Busy Week on the virtual scene

Its been a busy week in virtual modland, first off I went on Tuesday to the AAi no sim issues this week to listen to Claire Eglund deliver a nice mod set to the AAi regulars. Claire played some marvelous tunes that had a lot of "TUNE" typing scrolling across the chat lines which is always a good sign. I had a great time, listening to some cool tunes hearing some funny lines and generally just hanging out.

In reality I might be camped next to the radiator whinging about a chest infection, coughing and slurping hot tea but in the virtual world I'm feeling groovy and strutting my stuff. Tuesdays at the AAi is well established as a cool mod venue due to Eden and Kims hard work and Claire is doing a great job to continue with the mod theme. If your bored on a Tuesday, love the sixties get over there Claire's DJing will not disappoint and you'll meet a friendly if somewhat odd crowd of mods and pseudo mods having a laugh.

Wednesday night is generally a non-virtual evening but there was bugger all on the telly so I thought I would log on and see what was happening. There was a sixties beat at the Acroplys and sweet soul at the Soulsville club; but, I opted for a non mod night at the AAi. There was still plenty of mod fans at the club listening to Graz play some tunes, and to keep us happy he chucked us the odd bone of mod. Was a funny night lots of silly chat and general music gossip, easy to chill too. AAi regulars were there aplenty: DJ Claire getting into the groove alongside David Essex, oh its Graz, prowling in the seating area was Scotney Sean, whilst mod designer and DJ Eden was swinging her hipster and get groovy; Shauna of the short, short skirt was there she think I have narcism issues [err did I spell that correctly, I was too busy checking how cool I look in the snaps] wherever did she get that notion? And, also there were lord and lady mod Aston and Dugi doing their thang! Other Thom and Meri, who we cheer as the club is theirs and they keep our music flowing, Jelli who'd be lost without a yay, and Josie who has enquired about building a cupboard at the club, strange girl So I chose avies over mod sounds but it was fun and I had a great time. The crowd at the AAi is eclectic in its taste, fractious and humorous and very friendly; And thankfully no rezzing issues tonight so every avatar was wearing trousers and there were no bum cheeks chilling in the cold. Virtual it may be but sympathetic, err nope just l;ike real life first rule of friendship ,,, take the piss. Savages, hahaha!

On Thursday I went for the ha trick, three nights in a row as I logged into Soul Mods to hear Lupo's set. There was a good crowd and a few people dropped in from the OSR which was cool. Its great when crowds from different clubs integrate I like the OSR they have great DJs but sadly most of its nights clash with other things so I don't get there as much as I'd like too. But, I digress, its a bad habit I possess. Back on topic, another great Soul Mods night Lupo played great tunes, Slate confessed to and Alvin Stardust finger fetish, Albion was outed as a girl; hmmm feck that means me I better lose some weight and buy a wig . Not that I'm a narcissist are anything but are forty  seven year old women sporting a No2 cut deemed as being attractive? So the usual craziness in the chat lines, me sober on cough remedies failing miserably to engage with the virtual surrealism, but the tunes were good Lupo has a very different twist that's refreshing to here, I had a great time. Oops got me bra in a twist typing that last bit, how do these things function?

Final night was Friday and much as I enjoyed the previous sets Fridays was something special. Eden was on decks at Soul Mods, a small crowd but they were treated to some awesome tunes that hard my heart pounding. Lots of Hammond to keep me buzzing and tunes that were standards but new interpretations or just outright new to me. As Slate commented it was a treasure trove of tunes. Eden really shone on the track selection front, and all who were there had a marvelous time, magical set that I really really enjoyed myself. Dance animations were thrust into overdrive, while real feet were pounding to the beat and awful voices murdered the lyric, but wow did we all have fun!  We were even able to enjoy an impromptu scooter rally, the joy of Soul Mods is that Dugi didn't clutter the building with stuff so we do actually have room to rev around on our Slate built scooters, it all adds to the madness and the fun of the evening. To fully embrace a crazy night at Soul Mods you must get yourself a scooter. Offat to scour the web now and get those tunes majestic, Enjoy your virtual or real life weekend, it all kicks off again at theAAi Tuesday at nine.

ciao.

Time to get Real

but only momentarily.

I have decided to step outside of the virtual world for a while to flag up a couple of real life mod websites that might be of interest to any readers out there who pursue the mod lifestyle beyond the confines of a computer screen.

