The city that glows

If you are a fan of Flash Gordon, then you know that all the action takes place on Planet Mongo, a kingdom ruled by the evil Ming the Merciless. And if you follow the story in the newest Flash Gordon series produced by the SciFi Channel, then you are also aware that Mongo was once an exquisite blue and green planet until a tragic accident caused a poisonous gas to be released into the atmosphere that very nearly destroyed it.

There is a person among us who knows all these things about Flash Gordon and more. So ingrained is his affection for the science fiction hero and his planet, in fact, that he has envisioned and fashioned his own Mongo in Second Life®: a glowy, art deco-ish extravaganza of a place.

It is hard to believe that we visited it just five months ago (teleport directly from here)... it is quite, quite different.



Some people are devoted learners and lucky for us, some are devoted teachers, but Lumiere Noir, creator of the Ivory Tower of Prims, happens to be both. Lumiere also has a predilection for things kitsch and camp, and he absolutely, unqualifiably delights in all things Flash Gordon, especially the 80s movie.

Combine all his passion with incandescent opalescent glow, toss in the architecture of a genie's bottle, erect a modernized Chrysler Building, recreate the sweeping stairways of a 30's movie and voila! Planet Mongo!




And it's a shopping mall! Lumiere's Planet Mongo was destined to become a retail venue for his vehicles, furniture by Red Randt (including the best bookshelves I've ever seen on the grid), and some upcoming surprises by Avi Arrow.




Larry Pixel, CEO of the New Media Consortium has this to say about Lumiere Noir: (He) represents the best of Second Life -- he communicates an excitement around the possible, is engaged in continuous exploration of it, and shares everything he learns selflessly. I wish more of the residents of Second Life understood its ethos as well as Lumiere. He is one of those rare people who make Second Life a better place simply because they are part of it.

Lumiere Noir - The best teacher you never knew you had

If Second Life® has an aristocracy... meaning an elite group of people who act behind the scenes with an interest in benefiting the entire population, then Lumiere Noir is a true aristocrat. Yes, there are people who are perhaps better known... limelight-happy, if you will... but I've come to think that many of them reflect rather than generate light.

He didn't invent the tools, but Lumiere (who's name means "light" in French) has single-handedly taught thousands upon thousands of Second Life's residents (and probably you, dear Reader) how to build via his Ivory Tower of Prims (teleport directly from here).



A model of the first Ivory Tower of Prims above; and below, the actual Tower
The trouble with interviewing Lumiere Noir is that he is too good a conversationalist, and so our talks, which spread out over a number of days, strayed off to many unrelated and engrossing topics. To give you some idea, I have over 50 pages of logged conversations and notes! He is - at once - fascinating and fascinated with all worlds, both virtual and real, and well read, and curious as all get out.



Tell us about the man behind your avatar.
Lumiere Noir: I'm Vince Frost, I live in Plano, Texas, which is close to Dallas. I'm an English-as-a-Second-Language teacher at a high school in Plano. I teach 12th graders world literature, and I've done that for about 11 years now. My background is in art, but I discovered teaching after I graduated. I love teaching.

What is your favorite book to share with them?
Lumiere Noir: Pygmalion... I see them all as Eliza Doolittle! Their story is a little similar and language is what holds them back in this country, just as Eliza's accent holds her back, but I don't see myself as Henry Higgins! They are mostly Spanish speakers, from Central and South America, as well as a lot of Chinese. I specialize in the Chinese, and Mandarin is my second language. I mastered in art, and when I was about to graduate, I fell in with the Chinese community at my university. Through them, I got some connections, and went to Taiwan. I had planned to go for a year and learn the language and culture, and wound up staying almost four. I taught English to support myself and studied Chinese, and traveled a lot in Asia. This was between 1988 and 1991.

How did a man with this background end up in Second Life, on… Christmas eve! (Rez: 12/24/2003)
Lumiere Noir: I came here via The Sims Online, which I liked but it was so limited, and later There.com. What I loved about that world is that there was so much to explore, but most of it was made by the creators of There. One could create things but it was expensive. I hated being nickel-and-dimed to death... How do you say that in the U.K.? I made several things in There, mostly clothes… very eccentric things. Then I started hearing about this place. I tried Second Life in early Beta but I'm afraid to say I hated it. It was just so awkward, so I stayed in There until late 2003.

