The Crow Bar Celebrates!

The Crow Bar is celebrating its 4th birthday today, and this was celebrated last night alongside a clutch of rez-days (Gizmo, Blowie, Connie and me!) and St Andrew’s Day.  Lyndy’s choice of music reflected all the themes, one of which was ‘pink’!  (I wonder why?!) and the décor was highly appropriate (dominated by an enormous clump of pink hair .. how Clive could bring himself to prepare this, I just do not know!)

It was lovely to see so many friends from across the world ‘pop in’ and I have captured some of them in pictures and the occasional video clip which survived my many crashes!  I have uploaded pics to Flickr (and I don’t know why it will not embed the slide show, so click here for the link) and the  video to Youtube:

Thank you to Lyndy and Clive for  providing the most comfortable retreat in Second Life, and especially for tolerating me and my pinkness!  I look forward to many more Crow Bar evenings!

Happy Birthday, Dear Crow Bar, Happy Birthday 2 You

Chilling at the crow bar

My absolute favourite haunt for music and off-beat, random humour, is C&L’s ‘Crow Bar’. As it gets ready to celebrate its second birthday this evening, I thought I’d write a little tribute post to its owners and regulars, fully expecting to get serious backlash over being such a creepy, goody-goody. This is, after all, the role I assume at the Crow Bar, where my innocent, positive and pink demeanour rather stands out against the backcloth of knowing, cynical and dark humour!

So …

Karelia looks up to Lyndy

Thank you Lyndy .. you are so generous in the time you give to make sure that there is always a welcome for everyone at the bar .. . you have a real gift for witty repartee .. … you are calm and measured in times of stress (like when I didn’t have any music at the start of a party, and you just sorted everything out and instructed me to be calm) .. you are the perfect reliable and trusty ‘listener’ (I cannot help but confide in you!) .. and you continue to accept me, even though I have habits which irritate you intensley .. (like saying ‘sorry’ all the time!). Quite simply the best ‘hostess’ in the whole of SL (and you’ll probably kill me for saying this).

Karelia looks up to Clive (a bit)

Thank you Clive … I’m just amazed that I have survived this long on your friends list, knowing your antipathy for things pink. I used to change my hair or wear a hat, but now I boldy continue to flout my pinkness, and you continue to tolerate me. I was so grateful for all the time you spent sorting out my internet radio and channels, and I love the spinning globe you gave me. May you enjoy many more years and gadgets in SL!

Karelia admires Ooj from a distance

Lyndy and Clive do great DJ-ing, but thanks also to the other regular DJs who produce such great play lists … Shell & Ronni (great, loud sets!) …Oojali (such an enigmatic, distant yet compelling man!) … Doc Bunyip (a real eye opener to folk music) … Kev (such a sweet man!) .. June (a great international mix and a very talented artist) .. and the rest!

And thanks to the regulars who entertain me with their comments .. amongst them, Socrates (the wise good-looking blond who introduced me to the club in the first place and did GREAT DJ-ing at a language event)

Hope, the Queen of Dances

 ..… Hope (who generously shares her dances via the huddles hud!)  …Blowie (my long lost brother .. so proud to be your big sis!) … Bozo (introduced me to some great dances ..) … Fabilène (my style guru and great French friend) … Duke & Ivanava (thanks for giving me a glimpse into the amazing dragon world!) Gia & Eddy, Fawn & Don (thanks for inviting me to your weddings!) …Lophius & Verena (thanks for the German poetry!) Dubble, John, Penfold and Brevis (great to see you at the start of this evening!)

Off to party now … watch this space for a birthday photo!

Karelia looks into Duke

And here are some piccies o fthe LOVELY evening .. we all dressed up beautifully I think!  More photos will be on Flickr soon …

John

Shell & Ronni

Socrates

Karelia (on the left)

Duke as a tree

The Jelly Bean Girls

The Jelly Bean Girls return ...

Happy 3rd Rezzday to us!

MORE PICTURES ON FLICKR! See Carol’s stream and  Helen’s stream.

Reception at Learn4Life

Meditation at Aeonia

Gizmo Latte and I would like to say THANK YOU / GRAZIE / MERCI / VIELEN DANK to friends who joined us on our ‘Island Crawl’ to celebrate our 3rd ‘Rezzday’ on Friday October 29th 2010, whether as fellow travellers, or tolerant hosts!  We passed out a notecard with times and landmarks and we had GREAT company all the way.

Playing at Arcachon

Royally waving at Crossworlds

We were really privileged to be able to showcase Solkide Auer’s wonderful 3D art work which he allowed us to place at the starting point of Learn4Life.  Thanks also to Wlodek, Flopsy and Graham who entertained us with rocket launchers, atom globes, dancing frogs and stilts.  (And thanks especially to Wlodek for the lovely chocolates!)

