News February 5, 2012

Michael Too may have returned to Blue Mountain. Darnit with a great big, helping spoonful of double darnit if so! That means I may be blocked from [working on] Norris/NORRIS/norris this spring. Deep double duty darnit. Both the wife and I thought we saw him hitchhiking on the road that our house is down on Friday. I’ll know soon enough.

If so, this means I’ll have to focus away from Norris, and luckily I live in a great place with nice big parks so there’s room for others besides me to create their own extensive outdoors mythology and not have it impinge *too* much on my own. It’s more Allen Knob (Norris *and* Whitehead Crossing and more) that will be affected. But maybe it’s not him… or he’s not really back. If so, though, Big News. I do not have The Freedom any longer. Not completely. Not at all completely.

I think this deserves a separate post from Second Life material.

What are the options if he returns, and even if that wasn’t him and we were both hallucinating or sumtin, he *could* return. He lived in that park for at least 4 years before disappearing this past summer/fall. The focus may shift to Quartz Brook. Maybe Secret Creek in Frank Park (Secreek). Maybe even the Trident Creeks region in far western Frank. Maybe Granddaddy Mountain (probably not — focus should remain in Frank and Herman Parks[, baby]).

I’m thinking of creating a new web site, and including the wife’s travelogue about her journey to England in 2010 with our mutual best friend. Along with this will be a site about “Baker Bloch in England” (my avatar’s journey to same, with some of the same locations involved, even), and also two sections, likewise taken from the Baker Blinker Blog, about the creation and flow of the Wheeler-Jasper series, the last in the “Collage 10×10”.

Parallels to the Paradox site:

Floydada (about Greenup series, beg of 10×10) par. Wheeler-Jasper section of blog (about Wheeler-Jasper series, end of 10×10) name of latter: “Baker’s Dozen”?

Edna’s Britain travelogue par. Edna’s Queer Eye stories.

Baker Bloch in England — no par.?

SID’s 1st Oz interview with Booker T. par. Oz/Floyd Paradox Interview?

Where are we on that?

Name of series is yet to be determined. Since all is England influenced, I suppose it could include the name Britain. “Britain, Britain, Britain”?

Gallery in the Rocks March 5, 2011

I’ve already mentioned in this previous post about how I’ve transformed the empty Gallery None structure into the Gallery of the Rocks, and featuring the photography and art of Stegokitty within. Well, here’s some of the details.

Floor 1 is filled with texture rich photos such as, right to left, “Tombstone 5,”…

… “Hudson,” “Gas Station Curb in the Rain,” “TPC Photoclub 004,”…

… the wonderful “Underbelly” (snapped beneath the bridge crossing the Blackstone River in Lincoln, Rhode Island), and finally “Creamery”, taken through a car window on a rainy day.

Floor 2 offers up Stegocat’s first digital collage named “I Wake Up My Family”. I think what I like most about what in my opinion is a really nice piece of art is that it all builds up from a relatively empty landscape. We are left to ponder where this could actually be set — a golf course? someone’s back yard? The fading in of the child as he drifts down from the sky to land on terra firma in the foreground may imply the “waking up” part. Is Stegocat himself the sun here, the “I” of the title? And what of the green head partially seen in the lower corner with the same face? I really like, also, the contrast of sea green and gold in these two figures, mirrored as well in the different shaped “snowflakes” running east to west across the picture that divide them from each other.

The 2005 painting beside it is quite interesting as well: another sun/flame image in the top half of the picture, with one eye instead of two this time and with what appears to be little sickles sticking out of each side. Menacing flame figure? Balancing this out at the bottom is a similarly golden pyramid emitting lighting bolt shapes, with the center occupied by what seems to be another Egyptian derived figure: a variation of the winged disk or winged sun. The 4 ants may be a tribute to Dali (?) Great colors here again, and similar to the palette used in “I Wake Up My Family” beside it, add in the brilliant red of the central wings and ants.

Which naturally leads into a discussion of “Big Red Barn Yellow Head” on the opposite wall of floor 2. Here we have the same solar face as appears in “I Wake…”, but without the halo flames, and snugly encompassed in a black, square opening in the barn facade. The head now is also tilted in the opposite way: symbolic of falling asleep instead of waking up? And what of the bright, red barn?

The rich, gold color acting as a focus for all 3 major art works on floor 2 is what really sticks out for me in looking at them through Baker Bloch’s eyes now. In contrast, I decided to frame “Big Red Barn Yellow Head” with two darker and more subdued pieces, both dealing with peephole experiments.

