After seeing this, I just have to say that it’s not only a brilliant way of mixing a virtual world with reality, but it’s definitely a sweet art form to play music against gaming themes. Reminds me of that one guitarist, House the Grate. In any case, Andrea Vadrucci plays what looks to be a full drum set in the only way a professional does it.

Eat your heart out Rockband fans. Just you try to to match those skills.

Rather than bottle all my comments up for a blog post — but may still do that too — I decided to do a live first time SPORE install and walk-thru on video using Mogulus (see embed of channel below, if you are at the site) or click Hmmcast Live:

For those who don’t want to watch the video live, I’m also blogging my comments live using the CoverItLive service here:

And finally, for those who like good old fashioned IRC? Just visit irc.scriptschool.com #scriptschool. Picture caption? How about Smells Like SPORE Spirit?

Wow, Gibson now has their own island in Second Life (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Gibson%20Island/71/39/51) shaped like a guitar! I had to stop reading, jump in and check it out. Good stuff!

And when they see free guitars, they mean at least a dozen different guitars, including the current 2008 Guitar of the Month, the Slash Les Paul and Angus Young (AC/DC) Les Paul. This is most exciting build I’ve seen in Second Life in awhile.

Definitely take a few minutes right now, fire up your SL client and TP over to Gibson Island.

My pictures don’t do the gorgeous build justice.

Oh, and of course there is a Gibson group to join (just load this in your SL chat window: secondlife:///app/group/6546f4d7-6ece-7186-de91-6d2704bc5976/about or do a search under groups)

Free Gibson t-shirts, tables and chairs too. And guitar amp and guitar bags aplenty!  They are also promising live entertainment from time to time. My only minor disappointment is that the newsletter arrived too late for me to be able to check out the live entertainment they had all day on Wednesday. Hey, maybe I’ll catch the next live line-up. Rock on!

I’ve always liked the live performances in Second Life ever since I first found them. Usually It’s one singer or a couple of people playing live from one place. I recently found a unique live event with a live band. They consist of 5 members from 3 countries and 5 different locations. One plays from Germany and another from UK with the rest playing from the U.S. They use a program to sync up called ninjam and then send the stream over to SL.

The majority of their songs are original but they do covers also. You can check out their website and find out more about them. Be sure to check out the days they will be playing so you can check them out!. Sign up for their group, “VLB group members”, in SL and find out instantly when they will be playing. You shouldn’t miss this band because they are good and really rock SL!

Happy New Year to everyone around the virtual worlds! I wanted to write a fast post on some of the special events in Second Life that I think would be fun to attend. There are many events happening today. I’ve found some of the best talent that I know of. There are lot of parties with DJ’s too but I’m looking for the live musicians mostly. Having someone play a live electric guitar or a piano just gives a virtual party that something special. So to anyone who isn’t attending a party in real life you can check out SL for some fun!

• [Tahoma at 110, 182, 298 (slurl)] – 12pm to 5pm SLT live music with a big ball drop at the end.
• [KaChing at 149, 131, 22 (slurl)] – open mic event starting at 1pm SLT. You can catch some great musicians playing sometimes here.
• [Noxious at 151, 30, 22 (slurl)] – A 10 hour party with live DJ’s starting at 2pm SLT with contests too.
• [Fire Island at 81, 221, 24 (slurl)] – Hollywood Glam New years eve party all day.
• [Clyde at 124, 165, 32 (slurl)] – Big event with live music starting at 6:30pm SLT.
• [Eclectic Dream at 224, 60, 21 (slurl)] – live music starting at 7pm SLT with some great musicians playing with a ball drop too.
• [Gannet Island at 72, 220, 651 (slurl)] – A magic and special effects show in SL. Something new I’ll probably try to attend starting at 8:30pm SLT.
• [Del Agua at 123, 66, 28 (slurl)] – “This Device” band plays at winterland at 10pm SLT with a live performer from japan after.

It’s that time of year where we decorate our places for holidays. We also get in the spirit with new clothes for our avatar. This year I did some searches for Christmas places to go in SL. The interesting thing is the regular search for places didn’t give me the results I expected. Most of the places at the top were not about Christmas and even some had mature content. I even made sure it didn’t include mature content in the search and it still gave me them. Then I used the new search under the all tab and searched for Christmas stuff again. I was happy to see exactly the places I was looking for.

