Monday, December 30 at 12 noon Riddle will DJ a special event we call 'Live Music Lost.'
Over the years we have hosted a lot of live music. As we resurrect the NotTooHot Club we plan to include live music as a part of our events with an emphasis on club members (e.g. MadMax Huet, Mar Biddle, Joaquin Gustav, Idella Quandry, DanLange Diavolo, Blue4U Nowicka and more).
Unfortunately, some of the live musicians from the past are gone ... some just went to RL with no forwarding address and some went from SL and RL in a box. Either way they remain in our hearts.
Riddle and I were talking about how the end of the year makes us think about the past. We started talking about these departed musicians and Riddle said he might have recordings of some of them performing. I said maybe I have some pics. So we searched our inventories and found enough stuff for an hour of remembrances.
Monday, Riddle will play a collage of them including
KelvinBlue Oh (KO)
HarleyKillerNL Back
Ziffy Zarf
and Dakila Lacava
Riddle also found the recording of the Not Too Hot Blues Ears Radio Special from 2008.
He will splice all this together and play it Monday. It will be an hour of fun and tears.
Following the Special Event Riddle will DJ regular blues tunes for an hour.
xxx
Nottoo
Sunday, December 15 at 12 Noon Mar Biddle will sing live at NotTooHot. She will be at the Club stage.
Many of you know Mar and her singing capabilities. She started her SL singing at the old Not Too Hot Club :-). If you don't know Mar, come find out. She plans to sing 'Don't Cry for Me, Argentina' as one of her tunes at my request. It will be fun.
xxx
Nottoo
Although many people dance with a HUD, this note covers only the use of the Club's Dance Balls. If you look above the bar you will see a set of large red and blue balls.
The smaller multicolored ball is the Couples INTAN (238 dances) while the large red ball is for individual female dances (761 dances) and the large blue ball is for male dances (353 dances).
My goal is to have the best dance balls in SL.
Although everyone knows how to use the INTAN, with so many couples dance choices available understanding a bit more about the capabilities of the INTAN system will make your dancing a lot more fun. The key to the INTAN is the INTAN HUD. You can get one from me or by clicking on the multicolored ball after you hop on a red or blue INTAN pose ball and selecting the Tools & Help button followed by the Get HUD button.
Wear the HUD. It defaults to the upper right of your screen.
When you wear the HUD, you get easy access to the Re-Sync button at any time. Without the HUD the Re-Sync button is only available from the first page of the menu and with 29 menu pages a resync could lead to carpal tunnel syndrome from all the clicking.
The INTAN also lets you access the dances that are the type you want using the INTAN Filter feature. I have placed all the couples dances into one or more categories. Click on the yellow Filter button to see the list of categories.
Select the style of dance you want, such as Latin followed by Set Group. This sets the INTAN HUD only to see Latin dances. When you next click on the green Menu button all you see are the Latin dances.
When you are ready to switch to another style of dancing, click again on the yellow Filter button and click STOP. After that repeat the process to select the next style.
Here is an example:
How to Tango:
1. Click on the INTAN Dance Ball to rezz the INTAN pose balls
2. Both sit on the appropriate pose ball
3. Wear the INTAN HUD, which I can give you. It goes in the upper right of your screen
4. On the HUD click the yellow Filter Button to bring up a blue menu
5. Choose Tango then Set Group
6. Close the blue menu
7. Click the green menu sign and now you see all the tango dances
Unfortunately, the individual dance balls for female and male dances do not have any kind of filtering. As a result you will get huge finger muscles from all the clicking you will do to go through the long list of dances arranged in alphabetical order.
Have fun dancing!
xxx
Nottoo
Most of the music (live, DJ and radio) in SL is played using the streaming capabilities. Most of you know about how this is set up, but let me start from the beginning.
Select World, then Parcel Details on your viewer to open the About Land window. The 'Sound' tab shows the sound settings for the parcel, in this case the NotTooHot Club.
The URL of the music being played is shown, in this case http://94.23.220.75:5500. This is Polska Blues, a favorite blues radio station of mine.
