Halloween is Rocky Horror Time!
Mamacita says: “Great Scott!”
Halloween has been and gone but it’s still THAT SEASON, which means many things, one of which is that I have a giant bowl half-filled with Tootsie Roll Pops and Hershey bars on my coffee table, and another of which is that I am once again compelled to obsess over my favorite cult film, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
“I would like, if I may, to take you on a strange journey.”
Please remember that I am a sedate and typical possibly not-as-young-as-you-are woman, and the following information may or may not be true. Probably it’s not, because sedate and typical women, particularly mothers of innocent children, never do such things, and are in fact appalled at the very notion.
“Hot patootie, bless my soul! I really love that rock n’ roll!”
It may come as a bit of a surprise to some of you, or maybe not, that when I was a lot younger, My boyfriend and I might have gone to the midnight showing of this film at least once a month, and that rumor has it that he went as Riff Raff and I went as Magenta, the Domestic. It’s possible that I went with a deck of cards, a newspaper, a water gun, a baggie of rice, a party hat, a garter, and a noisemaker. Perhaps I even owned fishnet stockings. I still know every song by heart. I used to do the Time Warp. Maybe. In another time, and another space. Not to mention in a smaller body.
I may have used the decks of cards as frisbees; I really can’t remember that far back.
It might also be true that, long ago, I used to teach my study hall students to do the Time Warp, but then again, unless you were there, you’ll never know.
“Don’t dream it; be it.”
Speaking of sexy men (Oh, were we? Well, we are now.) I have this to say: Tim Curry. Then and now, but especially then. I know you all want desperately to see a picture of Tim Curry in drag. Well, I do, anyway. Like many of us, he used to be really hot. (Don’t look if you’re all prudey and pruney; fair warning.) (Oh, for heaven’s sake, you’ve already seen it on the movie poster!)
It’s a dreadful movie, really. Silly, soft-pornish, ridiculous, terrible acting, stilted dancing, camp at its best worst. . . . And yet, for some reason, it’s endeared itself to many people in spite of it all. I still love it.
“It’s not easy having a good time! Even smiling makes my face ache!”
These days, what I remember most is that my outfit was a size 5. In short, the domestic’s costume no longer fits, in more ways than one.
Memorize the entire movie? My goodness, that would be ridiculous for a woman my age! Why, I’m almost hyperventilating at the very thought!
“Your new playmate is loose and somewhere in the castle grounds.”
Rumors that I have a membership card in my wallet may or may not be true. I’m officially grown up now; why would I do that, now really? And why would I own one of the few copies of the soundtrack from the sequel? Shock Treatment? Or a Richard O’Brien cd?
And for you Star Trek fans out there, I’ve included a second video, proving that you can’t escape from the Time Warp, even in outer space. I might add, one would probably be even more apt to encounter a time warp in outer space. Well, it seems logical to me.
Enjoy.
“They” say that Peter Hinwood, who played Rocky, is so mortified by his participation in this movie that he can’t even talk about it.
I hope everybody noticed Barry Bostwick’s appearance in the Rocky Horror Glee episode. . . .You won’t see him in the Glee video, but believe me, he was there.
I’m a big Bostwick fan. I even remember that he was the original Danny in Grease.
“If only we were amongst friends… or sane persons!”
In context, the whole Rocky Horror thing is so absurd it’s, well, absurd. Taken out of context, some of the music is really good. This song, most of which was deleted from both the American and the British versions of the film, still has the power to make me pensive.
I’ve done a lot, God knows I’ve tried
To find the truth, I’ve even lied
But all I know is down inside
I’m bleeding.
And Super Heroes come to feast
To taste the flesh not yet deceased
And all I know is still the beast
is feeding.
And crawling on the planet’s face
Some insects called the human race
Lost in time, and lost in space
And meaning.
And, I’m really glad that whoever-was-responsible-for-such-things finally wised up and put “Superheroes” back in the movie. I love that song. I couldn’t find the actual video of it, but this is singing by the cast, even if it’s not the movie itself.
This is not a movie for children; perish the thought. But it’s a fun romp for adults. Learn to participate; it’s fun. Don’t forget the party hats.
Of course, if you don’t have time to watch an entire movie, you can always check out the bunnies.
