Weekender

I gentili lettori italiani sono pregati di scorrere in giù
It was National Do Something New Day today, so I decided to give four new places a try - some just new to me, some brand new. First, I rezzed a prim, which was an invitation to Shamen Galleries a lovely palace with a large courtyard full of Trasco Beaumont's sculpty statues including a very good Prometheus. Shamen Rune and Cierra Loxley have curated a great show, opening tomorrow at 2pm SLT, with Fuchsia Nightfire's sculptures and pictures, she's a mural painter in rl, specializing in trompe l'oeil you can imagine how much fun she finds in SL. If you click on the pictures, they get bigger.

Also in the main hall, Antenna Rea's gentle pastels contrast well with Zoree Jupiter's bright portraits - the one called 'Colorful thoughts' shown below, under the flags, is particularly striking. Cristian Rexie's photographs have a charming wistful quality we all know from Koinup. In his bio he says that he tries to get more than a simple touristy snapshot of the places he visits in his virtual travels, and as you can see here he definitely scores on that front.

It was nessuno Myoo who suggested I drop in, and many of his best bits are on show. I gushed about them to Rory Serpente and Lora Lowenstark, you can see them humouring me down in the Italian bit. Nessuno's Angel in search of colours is here and the new piece The Secret Escape Of Puppets has a life and intriguing narrative of its own, don't miss it, the opening is tomorrow.

Next was Nemo, which is new to SL - it's a Jules Verne inspired underwater Steampunk extravaganza by Sextan Shepherd, an avatar whose chest looks like it deserves a SLURL of its own: here is Sextan's machinima of his build in Fabulous French. The sim has been Showcased, so lines were very long and the lag palpable even at the lowest settings, till some crazy person started shouting "Evacuate! Region restart imminent!" at which point the throngs melted just enough for me to see these beauties - see the Italian part for Tesla's electrifying workshop - then karma caught up with us and there really was a region restart.

Then there was some shoe-related newness.
Then, off to hear my favourite reader in all SL, Corwyn Allen. Corwyn is a wonderful poet, master of the haiku among other forms, and always gives a polished, poised performance. The setting exactly matched the material - we were at Circe's Sanctuary. It was Circe's birthday, but she kindly took a moment to tell me a bit about her land and her group.
Circe Broom: My group is one of the largest in SL, at about 2540 members; that is saying something, when groups are limited to only 25 for each person; SL is such a great opportunity for creativity to be shared. I do live music 7 days a week, and my music venues are spread around the island, but Saturday from 11am on is devoted to spoken word here at Sanctuary.
When Corwyn had finished, another firm favourite of mine got up to share a story with us. I love the West of Ireland crowd, they always provide the craik, at the WOI library - just look in the sidebar to your right for the SLURL - and at venues across the grid like Circe's.

Caledonia Skytower has a rich warm Irish American brogue and she read the Quiet Man by Maurice Walsh in voice which, for those wondering, is 'fair use' and breaches no copyright laws. If, on the other hand she had used streaming, that would count as a broadcast and has other implications. It is no easy feat to read a 40 minute-long story, but she kept us entranced to the end with grace, drama and humour, I loved it, and it was  the perfect end to a perfect day in SL... until tomorrow! See you inworld!

Cliccare per ingrandire le immagini.
Un viaggio alla ricerca di posti nuovi, oggi -  prima tappa Shamen Galleries la vernissage è domani ma ho voluto vedere la nuova scultura di nessuno Myoo The secret escape of puppets - un burattino di legno che personalmente ha fatto pensare alla 'ferrovia sotteranea' statunitense, esposta in un'ampia sala insieme alle sculture di Fuchsia Nightfire affreschista in real e bravissima artista in Second Life. 

Ho visto in anteprima la mostra insieme a Lora Lowenstark e Rory Serpente e ci sono piaciuti moltissimo i quadri di Antenna Rea e Zoree Jupiter - mi ha colpito in particolare pensieri colorati, visibile nella foto con le bandiere nella parte inglese. 

Nel cortile troverai le belle sculture sculpty di Trasco Beaumont particolarmente bella il suo Prometeo. Cristian Rexie invece ha scelto alcune delle sue più belle e suggestive foto - tra le immagini, una della scultura di ness, esposta nella sala principale. Aperto al pubblico domani alle ore quattordici SLT, non mancate!

Dalla sky di Shamen al fondo del mare... Nemo, di Sextan Shepherd,  il suo machinima in francese spiega il raison d'etre di questa meravigliosa stazione sottomarino che prende ispirazione da Nicola Tesla (ecco il laboratorio del grande scienziato serbo) e dai libri di Verne. 

Quando abbiamo fatto la nostra visita il sim era strapieno ma vale la pena soffrire un po' di lag - è un build stupendo! A me piacciono molto i frutti di mare...

Infine ho visitato la bella land di Circe, in SL una cantastorie benigna e gentile, qui troverai sempre la musica, e il sabato a partire dalle ore 11,00 SLT ci sono eventi in voice, frequentati dai più bravi lettori, poeti, e attori di lingua inglese in SL. Poesie originali e classici, racconti nuovi e alcuni famosi, oggi abbiamo avuto il piacere di sentire prima Corwyn Allen, e in seguito la bella Caledonia Skytower, una delle lettrici principali della land irlandese West of Ireland, troverai il link a destra in alto sotto Biblioteche. Letteratura, colori, movimento e buona compagnia, un sabato all'insegna dell'allegria!