First up is the simply majestic PopMeter, a sixties inspired masterpiece. This websites provides pod casts via I-Tunes stuffed with rare grooves and continental covers of mod and soul standards, its linked to load my I-Pod with a host of hour long gems and I advise anybody who like obscure cool mod tunes to hook up to it, its bloody amazing. Enough gushing get on your scooter and get over there. Its so awesome I'm bouncing around the room as I type listening to a podcast via I-Tunes with the sexiest most vibrant soulful version of Born to be Wild I think I have ever heard; but yell the purist that's not mod. No quite correct its not but its fecking awesome.

PopMeter

Another great web site that covers all things mod is ModCulture.com, this is a great site for those who dress and live the mod style in their everyday life. Its full of fashion news, scooter news and dates for meets. It has a healthy stream of music and can be linked to via the usual social media [MySpace, Facebook, Twitter]. Its probably one of the most complete mod web sites as it covers every aspect of the lifestyle and despite being middle aged and far too old to strut I still like to check out the clothes the music and scooters et al; and this site has it all.

ModCulture.com

Finally, a website I located through Facebook and now think as I flick through its glossy photographs how can I persuade the missus to let me splash out a grand on one of these beauties. Its a Vietnamese based Irish company, I think, and the  site illustrates how they restore classic scooters and export them world wide, its scooter porn for old geezers who have wife's that wont quite let them return to their teenage years. The machines are wonderful and definitely capable of inspire master virtual scooter builders [you know who you are] to create a few more machines. It serves no real purpose unless you are splashing the cash but just look and enjoy and think aha if only....

Scooter Centre

Well hope this wander into mod reality hasn't alienated too many people, sometimes its good to see how real life is mirroring the virtual.

ciao.

Modernist Fashion in SL

Arrogard Couture & Chelsea Design

A staple of virtual Male Fashion the T-Shirt is the crux of most male avatars wardrobe; however T-Shirts were not really part of the original mods fashion bible but in the world of virtual NeoMods we absorb and the eighties saw a change in attitude and Britpop as merely an extension of the indie movement flooded the NeoMod market with T-Shirt wearing pseudo mods. Besides they are usually cheap, but even so not any T-Shirt will do it must have some relevance to Mods. No matter how well textured a T-Shirt yelling "get yer tits out fer the lads" just isn't mod that's just laddish!

The easiest and mist obviously mod designs tend to be band T-Shirts, showing your allegiance to suitably mod bands illustrates your leanings towards mod culture. So look for the classic Who logo T-Shirts, or the Small Faces or The Jam, maybe you can slide a Blur or Oasis logo in, gut then you need to accentuate the mod in your other items or its assumed your an indie pseudo mod. Adding iconic mod graphics like a target or union jacket just adds to the mod look and increases your identification with the group. Ska logo T-Shirts are equally good, or anything in monochrome that has obviously links to the 2Tone movement that was prevalent in the eighties. Black and white contrast fashion also seems emblematic of sixties fashion and so this kind of texturing with establish links to mod, although in a causal revivalist sense.

While hunting through Second Life's  Market place [aka XStreet] I found this very cool Jam T-Shirt. Its a classic image of the band from the seventies wearing their bleak sixties mod inspired clothing and is used on many real life modernist items. The addition of the union jack  to the graphic adds depth to the texture itself and accentuates the coolness factor of the T-Shirt. If T-Shirts are your thing and you want to declare some mod credentials I suggest you get onto Market place and grab this T-Shirt. Albion wears it with some bright red sixties influence jeans from Juice [plus an underwear layer from somewhere to compensate for the low rider style of the jeans.] Great as the T-Shirt looks additional layers would be hugely helpful to aid the versatility of the piece, mod fashion [even Neo mod with its flouting of a few fundamentals] does not really account for bare mid riffs under scraggy T-Shirts. Hipster styled jeans are great but the T-Shirt needs sufficient length so needs to be a jacket layer or shirt plus underwear combination. Nevertheless its a great looking piece of mod fashion, grab one but don't wear it if I'm wearing mine.

The Jam T-Shirts

Bloody Wimmin

Ironic rant alert, please don't get all PMT on me 

There I was plodding through the Marketplace [once Xstreet] attempting to find a mod item I could fritter my lindens on, could I find anything, nope. So I thought I'll opt for emblematic rather than stylised, a nice Union Jack graphic on some nicely designed shirt or sweater, could I find anything, nope. What I did find was a plethora of items for the bloody gurlies.The London Girl Store, which I think I have mentioned before, indeed I have,  is crammed with clothing emblazoned with national flags, excellent for mods looking for Union Jack festooned items. This dress complete with iconic London graphics caught my idea, not strictly mod despite their labelling but I'm sure it'll appeal to plenty of the modettes. Price? I have not got a clue, I'm supposed to be looking for geezer stuff not pampering to overindulged girlywhirlies. Anyway, if it holds some appeal I have attached the SURL so jump on it.

