Eleven months ago, I took over as manager of the Velvet. It was not a job I especially wanted, but I felt I had a duty to the club, and to myself, to try and be a stabilizing force within this virtual place that had come to mean so much to me over the years. The club seemed to be in trouble, we had few active djs left, and I felt that I could either step up and see what I might do to fix it, or else walk away entirely from the place I thought of as my home in Second Life.
From the start, I had been uncomfortable with the layers of distance that existed between me as the manager of the club, and the people who owned the land, the build, and the club itself. It's hard to feel like you're in charge of anything but scheduling when you cannot decorate for Xmas because no one will log in to remove the Halloween decor. I asked for, and got, some additional permissions with regard to the club, but it still seemed like it was a matter of time before something happened that I would need to deal with and find myself unable to.
On Monday, events transpired that put the club's future in peril. A seemingly routine instance of the sim being unavailable was revealed to be a permanent deletion of our sim. The sim's owner was no longer an avatar in Second Life, and Linden Labs had deleted the sim. They allowed us a 24-hour reprieve to gather our belongings and clear out. I acted as rapidly as I could to secure a new sim, in partnership with Bohemian Ghost, where Velvet would be the cornerstone of the land we developed. In case it escapes notice, please note that the name of the sim on which we are now situating our little haven is "Velvet."
I not only had to claim new land, but also needed to build a new Velvet. And to do both of those steps meant I was now claiming ownership of the Velvet for myself. I have gotten blessings from some of the original folks (the ones I could reach). At the very least, the club's daily operation and its land are finally consolidated into one place. This won't make much of a difference to most visitors to the club, nor to most of the djs, but it makes a lot of difference to me, and it will make a difference to whomever should hold the job of Velvet manager if I decide to depart in the future.
I'm hoping that you all enjoy the new space. I know the floor has been somewhat controversial. Some people seem to love it, and some seem to hate it. To me, that is the clearest indication that it's the right floor for Velvet. The old floor seemed to provoke a lot of the same responses in people. We still have our bloodstain, and if you look closely at the current floor, you may notice that there is a ghost of the old checkerboard laid over the new tiling. Those who do not like the new floor are reacting to that same sense that motivated me to build the club anew in the first place: the Velvet has meaning, and it's important that it continue to exist. Cosmetic changes to the club's decor will never alter the spirit and the community that exists here.
My goal with the new build was to preserve the feel of our beloved, familiar space while making it into something new. Where I could, I have purchased a lot of the same furniture that we had at the old place, I have recreated, duplicated or bought some of the props and oddities that used to clutter our floors. I have also taken pains to not just recreate the old space, because this is meant to be a new version of Velvet. We have our ties to the past, but we are looking into the future, planting roots for what I hope will be many years of music and conversation.
This weekend, we are having the official Grand Reopening celebration, with 30 hours of tunes spread across Saturday and Sunday. The goal is to welcome you all to what I hope will be a place that means as much to you as our former location meant to us. The other goal is to try and raise some money to offset the additional financial burden our new arrangement brings. But mostly, it's an excuse for a party, which is something Velvet has always done well. So come hang out, hear some tunes, and get swept away by whatever momentary lunacy has struck our collective fancy.
I think we need a place like Velvet in SL, and that is why it took me no time at all to decide it was worth the additional money and time to build it again. I think it's important to have a place where the music is eclectic and dear to the heart of the person playing it: from Vivi and Albert playing jazz and swing tunes; to Dox's love of early 80s post-punk blended with interesting stuff that came out on Tuesday; Mallory's love of the darker things; Cajsa, Nuala and YoYo's delightful eclecticism; and all the rest of us, who play a sometimes staggering array of music that can delight, or transport, or awaken something in our listeners. Every dj who plays at Velvet (and, I suspect, each of the people who come out to hear them spin) is someone who loves music, and who gets excited by the prospect of sharing that passion with others. This is why they are my family in SL. In that respect, we are all the same, and I am honored to be able to shepherd the Velvet into its latest incarnation as a home for music and the people who love it.
The faces change sometimes, the club gets a new look, new music comes out. But always, I hope, there is the Velvet. So please, join us this weekend as we celebrate our new future, tell stories about our shared past, and dance our asses off to the music of some of the finest djs in Second Life.
-Maht
