Amber's Playlist [Te Busque]

I've officially got this on my iPod now.
I might add a couple more songs, but for now, I have a list of 13 songs that are the soundtrack to Amber's journey through the realm of this project.

1. I'm just sayin'- Karmin
2. What you see (is what you get)- Britney Spears ("Oops... I did it again")
3. I can't make you love me- Britney Spears ("Oops... I did it again")
4. Circus- Britney Spears ("Circus")
5. Lace & Leather- Britney Spears ("Circus")
6. Paparazzi- Lady Gaga (The Fame)
7. Told you so- Karmin
8. Ladykiller- Maroon 5 ("Overexposed")
9. Tickets- Maroon 5 ("Overexposed")
10. Starstruck- Lady Gaga feat. Space Cowboy ("The Fame")
11. Bad Kids- Lady Gaga ("Born this way")
12. Comin' up strong- Karmin
13. Hello- Karmin

Sunday afternoon, I went through all of these songs one after another and started to see a pattern taking shape.
I knew all of these were songs that I've associated with this particular character. Probably the most complex and most like me of all the cast members of "Te Busque."

I once wrote that she might have a bit of an identity crisis because I have so many different artists representing her.
Everyone from Lady Gaga to Rihanna to Britney Spears and Karmin, the latter being the very reason I came up with the evolution of her character where she changes her name and reinvents herself to adapt.

I could easily see her performing to "The Only Girl in The World" and "Where have you been?" because she likes to be the center of attention.
Or at least that's the misconception derived from her routines. That and being a little too hardcore with flaunting her sexuality.

The first song is more or less her theme throughout the storyline.
"...I'm just sayin, oh if I want it, I'm gonna get it"
It speaks about her quest to get Alejandro's attention as well as being taken seriously by everyone else and moving the direction of the club's image to one that's more to her tastes.

The first Britney Spears, I can almost see in an alternate version of her backstory, where she was the star of the club and was outmoded by a younger, fresher Talia.
The storyline is about a girl wanting to prove to a guy that she can be trusted with her male friends.
For this particular interpretation, though, it could just as easily her insisting that she won't lower herself to everyone else's level just to get along... something she ends up turning her back on.

Because I thought that was the title, I refer to the third song as "Crush on you"...
as in "I can't make you love me, I'm just a girl with a crush on you"... I mean, those three words open the freaking song. How are they NOT the title?

The scene I see unfolding is very dramatic. If my story was a lengthy episode of "Glee" with people breaking into song spontaneously, it would begin the moment Carmen walks away from Alejandro after her failed attempt to get the spot in the troupe.
All of the dance moves are something out of a Britney Spears video, hip-hop/pop style. She struts down the street singing this. One specific scene that takes place is her creating bangs and dying her hair. I haven't worked out all the kinks of what goes array, but the end result is permanent "amber" highlights that won't wash out of her hair.

The biggest question left about that part in her story is how she comes to the decision to come back under the new persona... how long it took her to come to that decision... and so on.
The song is meant mainly to be inner dialogue because nobody but her knows about her feelings for Alejandro. Well, maybe Michel and Misha, her male friends do, but none of the other girls really know that.

"Circus" is her audition song that gets her a spot on the troupe.
I would have included "Just Dance," her original audition song on this playlist, but in the overall scheme of things, it breaks up the flow of the playlist.
One of these days, I ought to check out the music video for the song for more ideas. I originally saw this as her dancing with a couple guys, cha-cha footwork and partner work. But seeing as Talia's troupe is all female, something else needs to take place. So I figured I'd give Amber a whip as a prop. And a lot of sexuality flaunting, including her being on the floor and moving her body in suggestive ways.

"Lace & Leather" is her chair and hair-ography number with Vanessa, which involves them draped over chairs, flipping their hair and kicking up their 6-inch stilettos. And they're probably dressed similarly to the girls from Vanity 6 for this .

Because I thought the songs sounded similar (heck, I thought there was some plagiarism involved), "Paparazzi" is her answer to Talia's "Say it right." While Talia's letting JP into her heart, Amber is dreaming about coming out on top, a goal she suddenly feels is within her grasp.
Again, still working out the kinks.

"Told you so," I had a thought yesterday about what it could really be referring to.
Amber telling Talia that sooner or later, Emilia will seek her out to dance with her because she will eventually tire of Talia babying her...
oddly, I put this before the two Maroon 5 songs that serve as my "servants' chorus" tracks.

The Servants' chorus was something featured prominently in "My Fair Lady" when Professor Higgins is having trouble teaching Eliza to speak proper English and the servants are telling him to give it up.

I find "Ladykiller" fascinating lyrically. To me, it sounds like Adam Levine is trying to talk his ex-girlfriend out of her pursuing a relationship with another woman, who can't be trusted, "she'll eat you alive as soon as she smells your blood in the water"...
I can see people around Emilia cautioning her against looking for Amber because she doesn't know who she's dealing with... everyone believing she takes the business too seriously to the point where it's a game for her. Apparently she's been very convincing her façade.
Then "Tickets" refers to her being self-involved
"she's got tickets to her own show and nobody wants to go"... I see this being a cha-cha inspired number with her dancing with Michel and Misha with all the music video camera angles and such. This is the number Emilia sees before Amber comes over to talk to her.

