Member-only story
Before and After David (Lynch)
A perfect dream of film and music
In 1978 I saw my first “Midnight Movie,” The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Before going, some friends and I dropped acid (window pane), and for the second and last time in my life, I went tripping down the dark highway, literally, too, as we had to drive 30 miles to reach our chosen theatre of transexual Transylvanian perfection.
I knew the film’s plot — a good thing, because most of the action eluded me that night. I remember distinctly only two things. First, some of my friends dressed in fishnet stockings with garters, concealed beneath their street clothes. I wasn’t shocked so much as wondering.
Second, my housemate and a young woman whom I had known since my freshman college year — and whom I couldn’t figure out if I truly loved — sat beside each other and finished the time and the warp later on in his bedroom, while I tried to sleep on our downstairs leather sofa. We lived in the campus Episcopal church house if you need any more sweet and sordid details.
I know some people can fall asleep after dropping acid, but I’m not one of those. About 5 am, after the woman had left, stopping first to say goodbye to me and caress my forehead, I strolled around our three-block college town.
