Shaken... Not Stirred!

Don't Let Go....

Not such a 'Wonderful Life'

Princess of pop Kylie's beautiful but haunting version of the hit by Hurts.

Tally Ho!

I have decided to repost this picture because it is actually today that we celebrate as Battle of Britain day, recognising the heroism and sacrifice of the young pilots referred to by Winston Churchill as the 'Few'. The 15th September is considered to have been the turning point in the great aerial battles of the summer of 1940, after which the Luftwaffe could no longer be expected to gain the air superiority over southern England that it needed for a successful invasion. But it was not the end of the bloody campaign which officially ran on until the 31st of October, however from the German viewpoint the end didn't come until the spring of 1941 with Hitler's invasion of Russia and the transfer of his forces to the Eastern front. The intervening period became known as the night 'Blitz' when the Nazi's attempted to bomb Britain into submission by targeting its cities and their civilian populations.

Isobel at 'After Bits'

Last Pictures of Ambrose

Farewell to Ambrose

Testing Ed's New Camera - Hibiscus at the NWEC

Waiting

Been away from home for such a long time...

I guess when you have been listening to music for as long as I have, it might be difficult to pick out an all time favourite song ... but for me that's easy! - it's always going to be this one :-)

Little River Band - It's a Long Way There

An awesome live performance - God Bless YouTube :-))

The full version with Stephen Housden's fantastic guitar solo is here (8 1/2 minutes)

For a heavy dose of 70s nostalgia (and poster art) watch this video

LRB - From the country that brought you Kylie, Fosters and Edna Everage!

Groovin' at Janis's 'Hangout'

Left click on pictures to enlarge

Better Than Love?

(Trailer for...)

Better Than Love by Hurts

Video of Ed's favourite tune of the moment has a very Second Life feel about it... surreal I guess

(Awesome Electro dance LightsoverLA remix)

This an amazing Piano version

UK National Armed Forces Day - 26 June 2010

Armed Forces' Day

(formerly Veterans' Day) in the United Kingdom is an annual event celebrated in June to commemorate the service of men and women in the British Armed Services. Unlike the US Veterans day it is not a public holiday.

The date of 26 June is chosen because it is the anniversary of the first investiture of the Victoria Cross, in Hyde Park, London, on 26 June 1857. As of 2009 the name was changed to raise additional awareness and appreciation for those currently on active service in Afghanistan.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

The occurrence of Midsummer is celebrated in most countries of the Northern Hemisphere. It can be either on the solstice like the pagan sunrise ceremony at Stonehenge, or the Christianised holiday a few days later at the year quarter celebrating the nativity of St John the Baptist (born 6 months before Jesus Christ).

Some people say fairies dance at midnight on Midsummers eve. While Ed and Isobel were at Stonehenge in sl a fairy did appear miraculously.

Ooohh.... That's a nice picture

Lady Ga Ga plays the beach Club at Tropical Harmony.

Girl band Burning Bush on stage at the New London Village sim.

Ed and friend jamming in the Union Jack pub, Tropical Harmony.

An Invitation to DJ Janis's Hang Out Club

DJ Janis Short has opened a fantastic new London themed club which Ed is very excited about.The club which is at The Hangout @ Butler's Wharf has a very unique and atmospheric feel to it and is sure to become a favourite venue for Ed and his friends. Butlers Wharf exists in real life London and was built in the late 1800s, at that time it was the largest tea warehouse in the world. After it fell in to disuse in the 1970s it became an important venue for early UK performance and video artists. Today it has been redeveloped into an area famous for its restaurants and leisure facilities. Ed wrote an article about the club for Virtually London (lite).

Coming Home

Major Tom (Coming Home) - Peter Schilling

Ed was wandering round a shopping mall when he heard this on the radio. The lyrics struck a chord with Ed and using the magic of SL he soon found the track on YouTube. This animation is amazing, although it's not SL it should be possible to achieve something similar with Machinima or better even!

The last Apollo mission to the moon blasted off on 7th December 1972. Today Shuttle launches have become routine but the sheer spectacle and excitement of the mighty Saturn 5 rocket rising from the pad is something that will not be forgotten by those who witnessed it.

Across the stratosphere... a final message,

"give my wife my love"... then nothing more.

Far beneath the ship... the world is mourning,

they don't realize... he's alive.

No one understands... but Major Tom sees,

now the life commands... this is my home.

I'm coming home.

There is an electronica version by Shiney Toy Guns here.

Doctor Who What You Gonna Do?

Doctor Who - Parry Gripp

World Expo 2010 Machinima

Lady Carmagnolle from Bryn Oh 5:10 minutes

A character from Bryn Oh's SL sim Immersiva

with a wonderful piano backing track and a Limerick!

Lady Carmagnolle was a lonely soul,

who drew faces on rocks... and things.

She murmured soothing words...

pretending they were birds,

who had somehow lost their wings.

When the acid rain...

would wash away the stain...

of the faces upon her rocks,

she would gaze to the sky ...

happy tears in her eyes...

dreaming they had found a place..

in a flock. - Bryn Oh

Guess What?

'I Am Not A Robot' by Marina & The Diamonds

Music is important in Ed's second Life and he likes this video by a lovely girl singer who reminds him a lot of Kate Bush. There are some great lines in the song... 'better to be hated than loved for something you are not'?

Queen Plays Tropical Drift

The Queen Tribute band played on the beach at Tropical Drift sim last night. It was the best concert yet that Ed has attended in SL, a proper show that brought to life the magic of the finest rock band in the world.

Sexy Genes!!

