Tooter Claxton, his avatars, and the first buzz on his upcoming Le Salon des Clochards Riches

On his blog, NPIRL'er, builder and avatar creator Tooter Claxton introduces himself as a graphics designer from the Netherlands who has been playing in punk rock bands for 30 years.

Lest you think this makes him sound a bit too "street," think again. This warm-hearted and very witty eccentric is dripping in kulture, and his texturing is... sublime. I would go so far as to call it elegantly sloppy.

Consider Brunnhilde, one of his deranged avatars. She's a bug-eyed Viking warrior...

...and every time she types, she waves her shield around rather dangerously.

You can acquire this hazardous female avatar at several in-world locations and on SLEX, but a peek at his main store is worth the trip alone. Tooter's approach to merchandising is as refreshing as it is zany. He has condensed the presentation of his wares to a 3D pseudo magazine trailer shop, and each magazine showcases one of his wacky creatures.
Slurl: Main store

Seeing as the scale of the store is so thrifty in both its foot print and prim count, Tooter used the surplus to create Le Salon des Clochards Riches (Salon for Rich Hobos), which he describes as "a shabby-luxe gathering place for digital bohemians and great loonies with a penchant for the absurd, a taste for pointless things, and a even a parlor game or two."

Chatting with Toot makes me realize how removed I am from what is hip and happening in real life. The Salon - slated to officially open its doors in about a month - will be loosely modeled after the Pecha Kucha style evenings that launched the SuperDeluxe club in Tokyo two years ago and then spread like peanut butter under the summer sun... all over the friggin globe.

Presenters are allowed 6 minutes and 40 seconds in which to expound on whatever topic they please, such as: forgotten disco queens, how to conceal and travel with your pet in a briefcase, or the benefits of chewing each mouthful at least 40 times. The real life format for these soires involves Power Point presentations of 20 slides each, but Toot thinks "that's just anal."

Tooter's in-world profile states that his ambition in Second Life is to win a beauty pagaent. How could he not, considering the enticement of his "Eyes?":

The "Your Aunt" avatar rezzes an ironing board whilst the wearer types:

And his latest creation, "Herr Doktor Gehirnschneider," shown standing here with her majesty, the Queen of the Netherlands...

...holds brains in one hand and a surgical knife in the other.

Tooter uses PhotoShop 7 to make his textures, and like all good Second Life Hobos, he subscribes to the school of freebies, which you can find at his main store and his Avatar Factory.


We'll just have to revisit Tooter Claxton's world again.