Nexeus Fatale, DJ Extraordinaire, has hit upon a great way to give back to the community. His 'DJ For a Cause' mission is to donate his DJ services to anyone, individual or organization, who fits the requirements: Their event must be philanthropic in nature (such as fund raising) and has to embody the Holiday theme of giving to others.
I see this as a great way to promote SL's philanthropic nature, which is embodied in its residents. These days, most of the press goes to sensational events, and not enough to the altruism that I see so often in-world. Nexeus is on the right track with this, and hopes that others will follow this example. You can read more of this here.
The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic put on a concert in Second Life on September 14, for what we are told was to be 100 Second Life users. There's not many venues that would have supported that many in relative comfort.
"According to the orchestra, 9 million Second Life denizens watched the performance live on Second Life's own cable network, and the broadcast repeats every couple of hours through November."
Nine million Second Life users watching live. The tensile strength of truth doesn't go nearly that far.
Perhaps counting beyond 4/4 is a mite harder than it sounds.
A special shout-out goes to Anastasia Tsioulcas at Reuters, who could have easily sanity-checked this figure, but didn't.
Hugh Hancock, coiner of the term "machinima", sent me this tidbit about his production company, Strange Company, premiering their feature film cut of their BloodSpell series. BloodSpell is a punk fantasy action-adventure movie filmed in NeverWinter Nights that has been written up by the BBC, the Guardian, Suicide Girls, Boing Boing, USA Today, and a slew of others. For those of you keeping tabs on machinima, there aren't many feature-length films produced in this medium.
That's why he's inviting everyone to be a part of the screening that will take place on Hathead Island on Sunday, October 21st, at 11am PDT, or 7pm GMT. There will be interviews, a special intro, and tons of awesome extras. After the screening, keep your eyes peeled for an interview here on Second Life Insider! Hope to see you there.
* I almost forgot to include a disclaimer about the violence that appears in this film. When I premiered the final episode of the series some time ago, many in the audience complained of the gore. Keep in mind that it's just pixels. If you have a strong stomach, come on over!
I recently had the good fortune to be given a tour of the I Am Legend Survival game by ESC members Cory Edo and NeoBokrug Elytis. What follows is a lightly-edited transcript of our meeting. Rest assured, all edits are to enhance clarity; there are no substitutions or purposeful omissions, other than to weed out no-relevant chatter. Thank you both, Cory and Neo -- hopefully everyone will come mob the game and partake of the goodness!
This game has the feel of a cross-over hit to me. I'd love to see this thing on a handheld console -- PSP or DS, perhaps -- if not an actual full-featured console. XBox Live Arcade, perhaps? As you'll see, the Sheep have turned what might have been a lame movie tie-in into something worthy of praise on its own merit. Drop in and check it out! Also, there's a Flickr account with photos of the various players and their mods available here.
This sounds so crazy I'd have thought it was a Japanese creation, but no, this came from the minds of the Italian media production company Magnolia. In 'Celebrity Survivor: Second Life', set to begin soon, 10 RL contestants will be given laptops optimized for SL performance, and will spend 7 weeks in SL, under constant webcam supervision. During this time the contestants will play an endurance game wherein they will compete against their opponents to see who will remain alive at the end of the game's running time.
Let me stress this if I haven't made it clear: 7 weeks, constant SL presence, the only break being sleep periods. There is more to the experience, including challenges, voting, etc., but that's the part that gets me. Contestants are under constant webcam supervision, which will also be broadcast over the 'Net. How many of us can claim to have spent 7 weeks in SL? Seriously, this is the sort of thing legends are made from -- not to mention broken marriages and enclosed-space neuroses.
For more information on this event, contact Phaylen Fairchild in-world, or go to this site (note: Italian language). This link provides all the rules of the contest in PDF format in English.
Dirt Magazine is a new men's fashion and news magazine by Chester Howley, Osayo Munro, and Esmiel Posthorn. They're having a launch party Sunday, Sep. 30th at 9 PM SLT. The party itself is being hosted at Groove Nation, which also houses LMAO, SL's first live voice comedy club -- which sounds like something I need to see, or hear, for myself.
It's true that men's fashion is something that doesn't get much press, so it's rewarding to see a whole magazine devoted to it. Despite this late notice, go check out the festivities and get yourself a free copy of Dirt!
Incidentally, and this is probably not by design, I went to teleport to LMAO and got dropped from 500 meters in the air. Now that's comedy!
For those of you having difficulty visualizing the recent Metaplace story, here's a YouTube video via Wonderland that describes it a bit more in-depth.
I just don't quite get the strange instances of Extreme Closeups™ -- Raph's hand, the lower-right corner of the screen, etc. If this was meant to hide sensitive content, why even keep that content in the video?
Independent musician Fabrice Collette (Fabrice Crosby in RL) has been making a go of performing his own brand of blues/jazz-inspired music in SL, and now, with the release of his new album 'Rouge et Blues', you can check him out for free!
Embracing the DIY style of the Internet-savvy, Fabrice's new album is available at his website as a free download, with donations encouraged. You can also check out his SL mini-nightclub, Whispering Nights, which promises an intimate setting perfect for his earthy, soulful performances. I really like Fabrice's style; go download his new album now!
The Guild's Kaoru Sato tells us, "So basically, we've had to pull the plug on Shaggy's appearance in SL this week. We're gutted (British for very very disappointed) but logistical reasons have made it impossible to do the show on Thursday after the Wednesday one was scheduled."
