The Demise of an SL Institution

Today is the first day of the rest of our lives. It is also the first day without a new blogpost on My Avatar Name is Apmel, a SecondLife institution that has been accompanying and guiding us residents since 2006.

"She was in Paris" by Sergey Rybakov

Mr. Apmel Goosson Esq., enfante terrible, universal genius, philosopher, rebel, blogger, author, artist, cartoonist, etc., etc. and the honored 2011 recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Bock McMillan Art Foundation (a part of the BMcM Corporation), has for some selfish reason decided that after 10,000 blogposts enough is enough. He did so without due consideration of the significant emotional distress and soul-wrenching turmoil he thereby causes to his faithful readers.

However, I must begrudgingly admit that my bosom buddy, of course, has the right to make such a decision and move on to new endeavors. In a heart-to-heart conversation, Apmel promised that we would find him on other media platforms but did not want to specify saying "Only the future can tell! Besides I won't leave SL, my avatars would never forgive me :)".

Thank you for your dedicated work through these fifteen years, Apmel! We are all looking forward to seeing your future work.

Wookey Project Corp. Buys Sansar

Linden Lab announced today that the virtual world of Sansar has been sold to The Wookey Project Corporation.

In their online statement about themselves Wookey says:

PUTTING ONLINE POWER BACK INTO YOUR HANDS 

Wookey started from our own experience. Just like you, we saw the limitations of flat, one-dimensional internet interaction. With each experience, the frustration grew. It’s evident that algorithms are telling me what it wants, not hearing what I need.

What if we could create online experiences that were unbiased and arranged by relevance to us, not by advertisers or bias of company? We realized, with the right team and the right investors, we can.

Wookey was born. We endeavor to create a new generation of online AR/VR experiences that allows users the power of collaborative interaction through knowledge immersion.

That sounds rather exciting, doesn't it? Perhaps I should not give up my Sansar account yet.

---
P.S. This might be a good time to rebut all the many rumors that The BMcM Corporation had any interest in acquiring Sansar. (The fact that it was the only shareholder of the company who was disseminating the rumors did not help either, but how does one tell a laird to STFU?)

BMcM Corps Proudly Presents Samm Quendra and DJ Kahvy with Host RickJ at SP, today 3-5 PM SLT

Be there or be square!

Flaunt your pride!

Absolutely Fabulous!

Thank you DJ Butch with host Pook and all of you wonderful people who attended the BMcM-sponsored  event at Second Pride today.

Butch was on fire, Pook was gracious and we all had a lot of fun.

I hope to see you all again soon during the upcoming week! Happy Pride!

BMcM Proudly Presents DJ Butch at SP, today 1-3 PM SLT

BMcM (that's me and this blog thingy) are happy to give you (the LGBT+ community in SecondLife and our allies) the oh-so-sexy, the unruly and the mischievous DJ Butch Diavolo.

Where: Main Stage at the Second Pride sim
When: 1-3PM SLT
What to wear: No shirt & no shoes and leave your problems at home!

My thanks to sweet husband Tomais Ashdene for taking and editing the green screen picture of the awesome Butch and to sweet Kahvy for making the fabulous poster for this event. 

Esselebrity Makes A Painful Fashion Statement

Today the esselebrity Mr. Apmel Goosson Esq., world renowned blogger, fashionista and recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award of The Bock McMillan Art Foundation (A part of the BMcM Corporation) in 2011, proved that he was a highly qualified recipient of the award.

In the spirit of the old Swedish adage "Den som vill vara fin, får lida pin" ("If you wish to be beautiful, you must suffer the pain" - sort of like "No pain, no gain!") by observing the rule of not wearing socks with sandals despite admitting that his feet were cold.

