A talismanic journey at The Cannery opens with Melodious Source

Her icon on Flickr is an eyeball. Her photography stream has been viewed nearly a 100,000 times... and she's developed quite a following - nearly 1,400 contacts - so she must to be doing something right.


Rise Above by Melodious Source

While most of her photography falls in the Fantasy genre, Melodious Source doesn't like to be classified, and to promote that freedom, just when you think you have figured her out, she does something completely different.


Melodious' cyborg girl

Her main protagonists are nearly always women, and they are intrepid. One would imagine that they don't walk... but swagger... or fly.

The air shimmers around them. They are larger than life.


Seeking Divinity by Melodious Source

I love a quote that Melodious posted on her Flickr profile page by a certain Douglas Everett: "There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other." I was surprised, by the way, to learn that this insightful pearl comes from a retired Canadian senator. Go Canada!

At any rate, her work continues to enchant and inspire an adoring and ever-growing audience. Much of it is erotica and rather steamy, and all is imaginative, and infused by her infectious personality - which comes across with each new image - and spirited remarks.

Her show, "The Source," which opens tomorrow, marks the debut of a new gallery space at Rezzable Production's The Cannery that is unabashedly mystical. Drawing from astrological and magical lore, the secrets there are plentiful, and even the special key to unlock their charms isn't enough… and isn't explained… so you are compelled to explore on a visceral level.

Your journey begins with the purchase of a heart for the modest price of $100L. Without this heart - which you must wear - you cannot proceed or access any of the gallery rooms. A teleport away, you find yourself standing on what is surely the largest sword ever created.



Walk towards the tip of sword where Melodious' eye awaits you.



Inside, the flash of her camera consumes you...



... and you begin to fall.




... and that's where your journey really begins.



I won't spoil your experience by revealing more, but know this: touch torches... touch doors, and linger. Teleport directly from here.

Notably, Rezzable Productions encouraged Melodious to invite several guest artists to participate in the show. They include:

Phinn Boffin
DeeDee Deepdene
Shoshana Epsilon
Vint Falken
Flugel Flasheart
Tyfanny Flintoff
Maitreya Graves
Carmilla Mirabeau
Edward Mokeev
MasterDave Newman
Heroine Nouvel & Pestilence
CodeBastard Redgrave
RightAsRain Rimbaud
Collin Savon
Daequix Scarborough
Cienega Soon
Akira Seymour
Hio Taringa
Marquez Tone
Stephen Venkman

The new gallery space at The Cannery was created by many talented artists: Monn Laval, Andrek Lowell, Kaeli Candour, Rob Balder, Betlog Hax, Vint Falken and Foolish Frost.

Not Possible ISL? :P

Foolish Frost just tp'ed me into the Greenies Home Rezzable for a little surprise... ahem, make that a GIANT surprise.



Standing there was Aliasi Stonebender who has quite an avatar collection. A moment later, she was a miniscule version of herself. Little Grasie asked Aliasi if she'd agree to be her Barbie.



Meanwhile, a Stay Puff was trying to get into the fridge.



Ah... just another Greenie's moment, which will soon have it's 100,000th visitor. Teleport directly from here.

Sneak preview: Great balls of fire at Cascade Rezzable

Foolish Frost is a gentleman, and a coder, and a builder and a strategist. He's been in Second Life since March of 2005, and is probably best known for building the humongous Leo Burnett tree, and as team leader for the creation of Toxic Rezzable. He's also very pleasant. He calls me "lass." ^.^



I hadn't spoken with Foolish, who now works full time for Rezzable Productions as technical advisor, for weeks, so I was especially happy to accept his TP offer this morning to see what's been keeping him busy. Seems he's been masterminding some rather spectacular special effects: blowing up volcanoes and touching off avalanches... and unlike Real Life cinema where the one-time production of such an event would cost a sizable portion of a film's budget and could only be produced and shot once, Foolish can - at will - make these things happen over and over again, at no extra cost and, I might add, to my delight.

Cascade Rezzable will be a rather unusual retail area where your shopping experience might be interrupted by volcanic eruptions. Now, any old Second Life traveler has seen his share of volcanoes, as well as pretty particle effects...



...but suddenly the volcanoes are belching fireballs that make a beeline for the snowy mountains just behind you...



The fireballs make impact...




... and the mountain sides begin to collapse before your eyes. Yeehaaa!




Asked to explain how the tricks were accomplished, Foolish said, "Ah, megaprims, sculpties, and a special rebuilt animation system that allows large-scale prim movement... all linked by way of regionsay."

Cascade is slated to open to the public by this weekend, and will carry items for the avatar.

We took the red pill

IN FEBRUARY 2007, Larry Johnson (aka SL's Larry Pixel), CEO of the New Media Consortium, gave a speech entitled "Down the Rabbit Hole: Or how the NMC took the red pill, got a Second Life, and found love on the 3D web."

Dang, that's a GOOD title. I had to borrow a piece of it cause the thought keeps ringing in my brain. For those of us who didn't abandon SL after those first few bumbling, bungling days, and went on to grok that this is the arena where the action will unfold in the coming years, it turns out that the red pill was pure manna.

Celebrating that which is Not Possible IRL takes it one step further.

***

This notice was issued to NPIRL'ers on August 24, 2007:

3star Tyne's fab freebie "Glass House Mary" was a huge hit with the NPIRL ladies - The PERMS are MOD/TRANS, so guys can give it to their best girl. ^.^ Thanks 3star!

