My first Second SnowCrash...

This pic was taken on a nice corner of Sugar Mountain (Odyssey Island) just as the interview with Sunnie Beaumont from Krystal Epic was about to start...It seemed contemplative to begin with but I knew that Fau Ferdinand would be arriving shortly with the chance that she might also bring along some lines of snow...things can only go up/down-hill from there, right?

Hey there Snow FLakes, coke fiendz, powder people and SLutbunny SLopecones!

I admit that this blog posting is a couple of days old which in Second Life Time (SLT) makes it seem like I wrote this sometime in the 1980s ;-)

The title of this posting is a tribute to the famous in-world Italian photographer, Marco Manray who has a website called My First Second Life. He was at Second Front's performance today in Miami but I should save the details of what actually happened for my next blog posting...

In the meantime, here is a little recap as to what happened directly after the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse's landmark concert at Wien Modern in Vienna...

Sunnie Beaumont (the reporter from Krystal Epic) requested an interview with both myself and my colleague Fau Ferdinand since we were both nominated for being the "Best Performing Artists in Second Life". Originally, she wanted to interview us on seperate occasions but since Fau offered to bring along some of her new supply of nose candy, I just HAD to be interviewed simultaneously with Fau :-)

Here are some more photos....


Sunnie did not realize that her next interviewee that was also nominated for the Best Performing Artist was also in Second Front with me...I quickly made that point clear to her as I prefer to be interviewed alongside one of my colleagues and great friends...and besides, she confirmed that some powder was on its way to sugar-coat this little side of the mountaintop...yaaay!

Sure enough, Fau delivered on her promise of supplying us with some party treats and next thing you know, my fragile ego was off the hook and my nimble body was floored flat! And to think that moments ago, I was performing with the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse at a civil concert at Wien Modern in Vienna! This was starting to feel more like a backstage event for a rock (emphasis on "rock") concert.... The question from Sunnie was "how do you create" but I think the real answer on my mind was "how many lines can I have for free from Fau before I have to buy some more for myself?" Admittedly, my mind (and nose) was no longer focused on the interview questions...sorry about that, Sunnie! SNIFF! SNORT!

Here is a close-up of one of the rare moments where I actually looked away from the cocaine tray to try and focus on the interview questions... Yes, I was pathetic, I know but what could I do? I could not resist the offer! Isn't this how interviews usually go right after a grueling academic concert?

I left some of the chat-window open for you to read the content of the interview...I had no idea how I was able to appear coherant throughout the interview....When this pic was taken, I was starting to have a very serious snow crash. Fau was very civil, she let me have most of her coke....now THAT is serious willpower! :-)

I think Sunnie's quote here was pretty much right on target. By the time that another Second Front colleague Man Michinaga arrived for some lines, I think I had gotten a little...er... over-passionate ;-) So first off, I apologize to my colleagues for getting a little out of hand and now that I am sober enough to blog about this event, I should also add for the record that I do not ALWAYS think that I am best SL Performing Artist to have ever existed! ;-)

Anyways, that particular Snow Crash had gotten me well-primed and pumped for Second Front's Miami Vice performance that happened for the Teleculture show at the Zonal Contemporary Artfair in Miami (RL) earlier today. All I remember at the moment was that it was also projected at the Atlantic Basin Project launch in St. Johns, Newfoundland. When I finally come down from that blurry party blizzard (probably a only few seconds from now...sigh!) I will recollect my best memories from it and blog it in the next posting. :-)

STAY TUNED...

OSLOspace AUDIOspace and BIBBEspace...

The Avatar Orchestra Metaverse at Susanne Jaschko's Urban Interface in Oslo (RL) and in Amsterdam (SL)...

***BREAKING NEWS FROM THE NEAR FUTURE!***

The curator Susanne Jaschko has blogged about this event.

