043: The Vault -- a dance club with a major difference!

It's always fun to go out and spend an hour dancing -- or, rather, listening to some good music while my av dances and I occupy my time in other ways. Obviously if any friends are there, we catch up and chat; if interesting strangers are there, sometimes we get to know each other. Or if all else fails, I'll listen to music and sort inventory. Yes -- it's true. Sometimes when you see me in a club blissfully dancing away, and I am slow to respond to your IM, it's not because I'm discussing philosophy or sex with a handsome stranger. It's because I'm trying to sort brown and black boots into folders complete with the right alpha. Ah, the giddy madcap lifestyle suits me so well. ;-)

The one thing I do NOT do, though, is listen to the public channel at a dance club. Because (a) it drives me crazy, scrolling by so fast, and (b) there is only rarely any content. Between audio gestures ("HOOOOOO LALALALALA I love this TUNE!!!") and visual gestures like words that your chat window has to be set to about 1/3 of your screen real estate to read -- usually banal words like WHOO -- there's nothing going on, and in a very distracting and annoying way too. I call it "lowest common denominator" communication, and I've always wished that there was more of a focus on actual comments in the public channel. People feel more at home when someone actually speaks to them in complete English sentences that are easy to answer -- "Nice night, isn't it?" is easier to respond to than an audio clip from an old movie -- and I've often wondered why more clubs don't make an effort in this direction.

 Which is why I was so pleased to find The Vault (click for SLURL) while I was out and about this evening. It's a nice little skybox, nothing huge, on an intimate scale. The music I heard tonight, from DJ Cupid (Cupidity Resident), was eclectic and fun. Russ Callahan was the host (Russellcallahan Resident), and I'm told that DJ Peaches (Apples Adamski) was unable to attend tonight due to RL issues but provides an equally kicking set when she's in charge of music. Those are the three principals, and then the place had a nice number of handsome strangers.

AND -- no gestures. Policy of the house. They want to promote conversation and people actually relating to each other. How that works out in actuality is a kind of running cocktail-party level chatter with people joking and making puns and teasing each other and, you know what, it's actually a lot of fun. Mind you, that's possibly because I like that kind of wordplay, but I think lots of people do. Anyway, the lack of gestures in the public channel is really refreshing and pleasant, and I actually talked to handsome strangers. I'm Canadian -- we tend not to talk to strangers until we've been introduced, much though we'd like to sometimes. So anything that breaks the ice is much appreciated; makes it easier to meet people.

Right now they only have an event once a week, Mondays from 7 to 9 SLT (both times I've been, the DJ just kept going at 9, although no guarantees). There is no contest board, no sploders, and I never missed either of them for a second. But the idea that there's no gestures was so pleasant and refreshing that I'm sure to be back.  In the meantime, I'll show you some pictures of the nice-looking guys who were there to tempt you into joining me next Monday.