Commemorative C&P for Circe

Today there will be a commemorative Coffee and Pajamas with DJ Elfay Pinkdot (aka +Lisa Feay)  honoring the memory of the late Circe Broom, who passed away on November 29, 2012 after a long struggle with her health.

Circe was a supernova on the SecondLife music and cultural scene. She ran the following clubs and venues until shortly before her passing, Sunset Jazz Club (established 2004), Memphis Pavilion, Luxor Stage, Cairo Theater, Circe's Sanctuary, Anubis Art Gallery, and Temple of Bast.

This will be the first annual:Circe Broom Memorial Vodka & Coffee Xmas Crash! The commemorative party starts at 10 AM SLT and will take place at Brianna Beresford´s Tranquil Café (SLurl)

On a personal level I will always remember Circe as my energetic, warm, wonderful, kind, loving and supportive friend who in spite of her first life difficulties and her busy second life schedule always had time for a chat and a good laugh.

Preparations for Wintering

Well, today is the autumn equinox in the northern hemisphere. All species of animals are starting to prepare for the onslaught of winter, and the Bock-monster also.

The Bock-monster was the nickname lovingly given to the Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm and prince of Cascade Falls, by the amazing Ms. Elfay Pinkdot, who once had the renowned "Coffee and Pajamas Jazz Show" at Circe´s Sunset Jazz Club. This was a regular hangout for the laird during Saturdays or Sundays for several years, at first usually with his Ars but later on his own. Well, not alone actually because he had many dear friends there.

The animals have three options to choose among. The first is whether to stay or to migrate to warmer climes. if they decide to overwinter they must decide whether to hibernate or to face the winter awake.

The last three days the laird sees to have slipped into a state of semi-hibernation, as soon as he comes home from work he throws himself in bed and pulls the duvet up over his head, taking care to see to it that his feet do not stick out. He then sleeps until midnight and then wakes up to drink a little water, brush his teeth and read mail for about an hour or two before going back to bed to sleep until it´s time to get up for work.

A part of the hibernating process is also to fatten up before falling asleep, for this reason the laird has in those three days consumed one (1) kilogram of Bassett´s Winegums on his own. He cannot stand the sight of them anymore.

This is a rather boring existence and he misses his friends in both lives, but he is following his doctors advice, "If you need to sleep, sleep!".

Anyway I do get reports of whats happening in SecondLife. Yesterday I was informed among other things that the studly Mr. Ziggy Starsmith had been spotted at Genni´s Bar in Second Norway enjoying the music of my Sergeant at Arms, the British-Canadian cat sirhc DeSantis McMillan.

Elfay At Pride

The one and only Elfay Pinkdot.

There are very few things that can convince me to crawl out of bed before 9 AM (12 AM midnight SLT) on a Sunday morning, my Ars was one and the divine Elfay Pinkdot doing a set at Second Pride is another.

Despite the early hour I was happy when I got there and was looking forward to two hours of good music, pleasant company and a fun chat. My expectations were indeed surpassed!

Not only was it a good crowd of humorous like-minded people that stayed on after the previous set or came in but also some long missed friends. Among those I want to mention Circe Broom especially, the iconic and generous megastar on the SecondLife live music scene from almost the start until the end of last year. Although Circe isn't feeling well and the fact that it was 3 AM local time for her, she joined us in good spirit and with her usual charm. It was so good to see her again!

Joetonight Starship and Ryce Skytower were also there, adding a bit of male beauty to the starving masses, i.e. me. Longtime readers of this blog will remember Ryce from my series "Naked Avatars in SL" where he stunned us all with his beauty; see Nakna Avatarer i SL 67 (url)

Even if Elfay had a sexy drawl at first, coming straight from bed to do the show, she soon warmed up and so did the crowd, both the regulars and her new fans. We really had a ball.

The best thing is though, that at the end of her show Elfay mentioned that she had agreed with the organizers to do a second set during the coming weeks. I will of course be there, I do not like missing Elfay.

Here are some more pictures from the event.

Joetonight dancing with feathers

Elfay, me and Circe

Ryce and I, the only picture of us that doesn't
have one or the others face covered by the darn flag

Hugging my dear Circe goodbye

SP2012 - Day 2

Lets start at the end of my second day with a few hunky men, it always makes me feel better. 

Above and below you see the three hunkiest men of the day at Second Pride, it´s DJ Cupric "The Coop" Router and his host Jagger Naughton with a companion doing their SWAMP THANG. Whatever that was it was leisurely and sexy.

