M is for Myg

Sable and I couldn’t stop stealing, it was addictive! We decided to spend a little of our ill gotten cash. First we got private tennis lessons….

Then we bought a little boat….well hello captain!

We attended all the glamorous Hollywood parties.

Had wild orgies with the hot captain…..

But then…..it all came to an end….who knew the hot captain was an undercover cop!

What we are wearing:

Sable:

CS Vogue Skin - Winter Series - Winter 1 - Cashmere
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Celestial%20City/68/243/27

Hair - HCT - Palo - Deep Red
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Troubled%20City/174/148/25

Outfit #1 - Affame - Activ Tracksuit - White
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Rue%20D’Antibes/159/163/28

Shoes - Reaction Girls - Sparkle
http://slurl.com/secondlife/AlterNation/80/203/38

Outfit #2 - Alchemy- Innocence - Light Blue
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Emilia/32/86/76

Shoes - Storm Schmooz - Laque - Black
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Viva%20La%20Glam/156/168/24
Gown - Simone - Showboat in Red
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Simone/123/153/36

Hair - ETD Juliana - Smoke
http://slurl.com/secondlife/ETD%20Isle/194/192/31

Lingerie - Foo Roo Lingerie - Red & Black Summer Bra
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eggar/37/95/37

Rain:

Skin: Celestial Studios Vogue Skin-Glitter Burgandy (Cashmere)
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Celestial%20City/68/240/27

Hair: Armidi - The Ginza- Orchid
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Armidi/176/150/546

Outfit #1: Nyte & Day-Tweedy
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Nyte%20N%20Day/118/39/28

Shoes: Reaction Sparkle
http://slurl.com/secondlife/AlterNation/78/209/38

Outfit #2:Top: Artilleri-Mahana (dress)
http://slurl.com/secondlife/artilleri/93/123/27
Shorts: <3C! Shorts Pack #2-White
http://slurl.com/secondlife/PopFuzz/116/174/21

Shoes: Shiny Things-Retrohoochie Pumps-White
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Shiny%20Falls/173/181/37

Sunglasses: Tickled Pink-Sasha
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Chatouille/25/220/27

Gown: Simone-Premier in Rose
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Simone/123/153/36

Hair: ETD Alexandra-Blonde

Lingerie: Intimizzio Aufiori Chambre Shee Set-Chocolate
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Armidi/121/180/26

Preston:

Hair: ND-Jake, Brown Pack
Skin: ND-Gabriel, Golden Tan
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Naughty/80/168/24

Reaction 3-Quarter Pants
Reaction Flip Flops, Chocolate
http://slurl.com/secondlife/AlterNation/80/203/38

PrimOptic Sunglasses-Reban style
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Terra%20Toulouse/121/140/27

Formal:
Last Call: Renaissance Tux
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Dazzle/68/11/27

Shiny Things: City Walk Shoes, Black
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Shiny%20Falls/173/181/37

Moderno Underwear, Sapphire
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Dazzle/130/10/27

Las Vegas Police Raid Shirt, by Halsted Beck
Purchased on SLExchange

I noticed Myg got tagged. I’ll pinch hit:

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

Nearest book: The Story of the Typewriter 1873-1923. Page 123 is a list of the phrase “To save time is to lengthen life” typewritten in 84 languages. So:

1. Demboraren irabaztia, biciaren luçatzia da.
2. Econmizar tèms es allargar la vida.
3. Temps ganga fa longo vido.

Tag, you’re it: Chestnut, Kit, dandellion, Wrath, & Argent!

Dear Myg,

You know I know how it feels. How does it work? We want one thing; we do another. Who’s in charge? Who’s the commanding officer here? I remember when I quit smoking: there was one in my hand again, even though I had told myself no.

I told myself no. Funny that that even makes sense. Why would the I need to tell the self? Isn’t it supposed to be the self in the first place? I told myself no, but my self did it anyway.

