This here might be the strangest thing I will ever tell you about myself... wait, wut? No, haha who am I kidding. But it is pretty strange, even from this perspective.
Northern Arizona University student commons with my best friend Valerie-- my first Rocky Horror Picture Show. There were props, the shoutings of lines, Valerie was mimicking the dance moves in the aisles! Whoa, this blew my farm girl mind. You remember your first RHPS, you know. (if you haven't seen it, do not admit that to me.)
When I had to leave Arizona and go to Richmond to live with my sister (at 17-- mom couldn't handle me and foisted me off on W. ) , naturally I was despondent. It was suggested that I attend 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show' at the Biograph in the Fan. I was take the car, and go alone. I was terrified. I'd been to Richmond alone once, years before, encountered my first black people, and ran terrified. I kid you not. And I was to go down into all that again, alone, just as afraid? Yes, they insisted, argued, made their case, convinced me at last to at least drive by so I'd know where it was. They made me leave early. I found the parking lot after a few wrong turns, parked, walked to the 7-11, bought a 6-pack, and went back to the car to drink a couple. I was sitting in the back with the hatch open when a couple approached. Oh fuck, I'd forgotten about this!!!!
This short, dumpy, sandy haired dude, sort of jocular but with serious undertones: pit-faced, but quite handsome. Richard. And this lovely, fit, charming, shy, coy, funny new wave Brit named Beverly. They were my age, the age of the peers I'd left behind. And they were wondering if I could spare a beer. Of course I could! I could even get more I they wanted. YES! They sure did. It's not that I had a fake I.D. -- I was 16, and looked it. The laws were just that lax, but 'Chard and Bev were too afraid to attempt it. Good students both, with families that would give them grief were they to be caught. I just wanted to get drunk. So I walked in and got what I wanted. In that time, the drinking age was 18, and I was pretty close they figured. (I find it funny that it was 18 when I turned 18 and then they changed it to 21, right around when I turned 21. I got pretty lucky there, in THAT way.)
So we drank a few beers then went on in, carry a few in our jackets. I had on some pretty wild punk denim with tears, and holes, and sheets torn to strips wrapped in bands around my legs. I got that from a band called Jody Foster's Army; or was it their fans? Either way: I should write about THAT party! (I wrote JFA on a sticky note, I hope I know what that means tomorrow).
I had been a fan of the movie for my short time living in Phoenix. (If I got this timeline out of order I will fix it soon). So I knew a FEW really good lines that THIS audience had not heard yet. I realized quickly I had better yell MY really new funny lines LOUDER so that everyone would know I was NEW, therefore maybe BETTER? (my young ego good grief). I yelled so loud and so many people loved me that for the first time I felt real. Soon as the movie was over I felt drunk again, deflated, so we left, dejected it was over. We watched the floor show walk by and Columbia and Magenta looked back at me-- grinning lewdly. At ME! (remind me to replace CAPS with italics, or learn the shortcut ffs).
Well that was all it took for me to start going to the movie every week-end, Friday and Saturday nights and the Sunday matinee if I could swing it. Always with the beer, always with the props, and always with Richard, and sometimes Beverly. My enthusiasm did not go unnoticed, as I was eventually asked to join and absorbed into the floor show; Richard and Beverly were thrilled as now they had an 'in' to the really cool kid's area as it were. I started getting to know the people of the floor show, starting with Frank-N-Furter, since I was playing Janet. The dude was massive, like a quarterback, but so into the role he carried it off well. I only did the show with him a few times before he was replaced... by Dan. Dan the Man. This little curly headed twerp I fell for pretty hard. Now he's some Rockabilly DJ somewhere in middle America. But back then he had a job somewhere in a business his fiance's dad owned or some shit and he was stuck in an engagement he didn't want to be in. Patty, his fiance, sometimes came to the show but usually not. Dan and I got along quite well and I sort of began to crush on him, his Frank moves were stellar and I couldn't get enough of him laying on top of me for the scenes. I'd not had any sexual contact since Drexel, no dates, who the hell was I going to 'date', wild child that I was. The floor show WAS my sexual encounter for the interim. It led to actual sex, with Dan the Man. I did not enjoy the intercourse but I did enjoy Dan. Any dude so fully in touch with his feminine side so as to be able to pull of Frank-N-Furter that well deserves some love, hetero or not.
Dan was like this cool dude that took me from my sister's house and taught me cool stuff. Like, he knew about 4711 and even wore it. He had some lovely fishnets and what-not he said his fiance helped him buy. He was funny and quick witted. Everyone loved him. He managed to pull off the absolute depravity of being Frank in the floor show while juggling me , his fiance and a full time bank job or some shit. Good for Dan. He's now a DJ doing a rock-a-billy show and that fiance is long gone. We found each other on FB a few years back!
We had to meet clandestinely of course. And oh fuck I have been saying that I never cheated and I haven't but I HAVE been with someone who was engaged. So now I have to sort of amend that to... I did sleep with an engaged man once. DAMMIT, I hate that I remembered that. I am an awful person. Well that's a sorry ass thing that I did.
In the floor show was this strange, red-eyed, wild haired, pale skinned little wraith who played Magenta. She grinned in a way that made you wonder if she was going to sample your flesh. I mean if there was a look or a pose or anything that could be done to make a person wonder if they should run, Georgina had perfected it. When you meet someone like that in a floor show, you wonder if they are really like that, or .. just cutting loose for the night, for the show. Georgie lived it. She was from England, and although only 16, way more worldly than I at 21. Short in stature, she was very long on oddness. She was to date the oddest person I'd ever met.
Georgina was Magenta, Leslie was Columbia, and Greg was Riff Raff. They all lived together in a house Leslie owned. Leslie must have been about 30 something. She said she was writing a book about Francis Bacon being the actual author of Shakespearean plays or something like that, I do not remember exactly. I remember scoffing at that premise though. What did I know? Leslie's house was very strange. There was cat shit so dried out that you could cut your foot on it (as happened to Chard once, although he deserved it), no one ever cleaned. It was a horrible mess. Georgie's room was painted BLACK entirely! And she refused to come out until the sun had gone down, unless she was absolutely drunk and forgot the sun was up. She had read "Interview with a Vampire" and fancied herself to be Claudia and even called herself by that name.
Greg lived in the basement. Greg was skeletally thin, earning him the nick name Skeletor, which he hated. He was a kind enough fellow, but demented a bit by his love for Claudia/Georgina. She led him on a bit and he would do ANYTHING for her. Greg and I enjoyed each other's company well enough. I remember going out in the night with empty coke bottles, our faces painted and sing songing WARRIORS, come out to PLAAAAAAAYYYYYY.... clink..... clink.... clink..... WARRIORS..... clink....
We'd dress all punk and go to the pub. Terry's British Pub, still there, still kickin' ... Terry loved it when we came in and livened the place up. We'd often get a free pint or a free snack. I loved Terry. He gave me a reason to want to walk 12 miles to be somewhere. Terry's Penny Lane Pub
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