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A Picture History
of Junkyard Blues
by Kiff Clutterbuck
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I meet Miriam
I first met Miriam Antonelli at a newbie welcome area in the spring of 2006. Little did I know that she would soon be largely to blame for me having a club called Junkyard Blues. Here she brought some friends along for a visit. I don't know why they seem to be avoiding me or why I was sitting like that or what happened to my socks. Mir is the redhead on the end.
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I sow my wild oats
I lived the fast life for a while, fast cars, fast women, and fast food. But I could see that I was changing. Something was missing. Maybe I needed to settle down and find a place to live and have relationships that I could remember the next morning.
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I settle down
So I bought a used a trailer and settled down with my stuff on a hunk of astroturf 700 meters above Tagona on the mainland. I found a blues station on the radio and kicked back to think things over. It got lonely sometimes, just me and that bird, but I was sure things would improve for me. Somehow it felt like I was on the right track.
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My house goes public
I had planned on being a hermit, but then Miriam began bringing her friends over, so I upgraded my wardrobe and put a friendly sign out so people would feel at home. Those appear to be monkeys drinking beer on my porch, but I can't recall anything about them. I still have the dog. His name is Grommet.
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I make some changes
Some of Miriam's friends told their friends that they had found a mellow place to come dance and fool around, and some of their friends told other friends and so forth. I took out the front wall of the trailer and put up a bunch of neon because it was fun to look at and made the place seem like more of a hangout. I found some blue bathroom tile and made a floor. I was very proud of my floor.
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We call it Junkyard Blues
As friends kept inviting friends my yard slowly grew into a club, so one day we proclaimed it a club and officially "opened" it. I had a yard full of junk and played the blues all the time on the radio, so finding a name for the place turned out to be easy. The day was June 16, 2006, and on that day I met a new visitor named Richardina Petty, "Dina" if you please. I put a few couples dance ballsets out on the floor along with some salsa dances in a chim, and everybody seemed to like them. Why salsa dances go with the blues is one of life's mysteries.
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Dina
Richardina Petty is her name, after Richard Petty, the famous Nascar driver. She became a regular at the club and began helping out. Her energy, enthusiasm, and ideas were to play a huge role in the development of Junkyard Blues. I got to ask her things like "What is Nascar?"
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I get used to having a club
We may have experimented with the radio dial in those early days, but we kept coming back to to the blues. That's me wearing my black T-shirt that I alternated with my red T-shirt. I also bought a cool hat and learned how to play the piano.
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The junk keeps piling up
It's hard to stop. If a little trash is good, then a lot must be great. So much of Second Life looks brand new, fresh from the factory, that one yearns for the occasional dose of stains, rust, and rot. These days it is even possible to find furniture that looks comfortably worn.
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And people keep coming
Before long there were always strange people wandering around my yard or passed out in the bushes. To get some privacy I had to move out and set up housekeeping on a hunk of turf below the club at 500 meters. Sometimes people fell through the fence at the club and landed on me.
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Dina and I get to know each other
I invited Dina to my place to see my art that I had hanging around. She seemed surprised that I actually did have art and that the only place to sit was on a mushroom. I slept on the ground. She introduced me to actual furniture and store-bought clothes and other things. Here I seem to be getting some sort of lesson near Dina's trailer in the Sleezywood trailer park (which is another whole story).
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There is always music and dancing
Dina and I enjoyed the music, dancing, and chatting with friends. Around this time it was suggested that I should put donation jars out so people could contribute to the upkeep of the club. Metal Wombat gave us a scripted peanut butter jar tip jar. I was so amazed the first time somebody put actual lindens in it. You can see it on the floor by that light post.
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The Parties Get Wilder
We put a couple dance poles on empty cable spools just for the amusement of anybody who felt like using them. I don't know who this is, but she seems to be having a great time. Who are you? Are you still with us? Are you okay? (We have since determined that this is Lysandra Goodnight, the creater of so many of our theme sets.)