You can manually change the station by entering a different URL in the line. Of course, you have to know the station's URL. Here is a list of current ones .
http://94.23.220.75:5500 - Polska Blues
http://72.10.166.2:8787 - LeNet (75)
http://205.164.35.58:80 1.FM
http://209.236.126.18:8002 Big Blue Swing.com
http://206.217.213.236:8500 GotRadio - Bit O Blues
http://199.101.51.168:8004 Blues Connection
http://208.53.158.48:8410 : Radio Bop 60s
http://67.213.213.137:8078 Charlietown Blues
Over time the URLs change, so the list will eventually need to be updated.
When someone plays live music or DJs, they have a streaming capability from their computer using programs like Shoutcast, SAM or Icecast and software that holds their music collection or allows use of a microphone. The DJ or musician still needs to have a stream and to enter the URL info into the club's About Land Sound tab.
At NotTooHot all members have the rights to change the stream. To make it easy for DJs and musicians and to change the radio we have added a DJ Board located next to the stage.
Riddle manages this board. What it does is allows for easy changing using stored URL info. In two quick clicks you can set up to DJ or put on any listed radio station. Here is how it works.
Click on the DJ Board to get the menu.
If you are a DJ and have given your URL info to Riddle, the stream immediately switches to you. If you are putting on the radio, select [Radio] to get a selection of stations. Click the one you want, then OK Select and the radio plays.
The DJ Board gives information about the music such as the song played and the station name.
The number of listeners is also included with the station's capacity. When people don't hear music, it is usually due to one of three reasons:
- The station isn't streaming. You can check this by entering the station's URL in your browser, such as Internet Explorer. It will give you a listing of the station's details if streaming or a broken link message if not.
- The station's capacity is reached. In the above example with Polska Blues see that 220 of 250 slots are taken. When it is 250 of 250, no one else can listen until someone drops off.
- The person's computer isn't receiving music. Usually a restart of SL helps but sometimes it's something simple like turning on the sound.
If you want to DJ or play live music, give Riddle or me your URL info. Of course, you can use the Club's stream when DJing or playing at the NotTooHot and I can give you the details.
xxx
Nottoo
One of the fun things that we like to do occasionally is to pretend we are actually playing the music that a DJ streams or the radio plays. To make this easy to do I added to the Bar XPOSE a Band. Well, you and other members are the Band, but the XPOSE provides positioning and some of the instruments needed.
When you look in the Bar XPOSE menu you will see the 'Band' button.
Click the button and the band equipment and positioners rezz around the DJ spot at the bar. Here I am at the DJ spot with the rezzed band equipment around me.
The equipment consists of two microphones (one female and the other male), a singer positioner/animator, a drum set, two guitar positioner/animators and two back-up dancer positioners/animators. Eleven people (two singers, two guitarists, one drummer and six back-up dancers) plus a DJ can be in the Band at one time.
Here is a description of how each part of the Band works:
SINGERS
The microphones are colored with the red for the female and blue for the male singer. Sit on the positioner located on the floor behind the microphone stand and a menu appears. Here is the female menu.
These positioners also animate your avatar. You can move like you are singing a slow, medium speed or fast song or just waiting swaying with the music.
The male microphone and positioner/animator has male animations and the female positoner/animator has female animations.
GUITARISTS
There are two guitar positioners/animators with one on the left of the drums and the other on the right. You have to supply your own guitar. Eventually we will make a NotTooHot guitar for you to use, but for now we don't have it. The guitar positioner/animator is like the singer positioner/animator except the animations are all guitar animations. You may need to edit slightly the position of your guitar after wearing it.
DRUMMER
Sit on the drummers seat and you get a menu.
Choose Getsticks for the drum sticks. Once you wear them, use the GetHUD button to be given the drummer HUD. Wear the HUD to be able to do all the drummer animations.
DANCERS
There are two Dancer Positioner/Animators. One is next to each of the Guitarist spots on the bar. Like all the positioner/animators you sit on the circle and are presented with a menu. Each positioner/animator has three seats which you can choose and a variety of dances that one to three dancers perform in sync.
