The Yadkin Valley Festival 2013

Free ride to the Yadkin Valley Festival 2013

The Yadkin Valley Festival is the Woodstock or Roskilde festival of SecondLife. Hopefully there will be lots of rain and a muddy camping site to make for wonderful memories in the future. The camping site opened on Thursday, you can borrow or set up your own tent for the weekend.

This is a party lasting all weekend with loads of live artists and other entertainment going on all the time. Events are announced in the SecondLife group Iendis Transistor.

Confirmed live artists are Bara Jonson & Free Balan, Oldwolf Criss, Hazie Moonwall and Lisa Brune. DJ Apollon, DJ Rultan, DJ Ikaros, DJ Kicki and DJ Alf will all have parties Fishing Tournament and other prestigious competitions.

Listen in on the festivalradio at http://64.34.170.177:19150

Among My Countrymen

This evening I went visiting in the Swedish community in SecondLife, the reason for this nowadays rare venture was that Bara Jonson and Free Balan were performing a benefit live gig for Relay For Life at my friend Apollon Allen's bar, which is located on my ex-wife Iendi Laville's sim Yadkin.

The place was packed and I thought I had never seen so many Swedish avatars in the same place for a long time, but someone said that it wasn't much busier than a regular Friday evening.

For a long time after Ars had passed away, I sought refuge among the Swedes, where I felt safe and protected, which I was extremely grateful for and needed badly at the time. They involved me in all sorts of activities to keep me from brooding. They also responded kindly to and took part in some of my crazy projects, most notably the "Nakna avatarer i SL" ("Nude Avatars in SL") blog project. I think I had well over 100 entries where the Swedes dropped their clothing and sent me their wonderful and imaginative nudie-pictures for publication. I still have many friends among them although my visits are not as frequent these days.

I danced with Jasmine most of the evening, which was a pleasure, apart from the obvious fact that we looked great dancing together.

It was a fun evening and I had a very good time seeing and talking with friends I had not been in touch with for some time. People were generous to the cause, which made it even better.

Jasmine Cazalet, I and Apmel Goosson (He is wearing a hat, could he be losing his hair?)

"There was a young man from Nantucket..."

Above, Selma Edman and Iendi Laville show some of their moves.

NE0 Timeless's search is over

Tingeling captured between someones legs

Bara & Free @ Bounce Bar For Relay For Life

The Swedish singer and songwriter Bara Jonson and Free Balan will be performing live tonight at 1PM SLT at the Bounce Bar on the Yadkin sim. The event is a benefit performance for Relay For Life, bring hard cash - and loads of it!

Your teleport to the Bounce Bar

Bara & Free Are Back

Star grooves

Vampi sings along

Yesterday we witnessed the long awaited and longed for return of Bara Jonson and Free Balan to SecondLife.

The two have been on your in first life to Germany and they have therefore not appeared in-world for several months.

I was - of course - at the venue of the "comeback" together with two of the other most adamant Bara-supporters, namely Mrs. Vampi Twine DeSantis McMillan McMillan (honorary) and Starlight "Star" Gentil. 

At the venue were also assembled a modest but enthusiastic crowd of other live music lovers. 

Before I could enjoy the show I was forced to derender three huge waterfalls that surrounded the main stage. These were beautiful to look at, but the loud sounds of water falling was a real nuisance at a venue where one comes to listen to live music. Sometimes I just don't understand what certain people are thinking of when they design their venues. (I am now stopping myself from going into a rant about another live music venue that has/had about 1,013 frogs and toads emitting sounds.)

Bara's and Free's voices marry wonderfully and give you warm shivers down the back accompanied by warm and fuzzy feelings. All of us at the show had a great time and enjoyed a good show together. 

Welcome back to SecondLife Bara and Free, now please wait awhile before you both go on prolonged tours in first life again!

