Bits of this and Bits of that......

Despite my miserable posting performance and the fact I have missed a lot of Soul Mods nights out whilst sat in my chair; there have been a few cool things occuring in my somewhat limited Second Life.

First off, Shauna gave me a really groovy cap that matched my Hoorenbeek suit and Muism sweater perfectly, put a twenties spin on my modernist look but I thought it looked great and wore it whilst I grooved at Soul Mods a while back. Shauna is producing a lot of sharp designs at her store so I suggest you retro girls head over to Moonletters and check out all the stores as its a great place for retro clothing stores. For girls obviously, us blokes are as a rule too tight to splash our lindens on clothes,,,surely not! Looking at the sharp dressers at Soul Mods you think not but sadly they are generally the exception.

I bought myself another military mod outfit in my pursuit of the 1967 look, not sure if its quite right but I'll probably blog more on it at some point. Anyway, it looks kinda cool just need to find some trousers to set it in its sixties retro context. Also bought a wildly pink suit from Shiki, to show its not just Graz who does pink y'know. I'll blog more on this later too just thought I would mention it as an excuse for fiddling with throwing up a couple of snapshots.

Other madcap adventures followed reading Jellie's post over at the Moonletters blog which I saw as a challenge, okay I admit I cheated, whilst I went for a cuppa and watched TV I weighed down the page up key to gain height whilst I chilled, I felt it was only fair after Albion crunched his head on a floating platform, I realised how dull climbing to over 100,000m on your own can be and thirdly my finger dtarted to forget what its role in life was beyond depressing that key. And to be fair, there is really nothing up there, try it yourself, go on go on....

Albion chasing the moon, but eventually you leave all this behind and the sky is just full of stars, the guy who hit over a million meters must have gone crazy. Orbitting myself might get me to that hieght but as for flying there, werr I leave that to jellie, 103,000m give or take is probably my limit. If however you fancy it yoursef, feel free to fly high and send me a TP when you get there. Chilled in space, starring Albion Spitteler. Not much to do with virtual modernism, altho Mods in Space has a kind of freaky B Film ring to it, flying scooter anyone. Besides it gives me an excuse to post two awesome tracks, one is from the mid sixties pop art mod genre the other is mod suspect but a fantastic tune so what the feck. Have you guessed them yet, no? I cant hide my disappointment.

ciao

Albion Spitteler's Newsround

The sun is shining at last and yes I have taken this sunshine opportunity to sit on my @rse and type inane comments into a blog that has a readership of about half a dozen weary souls. But its a laugh! Anyway as I have nothing really specific that I could drag out for more than a ten word paragraph I have opted to lump all the little pieces together in this seventies style update, borrowing from my childhood this is my first ...and last, virtual mod newsround.

First up I was pleased to read Shauna' piece of on Moonletters concerning New Brighton, one of the coolest sims on the grid. All virtual mods should visit this place at least once for that essential mod snapshot with the pier. C'mon we've all done it, some of us more than once, don't blush. Its a fantastic build and the pier looks great complete with a promenade to parade along. I am still waiting that group call for a mod scooter rally along the prom, who knows maybe this week is the week. Shauna's piece however illustrates the difficulties of hosting a sim and the gargantuan costs involved, thought provoking as ever and perhaps the sim is still insecure. A great place to visit one that should definite be on your list. Blogged before but as I mistakenly mentioned that it has vanished this seems an opportune moment to recant such a statement and remind everyone that its still out there. There are more details at the New Brighton website, check it out.

Other stuff I have been up to, I went along to the Hangout club again on Monday which was cool; although Janis is unavailable for these sets due to real life commitments we had a great substitute who played a great blend of soul and sixties standards although how or why the Boyzone track got in there eludes me. I enjoy the tunes at the Hangout and was able to join everyone else on the dance floor this time as the dazzling particle lights were turned off, one [of several] drawbacks of the keratoconus is that my eyes struggle in bright light and so I have been hiding myself away up in the gloomy lounge, its also why I don't participate much in chat as its easier just to listen and keep my eyes averted from the screen. This means I miss out on a lot of laughs and get lost as I often have no idea how conversations have developed and they can be confusing as you read them never mind dropping in and out. But the music is great and at this stage I can read enough to have a laugh and join in occasionally.