I took it very easy Day 2 and gave it an early night because I knew I had to be up by 12 AM (midnight) SLT for Elfay Pinkdot´s Coffee & Pajamas Jazz Show and an hour after that my mate DJ Sarco Halderman´s set.. 

DJ Wesley Spengler grooving and blogger Jeff Ellsworth checking him out.

 The rest of the day I spent checking out the Ruthenium sim, where parts of the celebration rakes place.

I found the exhibition of quilts there, beautifully displayed and in a calm setting. Strangely enough there were quilts from 2003-2009 and none at all for 2010 and later.

The buildteam for Second Pride, under the lead of my friend Levi Ewing,  have done a really great job, with beautiful sets imaging the streets of
Buenos Aires (SLurl), 
London (SLurl), 
San Francisco (SLurl) and 
Sydney (SLurl) 


On Ruthenium there are a couple of beautiful streets from a few block in Buenos Aires. (see below)

The Gay History Museum is an amazing build showing an exhibition of the LGBT-movement from the early days until the present days. The globes are a masterpiece, both from outside and within.

Bock,  the eternal tourist

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

Reflections on a Monday

Sunday was a hectic day for me. My feelings were all over the place, swinging from sorrow to happiness and then back and forth a few times. All in all it was a good day though.

Can one actually celebrate a wedding anniversary if the spouse is dead? That was one of the things on my mind early in the day, but I soon decided that "Hell yes, sure I can" because it was one of my happiest days in SecondLife. "Honi soit qui mal y pense" (which in Bockese directly translates into "Bugger those evil minded bastards who think ill thereof")

Then I was reached by the news of Whitney Houston´s death at an early age in tragic circumstances. The first song that came to my mind was "I Will Always Love You" from the film where she starred against Kevin Costner, "The Bodyguard". Not very original I know but...

The last Coffee and Pajamas Jazz Show with Elfay at Circe´s Sunset Jazz Club brought laughter and sad and happy memories. That club and that show and Circe, Elfay, Diana, Margo and Carol, Mari and Ex and all the other regulars there, meant a lot for me during a difficult time. I cannot even begin to explain how important it was for me to have that place to go to every Saturday (and later Sunday). It was a sad parting of sorts but still not because they will all remain in SecondLife and hopefully we will all keep in touch.

The Sunday ended on a very happy and festive note with the birthday bash of my buddy Ziggy Starsmith and his studelicious man Holter. All the gay hunks of SecondLife where there and I should think some more came after I left at midnight (my time) to catch some sleep before work today.

In between the show and the party I had good conversations with my sister Millimina, my brother in-laws Dejerrity and Andrey...hmmm sorry I mean D R E Y. My avatars soul was after further investigations proven to be in mortal peril and was finally saved. 

But more about the last show, the birthday bash and the tests and the scary treatments I had to undergo to save my soul in future posts. I need to gather more energy for that.

Ohh I will also reveal the identity of "my vampire", the most beautiful vampire that has ever existed, including that silly Tom Cruise´s rendition.

My Second Home is Closing

It is with heartrending sadness I keep rereading this note card from my amazing friend Circe Broom entitled "Closing Notice". I had somehow missed it in the onslaught of messages that meet you when you log in to SecondLife but my reliable friend Diana Gilderoy forwarded it to me.

Circe Broom

"It is with profound regret that I must announce the closing of my Laurel Arts Isle venues (Sunset Jazz Club, Memphis Pavilion, Luxor Stage, Cairo Theater, and Sanctuary), which will take place on February 20, 2012. 

I have run venues since 2004, but can no longer sustain the cost of maintaining the sim. I thank you all for your visits over the years. I am grateful for all the wonderful music and poetry that has taken place in my venues. It is hard to let go, but I simply must. 

Thank you. I will never forget the wonderful times we've had. Join us during these last weeks of our existence, take pics, post them, send them to me, whatever - so that we can remember Laurel Arts for another 8 years! 

I want to thank those of you who have donated at the venues, helping to keep the Laurel Arts venues running this long. Due to the recession and a seeming paradigm shift in Second Life, not many people deem it necessary to support entertainment in SL, causing many venues to close down. Sadly, my venues now join those who have come to this bitter end. 

The final shows on Laurel Arts Isle will be held on Sunday, February 19, 2012. 

Special thanks go to my assistant, Angelstar3 Stonewall, and my partner, Vincent Merricks, for their staunch support, especially during my illness and absence. 

The Circe's Circle of Sounds group, which is over 4,000 members strong, will remain intact, and artists/poets can use it to announce their shows anywhere after February 20. 