Floor 3 brings us more minimal landscape effects, including 4 pictures of the same signpost taken at the relatively same angle that I decided to animate in pairs and position beside each other, another highlight of the exhibit I feel. To their right is a more manipulated picture called “Field of Fear”. Indeed!

Another great, open landscape picture, but I’m not sure how well it translates onto a Second Life prim. I’m counting (through Baker Bloch eyes right now, again) 5 larger rocks in the background, all of which must be at least 10 feet long. I definitely feel a desire to step into the picture and walk out into the field and to the rocks for further investigation. I’ll have to ask Stegocat where this is taken.

Baker has to stretch out his back a bit before heading up to floor 4 to complete our tour. Must have gotten up from the pillow on floor 2 in an awkward manner, he postulates.

Snowy landscapes greet Baker on floor 4, with more great contrasts of color. I especially like the implied mystery surrounding the central shack of the left picture. What would it be like to wake up on this very morning there to such beautiful surroundings?

Then we close our tour with “Night Snow Scene”, taken through a car window again, and then, lastly and appropriately, “Goodnight”, which implies that the inclusive hand is about to perhaps painfully extinguish a flame to end the day.

Well done Stegocat!

About-Face… March 1, 2011

I decided to put an exhibit in the structure formerly known as Gallery Nine or Gallery None, which has been renamed “Gallery in the Rocks”. The featured (permanent?) artist is Rhode Island native Stegokitty, an old “syncher” friend just like Mike Casey, and who runs a popular site on the subject called The Definitive List. Very happy he gave me permission to tinker around with his flickr pics and see what I could come up with. I must admit I like the results quite a bit. Interesting how each Pietmond artist’s work seems to perfectly slot into the space I’ve made for them (!) Certainly an interesting illusion at the least.

Like with the Norum Gallery holding the collage pieces of Julie Sadler, the new gallery is a 4 floor affair, and tall-ish but narrow.

*****

Baker continues, then, to poke around Pietmond, sitting in one of the nifty Moard Ling chairs of the Pod Room, the upper of 3 floors in the TILE Temple. Still don’t know what to do with this area. Is a remodeling of the TILE Temple in the works sometime this spring or summer? Could be.

Baker keeps exploring: Pietmond South Gallery February 28, 2011

Let’s send Baker Bloch over to Pietmond South Gallery, then, while he’s in the area.

The Kenneth Rougeau exhibit has been set up on floor 1 (of 4) for several weeks now, actually, with a core being examples from his powerful “Alice” digital collages. Kenneth discusses these works and others on the front page of his home site here:

http://kennethrougeau.com/

Some non-Alice inspired pieces top off the collection.

I was very fortunate, I feel, to find Kenneth’s art very quickly in a google search for “synchronicity + collage.” It was only a bit later that I learned of his Second Life connection, which made it easier to pitch the exhibit idea to him, I suppose. He knew the process, having his own SL gallery as well at one time. And as I recently mentioned in this blog, Mr. Rougeau has basically switched over to OpenSim for viritual artistic needs these days. I’ll have to head over there sometime to see what he’s come up with.

And just for educational purposes, mind you, I’ve also set up a Max Ernst exhibit on floor 3 of Pietmond South for now, with the high res textures used therein (paintings/collages) mainly culled from the now defunct Giornale Nuovo blog I stumbled across several years back.

The other floors of Pietmond South remain vacant for now, but I have some further ideas. Another of those “stay tuned!” affairs, then.

Stan And Lee January 6, 2011

(joined in progress)

“We might need a new spirit.”

bb:

West End spirit… cool.

Hucka D.:

Blog-e-bloh

bb:

Where I visited tonight, perhaps centered around West End town itself or maybe the Irish village off the West Coast Road as well.

Hucka D.:

Rent there. Explore. Talk to the sheep. Give them direction.

bb:

Right.

Hucka D.:

Sunklanders and West Enders traditionally didn’t get along. Then there were the Hillbodies… from the hills.

bb:

West End Hills.

Hucka D.:

Yes. Led by Chief Tonto, a baker. Chef Tonto. Tonka.

bb:

Maybe Pietmond would know more about what went on in West End.

Hucka D.:

West End City holds secrets, still. Two roads into West End; two cultures.

bb:

I suppose that land I was going to buy in the heart of the West End Hills would be the center of the native culture. Indians?

Hucka D.:

Indian village, yes. Nice curry restaurant.

bb:

Run by Curry.

Hucka D.:

Yes. You spelled that right for a change.

bb:

Eddie?

Hucka D.:

Wanda.

bb:

OK, Wanda, then. Wanda Curry.

Hucka D.:

Blem… Blem Hasslehorf. Pietmond knows.

bb:

I don’t think I want to go there tonight.

