Friday, December 14, 2012

Going Gaga- "living as free as my Hair"

This was a song from her Born this Way album that I can sometimes relate to.
It's about the desire to be free to make your own choices, being yourself and hoping that that's enough to attract other people to you, make them want to desire your friendship & company, etc.

She performed it as part of a GMA concert appearance promoting the album and it took on a different meaning entirely because it was all from a piano. Those tend to be her more intimate performances, the more personal ones. 
A lot of people know her for having those wigs and they come in varieties and all that. My favorite look she ever had was on an interview with "The View" and I think she might have even called it her "Cruella de Ville" look because she had the two-tone going on with the black and white. 

Lady Gaga appears on The View on May 23, 2011, the day her Born This Way album was released. - Provided courtesy of ABC

Unfortunately this was the best I could find on Google Images :-P 

On the album it starts out kinda slow and techno-fies into the 2nd verse and beyond...
Personally it felt like it took on its true meaning at that GMA performance. Throughout, she had her monologue, which usually coincides with playing at the piano. One of the things she said was how people making fun of her wigs and she responded by saying that her wigs allow her to be different people and she proceeded to put on a bunch because at that moment, she wanted to be a slew of different people.

listening to the song, I also got to thinking about "Les Miz" and how back then, hair was important for women like their social status. I don't remember much about the actual story other than a couple of casualties, Jean Val Jean was a reformed criminal that Javert always had his eye on ("all this for a loaf of bread?" I quote from Aladdin). Fantine was a prostitute in dire straits and apparently she asked Jean Val Jean to look after her daughter, Cosette
I didn't know that that Fantine was even a factory worker before being forced into prostitution.

I saw the movie (may/may not have been the version with Liam Neesom) in French class (in French) and this is going back quite a few years... maybe more than 10 :gasp: (I feel old, lol)
so I don't remember a lot

but it's gonna be heard at the end of the year. All these good movies coming out and I feel like I'll only get a chance to see a few. "Les Miz" I'll definitely have to see, but I also kinda want to see "Jack Reacher" (I've read one of Lee Child's books and found it interesting, my dad loves the series) and "Django Unchained" (it's Tarantino and Christophe Waltz... doesn't get much better than that... stir in a little Leo DiCaprio... perfecto)

going to see "The Hobbit" on sunday (weather permitting, lol)

but enough rambling...
hair was important to status... and Gaga tells an ancedote in this song about how her parents cut her hair at night whenever she misbehaved... how much truth there is to that, it's hard to say... but hair is a big deal to her.

My mind has been reeling a little bit here and there over the past couple days over "Te Busque"... almost to the point where I consider I'm ready to actually write it. But this will have to be a project that will have endless brainstorming before I even start from chapter one.

I thought about my characters Scarlet and Ruby.
Scarlet is being directly inspired by Jena Malone's character in "Suckerpunch" 
and Ruby happens to be a twin sister.

The storyline I'd drawn up for them was that they were abused by their father and one night, the two of them worked to make a getaway. Unfortunately, only Scarlet got away, but she promised she'd come back for Ruby whenever she could.
She immediately found a place of her own and supports herself by waitressing. There was an attraction to the "business they ran on the side," but it took some encouragment from Talia and Vanessa, who she immediately developed a friendship with, before she felt well enough to go into it. 
She has a certain spark to her, which makes her kinda popular on the nights that Talia isn't putting herself out there. 

I don't know how the hell or why the hell she would forget about Ruby. But it so happens that one day, Ruby finds the place and auditions. 
Scarlet is apologetic that she never came back for her, but Ruby wavers it, saying not to take the blame for it. I don't know how she made peace with it exactly, but somehow she does...

the song came to mind for me because Rocket had very short hair in "Suckerpunch"... so that image came to my mind for Scarlet
and Ruby has the same look. She might have more highlights in her hair, but other than that, there's a distinct similarity

So I summized that in addition to the abuse, their father might have kept their hair short so no boys would be interested in them.
Then for some unforseeable reason (I can't think of any), they decide not to grow their hair out even though they have the option.

I've also started to consider the possibility that, c'mon, the names are too coincidental for them to be the actual names they were born with...
but what were Scarlet and Ruby's names before they ran away from home?

Although... I might be able to get away with only one of them having the name change... one changing their name to pay homage to the other
and that's how they recognize each other at the audition... which Amber had been planning out for months, naturally she'll be pissed that the two are related, which makes her a shoe-in to be considered. 