You were in Second Life earlier then?
Lumiere Noir: That was as a different avatar. SwenKong Wu I think... I can't remember the password :-) Probably no longer exists. (Note: It doesn’t). I was Swen_Wu_Kong in There, and Wu was available here at that time.


The Ivory Tower of Primitives today

How did the Ivory Tower of Prims come about?
Lumiere Noir: I love to make things, and I love to teach. Making the Tower was a natural thing for me as a teacher. I taught myself to build, and my first impulse was to turn around and teach it to others, but I quickly found that I didn't like teaching in-world very much.

So you created the tutorials instead! Have you held anniversary parties at the Tower?
Lumiere Noir: I have....I used to do a lot of things here. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I'm on to other projects at the moment. I tend to work on the Tower in the summers. It sort of lies fallow, except for maintenance work until the summer, and then I go through and add new things, and revise.

In an interview with Hamlet Au, back in June 2004, Lumiere described the Ivory Tower by saying, "[T]his is a user interface about a user interface. I like it when there are layers of reality and simulated reality that go in layers like this... I've interviewed a lot of master builders to get tips and tricks and experience and building methods that go beyond my own."

Lumiere Noir: It’s now pretty current, except it doesn't cover sculpties. That's okay with me on the whole because you have to learn about sculpties in conjunction with the 3D modeler you use and there's no way for me to cover all of them. Sculpties are a lot like scripting. It's best learned on the web. I can't cover Blender, Maya, Studio 3D Max and all the others :-)

Featuring a series of self-taught, self-paced lessons on how to build with prims, the Tower, is a lively place filled with newbies, doing what newbies do. Some are lost in concentration, while others are discovering gestures or editing their appearance.



It must take incredible patience to be Lumiere Noir. While standing at the Ivory Tower for about 20 minutes the other day, I was offered unsolicited, undiscussed friendship twice, and asked for help another three.



Earlier this month, Torley Linden made another one of his terrific videos, this time featuring a tour of the Ivory Tower of Prims and its sandbox.



Lumiere Noir: I got hooked on Second Life when I rezzed my first prim. Up until then I thought the world was interesting, but chaotic and a bit trashy. Then one day I accidentally rezzed a prim and I was amazed.

Accidentally?
Lumiere Noir: Yes! I was trying to ride a motorcycle away, missed hitting “ride,” and hit “create” instead. Newbie me! I became so fascinated with that prim. I learned everything you can do with it. I think I still have it somewhere, but I did so many things with it, and began learning about scripting with it.

That same prim???
Lumiere Noir: Yes, for two weeks it was me and my prim! Not long after that I met Starax. We started about the same time, and we both worked in Morris, the greeting area at that time. We were friends and friendly rivals. We took very different directions over time, and don't talk as much as I'd like to, but he's one of my dearest friends here. He'll hate me for saying this, but under all that crust beats a heart of gold. The crust is there to protect it.

So you and Starax were working at Morris, and you were with this one poor prim…
Lumiere Noir: Yes, I saw all these crazy things he was doing, and I was learning and experimenting. He'd build something, and sometimes I'd build my own and he'd get mad because at that time mine was better. Except maybe he did his in an hour and I'd spend a couple of weeks on mine. But he's really the genius of this place!

I was playing with architecture, virtual of course. My style was always pretty weird. The thing that always distresses me about this place is that we have so much available to us to create with, but most people seem to make the same everyday airplanes, cars and buildings. I realize that a lot of that has to do with comfort level. We like what's familiar, but we can do so much more.


The first dome for the Tower


The second dome

Lumiere Noir: Back then land was very cheap and I got all the land I could in one of the last landgrabs. The Lindens used to release land for a $1L per m2. I don't think there were more than 20 or 30 sims when I first arrived and, oddly enough, that seemed large. (I) got most of Natoma over time, and started getting land in Noyo. Noyo was a busy sim because it had a telehub - back when we had to travel telehub to telehub - so I first built the library there.

Do you pay tier for this land that the Tower sits on?
Lumiere Noir: No, but I had the pleasure of paying a lot of money for a couple of years. The Lindens now sponsor it, and I'm very thankful for that.

As well they should! It would be a scandal otherwise.
Lumiere Noir: I've never asked for contributions. Most of the people that use the place are newbies. Word got out that I'd only ever had two supporters in the history of the Tower, about the time I put up the new Tower, maybe two years ago. They posted that on forums, and people started contributing a lot. A while after that the Lindens became sponsors. I gave over all my land here in Natoma and they left me in control of it.