Here we are in Amsterdam waiting to score some.....er... well....actually....waiting for our orchestral colleagues Gumnosphistai Nurmi (Norway) and Nnoiz Papp (Germany) to find us. This sort of hide and seek theme seems to be deja vu for me as I did something very similar as an avatar in my past life... Anyways, it turns out that Susanne Jaschko and her audience was on the hunt with them to find us "spontaneously" performing Miulew Takahe's composition, Fragula. I was unsure if Dr. Jaschko had her own avatar lurking in the alleyways of Amsterdam but one can always hold conspiracy theories and daydream...I mean, trying to make Amsterdam look like Oslo is indeed some sort of Artworld conspiracy!

Ok, this pic was taken at the point where Gumno and Nnoiz finaly found us...All it took was one blast of Nnoiz's fog horn and he was able to locate their position in relation to the Orchestra and of course, using sonar in an "orchestral" context is nothing new ;-) Once they found us, Gumno and Nnoiz quickly joined in the Fragulan fray and began performing with us as if they had actually rehearsed with us ;-) Speaking of Fragula, I made a big boo-boo when criticizing Bingo Onomatopoeia's new Fragula version number as being non-linear...I thought he accidentally "upgraded" from v12.0 to v9.0...I did not read between the lines, because there was actually a decimal in front so it makes sense that v0.9 is newer than v.12...For the record, Bingo forgave me by saying that "even Einstein failed at Math"....sigh! Bingo at least gave me the official link for understanding the software versioning conventions... Maybe I had better cut back on that decimalized Dutch Hash and learn to leave the red-light district, eh? ;-)

Hey there OSLOspace, AUDIOspace and BIBBEspace cadets!

First of all, I want to officially announce that this posting is actually my 100th posting for this blog! I would like to thank all my readers for providing me with the necessary delusion(s) to believe that this blog is something worth writing...thanks a zillion! ;-)

Saturday the 15th was quite exhausting yet productive. The Avatar Orchestra Metaverse had two intense gigs and even my relaxation session with Bibbe Oh felt intense....can I ever relax? Hmmmm..maybe I can...

Since I do not think I have any more gigs lined up for the rest of September, I think I am going to use this precious "spare" time to get off my pixellated ass and continue composing my next official AOM composition to be premiered at Wien Modern in Vienna called Riesenrad.

Anyway, I just thought I would share those tidbits with you...If you do not see many blog postings from now until October, that is probably why...

I have just shown you the OSLO event in Amsterdam and now, I will show you some pix of the Audiospace concert before concluding this posting with my post-orchestral personal reception and gratuitous photo-shoot with Bibbe Oh...

The Avatar Orchestra Metaverse's performance at the Audiospace Festival at Open Space...

Here are a few of us having a seat and doing a bit of a meditation blitzkrieg before some of the audience members arrive... Gumno is disclosing a few RL details that most of us share behind the scenes...many of us SLebrities in RL are stay-at-home parents...sigh! If you have a close zoom towards this pic, you will notice tiny voice-chat icons above Miulew Takahe and Humming Perra (Audiospace Curator)...Yes, Second Life now has embedded voice chat capabilities. Miulew's silky smooth voice was a perfect compliment to Humming's hushed adminisrative tones. You will also notice that the score for Miulew's official Audiospace submission, Rue Blanche is available for all to see...Miulew later gave the Open Space gallery a demo of the process behind the 3 performed compositions...

As you can see, some more audience members are gradually arriving on the scene. It was great to see so many avatars at this event....alot of these people are good friends and important artists in RL so the whole experience was quite encouraging. Oh, I forgot to mention a minor detail for you...Yes, it is true... Since previous blog postings, my coffee cup has increasingly super-sized itself. For this event, I was in a generous mood so I shared the wealth since the refills are virtually endless anyway.... I am desperately trying to remember the name of the person who gave me this coffee at the earlier event in Oslo...sigh! Miulew has recently informed me that Merak Ur was the one who have me the new coffee but my mind is so foggy, I can barely absorb that information. I think I need another sip of steamy coffee!

