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...