Celebration Of Life

As part of our efforts for Relay For Life, we will be having another event this Sunday, 26 June: Celebration Of Life. Here's the information:

Join us Sunday, June 26th to Celebrate those who have won their battle against cancer, those still fighting and those who are gone from us.

Schedule:

1:00 to 3:00pm - DJ Brookee Romano
3:00 to 3:30 pm - JC Farstrider Live
3:30 to 5:30 pm - DJ Avery Demon
5:30 to 6:00pm - Mezzo Silverweb Live
6:00 to 7:00pm - DJ Conlaoch Gustav
7:00 to 8:00pm - Grand Finale with DJ Conlaoch

This will be an event like you've never seen at Cafe Casablanca. A little rock, a little bluegrass, a little country, some blues and of course..jazz and American Standards!

And! As if that wasn't enough..... beginning Monday, June 20th....you can start adding to the kiosks to Bid the Cafe Casablanca Staff Bald! Yes, you saw that right! Con with NO HAT!!! Sean, Veronica and Nyte with no hair from the 26th right up to the actual Relay July 16th!

So come party on the beach with us, stop in during the week and bid us bald! Let's make this the last year we have to Relay!!

Sponsored by Team Rays of Hope and Cafe Casablanca for Relay for Life.

Vacation Time for NytEyes and Conlaoch

Hello Everyone,

Rick and Ilsa have decided it's time to do a little relaxing and get away from the occupation for a few days, so, Conlaoch and NytEyes are taking a little vacation too beginning at 3pm today. Many of our performers will still be doing their shows while we are gone and we'll pop in from time to time, so please watch your favorite artists groups, the event boards and here in the Cafe Society announcements for their scheduled times. We will return with our regular schedule on Saturday, May 28th! Enjoy the week!

Headliners For Hope results

Well, dang!!! I said that with our generous patrons and performers, that I thought we could maybe make L$50,000 for the event. And I was more right than I knew! We had donations from very small to very large - and they all added up! We hit L$50,000 just before the end of Lance's show, then went on to add even more.

Wow! As of the end of Dilah's show (our last performer) the total in the kiosks at the event was L$62,250! Did you know that even with the conversion rate that Relay For Life in SL has taken in more than US$156,000 this year? And, this event just put about US$250 additional on that.

Do you know that with a dozen performers - a lot of whom sing some similar styles - we had so few repeats of songs that I could count them on both hands? People came and went (I think we had 30 in house at once, 136 total) - though some managed to stay for several hours (especially our co-captains: Sean Qendra and Veronica Ogleby - thank you, you two). The music changed and shifted - some rock, some jazz, some blues, some show tunes, even an SL version of The Streak. But, the L$s kept piling up in the kiosks.

Not only did we meet and exceed our goal, we had a challenge from our own Sean Qendra. Any of you that know him, know that this is a man who does NOT do shoes! Not sure who prompted it, but he challenged us to hit 60,000 before Dilah's show ended. If we did, he would wear high heels - until the Relay in July!!! Sean, NytEyes and Veronica are going to take you shopping for a nice pair of heels. ;)

I want to mention one other thing. Last week we had our one year anniversary of being the club's owners. We didn't mention it because we didn't want to detract from this event. But, to be honest, we saw this event as a great way to celebrate that anniversary. And, I have to say it was! To achieve what we (that's you and us) did today, shows what Ilsa and I have always said: we have the best performers and the best patrons in SL!

Thank you to all who participated, to all who performed, to all who donated, and to all who prayed or sent their best wishes our way. You folks are fantastic.

We relay so, perhaps, next year we won't have to.

Headliners for Hope at Cafe Casablanca!

If you've been to the club in the last month or so, you have seen the kiosk near the piano for Relay For Life (RFL) or heard the announcements about it. We are proud that Cafe Casablanca is involved with this effort, again this year.

Relay For Life is an offshoot of the American Cancer Society, and serves a couple of purposes. Yes, it is a fundraiser - RFL in SL raised over US$200,000 in 2010. It is also a chance to celebrate survivors, remember loved ones, and fight back. Besides the huge main event July 16-17, there are loads of smaller events around the grid for individual RFL teams.

In support of the Rays of Hope RFL team (of which NytEyes and Conlaoch are co-captains), Cafe Casablanca has put together an extravaganza on Sunday, 15 May: Headliners For Hope! We have twelve (12!) straight hours of live performances, back-to-back. These are not back-benchers, either. These are some of the most fabulous performers in Second Life. The event starts at 9am SL time, and runs until 9pm. The scheduled performers include (in order):

• Gina Gracemount
• Annabel Trafalgar
• Kaycee Drayman
• Jewels Osterham
• RichardScott Barcelos
• Eponine Dench
• Declan Greenfield
• Glolo Ling
  
• MrMikie String
• Paulette Oldrich
• Hayden Sandalwood
• Lance Windlow
• Dilah Halostar

This line-up includes off-Broadway performers, professional choral members, 20-year freelancers, and all-around fantastic artists!

