Its a Battle Out There

Virtuality versus Reality

Ding ding, Round One: AAi Beatles night

I got myself all dressed up in my best Sergeant Pepper clothes, flung on my black hippyish hair flip up shades and Chelsea boots. I logged on nice and early slotted into my favourite dancing position and started enjoying the tunes. I forget but I think I was there less than thirty minutes before I was dragged away to deal with something, so important I cant even remember what it was. And to top it all I was gone so long the computer elected to shut itself down and boot me out of Second Life. Being gone so long I didn't bother rebooting and relogging I just marked it up to reality. Anyway it looked like a good night I hope it was. So that's round one lost on points I think. Time to trim the beard cut the hair, go blonde shed the Sergeant Pepper costume and adopt some skin attire as I'm in a redskins mood.

Ding ding, Round Two: Lupo at Soul Mods

Thursday night and I get myself to Soul Mods to listen to a set from the uber cool Lupo. Lupo plays an incredibly diverse range of mod, unusual cover versions or unknown Latin originals its a real treat to get to hear such tunes and everyone makes a special effort to attend. There was a big crowd at Soul Mods to hear Lupo who like a diva kept us waiting an extra thirty minutes...hahaha. Nah, he didn't he just had something going on that meant he was delayed a little - we've all been there. Lupo's absence did almost cause a fatality but luckily Choco teleported out before she experienced virtual death! On arrival Lupo kicked off with a couple of great tracks and had the floor buzzing immediately. Once again I got dragged away briefly this time and so made it back to hear Lupo plays some more great tunes: stand outs were the Redskins and a personal favourite of Dugi: Bobby's Girl. Ignore his denials he loves this tune as much as he loves Pass the Dutchie, just ask Graz. A fine night enjoyed by all and a points win for virtuality....hurray!

Ding ding, Round Three: Slate at Soul Mods

Moving on to Friday and its Slate at the decks at Soul Mods, over the last few months Slate's become a regular DJ at Soul Mods, I really enjoy his sets as his tastes in mod closely mirror my own, he's fond of throwing the odd eighties revival track into the mix, and as that's my era I especially enjoy those. I adore the new tunes that DJs introduce me too, but a bit of teenage familiarity is comforting sometimes. We had a small but enthusiastic crowd, combination of connection issues and traditional office parties but those who were there were enthusiastic, cant ask for more. I was enjoying the tunes and having fun when I attempted to google something and my browser failed to respond, so I shut it down. Not an issue as Second Life was trundling along, then I took a snapshot of my supreme coolness and boing everything froze, hmmm clicked a couple of things and worse the screen went white. I could hear but my virtual presence was a mystery to me. Then brrrrrrr blue screen crash. The count started ,,,8,9,10 knock out blow and virtuality bites the dust.

So no snaps, some fun but overall not a great week computer and real life duties took their toll on my virtual life, hope yours was better and you had fun. At least I made it for some of the time, poor Gemma's connection issues have stopped her joining in at any level, hope your back with us soon.

ciao

What a Week

Foolishly I opted to update my Phoenix viewer and ... yes you guessed it wont load and so now my Phoenix launch is fecked so I am scrabbling around attempting to rectify the situation and avoid being reliant on the hideous Viewer 2, bollox I knew I should have blanked the update information and just plodded on, more fool me. How I miss my reliable user friendly Emerald!

Real life gripped me this week which meant I was a no show at Soul Mods Thursday, but at least all the important people turned up..boo hoo, I'll get me coat. Then Friday the car got shunted so I was scurrying around sorting out real life things, but thankfully found time to sit back and chill in a virtual world free of insurance, school runs blah blah. There was an excellent crowd present at the club Friday and Slate delivered a fine set, to everyone there, so familiar and some new. Plenty of laughs as can be expected from a Soul Mods crowd and some suitably stylish avies present, great music fun people and sharp looking avies, its mod my man none of your fecking rock m'laddo. I had a great time, Lupo had a cool photo of himself, that guy is cooler in real life than in virtuality if only I was too, hahaha; with Georgie Fame king of the UK keyboards very sharp. A great time I enjoyed myself immensely and Slate kept the tunes going long after eleven and after I logged off I'm sure they kept the party going like only sharp mods can!

