Setting up the board: MeMadeBrianMay and the Veteran Cosmic Rocker
First things absolutely first: Yes, I do know that it’s July. For the past couple of years, I’ve felt really dissatisfied with the complete lack of community during MeMadeMay. And it’s not even our fault! Social media has rapidly become the walking dead, with most of us just wading through heaps of ads, nonexistent engagement, and no ability to sort or follow tags. So I decided at some point that I was going to back up MY ENTIRE INSTAGRAM MMMAY FEED, one post at a time, the way god intended. (lol). If I had actually started it in May of this year, it would have dovetailed beautifully with next May, but… we see how that’s turning out. Anyway…
The first year I participated in MeMadeMay, like… just about everything else in my life, I did it on a whim. I probably actually found out about it like, the week before, when most people post their annual pledge. If you’re unfamiliar, MeMadeMay is a challenge of sorts that was created by Zoe Edwards of Check Your Thread. There are a million ways to participate, but the general idea is that you spend the month examining your handmade wardrobe, paying attention to what you gravitate toward wearing, what you like, what you don’t like, what you could stand to get rid of, remake, whatever.
Naturally, I don’t follow the rules very well, either.
What really spoke to me about MMMay was that it could become this weird intersection of sewing and photography, both of which I love to do. I loved the idea of having an excuse not only to get up and get dressed every day, but also of finding the most batshit places/scenarios in which to take my photos. …I should mention that in 2019, the first year I participated, I hadn’t yet been diagnosed with ADHD, so my need for constant, unyielding novelty was still just a fun *quirk*.
…And there was one other reason I absolutely needed to jump in and do it THIS VERY MOMENT. Bohemian Rhapsody (the film) came out in the fall of 2018, and by May of 2019, I was still in the throes of what I already knew was going to be a very momentary (but rather intense) crush on Brian May. There is one thing in this life that I absolutely cannot resist, and that is an excellent pun, and the opportunity for MeMadeBrianMay hashtags was too good to pass up. See, there were a lot of things I really liked about Bri, but I was particularly fixated on making myself a copy of his black velvet jacket.
This one:
…And I *knew* that, if I didn’t jump on the opportunity to somehow turn that into a joke, it absolutely would not matter to me by the time the next May came around. (I wasn’t… entirely correct on that, but I wasn’t entirely incorrect, either.)
So I took what was probably around 10 finished garments and one really intense need to make a stupid black velvet jacket, and I dove in. And I made it through! …I never did make that jacket though.
Oddly enough, six years later, it is still on my long list. See, it’s not just Brian May’s black velvet jacket anymore. It’s also Ray Thomas’ black velvet jacket (on the left, and excuse the highly enshittified screencap from YouTube):
AND Ringo Starr’s black velvet jacket:
Yes, they’re all wildly different styles. No, that doesn’t matter to me in the least. The thing has taken on a life of its own now, and, supposing I ever actually do get it finished, will be one of those projects that gets a name: The Veteran Cosmic Rocker. VCR is the name of one of Ray’s songs on Long Distance Voyager, and it came from a newspaper writer. Ray was reportedly offended by being called a “veteran” anything, because it made him sound old, but eventually decided that “Veteran Cosmic Rocker” was too good a nickname to pass up.
So… without further ado, let’s do the damn thing, shall we?