Scarlet and Fiona Diaz

heck, it could have been an inside joke between them... when they run away, they'd change their names so their father would never be able to find them. 
Rusmussen was their mother's maiden name... whatever happened to her, I'm not quite sure... they wouldn't take her name if she ran out on them, so it had to have been something tragic...

her name could have been Ruby

I've also considered a few other exotic sounding names for anonymous back-up dancers... somehow, I don't think Ruby and Amber are going to stay in the background forever and I can't just bring them out in the 3rd act... advancing from heresay to the reader getting to know them

the funny thing is... I have a backstory for everybody... except for Vanessa

she's very closed up about her past and has lashed out a couple of times when Talia and Scarlet asked her about... so they just decided not to until she's ready to come forward
I mean, she could have been the proud & joy of her family or her promiscuity, spending time with a different boy every couple weeks, had her mom wanting to have her committed to a convent or something... 

I don't want the story to be that she got into this business to prove that she's her own person and bring away from those ties... I mean, nobody chooses prostitution for reasons like that... it makes their character questionable

Carmen is a name I like for a back-up dancer... I then considered Denise and Patricia because all three names have a common bond... maybe replace Denise with Taja... 
geesh, you'd think I'd know more of Prince's proteges...
Vanity and Apollonia would just be WAY too obvious... although I could easily make it a deadly sin thing where the girls would be nicknamed Lust, Envy and Vanity... nah, I don't feel like going to those lengths

Carmen and Taja I'll put in the mix for later

I'ma thinking that I'd like to have the back stories of each of these girls written down so solidly that that'll help with the characterization process. Later on, their actions will make sense.
Somehow I get the feeling that I won't be getting started until I have a specific scene in mind for my now overally lengthy playlist. For fun, I'll see how many songs I have... 


  1. Dance in the Dark- Gaga
  2. I like it rough- Gaga
  3. Sex Shooter- apollonia 6
  4. Afraid- furtado
  5. Love Game- gaga
  6. Womanizer- britney spears
  7. Maneater-furtado
  8. Circus- britney spears
  9. Showtime- furtado
  10. Promiscuous-furtado
  11. No Hay Iqual-furtado
  12. Mannequin-britney spears
  13. Extraordinary Girl-green day
  14. Lace & Leather-britney spears
  15. Shattered glass-britney spears
  16. If you seek amy-britney spears
  17. Telephone-gaga
  18. So Happy I could Die-gaga
  19. Paper Gangsta-gaga
  20. Wait for you-furtado
  21. Say it right-furtado
  22. Do it-furtado
  23. Just Dance-gaga
  24. Just sayin'-Karmin
  25. All good things come to an end-furtado
  26. Government Hooker-gaga
  27. Bad Kids-gaga
  28. Heavy Metal Lover-gaga
  29. Monster-gaga
  30. Alejandro-gaga
  31. Te Busque-furtado

damn... that's over 30... and I might not use ALL of these...
other ones for consideration are all Gaga

Bad Romance
Hair

Schiebe
Bloody Mary 

good stuff... 
the creative process can be so fun sometimes

I had an interesting scene for Monster come to mind the other day...
it's been a week or two after Emilia "survived" her first VIP night and it could very well be her last... she and Talia have worked on a couple of performance numbers to send a message to Amber... getting back at her for all these repercussions

"Monster" starts to prove a little too much for Emilia after a while because coming into the bridge towards the end, she falls to her knees when she starts to have flashbacks that she's still working to get over.
She still pushes through the rest of it and more or less tells Talia to finish things off and make it good

Interestingly a bunch of the gaga numbers are about art imitating life... they're signature numbers for these girls

Ruby explained it to Emilia as them personifying events that actually happened to them, either as a testament to their pasts or as their way of conquering it
I only see her appearing the story once or twice prior to the tumalteous third act. Amber is the background, but makes a couple of appearances to show her dissatisfication with Talia and wanting to steal the show for herself

hmm... I get the feeling that Amber really doesn't get along with anybody... I can't really picture any alliances forming anywhere...
maybe Vanessa is the one she's closest with, but their "closeness" has nothing on what Talia has with Vanessa and Scarlet
naturally because of the audition day and how Ruby came to be there on what was to be Amber's big day, she'll harbor this grudge against her... to the point where Ruby always shows her up at their show 

I see Amber having a couple friends, but none of them could handle the high stakes of doing what they do. or Talia deemed they weren't good enough

It'd be nice to, at some point, figure out the grey areas surrounding Alejandro... how much of a relationship is this really? stuff like that
JP, I see undergoing a transformation... he starts out this lovesick puppy like Antony in "Sweeny Todd" and when he hears more of what Talia does, he turns into the would-be "white knight in shining armor"...

It'd be a little much for Amber to get news to Talia that JP wants to save her like a damsel in distress... I don't see her having that kind of instrumental role... but I guess, to establish her own following, she recruits Emilia, shows her the ropes, hoping for the night to have more oomph than anything Talia could have put together.
Except Ruby steals the show for her newest number "Heavy Metal Lover"

a lot of work left to do on this, but I think I'm headed on the right track. I'll try to average at least five papers of a backstory for each girl

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