… new Blinkerton art in the foyer of the house. 2 composites from his abstract expressionist period. I think they fit quite well here. They’re pretty big!
…
This is a 3rd Blinkerton already hanging in the house that Blinks moved to a different wall to make room for the composite pictured just above.
She did a great job with these.
bb:
Good morning CNB?
CNB:
Good morning baker. Congratulations on the new house. Looks great.
bb:
Thanks C. But it, of course, is your house too, once you get that avatar thing going again.
CNB:
Yes, I’ve been thinking about that. Nice that Edna came inworld with you and you both walked around the neighborhood.
bb:
Ran (laughs).
CNB:
Yes, ran. I’m sure it was a sight to see.
bb:
So Chuck, we need to talk about your arrangement with us a bit. Obviously you’re a member of Blink Or Your Gone when you get the avatar, but in the meantime…
CNB:
Baker, I have a request. Or an offer. A favor I guess. How much do you actually use Hucka D.?
bb:
Not sure…
CNB:
I mean, he’s basically dormant now, correct?
bb:
I suppose. Do you want to *be* Hucka D.?
CNB:
Well, I noticed the other day when I was playing around with Second Life for the first time in a long time that the Blinker surname is not an option now. I wanted to create the new avatar that day but I didn’t.
bb:
Chuck, can you now answer me about the situation with Linden Labs and Lemon World? Have you not gone inworld since 2002?
CNB:
That would seem to be the case. I often dream of Second Life. Of being there. And in a way I’ve never left, I suppose. But something happened when I lost the art maze in The Man. Only now is it being resolved. Azure.
bb:
Yes, a sure sign. The reemerging of Lemon plus Lime. I’m going to put that labyrinth way up in the air so we all can walk it.
CNB:
Good. Look forward to it. (pause)
bb:
So Chuck, we still have to resolve a couple of things. Are you the last of the Long Hope Indians?
CNB:
I’m addicted to this blue holly drink. I do know that. I’m azure through and through. Like those Fremen people of Dune. It’s greatly inspired my art. So yes, maybe I am the last.
bb:
And the portal in Long Island Sound [sim] was another sign. What happened to you in 1956 was similar except in the real world of course. Teleportation options opened up at Long…
CNB:
Right. To Hilo Peak. Peaks.
bb:
Another new cluster of ideas that hasn’t been fully written out in this blog yet are the portals in Frank Park. On the RIVER, as I call it. This is another teleportation system…
CNB:
Lemon World is in Frank Park.
bb:
You think so? I thought it was on Hilo Peak. In 2002 and then 2008.
CNB:
It’s behind your house.
bb:
Which one? Real or virtual?
CNB:
It will come to you.
bb:
You mean, out of the woods? Or like an idea comes to you?
CNB:
Blue.
bb:
Good morning CNB. Glad to know you’re feeling somewhat better.
CNB:
Considerably better. I’m about ready to take that plung into SL again. Thanks for scouting some of the Azure Islands for me the past several days and sending the snapshots. I want to invest wisely but I believe that’s where I could or should be anchored.
bb:
Love the open spaces… the void sims.
CNB:
I’ll have to go soon. And to the portal on [delete name] islands. Although I didn’t get into SL yet, I did take a road trip the other day to Tyrone.* Not much there but I took pictures and also jotted down the names of all the streets.
bb:
I’d like to see the pictures. Did you go to Burro Peak as you planned as well?
CNB:
I didn’t quite feel up to a hike of that rigour yet. But soon.
bb:
I have a theory that Azure Island, the main one, is as close as SL has to Baker’s Island, you know, from the beginning of my blog. The real island in Nova Scotia. This is where the merger of Lemon and Lime resurfaces and is resolved, Chuck. Pretty sure of that. If you don’t buy land there, I might.
