Camptastic Screen-a-Thon

I know its been a while, I apologize. I've either been too busy to post or not doing anything interesting enough to write about, I'm not sure which. I've been diligent about my photo blogging, but that's been the extent of my cyberspace activity.

This weekend I came down with the strangest illness, out of no where, caused some havoc, but I'm turning around. Unfortunately I had to go out for the entire day yesterday, even though I wanted to/needed to stay in and get better. I had signed up to participate in a Screen-a-thon, an event where I was sponsored to watch 3 of the most CAMPY, RIDICULOUS movies of all time. Of course I had to go, and the event itself was very enjoyable though I felt pretty terrible during the whole thing.

The Screen-a-Thon was a fundraiser for the InsideOut Film Festival, a Gay and Lesbian film festival that takes place in Toronto in May. My honourary cousin is on the board, asked me to sponsor him and I was like, what, sponsor you, I want to come out and watch! We were sponsored to watch, get ready now these are REALLY CAMPY, Xanadu, Can't Stop the Music and Spice World. I'd never seen any of the films before, bits and pieces of Spice World on TV, but I could never force myself to sit through the entire thing. Our team, the Tarnished Screens, were awarded the biggest fundraisers of the event, we got crowns and everything! (I'll post the pics when they're on the website). And in keeping with the events theme they served grilled cheese sandwiches and ensured lots of alcohol was available to help you get through the films, I really wish I had felt better so I could have participated in the mind dulling, one really needed something.....

Xanadu, for those of you fortunate enough to have never heard of it, is quite a big stinker. I can't fully tell you what its about because it makes no sense at all. Olivia Newton John plays a rollerskating muse who pops into the life of this really annoying, pompous guy who's trying to be an artist. She comes to him to help him fulfill his dream, which one thinks is to become a great artist but it turns out his dream ends up being to open a roller disco with Gene Kelly. Yep, that's the movie. It was RIDICULOUS, horrible hairstyles, lots of rollerskating, no coherent story, but Gene Kelly had a couple of cool dance numbers. The highlight of the movie was when our MC, Fay Slift, came out with Daddy K and the Rhythm Method, a dance troop, and they performed the Xanadu number along with the movie.

Even worse than Xanadu was Can't Stop the Music. I hadn't even HEARD of the film before the event. Man oh man, what a STINKER. Its a film the chronicles one of the most 'important' cheese bands of all time, the Village People, in a fictional context....I think. Yes folks, you read that correctly, the Village People. The movie stars Steve Guttenberg, man was he terrible and he can't dance at ALL, Bruce Jenner, nice hair, I can see why he has so many children who have their own reality TV shows, and Valerie Perrine, known for her role as Lex Luthor's girlfriend in the Superman films. You know how sometimes camp can be fun...like Grease, Grease isn't the most brilliant films, it has some good acting but its a film that's all campy-goodness and so fun, well Can't Stop the Music isn't fun, at all, not one bit. Why does the dude dress in an Indian costume and run around Greenwich Village? Is the Construction Worker gay or not gay? Why does Valerie stop being a top NY model and start eating anything she wants? Was rollerskating really that popular in the 80s that both Can't Stop the Music and Xanadu put it at the forefront? I don't get it, I hope I never do! But again, we were treated to an excellent live performance of YMCA during the film, which the audience thoroughly enjoyed.

I was a bit disappointed with the audience actually, I think we might have all been a bit stunned because of the horrible films, but no one danced or clapped or really participated while we watched the movies. That's what I went for, to dance in my seat. Sure we all groaned together, and we all clapped loudly for the live entertainment, but that was it really....too bad, we could have kept the boredom away for longer if we banded together!

Before Spice World, oh god Spice World, we were treated to this great collection of clips that illustrated campy behaviour in pop-culture, such as this horrifying clip of Tyra Banks giving Vaseline to her audience, this is the most INSANE CLIP of ALL TIME, warning, warning, she goes totally mental:


and this clip of a poor weatherman who gets a surprise guest while reporting and shows his campy side:

So ya, Spice World...well what can I say, you know what its about, you know how terrible it is, you don't need me to tell you. The dance troop came out in full Spice Girls force during the movie, trying to keep the audience awake I think, and danced three whole numbers for us! They were really enjoyable and thank goodness for them else I don't think we could have standed it!

But you know what, that was the whole point of the fundraising initiative, to raise money for the Inside Out Festival, and for other people to PAY US to sit through these movies, and no matter how painful the films, or how crappy I felt, it was a really good time.