Spontanious Virtual Silence

A few minutes before 11am today, avatars began to arrive at Tribute Island [SLURL].

This year, there was no official presence on Remembrance Day for the fallen soldiers who gave their lives for our freedom, only on Tribute Island and Debs Regents London sims, and so people gathered at our own cenotaph amongst the tribute markers to the fallen of the Gulf and Afghanistan conflicts. This wasn't something we'd planned to do, it was totally spontaneous by the avatars who showed up. Because of that, it meant so much more.

Some 24 people, English, Scottish, Dutch etc., gathered in silent contemplation and left their own virtual messages to family and friend from past and recent conflicts. I was thanked by one lady, disabled in real life, who couldn't make it to a 'real' cenotaph this year. Many commented on the value of having a space like this to share the memory, and to use Second Life for a real world purpose to raise awareness like this, lamenting the passing of the official sim. I was rather chuffed we were of help :-)

Last year the big Remembrance Day presence had been built by The Royal British Legion (in association with Rivers Run Red) who's spectacular rebuilding of the cenotaph, and a walk through poppy fields to reach it, I didn't actually get to see except on video.

At the going down of the sun, the last post played, and we stood in silent contemplation sharing the moment of respect together.

If you get the chance, come over to Tribute Island [SLURL], pick up a poppy to wear, spend a quiet moment, or rez an tribute. Today is a day for us to remember, even in a virtual world.

RL Meet-up in London?

6pm GMT (10am SLT) onwards, Sunday 19th October ‘08? Should be a grin.

It’s the night before Virtual Worlds London at the QEII Conference Centre and I wondered if anyone fancied joining us for a social in The Greyhound, Kensington, London?

RL London will be filling up with folks from all over Europe, and I thought it might be cool to have a get together in the RL Greyhound, the bridge between realities in Kensington, to have a drink and say hello.

Situated in Second Life, opposite Northcliffe House (the SL and RL Daily Mail building in Derry Street where I work in both worlds) it’s as much part of the virtual furniture of London as the real one is of Kensington Square. Run by the same staff (oi, oi, Kwame) in both worlds it often hosts real world and virtual world cross-over events and entertains real and virtual workers and locals from the Kensington area.

So, regardless, perfect place for a pre-conference meet-up of virtual friends and work-mates from 6, including in-world press, musicians, developers and ‘mirror-world’ Kensington staff from the sims at sllondonestates.com

All are welcome. The Greyhound staff will be streaming the evening to and from the virtual pub. Come meet some of the people who work in the local area (in both worlds), look at how the 2 cross, meet other people who’ll be attending Virtual Worlds London, and help break the reality barrier :-) It’s just around the corner from High Street Kensington tube station.

Join us in RL, or join us in SL. See ya there :-)

RL: 1, Kensington Square, London, W8 5EP: Review - Map
SL: Kensington Square, Kensington W8 London. SLURL: Kensington W8 London/225/64/22

Caledon the Musical

Caledon the Musical, in aid of Relay for Life '08, from the Independent State of Caledon and Caledon Studios, Second Life. Raising over L$100,000 in the fight against cancer, the good people of Caledon donated money to be in this machinima.

In total, in '08, the fine folks of Caledon raised L$3,000,000 for Relay for Life.

Hopefully this film showcases some of the amazing sims in Caledon and the amazing variety of smashing people. This is filmed at peoples properties and at assorted locations around the steampunk Victorian sims.

May I just tip my hat, one more time, to the good peoples of Caledon and the Caledon RFL Team '08, without whom this wouldn't have been possible.

Yes, apologies, some parts of this are a bit rough and ready. When shooting so many shots with so many avatars one has to take the frame rate that's available at the time. As this was for charity, at least one shot of each group made it into the final edit. Also, being machinima, it has suffered somewhat from recompression issues during upload to YouTube so I'm displaying it above at the 320x240 (4:3) that YT likes best.

LIVE Paisley Beebe Tribute to Ella Fitzgerald

A Tribute to Ella Fitzgerald: Friday 19th September - 2PM SLT.

This week, at the island [SLURL], the one-and-only Paisley Beebe pays homage to "Lady Ella" and the "First Lady of Song", one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century. This is a lady who, over a recording career that lasted 57 years, won 13 Grammy Awards and was awarded the National Medal of Art by Ronald Reagan and the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George H. W. Bush. With a vocal range spanning three octaves, her purity of tone, phrasing and intonation, was undeniably awesome. Ella is widely considered to have been one of the supreme interpreters of the Great American Songbook. Only Paisley could do her justice.

SL has few real divas, usually wannabe divas that are all mouth and mediocre talent, but not Paisley. Paisley is the real thing. Pailsey is what SL divas should inspire to be.

