It's easy. No, it's magical. No, it's easy and magical - Plus, a Black Swan writing contest

When I was five years old, my dear and wondrous grandmother - who undoubtedly would have had an even worse case of NPIRL-itis than I do - took me to a "thousand and one nights" themed restaurant for dinner. We were greeted at the door by a sheik... the tallest man I have ever seen... and led to our table through a candlelit path by a veiled and supernatural beauty.

Later, to celebrate that I had eaten all the lamb on my plate, that same belly dancer branded the evening's experiences on my mind for all eternity when she ripped a gold coin off her belt... and gave it me!

For years, I begged to be taken back, and my grandmother's answer was always the same: "It will never be that perfect again, so why upset the memory of it?"

The restaurant was in a strip mall, the sheik was surely a local high school basket ball player, and the belly dancer, well, she was just sweet. That coin? I still have it today... the gold paint worn off by me and the five-year-old fingers of my envious friends who were sometimes allowed to hold it.

Years later and just one week ago, I visited the Black Swan sim to see the "Night Dreaming" stone girl for the first time. No one had told me what to expect. "Okay...sculpties," I thought, and touched her to learn more, thinking I'd soon be teleporting off. Suddenly she was transformed into a living, glowing nymph, and I was that five year old all over again, shivering and thrilling all by my lonesome.


These photos by ColeMarie Soleil

Her creator, Light Waves, assured me today that there was no magic to it at all. "The effect is very simple," he said and proceeded to explain the process in his gentle and breezy manner, in terms that even I - a half-baked script-hacking dilettante - could understand.

Well, I don't care if it was simple or complicated. Easy or hard, the effect was sorcery, in my opinion. It transported me to my magical place and I'm not coming down.

The point is - and no, I don't own stock in Linden Lab - Second Life is the most affordable and complete tool I know of to commit hardcore creativity. Every single one of us - whether we are paying members or not - has tools at our disposal to enchant, mesmerize, and even disturb our fellow residents through the use of a simple script or a texture overlay or... but we just have to ssstretch our imaginations... which is the most powerful exercise of all.

Which brings me back to the Black Swan sim. Everything about it is mysterious and unexplained... so the online speculative fiction and dark fantasy zine, The Future Fire, has invited Second Life residents to participate in a creative writing competition that must have a discernible link to the artwork at Black Swan. Go there (teleport directly), flex those brain muscles, and you might become the author of the best entry. The winner of the first prize will receive (USD) $500, and be published in The Future Fire as well as in Second Life by Black Swan, but hurry... the deadline is December 10, 2007.

As for me... I am still buoyant, and I'm headed back to visit the stone girl. Unlike strip malls in the eyes of a five year old, her magic still holds up, and is locked inside me forevermore.

Lash Xevious' La Reve - a Flickrite's delight

Couple Lash Xevious' new purplish eye candy "La Reve" sim and Windlight and you have a photographer's feast on your hands. NPIRL Flickrites... show us your stuff! Here are my own sorry pics, without the benefit of Photoshop.

La Reve is a full sim featuring narrative sculpture and moody virtual nature.



Teleport directly from here.



The very lovely Lash dates back to May of 2004. On her blog, she speaks of La Reve as her virtual canvas. I look forward to knowing her better. Many thanks to my mentor and friend, Tayzia Abattoir, for pointing us to Lash and her work.

Scope Cleaver's winged superstructure for Princeton - architecture that really soars

In the first rez, you know that Scope Cleaver is a perfectionist. He is also one of a handful of architects and designers who keep setting the bar for all others to follow, and he's only been in Second Life since late January of 2006.

His newest work - this colossal hourglass building on Princeton University's virtual campus - is so airy and open that a good wind would surely lift it and send it flying.

Sitting on Alexander Beach island, the sim-wide creation will be officially unveiled on November 28, and is intended as a gathering place for the Princeton campus community, including students, staff and faculty members. It will be open to the public, except for some special events. Teleport directly from here.


This photo by Harper Beresford

Back when the Not Possible IRL group began, the exceptional quality of Scope Cleaver's work and the sculptural flow of his very original designs made him an ideal candidate for NPIRL, so I hounded the poor man, all the while evangelizing about our mission, until finally I either convinced him to join or he surrendered, I'm still not sure which. At any rate, I am delighted to see that his work is shifting further away from Real Life architecture and opening - way up - to new heights that only the metaverse can afford.