Read all about it here: My Avatar's Name Is Apmel: Yes, Apmel got cold feet :) (url)

Grand Opening of The Northmead Gallery

The Bock McMillan Art Foundation 

(a part of the BMcM Corporation) 

and the artists 

WayneNZ 

JJ Goodman 

and 

Tomais Ashdene

Welcome you all to the opening of the new erotic gallery at Southern Charm today

From the invitation on Facebook:

"An intrepid trio of SecondLife photographers invites you to an opening at their very private space, the Northmead Gallery at Southern Charm for a showing of gay male erotic art. (or as Kahvy puts it, "dicks, dicks, dicks!") (or as Bock puts it, "a celebration of the male form) (or as JJ puts it, "our brush of love!") (or as Wayne calls it, "Bowchickie wow wow!) (or as RickJ said, "Meow.")

The party starts at 1:00 PM SLT, and DJ Kahvy will be pumping (get it? Pumping!) out some hot dance tunes.

This is just for the fun of it since we had a great time doing al these photos, and we've a cool space to show our art in the rundown city block that makes up the Gallery. Feel free to wander and enjoy some of special places we've built into the venue.

Hope to see you there!

Disclaimer: male/male nudity and sexual acts are portrayed in the photos. No small animals were harmed in the making of these photographs. Enter at your own risk."

Landmark to The Northmead Gallery!

A Daring Fashionista (Updated)

I don't know this beautiful young man, but I must admit that I love him already! Update: I have since posting learned that the brave young man is none other than Mr Dozer G. Dragoone.

Look at his style, grace and exquisite taste, the strong and vibrant energy he exudes with his attitude of "Fuck you, I know I am beautiful!". He must truly be one of that rare breed, a true fashionista. Not one to follow the flock and bold enough to make his own statement.

As you may - or perhaps maybe not - notice the stunning and bold young man is sporting "The Jesters Hat in Multicolored Rhinestone" from BMcM™ (a part of the BMcM™ Corporation), this year's gift at the Bock in SecondLife booth at the Second Pride Festival.

Photo courtesy of NakedCarl Paneer, blog NakedCarl.

The BMcM Corporation Diversifies

Prince Duncan Aycliffe McMillan, CFO of The BMcM Corporation, recently presented a report to the board of directors in which he concluded that the best return per Linden Dollar could be found on investments in the industries of munitions, drugs, crime or sex. Due to legal ramifications in the first three industries the board decided that the company should focus on the sex industry, particularly the production of pornografic material of the highest quality and with intellectual superiority.

To fulfill this aim the board constructed WellHung Studios Ltd (A part of the BMcM Corporation). The company started the production of its first motion picture on Friday. The working title of the production is "The Pizza Boy; He delivers - 2015".

According to the director Mr. Dejerrity Mycron, the film is a film about the making of the well known classic with the same name.

The cast is absolutely stellar with the participation of, among others,

JJ Goodman (formerly of BelAmi) as "The Ravenous Pizza Customer", 

Lee McKay (formerly of Falcon Studios) as "The Wayward Pizza Boy",

Static Frenzy (formerly of Titan Men) as "The Boom-Boom Boy" and 

Tomais Ashdene (formerly of Treasure Island Media) as "The Camera Man".

The Much Honored Bock McMillan appears in a cameo role as "The Director".

The movie is expected to premiere worldwide in March 2016.

The Olympic Games, Russia & Putin

I was tipped about this post by John Aravosis on the AMERICAblog by the longtime Bock in SecondLife reader, my dear brother, Dejerrity Mycron.

Despite Dej's present sufferings in an old Manhattan building with a malfunctioning boiler and a worthless managing company in the midst of the coldest winter in New York for ages, my lovely and loving brother takes the time and makes the effort to send me tips. Isn't it clear from that fact alone, that the man is completely loveable?

Oh guys, he is single too at the moment so if you would want to meet this gruff diamond in disguise just drop a notecard on my profile and I may set you up for an introduction.

Send your notecards to The McMillan Matchmaking Agency (a part of the BMcM Corporation), c/o Bock McMillan.

If you pass my scrutiny, I may introduce you! First come, first served! 
---

The AMERICAblog; "How Vladimir Putin sent 'Brand Russia'  into the toilet". The post starts like this:

"Russian President Vladimir Putin has done more to harm the image of Russia internationally than anyone in a generation.