London Girl~ Clothing and Costumes

Entering the Digital Age

I confess I am happily addicted to my I-Tunes which is generally blaring away somewhere in the house at most points in the day. But so far its only ever had music from Cd's loaded up onto it, or the excellent FREE downloads from the Derek's Daily blog. The notion of buying an album purely in digital format, well that seemed odd but as the two items were not available in a physical format I have had to take the plunge. Its not as satisfying as getting my grubby mitts on an album but as it all gets transferred to I-Tunes I guess its the future the wife likes it as it cuts down on clutter. Clutter? Clutter my @rse that's a man's life missus, bloody wimmin!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dreams-Children-Teenage-Cancer-Trust/dp/B0026KR4QK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1290098999&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Im-Only-Dreaming/dp/B002I4XSKU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1290098974&sr=8-1

AAi on Tour

Logged on to take a trip to the AAi which I had failed to do for a couple of weeks [stands in corner of virtual shame] and surprised to see there is no flyer informing me the Mod Squad girls are up on decks. Misery, I log on and there's no DJ. But, wait, there is a new modster ion the block DJ Claire, hurray all is well. Oh no, the sim is down Graz is frantically trying to relocate and the rest of us we are just hanging. IM chit chat to discover what the news is, then cheers for Meri and Thom as they throw open their house and jetty for the mod party. Lovely people, and we are away into sixties beat and soul. Grrrreat! as my old my Tony the Tiger used to say*.

There was a healthy crowd in attendance, club nights are okay when your friends are there but so much better when a big crowd turns up. The tunes were great, plenty of white boy blues bands, Yardbirds et al, few cool tracks from the Quadrophenia album to set the scene and some excellent sixties soul plus plenty of Small Faces to keep Dugi and Aston happy. Crazy chat, which is only to be expected at the AAi, the home of crazy chat. Lots to laugh at too, I wasn't the chattiest person there but was having fun listening in.

Its great that there is a fresh new mod DJ on the roster, a different style too which is great. The more variety within the genre the better, and the virtual mod scene has an excellent range of DJs each with a different taste and each bringing something different to the decks whilst still remain true to the Mod/Northern Soul genre. Second Life tunes are good, shame there isn't such a variety of clubs or mod nights. At present we are down to one club, and a couple of mod nights in other clubs, the heady days of a year ago seem to have slipped away. But, I digress; Claire played a great set, lots of old favourites and a definite bluesy streak running through her choice of sixties beat bands. Looking forward to hearing more of her sets at the AAi and anywhere else that is putting on mod nights.

Talking of elsewhere, the Baron was also DJing at the Acropoliss last night playing a sixties set. It was up after the AAi gig and although I tp'd over there I had to admit to myself I was too knackered for a late night. I heard a couple of tunes and the club looked busy, another great night for the night owls out there.

ciao

*okay he's not my real mate just a cartoon flogging cornflakes, kerching thanks Kellogs.

Modernist Fashion in SL

There are very few classic mod items available in the retail sector of Second Life; the few that exist: Mod Squad Design for womenswear, Slates Scooter Emporium and the odd piece of male fashion wear are worth treasuring as are the odd designer who creates excellent mod styled hair. I discovered another great mod hair design recently and have worn it for a while now, its very sharp and perhaps lends itself to the growing out stage of the skinhead cut, its very nice indeed. Credit must go to Gemma who I saw wearing it a couple of weeks ago and although she couldn't find a landmark she gave me its name. A few stumbles through the Second Life search engine and I located the store. Its great when other people in our little mod circle find cool stuff, makes life easier for me to steal their ideas! Its a great cut this and many thanks to Gemma [hers looks better than mine but shhhhush lets keep that a secret] for pointing me in the right direction.

The store is Little Heaven and I opted for the cut in a platinum blonde shade, I usually prefer more subdued blonde but not realising this cut would be so bright I will persevere with it rather than cough out another couple of hundred lindens for another shade. Besides I'm getting used to it not. Gemma told me her cut required a little modifying as did mine, although she has done a much better job of it than I. I stretched the hair a little to elongate the sides, so there would be hair around the ears, this then meant I had to push it back a little. Its hardly difficult technical stuff, but if your a noobie its always worth saving anything you modify in its original form in case you feck it up, you still have a correct base form in your inventory. Old avies should do it too, but y'know the elderly always forgetting stuff.