I met up with Scope earlier this week to learn more.



Scope Cleaver: Everything I have done prior to this was more down to earth, more right-angle architecture. It's difficult to get rid of habits, ways of thinking, culture... and since this medium is still fairly new to me, experimenting is really the most important part of my learning experience here. It was a natural progression... time will help me slowly move away from my old ways of thinking about architecture, humans, and how they interact. I think an important component for all architects in SL is really to listen and be sensitive to feedback.

The island consists of three programmatic areas: The two large buildings that run across the sim on a diagonal, are intended for more formal functions. The building to the south, made up of triangular-shaped glazed sections, is an exhibition and gallery space. The twin building to the north - a more enclosed space - has a partial second level, and is intended as a reconfigurable community center for concerts, theatrical performances, installations, experimental builds, and other functions that arise from the needs of the campus community.

The hourglass shape is flanked by two very white, gleaming sandboxes, which Scope described as "elevated, glorified, clean and (with) some sense of minimalism."



"I thought it important to make whatever the students were building something to be seen and the main theme of this Sim, which is why I elevated both sandboxes like plates," said Scope. I wondered out loud what it will be like to work on the very white sandboxes, and he replied, "I have tried it myself and really like it.:) It gave me ideas on how I should build my own sandbox."


Only the students and faculty will have building rights here.

Scope doesn't appear to be anybody's acolyte. Consider where he gets his ideas...

Scope Cleaver: I take a lot of inspiration from music, especially of the ambient kind, which is an exploration of space in itself. It guides me and brings up images of structure and rhythm that I have learned to translate into an actual building. There is an audio installation/soundscape called "Mare Aeternum" here by AldoManutio Abruzzo that played into my vision. I get pretty obsessive with ambient music and can listen to it for extended periods of time.

He also quoted Einstein as we discussed his sources for ideas: "Imagination is more important than knowlege."

Next two photos by Harper Beresford


Scope Cleaver: Other than the technical glitches . . . I have learned how to handle large structures better by packaging them to move them around, and I also take more time to evaluate things as a whole. I am tending to be more about the big picture. The direction I'm taking is more open, yet very functional and detailed.



Working with traditional prims - no sculpties or megas for this man - Scope's work is completely seamless and precise. For this building, he relied on Cadroe's Lathe tool, and Filterforge for the textures.

Scope Cleaver: I could not have done this without the open source "Builder's Buddy" (scripted by Newfie Pendragon and available for free on the SL Forum) as well, which lets me handle moving the large structure and *very primmy* buildings around without glitches.



Scope named Persis Trilling, Princeton's Educational Technologies Center director, when I asked him about collaborators, saying that she'd been extremely patient and understanding.

Persis is someone I actively seek out for her engaging wit and good sense. I like to think of her as a modern day Dorothy Parker (a healthy one, mind you).


This photo by Harper Beresford

Having retained Scope's architectural services for Princeton several times over - even before work began on the first sim - Persis is clearly a fan of his work: "With this new sim, I had the luxury of allowing Scope to satisfy a few programmatic requirements as he thought best, with very few more suggestions than the functional ones. The result is a remarkably cohesive creation that showcases his great skill with light, texture, color, artisanal craftmanship, with a large helping of drama thrown in. It's a beauty. I love it!"


Under Persis Trilling's planning and direction, the Princeton campus is a hub of artistic and architectural activity

KK Jewell (aka Kirsten Kiser), an architect, curator and the publisher of arcspace, an online architecture and design magazine that's scoring 16 million hits a month, wrote an excellent piece on Scope's Gallery of the Arts building - also at Princeton - so of course I wanted to get her opinion on his latest work: "It confirms his place among the best in SL. Cantilevers and extrusions, rich textures, light filled interiors... are all characteristic of Cleaver’s architectural vocabulary."


Princeton University's Gallery of the Arts, also by Scope Cleaver

KK added, "I like his architecture language. You always recognize his work. He is unique in that he is really an SL architect; you stop comparing him to RL architects and discover a whole new language...maybe a language of the future...who knows? The more I learn about building in SL and how difficult it really is, the more I admire his work."



I asked Scope about his frequent use of the color orange.

Scope Cleaver: Orange is one of my favorite colors, and it's one of Princeton's official colors. There is never enough orange here! :) I think it really highlights the windows to have some color in them.