Support Bara & Free

(From a press release in the Bara Jonson Fan Gang group)

Bara Jonson and Free Balan are two Swedish live artists in SecondLife. They are now competing in the Swedish top charts in first life, "Svensktoppen Nästa" and need our help and support.

To get through to the national level they need lots of "likes" and you can help by following this link (url)  and then clicking the star just above their picture.

Please tell your friends to do the same! 

Millimina´s 4th Rezday

Believe it or not, but today is actually the fourth rezday of my wonderful younger sister Millimina Salamander. She rezzed into SecondLife on December 6, 2008. 

I am not quite sure when we met, but I know where it was. I was at a Bara Jonson gig when I suddenly got an instant message from an unknown woman. It was in Swedish so I understood she had read my profile. I cannot remember what she said or what we talked about, but I knew that I was in love, platonically of course because I had Ars waiting for me at home. 

Millimina by Kent Hutchinson (KH Photography)

After that day we have talked, cried, laughed and hugged constantly and I hope we will do so for many, many years to come still.

When I am old and Millimina is still ageless we have agreed that we will settle down together in a a villa in Tuscany, Italy. I have promised Millimina that she will have her own private chauffeur, a younger man of portuguese origin with a past as a professional football player. (And I mean real football, what the Americans call soccer.)

Grow old along with me!

The best is yet to be,

The last of life, for which the first was made.

Robert Browning (1812-1889)

Happy rezday my darling Millimina, love you always!

The Yadkin Valley Festival

My ex-missus and friend Iendi Laville and my friend Gittrika Mint have joined forces and with the help of a few more friends organized an autumn festival.

The program

FRIDAY (times below are CET until I take the time to change the to SLT)
20:30 Inauguration of the stage next to Bounce Bar
20:30 Rola Hykova on the same stage
22:00 DJ Apollon at the Bounce Bar

SATURDAY
10:00 Melodikrysset (a Swedish radio crossword puzzle program not recommended for International guests) at the campsite. It is of course good to just come and hang out also
11:00 Festival Radio. Rattle and music with Iendi and her guests
13:00 aake Roffo will be in place at the Yadkin Exhibition to show the current exhibition. One of the artists may be in place.
17:00 Festival radio transmits Aake´s fairy tale "The Princess and the Frog". You should expect a discussion after the program. The fairy tale will also be broadcast after the events on Friday and Saturday.
19:00 DJ Betty at La Grenouille
21:00 DJ Ikaros at La Grenouille
22:00 AM Quar at Gitts Club
23:00 DJ Kicki on the deck

SUNDAY
12:00 Bright Oh on stage at La Grenouille
13:00 Discs with coffee at the campsite
15:00 Festival radio broadcast replay of interviews with Rola Hykova and Bara Jonson
19:00 Bara Jonson & Free Balan at Gitt´s Club
20:00 Torben Asp on stage at La Grenouille
21:00 DJ Rultan at "The Mushroom"
23:00 Urban Harvy on stage at La Grenouille
24.00 Talk into the night at the campsite. If you hear someone snoring in separate tents it will be Gitt and Iendi. (Wouldn't it be even more interesting if we could hear the two girls snoring from the same tent, my comment)

Iendi and Gitt welcome you all to have a fun weekend with them!

For updates or changes in programming please check The Yadkin Post

Advance Notice for Friday June 1, 2012

The amazing Bara Jonson, my buddy, and the Rockland band will be streaming live to SecondLife from a gig in first life on Friday June 1, 2012.

There will be a humongous screen set up on the roof of the Swedish Embassy in SecondLife.

For more information and for a later update on the exact time when the event will start please check Vampis OrmDricka; Bara Jonson & Rockland RL live and screening to SL, which is my chief technical officer Mrs Vampi Twine DeSantis McMillan McMillan (honorary) blog.

A Wonderful Experience

Tonight was the night when Bara Jonson and Free Balan were going to perform an all-Swedish set at Club OrmDricka (lovingly called OD by many).