This pix shows a little more clearly the size of the in-world audience... Yes, it is true, my new buddy Blued Food arrived at the exact moment this pic was taken...I guess I am getting too SLeepy these days to spend quality time in Photoshop censoring out my private life...a celebrity's life is public property anyways, right? ;-)

Here we are playing our classic Fadheit that was composed by the Orchestra's founder, Maximillian Nakamura. I should point out that those squares you see on the screen are usually only for the eyes of the Orchestral performers but this time, Miulew gave the Open Space audience a behind-the-scenes demo of the mechanics of this particular telepathic user-interface...

Here is a great close-up of myself and Gog Mannonen. I actually know Gog in RL but due to privacy issues, I cannot disclose Gog's RL identity. I really hope Gog joins the Orchestra as I am sure some very unique compositions would begin to take shape in our repetoire...

So, after two consecutive concerts, I was feeling rather burned out so I decided to wind down a bit with my new friend (not so new in RL) Bibbe Oh...

My post-orchestral personal reception with Bibbe Oh at the Third Rail Gallery of Current Art...

Here I am enjoying some red-wine and refined gallery art with Bibbe Oh. I did not realize how much shorter she is than me! I tried my best not to accidentally nudge her into the sculpture next to her...I was worried it might tip over and shatter...yikes! Bibbe was telling me that she does some hosting here sometimes with Channing Oh but officially, the gallery (a tribute to Al Hansen of Fluxus fame) is owned by her friends (who also happen to be siblings), Cleo and Demara Hultcrantz.

We eventually went over to Bibbe's personal studio and sat underneath a sandwich...well, a photo of one, anyway! All the photos on the wall were taken by Bibbe herself...there are more to show you if you persist with me a sec and continue to scroll down...

My colleague in Second Front, Man Michinaga eventually dropped by to hang out with us....yaaaay!

In this pic, you get a better sense of what Bibbe's own photography work looks like. She takes found pix of murders and suicides (and yes, sandwiches) and actually embroiders them onto paper in RL....whoa! Sounds eerie, zany and creepy-crawly to me!!! Hmmm...what do you think of the premeditated murder wound on that guy's forehead? Man is pointing to something much more abstract yet in a sense, just as extreme...lets just say it kinda looks like a starfish (use your imagination!)...

Ok, that was my day in a nutshell! Good thing I scored some of that red wine at Bibbe's place because I could sure use some extra time in "R&RL" (RL + R&R = R&RL)...

Spectacle Fortuna Parade On Columbia Island...

I wasted no time and immediately upon arrival, put on a mask from one of the local vending machines which are pictured towards the back on the right of this pic. For some reason, we all thought the parade was on Easter Island ;-)

UPDATE FROM ONE DAY INTO THE FUTURE:
DD & Flux have posted some additional parade photos on their blog. Stay tuned for video...

Hey performance art and parade fans,

I have had a rough weekend in RL and still gotta do some damage control..I might not be blogging as frequently as I would like to until I can get my RL situation smoothened out...In the meantime, I participated in a parade today... Check out these photos and scroll down the blog to read other postings....

At the time this pic was taken, Man Michinaga was re-assuring me that indeed, we are having our parade right here on Columbia Island (aka. "I AM COLUMBIA Island").

Heheheheheheh..In the early stages of our meet n' greet, we convinced the new arrivees that the only occasion for this parade was a belated version of Easter Holidays ;-) Spark Magazine's Aidan Aquacade - being the rebel that he is - chose to indulge in that sinking feeling one usually gets during the (belated) holiday season.

So by this point, you are probably saying to yourself, "when will the parade begin, dude?" Yeah, I had that same question running through my head too when this pic was taken. You can see that I lit my leggies on fire...I did this based on a request for arson a few minutes earlier. Someone said, "Is this the warm-up session before the parade?" and I just had to indulge his request to warm up this session...heheheheheh...I really like Flux Dabu's avvie (pictured with the choco-rabbit)...He reminds me of a cross between STELARC and Mike Kelly ;-)

Here are some more paradeers congregating on the sacred "warm-up" space on the island...Quite the variety of the avatars at this parade...I wonder if they are "dressing up" for the occasion or just being themselves?