"Starstruck" is a playful number, but I had another idea to add to it.
Originally, I thought of her using it to flirt with Alejandro and the end result is his lack of interest.
But then I thought she might show it to him after a rehearsal with her and Emilia, and he says she's better than just "upfront titillation"... almost as if he knows there's more to her than that...

so she decides on her brand new path, promoting self-empowerment with "Bad Kids"
which is a part of the "house of leather" night

also got the idea to have Vanessa dancing in a supporting role each number, which is a trio of her, Amber and Emilia

Finally, I close it off with two more Karmin tracks.
"Comin' up strong" is an emotional ballad. Originally, Carmen danced it for Scarlet to help her feel better after going the ordeal with her abusive father in a rumba. But at present, it see it as part of a night where each girl has a personal number that derives from their past.
She's dancing hip-hop with Misha (who Talia allows to dance with her for this special occasion) with very NappyTab-like choreography.

And "Hello" is the big production number at the end of the story with all the girls dancing different styles... Talia asks her if she has any ideas and that's what she comes up with. To me, it almost plays out like an expansive cheerleading routine, but it's more than that.

"Showtime"- Alejandro's "betrayal" of Talia

Double checking my posting log, this is my first entry on this platform since 1/26...
I wanted to post another entry or two involving my latest scribblings for this project, but I immediately got distracted by something else.

Then the Sochi Olympics happened and it's been hard for me to focus on much other than one of the Russian athletes.
Plus the fact I finally got some temp work going for me, so I've had little time for writing at all.

BUT on my commute the other day, I decided to listen to Nelly Furtado's album. The last time I listened to any of it, it's probably been months and I was starting to tire of hearing the same songs over and over... nothing new was really coming along.

My mind was buzzing with ideas and I couldn't get "Showtime" out of my head. At least not the visuals that come with it.
Visuals I most likely will never be able to use in the actual story, unless I decide to draft a music video screenplay for it. I did, however, create a catalog of sundresses that I see Talia, Vanessa and Scarlet prancing around in during this number.
I can't even figure what kind of choreography I'm visualizing. Kinda like ballet but without the legit steps like "en pointe" and "jutes"... stuff like that. But it's very feminine and free-flowing. The background has a Grecian terrace as a backdrop and they're dancing barefoot on cobblestones.

The scene I originally saw in my head was as follows:
Talia and the other girls are closing up shop for the night. They're packing up their things, putting on jackets, and Talia's quietly excited about going to meet with Alejandro.

Then I decided to make it a flashback in order to add more to Amber's storyline.

So the other day, I wrote a scene that takes place at the end of the first night described in my story. Meant to be Emilia's opening night as a dancer, opposed to just being among the several nameless back-up dancers the club picks up because they can afford to at least pay them minimum wage.
Alejandro offers his congratulations to everyone and tries to sweet-talk Talia, who is having none of it. In the opening track of this album, there's a solo rapped by a man somewhere in the middle. I picture Talia belly-dancing in response to Alejandro rapping [kinda like how Mayte had done for Prince in the past], all part of this act. But he jumps to the conclusion that she'd forgiven him and things get pretty intense.

The night follows where Vanessa decides to give Talia a hand and explain what went down.
In a nutshell, Talia went to meet Alejandro at his place, only to find him messing around with another girl.

I also drop a couple of plot pieces here and there leading to this. The biggest one is that Scarlet suggest a karaoke outing tomorrow night to help rebuild morale... ultimately leading to her meeting Juan Paulo for the first time.

Yesterday, or rather last night, I wrote out Talia's version of what happened in a 3rd person narrative. I decided also to kick it up a notch after she tells Vanessa what happened... to burn into her memory how cheap Alejandro made her feel, she decides to hook up with some of her clients... yeah, it's very sick and twisted, but I felt like that was something she'd do.

Today, I wrote Alejandro's take. Emilia decides to be the go-between and asks him about it.
Supposedly, at the same night Talia was going to meet Alejandro, he gets a visit from a clingy ex-girlfriend and Talia misinterpreted his hands all over her... which were that he was trying to break her grip on him.

It'll be interesting to see how this goes. Emilia knows this secret, but the timing is all wrong to say anything. Because Talia having deal with JP's unwelcome advances will take precedence. I wonder how that'll go on to affect the rest of the plot.

One last break-through I hit while doing this: I finally found Alejandro's voice.
Like Talia, he has a pronounced accent. My original thought was Ramon from "Romey & Michelle," but maybe there's a little of Mario Lopez as well.

Te Busque- Carmen/Amber's sub-plot with Scarlet & Ruby

I can't say for sure that my backstories will make it in the actual book... relying too much on dialogue and sometimes rambling on for ages... but I've made substantial progress this week.
This also included the first chapter I ever wrote for the story, something I thought I was ages away from, but the vision I had was so strong that I couldn't resist.

The inspiration that got the ball rolling was "Lace and Leather," a track from Britney Spear's "Circus" album.
Talia is campaigning for Amber to become more of a team player, demanding she start including the other VIPs in her routines before she can start working with Emilia, something she really wants to do.
...and to be on the safe side, I jotted down a bunch of notes of things to keep in mind for the future, so it'll be able to tie into the rest of the story better.

I don't have the room in my notebooks to do the same for the backstories, so that's why I'm doing this entry.

