The Lord of Change brings in a necessary breath of fresh air to sweep away stagnation, and brush the dust off the things we need to get done. Everything is constantly changing around us.My favourite example of change is the sky… so on a day ruled by the Lord of Change, go and watch the sky. Look at the way it alters in every single moment. Never for more than a few seconds does it create the same pattern.This is a revelation of the inner you… constantly changing, growing, expanding, altering. Your body cells change in every living second. Your thoughts flash faster than computer messages. Your memory stores a vast wealth of information, and is steadily adding more and more. This day that you now experience will never come again… tomorrow will be different, because you are.Some people are afraid of change and alternation in life… Some people spend too much energy trying to keep things the same… But you would not consider fixing the sky in any one final pattern would you? So… don’t do it to yourself. Allow excitement and joy to run alongside change in your life… and you will get so much more out of everything.Affirmation: “I celebrate my growth and power.”
“Each person has a role, chosen or not, that he or she should strive to fulfill as perfectly and as selflessly as possible. Confusion arises when people try to fill someone else’s role, or when people neglect their role in the pursuit of some tangible result. Pay no attention to result, advises Krishna, for you humans are in no position to know the ultimate result of your actions, either for yourselves or for others. Instead, be mindful of the infinitely complex web that connects all events through all time. And focus instead on how performing your own role well can bring balance and completion to the purpose of every other being.”
Patricia Quinn as Magenta in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” BroadwaySF
Patricia Quinn is ready to do the “Time Warp” again.
When the Northern Irish actor first played the role of Magenta in the original production of Richard O’Brien’s “The Rocky Horror Show” in London’s West End in 1974, she knew the musical resonated with audiences.
“I began in a 60-seat theater,” Quinn, known in England as Lady Stephens, told the Chronicle by phone from London. “Within the first week, Mick Jagger and Bianca (Jagger), (David) Bowie all were there. From the beginning, it was a bang.”
In 1975, much of the original London cast — including Quinn, O’Brien (Riff Raff), Little Nell (Columbia) and Tim Curry (Dr. Frank-N-Furter) — reprised their roles for the 20th Century Fox film adaptation. Even after its London success, the film was a box office bomb. But by 1976, the movie found a new following when the Waverly Theater in New York City began screening it at midnight.
Little Nell Campbell, left, and Patricia Quinn, star in the 1975 cult musical “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” directed by Jim Sharman for 20th Century Fox.Evening Standard/Getty Images
Those “Rocky Horror” audiences began to participate in screenings, dressing up as characters, acting out scenes in front of the screen and shouting at the movie. The practice of “shadow casts” soon found a following around the country.
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“The Rocky Horror Picture Show” 50th Anniversary Spectacular Tour with Patricia Quinn: 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 9. $57-$328. Curran Theatre, 445 Geary St., S.F. www.sfcurran.com
“Richard and I got on the plane to New York because they invited us to witness this happening,” said Quinn, now 80. “We couldn’t bloody believe it, it was extraordinary.”
The film is now the longest-running theatrical release in movie history.
Ahead of Quinn’s appearance at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco for a special screening of the cult classic to celebrate its 50th anniversary, the performer reflected about the film’s legacy, the global “Rocky Horror” fan community and an overnight visit with King Charles when her late husband, Sir Robert Stephens, was knighted.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Patricia Quinn, left, and Nell Campbell at “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” 40th anniversary screening at Royal Albert Hall on Oct. 27, 2015, in London.Danny E. Martindale/Getty Images
Q: Did you imagine you’d still be talking about “Rocky Horror” 50 years after originating the role of Magenta?
A: It’s astonishing and beyond belief when I say it’s the longest-running film in cinema history.
What made the movie what it is was in New York, this entrepreneurial fan started speaking to us (Louis Farese is credited as the fan to start the callbacks) and dressing up and being the characters on the stage. We’re all sitting here in London and people are saying, “Did you hear what happened to your film? They’re talking to it!” I said “You’re mad!” But they were!
When we did the film, (director) Jim Sharman would not do it without the cast from the original. Bowie wanted to do it. Jagger wanted to do it. They all wanted to be Frank and he wouldn’t have any of them.
Patricia Quinn, left, and Richard O’Brien in a scene from the 1975 movie “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”Stanley Bielecki Movie Collection/Getty Images
Q: Do you see the influence of “Rocky Horror” in culture in terms of more openness about gender identity and sexuality?
A: We were not delivering a message, and Richard O’Brien is the first person to say that. He said, “It’s a nursery rhyme. It’s the big dark house and Hansel and Gretel and the wicked witch Frank-N-Furter.” We were doing sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll and having a good time and kicking our heels up.
Linus, Richard’s son, is making a documentary on it and he said to me, “What did you first think when you saw Tim in his costume?” And I said, “What are you talking about? I’m an actor, he’s an actor. I didn’t gasp.”
Q: How do you feel when fans tell you stories about how “Rocky Horror” helped them find themselves?
A: Years ago at a convention, a girl came up to me with tears in her eyes. She had an arm that was disabled, and she said, “This film has changed my life.” And that’s the first time it ever meant anything to me. It obviously meant that she was accepted in the crowd.
Patricia Quinn, left, Tim Curry and Little Nell in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show. ”BroadwaySF
Q: What’s the most extraordinary place you’ve appeared with “Rocky Horror?”