The usual story is this: the self does it anyway because the self lives in a fantasy world — or wants so much to live in a fantasy world it acts as if the fantasy were real. When my mother died, my father took us back to Ireland and turned to the drink. My great-grandmother made him dandelion tea for his nerves. On May Day, she scattered primrose petals on the stoop and smiled at me sideways. “So the fairies leave the cows alone,” she said. Some flowers were not allowed in the house and she cured the dog’s limp with comfrey and vinegar. One night my father fell into a ditch on the Shangarry Road and was attacked by a swan — a pen defending her chicks. After that night, he never swallowed a drop.

But what if it were the other way ’round? What if the self’s drive for addiction were its way not of striving for fantasy but of holding up a mirror to Real Life? Everywhere we look, the world tells us to surrender to addiction. Television. Sex. Money. Youth. In Real Life, addiction is what it means to be alive. It follows — doesn’t it? — that Second Life is where we keep addiction at bay. Of course these things are tricky, and sometimes with what’s Real and what’s Second, we may lose track of the wisdom to know the difference.

When in doubt, I look for the ditch with a swan in it.

Love,

Esteban

Funk me, it’s Friday! | 29 February 2008: play or right-click here to download.
Set list:

Wild Cherry: I Feel Sanctified
Brothers Johnson: Get The Funk Out My Face
The Isley Brothers: It’s Your Thing
Room 5 Featuring Oliver Cheatham: Make Luv (Extended Mix)
Prince: Kiss
Tom Tom Club: Genius Of Love
Fred Wesley & The J.B.’s: J.B. Shout
The Unemployed: They Won’t Let Me
Calypso King & The Soul Investigators: Raw Grapes
Chambers Brothers: Funky
Voices of East Harlem: For What It’s Worth
Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings: How Long Do I Have To Wait For You? (Ticklah Remix)
Stevie Wonder: Maybe Your Baby
Aretha Franklin: Groovin’

Funk me, it’s Friday! | 7 March 2008: play or right-click here to download.
Set list:

Earl Van Dyke & the Soul Brothers: The Flick Part I
Earl Van Dyke & the Soul Brothers: The Flick Part II
The Delegates: Pigmy Part 1
The Delegates: Pigmy Part 2
James Brown: Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag [Parts I and II] [instrumental]
James Brown: I’m a Greedy Man (Parts 1 & 2)
The J.B.’s: The Grunt (Parts 1 & 2)
Rufus Thomas: The Breakdown (Part I)
Rufus Thomas: The Breakdown (Part II)
Bobby Franklin’s Insanity: Bring It On Down to Me - Pt I
Bobby Franklin’s Insanity: Bring It On Down to Me - Pt II
Vicki Anderson: The Message from the Soul Sisters (Parts 1 & 2)
Isley Brothers: That Lady (Parts 1 & 2)
Billy Preston: Greazee Part I & II
Lou Donaldson: Funky Mama [Parts 1 & 2]
Don Covay and the Goodtimers: Can’t Stay Away

It fucks with me. It really does.

On the one hand, it’s this social, creative outlet. A community of people I love and enjoy spending time with, even if that time is translated through a fiber optic network at high speed.

I look at my Second Self and I say, “that’s me.” And it is. It’s often closer to the biological me than you might realize. In fact, what I’m wearing in that photo, how I’m sitting, it’s nearly identical to how I’m sitting as I type this and the clothes I’ve got on this frigid mid winter eve. The vodka bottle is steps away in a kitchen cabinet and sounds a better idea the longer I type.

On the other hand, it’s this black hole of productivity and time. The more time I spend online, the less I get done in my life. I resent going to work. Laundry sits in heaps on the floor. The dishes pile up around the sink. I don’t write music anymore. I struggle to write anything other than blog posts here, even though I consider myself a writer.

Do you know you can get addicted to anything?

