Double Threat, Baby

Every week I read Strawberry Singh's blogger challenges and tell myself I am going to start doing them. The idea, if you don't know, is that she posts a "meme challenge" and encourages people to do their own and link to hers in the comments section of her blog. They are fun little ideas, especially if you're a blogger who is struggling for new material, which I am not, because I mostly ignore my blog, as you all know.

But I have some big news to announce this week, and I am hopping on Berry's meme to do it. The theme of the meme is "Double Threat", and I'm part of one! Starting next week, Meegan Danitz and the crew from After Dark are moving to Idle Rogue!

Double Threat

Two online screen names you’ve had: 
Meegan: embee21.  Usually some form or variation of embee. I can't think of another besides Meegan
Chry: I have been chryblnd since 1997, but I do use other screen names, including, of course, my Guild Wars 2 main, Artje Orestes. Wild-eyed Crazy Mary was an alt I used in the first chat I hung out in.
Two video games you’ve played: 
Meegan: LOL. I'm actually not much of a gamer other than SL.  I played a mean centipede back in the day but I think I'm exposing my age by saying that.
Chry: I like to say I play Guild Wars 2, but the truth is I don't find time much any more. I tell myself every day I will be back, but this Guerilla Burlesque thing, it's time-consuming.
Two things you love about Second Life: 
Meegan: Dance and Music.  It's pretty simple
Chry: The way it uncovers creativity in people who might not even know they have it; and the way you can immerse so completely in beauty.
Two things you’ve done in Second Life: 
Meegan: I'm a business owner and a performer.  Neither is anything I ever would have tried in RL.  I'm really quite shy.
Chry: Well there's naked parachuting. I also played roller derby for about five minutes
Two things you still want to do in Second Life: 
Meegan: I want to learn how to take better pictures.  I also want to learn to make particles.
Chry: I'd like to publish a really cutting edge media outlet. And learn to live mix as a DJ.
Two things you like about your Second Life avatar:  
Meegan: Meegan's ass. It really is fierce. I also think she has a sweet face and I like that.
Chry: Chry is muscular but still curvy. She looks strong, and I love that. She dresses well too.
Two of your Second Life Pet Peeves: 
Meegan: Forced landing points at shopping venues and random people asking me what's going on tonight.  Is your event search broken?
Chry: "I'm leaving". You are not, nobody leaves. Also conference calls summoning me to your event. C'mon. I already have you on my friends list, I am in your groups, and all the other music groups, I have you on facebook ... I know what you're doing, quit that one last spam shit.
Two things you did as a newb that you’re embarrassed of: 
Meegan: wearing boxes but I still do that.  Oh and wearing instead of adding clothes. I ended up nude on more than one occasion.
Chry: I refused to wear an ao for months because I didn't understand what they did. Now I can't even bear to look at someone else who hasn't one. Also, fell madly in love because I didn't know it was possible and didn't have my customary walls up.
Two of your closest friends in Second Life:  
Meegan: TheaDee and Chryblnd Scribe. I would have picked Cori but I'm closer to her in RL.
Chry: Oh this is a tough one. I'm not encouraged to have friends, in case it feels like favouritism. Plus the nature of my work is that I am more or less emotionally involved with people according to their needs, and it's a two way street. If someone I am working with needs extra emotional support, then I am often very close to them, but sometimes it's just for that period.
I will say this - Meegan Danitz has carried and sometimes dragged me through some rough days over the last year, and she does it with a kind of generous calm that I really respond to. I am also, of course, very close to Lingual Markus, who tells people I am his best friend when in reality he is much better to me than I am to him.
Two of the most beloved things in your inventory: 
Meegan: My obscenely large dance collection and my new mesh bodies
Chry: Jet, my dog, and the lip piercing made for me by that first love.

What does this merger mean for Idle Rogue? After Dark run a stylish and cool live music venue, where the attention to detail is perfect. They treat their musicians well, establishing productive relationships, nurturing their talent and promoting their endeavours. They treat the fans well, providing a warm and inclusive atmosphere in which to enjoy performances. So for Idle Rogue, this means we get live music run by people who care at the same high standard we do.

