Halloween Confession

I had never seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

It first arrived in theaters when I was in high school and I didn't see it. Probably because it only showed for about 30 seconds.

A few years later, it started showing up as the midnight movie offering. I still never saw it. I wasn't allowed to be out past eleven p.m. back then. Now a days, I'm too old and tired to be up that late.

Over the years, the reports of rice and toast tossing, noise makers and bells, rain and newspaper hats made their way to my knowledge base of the phenomenon.

Still didn't rock my boat or peak my interest enough to get me through much more than the first few minutes of the movie whenever I happened to catch it on cable.

So it was with a certain lack of enthusiasm that I accompanied Jason the The Charleston Ballet's presentation last night.

It was quite enjoyable. There was some rice tossing and some water spraying, but the crowd was mostly subdued. The dancers were all outrageously talented. The movie playing in the background helped me keep track of the plot (cough, cough) line, but the sound system was stretched to the max and half way through it became painfully loud. (To be fair though, I'd worked the night before and only slept about three hours that day and become very sensitive to sound when that tired.)

I was completely in awe of the talent of Stephen Gabriel, who played the role of Dr. Frank-N-Furter. He was obviously reveling in the character and perfectly balanced the campiness, if that is a word, through the entire performance.

We discussed talent on the way home. I have said before that I love nothing more than to watch people with great talent do what they do best. Sing, act, dance, paint. And while I still was not impressed with the movie playing last night, I was completely thrilled and awed by all the dancers who brought it to life.

Loki sez: I wanted to go to the ballet.