THIS just in...

NPIRL member Foolish Frost - master scripter and lead builder for Toxic Garden Rezzable - tp'ed us in last night for a zippy peek at the prototype for the Zero-G Spherical Ride. Can't reveal much, but suffice it to say that it involves riding a surfboard around and inside planet earth at a high rate of speed. Weeeeeee!

Foolish described his work as "building solutions." He said people ask him "is this possible?" and he finds out. Still no word on when the final reveal will take place.

ANGRYBETH SHORTBREAD

"I think, therefore I am frustrated." Thus begins NPIRL'er AngryBeth Shorthbread's profile, and our plunge into her scripted, multimedia world.

Here's the short list on AngryBeth:
* She's collaborative
* Her work is as much about the development journey as it is about the final piece. She doesn't mind letting you in on her work-in-progress.
* She is generous with her information. Grab her education tool freebies. Google her and you will find that she doesn't hesitate to explain the techniques she employed to accomplish each project.

AngryBeth collaborated with Brian Eno on his 77 Million Paintings 4-location show in SL, June 29 - July 1, 2007, which you can read about on her blog. 77 Million Paintings was produced by Cyrus Huffhines of blueair.tv, in cooperation with Alexander Rose, who oversaw the project, while AngryBeth built the installations.

She is behind The Collective - an ongoing research project of the Design for Digital Media Degree at Leeds College of Art and Design into the pedagogical and vocational value of SL.

You will find a good collection of her work at her studio, The Pencil Factory. Tp to The Port and look behind you for another teleporter to the Pencil Factory, and then:
* Get your DNA scanned
* Talk to a well that talks back
* Mix your own tune with the Synthagoround, an in-world remixable tool consisting in synced patterns she created with Garageband. You can see/hear her own composition here.
* Send an email to the invaders and watch em grow!

Then, take the teleporters behind you to the next two floors:
* Super-Collider
* Don't miss the Synthy - Cube on the roof. Way cool!

There's her sparkling work with in-world vids:
* A Whale of a Tale, winner in the Best Story category of the 2006 Alt-Zoom Machinima competition:
* AngryBeth's "Scary Hole" film noir Machinima from June 2006.
* Finally, her "Bootleg Phil - masquerading as god" piece is a hoot. For it, AngryBeth reproduced Philip Linden's avatar and had a bit of fun with it - along with a mask of Philip Rosedale. Consequently, the practice of being Philip Linden has become a tradition of sorts at The Port.

Take home a memento from your field trip and pick up your own copy of the Phil Linden avatar near the main teleporter at The Port.:P

URGE TO SPLURGE MALLS

Malls in SL can be wacky and most assuredly NPIRL:

There's the mall inside a humongous refrigerator (there's some fun hospital equipment for sale inside o.O)
The Refrigerator

Check out the Chinese mall that is completely surrounded by a giant dragon snail.
Chinese Mall

This mall's art statement, discovered by 3star Tyne, features a rather soggy view of life in 2030.
Happy Dispatch

WELCOME to our newest members - in order of appearance:
Catherine Omega
Ian Pahute
Keystone Bouchard
Foolish Frost
LittleToe Bartlett
Botany Black
_______________________________________________

Toxic Garden Rezzable

Our group members were among the first to be invited to preview the beta version of the newest Rezzable creation on Monday. Not one of the 9 or 10 NPIRL’ers I have spoken with survived long enough to experience (or cam) even half the build, and most gave up that day after three attempts/kills (you get sent back home o.O!). Of the three most recommended highlights: lady liberty, the foundry and reactor buildings, and the train, I only managed to see one of them myself... and then those pretty pink petals swallowed me up.

I Skyped yesterday with Toxic’s team leader, Foolish Frost, and his RL/SL wife Botany Black - the lead designer for organics - and learned that they started working on this project 6 weeks ago, but that sculpties were not initially used. Foolish, who works a great deal with Blender, stressed that Toxic was a group effort and that nearly every piece had passed through many hands. “All got to put our best into it; none of us own one piece of it,” added Botany.

The primary culprits for avatar kills are the artificially intelligent, path-finding dirge/ant drones, which make decisions as they travel from one point to another, determining what is needed, communicating with each other and hunting stuff down. This feature plus the animatronics (built into the winding vine tendrils and avatar-gobbling flowers), are two of the novel aspects at Toxic.

Speaking from experience, here are two life-saving tips:
#1 Grab the arm band in the foyer and for heavens sake, don’t take it off
#2 Stay away from the ants. Get off the path immediately if you see one coming.

Thanks for the preview, Foolish and Botany! We look forward to exploring Toxic and learning what comes next in this fascinating build.

Toxic Garden Rezzable

P.S. I just counted, and give or take a few, looks to me like Rezzable Productions, Ltd owns 32 sims. That's thirty two. XXXII.

Rezzable, btw, is actively hiring creators and managers.

Looking like mere specs on the Rezzable chunk of the map - you are required to look further in every direction - are Toxic Garden Rezzable, the much adored and practically-perfect-in-every-way Greenies Home Rezzable, and Cannery Rezzable which this afternoon inaugurated a smart and polished photography show featuring portraits of avatars. SL photographers Shoshana Epsilon and Vint Falken curated. For those of you who live in Los Angeles, some of the design elements of the gallery might remind you of the astonishing building that was especially created to house the Ashes and Snow show that sat on Santa Monica beach last summer.