CNB:
Maybe we should be neighbors. Did you see any art?
bb:
Not much. Some of a sexual nature but that was only the second largest island, not the first. There’s also a walled community on the second island. There are 4 or 5 larger islands altogether and then a desert region as well. I’ll explore it all for you. Maybe this weekend. I’m just walking, or better, running the roads, like I use to do on the mainlands.
CNB:
I’d like enough room to set up the maze again. I’ll let you put your collages up too. It would be a gallery of some kind. Have you started your chromagraph research up again yet?
bb:
Not quite yet. I need to pull out the old notebooks. Resolve my keyboard issue. A keyboard is more important than land on Azure Island now?
CNB:
Of course.
bb:
One could also have a skybox gallery.
CNB:
I’d like to merge Baker’s Island and Azure’s Island. ISLAND. SPRITE.
bb:
A cave would be nice too!
(to be continued)
* Chuck now knows that there are only 2 Azure population places in the US, one of which is a variant name of the Tyrone he mentions visiting in this post. It is located just ne of his Hidalgo County, in the neighboring county of Grant. The other Azure, the only non-variant strain, lies in Hill County, Montana. I was able to convince Chuck that this represents the merger of Lemon (World) and Lime (World) again through keyword Sprite (lemon-lime), since basketball player Grant Hill (combo of two county names which Azure manifests in) was a notable spokesperson for this product in the 90s (“Grant Hill Drinks Sprite”). Both Chuck and I took it as a sign that the Azure Islands are a key to his reentry into SL. Thus my commission to explore them for him.
I know I’m getting a little behind in writing texts for these posts, once again, but I didn’t want to forget about Charles. Let’s give him a ring up shall we?
“Yes?”
bb:
Hi Chuck. baker here.
CNB:
Yes, hi baker.
bb:
We haven’t spoke for a number of days and thought I’d just check in and see how you are.
CNB:
Oh, doing ok. I looked at the blog today actually. Where are these portals you speak of? Are they actual, tested portals between SL and RL possibly? I noticed one is in SL… that campfire bit.
bb:
Glad to clarify, at least what I know. There’s one that seems to act as a true, up-to-date and functioning portal between SL and RL, or there’s one that’s the main candidate in that category. This would be the first I describe on the [RIVER], the one where this river enters Frank Park from the west. It is the highest point of the river within the park, then, closest to the source. The second portal I described seems to be dead in comparison, at least as far as I can tell — and mind you I know *very little* of what I actually speak of here (laughs).
CNB:
Yes (laughs as well). Well, I’m still not grasping it. Say I create a new avatar in SL. That Uriginal Blinker, perhaps. Now is there a place in SL that I can actually teleport into RL through that Frank Park portal? Perhaps that campfire you show in SL in one of the newer posts?
bb:
That’s the working theory, yeah. And there are resonances to back it up. I postponed discussing them so I could talk to you tonight.
CNB:
Well thanks for that. Perhaps we can just use this discussion to talk about the resonance.
bb:
Ok, perhaps. What have you been up to?
CNB:
I’ve felt a little under the weather lately. Still trying to get over a bout of flu. Harder to recover at my age, you see.
bb:
But you’re getting better now? You sound pretty strong.
CNB:
Still weak, though (coughs).
bb:
Well, as you know, I’ve basically finished the Hidalgo series. Strange that I’ve been reattracted to SL, but my focus is now away from the mainlands. Take this new continent, Greta. Soon it will be a patchwork of homes, with little green space and no roads. No, I’ve decided now to focus on lesser continents that are not as much in control of Linden Labs. Like Azure Islands. Did you know, Chuck, there’s an Azure just up the road from you in neighboring Grant County, just below Burro Peak?
CNB:
No baker, I didn’t.
bb;
I think it’s called Tyrone now. Azure is a variant name. There’re only two overall in the U.S., though.
CNB:
Fascinating you know so much about tiny places like this. Do you take it as some kind of sign?
bb:
Well, maybe. Would you like to go to the Azure Islands with me, Chuck? Perhaps Caledon as well?