Putin’s baby, the 2014 Winter Olympics being held in Sochi, Russia in just under two weeks, was meant to demonstrate to the world that Russia had entered the modern age.

Then a funny thing happened. The world actually paid attention to Russia, and found it to be a third-world cesspool run by a despot.

If Brand Russia had already been bruised by Putin’s reign, in the past 12 months it’s been utterly destroyed."

---

I hope "Little Father" Putin reads it and takes notice, but that may be a vain wish.

The Vernissage of "Art Erotic"

My friend Ewa Aska, formerly best known as the co-owner of the once famous Ice Hotel and as an actor in several plays and musicals in SecondLife among them the successful ABBA SWEDEN show, has now found a new furrow for her creativity as a photographer of erotic art.

Ewa's exhibition "Art Erotic" opened with a vernissage yesterday, As the chairman of the Bock McMillan Art Foundation (a part of the BMcM Corporation) I was naturally invited. Most notable - and noticeable - among the other guests was an apparition of my bosom-buddy Apmel Goosson, this time present as his alt Apmel Meerson.

Apmel was - in my humble opinion - the most erotic work of art in the room, especially since he had chosen to dance an extremely enticing and alluring dance and somehow seemed to work his way around me the whole evening. I claimed he was hitting on me, but he emphatically denied it. (You can read our conversation on this subject on his blog, the link is supplied at the end of this post.)

Apmel plays coy but I know what he is contemplating

Apmel hits on me

Apmel in the act of sexual harassment against innocent me

Our gorgeous DJ Rultan and her likewise gorgeous hubby Alf

Paola spots me but keep her distance, in the beginning...

Fia Wycliffe surrounded by erotic art

Apmels favorite piece of art, I named it "A tethered man"

Photographer Ewa Aska in an erotic pose

I avert my eyes from the sexiness of Paola

Guyke comes to my rescue to save me from more sexual harassment by members of the audience

For more pictures from the vernissage and my hilarious conversation with Apmelito please visit "The models hide nothing, but what does Bock hide?"

If you wish to visit the exhibition it goes on through September 15, 2013, Landmark to the exhibition (SLurl)

ART EROTIC - Black & White

I got this invitation from two friends, Rultan Zeppelin on Facebook and Ewa Aska in-world. 

As the Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm and prince of Cascade Falls, sovereign ruler of The Southern Enchantment Region etc, etc. and as chairman of The Bock McMillan Art Foundation (a part of the BMcM Corporation) I am duty bound to attend. Please join me there if you can.

The exhibition opens with a vernissage and a party today Sunday September 1 2013, 7AM - 9AM SLT. 

From the exhibition leaflet: 

"A photo exhibition consisting of six naked Second Life models, posing for erotic and romantic themes.

Black and White. 

Dance, mingle, champagne and canapés.

DJ: Rultan 

Hosts: Andreas Datura & Ewa Aska"

Landmark to the exhibition (SLurl)

Something Old, Something New...

Before I go back to my playing with myself and test if Bock may finally be over the problems we have had lately I would like to take a moment to honor two SecondLife blogs and their bloggers.

The first one is the oldest Swedish SecondLife blog, My Avatar´s Name Is Apmel, which is owned and operated by my bosom buddy Apmel Goosson & alts (in his first life also known as +Lennart Nilsson)..

Today the blog celebrates it´s sixth blogoversary and having reached 5,000 posts. The number of pageviews should be close to 700,000 by now as the blog reached the 600,000 mark on March 26, 2011.

My Avatar´s Name Is Apmel has previously been honored by The Bock McMillan Art Foundation´s (a part of the BMcM Corporation) lifetime achievement award on March 26, 2011, read why here SecondLife Culture Blog Honored.

I for one am looking forward to following Apmel and alts on their adventures in SecondLife the next six years also, It is - and will remain - an obligation for every SecondLife blogger to read what Apmel has to say about our life and times.

