161: Cupric Router's surprise ALL-GINGER 5th Rezday Party

I'm not sure how much of a surprise it was for Cupric Router, but it was certainly a surprise to me -- Coop has a LOT of friends and a bunch of them worked together to arrange a surprise party to celebrate his 5th Rezday.
   The theme of the party was -- everyone came with red hair to celebrate Coop's ginger-ness. Not a problem for me, I just showed up with my regular hair, but a lot of people went to a lot of trouble to go ginger for the

day to honour Coop.
   It was so crowded, I couldn't manage more than a couple of pictures at Ginger Holler, the party site, before I crashed; that's just a testament to his popularity. Happy Rezday, Coop, and we all wish you many, many more!

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.

139: RED, a new club from Cupric Router

The latest dance spot from Cupric Router's fertile mind is RED -- last night a bunch of hot bodies came out and danced to a great set from DJ Cupric! My friend Coop has the knack shared by only a couple of SL DJs for finding and mixing great EDM that's cheerful and fun and makes you want to move. He creates a great

atmosphere in his clubs by inviting everyone: male, female, gay, straight. And he keeps the action moving with his occasional comments with his sexy deep purring voice. Low lag makes things more fun ... different groups of people from all over the grid, mixing together and having fun in the open channel, keeps the fun going ... and a minimum of gestures means that people are actually

chatting and joking and relating to each other.
   Here's the SLURL. Hope to see you there next Monday!

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

106: Avi Choice Awards nominees

Recently I was urging my friends to look into nominating their favourites in a couple of awards categories of the 2015 Avi Choice Awards. I wish I'd been a little more forceful, or perhaps done an encouraging blog post, because I didn't quite realize that three nominations were necessary to get onto the ballot. I sent in a fairly full slate of nominations myself, but most of them don't seem to have made it through the screening process.

Cupric Router

     But now that the nominations are out, I encourage everyone to go and vote here. And in a shameless attempt to influence your vote ;-), I'll tell you that the names below are friends of mine, people I think are doing a good job -- and for some of whom I was one of the nominators. I've interviewed some of these folks and I'll link to what I can give you from their names below.

Holtwaye Gallery (Tea Party, Oct. 2014)

Favourite SL Radio Station: Radio Mosaic -- Cupric Router
Favourite Machinima Production: The Shorter Path -- Edward Nussbaum
Favourite SL Videographer: Boris Twist
Favourite Female Performer:  Samm Qendra (Okay, if you read my blog, you know I just heard her for the first time

Boris Twist

last weekend. But she's really good, and she's my favourite so far!)
Favourite DJ: Cupric Router (There are 56 nominees in this category!)
Favourite Art Gallery: Holtwaye Gallery (WayneNZ Resident and Holter Resident)
Favourite Photographer/Studio: Kellalily Resident

So, go to this link and vote for whomever you think deserves it.

Kella Lily

It has certainly occurred to me that someone like me who is interested in new and interesting experiences in SL could do worse than see if I could experience the efforts of these Residents in the next year. Frankly, I'm not absolutely sure what a "Particle artist/Performer" does, but I think I'd like to find out, because there are at least eight good ones whose work I can go

Samm Qendra

and experience. It would probably be worthwhile to go and see what these 56 DJs have to offer -- and all the experiences in SL like jazz clubs and dance performances that I've never sought out.

Joe Nussbaum [Edward Nussbaum]