Toasting the Life

WHEN I FOUND MYSELF on my feet I looked about me,

and must confess I never beheld

a more entertaining prospect.

Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels

Come è consueto, i lettori italiani sono gentilmente pregati a rivolgersi alla parte sottostante di questo articolo dove troveranno il testo nella loro lingua (quasi:).

Cheers! Burning Life is on, as you'll no doubt be aware. Last year was my first visit and I didn't really get it: not the whole Burning Man/Burning Life connection, that's obvious enough, but just how vast, and vastly entertaining, it can be. This is where you come in, the big round tent which, for some people, is as far as they get in the event. Step outside, instead, and one finds a world of marvels...

Desert is de rigueur here, of course, it's the perfect canvas for funky and fresh artwork, all with a burning man tucked in there somewhere, spread over some 34 sims. White Lebed is the Art Director this year, and she and the whole team have made a fantastic job of it, with artists of all kinds putting on a bravura performance in scripts, shapes and audio enhancements. Plenty to see and hear, plenty to drink, and no-one has to drive you back on those desert roads to a civilization that looks somewhat dreary in the daylight. There's so much to see at Burning Life I won't insult you by implying I saw all or even most of it, just within a few meters of the welcome area these are the things you can feast your avatar eyes on. I might just mention that at the Art Department tent there are lots of freebies and useful landmarks, but I leave you to wander until you find that particular treasure trove....

Poid Mahlovich has created a fantastic totem, Cabaret of Flames, with music props and animations, me and my bff Libeth Fairey got busy on the worship front - this is Libeth's photo of self, I love it, and over at KOINUP they have already posted Michael Verdi 's machinima of Cabaret of Flames, check it out here!Poid provides environmentally sound chinese lanterns that float up and away without leaving a moop*, which is what I did when I got tp'd over to see Ub Yifu's Gulliver: you can see the Ub in person, there on the right - dressed in his signature avatar, Don Quixote. *he is a god* You can ride on the giraffe, slide over Gulliver's body and generally do all things Liliputian, it's cool. That's Merlino Mayo in the front of this picture, he kindly pointed me in the direction of another great artist here in SL, and RL too - Adam Ramona. This is Proud Flesh by Adam Ramona (in RL Australian artist and musician Adam Nash), it makes weird sounds when you walk inside it, which of course we did. It changes colour, I waited till it was all pink before taking my picture, 'cos I'm a girl. I'd come across Adam's work inworld at Zachh Cale's gallery, Project Z, mentioned in the post below, but of course here the scale is immense. A bit further on is the Berlin Stage, a giant scorpion on the sand by Kazuhiro Aridian, the party doen't appear to have stopped since BL started. Literary supergroup Written Word has a space on Burning Life-Granite between the houses of cards, you can pick up some Robert Louis Stevenson stuff, and catch performances and discussions there throughout the event. There are so many things to see, one loses track, and while the night setting adds to the illusion of being out in the desert comuning with firewalkers and left hemisphere folk, it's a bit disorienting. My pictures don't say much, despite my foray into windlight, but you can bet the usual sites will be full of the best artwork -layers on layers of art - by the end of the week. We came across these strange towers, by ArtCrash Exonar - she has a desk-top freebie, like a sailing ship altho I suspect not really, it's called Needle me, on offer. And she also was wearing rocking hair from Damselfly. Gorgeous! But not free. If you like a sense of wonderment in a wide world, you'll love it here, just keep walking and, depending on your draw distance, one manifestation after another will pop up on the horizon. Helps the likes of me, though, to turn on the sun for a bit just to see where I'm going. Lots of men here, the occasional large woman, some of them burning, some not, there's a giant sandcastle, many builds with feathers and flowers that look like a giant shaman dropped them, others look like they are rusting away on the Red Planet, as you might expect, just about every persuasion of creation is represented here. In the end I stumbled on something I had actually been looking for - the Rubiky looking build you see here. It's *ArtEvolutionCube* by Kikka Igaly and Nessuno Myoo and it contains not the solutions to the world's peskiest toy, but rather a number of their works, each one deserves a special cam-in. All this and a whole lot more, live, vibrant and amazing. Bottom Line - Burning Life is HOT! I only truly realize how hot when I look at these photos by Merlino Mayo... wow I am blown away once again... I hope they inspire you to get out there, and take some of your own. Go soon before you miss it all!

*matter out of place = term for garbage at Burning Man.

Forse già conosci il festival statunitense Burning Man e quello virtuale Burning Life. Se non sei ancora passato a vedere di che si tratta, ti consiglio di andarci subito! Troppo bello! trentaquattro sim terraformati in maniera molto semplice, creando un deserto virtuale non dissimile a quello del deserto della Roccia Nera, in Nevada, dove una volta l'anno regnano la libertà di espressione e fiducia in se stesso... qui in SL invece regna la creatività scatenata di chi una volta tanto non deve stare a contare i prim! Il tema è l'uomo in fiamme, ma qui troverai anche la donna in fiamme, penne, totemi, le costole arruginite di navi spaziali come qui sopra, la pista da ballo Tokyo di DonPatchy Dagostino o la carapace di uno scorpione, il Berlin Stage, oppure una mongolfiera, sculture eleganti, aghi fontane fiori, qui una torre impossibile, lì uno schermo gigante, e dapperttutto, fiamme, fiamme...

Libeth Fairey ed io abbiamo adorato all'altare, il Cabaret of Flames di Poid Mahlovich - nella foto in fondo si intravede la scultura di Adam Ramona, anch'essa interattiva, ma in maniera completamente differente a quest'opera di Poid. Adam crea strutture che emettono suoni e si spostano con il vento o con l'intervento di un avatar, cresce, evolve e balla, le braccia sinuose dirette verso il cielo ma pronte a spostarsi con ogni movimento d'aria... a tutto questo bene si arriva passando per una tenda tonda dove non manca mai la musica e la possibilità di incontrare altri pellegrini alla ricerca di un po' di cultura innovativa, fantasiosa, e soprattutto su scala immensa. A Burning Life, si balla, si chiacchiera, ma lasciandosi dietro le piste e i DJ, si cammina, si vola da una meraviglia ad un'altra. Ci sono anche tantissimi freebies, alla sede-tenda del dipartimento d'arte, ma la dovrai trovare da solo, la tenda, o rivolgerti a un'altro... Non posso certo farvi vedere tutto ciò che ti aspetta a Burning Life, mi limito ad alcune opere che ho potuto vedere in questi giorni, e di darti questo link alle stupende foto di Merlino Mayo Qui vedi la scultura sonora Proud Flesh dell'artista australiano Adam Ramona (in Real Adam Nash), sembrano le papille di una lingua sconosciuta, e parlano se ci cammini in mezzo. Un fortissimo contrasto con l'arena a forma di scorpione accanto, quella struttura grigia nella foto, il Berlin Stage di Kazuhiro Aridian dove la festa non termina mai.

*ArtEvolutionCube* opera di Nessuno Myoo e Kikka Igaly mi piace moltissimo qui vedi Nessuno passato a controllare qualche script. Nella struttura, fatta un po come un cubodi Rubik, troverai varie sculture bellissime, non trascurarle. Burning Life quest'anno è un trionfo autentico grazie non solo alla direzione ispirata di White Lebed, e l'impegno del suo team, ma ancor di più alla fantasiosa creatività e alla bravura tecnica e alla dedizioni degli artisti che ci regalano emozioni e panorame veramente indimenticabili. Burning Life termina questo weekend, con a manifestazione Afterburn, non indugiare, questa mostra è da vedere, prima che ...vada in fumo!