On Thursday the Carnival Glory arrived at Grand Turk Island and docked at the Grand Turk Cruise Terminal which Carnival built for $50 million dollars. This was the most picture perfect Caribbean island we visited and the only one were I lay on the beach, briefly. I shot lots of video and photos of the cruise ship, the beaches, the palm trees, and the island.
There wasn’t much to do on this island and I only bought a yellow t-shirt at Piranha Joe. When I returned to the ship I had an Absolute Vodka on the Lido Deck but I did not like the taste. At 4:30 PM I saw the movie “Alvin & The Chipmunks” in the Ebony Cabaret. I have to admit that this movie was totally inappropriate but I’d never seen it before and it put me in a good mood.
Dinner that night was Cruise Elegant again and this was the night for the Masquerade Ball so everyone was dressed up. For the goths this meant they wore their most outrageous costumes to dinner. One girl at my table even arrived in full fetish gear which was pretty daring! I wore a shiny black dress shirt with shiny white cuffs. This shirt looked really elegant when I bought it online but I was a bit surprised when it turned out to look like black silk. I had shrimp and baked Alaska for dinner. Carson and his friend did not come to dinner but the three girls and Sam and his wife were there. She was wearing a fancy green gown.
At the Masquerade Ball someone tried to stop me from going in again but Sam vouched for me. They thought I was one of the crew because I was wearing a vest. That was the second time I almost did not get into an official Gothic Cruise event. The Masquerade Ball was so wild that I immediately decided I needed to get drunk to handle it. There were people in borg cybergoth outfits, fetish wear, Victorian gowns, and other wild goth costumes. It was really freaky! I had two vodkas on ice which was enough to get me very drunk. Maybe the wine at dinner helped. I think that was the first time in my life that I got drunk. Maybe that sounds sad but I’m a good boy and some people pride themselves on never touching a drop of alcohol. So being drunk was a new experience for me. It made me comfortably numb so I didn’t get nervous or feel too self-conscious at the Masquerade Ball although it did make it seem slightly more unreal. I felt very woozy and heavily sedated. It really impeded my ability to appreciate the Masquerade Ball because my imagination was not working and I felt indifferent to the aesthetics. From now on I will consider anyone who finds their vision at the bottom of a bottle to be full of shit! It was sort of like it is portrayed in a movie because everything seemed to happen in a dizzy blur.
Several people asked me to take their pictures which was kind of hard because I did not know how their cameras worked and I was drunk. Fortunately my head began the clear when it came time for the Rocky Horror Picture Show movie with audience participation. Zaida, the Gothic Cruise travel agent and event promoter seemed to be really into this event. I’ve seen the Rocky Horror Picture Show performed live as a musical at the Lycoming College Theater which is probably the only gothic event that has ever taken place in Williamsport, although it was not meant to be. I think the Rocky Horror Picture Show is popular because the movie seems like a wild party that you would like to be invited to. I was given a piece of toast which I threw when Dr. Frank N. Furter calls for a toast. That movie reminds me of The Theater of the Ridiculous which was influenced by gothic horror novels and popular culture. I only know of that theater from a collection of plays in a book which I’ve had a long time. It always struck me as the theatrical equivalent of the Andy Warhol crowd.
Yesterday I discovered a gothic rock musical which aims to eclipse the Rocky Horror Picture Show as the premiere midnight movie, REPO! The Genetic Opera. It was kind of strange to come across this movie so soon after the Gothic Cruise because I’ve never heard of it before and it almost seems like something inspired by that adventure and inserted into reality. And I found this movie while specifically looking for something to replace the Rocky Horror Picture Show, i.e. something new in “dark culture”. Of course, there is a logical explanation for this. The REPO! The Genetic Opera movie has not been given the major theatrical release it deserves so there hasn’t been any buzz about it. Few people have seen the movie even though everyone who sees the short video clip for the Zydrate Anatomy song instantly falls in love with the movie and becomes desperate to see more. Paris Hilton stars in the movie and that just isn’t right. I ordered the soundtrack on CD from Amazon and I hope it is released on DVD some day.