Warmest regards, Circe Broom"

I have been a regular patron at the Laurel Arts sim during the last four years of my existence in SecondLife. In the beginning with Ars and later alone. We especially made it a habit to visit there for Elfay Pinkdot´s "Coffee and Pajamas Jazz Show". I have met countless of sweet, wonderful and supportive friends there who have become dear to me.

Today Sunday 12, 2012, 10 AM - 12 PM SLT, Elfay will bring us the last Coffee and Pajamas at Circe´s Sunset Jazz Club. So dig out your PJ´s from your overloaded Inventories and

BE THERE OR BE SQUARE!

Sweden - Closed Due to Summer

When I was at Elfay´s show this weekend I was chatting a bit with my friend Diana as usual. Somehow we got to the subject of vacations and I understood that she was puzzled by the fact that I - being a lawyer - could take a five week vacation.

The easiest way to explain this is to point to the fact that Sweden for a large part of it´s modern history (1936-1976, 1982-1991 and 1994-2006) has been ruled by the Social Democratic Party of Sweden.

One of the main pillars of the party´s ideology has been "the welfare of the people" in all aspects of life. They are thus rightfully considered the main designers of what once was "The Welfare State" where the citizens were always under the benevolent protection of the state, from the cradle to the grave.

This welfare state began crumbling in the 1990´s and is since then slowly being dismantled, piece by piece, to expose the surprised Swedes to the market forces.

However one of the benefits created that has not yet been removed is the Holidays Act. According to this law all employees are entitled to a holiday whether employed by the hour or the CEO of a company. (No employed person is excluded, even the Swedish Prime Minister takes a vacation.) Everyone who is employed is entitled to a minimum of five weeks vacation, four of these weeks they are entitled to receive continuously during the period June-August.

During a period of about six weeks (July - mid August) Sweden comes close to a complete standstill. Only the most essential services are maintained and the workforce of any given company is reduced to half - or less - it´s usual size, some companies even choose to shut down completely for a month.

I think one of the main reasons we Swedes accept these conditions is that we ourselves wouldn't want to lose our summer vacation.

Summer is important to us Swedes, just saying!

Elfay´s today

Me, Diana and Mari (Photo courtesy of Joetonight Starship)

Bock as Buddy (Photo courtesy of Joetonight Starship)

Enjoying Elfay Pinkdot´s "Coffee and Pajamas Jazz Show" at Circe´s Sunset Jazz Club. Today was "The Buddy Holly Show" as I hope you see.

And right in the middle of the show my Internet Service Provider  was taken down by lightning...

Grooving at Sunset

Almost every Sunday morning 10 AM - 12 PM (noon) you can find me and a gang of friends hanging out on Circe´s Sunset Jazz Club for the "Coffee and Pajamas Jazz Show with Elfay Pinkdot".

I go there for the good music, the excellent chat and banter in local and of course the wonderful music Elfay´s plays for us. Ars always used to say that Elfay is one of the best professional DJ´s he heard in SecondLife. We went there together all the time and it´s always a great comfort for me to go there.

Today I had a slight headache when I went there, fortunately Elfay was spinning excellent mellow guitar music, so by the time we finished my headache was almost gone

Neither Circe, Carol or Joetonight were there today but I am hoping they will all be there next time.

 

Second Pride 2011 - Satisfaction Survey

The organizers are asking us to do a satisfaction survey on Second Pride 2011. Please click on the picture above to get to the survey!

I have a few views which I have already shared in doing the survey.

It was a great party and the DJ´s were awesome. I had a lot of fun and met old and new friends but

• I would have preferred if everything had taken place in the same area
• I missed the opening and closing ceremonies
• I missed the opening and closing parades
• I missed the live acts (below I mention a few that I am sure would have loved to be there)
• Bara Jonson
• Strum Diesel
• Jaynine Scarborough
• SOAR
• Junivers Stockholm and the Cardinals and
• DJ Elfay Pinkdot with her Coffee and Pajamas Jazz show

My Brother Is Back

Yesterday as I was - as usual on Sunday mornings (SLT) - dancing, chatting and having a splendid time at Elfays´s Coffee and Pajamas Show I got a very surprising IM from Martial, my dear brother who was lost to real life some time ago.

We talked in IM a while and all feelings and wonderful memories were stirred up again. I cannot help myself but Martial always hits a certain spot in my heart. Although I wanted to remain restrained, guarded, distant (whatever may be the correct word) and a bit sulky (yes, I actually want to do that sometimes - roll me in tar and cover me in feathers) I couldn't stop the feelings of strong love that just welled up inside me.

