THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
NEWS
FRIDAY,OCTOBER 31.2008
5A
FILM
Students dress the part for 'Rocky Horror'screening
BY BRANDY ENTSMINGER
bentsminger@kansan.com
Black high heels click across the floor of the Kansas Union ballroom on legs dressed in tights with holes on the upper thighs.
Matching black underwear and
corset complete the outfit, worn by
Paul Lyon, Lawrence senior.
Lyon was dressed in drag for the annual Student Union Activities "Rocky Horror Picture Show" event. The night included a costume contest, dance-off for the "time-warp," prop packs, a trivia contest and prizes.
The show's attendees came dressed as characters in low-cut tops, feather boas and jackets covered in sequins.
Stephanie Patyk, Wichita senior and member of SUA, said the idea was to be as outrageous as possible without going too far. In the past, men stood on chairs in full drag, including high heels, and one man arrived wearing nothing but a trench coat and a sock.
Joe Day, Derby junior and cochairman of the films committee, said the movie helped attract fans who weren't as likely to attend other SUA events and were looking for fun that wasn't politically correct.
"As long as you can't get arrested for what you're wearing." Patyk said.
For the costume contest, Day said it wasn't just about looking the part; the winner had to act the part as well. He said it was interesting to see regular people dressed in clothing they would never consider wearing on an average day.
SUA members bought prizes for the costume contest and dance-off at the adult novelty store Cirilla's. The prizes included candy underwear and a vibrator called "The Rabbit."
During the movie, audience members traditionally heckle and throw items from the prop pack at the screen.
The SUA packs included rice for a wedding scene, a squirt gun for a rain scene, rubber gloves for a lab scene and toast for a scene in which Dr. Frank-N-Furter makes a toast.
Kellen Bolt, Iola freshman, attended the event. His first "Rocky Horror Picture Show" experience was one he organized with a group of friends. One of his friends had been to a show and helped the group learn all of the traditions.
Bolt dressed as Rocky for the SUA event. Rocky costumes traditionally consist of a curly black wig, gold underwear and gold boxer boots. Bolt said he worked for about 15 minutes every day this week to stretch white spandex and spray paint it gold.
Although Bolt couldn't find gold boxer boots, he borrowed a friend's shoes, Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars, to complete the look.
Melissa Johnson, Joliet, Ill.,
junior, started attending "Rocky
Horror Picture Shows" as a junior
in high school and has been to
about 50 shows since then.
Nancy Keller puts on red lipstick and David Hancock chooses a wig to wear at the "Rocky Horror Picture Show" screening at the Kansas Union on Thursday night. The screening was put on by Student Union Activities and was open to the public.
Johnson said she first watched the film with a group of friends on Halloween after seeing a costume from the film at a costume shop. She said the group was completely stunned, but addicted.
Johnson said her favorite part of
jessica Sain-Baird/KANSAN
attending "Rocky Horror Picture Show" events was yelling lines at the screen.
"It's the only time in your life where you're going to get to shout in the theater and they're not going
to kick you out," Johnson said.
INTERNATIONAL
Taliban kills five in insurgency attack in Kabul
Edited by Arthur Hur
BY AMIR SHAH
ASSOCIATED PRESS
KABUL, Afghanistan — Taliban fighters stormed the Ministry of Culture in the heart of Kabul Thursday, killing five people in an attack the president said aimed at derailing the government's new effort to draw militants into a peace process and end a seven-year insurgency.
The fighters shot their way inside the building, where one of the militants blew himself up, a police guard wounded in the blast said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and gave a similar account.
"Our enemies are trying to undermine the recent efforts by the government for a peaceful solution to end the violence," U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai said in a terse statement.
The Taliban's former ambassador to Pakistan said the two sides
The attack came three days after senior Afghan and Pakistani officials decided at a meeting held in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, to reach out to the Taliban militants to propose talks on ending the insurgency. The meeting was part of a process initiated by President Bush and his Afghan and Pakistani counterparts in 2006.
"There were three people. They were running. They opened fire on our guard first and then they entered" the building, Mohammad told The Associated Press from his
recently had contacts in Saudi Arabia. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the incoming head of the U.S. Central Command, Gen. David Petraeus, have both endorsed efforts.
While the Taliban regularly use suicide attacks against Afghan and foreign forces around the country, they rarely strike in Kabul.
Karzai's remarks suggested that elements of Taliban are seeking to sabotage the nascent efforts for reconciliation. But the attack is not likely to derail the overture because after years of unsuccessfully trying to repress the Taliban by force with the help of U.S. and NATO troops, the government has concluded talks are the only way out of the conflict. The Taliban has proved resilient, emerging with new force this year to challenge the government.
Amir Mohammad, a police guard who was wounded in Thursday's attack, said three assailants opened fire on police guards outside the Ministry of Information and Culture before entering its cavernous hall where one of them blew himself up.
hospital bed in Kabul.
The force of the blast flung Mohammed onto the street, where he lay unconscious among shattered glass and pools of blood.
Five people were killed in the attack, including a policeman, three ministry employees and a civilian, the Interior Ministry said.
An additional 21 were wounded, said Abdul Fahim, the spokesman for the Health Ministry, which supervisees the hospitals where the injured were taken.
The culture ministry was a pointed target. Before the U.S.-led invasion toppled the Taliban in late 2001 for sheltering Osama bin Laden, the regime banned art, music and television, vandalized the National Museum of Afghanistan and destroyed artwork or statues deemed idolatrous or anti-Muslim. Taliban fighters also blew up two giant statues of Buddha, cultural treasures that had graced the Silk Road town of Bamiyan for 1,500 years.
The ministry is in the center of the city, at a busy intersection lined with shops. One of the side walls of the building collapsed, while glass littered the roads nearby and office equipment was scattered over the area. The light-blue metal gates in the ministry entrance were twisted from being flung open.
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More than 5,200 people have died this year in insurgency-related violence in Afghanistan, according to a tally of figures compiled by the AP.
Four police were killed Thursday in Panjwai district of Kandahar province when their patrol vehicle struck a newly planted mine, said Zulmai Ayubi, the provincial governor's spokesman. He blamed the Taliban for the attack.
rare, on July 7 a suicide attacker set off explosives outside the gates of the Indian Embassy in Kabul, killing more than 60 people and wounding 146.
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Zabullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said three militants stormed the building by throwing hand grenades at the guards at the main gate. A man named Naqijullah from the eastern Khost province carried out the suicide attack. Mujahid told the AP. The other two men fled, he said.
Abdul Rahim, a witness, said he first heard machine gun shots and saw a policeman lying on the ground and then saw the explosion that rocked the building.
Ministry workers were helped out of the building by security personnel. Ambulances carried the wounded to hospitals.
Though attacks in the capital are
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