As I wanted to be sure to get a place on the homestead sim I arrived very early, already an hour before their gig started. And I am happy that I did! It was A-W-E-S-O-M-E!

Stop Press: Bara & Free @ OrmDricka

By special notice from the lairds Chief Technical Officer Mrs. Vampi Twine-DeSantis-McMillan-McMillan (honorary), who is also the proprietor of Club OrmDricka, I am proud to inform you that you are all invited to a command performance of Bara Jonson and Free Balan at OrmDricka.

I am sure it is a command performance because Bara owes Vampi a lot of gratitude for her support over the years. For this special occasion only Bara and Free will do an all-Swedish set, which among other things means the premier performance of the Swedish version of Bara´s most famous song "Far and away".

The event takes place at the sim Andromeda Isle (SLurl) tomorrow Thursday April 19, 2012, 12:30 PM. (better get there early as Andromeda Isle is a homestead and only carries 20 avatars).

My Sergeant at Arms sirhc DeSantis will entertain us before and after the main act.

Just Because...

Photography by Ziggy Starsmith

This recent picture by my buddy Ziggy "the baddest bastard in the basket" Starsmith to me represents a lot of what SecondLife is actually about and the best part of it. I stole the picture from Ziggy´s blog "Ziggy On The Edge Of Second Life..."

We should always log into our SecondLife with an open mind, curiosity and a sense of adventure and a willingness to learn and to discover what is around the next corner. To meet new people and learn about them and from them and to share with them our own experience.

The picture also makes me think about two quotes by the venerable master Lao Tzu "A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving." and "This journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

Another thing I especially love about the picture is that I gave him the back-pack he is wearing. It is one that was made for the Bara Jonson Fan Gang group by Patrick Hufschmid Beaumont, the exceptional guitar-builder in first life and for awhile also in SecondLife. 

Bara Interviewed

This seems to be the evening when all my favorite men with connection to SecondLife seem to be up to something, all except Apmel, Ziggy and Eddi... but the day is not over yet!

First my favorite Philip Linden (maybe), then my favorite Butch Diavolo and just now I got an e-mail from the Bara Jonson´s Fan Group in SecondLife with the following message.

Bara as portrayed on Virtual Music Magazine

"Yesterday I was inteviewed for the Virtual Music Magazine here in SL and its already been published.

http://virtualmusicmagazine.virtualmusicservices.com/ 

Also I have to show this amazing blog from my sons favorite uncle.. Bock McMillan...(emboldened and underlined by this blogger)

http://bocksl.blogspot.com/2012/03/bara-on-tour-in-first-life.html

See you on Friday 12.30 for this weeks only show!"

Bara On Tour in First Life

The cute guy with white hair in the center of the picture is my buddy Bara Jonson, the well known singer and songwriter in SecondLife. He is also the first musician in SecondLife to sign a recording contract in first life.

Well, soon now my buddy is going to go off on a tour to Germany with The Rockland Band. I don´t know if they are going to visit the town of "Rastatt - Germany", but if they do I hope he says "Hi from Lund - Sweden" to Heike Babii! Heike is a "Bara Jonson Professional Stalker" like myself.

...the only thing missing to make this the best tour any band ever did is of course the dance troop  "The Bara Dancers With A Singer" under the magnificent leadership of yours truly.

Best of luck on the tour Bara buddy! ...and now please remember to send hugs and kisses to the wonderful Nickel your beautiful little son Kris from me when next you speak with them.

Zigadena Hits First Life Media

Zigadena Gabardini photographed by Emarald Harvey

As you may remember a comment of mine was used in an article on CTV News.ca, see my previous post Bock Is Quoted in First Life Media. Well my dear friends Zigadena Gabardini and Emarald Harvey have now outdone me completely.

The wonderful Zigadena was contacted by the Swedish magazine "Camino" for an interview on shopping and design in SecondLife and she got an entire spread in the magazine, both the paper and online issue (pages 12-13).

