yu can haz teh POWAH!!! - Creative combustion and a gift economy in the desert

Beginning this Saturday and for one week, scorched earth awaits you. Burning Man, the annual event that Burning Life is modelled after, is about dreaming your dream in a radically awake and alive state.

I scowled and shook my fist at the heavens yesterday because 22 sims brimming with the creative art and builds produced by hundreds of talented minds is too much to absorb in just one week, but now I am going to put all that behind me and immerse myself in the joy.

The temperatures at Burning Man are brutally hot. And cold. The dust storms whip the camps for hours at 50mph. Lag is Second Life®'s weather. Be brave, be courageous... it will all be worth it.

A core element of the Burner's culture is gifting, with no strings attached. It is not about trading or barter. Just a way to say hello, or thank you, or hey you!

One such gift will be from artist Truthseeker Young.



His vase of flowers contains a single stem flower staff and an animation with particles. Put them together and "yu can haz teh POWAH!!!"

STEALTH BLOGPOST #1: Battle of the Ironclads

Unless you are a member of their group, the EXCLUSIONARY ELITISTS at the Playa have made it impossible this year for you to enjoy the Battle of the Ironclads or any other fantastic build on the 22 sims worth of extreme NPIRL goodness by hundreds of extraordinary artists and builders until they open their LAGFEST IN THE DESERT 2008 for just one week. Furthermore, it seems that I am not even ALLOWED to blog about any of the creations at LAGFEST 2008 until it officially opens for just seven miserly, tight-fisted days - despite the fact that I am literally drooling... so I must resort to stealth blogposts and stealing other people's materials. Even though I respectfully requested - as instructed - press materials from Linden Lab's press office over a week ago, I am still waiting, and the organizers have made it clear that they want me to STAY AWAY.

I can't help wondering how this all fits with the Ten Principles of Burning Man which they claim to be living by... especially this one:

Participation
Our community is committed to a radically participatory ethic. We believe that transformative change, whether in the individual or in society, can occur only through the medium of deeply personal participation. We achieve being through doing. Everyone is invited to work. Everyone is invited to play. We make the world real through actions that open the heart.

One more thing... When we organized the Garden of NPIRL Delights, we restricted access and the publication of photographs, because we wanted to keep it a surprise... but that was just four sims worth of work and the exhibit was open well over a month. Even so, so much of the work went unnoticed because people simply didn't have the bandwidth. This event covers 22 sims and it is only open one week. So what does that mean for coverage? I bet if you polled the participants, they would almost unanimously say yes to early coverage. Wouldn't you?

Anyway...

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Hotspur O'Toole describes himself as "An Irish would-be gentleman of indeterminate age, of a somewhat military bearing..." but any amount of text written by or about about this man cannot begin to convey the character he keeps, or the world that he and his cohorts live in.

Hotspur is always up to something... and more often than not it has something to do with a battle, but don't assume that guns and swords are always involved. For example, in July 2007 he invited me to attend the Duel of Compliments for the benefit of the Caledon Library, which he presided over. Here's but a snippet of text that I managed to keep from that event, just as it was getting underway:

Hotspur Otoole: We have surveyed the ground, sirs, and can attest that there are no stray compliments laying about, and we will take your words you have no extras hidden up your sleeves.
Bryndal Ellison hopes that she's not naked...as SL is not working
Terry Lightfoot giggles
Eva Bellambi: You do appear to have clothes on, Ms Ellison
Bryndal Ellison: Your Grace, good to see you
Hotspur Otoole: um, yes..... you're totally clothed... yesssssss
JJ Drinkwater sighs in disappointment, as she is quite clothed

Oh, I know... most of that text has nothing to do with the actual duel of compliments, which was uproariously funny and entirely and spontaneously ad libbed, but that level of sophistication in their text chat is standard fare with his crowd, where "LOLs" and "ROFLs" are quite, quite absent.

At any rate, he and his clan have been spending a good deal of their time in the desert lately - The Playa, to be more specific - and what they have concocted is a great deal of fun!

It isn't hugely complicated to play this radio-controlled game. First, take a copy of the free HUD that is offered there and wear it. Next, take one of the four available seats on the sides of the pool/ocean. Then, find the ironclad that corresponds to the color of your flagged seat and apply all your dexterity and skills with the goal of being the last one standing! Um... floating!

Because I am unwelcome on the 22 sims of the coming LAGFEST 2008, I've snuck over to Hotspur's delightful blog and swiped his video of the build.

ZOMG - Philip Rosedale (Philip Linden) is stepping down: Will creativity still rule the roost?

I've just learned from Tayzia Abattoir that Philip Rosedale - known to most of us in Second Life as Philip Linden - is stepping down as CEO to Linden Lab, the company he founded and has led since 2002.

According to Adam Reuters, who got the exclusive story, Linden Lab is actively recruiting for a new CEO. Philip will then become chairman of the Linden Lab board, replacing Mitch Kapor, who will remain on the board.

The biggest news here to Second Life users is that this will surely have an impact on the culture (or counter-culture) and the governance of our virtual world, especially when you consider that Philip abandoned the original concept for what Second Life should be - a combat game, or a simulated environment - after he attended the Real Life annual desert happening Burning Man - and determined that, like Burning Man, Second Life would be "a wonderland of creative projection" - (Quote lifted from "The Making of Second Life," by Wagner James Au).

The bottom line here... the virtual civilization that Philip Linden birthed and has nurtured to date, places creative people at the top of the hierarchy. Will this change, and if so, who (or what) will rise to the top of the food chain?

Burning Life 2007 - the weeklong burn has begun

As the sun set last night, the lamplighters donned the traditional robes skirted with orange, red and yellow flames, and moved across the Playa, their lamps swaying to and fro.

The time-honored procession culminated at Center Camp with a happy and boisterous party; everyone dancing to the beat of the drums. While the Second Life version of this annual event is closely aligned with the ideals of the much celebrated Real Life Burning Man, the metaverse is a platform from which a myriad of things that would not be possible in real life can take place.