Talking of laughs, blogged earlier Graz our favourite mocker held a rock 'n' roll night at the Killing Moon at the weekend and as he is such a good bloke several sods turned up dressed as rockers in our best fifties freebies, err well mine were. Keep it to yourself but I quite enjoy the odd classic fifties tune, unlike in my youth where my tastes were rigidly mod I now accept my rather catholic tastes and just enjoy tunes regardless of their origin. It was a fun night and everyone got involved and dressed for the theme, so many quiffs in one room however cannot be healthy, at one point I thought there was going to be an environmental disaster there was so much oil floating about. Albion succumbed and put on his best Elvis wig, said ahuh a lot, and donned some very cheap threads and free shoes and become a closet ted for the evening. As expected with Graz at the helm it was funny with great music and even the ignominy of dressing like a rocker wasn't to bad, surrounded by friends. Look forward to the next one.

Whilst I am discussing themed nights out in the virtual world I'll throw in a little fashion information. Recently I attended a Blues Brothers tribute and to blend in mix and matched various items to give me that Blues Brothers look. And yet whilst I was snapping the trainers at Hoorenbeek I idly wandered around the store and saw they had a complete outfit that is ideal Blues Brothers material. I believe its labelled Angus but surely Jake would be better. As its Hoorenbeek its unlikely to be cheap but if you're unafraid of splashing the lindens I think you'd struggle to find a better outfit. Even competing against specific Blues Brothers outfits I think this one is a tricky one to surpass. It has all the elements of a great costume, the shades, the hat, the suit and even the loose tie and shirt.  Definitely worth a punt if you like costume parties or just like being a Blues Brother, go on treat yourself.


Well I think that waffle should suffice you can all go back to CBBs now.

Modernist Fashion in SL

Things are becoming somewhat desperate in my pursuit of new mod clothes in the virtual world. I seem to be regurgitating the same items with the addition of a different shirt or perhaps a different sweater but essentially its the same items. One factor is undoubtedly cost I have stopped forking out a couple of thousand lindens a month or clothes and tried to be more selective in my purchases. I occassionally feck it up and buy stuff I dont need to for several hundred lindens: such as a new modifiable shape that I tweaked severely and then on reflection realised I was attempting to modify it to look like my original shape, quick waste of 700 lindens there folks. However as I quite enjoy myself by blurbing away on this little virtual modphile blog I do look out for new pieces of mod paraphernalia just to keep the old thing ticking over, that and updates of my rather quaint virtual social life. But, finding those new mod items is getting tougher and tougher and so in a desperate measure I enrolled Albion into an elite corp of fashion hunters. Once inducted he underwent a severe bout of intensive training to emerge as an uber fashion hunter. Yes I am pleased to reveal him as I think the world's first virtual mod commando.

His mission is to enter the leather clad, denim soaked soft rock hell that is Second Life male fashion, to use his uzis of cool to blast away the dross of Bon Jovi inspied fashion faux pas and forge a path of mod fashion rightousness. He shall pentrate the den of the freebie T-Shirt with the naff sex pun slogan, reap havoc amidst the heavy metal bandwagon and spray the mob of bling laden wannabe rappers with the bible according to mod. All shall hail the soul and ska inspired tunes, they shall forake their ugly fashion errors and follow the path to true fashion cool, they shall bow at the feet of Lupo's cool; hail the throne of King Slate; kowtwo before the club icon of Soul Mods, learn at the feet of Moonletters and crave to be Albion ... yes I have seen it written by the mof astrologists, Second Life shall be a haven of mod hope. And then I woke up......

Mod commando's seeking out shite fashion and blasting it away!

Yeah decided to go a tad mental today and enter the realm of the crazies anything for a laugh, the trousers and beret of Albions Mod Commando are available at the Marletplace, they were not cheap but what is nowadays in the virtual world. But, they made me laugh and despite the silliness the fact remains finding good male mod items is getting harder and harder. The guns some old Uzis from Breach I had in my inventory. Be vigilant, the mod commando's are on the march, hahaha.