On the other end of the scale I also wish to congratulate my friend Benja Aquila, who started blogging just recently, on hos blog Benja Aquila´s Second Life. The blog passed it´s first 5,000 pageviews yesterday!

Congratulations to both the blog and the blogger, I am so looking forward to still be a faithful follower when you pass 500,000 pageviews!

Hostile Takeover Bid for Apple Inc?

The financial markets all over the world today went rampant with rumors that the SecondLife-based BMcM Corporation may be launching a hostile takeover bid for Apple Inc. This news followed the recent news that Apple Inc is now worth more than Microsoft and Google combined or the GDP of the Kingdom of Sweden for one year.

The Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm, prince of Cascade Falls and filthy rich owner of BMcM, smiled enigmatically and declined to comment on this rumor when he was confronted in the company of a stunningly beautiful man in a sordid backstreet bar in the ill-reputed  Zindra Region.

Prince Wild Zepp, the official spokesman for the McMillan household, only snorted "Ridiculous!" and then turned his back to this reporter and refused to comment further.

This "tactic of silence" from the McMillan household is well known from similar business deals in the past. We will of course keep you updated as this story as it evolves.

(...and if you did not guess it already, it´s a joke...)

Trash-talk

In the blogging world you can always complain that other bloggers
...are faking their statistics.
...are writing about the wrong subjects.
...are whining.
...are too self obsessed.
...are not serious journalists like yourself.
...are not able to give the readers what they want, expect or need.
etc. etc.

I will always, like the French philosopher Voltaire, maintain "Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too."

Every blogger has the freedom and the right and the bloody obligation to write whatever suits them as long as it is not discriminatory, defamatory, against the law of the land or against the guidelines of the blog provider. If you do not like the content of a blog, you should not waste your valuable time by reading it. Just move along and find something better to occupy yourself with.

I have stated this before, in both Swedish and English, this blog is mainly written for my own benefit. I am grateful and happy if others like to read it also, but that is by no means my main objective. This blog is not a public service or a news blog, I don´t charge you anything to read it, nor do I receive any of your tax dollars for writing it. I make no pretenses of being a journalist or catering to the needs of others.

As my buddy and enfante terrible the Swedish universal genius, philosopher, rebel, blogger, author, artist, cartoonist etc., etc. and the honored recipient of the lifetime achievement award from the Bock McMillan Art Foundation (a part of the BMcM Corporation) Apmel Goosson once wrote (well, only a few hours ago), "The day I start suspecting that what I write is governed more by what I think the readers want to read than what I myself think, I promise to shut down my blog and permanently stop writing anything at all"

*Bock stretches out his arm with the hand held in a vertical position and says, "Talk to the hand ´cause the face ain´t listening!"*

Warning to Friends

Calm, cool and collected - or just a very poor self image?

The Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm and prince of Cascade Falls, has - finally - started building again.

His head is buzzing with exceptional ideas on fashion accessories, candle sticks, lounge chairs and many other essentials for a good life in SecondLife. Frequent visits have already been made to the Textures R´Us store in search of good fabrics and other textures.

As the laird came late to building and has been preoccupied  with other matters lately his building skills are rusty - to say the least. If you are online when he hits a tight spot you can almost be certain to get a call.

Yesterday he managed to disrupt the lives of Adrina Welders, cobbler extraordinaire with the shop AW Designs, and Chade Dagger, well known studly club owner of Erotes, when he got stuck and remembered there was a way to do things but could not recall how. Adrina was hastily transported from whatever she was busy with to come and inspect and aid the laird.

The laird also made a call to SecondLife live chat for support when he for twenty desperate minutes thought he had blown away half of his humble living accommodations. Luckily he stayed calm, cool and collected and was experienced in all things SecondLife enough to do a relogg before calling up a rollback of the sim by Linden Lab. When he returned after the relogg everything seemed to be back in place (it must have been a camera thingy).

