Peel Me A Grape

20 December 2013

Song by Diana Krall (here)

"Send out for scotch..."

After a year of dancing burlesque it became apparent to me that I had not done a classic torch song. About the same time Kait had im'ed me a fantastic video of a rl burly girl doing a song that Sho had used, but more importantly, she was a red head dancing in a red room. (Link here) So after a little bit of digging through my music library, I picked Diana Krall's version of Peel Me A Grape.  It was a song I had seriously considered sveral times but thought it had been done.  Anita O'Brien did the original song, but it was just a little up-tempo for my liking.

It became a wine colored hair girl in a purple room.

Truth be told, this song had been on my mind since long before I started performing and was still working up the skills to do this art.

I ran with it and frankly, I feel it is one of my best acts.  I really pushed myself with the set, and the choreo just happened so naturally, it was magic.  More like a little voodoo, inspired by a certain gentleman I recently had the pleasure of getting to know. When I learn how to make machinima, I am going to film it, but until then here are the stills.

Toxic

14 December 2013

Song by Britney Spears, covered by The Glee Cast (here)

"With a taste of your lips
I'm on a ride
You're toxic, I'm slipping under
With a taste of a poison paradise
I'm addicted to you
Don't you know that you're toxic"

When I was dreaming on becoming a dancer I put together a few sets and costumes hoping that one day I could do the act. On the same day that I finished my Poison Ivy, GB posted the promo for the week and it was Sho, in a Poison Ivy costume. Honestly I cried a little, disappointment and a little frustration that this act would have to be canned or wait a long time, if I ever made it into the troupe.  I saw the act at GB that week, and it was a fabulous romp with the old school Ivy, Sho did an awesome number.  Now that I know Sho, I realize that it was just a case of "great minds think alike". *grins*  And in the end I am glad that it did have to wait, the whole act turned out better than I originally envisioned and I pushed myself to learn new things.

I trashed the old version of the costume and concept and went with the Arkham Asylum version of Poison Ivy, and set it in her lab. I struggled with making the costume out of found clothing and was never happy with it. I spent days trying to find a red shirt similar to the one she wore in Arkham Asylum.  Just when I was giving in to settling for good enough, I came across a designer who did her full avatar. Not one to wear other shapes, I squished mine into the mesh shirt, and bought some good boots, and it turned out just right. Yay!  

I recruited a Batman (Shippy) since the version of the song that I chose was the Glee Cast one that had multiple singers, but emphasized the male-female duet.

I did my first choreo-ed couple's dance, which was a lovely challenge. It made Ender spend a lot of time shopping for the right dances and warming the mover as Shippy's stunt double. 

Batman was poisoned in the end. I just could not help it, could not go against my nature. *wink*

Thanks Ship, for rockin' The Black Knight and tolerating a Glee song!

Thanks to Toy for the pics with Ship & I, I was way too busy performing to get any myself. You are awesome for snapping our shows each week, you have a great eye.

Chillin' like a villain, on the set with a dead Batman (Ender).

Eat The Menu

22 November 2013

Song by The Sugarcubes (here)

"I'm just a maid

But yes to food, is yes to life"

Yes! Yes! 
As I have come to realize each run at the theater is a beautiful mix of songs that I had planned on from the beginning and ones that smack me up side the head one day and say "Do me!" Well this one was planned, but I put it off because I was not prepared for the technical complexity involved in the set. I also had to be on the schedule for a group dance. This was my first! I have used back up dancers before but never a full on group act beginning to end. 

Luckily this coincided with the recent release is Spot On's Formations HUD. So I bought yet another toy. *grins* And I have to say I love it!  No dancing pics, because coordinating this took all my focus.

Thanks to Chewie for figuring out how to make 10 plates of sushi go around the belt in the right way, without you, I would have thrown up my hands, flung raw fish all over my skybox, and smashed my designer ring.

And thanks to Jess, for being her silly self and inspiring the posers to be mermaids and not just naked women with strategically placed sushi.  I loved that touch!

And thanks to Chewie, Zahra, Deb, BabyPea, and Jess for wearing their outfits so well and coming along for the ride. Much fun and love to you all!

Left of Center

8 November 2013

Song by Suzanne Vega (here)

"If you want me you can find me

Left of center off of the strip

In the outskirts and in the fringes

In the corner out of the grip"

Once again, there was a concept crisis. I knew I was not ready to do the act that was next in line in my season's agenda, so I looked around to see what I could manage. A trip to the roller skating rink of my youth emerged. 

 I had done an 80's hunt a while back and got some really cool clothes. I did buy the skates, since the ones I had were just not cool enough.  As a former derby girl, I am very particular about my skates.

I worked damn hard on this one and bought a lot of skating anims. It was a different type of choreo and synching with the mover was as challenge. But a fun one, I just wish I had those moves when I was a young rink rat.

The best part of the set came from Ender's inventory.  The creator had long since disappeared, so I could not buy my own, and had to use him as an alt to get it there. But it worked out quite well.