Scope Cleaver: In the summer of 2006, I was doing a building for Telus, and another one for a private client. Back then I had no idea if I should focus on doing prefab work (retail) or custom work. It's still balanced today, as I don't feel comfortable going full time in either direction exclusively. The big difference for me is that by doing custom work I get to interact with people and it's more dynamic than being in my workshop figuring out the next modern chair. I think the most important thing is that it should point to something... it should have a direction, meaning I design a building and I like people to think (it can be so much crazier).



Scope shared with me that he tests how avatars interact with his structures before, during and after their creation. I was particularly interested in this because I've found his office, for example, to be on the perfect virtual scale for my avatar to move around in. While it's very PIRL, you can check it out by teleporting directly here... and try out that 12-prim executive chair.



Addendum - December 17, 2007

Italian architect Gioacchino Laryukov had been busy attending to Real Life matters for quite some time, so when I saw him in-world, I rushed him over to see Alexander Beach. His impressions struck me as so interesting, that I'm posting them here.

Gioacchino Laryukov: I don't want to address the perfect development, the elegance of the textures, the great functionality or the numerous great details of this Masterpiece. Rather, I want to attempt to expose deeper architecturals concepts that I think have found in this work, a great expression.

THE PLANT AND THE SHAPE
Looking from above, flying over it, the building demonstrates a rational structure; a cross with axis of symmetry is in clear evidence: the two rounded volumes in one sense and the two squared platform connected by two arcs on the other. I mention this simply to make evident the concept of the building: the rational environment in which all the elements take their position and role.

But looking from the usual point of view for a human, with the feet on the ground, we can find a first “counterpoint”: this building shows in all its magnificence, an organic shape; it could be a creature both of the flora and of the fauna; a big flower with wonderful open petals, or an insect, just opening his wings before starting his flight.

And here we can note the distinction between the two axis of symmetry: in one sense there is a front and a back while on the other, the symmetry is perfect. This fact gives to the building a prevalent direction - we needn't say which - that makes it possible to organize the space around it.

OUTSIDE/INSIDE - FULL/EMPTY
And through this direction, the architecture comes into play... first, a play conducted in the definition of the spaces. One half of the building is a closed space with tapered windows; the other is an open space delimited by a light and wonderful succession of triangular glasses. This way the unity of the shape and its balance is preserved while there is a creation of two opposite conditions: the Outside and the Inside.

The first is defined with elegant touches in its shape identical to the closed part so you can really feel that you are in the same “space.” You can see from the Outside that the different parts belong to the same “creature.”

This effect is obtained with a wonderful and organized play of glasses and curtains, fulls and empties in a perfect balance that give to the building its great balance. Take a look to how the panels of the front of the big rooms are dynamically positioned to define the inside, while at the same time, they create a movement of compenetration between the outside and the inside.

In the same way we could speak about light and darks. Like sounds and silences in a symphony, all parts contribute in a dynamical way to the definition of the building in a balance, perfectly achieved.

Get your *own* grid! Thomtrance O'Toole provides step-by-step instructions for OpenSim + binary executable

I like to think that everything we publish on this blog is significant and valuable information, but what I am going to share with you here, today, has the potential to be transformative, and for some, will be on par with a religious experience.

ThomTrance O'Toole is a deceptively easy-going, self-proclaimed mad Celt Goa King and the owner of Happy Clam Island, the home of Organica. There - together with his busy clan of 'Happy Clams' - he blissfully DJs vintage Goa trance tracks and promotes global sustainability and Permaculture. Make no mistake... this man is no light-weight. In fact, he is profound, and I am deeply honored to call him a friend.



Several weeks ago, ThomTrance O'Toole IM'ed me in the most excited tones to say that he had pursued a thread of an earlier conversation we'd had regarding OpenSim. I entreated him to share his findings with me via notecard so that I could distribute said information to the rest of the NPIRLers. ThomTrance is always teasing me gently, and this time was no exception. Here are the contents of that notecard:

Today, I blamed Bettina Tizzy for ruining my life.

On the boundary of the phase transition from a two dimensional NET, to a 3D Metaverse, the bleeding edge is where life begins, where we take small steps into the new Metaverse... being able to create a region of your own, a sim of your own, beyond the boundaries of Second Life, is one of these steps.

OpenSim, an open source project is now in Alpha release 0.4, and I am here to report that yes, Second Life is possible outside of Second Life.

