Gratitude & Exhiliration

I just need to get this off my chest.

The Splinter has been going like a train. After little more than a month the group has grown to 50+ people, and every single DJ that stepped up for a set has had a living, warm, fun crowd. So many sexy, eclectic, disturbed, funny, happy and warm people have been coming to the Splinter, and the audience is growing by the week.

I'm getting comments like "Jaz, this place is amazing, I feel so at home here!" and "I love the place is so easy, so relaxed, so welcoming and low pressure". It seems I have made the place that I wanted it to be: a no-pressure, free, welcoming bar for people of all walks of life, and everyone mixes in a loving, intelligent atmosphere.

The DJ's are having a blast, including myself. Seren regularly expresses her joy of DJ'ing at the Splinter, as does Dexter. Bionic may not do it so regularly, but s/he, too, has expressed the sheer fun s/he's having while cranking out the tunes.

This is a big thanks to you guys, to all the people who have been to the Splinter from the very beginning as well as all the new people dropping in every day. I am touched by how you take the place that I created and provide, and make it yours; make it ours.

the popular saying goes 'come for the music, stay for the people', well, this is a big fat 'thank you' to all those people who you stay for. You make this place thrive and grow and add to the energy that's been poured in lovingly. You make this happen.

I am grateful for your patronage, and even more so for you being you. Every face is different, yet every face returning makes me smile. you make me feel good by making the Splinter complete. In two words: you rock!

Thank you for being in the Splinter. I hope you will enjoy the shows to come, and enjoy eachother like you have done so far. The Splinter wouldn't be what it is without you, and I want you to know it.

Thank you.

NIN Remix Of The Week 05

I'm starting to think I'm Nine Inch Nails indoctrinated. I have no more creativity of myself. All is inspired by Trent Reznor. I hate him. I hate him with a fucking vengeance.

I'll explain why:

After I got my new girlfriend Leslie, and played around with Ableton, I don't seem to be even remotely able to come up with something completely original. (For the people who didn't get it the first time: Leslie is my Les Paul Special II guitar, and Ableton is a software program for creating and arranging music on PC or Mac.) Everything I do is somehow related to a NIN song. Like that, I came to almost the exact same riff as the chorus in 'Head Down', so I decided to start remaking/remixing that one. Next 'coincidence' was 'Not So Pretty Now' though admittedly, I did intend to remake that one from the start. Now, just yet, just today, I played and recorded two riffs over eachother for a somewhat simple harmonious and rhythmic playfulness and guess what? It sounded exactly like 'The Beginning of the End'. To check if I was really that badly influenced, I opened the multitracks from the Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D DVD, and yep... I was only 2 bpm off (original is 138bpm, I recorded on 140bpm). A minor transpose to the copied vocal tracks and voila: A remake of 'The Beginning of the End' in the making.

Three times is a charm. I have been doomed to obey the will of our father who art in Los Angeles. Thou music come in the studio as well as on stage and in every fucking bedroom. Get the fuck out of my head, Trent. ~grumblemutter~

Anyway, enough bullshitting. I'm again a day late with your weekly dose of NIN-remixedness. For the occasion, I present you:

NIN - The Beginning of the End [Ladytron Remix]

It's definitely not the best I heard fron NIN, and also not the best I've heard from Ladytron, but it makes a great track to surprise you while you aren't really listening.

Enjoy.

Heads Up!

Just a couple of things I'd like to share for convenience and enjoyment:

~ I have a new girlfriend. She's a rockbitch pur sang. A deliciously curved and sunbursted body, long, slender neck and a voice as enjoyable as warm sunrays in early spring. I call her 'Leslie' and I met her at GuitarCenter. :P

~ If you don't see me in Second Life, I'm likely playing with Leslie and Ableton. We make an awesome threesome, and working together towards projects of intimacy is a delight to the ear. Yes, that means that some time soon I'll be able to show off our firstborn. I will be sacrificing it to Trent Reznor.

~ My show's gonna move. Sunday afternoon simply isn't the right time anymore. Many people that I know that would like to come to my shows are busy with other stuff on sunny sundays, and rightfully so. I want some sunny sunday afternoons with Isabel too!