CNB:
How about that portal. What’s Bart Simpson got to do with that? No… Homer. Is that the name of the father in the show, the overweight, slobby fellow?
bb:
Yeah, Homer. That was just part of Baker Bloch’s dream. I don’t think he was really on the tv screen in that house next to the proposed portal. But I believe it is a portal still.
CNB:
Hmmm… when can we meet to look at it?
bb:
You know, Chuck, it might just be a good idea for both of us to keep a lookout at that portal area. Kind of take shifts checking into the place.
CNB:
Sign me up. Or, I suppose, I should sign myself up. Where is a good place to meet inworld?
bb:
We could meet in Just Call Me Ernie Banks? which I think I’ll perhaps rename Just Call Me Mr. Cub. Maybe I should just rename myself Ernie Banks. Ernest Banks.
CNB:
EB.
bb:
Yeah, short and sweet. But about the portal, I’ll just give you the SLurl and we can meet there. Sit on the porch… there’s two chairs. And also two fishing poles if you’re into that. I’ll show you the directly resonating teleport device… can’t be an accident. Two minds are better than one kind of thing. No commitments, though, Chuck. Won’t be insulted if you think the whole thing rubbish.
CNB:
So the two campfire spots, this one in SL and the other one in RL, might be directly connected.
bb:
I don’t think they’re campfire locations, Chuck. Portals.
CNB:
Ok. Portals. Are they connected, though?
bb:
There could be some kind of magic word that links the two. Like Hidalgo linked the Rodeo sim island with Hilo Peak. We never finished talking about your Indian connections, btw.
CNB:
Oh yeah. Forgot about that.
bb:
I think we should check out the tv as well. Bloch’s dream may be a portent.
CNB:
Maybe the tv is the portal.
(to be continued)
“Middle of the evening to you, CNB!” (baker laughs)
CNB:
Good to hear from you again baker.
bb:
Tonight we wish to focus on your writing more than your art, perhaps, but we’ll see.
CNB:
Yes. Thanks again.
bb:
You didn’t write before getting to New Mexico in, what was it, ’57?
CNB:
Yes. No. I didn’t write. The work I started in New Mexico evolved straight from the art I was doing. Ernst’s collage novels were an inspiration as well. A Week of Kindness, or The Seven Deadly Sins. I may have taken the title, Red Squirt Seven, directly from this work. Hard to remember now for some reason.
bb:
How long was it? You stated it was a cut-up, also inspired by William Burroughs’ work, then.
CNB:
Another direct influence. The work itself was 201 chapters long. Although this wasn’t the direct source of the book, since it came much later, I realized in 2001 some quite interesting parallels with 9/11, specificallly the design of the two towers themselves.
bb:
How so?
CNB:
The book was designed as two squares, shall we say, of basically 100 chapters each. The book has the ability, though, to shift 10 chapters over from its center to make two books of, first, 90 chapters, and then 110 chapters. But it is not two books until it makes this shift; it is not two books of 100 chapters and then 100 more chapters. It only manifests as two books during this shift. 9/11, then.
bb:
I don’t quite get it, although we tried to talk about it a little last night before starting this new episode of our interviews tonight. Perhaps an illustration would be best. I know also this is based upon the structure of Psalm 46 from the King James Bible.
CNB:
Right. That’s how it all started. That’s the *causal* origin of the structure. Each chapter represents 1 word of this Psalm, minus the 3 “selahs”, which are space fillers or represent pauses between certain verses, which happen to number 11 as well. The attraction to this particular Psalm, twice the number of the much more famous Psalm 23, is its connection with Shakespeare. Do I need to go over that here?
bb:
Well, let me get you started. I know that the word “shake” is the 46th word from the beginning of this particular Psalm, and the word “spear” is the 46th word from the end of the Psalm. Minus the “Selahs” as you said. Combined they make Shakespear, which could be translated as “Shakespeare”, as in The Bard. It just so happens that Shakespeare, the author, was 46 years old in 1611 when the version of the King James Bible he was actually working on was published. Some say that Shakespeare, or perhaps another translator or group of translators, inserted this “accident” as a tribute to The Bard, who was already quite famous in England at the time.