A: When I presented it at the Royal Albert Hall, I walked onto that stage and was overwhelmed beyond belief. Then I thought, “I know what I’m going to talk about because it’s Victoria and Albert Hall …”
I knew the Prince of Wales (now King Charles) when he had my husband knighted for his acting. He invited Robert and I to Sandringham for a long country cultural weekend. We were given Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s bedroom suite.
Robert said to the prince, “You must catch up with Pat and her shows, sir. She’s out doing ‘Rocky Horror’ again. You’ve got to go and see her.” And (the prince) said to me after, “Pat, I’m so sorry I didn’t see your show, but I could hardly turn up in fishnets and garters.” I said, “No, you couldn’t. But you know, you could come as Brad in y-fronts (briefs) and a lab coat.” He looked at me and I thought, “Oh my God, I just said that to the future king.”
Q: Does anything still surprise you when you meet fans?
A: I thought I knew everything there was to know about “Rocky Horror” because I’ve done a million conventions, a million everything. Little Nell and I did a TV show once in the States, and the woman said to us, “Do you never get tired of doing these comic cons?” And Nell said, “Well, it’s very nice to be worshiped.” I said, “Get a dog then!”
Then, in the middle of this tour, I thought, “You know something, it is very nice to be worshiped.” It was like I was getting high on it. Everyone all loving, everyone appreciating everyone, it’s joyous. I thought, “I’d like to go to ‘The Rocky Horror Show’ and dress up as me.”
Tony Bravo is the San Francisco Chronicle’s Arts & Culture columnist. He primarily covers visual arts, the LGBTQ community and pop culture. His column appears in print every Monday in Datebook. Bravo joined the Chronicle staff in 2015 as a reporter for the Style section and also wrote the relationship column “Connectivity.” He is the host of the live interview series “Show & Tell” every month at Four One Nine and created the VoiceMap Chronicle LGBTQ audio tour “Over the Rainbow in the Castro” available for download on the app. Bravo is also an adjunct instructor at the City College of San Francisco Fashion Department, where he teaches journalism.
1.literature in the form of prose that describes imaginary events and people.
2.something that is invented or untrue.”they were supposed to be keeping up the fiction that they were happily married”
a belief or statement that is false but is often held to be true because it is expedient to do so.”the notion of the country being a democracy is a polite fiction”
Origin
late Middle English (in the sense ‘invented statement’): via Old French from Latin fictio(n- ), from fingere ‘form, contrive’. Compare with feign and figment.
There was a farmer who sold a pound of butter to a baker. One day the baker decided to weigh the butter to see if he was getting the right amount, which he wasn’t. Angry about this, he took the farmer to court.
The judge asked the farmer if he was using any measure to weigh the butter.
The farmer replied, “Your Honor, I am primitive. I don’t have a proper measure, but I do have a scale.”
The judge asked, “Then how do you weigh the butter?”The farmer replied, “Your Honor, long before the baker started buying butter from me, I have been buying a pound loaf of bread from him. Every day when the baker brings the bread, I put it on the scale and give him the same weight in butter.
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AN OPPORTUNITY FOR DAILY REFLECTION BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE SCHOOL OF PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY
By Katie Dowd, Managing editor Oct 6, 2024 (SFGate.com)
FILE: The Stanford band performs before their game against the UCLA Bruins at Stanford Stadium on October 17, 2019 in Palo Alto, California. Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
The Stanford University band, which courts controversy as a matter of course, took aim at Elon Musk’s Tesla Cybertrucks on Saturday, mocking the oft-recalled vehicles’ safety record and clunky design. The show, which took place at sweltering Stanford Stadium during halftime of the Stanford-Virginia Tech game, even featured someone stumbling around in a Cybertruck costume.
As the Stanford band performed “Life in the Fast Lane,” the cardboard Cybertruck zoomed around the field. The accompanying narration called it a “thing [that] looks like a 3D model of a DeLorean rendered using a fax machine’s graphics card” and “a kindergartner’s art project.”
When the narrator asked about the Cybertruck’s many safety recalls — a fifth one this year was just issued for problems with the rearview camera — the human Cybertruck waved away the concerns.
(photo via X)
“They probably caught everything,” the Cybertruck proponent said. “Here, just watch it go into autopilot.” This prompted the Cybetruck to smash into the Stanford Tree. As a finale, a person in a raccoon costume attacked the Cybertruck, presumably because it “mistook it for a dumpster.”
Unfortunately for the band, few people witnessed the spectacle. Because of the relentless Bay Area heat wave, fans headed for shade during the intermission. The temperature was in the mid-90s much of Saturday afternoon.
The official Stanford band X account posted the halftime script, accompanied by one last dig at Musk: “If we disappear from twitter you’ll know why lol.”
Katie Dowd is the SFGATE managing editor. She started her career at SFGATE in 2011 shortly after graduating from UC Berkeley. She was born and raised in the Bay Area.
The Priestess (or High Priestess, Papess, Pope Joan, Isis) is numbered two. This is the representation of the Goddess. She is the complementary partner of the Magician, possessing all his skill and ability, but with far more insight and psychism. She is more subtle yet somehow far more noticeable.She is almost always shown with the Lunar Crescent, conveying her natural affinity with the forces of Nature and natural cycles. The Magician generates his own power, whereas the Priestess draws upon the forces of life itself.She sits between two pillars with veils suspended between them – it is the Priestess who allows us to penetrate the innermost secrets of life. She is also the bridge between our conscious and Higher selves, by teaching us through our dreams and our subconscious. It is in our subconscious that we hold the keys to the Universe.