Whilst we are talking real life Sean informed me that the scooter centre link I posted sells dodgy machines. As I only use the site for scooter porn [I think Ive invented a new phrase] its perfectly harmless but anyone thinking of spending actual pounds shillings and pence, please be careful I do not recommend any sites to purchasers I'm merely flagging up some nice imagery or tunes so be careful when splashing your cash.

Back to virtuality I logged in today to grab a few bargain suits from Hoorenbeek and then thought I would take myself back to Soul Mods and remain there until I logged on again, pssst don't tell Dugi he'll be charging me rent. Anyway I was quite surprised on my arrival to find a sharp dressed cool dancer enjoy the tunes. She was enjoying the cool soul stream that was flooding the club and just enjoying the memories it rekindled. Its kind of funny to think of Soul Mods having a life outside of the Thursday and Friday night gigs but its enjoyed throughout the day by wanders and others, I find that kind of cool, Anyway we briefly chatted and enjoyed the tunes, I forgot what I'd logged on for but it was cool I had fun listening to the stream, this virtual life is sweet, whilst I watched my ten year old nephew on the One Show via I-Player. My Hoorenbeek suit looking cool but not as sharp as the lone modette dancer who looked very cool indeed!

After the stresses of the last few days I need to hear something mellow, heard this on the radio and its sound, whilst the chorus is awesome its cinematic babeee so sing out loud:

Blinkin' 'Eck...

... I thought I'd lost Phoenix again and was shunted onto the dreaded Viewer 2; I loathe the official viewer for two reasons:

• I can never find any of the functions everything has been altered and after three years I'm kind of stuck in my ways
• more importantly, and this is crucial, it doesnt work properly on my screen, it cannot cope with curves so the brim of my bowler is all angular and looks shite.

'nuff said, its all about looking good and Viewer 2 fails on that score spectacularly, I can adapt to new layouts but not to looking naff.

Other web like things worth checking, the massive zip files on Drek's Daily blog, giving access to over sixty beat and soul tunes is well worth investigating, check link to your right. And the uber cool Lupo has been on TV in Spain promoting his album so defintely check it, then get over to Amazon and buy the download for REAL pounds, dollars etc etc.

Check it: http://www.rtve.es/mediateca/videos/20100930/conciertos-radio-290910/890092.shtml

Back in the virtual world I caught Kim's set at Soul Mods, listening in whilst doing some other stuff, that earnt me a place in the cupboard as the devilsh Josie shoved me there. Sure I heard some talk of boxes and other fiendish plots, they're all envious of my good looks. Some great tunes played and I enjoyed listening in, far better than the radio!  Hope your having fun in your virtual life and those using the wibbly wobbly HUDS just beware of power surges dont want anything being wrenched off, so remember enjoy but try not to lose your head. WIBBLY WOBBLY HUDS? YEAH ITS THE RAGE MAN ,,WHO WAS IT TOLD ME THAT? HAHAHA Ciao Aimegos

113 Reasons Why I am Still Here

No euro lottery win for me; but if you did happen to strike it lucky the odd donations towards my cottage in the country is warmly appreciated. And, despite the attempts of my server to frustrate me into abandoning the Internet forever I am still here waffling and scribbling rubbish in this blog to all those generous enough to read it. My server has been vying all week with the dreaded Viewer 2 as the most irritating thing about computers . All week they have played like a tag team fuelling my frustration and sending me into a frenzy of computer loathing. Why does the Viewer 2 irritate me so much, hmmm lets see. Thursday I was busy so logged in and placed myself in Soul Mods early, when I finally got away from household chores I found the Viewer had logged me out then had a hissy fit about letting me back in, so that was reason enough but even when I am logged in the camera controls [which I like to remain up constantly] consume a large amount of the limited screen space, finding things can be sluggish and also consumes a lot of screen space; its just a very unsatisfying experience and the sooner I can get an independent Viewer to load up the better. All this rubbish also meant I missed the second instalment of the Radio documentary on the Small Faces and now I'm too late to catch it on the I-Player, feck! Saturday gave me a welly full of water, so I am truly not one happy bunny; and an audition for grumpy old men is definitely forthcoming, lets move on.

My three Trojan compilations turned up so that was good:

and I am currently listening to these as I type so there is a mere crust of a silver lining, but I need to get my virtual mod existence back on track and am missing way too many good nights due to technical frailties and my own impatient thump it first technique of computer management.

Talking Second Life, and why not its supposed to be the raison d'etre for this blog after all, I took a stroll through the vast House of Edo store the other day and discovered much that the prospective virtual mod may be interested in. They have an extensive if pricey range of suits in many colours and also a nice range of shirt/tie combinations.