For starters, I wrote the chapter, which includes Amber dancing with Vanessa, the two of them having dinner out afterwards and Vanessa discovering that Amber is Carmen... and that backstory is briefly addressed as a teaser for later.
After that, I wrote a scene with them having lunch years earlier, explaining why Vanessa's having a sense of deja vu. They're at the same restaurant, having the same food, wearing stilettos (her suspicions are initially raised because the shoes had been in the back of her closet for years, Scarlet and Talia hadn't even seen them). At this previous lunch, Vanessa is trying to convince Amber (then known as Carmen) to give Talia's new direction a chance and saying how much Scarlet misses her.

So I continued to work on the sub-plot involving Carmen and what led to her leaving the bar with Ruby's arrival.

The back-drop is that Talia is holding auditions for lead dancers. The morning of, Michel and Misha get laid off because the dancers will double as waitresses when they're not starring in routines. Plus they can only afford to pay a small amount of people with the bar being in dire straits.
At least that's the story they get.

Carmen shows up with them for her audition dance, which will be set to "Just Dance" by Lady Gaga. Everything they taught her about cha-cha and samba will be in it.
Alejandro, also judging (and will stay on as the main bartender cuz he's the nephew of the owners), is extremely impressed because this is the first time he'd seen her dance. Talia, on the other hand, is less enthused, saying that she need to learn how to lose herself in the music because to her, it looks like she's doing a bunch of steps. Also, she delivers the blow that Michel and Misha can't even stay on as dancers because she wants an all-female cast.

Ruby shows up amidst this chaos with two of her fellow strippers, saying they heard about the auditions and want to expand their resumes beyond stripping. She takes center stage with her friends as back-up and they improvise their best pole-dancing routine (minus the poles) to "Love Game" or as Ruby puts it "the next track on the album."
I need to work on what that routine would look like without the poles. I mean, it'd be too coincidental if the poles were there on stage already.

The big reveal happens after the routine (because it'd be a little too unfair to Carmen if they saw the routine after learning who Ruby was).
Ruby and her friends are dressed very similarly to Rocket in "Sucker Punch", simple corsets and stockings. While Talia makes her decision, Carmen returns home to let everything sink in. She's unbelievably happy for Scarlet getting her sister back, but she's concerned about the image she's perpetuating. This is made worse when Ruby seeks her out to thank her for looking out for her sister, divulging the fact that she was never treated as badly by their father as Scarlet was.... 

Carmen tries to convince her to come forward with that secret because it could make things worse further down the road. Ruby goes from never wanting to tell her to taking that into consideration.

Inevitably, Ruby is given the position. Talia unveils her plan for the bar to become a club where the dancers perform routines ranging from pole dancing to burlesque to interpretative to Latin and to help boost business and gain more capital to save it (later on, expand it), they rent themselves to clients for the night... these clients are wealthy friends of the Montiels, who will not only help with the financing, but they'll spread word of mouth in exchange for the rented "VIP treatment"... so it's kinda like an escort service.

Carmen sees no other choice but to walk out. Despite the fact she can stay on a waitress and back-up dancer, she doesn't want to associate with this type of behavior. According to her, "none of you have any problem selling your bodies for money even after going through deep shit to get to this point.... how can any of you believe that's ok?"
She looks across the room at Talia, Scarlet and Ruby, taking care not to single any of them out. But after their previous conversation, Ruby comes clean to Scarlet about their father's treatment of them. In turn, Scarlet goes more into the hell she experienced after her escape, bringing her around to remember how Carmen was there for her and she wouldn't have survived the ordeal without her.

The chapter ends with the two of them going back to Carmen's apartment to convince her to come back... but she's already gone. Ruby asks if they can take over the lease under the pretense Carmen might come back for something she left behind... Scarlet knows that's a sham, but appreciates the enthusiasm.

Not all of the pieces fit together, necessarily, but in the style I'm using in my composition notebooks, I'm doing what I can to make sure everything airs out... letting the pieces sort themselves out later.

I got to the end of that part and I felt terrible. Probably because I felt Scarlet's sense of loss. All the what-if's and things she could have done to convince Carmen to stay, how she could have been a better friend. No matter the scenario, her opposition to the sex industry would have compelled her to leave.
Ultimately, her story arc will lead her to become the very thing she despises because she can't abandon her desire for Alejandro and nobody has treated her better than him and the Montiels. What does convince her to come back... will be the back-drop for the scene after Nelly Furtado's "ShowTime".

Right now I'm hoping that my logic is sound because my gut is telling me that I'm very close to starting the actual story... now that I have a better grasp of backstories and motivations. There are still a couple questions left to answer and I need to hone in on the visual content when it comes to my playlist.
I'd been planning on rewatching some of my favorite Paso Dablo routines because that'll be Scarlet and Ruby's department for when they're exploiting their identicality.

What made Inuyasha an important archetype?

The only reason I watch Adult Swim anymore is to keep up with Bleach... within the year, even that part of my routine will be gone.

College was the first time I gave that block of animation on Cartoon Network a chance. I discovered Inuyasha along with FullMetal Alchemist (both series), Kekkaishi and Bleach...
good times...

Every now and then when I watch on Saturday night, they'll show clips of the various shows featured on the block. Whenever I see any image of Inuyasha, something inside me always reacts.
I still very much adore him and hope to find the strength and decisiveness to revamp my fanfiction turned original work inspired by him into something I can publish.

