Logo (in work) About This Project About The Lyricist
' APHRODITE'S CHATROOM '
A MULTI-MEDIA WORK IN PROGRESS
There are things in this world that people want to do
& things in this world that they don't
life's a mixture of notes in imperfect harmony
But everybody wants to do Aphie.
The weather gets warm, the weather gets cold
some like it hot & some not
but wherever the climate whatever the degree
Everybody wants to do Aphie.
Lovers come & go like through a revolving door
nothing stands in one place for too long
it's all wham bam & thank you ma'am without the ty
But everybody wants to do Aphie.
Every day you meet a lot of jokers
they play games kid around & try to fool you
mostly those clowns lack all sincerity
But everybody wants to do Aphie.
Arguments among people happen all the time
confusion runs rife among nations
fighting's a norm yet all stand up & agree
That everybody wants to do Aphie.
Life flies by so fast it's hard to keep track of it
'Here today & gone tomorrow' wotta mess
And though goods that you buy on the fly come with no guarantee
Everybody wants to do Aphie
I once knew a man in cryogenic suspension
you could visit him on weekends in a tank
when I showed him her picture he smiled back at me
Because there's nobody who doesn't want to do Aphrodite.
'Doing The Aphrodite,' Song Lyric 1 for Act
I of Aphrodite's Chatroom
Top
© 2004 by Michael Benedikt
'Aphrodite's Chatroom' is a work-in-progress.
It's a multi-media tribute to the enduring spirit of Goddess
Aphrodite--ancient & modern.
It's by
a
Contemporary US Poet &
Songwriter
Pages online include selected lyrics for
the opening & other acts of a Musical--a rock Opera. Other pages in progress.
Pages may also be experienced as part of a fantasy in verse, in prose, &
in other media, too.
2nd Lyric
'& Does She Like It Doggy-Style'
3rd Lyric
'Men Make Ladies Lousy
Lovers'
Lyric 3 (b), 'Talking With A Fascinating Stranger' (Not yet linked to all other pages. Can be accessed for sure from this page)
4th Lyric 'Spinning Dancer'
Closing Act I, 5th Lyric at this site, 'The Goddess Is Gone, Gone, Gone
' Opening of Act II, 'Just Resting''
Act II & 7th Lyric' 'Tekkie Can U Help Me?''
Lyric 8 'Every Day People Die From Lack Of Love' (Not yet linked to all other pages. Can be accessed for sure from this page)
Lyric 9 'Diamond In The Rough' (Not yet linked to all other pages. Can be accessed for sure from this pag)
Forthcoming:
Links To Other Pages Of Site.
Other song lyrics will be added to Acts/this site
from time to time.
Suggestion: Since it's
hard for us to keep up with integrating all pages--particularly if we need
to modify the order
in which the song appear--we'd suggest that return-visits to this site to
see what if anything is new, start at this Song Lyric Home
Page.
Project Description -- Main Characters: Aphrodite is the Goddess of Love in Greek lore & mythology. She's the daughter of Zeus, leader of all Greek Gods. Aphrodite is said to have been born from the sea. And to have been very beautiful, and to have had a vivacious & ingenious--if somewhat mischevious but fundamentally sympathetic--personality. Her sensuousness & wit scandalized other Gods & Goddesses--& sometimes also the various mortals with whom she occasionally interacted. Eventually, Aphrodite became the mother of Eros (Cupid)--but didn't settle down then, either. She's the subject of numerous statues, from antiquity to the present. In our story, Aphrodite re-appears reincarnated as a circa 23-year-old Live Adult Video Feed Chathostess on the 'Net. She projects an upbeat, happy-go-lucky personality, & also works part-time as a model. But she has conflicts: for example, there's an unfulfilled ambition to be of all things, a Professional ballet-dancer--or, on the other hand, a Professional stripper. Aphrodite is a "master" of self-exploitation, as are many high-powered Showbiz personalities--but other characters such as a would-be manager, want to get into the act too. Involved in sub-plots surrounding Aphrodite & related to her life & times inside the Chatroom, is tekkie, the main male chararacter. (Other chatroom guests--& other Chathostesses too--also pay a role as plot thickens). tekkie's a dedicated 21st Century computer buff & websurfer who falls under the spell of The Love Goddess when she appears to take a liking to him during visits to her chatroom. As tekkie tells Aphrodite early on in chat, he's in his mid-40's & therefore a prime candidate for the middle-age crisis replete with Romantic excesses which, it's been said, many men around that age go through. Like others, he hears the ticking of a biological clock & experiences urges to have "a last fling," which has online as well as offline ramifications for him. Since Aphrodite is both a "cool" circa 23-year-old Chathostess used to being "hit on" at work for example, 100's of times during a single 8-hour shift online--& besides that has also been around for circa 2,300 years--she's therefore quite sophisticated both sexually & re matters of the heart So there's a sense in which like most other men (& women) enamored of the online Love Goddess--paradoxically, tekkie's actually Aphrodite's relatively inexperienced junior. A primary, unwritten rule in the LAVF chatroom is that the chathostess must try at least, to retain contol of her chatroom. In line with that, CH's on the 'Net are