Despite being mightily impressed by the range of items on offer on this occasion I opted not to buy, the recession an' all that, but there are some superb suits that would fit neatly into the retro fashion style. The shirt/tie combinations were also very good and could be very useful for those who wish to move away from the rather drab white shirt coloured tie style, I might pay a return visit to try a couple of these combinations out. As ever with these fashion houses you need to be somewhat flexible in your approach; they are not designing for the retro market specifically and so you need to rifle through there stock to find the odd items here and there that will slot into your sixties fashion wardrobe. Who knows maybe one day us geezers will be as well catered for as the girls are; but for now its basically snapping up whatever items you think can give you that cool mod image from whichever stores supply clothing with a retro feel. On that note I am off to sit in the October sun drink Stella and listen to some ska, ciao.

Styles of Edo

The Return of the Mod

Well it appears my sabbatical is over [touch wood] I finally managed to reinstall Second Life, but still failed miserably to even locate Phoenix, and after a few test log ins to check i was no longer a sun burnt naked Ruth, with a few odd prim attachments, I think I am ready for a return. Seems as though I am not the only one with wispy cloud syndrome as both Eden and Shauna have been afflicted, being non-techy not sure if its a Phoenix or overall Second Life issue, but fingers crossed its all been resolved and I can maintain some sense of virtual cool. Its all probably some kind of virtual karma for my merciless mocking of Graz when he had his Viewer 2 rezz issues. What goes around comes around... as they say, bugger!

An absence from the virtual world has meant I have been dabbling my feet in the Real World, I discovered the lady who brings me cuppas and beers is actually my wife, who'd have thought that,; and the big black shiny thing hanging on the wall. Well, that's called a TV its a touch like Second Life except the avatars have had more surgical work done. What else have I found myself submerged in, not having Kim's reggae/ska top up I had to buy some Trojan compilations from Amazon along with the crazy Julie Driscioll Brian Auger Trinity album. Entertained myself on YouTube and Twitter, hurling insults at celebrity irritants, I make do with the simple things.

Oh I have also read a few blogs, nice of Shauna to ask where I was in her post on Moonletters blog, and also requesting a few blog posts. Unfortunately a few technical issues both virtual and visual have curtailed my blog wafflings of late but I shall endeavour to make a blog post on Moonletters some time soon. Just need to get in world and come up with an idea beyond whinging. So that's about all, I hope to be in world at the AAi tonight so fingers crossed the mod night is on and I can raise the cool bar a little by my sublime presence. C'mon admit you know I'm the coolest..ok Lupo is, and Slate can make stuff, and Dugi and Aston have the cool club, and Eden and Kim can DJ, and the Baron is a Northern Soul legend, and Shauna has the coolest blog...but apart from that lot, c'mon I'm obviously the best. Honest, would I lie to you?

risen from the Flames

Despite the demise of the Emerald Second Life viewer I have not had to join the disgruntled mob of Viewer 2 users, I stumbled into the Imprudence viewer but that merely left me stranded on a barren rock unable to teleport. So I tried the Phoenix viewer and after some techy fiddling resolved its issues and logged in to enjoy a great night at Soul Mods.

Lupo was up on decks again and he treated us once more to some beautiful tunes. I spent much of the first thirty minutes deciding what shoes to wear ... vanity can be such a burden, choosing pants was quicker but also consumed some time. Then I drifted off listening and singing along to myself as Lupo played a series of sixties standards. Although we were few in number tonight everyone present had a fine time we chatted, oh yes indeed did we chat but I wont go there.. I talk enough bollox as it is. And, we laughed whilst enthusing about the music, after all its the music that drags us all to Dugi and Aston's place. Different places, different ages, different ideas but we share a love of the cool sounds that our friends play for us and it makes our virtual lives worth bothering with. Having just watched This is England '86,[with Woody veering from a sharp Weller look circa '93 to a demented Catweazle* dependent on his facial expression] I am feeling exceptionally mellow. I had a great time and once again can only recommend this club to all in the virtual world who are enthralled by sixties music, sixties culture or who just want to have a laugh with cool people while listening to some nice tunes, not everyone is as sadly obsessed as I am; so dont be scared, go on treat yourself and get your @rse there.

* Who? Hahaha seventies childhood, and yeah he lacks the beard but definitely Catweazle

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