I took this pic mainly to give the blog-reader a more direct head-on shot of my Moai Visage...Hmmmm "Moai Visage" sound like a pretty good New Wave band... ;-) To the right is the ramp which we eventually walked up as the beginning of our parade route. I hope someone took video of the occasion :-)

Wow! We have quite the cavalry here! We even have someone on horseback....yeee haaaw! So we were all gathered here today to be led by Ti Mosienko and Man Michinaga.

It looks here as if we are finally getting into formation to begin our parade route up the map....er.... I was starting to worry that this is "ready" as we were ever going to be...sigh! At this point, Second Front co-members Tran Spire and Great Escape arrived on the scene... Somewhere in this jumbled gaggle, some other friends of mine managed to make it out for the parade such as Miulew Takahe from the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse and Lior Humphreys.

Ok, it looks like DannyDarko Raymaker (a new artist friend and news interviewer from Italy) has finally taken the initiative and has inched towards the incline. You probably did not see DannyDarko in the previous pic because he was hiding behind another Moai head...Now you can see him - he is the one with the transparent green head....yaaaaay! He has quite the Dragonfly kite attached to his emerald noggin...

...and here we are finally starting the parade by marching up the very steep ramp...My head was so big (due to my recently swollen ego) that I could not see where I was going...I fell off the ramp a few times and requested at least one Teleport (TP) from the gang...sigh!

Here is a pic taken shortly after we have finished our first marching sequence on the ramp...I guess you could call this our 5 minute coffee break...I am not totally sure if the patriotic dude on the right is cracking open a can? I wasted away my 5 minutes of refreshment time by launching some fireworks from the rocket-launcher pads pictured on the right. In this pic, you can also get a better view of Flux's avvie...While we were marching, Flux said that he has wandered into my PR office on Odyssey and has been reading this blog...kewl!

Here is a better angle of Flux and SL's version of "Lady" Liberty....

This final pic for this posting shows how lost I got at times...At one point, I fell off the ramp when I was supposed to be traversing down the staircase and wandered in a purple daze around the campus property... Double sigh!

Sugar Seville nominates Wirxli FlimFlam for President of SL!

Sugar Seville's last answer in this interview officially mentions Wirxli FlimFlam and Man Michinaga of Second Front has publicized her personal nominations in The Avastar for President and Vice-President of Second Life.

Here is the German translation of the same article.


Hey performance art fans,

I noticed that Sugar Seville has been named the Avastar of the week for the English and German editions of issue #13.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that Sugar would nominate me as the Prez of SL if I ever formally declared my nomination... Man Michinaga was mentioned as her choice for VP...Hmmm..Maybe we should both enter political arena after all? What do you think? Maybe as the ultimate form of performance art?

Cheerios,
Wirxli

BREAKING NEWS: IAN AH IS MOVING HIS SCREENING LOUNGE ON SUGAR MOUNTAIN!

Left-right: Wirxli Flimflam (me), Sugar Seville (CEO of Odyssey Island) and Chi5 Shenzhou (landscaping architect).

Hey performance art fans!

This past week has seen alot of turbulent change in SL. Just a couple of days ago, Man Michinaga sold his property in Han Loso where the BitFactory used to be.

It seems that this pattern is persisting towards that of an unfortunate trend because as of yesterday, Ian Ah has had to relocate his screening lounge on Sugar Mountain (Odyssey Island) due to some terraforming gentrification initiatives.

I am hoping he can just move his lounge around the other side of Sugar Mountain rather than having to move a long distance from my official PR Office which is located on top of this mountain.

Well, here is a sneak-preview of Chi5 Shenzhou's current terraforming project at Ian's former venue...

The new illusionistic "pool" with the mirrored texture on the deck-side is absolutely gorgeous!

From left-right: Ian Ah, Wirxli Flimflam (me), Chi5 Shenzhou and Sugar Seville.
Last night's discussion was very productive as Sugar offered Ian to re-locate his screening lounge to another side of Sugar Mountain. I think this will make for a reasonable compromise as Chi5 can focus on making this new opulent terraformed geological shelf :-)


Left-Right: Ian Ah, Wirxli Flimflam (me) and Sugar Seville.
Here is a dramatic angle shot!