Hanging in the arcade would have been a wholely different scene in this outfit.

Rocket's Tail

25 October 2013

Song by Kate Bush (here)

That November night, looking up into the sky,
You said,
"Hey, wish that was me up there
It's the biggest rocket I could find,
And it's holding the night in its arms
If only for a moment
I can't see the look in its eyes,
But I'm sure it must be laughing."

Burn2 was absolutely the number one highlight of the year! It was a super fun event, in general, but the Rogue camp, was not only a beautiful build, but a hub of music and dancing for the whole week. GB troupe members did many mini-shows there, but I only managed to do my regularly scheduled Friday night act. I had grand plans to do more but those just did not pan out. Next year though, watch out, I have grand plans that I will start earlier in the summer.

The stage was the back of a flatbed semi, so the sky was the limit on the builds, and I used the opportunity to fly. I had seen a fine art piece of Roctopi and a woman in a space suit a while back.  Encouraged by Sho to make an act out of it, I did a quick keyword search in my music library, and voila, I had the perfect song. It was too easy, synchronicity, knew I had to do it, sometime, but when it came time to conceptualize the set I felt constrained by the normal stage. The Burn2 stage was perfect.

I let the song tell the story. As with most of Kate Bush's music, the lyrics weave a yarn of beauty and weirdness. It was a whole new realm of choreo for me since I could fly, and I bought a bunch of mer dances for this one.  That was a challenge and a delight to make it all come together.  

I recruited Meegan and Glori for the RocKracken (costume parts availability made the roctopi evolve). They came out for the second half of the song that has lovely voices of Trio Bulgarka. 

The whole act and the timing conflicts with RL, made me not think too much about documentation on set with Meegs and Glori, luckily I got a good shot with them dropped in my inventory from a fan, Leroy Horton.

Next year I have a whole Kate Bush mini-show planned, there is a series of songs that just cannot be separated.  I would like to gift it to the Burn2 community and thank them in advance for allowing me such a grand indulgence.

Take Me I'm Yours

11 October 2013

Song by Squeeze - Andrea Corr cover (here)

"I come across the desert to greet you with a smile."

This act appeared when I needed it most. It was one of my, now typical, moments when the act I planned is just not cutting it, usually for some schism between my vision and my abilities/SL realities or a general loss of enthusiasm. I was a week into a different act and it was just not coming together so I had to switch gears.

I heard Andrea Corr version of the song on Radio Paradise, and remembered that the original was on my "long list" (the list of songs I have in mind but not on the official GB song list that we share as a troupe). Any way, as I am prone to, I loved this one because it is a cover done by a female. Since I do not use emotes, I really like for my songs to be done by a woman when I want the lyrics to serve as a narrative. *points back to "Sexual Healing" from February*

The camels were exciting at first, "awww aren't they cute?" But once I started to work with them, I got a dose of reality. They are stubborn even when they are prims and being short on time did not help any at all. I felt spat upon, more than once.

I did take the traditional route on this one since I had not done a belly dance act as of yet.  But it really was not a belly dance, I used other styles of dance.

You're My Flame

27 September 2013

Song by Zero 7 (here)

"You make hay when the sun don't shine

You don't need a dollar, you don't need a dime

You burn at both ends yet still you're fine

You're my flame"

Oh I am being seasonal again. *grins* This is the exact state of the maple leaves on the trees right now.  I had been wanting to do this song as an act and then turn it into my theme song, but I was told to keep my current theme song, and I concurred. 

So the costume after my metamorphosis has special significance to me.  I have made this specias of moth, Polyphemus sp., as a costume in RL.  Granted it is no where this sexy! It was made over 10 years ago and still does environmental ed., teaching kids about nocturnal creatures.  

Just playing around...

Catch Me While I Sleep

13 September 2013

Song by P!nk (here)

"Why are you constantly believing that I (I) 

I could ever give you what you needed (Ohhhh)

Baby baby please don't put your faith in me

I Don't know what to say

Cuz it's all a dream to me anyways"

This is the act I was avoiding when I switched it for Central Reservation. Sometimes when I am processing rl stuff, it may seem like a good idea to dance it off, but at the same time it may be too fresh.  A little time and space and it was just right.  

It is a beautiful song and very soulful. The angle I took was a cryogenics capsule in space that once I was asleep would put me out in space.  This one of those songs where the choreo just flowed seamlessly, always a good sign.

I could not get the props to work the way I envisioned the act, but I love where it went all the same.  And at the time I did it, it was very cathartic. A good ending to a long chapter in the novel of my life.

Maneater

24 August 2013

Song by Hall & Oates, but I used The Bird and the Bee cover (here)

THANK YOU FuzOnAcid, for making a machinima of the act, my first! Woo hoo! (link) 

"She's deadly man, And she could really rip your world apart"

Original concepts:
Cannibal woman in jungle
cannibal woman in nightclub
Tiger woman in jungle
Tiger woman in nightclub

Well, you know if you are a hardcore burlyq fan, you have already seen the act, done by some one, somewhere. And done well, so what is a girl to do instead? 