Zigadena and her husband Emarald are both wonderfully imaginative, talented and creative designers in SecondLife with both a shop inworld and on Marketplace (you can always find the SLurl to their Main Store inworld and the url to their products on Marketplace on their blog ZE designs SL

My buddy Bara Jonson was in a television documentary, my other buddy Eddi Haskell has done radio and television shows, Ziga and Em in a magazine interview with picture, I will have to make a film directed by Martin Scorsese to match up to them...

The Last C&P Show

When I got the news that Circe Broom was shutting down the Laurel Arts sim I was devastated. I have spent many hours of my SecondLife there enjoying poetry, live performances, comedy acts and last - but in no way least - "The Coffee and Pajamas Jazz Show with Elfay Pinkdot" (C&P) together with Ars, with friends or on my own.

Circe Broom, owner of the Laurel Arts sim

I first knew off C&P and met with DJ Elfay Pinkdot at the Saturday and Sunday shows that were held at Second Pride Festival of 2008. I was blown away by this chatty DJ who played great music while having an interactive banter with those at the show in SecondLife or listening in on radio and who were sending her messages by text or mail.

DJ Elfay Pinkdot in action

Everyone didn't get or like the format of the show, which relies heavily on audience participation and Elfay´s communication with us throughout the show. But I was thrilled and excited as many of the regulars who lovingly came week after week for Elfay, the music and the other regulars (in that order). Circe herself and her lover Vince were almost always there. Circe acting as a safe anchor and participating with the rest of us.

Margo, Carol, I and Diana

After Ars passed away I rarely left the home sim for a long time except for sets by Bara Jonson and Strum Diesel or events at OrmDricka and the C&P. These places I felt loved, welcomed and fairly safe. I cannot say how I would have managed without them, but I am happy they were there when I was in need.

Margo, Carol, I, Joetonight and Diana

As I was preparing for the last show of C&P at Circe´s Sunset Jazz Club I was sad but at the same time happy, because although I knew this was the last time I would be going there I would also meet the other regulars who had become my fiends, Circe, Elfay, Diana, Carol, Joetonight, Margo, Ex, Mari (who unfortunately could not be there this Sunday), DoubleDown Tandino (whom I meanly have renamed DDT for short) and more, many more.

It is sad when good things come to an end, but I for one will relish in the sweet memories of those days until I lose my mind or die. The last show was a Valentines Day celebration, if you should wonder about all the hearts.

The regulars assembled for a last shot

Joetonight

Bock

Bara & Free in Concert

Free Balan & Bara Jonson

 Last night I had the exquisite pleasure of catching a gig with my buddy the Swedish singer/songwriter Bara Jonson and his new singing partner Free Balan.

There are only two words that can fully describe what it sounds like when they sing together, pick one of them or use both. The words are heavenly and orgasmic (not the exploding kind but the slow and flowing kind. that rolls over you like waves in the  the sea and make you shudder from head to toe and then back again and leaves your body tingling with pleasure a long while).

Although I was nauseous when I got to the beautiful venue I completely forgot about it as soon as they started singing. And this, ladies and gentleman, was after they had been practicing with their first life band Ma´am all evening since 6.30 pm CET until just before they came inworld for the gig that started at 11 pm CET.

Can you all imagine how I will react to their voices when they are fresh? I will most likely need diapers, a straight jacket and more than "a few good men" to keep me in my seat!

The venue was by no means full, but that was mostly due to the scheduling. At 1 pm SLT on a week night the Euros have gone to bed or are preparing to do so and the Americans are still at work, school or eating lunch. Those of us that where there were thrilled out of our socks although most of us kept our clothes on!

The Wonderful Bara

Yesterday I - for the first time in a long time- had the possibility to catch a set by my dear buddy Bara Jonson, SecondLife (and first life) singer/songwriter extraordinaire. It was bloody awesome!

