“Promised Land” March 4, 2009

Hucka D.:

So now we’ve landed safe and sound in Michigan, baker b. Gill’s Pier.

bb:

Yes. Thank you for being here. This is obviously a contrast between Gill’s Pier and Pier’s Gill. Flat and pastoral in former case and hugely steep, rocky, and unsettling in latter. Standing Baker has climbed to the edge of Pier’s Gill and is seeming to admiring the magical view into its phonetic inversion, Gill’s Pier, with a dingo in tow.

Hucka D.:

The Dingo.

bb:

Crouching baker is interacting with a wagon that has “Pier’s Gill” on its side. This is to the far left on the collage. He has the angel of Michigan (?) in the wagon, the one Esbum’s head covered in the former collage of St. Michigan. The darker part of the rock that the wagon is situated upon is not from Pier’s Gill, though, but from Gill’s Pier, as is the background for the right part of the collage, beyond the stream. The wagon use to say Gill’s Pier but baker has perhaps rearranged the letters to make it Pier’s Gill instead, and, in sync with this, attached the dark rock to the actual Pier’s Gill in England. The wagon can now, perhaps, magically ascend the edge of that gorge to the top. Is, perhaps, Crouching Baker attempting to move the wagon to the top of the crevass to toss it over the top, back to Gill’s Pier in the right part of the collage?

Hucka D.:

You are doing a good job explaining “Promised Land”. I think you should rename it, though. (pause) Maybe.

bb:

The dingo way up on the cliff, at its top in this collage, is balanced by the fox at the bottom, just inside the Gill’s Pier territory. This seems to be a contrast of Pier’s Gill and Gill’s Pier themselves again. The opposition of fox and dingo has surfaced a number of times in the art 10×10, Hucka D. Just off the top of my head, I think of Yale 04, 05, and 06 in particular. Yale 04 may especially apply here, since the fox and dingo are both present in that one together, just as we have here.

Reversal of words in signs has just occurred in the Wheeler series with “Hunt City” in Wheeler 09 turning into “City Hunt” in Wheeler 10, the last of that series. I also think back to Rose Hill 09 and the two Rose Hill city limits signs on opposite sides of that collage. (pause).

Hucka D.:

What are those children and that guitar wielding green creature to the far right?

bb:

Like you don’t know: that’s an aspect of the promised land. Different creatures can mix and understand each other, lie down in fields with each other. That didn’t come out right, did it? Anyway, that’s the impossible that can happen in paradise. This would be…

Hucka D.:

…2051. In Gill’s Pier, then.

bb:

Yes. According to the Cross of the Lamb glyph. [delete name], of course.

Hucka D.:

The cliff and gulch represent the gap between present and future. Crevass of time. Right now, if Standing Baker at the top would attempt to enter paradise, he would merely fall to his death?

bb:

There’s an interesting, powerful triangle of diminutive images forming around the rocks and cliff, Hucka D. This would be almost an (tilted) equilateral triangle, formed of Crouching Baker, fox, and then both Standing Baker and dingo at the apex. Do you see it? The triangle stands out because there are no other figures in the center of the collage; although I attempted to insert one or two or three there, I decided to remove them later on to emphasize this triangle. You have the opposites of Crouching and Standing Baker on one side, and dingo and fox on the other side. The apex unites these two complements or opposites: dingo + Standing Baker. Crouching Baker and fox also face west, while Standing Baker and dingo, united at the top, face east.

Hucka D.:

What is Crouching Baker doing to the wagon? Is he pushing it? Pulling it? Or manipulating it in some other way?

bb:

He seems to be either pushing or pulling the wagon.

Hucka D.:

Maybe, having rearranged the sign to spell Pier’s Gill instead of Gill’s Pier, he is now attempting to drag the wagon onto the actual Pier’s Gill cliff just to its right — up the incline, then. This is because it doesn’t belong to Gill’s Pier any longer, or the blackish rock it is standing on from Gill’s Pier. I think he’s attempting to move it to the east, then, baker b.

bb:

Or maybe he just rolled it down off that incline and is going to change the sign back to Gill’s Pier, to match the new location in the collage. Inverse of what you’re talking about, then.

Hucka D.:

Interesting. Could be either one. Or both.

bb:

Maybe it means that Gill’s Pier lies in the past, before Pier’s Gill, as well as the future. He must make amends with the past before passing into the future, the promised land.

Hucka D.:

You must be square with the past.

bb:

That triangle of small images is very interesting, indeed!

Hucka D.:

The fox may already have that knowledge. Fox seems to be the same as Crouching Baker, but perhaps in two different places in time.

bb:

Or maybe in almost the same instant of time. When Crouching Baker rearranges the wagon signs back to Gill’s Pier, he instantly, through the magic of this triangle, changes over to the fox *standing* in Gill’s Pier. Just on the edge, but clearly within the grassy meadow of that Michigan location.

Hucka D.:

I’m thinking that the past here may represent pre-art 10×10, and then, at the same time, pre-[delete name]. Pre-Pier’s Gill, in other words. Before the ascent to the top.

bb:

Which makes it the subject matter of the Oz/Floyd Paradox document, Hucka D., I’m guessing.

Hucka D.:

I think so. You must be square with the whole Dark Side of the Rainbow, Rainbow Sphere, SID’s 1st Oz relationship before moving on. The past secures the future.

bb:

We should add here that although this is the first appearance of Gill’s Pier in the 10×10, Pier’s Gill has come up before. Again, I think here especially of Oblong 06, and also, to a lesser degree, Oblong 18.

Hucka D.:

Let’s, then, at least take a look at “Santa Speaks” (Oblong 06).