Sadly, that's a time that just seems too far away. Like Jonas, never seeing the light of day beyond my laptop. It's a combination of not having the will power and the brain power to keep going. Finding the pieces I need to fix to make it one more marketable and the other more my own creation.

When it comes to my sources of inspiration over the years, I tend to fall in love pretty easily. Within a few episodes, chapters or whatever, I know I'm in for the long haul.

Inuyasha took a little while longer. Of course, I enjoyed the storyline, that good old conflict between good and evil, the colorful cast and enchantment of the world.
But I didn't get that gut feeling until some time later. I'm not sure which episode set it off... usually I can pinpoint these things more precisely.

More or less, I found him particularly fascinating/interesting because he's not your typical leading man. Heck, he's more an anti-hero than a hero... earlier in the series, he could be seen a bad guy, but not the most devious by any means.
Up until that point, my male protagonists have been straight-forward or they have an air of mystery to them.

Inuyasha has that air of mystery too, but unlike the other guys, you had to get to know him before finding he was good deep down. I guess you could call that the "tough-guy archetype," acting tough to cover up emotional insecurities. Not an entirely new concept by any means, but the first time I fell for that archetype in a romantic sense.
Not that I see myself getting in that position in real life :-P

Somehow, it's just important to me that I explore that fully in my work in some capacity.
Romance, to me, is self-sacrifice, putting another's happiness and well-being over your own. Being there for another person through the good and bad. Helping them find themselves whether or not they know they're lost. Bringing out the best in them.

Jonas's story had quite a bit of the self-sacrifice in it as well. Nina wanted to do it for Jonas and Jonas wanted to do it because he wanted his world to be rid of evil... because as the reincarnation of an angel, it's in his makeup.

My Inuyasha fanfiction gave me the chance to do the same thing... but with my character who sacrifices herself for his happiness, since his existence saved her life.
And to top it all off, his safeguards came down in her passing. Their own relationship was kinda about that too. He saw her as an equal. She tested his patience on a number of occasions and he realized things about himself he never knew.
Well, that last part is always in my work... love allows the characters who'd otherwise been alone to flourish, to see themselves as more than how they'd been and love leads to them becoming better people.

At least all those things USED to be in my work... but for my peace of mind, I'll have these notes down for safe keeping when I feel I'm ready to return.

It's funny... I have this distinct idea of what I feel romance is... yet I've never been truly in love.

End of Fooly Cooly: FLClimax

For whatever reason, Adult Swim has decided to put Bleach on hiatus until the new year... but when it comes to a lot of my shows, they're all going away until January at the earliest.
So far, "Grimm" is the only one that has left on a positive note. Well, "New Girl" and "The Mindy Project" have been good.
It's "Castle" and "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." that has me concerned with their cliff-hanger endings... the "Once Upon a Time" franchise as well, although I have yet to see the finales of either series...

Anyways, according to the info, Fooly Cooly is starting all over again. But I more or less decided the 2:30am time slot is too late for me to keep up with.
I managed to find the final episode just so I remembered how it all ended.

It's pretty much gotten to the point where I really don't care to fully explain what it all means. But I did get where they were going with all the character development. That's what makes the finale so good. Not only do they EXPLAIN some stuff and Haruko opens up a little bit more about why she's there in the first place.

In episode four, "Full Swing," we're introduced to this government agency who wants to find out what Haruko is up to. I never really caught names, but we see a lot of this blonde girl that's a second in command and this dude in charge...
This dude apparently has some history with Haruko and for whatever reason, he's always seen wearing fake eyebrows. In this episode alone, his subordinate and Naota say "eyebrows" at least three times because they're basically the elephant in the room.

"Full Swing" focuses on Naota's unwillingness to swing the bat when he's at home plate for his baseball team... but it's also a metaphor for his attitude towards life. And for whatever reason, Haruko is pitching for the other team (and destroying the competition) and she offers to be his batting coach.
During this time, it appears that Haruko and Naota's father are now in a relationship... a very steamy one. They don't show much, Naota's looking through a crack in a door, but he sees them doing the nasty. Subsequently leading into a very strange scene later on where it appears that he hit his father with the bat out of jealousy, and there's another person there that looks like his father, but it's really an android.
Eyebrow guy talks with Naota a number of times, talking about Medical Mechanica and how Haruko is trying to infiltrate the organization.

When it comes down to it, a satellite heading to the earth, that takes the form of a glove throwing a baseball, Naota does, in fact, swing the bat... which is actually a bass guitar that Haruko pulled out of his head.

Episode 5, "Brittle Bullet" makes about as much sense as episode one the first time you're watching it...
for whatever reason, gun violence is a common theme, mainly with the characters shooting each other up with guns with unlimited ammo... with no blood or flesh wounds. Just randomly added in for this show only.
Eyebrow guy shows up again, trying to reason with Haruko and it's made clear that she was on Earth when he was Naota's age and she didn't go for him the same way. Apparently because Eyebrow guy's head doesn't allow robots and machines to come through... which is interpreted as him not being mature enough for Haruko.
Naota also has a tense moment with Mamimi and tells her to stop following him around and calling him Ta-kun, her pet name for his brother, her now ex-boyfriend.