CNB:
There’s actually no hard evidence to the fact that Shakespeare helped with the publication of this version of the Bible, though. I never took it as fact. I was interested, like you are often, with the mere presence of the very interesting coincidence. This was fueled by a couple of things. First off, I was well aware that a ghost town named Shakespeare existed just below my newish home of Lordsburg. I believe this may be the only town named as such, at least to my knowledge. Perhaps you know of others?
bb:
Not offhand.
CNB:
Also the word LORD appears in Psalm 46 three times, and always capitalized, unlike all other words.
bb:
So you think this has to do with Lordsburg.
CNB:
The two conjunctions of “Lord” and “Shakespeare” are no accident to me. This was the seed for the work, then.
bb:
Did you cut up Psalm 46 then, to match the words “shake” and “spear”?
CNB:
Initially I did. Actually the first several years I kind of just played around with the collage. It was on the top shelf of my closet, all in one piece, almost.
bb:
But you never really finished it, did you Chuck?
CNB:
No, it was never published as such. It went through different phases, different stages. I worked on and off on it, between paintings, between sculptures. When I received my first computer in 1997, custom designed, I began to see the rich possibilities inherent in the natural shift of the book from 10/10 to 9/11. Then when 9/11 actually occurred, I almost immediately saw the connection. I began to really take a good look at what I’d done.
bb:
Do you wish to talk about words and characters? How the book was actually constructed?
CNB:
Psalm 46 contains 201 words and 801 characters, only including the letters and not punctuation. Almost exactly 4 letters to a word on the average. A key is separating the central part of the Psalm, beginning with the 46th word “shake” and ending with the 46th word from the end, “spear”, from the rest of the words of the Psalm, or the beginning 45 words and ending 45 words. And then seeing the entire Psalm as repeating itself in a loop, where the last 45 words hook up with the beginning 45 words to make an endless phrasing, and a total of 90 words in this second group. The number of words in the central part of the Psalm, beginning with shake and ending with spear again, are 111, and with 440 characters — another 4:1 relationship. And then the 90 words around this contain 361 characters. Yet again a 4:1 relationship. Early on, then, I saw that we had an alternating pattern of 90 words and 110 words, because the extra word can be seen as extraneous.
bb:
CNB, many people would say such coincidences mean nothing, and detract from real study of The Bible. What do you say about that? And is that a factor in deciding not to publish your work?
CNB:
They may very well be correct in this. I attempted to study The Bible during this time, and also Shakespeare for that matter. But I still have only cursory knowledge of each. Far, far away from being an expert.
bb:
But the truth is, you *are* an expert.
CNB:
No, that’s not true.
bb:
How does the work shift? Red Squirt Seven?
CNB:
No, we are talking about the work Shakenstein, as in a cut up, like the monster Frankenstein was. We talked about this before: the combo of Shakespeare and Steins that both of us came up with. Another non-accident, I believe.
bb:
Oh. So how does Red Squirt Seven come in here?
CNB:
I’ll save that for another time. Getting back to Shakenstein, if you loop end back to beginning again in terms of Psalm 46, you get the pattern of 9-11 repeating over and over again. 9-11-9-11-9-11-9-11 and so on. But it *starts* with 10-10-10-10; this is the latent aspect. Only when 10-10 shifts to 9-11 is the latent made physical. And the characters, 4 times the amount of words, also shift.
bb:
You also said this has something to do with your anagrammical signs.I think specifically here of, what was it…
CNB:
“Sawmill Heir Wins Pis-Ant Reward, HA”
bb:
Yeah, that one.
CNB:
Well, I saw it as an advantage, in a way, that I was no expert at all on either of the two involved subjects, Shakespeare or The Bible. I learned about each, though, through the process of the cut-up itself. Rearranging of words and letters/characters.
bb:
Did you ever get into Bible Codes?