Bara has a wonderful warm voice that goes straight into my heart and while there plays on all the strings it can find. Those of us who were there, also got to hear a new song by Bara - which was wonderful even if I have forgotten the title - and the splendid news that Bara, his new co-singer Free (whom I haven´t had a chance to listen to yet but have received excellent reports about) and his band now have a manager in first life.

During my post-set talk with Bara we talked about his family, Nickel and Kris (who are still in the U.S.) and Bara mentioned that they were both coming over to Sweden this summer. He also mentioned that Kris was going to be christened during his visit here and then said "As I have often told Nickel, there is only one person whom I can imagine as Kris´s godfather..."

A few years ago I was in a very small part instrumental in seeing to it that Bara got his ass over to the U.S., where he met up with Nickel in real life, shared some vodka with her and corrupted the beautiful innocent woman so badly with his charm and vodka that nine months later she gave birth to their beautiful son Kristoffer.

I was totally blown away and elated by being asked to perform this honor for my friends, even though I did not admit it at the time. Sadly, I had to tell Bara that "Even the Church of Sweden has a few standards and one is that the godparent belongs to the church and has the faith".

Alas, I no longer fulfill those small requirements so I had to decline with a broken heart - after I had quickly and quietly considered rejoining the church again.

Well Jonas and Elizabeth (Bara´s and Nickel´s first life names), even if I cannot be Kris´s godfather I will do my very best to be his guardian angel and/or partner in crime!

When Strangers Click 2

On September 23rd I was very lucky! Although it had been widely publicized on some of the Swedish SecondLife blogs that the HBO documentary film "When Strangers Click" was going to be shown on the Swedish television channel SVT I had completely forgotten about it.

However, I must have remembered subconsciously or just had a bit of dumb luck because contrary to my usual habits the first thing I did when I came home from work was turn on the television set. And there it was, the film had just started running so I settled down in front of my set and watched it.

The film depicts five couples meeting and falling in love on the Internet, among them the SecondLife singer/songwriter Bara Jonson and his sweet wife Nickel Borrelly, who both are dear friends of mine.

Bock as Bara´s best man
Photography by Ika Cioc

It is in this film that The Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm and prince of Cascade Falls, makes his international television debut in the cameo role as Bara´s best man in the pictures from the sweet couples SecondLife marriage.

I liked the documentary, but most of all I loved watching my friends and Bara´s mother Malla all being charming, intelligent, honest and so sweet. I actually fell completely in platonic love with both the primatars of Nickel and Malla.

Nickel very forthrightly tells us that we owe gratitude to Vodka for the existence of their beautiful son  Kris, who was born nine months after Bara and Nickels first life meeting.
----

An interesting fact that was presented in the program is the responses that women and men gave to the question "What are you most afraid of concerning Internet dating?"
Women: That they would meet a serial killer.
Men: That they would meet someone who is fat.

Intermission

I am too tired to blog so I give you a musical break instead.

This is Mauro Scocco, my favorite Swedish singer/songwriter, next to Bara Jonson (the Swedish SecondLife celebrity musician and my buddy).

Mauro has for a long time been the singer I always return to when I am happy or sad. Well, to be totally truthful, whatever mood I am in actually - except angry.

The title of the song means "I Miss Us". Please enjoy!

Bara´s Release Party

Bara on stage

 

The cloud is Chaplin Early. He doesn't like his picture taken.
as you may remember from my series "Naked avatars in SL"

A guy named Galen Spot (Great legs huh?)

My beautiful sister Millimina and I having a good time

Bara Jonson finally released his long awaited album "Lost in America... Somewhere" with a release party at the wonderful Gimle venue, owned and operated by Iendi Laville and Apollon Allen.

Bara sang and played his guitar to us who where there or listening in on the stream; some songs acoustically, some songs to back tracks from the new album and some even in duet with his son young son Kris. Let me tell you at once, this album was well worth waiting for!

You can buy the full album here.

The audience at the sim where mostly Scandinavians but we had a thoroughly great time.

(This post has been corrected according to the clarifications made by Bara Jonson in a comment)