Mod Commando Beret
Mod Commando Trousers

Or check the store inworld: PXDTOXIC

And using the rather tenuous mod commando link I sieze the opportunity to raid YouTube and load up one of the most awesome tunes ever!!

Modernist Fashion in SL

St Patrick's Day Mod

For those of you who like to join in the festivities I grabbed a few treasure hunt freebies, some group gifts and a few old favourites plus the odd cheap item to create a kind of green NeoMod look to groove with the Oirish on their big day of booze laughs and the craic. This time of year there is so much green about its hard not to trip over it so if you want to green up for next year keep your eyes open for the freebies. Albion has a neat hat from StarChild, its Fedora Brown in Tartan and a gift at Menswear Fashion Week. He is also wearing some Role Optic shades which are part of the DIMH2 Treasure Hunt. Along with an old favourite the Meriken shirt, he is wearing a sweater from Acid and Mala Creations as part of the 49L$ Sale For Dudes, it has three colours available, and is multi-layered allowing multiple wear options. Next up is a great group gift from Gizza, the jeans from their group gift for St Paddy's day, and finally my classic Gos Dr Martin boots.

So, okay where can I grab this stuff:

StarChild
Role Optic
Meriken
Acid and Mala Creations
Gizza
GOS

Happenings in the Virtual World

After spending yesterday trampling the Lakeland fells in the rain pursuing game I can guarantee that the virtual life is much easy on middle aged knees and feet. So I have slapped a Norman Wisdom film [yes that right film, not a bloody movie I'm a Brit not a blinkin' colonial, howdy you wonderful American folk love ya!! and I was brought up on films not on movie, on a Saturday morning I went to the pictures.s End of movie rant] on I-Player; grabbed a mug of coffee and thought I'd have a warble on my poorly neglected blog on the happening in the virtual world of mod. There's only about half a dozen of us but we have fun.

First off, I am back on Phoenix which makes Second Life much easier.And despite the lure of the post Stella sofa I have also managed to attend a couple of cool virtual events. Headed to the AAi and heard Kim play some cool ska and beat tunes. There was a good turnout of people there and we all had a great laugh whilst listening to some very cool tunes. Then I wandered out of my mod comfort zone and attend the AAi on a Wednesday for the indie night with Graz DJing. As there were a few of us cool virtual mods present Graz slipped the odd mod tune onto his play list to keep us sweet. I opted to continue with my new bowler look, faded jeans, boots and T-Shirt to ska stomp my way through the indie music night. Mods are adaptable y'know, virtual ones especially so.

Continued with the bowler hat theme on my return to Soul Mods where Eden was spinning the tunes, she looked kind of scruffy but we cant all be virtual fashion messiahs everyday can we. I went with a smart Madness look: crombie, two tone jeans boots and the Fred Perry. All the sharp geezers and girls were present and we heard some fantastic tunes had a great laugh and chilled away for a couple of hours. It had been quite a while since I had heard Eden deliver a set and the intervening gap has done nothing to dull her ear for a sharp tune. She played several and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly, although Slate in hes "jam shoes" and Lupo just being Lupo sent me spiralling down the cool ladder, gits hahaha.

I stuck with this look through into Friday night at Soul Mods where DJ Tabs was ion the decks and blasting out some foot stomping Motown tracks. The tunes sounded fantastic the crowd seemed eager to have fun and we enjoyed a fourth night of great music in good company in the midst of the virtual world. Sadly the demands of the real world meant I cut short my stay at Soul Mods on the Friday night, which meant I missed out on Slate's rezz party at the OSR HQ. Hope they had a great laugh and listened to some awesome tunes, that's what the virtual life is for. So nothing much to comment on, the same jokes same people different tunes and fun all the way through. Lets keep it virtual and leave the hill walking to the young uns.