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Miriam enjoys the action
Miri was often amused at how things got out of control as my yard morphed into a club. Here she is people-watching as she relaxes on the piano. At the time she was also busy with her podcast (Postmodern Geek's Guide to Sex) and on her way to opening the PMG Cafe, and becoming a Second Life DJ.
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Celebrities find us
Mr Hanky was one of the first but by no means the last famous celebrity to visit Junkyard Blues in those early days. He was nice enough but had trouble keeping friends.
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An off-season visitor
This guy was on vacation. He was kind of odd, and you couldn't have a normal conversation with him. Also things disappeared when he was around.
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Even the King
Suddenly he was there. We were careful not to spook him. He had lost a lot of weight and looked kind of pale. He had just finished all that champagne on the tray next to him and kept dropping his guitar.
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Dina and I become partners
I had heard the term "Nascar" before but had always thought it referred to an evil character in "Lord of the Rings." Here Dina appears to be using visual aids in trying to help me understand that it is about automobile racing. She also liked country music which I was prepared to forgive her for, and then I actually came to like it. It's a mood. By now Dina and I were fully involved in managing a growing club with the participation of wonderful friends.
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We start having theme nights
I don't recall how they got started, but theme nights became very, very big at the junkyard for a while. The theme could be anything, depending on whose night it was to declare it. Lysandra Goodnight became the Junkyard theme queen as you can see from these pictures. Here we pay a somewhat modest homage to Star Trek compared to what came later.
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USO night
This was a fun dress-up event for both the guys and the girls. I loved those period outfits, and Dina said I looked pretty hot in my uniform. Here is a great looking couple. Let me know if that's you.
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A curious scene at the USO
What's going on here? Is she mad at him? Is he sorry? Will she forgive him or is it too late? Does his regiment leave for the front in the morning? Will we ever know how this turned out?
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The fifties
We all gained a lot of weight during this one, and I took the blame for it.
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I live the Vegas high life
I bought a tux and got a haircut for Vegas Night. Gambling was big in Second Life in those days, and I seem to recall that we brought in a couple small-bet slot machines. I look kind of jaded in this picture. The Rat Pack wanted me to play cards with them, but I had a casino to run.
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Dina tries the life of a showgirl
The idea was to supplement our income, but she loved the outfits and did a lot of flirting with the high rollers. I liked her in feathers.
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James Bond night
As we can see here, this was our golden age of theme events. By now Lysandra's theme sets rivaled those of Cecil B. DeMille. This set could have been taken, as is, to another location to start a Second Life Las Vegas club.
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No excuse for a theme party escapes us
In our seething swamp of double entendre and sexual metaphors the Washington Monument didn't escape notice that night.
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The Ironman is our first DJ
We were slow to adopt new things. Why do we need a DJ? We have a radio. Isn't having a DJ just a more complicated way of listening to the radio? Irongut McCallister, DJ and friend, helped us learn that it's way, way more than that. We were hooked.
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We keep making friends
Junkyard Blues was 700 meters above a small parcel on the mainland sim of Tagona. It was an old sim with a 40-avatar limit. If somebody happened to be throwing a little party for 25 people on some other part it limited us to 15 people in the club. We were also subject to random griefing because we were small and surrounded by land we had no control over.
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Dina and I began talking seriously about buying an island sim to give us more control over our environment. It was kind of scary because we didn't really know if the Junkyard could support itself. But this was also an opportunity to grow the club and the community into something more solid. So after talking it over quite a few times we made the leap and bought our sim, naming it after the club, Junkyard Blues. Now it was time to move.
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More than 3 years have passed since moving day, and in that time we have grown to a 12-sim estate built around music, friendships, and community. In celebration of our 4th anniversary on June 16, 2010 I have added Part 2 of the Junkyard Blues Picture History. I hope you enjoy it. -Kiff
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