How closely do you work with the Lindens? An official FIC, huh?
Lumiere Noir: Lol....screw the FIC and the anti FIC! I just do my work... hang out with close friends; I really don't care about the rest. Truthfully, (the Lindens) are like silent partners. I almost never hear a thing from them. I know they keep an eye on the place. I've got to tell you about my partner in crime here, Avi Arrow. She helps a ton with this place.

She never said a word about it! What is her role?
Lumiere Noir: I don't see how I could do what I do without her. Avi heads up the group Ivory Tower Dwellers, which she keeps running smoothly, and they help us keep watch over it. I mostly keep my nose down and make things. I have my own way of looking (after) them, but Avi keeps it together.

“Lumiere is a dear and trusted friend - my best friend in here, really. I've known Lumi for 23 months, yet much of what I know about him, I've been told by others (usually in the form of how much Lumi had influenced them). Lumi is a very innovative builder, primarily through his modular building exercises at the Ivory Tower. He has helped many residents who have gone on to do great things in here... from architectural building to making avatar attachments. His legacy in-world is one of being generous and tirelessly fun.” – Avi Arrow

The Ivory Tower is just one of the many projects that Lumiere has up his sleeve. There are his mostly extra-terrestial vehicles, which you can read about here and here, and his Planet Mongo, a Flash Gordon-inspired sim which we'll be talking about again soon... and his avatars...

Playing with tornadoes... courtesy of Tryptofaa Sands

I've been delinquent in my research and blogging because I've been having too much fun. It's all Avi Arrow's fault for owning a tornado, all Jurin Juran's fault for tp'ing me to see it, and especially Tryptofaa Sands' fault for making this too-entertaining toy. I got so carried away, literally, that all my photographs were a disaster, but fortunately can share this video with you by Dimitrio Lewis instead. Forget the first part... you get a better idea of the drama a bit later in the vid. Osprey Therian, creator of some of my favorite Machinima, has captured a few of our antics on her camera and I hope to at least point you to her vid soon.



You can purchase your own 40-meter sculpted Tornado HUD V2.0 on SLEX or drop by Tornado Island (teleport directly from here) and pick one up there.

This week's notice to you Busy People

This notice was issued to NPIRL members on August 10, 2007, in-world.

* NOMASHA SYAKA'S BLENDER
We are lucky lucky lucky to have Tayzia Abattoir in the group. What a treasure trove. She giggled when she learned that I had not experienced Nomasha Syaka's Blender. Take a friend (and maybe an enemy, too ^.^) and follow the trail of apples to the last one. Touch and "eat it."
Nomasha's Blender
~ Nomasha... welcome to our group! I'm afraid I drooled a little bit over your guitars and sculptures, too.
~~ Nomasha owns the group "I use my nose to type..."

* URASIMA CLOCK ISLAND
Dali-esk, monochromatic, other-wordly, and definitely NPIRL. Numbers dash about and squeal.
Urasima
All the info is in Japanese... so I watched the video at Crazy-Genius . Anyone know these builders?

* JAPANESE STEAM PUNK + fusion
Can steam punk - in its varous SL manifestations - ever be NPIRL? Sound off on the blog. But first check dis place out. Later, you can take the hot air balloon, and lazily work your way down to the diff levels. Teleporter in the cafe, btw, is the cardboard box. This visit will take a bit of time, is well built, and is a pleasant way to unjangle your nerves after a hectic day.
Forbidden Island

~~ time sensitive! ~~
* Juria Yoshikawa's "Blink" is having a closing party tomorrow, Saturday, at 2pm SLT. He's also been fiddling with fire... take a look...
NO SLURL as the event has ended

Here's the video of the closing party - fun! - featuring the music of AldoManutio Abruzzo

~~ fyi ~~
* Some NEW excellent things at the Greenies Home Rezzable, created by NPIRL member Pavig Lok and team.
Greenies Home Rezzable

Welcome to our new members:
- Amalthea Blanc
- AngryBeth Shortbread
- Avi Arrow
- Felix Wakmann - thanks again for the fab SLBrowser freebie, Felix. You guys gotta check it out. Really.
- Finny Yates
- Jurin Juran
- Matthew Kidoman
- Nomasha Syaka
- Scope Cleaver

Fondly,
Bettina Tizzy