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IN all this work I’m doing for Issue 300, I may well have missed a few LoCs. This seems to happen tome once in a while, and it’s not like I get a lot of LoCs normally, so I wanna make sure I run them all! If your’s is missing, lemme know!Of the ones I’ve got, let’s start with Eric Mayer!
Chris,I don’t know, Chris. Touting Warren Buff for TAFF and then letting him trash The Rocky Horror PictureShow in the same issue. Is that a good campaigne strategy or a bad one?
Well, the fact that someone is able and willing to take counter arguments to popular positions and beable to explain them is a good one in my eyes! And Warren’s articles are pretty awesome!
I very much enjoyed reading those two conflicting articles, however, and especially your analysis. Definite-ly some stuff I hadn’t thought about. But look, here’s the thing, Rocky Horror is one of the monumental artisticachievements of human civilization. I mean, it’s obvious. The movie speaks for itself.
I don’t know if I’d go that far, but I will say that as a social construct, it is everythign that movies can be: participatory spectacle with strongly attached feelings from the viewers mingling with the film itself.
Well, okay to some people. I think it is one of those things some people just “get” and some don’t. Andno reflection on those who don’t get it. Not saying they are wrong. It is just a movie that instantly grabs somepeople, for who knows what reason.
Perhaps it has something to do with the viewer’s expectation of what a ‘Film’ or a ‘Movie’ is and whatfunction it plays. Those who watch movies for the sheer enjoyment of the story being told may not beable to connect with Rocky.
I seem to have spent most of my life involved with stuff that a few people “get.” Like, for example, ori-enteering, or mini-comics, or Interactive Fiction or, yes, sf fanzines. Stuff that you either immediately say, “Wow!Cool! The greatest!” or “meh, that’s stupid.” And in all those cases I couldn’t say exactly why they grabbed me.Kind of inexplicable, like love at first sight. And I think you know immediately. No matter how many times Warrensaw Rocky Horror or how many exlanations of it he read, it wouldn’t connect with him. Maybe heis more sanethan some of us.
 As a guy who has also spent a lot of his life involved in things that people don’t get, or at least don’t getin the way that I get it, it’s an obvious thing to consider Rocky. IT combines so many things (science fic-tion, horror, musicals, throwing things, general silliness) that people tend not to cotton, so there’s that!
I will say that Rocky Horror is an odd case where there are a lot more people than usual with these sortsof things who get it. There must be more Rocky Horror fans than sf fanzine fans or even orienteers.
That is almost certainly true, and the over-lap is also probably pretty serious. I’m betting that peoplemade their way into SF Fandom through Rocky, though I’m not sure if it worked that way for Orien-teers...
I saw one midnight showing of Rocky Horror in Manhattan, (went with Tim Marion) and it was terrific.Mary and I also saw the stage version when we were living in Rochester, NY and I have to say the pacing is prob-
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Sent by our Gentle Readers to garcia@computerhistory.org
 
ably better than the movie. The only bad thing I can say about the movie is that it slows down a little too muchtowards the end. Although I can’t think what would be taken out.Best,Eric
Thanks, Eric! ANd now... John Purcell!
Only five more issues to go, buddy, until the big 3-0-0. Can you feel the excitement? Can you stand theheat? Can you tell I’m searching for another parallelism?
It is slowly eating me alive!
A couple things to say about your latest issue. First off, good luck to Warren Buff, Kim Kofmel, and mynominee, Jacq Monahan, in this year’s TAFF election. This is a wonderful group of candidates, and I would behappy with any of them winning the race. Of course, I am supporting Jacq, but that doesn’t mean I will go outof my way and diss the others. Far from it. At FenCon VIII/DeepSouthCon 49 last month (is it already that longago? Dang, times goes fast) I finally had the chance to meet Warren - I think Kim was there too, but I’m notsure; do you know if she was there? - and had a grand time talking with him. He and I sat at the same table inthe Hearts Tournament (a DSC tradition, you know), and the man’s a good card (har-har) all the way around. Anice guy, definitely. Good luck to all the TAFF candidates!
Warren’s good people. I wish I had more chances to hang out with him. The entire ballot is good folksand you can’t go wrong... unless you don’t vote for Warren!
Rocky Horror Picture Show is one of those movies you either like or hate. There isn’t an in-betweenon this flick. I don’t like it that much either, unlike Warren who flat out states he can’t stand the movie. It isdefinitely an acquired taste, probably something that one can enjoy if you get into the RHPS mindset, wear thecostumes, and get deep into the /p/l/a/k/t/o/w/ audience participation. This past March, Valerie finally saw thefull-blown audience thing at Aggiecon 42; she had never experienced it before, but had seen the movie a coupletimes years ago. Midnight showings of RHPS are an Aggiecon tradition, so Val took advantage of our member-ship and observed this, er, psycho-social phenomenon. I wrote about it in Askance #23 (June 2011), in caseanybody wants to read my con report.Suffice to say that she wished that the audience members would haveshut up in some places so that she could actually hear the movie. As a cultural oddity, though, experiencing anRHPS showing is something else.At any rate. I think I’ll wrap this up by saying I think I enjoy the music score to RHPS way more than themovie itself. It is good music, that’s for sure. The movie does give a left-handed compliment to all the whacked-out sci-fi B-movies of the 1950s, and if you watch Rocky Horror Picture Show with that in mind, I think aperson might enjoy it more. Still, the bottom line is that RHPS is one of those either-or movies. ‘Nuff said.How about that? You got another loc out of me. It has been awhile, hasn’t it? I can guarantee it won’t bethe last one, either.All the best,John Purcell
I love the songs. Genevieve, Evelyn’s mom, grew up with those as her bedtime songs. While my Dad went for years, I only heard the music when it showed on KTLA in the early 1980s. And now... Lloyd Penney 
Dear Chris:Greetings, good sir! This is always happening these days, I have two issues of The Drink Tank to respondto. If nothing else, you are prolific, and I’m trying to be as prolific as I can be in keeping up. Here come commentson issues 293 and 294.293...There’s that craggy old face, someone who should still be with us; he’d be absolutely gobsmackedand mad as hell at what’s happening today, and he’d probably take a stroll down to Wall Street, and join in thedemonstration. (I hear the whole thing’s about to be shut down...so much for freedom of speech and assem-bly.)
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