Adieux, Flashmans 3

It isn't the first time it has happened, but that doesn't make it any easier. If you know me, you know that for a long, long time I've loved Flashmans, the venerable establishment originally founded by Martin Ren, who built and then tore down the first place (which was so great) and built a second (also great), and then tore that down and built a third, now in the sim of Esoterica (with current proprietors Phideaux Mayo, Echo Underwood and Niv Bing). Flashmans has changed over the years (and so has its clientele), from a seedy opium den with arm wrestling tables (yes, I knew the place pre-Ziki) to its larger current day dance hall form, but it's always been a warm, quirky place, a watering hole for the intellectual eccentrics of Second Life.

But now it has come time once again to say good bye—something of a Flashmans tradition at this point, says Phi (pictured on the top to the right, with me on the left). She, Echo and Niv are letting go of the Esoterica sim after five great years, and so we bid adieu to Flashmans—but not without a party of course!

So be sure to come on Saturday, October 27 from 2 pm SLT until whenever to say the old girl goodbye. Don a costume if you please (boo!). Niv Bing and Max Blankes will spin tunes, Jonas Lunasea will sing, Phi might too, possibly graced by the presence of Martin himself. Thanks to the entire Flashmans gang for a great couple years in Esoterica.

P.S. All hope is not lost—stay tuned for Flashmans 4 to rise from the dust early next year!

Maps of Second Life

I've always been a sucker for maps. My parents collected maps, and, being the nerdy kid I was, I remember enjoying reading things like atlases (for real). So of course on learning about the exhibition Maps of Second Life at the New Kadath Lighthouse Art Gallery, curated by Juliana Lethdetter, I promptly headed over to take a look. It's a modest but remarkably comprehensive exhibition, and I tremendously enjoyed it.

If you've never seen maps of Second Life from way way back—by which I mean 2002 and 2003, when Second Life started out with all of 16 regions—then you owe it to yourself to see these maps of the infant grid. You'll learn a lot about Second Life history and the growth of the world. But this exhibition isn't just maps of the grid—it features a section on the legendary explorer Magellan Linden (about whom I've blogged), a historic map of the Forest of Kahruvel, maps of Bay City, the Steamlands, Nautilus and the Blake Sea, Zindra, and some curious historic maps such as one by Jack Linden. Be sure to see the map of the Second Life Railroad that's located outside on north face of the lighthouse gallery.

Cica Ghost at LEA13

Something special seems to be happening at Cica Ghost's playful full-sim installation at LEA13: there are always people there—26 as I write this. They're sitting in houses, on park benches, in the grass, chatting, dancing and playing. It's just that kind of place that Cica has created, a black and white world of little stick figures that has an almost cartoonish appearance, totally delightful. Trees wave in the breeze, water ripples on the pond, a figure flies a kite, the wind swirls. Cica has added sit poses to many objects, adding to some fun possibilities for photography.

If you like what you see at LEA13 and would like more, head over to Cica's store in the sim Appalachian, where she has a number of things from this sim on sale, including the star grass, little black roses and street lamps, and all at very affordable prices. (Now I want to go find a great black and white avatar!)

Boobiethon

Bad news first: a few weeks ago, Rowan Derryth and PJ Trenton asked me to donate some artwork to the Fifth Annual Boobiethon—a fundraiser for the Feel Your Boobies Foundation—and I said I would but then flaked out and didn't provide anything, feeling that my work has become stale and boring. So, my bad. But the good news is that the exhibition of works opened today at RoHaus (Rowan's gallery) at Magna Carta, and you can head over there to bid on some artwork for a good cause.

Participating artists include Alana Pyara, Alexx Fenstalker, Bryn Oh, Cat Boccaccio, Cee Edman, Eliza Wierwight, Fuschia Nightfire, Glyph Graves, GM Nikolaidis, Gracie Kendal, Harlow Heslop, Isla Gealach, Jessica Belmer, Nino Vichan, PJ Trenton, Ragamuffin Kips, Rowan Derryth, Scottius Polke, Sledge Roffo, Tricia Aferdita, Wildstar Beaumont and WuWai Chen. There are several unique pieces in the auction, and bidding ends on October 12.

