149: The real Cupric Router

Cupric Router: check the date.

Last night Alex Thaub and I dropped in to RED for an hour of deep house music, some dancing, checking out the eye candy, and some friendly convo in the open channel. I've always liked Cupric Router's clubs, and Coop has become a friend. He and his associate Hotboy do a great job at making people feel welcome AND playing some pretty awesome tunage, particularly in the EDM and house genres. The clubs seem to attract a friendly group of people, quite mixed between English-speaking and Spanish/Portuguese-speaking, and with a healthy leavening of all different gender identities and sexual preferences -- and some of the hottest-looking guys on the grid. Definitely worth your time.
   Coop was telling me a strange story last night; he asked me if I could make it a bit more public, and I'm happy to oblige.  Apparently some random hater has created an av with a name very similar to Coop's, and also another av with a name very similar to an av that was Coop's former account, and is running these avs around ... perhaps hoping to be mistaken for the genuine article. I'm not sure of all the details but these two phonies were spotted acting like nitwits in a public sex venue.  Coop wants the word to get out so that people will stop and think for a minute if they seem to see Cupric Router acting like a doofus in public. Check the creation date, which cannot be faked.  If the person in question is about five days old, you have a faker on your hands.

Check yourself before you wreck yourself... 

   I'm becoming accustomed to people doing strange and childish things in Second Life, but honestly this takes the cake for the moment. I can't imagine quite why anyone would do this, but I'm building the picture in my mind of some maladjusted dork living in his mom's basement who has only a dim idea of the rather serious crime known in Canada as "personation".  Nobody can stop you from saying stupid things about other people in Second Life (well, actually, I bless the twinned functions of "block" and "derender" daily, because they actually DO stop those things from coming to my notice); if you find people don't put up with it or you, well, it's still your right to make a fool of yourself in public. As the number of places you're allowed to go dwindles down, that's what you deserve. But this is moving into criminal territory, and it's a symptom of some pretty serious mental illness. Sweetie, whoever you are, check yourself before you wreck yourself, 'kay?  Go back on the meds and give them a week or so to kick in before you sign in under a name that reflects your own reputation, not someone else's. And if you're going to get all pissy with another resident, try taking on someone who doesn't spend a considerable amount of time, energy, and cash altruistically creating interesting experiences for other people to enjoy.  Trust me, it doesn't go over well.

140: An evening at eSound

Alex Thaub and I had a good time last night dancing at the new eSound club, with DJ BJF [Floyd Arun] on the decks and his partner Harden Underwood handling hosting duties. eSound is a new club with an interesting idea -- if you're a DJ working in the area of electronic music, you can use the club and invite your

friends. I hasten to add that that is my understanding based on what I see coming through the club's feed; confirm this with BJF and Harden before you make plans.
   The club is fun, a nice open air concept. I know that people are loving the music, they just kept arriving last night faster than I could take pictures. Not too much lag, and one thing I like

about this club is that the dance board is easy to use and gives you an identifiable "stop dancing" button. But then, I'm easily pleased. Lots of hot bodies last night, male and female, a good mix of people, not too many gestures, people chatting in the open channel, and even a Linden who was having a social evening and bopping along to the tunes.
   And you know, this is a nice place.

I know that because when BJF lost his feed and the music stopped, DJ Hotboy Lockjaw stepped in and kept the music going until BJF retrieved the feed a few minutes later. THAT is the kind of thing that endangers confidence and goodwill and a sense that everyone is working together to create a good time for all.
   The SLURL is here. I would recommend joining their feed if you want

to keep in touch with what's happening when; I've noticed occasionally they have a good party on short notice.

