I've looked back over the past year or so, and I'm thinking about venues and performers.

When I check out a live music gig, I'm going there for the performer.

Sure, the venue adds a little bit to the experience, but usually it's not much beyond providing nice backgrounds for snapshots. In fact, venues usually have a negative impact upon the experience:

• Complexity leads to lag.
• Butt-ugly build.
• Lack of security.
• Not enough capacity for the performer... booking Max or Komuso for a single sim will max it out fast.
• Owners that chatspam or get aggressive with group adds.
• Nothing really to stick around for afterwards.

Blah blah blah. And, yes, I know I'm guilty of the complexity issue. But I'm going for a different approach - a venue that the audience can interact with and become a part of. A venue that can react to the performer with the gears, lights, smoke, water, globes, lightning, etc.

Other venues, oh boy - you can sit on a chair. Dance with a danceball. (Hey, can I get a sim called YAWNSVILLE?)

Either keep it dirt-simple or go all-out with a theme and breathe ten life into that theme, I say. Make people think you stayed up all night robbing graves to put that monster together, praying for a lightning storm.

Yeah, I know there's some folks out there that have conditions which make the seemingly ordinary (dancing, sitting at a bar, leaving their home) turn into an extraordinary task.

You know what? That's okay by me... but wouldn't you like to take it up a notch and be a part of something that's impossible beyond that?

By the way, for those of y'all wondering what performers get when they appear TWICE at the Clocktower, they get The Golden Shaft. (A miniature version of the camshaft rotating behind a brass note.)

Right now, Thumper's looking good for it with the votes in the TBA ballot. He's got a clear majority of the notecards, which means he has the best chance of his name being picked out of the hat.

Agree that he should be there on 3/24? Well, toss me a notecard with his name on it to make it more likely.

Otherwise, if you think someone else should get a shot at it, put their name on a notecard and send it to me.