"Shaggy is very disappointed and sends his wishes. He was really looking forward to meeting the people of Second Life and he's definitely keen to do something with us in the near future."
What's the 'near future'? Sato replied, "We're looking to be able to bring you Shaggy's delayed visit to SL sometime during his European tour, which runs mid-October to early November. If you join the Shaggy's Crew group in SL we'll be able to keep you informed of events - or you can send me (Kei Mars) an IM to be kept updated."
Reggae superstar, Shaggy, host of this year's Mobo Awards won't be spending the morning of the ceremony practicing his lines or stacking some extra Z's to prepare for the big night. No, he's going to be in the virtual world doing the meet and greet with Second Life users.
"This is the first meet-and-greet on the Internet, so we wanted to do something very special," says Virginie Delavaud of Shaggy's record label VP Records. "We've got talented Second Life designers to provide a special exclusive goody bag for all attendees with limited edition t-shirts and gold jewelery. We'll also be giving away signed Real Life copies of the album in a prize draw!"
Shaggy's virtual world appearance is the work of digital advertising agency Silence and award-winning Second Life developers The Guild.
The Guild's Kaoru Sato, tells us that fans and residents who want to be a part of the event should join the Shaggy's Crew group or IM Kei Mars, Sato's inworld avatar.
Shaggy will be appearing on Phreak Isle from 2am SLT (US Pacific - 10am UK) on Wednesday, 19 September, and the event will be broadcast live by SLCN.TV (Second Life Cable Network) to the web and to screens in Second Life.
[UPDATE: Apparently unavoidable circumstances prevent the originally scheduled appearance on the 19th. Organizers are working on rescheduling for the 20th, or failing that the 21st. Stay tuned[
I have to say, I was a little down on Justin Timberlake before. Not a huge fan of his music, etc. But thanks to his appearances on Saturday Night Live, I've taken a liking to the guy. So it's with no trepidation that I pass on to you all the news that over a period of 4 days (August 31 - September 3), Comcastic Island will host 'backstage access' footage of Timberlake's current tour.
The first 3 days are devoted to different video segments of the concert and a raffle ball giveaway, while the 4th day will have 10 minutes of the live Madison Square Garden show. Events to take place at 1 PM and 7 PM Friday to Sunday, and Monday's showtime will be at 8 PM EST, with the concert beginning at 9 PM. The entire shebang is courtesy of Millions of Us. Let's hope Justin favors us with the song that won the hearts and minds of thousands of YouTube watchers the nation over! One: Cut a hole in a box ...
Iris Ophelia, Fashion Writer, Talented Photographer, and Sweetheart Extraordinaire, was recently interviewed live on in-world interview program Tonight Live with Paisley Beebe. In it, she's as adorable as I know her to be (full disclosure: she's a friend), and converses on a range of subjects including fashion, blogging, and her photography.
Don't mind the voice lag; the interview was done over Skype, with Iris in Canada and Paisley in Australia. It's an all-too-brief glimpse into the mind of someone I wish I could spend more time with. Enjoy!
On September 14th, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic will give 100 residents tickets to its first ever RL-to-SL concert, via a video feed into an undisclosed SL location. After the broadcast of both popular pieces and original compositions, there will be a Q&A session with Vasily Petrenko, the conductor. No mention of who will be creating the space, or where it will be located.
I'm of two minds about this: First, having this done as a video feed will avoid the sometimes stilted and awkward experience of watching an avatar repeat the same limited animations over and over, which can have the effect of dropping the suspension of disbelief. Second, however, sitting in front of a screen watching a video feed hardly seems to take advantage of SL's unique strength: its immersive, 'you are there' feeling. I imagine, though, this will be offset by the after-concert Q&A, which surely is a unique experience to be had in and of itself. Will anyone be attending this? We'll try to get more details as they appear.
I'm going to file this one in the "too good to be true" section. One resident has decided to take SLCC to the next level, by anonymously cruising for sex. All that's known about her is that she is newly single, a larger woman, and ready to take action. She even has a system worked out. After exchanging emails, if it goes well, she'll approach you and whisper the password in your ear.
While not many in the thread on Second Citizen have taken her up on the offer yet, she has upped the ante by posting *ahem* a picture of her nether region. I'll just let you find that one yourself. This certainly raises the stakes for SLCC. If you are interested, send her an email.
With that said, what are your intentions for going to SLCC? Are you attending for business, pleasure, or ... other? Leave a comment!
August 2nd's press event featuring William Gibson reading from his latest novel Spook Country has gotten a nice write-up here, with the author admitting he had a nice time despite the glitches that frequently accompany such events.
On his personal blog, Mr. Gibson puts it succinctly: "It was ... peculiar. *Deeply* peculiar." He briefly mentions learning to sit and how his avatar's hair reminded him of Mr. Burns from the Simpsons. From all accounts, it was a great success, and I wish I could have been there. If any one of our readers was, please leave your experience in the Comments!
Nexeus Fatale, DJ Extraordinaire, has hit upon a great way to give back to the community. His 'DJ For a Cause' mission is to donate his DJ services to anyone, individual or organization, who fits the requirements: Their event must be philanthropic in nature (such as fund raising) and has to embody the Holiday theme of giving to others.
Hugh Hancock, coiner of the term "machinima", sent me this tidbit about his production company, 
Well, chart-topping reggae superstar Shaggy's got 
I'm going to file this one in the "too good to be true" section. One resident has decided to take 
