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.)