Today, at Bettina's prompting, I tracked them down, downloaded the source, and built the alpha release. Running the executable in stand alone mode, on my desktop, I quickly, and easily established a server.

And it is a *piece of cake* to set up and log in. (Download file - about 18MB - to login = 10 minutes!!!). Note that I have the source code and have built the code into a binary... an .exe, which I will give you via the NPIRL blog.

Now here is the interesting part: I used my Second Life client (1.18.2) to connect to this server, and logged in with the user I created when I originally started the server. Connecting to "ThomSim" , I was presented with a raw island, and a Ruth avatar. (Don't mess with the estate.XML until ye know what ye are doing thom, he said, after needing to reinstall it after doing exactly that).

But this space, this sim, even though I could build on it, and terrain it, and change my av, existed in my desktop, outside the grid of Linden Labs! My head is still spinning, as I realize that this opens up our Metaverse to new grids, all accessible through the SL client . Like the Web in 93, with just a few small servers out there serving up primitive HTML pages, I can see this as a turning point for our Metaverse, a freeing event that will allow us ALL to host and build regions and creations in an ever expanding Metaverse.

Granted, this is an alpha release, not everything works, plenty to still work on, but to login to SL......MY own SL running on my desktop, was a thrill I have not experienced in years.

In the coming week I will prepare some detailed instructions for the non-coders among us, and Bettina will have a link soon to a binary executable from her wonderful blog. A sim of your own coming to a desktop near you.

Until then, Love and light,
thomTrance

P.S. I can see me completely immersed in this project now, so thank you Bettina - for "ruining" my life!!

We haven't seen much of ThomTrance these past few weeks...

But ZOMG, look, look, look at the AMAZING information ThomTrance has created for us! Follow this link to find his gift: step-by-step, easy-to-follow instructions that even non-coders can use on how to get your own grid PLUS a binary executable.

I just hope we don't lose you forever! Please report back to me periodically, would you?

... and ThomTrance spoke yesterday of creating the Not Possible IRL grid. I'm pinching myself. Blessings, ThomTrance. <3

Memespelunk - Second Life through Juria Yoshikawa's eyes - Expect the unexpected

The first time I experienced Juria Yoshikawa's (aka Lance Shield) work, I was spell-bound... my earliest interactive art experience in the metaverse. It was the "I'm Not Here" immersive light installation at the Gaping Lotus Experience art space back in May of this year. The colors were clean and bright, like easter eggs.

Sadly, the art in the next three photographs exists only in Juria's inventory. We can't have it all ^.^


By combining these colors with light, motion, audio and animations, Juria created a space you wanted to step into and stay in.



Over the many weeks that followed, Juria's new art popped up everywhere... as often as 4 and 5 times a month. I would run to inhabit it.



Then - on July 14th - Juria took a giant leap forward. We were treated to Blink - Two Rooms and an Island - an enormous installation featuring Juria's art combined with AldoManutio Abruzzo's (RL = Dennis Moser) blissful soundscape. I don't mind telling you, plain and simple, that I was blown away. Upon arrival, we were handed gowns of light and animations... and sent off to play. We became, in fact, pixelated paint splashed onto Juria and AldoManutio's audiovisual canvas, wiggling and squiggling about in our dream states.

Fortunately, Evo Szuyuan (aka Brigit Lichtenegger) documented the opening of that show with this video:



Since then, Juria has created numerous installations - large and small - throughout the grid, but it wasn't until the island of Memespelunk came into being that Juria's art began to have some permanence. I am laughing as I type these words. I don't really believe that the word permanence exists in Juria's vocabulary :P.

I am jazzed with the way Lance, the real life Tokyo-based multimedia artist and designer who operates Juria-the-avatar, describes her: "She inevitably chooses scales larger than conventional gallery work because she is interested in people experiencing the work in a physical way - flying through them, riding on them and socializing within the art. To Juria, virtual art is about freeing oneself up to create in ways she finds impossible in real life."

Still... it isn't that Juria is impermanent. It just happens that her art has a very short life span. At least in any state. Here is one typical example... last week Juria alerted me to this:

I love Tron. Um, I love spermatozoa. I sorta love water ballet. Where am I going with this? Let's just say that an experiment went astray and an exuberance of joyful display is had for one and all. The spermatozoa are jumping and the spirit of Tron is in their hearts. Be happy. You won't get pregnant. (Statistical data: 87% of sl av's are male including the girl avs.) Splash!