Paisley Beebe is the alter ego on Second Life of the beautiful Leonie Smith, an Australian jazz vocalist, and radio host. Leonie has released multiple albums and is a professional jazz vocalist of over 15 years standing. Paisley is also CEO of "In A Perfect World" which produces "Tonight Live with Paisley Beebe", Second Life's first, and best weekly TV talk show; for which I can always be available on the couch at a moments notice Paisley, you only have to ask ;-) This is filmed live in front of a studio audience in SL every Sunday at 6PM SLT.

All this, Paisley Beebe paying live musical homage to Ella Fitzgerald, plus 2hrs of tribute tunes from our good friends the DJ's of Radio Riel, all in honor of Ella.

This is part of our ongoing live events season at Tribute Island, not many left to go now, sponsored by the good folks at Lasting Tribute, and in association with Prim Perfect Magazine (and my good friend Saffia Widdershins) and Radio Riel (and my good friend Gabi Riel), loverly ladies and talented divas in their own right ;-)

Being Friday, I may have to lay off on the voice chat out of respect (it being Talk Like a Pirate day) an' all.

Up For Virtual Worlds London?

Early Registration ends this coming Friday, 19 September 2008, for Virtual Worlds London. Go sort it now, ya save ya'self 400 notes.

Billed as "the leading European event for businesses seeking to understand and maximize business strategies within virtual worlds". Virtual Worlds London is the 5th such world event by Virtual Worlds News, and takes place at The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre (a cheery '70s abomination right across the street from Westminster Abbey) from the 20th to the 21st of October.

In my capacity as a business alt, I'll be propping up the bar and checking out a good cross section of the keynotes and presentations on both days (probably blogging it etc. as I go). If you do go, drop me a line or a twitter when you get there and we'll do booze and RL. An evening meet-up in The Greyhound in Kensington (that strange SL/RL crossing point of metaversal paradox in the centre of the city) is invariably a must :-)

TANGO Live Tonight for Astor Piazzolla

Tonight at 1PM SLT (9PM GMT), at Tribute Island in the virtual world of Second Life, Joaquin Gustav’s pays musical tribute to Astor Piazzolla.

One of the most important tango composers of the late 20th century, Astor was responsible for revolutionising the genre.

Argentinian artist, Joaquin Gustav (a composer, director, & teacher) is rich in smooth Jazz sound, tempered with classical rock, and steeped in those south American sounds of Tango, Milonga, and Candombe. When Joaquin first came to SL he spoke very little English and has used the virtual world as a tool to learn the language, now speaking what his fans affectionately call 'Spanglish'. His beautiful and passionate acoustic sets are legendary in Second Life, and Astor is clearly a great influence on his music.

The concert will be followed by 2hrs of dancing & music from the top draw DJ's of Radio Riel. Once again, an event not to be missed. These gigs are joint sponsored by Prim Perfect, Radio Riel, and Lasting Tribute. You can visit Tribute Island here [SLURL].

Elvis Lives

Now, I like Elvis impersonators, which is probably a sickness of that I'm aware.

Way, way back in our 'Heroes of Film' days, when we had the office in Bradford, there was this curry house we used to go to called 'Tandoori Nights'. The place had a fountain in the middle of it, a tiny stage, and used to have these 3 Asian Elvis impersonators (one of which was on of the waiters) on a Wednesday night. We used to take investors and funding people there, it never failed to impress. Everyone loves a decent curry, and a good rendition of 'In the Ghetto' sung by a grown man dressed in sequins.

Well worth hangin' around the house this Saturday night, on Tribute Island [SLURL] in Second Life, come check out the BEST of SL tribute stars, the one, the only, a session from the soul, BubbaC John. BubbaC is an award-winning Elvis impersonator who can trace his Mississippi roots back to the King himself, and he's streaming live to a max of 100 guests August 16, this Saturday, 1SLT, 31 years to the day after the death of Elvis. Personally, to honour the man himself and the fine work of BubbaC, I'll be ordering in a vegetable Jalfrazi, tarka dhal, and a plain nan.

Get there early, this is bound to be packed. I'm getting the fireworks out for this one, come feel the lag. Hail to the king, and pass the lime pickle.

Greyhound London: Kensington SL Meetup

Backdated post, with thanks to MalBurns :-)

Live @ Tribute [from SecondLife]

Louis Volare playing live, NOW, his tribute to John Lennon on Tribute Island in Second Life - http://tinyurl.com/5r9tz4 [SLURL]

DMGT in SL

Finished a quick edit of the new DMGT build.