(pause to take snapshot of image at the Gallery at the Temple of TILE)

bb:

I am unsure of the relationship between the newest collage and Oblong 06, although I did want to insert another one of those pictures of Santa Clause into Jasper 04. Just didn’t seem to fit — perhaps walking up the Pier’s Gill incline, as he is in Oblong 06.

Hucka D.:

The triangle overpowered, though.

bb:

I had an image of Truman with his suitcase there in-between Crouching Baker and Standing Baker on that narrow ridge. But I had to delete it.

Hucka D.:

It is a phantom image, still, in the overall animation of the collage. Past to present to future.

bb:

We better end.

Hucka D.:

Say thank you (smiles).

bb:

Thank you!

“St. Michigan” March 3, 2009

“Jasper 03 almost done. Just final draft to create, Hucka D.” (3/4: this is done!)

Hucka D.:

You didn’t expect to see Esbum Michigan showing up, I bet (!)

bb:

No. (pause to pull up image) I think this is about comings and goings, Hucka D. The dog in the picture goes into that forest portal to the left, and emerges from the same portal to the right. This is the portal in Michigan that occurs when you link the 2 St. Joseph Rivers together.

Hucka D.:

We probably shouldn’t talk about that a lot, though.

bb:

Alright, then. There, though, is an impossible river in Michigan as a result that runs both directions at once.

Hucka D.:

The 2 dogs are the same. Saints. Exactly the same in this schema.

bb:

The dog seems to be a dingo. In fact I know the right one is.

Hucka D.:

The forest is Rookwood.

bb:

Then there’s an actual image of the Corsica Island forest inserted within a photo of Newborough Forest, full of its Corsican trees. The 2 images seem to fit remarkably well together, Hucka D.

Hucka D.:

As it was suppose to be.

bb:

Then there’s little Baker Bloch at the bottom, ready to enter the thickly planted forest, just as he did on SL’s Corsica Island forest, which has since been deleted. Is this where the spirits of the trees went, Hucka D.?

Hucka D.:

You got it backwards. The trees of *SL* were inhabited by the Newborough Warren trees for a spell. Kind of a vacation for them, like you take trips with Baker Bloch at times. See?

bb:

Are you saying the trees were immobile avatars?

Hucka D.:

They moved in their own manner, just like S.F. moves in mysterious ways. And they left their signature behind: Rookwood.

bb:

The sim, you mean. I just saw on the SL map tonight that more work is being done on that sim. Can’t wait to visit it for real instead of just viewing it incompletely from a distance, Hucka D.

Hucka D.:

Don’t forget that Wheeler 09 dealt with the 256m x 256m dimensions of a sim as well. Ives album cover. You must also remember that Ireland has come up in connection with Ives before. Oblong 11, I believe?

bb:

Ummmm, yes. Actually yes. There’s more to all this, obviously. When I visited Corsica Island a second time, I explored a possible resonation with the Rubi Forest, Hucka. D. It was that removed corner slot that you can still see on this collage transposition, Hucka D., that linked the two, perhaps. Then that spirit showed up (now gone), and right at the 128 meter position east to west. Exactly halfway across the sim, right where my old property lines in that area would have synced up. Spirit in the woods.

Hucka D.:

The Corsican pine is back home in Wales. Actually, as I said, it never left. It was playing a virtual game in SL, is all. Be aware of that kind of thing.

bb:

I’ll try. (pause) So this is the heart of the woods baker b. was looking for, Hucka D.?

Hucka D.:

Yes. the yin-yang center. Backwards and forwards at once. Two streams in one; two dogs together. Same dog, same stream. Fountain of Youth.

bb:

This has also to do with tile, through the Rookwood tiles.

Hucka D.:

Yes. You are tiling Michigan as well as all other states.

bb:

But [delete name] is slated to resurrect in Michigan in 2051, Hucka D. This must be about him as well, especially since we have Esbum Michigan here.

Hucka D.:

Esbum has been assimilated. Back. Sainthood. Saint Joseph. Saint John. Two in one.

bb:

Should we talk about Peter Dunne and Island Grove here?

Hucka D.:

A bit. Peter Dunne found the map of Michigan in Jasper County, Illinois, the same county the 10×10 is all about. He found it in the Newton town library. 1886. On that map, the two streams were one. This is the map (points to map in collage).

bb:

Let’s see: so that inspired him to change the name of his church to St. John’s?

Hucka D.:

Yes. Because he saw Michigan as a giant head after that. Brainard?

bb:

*I* don’t know.

Hucka D.:

The ponds…

bb:

Yes. The Great Lakes wholly visible on this map are also tied to Esbum’s now famous pond, from the photograph in the Edwardston Station collection. Two in one again, since the bodies of water (Lake Michigan and Lake Huron) are linked here through a strait.

Hucka D.:

Yes.

bb:

And the Corsica Island forest has subsequently been lost, just like Esbum lost her pond, along with the entire set of sims that it was a part of. Edwardston sim and neighboring ones.

Hucka D.:

Yes, this is about loss. And borrowing from the real world then giving it back. Nothing is lost in SL, though. It all returns.

bb:

And, of course, like Esbum herself, perhaps our greatest loss in SL.

Hucka D.:

Sweet of you to say that. I know she appreciates it.

bb:

So she goes back to Michigan. To [delete name].

Hucka D.:

Right. She has found the secret of the pond in the real world. Two streams in one; two pond halves in one as well now. Michigan is home. Sainthood.

bb:

Interesting that Baker Bloch is about to enter those rl woods in the collage here, Hucka D.

Hucka D.:

He is home as well.

(to be continued?)