Scribbled Hearts

I love this sim. For a long time I had seen occasional photos on blogs and flickr, but I hadn't ever gotten around to visiting until a couple days ago, when my friend and fellow traveler-of-the-grid M (MissMoe Requiem) nudged me. I was immediately enchanted and couldn't stop smiling as I explored—certainly one of the most beautiful and photogenic places in Second Life. Right now it's unmistakably fall here: a place to stroll, to breathe the autumnal air, to hear the leaves crunch under your feet, and to bask in the orange and brown hues of the foliage.

The island, which was landscaped by Randi Lenroy (with fewer than 3000 prims!), is home to Snowy Melody's *. emm {shop} store and Schmosby (Clementine Ishtari)'s Hello, September shop. The entire area is open to the public, and object rezzing is turned on for two minutes for those photographers who like props at hand. If you're not using a viewer that automatically changes the environment settings, I'd recommend you do—it looks as though the settings here are Meme's Autumn Windlight with a special water setting, too—gorgeously done.

William Weaver at Anita's Artspace

Mr. William Weaver has taken Second Life photography by storm. His unprecedented exploration of light and shadow has produced a striking oeuvre of photographs—many, unlike those of most Second Life photographers, bordering on the abstract—and he has developed a revolutionary set of Phototools and builds specifically designed to explore light and shadow. (Several of William's builds are available on the Marketplace for free.)

Now, photographer Anita Witt came up with the clever idea of rezzing a bunch of William's builds on her sim, and they're available for you to use. (One is up for only a couple weeks—they can be a bit prim intensive.) You'll need a computer able to run high end graphics. (Personally I'm terrible with portraits and marvel at the work of those who excel in that medium (many are in my flickr favorites), but I love playing with windlight and shadow settings in William's builds.) While at Anita's sim you can also enjoy a gallery of her works, and you're welcome to contribute images to a floating gallery of photos created with William's builds.

Gracie Kendal's “Ce n’est pas une peinture”

Today is Second Life artist Gracie Kendal's 6th rezday, and it's also the opening of her new installation, Ce n’est pas une peinture, on LEA15, one of the Linden Endowment for the Arts sims. It's a fantastic world of dazzling color, about 1400 prims with vivid textures towering high into the sky. Enter the exhibition at the top—and there be sure to take the free skins Gracie has designed—and then click on the float ball next to the cake to take a slow spinning ride from the top down into the heart of the build. (If you click on the top and bottom photos, you'll see me as I drift about. Gracie's in the middle picture here wearing one of the skins—can you make her out?)

Gracie said she wanted "to deconstruct one of my paintings/collages into a full sim installation that avatars can walk and fly through and get lost in," and this installation succeeds remarkably—a simple concept executed with brilliant effect. You can read more about this work (and many others) on her blog, Gracie and the Real Girl.

Joy of Steampunk Museum

I just love steampunk stuff, and I still greatly miss Sextan Shepherd's brilliant Nemo sim, so it's always fun to go visit the Joy of Steampunk Museum, curated by Knowledge Tomorrow. This sim-wide museum contains a remarkable collection of work by many of Second Life's finest, and it's beautifully designed.

The list of creators (some no longer active in SL) is so extensive I'm sure I'm likely to have omitted someone by accident, so I hope I don't offend anyone by omission, but I've seen works by Sidney Arctor, Parrish Ashbourne, Bojax Baroque, Rebeca Bashly, Lexx Bondar-Foehammer, Fire Broono, Canolli Capalini, Chewie Cinderflame (Chewie Quixote), JonyBlade Codesmith, Jenne Dibou, Penny Dreadful (Gothicmuse), Loki Eliot, Leyla Firefly, Mick Huet, Thomus Keen, Zwagoth Klaar, Grey Kurka, Aminom Marvin, Dare Munro, Moses Mureaux, Doctor Obolensky, Oriolus Oliva, Daallinii Rae, Aisuru Rieko, Noddington Schmooz, Sextan Shepherd, Nightshade Sixpence, Spartacus (Research Projects), Amber Talamasca, էɧȝԾ (Theoretical Chemistry), Knowledge Tomorrow, Kyris Upshaw, Albus Weka, Pandora Wrigglesworth, Rip Wirefly and 3of9 (Lex Mars).

