Rocky Horror in Atlantic City

These are my pictures from RockyCon 2008 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. It was held at the Showboat Hotel and Casino on 26-28 September 2008, and was organized by New Jersey's Home of Happiness Rocky Horror Picture Show floorshow cast. Originally, my wife Q and I were not going to be attending; but we decided at the last minute (Friday evening) that we would take a day trip up to Atlantic City (about a three hour drive) to attend the daytime portion of the convention Saturday afternoon/evening. We only told one person (James Norman) that we were going to be attending after all – for everyone else it would be an unexpected surprise. (Although we had discussed the possibility of attending, and inquired about the rates for a single day's admission, from Kate on the Home of Happiness cast.) Because our attendance was to be an unexpected surprise, I wore a "Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition" t-shirt rather than a costume or something else rude and/or Rocky Horror-related.

We hit the road at about 9:20 AM (a bit later than we'd planned). We made lousy time through parts of Maryland, due to an accident and the general asshattery of Maryland drivers whenever there's inclement weather. ("Oh my God! It's raining! And not even that heavily! We must drive 25 mph in the left lane!") Once we cleared that, we made up for lost time and got to Atlantic City by about 12:30. By strange coincidence or foruitous timing, we pulled into the parking garage right next to our castmates Greg, Amy, and Mere as they were unloading their stuff. We gave them a hand, since we had very little to carry of our own (everything I had to carry fit inside my camera bag) and went in.

Q was dressed as the main character from one of her favorite video games, Dragon Quest VIII. (She's worn that costume before.) Because of the bright primary colors in that costume, she was very easy to find in a darkened room where almost everyone else seemed to be wearing mostly black.

As an example of someone wearing mostly black, Amy (living up to her LJ name cthulugrrl) was wearing this shirt until she later changed into a corset.

Two more of my castmates, past and present, were Jessica Feldman as Magenta and Σοφωκλεσ as Doctor Frank-N-Furter.

In the first picture, Neil (on the right) is another of our castmates from the Transylvanian Concubines in Fairfax, VA; with him is Fester (I forget where from) as Divine. In the second picture, Divine is speaking with Emily from Chicago's Midnight Madness cast. I didn't get their picture, but two other people were dressed up as Connie & Raymond Marble, Divine's nemeses in Pink Flamingos.

One of the events at the convention, which Q jumped into with great glee and gusto, was the "Project Runway" competition. Given random bits of fabric, aluminum foil, tape, and so forth, each team had 30 minutes to assemble the best Rocky Horror costumes they could (after all, it was less than two years ago that Q made a Shock Treatment costume for Jeff Baker out of wrapping paper and scotch tape). From left to right, here are Q, Mere, Sophocles, and Amy (I didn't get a clear picture of the fifth member of their team).

A couple of other cool costumes were Doctor Horrible and his nemesis, Captain Hammer (corporate tool!)

This is Kate, a former castmate who is now a member of New Jersey's Home of Happiness cast and one of the people who worked hard to set up this shindig. In the second picture, she is talking to Little Nell (a.k.a. Columbia from The Rocky Horror Picture Show).

Bradwinkle looks embarrassed to be next to Jen's clown shoes (and there's half of James Norman as well). Notice the sticker that Jen has on her jacket (over the usual Denton High School patch); it says that she's "Ron Maxwell Approved!"

Here's a close-up of the "Ron Maxwell Approved!" sticker, suitable for use as a LiveJournal icon.

Here is a cast member from Sins O' The Flesh, who was in the "Monsters of Rocky" preshow. This preshow combined Rocky Horror with rock hits of the 80s, and combined live-action with a pre-made video, all into a commercial for an album of "Monsters of Rocky" hits. It culminated with all of the characters in the floorshow kickline made up as members of KISS ("Rock And Roll All Night"), interrupted by Riff and Magenta as Twisted Sister ("We're Not Gonna Take It"). This was one of my two favorite preshows; the other being the sketch of the conversation Brad, Janet, and Doctor Scott had as they drove back to Denton immediately after the events of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

This is Q with Patricia Quinn (a.k.a. Magenta from The Rocky Horror Picture Show). Pat remembered Q from a previous con where they had hung out together for some time. (That was Frankie Goes to Hollywood in 2001, which was a con I missed.)

Me with Patricia Quinn. You can see the aforementioned Spanish Inquisition t-shirt, and you will also note that I was Ron Maxwell Approved as well.

I had no idea who the guy in the middle was; but he handed me his camera in order to take a picture of him with both Patricia Quinn and Little Nell. While I was at it, I snapped another copy of the picture with my own camera. I was later informed that he was "Big A", a new member of the Home of Happiness cast; and Ron Maxwell later gave "Big A" his retroactive approval.

Divine with Little Nell.

Q and I had dinner with Sheri Timmerman and James Norman before we finally hit the road at about 9:30 and drove back home to Maryland. The weather and traffic were a little better on the way back, so we got home in under three hours.