“Doorpick” (2) March 1, 2009

“March 1, Hucka D. Snow tomorrow.”

Hucka D.:

Don’t put your boots up yet.

bb:

Strange that I haven’t even worn my snow boots this winter. Probably 5 inches of snow max during any one event.

Hucka D.:

That could change.

bb:

I thought we would go further with an interpretation of “Doorpick” tonight, and perhaps just loosely chat as well.

Hucka D.:

The Resident looms large in the middle of the woods.

bb:

Yeah, I think I know what that is. Do you like the lexicon I started?*

Hucka D.:

It’s the thing to do.

bb:

Since Jasper the Rook — let’s call him a rook — is in the forest as well, should we talk to him tonight?

Hucka D.:

Yes.

Jasper the Rook:

Portal is next. In and out. Not much harm done. Dog… dingo. Enters and exits. What’s inside? Caw!

bb:

Japan?

*****

Hucka D.:

He is gone again. Looking at the Stranger Creek Blog again, eh?

bb:

Yes, a friend says it could be inspired by SL. The reference to Lindens and also the grid. But I know this isn’t so.

Hucka D.:

You need to find that collage. College, I mean.**

bb:

Will the 10×10 return to the Lake District, Hucka D?

Hucka D.:

I am here to answer what I can. Yes.

bb:

I started relooking at the bits and pieces of 1P today, Hucka D.

Hucka D.:

As it was suppose to happen.

bb:

Interesting that it has the same name as an early collage.

Hucka D.:

Look at that collage again, in your mind. Someone has donned an eyeball costume. Delete name is who it is. In The Diamonds restaurant on the high fell but not too high.

bb:

Isn’t that the place Larry Byrd proposed to Lennie Fish to make her become Lennie Bird? Two birds and 1 stone, I suppose [stone of engagement ring].

Hucka D.:

Conjunctio. Then darkness… more. Like the collage itself. Highest of the series. At the top of the valley and then even beyond, but you didn’t know that at the time.

bb:

That’s the first time The Residents show up in a collage. Although I didn’t know who they were at the time.

Hucka D.:

Keep in mind that The Diamonds was a restaurant known from coast to coast. Atlantic, Great Lakes, Specific… Pacific. On one side of Franklin County [where the restaurant use to be] is a Pacific town. But not to the west, as would be logical. Is it chance, then? No.

bb:

I was thinking somewhat of other connections with that county, after rereading the Lyme section of Floydada again the other day. Acid, for one thing. (pause) Although I can’t find it on the internet maps of the county. It’s in one of my atlases.

Hucka D.:

New International, circa ____. Your base atlase for map explorations.

bb:

Yeah, I think so. But to me this points to The Beatles’ song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. Another diamond in the same county. But there’s more… probably much more.

Hucka D.:

We have returned to reality from SL. Breathe it in.

bb:

I found Acid, Hucka D.

Hucka D.:

[delete name] was going to go into that cave and take acid to complete his journey off the grid. But instead he went to the neighboring cave of [delete name] and saw the dragon. East of Butchie… Dragon.

bb:

Same as was at the exact center of Quadrospirited. TILE Creek, then, most likely.

Hucka D.:

String, thread. The smallest quantity known. Planck’s constant.

bb:

[delete name] has the answers about Tile.

Hucka D.:

Yes. Unfortunately.

bb:

Where’s Grassy?

Hucka D.:

You must look into the cup of tea. 1, 2, 3. Otherland? Red, green, blue. Diamonds. Atlantic, Great Lakes, Specific…I mean…

bb:

Franklin County is the US as a whole. Thanks to [delete name].

Hucka D.:

You’re going to find much more about it.

bb:

Collage novel, I assume. When will that occur?

Hucka D.:

Certainly after the 10×10. 5 years from now. Winesap first, though.

bb:

The collage novel idea only occurred to me about a week ago, Hucka D.

Hucka D.:

Right time comes along.

bb:

It’s a natural extension of the 10×10 and also audiovisual synchronicities.

Hucka D.:

You better go inworld now.

bb:

Thank you.

* Baker Bloch’s old blog, unused for the longest time, is now being converted into a blog about the 100 individual pieces of the 10×10. Each piece will have its own post. Numerous categories, then, will link the posts/collages together in various ways. Should be a lot of fun! Link soon.

** Linden College in the blog is probably inspired by the neighboring town of Linwood, said by one account to be named for the many linden trees that grew in the area. A bit about the college and town here. Reference to being “off the grid” is here.

“Doorpick” February 26, 2009

“Quickly today, what’s apparently the second collage of the Jasper series has popped up, or at least a draft of this collage. Hucka D.? Ready?”

Hucka D.:

We are obviously in the Newborough Forest or Warren now, and with Jasper the Crow or Jasper the Rook or Jasper the Raven.

bb:

By this you mean the raven to the left in the collage.

Hucka D.:

Yes. Now what does Jasper continue to speak with you about?

bb:

I think it might be other responsibilities outside of the virtual reality of Second Life. The responsibilities of other, creative projects that can’t take place in SL… don’t have a gallery for those kind of exhibits.

Hucka D.:

Correct. That’s why the hatted eyeball looms so large inside the forest, in its center perhaps. But where is the door back from virtual reality? Crouching Baker here seems to be attempting to pick the door separating the two, but, foolishly perhaps, attempts to pick the doorknob instead of the actual keyhole. Standing Baker is looking *toward* this keyhole, but his direct vision is blocked by a tree. The keyhole is actually in the middle of the giant eye… it substitutes for its pupil. It is the pupil. This is a simple yet effect collage for conveying a certain meaning, baker b.

bb:

We should explain that both of the identical humans in the picture are me, baker b. Both are edited out of Edna’s photographs of a place called Korner’s Folly in Kernersville, NC.

