To Avoid Complications

Photo unrelated. Just wanted to show off the pizza I'm eating today.

I'm not going to be seeing the Queen biopic.

So a good chunk of my 30s has been learning that I don't have to like things just because other people do. I do love to see new things and to learn, and I want to try everything possible, but the concept of just not liking something seemed somehow rude or, at the very least, detrimental to a friendship - because so much of building relationships when you move a lot is trying to seamlessly slip into an environment you clearly weren't made for. It's easier to communicate and build relationships if you appear to enjoy everything the locals do. That's one of the cental tomes of in-group bonding. Thanks, undergrad social psychology. ;)

My best example of this is playing video games. Damn near everyone I interact regularly with (yes, I interact) plays video games. Apart from the occasional side scroller or a vintage title or two I have zero drive or desire to play them, although I enjoy watching gameplay for some reason. It took me about 20 years to figure out that it was ok to not have any interest in this, and it brought me considerable anxiety and consternation in the mean time depending on my social group at any given point. I tried to bully myself into it toward the end, submerge myself into video game culture by watching Youtubers and learning about new titles, but none of it stuck and I hated my inability to conquer this perceived "issue".  Once I hit my 30s and figured out that I just flat out didn't like them I was fine. Nope, don't wanna play, and that's ok. Thanks, though.

Similarly, I can't stand biopics or other types of autobiographical films or dramatizations. Never have. I vividly remember cringing at a Kennedy reenactment clip during history class in grade school and desperately wanting to physically escape the room because I was so bothered and embarrassed. Something is just wired into my system that says "cringe and RUN" when an actor in a bad suit with the wrong hair (or even the right bodysuit with the perfect hair) comes on the screen.

...and that's ok. It's ok if you like them, too. That's called diversity.

I'd rather find a documentary, anyway, and hear stories and interviews directly from people that were there - or footage from the time period itself. That's so much more exciting to me than scripted side glances from three angles and catchphrases that may or may not have happened - but don't misunderstand me. Both are necessary for their given medium. Neither is inherently superior.

...anyway, after a week plus a bit of purposefully watching interviews and clips from the new film ("to form a callus", as I've been telling people) and reading what the surviving members are saying and getting frantic when my friends went out to see it and loved it and trying to take their opinions and make them my ow-

I realized what I was doing. As of last night I'm not seeing the biopic, and that is ok.

I will obviously keep building my knowledge on the group, though, as I have room to grow there. It's been a while since I had a music project like this and it feels good to have one again. I'll never reach the encyclopedic-level knowledge I have of The Beatles (and that makes me a bit sad) but I can sure try.