Do be sure to venture into the buildings (containing some excellent documentary photos, and also items for sale by some of the creators), and by all means into the tunnels, which lead you into a subterranean world below. Also, going on right now is the "Steam7" hunt, which takes you to some fun locations you might not otherwise spot—and you'll collect items by Albus Weka, Sextan Shepherd, Shigeko Tachikawa, Ceejay Writer, Nightshade Sixpence, Noddington Schmooz, Lexx Bondar and Rebeca Bashly. Oh, and leave a tip of course!

Avalon Collector's Circle

Many of us have lovely objects of art stashed away in our inventories, and they rarely get the chance to see the light of day. I extend thanks to Rowan Derryth for giving me the opportunity to share some of mine at an Avalon Collector's Circle exhibition at Avalon Art District Exhibition Hall.

The exhibition opens today, and we’ll have a little opening reception at 2 pm slt, so please stop by to join us. Featured artists include Rachel Breaker, Tyrehl Byk, Moriko Inshan, claudia222 Jewell, Ginger Lorakeet, Cherry Manga, Sextan Shepherd, Light Waves & Unreal McCoy, William Weaver and Gorgeous Yongho.

In addition to what’s on display, I toyed with setting out things by AM Radio, Soror Nishi, Scottius Polke (go right next door to see some of his things), Glyph Graves, Bryn Oh and others, but there’s only so much space in the gallery!

Sextan Shepherd’s pieces were part of his full-sim installation called Nemo, which began construction in March 2010 and closed all too soon in October of the same year. The two pieces in this exhibition were from the underground city and were found in Captain Nemo’s workshop. The textures on the wall to the back are also Sextan's. You can see some machinima I created of Nemo here.

Tyrehl Byk is a master of particles, and his open air performances aren’t to be missed. Click on this artwork, Aurora, to turn it on.

The glorious big black cat, created by Unreal McCoy and Light Waves of Rezzable, was part of the extraordinary full-sim installation Greenies, built in 2007. I have tremendously fond memories of that place.

Cherry Manga's delightful piece, Advice from a Caterpillar black and white, I believe I collected at a Mysterious Wave installation a couple years ago.

claudia222 Jewell’s piece was a gift to me a couple months ago, and was then also included as a gift to everyone at the closing of spirit at Art Screamer just a week ago (instant depreciation haha!). I had already set it out in the exhibition here, and I love its many levels of detail.

William Weaver has created a revolution in light among Second Life photographers, and I selected three images that are all quite different. The middle one is of me, taken recently at his exhibition at Art India Gallery.

Another photographer whose work I greatly admire is Gorgeous Yongho, and she provided this image expressly for this exhibition. Probably more thought of as a fashion photographer, she has a keen eye for portraiture and composition.

Moriko Inshan creates all sorts of lovely objects, and I smiled when I came across her simple but beautiful three-dimensional pieces. Of this one, she “Three-dimensional piece embellished with flexi-banners, cat silhouette and sculpted feed sacks. Post-processing of original photo, captured at Zaara sim, accomplished through hand blending, lighting and raised filter techniques.”

Ginger Lorakeet’s art invites you to become part of the art object, and this piece is among my favorite of hers. It’s simple yet delightful. (Sit on it and see what happens.)

And Rachel Breaker’s work is just plain crazy. I love things that make me laugh. I'm not sure everyone would consider this “art”—but to me everything in Second Life is art.

Enjoy. And thanks to PJ Trenton for the cool poster.

The LEA Art Sandbox

Where do starving artists go to rez their art? Why, to the LEA Art Sandbox, of course. It's an interesting place (LEA standing for the Linden Endowment for the Arts) to nose about and see who's doing what, and the artwork turns over at a fairly rapid pace. The north side of the sim is more of a true sandbox, and the south side is a Self-Curated Gallery (recently subject to some infamous sit-ins (rez-ins?) by my friend SaveMe Oh, much to the chagrin of sandbox administrators).

A lot of it's junk (just like the arts in real life!), but once in a while I spot something interesting. Most of the time the artwork is by people with whom I'm not familiar, and I enjoy seeing new things. If you'd like to rez something of your own there, go right ahead—joining the LEA Sandbox group is free and enables you to keep your objects rezzed there for a while.