Hucka D.:

I’ve seen them in your collages before, I believe.

bb:

Yes, they first appear in collage #10 of the Greenup series. Both what I call Crouching Baker and Standing Baker are there. They reappear, then in collages 14, 15, and 16 of that series. It seems relevant to say here that 10-11 and 15-16 are those animation collages I’m so fond of, and which reappear around every 4th collage of the overall 10×10. Dormant in the subsequent Rose Hill series, Crouching and Standing Baker make their next appearance in the Yale series, and yet again in animation related collages. This would be the 6th collage of that series.

Then both make a sort of cameo in both Newton 08 and Oblong 01, along with a lot of other images from the 10×10. They also do not appear in the Hidalgo series just completed, nor the Wheeler series.

Hucka D.:

They seems to be attached to the concept of “diamonds” in these pictures a lot. Like the present one.

bb:

When they first show up, in Greenup 10, they are physically positioned within, or symbolically within The Diamonds restaurant in Gray Summit, Missouri. The setting is not exactly this restaurant, but the association is understood in the series, since in the previous collage the actual restaurant is shown from a distance, albeit in a surreal location [top of a Lake District summit]. I’m going to log into SL, Hucka D., and take a closer look at those collages at the Otherland Gallery.

Hucka D.:

OK.

*****

bb:

Alright I’ve looked over all of those. Actually, I didn’t see either of these two Bakers in Oblong 01, so the most complex or most dense collage they appear in is Newton 08.

Hucka D.:

Time for a 10×10 Lexicon, my friend baker b.

bb:

I suppose so. But the only picture the Bakers actually appear *together* are Greenup 10 and Newton 08, and, now, Jasper 02. Of these only Greenup 10 is a so-called animation collage. [incorrect: they appear together in the animation collage Yale 06]

Hucka D.:

I noticed in looking through your eyes just a minute ago at the gallery collages, or was reminded, that the eyeball man that is later identified with a Resident first appears in Greenup 11, the animation twin of Greenup 10. What does this figure stand for?… obviously the Crouching and Standing Bakers stand for the collage artist himself… you.

bb:

Well… I think that’s the thing we can’t really talk about in a great deal of detail here, Hucka D. But it’s [delete name], obviously, to a large extent anyway.

Hucka D.:

Just saying the name makes me almost faint! So what’s he doing here in this new collage?

bb:

Well, like I said, I think he or it represents something beyond SL right now. The door referred to in the collage is the door back to reality. Trouble is, the Bakers don’t seem to know where the keyhole is… it’s the same as the pupil of the Resident. They can’t see it for some reason.

Hucka D.:

It’s the door beyond the 10×10.

bb:

Maybe.

Hucka D.:

The diamond willow stick that weaves through the trees is both a pencil filled with graphite and a diamond, like a record player needle. Groovy.

bb:

Walking stick, again, like the insect. Both found, syncily, in a search for “The Diamonds” and “Missouri.”

Hucka D.:

But Crouching Baker seems to be using the stick in a faulty way here. Or — maybe — a sneaky way. Maybe he’s actually getting the work he needs to get done *done*.

bb:

Well, I’m at least getting collages done, Hucka D.

Hucka D.:

This may be Standing and Crouching Bakers’ last appearance in the 10×10. So tied into their first appearance, and since the 10×10 goes in a giant circle anyway, closer to the Greenup series than the Newton series.

bb:

True, I guess. The Resident will soon return to his obscure beginnings. The eyeball head remains just that in Greenup 10, although it’s really The Resident.

Hucka D.:

The Bakers’ seems to be involved in collages of trickery in perspective, like this one and also Greenup 10. Can you speak to that?

bb:

I think it is the attempt to create the 4th dimension.

Hucka D.:

We better end.

bb:

Thank you.

“Nonsectarian… ant”(2)

“Hucka D., hopefully I can finish Jasper 01 tomorrow. Haven’t even got a name for it yet.”

Hucka D.:

Try now.

bb:

How bout… “Across The Bay”. No, that doesn’t quite hack it. Do you want to try more of an interpretation tonight?

Hucka D.:

Yes… rather quickly. You found this island, Llanddwyn, through the wikipedia article on the mineral jasper. On the currently ending sentence of the entry, Llanddwyn Island is mentioned has having examples of what is called “healed, fragmented rock” that “produces brecciated (broken) jasper”. So, bread crumb trail like, again, you were led to the island. The collage doesn’t really give a clear picture of the jasper on the island — perhaps you can rectify that in a future collage or 2, but the trail is clear enough. What now, that you’re on Llanddwyn Island, though? Well, now you head into the woods to the north and off the island, into Newborough Warren containing those densely planted Corsican pines.

bb:

Very similarly packed, in fact, to the pine forest I found on the what I though was called Corsica Island at first, but turned out to be the name for the inclusive continent. That forest is gone Hucka D., by the by.

Hucka D.:

Not surprisingly. Few forests seem to stay intact long in SL any more.

bb:

Interesting also that there was a BBC program about the *ravens* in Newborough Warren, Hucka D. Do you think our Jasper The Crow or perhaps Jasper The Rook or Raven comes from this place?

Hucka D.:

Well… let’s ask. Briefly again.

Jasper The Raven:

I am. I did. I left. I here.

bb:

Hello Jasper. You are leading us down a breadcrumb trail, no?