often assisted by Chatroom Monitors who "boot" super-unruly visitors from rooms, like bouncers at bars. Outside of chatroom circumstances however, the contemporary Love Goddess is somewhat less in control than that.... BTW, The ancient Romans, who followed the ancient Greeks, re-incarnated Aphrodite as Venus. But no second-hand substitutes for us! Misc. Notes: We've drafted about 25 or 30 Lyrics for Aphrodite's Chatroom so far. Online now at the pages of this site are selections--with more to come. (For more about the musical's sometimes startling tho' fundamentally bittersweet book, please temporarily try connect-the-dots between the song lyrics here so far). Some songs are sung by Aphrodite, herself; & songs related to Aphrodite are sung by tekkie & other chatroom guests. Although there are sub-plots beyond chatroom circumstances & beyond the knowledge of tekkie as well as other Aphrodite chatroom guest "regulars" & other devoted fans, the musical's conceived of in terms of Song, Dance & Theatrical Spectacle centering around colorful & seemingly carefree activities in 21st-century Adult Live Video Feed chatrooms such as have been appearing in increasingly large numbers on the World Wide Web. In ancient Greek lore, Aphrodite had a couple of dozen "handmaidens." In our contemporary scenario, Aphrodite's handmaidens are co-Chathostesses. Some of the songs for later in the work are sung by various chatroom guests about those other chathostesses. Sentiments expressed in most song lyrics for this work are generally upbeat & Romantic, despite occasionally darker undertones. (Chathostessing work is not easy & requires among other virtues--including considerable multi-tasking ability & a certain sense of theatrical style: lots of Courage, alertness, sheer stamina.). Conservatives in the realm of erotic matters may regard LAVF chatrooms as negative social phenomena & those who preside over them as second class citizens, but we tend to think of them in the opposite way: as by & large exceptional, remarkable people. Additionally, we feel that their chatrooms serve useful social purposes. Thus, A/C is a fundamentally upbeat, Romantic work, despite darker undercurrents due to the fact that most lives have both highs & lows. (Into every life a little rain must fall & a Love Goddess too, is by no means immune online or offline from stormy weather). Precedents: Our Love Goddess come-to-life scenario has something in common with the whimsical Ogden Nash-Kurt Weill 1943 Broadway Musical One Touch of Venus. But Aphrodite's Chatroom is emotionally & in terms of sexual frankness & also stagecraft--which we conceive of as aggressively computer-age & high-tech--rather more ambitious than that. Another of the relatively few precedents we can think of is perhaps Gypsy, the 1959 Styne-Sondheim musical based on the life of stripper Gypsy Rose Lee. A/C may also have something in common with. of all things, the relatively recent song-&-dance Broadway Musical spectacle Cats--the virtually plotless musical based on some cat poetry by T.S. Eliot. Part of A/C's sub-plot involves the central character's off-stage life, perhaps including the burgeoning contemporary Rave-Club scene which--although not yet as universally known in the West as the Goddess on whose name the term "aphrodisiac" is based--is in some cities in North America & elsewhere, gradually getting there. NB: Chathostesses on the 'Net hail from many nations around the world.. Musical Style: We imagine a rock-based, somewhat extrovert & partly electronic (dynamically Trance/Techno? ambiently New Age?) musical style for incidental music such as interludes & background music--with song lyics set to music in a somewhat more traditional style which integrates other contemporary Rock styles. (We're fond of traditional song-writing approaches with a certain elegance--from Porter & Ira Gershwin to current practitioners such as some of the lyricists who've collaborated with Elton John and Andrew Lloyd Weber ). The concept of "old bottles, new wine" also makes sense to us for A/C because there's already so much that's unusual in the work in terms of subject-matter. Several of our song lyrics feature declamatory ingredients such as occur in Opera arias. Suggestions of Greek chorus are sometimes also present & add a certain richness, we think. Those declamatory ingredients--which lie outside the conventional, relatively strict song-structure of verse & chorusses, mostly occur as add-ons at the close of songs. They connect scenario & bits of dialogue to songs which are otherwise self-contained & free-standing. (Some of our songs we think, might work as popular songs outside the context of the musical). But what we've mostly been concerned with as lyricist--particularly at the start of the work--is evoking the online world of Aphrodite & LAVF online life in general, furthering plot, & encouraging presentation of theatrical Spectacle. Another Precedent: Although A/C is a multi-level musical , some of the songs about Aphrodite's co-chathostesses might be presented in a simple style reminiscent of the presentation of showgirls in The Ziegfeld Follies. (We may also bring samples of those supplemental songs to this site). Other Notes later.
'The Compleat Michael Benedikt: Poet Laureate of
the Net
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