Archive for February, 2009
Born Free

The RAILS in SL Gig Diary - Entry #15 Show Date: Feb 25, 2009.  Venue:  The Bushy Beard Pub

It was showtime at The Bushy Beard Pub and we were psyched for it.  We love getting together for our regular mid-week show there, and our gratitude goes out to the people who run the place (Zeeblebob Voss & Artefax Jericho), and everyone who helps and hangs out there.  They are a witty and friendly group in deed, and always up for a good time.

Residents of Second Life know that imagination reigns freely here.  If you want, you can represent yourself as you are in real life, (as we usually try to do), or you can be a whole different person, animal, robot or character.  Some People live in totally different centuries.  Others play at being children avatars, shopping with their mommies.  We have a friend who chooses to live her SL as a mermaid.  Basically, it’s up to you how you live this life.

So, when I mentioned to the guys that for today’s show we would be wearing cat print, it wasn’t that strange for Jeremy to go all the way and wear a new cougar head and tail he recently acquired, just for fun.

Cheers to having the freedom to be whomever you want to be!

Cheers to having the freedom to be whomever you want to be!

“Okay, you all get the plan, right? …  I’ll be back after sundown with a shovel, and you’re outta here.”

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Gone to the Birds

The RAILS in SL Gig Diary - Entry #14 Show Date: Feb 22, 2009.  Venue:  The Myna Bird Club

It was with pleasure that we performed at the opening of a new music club in Second Life, called The Myna Bird Club, run by Regog Rivera and friends, Tammie Slade, SloRide Tigerpaw, Tahra Tuqiri.  This group of people have been so sweet and very supportive of our music in SL, which we really appreciate.  We wish them the best in the running of their own venue.

It wasn’t a stretch to chose birds as the theme of our dress for this show.  Especially since I had just purchased this nice cardigan with birds on it.  And Jeremy sure looked dashing in his crow tee-shirt by our friend MiaSnow Myriam.

I guess you could say I have a bit of a girl-crush on MiaSnow.  She is such a great visual artist.  Take a look at her myspace page at www.myspace.com/miasnow, and you’ll get a feel for what I mean.  And the cherry on top? Not only is she talented, she’s a very nice person too.  I know I’m not alone in my admiration for this woman.

It’s funny how once you think of something it keeps coming up, seemingly by coincidence.  After the show, I popped over to a sim called Journey that I’d been wanting to visit.  (They are having a treasure hunt running until Friday).  Herein lies the coincidences … as I rezzed, the first thing I saw was a gilded bird cage, which I could get inside of and be the bird.  I tried to get a photo but it didn’t work well.  So I moved along, and came upon more birds than I think I’ve ever seen in any spot in SL!  Here is a photo of some having a bath in a fountain.

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Hot Tamale

The RAILS in SL Gig Diary - Entry #13 Show Date: Feb 18, 2009

All three Rails were in the house for some fun times at The Bushy Beard Pub!  Many of the regulars were there, as were some new listeners.  Chops had been in Mexico the preceding week so he had a suntan on the go, not to mention a little Habanero pepper, which set the jokes off to a spicy start!

I usually wear other accessories when coming and going to shows … this time I remembered to take a photo with my cute little purse, obtained through a freebie package in the store, which also contains a pair of red flat shoes.  I just checked at the main store to see if this is still there and it is.  The store is called BitterCandy and the gift is in a box on the check-out table.

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We Heart Second Life

The RAILS in SL Gig Diary - Entry #12 Show Date: Feb 11, 2009

Woot, it was time for our Wednesday show at The Bushy Beard Pub … erm well, maybe not. … What a time for the sim to go down!  Last minute venue change saw the show move over to The Rails Nightclub.

Music in Second Life is a joy, even though Sammy Sim Crash, Laggy Lorna, Danny Downtime or Gord the Griefer pay regular visits to the party and try to ruin the fun!  But 99.9% of the time the show does go on.

Drummer Chops Baxton was out of town so Jeremy and I were backed by J’s old Oberheim, a vintage drum machine which is on it’s last legs.  Though we cherish every minute we have left with it, we missed Chops at our Wednesday Bushy Beard show.  No machine can match his drumming and his jokes add a certain je ne sait quoi.

