Only at the Crown and Pearl

I confess – I wrote this a few weeks ago. *grin* The last few days have been very very hectic for me in RL – not much time to be inworld or blog. But I’ve been thinking of you all….. And I can’t wait to get back to the CnP and all the cool DJs!

I love the CnP. It’s the only place I know where I can dance to the sounds of Frank Sinatra one day and be watching Lucy arrive on a sheep-drawn litter the next. I met my first troll there the other night. I was actually trying to have a serious conversation with this avatar, when I was warned by another that it was simply a troll passing as an av. *grin* Live and learn. Once you understand that someone is TRYING to make you angry, is deliberately saying hurtful things, those things lose the sting. Mostly my times at the CnP are joyous times filled with dancing and laughing with friends. I love introducing my friends to the CnP. Many of them find there way back there even without me. It’s just that kind of fun place. Yeah, there are a lot of in-jokes. *grin* But you get used to them and start understanding them in no time at all. So come dance at the CnP with me. You never know what you will see there.

Sinatra Night was simply lovely. I know my usual taste runs to Pink and Nickelback. Or Von Johin and Noma Falta and Komuso. But I do love ballroom dancing and Rrish was spinning all the oldies: Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, June Christy, Julie London and more! It was a wonderful time dancing with Greaper, Jolt and Rrish. Mowgli kept us company. Greaper had to leave before Rrish was done but Dale logged in and so I got to keep spinning and twirling!

Happy Rez Day, Oura!

Oura had her first rez day this week! We celebrated by hitting as many events as we could in a limited period of time. We both love live music and dancing so you KNOW there was going to be a lot of that!

We started the evening at the Art Box. Dale blogged about this recently. It is a wonderful build and a lot of fun! Oura had been there earlier in the day and enjoyed it so much she insisted we go back so that I could try it. We picked Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks. One of the many nice features of Art Box is the background/description they supply for the pictures.
A Sonnet of Love / Rob Hefferan.
Rob Hefferan is an extraordinarily talented figurative artist & portrait painter, born in 1968 in Warrington, Cheshire, England. For Hefferan, realism is about bringing an awareness of the everyday in a very beautiful and optimistic way. Specialising in the female form, he says “”I aim to capture the character and soul of the sitter and to freeze that moment forever”.
Nighthawks / Edward Hopper
Edward Hopper, born 1882, was a prominent American realist painter, his piece ‘Nighthawks’ being generally considered Hopper’s most famous painting, as well as one of the most recognizable in American art. Painted immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, it reflected the sense of gloom prevailing in the country at the time. However, the portrayal of modern urban life as empty or lonely is a common theme throughout much of Hopper’s work; he said, “unconsciously, probably, I was painting the loneliness of a large city.”
The Art Box ‘Nighthawks’ set was used in the creation of a machinima film intended to capture this sense of isolation in 3D. The film is on YouTube here: Nighthawks

From there we jumped to the Gallery of Light at the Crown and Pearl. Bailey Dazy is displaying her photography there this month and the opening for the show was that night. Besides being a fun person, gorgeous Neko and great dancer, Bailey is a resident of Angel Square and a DJ at the Crown and Pearl. About herself she said: “Second Life photography is a passion; it’s something I truly enjoy. When the mood strikes, I shoot… and I often enjoy what I see.” You can see Bailey’s photos at the CnP or on her Flickr site. Much as we wanted to stay and keep partying at the CnP to the tunes Bailey Longcloth was playing, time was working against us if we wanted to hit the live performances.

So it was off to Noma Falta rocking SL from Wiseguys. I love some of the dance balls I encounter. I don’t know about you, but I have NEVER done backflips or splits while I am dancing in RL. In SL, however, I can bend like Gumby. Better. So Oura caught these pics of us dancing on our heads. It helps when there is no law of gravity. By the way – if you notice the improved photo quality, that is because Oura took all these pictures. *grin* The difference is immediately apparent. Yay Oura!

While we were at Toby’s I found out that my friend Bob was DJ’ing at Ruby’s, rocking with the blues. Okay, I love the blues. I wanted to hear Bob DJ’ing. So although it hurt, we left Noma early and went to Ruby’s. I don’t think I’ve ever been there before. I like the dance floor and the synchronized dance balls. Faust had caught up to us at that point and he was partying alongside us. *grin* I think I’ve mentioned my good friend Faust before. Check out his cool hat.