Richard Dawkins Discusses Second Life

An oldie I just rediscovered. I got a lot of time for Dawkins :-)

Wonderful World

I'd like to say this was a doddle to throw together, but in all honesty, it was a lagfest of doggedly running around the grid trying to find stuff to tag to lyrics. Big thanks to 'my shape changing assistant' and the 'purple people eater' for saving my bacon. Still, all in a worthy cause.

Big Green Shop

Well, all that scrubbing around with vendors and slave-driving of friends paid off today. Big Green Switch is now in SL! :-)

We've just spent a month building content for a kinda Big Green Switch treehouse 'eco-emporium' (good name Steve).

We've stuff from cool sculptie recycling bins and sun-trackin' solar lights through to wind speed tracking wind turbines and even full eco-homes! Check out the 15 bespoke flowers from Soliel Snook, like, seriously nice work. We're near ABs plot at Gourdneck (yup, that's mainland), and we've tonnes of environmentally-friendly products and gadgets to be picked up for free by any hardy SL bod who happens by.

Each freebie has info and links about how it can be of environmental benefit back in the real world. Basically, residents are encouraged to take the stuff and spread it throughout our humble little virtual world, at the same time spreading the message about smarter, greener living. That's the plan at any rate.

As well as the eco-freebies we're giving away, we're also offering SL residents the ability to carbon offset their Avatar’s (or their sims) carbon footprint. Sweet :-)

Here's how it works - a SL user purchases our set of 10 swanky and exclusive (Carricre 'Wood Wizard' Wind) trees for L$3000, then 100% of that money goes into the dedicated Big Green Switch offsetting fund. Periodically, the fund is converted into UK Sterling then invested in tree planting schemes via the UK's Tree Appeal organization. SL land owners can also carbon offset their sim, for a measly L$1000 for 12 months. Bargain :-)

So join us at our BGS treehouse eco-boutique [SLURL] and come bag some quality freebies.

Tribute Opening Party

It's the official opening island party, now! Folks are gathering :-)

Tribute Island opens 'officially' right now [slurl], with a big blow-out DJ bash from renowned SL DJ, DJ Jenns (his last in SL before his upcoming Italian season), and top Caledon favourite (and CodePoet) ZenMondo Wormser.

Prizes, competitions. good tunes, dancing, loads to explore (and all obsessively WindLight optimised).

2pm - 6pm: DJ Jenns (Euro shift)
6pm - 10pm: Zenmondo Wormser (Pacific shift)

Come over if you can, bring friends, and have a good browse around, do some dancing, and meet some of the folks who made the sim possible.

Tribute Island is about celebrating the lives of the people we've lost and loved. About showing the information we have, as a news and media company, in a different way. It's about the people who have inspired us, entertained us, selflessly protected us, and have filled our lives with sound and colour.

The island has tributes from the British Army, Navy, and RAF, to the political, scientific, and Hollywood classics. Most of the exhibits we've made interactive in some way, so pop over for some music and to enjoy exploring, and click the exhibits for freebies and to leave your own tribute (oh, and Treasure Hunt prize just went up to L$6k and theres a brand new GeoCache).

Tribute Looking Good

Nice to see Tribute Island turning up in the press overnight. Things are looking good.

She was listed as top place to visit yesterday in Jen Hienrich and Relic Starbrooks 'The Best of Second Life' and there are some nice comments appear in Seamus McCauley's 'Virtual Economics' (on the collision of news publishing, digital media and technology) about him reflectively looking for a friends marker in the military section. We're also featured on 'Hold The Front Page' (the journalism site for journalists) this morning and in a couple of blogs (like those of Edward Pearse, Daz, Guen DeCuri, Eladrienne Laval and Aleister Kronos etc.). Just for a bit more traffic, check out our 'virtual ammo-box' at SLGeocaching too :-)

When I say 'things are looking good', I should actually be saying that 'things have never looked better'.

If you get the chance, pop along [slurl] and take a look at us with the new WindLight (FirstLook) client, available here.

SO damn beautiful, and the island looks so cool, I think this is really going to change my SL experience. I love it. Photo-real seas, stunning rolling clouds, gobsmacking light sourcing, added improvements to the Sky Editor dialog, improved glow and rendering tricks to minimize lag and add stability, Tribute was just made for this kind of thing.

“They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old; Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning. We will remember them.”

I'm liking today already :-)

Open for Remembrance Day

Tribute Island is now open to all visitors (posh official opening 'put-a-suit-on-hippy' party coming soon).

Hopefully we can make some pennies for The Legion today (as it's Remembrance Day).

The bloggers party went well last night, and we didn't crash the sim (tho we had a damn good go). A few people have been in touch asking to place tributes already. Come take a look [SLURL], or I'll spam you all with LM's :-)

Also, check this video out about the new British Legion SL Garden of Remembrance (Rivers Run Red) which is 9 sims worth from the looks of the map, at Poppy 5 (128, 128, 0).



