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So, good news -- the grid managed to stay open throughout most of Friday night, which meant that the release party for the first issue of our magazine finally had a chance to be held. Well, hooray for that! And I had a blast too, I have to admit, with maybe 20 or so people coming by and saying hi at one point or another over the course of around two hours. It was definitely great to meet the various readers and fans of ITG scattered around the world, and I'm glad that all of you had the chance to stop by last Friday and join in the celebrations for a little bit. I also definitely want to again thank the ladies of xXx Fantasy Escorts (one of our advertisers) for showing off some fine fashions for all of us last Friday; and designer Szentasha Salome, for providing all the great outfits.

Okay, so what's next for ITG? Well, how about a poetry slam? Done through Skype? Can you dig it, daddio? For those who don't know, in fact, this is where I got my RL start in the literary industry, was through the poetry-slam community of Chicago in the 1990s, when I was in my twenties; I've not only performed at hundreds upon hundreds of events over the years, but have hosted and organized dozens of them as well. And since the technology now exists to make for fairly easy group audio talks within SL (basically, Skype conference call to Nicecast/Winamp, then to a streaming internet server, then to a parcel of land), I thought it'd be fun to try to host an audio-based poetry event within the grid itself, not just people typing out their work but actually performing it live from wherever in the world they are.

And this isn't all, either; I'll also be inviting Chicagoans to come by my apartment and be a live RL audience, reacting as a group to the poetry and providing laughs, applause, etc, over the ITG microphone. This is an open invite for all readers, by the way; it'll mostly be my personal friends, all of them in the Chicago literary community themselves, but any other resident who would like to sit in is welcome. (I'm in Uptown, for those who are curious -- one block due north of the Sheridan el stop, or five blocks due north of Wrigley Field. I'm especially interested in Chicago residents who could bring their laptops and help with the in-grid administration during the event; I have WiFi in my apartment.) Anyway, I've got some technical information to work out first -- like whether this server space of mine supports a streaming audio feed or not -- but I'm hoping before Thanksgiving rolls around that ITG will have a chance to start producing events such as this at our in-game headquarters [Yongdong 186/177/21].

And what else, do you think? What are some cutting-edge events that ITG could sponsor in the near future, that you as a reader would most be interested in attending? That's the entire point of our live-events schedule in the grid; not to make any revenue off the events themselves, but simply as an extension of the things being covered in the blog already. I'm open for sponsoring fashion shows, film festivals, DJ contests, water-based events, special roleplaying sessions, live Skype interviews and more; if there is something in particular you'd like to see the publication do, or have an idea for a partnered project, please do drop me a line at inthegrid [at] gmail.com and let me know. Thanks again to everyone who stopped by this Friday, and here's hoping it was merely the first of many fun ITG events to come.