From James Au's New World Notes:
Azdel Slade and Lanna in the SL version of the RL performance lab
Charlanna Beresford’s weekly round-up of upcoming SL events…
Becoming Dragon is a mixed reality, durational performance taking place both in Second Life and at University of California San Diego. Beginning at 7 PM on Monday, December 1, Azdel Slade (Micha Cárdenas in RL) begins a continuous performance for 365 hours (over 15 days!) that will use adaptive technology so that all she will see is Second Life and a motion capture system will map her movements into Second Life.
Becoming Dragon questions the one year requirement of Real Life Experience that transgender people must fulfill in order to receive Gender Confirmation Surgery (Sexual Reassignment Surgery), and asks if this could be replaced by one year of Second Life Experience to lead to Species Reassignment Surgery. The project seeks to explore the shift from subjectivity to becoming, to examine the subject in transition, as opposed to a clearly defined identity. The choice of a dragon for an avatar is related to the history of dragons as magical creatures, able to shapeshift into different forms and teleport through space, well suited to Second Life. Dragons are also part of the large community of non-anthropomorphic avatars in Second Life, which are not easily limited to either male or female binary gender categories.
The performance is Azdel's final MFA project and she will stay in the performance space at UCSD and in Second Life during the entire duration of the performance. The RL performance space at UCSD will be open to the public for the duration, during the hours that the building is open, 9am to 7pm. There are also a number of special events that occur throughout Becoming Dragon; a full schedule of these events is available here on Azdel's blog. In Seventh Eye (click here to teleport).
(All times in SLT, "Second Life Time" - i.e., Pacific Standard)
Thursday, November 27
11 AM - Alice's Restaurant Massacree One of the more interesting recurrences with Thanksgiving in the United States is the
Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant. Master storyteller Shandon Loring will do a live voice presentation of this tale. Reading will take about 18 minutes.. but stick around after and listen to BOTH the original Alice's Restaurant Massacree AND Alice's Restaurant 30 Years Later. All attendees will also receive a free picture of the actual church from the song. All proceeds from this event will benefit
Project Children. In West of Ireland (
click here to teleport).
3 PM - Miriam Makeba Memorial
Miriam Makeba was a singer and civil rights activist. Come celebrate the life of this remarkable woman through photographs and music. In Robben Island (click here to teleport).
6 PM - The Mayflower in New England for Thanksgiving!
Go aboard the Mayflower in SL New England! An authentic, to scale reproduction of the RL Mayflower, as designed by Mayflower descendant and Thanksgiving expert, Lora Chadbourne, is floating in the bay off the Nantucket Theatre. Explore the vessel and learn historic facts you never knew! Relax and enjoy a juicy turkey leg before or after your tour and wear a free Pilgrim hat or Native American moccasins. In Nantucket (click here to teleport).
Also this week: SL Live Radio First Birthday, Reflexive Architecture, and more...
Friday, November 28
1 AM - TUi Edumart sponsors Black Friday Show
Readers from the United States will be familiar with the rush that so many make to go shopping on the Friday after Thanksgiving that retailers have taken to calling this "Black Friday." Here's your chance to get in on a little SL-style Black Friday action! TUi Edumart & Fairy Unique Designs are sponsoring a Black Friday Show & Sale this weekend, all weekend long. The talented students & teachers of TUi Edumart show off their creations and offer them for sale to you at discounted prices. In Fairy Unique (click here to teleport).
10 AM - NCI Class: Clothing - Flexi Skirts
Learn how to create your own flexi-prim skirt! This class will teach you how to design a flexible prim skirt panel, use the LoopRez v0.6-long skirt script (provided with class supplies) to generate a full skirt from your panel, size and position your skirt. Class materials include take-home handouts which explain advanced clothing texturing tips & tricks. The instruction and materials supplied in this class will teach you how to make your own elegant SL evening gown! You must be adept in the basics of working with prims to take this class. In Fisherman's Cove (click here to teleport).
6 PM - SLSBA Skyracing Open
This is an event of the Second Life Simboard Skyracing Open. Simboarding is a mix of sports and described as being on the "edge between skateboarding, surfing, skydiving, snowboarding and hoverboarding. All boarders and fans welcome. Simboards and accessories on location. In Dream Horizon (click here to teleport).
