doctored to be a movie subject."
  
I'm not sure how 'cleaned up' it is, with a musical orgy and the coke-snorting addiction depicted in Rocketman. For a wonderful account of more real events in John's life compared to the film, read the Time Magazine feature.

Rocketman vs Bohemian Rhapsody

I've Seen That Movie Too
Like Bohemian Rhapsody, we see a gay man face his inner conflicts and the ups and downs of the closet. Both have seemingly obligatory orgy scenes, with BoRhap's limited to a murky leather bar. Rocketman's dance club "sexy" nightclub scene approaches a camp level of the Canadian cult classic The Apple.

In this Daily Mail feature, Elton John and director Dexter Fletcher (who filled in for Bohemian Rhapsody when Brian Singer flaked) discuss the 'realness' of the story amid all the wonderful musical numbers choreographed by Adam Murray.

Unlike the story of Mercury, whose sexual exploits are kept mostly off-screen by the prudish script of Bohemian Rhapsody, John's fantasy biopic gets a passionate and realistic yet brief love scene amid all the dreamy music numbers, which are intentionally out of order. Time magazine recounts the anachronisms and inspirations.

John's dilemma is more about his addictions and eventual recovery. Mercury's biopic leads up to his anachronistic HIV diagnosis, while John's strangely doesn't even mention AIDS (despite his later generous philanthropy with his AIDS/HIV foundation). Still, he survived, which probably had more of an effect on his cinematic story's depiction of his life.

Elton John at Outside Lands 2015

Song for Guy
But what if (gods forbid) John had also died of AIDS, a cocaine-fueled heart attack or via the party pool attempted drowning scene depicted in the film? Would we listen to his music differently, as we do with Mercury, Price, David Bowie and so many other lost artists?

The New York Times recently focused on classical composers lost to AIDS. A score may survive, but one can't imagine the symphonies lost when gay artists die too young.