Merry Christmas from all of us at VTOR and have a great virtual holiday experience wherever you may go!

Here are some of the interesting places I found:

• [Island of BF at 124, 204, 23 (slurl)] – Christmas village with lots of Xmas stuff and ice skating.
• [Antiqua Paradise at 140, 87, 27 (slurl)] – A Christmas parade you must check out.
• [Krypto at 12, 232, 421 (slurl)] – A fun place for Christmas with ice skating. I got my Xmas hat here for free.
• [sammamish at 245, 98, 152 (slurl)] – Great Christmas place with a train to ride.
• [French Town at 215, 226, 28 (slurl)] – great place for your holiday items.
• [FloMaramia at 99, 183, 22 (slurl)] – Another place for Christmas decorations.
• [Total Bliss at 185, 126, 52 (slurl)] – Trees and other decorations.

Using the new search function I found these:

• [Spring City at 211, 151, 24] – Really good place with plenty of Christmas items
• [Fortimus at 80, 58, 21] – Plenty of trees to get for your place
• [Buyeo at 187, 164, 23] – Another place with great Christmas stuff

Here are some Christmas live events for you to enjoy on Xmas eve day and Christmas day:

• [Experience Island at 118, 22, 27 (slurl)] – religious experience event in Second life with video of a real life special event. All day (Dec 24th)
• [Kona dAlliez at 66, 202, 266 (slurl)] – Johnny99 Gumshoe plays live at 1:00pm. (Dec 24th)
• [Kona dAlliez at 66, 202, 266 (slurl)] – Andy Glasgow plays a rock show live 2:00pm. (Dec 24th)
• [Edloe at 128, 114, 68 (slurl)] – Cylindrian Rutabaga sings at 5:00pm with great vocals. (Dec 24th)
• [Tryggvason at 132, 88, 59 (slurl)] – Scarlett LaRoux performs some holiday songs at 7:00pm. (Dec 24th)
• [Marimon at 17, 11, 22 (slurl)] – A Christmas party in SL at 8:00pm. (Dec 25th)

In January 2007 I wrote about “The Girlfriend experience” and “The Girlfriend Experience Revisited” about the Liminal Institute

The Liminal Institute is an international performance unit. It was brought to existence by a group of artists who share the belief that performance work can – and should – cross the boundaries and definitions between dance, theatre, live art, visual design, music, pop culture and lifestyle.

Today I received an email from Martian Butler, one of the founders of The Liminal Institute, telling me “The Girlfriend experience it returning.

The Players

The Girlfriend Experience, Back Online

Internet game with 4 flesh and blood avatars at Picnic 0726Sept 07 12:00>28Sept 07 19:00
Amsterdam, Westergasfabriek
Pazzanistraat 41 | Amsterdam
organised by: Mediamatic | T +31 (0)20 6389901
organised by: Liminal Institute

Mediamatic and the Liminal Institute will present Martin Butler’s project
‘The Girlfriend Experience’ at Picnic 07. On September 26, 27 & 28 Butler
presents four human avatars to play with again on your computer. This time
you can log in from home as well as at Picnic on Mounir Noah Valentijn
(actor in the Dutch film Het Schnitzelparadijs), Marjolijn Vogels, Aimar
Pérez Galí (Spain) and Helga Wretman (Sweden). Choose an avatar, direct
them via Skype and discover what you can do with him or her.

Join The Girlfriend Experience at Picnic 07, in the Zuiveringshal Oost at
the Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam. Register on Picnicnetwork.org.

At the Zuiveringshal Oost you can play the game and watch the piece live.
Or play from your home.

Use

http://girlfriend.mediamatic.net

to contact the avatars.

The rampant growth of online avatar communities such as Second Life and
World of Warcraft has enabled the creation of a personal online social and
economic existence. Simultaneously this triggers inherent questions about
this existence, as it questions what the consequences will be for first
life, or reality.