It was Friday evening and the end of another working week with a bank holiday weekend ahead. Ed made his way over to Tropical Harmony in search of some fun. He started off by meeting friends in the Union Jack pub where there was a DJ playing and a trivia quiz going on. Then on to the New West End Club (NWEC), a competition with the theme 'Sexy Jeans' was under way. Ed ripped the sleeves of his denim shirt, bared his chest and donned tattoos... sexy enough for you? Isobel obviously thought so because after another quick change into formal attire they moved on again to the Aragon ballroom and carried on danced until the sun came up.

Electro House

Ed has discovered Electro House Music

Pendulum's ' Watercolour'.... Awesome!!

Trilogy Formation Dance Team

One evening Ed arrived at the new West End Club (WEC) to find a real 'shindig' going on. Dance balls had been placed in lines and country-western music was being played

Ed dug out some cowboy duds from his inventory and was soon joined on the line by Hibs in a very fetching outfit. Janey and Drax also arrived (out of shot) with their dancing horses, however 'dressage' it was not!

Another opportunity to display nifty footwork arose at last nights latin evening and the team met the challenge. It didn't stay this co-ordinated for long, luckily Ed's boots have steel toe caps!

Nemo Rises

Nemo is Sextan Shepherd's project of a Steampunk Submarine City

Click here for SLURL to visit in Second Life

From The Ashes... The New West End Club!

The West End club is Brie and Seany's new venture on the Tropical Drift sim. Most of the old UGC DJs and Hosts have also relocated to the new venue, which along with a pub, ballroom and beach club will provide entertainment for a new community. There will be plenty of shopping facilities too, no need for Ed to go far to spend those L$ won from competitions or the 'sploder'.

Continuing a UGC custom and celebrating the opening, the West End Girls (and boys) took out their guitars and rocked the doors off, led by DJ Gen on drums.

The End of the UGC

The UGC is no more. This picture was taken by Ed shortly before the club vanished, as things in SL are very apt to do. In the picture are most of the UGC staff of DJs and Hostesses.

Ed's First Rezday

To-day Ed celebrated his first rez-day, 12 months since his avatar rendered for the very first time at the London Gateway in the Hyde Park sim. His good friends at the UGC kindly decorated the club and provided a huge cake, Ed particularly thanks Brie and Seany but also DJ Janis and host Nahiram for a mega party.

Most of Ed's friends dropped by to join the fun, Isobel was wearing a cute outfit for a 'Best in Blue' competition. Ed thanks everyone for their cards, presents and good wishes.

After the UGC closed the party moved on to another club, BG’s Bistro on the Port Jefferson sim. Here Ed's friend DJ Gen was also celebrating a rezday, her second. This party had a 70's Disco theme and was an amazing riot of colour.

As Ed finally flopped into bed he remembered all of the lovely people who have made his first year in SL such a wonderful experience, none more so than his reporter chums Janey and Hibiscus. Thank you to everybody, this was without doubt the best day of Ed’s Second Life so far.

2010 Formula 1 Grand Prix Bahrain

Ed congratulates Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) on qualifying for pole position at tomorrows race.

Do You Wanna Date My Avatar?

Ed found this video (a primative form of machinima) on the SL blog and thinks the idea of humans pretending to be avatars is highly amusing, lol. They will never be handsome enough and just look at those puny underdeveloped bodies!

Do You Wanna Date My Avatar?

Gamesmanship In Second Life

A photographic competition is being held in the Knightsbridge sim, as reported by Janey Bracken for Virtually London (lite). The first prize is a generous L$5000, equivalent to $20 US at current SL rates of exchange. It is also about six months wages or one months rent for Ed ??? That's why he has to sell his body, err... I mean he has to enter the themed competitions in the UGC, lol. Naturally Ed took a nice snapshot and posted his entry with the others in the Knightsbridge Gallery.

Ed dropped by the gallery on a couple of occasions to see how many votes he had received, the current totals are displayed on the boards next to the pictures. Each time there was a crowd of avatars milling around the boards but not voting or in any apparent hurry to leave. Ed decided to hang around and see what was occurring. A discussion was going on and one of the avs, who was also the photographer with the highest number of votes, was explaining that he had sent a note-card to his whole friends list offering to TP them there in order to vote for him. Not strictly against the rules, the major political parties do a similar thing in elections when desperate for votes. However Ed feels this is very unsporting and not at all British, but then why should he expect it to be? An example of gamesmanship in SL, Ed thinks that everyone reading this should protest. And they can do so simply by dropping into the Knightsbridge Gallery and clicking on a picture, preferably the one above the name Ed Follet, ha ha .

Wot! No UGC?

Ed met with major disappointment to-night, for the first time that he could remember the UGC was closed all night. Occasionally in the past DJ's have not been able to get in for their individual 2-hour stints, but Ed can't recall the last time when none of the scheduled DJs have turned up.

Ed has been sorting his photos and came across this image, which has helped cheer him up. It was taken towards the end of one of DJ Gens sets, when as often happens, an amusing object or gesture is pulled from someone’s inventory and shared around. The object in this case was a Kangaroo, which was 'worn' and gave the appearance of being ridden. Added to this was a bouncing dance gesture with UGC beanie hats and the result - an hilarious antipodean scene, the only thing missing being the corks swinging from the hats, rotfl!!!

Love Songs and Bad Hair

DJ Janis's set on Wednesday nights at the UGC is known as 'Love Songs', an excuse for everyone to dress up and look 'glam'. Lovely Nahiram was hosting this week and wearing the most gorgeous dress (in Eds humble opinion).

Ed has a nice tux and wishes he could wear it more often. He danced the evening away with Sarah and Isobel and other regular visitors at the Underground club.

The previous evening a competition for 'Best Demo Hair' was run during DJ Genevieve's set. Gen had a swan nesting in her bouffant style hair.

Ed was pleased he had kept hold of some demo beards but couldn't match them with the ginger centre parted style he chose as the 'best' worst hair in his inventory.