CNB:
The Michael Drosnin stuff? I studied it for a while. I’d say, what I’ve seen, that there’s definitely something to it, especially the beginning stuff. The idea that the Torah dictated by Moses directly from God represents one single thread or string of characters is interesting to me.
bb:
So did you play around with these codes on your computer when you purchased it?
CNB:
First off, someone gave me the computer (laughs), and, yes, I’ve played around with ’em, just to find out their limits.
bb:
Who gave you that custom designed computer Chuck?
CNB:
I’m not allowed to say.
bb:
Does “squirt” actually represent “sqrt”, as in “square root”?
(to be continued)
Hidalgo series is coming to a close. I believe the collage in the post below will represent the 9th of the series. I believe the series will only contain 10 collages total, or 1 tier of the 10 tiered 10×10 I’ve been working on for several years now — off and on again, mind you. This is the 8th tier. I already have a tentative name for the last 2 that will complete the 10×10. It will be called the Wheeler-Jasper series, or Wheeler series and Jasper series if/when disconnected from each other. I will probably not begin these until the end of this year at the earliest.
I probably should share more details about this art/collage 10×10 soon but the focus must remain on the Hidalgo series for now, the meaning, etc.
To me, this blog so far is rather cleanly divided into 2 parts. The first deals almost exclusively with SL art and photography and stories. I started the blog after being in SL for about a month. I was born in that world January 22nd as Baker Blinker. Toward the end of this part, Baker Bloch, the counterpart to Baker Blinker born into SL about a month later, begins to feel the maze-like constrictions of SL and exploration within, which have been mainly of an underwater variety. This tension or frustration leads him to enter RL, with Hucka D. (the 3rd avatar, created shortly after Baker Bloch) acting as a type of mid-wife between dimensions. Part 2 comes after Baker Bloch enters a giant lemon that had materialized on a specific mtn. called (true) Hilo Peak, not too far at all from where I actually live in RL. This is not its name, though. Baker Blinker, the feminine half, the *anima*, remains in SL.
Problem is, both have fallen for each other during their all-too-brief encounter in the Uli sim of SL.
Part 2 begins with the 1st collage of the Hidalgo series, or “Lemon World”. This is described as an attempt by Baker Bloch to relate what he finds or sees inside Lemon World, inside, in turn, Hilo Peak. At the same time, Baker Blinker builds what appears, at least for now, to be a gallery in which to house the projected Hidalgo collages, which both know ahead of time, through me, baker b., I suppose, will be a 10 work series. Baker Blinker also thinks it could possibly be a SL home for Baker Bloch and herself in the future, at least until they could save up a little nest egg to buy above-water property. But for now they seem to remain divided.
Part 2 ends with the 10th collage, which may come quite soon, perhaps within a day or two. As you can tell, Part 2 is also filled with RL photography, at first the work of others and then my own, starting with the Hilo!!! 2 (Into the Fire) post. Before my experience with SL, I had done very little photographing in RL. Now I can’t seem to stop, which is, I think, a good thing. Part 3 will probably further this spillover of the need to chronicle journeys in SL through photographs to doing the same in RL. I already have another cache of photos from today to enter into the blog. Portals between SL and RL are the focus in these, which I do think exist. I do believe that textures and colors are more vivid around these portals, also a spillover from SL visuals. One can probably say that weakened version of the SL grid pokes out from these opened portals, and with limited range. I’ll have more to say about that when I’m able to study the matter further.
