Burning Life: Coming to SL, Sept. 27-Oct. 5, 2008

Can’t make it to Burning Man this year? No need to despair. Burning Life is your answer, without the travelling and expense. Now in its sixth year, Burning Life is the virtual version of Burning Man. According to the SL Blog, Burning Man is where Philip Rosedale (AKA Philip Linden) got a lot of his inspiration for Second Life. 

The call is out for volunteers and for participants. Check Burning Life: A call for volunteers  for details on volunteer positions and/or the Theme Camp page to submit a proposal for a camp space. Deadline is August 31. 

 

We, the Residents…

Stumbled across through an interesting project on New World Notes tonight. There’s a flag design contest now underway, hosted by Laetizia Coronet. This project came about following the recent changes implemented by Linden Lab® regarding the use of the SL logo. As Laetizia puts it:

“Let’s face it. We never had a flag – that was a logo on a stick and it would look good outside a Linden Lab office, but it was hardly what you’d call a real flag. And now even the name of the famous logo is copyrighted, so use of it as a symbol for all of us is right out. It’s “theirs” now…”

Details on the contest can be found on her blog, Virtual Village Voice. Considering the technology that can be used, I think we can look forward to more than mere flat 3-D designs.

Pangea Day – May 10, 2008

Been a while since I’ve turned my attention to his blog. Busy with work and daily care and feeding of Cue the Penguin! But something caught my eye today. David Pogue, tech guru of the NY Times “Circuits” newsletter, blogged about Pangea Day, a day film-fest centered around films dealing with tolerance among various nationalities. In the words of Pangea Day organizers:

“In a world where people are often divided by borders, difference, and conflict, it’s easy to lose sight of what we all have in common. Pangea Day seeks to overcome that — to help people see themselves in others — through the power of film.

On May 10, 2008 — Pangea Day — sites in Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro will be linked live to produce a program of powerful films, visionary speakers, and uplifting music.

The program will be broadcast live to the world through the Internet, television, digital cinemas, and mobile phones.”

Though this blog usually concentrates on technology which brings live performance to people together in real/virual worlds, I find this project fascinating. Welcome to a one-world screening room! Check out the website for details. If you’re on Facebook, do join the Pangea Day group for details and updates.

Peace.

SL Shakespeare Company: Hamlet, Act. I, Sc. 2, April 23rd

Now that I’m back to working full-time, blog writing has become a bit of a luxury. While Cue The Penguin! still provides my self-imposed daily escape, I haven’t had much time to roam around SL, save to grab some shots for Cue. Nonetheless, much is still happening in SL. A new CSI:NY mystery is afoot (watch this space for details coming soon) and I received the following notice in my inbox yesterday.
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Group Notice From: Ina Centaur

Bard’s Birthday 4/23 Special Performance…

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We have finally settled the chaos of having to schedule a large international cast for a simultaneous live performance.

Join us at 6 PM SL Time, one week from today, at the SL Globe Theatre for a special advance showing of our second miniproduction — Hamlet, Act 3 Scene 2, a.k.a., The Mousetrap.

Thank you,
SL Shakespeare Company

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I don’t think I’ll be able to catch this preview, unfortunately, but will be on the look out for any video clip on this new production.

CSI:NY in SL: Trying to solve the latest case…

A new case came afoot on CSI: NY Island last March 21st. As usual, I went to the site, downloaded the latest tool bar, collected the evidence and went back to the lab. For some reason, this time around, the audio clips do not seem to work. The text version will appear for each piece of evidence analyzed, but for some reason, the list of suspects does not appear. So I’m stuck. I thought it was perhaps lag. Tried to listen to the clips on my home turf, which is pretty lag-free, still no luck. Asked one of the CSI managers, who suggested I check my Audio/video settings. Everything was setup as it should be. I’m stumped. Wow! A mystery within a mystery. I’ll keep trying. Stay tuned.

SL Shakespeare Company Open Auditions: March 30/08

Received the following notecard in- world today from Ina Centaur, founder of the Company.

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The SL Shakespeare Company will be holding a round of open auditions for our upcoming Hamlet productions, the earliest of which opens on 4/23, with rehearsals beginning in early April. (In addition, we may also be performing a non-Hamlet scene in May. More details to come.)

Play: Hamlet

Time: Sunday, 3/30 at high noon SLT

Order:  on a “first come, first act” basis.

(Location: Globe Theatre: SLURL)

Directions: Please be prepared to read a passage of your choice of the character you wish to perform, a passage of our choice of the same character, and possibly, an unrelated scene of our choice. (In addition, you may also show us a passage from another Shakespearean play.)

Criteria: Quality, availability, and SL Voice/mic clarity (sorry!). Evidence that you’ve practiced your lines a bit and are familiar enough with your character to do well on our “pop quiz” may help .

Technical Help: Please arrive an hour early (11 AM, SL Time) if you need help setting up, tweaking, or configuring your microphone for SL voice performances.

Also: Please email production@SLshakespeare.com with your availability for rehearsals beginning in early April. We will automatically add you to our repertory cast list, but that does not necessarily mean you get a role. (For those on the repertory cast, we will contact you prior to each production.)

