Dresden Dolls- A Vaudeville Romance (Alpha)
Title: A Vaudeville Romance
Fandom: Dresden Dolls
Chars/Pairing: Amanda Palmer/Brian Viglione
Theme Set: Alpha
Rating: G-PG
Disclaimer: This is about how the Dresden Dolls are on hiatus. I make references to their lyrics, and try to portray them through the vibe of their lyrics/ how they present themselves as artists, in photos, etc. This is me romanticizing Dresden Dolls, not claiming to know them as actual people!
Vaudeville Romance
Dresden Dolls- Brian Viglione and Amanda Palmer
50 sentences using Theme Set Alpha from 1sentence
This is about Dresden Dolls, a “Brechtian Punk Cabaret” band. I make references to lyrics from their albums “Dresden Dolls” and “Yes Virginia.” (great albums!) They happen to be on hiatus right now, so I’m writing this as a kind of ode to the Dresden Dolls and everything they’ve been so far (and hopefully will continue to be).
1-Comfort
Does it comfort you to know that we’re apart?
2-Kiss
Our lips brush the dirty windowpane in a mocking distanced kiss.
3- Soft
Fingers softly tap the piano in a repetitive low melody.
4-Pain
Pain ensues, my melancholia Virginia.
5- Potatoes
I could do a lot of things, but I’d rather not, you should be the one to fix this, as I cut myself again slicing, the smell of raw potatoes infiltrates my senses.
6- Rain
It looks like rain, but I’ve fixed the ceiling; nothing to catch, so you see there’s no use in asking you over.
7- Chocolate
We couldn’t settle for the simple solution; don’t give me a chocolate to make it up-that’s just not my thing.
8-Happiness
Happiness is inconsequential, I’d rather not go through with it right now, my old remedies no longer work.
9- Telephone
He stares at the old-style black dial telephone, as if he stared at it hard enough, it might begin to ring.
10- Rain
He tips his top hat precariously over one ear as if to ignore the blatant silence, and the rain that she won’t call him over for.
11- Name
She won’t call me, won’t even call me by name; my name is Half Jack- Half Jill.
12- Sensual
There’s a sensual pleasure she gets from lying there in bed, toes sticking out of the covers, as she stares at the ceiling, listening to the gray notes of pouring rhythm.
13- Dead
A truce is another word for this is dead.
14- Sex
Loneliness is not a problem; might I suggest sex with this lovely coin-operated boy?
15- Touch
His plastic touch is far better than yours. [There is this thing that’s called touching except you don’t touch]
16- Weakness
But in a moment of weakness I must confess- he means nothing to me because all I want is- you.
17-Tears
But tears, those I won’t give you, I’ll turn away and put on my biggest pretense of a smiling mask, those you can’t see.
18- Speed
Velocity, speed, runs so fast my feet lift off the air defying gravity; reality will never hit.
19- Wind
Wind drifting off the sea, Victorian dinner evening on the beach in black and white.
20- Freedom
Freedom to pursue my artistic endeavors, unhindered by you-but these newfound creations are not the same without their muse.
21- Life
Call it what you want-life is satirical, has a dry sense of humor-broken hearts trying so hard to be tragic, but life grows around them like a mended bone; mundane tasks are still performed, couples still laugh and hold hands, the world is, in a sense, oblivious.
22- Jealousy
Our sentiments are prone to jealousy, and the bitter tone finds its way to the lyrics-but I never meant it until now; it’s ironic looking back on it.
23- Hands
Skin brushes mine, hands tremble as they settle on uneven keys; high pitched tones won’t drown out grooved fingertips of a percussionist’s finesse.
24- Taste
I always found your music in poor taste (which is a lie).
25- Devotion
This is not devotion, this is obsession; people want to stay together from force of habit because they think they’ll be too lonely on their own.
26- Forever
Curled up on a pile of rust orange bricks, they jab into the flesh making it uncomfortable-but your arms are wrapped around me and the peace that delivers overrides any unpleasant sensations…why can’t this last forever?
27- Blood
Blood songs, duels, falsely invoked scarlet red to provoke concern, never leave me again to so-called modern romance, let’s go back to the seventeenth century.
28- Sickness
Morning sickness, I’ve had a hangover my lips are still numb and what the hell was I doing last night, I think I was replaying the answering machine to see if you’d called.
29-Melody
I think I fell asleep while I pathetically induced the melody of my cell to play under settings (it’s just me and the minibar) to simulate what it would have been if you had called-I think I fell asleep that way.