We were having a great time at Ruby’s, dancing up a storm. But we were racing against the clock still and needed to make Von Johin’s concert at Ruby’s. *grin* Never a dull moment in SL. Von was great as ever. Faust saw someone wearing a green dragon on his shoulder and fell in love with the dragon. Faust IM’d the gentleman, who told Faust that the dragon was found in a hunt. I mentioned this to Oura. LOL. Oura not only KNOWS everything, she probably HAS everything in her inventory. In this case, she did NOT have the dragon, but she did know which hunt and which store. I am happy to say that Faust was able to track down the proper hunt and find the prize and now sports a dragon on HIS shoulder. *grin* It takes so little to make some of us happy. My dear friend Nat often has a bunny on HER shoulder and it always makes me smile.

The evening was getting long at this point. Von’s sim was full and Jonah couldn’t tp in to join us. I decided that perhaps it was time for me to call it quits – I’d already done quite a bit of adventuring on the road earlier in the day. So we timed it well and I tp’d out and Jonah was able to tp in and join Oura and Faust. I headed home to get tucked into bed and sleep, in preparation for a new day of partying!

Happy Rez Day, Oura! I hope you had as much fun as I did! I’m so glad we’re friends! Ahuva <3 Oura.

4 Dancing Chicks

On the fifth day of August, my true love gave to me:
4 dancing chicks
3 background folks
2 fantastic chims
and Von playing live yet again!

Von Johin has been very much in action lately and I have been loving every minute! Oura and I went chimera shopping earlier – she got hers, I was too tired to make a decision (yes, I seem to be back to being tired a lot. WHY isn’t 4 hours a night sufficient rest????) Dz has one of the best chims going – I LOVE dancing with Dz. So we all met up at Von’s concert. Sharon logged in and told me that she’d just graduated university!!! WHOOOO-EEEEEEEEEEEEEE Sharon!!!!! That is so fantastic!!!! So I tp’d her over and she jumped on Dz’s chim and the 4 of us danced up a storm. I am so proud of Sharon, let me say – she is smart, funny, talented. Congratulations, sweetie!!! She and Oura had already met, but I introduced her to Dz that night. Dz really is one of the best scripters I know. *grin* I love when my scripting friends hit it off. My friends are not only smart, but beautiful, inside and out.

I should mention that Dz and I were having a side conversation about my problems with my demo. Our demo has crashed the last four times we tried to run it. ???? I began to think Honour might be right and that it was my hair. I explained it to Dz who caught the culprit right away: my radar script. I had it cycling too frequently. So combined with other timers at the site, yeah, I crashed the region. LOL. Or at least that is the current theory. We’ve not had a chance to test it. So all you radar-wearing folks – be aware of what your scripts can do. Ahuva, Sim Destroyer.

Dancing and Cake

Today is a day for dancing. Eating cake. Dancing again. *grin* C”mon over. Drake, Bill, Mallory, Frenis and I are partying up a storm.

Ladies Night at the CnP

ZOMG! I am soooooo glad that Bailey and I became friends via our blogs. Without Bailey I’d never have found the Crown and Pearl. I have such fun there and made so many good friends. It is one of the best places to chill and dance and throw off whatever ails you. Oh, okay, so they have a bit of a drainage problem there. Look – every club has its flaws. So the CnP loses the floor regularly. /me shrugs and sends them yet another bill for ruined boots.

This Friday I logged on and was lured to the CnP by FRAUDULENT advertising. I’m not saying who sent the message or who it was that supposedly was naked, but hey, there are LAWS about that kind of thing, you know????? *grin* No one was nakie but there WERE nekos galore. Beautiful gorgeous nekos with patchwork tails. So I got out my tail and ears, touched BD’s tail and joined the dance line. Oh – why did I have to touch BD’s tail? Because that’s where she has her chim, and it’s the chim that makes us all dance in unison. Okay – almost in unison. I joined late so I was not properly aligned but I WAS in step.

I say it was Ladies night but Ioh was there too. *grin* Hey – in MY opinon – there should always be a hot neko male about. Rrish was there, too, not-neko’d. But the beautiful cats are Bailey, Bailey and Elise. I’m so happy I finally got to meet Elise. I have only met her tangentially through Flickr. I think this was actually the first time I met Iohannes also. We’ve only “met” via blog postings. So it was a wonderful mix of old and new friends, dancing and chatting, starting the weekend off right.

For all the photos – see my Flickr account.