So since my weekend is currently basically fucked up by my shows that no one shows up for anyway, I figured I'd do us all a favor and change time and day.

From now on you will be able to bliss out on my selection of tunes Tuesdays, 7pm

~ Dexter is a new DJ at the Splinter, he had his first shot at fame last sunday, and if the loss of clothes is any indication of how convinced we were of Dexter's awesomeness, he's very awesome.

Sundays, 7pm. Come get some!

~ I'm looking into a band called 'Naked Empire' from Austin. They sound like Muse with a sense for harmony. Look 'em up on myspace!

~ I have made a movieclip of me having sex with Isabel in RL. It's kind of a porny movie, without bits showing, so I could post it on YouTube. Have a look HERE.

Enjoy your day, see you tonight @ the Splinter, 7pm.

NIN Remix Of The Week 04

Back in the day, when there was a contest out there to remix 'Only', many many remixes of this famous 'there is no you, there is only me' track swarmed the internet and ended up on b-sides of NIN releases (Richard-X remix, E-Ib remix).

One remix didn't make it into the contest. Because it was too long. It spans an incredible 23:15. It is available only since a week or so at remix.nin.com. It is epic. It is hard, full of ambience, danceable beats, aggression, dreamy audioscapes and an amazing amount of variety for such a lengthy track. It is a trip of and in itself. It is the kind of track that blows you back and makes you sit down to be able to cope with it, unwilling to let you go or stop listening. That, or it makes you turn it up max volume and dance your butt off.

NIN - Only (Triptych remix by MoozE).mp3

More info on MoozE, and more music from Russia to blow you away on myspace (really, head over there, and listen, it's GOOD).

Nine Inch Nails Remix Of The Week 03

I know, I know! I'm late!

Told you I'd have a hard time doing this thing weekly properly!

Anyway, this isn't about me this time, it's all about a french girl making an awesome remake/mix of NIN's Perfect Drug. Now, I think we can agree on the fact 'The Perfect Drug' has been remixed and remade into oblivion, and it's really hard to stand out with the song, however, Absolute Entity 01 (myspace) stands out like a white orchid in a field of grass.

An exquisite remake with a strong emotional load. I almost dare to say she managed to make a better version than the original:

Absolute Entity 01 - You Are The Perfect Drug (NIN).mp3

Close your eyes, lay back, and let this girl's voice rip through your soul. She's amazing. Enjoy!

A Recipe For Melody

seven eights of joy

five quarts of grace

a gentle rhythm with a little quirk

and plenty pauses to slow the pace

eight sixteenth of comfort

two quarts of space

a half full note will just say enough

and fill a heart like a warm embrace

three quarts of waltz

four quarts for march

arpeggiate up for magic and wings

a good measure of what imagination brings

mix it together in an arrangement of trust

simmer for months and be careful with lust

repeat and vary and change only little

don't sing in minor lest she be lost

(c) Jazhara Keon

The Splinter Grand Opening: An Impression

As soon as the notices went out, and as soon as Seren started spinning her tunes, The Splinter filled up with people. Good people I must add.

The audience was diverse and social, and lots of chatting, jokes and dancing went on and oh joy! No-one seemed to have a 'woooooo!' gesture active, no one started green-spam-spanking the whole crowd, and there were no ridiculous particle poofers to disrupt the great atmosphere. To me it felt like the right people came to the right place at the right time.

Seren played a great set, the music was uplifting, energetic and flowed greatly with the audience, and I think her tips underlined the fact she did a great job. I am really, really happy to have her aboard and hope she'll stick around for a long time to come.

The party wouldn't have been complete for me without The Sisters of Mercy (~points at the picture above~ oh how I'd like to read their IM's when they get silent in public ~smirk~)

After my own set, Bionic joined us just in time to take over with a wicked psytrance set that lasted for another 4 hours. S/he, too, made this whole event a happening I'll remember for a long time to come.

All in all, it was a great night, with great music, great people, and a great atmosphere; the exact atmosphere I hoped to capture when I made the Splinter, and an atmosphere I hope to maintain.