A few hours later, I received another notecard:

From consumer research and the opinions of my loyal viewers, I have decided to change the name of my latest work to "Headless Spermatozoa Impregnated with the Spirit of Tron (a Water Ballet circa 1982)". Yes the sperm are HEADLESS and IMPREGNATED. Don't ask me how this could happen but it has. It has also been noted that my earlier statistic that 82% of sl avs are male was pure fabrication.

Before one more thing happened, I decided I'd better make my way over there, and this is what I found:



The tune that plays while the sperm cavort playfully in this pool is rather catchy... and happy.

I went back tonight to see what it all looked like in Windlight... and Juria had been tweaking again. Teleport directly from here.



Now the pool filled with headless, pregnant sperm had been invaded by ovum. No further explanation...

... and that is just the way it is if you - like me - are going to follow Juria's art.

You don't need to be a nerd to REV up the default Search engine

Given how much time all of us spend using the Search feature, why not make that time as enjoyable and productive as possible? Late last week, DrenBoy Opus from the Elven lands and owner/creator of Opus Labs, gave NPIRLers some hot tips on how to put our personal stamp on Search. While I am sadly challenged on practically every technical front, even I was able to use these easy-to-follow instructions to remarkable advantage. This is brilliant stuff!

By DrenBoy Opus

Second Life's newfangled Windlight First Look release comes to town, along with a non-Windlight Search Release Candidate viewer version... Both have the new web-based search feature. After playing with it, I discovered how to change the default search engine to Google as well as a host of other things:

Here are the steps to change to Google
1. Ensure you have the 'client and server' menu up (press CTRL + ALT + D or press CTRL + ALT + SHIFT + D)
2. Click on Client --> Debug Settings
3. Drop Down to the 'SearchQueryURL'. You will see the default text is

http://secondlife.com/app/search/search_proxy.php?
q=[QUERY]&s=[COLLECTION]&m=[MATURE]
&t=[TEEN]&region=[REGION]&x=[X]
&y=[Y]&z=[Z]

Change that text into (I have prepared other options including LSL search for those who dont want Google ;D)

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=[QUERY]
&s=[COLLECTION]&m=[MATURE]&t=[TEEN]
&region=[REGION]&x=[X]&y=[Y]&z=[Z]

4. Close that window, give the search a whirl and (if you dont crash due to a typo / mis-paste), you will be basking in your new-newfangled search!

Google Search
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=[QUERY]
&s=[COLLECTION]&m=[MATURE]&t=[TEEN]
&region=[REGION]&x=[X]&y=[Y]&z=[Z]

SLBrowser (created by Felix Wakmann and Diva Canto)
http://webi.slbrowser.com:8080/webadapter/results.jsp?
query=[QUERY]&s=[COLLECTION][MATURE]
[TEEN][REGION][X][Y][Z]

NPIRL Blog Search (Yes, LOL!)
http://npirl.blogspot.com/search?q=[QUERY]
&s=[COLLECTION]&m=[MATURE]&t=[TEEN]
&region=[REGION][X][Y][Z]

SLURL (A virtual GPS; not useful but fun)
http://slurl.com/secondlife/[REGION]/[X]/[Y]/[Z]/[QUERY]
[COLLECTION][MATURE][TEEN]

LSL Wiki
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Special:Search?search=[QUERY]
&s=[COLLECTION]&m=[MATURE]&t=[TEEN]
&region=[REGION][X][Y][Z]

SL Exchange
http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?
name=Marketplace&SearchKeyword=[QUERY]
&s=[COLLECTION][MATURE][TEEN][REGION][X][Y][Z]

YouTube Search (some movie controls are kinda wonky)
http://youtube.com/results?search_query=[QUERY]
&s=[COLLECTION]&m=[MATURE]&t=[TEEN]
&region=[REGION][X][Y][Z]

Microsoft's Live Search
http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=[QUERY]
&s=[COLLECTION]&m=[MATURE]&t=[TEEN]
&region=[REGION]&x=[X]&y=[Y]&z=[Z]

Yahoo Search
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=[QUERY]
&s=[COLLECTION]&m=[MATURE]&t=[TEEN]
&region=[REGION]&x=[X]&y=[Y]&z=[Z]