All the members of the McMillan-clan are up on their toes and ready to start the production-lines again. They are all certain that this surge will establish the BMcM Corporation as one of the leading enterprises in SecondLife.

Please be patient, he is crazy but he means well most of the time!

The Laird Inspects Installation Art

"No Name Yet" Installation art by Kandinsky Beaumont

The Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm and prince of Cascade Falls, deigned to honor the Imagine peacefest at Solace Island with his presence on Sunday evening.

During his unusually lengthy visit the laird took the time to inspect a piece of installation art that had been partly sponsored by The Bock McMillan Art Foundation (a part of the BMcM Corporation). The installation was made by Kandinsky Beaumont, hostess of the event, and met with the highest approval of the laird.

The peacefest was a great success with entertainment by the singer and songwriter POL Arida and the fabulous group DRUM.

All and sundry of the existing art mob in SecondLife passed through the party during the many hours that the laird was there, but he most appreciated the presence of his beloved sister Millimina Salamander whom he had not met with in a long while.

Named Avatars 3

Today it is my great pleasure to let my buddy Apmel tell us about how he named his avatar - and his host of co-avatars.

As you perhaps already know Apmel is a prominent figure in the virtual art world of SecondLife. His blog "Min avatar heter Apmel" ("My Avatar´s Name is Apmel") is also the oldest existing Swedish SecondLife blog and the distinguished recipient of the prestigious lifetime achievement award from The Bock McMillan Art Foundation (a part of theBMcM Corporation).

The Apmel Trinity - from the left Meerson, Ibbetson and Goosson

"When I registered my first ava I first looked up a surname that ended with “-son”... it just happened to be Ibbetson and Apmel as first name, which was simply a reversal of one of my nicknames at work - "Lempa" instead of Lennart.

Later, I wanted to have a name ending in “-sson”, two s´s, and more Swedish I thought .. while I kept the first name. Apmel Goosson plain and simple with everything that it has come to mean...

When I created the next avatar, that was first conceived as a pure backup, the choice for a surname happened to fall on Meerson.

Eventually these alternate versions of Apmel developed, as several of you already know. 

Apmel Ibbetson was modeled using pictures of myself taken just before my sixtieth birthday in real life and hey presto, he became Uncle IB. The "last name" IB comes from the fact that my primatar initially was determined to promote his RL-activity, "Indexkompaniet Bokförlag" (The Index Company Publishers) and started an Index Company book café in-world where the group´s members were called IB-agents (Yes, I did have the (for Swedes) well known IB-affair in memory, and liked the ambiguity).

Apmel Meerson quickly turned into “Kludden” (the daub). An inexperienced young cousin to Apmel who is finding his way around in Second Life. Daub rapidly strengthened my interest in the virtual arts.

At long last Apmelina Slingshot came along and proved to be the sister of Apmel that Apmel´s dad never had. Apmelina rapidly extended my old-fashioned (albeit narrow) musical taste in a more contemporary direction - with a little help from Milli, I readily admit. :))

 

And the last (latest?) avatar that I have acquired is a banker who originally was of the same indeterminate sex and age as the name I gave it, "Apmelsprivatabankman" (Apmel´s-private-banker). I refuse to use the ugly surname Resident that automatically and not so amusingly came with it. This avatar later developed into a beautiful woman in her fifties. I am hoping she will bring order to the Apmellian finances :))"

BREAKING NEWS: Firestorm Viewer Impregnates Avatar

It is rumored that The Much Honored Bock McMillan, Laird of Southern Charm and Prince of Cascade Falls, has been taken to hospital in a state of shock due to suddenly believing himself to have been impregnated by the Firestorm viewer.

According to what has been pieced together from interviews with the lairds primatar (name withheld) and members of the McMillan household this is what seems to have happened.

The laird had been having an extremely enjoyable - although very crashy - evening at the 4th Anniversary of DJ World. When he got back in-world after his last crash of the evening, he landed on his back-porch where he has set "home".