Crown And Pearl Redux

Perhaps “redux” is unfair. After all, CnP has been running quite merrily and successfully without me. (OMG – how can that BE????? Isn’t EVERYTHING all about ME?? Have I – gasp – been wrong????) But for me – I haven’t been there in so long. So when I found myself back there partying with friends twice in three days, I was so happy. There are not enough hours in the day for me to do everything I want to do. Not in SL. Not in RL.

I logged in one Thursday afternoon and saw that my good buddy HellSpawned was DJ’ing. To my great delight, I actually had time to head over there. Hell was DJ’ing, Natalya was there, plus Kumi, Kalthea, Dancien, Ryker, Dion, mainit, Eliza and more. It was wonderful. Even if Hell and I do NOT have the same taste in music. *grin* I love Kumi’s av. I don’t think I’ve ever written about it specifically, but whenever I see Kumi I smile. Don’t you?

Two days later I logged in and saw that Rrishanna was DJ’ing. Now I LOVE Rrish’s sets!!! She plays the best music. It was the weekend. I had new hair, new boots. (Does that summarize SL or what???) I had on my tattoo. I was psyched for partying and seeing friends. So I headed right over. So much of the “old” gang was there!!! Lucien, Prad, Bailey, Ryker, JohnR, Alann. More kept arriving. It was a blast. The same crazy chat, totally off-the-wall connections. Of course, being the CnP, there were sheep as well. *grin* The only problem with the “old” crowd is that so many of them are from a different, EARLIER time zone. So by the time Dale tp’d in to join us, they were all logging and going to sleep (party poopers!!!!). It was left to us USA’ers to close down the club – me, Dale and Rrish! What fun! I need to get back there more often. Come and join me – so that when the UK goes to bed, we can still rock the place!
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Can music save your mortal soul?

It can sure save mine. Always. If I am sad and feeling down, dispirited – a live concert by Noma Falta or Von Johin will get me rocking and happy. If I am happy and want to party on well, guess what – a live concert by Von Johin or Noma Falta will keep me going strong. *grin* Last night I made plans to meet up with Honour at Von Johin’s anniversary party at his French Quarter sim. I spent a good part of the day working on AhuvaHair Version 2.0 (wait til you see it – it will be SO much better than round 1) and helping a friend. So my to-do list and conscience were both clear when showtime rolled around.

The French Quarter belongs to Von and Harlee. They bought it a year ago and all day was a celebration. Honour and I were standing about talking, waiting to see which stage Von would be using. An avatar rezzed in. To my great delight it was my friend DZ!!! The three of us headed over to the music. Honour and I tagged onto DZ’s chimera and danced the night away. That is another thing that I really should have. After all these months, I still do NOT have a way to dance by myself. I am still dependent on the local dance balls or someone’s chimera. /me makes note to self…. buy dance animation thing. *grin*

Starting the morning right

I was at both my RL and SL desks before 7:30 am today. I had a lot of building to do, emails to send, meetings on the calendar and I’d not slept well. So I sat there staring at my virtual office, trying to decide what came first, when the fairy tale began.

In walked a handsome stranger, dressed in an elegant tuxedo. I greeted him and he replied and asked if he might sit down and join me. I said of course. Isn’t that one of the purposes of my office – meeting with people? So we chatted a bit about why we were in SL and what we liked. We read our profiles and discovered that we had a favorite pick in common: Midsomer Isle. I remarked that I hadn’t been there in ages, that it was probably time to go back. Blue suggested that we go then. I thought – why not? So I said sure. Blue tp’d first and sent back the taxi. We went to the library first. The kitties were still there, adorable as ever. But no dancing.

So we went over to the pavilion to dance. It’s lovely, with roses everywhere. But…. also another couple already dancing there. So we strolled over to a gazebo to discuss what we would do. Blue decided to look for another dance spot and I promised to change into dance clothes. But he was fast and I snuck in some rl work. So I never changed.

We danced. I started my morning twirling and soaring and spinning and feeling my spirits lift with each pass. Blue had to take a business call, I fended off some emails. But we came back and continued chatting and dancing. All and all a lovely start to what had promised to be a bleak day.

Now here is an example of true tackiness. Blue and I are dancing and IM’ing and having a wonderful time. I noticed a guy in a bathing suit come by us once or twice. Didn’t think much of it. Then a blue box appeared in my window: Bathing Suit asks if you would be his friend. Excuse me????? I’m dancing with some other guy. You’ve not said a word in local chat. You’ve not even pinged me to say hi good-looking. And you’re extending friendship????? I think NOT. *grin* C’mon buddy – get with the drill. You at least want to say hello first. Oh – by the way – Blue and I ARE friends.