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!

West of Ireland

One should absorb the colour of life, but one should never remember the details.
Details are always vulgar.

Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

It was the birthday of Millvina Dean the other night and the fine folks of sim West of Ireland threw a ball in her honour, which I attended. Millvina, who was not present, is the only living survivor of the Titanic. Interestingly, Spongebob Squarepants, in the centre of the picture, was one of the few 4th class passengers to survive the disaster and was a personal friend of Leonardo diCaprio, which is why he lives most of the year at the bottom of the sea. I had no idea Bob was that old and seeing him up close I couldn't but suspect he'd had some work done, he has the sharp corners of a much younger sponge. A great time was had by all, well me for certain, and the company and dancing were both enhanced by the fantastic photo display around the dance floor, showing the plush interior of the famous liner as well as dramatic paintings of her final moments.

West of Ireland is run by Siobhan McMahon on behalf of the South Texas Celtic Music Association. It's a charity sim, host to a wide range of shops , an Irish pub, a surfing beach where Cipriano Grut and Bobbi Laval run a competitive team and offer surfing lessons, and many fund raising booths for their cause Project Children in Northern Ireland. It's a charity that strives to bring together children from both Catholic and Protestant backgrounds and is a great cause. The sim also has an art gallery run by Hiawatha Runningbear and there's a competition on right now (first prize a whopping ten thousand Lind, if I'm not mistaken) for the best picture taken in SL... so you should tp over and pick up a set of the rules, if you're a photographer. I abstain, for reasons that are obvious to us all.The evening's readings take place under the stars at the smart modern library, built by Cunningham Doherty in March of last year (this night picture doesn't do it justice, scroll into the Italian bit for a better view) They have a rich regular schedule of book events well worth taking note of. Six nights a week you can come to the library (don't forget to click on Shaun the Sheep, in the corner, to pick up the WOI freebies such as yarn for the kitten in your life, Irish sweaters, and Celtic textures) and hear readings by Caledonia Skytower, Elder Priestman, Aiofe Lorefield, Shandon Loring, and Derry McMahon. The readings offer a nice mix of 19th century macabre, 20th century whodunnit, classic children's tales (Caledonia is currently reading from The Borrowers) and timeless legends, like the Darby O'Gill tale 'The Banshee's Comb' which Shandon Loring will be reading on Thursday. They keep it short and sweet, and for all the details of upcoming events, they have a fantastic blogsite of their own you can go and read.In this photo you see librarian Derry with Elder Priestman as they told the Poe story Sheherezade. They really brought the tale to life with their warm, humorous reading style, and we were all enchanted. Mark Twain is on the menu on Saturday, The diaries of Adam and Eve. Can't wait!

Join the West of Ireland group for regular updates and bookmark their website to keep up with all the fun. Mmmm thirsty work, I'm off for a Harp!

*****

Si deve assorbire il colore della vita, senza ricordarsi mai dei dettagli.

I dettagli sono volgari.

Oscar Wilde, Un ritratto di Dorian Grey

La biblioteca del sim West of Ireland è bella moderna proprio sulla riva del mare Atlantico guardando verso l'America, puoi ascoltare racconti inglesi e americani da domenica al venerdì ogni settimana. Si tratta di racconti brevi, come quelli di Agatha Christie, e Edgar Allen Poe, ma anche classici della letteratura d'infanzia come I rubacchiotti di Mary Norton, un simpaticissimo libro che parla di piccolissimi abitanti che ci portano via quegli oggetti domestici che crediamo 'smarriti'... Tutti i lettori sono molto esperti e se hai voglia di migliorare il tuo inglese all'insegna della letteratura e la buona compagnia, questo è il posto per te. La bibliotacaia Derry McMahon è bibliotecaia anche in Real, e organizza tutto con professionalità e simpatia. Leggi anche il loro blog per conoscere meglio un gruippo di amici trasatlantici che vogliono portare più comprensione e speranza a questo mondo spesso diviso e triste.

Questo interessantissimo sim di Siobhan McMahon promuove un progetto per aiutare i bambini protestanti e cattolici dell'Irlanda del nord, e ospita molti negozi, una bella spiaggia da surf con una squadra di surfers organizzata da Cipriano Grut e Bobbi Laval, e molti gioielli dell'architettura virtuale. C'è un pub irlandese dove puoi fare delle conoscenze e magari bere una Guinness o due. Per chi ama le textures, c'è una mostra sui tessuti celtici in corso, per saperne di piu' visitare il sim e il loro sito.Qui a W.O.I. troverai una stupenda galleria d'arte che proprio in questi giorni sta conducendo un concorso di fotografie scattate in SL (io non partecipo per ovvie ragioni) - corri a iscriverti, il primo premio è una somma ...cospicua! (OK ammetto non mi ricordo i dettagli.)

Sabato sera si balla invece al West of Ireland, la festa ha sempre un tema nuovo, molte volte festeggia un compleanno famoso o un evvenimento storico. Ad esempio l'altro sabato si festeggiava il compleanno di Millvina Dean, l'ultima supersite del Titanic. Come vedi nella foto riportato qui sopra, la pista da ballo è stata addobbata di foto del stupendo interno della nave e alcuni quadri di quella notte infausta. Presente e molto energico, Spongebob, il coloratissimo (e mi hanno detto molto vecchio) personaggio tanto amato dai bambini... ospite appropriato, visto che anche lui vive al fondo dell'oceano...