Q) How long have you two been running Junkyard Blues?
A) A long time. We declared it the "Junkyard Blues Club" on June 16th, 2006 after realizing it had already become a club all by itself.
Q) Do you own it 50/50 as partners?
A) Yes, all the way down the line with time, effort, and expenses.
Q) How many hours a week do Kiff and Dina spend working on Junkyard jobs?
A) How much time does any crazy person spend on his or her obsession? Well 50 hours combined seems like a safe number. Probably more, but we're reluctant to admit it.
Q) Why do you do it?
A) You make a big bunch of friends, and you love how they love the place, and you love them, and you don't want to let them down. Also it's usually a very interesting and satisfying job. There is always some aspect of it to explore and learn more about, whether it be the venue or the community.
Q) Are your hosts paid?
A) They are all volunteers. The usual commitment is anywhere from one to three 2-hour session a week with one of the DJs. We are grateful and truly couldn’t do this without them.
Q) Do you attend all your music events?
A) On any given week we have at least 50 hours of DJ time, so it’s impossible to attend everything and still be able to do anything else on the estate. We try to rotate a little bit and drop in on all our DJ shows from time to time, but sometimes we’re just too tangled up in the work.
Q Is Junkyard Blues a money machine?
A) Well, actually it’s more like a money "shredder.”
Q) Does the Junkyard support itself?
A) Usually it does, but it would be nice to get a couple months ahead in tier some day so it doesn't feel quite so hand-to-mouth.
Q) How would you do that?
A) We had a good experience with the Nestea live music sponsorship, and now we'd like explore the concept of a "general" sponsorship that could be used for solvency as well as for live music.
Q) So the Nestea sponsorship worked out very well for the Junkyard?
A) Yes it was wonderful to be able to bring in all these great performers without having to think about fees. We were staging 4 or 5 concerts a week for almost 3 months until the money got spent. It was a wonderful experience, although we found that maybe concerts on Friday and Saturday evenings will be enough for our venue as a regular thing.
Q) How much in tier are you responsible for to Linden Lab?
A) We pay $590 USD a month for both Junkyard Blues and Junkyard Blues South, most of which comes from club donations and residential rentals. The 10 ocean sims surrounding us are independently owned “homestead” sims operating under our covenant with each owner paying $95 a month to LL through us.
Q) How much of a surcharge profit do you make from the homestead sims on a monthly basis?
A) After we pay currency exchange fees we seem to have about 67 cents per-sim per-month in profits. We invest it in gum.
Q) Why do you go through the bother of it if you don’t make any profit?
A) The island owners get a fun place to live, and the Junkyard gets surrounded by usable ocean instead of invisible walls.
Q) Are all the sims open to boating?
A) Oh yes, that’s the point of it. All 12 sims in the estate are open to sailing and exploration. We ask only that people observe the privacy of the residential islands.
Q) Do you expect the rising tier costs for homestead sims to be a problem for your ocean sim owners?
A) The homestead Islands almost never come on the market, so things are pretty stable. I think our total turnover since we acquired them for the estate a couple years ago has been only 3 islands. Linden tier has gone from $75 a month to $95 and will go to $125 in 2011.
Q) Do you ever burn out?
A) Sure. But we manage it pretty well. You go, "whoops, time for little break" and then go do something else for a while.
Q) Can you take time off from the Junkyard and still be in SL?
A) Yes but the only way to stop the SL "phone" from ringing is to us an alternative avatar or "alt." This allows us to go to live music events, shop, explore, or just hang out. It's fun to go hide out and explore a bit, like when you were a newbie with nothing else to think about. Alts get a bad name from people use them with no sense of ethics or respect.
Q) Do your alts ever visit your club?
A) Never. Our personal rule for using alts is you never say a word to anybody who knows only your primary persona. If such a person even arrives at the same store where you're shopping, you turn and leave. Period. No exceptions (unless you tell the person who you are). This avoids even the appearance of head games which is doubly important when you manage a club. We might also add that our alts spend a lot of time watching TV and eating junk food while waiting for us to break them out. We're just too busy.
Q) Are you both the gender you claim to be?
A) Yes, in voice Kiff sounds like Harrison Ford and Dina sounds like Meryl Streep.
Q) Have you had to ban many people from the Junkyard?
A) We don’t run into much griefing so we might go a week or two or three in between banning incidents. Sometimes it’s just really about rude and disrespectful behavior toward the DJ or host or a patron and almost always involves somebody new to the club who doesn’t realize yet that we're not just a bunch of random people with no connection.
Q) Do you ever let them back in again?
A) We sometimes let them back in right away with an apology when we've made a mistake. And we’ll always accept a sincere apology if the offender is wrong.
Q) Why don't you have open enrollment for the Junkyard Blues group?
A) We like it that everybody in our group has personally requested membership. If all it takes is a mouse click the group adds hundreds of extra members who joined on impulse and now just take up space on the list which makes it more likely that people who want to receive notices from us are not getting them (Notices never go out to 100% of any large group).
Q) What is the average donation to your club?
A) 100L is average, sometimes it’s less, sometimes it’s more. Recently somebody donated 14 lindens and said it was all they had. That’s kind of touching. Occasionally somebody will donate a thousand or even more. It is how we manage to pay the bills, and we appreciate every bit of it.
Q) Are you less favorably inclined toward people who don't donate to your club?
A) No, never. Of course we notice and appreciate donations, but we also know that some people are in situations that make it very difficult for them to bring money into SL. We hope nobody ever stays away because they can’t afford to tip a DJ or donate to the venue. On the other hand when people can afford it and spend a lot of time enjoying the Junkyard we hope they'll step up and help support it.
Q) How would you describe your working relationship?
A) We are both so grateful that we share this big commitment to the Junkyard and, at the same time, bring so many complementary skills and talents to it. We adore and respect each other tremendously.
Q) What does the future look like for Junkyard Blues?
A) It’s an ongoing surprise. Sometimes we feel like we’re steering the boat, and other times we’re just along for the ride, but it seems to just get better.
Q) Any final thoughts here?
A) Only to say that it’s all about community. The blues bring us together, and being together is the best part of the trip.
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