You cannot believe his amazement when he saw the red clouds disappearing and he suddenly found himself looking like this.

"I was in total shock", the laird revealed to his spokesman Wild Zepp, "I couldn´t understand how this happened. I have been celibate for the past year and a half - I swear!"

The laird told Wild that as soon as he came to his senses he took a look at the bulge growing out of his belly in "Edit". "The edit told me that the bulge was not a baby, but a "Medium sized building block type rock" or something like that. It disappeared mysteriously seconds afterwards, but I better get this checked. It could still be growing inside me."

After the laird McMillan had been rushed to his private physician for a check-up he was sent to The Royal McMillan Hospital (a part of the BMcM Corporation) for surgery to remove the block from him.

Wild Zepp also told the assembled SecondLife media that he expects that the laird will want to pursue this event with litigation against the Firestorm-team. "After all we oldtimers are used to having our hairs moved to our crotches and our boots stuck up our asses should we now also accept the indignity of being pregnant with rocks also, I ask you? No way, I say, we cannot have primatars traumatized like this by sloppy technicians. The laird will naturally file his suit in the United States and is expecting it to result in damages in the range over and above what that stupid woman with coffee got from the McDonald´s fast food restaurant.* The laird is after all nobility, whereas she was only a commoner. His feelings are deeper hurt than hers could ever be. Before the household decides whether to sue or not, we will of course welcome any reasonable offer from Miss Jessica Lyon or any other representative of the Firestorm-team." 


*) Liebeck v. McDonald's Restaurants, also known as the McDonald's coffee case and the hot coffee lawsuit, is a 1994 product liability lawsuit that became a flashpoint in the debate in the U.S. after a jury awarded $2.86 million to a woman who was heavily burned by hot coffee purchased from fast food restaurant McDonald's. The trial judge reduced the total award to $640,000, and the parties settled for a confidential amount before an appeal was decided. 

It Isn´t Rocket Science

Kids can do it well, so can you if you only try!

Hey excuse me, but I am Swedish and hugging is our favorite pastime. We hug a lot, no one is safe anywhere.

I am getting totally disheartened by the lousy and sloppy hugging going on in SecondLife. I have only met two outstanding huggers, my Ars and my son in-law Janttu. Guyke is getting much better - much thanks to Janttu´s training , I am sure - and so is my brother in-law Andrey, but the rest of you desperately need lessons.

It really isn´t rocket science, as the headline states. Hugging just takes a bit of concentration and knowing who does what. So here is a short excerpt from the "Hugging 101" class at "The Lairds School of Animation" (a part of the BMcM Corporation)

1. Someone sends you an invitation to hug.(Sending the invitation and standing still is pretty much what the hugger needs to do.)
2. Check - and double check - who you the hug and decide if you want to hug the person or not.
3. If you do not want to hug that person, click the "Decline"-button and say something nice about why not in local chat. (I cannot stress enough - nice!)
4. If you however decide to accept the hug, follow these steps
a) Locate the person who wants to hug you.
b) Go stand in front of that person.
c) Make sure you line up properly and squarely in front of that person (not sideways, but facing them directly).
d) Check - and double check - that your AO (Animation Overrider) and any dance-HUD is turned off..
e) NOW - and not before - is the time to click the "Accept"-button.
f) Enjoy the hug, do not rush through it or stop it prematurely. Just go with the feeling. (If you feel that 1-2 minutes of your precious time is too much to sacrifice, it is better to decline the hug than cutting it short.)

Please note:
1. It is always the huggee´s privilege to decide whether or not they want to join in a hug or not but it is also the huggee´s responsibility to make sure that it turns out well by following the measures above.
2. The guidelines given above work for all animations in SecondLife (kissing, dancing, f**king and getting bitten by noob-vampires, whatever).
3. To avoid the noob-vampires, get the Garlic Necklace. Wear it and click the appropriate button and then take it off. You are now pretty safe from the noob vampires. (If you cannot find that necklace, send me an IM and I will send it to you.)

Hugs are healing!