When I spend a lot of time online, my brain feels the same it did when I was addicted to cigarettes. Owned by something, not me. Duller. Scattered. Unable to concentrate deeply on anything. I’m one of those lucky people who can be addicted to something and still keep my shit marginally together. I can still get to work, do my work just barely well enough to not get in trouble, get the laundry done when I’m out of socks and underwear. That sort of keeping my shit together.

But I can’t get anything meaningful accomplished. Like I got the novel started but I can’t get anywhere with it. I had the idea for a song, but I can’t pick up my guitar and bang it out. I keep meaning to call that friend who I blew off at Christmas time, and it’s almost March but I haven’t made the call.

Any one of those things, if I did them, would make my life better.

I don’t know that I can honestly say the same about the internet.

It’s not Second Life, actually. I can get compulsive about Second Life but usually I don’t. More than that, I get compulsive about blogging. I get obsessive about this blog, but I also compulsively check and read other blogs throughout the day too. Sadly, I can surf on the internet forever. It’s a lot worse than television. And I always feel so useless when I do it.

It’s like I don’t want to miss any of the conversation. But I feel I’ve got less and less to add.

I’m not going away. I’m just explaining. If every few months or so you see the posts here slow down, it’s because I need a break.

That’s not a break from you though. You, I miss.

With Myg & Burgess out sick this past week, it’s been a little quiet around the ol’ M is for Myg office. Sure, Sable and Rain traipse in to pick up their checks, but they’ve got the location assignments, got it? They’re not in the office. The wardrobe people, makeup, photographers — it’s like a goddamn traveling party. I’ll tag along sometimes, see if I can score some free champagne and chat up the catering staff, but after a while someone will say “shouldn’t you be writing something?” BTW, did you know they get to keep all those clothes?

Back at the office, it’s the same four desks and broken coffee machine. And that memo from Myg. “Only one comment on that last post, Esteban. Perhaps turn down the mystical psychobabble just a tad?” Toughest editor I ever had.

“Well, Moody,” I tell myself, “You didn’t become a writer for the money or the fame, right?” And then I realize I’m goddamn talking to myself. Jesus, better go for a cup of coffee. Maybe someone will be down at the club.

And who’s Myg to tell me what to write? I write the truth, goddamnit! And if the uneducated masses can’t handle it, well I guess she’d better just fire me!

Hold on, Moody. You need this gig. DJ’ing isn’t paying the rent yet. And besides, who else is going to give you free reign to go on about your little theories week after week? And think how many times Myg & Burgess have saved your ass, bailed you out, given you a place to crash? You’re not angry at Myg, Moody; you’re angry at yourself. You’ve always wanted to be more accessible, remember? What are you afraid of, anyway?

Shhhh. Talking to yourself again.

funk for the masses | 22 February 2008: play or right-click here to download.

Set list:

Donny Hathaway: The Ghetto - Part 1
Donny Hathaway: The Ghetto - Part 2
Rufus & Chaka Khan: You Got The Love
The Commodores: Slippery When Wet
Earth Wind & Fire: Help Somebody
Bee Gees: Boogie Child
Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, Mya & Pink: Lady Marmalade
DJ Krush: Keeping The Motion
Chris Joss: I Want Freedom
Eugene Blacknell: We Know We Have to Live Together
The Counts: Thinking Single
Ike And Tina Turner: Ghetto Funk
Mighty Flea: Ode To Billy Joe Pt1
Funkadelic: Funky Dollar Bill
The Rollers: Knockin’ At The Wrong Door
Christina Aguilera: It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World

I know we’re not the only ones out there with the funk. And I am not talking about any kind of good funk. Alex and I have the head pounding, leg and back aching, dry hacking cough, don’t wanna eat don’t wanna move funk.  I was laid up with it for almost a whole week and then poor Alex got it - and he’s still out of commission.