I also realize I need to talk more about the information in this post from early on in the blog. There was actually another pre-blog document I created about SL, based around a treehouse I found very early on in Baker Blinker’s explorations of that world. There was some confusion about the events that transpired that evening in the treehouse with baker b., his companion Booker T., and a new friend called Hucka D. For the record, this seemed to be a future version of the Hucka D. that was formed a little later, who started out as a classic Linden avatar (City Chic, male), and then became, in short order, a giant eyeball, a pregnant crossdressing alien, and then a bee (current form). None of these quite describe what he was in this pre-blog work, which I named “Sandbox Experiments”. In that work, Hucka D. showed a particular film in this treehouse to baker b. and Booker T. This would be the audiovisual synchronicity called Kansas City Life, which baker b. later found out is a metaphor for Second Life itself.
So before leaving this part 2, as I’ve put it, I suppose I need to discuss that “opened eyeball” there and the relationship to Hucka D. and the stargate portal in the northeast corner of the Rodeo sim. Interestingly, this portal has also come up in a back-and-forth between SL mythology experts Salazar Jack and Headburro Antfarm. To me dialog like they were/are engaged in is a giant lure of SL. The recent Where’s Magellan Linden? campaign that both of these gentlemen are involved in is further evidence for meaning and depth within SL, beyond just the surface commercial aspects. It is truly another world, separate from ours. As Baker Bloch has found out, it is limited in scope still, but still growing, week by week (check out the Edge of the World posts if you don’t believe me!). It is about creativity and exploration to me.
But back to Hidalgo. So I need to review my association with the abstract expressionist Charles Nelson Blinkerton I suppose, as well. Ok, so he’s kind of a 4th avatar, almost, or at least he has expressed interest in creating a 4th to go along with the Bakers, Blinker and Bloch, and also Hucka D. But of course he’s more than just a potential avatar. He’s a RL counterpart to baker b. — or so it seems. A google search for “Charles Nelson Blinkerton” comes up with nada except references to this blog. So is he real? Yes… and no. That he has been situated in Hidalgo County and its county seat of Lordsburg for the past 50 years is a key connection. What I would call perhaps exhaustive searches for keyword “Lordsburg” have been used to uncover his art work in both abstract expressionist and pop/neo-Dadaist styles during this stay. His more recent association with the first virtual burn of SL, predating Burning Life, is an interesting tie in between RL and SL again. He claims to have created Lemon World just before the transition of alpha version to beta version of this world, only to loose it inside The Man statue. But at the same time he also claims to have burned all virtual versions of his work in an old rusty wagon based on a RL version in the ghost town of Shakespeare located just below Lordsburg.
Come to think of it, let’s just give him a ring tonight again to see what he’s up to…
“Hi baker”.
bb:
How’d you know it would be me?
CNB:
Just knew. So you want to talk about Lemon World some more? Or is something else on your mind?
bb:
Yeah, I was just writing a post on the blog, kind of reviewing what has gone on so far. And I was in the middle of discussing your role in it and just thought I’d ring you up. I don’t know if our conversation will be a part of this blog….
CNB:
I give you some real life resistance to your SL inclinations. I’m going to create that avatar soon. Uriginal Blinker. Too good a name to pass on. We’ll find Lemon World, you’ll see. If not in The Man then maybe inside that island next to it, the one with the rock castle. We’ll go inside the maze together, whether it be me and Baker Blinker or me and Baker Bloch or maybe even me and Hucka D. Where is Hucka D. anyways?
bb:
Not sure. So I have some more guesses about what you’re really on about in these dialogs.
CNB:
First off, I really liked the last collage, even though it was simple. Was this a dream of Baker Blinker, or did she actually go to RL and reunite with Baker Bloch? The dress is great, though.
bb:
The 10th collage I suppose will tell more.
CNB:
And the “Heater Presents” was hilarious. Took me back in time for real.
(note: the collage “Heater Presents :” is more or less directly taken from a series of paintings Blinkerton created in the late 80s of the same name, beginning with “Heater Presents the Mouth of Hell”)
bb:
Would you like to talk about the Heater series more? Great idea!
CNB:
I’d like to talk about your ideas of me.
bb:
Ok, well, first of all I don’t think you traveled from New York to New Mexico by car.