Bantering at The Crow Bar

We then lost ourselves literally in more of Solkide’s work displayed at Aeonia Arts before moving on to Arcachon, where we climbed the dune and did some paragliding.  I also learnt how to greet people

Chilling at Lunamaruna

in the authentic French way using the object which CathyChou Boa generously gave me for my birthday!  The next stop was Crossworld’s Gallery, lovingly curated by Fabilène Cortes.  We especially enjoyed taking photos

Floating in Costa Rica

Falling in love

of ourselves on the insect exhibits at Lollito’s Parade.  Time for a quick dance and exchange of playful (?) insults  at The Crow Bar (I love the music there, and Lyndy and Clive are great regular hosts!) … then we made for Lunamaruna- (click on the lunamodule) – a magical pink world of giant fish, crooked dwellings and trampolines devised by Scottius Polke.  We skilfully (!) made our way down the river in Costa Rica with two

boats and a paddle before witnessing the touching bonding between Claudio and Dev as they transformed their avatars and embraced!  There were audible gasps of delight at the beauty of the Tree of Trees installation

Breathtaking Tree of Trees

where we just enjoyed ‘chilling’ before we enjoyed Barisone’s welcome and  some more loud music in the warm company of our great friends in Sardinia.  We ended the evening back home in Edunation where we

Dancing in Sardinia

admired again Mary Roussel’s lovely disco build. 

Again .. THANK YOU to all who joined us!  To be honest, it was hardly an ‘Island Crawl’ .. more an ‘Island Race’!  We look

Reflecting on a happy 3 years!

forward to another year of friends and fun at a more moderate pace!

Arcachon and La Grande Dune du Pyla

Earlier this year, my lovely French neighbour Cyber Placebo introduced me to the talented and friendly owners and residents  of the Arcachon islands.  For nearly three hours, I drank in the sights, sounds, culture and fun of this fascinating place, and, thanks to my guide, discovered some of its hidden jokes!  There is just SO much to see there .. the ‘mairie’, (what a wonderful picture of Monsieur Sarkozy!), the exhibition area (currently showing a very clever bande dessinée called ‘La ptite’ Soph’ by Janis Allen), the vegetable garden (where you can help to do the watering … just touch the tap to sprinkle!),  the campsite (with its little ‘in-jokes’ for those who follow French camping films!) the chapel dedicated to rugby (relocated from another part of France .. its really does exist … Helen saw it on French TV!), the jetty and lots more.  You can travel around in a variety of vehicles;  I rode pillion on a scooter waiting for you by the square (tip: beware the slight bump and delay as you cross the second bridge from one sim to another!) but my favourite was a lovely boat ride with Cathychou Boa and DevLink Garside which took us to the Dune. I have since returned by motorbike (I was unceremoniously separated from the scooter when picked up by a speed camera) and I walked up the dune to enjoy the view and the mediatation opportunity before taking the hanglider.  A happy accident (i.e. diving by mistake) meant that I also discovered the beautiful seabed, with its colourful plants and seahorses.

Imagine my delight when I discovered that this experience inspired Helen to visit these places in her ‘real life’ last week.  She was totally amazed by the height of the dune (117 metres – the biggest in Europe) and totally exhausted after a childish run down to the Atlantic followed by a long slog up again! She chickened out of the chance to paraglide, but may do it next time! (But next time, she’ll make sure she’s combed her hair and is wearing something trendy for the benefit of the camera!!)

I will definitely be returning to Arcachon to enjoy speaking French and to further exploration.. and I know that Helen is hoping to return there by train from her conference in Bordeaux at the start of September so that she can explore Arcachon itself in more depth.  (And its shops!).  Thanks again to the residents who made my visit so enjoyable … as well as those mentioned above, Bernard Halcali, Eve Kazan, and Tupper Weir (the best name I have ever seen in SL!!)  A plus!

I want to go to Sardigna for real!

I am just bursting to tell everyone about the fantastic evening/ early morning I spent in SL’s Sardigna.   I had visited it some time  ago with Italianiamo (thanks Anna Begonia!), and remembered how much I had appreciated the place and the people … and I was even more impressed on my return.  A lovely group of generous, friendly, informative people looked after me .. proudly showing me around the sites and giving me the historical background, taking me on a magical air-borne boat trip around the island, telling me about the 5 different languages spoken there and – most importantly- being extremely patient with my halting Italian!  It was a special treat at the end to be shown the scene of a wedding feast and given and dressed in  a typical costume.  (See the family photo attached!)  Thanks SO much to you all for your time and your friendship! (Gavino Flores – Iceman Kaestner – Mysotis Flores -Blasco Draconia-  Pellegrina Nicoletti – Hilary Skizm – Roby Lenroy -  Ygerne Fenwitch – and many others!)

  I’ll definitely back .. and Helen has said she will definitely visit in real life… she even had the historical atlas out at tea time to understand more. 

The group has its own blog here.  Special thanks to Blasco Draconia for the language help (and incidentally he has created an ironic guide to avatar types on his blog here).