If you were there this night, thank you bunches!! If you happened to miss it, I hope you'll find yourself able to taste this place soon, you are most welcome!

NIN Remix Of The Week 02

Another week, another Nine Inch Nails remix in the spotlight, straight from remix.nin.com. This remix has been up there for a little while now, even though I only found it less than two weeks ago. From NIN's latest album The Slip comes Echoplex, an already awesome song, and an original live experience as well as Trent programs the drumcomputer for it visually on a huge projection screen:

The remix of this week is made by Adam Lane from the south of Florida, and may be better known as Obscure Descension. It turns the rather rocky Echoplex into a smooth and very danceable, even bit trancy track. From the first time I heard it I was thoroughly impressed, and I almost feel like I'm holding out on you guys because I didn't share it before.

So let me make it up to you:

Echoplex (EBM Remix by Obscure Descension)

(download expired, please contact me if you still want this mp3 :)

Make sure to visit Adam Lane's myspacepage and website as well to hear more of his work, it's rather good if you are a fan of the elektro/industrial/EBM genre.

Enjoy and let me know what you think!

The Splinter Opens

Yes!

tomorrow

Friday April 3rd

3pm

The Splinter

featuring DJ's:

Seren Dawes

Jazhara Keon

Bionic Merlin

click to teleport there

Custom Build: Sin Sensual Photo's

Yes, I still do commissions and custom work in Second Life, next to DJ'ing and being a brat! My latest architectural build is Sin Sensual Photo's (SLurl).

It's a skybox up at 2000m in the sky, so the focus is on the interior. Using a couple of techniques I also used in the build of The Splinter (lighting on the ground, city skyline through the windows), I think I managed to build a 'clean urban grunge' loft.

The loft has warm wood floors, cool concrete walls, and plenty of space to put up pictures. As a little treat I put in a service elevator in the middle of the place to emphasize the industrial feel to the place. It is urban and grungy and industrial but clean. Have a look at the pictures here, or simply head over into SL. If you decide to visit, be sure to say 'hi' to my good friend Russell, boss and boy of Sin Sensual Photo's ;)

Grinding Gears: Boobs in SL

Okay, you might get a 'wtf!?' feeling from this post but DAMN this grinds my gears!

Lately I have been making a bunch of pictures in Second Life again, including nudes (of course, duh!) and something annoyed me. Endlessly. I hadn't really given it much thought before, but spending the past few days looking at different kinds of boobies and going over the taken pictures made me run into this too much:

Just LOOK at those globes! I mean, literally, it looks like a sphere cut in half and stuck on a body to make look like feminine breasts. What an UTTER failure in representing a female body! The nipples look like something a kid could have pulled out of a candyjar. It may be enjoyable to suck on, if you like sucking on oversized pimples, hoping they'll explode their load of pus in your mouth... I mean, even a baby would know the difference and wouldn't suck on those, afraid it might choke on them.

But that's just the nipples. What worries me most is that it seems to be completely normal to have your boobs look like they've been sewn on, look like a porn-star-blow-up-doll-you-gave-your-worst-friend-on-his-bachelor-party; look like they're just out of surgery. Just think about it: unless you're some kind of boobjob fetishist, you wouldn't want people to see outright you had a boobjob in physical life, right? Blatantly showing you had your breasts 'fixed' says as much as "I am really inconfident about my body actually, but look! I have money to have my body deformed to meet the pornperspective, and now you should all like me more". I can imagine that if you had your breasts lifted or filled up a bit, or even suck a bit out of them, you'd want it still to look natural and 'stealthy' for lack of a better word; you wouldn't want people to notice rightaway you're not completely comfortable in the body that you wore out over time. Why the HELL would you want to look like you had your boobs done in a place where you have complete control over their size, buoyancy and cleavage!?

Come on, be honest. The boobs above look like balloons pasted to a chest that could be any gender, and the trick to it is the shadowline between the two to-be-delicious curves. Due to that overly contrasty and hard shadow those whatever-you-call-em-but-not-boobs stand out like a wart with hair growing out of it on the tip of your nose.

