New releases from Pearse'd & Cut

After much pestering from various people Pearse'd & Cut is proud to announce the release of eight additional tartans to our existing kilt range, just in time for the St. Andrew's Day celebrations.

A selected sampling of the now eleven tartans


Kerr


The Black Watch


Royal Stewart


Caledon

The full range stand at present as Black Watch, Caledon, Chattan, Ferguson, Gordon, Kerr, MacAlister, MacDonald of the Isles, MacPhearson, Priest and Royal Stewart.

Salute to the Troops and a Pre-Thanksgiving Ball

Steelhead's Salute to the Troops started out well. Sadly the morning activities were outside of my timezone but the afternoon activities went well.


The infantry parade consisting of Elizabethan, American Civil War, and Highland regiments. With myself and Maklin Deckard representing the Caledon Highland Regiment.


The troops lined up for inspection.

The Caledon Highland Regiment was awarded second place.

Later in the day the cavalry regiments paraded through the street.

The Caledon Lancers. (Picture courtesy of Loch Avie)


(Picture courtesy of Loch Avie) I had initially ridden through with the Lancers but in a cheeky move I rode back round and changed uniforms to the Carntaigh Cuirassiers, with Mr. Deckard again joining me. I seem to have had a few enquiries about the Cuirassiers this week. I may have to organise a group and start scheduling some events.

Back in Steelhead that evening was the Salute to the Troops Ball. Sadly on arrival my composure was rather taken aback. Rather than the advertised "Veterans Appreciation Event *Honoring Gettysburg, WWI Armistice Day, and All Soldiers From All Eras!" I was greeted me was a plethora of red, white and blue bunting with flags from all branches of the United States Military (including one for an MIA group that I'd never heard of) but NOT ONE SINGLE FLAG FROM ANY COUNTRY FROM ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD! Now I know that there are Americans who only know of the existence of other countries because the illegal immigrants obviously come from somewhere else. However if you're going to promote your event as something from "all troops from all eras", then a casual dismissal of "I thought it was for US Veterans' Day" does not suffice. Nor does telling me I'm welcome to put out flags if I want. I realise that the owners of Old Glory were major organisers for the event (and I'm not going to get into the spectre of "American Civil War" vs. "Civil War" again just at the moment) but really people, you need to remember that SL is an international area.

Deciding not to say anything further and thereby keeping my temper I headed to Loch Avie to join the Caledonians for the Social Season's Pre-Thanksgiving Ball.


Here I danced and calmed down somewhat. Her Grace of Loch Avie has collected a far better sampling of pictures than I had the heart for on the night.

I am missing my dear Christine all the more at times like this. Thankfully her travels will bring her back to me this week.

Mad Science in Steelhead

Friday's theme for the Steelhead dance this week was mad science. Having been rather busy of late I decided to go with the cliché and find myself a lab coat. Which turned out to be a lot harder that I imagined. While Miss Vandeverre's offerings were nice, they weren't what I was looking for. Another of the labcoats for sale was, in my humble opinion, complete junk ("sexy scrubs" or not). The best one I found turned out to have a flipper script inside it which thankfully could be removed.

The Kokopelli was appropriately decked out with lightning generators, phase balls and tesla coils. Stuff to make your inner Mad Scientist swoon.


In Mad Science Mode


Baron Wulfenbach in a rather nicely designed apron and toolbelt


Miss Weatherwax as a lab experiment


Steelhead's very own Mad Scientist who adopted an artificial arm for the evening. Really she's mad enough.


Lumina in her electric suit


The Duchess of Loch Avie in full Madgrrl mode


Miss Laval as a small but still dangerous Mad Scientist


O'Tool who seems to have had pasta for dinner before coming to the dance.


Maev Ceawlin (I think) as some sort of experiment gone wrong.

Tribute Island

Nikk Huet has been pimping his company's current efforts in SL with the remarkable "Tribute Island".




