Bienvenido a California, Part 7

Lips! Lips! Lips!

In which the author pays homage to the film, Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Dana Andrews said prunes, gave him the runes...



I had originally intended to just mention Rocky Horror in passing, stating that I saw it for the first time while in Monterey, and maybe putting up a clip of the Time Warp. But then I mentioned the movie among some coworkers, and only one of the other people there had ever heard of it. You gotta be kidding me! What are they teaching kids nowadays! So I'm including many fun clips from the film here...all of the songs, plus a few other things.

Oh, it's nicer than Betty Monroe had!



I had never seen RHPS before...yes my parents were dull, and Baltimore was provincial hehe. I'm sure it was showing somewhere near my home, it's just not one of the things I was aware of. Neal of course, with his theater background was very much aware of it. And he, Pat, and I think Doug dragged me along to see the movie for the first time one Saturday night at midnight. We saw it at the Dream Theater in Monterey. It was an amazing theater. It had recently been renovated, and was the coolest looking theater I had ever been in. It had deep, comfy carpeting. And while it had normal theater seating, there were also some chaise style seats you could recline on in the front, and some love seats in the very back.

There's a light, in the darkness of everybody's life.



I was the only one of our group who had never seen the movie, and Neal and Pat were unusually quiet and uninformative about it. They just said it was a great science fiction movie. Boy was I in for a shock! The lights went down, the Lips came on, and I was surrounded by people who just wouldn't shut up. Everyone in the theater was still talking. And not just talking, shouting. I looked around to complain to Neal and Pat, and they were shouting too! WTF?! And if this wasn't enough, Neal and Pat started shouting to the theater that I was a Virgin! Not only did everyone start laughing at me, but I got pelted with various thrown items, and squirted with water.

It's astounding...time is...fleeting...madness, takes its toll...



What the hell was going on here? Well if you know of the film, you already know hehe. RHPS is a special movie. It is famous for its audience participation. The whole point is go, and shout things at the screen while the movie is playing. Much of the audience dresses up as one of the characters in the film. Most theaters have a dedicated troupe of people that attend the movie every week, and act out the entire movie like this. Most people there though just shout at the screen, and maybe get up and dance the Time Warp.

You both look like you're, erm, pretty groovy.



I had noticed an overweight woman in front of us in the theater when we got there, but so much else was going on, that I didn't really think it odd that she had kept her coat on...a long black trenchcoat. But at the moment in the clip up above when Frank throws off his cape, up she went onto her seat, she turned around, and off came the coat. Yep, she was dressed just like Frank, corset and fishnets and all. Only she weighed about 300 pounds lol. I thought Pat was going to die from laughter.

That ain't no crime!



Hopefully these clips tell the story of the movie well enough. If not, click here for a brief synopsis on Wikipedia. The movie is a kind of cross between a horror movie, a sci-fi movie, and a musical. The film is also full of little references to other famous movies, like King Kong and Dr. Strangelove. The movie was quite shocking when it first came out, due to the themes of tranvestitism, homosexuality, voyeurism, incest and even cannibalism. I was pretty open minded I thought, but I was really unprepared for Frank's behavior hehe. I was even more unprepared to see Neal strip down to his underwear, and run around the theater playing Rocky! How he got the gold painted shoes into the theater without me knowing remains a mystery hehe.

Keeping dynamic tension, must be hard work!



Meat Loaf made a brief appearance in the movie too, and performed a musical number. If you're paying attention, you'll realize that this is where Frank got the brain from for making Rocky, his own Frankenstein's creation, as it were. Neither Rocky nor Eddie were terribly bright hehe.

Meatloaf...it's what's for dinner.



People were actually not allowed to throw certain things during the movie, such as rice during the wedding scene, and confetti during Frank and Rocky's little honeymoon sequence here, due to the nice carpet in the theater, though they are often thrown at other theaters I'm told.

I'm a muscle fan!



Before this clip, there's a bit of film which unfortunately I couldn't find online. What you don't see is how Frank sneaks into both Janet and Brad's rooms in turn, and seduces them. Janet actually sees Brad with Frank on a surveillance camera, and gets upset and runs off. She finds Rocky, injured, who has also run off. Rocky had been tormented by Magenta and Riff Raff, but had managed to escape. That's why she is comforting him here. Oh, and the fact that she is a slut!

I need a friendly hand! I need assistance!



Finally a little of the plot is being revealed! There's some aliens, and the government is tracking them, and there's high technology...ok it's not very plausible hehe. But in one of the more amusing exchanges in the film, everyone catches Janet and Rocky in the act, and everyone gets jealous. Hell hath no fury like an asshole spurned (Brad)...or is it like a Transexual transvestite scorned (Frank)? I'd be a little more worried about Frank if I were them :)

Great Scott! Dinner is pre-pay-uhed!



The dinner scene is particulary amusing. You can almost see the lightbulbs go on when each person at the table realizes exactly what they're eating hehe. Well except for Rocky. He's either too dumb to figure it out, or he doesn't care!

Meatloaf...no it really is what's for dinner!



Interestingly, Brad and Janet are billed on the opening credits as "a hero" and "a heroine", respectively. Interesting, because in the movie they never do anything particularly heroic. They watch a murder and do nothing to stop it. They engage in rampant sex. In fact increasingly through the movie, I found myself rooting more for Frank than for them, even though Frank was the murderous crazed sex-pot hehe.

Your apple pie, don't taste too nice!







These 3 clips are Frank's "floor show" sequence. Now he's apparently given them mind-altering drugs, has mind-blowing sex with them in a pool, and converts them to his "wild and untamed" lifestyle. I love the mini-tribute to Ester Williams, the aquatic actress hehe.

Don't dream it, be it!



Oh snap, it turns out that Frank's lifestyle is too extreme for even the natives of Planet Transexual. Frank sings a beautiful farewell song. Why doesn't anyone understand him?! Unfortunately, once you're an expat like Frank, you can never really go home. You've changed, and home is that same old place. You don't belong there anymore.

Everywhere, it's been the same...like I'm outside, in the rain.



Alas, it's not meant to be. Real life reasserts itself, and Frank's dream must die...along with him himself. At this point I really notice how much I had been rooting for Frank. And all we have left are the dreary lives of Brad and Janet.

Say, "Goodbye!" to all of this!



We went back and saw RHPS many times while in Monterey. Took along new people, declared them to be virgins, and helped strangers humiliate them hehe. We went to see some conventional movies at the Dream Theater too, though I no longer remember what they were. But when I went to get a picture of the theater to put here on the blog, I discovered that the theater had since been demolished, to make way for a strip-mall. What a shame. It looks like the Dr. Scotts of the world won another one.

Lost in time. And Lost in Space. And meaning.

But, unlike the Dream Theater, the movie lives on! It's still shown all over place, still usually at midnight, though not as many locations as in days gone by. Here's a clip of people dressing up like the cast, and acting along with the movie. Now what are ya waiting for? Go grab some friends and drag them out to the see the movie live!