So at the climax, the finale, Haruko and Canti are nowhere to be found. Been on the run from the past couple weeks/months. Since the previous confrontation, a giant hand (formed of the remanents of the latest robot adversery) is hanging over the giant iron, ready to grasp it at any second and a white smoke has enveloped the town.
We almost have a return to form when Haruko returns because it's deja vu of the scene in episode one where everything was in manga form. Then for whatever reason, it stops abruptly after it gets kinda strange (including some graphic nudity that's pixeled out...ok, very strange) and the actors are out of breath, as if the manga form was too exhausting to keep up with.

When Haruko and Naota are sharing the bunk bed again, he's pretends he's back to his indifference/annoyance with her, but breaks into tears because she didn't say goodbye when she left. He agrees to run away with her and help her accomplish her goal.
which seems to be rescuing this being called Atomsk known as the "pirate king" because he's stolen whole star systems.
His loyalty to her will soon be tested. But he makes an interesting statement about how everything is ordinary in town and Haruko was the only way he knew there was a world outside his town.

On the other side of things, we see Mamimi, who has found yet another non-human friend to take care of. This time, it's a small robot exhibiting dog-like behavior. Of course she calls it Ta-kun, same as Naota and the cat (first seen in episode 2). It eats her cell phone. She gives it the cell phones from kids at her school. Then she has it eat mopeds because someone splashed her when it drove by.
But as it eats, it gets bigger and bigger until it becomes the piece needed to activate "the hand".

The craziness goes down with all the characters present. Naota ends up absorbing the powers of Atomsk and Haruko fights him for it... until he stops on his own to declare his love for her.
After all the crap does down, she leaves, deciding he's not mature enough to come with her. She leaves behind the bass guitar and according to Naota, Mamimi decided to take off to become a photographer.

In an odd sort of way, it is a coming of age story. Just with too many twists and turns to fully make sense of. I can't explain a lot of it, but if you do see it, after a couple times, it does start to sink in.

Examining a Potential Muse- Britney Spears

I recently restored the "Circus" tracks I associated with this project on my iPod. While doing so, I wondered for a moment if any of Britney's earlier stuff had a valid place as well.

Primarily, her 2nd and 3rd albums, "Oops... I did it again" and "Britney"...
These were albums one of my friends burned for me back when CD burning was a huge thing. Eventually, I put together my own "Greatest Hits" of Britney Spears.

a) so I could keep my favorite tracks from her first album, which I wound up selling because I hardly listened to more than the first three songs :-P
b) in general, greatest hits from the 90's dissatisfy me, which is why I did my own for The Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC as well
c) I was sick of skipping every other track of "In the Zone" to get to my favorites
d) my friend's copy of "Oops... I did it again" was scratchy and as a result, the track "Don't knock on my door" was debilitated so bad that it couldn't get past the 3 minute mark... the ticking remains in the background, but the tracks don't "tick" as much in my copy

when I was getting to know these tracks real well, I was playing them along with Spider Solitaire. Ironically, one of those times, I skipped out on "Coyote Ugly,' thinking I wouldn't get into that movie... finally saw it recently, roughly a decade after that... might of mentioned it a few times

long story short, here're the tracks I'm considering using...

1. What you see is what you get
2. Crush on you (though I believe the real title is "I can't make you love me")
3. I'm a slave 4 u
4. Don't wanna let you back in
5. Boys
6. Cinderella
7. Breathe on me
8. Brave new girl

Some of them might work, some might not.
For a second, I even considered the title track. When I recalled it (it's been YEARS since I've heard it, I wasn't a huge fan of that particular track), I thought it sounded exactly like something Talia would say.
"I'm sorry I made you fall in love with me during my performance, but it was just an act"

But after listening to it, the undercurrent didn't agree with my motives. It isn't as if Talia flaunts her sexuality with the intention of toying with other's emotions.

"Don't come knocking on my door," as much as I love that track, it doesn't really fit into my storyline anywhere. The only place it could is as another way of her turning down Alejandro (or JP's) advances... got one too many tracks like that already in mind.
"Don't wanna let you back in" also fits in that same category, but it seems more final than its predecessor

"I'm a slave 4 u" seems pretty obvious... plus the music video will provide ample inspiration. It was choreographed by Prince's first wife, Mayte, who is my key inspirer for Talia's belly-dancing... I need to get back to that element, been focusing so much on the cha-cha and samba steps

"Boys" struck me as a good match because within it lays Talia's policy when it comes to the opposite sex:
"when a girl is with one, then she is in control"...
considering the terrors the girls have endured, that needs to be a top priority. In this business, they must be the ones calling the shots because they don't want to think of themselves as victims anymore

While listening to it, I started pondering a possible back story for either Talia or Vanessa... :sigh: Vanessa remains the one girl with the past that's impossible to nail down. I thought she could be the girl that came from a conservative family (kinda like Katy Perry, who wasn't even allowed to say "deviled eggs" in her house), wanted to take dance lessons in addition to college and leaves academia for dance...
now, I just have her down as the girl that came to the main setting along with Talia, and Talia aimed to help with this new proposal.

Anyway, the storyline is that before the girls came together as a "group," one of these girls was in a controlling, abusive relationship.
Sounds like something Vanessa could fall into, supposing she gave up on college and her parents' dream of her becoming a doctor or lawyer to become a professional dancer.