Memorial to British Military Personnel


Memorial to the two shuttle disasters


Tribute to A.A. Milne


An impressive recreation of the Muppet Theatre offices as a tribute to Jim Henson.

The main concept is allowing Residents to submit tributes for anyone who has died since 1950. The memorials will be rotated as the number exceeds the space. I highly recommend visiting.

Clowns, Jesters and Idiots

As mentioned here, several of the new arrivals in Steelhead decided to throw a party as a celebration/housewarming.

I had been asked to find some music in line with the theme. Some was pretty obvious, like songs from The Court Jester, or tracks like, "Tears of a Clown", "Be A Clown", and "Cathy's Clown". I also discovered that Shakira had a song called "Costume Makes The Clown" and Alice Cooper's "Can't Sleep, Clowns Will Eat Me". I had a great time putting the music together.


Zoe Connolly and CeAire DeCosta get into the spirit with some colourful outfits.


Hawc DeCosta was there with bells on


An unintentional Abbey Road moment.


Myself and Baron Wulfenbach.


I think the turkeys have heard rumours about the upcoming American Thanksgiving...

Aaaaall my friends are getting ooooolder!

Friday afternoon SLT (or Friday evening GMT or Saturday morning AEDT) saw a combined Rez Day bash for many of Caledon's inhabitants. Oolon Sputnik, Terry Lightfoot, Alfonso Avalanche, Fuschia Begonia, Exrex Somme, Lapin Paris, Vi Paravane, Otenth Paderborn, Jess Patton, Kirawill Collingwood and probably others all have their anniversaries in November.

So, big party.

The theme for the party was Robotz and had some impressive outfits.


Inside the walls of Coughton Court, the walls had started closing in.


With Mechanicals, clockworks, automatons and their friends, all dancing to the funky tunes


Miss Emilly manages to catch my good side while DJing. Elrik Merlin and I covered the music with a little intercontinental handover.


Mechanical Alfonso.


Smilin' botz.

Clowns, Jesters and Fools!

Join me this evening in Steelhead for an evening of painted faces big shoes and hat with bells. I've managed to track down some interesting clown themed songs so it should be great fun. If you can't make it listen in at http://music2.radioriel.org

Remember Remember

Sadly the anniversary of Guy Fawkes Day seemed to go unnoticed. The only reference I say myself was the bonfire burning in front of The Odditorium.





If any of these 'orrible little conspirators try to blow up our Benevolent Dictator we'll be ready for 'em.

Titanic in SL

After seeing a post on Miss Jewell's aetheric journal about a Titanic build I decided to investigate.

My human avatar was bitten by the Titanic bug some 25 years ago and spent many weekends discovering how the State Library catalogue system worked (back in the days when they still had catalogue cards) poring over microfiche readers.

There have been a couple of build purporting to be the Titanic but they've been rather generic ship more than anything else.


The exterior of the RMS Titanic. This is a well put together construction with the overall aspects of the great liner noted and present.


The Grand Staircase

Sadly what could have been an amazing build has been reduced to a themed shopping complex. Floor after floor of vendors selling hugely inappropriate goods really killed the sense of wonder I started out with.



Bikinis, naked women, strappy shoes... Must be a shopping centre.

I had originally thought this might all be done to offset the tier cost, but at the little museum in what was the Officer's Quarters says, the land was donated to him to place the Titanic in.

If you want to see for yourself, head to http://slurl.com/secondlife/Volcano Cay/172, 167, 23

Caledon Cay Mooring Tower

Way back in July I started on my goal of acquiring the plot to the south of Davaar for building expansion. After many delays and setbacks it was finally mine and the building commenced. Now finished, the Caledon Cay Mooring Tower (or as Lady Primbroke has started referring to it as, "The Garage") is open for use.



At this stage it only caters to dirigibles and flying vessels, but once the Radio Riel building is completed for Penzance I will be adding in facilities that will provide maritime access for both submersible and surface craft.

I may even host a party or two.