The choreographed dance routine is "fierce," complete with sickly blond wigs. We all love Showgirls; it's an opening-night tradition. The yammering begins as soon as the opening credits roll, and members of the audience reach for the catch phrases that might stick, becoming staples among interactive Showgirls moviegoers for generations to come. After all, someone had to be the first to yell, "Describe your balls," before Dr. Everett Von Scott said, "Heavy, black, and pendulous," in his opening Rocky Horror monologue.
To future Showgirlsparticipants, I offer these gems:
Gabriel Moulin Studios
The Paramount Theatre, circa 1932.
David Wakely
The Paramount's women's lounge.
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At the first sight of Gershon, shout, "Cameltoe!"
Before the first kiss between Berkley and Kyle MacLachlan, shout, "Kiss me K.D. Lang!"
After the nightclub owner says, "The Stardust will never be dark while I'm alive," shout, "Racist!"
Upon leaving the Bridge, one of my friends sighs contentedly and makes this comment on the emerging catcalls: "It's nice to know we're leaving behind a legacy, something to nurture and inspire the next generation that discovers the genius of Showgirls."
The members of the Nonchalance Collectiveare working on their own kind of legacy. Since 2000, when they launched "City of Dreams," a digital slide show of 130 images projected onto architectural landmarks throughout Oakland, they've devoted themselves to recording and promoting the hidden treasures and disregarded charms of their town. The slide show led to a poster campaign, which spawned the sapling Oaklandishmovement, complete with stickers, T-shirts, and hoodies, all bearing the mighty oak logo. Over the last three years, Nonchalance has launched a Web site and started the Oakslander Lakeside Gazette, a zine that offers articles about East Bay characters, historical figures, anti-heroes, subterranean waterways, secret stairs, delicious hot dogs, mythic monsters, and a subject very close to the collective's heart, the Guerrilla News Network; the group has also organized games of Capture the Flag at City Hall and collaborated on open-air slide show retrospectives with the Bay Area Aerosol Heritage Society; the collective's members have produced videos on mass media misinformation and grass-roots Oakland rebellion and projected Black Panther videos onto the side of the Alameda County Courthouseto illuminate "the dispossessed and displaced spirits of Oakland" on the location where it all went down. Most happily for me, they have created the Liberation Drive-In.
On the last weekend of every summer month, Nonchalance takes over a parking lot within walking distance of the 12th Street BART station in Oakland. Armed with a large projector and a pirate radio frequency, the group shows documentaries, independent films, and B-movies with East Bay flava. Happily, there is no shortage of such fare; All Power to the People, Sun-Ra: Space Is the Place, The Mack, and Hell's Angels '69 have all graced the Oaklandish concrete screen, reminding us that if San Francisco boasts the Beats and the Gay Liberation Movement, Oakland has a history of outlaws, bikers, revolutionaries, and space messiahs, all made larger than life under a starlit sky.
During the Liberation Drive-In, people are encouraged to arrive by way of bicycle, skateboard, art car, van, truck, or foot with blankets, pillows, lawn chairs, coolers, and barbecues. Of course, small children are expected to run around like maniacs and fall asleep in the flatbed before the feature begins.
