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.

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!

138: "Tanabata", a machinima by Joseph Nussbaum

I was chatting with Joseph Nussbaum the other night and he gave me advance notice that he had been working hard on a new machinima and would be releasing it soon. He just dropped it tonight and, my oh my, is it beautiful.

You can find it here. I'm not technologically equipped to give you stills (other than one I swiped from Joe's Facebook feed), but I can tell you a little bit about the story. It's from an ancient Japanese folk tale that is still told today. (And pardon me, Joe and readers, if I have the details wrong. This story has been told a number of different ways over the years, but I think I understood what was going on.) Brave young Hikoboshi falls in love with the beautiful weaver Orihime, daughter of Tentei, a powerful lord. They are blissfully happy and get married. However, Hikoboshi and Orihime neglect their duties, preferring to spend their days making love, and Tentei becomes upset. Finally he separates the lovers with a magical river and they may only meet once a year -- after the ravens build them a magical bridge.

That's the story, more or less. What it doesn't tell you is that Joe has done wonderfully well at making the limitations of machinima into stylistic flourishes. If animations are not perfectly smooth, that becomes a kind of theme -- the actions are stylized and have a kind of elegant stutter about them that perfectly suits the mood. I also really liked the idea that although this was a Japanese myth with Japanese costumes, neither the music (by Tom DePlonty) or the dancing were especially Japanese to me. The whole piece has a kind of hallucinogenic quality that transcends time; the story is slight but it's there, like an old, old story, and there are associated emotions that are delicate and smart.

Orihime was played by Bianca Xavorin, who also did the costumes; Walter Gedenspire played Hikoboshi; Joseph Nussbaum himself played Tentei; and Boris Twist played the priest. Dance by Tim Risher; poses by Diesel, dances by Abranimations. And it was filmed at Harvest Town and Tempura. These talented people did various other things, and you should check the credits to see who's responsible for what (I know Bianca Xavorin did the costumes). I don't know who's responsible for the tumbling leaf-patterned cows ;-)

Obviously this is a labour of love; I don't know what machinima competitions there might be in SL, but this should be winning a bunch of them. A beautiful job, everyone!

137: Club Omega opens Monday at Gay Fun World

Ricogenu Bluestar gave me some advance information the other day and asked me to pass it along to you -- he has a new club opening on Monday in the Gay Fun World complex, CLUB OMEGA.
   I went and toured the build in its empty state -- it looks elegant and should be a good backdrop for all the sexy visitors. You'll find the club HERE, and after you use that SLURL you'll find yourself at the top of a set of stairs. Head downstairs, through the corridors, and you'll find it easily.
   The people behind the

new club are Rico himself, of course, and his sim manager Astanias Jayaram. For the grand opening your host will be Joe Lycomedes and DJ duties will be handled by Herr Direktor. And there will be L$1500 on the board for the sexiest in leather ... now I KNOW you have that outfit ready to go.

For ease of reference: 

Monday, June 1, 2015, 5 to 7 PM SLT
SLURL is HERE.  

One last thing: If you're opening a club, or if you have an upcoming event you want to promote -- getting in touch with bloggers and telling them about it is a pretty good idea. From our point of view, it's nice to be able to bring people news BEFORE something happens. More than once in the past, I've popped in to SL to get something else done, and in my feed I have five minutes' notice of the opening of a new club. Sure, I go, and I take pictures, and I tell everyone what a good time we all had -- but if I have the chance to tell people before the event, there are more people in the room and we have more fun. So thanks for thinking of me, Rico, and let me tell other club promoters -- it's a good idea to get the word to bloggers before the event. Because you get pieces like this!

136: A short break

I'm sure some of my readers have noticed I've been blogging a lot less frequently in the last few weeks. As sometimes happens, real life has thrown me a family-based curve and I'm spending a lot of time dealing with the effects. I'm getting closer to stability now and I thought I'd mention that I was going to increase my efforts a bit in the next while.  Thanks to my friends who expressed concern: it's all good these days, thanks.
   However, in the future I will be focused more on certain kinds of blogging than others. I enjoy doing interviews and I've heard from many people that they look for that from me, so I'll seek out opportunities with people who have something going on in Second Life and to get them to talk about what interests them. (And if you have something going on, you could do worse than get in touch to say so. Don't be shy.) I'll be doing less about clubs unless there is some kind of special event, or the opening of a new club, etc. It's fun to recommend services and places, and even the occasional store, to my readers, but from now on I'm going to only do that when something strikes my fancy. And I'm going to continue to have fun with my dear Alex Thaub and telling stories about two guys, the farm boy and the city boy, that look just like us, but aren't ;-)
   Your comments, as always, are welcome.

135: L'Homme Magazine, May 2015 edition

Another fine edition of l'Homme Magazine, under the hand of editor-in-chief Hikaru Enimo. I like where this magazine is going. I'm in familiar territory when the advertisements are indistinguishable from, and equally important as, the editorial; page after page of "Oh, that's NICE," "Oh, I wouldn't wear THAT," and "OMG where can I buy it?" Lots and lots of great men's clothes, skins, accessories and household objects. Intelligent design (so nice to find the information you want on the same page!). Well worth your time -- find it here.
   This edition has three featured design houses: Gizza (Giz Seom and her partner Auster Elan are on the cover), Samurai Skin and Gabriel, plus lots of other material from, among other things, my new current favourite Deadwool (I've been constantly rocking their business suit), Taketomi and UW.ST. I'm not familiar with 7 Deadly S(K)ins but, wow, best name for a skin house EVER.
   Enjoy!

134: New issue of Photography magazine

I'm always impressed when I see a new issue of Photography magazine, produced by Joao Batista, and the May 2015 issue is really exceptional. See it here. Beautiful new photography by, among others, my friends Joe Nussbaum and GiaCinta Angel Samael. Definitely worth checking out; 300 pages of lovely images.