Additionally, over coming weeks we will move the Metaharper Interactive Gallery to it's own environment, making use of Gloriana Maertens graceful "Mayfair" build to house the cutting edge interactive dance stages. If you have not discovered these yet, they house fully-realised version of some of the best-known dance acts in SL. You just select the one you like, and the props and choreography will be rezzed for you as the music begins to play. Jump on the poser, and you are the dancer - it's a really great way to be part of the thrilling things happening in dance entertainment today.

I am beyond excited, and I hope you guys will make yourselves part of the new and vibrant community that can grow around this fusion of music and dance. Double threat? You bet we are! We are about to open the doors to the best entertainment sim in Second Life.

Mastering The Ring

As we put the finishing touches on a new round of Le Cirque de Nuit, I find myself reflecting on this creative process of mine. The mind map for this production is labyrinthine, it stretches back many years, and has been hand-drawn, shaded and re-coloured according to my personal belief system and the influences that have passed over that.

I always wanted a Circus. I thought burlesque and circus could work so well together, and that was the motivation behind The Beautiful Freaks Burlesque Circus. Beautiful Freaks was to be a kind of melding of circus, burlesque and dark cabaret influences. It worked too, but I let it go in a moment of self-doubt. Lesson One: Don't let that happen again.

 The story of how we came to The Night Circus is part of the annals now, and has been included in more than one interview: newly arrived at Guerilla Burlesque and on my Facebook friends list, Gloriana Maertens recommended a novel to me, and I was so caught by the imagery within it, it was easy to imagine it in Second Life.

It wasn't my first foray into an event production. Mark Moffre and L.David Hesler had both very generously allowed me to work with their original music to create dance entertainment productions, and I'd learned a great deal about managing my own team and piecing together the elements of a show on their time.

But Le Cirque De Nuit brought it's own magic with it. It arose at a time when I needed very badly to work, and at a time when Arrehn Oberlander's work towards scripted cameras began to show results. And, of course, at a time when Gloriana was available and willing to do the work of building it.

This is what I enjoy most in these projects. Imagining a notion, and drawing together the people who can profoundly influence it. I cannot now imagine a circus project as compelling, as satisfying, as the one Glori, Arrehn and I have majicked together - and I use the term deliberately. Cirque is charmed, I am convinced of it.

The original story, if you do not know, is a tale of two illusionists - one naturally gifted and born into The Business. One carefully selected and trained to it. They were raised to compete against each other, with the ultimate goal of proving which method is the more powerful.

I don't actually believe in magic, of course. But it's not hard to imagine the three of us casting our different energies at that sphere in the sky above Idle Rogue.And then came the dancers, every one of them on target despite a very soft brief. I hadn't known what we could have until they brought it, and it was an indescribable joy to watch it unfold.

I am not easy to work with. I choose people based on their talent, and then let them alone to work up their part of the process. I figure they'll call me if they need me, and I can move onto another part of the plan.

They hate it.

My mission, it transpires, is to try and manage creative people who are capable of a high level achievement. This requires a serious humility, and I sometimes fail at it. I do not doubt I take it all too seriously. But there is fun, there is wonderful fun, when it all comes together - and it comes together this weekend. I hope you can make it!

Style Notes

Body:
Skin - Amber Fair "Smokey" by League
Body and Hands - SLink Physique
Hair: Zaara in Black Amber (modified for hat) by D!va
Makeup - Circuit in Black by Beautiful Freaks (link to blog)
                 Harley by MUA
Eyes - Promise Oxidation by Ikon
Tattoo - Bohemian by Letis
Nails - Dante's Daddles by Koffin Nails

Clothing:

Coat: Alvira Frock Coat by Dark Passions
Chemise: from "Chantilly" by Boudoir
Pants: from "Applause" by GlitterMonster
Boots: Anakre from "Raine" by The Plastik

Accessories:
Monocle by Yasum
Hat by Timelines Vintage Couture
Cravat by Ladies Pleasure (marketplace)
Nose-ring by Zaara
Garter by LouLou & Co
Cane by Creative Insanity (marketplace only)

Whirlwind Romance

My poor little blog gets a bit neglected these days. It's largely because I am a little too well-known around Second Life. I can't talk about other people and my relationships with them because they, too, are well-known, sometimes only by association.  It seems a bit unfair for them to have to read about my feelings, let alone to know that many others are reading too.