When you are finished with the Band, just open up the Bar XPOSE and select STOP to de-rezz the Band.
xxx
Nottoo
Every day Monday through Friday we have WORKOUT at the Club to dance and talk in a circle. I started WORKOUT in 2008 at the old Not Too Hot Club and it was a popular event. At that time we used 16 pose balls arranged in a circle. To join the WORKOUT all a person had to do was sit on a pose ball and accept the dance HUD invitation from the leader. When there were fewer than 16 people that meant that ugly pose balls were left hanging in the air.
To solve this I made a 16 Dancer Positioner using the Hironics MPC system. The Positioner is in the Bar XPOSE and can be rezzed either on the floor to the left of the bar or the right using the XPOSE menu.
Here I am with the rezzed Positioner. See it as the partly transparent circle on the floor subtly inscribed '16 Dance Positioner.'
To use it just sit on the circle. As soon as you do you are positioned at the first location on the circle called Seat 1.
If you click on the circle again, you can change seats or adjust your z-direction height. Here is a picture from today's WORKOUT with Toffee, Ili, Thal and me dancing in our Christmas outfits.
Ili is leading the dancing in this photo and we are perfectly lined up over one quadrant of the circle.
When you are finished using the 16 Dancer Positioner, just use the Stop button in the Bar XPOSE to remove it. If you would like a 16 Dancer Positioner, let me know.
xxx
Nottoo
I love Bar Dancing.
Bar Dancing is dancing on the bar. Almost from the beginning of my SL I have bar danced ... first at Juke Joint Blues, then at the original Not Too Hot. Here is a photo by Wisdom Whiteberry of a group of us bar dancing in April 2008.
You can Bar Dance at the NotTooHot Club any time. It can be done impromptu by just hopping on the bar and dancing away. We used to have fun dancing and knocking people off the bar. Of course, for some getting on the bar is a challenge.
Over the years we have become more sophisticated bar dancers. With synchronized dancing through HUD's we wanted to line up and all dance together. At the old Not Too Hot we used a line up of pose balls for positioning. That made it easy to get on the bar, but had the disadvantage of looking cluttered with unused pose balls hanging in the air.
With the new NotTooHot, I have placed a Bar Dancing Positioner in the Bar XPOSE.
On the XPOSE menu click on Bar DancerR or Bar DancerL to place a square on the right side of the bar or the left. Here I am looking at the partially transparent square on the right side with the lettering 'Bar Dancer' on it.
The XPOSE rezzes this square, which is a positioner for placing people in line on the bar.
If you move your cursor over the Bar Dancer Positioner, you see a hand. Sit on the Bar Dancer Positioner and you are magically placed on the bar. If there is more than one dancer using the poisitoner, the dancers are automatically lined up.
In addition to placing you on the bar, you see a blue menu (with Firestorm).
The menu gives different arrangements for the dancers (up to eight at one time) and allows for height adjustment also. All of the bar dancers have full access to the menu. Of course, you need a Dance HUD or the Dance Ball to dance.
Happy bar dancing!!!
xxx
Nottoo
Bar Items are simply the beer cans and bottles and wine glasses that sometimes are arranged on the bar. This also includes the beer dispenser. Here is a picture of some of these bar items.
One of the subtleties of the club is that we only serve beer from Holland (Heineken) or Argentina (Quilmes) and you will see that on the glasses and bottles as well as the beer dispenser. That's because Riddle is from Holland and Nottoo is from Argentina.
The wine is from Argentina and is Malbec.
If you want to sit or stand at the bar near a glass or bottle, you can rezz these Bar Items using the Bar XPOSE.
An XPOSE is a system that is used in many items in SL such as furniture including sofas, sex beds and lots of things that have one or more avatars being animated. The XPOSE system not only allows for the animation of avatars, it also allows precise rezzing of objects. At NotTooHot we use an XPOSE to manage the rezzing and de-rezzing of items associated with the bar.