Image by WendyofNeverland Fussbudget 8 PM - Bosco Constantine at the Lily Pad
Bosco Constantine is an established RL performer making his way into the SL world. As an accomplished artist with over 12 years RL touring experience, he will provide original music and a non-stop performance that has been compared to a powerful religious experience for the musically in-tune! In Clyde (click here to teleport).
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Saturday, November 29
7 AM - SL Live Radio 200th and 1st Birthday Party
SL Live Radio is celebrating the signing of their 200th artist and one-year anniversary with a party of continuous live music from 7 AM until 2 PM. Over 20of SL's favorite musicians will be performing at the SL Live Radio Studio. Come down for the fun, or if you want to party on your own sim, just tune in to Dublin Special Event Radio: http://66.34.54.162:8018 In Dublin (click here to teleport).
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BRIAN JOHNSON TO TEACH IN SECOND LIFE!
Zaadz Founder Brian Johnson has a new venture, headed for mega-success: PhilosophersNotes. (Think: CliffsNotes for self-development books. Only shorter. And cooler. (And a *lot* more inspiring! :)
Imagine being able to get through the Big Ideas of 50 books in less than half an hour each of reading or listening (the Notes come in both 6-page PDFs AND -20-minute MP3s so you can listen and learn in your car on the way to work, at the gym, wherever!)
Come to my PN website (See below), read all about it, look over the current titles available, and sign up for your FREE subscription to Series #1 (with the Top 25 Titles including Deepak, Dyer, Abraham-Hicks and others) of Brian's Notes. The workshops Brian will be leading in Second Life will be based on selected titles from these books. The first workshop will focus on Deepak Chopra’s “Seven Spiritual Laws of Success.” Sign up NOW, and get a head start on your PNL homework for a better ‘you’ in the New Year!
www.PhilosophersNotes.com/alexnoble
Then, (gotta love "Concentrated Wisdom for Your Hero's Journey," eh?!?), join Brian in 2009 in Second Life for a series of monthly "PhilosophersNotes Live!" virtual workshops, the first of which will be given in Second Life’s Mystic Academy, the largest teaching academy in SL.
Enrollment is limited, so if you are not already a Second Life Resident, sign up today and join our Group titled “PhilosophersNotes Live!”
www.secondlife.com
All future announcements about Brian’s Second Life workshops will be sent to Members of the “PhilosophersNotes Live!” SL Group. You can find our SL Group by putting “PhilosophersNotes Live!” into the SL Search engine. There is no cost to join this Group or attend Brian’s ‘in world’ workshops. There are lots of helpful people who will get you up and running in Second Life in no time. It takes about an hour to learn the system, and then the fun begins.
NEWS! We now have a PhilosophersNotes Live! forum here in Gaia as well, and all are welcome! Information about the live workshops in Second Life will be posted in this forum as well. Come and join the adventure:
www.pods.gaia.com/philosophersnoteslive
Happy holidays, happy homework, happy new horizons of prosperity and success!
Happiness
PS: You can also find our PNL Group in my SL Profile for Happiness Merryman. Click on “Groups”and then click through to “PhilosophersNotes Live!”
"Philosopher's Temple" in the new Immersive Art sim, LOCUS, in Second Life. Photo by Happiness Merryman
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9 AM - JSP Artist and Fashion Expo 2008
Just Soul Promotions is proud to celebrate the open of JSP Island with its very first Artist and Fashion Expo. This is the first of six week-end celebrations based on fashion and fun; this event will present a unique mix of live music events and fashion designers showcase. This one-of-a-kind concept will bring live music lovers and fashion afficionados altogether to enjoy the "hypest music and most dashing designs SL has to offer." During the 6 week celebration, JSP Island will be hosting these events every Saturday at 12 PM and 7 PM. In JSP Island (click here to teleport).
12 PM - Late Fall AU V 08 Fashion PremiereAU V is one of the designers currently in residence in Shenlei Flasheart's Shengri La Vintage Marketplace which highlights up-and-coming designers in SL. This beautiful show highlights 12 new pieces as well as skins Sponsored by AOHARU. Hosted by The Fashion Research Institute, Inc. In Shengri La Hope (
click here to teleport).