I always wanted this blog to be a true and accurate history of what I went through in my Second Life. But I am part of a community, and cannot write what I wouldn't write in my local newspaper.

I don't expect it's much fun being the partner of chryblnd Scribe. I am always more or less at work, no matter where I am. Like almost everyone who works in SL, I work with creative people, who don't really schedule their problems to suit business hours. I am known at almost everything I go to, and I am very often running the events I go to. There's not a lot of time, and what time there is might not be quality time. Sometimes I am drained from interactions through the day, sometimes I am working through my own issues. These are things that happen to many couples. I try hard to schedule a big enough slab of time that some of it will be quality time. And I try to withdraw from the fray, when I can; but those strategies can create a double edged sword too.

And like everyone else, I have my own quirks, fears and insecurities.

Friends know that my long-term friend and I parted company in February. It's difficult to describe it, now, as much more than a friendship. I thought it was more, certainly, and though I have no problem compartmentalising first and second lives, it seems, in hindsight, that I valued the friendship as a virtual romantic attachment. And the other person did not see it that way.

As the relationship came undone, I was devastated by the loss and the fallout. The pain was ferocious. There's more to that, but it has to be private.

In May I met someone new, and it drew some of the poison out of me. It was fun, and it scratched an itch. He was charming and alluring,very romantic and yes, it moved fast, and yes, it's over now.

My chagrin is a weight that pulls down my face and drags on my spirit. I also feel the lack of all that wonder and delight.

So here are the positives I have learned. There are negatives, but forgive me, I spend all day with those. We don't need to do those.

• Different relationships can have different dynamics, and sometimes how your last relationship ended is no indicator of how your next will start
• Yes, it actually is possible to move into a new relationship without baggage
• Love is lovely, and I need to be able to love freely. I am expressive and Second Life is an outlet for the expression of exactly that romantic love
• When I am happy, I am nice to people, and people are nice back. I smile when I buy my bus ticket, I answer the phone with a positive demeanour, and it legitimately affects the outcomes.
• There's a reason lovers don't factor into my self-care plan. Only I can care for myself properly, and when I do it right, I do it very well indeed.

I have had five romantic relationships in my almost six years in SL. That's more than I intended, or would have thought remotely likely.

Meet Jet. He's my dog. He looks like he can take being chryblnd Scribe's dog :-)

Idle Rogue Productions: Le Cirque de Nuit

What a wondrous journey Le Cirque de Nuit has been! In small but complex steps, this notion made it's way to me, from my first rudimentary attempt to combine circus and neo-burlesque, to the strangely rare gift of a book voucher serendipitously arriving at the same time as a new and clever friend, who recommended The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern. The book was a cute and quick read, but the striking imagery of a monochromatic Victorian Circus stayed with me throughout the remainder of The Very Bad Year that was 2013.

Many things failed in 2013, and others were fatally wounded. Projects that should have been meteoric failed to launch, people who should have felt beloved did not, the fog of many unhappinesses clung to me wherever I rode, but as the year ended I dreamed of a black and white steampunk circus, and when I woke, the idea stayed luminous; by December the dream was a plan, and it strengthened and consolidated throughout the first months of 2014.

Le Cirque de Nuit demanded all the time it needed. We thought we'd be performing it in January, February at the latest, but it was April before everything was in place. In that time, Gloriana Maertens built an enchanting environment that was an inspiration to everyone who saw it; Arrehn Oberlander joined the project with a formidable skillset and enough will to see this project through to a higher level. The two of them gave me toys that weren't even whispers in my dreams, and they polished and refined them as we watched the various other elements fall together around this charmed endeavour.