When you use virtual avatars you can do as you please. In The Girlfriend
Experience you will have to get to know each other first. Player and
avatar explore what they can do for each other and how far the avatar
wants to go in performing specific desires. Who is really controlling the
situation remains ambiguous. You have 10 minutes to figure out what you
can do with your avatar after that, your time is up and another players
can take your place.

The title of the project, The Girlfriend Experience, denotes the
paradoxical character that online social interaction has. On one hand, the
safe anonymity by using the avatar, on the other the intimate releases and
projections that can spread easily. For Martin Butler is this the merging
of two apparent extremes, anonymity and intimacy, which characterizes an
important part of contemporary social traffic.

The Girlfriend Experience attracted worldwide attention when it was
presented for the first time at Mediamatic from January to March 2007.

www.mediamatic.net
www.liminalinstitute.nl
www.picnicnetwork.org.

–
Martin Butler

The Liminal Institute
de Ruyterkade 149
1011 AC Amsterdam

Thank you Martin for the advance notice.

Most of these are to be brought to you by (their website) Virtually You! Hope Center For Health and Healing

We have one goal at the Center. To help and befriend all those we meet. We know that know matter what world you live in, it can be lonley and finding someone to care and listen can be hard. We are here to listen and we CARE!

Beach Party! Fun in the Sun!
June 23 Sat noon-3 PM SLT

Dancing to 80’s music on our great Aquarium Dance floor. Water slides, get a Jetski, inner tube and enjoy the water.Grab a pair of free roller skates and enjoy the skating rink!

SL4B-Primtionary Games/contest
June 23 Sat 2:00 – 3:00 PM SLT

Happy Birthday to you, Second Life, Happy Birthday to you! Come play Primtionary and celebrate a birthday celebration. Second Life has turned 4 years old. This game is the SL version of Pictionary.

Rather than drawing a sketch of something, you have to build it with prims!

This will be a themed event. You guess the theme by the words the builders are making on stage. The guesser of the theme wins 100L.

A willing builder will be given a word to build & everyone else has to guess what it is. The person who guesses correctly gets to go next & wins 50 lindens.

This is usually alot of fun & helps people get better at building at the same time!

If you are a new builder you can still take part and have fun, as you can still guess the subject/object and then pass the build part onto someone else! We always need guessers, so please stop by.

Yummie Olson’s Primtionary is proudly sponsored by Random Calliope’s Shy Neon and also sponsoring Primtionary is Wasted Jack, and they have wonderful scripted products

Adult Party brought to you by Pasha Hotel
June 23 Sat 10:00 PM – Midnight SLT

Greetings! Some of you may or may not know that this Saturday 23 June 2007 is SL’s 4 year birthday! And we would like to cordially invite you to Pasha to celebrate this very special occasion, The party runs from 10am PDT/6PM GMT till midnight …. Let’s make this a birthday to remember ! crazy sexy and cool kisses

Angels On Assignment! Gift Give Away!
24 June Sunday 6pm

What is there assignment? To GIVE You a GREAT gift IF you can find all of them!!!

IF you can find all the hidden Angels, YOU will get a gift! Search the clouds-find the Angels and get a GIFT!(No Cheating by using your map!)

Twin Day Event!
June 25,Monday 7-8pm

Twin Day! Find your twin, dress alike and win a prize!Grab a buddy and dress alike! Don’t have a twin? Dress like your favorite Celebrity!

Live Music by Thumper Boucher
26 June Tuesday 5:00 – 6:00 PM SLT

Campfire Storytelling
26 June Wednesday 7pm – 9 PM SLT

Come sit around the campfire as our staff share personal FUNNY life stories! We are going to have you ROFL all over the place!!!

Roller Derby
27 June Wednesday 7pm – 9 PM SLT

Grab a free pair of skates, a water balloon thrower and have a GREAT time blasting your friends as you skate around the rink! 80’s music.

Talent Contest!
28 June Thursday 7pm – 8 PM SLT

Got Talent? Have something fun to share? Comedy, jokes, Magic? We’ll be the judge of that! Should be a really fun Contest!

PG Jamma Party!
29 June Friday 7pm – 10 PM SLT

Wear you best pj’s and dance the night away! Water balloon, pillow fights!Great 80’s Music.

Weirdest Avatar Contest!
30 June Saturday 7pm – 10 PM SLT

Got something weird lurking in your Closet? Don’t we all? Now is the time to get it out. Weirdest prizes given!

