On Saturday night, my buddy Hamlet and I checked out the Bootie Mashup Party at DNA Lounge in San Francisco, the grand-daddy of all mashup events in the country. This was an especially appropriate night for Hamlet and I to be there since they were simulcasting their party into Second Life, at the hip Club Republik (teleport link).
Hamlet and I arrived at around 9:45 to a mostly empty club. We met with Miss Keela, who was in the control deck, managing the Second Life simulcast and the projection of Second Life onto large screens in the DNA Lounge. Later another engineer from Linden Lab joined us in the booth to help with something technical. So that was a lot of Second Life geeks in one dance club.
Here's Hamlet and Keela in the control booth.
It was neat seeing the Second Life club projected behind the DJ on the main stage, although I doubt that very many people had any idea of what that even was. To them, it probably just looked like a fairly bizarre assortment of digital characters jerkily dancing on a screen.
By 11pm, the real life club was pretty packed.
And you could see a similarly "packed" crowd of avatars in the virtual club, from supermodels to teddy bears to robots. You know, the usual Second Life crowd.
Here's a pic of the Second Life club much later when the event was almost over. That's me with the red hair up front. There were still nearly 40 avatars dancing and chatting away. I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but in Second Life, that's quite a large number of people all in the same space.
Anyway, I didn't come to geek out, I came to dance. Until the DNA Lounge got too packed, I had a good time rocking out to the mashed up music. It was a pretty fun crowd and the music was awesome. But by midnight, it was getting ridiculously packed and not amusing any longer.
Which was fine, because I could just go home and continue dancing — or at least watch my avatar dancing in Second Life. Which has its own entertainment value, plus you don't get as sweaty.
All-in-all, an interesting, mixed-reality evening, doing what I love, in two of my favorite places — San Francisco and Second Life.
I have a good life. Maybe two of them.