Long Awaited Update!

Okay kids! I know it has been literally months since my last post. Things have just been so busy and I was not even completely convinced anyone was reading this blog at all. So here I am going to try and condense the last couple months down to one post.

Let’s see. Since the Wizard of Oz party, I picked up a few more gigs as a DJ. Some are recurring and some were one time events. I DJ’d at The Bunker in Gay Fun World a couple of times and very recently I have been asked back again for the Saturday 6pm-8pm slot. Due to real life commitments I will not be able to commit to every Saturday but should be able to be there a couple times a month at least.

For awhile I was working at Club TBone on Thursday nights 10pm-Midnight, then switched to 8pm-10pm. When the RL hockey season started, Thursday nights was not very convenient especially for most of October. The owner Tom moved me to Sunday nights which seems to be working out well. I am there Sunday’s from 9-11.

I also started at Tadd’s Cabaret & Dance Club every Monday night from 7pm-9pm. The folks at Tadd’s are great and I always have a great time there and this gig has been going on for maybe a month or so. My good friend Bobo has started dancing there during my set and we all know what a crack up he is and how he really keeps people on their toes.

I picked up a Tuesday afternoon party from 2pm-4pm at Tiger’s Island. This place really jams and Rickie and Quagmire who own the place are a dream to work for. Starting on November 12th I will be working there from 8pm-10pm instead of the afternoons. I will follow the awesome DJ Syriana Paine who spins from 6-8pm there. That is exciting as I have always admired her DJ style and she is a great woman to boot. I am actually a little nervous following her. The only drawback to this time slot for me, is I will not be able to go to Syriana’s set at Jakes on Thursdays from 8-11.

That’s pretty much it for my regularly scheduled gigs. I know all of you are probably wondering what happened to all the sets I used to do at Club Thunder. Well…that is a long story. As you know Van and I were dating which made working at Thunder a joy. As sometimes happens to relationships, they change or often end. That is what happened to ours. I had hoped to continue a business relationship with Van but that does not seem to be in the cards right now. Who knows, that may change in the future.

On a much happier note, I have met a man that has transformed my SL in ways I had not felt in many, many months. We actually met mid July while I was the DJ at one of the Tuesday night leather parties at Thunder. He was fairly new to SL and we talked a little about music while the party was going on. He actually emailed me a song which I was able to upload and use in the set that evening.

I thought he was really nice (AND CUTE) but, as you know, I am a very faithful guy. I did not even think to flirt with him or use any of the special “charm” that is Jon B. LOL We chatted a few times over the next week but it was only during my gigs and usually involved music I was playing or some additional suggestions for songs he had.

He sort of disappeared off my radar for a several weeks as I stopped seeing him at Club Thunder or anywhere else I happened to party. In late September he showed up at a party I was DJing at and we reconnected. As I was single, I asked if he wanted to hang out sometime. Long story short - we probably have not gone a day without seeing each other since then. On October 15th I asked him if he wanted to go steady. Yeah I know…how high school right? I was happy and excited when he said “Yes!”.

I don’t know where this all will lead, and not sure I want to think that far into the future. All I know is he makes me so happy when we are together. Here are some pictures of us in some of our adventures.

And yeah….I changed my skin as well. I guess it has been awhile since I did a complete overhaul. Over two years! Hope you all enjoy the new look(s).

Simon and Jonathon at the beach. (Before Simon decided he too was going to change his look)

Jon & Simon kiss in front of the Toronto skyline.

Riding our new horses in Africa.

Special Wizard Of Oz AfterHours Party August 12, 2009

On August 12th we had a great AfterHours party at Club Thunder. It was the 70th anniversary of the premier for The Wizard of Oz movie so the club was decorated to represent Munchkinland just for the event. It was a great party!

The Wicked Witch (TheHunkyQTBoii Dover), The Wizard (Vanyel Gazov), Dorothy (Anastacia Elan), The Cowardly Lion (Danny Lauria) & The Tin Man (Jonathon Beattie) all showed up. The Scarecrow was nowhere to be found. I guess he was off getting stuffed by someone. We even had a few flying monkeys around the club to add ambiance. There were also many folks dressed in green and we partied until almost 1am SLT.

