And that was called love for the workers in song

Back at the virtual Chelsea Hotel with Justine, who is rocking a hair as an homage to Amy Winehouse and cool turtleneck and bell-bottom throwback to the era of the Hotel Chelsea.

 How about a little Amy to listen to to balance the Leonard Cohen lecture yesterday.



I know you, you were expecting Rehab or Back to Black right? I'm hipper than I seem, lol.

So here are some great pictures of Justine in her throwback vintage glory;

I Remember You Well in the Chelsea Hotel

"you were famous, your heart was a legend"

-Leonard Cohen, Chelsea Hotel #2

So, I got the special treat of working with my old friend and colleague Justine this week. She was a fantastic blogger for four of the biggest blogs in Second Life back in the day, from fashion to news whatever the Herald was, Justine was a centerpiece.

Working with her is the best part- she's funny and fun. The second-best part is that she can whip out beautiful avatar after beautiful avatar, each different than the one before it. You want a pixie? A beautiful African-American Fashionista? The girl next door? She can change into any of these and more before I can even find a pair of shoes in my inventory. Source: Experience.

For our shoot, she first teleported me to The Virtual Chelsea Hotel where I found her rocking an homage to Amy Winehouse, and after several pics, changed avatars completely and we went to a beautiful beach, and then... well, I'll just let the pictures this week tell that story.

By the way, when I sat down to write this, I put Leonard Cohen's Chelsea Hotel #2 on, what a brilliant song. The first Leonard Cohen song I ever heard was "The Future," which I saw him perform on David Letterman. (Who would have thought it was his television debut!?)



I immediately bought that album (on cassette!) and then his greatest hits. And, true confession here, I didn't like his music all that much.  Whatever album "The Future" was on, I liked. Greatest hits, not so much, "derivative of Bob Dylan but traveling through molasses" was generally my thought. But over time, listening here and there, they started to speak to me. Chelsea Hotel #2 literally gave me chills when I listened to it just now, I had to stop writing and listen, it's such a beautiful song.

Now, I love his music, it's both mellow and intense at the same time. If you like music and haven't listened to Leonard Cohen, do yourself a favor. My favorites include many, but give a listen to Dress Rehearsal Rag, Famous Blue Raincoat, The Partisan, Suzanne, Waiting for the Miracle, and of course his most famous song Hallelujah. 

And yes, I warned Justine when she told me that she wanted to shoot at the Chelsea that I would spend a lot of time babbling about Leonard Cohen. Be grateful I don't go into the history of the real Hotel Chelsea and all the amazing people who stayed there. Do check out the virtual Chelsea, it's fun.

So, to give Justine her thousand words, here she is, paying tribute to Amy Winehouse, another of my favorite artists. That Justine would combine them makes her way too cool for words to describe, amazing woman, I give you Justine as Amy at The Hotel Chelsea, more tomorrow!

Then and Now with Debi

Debi posed for me in 2009 with the Alphaville Herald. I found some old pictures of her session with me and am amazed. A lot of us cringe when we see old pictures of ourselves but Debi looked as stunning then as she does now. Truly amazing.

She rocked pirate themed outfits in the 2009 session; FYI this picture is completely unretouched.

And here is a completely unretouched picture from 2015.

Absolutely beautiful, right?

As The City Sleeps

Here is the fourth and final of the pictures I'm releasing from my trip with Jaime to this place. ALL the pictures were outstanding- but of course it's hard to screw up pictures of Jaime! (I have a few left I will post for a Throwback Thursday or something in the future, Jaime fans don't worry, you'll see your girl!

It feels great to be back and blogging again. Thank you readers for making me feel welcome back, and thank you Jaime for getting me back on track!

Jaime in a Bunny Suit

Jaime Wheeler: check this out, a bunny suit

This is enough for me. An amazing and intelligent woman willing to put on a "bunny suit" for me. I don't care if she turns into a furry or a Pink Nightmare like Ralphie in A Christmas Story, she has my complete attention.

Flower Power

Here's part two in the "Oh this will be interesting series" aka "Watching Jaime dress like a flower." She wanted to point out that she was actually wearing two different outfits here, and that the waist flower goes with a different outfit, but I think it's pretty funny as it.

Ohhhh This Will Be Interesting....

When we heard that, we knew she'd found a folder of clothes that would entertain or amaze us or both...we were not disappointed. Jaime was a great sport and is (so she says) fine with me publishing pictures of her dressed as a plant. (I survived publishing the pictures of her with the mustache!). This is the first in a series of three "Oh this will be interesting...." posts by the way. Stay tuned tomorrow!

Debbie Dresses as a Superhero

Here are my other two "Debbie is (OMG) dressing up like Wonder Woman" shots. I think they came out great. I hope you like her in superhero garb as much as I do, perhaps a few comments to that effect will get her to do it some more.

Debbie as Wonder Woman

After my wife bested her in the skimpy bikini category, Debbie broke out some heavy artillery- a Wonder Woman costume. No man that I know can resist a woman dressed as Wonder Woman, bracelets and magic lasso included. Parked behind her is the invisible jet, but you can't see it.

I'll share two of these today and two more tomorrow, and hopefully get her back with more Super Hero dress-up soon!