Even if you don’t want to compete, come and have a look!!!
Not for the faint in heart!

Edited to add Events

Golam Amadeus – Meet the Artist at SL’s 4th Anniversary Celebration
6/23/07  1 PM to 2 PM SLT

Come meet the artist Golam Amadeus and chat for a bit while looking at some of his best SL…

Comedy Show at SL’s 4th Anniversary Celebration!
6/23/07  3 PM to 4 PM SLT

Come watch three hilarious standup comedians perform at the Second Life 4th birthday party, in the New Globe Theater! (3 successive shows, from 3 to 6 pm).

Max deGroot Comedy Show

Saturday, June 23  4:00  to 5:00 PM SLT

Max deGroot, of Ohio, is a 3-year veteran of Second Life and is known for his Disney-esque avatar of Goofy’s son, Max.

Daaneth Kivioq Comedy Show

Saturday, June 23  5:00  to 6:00 PM SLT

Daaneth Kivioq, of Colorado, is a philosopher, and reads up to five books per week.

   Meet Artist Nebulosus Severine
Saturday, June 23  5:00  to 6:00 PM SLT

Come meet the artist Nebulosus Severine and chat for a bit while looking at some art!

Artist Daz Honey

Saturday, June 23  6:00  to 7:00 PM SLT

Come meet the artist Daz Honey and chat for a bit while looking at some art!

Artist Bella March

Sunday, June 24  6:00  to 7:00 AM SLT

Come meet the artist Bella March and chat for a bit while looking at some lively photos of Second Life living!

Artist Mygdala March
VTOR – Virtual TO Reality › Edit — WordPressSunday, June 24  9:00  to 10:00 AM SLT
Come meet Mygdala and check out her SL comic book art exhibit

Artist Lumiere Noir
Sunday, June 24  10:00  to 11:00 AM SLT
Come meet the artist Lumiere Noir and chat for a bit while looking at some art!

Artist Nand Nerd
Sunday, June 24  11:00 AM to 12:00 PM SLT
Come meet the artist Nand Nerd and chat for a bit while looking at some art!

Artist Raul Crimson
Sunday, June 24  12:00  to 1:00 PM SLT
Come meet the artist Raul Crimson and chat for a bit while looking some lively photos of the SL experience

Artist Tenebrous Pau
Sunday, June 24  1:00  to 2:00 PM SLT
Come meet the artist Tenebrous Pau and chat for a bit while looking at some art!

Artist Nomasha Syaka
Sunday, June 24  2:00  to 3:00 PM SLT
Come meet the artist Nomasha Syaka and chat for a bit while looking at some art!

Artist Sabine Stonebender
Sunday, June 24  3:00  to 4:00 PM SLT
Come meet Sabine & check out the special art exhibit.

Artist CodeBastard Redgrave
Sunday, June 24  5:00  to 6:00 PM SLT
Come meet CodeBastard & check out the special art exhibit.

I had never been to Center on Public Diplomacy and arrived there plenty early to look the sim over. (there is a post coming on that island’s orientation area in the very near future) I wanted to arrive in time to get a seat in the main conference hall so I could see the speakers avatars, thus feeling more connected. That turned out to be a mistake due to my computers limited video card. Over 200 people showed up to hear this discussion, including many bloggers, and although split up over multiple sims… lag of course raised its ugly head.

Let me set the stage with information about the MacArthur Foundation. The MacArthur Foundation is a private, independent institution who would like to help improve human conditions around the world. (I know I simplify, but remember I am a country boy) MacArthur supports organizations working on human rights and international justice, conservation and sustainable development, housing, juvenile justice, and independent media.

MacArthur had basically decided to build a replica of their Chicago Building on an island in Second Life and say here we are. Fortunately who ever they asked for advice on this explained to them that would not be the thing to do. Now they are holding discussion groups over the next year to determine their best course of action.

I will not try to cover everything that was covered at this discussion, only a couple thing that caught my attention. The entire discussion will be archived on Spotlight, the MacArthur supported blog for digital media and learning, and Beth Kanter live blogged it over on Beth’s Blog. I can barely think fast enough to hear much less actually type it all up.

