Gay Archipelago: Recent Developments

While I have been taking a time-out from blogging for personal reasons, which I am sure will sooner or later spill into a post or maybe 263 of them.., life as we know it has gone on as if nothing had happened. (Now ain't that strange?)

A while back the Gay Archipelago welcomed three new member sims into their fold.

I am assured by several friends in the know at the Gay Archipelago that although the revised membership criteria that have been adopted may be different, they are by no means lower than previously.

About a week ago I received notification of a notice that reads:

GA SAYS NO TO NEGATIVITY AND LACK OF PARTICIPATION

The GA represents solidarity in the LGBT community, existing to promote and support member sims. A positive outlook and a desire to participate in GA events and cooperation with other members and the group as a whole are basic requirements. Regretfully, not all have such a positive outlook or wish to be a part of this. We are asking that Pine Valley Resort and Pandore leave the GA of their own accord or be ejected as of tomorrow.

Sincerely,
Weylin
Dextrum
Chade
Nikolai
Hiro

Whether or not the above mentioned sims had actually themselves decided to leave the Gay Archipelago before they were asked to leave or be ejected is a matter of contention.

As far as I am aware both Pine Valley Resort and Pandore left the Gay Archipelago within the designated timeframe. It is of particular interest to note that Pandore was one of the founding sims of the Gay Archipelago.

A couple of days ago I was also informed that Ohiomike Lockjaw had decided to withdraw his Lockjaw Isles from the Gay Archipelago. Ohiomike's decision interestingly enough has some repercussions on one of the members in the lead team, who will now have to find a new roll on another member sim to continue being a member of the lead team.

So, summing up the Gay Archipelago has won some new member sims and lost the same number. However I am told, by usually well informed sources, that the Gay Archipelago has av many as fifteen or more applicants who are awaiting approval on their membership applications.

Update on the GA Kerfuffle - Updated

Due to my mood swings and the fact that I managed to grind two of my teeth to pieces during my sleep, I have been remiss in my duties of informing you about some events in the Gay Archipelago after my latest post.

So here is an update on what has happened, as far as I am informed.

ricogenu (formerly known as Rico Bluestar), who was appointed as PR Lead by the GA Lead Weylin Vale a while back, has resigned from office after an altercation with Chade Dagger, the simultaneously appointed Treasurer. The two have differing versions of what actually happened, so I will leave it to them to give their versions in the comments should they wish to do so.

The following sim-owners have left Gay Archipelago (there may be more, I seem to have lost my note card on this):
Garth Raleigh,
Mitch Underby,
Othon Weiland,
Draghan Marksman,
Myles Capalini and - following ricogenu's resignation -
Evan Greymyst (5 sims) and
ricogenu (2 sims, co-owned with Evan Greymyst)
--- Update---
Ricky Silentghost,
Harrison Constantine and
Evan Rutledge (2 sims)

Re: Coup Or Not In the GA? (Edit: 2015-07-15) (Update: 2015-07-16)

Today I received a note card from my friend Chade Dagger, the newly appointed Treasurer of the Gay Archipelago, partly rebutting correcting the information in my previous post Bock in SecondLife: Has There Been A Coup In the Gay Archipelago?.

*****

Hi Bock, I have read your blog post and I will be speaking to you when you are ready as a representative of the GA governance team. But first allow me to correct one item on your post. :)

You write:
"According to information from several well informed sources Weylin Vale, the current Lead of GA, announced a meeting on Saturday at 11 PM SLT set to take place only eight hours later on Sunday at 7 AM SLT."

The meeting was announced considerably earlier than that. Because that group generates so many notices and SL only keeps so many I will have to dig out the first announcement, but below I give you the text of rescheduling when Wey remembered the 4th of July in the US (being Australians that celebration is not top of mind for us).

----- 

UPCOMING GA MEETING SUNDAY 5TH JULY POSTPONED
Due to the 4th of July Holiday and having received several messages from Estate owners and potential Summerfest participants, we shall be rescheduling to Sunday the 12th July (time to be announced shortly)

As this is the main Summerfest meeting, we shall be holding an open meeting after we have conducted the member business. This will be our season launch for those interested in sponsoring, volunteering, performing and to showcase this years theme.

