Shortlist, hard workers

In praise of hard workers.

With the festive season behind you, the new year beckons full of promise and surpises, and what better time to stop and remember all the hard-working individuals who provide so much delight. Below are just some of the people and places that have caught my eye, I bet you can think of many more. Why not drop me a note inworld about your favourite place or group, so we can give them a shout-out here on SLArtsParks? Prefer to leave a comment? You can do so at the bottom of this post, or go over to our ning site and join us there!

First call, the incredibly hard-working Madmaninc Zapatero, seen here in his green lenses.

Do not miss the Festival of Short Film at Phantasmagoria Theater  GOING ON RIGHT NOW! Madmaninc has put together an extraordinary display of talent. Dozens of new short films, from mystery to docu-steampunk, to animation, to abstract art, the choice is yours, 24/7. What a treat! It's a brilliant way to see new talent and expression in bite-size form. You might also want to check out Phantasmagoria's presence on myspace  and at blip.tv(where you can see a video of their New Year's Eve party - these people know how to have a good time!) or subscribe to the podcast at itunes. (Make sure you have the latest Quicktime download, other wise you won't see anything.)

 On the musical front,  Nasus Dumart and the team over at Molaskey's Pub have put on some wonderful music, including the great Frets Nirvana and the past few months have seen a return to the music scene of my personal music-god, Von Johin.

May his tunes last forever!! Thanks to Votslav Hax, BobbiJo and the rest of the Symbiotic team for their unceasing efforts to bring us great talent. There are dozens of gallery owners who deserve praise, I'll just mention PiRats' super-duo Newbab Zsigmond and Merlina Rokocoko, supercool Zachh Cale over at project Z and the truly tireless Lion Igaly whose Diadem gallery just found a new home at sim imparafacile.

In the literary world, the variety of venues, genres and types of activity open to readers and writers is really breathatking, and the amazing work of people like Kghia Gherardi, Harriet Gausman, Jilly Kidd, JJ Drinkwater and the beautiful people over at West of Ireland deserves a standing ovation (though they might prefer a nice sit down and a cup of tea). Much praise goes to the hard work of the team behind the Antica stamperia Il Faro, which produces virtual books in Italian, and the fascinating series Scienza on the road, presented by Giovanna Delphin who, together with Marjorie Fargis brings many an Italian event alive with professionalism and good humour. Not always easy to do with the vagaries of SL performance!

Such a short list, for every name here mentioned there are dozens more, I'm aware... who springs to your mind? Let me know! Links, landmarks, hints and ideas all gratefully received! and with your contributions, what an exciting new year of discovery it's going to be!