At the late night double feature picture show...
Disclaimer: The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.

For my loyal readers out there you will notice I've long ago left off naming a Musical of the Month that I am listening to. That's because it occured to me that I don't listen to that many musicals. I have a handful of soundtracks and I loyally rotate between them. I'm not really one explore music that I don't already listen to. It takes me a long time to get used to a new soundtrack or a new group and for them to earn my trust. Usually one long road trip will do it, but I haven't had an occassion to go on a road trip with a bunch of different CDs for quite a while now, just my old standbys. Since I've had this blog for more than a year I figured how boring is it for you, my readers, to hear about me rotating back and fourth between the same dozen or so musicals without ever adding anything new?

That said, today it suddenly occurred to me that we're halfway through October and I haven't been listening to the Rocky Horror Picture Show (movie) Soundtrack constantly as I usually do every October. I don't know why I hadn't thought of listening to it. Maybe it's because I have no real plans to celebrate Halloween right now (I'll be watching Donnie Darko) or because Halloween isn't widely celebrated in Romania. Or maybe it's because I've been spending so much time on the computer I wanted to listen to something without words (the Lord of the Rings Two Towers sountrack, constantly - to the point that it's playing in my head even when I'm not listening to it).

Another volunteer told me he was working on putting on the second ever production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (movie + actors) to occur in Translyvania. The first was in June and I couldn't go. But when we talked about it in mid-September he mentioned doing some "traditional" Halloween activities before the Rocky Horror Preshow (de-virgin ritual) like bobbing for apples and telling ghost stories, before the audience went inside and was presented with a paper bag of things to throw a the screen and introduced the the World of Rocky.

Now, honestly Rocky Horror and Halloween have only one thing in common and that is costumes. Rocky has nothing to do with Halloween. Still, I was fantastically excited for Rocky "sometime around Halloween" despite the inherant irresponsibility of confusing for the Romanians in attendance "Halloween" and "Rocky Horror." One is really a celebration for children at the end of every October - the other is definately a celebration for adults that can take place every Friday night!

But I haven't heard back about a date for the Rocky Horror performance and I've already begun to believe it's not going to happen anytime soon. This saddens me because not only did I set the goal for myself of inviting a Romanian to Rocky Horror with me for the purpose of cultural amabassadorship - I actually found a candidate. (Don't get too excited, I have her number but I haven't actually spoken to her since August.)

My disapointment at the lack of Rocky in my October goes deeper too. I was really looking forward to going to this performance because, for me, it was a chance to do something normal. By that I mean something I would do at home. It's going to be a really weird Fall for me because I'm noticing I don't have time on my calendar to celebrate Thanksgiving, and I even though I've let Halloween slip through the cracks before without carving pumpkins, without getting dressed up. But to do nothing - at all! For two holidays in a row? To be surrounded by people who aren't even familiar with the holiday - makes me feel even farther from home than usual.

One time a friend told me about researching something so out there, so wacky, so far from her own experience that in order to have some sense of balance and normalacy while she looked up this information she had to listen to Hedwig and the Angry Inch to pull the world back into order. That's kind of how I feel about Rocky Horror.

Or perhaps that story better illustrates the kind of people I'm used to hanging out with at home.

Living in a culture that's foriegn to you it's rare that you have days when you feel totally like yourself; when you're not trying to fit into another culture, when you're not trying to decide what's appropriate and what isn't, when you're not asking yourself: how much of my honest thoughts and opinions can I reveal in this situation? What will happen if I really express myself, unfiltered? This is true even when hanging out with other Americans here. Sometimes there's a degree of "these are my friends, but not my friends from 'real life'." Some of us are keenly aware that we wouldn't be friends in the United States, or perhaps we could have been friends but it's likely some of us would never have met.

Of course, that's not the case with everyone.

To put it another way: I have to introduce a whole new group of people to the movie Velvet Goldmine, explain the three different drinking games and why you shout certain sentences at certain times (not just for Rocky Horror) but for every movie ("that sitar player does not love you!"). This is part of the reason I haven't watched any Lord of the Rings movies in seven months. Because no one here understands "that's what I see too, Sauroman, except I see it not so much you and I, but more like just I! Because I'm a giant EYE! Get it?"

And like most inside jokes when you explain them to new people they sound stupid, childish, and weird ("you baked a cake in the shape of what?"). You need to make new inside jokes rather than invite new people into your old inside jokes. And I haven't been good at that.

That's why I was so looking forward to Rocky Horror: the biggest inside joke ever! And looking forward to being with other people on the inside. The kind of people not afraid to get out their fishnets and Time Warp. The kind of people I could be friends with - on some level - wherever, whenever. Kind of like a family reunion.

It would be nice to see a movie with people who knew when to shout. Even if at the begining we shouted different things...