131: Molly Bloom's art opening at Holtwaye Gallery

I've been a little out of touch with SL lately -- too busy in real life to blog a lot. So now that I'm a little more available, I thought I should get out there and mingle. Tonight I popped into SL intending on relaxing for a while. When the invitation came from my friend Holter at the Holtwaye Gallery (SLURL is here) to come and hear some music by performing artist Down Under and view the opening of an exhibition of interesting artworks by Molly Bloom, well, what's not to like?
   I'll say first off, the pictures are worth your time; go see the exhibition. They involve a clever use of three-dimensionality that engages the viewer in some "hmm, what am I seeing?" moments and it's a pleasant experience. Also the work is technically quite fine, great balance and rendering, and there's a kind of quirky sense of humour underlying the pictures that's very appealing. Like the artist is bringing you into her quirky worldview, and that's fun.
   A few friends were there; I was having some serious software issues and couldn't manage to grab more than the one photograph, but I wish I'd been able to get snapshots of my friends Cupric Router and Hotboy Lockjaw, and fellow blogger Ziggy Starsmith. (I'm sure he'll have some things to say about the event, here.) And a bunch of other nice people, 25 or 30 of them, all dancing and having a good time.
   Down Under was performing some 80s standards and was engaging the audience in a happy shared experience. And I started chatting with Holter only to learn that there had been quite a bit of controversy in the previous few hours. Apparently a musical group 'the follow' that had originally been booked to  perform at the show had canceled at the last minute -- because of the "demonic naked art" involved in two of the pictures. One of these is a very sexy naked .. imp? something like that ... that has a pair of strategically placed pasties. As well, it later turned out that the group would have refused the booking had they understood that Holtwaye Gallery was a "homosexual club". (Um, it's not.) Holter seems to have handled this with courage, tact, and grace under fire; he booked Down Under and the event came off on time, on schedule, and honestly, folks, you'd never have known there'd been any furor.  (Well done, Holter.) But the furor had just begun.
   I think a couple of other bloggers have talked about this story more knowledgeably than I can, and I encourage you to read what Molly Bloom has to say, if you're hooked into her with social media. She is quoted tonight in the blog Confessions of a Daddy Bear, and you will find artist and blogger Ziki Questi has talked with the gallery's curator Holter at Ziki Questi's Blog. I can't show you the art in any detail, because I don't have permission (I try to be respectful to people who are trying to sell SL images) but Ziki Questi has shown you images that will give you a much better idea of what brought about ... well, what I have to call a ridiculous reaction by 'the follow'. Cmon, it's 2015, you have to try to respect everyone, and it's all just a bunch of pixels anyways. Grow the fuck up.
   Be that as it may; I'm sure there are nuances to this situation of which I'm not aware, and I don't have the full story. Sounds like everybody should investigate this situation on their own in order to have an informed opinion.  I'm happy to make up my mind on inadequate evidence that I wouldn't book 'the follow' to play at an event and I don't like what they seem to have done; your mileage may vary. I will say this, though. In an age when recently a rinky-dink pizza parlour in the US can announce that it won't serve homosexuals, is thereupon closed by the furore and afterwards crowdfunds nearly a million dollars for its future needs from a bunch of anti-gay nitwits -- the best response to events like this is to go and look at the art, support Molly Bloom by buying something, and especially support Holtwaye Gallery. Holtwaye is doing exactly what it should do in bringing you great art with advanced themes and execution, and they deserve your support in the face of nonsense like this.

117: Friday night at Funkytown

Funkytown!

Every once in a while you just have to put on your grooviest outfit and go shake your cakes! Thanks to the dynamic DJ duo of Cupric Router and Hotboy Lockjaw at their new Funkytown venue -- a good time was had by all.

DJ Cupric Router

Rusty Redfield

DJ Hotboy Lockjaw

Garrett Smith

Kahvy Smith

Austin [kaskia]

LP Kidd

Mikey [mikeadam] (in front of) Miles [mile high maximus]

Miles (L) / Arnold S [cowboybear48] (R)

Donovan Bohemian

Tibor Milasevic

Miles (L) / Arnold S (R)

Rusty Redfield

The Funkytown gang

Buck Mischief

Marly Moon

101: Happy 6th anniversary, Ohiomike and Hottie B. Lockjaw!

I just got in from a great party -- well, it's guaranteed to be a good party when the DJ is also celebrating. Today it was the 6th anniversary of Ohiomike Lockjaw (whose kilt store is quite simply the best place in SL to get a kilt, here's the Marketplace link) and SLebrity DJ Hotboy B. Lockjaw ... I seem to talk about Hottie a lot but damn, I like his music and he and Cupric Router know

how to throw a fun party. So many people have enjoyed themselves at Hottie's events over the years that I was expecting a very crowded party and was still surprised at how busy it was. Perhaps not quite at the stage of "one crashes out and two pop in to take his place", but still very busy and surprisingly unlagged.  It was held at 350 Fahrenheit ... a nice sized room for a party.

     I've been having problems with the number of tags I attach to blog posts so I'm just going to namecheck everyone here.  I know, okay, it's lazy journalism but I'm never going to be the Anderson Cooper of my generation or anything ;-)  
     So who was there?  Mistico Bayard and Rusty Bloom ... if I was Perez Hilton I might call them "socialites" --

their extremely handsome selves are everywhere these days, so much so that I call him Handsome Rusty to distinguish him from Canuck Rusty ... Cathy Ghost-Gale, Lars Kas, Woody Verwood and Zander Verwood, my fave hostess Kharissa Indigo, Harden Underwood and B.J. Floyd bringing the porn star looks goodness, the gorgeous PuPi (who can change outfits faster

than Janice Dickinson on coke, and often does), Jack Jayaram, Levi Ewing, RickJ Ewing, Silvana Whitfield, my recently-married friends Kahvy Smith and Garrett Smith, PRo9ers, Doug Feden, Bart Boon, and my friend and blogging role-model Ziggy Starsmith. If I missed name checking you, well, I was a little late to the party and my apologies; I missed the first hour.

     I think everyone would wish Ohiomike and Hottie a lifetime of happiness and this is just the first six years!