The NotTooHot Bar XPOSE is located under the bar at the Club just below the DJ equipment.
Here is a photo from behind the bar. See the black square under the bar. That's the Bar XPOSE. When you move your cursor over the square, a small hand appears. Left click and you get a blue menu in the upper right (with Firestorm). Here is an example of the menu as of this writing.
The menu leads to different items that are stored in the rezzer. Clicking on a button rezzes that item on or near the bar. Usually clicking on a different item de-rezzes the currently rezzed item and replaces it with the clicked item. To remove everything that has been rezzed, just click on the 'STOP' button. Here is the empty bar, with Marv just hanging out.
Any member can rezz items to have fun. Please de-rezz the item when you are finished. If you want something specific added to the XPOSE, let me know.
I will identify items that are added to the Bar XPOSE and give more information about their use in separate notes.
xxx
Nottoo
Summer Nachtigal and Zeg Spear are The Spearheads, an SL Dance Group with a lot of energy and a lot of fun. Both Summer and Zeg are Club members.
Tuesday, December 10 at 1pm The Spearheads present their Christmas Show at the Far Bar which is on the NotTooHot sim. I went to the location and snapped this photo ...
This show will be a lot of fun.
xxx
Nottoo
After installing the bar stools with the seats, Riddle said, "What about bar stands for the guys who like to lean and drink?" This led to the creation of the Bar Stands at the Club. This is how they work ...
Here I am near the Club bar trying to think like a guy. "Hmmm, I would love a glass of that delicious Quilmes beer, Argentina's favorite."
I could walk over to the bar and look sexy with my HUD, but most guys don't have HUDs. To help them we have placed small bar decorations on the edge of the bar that double as a way to stand at the bar.
Look again at the photo above. See that blue circle on the edge of the bar. When you move your cursor over the circle, you see a small hand and a chair. Just left click ... and ZOOOOM, there you are standing at the bar in a macho stand.
You also get a blue menu in the upper right side of your screen. At least I do since I use Firestorm as a viewer.
I put in eight stands as choices. Some face out from the bar and others in. Play with this and choose what fits your mood. There are also four more choices. You can sit on the bar and be uber-cool. You can die and remain on the floor waiting for your Oscar. You can be drunk. Or you can dance and never leave the side of the bar.
Once I made the Bar Stands for guys, I began to think, "Hey, girls like to stand at the bar sometimes too!" So, I made a separate circle in red for females. If you look again at the top photo, you will see it.
The menu for the female Bar Stands gives different choices:
How the Bar Stands are Made
The stand prim is just a colored cylinder with a script for placing the avatar and playing an animation ([HeZ] Notecard driven multi-sit (quat) 1.06c), twelve animations, and a notecard identifying the x,y,z coordinates and rotation for each position. If you are interested in something like this, let me know.
xxx
Nottoo
Here I am at the NotTooHot Club looking at a bar seat.
Hmmm, yes I want to sit down. How do I do it?
Easy ... I move my cursor over the seat and I see a little hand with a chair. One left click and I am seated.
Since I use Firestorm as my SL viewer, as soon as I sit I get a blue window in the upper right of my screen.
This menu allows me to choose any one of twelve sitting positions for my avatar. When making the bar seats, I used the innovative naming system sit1, sit2, etc. in identifying the sits. Unless I am wearing a dress, I like sit6.
You can choose your own favorite sitting position or switch around.
If you want to remove the menu just click on the 'Ignore' button. To get the menu again, just click on the bar seat.
How the Bar Seats are Made
The bar seats are a one-prim torus colored red with the library version of linen texture. The pillow contents contain a seating script ([HeZ] Notecard driven multi-sit (quat) 1.06c), twelve sitting animations and a notecard identifying the x,y,z coordinates and rotation for each position. If you are interested in something like this, let me know and I can give you the details of how to do it.
xxx
Nottoo
This Holiday Season (2013) we are having parties to share with members and non-members of NotTooHot. We will have parties at the Club and some members will be hosting parties at their own locations away from the club. If you want to invite NotTooHot members to your party at your location, let me know and I will include the details here.