Jasper The Raven:

Yes. No.

bb:

Jasper The Raven/Rook/Crow, I believe that the forest represents a place beyond SL, which may be the same as Lllanddwyn Island. Beyond the mainlands and also all the little satellite estates, like Otherland and also Azure Islands. The two Edwardston Station Galleries on the mainlands…

Hucka D. (jumping in):

Again: there’s only one.

bb:

Sorry. The *split* ESG mainland gallery… anyway, the island is Sansara, but also all mainlands. Jasper?

Hucka D.:

He flew away. You were too windy for him tonight. Plus you need to get more sleep. The forest is a magical place. Go there.

bb:

Thank you.

*****

“Hucka D., in looking up links on Sansara, this one came up near the top — and mentioning my *other* Sansara landlord currently. And also the very nice creator of the Seefeld tower.

Hucka D.:

The bed is that way.

“Nonsectarian… ant” February 23, 2009

“We’re going to make a stab at this tonight. Hucka D., are you there?”

Hucka D.:

1st of the new series. Good that you went ahead and took the leap, again.

bb:

I think this relates largely to the gallery situation I have now. I have 2 Edwardston Station Galleries…

Hucka D. (correcting):

…No, you have 1 ESG split into two parts, basically old and new. The Edwardston Station Gallery, for now, has become the same as the 10×10, throw in a tiny lounge in Healy and a tiny patio area in Seefeld.

bb:

Alright, then beyond these 2 we still have, of course, the Otherland gallery, which I call the Gallery at the Temple of TILE.

Hucka D.:

That’s the one that has to go.

bb:

I’m not sure I’m ready to take that leap, Hucka D.

Hucka D.:

I built it… remember?

bb:

Let’s turn our attention to the 1st collage of the Jasper series, or the draft for this collage (2/27: this one’s *done*), for it’s not polished up yet. To the left you have what I would consider a symbol of the Seefeld tower that one of the halves of the Edwardston Station Gallery — that better? (Hucka D. nods round head here) — lies within. This is a combination of a skyscraper but also a Christian cross, like a grave stone, once more. Hucka D., would you agree with this?

Hucka D.:

Of course.

bb:

Many picture elements found in the Wheeler series [immediately preceding the Jasper series] recur in this one. The Wilson driver, for instance. It has merged with the vertical dimension of the cross. Up and down at once.

Hucka D.:

Yes that image had to be in that particular place as well.

bb:

I’m also reminded of the cross shape of the old ESG in Rubi, in one of its incarnations. This was when the north-south subway system, a longer affair, was crossed by the shorter Arab ship on top of it. Then we have several grave crosses right next to the subway system — a tiny cemetery, in fact — just below where you could get on the spiral ramp that led up to the Temple of TILE, in those days.

Originally I saw the base photo of the collage, which we should insert here is from Landdswynn Island in Wales, as representing this “tension” we’ve mentioned between the two sides or two different spaces of the Edwardston Station Gallery, one in Healy and the newer one in Seefeld. In fact, in the wikipedia article on the subject, I find we have almost an identical photo to the one I used, incorporating the cross and the lighthouse. The lighthouse, then, on the opposite side of both of these matching photos from the gravestone cross, would then stand in for the Healy version of ESG.

Now, but this is the crucial part. *In-between* these objects and their matching hillocks are islands in the ocean, which I also identified with Otherland and the 3rd gallery I possess, or the 3rd gallery featuring my 10×10 and art, I suppose I should say [since two of the 3 are rented]. So one of my first moves in the collage was to insert a picture of the 3rd, “other” gallery here, the only one that’s actually on property that I bought and own, between the two. The main island here, with the cross and lighthouse, would represent the SL mainlands, where the 2 ESGs are. The islands offshore are “other” — Otherland, far from the mainlands and, in contrast, estate property, like Azure Islands also is estate land. The Gallery at the Temple of TILE, hovering 601 meters above the main Otherland island, is thus similarly hovering over these 3 small offshore islands, which may also stand for Otherland Islands #1, 2 and 3, as I’ve called them in this blog.

Hucka D.:

Interesting that the view of the collage is much more focused on the foreground and developing it through added imagery. This represents your heavy involvement with the mainlands again, now. The cross superimposed by the driver is closest because it is the newest…

bb:

And further west from the Healy gallery on Sansara. I think this island, Llanddwyn, also represents Sansara, the oldest SL continent that both versions of ESG are on now.

Hucka D.:

Two peaks of emphasis, then.

bb:

Right, yeah.

Hucka D.:

You also know that the walking stick insect reappearing here, once more [as it did several times in the Wheeler series] represents the Yapland gallery complex the Healy ESG is a part of. And from that curtain the insect appears to be holding, almost, emerged the daemonic head of Paul the Beatle. But now we have the Beatles returning, in the new collage, in their natural forms, one could say. Without any Residents influence. They haven’t been stolen yet for Resident purposes. Their likenesses on Meet The Beatles hasn’t been transformed to Meet The Residents. Paul remains undaemonized. He has somehow been freed, it seems, with the establishment of the Seefeld ESG. Christian influence?

bb:

The black and white Beatles below the curtain or screen — black and white like the demon Paul head emerging from the curtain in the “ESG” collage [#4 of the Wheeler series] — 1st appear rather early in the Greenup series, the first series of the 10×10. This is an old image within the 10×10, then.

Hucka D.:

Interesting that, originally in this draft, George Martin directing The Beatles here was riding on the back of the dingo that now stares forward from the path below, directly at the viewer. But one could still say the dingo provided, er, a landing for The Beatles from the curtain above them here, before moving, then, to the path.*

bb:

These Beatles are definitely a focus. I think there’s also one image remaining to be inserted into this new collage, Hucka D., and that’s…

Hucka D.:

Crow. Rook. CHRO.

bb:

Yes. (pause) Do I need all *3* galleries presently, Hucka D., in order for the 10×10 to be finished? I’m thinking the mainlands ESG represents a split, only united by the background Gallery at the Temple of TILE, which contains the *entire* 10×10, or soon will. It’s in the center between the two.

