The bitter sweet weekend

I was feeling down at the start of this past week, but after a sequence of events, emails, and people around me bringing me back up, I feel so much more optimistic about life. There are too many people to thank because a good percentage of my boost came from this this past weekend’s Rocky Horror events. These 4 crazy parties were a personal bitter sweet end to the week for me.

I understand that the couple people who read this may not understand the bitter part, so offense isn’t taken, I’ll be happy to explain without getting too personal.

My traditional Halloween weekend consists of a weekend of Dead Man’s Party, an Oingo Boingo tribute band in Southern California. A Halloween, for me, really hasn’t been complete without seeing all of my California friends there who I have been missing dearly since I moved away. The band and friends that I’ve made at those shows are great people to be cherished. This obviously brings me to the bitter part.

I’m really upset that I had to miss out this year. This was one of the things that was bringing me down at the start of this week. The realization that I have to be in Arizona during the only holiday I acknowledge made my stomach turn. The overwhelming amunt of negativity that I’ve experienced over the last 6 years in this state bothers me so, I try to get that little energy boost to help continue on. And, damn, what a big unexpected boost I got.

Rocky Horror has been a big part of my life, just like Boingo. The 4 shows this weekend really came together and definitely came at the right time. I have been feeling more and more part of the cast, but for some reason, I’ve always felt a little distant until now. (Personal issues, nothing to do with cast.) The feelings that I got this past weekend just made me feel right about what’s to come and the difficult choices that I will have to make.

I am always going to have some hate for Arizona taking away a few things that I cherished, but with a new spark to ignite the fire in me, I’m really looking forward to the wild fire that will soon rage.

The Big Rocky Taco

I don’t get things. I seriously don’t. I knew what I was getting into, but I just feel a little overwhelmed with life. To make matters even more stressful, there’s Rocky. It’s frustrating that people limit themselves to what they know and not attempt to gain any understanding of things beyond the barriers that they set.

Past, present, and I know that it will happen in the future, people don’t see the big Rocky picture. There’s a reason why people have donated their life, time, money, blood, sweat, tears, next of kin, and countless rolls of toilet paper to keep it going for 35 years.

Rocky Horror is world famous. It’s epic. It’s pop culture. It’s in the history books. It’s in museums. It will be around longer than all of us because there will always be some freak out there who will keep it going. For these reasons and more, it depresses me that there have been people throughout the years so full of themselves that they try to take over, take down, or hurt this Rocky legacy.

Being part of a cast, an individual takes on the role to represent this legacy. In day to day life, this person is Rocky Horror. Any actions or words said by them reflect on their cast, the Rocky community, and more importantly, Rocky Horror as a whole. Each person is extremely important and most don’t understand, or even consider, this role because they are more focused on their personal lives, issues, and benefits of being in Rocky.

If a person doesn’t want this weight on their shoulders, don’t be part of any cast! There shouldn’t be a Taco Bell vs. Del Taco debate between people within casts or casts themselves that reflect so negatively on the Rocky Horror community. Trust me, words get around. The actions taken by an individual have more impact than one can ever imagine.

These days, it’s even easier to get an opinion read by many; Twitter, blogs, Facebook, message boards, texts, among other things. Your voice gets heard by a lot more people than you think and can make a larger impact than you intend. Remember that secret that you only wanted your Facebook followers to know? We now all know that you now favor that little taco stand behind the baseball stadium.

I do apologize if anyone is offended by tacos, but I just wanted to make a point with a ridiculous reference that we can all relate to. If you’re a vegan, vegetarian, or prefer burgers, just go with the taco reference for now, ok?

With all of that said, I want to come back to a person’s role in cast. Yes, you might be able to recreate the on-screen character’s actions really well or even have an accurate costume, but seriously think about that. You are not the only one who can shadow a movie. There was a person in the role before you and there will be more than one person to perform after you leave. You are only as good as your peers and if they stink, guess what? All attention is off of you. Sorry to burst anyone’s bubble with this reality.

Just like with any kind of theater or performance troop, there’s always a person waiting in the wings, or the audience, to assume the role of a particular character, stage hand, or even director, and prove that they are better. Regardless of this fact, any part that a person takes on can never be as big as ‘the big picture’. (No pun intended.)

Another thing that I never understood in the Rocky community is the ‘I’m better than you’ thing between casts, states, and countries. It’s all Rocky Horror. I can see the same movie regardless of what theater that I go to. The movie is the same in each state, country, planet, and universe.

Typically, there are miles and miles and hours of driving from one theater playing Rocky Horror to another so, it’s really a matter of convenience as to which one people favor.

I do understand that each cast brings a different element to the table the same way a chef brings their individuality to a recipe. They all recreate the Rocky experience in their own unique way that can not be replicated by any one else. Some are better than others, but regardless, it’s their own unique spin on it. Personally, there is not one ‘best of the bunch’, it’s all different. However, if I read through Twitter that a certain cast doesn’t like Taco Bell, I might not think highly of them. If I read through a message board or hear a rumor through a friend that a bunch of casts are having a taco fight, I may not go at all.

On a personal note, I believe that we all vote with our wallets and/or time. If you believe in a product, service, event, you’re going to support it in some way to keep it around. Rocky Horror isn’t much different. It’s continued to run in theaters for nearly 4 decades and it will won’t be gone any time soon as long as we all want it there without tacos.

I have made some awesome friends in the Rocky community since I first got welcomed with open arms back in 1995. Regardless of my taco preferences, I’m still going to support the Rocky community until the day I die and nobody is going to be able to take that away from me no matter how hard they try.

One thing that I will end with to think about; compared to the overall life picture, does it really matter if someone accidentally put a shred of lettuce the taco that you ordered for dinner? There are worse things out there. Consider how good that taco is and don’t focus on that stupid little piece of lettuce that made its way into that moment of your life.

If this offends anyone or you think that I singled out a specific person, cast, state, country, or planet, then you must either be really full of yourself, hate tacos, or get butt hurt easily, which can be related to mental issues Just go eat a taco and enjoy it!

Kind of forgot about this

I admit, I forgot about this blog until recently because the internet society as we know it has turned to Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter for posting their social snippets. Granted there are blogs out there, but not as many as there were.

I'm one of them, so I can't judge those who'd prefer to type two lines from a cell phone instead of a novel on a computer.

In any case, I am starting over, in many ways. In reference to this blog, I didn't want it to be there any more. I wanted to begin with a clean slate and move on from there. In a way, it's like what I am doing with life. I just wish that life with as easy as hitting 'backspace' or 'delete' on a keyboard, but that's life.

I apologize to those who follow and already miss the pics. I can't promise what's going to come of this blog yet since I don't want to delete it.

Cheers, drink up, smoke'm if you got 'em, and remember to double-tap!