You've probably seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show, or at least heard of it. It's had the longest continuous release in history, largely due to good old fashioned midnight screenings where fans show up in costume and shout agreed upon funny lines at the screen in between (and over) dialogue. At some screenings, they have a cast of people acting out the movie as well, and I was part of one of these casts for three years. Every single Friday night I would put on my neon satin button up shirt and bow tie, I would sing and scream and do The Time Warp, and I fucking LOVED IT. I met wonderful, weird, amazing people and gained so much confidence that I don't think I ever would have gotten any other way.
Funny thing is, being a part of something like that never really leaves you. I was showing these polishes to a friend who was also in the cast, and between us we just started reciting great chunks of the movie and callbacks. We just can't help ourselves. Whenever I see people doing the Time Warp the "wrong" way (there is a dance that was popular in clubs, and the dance they actually do on the screen, and they are actually quite different) I get all twitchy. I can't watch the movie without muttering the callbacks under my breath, and despite having seen the movie so many times I've seriously lost count, there are sections of dialogue and lyrics I don't actually know the original words for because I always shouted callbacks over them.
Needless to say, I have a lot of feelings about Rocky Horror. So I'm going to regale you with tales of my multicoloured, cross dressing past, in between the pretty pictures. Science Fiction Double Feature is a collection of 8, so to stop the length of this post spiralling wildly out of control, I'm going to split it into three posts - which I guess is a way of saying if you don't give a damn about Rocky Horror at all, maybe go somewhere else this week.
Strongman really surprised me - I usually don't like gold polishes in any form, but this one is just SO sparkly, and SO over the top that it won me over. It seemed a shame to put anything under this fabulousness, so these pictures are all three coats alone.
Bling bling y'all! How FUN is this polish?
Strongman is inspired by the delightful little costume worn by Rocky himself in the movie.
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Da-DA! |
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The callback for this scene involved calling the mummified Rocky the world's first self inserting tampon. Classy! |
A Sexy Accident inspired by the amazing drag medical outfit Frank'n'Furter is wearing while overseeing Rocky's "birth", and the line of dialouge where he admits Rocky's successful creation was actually a total accident. (One of the callback for this section involved the cast shouting, "What did your mother say you were?" just before Frank says, "An accident!"
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I honestly can't decide if it's the pearls or the amazing gloves that really make this outfit. |
I stood this one upside down for about ten minutes before using it, and had no issues whatsoever getting plenty of the circle glitters out.
And finally, we have Dammit Janet, named for our ever so prim and proper *coff coff* heroine, Janet Weiss. She was played in the movie by Susan Sarandon, and it actually took me a long time to realise she's actually a Serious Actress who has done Other Things, because I just knew her as Janet.
If you've not seen the movie, you might wonder why I sarcastically call Janet prim and proper. You see, she starts off looking like this, and being all, "Oh no, I'm frightened and this place is so strange!" and fainting.
And by the end of the movie, she's fucked all the men in the cast (except Riff Raff), and is crawling around in this outfit.
Rocky Horror fan legend has it that this shot of Janet in the rain inspired the very first callback ever, in which some clever clogs shouted, "Buy an umbrella, you cheap bitch!"
In the audience participation show I was in, we would give audience members a "showbag" before the show containing various props. There was always a newspaper, and newbies would ALWAYS pull out the newspaper and ask what the hell it was for. Once we got the water pistols out the simulate the rain in the movie, they usually figured it out pretty damn fast.
Dammit, Janet is a really great interpretation of Janet the character, in my opinion. The base is a creamy pink, filled with delicate lavender hexes in various sizes. But there are also iridescent blue glitters hiding inside, glinting in just the right light, just as Janet's sexuality comes out given the right encouragement.
Unfortunately I had a hell of a time trying to get the damn iridescent glitters to show up in photos, so you're going to have to take my word for it, but they are there!
I'll leave it there for today, but be sure to come back tomorrow for more from this great collection!
Science Fiction Double Feature Collection are available now from the Loki's Lacquer Etsy store. International shipping is available on request.
This collection is incredible! I'm plotting to buy them all but my credit card is upset with me at the moment. I'm very much looking forward to seeing your swatches of the rest - and more stories!
ReplyDeleteI love Rocky Horror but have always been a bit hesitant about going to the midnight screenings - a combination of cinema anxiety and my habit of falling asleep in dark rooms if it's after 8pm :|
Your average callback shown can be a little....confronting ;) I used to use it as a screening process for potential boyfriends when I was in the cast. I'd bring them along, toss them at the mercy of my castmates, and if they survived they were worth dating :D
Deleteawesome review cass!!!! i love how you go into it all i tried to on my blog but i had WAY too much to say!! and im still trying to hunt down a pic of me in my magenta outfit to post as well...(The skinny days) swatches are bloody fantastic!!! love every word!!!!
ReplyDeleteWoweeeeeee! I never saw the movie of this but I went to the live musical twice in Melbourne. It had this part where the cast emerge perched on a giant paper mache penis which proceeds to explode confetti all over the audience. And the narrator was either Gretel Killeen or Derryn Hinch, depending on which showing you went to. Amaze.
ReplyDeletePS I would reeeeally love to find a pic of that scene to show you the splendour but I'm frightened of why google would produce for an image search of "rocky horror melbourne giant penis explosion"
DeleteHahahaha! That sounds AMAZING! I've only seen the musical once, but I found the lack of callbacks really offputting at the time. :D
DeleteI always feel disappointed in myself for liking the pinks (want to be more badass), but this pink is just so so so so PRETTY GODDAMMIT!
ReplyDeleteDammit Janet is a really, really pretty pink, seriously. And you know how I feel about pink! I just wish I'd been able to catch the little purple flashes in it...
DeleteYay! I love this show. :) Also, I love these polishes and I am really looking forward to seeing the rest of them + your stories. Actually, I'm more excited about your stories than the polishes... :)
ReplyDeletexxLissa
haha! I have some good stories - there is one I'm planning to put in the next post about when I went to Paris and saw the french version of the callback show....
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