Hucka D.:

What happens now if you then destroy the Otherland gallery?

bb:

The center is removed. But this might be a good thing?

*****

bb:

Hucka D., maybe the curtain covers the uncertainty about Otherland itself. The temple is not covered. The temple can carry forward. But perhaps not on Otherland now.

Hucka D.:

You have the strangled Wilsonia beside it [to the left], also representing Otherland and islands #1, 2 3, per the “Bigfeet” collage. The Wilsonia backhousei leaf that clearly represented Otherland Island #3 in that earlier collage now touches one of the 3 background islands of the new collage. Pretty obvious that the offshore islands are then Otherland, eh?

bb:

The curtains are being closed on Otherland? Just like that?

Hucka D.:

The temple and attached gallery will live on, though.

bb:

The Sgt. Pepper head on the lighthouse hillock reinforces its assoc. with the ESG-Healy gallery, Hucka D. Yaplanders all.**

Hucka D.:

That’s only one of three energy complexes now, though.

bb:

I suppose the Council of 1 spinning in the sky represents the everpresence of [delete name] and his high gravity influence.

Hucka D.:

Watch out!

bb:

Way above and beyond SL currently.

Hucka D.:

Red Verses Blue. Rooster Teeth. Rooster Springs. Roostre.

bb:

Thank you. We may continue this analysis of Jasper 01 later on tonight or at least tomorrow.

* 3/2: The dingo/dog was subsequently removed entirely from the final draft of the collage. However, he may reappear in Jasper 03 (?)

** 3/2: head from Sgt. Pepper also removed in final draft.

Misc. Photos; Rook (!) February 22, 2009

TEXT SOON.

“Ives Got It!” February 20, 2009

“A simpler one to end. Nice relief!”

Hucka D.:

It is done except for the polishing of the 10th. Well done!

bb:

Thanks, but you helped a lot. I have to give you a lot of credit. But we have no rest, perhaps, because the Jasper series is coming up immediately.

Hucka D.:

Very.

bb:

I’m going to pull up Wheeler Collage #10 and animate it with Wheeler Collage #1 for an interpretation. Give me just a second… (pause)* First off, we have the two truncated trees turned upside down from each other in respect to “Benwheelerworld”. This would be the willow and the palm beside Mossman in the older work.

Hucka D.:

And hiding two Mossmen as well. This hiding makes the title of the sign to the left more apt: there is only one Mossman now. Or is there?

bb:

Anyway, so this reversing of willow and palm between the two collages, #10 and #1 of the series, is obviously related to the same between collage #5 and #6 of the Wheeler series, or “Willows Diamond” and “The Secret Word Is…”. In the former you have the willow but not the palm, in the latter the reverse.

Hucka D.:

It seems that because the palm and willow are placed opposite what they are in either of these two central collages, that the current collage, “Ives Got It!”, is a resolution of some kind for the series. What does “Ives Got It!” mean, then?

bb:

Ives is present in the collage, this time as what one could call an “avatar”. This would be the snowman Ives famously voiced in the Christmas classic “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer”. I believe the yellow submarine the Ives-snowman is pulling out of the field of similarly yellow or golden grass here would substitute for Rudolph in this case. And the glowing nose of the reindeer, the saver of Christmas, becomes the nose of the sub, instead.

Hucka D.:

Ives tells the story of the saving of Christmas, then. He relays events that have already happened.

bb:

Somehow the saving of Christmas also, then, causes the appearance of the single Mossman in the midst of Ives-snowman and yellow sub.

Hucka D.:

I believe this represents the appearance of the Wheeler series as a whole, starting with this collage #1. End has switched back to beginning; the snake has swallowed its own tail. Orobourus.

bb:

And then I guess — turning to the sign on the right — that “City Hunt” is also a part of this overall reversal demonstrated in “Ives Got It!”, like the reversal of the palm and willow. This is, however, reversed from its state in the collage immediately before #10, or “Words Worth Savings.”

Hucka D.:

We have a little more work to do on that one, though.

bb:

Ok, we’ll maybe get to that probably tomorrow night… maybe tonight. But Hunt City becomes City Hunt. I believe this has to do with the Mossman sign that it turns into in the switch from 10 to 1, again. I think the city hunt referred to here is the hunt for the Mossman sign, which is an actual town sign in Australia. This is then, again, a transformation of a reversal into a singular version of Mossman.

Hucka D.:

The position of the palm and willow in #10 mirror that of the Stephen gallery. We must also talk of that tonight if we can.

bb:

Well… briefly, I think I may have to give up the Otherland property and gallery. I now rent a second gallery space on the mainlands, and I’m beginning to understand that the Otherland one will never be frequently visited. Heck, even the really, really cool Verloren Castle, sitting right on the ground and in the center of everything, as far as centers in Otherland go, doesn’t get that many visitors, perhaps a couple a day — could be wrong there.

Hucka D.:

You must stay on Otherland at least another month. Then decide the next step. You have your two, cheap mainland gallery spaces now. You’ve freed up room to insert the Jasper series into the primary of the two: the Edwardston Station Gallery in Healy. You must focus on all-things-Jasper now. You are wrapping up an important, long term project. Very important.

bb:

I can’t see beyond Jasper then, or the 10×10.

Hucka D.:

You can but in a more limited way that at the end. Getting back to the collage interpretation, these two men around the sign seem to be playing golf. Has the man to the left lost his ball, perhaps?

bb:

This is the same man as in the third collage of the series, or “Bigfeet”. There his foot overlaps the foot of a red fox.