Wikipedia Search
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=[QUERY]
&s=[COLLECTION]&m=[MATURE]&t=[TEEN]
&region=[REGION]&x=[X]&y=[Y]&z=[Z]

Ask.com Search
http://www.ask.com/web?q=[QUERY]&s=[COLLECTION]
&m=[MATURE]&t=[TEEN]&region=[REGION]
&x=[X]&y=[Y]&z=[Z]

All these locations tested by DrenBoy Opus on 15th Nov 07

November 25th: Just received this update from Felix Wakmann:

Linden Labs included a new search feature in the Windlight release candidate client of Second Life. At first it looked like another closed system, but then DrenBoy Opus discovered that the search page is configurable via an obscure setting. Since Diva Canto and I have been running our SLBrowser search engine for the last 6 months, we've been looking for better ways to hook into SL. So we created Open Search for Second Life to augment the Linden Search with some alternatives. The Open Search page gives you quick access to multiple search pages, including SLBrowser, Linden Labs, OnRez, SLExchange, and Google. The line-up is subject to change, but this is our current offering. You get all the functionality of Linden Labs new search, plus these other great search engines. We believe that search should be open, and that the best way to improve things is for competition... where the users choose the best solution, rather than being forced to go with once choice. If you have the new Release Candidate (see the link above) you can easily configure it for Open Search. Thanks to DrenBoy Opus for letting us know about this possibility. -- Felix Wakmann and Diva Canto

Light Waves' 'Night Dreaming' statue comes alive

Nectere Niven IMed me tonight to say that there was a new statue at the Black Swan sim. Yes, the one that was once known as Hallucinogen Rezzable, and before that, the Error sim.

Once again, Light Waves has broken new ground.



Read no further. Just go there (teleport directly) as soon as you can. She is on the far end of the sim, on tiptoes... with eyes closed... alone on a rock, her shawl billowing in the wind behind her. Observe her, and then touch her...



Many thanks to that lovely and cherubic faerie ColeMarie Soleil - a magical member of the NPIRL Flickr group - for allowing me to post her photographs here. Her faerie-dusted pics often express what I cannot find the words to say.

Body of a Woman
by Pablo Neruda, 1924

Body of woman, white hills, white thighs,
you look yourself like a world in your attitude of surrender.
My rough peasant's body digs in you
and makes the son leap from the depths of the earth.



I was alone like a tunnel. The birds fled from me
and the night enveloped me with its crushing invasion.
To survive myself I forged to you like a weapon,
like an arrow in my bow, like a stone in my sling.



But the hour of vengeance falls, and I love you.
Body of skin, of moss, of eager and firm milk.
Ah those goblets of the chest! Ah those eyes of absence!
Ah the roses of the pubis! Ah your voice slow and sad!



Body of my woman, I will persist in your grace.
My thirst, my unbounded desire, my uncertain road!
Dark river-beds where the eternal thirst follows,
and tiredness follows, and the infinite ache.

From Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

Windlight First Look is back

When I got up this morning, I had a yearning for a little Windlight. See my last post... I mean, what were the odds of it knocking on my door on this very day?! And then, this evening, there it was. As my friend Thomtrance O'Toole says... "no words."


Surfline Rezzable

Let's all now invoke the Gods of Olympus: may it make it to Production. And Torley Linden? Thank you, thank you for championing this gem!

Download it here.

Mega sculptie prim skies

The+Abyss with RenderGlow...



As is...



Is anyone else ready for Windlight?

"Mask:" Robbie Dingo plays with Machinima and makes magic, again

Some people need no introduction, but for those of you who have yet to discover the wonder that is Robbie Dingo, have I got a treat for you.

Robbie's newest vid "Mask", was released today, and already the feedback is - as expected - one giant HUZZAH! It features many NPIRLers, too! Utilizing a total of 70 images that he collected from friendly avatars in Second Life, he spliced and morphed their faces into one seamless sequence that is a joy, especially if you know some of the people involved. Robbie shared with me just now that he wishes to thank all those who sent in images, per his requirements.

Music is "Harper's Song," by Angry Man.

This is a man who repeatedly breaks ground by exploring new concepts via Machinima... the PC-based film medium of virtual worlds. Robbie says he's a "self-taught hobby-ist" but I would hardly call his amazing Watch the World(s) video the work of an amateur. It literally brought tears to the eyes of every man and woman I know in Second Life who found new inspiration in this gentle, soulful piece. In it, he recreated - in 3D - Vincent Van Gogh's "Starry Night," and accompanied the whole with Don McLean's poignant song "Vincent."