Many Thanks

-----

That was posted on the 4th of July so clearly your "well informed" sources are making stuff up to suit their political agenda.

Cheers,
Chade

*****
(Edit 2015-07-15) My sincere apologies to everyone concerned for having published incorrect information and my thanks to Chade for supplying me with this correction.

I have today offered Chade and the new Lead team the opportunity to address the information given in my post on the condition that they also address the issue of whether or not it was within the bylaws (if any exist) or in the traditional practices of the GA for the Lead to appoint members to the Lead positions without being vetted by, approved by, voted upon or being elected by the Owners Group.

I will of course also offer the opposition the same opportunity.

Both parties will be given one post each to make their statements.

Update: Myles Capalini On "Suddenness" & More, where you will find that the date of the meeting was announced early, but the time of the meeting was not announced until eight hours (or less) before the meeting.

Has There Been A Coup In the Gay Archipelago? (Corrected 2015-07-15) (Updated 2015-07-16)

The Gay Archipelago (GA) is an association of landowners of multiple diverse LGBT/LGBT-friendly sims in SecondLife. They conduct Archipelago-wide events, and welcome LGBT newcomers into SecondLife.

"G Dragon Coup d'etat" by Sui-Kunoichi

The GA is governed by The Owners Group, which consists of the sim owners themselves or their appointed representatives.

Hitherto - i.e. until yesterday - the leaders of the governing body (the GA Lead, the Vice Lead and the PR Lead) have historically always been vetted by and voted upon by the The Owners Group.

According to information from several well informed sources Weylin Vale, the current Lead of GA, announced a meeting on Saturday at 11 PM SLT set to take place only eight hours later on Sunday at 7 AM SLT. (Correction 2015-07-15: This information was incorrect, please see the my later post  Bock in SecondLife; Re:Coup Or Not In the GA?. My sincere apologies to all involved and to my readers.) Update 2015-07-16: Myles Capalini On "Suddenness" & More, where you will find that the date of the meeting was announced early, but not the time.

The purpose of the meeting was purportedly about the upcoming GA SummerFest 2015.

At the meeting yesterday Weylin Vale unexpectedly announced to the owners group that he had appointed the following positions
Vice Lead - Dextrum Boucher

PR Lead - Rico Bluestar,

Treasurer - Chade Dagger,

IT Director - Hiro Dagger-Clemenceau,

Membership Director - To Be Announced and

2015 Festival Director - Caeru Dubrovna.

---

As I understand it, this sudden and unexpected deviation from previous procedure by the GA Lead has raised concerns among many sim owners in the GA on the future direction of the organization and whether or not they wish to remain a part of it. 

I will try to keep you updated on further developments as they unfold.

Hinterland Seven

Hinterland is celebrating the seventh anniversary of it's creation on Saturday, May 31, 2014, from 2 AM SLT.

The kind, wonderful, hot, sexy and amazing lairds of Hinterland invite us all to join them in the celebration. There will be a Deep Forest theme and loads of fun and prizes to give away.

The Fashion Show at SP2012

I am spending too much time having fun with friends at the Second Pride Festival and not blogging enough so i have a lot to tell you all, but will do so in increments.

The fashionistas arrive

Starting off, let me tell you about the Second Pride Fashion Show yesterday.

Three brand names where represented in the show, Beefcake and Empire Emporium which both do menswear, while Tort does womenswear. I will show them in that order, so here goes.

Sneak peak to where the models are waiting

Sexy MC Chade Dagger did a great job

 1. Beefcake

2. Empire Emporium

3, Tort

 

  
There was one of the men´s outfits that I fell in love with, let see if you can guess which...? I promise its not the model´s allure (even if he happens to be a fine specimen), it is a matter of pure design!


I actually bought it today and wore it for the first part of my fun at Pride roday.

Good Ending

"All´s well that ends well", it is said and there is no better way to end a weekend than listening to the tunes of Arcangelo Hellman at The Sanctuary while dancing with a hot builder (in this case my mate Chade Dagger).