But at the same time, I can't help but consider Talia might fit that description as well...
considering how far she's gone to protect herself, compared to how much pain the other girls went through, it's kinda hard for those pieces to click in my head.

It's not like she was molested as a girl or that she grew up in a brothel or that she was a prostitute who was raped multiple times a day... that sort of deal...
Right now, I have it figured that she's bitter towards the opposite sex because her stepfather had her believing he loved her, but he betrayed her and her family by emptying the bank account. He treated her like a queen and left her and her mother with nothing.
Then the crap with Alejandro happens and she decides never to open her heart again, believing the opposite sex to be untrustworthy

The furthest I got with "pressing" the limits of Talia's relationship with her stepfather is that he's there for her when she's rejected by a boy she likes and has considered losing her virginity to. Kinda racy considering she's likely only 16 at the time, but he might take advantage of her because she's emotionally compromised over this break-up. Maybe this guy went with another girl because he wants to be someone more experienced. So he takes it upon him to "show her how" to do it... takes her to bed a number of times, she yields to his every direction until the idea forms in her mind that this kind of relationship is normal.
At the same time, he might even put the idea in her head that no boy will ever be good enough for her, so she decides not to pursue high school romance.

Somehow, I just can't see their relationship ever being strained... that she finds out how horrible he is until after the hit on him is carried out...
she more or less makes up her mind that since she lost her virginity to him that she never wants to be used for sex again... instead, she'll be the one in charge

which leads me to "Cinderella"... one of my personal favorites, which I believe is because my friend expressed his love of the track as well... it's about stepping outside the "fairy tale" path and becoming a stronger person... rather the "passive" versions of the original realizations of Snow White (before the 2012 movies and "Once upon a time") and Cinderella who waited for their destinies to come to them...
I listened to that the previous time, seeing it as this HUGE musical type number that's more or less like a revenge anthem pointing the finger at the stepfather :-P
not sure if I'd be able to duplicate that coolness each time I listened to it

"Breathe on me" is very hot and steamy... in a subtle sort of way... so it really doesn't have to belong to one specific scene

"Brave new girl" could either play to Talia or Amber's strengths

which leaves the first two tracks I listed that fit Amber like the tracks from "Circus" did

"What you see is what you get" has the same thing in common with a lot of my favorite Britney Spears tracks... you have a couple verses and a chorus... but after a bridge or an instrumental solo, you get a second chorus that jumbles up some of the same words used in the first chorus, and that extends to the two choruses playing simultaneously to end the song...
Max Martin definitely knows how to write some catchy tunes, but he was at his height with the boyband era in the late 90's/early 2K's

looking at the song, I'm not sure how it fits Amber exactly... maybe it is another one specifically for Talia.. the song is about a girl being with a possessive guy who watches her too closely when she's hanging out with her friends and other guys, thinks she dresses so provocatively that she'll attract unwanted attention from other guys.
thinking it over, maybe I was wrong about this one. The jury's out.

"Can't Make You Love Me"...

"can't make you love me, I'm just a girl with a crush on you"
...
When I listen through my favorites on this album, it always follows "what you see is what you get"... both sound very similar to me and I don't mind that. That's part of the charm.
In this case, she's talking about being into this guy but at the same time, she can't make advances because her fame keeps her away from having a relationship with anyone...

but for Amber, I'm using it in a different context. This could be her swan song before she leaves the name "Carmen" behind. Believing that Alejandro will never want anything to do with her now that he's interested in Talia... in my head, it plays almost like a dream sequence, kinda like "Paparazzi", her answer to "Say it Right" (seeing as I thought "Paparazzi" plagiarized from that Nelly Furtado song when I first heard it).

an interesting thing happened when I listened to it the previous time... something like an alternate version of my story. Instead of Talia starting the dancing component of the club, Carmen was the veteran who had washed up routines and Talia was the fresh newcomer that threatened to overthrow her "reign"...plus there'd be a significant difference in their ages with Amber being vastly older.
The only downside to that, other than me having a lot of rewriting to do, is that it sounds a little too similar to "Purple Rain" :-P

the difference in styles were also vastly different... with Amber having Britney choreography and Talia and her crew being closer to Lady Gaga with some Mayte thrown in... Britney ruling the 90's while Lady Gaga ruled this latest decade

Amber has choreography coming from a lot of different artists. She likes to think she has a hold on Britney's stuff, particularly the "Circus" album... except that Talia has used "Womanizer" and "Mannequin"... "Mannequin" is the last straw, though. Amber will get wind of them using that track to ward off JP's advances and throw something of a hissy fit about it, until they compromise.
like Amber wants to borrow Vanessa for a number or two and wants use of one of their exclusive songs, like "Paparazzi"

Amber likes using:

1. Circus
2. Kill the Lights
3. Lace and Leather (with Vanessa)

these tracks relate to Talia:

1. Womanizer (attacking Alejandro)
2. Out from Under (attacking her stepfather.. or it just describe something Vanessa went through, about being in the abusive relationship)
3. Shattered Glass (she has daggers for somebody, either Alejandro or JP)
4. Mannequin (warding off JP, alongside Scarlet & Ruby)

which [finally] brings me to this end of this entry
still got a lot to figure out, but that'll help at least a little bit

this weekend's "Te Busque" playlist & Fooly Cooly (Episode 3)

First things first,
[Scroll down if you wanna skip more fictional brainstorming to get to my Fooly Cooly discussion]

this project has blossomed quite a bit over the past couple months. I thought of it as a series of stages. In musical terms, "acts" and "scenes".