The always sexy dancer Hunky kept us entertained and our handsome host Vanyel was there to make sure we all had a great time.

Danny won the costume contest we had that night as the cowardly lion…although he did not seem so cowardly to me. Below are some pictures I took of the event.

The Tin Man

Our Hunky Wicked Witch

Cowardly Lion Danny - Contest Winner!!

DJ Jonathon's Weekly Schedule

Here is a list of my regular DJ events.

It has been several days since I updated you on what was happening. As you can see from the quick and dirty post last week, I participated in my first fashion show on Sunday, July 5th. It was a lot of fun and I owe it all to my friend Divos who gave my name to the promoter as a possible model candidate. I was very nervous as I had not done anything like this before. That first and only photo shoot I had months ago was a disaster as the photographer never told me what to do with my eyes and most the pics were bad due to my eyes being in some weird position.

Luckily there were a couple of rehearsals with the guys and Baz made a duplicate of the catwalk and staging area so we could practice on our own for a couple days if we needed it. That helped me a lot! Vanyel also bought be a Huddle which is used to help with the walks and poses and Decker was able to walk me through the process of setting it up and made the config card for me. I would not have looked so polished in the show if it weren’t for their generous help and assistance.

The show consisted of three separate looks for each of the 10 models. So we each walked the runway three times. The first time during the show, I was so nervous, I barely saw the crowd in front of the runway. I was so focused on making sure I stopped at the right spot and used the Huddle to pose, I only saw shapes. The second time I felt a little more comfortable and was able to quickly scan the crowd during the 10 seconds or so I was at the end. I saw Divos in front but was trying to find Vanyel. Just as I turned to head back down the runway, I saw Vanyel at the side of the stage. Yay!

The third time I felt a lot more comfortable and was able to really enjoy the experience. I was able to see more of my friends in the audience and was getting the hang of the whole Huddle thing. During the final pass when we all walked on stage together, Van had positioned himself at the perfect spot. I was stopped right in front of him for my final pose.

I am not sure if I will do much more modeling as it is not something I am aggressively pursuing, but if the opportunity presents itself again, I know I will be much more confident.

Right after the show, Van and I had to head over to the pool at Club Thunder as the pool party was about to start. I was scheduled to fill in for DJ Kelly that evening. The first DJ set went well and I really needed a nap during the second DJ set. So I signed off for a couple hours and took a brief snooze. My set started at 9pm. I had about three hours of songs queued up in the playlist but the first hour sort of morphed into a request hour. I was having good luck finding the songs people asked for and was able to get them in the queue pretty quickly. I had a few challenges and could not find every single song, but it seemed at least to me the crowd was happy.

Monday’s Afterhours was also a lot of fun. We were at The Manor which we generally use for the Monday events. This week though it was going to pull double duty as the site for the Full Moon Party on Tuesday night.

Tuesday’s party was a blast. People really seemed to enjoy it and it was nice that the tip jars we set up for the dancers were actually working as planned.

Wednesday I spent some time putting together a playlist for Afterhours later that evening. I wanted to mix things up a bit so I was not known as a DJ that plays the same songs over and over. I came up with a pretty decent playlist at least I think so. Afterhours was scheduled to start at 10pm. At around 7:15pm I lost power at my house. The whole neighborhood went dark so I called Van immediately and told him why I had suddenly disappeared. Normally power outages only last an hour or so if that long, so I was not in any type of panic. As it started to get closer and closer to 9pm, I called Van and said he should look for a replacement or cancel the Afetrhours party. He was able to secure Jared as the DJ. Cool!

At around 9:40pm my power finally came back up. After getting things back to normal in my house and making sure the internet was back up I was able to get signed on by around 9:55. Jared and Van were already at the club so I was able to just enjoy the party. I guess I will use the playlist on Friday afternoon when I fill in for Mirah at The Lair.

DJ JONATHON B'S MODELING DEBUTE

Yes, DJ Jonathon B is branching out, and has joined the ranks of tomorrow's top SL models. His first modeling gig was @ a fashion show at Jake's Club Resort Sim featuring hot male designer Tylo Mabellon, of the Beefcake and BC Metro men's clothing lines.