All the performers are donating their tips from this performance to RFL. (We will also be donating venue tips for the day.) And, of course, you can always drop extra lindens directly in the kiosk. RFL in SL raises a significant amount of money (they hit their millionth dollar in late April!) for the fight against cancer and in support of those battling it. So far, this year, Rays of Hope has raised approximately L$246,000. I bet, if all of our marvelous patrons turn out, and bring a friend, and are as generous as we know they all are, we could move this to an even L$300,000 during our event.

We all have had cancer touch our lives in some way: family members, friends, loved ones. Some of these we have lost to the disease, others are still with us, having fought and won, and still others are fighting right now (including one of our team co-captains, Veronica Ogleby). Please come out and join us for this fantastic event. Wear purple (the RFL color) and comfortable shoes. (Hmmmm... you ladies and gents might want to find a store event supporting RFL and pick up a new outfit, maybe some new shoes....)

Celebrate, remember, and fight!

Update: Declan will be unable to participate, and Mr Glolo Ling has agreed to step into his time slot. Thank you, Lolo, for helping out.

An Honor for Cafe Casblanca

Last Wednesday was already a wonderful day when Dilah Halostar took the stage at 8pm. We had a full day of great performers and our terrific patrons. Dilah was going to be the icing on the cake, as she usually is.

Then a lovely couple came in to listen to her show. We enjoyed their company and they fit right in with our friends who make Cafe Casablanca so special. Little did we know, they were there for another reason.

Grace Jovinavic and GypsyCatRider Tenk are the owners of a great newsletter in Second Life called "The Rough Giraffe". They follow the SL music scene and write reviews of artists and venues throughout the grid. We were lucky enough to be included and I received a copy of the newsletter this morning.

With Grace's permission, I'm posting the article here:

CASABLANCA (Mature)

Owners: Conlaoch Gustav & NytEyes Marikh Gustav (NytEyes Marikh)
Performer: Dilah Halostar-Freund (Dilah Halostar)

You must remember this … a kiss is just a kiss … Venues on the other hand are often more then they appear. Café Cassblanca is inspired by the famous Humprhey Bogart-movie with the same title. By many called one of the best movies ever, not unlike the venue I arrived at today.
Café Casablanca is a very elegant, classy place and I was very happy I could get Gypsy to putting on a shirt so he could join me and share a dance while listening to the incredibly talented Dilah.
Dilah was astonishing us with a marvelous concert. Her obviously well-trained is able to pitch (???) perfectly. The power in her voice and the vibratos she makes sound effortless add to the ‘taking-my-breath-away’ feeling I had when listening to her performing some of the best Jazz songs ever written. Dilah accompanies herself with piano and a drum-machine. Everything adds to the beauty and vibe I had when at Café Casablanca.
The décor resembles the one of a Spanish café. With a typical red carpet and red drapes around the stage, it looks elegant. A few tables are located around the dance floor for those that didn’t think of wearing comfortable dancing shoes. Movie posters of the movie are on every single wall you find here. This place looks stunning and all of that because of the two extremely friendly and hospitable owners. A power duo that can take any place and lift it up to a new level.

Grace Jovinavic

If you would like a copy of the newsletter, which covers several artists and venues, please contact NytEyes Marikh, Conlaoch Gustav or send an IM to Grace Jovinavic herself.

We are honored and very happy to be included. Thank you, Grace!

What is 'Live Music"?

There has long been a debate within the Second Life music community about what constitutes live entertainment.

One of our own, Phoenix Gerhadsen has an excellent blog post regarding the argument concerning live vs. "karaoke" performances. She has also included a great article by Loegan Magic on the topic. I had told her long ago I would post a reference to it here and I have been sadly remiss in getting that done. It's a worthwhile topic that should be brought to light.

Before I direct you to it, I would like to add my own thoughts;

Merriam-Webster defines music as "Vocal, instrumental or mechanical sounds having rhythm, melody or harmony." Nowhere in that definition does it say, "If you sing, you must accompany yourself".

Many of our performers use what is known as 'tracks', recorded instrumental accompaniment to give a rounded and professional sound quality to their live performance. That is not the same as prerecording a performance and just playing the file when they are onstage. The voice you hear is coming to you live as you listen. That performer is opening themselves to your praise or your ridicule in real time.