Jez & I were going to be away for the Valentine weekend so we wore our heart outfits a bit early.  That’s not to say we stood out, since Second Life residents really enjoy celebration so there was plenty of fun VDay stuff around all week long!

We were sad when we realized that we couldn’t teleport to Brugge Sim because the powers that be were doing some work on the server. But we were happy again after Hostess Brucie Lusch from the Bushy Beard helped us to quickly arrange the move of venue and it all ended up a-ok.

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Dressed in a Hurry

The RAILS in SL Gig Diary - Entry #11 Show Date: Feb 8, 2009

A free afternoon in real life, found us at the studio working on a new song.  Then Jeremy suggested we do an impromptu set in Second Life, to try the tune out on some live ears.  Not wanting my newly begun blogging effort to be an obstacle to the musical aspect of our existence in SL, I agreed, asking only for 2 hours between then and showtime.

Knowing that the final 45 minutes before ‘curtain’ was always necessary for preparations in rl (set list, sound check, music stream check, notices, drinks, etc), I had just over an hour to take photos of our outfits from the show we did the previous day, document the specifics of yesterday’s look, take down the Christmas decor that was still lingering in our nightclub (*blush), and get ourselves dressed for today’s show.  Lolly was a little lady on the fly!

Following the photo session and note taking pertaining to yesterday’s performance, I quickly got Jeremy dressed in a sweater and pants made by the same designer, Unknown Jewell of label ? (that’s not a gap to be filled in … that is what the brand is called!).  He’d never worn them together before but I was confident that they would go well.  I stalled on the shoes and then remembered some cool looking footwear I’d seen recently at a new-to-me shop called VINCI.  We popped over and got them.  He was ready to go so I sent him on his way.

It was now time to get myself dressed.  I stripped down to my undies and began trying on dresses, knowing there was simply no time to consider separates.  Jeremy’s sweater had a lavender colour in it, which I wanted to match somehow.  I racked my brain trying to think of the recent unorganized things I had in my inventory that might work and began trying things on.  I am a little hard to fit with prims right out of the box, so nothing was fitting quite right, so I moved on to the things I had in my inventory, which were organized and ready to wear.  By this time, Jeremy was calling me over to the club, saying ‘forget about how you look .. it’s the music that counts’.  Erm, I agree with him that the music is important, but Lolly wasn’t about to give a show in her underpants, as pretty as they might be.

So I did what we all do in real life … I hit the ‘go to’ outfit; something I’d already worn and knew would fit and look good.  This included a dress from THE HUB, which comes complete with the tights and belt.  Each piece comes on all layers, including the belt so it can be worn with other outfits, plus the skirt comes in 3 lengths.  The piece de resistance is the fact that it is tintable, so voila, the lavender colour was taken care of.

The shoes I threw on were an often worn pair from Shiny Things.  I pulled my hair into the proverbial pony-tail, by donning a style which actually is a pony-tail wig.  For make-up, I did a quick try-on of something I had coded as ‘purple lipstick’, and quickly deemed those lips to be just too purple.  So, on with my trusty RockBerry Eva skin.  I have the fat pack of this skin and really like the fact that it has the eyelashes drawn on.  No need for prim eyelashes, that I find inevitably make me look like I have two black eyes.  The addition of a favourite necklace, and I was off.  Phew, just in time.

It wasn’t until we were half way through our second song that I realized that I’d forgotten to send a notice out to our group.  So, as our friend Plastique put it, ‘Jeremy talked sh*t while Lolly sent out the notice’.

And the new song?  It went over well, though I did forget some of the chords, so Jeremy had some extra solo time!

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Winter Wear

The RAILS in SL Gig Diary - Entry #10 Show Date: Feb 7, 2009

This has been quite the winter all over.  London England experienced the largest snowstorm they’d had in 18 years, and here in Toronto we exceeded the usual average annual snowfall weeks ago, with still at least a month and a half of the white stuff to go.  Our boots are a mess and everyday coats are a bore.  Even if we wanted a fresh look in outerwear, we’d be hard pressed to find something as the supplies in the shops have dwindled to what is left over.

And so it was a pleasure to do an outdoor wintery show in Second Life with nice new coats!

