Chapter 346: The Time Warp

So, I posted yesterday’s blog only about 4 hours ago. There’s not a lot that I have to add at this point because, quite simply, nothing has happened over the course of those 4 hours. When I say nothing has happened, I don’t mean that I have sat in one spot and done absolutely nothing during that time. What I mean is nothing of any real substance happened during those times. Certainly nothing worth writing an entire blog post on. So, I have come up with a different idea. I am going to write tonight’s blog about one specific topic that I have been pretty focused on for the past 4 hours and one that I am feeling really enthusiastic about at the moment. However, in the interest of keeping with the general context of this blog, I figured I should take a moment to share what I did with the past few hours. So, after finishing up the earlier blog I lied in bed for a few minutes trying to gather up motivation to get up and do some “chores” that needed to be done. Once I finally did get up, I did the past week’s laundry, I gathered up and took out all of the trash, and spent a little while experimenting with my Sugarpill Cosmetics products. I did a second test run of my Halloween makeup, (after trying it out yesterday,) and I was MUCH happier with the results today. There is a little more tweaking that needs to be done to it but I am very happy with the results so far. Aside from that, I basically spent the evening watching a few missed episodes of Oprah. All in all, nothing of any real significance happened.

One thing I did do during that time, though, was dig through my massive DVD collection, (seriously… there’s a LOT to dig through,) for this one specific movie that it is kind of a tradition to watch around this time of year, (although I do enjoy watching it any time of year.) This movie, of course, is “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” I was reminded of this DVD last night when I was at my sister’s house for the impromptu birthday party because they busted out their record collection and the music for the evening was taken from that. One of the records that I noticed amongst their collection was the soundtrack to this film and we played a few songs from it. It really took me back hearing some of those songs. The first song that they played was “Touch-a Touch-a Touch Me,” which brought back an insane amount of memories – back in California, when my sister, my best friend and I used to constantly be working the karaoke circuit, this was one of my favorite songs to sing. It was always a lot of fun because I would be pretty extreme with it, going incredibly over-the-top and sexual with my performance. I don’t know what it is exactly but people always seem to respond to me best when I am being really sexual in an over-the-top sort of way. It is my very best brand of humor, I think. If nothing else, it is my favorite brand of humor to use. So, hearing that song made me feel a pretty strong desire to actually watch the film again, as I hadn’t in a very long time. Unfortunately, I never did find my copy of the DVD, which I think I loaned to my sister a long time ago and never got back. I did, however, find the soundtrack to it on my iPod, so I decided that this would have to do for the moment. Much like “Touch-a Touch-a Touch Me” did last night, all of these songs brought back a boatload of memories from my past.

Before I go into all of that, though, let me give a little bit of backstory on the film itself, for those who may not be as familiar with it as I am. “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” was originally released in 1975, based on a London stage production that was simply called “The Rocky Horror Show,” with book and lyrics written by Richard O’Brien, who also co-wrote the screenplay for the film. Richard O’Brien also took one of the key roles in the film, the character of Riff Raff. “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” is the story of a young, newly engaged couple, Brad Majors and Janet Weiss, (played by Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon,) who are on a trip to visit the man who introduced them to one another, Dr. Everett Scott. On the way to see Dr. Scott their car breaks down. They don’t know what to do until they see a light in a castle nearby, which they decide to follow in hopes of being able to use the phone there to call for help. When they arrive at the castle, they find a huge celebration happening there. The castle is filled with very unusual looking people, partaking in strange, hedonistic dances and such. Brad and Janet are very put off by the whole thing, especially when they meet the owner of the castle, Dr. Frank N. Furter, (played brilliantly by Tim Curry.) Dr. Frank N. Furter comes out and introduces himself in one of the film’s most iconic numbers, “Sweet Transvestite.” He tells them that they simply must stay and enjoy the celebration with him while they wait for the rain outside to let up. They reluctantly agree and watch as Frank introduces the cause for this celebration – he has built himself a man. The man, named Rocky Horror, is all blonde hair and muscles and such, and was designed to be his sexual slave. As the evening wears on, Frank shows Brad and Janet to their separate rooms for the evening and, disguising himself as the other, seduces them both. Janet finds out, through one of the monitors throughout the castle, that Brad is off having sex with Frank and becomes upset. Then she finds Rocky Horror, having broken free from his shackles and feeling lost and terrified, and proceeds to seduce him, (this is the point where she sings “Touch-a Touch-a Touch Me.”) Once Frank finds out about this, he goes insane with jealousy. It also doesn’t help that he soon finds an intruder on the premises, Dr. Everett Scott, a rival scientist and the man who introduced Brad and Janet. Learning of the connection between them, Frank decides that they must have been brought in as spies for him. After Janet flies into Rocky’s arms in fear, (after being served another characters remains for dinner,) and a major chase ensues as Frank flies into a rage, they all wind up in Frank’s lab, where he captures them, transforms them into living statues and forces them to perform a huge floor show. This performance is all interrupted by Frank’s servants, Riff Raff and Magenta, who stage a bit of a coup and reveal that the castle is actually a space craft and that they are returning to their home planet of Transexual, in the galaxy of Transylvania. Frank does not respond well to this information and they wind up killing him in the process. They release Brad, Janet and Dr. Scott, and fly off in the castle.