I know I am not alone in wishing that I had been able to walk the set for that film, but sadly it was dismantled soon after the shoot. If I had to point to just one creation - and there are many many that bend my mind - in my own Second Life... one that has given me hope that the metaverse actually will become the greatest tool ever for creative expression... it would have to be "Watch the World(s)."

While Robbie is lauded for his Machinima, he is also a sensational and technically expert builder, as well as the creator of surely the most sought after musical instruments in Second Life. In fact, he is probably best known for creating a guitar out of prims for Suzanne Vega - the first major recording artist to perform live in Second Life - and then making the in-world film about it, back in July of 2006: Suzanne's Guitar.

Robbie says he's working up some ideas for his next video. ;-)

Strawberry Holiday' sends us on our journey

It was a pretty invitation... luminous, with sweet particle stars.



"On Their Journeys" by Strawberry Holiday - which opened today - is a girlish, diaphanous installation that encourages daydreaming. Teleport directly from here.

The pathways are interactive... you might be enveloped in a translucent cloud, or see the steps twinkle beneath your feet.



Her "fractal trees" will surely please fiddling Flickrites as much as they did me. I don't have PhotoShop... yet... but this is one place that begs playfulness with the resulting photographs.



Here is the raw pic... Heh, as you can see, I still have a looong way to go before I can call myself a photographer.



The colors, particularly from this perspective, made me think that we need a recreation of Monet's garden at Giverny in Second Life.



In a few weeks, "On Their Journeys" is expected to join other interactive art at the much anticipated opening exhibition for the new NMC Aho Museum, curated by our very own Tayzia Abattoir.

DB Bailey... freshly discovered and rocking the metaverse

The moment I laid eyes on DB Bailey's Bomb Factory, I felt dizzy... intoxicated actually. Teleport directly from here.



I just told you about DB's Lotus on Tuesday... and then he shows me this. Now he has me wondering where his canvas began and where it will end. The diversity! It staggers the mind.

It has been said that architecture is the mother of all arts because it combines drawing and painting and sculpture, along with an indepth knowledge of materials and a sense of space. It helps to know that DB is an architect in real life. He's only been in Second Life since early February of this year, but if you look at his website, you will understand that this man was destined to flourish in our 3D environment.



Self doubts danced in my head... had I become this excited over a build that no one else would appreciate? Last night I gave the landmark to AM Radio, one of the builders I most admire... a true tastemaker... and asked his opinion. Within minutes I got his reply via IM: "This is stunning." Minutes later he added, "it is now my favorite build in Second Life." So it wasn't just me...

Through a rain-stained window pane...



It hasn't been but a few weeks since Douglas Story teleported me here to DB's land, which he calls Blinker Hall, and what appears to be his idea of what a meeting space should be. There's a great deal more below.



Cross the street or teleport to see even more of his work.



I think it is safe to say that DB has already become a dominant figure in the realm of content creation. He certainly is rocking my metaverse.

Contrasts in color

A few weeks ago, Darek Deluca, owner and creator of XIDD Particles and Gadgets, was contacted by Plasma Raymaker, a relative newbie. Seems Plasma wanted some help incorporating particles into a monochromatic build.



Soon after, Plasma's real life began to demand his attention enough that he gave up on the idea of having a whole sim to himself. Darek purchased the sim from him and moved his store there last week.



While Plasma intends to expand on the monochromatic theme, the stark nature of this huge installation already invites photography.



This clean white canvas with black strokes evokes memories of Juria Yoshikawa's White Room.



Once you've seen enough of this white and black palette, teleport to the Gravity level on the same sim.



While Darek hasn't completed it yet, Gravity is a hyper-colorful shooting gallery of sorts, and a sharp contrast to the experience at Monochrome. Hop on the enormous cannon to dispatch huge balls at the multi-colored targets.

Teleport directly from here to the store and while there, don't miss the Particle Theatre. I do so like particles! ^.^

Happy details

I know y'all have been to Greenies Home Rezzable oodles. I just had to point out some fave minutiae cause they make me smile.

No actual turnips were used in the making of this product. Better if used by: SOON.




And then, of course, there's 60mg of Dammitol. Wish I had some of that in my medicine cabinet.


Just a howdy and thankies Littletoe Bartlett, for the grins.