Artists and Other Animals

"Bock" by Chade Dagger

Here is a bonus poster for all my fans to put up over their beds or in their living rooms. Those who aren't one of my fans can use it to throw darts at or on the shooting range if they bother.

I have been thinking about the word "artist" and who can - rightfully - claim to "be an artist". As it turns out artist is not a well-defined or protected title. Anyone can at any point in time decide call themselves an artist if they wish to do so, but that does by no means mean that others must accept their claim.

For me an artist would be involved with art forms concerned with pure visual or performing arts for the purpose of aesthetics or concept rather than practical application.

Designing household appliances, skins or clothes are indeed important creative activities but do not usually count as fine art in my book. However, there are exceptional instances when I would consider items of these activities as art. Only to mention one example I will point at my own creation "The Jesters Hat - only for the most daring of fashionistas" which is sublime.

Sunday Brunch at Hinterland

Hiroku, Mitch and Chade

Today I visited Hinterland for Sunday brunch. Well to be quite honest. I went there to catch a set at The Den but as it turned out I was 24 hours too late.

Still, when I got there I was welcomed to join Chade Dagger. his partner Ronan Juran and Hiroku Kamachi and Mitch for a good chat and some strong coffee around the fire,

Hiroku, Mitch, Chade, Ronan and I

I hadn't seen the guys in a while so it was good to catch up. The men of Hinterland have always been good to me and to Ars too. Ars used to have a regular set at The Den on Saturday mornings (somehow I confused it with Sundays), so I was a  very regular patron. The first memorial for Ars was held at Saint Magnus Kirk, the church that is seen in the background on the top picture.

Next Saturday, 1-3 AM SLT, there will be a Scottish event at The Den, I will be there for sure (if I can only schlepp my tired ass out of bed) wearing one of my leather kilts.

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!

Is Bock A Closet Techie?

Bock by Chade Dagger

I am brilliant, bloody brilliant, even if I have to say so myself!

At this very late hour I just succeeded in recovering all my mail and contacts from before my meddling with the computer the other day.

Now straight to bed, my project for tomorrow is to find my bookmarks!

With the Dudes at The Marina

Yesterday my SecondLife started with a visit from Elorian Scarbridge and Butch Diavolo. They stopped by for a grand tour of Southern Charm. During the long tour we had a good conversation, it turn´s out that Butch actually knows almost everyone I am acquainted with in SecondLife.

Afterwards we continued on to Butch´s set at the wonderful new venue Chade Dagger has built on Hinterland. It´s called "The Marina"!

 

Chade Dagger

Sven Sharktooth

Nobel Prize for Philip Rosedale?!!

Philip in a tuxedo - like I want to see him soon again

So I was dreaming a bit during the night and now I am going to share parts of my dreams with you, dear readers. The dreams were totally wild and crazy but happy ones.

I had a short one about kissing my Ars, it was so real that I even dreamed of feeling his breath on my face. The only thing was my mind could not decide which Ars I was kissing, his SecondLife avatar or his first life person Doug, so it kind of shifted from one to the other all the time.

In my dreams I also remembered the amazing memorial services that were held in Ars honor, first the one at St. Magnus Kirk in Hinterland (arranged by Chade, Hiroku and the other wonderful men at Hinterland) and then the one at the Calas Galadhon Garden sims (arranged by two of Ars´s brothers, Dejerrity and Jeb, and the two owners of Calas Galadhon, Tymus Tenk and Truck Meredith, and finally wonderful builder Bora Rossini).

Come to think of it I really wish I had pictures from those two services, but I was too preoccupied with other things to take any myself.

At both places we had many avatars coming in from all corners of the world to be together and support each other at this point in time and in their busy first life´s. All because we shared a love and admiration for the avatar Ars Northmead and Doug, the man behind the avatar.

The memorial at Mirromere with me, our boys and Millimina
(Photo courtesy of Millimina Salamander)

Did you know that we were more  than 70 avatars at Calas Galadhon for the whole ceremony? And one of the avatars actually had parts of Doug´s first life family sitting there watching the computer screen, his father, his sisters and brothers and some cousin and nephews.