The painful thing is that in the 5 hours I spent last night looking for a new skin to better my boobs, I came across well-counted ONE skinmaker who made 'natural breasts' (it'll never be completely natural, I'll have to live with that), and 17 who don't. I tried over 50 skin demos, only to find the 'boobs had been pasted on' on practically every single one of them.

What the FUCK is wrong with you skinmakers in SL? What's up with this damn trend of making women look like blow-up dolls for the male enjoyment!? I think women conform to the porn-standard in First Life enough already. Must you make it even worse!?

You know... that REALLY grinds my gears.

VNV Nation @ El Rey, LA, 10/24/2008

"Finally!" You might say, and rightfully so heh. Six months after the date I come up with some pictures of the (incredible) show VNV Nation gave in Los Angeles back in October 2008.

Have a look:

If you'd like to comment on the pictures seperately, please do so on my flickr page and ofcourse you can dump your thoughts right underneath here as well ;)

NIN Remix Of The Week 01

Ever since Trent Reznor decided to offer multitracks of NIN songs for free to the public, a lot of creative minds have picked up where Trent thought he was finished. You can find almost every remix ever made of NIN tracks at remix.nin.com; that includes remixes that have been released before of pre-Year Zero tracks, but what is even more delicious is that everyone that wants to share their remix of any NIN track, and offer it to listen and download, can do so right there. As such, you can imagine there's a LOT to go through, something I do gladly as a fervent NIN fan.

Now and then a jewel of a remix pops up, and I play it on my show in Second Life. Next to that, I'm going to try to give you a weekly NIN remix that popped up for me (try, because I'm not good at regular stuff ;p).

As such, I present to you:

Love Is Not Enough (Binary Audio Mix)

(download expired, please contact me if you still want this mp3 :)

My impression? NIN meets Celldweller. Check out the remixer here and give kudo's where kudo's are deserved! This guy's been working on the music road for a good amount of time, drums in the band 'Radiator' signed with EMI (yeah, I know, bad, evil record companies, but still.. yanno..), and well... manages to make a damn groovy remix.

Enjoy!

[UPDATE]: After a bit of contact with Chris Rose (the remixer of the offered track), he told me his band Radiator is no longer with EMI, and currently unsigned. (Yay on one hand, sad on the other). They toured with Motorhead, Queens of the Stoneage and Muse, which I'm not really surprised with after hearing some of their tunes on their myspace page. I'm going to see if I can get my hands on some of their music so I can properly introduce them in The Splinter ;)

I Think I Did It. Finally.

After almost three years in Second Life, I build my own club after being disappointed with 99% of the clubs in SL. Club Reactor was/is great, and before that Club Excess for which I came to SL in the first place, but I feel it's time to open something of my own.

The Splinter has been in the making for quite a while. Constantly adding little pieces, changing little things, and I'm sure that will continue, but for now the build is pretty much 'finished':

I hope I have managed to create an intimate setting that appeals to all walks of life. A mix of contemporary, urban grunge and 'accessible underground' was my initial ideal, and I have the feeling I found the middle ground I was searching for.

In the meantime I'm still looking for a couple of DJ's. Of course I'll be DJ'ing myself here sundays at the usual 2pm SLT, but I'd like The Splinter to become a place where several DJ's will be able to give their listeners an enjoyable time with delicious tunes. One of the DJ's I've been able to trap into a weekly slot is Seren Dawes. She'll be spinning the tunes on thursdays after the official opening on April 3rd.

"So can I come over already?" you might ask. Why yes you can! Just because it's not 'officially open' doesn't mean you can't hop over and meet other people with a similarly curious mind. Here's your TAXI to downtown Manhattan.

PS. The tables are NOT for dancing ;)

PSPS. After you visited, I'd love to see some comments here about how you like The Splinter!

Coffee and $200

coffee: check

shower: check

new song in my mail I happen to love: check

sweet e-card from Isa: check

dream about sex: check

cat chewing through the wire of my 200$ headphones during the night: check

Good morning, world.