I wanted to say a special thanks to all the Clockwork DJs for keeping the club going without us. I’m sorry we missed you all last week but hopefully this week we’ll be around more.  If I’m not mistaken, tonight it’s going to be Esteban on deck with punkish favorites. If all goes as planned I’ll actually be there this time. Can’t likely say as much for Alex - depends on how much home made chicken slop I can get him to eat today.

dandellion was musing about dreams. I thought this: Dreams tell us a truth that we can’t see — or stomach — in reality. I am saying nothing new. The dream is the truth. Ipso facto, reality is the fantasy. I saw myself from within myself, but then it was kind of a movie starring me and Robert De Niro. “Hey, you’re pretty good, kid. You never acted in a picture before? Huh, whaddya know!”

As always, our enemies will insist the opposite in their propaganda sheets: they will say dreams are only dreams and reality is, well, reality. What obvious nonsense. Storm the barricades! The one where Christ comes down from the cross and asks me to guess what’s in his hand. A mouse? A hedgehog? A little silver bell? Mother called us home for dinner.

I was back in college, in the library, except it was tiled like an indoor swimming pool; students strolled naked through the steamy aisles. I approached the currency exchange booth and presented the clerk with a canvas bag full of leaves and twigs. “I need rupees,” I stammered. “I don’t speak Hindi.” She fluttered her eyes.

Take a look around you. What makes it make sense is fantasy. The hallway was too narrow to fit through. Suddenly I could fly. I needed directions to the museum. “There was no moon last night.”

Don’t believe the propaganda; they say it so you won’t be looking. “Never mind your dreams!” Then they will make our dreams and fantasies, not us. They mix them in factories and slip them into things: those shoes you bought, the subway map, those red envelopes from Netflix. I was running from the Nazis. I tried to hide under the couch. My gun malfunctioned! I tried to call for help, but the battery on my cell phone had died. Would they spare me if they knew my father was in the Luftwaffe?

Look, it comes down to this. I’m realistic. So I demand the impossible. Sometimes I demand six impossible things before breakfast. That’s what we came for, isn’t it?

Hey everybody. As I’ve been bitching and moaning about all week, I am indeed sick again, this time with my old friend influenza. It’s been awhile. I haven’t missed her. At all.

But that’s not what I’m here to talk about today. I wanted to ask you all if you’re having this problem with some of your favorite prim skirts. I am, of course, talking about the ass problem.

Some things are not a matter of adjustment. See, I was all excited as I bought this cute red dress from Artilleri for Valentine’s day. Butt what you see is that the texture on my ass is actually a bit darker than the texture on the prim. I thought it was a windlight problem, as I noticed when I use windlight this happens all the time in skirts. Butt even when I adjust the prim skirt for better coverage (in this photo the skirt is rezzed right from the folder, no adjusting), there’s still a hideous difference in the colors. It’s like majorly disappointing. Especially since it seems like all my Artilleri skirts look like this now in windlight. Is it me? Is there some setting I should check out that’s ass friendly in windlight.

Today I was briefly in Dazzle, and I encountered this ass:

I mean that’s a really bad looking ass in skirt. The style of this ensemble is babydoll, meaning the waist of the skirt is supposed to be high as it is. But man, this chick has waaaaayyy too much ass for this dress. Sadly the texture on the ass isn’t rezzed, but trust me when I say even fully rezzed it looked horrible. I am not sure how she went out looking like that, unless she didn’t look at her ass. But who could not look at a wreck like that?

I am seriously no fashion expert. Can anyone help me out here?

I do not want to have to adjust my shape for every skirt, but maybe that’s what it takes. What do you do, you fashion mavens out there? How do you manage to wear these cute little numbers without showing your ass?

This is likely the last post from me until next week, because if we can manage it we’re going out of town to that place that has satellite internet (and isn’t at all SL friendly).

Don’t forget to hit -=CLOCKWORK= tomorrow night for Esteban’s funk set, Sunday night for Xax’s IDM electronica goodness, and then Monday night again for Esteban’s anti-Monday punk and stuff.

And - don’t get sick!

Love,
Myg