Sunday June 28, 2009

Well…this was a relaxing Sunday for me pretty much. Van and I spent most of the afternoon working on recreating his Real Life house here in Second Life to go over some possible remodel options he has in mind. We are still working on some of the options, but it is cool to see in 3D how things may or may not work.

At 4pm the pool party started at Thunder Island Mall’s courtyard pool. This is the regular weekly event there. We had a good crowd for most of the event which surprised me a little as this was the final week of many RL Gay Pride events. DJ Kelly could not make it online for his set from 9-11PM so Van had asked me to fill in for him. I was more then happy to do that and I had a blast during my two hour set. Many of my friends showed up and at one point things seemed to get a little out of hand with the fun and frolic. But it was all in good fun and people seemed to have a good time. Since we still had a pretty large group there, we decided to continue on into After-Hours. Van had to leave before we ended the party as he had some Real Life things to attend to early in the morning. And you know what they say…when the boss is away…..LOL Anyway…we continued the party until 1am SLT. So basically I was playing for four hours on Sunday.

Monday evening I plan on going to the BLU party starting at 8pm. That is always a great time so if you are around, I strongly suggest you check it out.

My next event is Monday’s After-Hours party at Thunder Island. We plan on starting at 10pm and go until whenever. It seems there are quite a few night owls like me looking for a late night party so I am more then happy to help provide that along with the generous support of Van and the Thunder Island venues. I am not sure where on Thunder Island we will be playing tonight, but I am sure if you have joined either my DJ group or the Club Thunder group you will hear all about it in the announcements.

As you know, Thunder Island has three full functioning venues now. The main club is high above Thunder Island adjacent to the Thunder Mall. There are also two ground level venues, The Manor where we used to hold MONDO on Tuesday afternoons and the recently opened Arena where we currently party Tuesday nights for the Leather, Levi & Latex parties.

Hopefully I will have some pics to share of tonight’s After-Hours party for my next post.

DJ Jonathon Update

Just wanted to let you all know what was happening in the world of Jonathon Beattie. As many of you know I have started DJing here in Second Life and having a blast at it.

I started off just streaming my own music on my land and playing some songs for friends at The Odyssey which I helped run and manage for its short life. I finally found some decent DJ software which allowed me to talk while playing music. From then on..a monster was born!

Van asked me to fill in one night on an emergency basis. He had asked me to play the 9-11 slot on a Sunday evening and I had created a two hour play list for that. The two prior DJs that night for some reason were having problems and unable to sign on. This meant I had to fill in from 4-9 as well. OMG I was in a panic, but was able to fill all five hours without using any of the songs I had pre-planned for my regular 9-11 slot. The one good thing about it was the fact I had 5 hours of "practice" before all my friends showed up for my set at 9 which meant I was less nervous talking and interacting with the crowd by then.

After that night there were a couple other times I needed to "step in" for a DJ at some of Van's other gigs. This gave me an opportunity to play at The Lair and a few times at Club Thunder. Since then, Van has offered me my own AfterHours spot on Monday and Wednesday nights.

This last Saturday (6/27) I was offered the privilege of being the first DJ at a Grand Opening party for House of F.A.C.T. a new club run by the Atlantis 2100 family and Braden Darkstone. A two hour set to kick off a day of 10 DJs in 12 hours. It was very exciting and nerve racking as I was not going to be at home in RL and I had to rely on my friend's internet connection to ensure I was able to stream. Luckily her connection was good so I had no problems there. It was a unique experience as it was the first time I had spun where the party was being sponsored by a specific vendor in SL. Therefore, I had to do little "commercials" throughout the set for the sponsor's product line. Because of the incredible lag at the venue, it was difficult to see what was happening most of the time but it seemed no one at the party noticed. The set went off without a hitch. The biggest benefit of going first is I did not have to worry about what the previous DJ had played so I was free to play pretty much anything and everything I wanted without the fear of the song being played earlier.

I hope to keep you informed of the parties I am doing on Second Life through this blog as well as some things happening in the life that is JB. Hope you find it interesting.