Perri's Xanadu

In the movie “Xanadu,” two men turn an empty auditorium into a successful nightclub with the help of a muse. In Rainbow Wood, it might not have been a muse behind the club Xanadu, but there are certainly a number of creative people behind it.

Club Xanadu is owned by Perri Prinz (Perri Rhoades in real-life) and RECoyote Mindes. “There was another Club Xanadu when I first joined Second Life,” Perri explained, “It was my favorite hang out, but the owner never advertised it, so it soon disappeared. Later I found the building on SLX and bought it. I carried it around in my inventory for about a year, having no place to put it. Then we got a place, and REC wanted to (open it) too, since he liked the movie. So we set it up. But we soon saw it was beyond us to do a real Xanadu sim based on the movie. So we developed it into a classic rock club for people who enjoy both popular and obscure rock music from the 70's and 80's.” Club Xanadu opened in May 1, 2009.

RECoyote, “When we couldn't do a exact copy of the disco, we went for a 70s feel and music. But even getting DJ that stick to a 70 and 80 easy pop listing music is not easy.” Still, they found some who would, such as Nydia Tungsten, Lsai Aeon, Dusk Griswold, Timber Wolfenhaut, and Asuna Kaligawa. “Timber is one of the best for era music,” RECoyote felt. “Well, I'm the main DJ,” Perri told, “My music plays there round the clock, 24/7, when another DJ is not hosting an event. I play eclectic 70's and 80's album music, hit tracks interspeced with non-hit tracks. Disco, Classic Rock, Soft Rock, Progressive Rock, Jazz, Swing, Rock & Roll and Novelty tunes. We have other DJ's that specialize in things like Anime tunes, Euro-disco and other things for special events.” RECoyote described their special events as including, “Hippie, Groovy, Cartoons, Movies, Sci Fi, and a mix of general events.” Spoke Perri, “Whatever theme we can imagine, we do it.”

Club Xanadu is on a wide sky platform high in the air over Rainbow Wood. The exterior, like it’s movie counterpart, is based on the real life Pan Pacific Auditorium. The interior is dominated by a huge colorful disco dance floor, with a DJ stand in the back decorated with a row of vinyl records. One clicks on either the black singles danceball or the rainbow-colored couples’ danceball. The ring around the dance floor can be used as a roller rink, and residents can sometimes be seen skating around. On the walls are a small number of artworks and posters, including the poster of the Xanadu movie. There are a few seats further away from the dance floor one can rest one’s avatar, as well as a bar. The club also has a balcony, with a few cuddle couches and more displays of art. Just outside the club, there are a few cuddle spots for couples.

In one corner of Club Xanadu is a tribute to the Pan Pacific Auditorium, several photographs of the structure. The Auditorium was built in Los Angeles in 1934, and became an iconic structure. It hosted a number of events (including wrestling, which was mentioned of the auditorium in the movie). The place was closed in 1972 after the opening of the L.A. Convention Center. For the movie Xanadu, the exterior was made to look covered in neon lights through special effects. It was hoped among some that the movie would bring attention to the building and it being refurbished and saved. But no effort was made to preserve the building, and it continued to deteriorate. Just six days after it’s 54th anniversary in 1989, the building was destroyed in a spectacular fire.

A friend of RECoyote and Perri, Aurora Avilla, had the idea for a “Chocolate Lounge” as part of the club. But that idea was shelved and instead was set up elsewhere in Rainbow Wood separately. “Was created for the chocolate bunny craze that was going around a few weeks ago,” Perri explained, “We were thinking of adding a chocolate bunny lounge to the club, hosted by chocolate bunny dancers.” Aurora leads a group called the “Chocolate Nosebobbly Collective.”

Perri talked about a mall being planed to match the club, but for now there are a couple art shops outside the club. The larger one is especially important to Perri, “This is the art done for Perri's story,” RECoyote told, art for Perri’s thirty year old work of writing: Spectral Shadows (http://www.perrirhoades.furtopia.org/). Perri’s website describes Spectral Shadows as “a novelized serial in format of Doctor Who.” It’s origins go back to the 1960’s when a “makeshift demo” was made for a series of rock operas. But instead Perri began writing it down in the late 1970’s. She rates it “PG-16.” The store contains artwork for the stories.

“The saga concerns the exploits of intelligent animals with time travel capabilities. It is very much inspired by the traditions of Doctor Who and Star Wars, with a good bit of Watership Down and Jonathan Livingston Seagull thrown in for contrast, and a bit of Spellsinger and Xanth to provide balance. Whereas George Lucas used old-time movie serials for the formatting of Star Wars, we use the formatting of old-time radio serials. This works well, as it is a very dialogue driven series, containing many cerebral oddities and conundrums. What you might call a thinking person’s adventure serial. It’s something that, by all logic, should not work. But it most often does work, if just through the sheer tenacity of the creators to make something ridiculously impossible seem like a logical course of events.”

So for a walk back in time to the music of the 70’s and 80’s, come to Club Xanadu. The club is at Rainbow Wood (128, 72, 2501)

Whether it’s music, art, or fiction, “Find your muse at Xanadu.”


Bixyl Shuftan