CNB:
Interesting theory. Go ahead.
bb:
Long Island has some kind of direct connection with the Long Hope, perhaps. Your vision connected you with this tradition of the Long Hopes. Perhaps they originally came from Long Island, or at least visited it through portals. One of these portals is in Springs.
CNB:
Don’t forget to mention Montauk, on the very edge of the island.
bb:
Thank you, I won’t. So this vision you mention, it has something to do with the Long Hope. Perhaps you are even the last of the Long Hope Indians. Your strong tea drink you mention sipping on all the time during our conversations. Could it be the Black Drink? Could it be the Blue Holly drink?
CNB (sipping):
More interesting theories. Go ahead.
bb:
My Hilo Peak, in RL where Lemon World manifested, and your Hilo Peak, in New Mexico, are the same, or bleed into each other in some kind of seamless fashion, at least in part. The rocks on top of other rocks are directly related to the same concerning Pollock’s grave. The rocks are the same. They are connected portals — stargates… or “earthgates” I suppose. And these portals can propogate other portals, satellites. Baker Bloch passed through one of these as well, through Hucka D.
CNB:
Triangle. There’s a triangle involved. You’ve got to talk about the opened eyeball. Rodeo.
bb:
Yes, there is a triangle.
CNB:
And also the labyrinth. That seals a portal. There are two different types, one spinning clockwise and one counterclockwise. Letters and numbers, 26 and 10. Outside and inside. 8-5-6-7 and 4-1-2-3. That’s what I saw. They have to work in unision. Worlds based on one and one alone always break down eventually. You have to have both feeding off of each other, counterbalancing each other. Of that I can say safely.
bb:
Are you admitting that you’re the last of the Long Hope Indians, then?
CNB:
I’m not quite ready for that yet.
bb:
Another theory I had is that… well, we talked about this in our latest email. Can I bring up my most radical theory, which is connected to the Long Hope Indian idea?
CNB:
That I’m actually dead, and have been for 5 years plus? If so, that’s ok. Spill it out.
bb:
Are you? I mean, did you die in 2002?
CNB:
No.
bb:
So I’m not talking to a spirit. Why do you not come up in google searches?
CNB:
I am a counterpart.
bb:
Are your works…
CNB:
Macrocosm to microcosm. Mirror, reflection. Who is Heater?
bb:
The Man?
CNB:
My thoughts. The Burn.
bb:
Are you drinking the blue holly drink Chuck? Right now?
(to be continued)
bb:
Hi CNB.
CNB:
Hello baker b.
bb:
Up for some more discussion tonight?
CNB:
Right, let’s do it.
bb:
So beforehand we agreed that I can tell more of your story now. Thanks, btw, for sending me the photos I inserted in the post just below this one. Interesting story about how the two works influenced each other.
CNB:
You’re welcome. Right, these were very popular in Lordsburg at the time, but I suppose in retrospect it was more a local joke. Took a lot of time to rearrange those signs, actually. Then after I was finished with the work I had to put them back together the way they were.
bb:
How long were you allowed to leave the rearranged signs up?
CNB:
Longer than you would suppose. The “Rebel Ho’s” sign stayed up for a number of months. Same with the Sherwin Williams sign.
bb:
Did you do any more work of this kind?
CNB:
Yeah, a couple more sculptie pieces. And then the art, the painting. You’ve prompted me to tell the reader here about the Star Series, I believe, and the connection with the hedge.
bb:
Now I must admit up front that I have a hard time believing you used the same hedge maze I just bought from SL Exchange to set up your original SL gallery.
CNB:
I mean, you may have caught me on this. Did I mention I’m almost 100 years old?! I remember it being the same but maybe, even probably, it wasn’t. But I remember it as so still. Give me that one at least.
bb:
Alright I’ll overlook that. And I suppose it’s remotely possible that it could be the same hedge maze, or something quite similar. Another story you haven’t told in these phone interviews yet — but have related to me via email — is how the boxed version of the hedge maze, before you opened it, got lost inside The Man statue.
