The long road to Now...

Well, hello there!

Many of you have probably been wondering where I've been. Much has happened over the past year, so I do have quite a few things to share with you. Agape locations have opened and closed and we actually do have a proper Mainstore now in a pretty-much-permanent location (more on that later). We've loved and lost and loved again, come up with new ideas, revisited old ones, underwent criticism which caused us to take a long hard look at ourselves (and decide that much of it was silliness to begin with), and even did some work on our long-suffering not-so-secret project.

I suppose I should start with the basics. In April 2009 I bought a parcel of land on a sim known as Creamy Shores (yes, that's what it was really and truly called) and began construction on a proper Mainstore. Even though I never really blogged about it, the store proved to be popular and I was happy with the way it turned out - yet there was something missing. Neighbors with questionable building taste moved in and promptly set up ban lines, which totally ruined the concept I had going, so once the parcel in the NE corner of the sim became available I bought it.

The next 3 months or so were spent terraforming the land and re-creating my build on the new parcel while the original store remained open. Correcting what I saw as its flaws, my hope was to bring our customers a new and improved Agape experience. The fantastic Tymus Tenk of Envision Landscaping was on hand to assist in the terraforming and landscape the location. With most of his time being taken up by the creation of his fabulous Calas Galadhon sims, I cannot thank him enough for undertaking this project. Because a whole sim or private island was not in the stars for me, we did everything in our power to minimize the possible effect any of our neighbors' builds might have upon our customers' shopping experience and came up with the idea of disguising the our corner of the sim as a private island.

Actually, this is not as difficult to do as one might think. with some careful planning and consideration given to possible sight lines, we were able to to pull off the illusion rather well I think. This newly-improved Mainstore opened in February 2010, but unfortunately for me, Dreamland Estates decided to close down the Creamy Shores sim, forcing us to relocate a mere 2 months after it had opened. The incredible Mr. Tenk and the talented Mr. Regi Yifu of Regimade heeded my desperate call and aided in moving the build to its current home on the Liberation sim, and I must say... the current version of the build is even better than the last! I would also like to thank Mr. Lef Leven of Ars Avette for so graciously coming out and replacing the ancient sailing vessel that got eaten in a sim crash at our previous location. It is truly a fine ship that graces our shores!

If you've not been out yet, please do stop by and pay us a visit. A lot has changed, and I must say it's all for the better. Also, our free photo studio is back for those of you who need to make a new profile picture. Just look for the TP pad under the spiral staircase next to the brass brazier. there are also areas out in front of the store that make great photo spots.

Until next time!
-Zim

"Ancient Pleasures" party @ Warehouse Plaza

Howdy folks,


It's been months since we first opened our store at the fabulous Warehouse Plaza, but what many of you did not know is that it's now in a different location there. We started off in a tiny spot near the entrance to what is now the Hothouse Plaza sim, but just after the holidays we moved to "Judgement Square" on the other side of the Warehouse Plaza sim near the entrance to Folsom Plaza. Sound confusing? It isn't really. In fact to help you find it, we're hosting a huge party at our new Warehouse Plaza Agape store :-)










We've named the party "Ancient Pleasures" in a nod to ancient Greece and to better fit our L$1500 contest theme of "Best in Silks". What better way to show off your bod than with a Silks contest? DJ Gregster Kidd will be on hand to serve up the hot tunes while our guests groove and gyrate to the hot beats. My best buddy Gilgalahad Gunsberg (no relation) has built us a spectacular set to party on complete with a giant statue of Atlas holding the world on his shoulders. The party will run from 1 - 3PM SLT on Saturday, April 18th so that our European friends will be able to join us for this truly special event.

All the elements are in place for an afternoon (or evening) to remember... the only thing missing is you! Mark your calendars and TP on down to party with us!

See you there!
-Zim

Agape @ Warehouse Plaza: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Warehouse%20Plaza/165/244/23

Kudos!

No picture with this entry. I just wanted to take this opportunity to mention an awesome example of an SL content creator helping their customers to solve problems. Recently a friend of mine went to Signature Skins for one of their "Blaze" skins (which is very hot IMO). Basically what happened is that once he bought the skin, the SL asset servers ate it. I'm sure many of you know how frustrating that can be.

What did he do? Well, to his credit he didn't freak out. He went through the usual steps one should take in order to try and retrieve the item. He used the search and filtering functions to make sure the folder/skin was not still in his inventory somehwere. He also cleared his cache and re-logged, hoping that this might bring the item back. When it was clear that his purchase was really, truly gone from his inventory, he took a deep breath and proceeded to write a calm factual non-accusatory notecard detailing what had happened and sent it off to the creator, Simple Spad - including the details of his transaction from the LL web site.

By the time my friend had gotten home from work yesterday, Mr Spad had refunded the purchase price of the missing item and my friend was able to TP over to Signature Skins and re-buy the product that SL had eaten... and I must say he looks pretty damned good. So Kudos to Simple Spad of Signature Skins! Not only are his skins pretty awesome (and reasonably priced), but he takes the time to help out his customers when SL has a hiccup. This alone makes a world of difference and we are pleased to be able to recommend this vendor as a place to shop.

Ciao!

-Zim

Greetings and Salutations!

Hi there! My name's Zim Gunsberg and I'm an avatar in the Virtual World called Second Life.

I'm not a Fashionista by any means, but I do have a better than average eye for what looks good. I'm also the owner of the Agape Men's Store, where I sell male body shapes. Yeah, that does sound kind of strange, but this is a Virtual World we're talking about here - You can pretty much be anything you care to be. Face it, guys like looking good; and more often than not, they'd prefer to do it without having to spend an arm and a leg.

When I first got to Second Life I was pretty overwhelemed with all the choices available. I was also overwhelmed by the sheer amount of custom content available for women and the scarcity of good custom content for men. I thought, "Do guys not play Second Life? I see other guys here. They must get their clothes somewhere? Where can I find some cool stuff?"

After getting situated, I made it my mission to make my AVI look as hot as I could (hehe, that's me in the pic up there); so I dragged my buddies Gil and Trent around with me to just about every shop I could find and tried on as many things as I could until I thought I looked reasonably hot. This was back when the club DevilInside was the hottest gay nightspot on the Grid. I'd actually plan my outfits before heading on over, just waiting to show off the clothes and hair I'd found, and to see what everyone else was wearing (Shout outs here to Karmelle and Trent and Hartmann and Gil and Willi and Clarkie and everyone else; you all know who you are - and you all looked FAB... all the time! Muah!)

At this point you're probably wondering about my fashion creds. Trust me, I have none - other than visiting London in the 80's and having worked in the Theatre as a costume and scenic designer for 12 years (that's IRL, btw). So do I "know" fashion? No, but I've got a good eye for what looks 'right' on the male body. Being a homo helps a lot (wink wink), but don't let that scare you off if you're a straight guy reading this.

Everyone deserves to look good. Everyone. Agape is an unconditional love, and that's what my store and blog are all about. i'm not going to tell you how to look, but I will present some interesting ideas and images here, and hopefully you may walk away with something useful (or at least have been entertained by my scribblings). Hasta la proxima...

-Zim