30- Star
Not a single star in the sky tonight, I squint harder as if that would help but it doesn’t, but when I relax my eyes I think I see one and I wonder how that is with you.
31- Home [alone at home, are you alone too?]
You’re probably at home watching TV, laid back in a dusty armchair with an overcoat slung over the back, while drab silent movies from the 20s come on and you see me in every single melodramatic woman with her ladylike quirks, well I don’t blame you, I see you too in those charming debonair cheap trick jokes the gentleman use to try to make her laugh.
32-Confusion
Clashing notes made into musicality, confusion and lost in the chaos of my identity time space and us.
33- Fear
Fear about not being able to breathe, not being able to find myself-but most of all how am I supposed to do this when you’ve led me to become dependent on you?
34-Thunder
Lightning Thunder Crash in the Cymbals Drums, Percussionism and letting out frustration.
35- Bonds
Funny thing trying to loosen these bonds-I don’t think we’ll ever get rid of “us;” try convincing everyone Dresden Dolls never happened.
36- Market
It’d be a great day in the market if it weren’t just me, picking out lentils on a drab Saturday afternoon-we could have rode out on a double bike and you’d be goofing off juggling oranges as we tried on scarves and hats, comparing who looked better and which record albums were best.
37-Technology
I could put it off, write you a long romantic letter, but technology mocks my intentions and makes me out to be a slacker; I could just text you right now but that wouldn’t be romantic; so I just do nothing at all. [And I know you’d never call me back]
38- Gift
I could just say I forgot your birthday and get you a present four months late, but I was never very good at choosing you a gift…
39- Smile
A hint of a smile curls at the corners of your lips-you catch my glance and all remnants disappear [won’t you smile for me again?]
40- Innocence
There was a kind of innocence in the beginning…[why can’t we just go back?]
41- Completion
Seeking for completion-when it’s been before us this whole time, can we ignore it and fling ourselves into a staggered individualism, seeking to cultivate “me” and find our own way like so many wandering halves-what does it mean if we ourselves are incomplete, a sum greater than its components?
42- Clouds
Clouds, like gaping holes of transparent wash through watercolor cerulean blue, lost in a moment serene, picturesque as we try to depict: sheep drifting through the sky, no a marshmallow, don’t be silly, I murmur and we sit there for a while.
43-Sky
The sky a bright white glare, I think the sky should fall right down, but it’s so perky and infectious that I start to sing about all the things we- are, used to be- I don’t think about these things, I just sing.
44- Heaven
It must be heaven, I whispered, caught up in daydreams and fantasies, nonexpendable to reality, these sentiments stretched out long past the moments were over, a projection from the past.
45- Hell
Hell is what it could have lapsed into-empty hearts and threats backed by nothing but intentions, all future conciliations doomed, it could be worse...the words repeat in mock soothing tone.
*[All hell will break loose, he predicted. This will be hell, she said. But hell is what you make of it-and this is neither. Hell is what it could have lapsed into-- empty hearts and threats backed by nothing but intentions, all future conciliations doomed. This could be worse-an ordinary break up, where nothing is wrong and we’re left ever in suspense.]
46- Sun
An afternoon on the beach; the sun is in the sky, but my skin feels starved, moist clumps of sand between my toes and the wafting in of an ocean’s salt do nothing to quench my thirst…is it any wonder the sight of you playing off in the distance will not ease this lonesome? [all is seen through a haze of gray, a smokescreen admitting light but not the sun…]
47- Moon
The moonlit serenade, he’s wearing a suit, and my heels are digging into the sand, a cumbersome venture at best, but we laugh it all off and race down the beach, tired with a smile still on our faces and catching our breaths, we awkwardly fumble and waltz to the hum of an old time radio heard from a distance, churning a vaudeville romance.
48- Waves
A shock of cold waves rushing in, the feel of wet cotton stockings making pools in the soles of my mary janes, black pant suits clinging to his legs; we might stop and call it a day but he grabs me and swings me off my feet, walks to dry shore for a minute, then collapses and lets go.
49-Hair
Sounds of waves thrust by wind back and forth, hushed from a breathless sort of laughter, sand holding to water and weighing down the fabric of our clothes and we can’t get up, or maybe we just don’t want to, he’s right there and I feel the impulse to comb through his hair; tepidly his fingers furl through mine at the base of the scalp in untimed synchrony…
50- Supernova
A supernova: a stellar explosion so bright it can light up a galaxy for months on end, a burst of radiation as great as the sun could give in its lifetime; over time even this kind of an impact can be forgotten [so where does that leave the brief theatrics of us?]