Alas I can't seem to get access to the sims yet (might just be me tho). This video is SO beautiful, I'm really look forward to checking this one out :-)

Tribute is Coming

So, what have I been going on about for the last couple of months?

Now I can talk about it :-)

Saturday, at 2pm - 5pm SLT, will be the SLBloggers Bash at Tribute Island [slurl] (and, I'm glad to say, this won't be our Zoe's last shindig as head honcho).

Expert DJing c/o Radio Riel (who are doing a bloody excellent "Music from the Middle Ages" today). No point in going there 'till 10 minutes before the start tho, as the sim will still be closed and, during the do, only open to group members. After that it's open house.

My company have very kindly given the exclusive on this place to the real reporters of SL, the bloggers, and another 'official' opening will be happening in the next week or so. I'm well chuffed on this, being a bit of an SLBlogger since the groups inception, and it just goes to show how attitudes have changed in the media and within our field (RL journalism) in particular ;-)

For the record, Tribute Island was built during October ’07 by Associated Northcliffe Digital (part of the DMGT Group), with the senior design consultants and master builders of Wind Meta Works, and has been something of a labor of Hercules. 65,536 m2 of highly detailed content, made by a tiny team.

Anyway, so, what is Tribute Island [slurl] and why the big secret? Basically, it's all about celebrating the lives of the people we've lost and loved. People who have inspired us, entertained us, selflessly protected us, and who have filled our lives with sound and colour. The island is a SL based (and totally FREE) 3D sculpture and tribute park. Why a secret? Well, it's work and that's the nature of 9-5.

'Tribute' is roughly divided into topical areas (see the map above). You really have to see the British Military section, where we've replicated individual tribute markers to all the UK soldiers and military personnel who've lost their lives in the continuing conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. It's incredibly sobering.

Hopefully folks can get into some serious exploring, and click the exhibits for freebies, to make donations to charities, or to leave your own tribute (through our links with the Lasting Tribute website, so the sim can stay locked down tight). We hope to support the place by holding regular events and making something out of this sim, not just abandon projects to self maintenance like other corps do, so keep coming back or IM me ('Nikk Huet') to get involved.

I'll be setting up a Tribute Island Group today if I get the chance, so come join for updates. Most of the exhibits are interactive in some way and this place has loads of ‘Easter eggs’ (just for fun) and stuff to explore that we've been slaving over for weeks.

Anyway, please feel free to pop over after Saturday and say ‘hi’ if you see me or one of our staff in the sim :-)

While I have the chance I'd like to personally thank a few folks, namely Carricre Wind, Firiel McGann, Lapin Paris, Andr00 Darkstone, Posemaster Darkstone and Terry Lightfoot, with individual tributes and help from the likes of Brad Sabre, KP Pera, Sen Pixie, DALEK Drillon, Butterfly Laa, TheDove Rhode, Shadowen Silvera, Jimbo Perhaps, Desmond Shang, Emilly Ladybird, Grafix Writer, AngryBeth Shortbread, Cornelia Rothschild, Alfonso Avalanche, Mike Calhoun, Gabrielle Riel, Cheen Pitney and Ub Yifu, for their awesome builds, help, kind encouragement, coffee, sleepless nights, and support. Just a few of the great people who stood behind this project and understood what we were trying to do.

As of the Bloggers event we're open (ish) so please, if you get the chance, explore the island, take some time to contemplate and think about some of the exhibits, and help celebrate the lives of the people represented here.

If you have any ideas for tributes, events, fund raisers or want to get involved, IM me ('Nikk Huet') or catch me on the grid.

Classic Audience Stats

Funny one I spotted on the news feed today about the Classic FM Gramophone Awards.

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra gripped a gong for 'audience innovation', and guess why? Yup, the inevitable.

The Phil gave a live concert in SL back in September. Sweet, good on 'em, however, according to the orchestra "9 million Second Life denizens watched the performance live on Second Life's own cable network".

Er, so that's me, you, shed loads of failed registrations and all our alts then? As if SL user stats weren't ambiguous enough.

Well, if nowt else, it's innovative mathematics.

Positive Words on Virtual Worlds

"It's kind of like getting your life back again, but even better in some ways," she said. "I've met so many people. I can walk. I can dance. I can even fly. Without this I'd just be staring at four walls. Mentally it's helped me so much."

Here's a nice article, positive for once, in todays Washington Post. True too, I've seen it in practice.

Machinimatographers Unite

The lovely Miss Iridium Linden has set up a mailing list and wiki for machinima enthusiasts, so if you haven't already joined the machinimatographers in Second Life mailing list, here is the link.

Here's Iridium's posting on the list and wiki.