I like this hair a lot it has a suede head vibe, early seventies skinhead development, youth culture that is easily absorbed into the NeoMod virtual style culture of Second Life. At two hundred Lindens its also reasonably affordable in these times of inflated prices in the Second Life retail sector, which seems to get more corporate as we proceed with our virtual adventures. Obviously as Gemma pointed me in the right direction its unisex although with the girls having so much stuff out there to choose from this small item may float under their radar.

But, if you're looking for a sharp cut to wear with your jeans, boots and braces this is an excellent choice to go skanking to the uptown ska beat at any of the sharp Mod venues, that have shrunk dramatically, but that's another tale.

ciao.

Little Heaven

Modernist Fashion in SL

I very rarely blog girly fashion, besides shoving people gently towards Eden and Kim's Mod Squad Design shop over at Moonletters, but occasionally I stumble upon stuff that I think some of the girls might like. Besides I am a generous soul, so occasionally I like to chuck them a bone... OUCH!! That was the bone being thrown back, savage right arm these girls got. Anyway, while I was at Shiki grabbing the members monthly freebie, which I think I blogged a couple of days ago, I saw a couple of posters for this neat monochrome combination that I thought was a nice modette style. No idea on price, but unlikely to be cheap but Shiki are good quality so you get what you pay for. Anyway just thought I would throw it out there.

Soul Mods this week

Two great nights at Soul Mods, great DJs lots of people having fun and awesome tunes, who could ask for more?

Teleported into Soul Mods on Thursday into the midst of a Lupo fest, as the Madrid mod magician was weaving a web of sublime tunes for all to enjoy. Lupo's set always have a neat twist to them, some well known track that's covered by somebody unexpected, its always a joy to listen out for them. His DJ chat is cool and full of information on the tracks he is playing, and worth listening too. But, its the tunes he plays that are the real stars, and he flooded a very full Soul Mods with them on Thursday. It was one of the biggest crowds I'd seen at the club since its opening, and all were there to hear great music, have fun and a few laughs. The chat line was buzzing and as well as typing the odd profanity I was having a ball.  A truly great night and one to log into the legendary Soul Mods diary. Great night and much appreciated that Dugi and Aston keep this place going for the benefit of all us virtual mods.

When I logged on I had a quick chat with Dugi; he explained he was unsure of what was happening as regular Friday DJ Tabs was still absent, away on holiday I think. So it looked like it was heading towards a quiet night with the radio and a few laughs. Luckily Slate graciously agreed at extremely short notice to step up to the plate and entertain us. Slate plays my kind of set, steeped with eighties revivalism, sixties classics and a good dollop of Northern Soul. The tunes were great and I enjoyed them all. A great crowd turned up including the missing Scotney Sean, who prowled and threw the odd commentary bone our way. Was good to see him back altho I look forward more to seeing him on deck blasting us with some amazing tunes, get yourself sorted mate, lol. The banter was good, we discussed Weller and The Jam, a lot like the sad middle aged geezers we are, and enjoyed ourselves doing it. I sense a rash of "hey I'm not middle aged" comments but, if you remember the eighties err you are ... get over it. So I had two fine nights at Soul Mods, I even saw what some thought was drama,,at Soul Mods, surely not! Anyway had a laugh the tunes were good book me in Danno.

What made things even better is a few of the newcomers from Thursday turned up on Friday, including one who put my mod fashion champion status in doubt. Looking for a Weller style Bluenote wore a sharp coat with a neat shirt and sweater combination underneath. Very cool, very sharp, very mod. A great addition to the mod fashionista group I'll be stealing some of his ideas pretty soon, hey its good to be cool wherever it comes from. After all I've nicked half of Lupo's wardrobe. The more geezers there are out there looking FOR and purchasing the mod look the more likely designers will see it as a viable commercial opportunity and deliver more quality sixties styling. Sadly the philanthropic has been consumed by the strict commercial frenzy in Second Life retail and we have to coincide with it as best we can.

Anyway if your reading this and are an avatar in Second Life grab some mod attire and get over there, no drama [well rarely] and plenty of great tunes, plus a lot of good people laughing and having fun. No we're not odd just British ... mostly.