ciao

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1.03.01

Modernist Fashion in SL

As the sixties progressed mod style altered severely, the sharp Italian influenced suits were replaced by more pop art inspired clothing. Carnaby Street shifted from sharp mod styles to poptastic flamboyance, as is often seen in period pieces filmed to reflect the changing times. An iconic Carnaby Street styling is the military dress jacket, preferably a chic Guardsman in vibrant red, or flamboyant Hussars; as the mods moved away from their style origins their fashion became more pop. But in the virtual world we can accommodate this playful pop style in our NeoMods fashion house; so I was happy to throw on a great vibrant red Guardsman jacket bought from WW2 and WWII; Military UNIFORMS which fits the mould of this period beautifully. The jacket comes with a sharp prim white belt, military trousers and prim epaulets, there are also some prim NCO rank insignia and prim cuffs for the jacket. For anyone hoping to capture that swinging sixties Carnaby Street look but wishes to avoid flower power US inspired hippydom this is a good starting block

Next. some classic mod fashion from SubVersion. This beautiful brown suit is beautifully retro and suits the mod or NeoMod hoping to achieve that authentic '64 mod look. There is a host of variants with this suit, different shirts, waistcoats etc allowing you to tailor your individual look. But, I believe the basic brown suit with white shirt and brown tie is the best look for the virtual mod. The suit comes in a variety of colours, including a wonderful deep red [quick confession I wanted to buy the red but clicked the wrong icon duh! The brown is cool too though] which give plenty of scope for varying tastes: subdued grey, black or brown and wilder reds and blues.

Alongside the suits SubVersion also sell some fantastic sixties looking pea coats which are also available in a variety of colours, several complimentary to the suits they sell. Having bought myself a brown suit I opted to buy a brown coat. This too comes with several prim attachments: collar, cuffs, belt and a hat. Unfortunately the hat comes without hair and when I wore it my hair was removed so a little tweaking with your a\ttachment locations may be required to wear the hat; personally, I think the coat looks cooler without the hat. It blends magnificently with the trousers and shirt/tie combination from the  brown suit and screams sixties style, very French I feel and so classically mod. To continue with the brown theme I hopped over to Action store to grab a tan pair of their ultra-sixties styled Chelsea Boots. The boots are scripted to alter size making fitting them a breeze and they look great with this low key sixties styling - conservative but sharp, the epitome of  the original British mods.

The final offering is a chic black suit from a newly discovered store called Savile Row, there are several items in the store that have a retro sixties feel but to begin with I opted for this neat black suit labelled Berlin. It is not a traditionally mod design but it does have an authentic retro style and in the virtual world of NeoMods we strive to stretch the modernist fashion boundaries whilst staying within the limits imposed by our pop-culture roots, so no leather chaps and studs thank you!  Double breasted jackets are not generally a feature of mod fashion but this germanic styled jacket oozed generic sioxties appeal so I succumbed and bought it; ok not strictly mod but like I said we can be flexible in the virtual world and its definitely sixties. So go check it out and the other items at Savile Row

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1.03.01

Modernist Fashion in SL

This week is Menswear Fashion week a huge virtual male fashion celebration designed to highlight quality male fashion across the grid. Its well worth investigating, as there are some choice items on sale, many with a definite mod vibe. There is more on the fashion spectacular on the Moonletters blog. Grab a quick look at it and then go spread some linden love. The organisers are looking to maximise exposure for this event to highlight the great items available in the mens fashion stores across the grid, hence my double blogging. I urge you to check it out, and yep girls there's unisex stuff too.

Menswear Fashion Week 2010

Modernist Fashion in SL

HATS

Is a hat a crucial aspect of modernist fashion, probably not, but they can add a little sixties chic to the dull jacket and tie ensemble. And thats essential to any modernist look, that slight touch of class; elegant chic that stamps you out as a fashion chaser.

So is the virtual mod well catered for, KMADD do a great selection of hats, as do Truth. These trilby style of hats give me a Harry Palmer [who? oh dear...Micheal Cains antitheses to 007 in a couple of sixties films, check 'em they are awesome.] and give a lift to this cool Meriken jacket [in the snapshot]. If its caps your after Argrace do some truly wonderful items; but as a modernist stay clear of baseball caps. No matter what anybody says they are not a good look for a mod, in the whirlpool of Second Life fashion save baseball caps for another day. So get out onto the grid and check those stores for suitable sixties influenced hats to accompany that cool mod look you've assembled.

Does the virtual mod need a hat? Not really but its just another little twist that gives you a sixties style in Second Life, hats are only essential for rude boys,,any ska merchants here...get a hat.

Truth
Argrace
KMADD