We were all there, from all over the world sharing these moments of remembrance together, being with each other, supporting each other.

The first thing I thought when I woke up was "Philip Rosedale - and possibly Linden Lab also - should be awarded the Nobel Prize!"

The Nobel Prize comes in the following categories Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, Peace, and finally Economic Sciences. The last prize is awarded by Sweden's National bank in Memory of Alfred Nobel.

I can imagine Philip Rosedale receiving the prize in possibly three of the six categories, Physics, Physiology or Medicine and Peace, but maybe also Economic Sciences.

What do you people think? Could he receive the prize? If so, in which category/categories and why? Talk amongst yourselves then tell me. I have a few ideas myself that I may possibly leak.

Eddi Wants Your Poster!

Bock as seen by Chade Dagger and then "Photofuniad"

My friend and co-blogger Eddi Haskell is calling for your posters on his blog Eddi Haskell´s Second Life. Head on over to read the post and the particular requirements and get his email.

This is my contribution, with a slogan ripped off from L'Oréal skincare products. For the non-francophone among my readers the meaning of the slogan is "Because we are worth it".

I suggest you start mail-bombing him straight away - I did!

The Den at Easter

I went to The Den at Erotes late yesterday evening (my time).

Due to the ongoing Easter Holidays the club had less guest than usual but nonetheless DJ Butch Diavolo, club owner Chade and host Bacchus made sure that those of us that had come had a good time, they always do.

Here are a few sample pictures from yesterdays party.

DJ Butch, as always without footwear

Chade showing off his new haircut and moves

Burning Bridges

Photography by Tim Barber

Well life sort of sucks right now, and I really brought it on through my own actions. I now feel like the man on the amazing picture above by Tim Barber, caught on a bridge and trying to escape the fire.

Ever since my Ars died (there I finally wrote that horrid four-letter word) I have enveloped myself in a cocoon of safety that the Swedish community in SecondLife has kindly offered me. The only places outside of that "safe haven" - which have offered me the sense of safety that I required - have been Elfay Pinkdot´s show at The Circe´s Sunset Jazz Club and Chade Dagger´s club The Den together with Strum Diesel´s and Bara Jonson´s gigs have been the limits of my SecondLife world outside of my home sim.

Recent events and ghosts from the past have forced me to understand that this cannot go on any longer. I must widen my world in SecondLife again, either that or leave it. And I do not wish to leave so there only remains one real alternative for me.

There will of course still be places in the Swedish community that will always feel like a second home to me, places like OrmDricka to mention only one. So I will not burn any bridges, but I will start asking myself and many people on my friends list if we actually still are friends or if we ever have been.

SecondLife is huge and wonderful and has so much more to offer, but I hope to run across some of you out there!

Call for Recount of Votes

I just read this shocking news on www.eddihaskell.com, and I felt I had to share it with you, my dear readers.

Today there apparently was a drag party at my favorite gay club in SecondLife, The Erotes.

My friend Eddi Haskell decided to go to the party and wore his best lavender poodle frock, sweet pearl earrings and an amazing hairdo. He looked perfectly stunning if the pictures do him any justice. The fact that he added the "Vivienne Westwood-esque" touch of dirty chuckers should have bagged the victory!

But he was robed! Yes, yes I do willingly admit that Dex Moleno always looks awesome whatever outfit he is wearing, but surely nothing and no one could have won over Eddi today, perhaps not even I.

This is a scandal of immense proportions, I have encouraged Eddi, who I am sure is in tears due to this, to immediately sue the Erotes Club and ask for a recount of the votes! We will drag that hunky club owner Chade Daggers (yeah, he is also a dear friend of mine) sweet ass through the courts until he loses every stitch of cloth on his amazing body.

All we ask for is justice and that Eddi gets the honor of the win he so rightly deserves! (I am telling you, even the Gore v. Bush case fades in the light of this outrage.)

Eddi plays around with Bock-poster

 Tonight I discovered that Eddi Haskell had made a few variations of Chade Daggers great poster of me. The results are really fun and cool.

Take a look at them here.