I hope you are well. I have had the life-transforming experience of being on tour to Scotland with my attachment talks and running a six-week attachment online course, plus breaking my foot!! I am in Leeds on Monday 7th April and in London, Peckham on Tuesday 15th April if you are free and fancy it.
All of this has been like a birthing as I have made many PowerPoint presentations on attachment theory and also had dear people help me with my life due to my foot and slightly struggling with things. This has taught me how to ask and receive and be looked after while looking after others (I hope) through my courses and talks.
Plus, I felt so close to people as I allowed them to support me and ended up with amazing deep chats! I learned that people and community is really it! They are the gold of life. So I have been completely immersed in attachment and connecting with others while teaching about it at the same time, which has been lovely. The group I taught have deeply engaged and some are, for example, watching the videos with their partners to understand their different relational styles. What I found inspiring was how people were taking the materials and using them to develop their relationship with others.
Strange Journey
I also had such a strange and interesting experience this January when I spotted a documentary on Richard O’Brien and “The Rocky Horror Show” out called “Strange Journey”. I had interviewed him many, many years ago, and I suddenly wished I had asked him about that show and what had happened.
I knew he was playing Judas in the Andrew Lloyd Webber show “Jesus Christ Superstar” in the early 1970s, making it funkier and groovy every night with more outfits and chains. He had a new wife and baby and was proud to be doing good stuff.
The director called him into his office and told him that he had noticed how well he was doing and what an effect he was creating. “But”, he said, “there is only one problem: the show is called Jesus Christ Superstar, not Judus”, and he sacked him! Richard went home and wrote “Rocky” and vented his anger about being let go. From the time it became a cult show it has continuously been shown around the world, and made him an abundant person. O’Brien now feels that it doesn’t belong to him; it belongs to the fans.
Six months later, it was on at the Royal Court and was a hit. Three years later, it became a film that flopped, but one guy at the film company had the genius idea to put it on as a late-night showing in New York and Austin, Texas, and it became a cult movie, opening the door for so many who felt so different. I felt so lucky to have interviewed him, but I wasn’t sure if it was OK to ask about “Rocky” at the time.
Then, in February, I got an email from Richard and his son, Linus. They had accidentally found my interview and decided to re-cut the documentary, including 30 seconds of my interview (which I have included below).
I wondered why they wanted to use my interview. I found out that the section they are using is where he is sharing about how low he felt about being bi-sexual and trans. O’Brien then shares how a phone call from his eldest son Linus telling him he was loved helped him come back to earth. Perhaps this clip gives an insight into the pain that helped to create “Rocky”. Plus there is a nod to Linus, the baby who was at home when he wrote it, and who has now made the doc. I am thrilled to be in it!
It is now doing the rounds of festivals in America and has had great reviews from Rolling Stone Magazine and Queer Review. Watch the part they are using for their documentary above.