Because my iPod didn't have Britney Spears' "Circus" album or any relevant Daughtry tracks, I mostly stuck with Nelly Furtado, threw in a little Green Day and sprinkled in some Gaga, Karmin, Maroon 5 and Carrie Underwood.

1. Afraid
2. Maneater
3. Promiscuous (still not entirely sure how Talia and J.P. come to do a karaoke duet, but she gives everyone a great show- problem is he doesn't know that's all it is) 
4. Glow (the 4th track from "Loose" I'd previously omitted but I needed something fresh at that point)
5. No Hay Iqual
6. Extraordinary Girl- Green Day

at this point, I'm going blank about what I did next, but I know I didn't go back to Nelly Furtado for a while. I started to brainstorm more about Amber and how it made no sense for her to meddle in Talia's relationship with J.P.
all she wants is Alejandro... what puts revenge back on the menu is when she shows him a routine and he thinks she's coming on too strong... the next couple songs were from Gaga's first album "The Fame"...

Money Honey, Starstruck, Poker Face and Love Game... one of the first two, I see her getting into, showing it to him as a brand new routine she'd been working on, and she's put off by the fact he didn't like it.
"I'm just sayin'" comes in right after this incident.

"Paper Gangsta" then comes about as the backdrop for Vanessa having dinner with J.P. as her way of "checking him out" for Talia at her specific request.

"Wait for you," I recently figured to be a good way to convince Talia to fully give into her suspicions because the lyrics sound like words J.P. could have said to her, saying how he'd wait for her forever.
"Say it right" is when she comes by his place and completely gives into him. In other words, more than just the act or a simple lap dance.

I played another track in between... might have been "Just Dance" but I'm not positive... then "Paparazzi" which would be Amber's fantasy number, kinda like a mirror image of "Say it right" because I thought the two songs sounded kinda similar.

The worst part is that I can't help but feel this relationship will be short-lived. One little instance of dissention and Talia ends things... the key is finding sense in the right song.
"All good things come to an end" is her saying goodbye to him... then "whatshername" by Green Day is his version.
Amber has the last laugh with "Told you so"... though I'm not sure if she's the reason the two of them break up.

The songs start to pile on, several just to describe one scene.
Maroon 5 has "Ladykiller" and "Tickets" as words people around Amber are saying about her. Yet while I listen, I picture her being in charge of her own brothel with the UV lighting and such... which is weird because she's totally against having this lifestyle as her first so-called "career" choice.
The important thing to note is her degree of intensity as to how she handles her business.

this progresses to their night... from the "Born this way" album...
Govt hooker, Bad Kids (which Amber hopes to use to convince Alejandro to give her a second chance... but she loses it when Ruby tops it off with "Heavy Metal Lover"... after which she doesn't think Alejandro will give her a second glance. So she throws Emilia under the bus.

what happens happens. Back to "The Fame Monster" for Monster, Bad Romance (which I'd been contemplating whether or not to include) and Alejandro...

the confrontation scene happens, the truth comes out, and the idea comes about for everyone to do a number showcasing their past.

Amber gets "Comin' up strong" by Karmin
Scarlet & Ruby get "two black cadillacs"... Ruby insists on a solo with "Blown Away" where she reveals the extent of her journey through hell...
Vanessa, I played "Bloody Mary" and "Electric Chapel" (heck, the latter could refer to her running away from an arranged marriage, I'm still figuring her out)
Talia gets "Princess of China" by Coldplay & Rihanna (impressing why she hates being called 'princess')

she and J.P. make up with a couple tracks. The most notable is the title track... which has me thinking there'll be a scene early in the story where Vanessa (who's her roommate) hears her crying at night, unhappy about the life she's chosen, but too set in her way to change.
then to add on a positive note, "Hello" by Karmin for a big ol' dance number with the whole cast.

So the project has extended to even more stages:

1. Introductions
2. Trusting in love
3. the relationship
4. Falling out of love
5. Revenge
6. Redemption
7. Revelations

so the biggest questions remain:
A) how the hell does Vanessa fit into all this?
B) what are the rest of the dots I need to connect with Amber?
- lots of foreshadowing will be involved, most likely
- her true intentions aren't made known until Alejandro rejects her the first time
-yes, later on, he does get his chance to tell her how he liked the second performance
C) who is responsible for Talia breaking up with J.P.?

***

Maybe it's because I'd seen the pilot episode way too many times... but this time around confirmed how much episode 3 of Fooly Cooly is by far my favorite :-P

All kinds of insanity goes on, as usual, but it doesn't escalate to the nth degree of insanity until the final 3-5 minutes. When the latest Medical Mechanica robot appears and there's a huge battle scene.

I meant to do an entry after each week's installment, but not much new has occurred to me so I didn't bother.
Heck, I didn't really enjoy the pilot as much as I had in the past. Maybe cuz I'd seen my favorite scenes a few too many times.

We're introduced to the main characters.
Haruko runs Naota over with her Vespa and hits him with her bass guitar. The result is a bump jutting from his forehead. She also ends up becoming her family's live-in housekeeper... only in Japanese animé do we have random strangers insinuating themselves into a family without explanation. Reminds a bit of "Sailor Moon" where Rini hypnotized Serena's family into believing she's a cousin just so she can stay there... what an annoying little brat.