Waltzing

I love dancing. I really love waltzing. The waltz is a difficult dance to do well. In RL I used to do competitive dancing. /me smiles at happy memories. Oh yeah, I love dancing. My teacher Emilio was the best. The man could move like water. Like wind. Like the sexiest creature in the world. He had a grip that would not allow a woman to set one foot wrong. We competed in all the dances. Our rhumba steamed. We did a great hustle (my husband and I still hustle and burn the floor). Emilio and I did dirty dancing that had me bent backwards with my hair sweeping the floor. *grin* Ah yes, those were the days. We pulled in golds in nearly all our dances. Except waltz. I never once did better than silver. Waltz is hard. You need to hit your lines just so. Every move needs to be smooth, elegant, elongated, fluid. Watching a room full of waltzers is as soothing and mesmerizing as watching the ocean waves.

In SL – I hit all my waltz lines. Nothing like a good pose ball , is there? Shenlei hosted the Cupid’s Dream formal ball at Victoriana the other day. It was a lovely weekend afternoon, extending the Valentine’s Day celebration. I needed a break from all I’d been doing and thinking. So when the reminder came popping up, I knew it was just what I needed. I changed into my beautiful Debutante gown: Louisa in red. I put up my hair, slipped on my dancing shoes and hailed the taxi to Victoriana.

I had the great good fortune to arrive at Victoriana Carnivale at the same time as my friend Lul. Yes, you’ve seen Lul here before. Go check out Santa’s sleigh and the opensim/SL chatbridge. I can report that not only is Lul smart, witty and sweet, he is also a wonderful dancer. We followed the rose path to the party site. Shen had outdone herself with the decorations. Music was provided by Benton Wunderlich.

Lul and I slipped onto a pair of dance balls and began waltzing. Ah, it’s so wonderful to dance in SL. I’ve had so many wonderful times dancing in SL. I don’t know why it works. I would have thought that since I really DO love to dance, that dancing in SL would be hollow. But it’s not. For some reason, watching myself dance feels internally as if I am dancing. I hear the music. I feel the arms of my partner. My brain shifts gears and once again I am twirling and spinning and gliding across the floor, in harmony with my partner and the music. I am as happy dancing in SL as I am in RL. And it’s easier on my poor knees (which are hurting as i write this because, sigh, I started pushing the running again – upped the treadmill this week). So Lul and I danced and chatted and waltzed away the afternoon.

Victoriana is growing on me, no question about it. I’m very glad that they are not a role-playing sim as such. I can go and visit and hang out without having to “be” Victorian. I enjoy putting on a ball gown every so often and being an elegant lady. I also like hanging out in my jeans and enjoying all the amenities that Victoriana has to offer. I was there again today and was amused by the sight of the Seapot Racers. Too funny for words. Now that I know that there are formal balls every month, I just may have to get there on a regular basis and dance. I’m looking for a partner for the ball in March, if you’re interested in joining me!

Neko for a Night

I took the day off today – I had a lot of RL stuff that had nothing to do with work. So when I got home and logged in, somehow it seemed appropriate to go and relax at the Crown and Pearl. I realized I’d not been there for a long time.

When I arrived there were five friends there. I was about to begin dancing when I realized that I was the only one there without a tail. Now I’m not usually one to bow to peer pressure. I have been there before when nearly everyone else was “tailled”. Tonight, however, I noticed the lack and commented on it. Although they assured me that I could stay anyway, Nat did pass me a tail. OMG. It had a notecard with a zillion instructions. Now I know why I don’t wear a tail. Nat laughed at me when I said all that to her and said “Just WEAR it”. LOL. So I did. Hey. It’s kind of cute, you know? I don’t know that it will be my normal attire, but it was fun. So Nat passed me ears as well and PRESTO! a Neko was born. You gotta love SL.

We all continued dancing and laughing as more folks arrived. I rather like watching the tail moving about as I dance. I may have to reconsider the whole subject. I”m not as sure about the ears. I think that both of them are scripted. I KNOW I don’t have time to figure out the scripting.

Ah. Speaking of time…. I did it again, folks. I volunteered. Yep. Yet again I volunteered at work for something for which I am probably not suited. I did mention that, somewhat, to the project leader. But when no one wants a job, even the incompetent are considered. So expect to hear more about the joy of Land Ownership and Land rights. Because I have a lot to learn in a very very very short time. At least I know a little bit more about this than I know about those trees. *grin* And THIS time- I have a teacher!!!! HELL!!!!!!! HELP!!!!!