22 December (Sunday) - 4pm
Kat Windlow and Ranger Windlow invite all NotTooHot members to their home for 'Christmas at the Windlows.' They have lots of Christmas decorations and unusual things to do for the holidays. Music is included. Here is just one thing you will see ...
25 December (Wednesday) - All day
The NotTooHot Holiday Party will go all day long at the NotTooHot Holiday Skating Rink. Come as you are and talk, skate, dance and have fun with your friends. Hosted by Riddle and Nottoo. Here is a photo from our 2009 Holiday Party ....
31 December (Tuesday) - 7am, 7pm
The famous Nottoo's Fireworks Program (circa 2008) will blast off at the NotTooHot Beach Bar. Hosted by Nottoo.
I talked recently with Diddy Hyun, who is the leader of the SL dance group 'The Kittens and Tigers' and is a Club member. The Kittens and Tigers are a long-standing and popular dance group that has put on many shows in SL. Here is the oldest picture I have of them from November 2008 when they were an all female group and called the Spicy Kittens
They have transformed into one of the most prolific and fun dance groups of SL with female and male dancers ... always a treat to watch.
Our conversation turned to performing on the undersized stage in the NotTooHot Club and Diddy decided that she would enjoy performing weekly on the stage.
WOW!!!
A great idea and I was so happy to say please do.
So, starting this Sunday at 8 am come enjoy the Kittens and Tigers at the Club. The shows run about thirty minutes and feature dancing, music, costumes and sets.
The Kittens and Tigers are now on the Schedule Board as a regular 8 am Sunday event.
xxx
Nottoo
After I put in the Daily Notice that the Club was available for Exhibits, Bamboo Barnes and I talked and she mentioned that she has been having fun making photos in SL and using Photoshop to modify them. She agreed to show some of her work at the Club and we put it on the back wall near the Riddleball Field.
I asked her how she did it. Here is a piece of our conversation:
[10:17:04] Nottoo Wise: how do u make it
[10:17:17] Bamboo Barnes: these photos ?
[10:17:27] Nottoo Wise: yes
[10:17:48] Bamboo Barnes: take photo in sl and edit very hard on Photoshop . :)
[10:18:10] Bamboo Barnes: they are all in the locations , not in the studio or so
[10:18:25] Nottoo Wise: quite impressive
[10:18:35] Bamboo Barnes: :) thanks .
[10:18:50] Bamboo Barnes: I am just doing what I want to do
[10:19:00] Nottoo Wise: thats what SL is for
So come take a look next time you are at the Club.
The exhibit will be in place through the end of December.
xxx
Nottoo
I have an exhibit of hundreds of my outfits at the exhibition space near the Club. From the Landing Point at the Club Gate go west about 50 m to find the exhibition.
The exhibit ends Saturday, December 7.
xxx
Nottoo
Riddle and I have installed this year's Holiday Skating Rink at the Club. You can find it by walking through the front gate and up the steps, then right. There you will find the rink, a bar (of course), a fire to warm you, and some nice seats. You can skate, skate and dance or couples skate.
I am sending free "Skate and Dance" ice skates to all club members tomorrow (131203) in the Daily Notice. If you miss it, the same skates are available by clicking on the large ice skate at the rink.
Wear your long underwear ... it's cold out there.
xxx
Nottoo
Liz set up an exhibit in the pool area under the Club featuring twenty of her RL photographs. Take a few minutes to view them by walking through the phantom door from the beach. I think you will enjoy her talent.
Here I am taking in the photos:
The exhibit will end on Saturday, December 7.
xxx
Nottoo
Quite a few people stopped by on the USA Thanksgiving Day to enjoy the music of DJ Sandy (Sandy Stillwater) and DJ Ridd (Riddlebox Ribble). Of course many were in costume , so we took pictures. The pictures were sent out to Club Members, but I thought it might be fun for you to see the pics here. I will leave their names off to help them avoid embarrassment.
So, here they are:
xxx
Nottoo