Certain people I just cannot help loving, however I try to hide it, block it or stop it, Martial is definitely one of them.

In real life it is exactly the same. I have more than a few ex-boyfriends I still love, no matter how ferocious or ugly the breakup may have been.

P.S. Yes, I do realize that this post may well cause some people to call me "pillertrillare" (an ugly Swedish word for "drug addict") due to my present use of  prescribed antidepressants, but they don´t have a clue so they can jump in any lake of their own choice. 

I must repeat that my main reasons for writing this blog is for my own benefit and those who care to read it.

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!

Well now...

Bock as seen by Joetonight Starship

Well guys and girls, I am too tired for much blogging today so I thought I would give you something to feast your eyes on instead.

This picture was taken by my court-photographer Joetonight Starship during my visit to his beautiful treehouse before Elfay´s "Coffee and Pajamas" on Sunday.

All I can say is, it takes a lot of hard work and maintenance to look stunning, but we all have to try and keep up with Apmel...

The Weekend in Pictures

Well it started of badly on Saturday with me all dolled up and ready to go to a wedding of a friend and his partner. When I looked closely at the invitation - to get a clue where to teleport - I suddenly discovered that the wedding was on Friday, the day before.

So instead of going to that event I sent my excuses to my friend together with the wedding gift and my hopes that they had had a great time without me.

As I started complaining in the Swedish chat about my confusion I was told there was a spontaneous party starting at The Grenouille Inn, run by a friend of mine Iendi Laville.

Here you see me exposing myself to an angel on the counter of Grenouille Inn. (The angel is Iendi Laville.) This time there was a bet on about how fast I would get undressed, so I stretched it out a bit to tease the onlookers and it took me a full five (5) minutes.

On Sunday I as usual went to Circe´s Sunset Jazz Club for The Coffee and Pajamas Jazz Show with Elfay Pinkdot and the best chatters in local anywhere in SecondLife.

This is a picture of the sublime Miss Pinkdot.

We were celebrating the 29th anniversary of Circe Broom´s 21st birthday in real life, and looking at Miss Broom one wouldn't have guessed she was a day older than 21.

Circe Broom, photo by Joetonight Starship

At the Sunset I met Joe´s fairy (yeah, yeah he is an elf but I prefer to say fairy) husband Dalimar for the first time. They looked really hot on the dancefloor.

Look at those moves woohoo!

















The weekend ended with my usual run to the other friendliest club in SecondLife, yeah there are two tied for that position, Vampi´s OrmDricka. There I met DJ Lucien Maven again, I really must say that man has impeccable taste! Here you see some snapshots of us together.

Sunday at Elfay´s

Well, my dear Elfay has now decided to move her show "Elfay Pinkdot´s Coffee and Pajamas Jazz Show" to Sundays, 10 AM - 12 AM, at Circe´s Sunset Jazz Club (which is the oldest jazz club in SecondLife, it´s been around since 2004).

Yesterday I was there for Elfay´s Mardi Gras Special and so where many of "the usuals suspects", the big group of steady patrons. We are the ones that follow Elfay through hell and high water, come what may etc. etc.

All of us come to the show for the great music (mostly jazz), Elfay´s bantering and the usually great and inspired chat running in local throughout the show.

One of the many interesting things to look forward to is to see what outfits the group turns up in.

I hadn't changed since the evening before, except I wore my new well-earned bead necklaces. At Mardi Gras women earn their beads by showing their boobs, but as a man I have no boobs to show so I´ll leave you all guessing how I earned them this time...

My dear friend Diana during the show switched into one of the scariest voodoo witches I have seen since looking at a InWorldz-blog. LilTank has sworn to make a new pajama for every one of Elfay´s shows this year, and this time he looked really awesome.

Joetonight left way too early, before I had gotten my camera out.

Diana

LilTank

The group shot taken at the end of yesterdays show

Celebration for Elfay!

The wonderful, the amazing, the smoldering sexy creature that is Elfay Pinkdot celebrated both her birthday (January 2nd) and her rezday (January 6th) at her "Coffee & Pajamas Show" at "Circe´s Sunset Jazz Club".

The room was filled with old and new friends and the show was great as always (My pics where taken early in the show). Next to "OrmDricka" I think this is one of the very few venues in SecondLife where people actually talk to each other in local chat anymore, I wonder why that is?

The birthday and rezday girl, Elfay!

Some crazy blonde Swede, Duck, Doc or Book something?