The Unconventional Conventionalists

"Rocky" goers, a breed of their own

As the witching hour approaches on Saturday night, Bay Area misfits gather outside the Parkway Cinema in Oakland for a taste of their favorite cult movie experience, "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." The air is filled with the heavy scent of cloves as bodies clad in fishnets, corsets and black leather line up against the brick wall, eager to be let inside the theater. Two girls dressed in nothing more than bras, panties and tights with bright red-lipsticked V's on their foreheads stand giggling on either arm of a mischievous looking man in a floor-length black trench coat.

He lifts up their hands and yells, "Virgins for sale! I've got two hot virgins here for sale. Buy them both for seven bucks!"

For 10 years, fans have been flocking to see the cast of Barely Legal and their interpretation of the movie's message of acceptance and decadence. The crowds also come to partake in the debauchery. Deflowering the virgins is always a crowd favorite. But most hardcore fans of the show credit the scene's continued popularity with its acceptance of outcasts, individuals Edward Hall refers to as "the people that everyone else thinks are freaks but are actually normal once you get past the clothes and slight craziness."

Kaneda, a longtime supporter of "Rocky" who named himself after a character in the cult anime film "Akira," feels at-home amongst what most of society views as the riff-raff.

"I don't fit in anywhere else, but I fit in here. Everyone else is weird here, so nobody notices me," he says while running a leather whip through his fingers. "Where else can you go at midnight on a Saturday night and not get in trouble? Well, not too much trouble anyway. I mean, they were already spanking people and tying them up earlier."

Whips, flogs and other bondage paraphernalia are commonplace in this glam-meets-goth sexually permissive subculture that somehow has developed around a cheesy '70s science fiction movie. Whatever your poison, there is probably someone else in the crowd to connect with, on both a mental and physical level.

Genevieve Florea, a self-proclaimed "Rocky freak," has been into the movie since she was five. It took a few more years before she understood the message.

"It all surrounds sex, because sex is a fun subject because everyone does it," she says with a laugh. "You know you don't have to be frumpy here. You can actually dress how you want to dress and act how you want to act."

Everyone has their own idea of what Rocky is truly about, but as one audience member remarked right before she entered the theater, "It's all about the group orgies."

*originally published October 2005 by [X]press Magazine

Don't Judge Me for Being Un-American

*originally published October 3005 [X]press Online

What I am about to admit will make me a pariah on campus, so if you see me walking to class, please refrain from throwing soda cans and rotten tomatoes.

I do not vote.

I have actually never voted. In the four years that I have been a legal adult and been able to make my contribution to the system whenever there has been a presidential election, a gubernatorial election, and countless propositions on the ballot, I missed every single one of them.

And when I say miss, I don't mean I forgot or was out of town that day. I made a conscious effort not to exercise my rights as an American.

Yes I am a registered member of the apathy party. How many of you out there hate my guts right now?

And let me state, remaining apathetic on this campus has been quite a chore. All day long I have to dodge members of the republicans, the democrats, the Palestinians, the Israelis, M.E.C.H.A. , the socialists, Students Against War, and about a million others.

I find it hilarious that every organization is convinced that their cause is the most valid, that their point of vciew is the one we should all subscribe to, and the guys at the table next to them should just rot in hell.

I'm getting tired of being yelled at for not signing a petition, or not grabbing a flyer I know I will just throw away in two seconds.

Hey, me not taking the paper just saved a rainforest somewhere.

Contrary to popular belief, it's not that I don't care about starving children, genocide, or whether or not our president is in fact Satan incarnate. I just don't think arguing about it for hours on end is going to change the situation.

A riot in the quad certainly won't make Bush pull out of Iraq, no matter how clever the signs and chants are. It's not something I'm passionate about, and I'm not about to fake it just because a cause is trendy.

I, unlike seemlingly every other student at SF State, did not become uber political the second I stepped into Malcom X Plaza. I was apathetic when i arrived and remain so to the disgust of both liberal and conservative friends.

I guess I just don't understand the point of detesting someone just because they have a different political affiliation than me. As for not voting, maybe part of it is out of laziness. I don't feel right about putting in my two cents on an issue I know nothing about, yet I don't really do all that much to educate myself.

Now I just need to figure out how to spin the next time my parents get on my case for being "un-American."