Hucka D.:

I believe this is a reference to the Cinderella story. The shoe fit in Healy, though. You found your correct fit. The ruby slipper. One, in this case.

bb:

The golf bag full of clubs is obvious reference to “Wilsonia Drivers”. The man is hunting his golf ball, perhaps, like we, as a whole, are searching for the way out of the collage series. And the hunt ends with finding the correct city or concept: Mossman. “City Hunt” turns into or is resolved by “Mossman”.

Hucka D.:

Interesting that in this draft, the word “Ives” is partially obscured. You’d probably have difficulty in making out the word if you weren’t familiar with the previous collage of the series. (pause). There’s also the possibility that Mossman is a Christ figure, since there are three posts holding up the Mossman sign…

bb:

…and that particular aspect might be transferred into the first of the Rose Hill series, just guessing by some rough drafts I’ve already concocted for the first collage of that one.

Hucka D.:

We are about ready to end and move on.

bb:

I should also point out that the obscured Mossmen or Mossman has 3 feet, just as there are 3 pictures of Lambfoot Dub tarn in “Bigfeet”, the collage that the men of this particular collage “come from”.

Hucka D.:

Could be visa versa as well, though.

bb:

Right. One of the Mossman/men feet is now obscured, in turn, by the Ives-Snowman.

Hucka D.:

That would be the correct foot. The one in the future.

bb:

Alright, we’ll just leave it at that.

Hucka D.:

Also: congratulations on the 1st birthday of the blog itself. You’ve created a lot of posts!

bb:

I don’t see it slowing down very soon either, although it has shifted away from SL a bit since the end of October. First Carrcass-1 had to be dealt with, and now Wheeler-Jasper. In-between: the Ubertemple(s).

Hucka D.:

You’re not finished with Otherland.

bb:

No.

* Once again, the reader can create this animation themselves: just toggle between this image of the newer “Ives Got It!” and the older “Benwheelerworld”.

“Words Worth Savings” (2)

“Let’s continue then, Hucka D. The draft has turned into the final collage now, as of today.”

Hucka D.:

Fine work. This one is different. Outwardly it may not be as impressive as others in the series. But it has an internal beauty. This one is different.

bb:

You’re talking about the mathematical proportions of the collage here, I assume.

Hucka D.:

Yes.

bb:

1st off, Rydal Water, or the Rydal area of the Lake District in England, was pointed out through the 196833 image. The photo I’m speaking of comes up 3rd now in a google search for 196833 images, as we’ve already talked about.

Hucka D.:

But then the jigsaw parrot comes up soon in a search for 196883, the actual Monster number. 50 more than 196833. That’s a central mystery, then, this relationship.

bb:

I know I’m not going to be able to currently figure out all of the meaning of this collage, but let me tell you what I have.

Hucka D.:

Go ahead.

bb:

We’ve talked about the original, simple juxtaposition of this collage. It starts out as a photograph of Rydal Water. That’s the base, I mean. Then we add the Ives album cover, but trimmed of excess to become a perfect 512×512 pixel square. Since the overall picture is 1024 x 768, this means that the album cover is precisely 1/3rd the size of the overall picture.

Hucka D.:

Then the corner was removed. Lower right of the album.

bb:

The corner piece removed turned out to be 288×173 pixels, Hucka D.

Hucka D.:

But you had to remove essentially that particular size of a chunk in order to best synchronize the album cover picture and the Rydal base photograph.

bb:

Precisely. It was mainly done through the stone wall they share. That’s an important point. That’s a main “cue point’ for the collage as a whole. And to emphasize that space, that cue, I’ve now highlighted the 288×173 chunk in this final draft through a pink outline.

Hucka D.:

But there’s, then, another pink outline, about the same size, on the right hand side of the collage now.

bb:

It’s the same size: 288×173 pixels. Turns out that the Hunt City sign I added to the collage is around 288 pixels long, same as the height of the chunk.

Hucka D.:

We’ll return to that. How about the yellow-green rectangular outline found in, let’s see, 3 different parts of the collage in this case?

bb:

This is the size of the rectangle formed by the length of the remainder of the Rydal photograph below the album still, and then the width of the corner chunk itself. It’s,then, 113×173 pixels. The Hunt City sign had a smaller sign attached to it, just below the main sign. It said “Home of Burl Ives”.

Hucka D.:

Burl Ives was born here. In this tiny Jasper County hamlet.

bb:

That’s right. The smaller sign turned out to have the length of the other side of the corner chunk, though. 173 pixels. So I decided to fit it with one of those 173×113 yellow-green rectangles, and also have it exchange places with the “Burl Ives” written on the album cover, which comes before the title “Songs of Ireland”. The two “Burl Ives” exchange places within the collage.

Hucka D.:

Let me see: the length of the larger Hunt City sign is the longer dimension of the corner chunk. The length of the smaller Hunt City sign is the same as the shorter side of the same chunk. 288 and 173 respectively, then.

bb:

That’s right. But there’s more. The red grass block to the left of the lowest yellow-green outlined rectangle turns out to have a precise 3:1 ration, or 113×339 pixels. Let’s look at the top part of the Rydal photo above the album cover, then. It has a height of 143 pixels, or 30 more than the bottom part below the album. 113+143 then make 256, or 1/2 of the 512 length of the album, which is a perfect 512×512 square. This is not the odd part, though. The odd part is that this 143 height is essentially half the longer dimension of this corner chunk, as we’re calling it. *Also* it is the *height* of the larger Hunt City sign, the main sign that is, which is 144 pixels.

