Hi! It’s me! Lily!!!
More practice today!!! I think it’s bugging the heck out of everyone, but there’s not a whole lot I can do about that, I guess. It needs to be done. Maybe I can see if there’s a piano or practice room at the college I can use… but I doubt it. I don’t think they have a music program.
Aww.
They posted a video of one of Miki’s concerts on YouTube. I’ve been watching it. I also wathed some of Yuki’s concerts… and I’m a little conflicted. I really am. The thing is, I know these girls. I know Miki, I know Yuki, I know Minami, and I know… a little, anyway… of the other girls in after-school friends idol light music club. They’re such beautiful, sensitive souls who are so hurt, sometimes, by their life as an idol.
But… their videos. They’re amazing. So much happiness, cheerfulness… they’re dressed in bright costumes, smiling, singing, dancing… and their audience loves them. Waving their glow-sticks around, chanting, even doing wotagei in the audience. I mean, I get it… it’s kind of a cut-throat industry. But I also get why they’re so popular. Who doesn’t want that kind of happiness in their lives… and its their job to provide it? Maybe I need to ask Yuki about it. I can’t be the only one who wonders about this. It’s such a… conundrum, I suppose. Like two opposite things are true all at once.
So, in other news. The police staked out Anathema’s old apartment… and they caught the guy who was trying to find her. So that’s good. I have a feeling – and Joe agrees – that it’s not like there’s this huge cabal of unbalanced men. Just a couple who are causing all the trouble. And, well, two are off the street now. One was… well… he had a personal reason, I guess. Oh, btw… he hasn’t been released. The judge set bail very, very high.
Well… I’m not sure what else to talk about right now. There hasn’t been a lot going on. Just practice, practice, and more practice. I can’t wait to actual play it! You know how Miki said that there’s nothing like being on a stage in front of twenty thousand people? Well, I wouldn’t know. But… I kinda do. I’ve been in front of a couple of thousand people, when I played that Schumann concerto last year. And she’s right. There.’s… nothing at all like it. All those people cheering for me. Well, and the orchestra, but me. There’s no feeling like it in the world. Not even when I’m with Jack. No feeling at all like it. I guess I understand why they stick with it even though it’s a hard and sometimes lonely job.
Oh, btw. Speaking of Miki. It seems their group had a team meeting… without the producer. They were talking about their future… what they want out of it. They decided they were going to try to be more unified in the future… to enjoy themselves as a group… as friends. I don’t know how that will turn out, but I have a feeling it will be… a very different group if they can pull that off. A much better one, too. You can have a group full of rivals singing and dancing and they can be cute and fun… but a group of friends looking out for each other?
I think the audience will be able to tell.
And I wonder if Nakamoto-san will know what hit him, haha!!!!
Anyway
Love you all!!! ❤️
From the creator:
There is a reason that Lily and friends have had an idol group, and a former idol, as a side story. It’s because of the song “Idol” from Yoasobi. There’s something about that song that really struck me, and I kind of wanted to explore that world a little.
But then, I’ve been watching “Love Live”, and it kind of struck me in the opposite way. “Idol” is about the underbelly of the idol industry, the lies, the loneliness, the parasocial relationships and the complete lack of genuineness – to the point where Ai doesn’t even know what it means to love someone. “Love Live” is about the fun aspect of being idols, where nine girls get to know each other and learn to sing and dance and claw their way to the top, but have all sorts of fun doing it. There’s none of the underbelly of the idol industry, or, well, very little of it. They’re school idols, all about having fun and, well, being schoolgirls and idols. It’s a bright and shiny world without the darkness, and that has its own appeal.
I don’t really plan this story. Sometimes the storylines track what’s on my mind (general themes, anyway) pretty closely (though very much filtered to come from the mind of an eighteen year old girl rather than a nearly fifty year old guy). It’s both one of the strengths and one of the major weaknesses of what I’ve created here. So what happens to the after-school friends idol light music club over the next few months might be really interesting.
Or, not.
By the way, “after-school friends idol light music club” is intended to be a pastiche, a parody of sorts. It’s kind of what I would expect an idol group to be named if it’s kind of tracking K-on and Sakura Gakuin, et al., and has absolutely no sense of shame or moderation. But then, what idol group really does have a sense of shame or moderation? I mean, have you seen those costumes? My eyes!!! My eyes!!!!
By the way. At least until Lily gets to Japan for school, her involvement in the world of idols will only ever be ancilliary. At least at the present time, she has no interest in being an idol, and very little interest in being in a band. She just wants to support her friends. That’s Lily, and that’s why we love her. But, as we saw when she went to Japan to film that video, she’s not opposed to dipping a toe in the world and “riding the wave” of her small and very fleeting popularity. She’s pretty smart. She’ll keep her head on straight.
But it’s fun!!! And Lily’s always been all about the fun. That’s just how she is. I wrote her like that on purpose, because she’s… not like me. And that’s what makes her fun to write.