10:48 p.m. - 2005-05-02
Heavy, Black, and Pendulous
Last night, Darren and I got drunk - oh, so drunk - and watched the Rocky Horror Picture Show. See, there was an episode of "Cold Case" or whatever that featured Rocky, and actually starred Barry Bostwick as the bad guy! Rock.
We started to watch it, but at the beginning they played the Time Warp, and I started dancing (chair-dancing, but that still counts) and Darren said, "Well, would you rather watch this, or just get out the Rocky DVD and watch the real thing?"
Duh.
It's kind of like riding a bike, I guess. There's so much I remembered, and so much I forgot. About halfway through the movie, instead of rewinding so I could do a callback right if I missed something, I just started doing sock-puppet-hand* to indicate that there was a good callback that I'd forgotten. If I'd been sober enough when I put the DVD in, I'd have noticed that it had the option to watch an audience participation version. I didn't see that until after the movie ended.
*My main use of sock-puppet-hand until last night has been to speak with people in the backseat or somewhere behind me in a situation where I can't or am too lazy to turn around and face them. For example, if I'm in the front seat and have, say, a hot pizza box on my lap, and friends are in the backseat and I need to ask them something, I will use sock-puppet-hand over my shoulder to ask, "What movie do we rent when we get to the video store?" That lets the backseaters know that they're the ones being asked, and at the same time alleviates my guilt for not twisting around to face them while I'm talking. I think I used sock-puppet-hand to speak to Darren once before I realized that sock-puppet-hand has no lips that can be read.
I was a faithful Rocky Horror fan for many years. I met my best friend, Artie, there. In fact, yesterday was his birthday and I didn't think about that until today. HM!
Artie and I had friends that we would drive down to Louisville with, every other weekend, to attend the Rocky at the Vogue Theater. The cast there had a large theater, with a stage, a 35mm version of the film (including Superheroes, no less!!), and two or three videos that played before the actual movie (Tim Curry's "Paradise Garage," Meat Loaf's "Bat Out of Hell," and I keep thinking there was one other but I can't remember it).
I was often not sober when I attended the Louisville show, mainly because I didn't have to drive.
The cast in Louisville really took their shit seriously. They had understudies, real costumes (corsets with sequins and not gym shorts over black tights), and a backstage area where they could put on makeup and change costumes. Once I got to know them, I realized that they were pretty much like the other casts I've met, but they still put on a hell of a show.
I miss Rocky. I miss the misfits that made me feel like I fit in perfectly. I miss helping guys put their makeup on and showing them how to straighten the seams on their fishnets. The theater in Cincinnati where I used to go to the show was closed down a long time ago and is a Borders now. Whenever I go to the music section, I remember goofing off in the aisles or sneaking out after the Time Warp (but before Frank, definitely always before Frank) for a smoke in the lobby.
"Sneaking" would be more appropriate. It wasn't really sneaking.
Even though I didn't get any sleep last night - maybe a half hour here or there, but I doubt it - and spent the first half of today hung over, I'm still jazzed from last night. I'm so glad Darren put up with a drunk me, talking to the TV set for 100 minutes.
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