As I said, I’m still studying these ratios, but there seems to be an intricate working relationship between the various parts of the collage as the studying stands already.

graphic illustration of some of the number ratios we’re talking about in this post.

Hucka D.:

I like the way you can insert a Hunt City sign above the album and have it fit perfectly snug into that spot height-wise. But then, if I’m reading this correctly, this creates an implied square of 224×224 on the album itself, caddy-corner to our hypothetical displaced sign and the area exposed by the removed corner.

bb:

I think you’re correct on that.

Hucka D.:

Then the jigsaw parrot of the collage, doubled by a color inverted parrot once again, seems to emphasize the jigsaw nature of the collage as a whole. The one you found in a search for 196883 images. They’re both sitting on the far right rock wall. Between them and to the left is a portal, created by a circle of rocks once more. Just like the one you found in the Bar Harbor sim. Originally you thought the fire would create a portal, but now you see it is water. A stream flows from it, magically pouring “down” the level meadow toward the graphic double of Wordsworth’s grave stone: the rock shelter exposed by removing the corner album chunk.

bb:

As I said, that waterfall, which is the Rydal Falls, is the last thing I added to the collage. I think it has to be there.

Hucka D.:

The parrots seem at peace on the fence. They merely watch now what’s happening to the landscape around them. They seem even to be sentries for some kind of energy passing from the Wordsworth stone, through the open space between them [centered by the cuing fence mentioned before], and then to the portal. Wordsworth opens the portal, that’s for certain I think. What has been opened, though?

bb (after a pause):

Well, I think we’re going to have to come back to this later on after I do more studying.

Hucka D.:

Don’t forget the relationship between the two largest islands of Rydal Water. You can see them at the top of the collage.

bb:

Ok. Thanks, as usual (smiles).

*****

“Hucka D., before I forgot I just wanted to add that I think the two parrots in the collage represent life and death itself, inverted to each other, you see. And the portal represents a birth into life from the death state.

Hucka D.:

What is being born, then?

bb:

Well, I suppose it could represent the birth of Wordsworth himself, since the water [of life] flows from the portal “down’ to the rock enclosure that seems to directly resonate with his grave.

Hucka D.:

Burl Ives, as well, was born in Hunt City or thereabouts.

bb:

The parrots are yin-yang, then. One cannot exist without the other, like we cannot live healthy days without nightly sleep.

Hucka D.:

Taijitu.

“Words Worth Savings” February 18, 2009

“This is, again, a draft (2/19: NOT a draft now!), but I think I have enough in place to work on an interpretation, at least in a preliminary way. So let’s bring in Hucka D. again to help. Hucka?”

Hucka D.:

You start.

bb:

Ok. The last thing I added to the collage was the Rydal waterfall in the center. At first I only had an enlarged “campfire” there, which I think stands for a portal, Hucka D.

Hucka D.:

You found it on the shore of Rydal Water. The photographer didn’t know what to make of it. You saw it as a potential portal symbol, and saved the picture. It has paid off. Congratulations.

bb:

But then I added Wordsworth’s gravestone, curiously mirroring the top shape of the rock structure toward the bottom of the collage draft, beside the bottom of the waterfall now. But I have the feeling that the gravestone, or Wordsworth’s presence perhaps, opens up this water portal, which I originally planned as a fire portal, like the one in the Bar Harbor sim, potentially.

Hucka D.:

It didn’t turn out that way, though, huh? Water instead of fire. Wordsworth.

bb:

Let’s move to the beginning of the collage structure now. The first element added to the base photograph, which is a scene from Rydal Water again, is an album cover of Burl Ives called “Songs of Ireland”, released in 1958 by Decca.

Hucka D.:

Then one and only one corner of the album was removed for the second move of the collage game. This exposed the Rydal Water photography underneath it.

bb:

I had already started a different Wheeler #9 collage before this, also using a Rydal scene.

Hucka D.:

That base may still be used for another collage. Jasper.

bb:

Anyway, I believe I immediately made the association between this photograph and the scene on Burl Ives’ album. I thought it could work together. Stone walls obviously, but also the colors were similar. I was originally attracted to the Burl Ives’ album, which I’ve had stored on my computer for several years now, because of the very red haystacks. This was also an inspiration to use it in a new collage, since the haystack image has come up again in the Wheeler series [collage #6].

Hucka D.:

It’s the stone wall that unites the Ireland landscape in the album cover and the Rydal landscape. That one wall. And the removed corner exposes the rock structure that has the same shape as the Wordsworth gravestone. The gravestone could not have been introduced into the collage later on unless that was exposed.

bb:

There’s a similar rock jut at the bottom left hand corner of the album cover as well. (pause) So this probably brings us to the Hunt City sign. As it turns out, the Hunt City sign in the picture (unaltered from its original web dimensions), the one at the city limits I assume, is basically the same length as the height of the corner piece removed from the album. The *second* part of that sign, where it says “Home of Burl Ives”, is the same length as the *width* of that same corner piece.

Hucka D.:

You forgot to mention that when you trimmed down the album cover of the excesses on each side and at the bottom, you were able to deduce that the actual cover itself — the only version of this cover you were able to find online — is about 512×512 pixels. This may, then, related it to the base parcel of Second Life, which is 512 square meters. And also the square sim itself, which is 256×256 meters, or half 512.

bb:

Right, exactly. This has something to do with a sim… the album cover is a sim. Today I have to carefully measure the cut out and the related Hunt City sign to further clarify the situation.

Hucka D.:

We have more to talk about concerning this collage for certain. Parrots… SL tie ins… and the Monster number. Monstrous Moonshine.

bb:

Thank you.