My red coat, with the Persian lamb collar and cuffs, was a gift from Artilleri’s Advent Calendar, which gave group members a present every day of December.  The items were generous and varied, including some decorative items, suitable for all year long.  I’d be hard pressed to chose a favourite of the gifts, but this coat was right up there for sure.

Jeremy’s coat was also a great find.  It is a different look from the more common down filled ski jacket type of outerwear for men in SL.  Adding a hoodie underneath reflects a look that he often sports in real life, as we do always need that extra layer of warmth here.

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Down to Earth Tones

The RAILS in SL Gig Diary - Entry #9 Show Date: Feb 4, 2009

It was way too cold in Toronto, but very nice and warm at The Bushy Beard Pub, where we played our regular Wednesday gig.  We had the pleasure of playing for friends we know and new ones too.  Also there were several brand new SLers in the room.  Hope we set Second Life off in a good light for them!

Since we haven’t seen earth or grass in real life for several months, we felt like going with an earth tone colour pallet for this show.  Plus Chops wanted to show off his cool new t-shirt, that he was happy to pick up for free at the opening of The Fabulous Fashion TV studio.

We began our photo session with a group hug, made possible by a cute heart shaped poser called Love Hearts by Memo Snook of Snookys, being given away in honour of Valentines Day coming up.  They guys were making wonky faces but, hey, boys will be boys ;)

My cute shoes were acquired in a very interesting way … a new (?) lingerie shop, MZ, is offering a unique promotion, where everyone is invited to select one lingerie outfit and vote for it.  You get the one you chose for free, but you can only vote once.  Not only do you get a lovely lingerie outfit, they come with shoes and the one I picked even came with a hat with the same white flower on it.  Fun and free … can’t go wrong with that! :)

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Plastique’s Party

The RAILS in SL Gig Diary - Entry #8 Show Date: Jan. 31, 2009

Our friend Plastique Munro celebrated his second RezDay on the 31st of January and we were there to enjoy the party and to perform.  The event took place on a big deck, adjacent to his after hours club, The One in Ten.  The evening was beautiful with a full moon hanging overhead.  There was talk of piranhas in the water but, thank goodness, nobody fell it!

Following our set, Plas dj’d and we danced the night away.

Cheers to Plastique!

Cheers to Plastique!

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Embroidered Fun

The RAILS in SL Gig Diary - Entry #7 Show Date: Jan. 30, 2009

On Friday, Jeremy & I did a show at The Notes Shack Pub.  The place was hopping, with much Friday night partying going on .. there was even dancing on the tables!

We felt like having a casual Friday, so we each wore jeans.  However, we wanted to dress them up a bit, since we were performing after all, and believe that we should be somewhat dressed up when we do.  So I put on a fancy silk blouse from Muism, with a vintage cardigan from Tres Blah.

My bootie shoes are amoung my favourite footwear.  There are just too few options for women who don’t want to wear high heels or ballet flats all the time, though both styles are nice, but just not all the time!  These side-buckled boots from Paper Couture fit the bill for a casual, yet a little dressy, look.

My new (to me) hair from Frangipani took a little bit of the squeaky clean edge off the look, by covering my right eye in a mysterious way.  Couldn’t see my piano for beans but hey, it looked cool, lol.

There’s a bit of a story behind Jeremy’s embroidered shirt and denim outfit.  What happened was that he had popped into the shop to grab the freebie flexie tie that Chops had told him was there.  However, when he arrived, he was surprised to find there was a model working in the somewhat small shop.  The fellow was very charming and funny, telling a story about how dizzy he was turning around and around on that pedestal, but he needed to earn the money to buy his girlfriend a gift.  Well, Jeremy felt kind of silly just going in there for a free tie, so he made a quick purchase, which turned out to be ok in the end!  And so I guess you could say that humour sells :)

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Purple Daze

The RAILS in SL Gig Diary - Entry #6 Show Date: Jan. 28, 2009

We hit The Bushy Beard Pub for our regular Wednesday gig  …  this is the one show per week where all 3 of us are together in Second Life and we are always geared up for it.  At The BB, the landlady and hostesses (ours today was the lovely Brucie Lusch) are very cute and the regulars are humorous and a lot of fun.  You really never know what interesting topic will come up.

Chops finds Lolly's purse

Chops finds Lolly's Purse

For this show we wore purple, inspired by the purple leather jacket that Chops had.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

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