Okay, hallo. It has been a while, I know, but my brain has been boiling like some boiling turnip or something.
Just to give you some kind of college update: I'm getting a portfolio review this friday for MICA (oh shit!! I have to get my transcripts, ahhhh), so that'll be... stressful. But It'll also be one step closer to this process being DONE with. Dayum. I should probably prepare my application tonight and get a few prints made of my ceramic shit.

But anyways, besides that I'm brewing a graphic novel up in my mind!!! I'm really excited for it and am totally committed to doing it because I have to <3. Argh. It is for creative writing-- we are writing scripts for like, movies and stuff, and my teacher said we could also just make a graphic novel because it's essentially like making storyboards, so yeah. Of course I'm going to do that. I already have a vague (and not so vague at the same time) story for it-- the idea smacked me in the face in German class when Frau was talking about East Germany and rock stars. Well, back in the day of the GDR (when East Germany was communist and whatnot), you had to actually apply for a LICENSE to be a rock star... You had to go through all of these tests just to get the license, just to see if you were suitable for the government and whatnot. If you weren't, and had rebellious lyrics or whatever, you could be considered an enemy of the state. The Stasi would be all over your ass, constantly watching.
As if that wasn't hard enough, just forming the band was difficult because only 2 guitars per year were issued to a town.
The good part though is that you could tour-- the bands could get out of the State.

And that is where I get my story. At first I was thinking, "Yay, Germany! I'll do a shitload of research on East Germany and 80's German slang and hair and clothes and music and blahblahblah" uhhhh wrong. Getting cultural information about Eastern Germany is hard. I did a lot of googling-- let me tell you, there was plenty of book information there, but not anything like the people's experiences. Well, there were a few things, but not enough for me to tell a believable story. I'm going to watch Good-Bye Lenin again, but that still isn't enough. And have you seen 80's rocker hairstyles? I am not drawing that for my whole novel.

I like the idea, but when it comes down to it, I have to write what I know, and what I know is America-- which brought me to another idea.
The CSA.
The Communistic States of America.
What if we hadn't won the Cold War, huh? All of that paranoia over America going to the Commies-- what if it was all true and it did happen? For the second time in centuries our country would be divided over beliefs regarding over seas wars and troubles at home; our president would be weak, as would our country. What if the communists foresaw that oppertunity and carefully placed spies into places of power into our government?
The president gets overthrown in a massacre of the white house, the senate, and the congress. They would also seize any nuclear projects and weapons bases. They would make sure we are defenseless; our troops are fighting in those controversial wars overseas that our country was bickering about, leaving it vulnerable. The USA would be threatened to comply to the new rule or else get nuked. Because of the way the story will be written, this specific even takes place somewhere in the mid 1940's-- before the emergence of rock and roll.

It picks up from there, set in our current day and time, during the new communistic dictating rule. The country is no longer our 'country'-- it is our family. We are all 'brothers' and 'sisters', and then there is Father. We are all the 'children' of Father, and for us to have a perfect Family, Father wants to be a brother or sister too, but he knows it isn't possible because we all still need his love and guidance. Some people still cling to the old ideals of religion (which was abolished, causing the devastation and deaths of many) and ambition, both of which cause unnecessary wars. We aren't safe to be on our own yet, he says.

In order to make the Family better, we must extend it to other countries. The whole world must be a Family-- that is the aim.
It doesn't make sense though.
Incoming immigration is strict.
Foreign languages are no longer taught in schools.
Even History books have been altered to glorify the Family, almost as if the real history of the United States was tucked away into the pocket of the government, forever shielded from the citizen's eye.
And, most disconcerting of all, no one is allowed to leave the country.

Except for government officials and celebrities (such as musicians or artists or athletes).

Main character guy is going to somehow obtain an illegal satellite radio-- his friend got it smuggled in or something. Hahaha-- okay, yeah. I actually just thought of something now. His friend got it smuggled from Cuba-- the Democracy of Cuba. (How's that for shaking it up? I'm making Cuba capitalists, yo. A nice little role reversing going on. They use those fast-boats for the smuggling... Really dangerous for them, actually. Wait, this makes a plot hole. If they can smuggle stuff, then they can smuggle people-- but maybe I'll make these Cubans bastards who don't want to get mixed up in smuggling people, just stuff because that means constant profit and less risk. Hmmm. I'll have to think about this.) And shizaammm! He finally gets hit with what the outside free world really is like, not the shit that the schools and media teach him. He hears rap and punk rock and folk rock and pop and indie and all that other shit, and talk shows and news broadcasts and commercials and all that other good stuff. He realizes that his country is shit and he has to get out of it somehow. While spending time with his beloved satellite radio he becomes obsessed with the music to the point where he begins writing his own songs-- mainly punk rock because he's got all of this pent up anger (I personally prefer indie and experimental more than rock, but what can ya do-- it's just too mellow. Or at least indie is. Some experimental stuff is crazy-- like Animal Collective. Well, I can have him like experimental stuff too. That'd actually be cool). Anyhow, along with that, he friend, being the awesome bootlegging smuggling pirating person he is, also gets magazines and dvds of English rock bands/experimental band's shows... And he sees how the outside culture dresses and acts.

From here I'm just going to have some little fun things going on about how he sort of finds himself and how he adapts his restricted environment to suit his wants-- like how he basically goes through with piercing his own nose/eyebrows/ears/chin, gives himself a haircut, tears up his clothes and dyes them, along with putting patches and shit on them. You know. All the stuff that teenagers do to try and establish a sense of uniqueness. Also there's going to be how he goes to the store every single morning asking if they got any guitars and instruments in. Eventually he gets all the stuff he needs for his band except for a gee-tar-- the last one'll be sold to some goverment member. The Stasi (I should rename them to fit America-- perhaps the Po-Po? Ahahahaha. That is what Amanda calls the police. "OH SHIT THE PO-PO ARE LURKING RIGHT THERE." The Po-leeese. The Jakes. The fuzzzzzzzzzz.) are silently watching his moves ever since his outrageous hair-cut and deviant choice of clothes. They know the clothes mean he has foreign influences.

Anyways, he gets a guitar, once again, from his friend who got it smuggled. It'll be a mediocre guitar-- I'll have to ask around what some all right guitar brands are to make it more authentic. It's too bad I don't know much about music, hah.

So now he has to recruit for his band which right now consists of himself and his pirating friend. I think I'll make his friend Cuban or Puerto Rican or some kind of spanish descent, just so it makes it more believable for the smuggling to go about. Ummmm.
At this point I think it'd be good to introduce a love interest. Or something. Agh. I'll have to write it in later. I'm going to print this and then work on it some more tonight while I do some more thinking and designing. I started out with only one character, and now I have 2! Soon, moooooore. Oh so many more.

Anyhow, there are multiple endings I have in mind for this. One's sad, one's worse, and then one's on the brink of all right, and then on IS all right-- the closest to a happy ending, at least. I'll probably talk it over with Mr. Kemery, try to derive some kind of meaning and emotion out of it that I'm blind to see. This is good though. I have a beginning and I have an end-- all I have to do now is more of the in-between.

So uhhhh. Since I basically told you almost my whole frickin plot, don't go doing anything with it. Not like you would, though. Je suis une amateuse.