Wednesday, August 24, 2016

096: Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) - Hey, Let's $%!# With These Normies: The Film


SPOILERS FOR ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW.

In this episode:
  • At long last, our discussion of the 1975 cult classic Rocky Horror Picture Show, including Tim Curry, the stellar soundtrack, the obtuse plot, and its place as a cultural phenomenon.
  • This is take two of this episode, so much like with our Sweeney episode, we try to hit on points we did the first time we recorded while keeping the conversation alive and organic. To...mixed results.
  • Seriously, though, the soundtrack kicks ass, even if Ian's a little perplexed at how all of these songs came together.
  • We talk about how we first saw Rocky Horror. Ian watched it with his Dad, which probably wasn’t weird at all, and then ended up seeing a shadowcast performance at college. Fio’s girlfriend made him go see it in high school.
  • The production values, sets, casting, etc. of this film are pretty great, but watching it on its own, you don’t really get the full experience.
  • We talk about other horror musicals we haven’t discussed during this series, putting the spotlight on The Devil’s Carnival and Jasper in Deadland.
THERE'S ALWAYS AN ADDENDUM:
  • Again, apologies for the lateness of the episode and a potentially less-than-comprehensive discussion, due to this being a re-record. Technology was working against us for this one.
  • From Fio: My bad, Superman doesn’t reprogram the population of Transilvane by playing westerns, he specifically does it by playing them Oklahoma! So this fits into our musical theme!
  • Here's a link to the Decemberists/Silent Hill song parody Ian wrote (MAJOR SPOILERS FOR SILENT HILL 2): "James Hymn"
Music:
  • "This is My Design" - Ian Doherty | SoundCloud | Bandcamp |
  • "Time Warp" - The Rocky Horror Picture Show | YouTube | Amazon |
  • "Science Fiction / Double Feature" -  The Rocky Horror Picture Show | YouTube | Amazon |
  • "Planet Schmanet Janet" - The Rocky Horror Picture Show | YouTube | Amazon |
  • "Touch-A, Touch-A, Touch Me" - The Rocky Horror Picture Show | YouTube | Amazon |
http://archive.org/download/AMOT096/AMOT096.mp3

2 comments:

  1. "Like say Green Day doing a musical" Is there something you'd like to share with the class, Ian


    Aside from that, man. I too went to see RHPS live in college but it was my first year, so it had that extra layer of New Experience Weirdness(TM) for me. It was legit funny, too, bc the audience was split literally down the middle of people dressed up who had props and were totally into it, and then on the left side of the auditorium, noobs (like myself) and people who appeared to just've wandered in. An older couple, like mid-60s, straight up walked out halfway through the show. We didn't have any 'initiation' rights or anything, thank God bc I would have physically exploded into flame. Someone did go up onstage before the show to like thank everyone for being there (she says while carefully avoiding the word 'coming') and supporting the university Pride association, 'cause you paid for the tickets and the money went to them.
    The actual experience of watching it was odd. I wasn't expecting... any of it. Like, I knew what it /was/ just through cultural osmosis, but up until it actually started I didn't realize it was a horror movie. Let alone a parody, all the parody elements just sailed right over my head. And then suddenly rape jokes and lots of cannibalism, and people were throwing popcorn (bc we weren't allowed bread as it might actually damage the screen). I wasn't really ~with anybody, bc I'd went to see it alone and hadn't perfected the "ingratiate yourself into a new group of people asap" form of concert/movie-showing, so I felt sort of like stuff was happening around me instead of, like, me being a part of it. The whole thing was just bizarre. But I absolutely had that "oh no they shot Frank!" feeling at the end, too! Like, wow. I didn;t expect the rape jokes or the cnnibalism but I also didn't expect Tim Curry to be so gd amazing. 'Coming Home' is legitimately one of my favourite songs of the show, just because against all reason he performs it so, like. Genuinely. Like I was tearing up watching his mascara run.
    Ironically one of the things that stuck in my head the most was after the movie when everyone left, there was this dude who'd done the whole pearls and corset and fishnets thing, and then as we all step out of the theatre I turn around to see him pulling on some pyjamas, and he was just like "I brought PANTS!" so happily. Yes you did, sir. Well done.

    Annnnnnnnyway. Weird nostalgia! \o/ This was a good episode, nice work guys.

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    1. (When you try not to make a come joke and it happens anyhow... Going. 'I'm Going Home'.)

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