YouTube Gold

So as you mentioned it what have you been listening to when you should have been entertaining us with crappy waffling from the world of virtual mod. Aha I'm glad you asked. Okay, so nobody did but its a sharp way of getting this piece of YouTube Gold up on the blog. Its a classic tune by my all time favourite band, recently released on the deluxe version of one of their old albums, reissued for cash, kerching. But what the feck I bought it anyway and it arrived today, enjoy:

Modernist Fashion in SL

I have been neglected the blog as a whole recently and specifically these humble fashion scribblings. The cause, well firstly I just seem to lack things fresh to waffle about and secondly I have been spending my lindens in the real world, hence the deluge of discs from Amazon, which have kept me happily chirping along to old style mod, ska and eighties revivalism for the last few weeks. And, screaming for the sympathy vote, I have not been feeling very well y'know. Remember what Spike has on his grave stone ....... well I think I'm the same! So, just as I had almost ground to halt I got my monthly freebie from Shiki and thought there's a nice little item I can blog about and its free too, well kind of.

I have blogged this suit before when I bought an an alternate version. So its possible that much of this scribble overlaps the earlier post, but what the feck. The primary failing of the suit as a mod item is the knee length trousers, but as this is a Japanese fashion piece and not specifically mod these things are to be expected. The problem is quickly resolved by purchasing [so not exactly free y'see] or using a pair of trousers from another designer. Although the jacket is short, the underwear layer allows you to use low rider trousers [favoured by so many designers] or better still you can wear trousers with a standard waist.

For example I used both Hoorenbeek and Armidi trousers with the jacket and both look acceptable. Finding an ident black texture is difficult, although the Hoorenbeek comes close; so its easier to contrast with a grey or perhaps another colour.

Or, with a little tweaking you can wear the original trousers. I have done this, by wearing free tintable socks underneath the trousers, lowering the prim cuffs as low as possible and matching the trousers to calf high boots, or recently dropping the prim cuffs to wear high laced classic skinhead boots. Suits were often a crucial piece of skinhead attire, it wasnt just jeans and Ben Shermans, so this look can easily be adapted into the virtual mod fashion bible. With so few pure mod or sixties outfits available compromises must be made, unless your a clever geezer and can make your own, cough cough.

Shiki

Its Viral!

No not some geeky techy  infection of the virtual world, my feckin' cough is viral and its severely piussing me off. Glugging sickly sweet, vile over the counter conncoctions from the Chemists is unlikely to put me in a delightful mood, Ive entered grumpy middle age seamlessly and this pesky cough has merely accentuated my grumpy demeanor. So I am coughing like an orphan extra in Oliver, raging headache, knackered because I cant get to sleep...why? The coughing, keep up.... But despite all these real life afflictions its my attention to attend Soul Mods, althiough due to this subdued state I may just spend it in the cupboard. Whats any of this to do with virtual mod, feck all but then neither did leather chaps and monstrous bikes, cough cough.

The Prodigal Son...

... made his first appearance at the decks of Soul Mods. Yes mod builder, clothes designer, and DJ - a real virtual Renaissance man - took to the DJ booth on Friday to entertain us . Anticipation was high, and we had been a tad cruel to the lad during Eden's great set on Thursday, he knew he had a lot to live up to and being good friends we were determined to make it difficult for him, err I mean easy, giving him lots of confidence boosting advice and not taking the piss. Luckily we failed and he succeeded brilliantly.

I was one of several who turned up to give support and have a fantastic time, not sure how supportive I was but I certainly had a damn fine time. There were a few of the OSR crew in attendance to give Slate a rousing welcome to what is hopefully the first of many Soul Mods gigs. The usual motley Soul Mods mods were in attendance plus a few other newer faces.  An eclectic mix who should have enjoyed themselves as the set had a little piece of everything, hard core Northern folk would have been happy as would mods and those with just a passing interest in the sixties scene. I was dodging that minx Josie who seems determined to get me into the cupboard at every opportunity. Its understandable of course as I'm bloody gorgeous, but I'm just not that kind of avatar. So ghosts beware if Josie suspects you're off making a brew she'll shove you into Dugi's workshop where he'll do wicked things to your pixels, especially if their large.

It was a lot of fun and we all seemed to be having a great laugh at each others expense, and despite the early technical difficulties, curse you Lindens, anyone who was churlish enough to say it spoilt things needs to get virtual more. Slate finished a great set with a Twisted Wheel memory trip playing a range of generic sixties tracks popular amongst the members of that legendary virtual club; before closing in classic style with the three before eight. Awesome, the calf is on the butchers block.