CNB:
Yes, this was actually before the funeral of my brother. You were inaccurate (in turn!) about me logging on to SL only at that time. I set up Lemon World considerably before this; I recall several months before.
bb:
Your maze gallery was called Lemon World.
CNB:
That’s correct. And it featured the Star Series. But it was never actualized in SL. I lost it!
bb:
Inside The Man…
CNB:
After much scrutiny and deliberation, I decided that the gallery should be “opened” at the very center of SL at the time, or the central square of Linden City which also contained The Man. In short fashion I realized that The Man had to be the central element in the gallery as well, replacing the fountain provided for this center. I had all the 25-26 Star paintings prepared. I had selected the 10 works for the interior area…
bb:
You’ll have to give us a drawing of the plans sometime.
CNB:
Hard to remember now exactly how it was set up…
bb:
How did you loose it inside The Man again?
CNB:
Well, like I said, I had to open the whole maze up where the center point would be. And I decided that The Man was to be the center… couldn’t figure out any other way it would work. But when I moved the box inside The Man for a test run, I couldn’t retrieve it. It was then that I learned I hadn’t backed up my work well enough. In effect, I’d lost the work of a couple of weeks.
bb:
Did you know how to scan The Man to get the contents out? Did you contact anyone about the loss?
CNB:
Yes, I did scan The Man and saw the box inside, but then the death of my brother happened… I was sidetracked. When I logged back in it wasn’t there. And before I could formulate a letter Alpha version of SL had shifted to Beta, and The Man moved more to the corner of the Natoma sim as most everything else was wiped.
bb:
And the box was not in The Man when you returned?
CNB:
No.
bb:
What about the burning of the old rusty wagon?
CNB:
Well, I think that’s a symbol of the loss of my work, which was a summary of my composites.
bb:
So the burn didn’t happen.
CNB:
Oh, it happened. I just can’t remember exactly when. The Man caught on fire, or so it appeared to onlookers. That’s because the wagon was so close.
bb:
So when did the burning take place in respect to loosing the maze gallery inside The Man?
CNB:
At the same time!
bb:
I’m not understanding…
CNB:
The burn was set up as a promotion for the gallery. The old rusty wagon was there in SL… it was the same as the boxed maze/gallery.
bb:
I’m still not understanding…
CNB:
I don’t quite understand it myself! The maze was lost inside The Man, and at the same time the burn happened, where The Man looked like it was on fire but it wasn’t, in a virtual way.
bb:
Well, I still don’t quite get it. Let’s move on to other subjects and maybe we’ll circle back to this. Now what about this portal you requested me to also attempt to find for you?
CNB:
The gallery created a portal between Second Life and Real Life. The burning, I mean. I think. Anyway, there’s definitely a portal.
bb:
And this portal is in or around The Man? Still?
CNB:
I believe so.
bb:
Did your maze box go back through this portal?
CNB:
Yeah, I think so.
bb:
So it’s in this world or something?
CNB:
You see, I didn’t know about Burning Man at the time, or that Second Life was influenced by that event at all. Burning Life only started in 2003.
bb:
Chuck, you must have had a vision.
CNB (after a pause):
Yes. Yes, I believe so.
bb:
So let’s say the burning of the wagon and loosing the boxed maze inside The Man happened at once.
CNB:
Right, let’s do that.
bb:
Did you keep logging into SL after that? After the funeral?
CNB:
Things changed after the funeral.
bb:
So that’s a no?
CNB:
I returned to Pollock’s grave and the vision induced by the pattern of rocks on top of his gravestone.
bb:
In Green River cemetery. On the tip of Long Island.
CNB:
Long becomes Long Hope there. The pattern was a circle of 12 with the 12th removed.
(to be continued)
“Sawmill Heir Wins Pis-Ant Reward, Ha!” (c1984, 1986)
“Rebel Ho’s Motel” (c1985)
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