The first thing said that really perked my ears was “the hope of the MacArthur Foundation, upon entering Second Life, is to be of service in helping people come together and empowering them to do the things they want to do.” (to improve human conditions) Surely a worthy goal, and I look forward to seeing (if not participating) the different areas which should arise from this.

Jonathan Fanton then made a statement/question (I can’t quote him but) something along the line of: I have been reading articles, blogs, etc… most positive, some not so positive and dealing with security breaches, companies pulling out of Second Life, issues with pornography… Philip can you talk a bit on that for us?

Philip’s response nailed my attention. (I can’t quote him but I will try to stay with his intent) It went something like: On the topic of companies pulling out, or being successful or unsuccessful let me say; if you are looking at Second Life as little more than as a redeployment of brand or conventional media… it is not going to work. Remember when the internet and how it was adopted over time. At first businesses threw up some webpage and gradually they figured out what worked and what didn’t. Then you mentioned pornography and content… I think that “open spaces”, “free and open places” like Second Life… like the internet… are always going to have to empower people and there is always going to be, along with that empowerment, a tolerance one has to have for the many different things people are going to want to do in the space.

I don’t see a way of fixing that and I don’t want to fix it. (emphasis mine) I think that people need to be able to choose what they want to do in a new medium and we as the stewards of that medium should, and can be only minimally, ahh, controlling of those choices, and so I think that, uh yeah. Just like the people looked at the internet and said, oh goodness there is adult content here; I’m not going to come. I think those were thoughts that went away as everyone came to understand that the internet was a space that contained many things and was in the aggurate of public good.

We will do everything we can to give the people the tools to control, you know, what they want to see and not see, but we’re not going to try and control, at the highest level, what people do and wouldn’t want to.

They then went to questions from the audience, but my mind was still processing just exactly what Philip had said. Personally, I though Philip’s response was very good– although maybe in contradiction to some others statements.

Because I am a bit lazy, and Beth had already typed it up; I will quote from her blog Fanton’s closing statement.

As MacArthur begins is journey into Second Life, we begin with some assumptions. We assume that people in Second Life are people who care about others and who are open to most communicating across boundaries – both cultural and geographic. People in Second Life have optimism about what can happen and feel a strong desire to come together and work. We hope that together to make the virtual and physical worlds better. MacArthur believes that people who care and have the right information will do the right thing. We have a role to play to work with those of you in Second Life to figure appropriate policy and approaches. How can MacArthur harness the idealism that exists in Second Life?

Over all I think the MacArthur Foundation should be a welcome and successful addition to Second Life. Maybe helping to fund areas where individuals from different cultures can come together and get to know one another. Learn about each others problems and concerns, and help make the Real World a smaller, friendlier place.

This event will be held on Annenberg Island (SLURL)

What’s key about this conversation is that it will be two-way — not a monologue, but a dialogue,” Fouts adds. “It won’t be a conversation to sell people on a brand, market a new product, or to make money on ideas, but a conversation to ask the residents of virtual worlds a fundamental question: What matters here?”

Audience members are expected to include residents who, in the real world, work in fields such as higher and secondary education, non-profit, philanthropy, journalism, gaming, diplomacy, and public broadcasting, states the press release.

Here is the schedule for the the event.
Pre-Event Mixer 8:00 AM SLT – 9:00 AM SLT
Live DJ Cher Harrington spins original SL music

* with Etherian Kamaboko, Hep Shepherd, Komuso Tokugawa, Rich Desoto, Ronnie Carr, Sarah Mac Band, Smily Raymaker, Virtual Live Band
* Free t-shirts and badges
* Information on MacArthur Foundation program areas and grantmaking
* Original SL music information displays

Event 9:00 AM SLT – 9:45 AM SLT

* Join Philip Rosedale and Jonathan Fanton for a conversation about philanthropy in virtual worlds
* Short recorded video presentation
* Welcome and introductions
* Live voice stream
* Questions from the SL audience

Post-Event Reception 9:45 AM SLT – 10:30 AM SLT

* Live musician Hep Shepherd
* Free t-shirts and badges
* Information on MacArthur Foundation program areas and grantmaking
* Original SL music information displays