Left-Right: Sugar Seville, Wirxli Flimflam (me), Chi5 Shenzhou, Fau Ferdinand and Ian Ah.
A little later in the evening, we were trying to determine if this deck could truly double as a hot-tub for wading in :-)

And here is what Ian's screening lounge used to look like...

From left-right: Maximillian Nakamura, Ian Ah, Wirxli Flimflam (me) and Nyko Nakamura.This is how the deck-area used to look prior to the terraforming.


Back-Front: Nyko, Nakamura, Wirxli Flimflam (me), Ian Ah and Maximillian Nakamura.
Here is an example of us watching a video. This video seems to be an archived performance by Alan Dojoji...

...this angle gives you a better sense of the kind of video we were watching.

Left-Right: Nyko Nakamura, Wirxli Flimflam (me), Ian Ah, Maximillian Nakamura and Gazira Babeli (in front of Max).
I think you can get the sense from these pictures that the lounge's atmosphere was very relazing and allowed for us to focus on casual chit-chat and video-viewing (no popcorn available though). Gazira had some of her own work installed on the lounge property. I am pleased to hear that she will be having a solo show soon on Odyssey Island :-)

BREAKING NEWS: MAN MICHINAGA SELLS THE BITFACTORY PROPERTY!

The remnants of the legendary BitFactory was concerted into Neo-Indiana hours before the land itself (located in the Han Loso region) was sold to the highest bidder!

From left-right: Ian Ah, Man Michinaga (Bitfactory owner and founder) and Wirxli Flimflam (me - floating near the top of Neo-Indiana)...

BREAKING NEWS: The Arts community in Second Life suddenly lost one of its most prized and established arts institutions late last night. The Bitfactory was the official rehearsal space for the performance art group, Second Front as well as serving as a location node for Intelligent Agent Magazine. The Bitfactory (formerly known as the Lichty-Michinaga Arts Center and Atelier Michinaga) had an equivalent reputation to the contemporary art museum, Ars Virtua. The Bitfactory's founder and owner Man Michinaga of Second Front will now devote his time and energy towards performance art and other creative endeavors...

Chi5 Shenzhou and yours truly surveying what is left of the Bitfactory to determine its re-sale value...

Dancoyote Antonelli's Zero-G Skydancers performed at NMConnect!

Here I am on the far left. I have no idea who most of the audience members are but they all seem to be fans of the Zero-G Skydancers...

Hey performance art fans!

Last night, I had the good fortune of attending a performance on NMConnect's "Learning" Campus by the Zero-G Skydancers. This is a performing arts troupe set up by the pioneering Second Life artist, Dancoyote Antonelli.

The dancers flew around the aestheticized sky so quickly, I was unable to take a picture of them... However, my intuition tells me that their performance resembled their official archived video from a previous performance at NMConnect in some way...

Here are some amateur snapshots that I had managed to produce...
This occured just as the skydancing performance had begun. Totally tubular indeed! I really enjoyed being bathed in this volumetric light show.


Here is an extreme aerial view of the Skydancing platform. I was not sure if the billboard with the numbers was meant to be a scoreboard or something. Which Skydancer won the most points? heheheheheheh! This looks like a more aesthetic and non-competitive sport so I am guessing they all got zeroes. It looks like some got more zeroes than others...heheheheh

Here is another audience pic. In the far right, you will see Second Front co-performer, Man Michinaga.

At first glance, this looks like an identical pic to the one above but then you will notice that our seats have changed colour! I guess it also true that I zoomed in a bit but I took this 2nd pic to illustrate (without having to set up my video camera) that there was alot of loco-motion going on at this event.

Ok, it was during this abstracted moment that I was positive that I saw one of the Skydancers fly by...maybe I was hallucinating? Looking at this astral pattern long enough, might cause a sensitive avatar like myself to see a stereo-grammatical dance routine after awhile... ;-)


This is my fave abstraction from the Skydancing event. I must say that I have always been a fan of vortex forms... it is my RL birthright.