We called for auditions, and warned hopeful candidates that we intended to edit their work to get it to a higher standard than anyone had seen before. And one by one the candidates brought us intricate, beautifully realised acts that required nothing from us but our delight. Stars from all over the grid came willingly to work with us, hard-working, gifted performers who agreed time and again to rehearse with us, to meet with Arrehn, to learn new tools and new ways of performing. Not once was there a tantrum or a rift: everyone who joined this project brought with them goodwill and diligence, and sustained it even when they weren't quite sure of the vision. I am so grateful to you all for staying with me, for trusting in the concept and in our ability to make it real.

Two days before the April 6th premiere, we held a "teaser" preview for SL media, and as they reacted, we knew it was really, truly the spellbinding achievement we suspected it could be. Opening night audiences were rapturous, with the sim filling at both performances within minutes and people left outside the sime clamouring for a chance to see it.

Tonight we perform it again, two more times, in hopes of satiating some of the demand. Is it my magnum opus? Is it that one lucky time when everything fell into place? Is it the beginning of a SLifetime of producing totally immersive, high-quality original entertainment? Is it enough, just one time, to wash the taste of ash from my mouth?

Le Cirque de Nuit is a dance entertainment production set in a black-and-white steampunk circus, and will be performed to audiences on the Idle Rogue sim in Second Life at 7pm and 10pm on Saturday, April 19th. It features original performances by 13 professional dancers from around Second Life, as well as art installation interludes in a 90-minute production.Seats are limited to ensure a high-quality production, so the sim will be reset an hour before each performance. Audiences are advised to arrive early, seat their avatar and remove all unnecessary scripts and devices to assist the performance.
An Idle Rogue Production.

Burnal Equinox Festival in Second Life - March 28-30, 2014

"At a time far into our future, the earth has been devastated by a multitude of plagues. Harsh climate change, pollution, famine and war.
One of the last inhabitable areas left on the earth is the playa. Toxic fumes cover the ground and rise to 100 meters. The only safe living
environment is above the toxic levels because the playa winds help purify the air at this altitude. Passing through this toxic zone is possible but long term exposure can be fatal.
One redeeming factor of the toxin is that when it is captured, placed into a balloon and mixed with the correct proportion of playa dust, it takes
on the form of a very powerful lighter than air gas. A single 5 meter balloon can lift 1000’s of pounds into the air. The gaseous concoction has been fondly named Fairy Dust.
Modern manufacturing no longer exists. Everyday items are scavenged from the remains of abandoned buildings. Humans have had to learn to survive by creating with their own hands. They build platforms supported by balloons filled with Fairy Dust. These floating platforms are the hosts for a new civilization above the ground. The citizens of this floating city commute by building lighter than air vehicles. They are powered by whatever means can be found and lifted into the air by balloons filled with the Fairy Dust.

Every Spring the residents of this community celebrate a renewal of life. Balloons have been the savior of this city. Residents design and decorate their lifting balloons as part of the Equinox celebration. This tradition has been carried down from their ancestors from when the earth was plentiful. They celebrate this event in hopes that the earth will renew itself. They celebrate the clean air that still exists high in the clouds. They celebrate their existence on earth, as different as it might be from their ancestors, They are ALIVE!"

Guerilla Burlesque is delighted to be performing at the Burnal Equinox Festival on Sunday March 30th, 2014. We will make two appearances:

• At 6pm - Come and see Mr Timeless and The Pale Hypnotic, a massively popular collaboration with sound by Deepsky Timeless and vision by Guerilla Burlesque. It's a post-apocalyptic medicine show featuring all the beauty and drama of your dystopian dreams
• At 10pm - Guerilla Burlesque's very popular revue lights up the Burnal Equinox festival, with a celebration of the triumph and tragedy of the human race

Travel to the Burn2 Burnal Equinox Festival in Second Life
and you can join the facebook group for information about the other installations and events in this festival.