Does the fact that this person is not a one man band, strumming a banjo while they turn their head in one direction to play a trumpet and thumping a bass drum with their toes make them less of a 'live' performer? Absolutely not!

There are many wonderful performers who can sing and play an instrument. We are graced with several at Cafe Casablanca; Dilah Halostar is an accomplished pianist, JC Farstrider and Declan Greenfield both gifted saxophonists. They all bring us their vocal and musical talents. They also enhance their performance with added instrumentation or 'tracks'.

A voice is an instrument. Whether the person singing is a trained professional or a gifted amateur, they are offering us the opportunity to share their love of music. Maligning someone for not balancing a guitar on their knee or having taken piano lessons is narrow minded and is a type of elitism Second Life can ill afford.

If you don't believe these same tools are used by many highly paid real world entertainers in their concerts and stage performances, you should do a little research into the arts. From grand opera to garage bands, backing tracks and prerecorded instrumentals are employed more often than you might imagine.

I stand by every entertainer who comes to Second Life to share the joy of music with us. They put hours into giving us the best they can offer and I praise every one of them for having the courage to put themselves in front of us and facing a very demanding audience.

The link to Phoenix's blog post is:

http://phoenixsings.blogspot.com/2011/02/its-not-karaoke-morons-please-read.html

Please take the time to read it. We are a world where the loudest voices usually hold the most sway. Let's make a louder voice for live music in ALL forms being accepted with the respect due.

Sentimental Journey

Valentine’s Day is approaching – that most romantic of days – and you haven’t yet decided what you’re going to do with your sweetheart. Well, I’ll help you out: come on down to the Valentine’s Day event at Cafe Casablanca, “Sentimental Journey.”

Besides our regular Monday evening lineup of singers performing their best love songs, we have added three special guests on Monday afternoon, as well. Also, three separate hours of dedications and classic jazz love songs before, between, and after our two blocks of fabulous performers.

It all starts at noon SL, with an hour of dedications and love songs. Then, Annabel Trafalgar sings live at 1pm, followed by Hayden Sandalwood at 2, and Glolo Ling at 3. Then, another hour of dedications and romance. Then another three hours of fantastic live performances from Eponine Dench (at 5pm), Paulette Oldrich (6pm), and MrMikie String (at 7). It is all topped off by another hour of dedications and romantic music from 8 to 9pm.

Now, if you would like to dedicate a song to your loved one, all you need to do is drop a notecard on Conlaoch Gustav or NytEyes Marikh with the following information:

• Which hour you want the dedication in (12-1pm, 4-5pm, or 8-9pm)
• Song (please be specific)
• Performer (if you have a preference)
• Your name and your sweetheart’s name
• The dedication you would like to accompany the song

Submit the dedications before 9PM SL on February 11.

We will play your dedications interspersed with classic love songs of the 20s through 40s. And, of course, all this is just the sounds to accompany your dancing and cuddling and romance. So, come on down and take a “Sentimental Journey.”

Happy New Year!

I know, I know. It's well past New Year's. But, there is still Chinese New Year! So... I'm not really late.

I wanted to, above all else, thank all of our patrons in 2010! Without our patrons, this place has no reason to be. We do what we do so that our patrons have a nice place to come and hear great music and dance and have a little romance.

I also want to thank our fabulous performers! You folks make this place so much more than just a great dance floor. We have up to 20 live shows a week, with 18 performers, as well as our Big Band Night with DJ Suzetta Moonites. For 6 hours a day, some days, this place is filled with marvelous live music.

So, I say THANK YOU! to all of our patrons and performers in 2010! And, I will tell you that 2011 is looking to be even better! We're in the SL Destination Guide now, under Romance. Because of that, we have had even more folks at our shows.

Just please keep one thing in mind: a lot of these folks are SL newbees. So, please have a little patience if they go barreling over or through you while you're dancing. And - as so many folks have in the past week - give them a helping hand. Let them remember how great the folks are, here at Cafe Casablanca.

We also had a great set of people come by in early January from a new group called the Nostalgia Navigators. A group of folks on the SL Forums were looking for places with some old-time style and class (and music), and they chose Cafe Casablanca for their first outing. They came down to dance at our Big Band Night on Thursday, and had a blast. Conlaoch and NytEyes had a great time, too. They do love to see the place packed with people having a good time. They are welcome back anytime! (I tried linking to a picture that Quinn took and put in the Nostalgia Navigators Flickr, but I am not sure it is linking. Go here and then look around.)

I was told I shouldn't hint at plans that aren't solid, yet. And, I won't. But, I will say that we do have big ideas for 2011. Please keep an eye out here for announcements and such. (As a matter of fact, look for a big announcement in the next two days!)