Pronoun Sex
Mamacita says: Today’s giggle: Pronouns.
There are three pronoun persons: Person speaking (first person) Person spoken to (second person) and Third Person (person spoken about.) Grammar is a soap opera, remember. I told YOU about HIM.
All pronouns must match their antecedents in many ways: singular with singular, plural with plural, masculine with masculine, feminine with feminine, neuter with neuter. . . etc.
What do third person singular pronouns have that no other pronouns have? Answer: sex.
When we look at “he, she, it, her, him,” we immediately know the gender of the pronoun.
“One of the women brought (her, their) own sack to the picnic.”
Answer: “her.” “Of the women” is a prepositional phrase and therefore cannot be the subject, so we put it in parenthesis and forget it, except as it gives sex to the pronoun which has the sack.
Antecedent: “One. It is singular, so the pronoun must be singular to match the antecedent.”
Student: Is the woman giving sex to the pronoun or to the sack?
Another Student: Who cares? Sex is sex. I love this class.
Teacher: So do I.
We have fun sometimes, even while discussing grammar. Which is exactly as it should be. Word.
There may or may not have been some discussion about what kind of “sack,” but none of you would be interested in that part of the conversation. Or would you. . . .
You would, but I’m still not sayin’.
Her sack. Heh.
Good Teaching Is Like Good Standup
I love children, and I love students of all ages, and I love teaching, and I love genuine education in all of its 6-degrees-of-separation wonder. Everything is connected – everything in the known and unknown universe is connected. Nothing exists only within the four walls of a classroom. It often happens – I sincerely hope – that in the course of our education we are required to learn something we simply do not understand.
“Whyyyyyyyy do I have to learn this? (Best said in a whiny, nasal tone.)
There are many answers to this question, all correct, although “Because it’s going to be on the test” is the poorest answer, even though it might be the only answer the student is capable of understanding AT THE MOMENT. Education is so full of wonders that it’s difficult to highlight just one, but I’ll give it a shot.
One of my favorite educational wonders is the simple fact that there are many things we learn for which we know no immediate reason. This not “knowledge for knowledge’s sake,” although I love to know things just to know them. This is “life prep.”
Hasn’t it ever happened to you, that five, ten, thirty, sixty years later, something pops in your brain and suddenly you make a connection to that little poem your mean third grade teacher made you memorize much against your will, and you are able to comprehend something?
I thought so.
THAT’S why you “have to learn this stuff” now. Some of it is for today, and some of it is for tomorrow, and some of it is for when you’re seventy-two years old and struggling with questions far more difficult than school ever made you do. Each of your teachers is trying to prepare you not merely for the next grade up, but for all of the rest of your life. Everything you have ever learned is stored away in your head, somewhere, waiting to serve you “later.” Good teachers know this, and do their level best to encourage students to find and understand the connections and relationships between and among “things.”
That’s what I’ve always tried to do, anyway. I didn’t learn that in college. I learned it from some of my own teachers. Not all; just the good ones. I learned plenty from the bad teachers, too, and not just because bad examples are as useful – and sometimes more so – than good examples. The many good teachers in my life taught me much more than their job description required, and it was these “tangents” that taught me the most. I do this with my students, too, and often those tangents end up being more important than the actual lesson.
If our children learn nothing else in school, I hope they learn about the connections, which are, of course, also relationships. Connecting the dots between math and English and science and history, etc, will help us all want to learn more, and more, and more, and never stop learning more. I consider that to be my primary goal. Perhaps knowing these things about me will soften what I am about to say next, which is simply this:
It’s no surprise to me that a student doesn’t much like to sit still and pay attention when the instructor is boring, lackluster, monotonous, incompetent, and uninformed. (Or any one of those things.) Excellent lessons require much more than books, paper, and pencils; they require the skills of a savvy standup. You can’t teach Period 7 the same way you taught Period 2; it’s a different audience.
However, I still maintain that the majority of responsibility for learning lies with the student, not the teacher. A person who desires to learn will learn in spite of all of the obstacles our modern educational system puts in his/her path, and believe me, modern educational systems put all the obstacles in the path of our students that they possibly can.
It’s still – mostly – the student’s responsiblity.
Bring it on.
