I thought mom was unreasonable...

...when she wouldn't let me watch "Purple Rain" at age 13. Although I knew the words to every song on the soundtrack, I didn't see the movie until I was 15 at my friend Steph's house because *her mom* was *cool*...well, I take back all the cursing, mom, because I saw his purple highness on the big screen last night, again, after 20 years (huh? gulp!) and that film is explicit--or in Prince-speak XPLCT! And violent!

And this was a "sing along" screening of the movie. Nothing like the Sound of Music sing-along I attended in the Castro a few years ago....I mean, the Nazis in that movie were just nasty and you sensed they *might* do something to you if you weren't careful. And you always had Julie Andrews to balance out the nastiness. In "Purple Rain," there's sex with your woman and then there's beating your woman (or tossing her into a garbage bin a la Morris Day). Thank thee goddess that all my impressionable brain remembers from my first viewing of the movie is "I want a man with a pretty face who wears girly boots, purple velvet, and rides a motorcycle"--the repercussions of that singular impression are enough!

But I digress...

I'm writing to post the pix from our sing-along with "Purple Rain" last night. I'm dressed as Wendy/Lisa in the pre-Purple Rain days. I'm only moderately successful in my last-minute attempt to channel their androgynous sexiness. I wanted to find some nautical/military wear at the thrift store but I guess I got there too late and couldn't even find a long coat approximating something the Revolution might wear. Sarah's dressed as Sheila E and Laura's dressed as Apollonia (right?).

We SANG! OH LORDY, we sang. Just like Prince, we sang to express all the pain and desire and violence and joy in the world. Thank you, Prince, for shaping my confused worldview with your femme-misogynist-groin pumping bravado!