We currently use a repertory cast system, where we will contact actors on a list prior to rehearsals for each production. Please note that the auditions are public, and we do hope to keep your voice on file (unless you specifically opt out) on a public “SL Theatre Open Audition Database”:

http://STOAD.SLshakespeare.com

—SLSC Casting Director

http://SLshakespeare.com

(Photo: Ina Centaur)

There’s a second life for disgraced politicians

Another interesting video surfaced during today’s meeting at the CNN Amphitheater in SL. We were encouraged last week to start filing video reports. Hugo did just that, while offering a possible new work avenue for Eliot Spitzer, the now ex-Governor of New York state.

See story & video: NY Governor Spitzer to retire in Second Life

CSI:NY in SL: The mysteries keep comin’

One of the advantages of hanging out at Club Random, late at night, is you pick up some valuable info from project managers. Many of them hang out at the club as well. On one of those nights, I learnt there would be more mysteries appearing in late February, early March. Though this news was already on the CSI:NY News website, none were live yet. However, a week later they became active and I jumped right in for not one, but two new cases to solve.

The first one, Frozen Margarita read as follows:

The highly-publicized “Still Lifes” exhibit at the Museum of Art in SL just got an unexpected addition. Among the perfectly preserved corpses lies Margarita Vanderville, the sole patron of the show — preserved just like her beloved exhibition pieces.

Like the others, this one involved collecting the evidence, questioning the suspects (the young nephew of the victim, the owner of the museum, who was having an affair with Margarita, and the wife of the owner). I proceeded a little too quickly with this one and ended up guessing the wrong culprit. Still, I managed to upgrade my status one notch.

The second one, was a new multi-dimensional blog mystery by Zuiker, titled Wheel of Misfortune. Unlike the other mysteries, this type presents all the evidence, visual & audio, and you have to determine what happened. There are no hints, no analysis of evidence. You’re on your own. Once you think you’ve figured it out, you can post your theory on the CSI:NY blog, where a winning entry is chosen every week. I call this multidimensional because some of the actions are not in SL. There are websites to go to, and in this case, a phone number to call. Though it was long distance (212, New York exchange, natch), I did call it and got a recorded message by Anthony Zuiker. The cool thing about this number is that it is referenced in an earlier episode of CSI:NY, notably part of the 333 storyline.

This mystery looks at the puzzling death of a couple who have fallen off a ferris wheel cabin at the newly opened Linden Park.  You get to use your flying skills once more as you examine the cabin from which the couple fell. Thankfully, for us, a platform is located right next to the cabin. That platform, though, might be where the marksman was. If there was a marksman. Looking through the blog submissions, recurrent themes occur, pretty much in line with what I thought happened, though I’m more in favour of an accident than a murder. The key words leading me this way: metal projectile. Doesn’t mean a bullet…

The next mystery is scheduled for Friday March 21. It hope this is an indication this project will continue. There is a healthy crowd at Club Random every Thursday night, when Nexeus Fatale DJ’s live, and you can find some people every other night as well, dancing and chatting the night away. There are weekly photo contests to keep everyone busy, and winning entries are posted on the CSI sim and on the CSI:NY News site. Check out the results on Flickr, here.

New episodes of CSI:NY are scheduled for the beginning of April. I hope we see a conclusion to the Venus case, though not a conclusion to CSI:NY in SL.

MaxieM

Live mini-production of Hamlet in SL: Feb.28

Intercepted this email in the SL Educators listserv this morning. One of the Lindens is actually performing…

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Humanities Curators, Theatre Aficionado, Shakespeare Fans, and Everyone Else!:

I am happy to announce the inaugural live performance of the SL Shakespeare Company to SLED. Each miniproduction will be showcasing a live scene from Hamlet, with a professional troupe, and photorealistic actors and historically accurate wardrobe and props.

Join us exactly one week from now, in-world at the SL Globe Theatre.

Playbill below ;-D

LIVE PERFORMANCE ON SLSC THURSDAY FEB 28, 6 PM SLT… and

Fri, Feb 29: 3 PM
Sat, Mar 1:  11 AM
Sun, Mar 2: 1 PM
Mon, Mar 3: 11 AM
Tues, Mar 4: 6 PM
Weds, Mar 5: —
Thurs, Mar 6: 3 PM
Fri, Mar 7: 1 PM
Sat, Mar 8: 6 PM
Sun, Mar 9: 3 PM

SLURL:  Globe Theatre

Full text Media Release

Journey rockin’ in SL?

On February 1st, classic rock band Journey launched the Journey Virtual Island in Second Life. The island offers information on the band’s albums, in the form of structures each designed to reflect the respective album. There’s a dance club, streaming all of one (1) video, of the band playing live, and one song(!). There’s a clothing store selling Journey t-shirts and jeans ($L250! I don’t think so…) Pretty sad, all around. I’m told there are activities planned. I’ve subscribed to the fan club in-world. We’ll see what comes across that wire…

I was a fan of the band when Steve Perry was its lead singer. I haven’t followed its own journey since he left in 1997. What I’ve seen today, though, seems like another case of an established business “let’s-jump-on-the-SL-bandwagon-and build a site”. Why am I listening to Sky radio, hits of the 80’s and not Journey songs while walking around the site? Why are the videos not streaming continuously in the dance club, with links to iTunes so I can buy the song easily? Why is the male voice greeting visitors and explaining the site not one of the band members’? Hello?.. Wouldn’t this be a great opportunity for Arnel Pineda, the new lead singer, to introduce himself, if only in voice?…Oy…

To check it out for yourself, click on the following SLURL: Journey Virtual Island