"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

Hot Boots

Yep they sure are! I bought them a while ago and wore them a few times, but only recently have I begin to realize just how well these boots are made. They're sculpties of course, so they will take a little while to rez (particularly the toe section for some reason - but baybee... once they've rezzed - Phwoarr! I proclaim these to be the hottest cowboy boots on the grid. Take a look at these puppies...

They're called "Catbash boots" and I suppose they're intended as some sort of Neko paraphernalia, but you certainly don't have to be Neko to wear or appreciate them. the level of detail is pretty astounding if you ask me. the scripted bandana around the right ankle is a great touch, but IMO it would have been great if the colors available weren't all similar. Still at about L$480 they're a great value - not only because they look spectacular, but because 5 sizes are included. That's pretty awesome in my book.

You can find the "Catbash" boots at WMD.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Schreckhorn/14/95/37

Hasta la proxima, baby!

-Zim

"Miles to go before I sleep..."

That about sums it up, folks. February was a wild and interesting month, Agape-wise. We moved our HnH store over to the new Sim, opened our new store at Jake's Club Resort (more on that later), and began work on our new "Mainstore" at Gaytown Mall. The Gaytown Mall store is really going to be something to see once it's done. John and Gully were kind enough to offer us a bigger home, and even though I was nervous about being able to fill up a space that large, I accepted, took the plunge, and ordered more prims (lol).



We've also been given a new, larger space over at Warehouse Plaza and that location is coming along quite nicely. Not as large or elaborate as the Gaytown Mall 'Mainstore' will end up being, but it's still something to see. This isn't what this blog post is about, however. Not really. Today I'm announcing the release of our two first "Signature Series Shapes", Ian and Nikita...

I'm very proud of how these guys turned out. "Ian" was designed around the "Rage" skin and Nikita around my personal fave, the "Blaze" skin. Some of you are probably wondering what it means to design a shape around a skin. 'Aren't all skins the same?' you are probably asking yourselves. "Not really," would be the answer. Sure, all skins are based on a Linden template, but that where the similarities end. Each skin creator has their own personal style which dictates placement of the eyes, fullness and shading of the lips, and things like how strong or subtle the shading and highlights are among other things.

The "Ian" and "Nikita" shapes were designed to take advantage of the particular strengths of Skins found at Signature Skins as well as the placement of facial features, etc. The end result is a set of shapes that offer a level of realism missing from the body shapes of many other creators. I honestly don't think you'll find other guys wearing shapes that look as "real" as these do anywhere on the Grid. Be sure to stop by one of our shops and pick up a wearable demo, then hop on over to Signature Skins and pick up a demo skin and put them both on. I think you are going to be very pleasantly surprised at how you look and that you'll be back to pick up the full versions soon afterward.

We do have more shapes in this series coming out soon, so be sure to check the blog or visit us in-world so as not to miss out on any of them...

http://slurl.com/secondlife/The%20Highlander/90/85/578

Ciao!

-Zim

The Cat is out of the Bag...

Yep, I can finally talk about this it seems :)

Some of you may already know about this, but Jake's Club has now expanded into the all new Jake's Club Resort, featuring a beautiful new Mall and an Amphitheatre for community events and Agape Men's Store is proud to be a part of it! We've got a beautiful new 450 Sq meter store there and if I do say so myself, it really looks wonderful!

The new location will feature all of our great shapes as well as the new "Agape / Signature" series of shapes designed around... Oh wait, I haven't mentioned that part yet, have I (hehe)? Well, now that the proverbial cat is out of the bag as they say, I suppose I should mention this. You may remember that earlier in the month I'd blogged about the shopping experience a friend of mine had when I sent him over to Signature Skins for a "Blaze" skin. Since then, I've been in contact with Mr Spad and he has graciously allowed me to design a line of Male body Shapes around his fantastic skins. You've really got to see these to believe them!

The "Signature Series" shapes are designed around three specific skins from Mr Spad's collection - "Blaze", "Rage", and "Vain". You really owe it to yourself to check these out. The shapes themselves have not yet been released, but you can check out previews of them at our Jake's Club Resort, Gaytown Mall, and Warehouse Plaza locations; or better yet, head on down to Signature Skins and try out demo's of the skins themselves. You will be amazed at the level of realism Mr Spad has achieved with these skins - and once you've worn them with one of our new shapes, well... I'll be surprised if you wear much else for quite some time (I think you know what I'm talking about here ::grins::).

The Shops at Jake's Club Resort is currently in "Soft Opening" mode, but watch for the "Grand Opening" announcement to appear sometime next week. We have a few more announcements to make over the next few weeks so keep watching this spot for updates!

See you soon!

-Zim

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

Bad Hair Day

Recently I've been seeing an interesting new hairstyle floating around the clubs. Admittedly it's not everyone's cup of tea, but it evoked the 80's for me and looked cute on the AVI's I saw sporting it. The style is called "Silvio 2" and it's available from a content creator whose shop is fairly famous for its (ladies') creations. I won't name any names here, but hopefully someone attached to the store / hair will see this and fix the damn thing. Look at this hair...

As if shopping for good hair / skin / clothing as a guy in SL is not bad enough, try doing it as a blonde some time. You tend to run across things like this. Can you see what I'm talking about? Would you pay almost L$300 for something as bad as this? Are you filled with outrage? Probably not, but this *is* bad hair any way you slice it. Of course the Demo picture in her shop shows the hair from the other side (and in black) so not everyone will get treated to this example of shoddy craftsmanship - at least not right away. Oh, also... the hair is scripted resize (which I hate) and the store is one big 'no script zone' for your convenience.

Caveat emptor, baby...

-Zim