Hucka D.:

Oh sure.

bb:

No.

Pietmond:

Helli Ho. Organtis Mantra Wattup Hellio. Hellio. Hello.

bb:

Hi Pietmond. What’s up? What’s new?

Pietmond:

Organto Helio Rumpus Gombcake. Cake. Re… right-e-o. Lilly pad ompus ronko white cake. Surup. Pancake. Peddals. Pett. Pet. White. Cake. Rumpus. Olean. Ti. Stanlee. Lee. Stan and Ledd. Lee. Ledd. Lead. Lea. Leaaaaaaaaaaa…

Hucka D.:

Pietmond becomes broke now. We better end.

bb:

Stanlee?

bb:

Apparently The Beatles use to perform in Stanlee, Hucka D., although I’m not sure this is West End City.*

Hucka D.:

Yes. West End. Marty. Marty was from West End. That’s where he was recruited. He didn’t like Sunklands as much as West End. West End is where Marty lived and played drums bass. He came to Sunklands to work, is all. West End.

bb:

Quite fascinating, Hucka D. Is this pre-Big Ink incident?

Hucka D.:

Of course not.

bb:

What was so special about Sunklands?

Hucka D.:

They could escape the wholesale changes made by the Linden grid. They could retain Ancient energy. Ancient Rising. But West End was prettier. Still is. But the sinks have energy unique to Second Life. This is about energy, then. Ancient power… Ancient rising power. Power. Energy. Clean. Atomics.

*****

bb:

Looks like this Melodie Darwin is doing some kind of picture tour of Jeogeot. Must add her to the blog links!

http://www.sluniverse.com/pics/ProfilePage.aspx?Name=Melodie%20Darwin

Hucka D.:

You are not alone. There are others.

*****

bb:

Ah hah! Melodie’s blog (!)

http://lostmainlander.blogspot.com/

==========
* Appropriate snapzilla pictures here (from 2007):

http://www.sluniverse.com/pics/Search.aspx?Sim=Stanlee

Jeogeot West, etc., 02 January 5, 2011

So now we come to what is or was perhaps the center of the *second* West End culture, again according to wise guy Hucka D. I suppose the name of this urban grunge style town would technically be West End Shipping according to the land description, but let’s call it West End City. For now.

So here it is, situated in the Stanlee sim. Very gray-brown, and taking up something less than 1/2 the sim’s area. Is this *really* where Marty lived (again, in Hucka -speak)?

I would return the next night for additional poking around, so I’ll save more blog talk re WEC for posts just above.

West End City lies at the western terminus of West Coast Road, adjacent to this mole creation celebrating their own culture’s discovery of the first sculpted prim. A more artistic picture of this sculpture by my new SL and Jeogeot pal Melodie Darwin is here, making the work look much larger than it does in virtual person.

In fact, my own discovery of this photo first alerted me to Ms. Darwin’s own, extensive interest in Jeogeot, as demonstrated in her several picture albums from the Snapzilla site (to date: “Circumnavigating Jeogeot”, “Route 10”, and “Route 9”).

http://ww.sluniverse.com/pics/ProfilePage.aspx?Name=Melodie%20Darwin

Fabulous to find another, contemporary Jeogeot explorer!

Behind the mole statue looms this more interesting building that looks like a giant coconut.

Interior shots first — there’s my free waterfall again (!), presently set up in not one but two places in Pietmond (extreme eastern and western sides). Free plants all around the waterfall as well.

Also in the hollow coconut innards is this “transporter box”, apparently non-operational. Judging from extensive construction being shaped in the sky just above, it appears all this is still a work in progress, as they say. The parcel’s name is “u lu lo chu i,” and owned by Achila Sparrow under the group Zen Monster. Looks like Achila owns about 1/8th of Nightfield just west of Stanlee, and has used only about a third of her allotted prims in that sim so far.

Exterior.

In the northwest corner of Dreamtime, caddy-corner to Nightfield, Baker finds a small, furnished cottage for rent. He can’t enter the parcel, though — someone currently renting it and blocking access? A curiously small building surrounded by much larger structures, which is what attracted Baker to examine it more closely in the first place.

Moving back into Nightfield, Baker finds a strange, two lidded chest filled with gold on an islet in a very blue-green pool. The inclusive 512 parcel is owned by avatar Shandon Loring, who describes himself as both a real and virtual traveler of many times, places, and worlds.

Still in Nightfield, Baker finds this nice patio overlooking the ocean to take a well deserved break. But he could personally do without the fake snow; his user has seen enough of that in RL lately!