The Week At Wofford

Let's Do the Time Warp Again!

Tranvestites.  Lingerie.  Thrusting.  Chair Dances.  Gyrating.  Stripperobics.

Some people what call what I did during Interim "uncouth" or "raunchy."  In fact, I think was the New York Times that called the Rocky Horror Show "campy trash."  And it is.  I will not deny that fact at all.  When Richard O'Brien wrote the Rocky Horror Show, he was poking fun at horror, science fiction, and the fact that society treats sexual subjects as taboo.  The subjects the play (and then the movie) brought up in the 70s was extremely taboo and in 2008, it still is.  People don't want to talk about gay sex, tranvestites, and "sins of the flesh."

This January at Wofford, a group of students decided to bring all of these contraband subjects into the light.  We took Wofford and Spartanburg by storm.  Some people were enthralled  Some people were shocked and disgusted.  We had a baptist church in Spartanburg who almost boycotted and picketed the show (funny thing is I'm not the only cast member who is Baptist).  Some of the students involved had parents who acted abrasively towards their involvement with the show.  My mother, the preacher's wife, came to see the production, not because she wanted to see it but because she wanted to support me.  For that I am grateful. And for the record, the vast majority of people were supportive and thrilled of our production, which rocks immensely.  And we all had a great time doing it! 

Here's my take on the controversy of it all:  more than a few people have said that these subjects need to be discussed in the theatre and in the world in general.  I agree with them.  Sex (and its resulting scandal) is a ridiculously huge issue in the world today and it's all over the place: in music videos, in movies, even in the White House not too long ago.  Why is it so hard for us to talk about it?  We can discuss bombs, murder, animal brutality, and rape until our breath has been exhausted, but no one can bring up gay sex or transvestites or even premarital sex without it being a major issue.  The Rocky Horror Show makes people uncomfortable because they choose to be uncomfortable during it.  Granted, the Show isn't for everyone and I respect that, which is why it isn't mandatory for every person to see it.  However, those of us who enjoy letting go and finding humor and tragedy in it should not be labelled as oversexed heathens. 

...We just know how to let go.  We can jump the left, step to the right, and bend our knees.  But when we add that pelvis thrust... boy, the controversy erupts.   

Sunrise, sunset...

"...you're either going or you just left, but you're always on your way." bright eyes.

Okay, so I'm a bit enthusiastic about quotes.  But this one spoke to me the other day when I was listening to my iPod on shuffle.  This sentence sums up my senior year thus far.  I'm writing an article about this for the next issue, but I'd like to elaborate more in this blog.  I mean, as if my classes and assignments aren't enough, they expect college seniors to fill out grad school applications and to study for and take the GRE.

Speaking of assignments, I've never understood this fascination with professors ignoring the fact that their students have other classes.  I mean when one professor gives you a lab report, preparation assignments for another lab, and a quiz in the same two day period, I think it's a little extreme.  Maybe it's just me.  But when you have other classes who all decide that they should be your only priority, it gets a bit overwhelming. 

Sometimes I just feel like college never lets you stop moving.  Classes, meetings, tests, projects, studying, extracurriculars, and then maybe some time to sleep.

And we wonder why coffee sales are so high?

Just Because We Live Off Campus Doesn't Mean We're Not College Kids, Just Like You

This is my first year living out of the Wofford Bubble. I figured that since it was my senior year I deserved to be free from such wonderful "college experiences" as finding vomit in the hallway and listening to my neighbor's various sexual relations. So my best friend at Wofford and I decided to live in a townhouse on the west side of town. I love being able to leave the school behind at night and come back whenever I want.
Commuting is tough, too. You have to wake up a little earlier to make the drive through endless red lights and idiotic Spartanburg drivers. The place to part for Wofford commuters is behind Milliken in the SMA parking lot, which is spacious and at a nice location. Until Campus Safety locks the gate at 5:30. I don't know if they think that commuting students just come to class and then leave by 2 or what. We have labs. We work on campus. And I hardly ever leave Wofford before 6. My housemate and I came out of Milliken the night after the Wofford freshman was attacked on Memorial Drive around 6 to find the gate locked. We called Campus Safety to come unlock the gate and I dare say the man seemed a bit miffed. He begrudgingly told me that there WAS an entrance down on Memorial Drive.
Let's backtrack. A student has just freshly been attacked on Memorial Drive and a campus safety officer wanted US, two young adult females to just go frolicking down there to our cars with no other people around. I don't think so. We finally did, just to hurry things along, but I think they should have more respect for off campus students as being just as valid as on campus ones.

Not to mention the shocked responses I get when people find out I live off campus: "But why would you ever want to live off campus, away from everything?!"

Exactly.