Spice Of God

22 June 2013

Songs: Spice of God - Don Falcone (full song here) & To Tame A Land - Iron Maiden (full song here)

"The spice expands consciousness"

"Bodywater is your life

And without in you would die

On the desert the planet Dune."

So this act had been on my mind since before I started dancing. I love the Duniverse and it is a frequent topic of conversation around my house. I found a sandworm at MadPeas a long time ago and the basic set had been sitting in my inventory waiting for the right moment. The song was eluding me for a while though. 

I heard "Spice of God" on SOMA FM early on, and tracked down the CD it was from, but it was way too mellow and long for an act. So I did some research and found that Iron Maiden had done "To Tame A Land" and it is a much livelier tune, though it is also too long. No, I was never an Iron Maiden fan per se, like them, just never got into them. So I got Chewie to shorten and splice the two songs together since I did not know how to use music editing programs. (I have since learned some basics.)

The act starts in a seitch, all robed and spiced out.

Then we go to the open desert with a stillsuit for protection. I built my first animated object in the form of a giant thumper, which I could pole dance on. It is crude, but I am still proud of it, it is an enormous thumper after all.  I even found an ornithopter, that could I crashed in the sand.

A young Shai Halud (by sandworm standards) makes an appearance and eats the orthithopter.

With the help of a Maker's Hook, I was able to run over the sandworm and finish the dance in its mouth. That was always the sketchiest part of the act. 

"Bless The Maker and His water. Bless the conming and going of him. May his passage cleanse the world." - Fremen saying

When I learn machima and have the patience to fix the mover problems with the set I definitely want to film this one. It definitely pushed me and I think it turned out pretty epic, much like the saga it honors.

Central Reservation

7 June 2013

Song by Beth Orton (here)

"Running down a central reservation in last night's red dress,

And I can still smell you on my fingers and taste you on my breath; 

Stepping through brilliant shades,

All the color you bring,

This time, this time, this time,

Is whatever I want it to mean."

Gardening on a beautiful late spring day, dealing with drama in rl, and just trying to get away from it with some hard work and good tunes.  This version of the song is so lively and fun, so when it came up on my mp3, I knew that this had to be done. The act had planned was a bit indulgent of the difficult place I was in and I really did not want to go there.  It also had a space theme, and there had been a lot of space acts in the run, so I lost enthusiasm.

So I took off with Beth Orton, and it made me happy. In order to figure out this act I learned that a central reservation is actually what we Americans call a median strip.  For all the time that I have known and loved this song, I thought she was singing about an Indian reservation, silly me.

I had gone through many concepts for the song, before I decided to just go back to the source of the inspiration. Gardening on a brilliant late spring/early summer day. *smiles while playing in the sprinkler wearing my underwear* (Insert your own childhood flashback here.)