I'm still seething over that... obviously.

While Naota attempts to figure out who Haruko is, he also spends the majority of the show with Mamimi, his older brother's girlfriend.
She's flirting with Naota this whole time in an almost perverted sort of way... makes no sense to me and still kinda doesn't. Then she finds out that the brother has an American girlfriend and she has a mental breakdown.
Then a giant robot comes out of Naota's head, Haruko takes it down and it goes from red to blue... also becomes a supporting character named Conti

It bothered me for a while about how the robots came out of the kid's head... makes no sense and even worse, there was ZERO explanation. You just had to take it as fact that it happened. But nobody really talks about the how and why until episode 4 or 5.

Episode 2: "Firestarter" involves Mamimi's relationship with Conti. She calls him that, believing he's a character in her favorite video game.
I still don't get what the point of "Firestarter" is... something about it being the goal to burn down a city to get the blessing of the God, Conti. There's an explanation of the game, but the voiceover is obscured by previous quotes from the show... so it's hard to follow.
There's also the mention of a school that burned down, a fires Mamimi was in and Naota's brother rescued her. She kinda sets up a ritual at the site of the ashes to call on Conti.

Then another robot comes out of Naota's head. Conti actually swallows him to turn red and destroys the enemy robot.
Naota is then "discarded" in a pretty gross way... I guess the right word might be "deprecated"...

There aren't many moments like that in the series, but I wasn't crazy about it for that reason.

Wikipedia states that Mamimi burned down the school herself because she hated it there... it's also hinted that she's bullied at school, which would explain why Naota usually sees her playing hokey.

Mainly cuz I don't pronounce, I call "Marquis de Carabas" either episode 3 or the one where Naota wears a hat to hide car ears that grew out of his head.

The focus is more on his friend, Ninamori, whose father is the mayor of the town. He's having an affair with his secretary, which is causing friction in her house. She handles it very nonchalantly, but you learn that down deep, it does bother her.
The school is doing a play where she has the lead role and Naota has been cast as "puss in boots"... very apropos, given his latest predicament.

Funny enough, Mamimi only makes one appearance in this show. She and Naota are hanging out by the river with her new cat, Ta-kun (she actually adopted him the previous show, but I forgot to bring it up, lol).

This episode probably has the best story of the whole series and it's also the funniest. I think. If you're into the messed-up sort of funny.
I mean, most of the series looks like it came from the head of someone high on drugs. This one, there are a bunch of moments that tickle my funnybone because I see them as really messed up. Heck, you feel like you're tripping on acid while you're watching it.

Little moments are made all the more hilarious cuz of it. And I'm also remembering how much people in my animé club laughed at certain moments where things looked out of place.
One of those moments is where they're in Naota's house and there's this dog... it's just sitting there in the background while dialogue going on, but it just looks so messed up.
They also spotted towards the beginning that Ninamori was a secret communist cuz she was wearing a red sweatshirt that said "USSR" on it.

Hilarity really ensues when Naota sees her after school and she finds out about his cat ears. Haruko tells her not to touch them... for whatever reason. It makes her sick to her stomach, which really doesn't get explained. It just is.
Great dialogue too.

"Don't touch it! A young girl like you shouldn't touch it with your bare hands!... yeah, I think it's an ear... cat, I think... kitty, kitty, meow."
then after she touches them and doubles over
"I told you not to touch it... is that my fault?"
Haruko says all this using a megaphone... that she randomly has with her.

Naota ends up inviting Ninamori to stay with him and his family. They have some hot curry, so hot that it looks like it kills Naota's granpa... he breathes "water" and suddenly collapses into the bowl, but he's okay.
They're talking about the scene at Ninamori's house, but she dismisses each comment with the same quote: "I don't think it's any big deal"... either that or the animators got lazy, lol

Another weirded out moment from earlier is where they're in class, Naota's friends are looking at a red magazine, which I thought was maybe a tabloid thing about Ninamori's family. But the scale of her freak-out (the series of whacked out facial expressions) has me thinking maybe it's pornographic in nature.

Meanwhile back at the house, Ninamori is staying in Naota's room. He finds out she has glasses and she asks about his cat ears. While Haruko listens in and adds her two cents.
tee-hee, always entertaining.
It's also revealed that Ninamori rigged the vote to play the lead and for Naota to be the cat. Apparently she has a bit of a crush on him.

Naota had more or less boycotted the play until this point... where he walks up and finds himself in rehearsal and everyone in costume. The secrets come spilling out, and for a MAJOR twist, the ears transfer to Ninamori's head and a gigantic robot erupts out of it...
all kinds of craziness goes on, as usual. mostly from Naota's classmates freaking out. The teacher flipping out until she gets run over by the Vespa. ("It's a hit & run!") and when the robot is destroyed by Haruko, Naota and Conti, it falls on her car ("She's still paying off the loan")...

Ninamori is released from it (before it's destroyed obviously) in a way that could be interpreted as gross... this robot must have been female...

the episode ends with them doing the play and Ninamori is wearing glasses on stage

the plot progresses in episode 4, "Full Swing" where we're introduced to more characters and hopefully more is explained.