I know that I didn’t explain that anywhere near as thoroughly as I could have but that is the jist of it. I still remember the very first time I saw this film – it was 1993, I believe. I was only 10 years old. It aired during the day on Fox, at 3pm, with a little pre-emptive message stating that it was not suitable for children. Me, being the type of kid I was, immediately knew that this made it worth checking out. I fell in love with it immediately and eventually bought a VHS copy of it, which I watched an insane amount of times. At the time, I was really not sure what it was all about. I don’t think I even actually followed the plot at all. I was really into the character of Rocky Horror, because he was a hot guy running around in a gold lame’ speedo all the time, and I loved the music. I continued to watch it fairly regularly over the years but then kind of stopped for a while. I think I was probably 18 years old the first time that I watched it and it finally clicked what all was going on in this story. It had never dawned on me before exactly how sexual this film was. I mean, I understood that there was dirty stuff going on but I never actually added it all up to realize that this story really revolves around sex in many ways. It took me all that time to realize that Dr. Frank N. Furter was a bisexual, hedonistic mad scientist/sex freak who based his entire life on building creatures to be his sexual toys, or that Janet Weiss was having her sexual awakening throughout the course of this story, or that Magenta and Riff Raff were siblings but also sexual partners. It’s really a LOT for such a young mind to comprehend, I suppose. In any sense, like I said, something about the musical numbers and all of that really drew me into this whole thing even if I didn’t completely understand it. To this day, it seems as if every time I watch this film, I am finding some new element of it that I hadn’t entirely understood the last time. It is one of my absolute favorite films of all-time and, if you haven’t already, I highly recommend everybody check it out.

This film also happens to be the film with the longest theatre run in history, having never been pulled from theatres since it’s initial release in 1975. 35 years later, the film still has weekly midnight shows in many major cities across America. This is mainly due to the fact that there is such a huge cult following for this film. A large part of the cult following is the fact that in many major cities there is a huge audience participation factor to it, where people go to the theatre dressed as the characters, and speak back to the screen, including throwing random props and such. In fact, in many places they will have the film play with a stage, where a “shadow cast” acts out the entire story along with it. This is one of the biggest parts of the history of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” but also a part of the whole thing that I can’t really speak too authoritatively about because I have never actually attended one of these showings. I have actually had many opportunities to and made plans to several times in the past but it has never actually panned out for me. As a matter of fact, I know that there is a theatre in town doing the whole thing Halloween weekend this year… and, of course, this is the year that I am planning a party for that weekend and won’t really have the opportunity to go. I still hope to do it sometime in the coming years – after all, I don’t think these types of showings are going anywhere.

Anyway, like I said, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” is one of my favorite films of all-time and has been a very big influence on me as an artist and as a person. I actually found that they have it on Netflix for Instant Watch, so I think I may put it on while I go to bed this evening. It’s been a long time since I have actually watched it. Like I said before, as well, I highly recommend seeing this film if you have not. It is absolutely brilliant. For now, though, I should probably get to bed. It’s been a long weekend – in a good way, for the most part – but the weekend is about to be over. I need to get my beauty sleep and get rested up for another week of work and all that comes along with it. I’m in a really good mood tonight, though. I don’t know how easily sleep will come with my being in such a good mood. For some reason, in general, when I am in a good mood my mind wanders and I have a lot of energy. So, we’ll see. Either way, I should go try. Goodnight.