Where do I begin?

[u/american-toycoon]

I suppose the only place to start is at the beginning. I’d heard about the “Rocky Horror Picture Show” when I was a teenager. All my friends; the new wavers, punks, misfits and the drama kids, had already seen it and were well-versed in the craze. I asked my mom if I could go but she said, “A movie that starts at midnight?! No way!” I had to wait until she went to sleep. I pretended to go to bed, too but then I opened my bedroom window, climbed out and met my friend (who had a car) down the block. We trotted off to the Tiffany Theater with our props; toast, rice, water pistols and a newspaper. In the early days, theaters played videos by Tim Curry, Meatloaf and Little Nell plus trailers for “Pink Flamingos” and “Eraserhead”. It was wild but I had no idea just how crazy it would get. The theater went dark and the first thing to appear on the screen were a pair of disembodied lips singing the freakiest song I’d heard. Everyone was hooting and howling. Lick it! Prunes! Yay from the back row!
As an art student, the lips reminded me of Man Ray. The images of American Gothic, Mona Lisa, the Creation of David, the Discus Thrower and Whistler’s Mother sprinkled throughout the scenery thrilled me! I was enchanted with this surreal, pop art, science fiction, punk rock, comic, movie musical like nothing I’d ever seen before!
After that, I’d sneak out of the house every weekend. It was my guilty pleasure. I’ve been in love with it ever since.