During our roster break Chewie produced a Mer-themed show at The Falls Stage just for our fabulous GB Exclusives. It is an incredibly beautiful backdrop for shows on the Idle Rogue sim (though the pic below was taken at home). I was already in the mode of making my maneater, a shark woman. So this was the perfect opportunity.

I recruited a surfer, fisherman, sailor and pirate for the act since those would be the men most likely to get eaten by a shark. Right? *toothy grin*

Pic by Zahra Ethaniel

It was also awesome since we did not have a stage proper to build to and could use the space any way we saw fit.  I found the underwater night club by Garden of Dreams and tore it apart and built it for the space, then added decor. Really proud of how it came out.  I was plagued by tech issues while performing. I deleted the wrong part of the stage when in starting, and had mover timing issues, etc.  When I tried to fix the latter it only made it worse.  C'est La Vie! Such is the life of live performers.  

Thanks to Jag, Gavin, Oods, and Gunner for being my victims, er um, playing along.  Unfortunately (for them), they did not survive the end of the song though. *toothy grins again*

Tiny Cities Made of Ashes

20 July 2013

Song by Modest Mouse (here)

"And as we're headed down the road 

    towards tiny cities made of ashes

I'm gonna get dressed up in plastic 

    gonna shake hands with the masses. 

Oh no!"

Modest Mouse is a homeboy.  He grew up a few miles from where I live and I have worked with his brother. So inevitably a song would make it to the list.  Originally, I had more of a devil woman on a car driving fast down an endless road towards a city running in my head the whole time.  

When it came time to build I just could not get it to work, fresh inspiration came in the form of a poster Ender* found of the 50's B movie classic The 50 Foot Woman. He is always teasing me about being super tall so he hung the poster in my skybox.  Synchronicity, for the win.  For the look I went all Daryl Hannah and the 80's movie version since I could not quite find what I wanted in the retro style.

So from there I just had to make a tiny city. Aly's Freebies is a blessing in so many ways, has saved me L$ on builds.  I had a lot of fun making this one, but I will tell you it was tedious shrinking 759prims.  Definitely my biggest set ever, but the smallest at the same time.

Fifty foot tall women must have a good stash of...

• Five foot wide bandages
• Twelve inch wide duct tape

I loved doing the choreo for this one, the energy in the music just kept me going.

I had some post-act fun with the set.

Picking up Noobs and getting them to the subway 

Helping trucks get to the loading docks

*Ender used to be a real man/dear RL friend of mine, and long story short, I took his account over before his boyfriend destroyed it.  Now he is just my minion.

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.)  

30 Minute Love Affair

25 May 2013


Song by Paloma Faith (here)

"All in the blink of an eye, 
There you were standing there"

Paloma Faith came into my life recently and I love her! I had a hard time picking which of her songs I wanted to do, many of them have a certain"je ne sais F U" to them that really do not go with my personality.  



"Thirty Minute Love Affair" won out, and once I committed, it became obvious this was a time traveling song.  Having read Orlando, again, not too long ago, I felt my time travel should also include some gender swapping.  Being a big fan of Tilda, my costume choice was influenced as much as possible by Swinton's Orlando, going for the Romantic poet. OK, that was before I took it off.

I recruited Renae, Belle, and Ender to do pics with me for the three monitors on my time machine console. I wanted past, present and future selves to illustrate short 3 picture stories.  So based on their personalities and inclinations, I put Renae in the past, Belle in the "present" and Ender in the future. Now keep in mind the present time for this act was the Victorian Era, with a steampunk twist.

For each time period I had 3 pics, for 3 time periods, and 3 diff "lovers." So, yeah, Belle got 4, but she is special. 

Renae is my fairy princess, so the "past" with a fae world & medieval themes were easy. 

She pulled out this cool post-apocalyptic-ish outfit and skybox that made me think of the "future's past" on another planet.  

Belle's "present," the Age of Steam, took us to the Steamlands.  These were most fun since it involved hanging out on my favorite sims.

We started at our sim on her airship with The Time Machine a la H.G. Well's, courtesy of The Steam Hunt.

The second stop was The Joy of Steampunk. The Nemo build was a requirement. She makes a cute sailor boy.

 Onward to Port Babbage....




Next we came ashore in Port Steelhead, at the exotic El Casbah....




Then it was Ender's time and we started in the "future," a retro 50's sim....

I pulled out a 21st century skybox, and put on my male avi again in honor of my fave fag to hag.

Finally we went all cyberpunk at a truly futuristic sim....

Overall, this act was a super blast! I do not know if the full concept got through, you do what you can in this biz.  I did my best to have the monitors pre-rezzed, thanks to a Chewie-tutoring lesson.  There were 40 pics on the monitors, changing every 10 seconds, to fill up the length of the song with just a little left over.