7 PM - Storytelling at the Yak
Tired of hopping from live music event to live music event, poseball to poseball? As tired of it as leftover turkey and stuffing? Why not settle down for some good old fashioned tall tales and storytelling at the Lonely Yak with Crap Mariner, author of the 100 Word Stories Podcast. Other authors who appear on the podcast's Weekly Challenge are being invited to present their own similarly-brief tales. In Blakslee World (click here to teleport).
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Sunday, November 30
Image by Crap Mariner
11 AM - Tuna Oddfellow's Odd Ball The
Odd Ball is one of the more remarkable events in Second Life with master magician
Tuna Oddfellow and his beautiful assistant Shava Suntzu. Put on your wildest avatars and your craziest costumes and send reality on a holiday at this ever evolving event. If you have never been to the Odd Ball, words won’t truly describe it. IM Tuna Oddfellow or Shava Suntzu for a TP In Research Center (
click here to teleport).
12 PM - Book Discussion: Books as Gifts The holiday season is rapidly approaching, and all book lovers have received at least one book as a gift. And surely given one as well. Share your experiences, good and bad. And perhaps get an idea of a gift to by for others - or yourself. In Awen (
click here to teleport).
2 PM - Exhibit Opening: More Than WordsLX Gallery is showing the SL photographs of the talented Mamaz Felwitch. In Portucalis (
click here to teleport).
3 PM - Ayden Kruh at LMart Ayden Kruh is a musician and a mystic at heart. He approaches life with an open mind, firmly rooted in his identity. As a singer/songwriter, he combines new folk/Americana influences with neo-soul vocal melodies to share his take on life, love, faith, pain, and more. In LMart (
click here to teleport).
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Monday, December 1
8AM - UN Conference on Climate ChangeThe
2008 United Nations Climate Change Conference will be held December 1-12, 2008 in Poznań, Poland as well as in Second Life. The Ministry of the Environment in Poland announces a parallel project in Second Life, to improve awareness and exchange ideas with a sophisticated global audience. A series of meetings and presentations are planned for each day of the conference from approximately 8 AM - 11AM in Second Life, throughout the conference. Each program component is expected to be approximately 60-75 minutes in length, including presentation and discussion. For more information, contact Skagen Vita (SLT +10) or Widget Whiteberry (SLT) in-world.
10:30 AM - A Study in Reflexive Architecture
2nd Live has commissioned Keystone Bouchard to create a study in Reflexive Architecture in SL. This dynamic event event has multiple facets and hopes use SL's environment to show the potential of architecture to transcend the limitations of static buildings and become as fluid and dynamic as the communities of people it hopes to serve. Residents are invited to visit the build throughout the construction process from now until the launch. There will be a beginner's workshop on Reflexive Archictecture at 10:30 AM with limited space; please email Stephen Hodge at programming_at_exeterphoenx.org.uk if you would like to participate. The formal launch of the build will take place at 12 PM. In 2nd Live (click here to teleport).
2 PM- What is(n’t) Digital Humanities?: Mellon seminar in Digital Humanities at UCLA
The seminar will investigate What is(n’t) Digital Humanities? as part of Digital Humanities studies at UCLA. Through dialogues with expert guest interlocutors and practitioners from various fields, seminar participants will examine, historicize, and critique the emergent field of "digital humanities." Bringing together insights from media, game, literary and cultural studies, we will attempt to take stock of humanistic inquiry at the start of the 21st century. Co-organized by Jeffrey Schnapp (Stanford University, Stanford Humanities Laboratory, and Mellon Visiting Professor of Digital Humanities, UCLA) and Todd Presner (Germanic Languages and Comparative Literature, UCLA). The monthly mixed reality seminars are open to graduate students, faculty, and the general public in RL and Entropia in Second Life. In Entropia (click here to teleport).
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Tuesday, December 2
2 AM - The Second Death of Caspar Helendale
What happens to all the unwanted avatars? When we no longer want these Second Lives, do they just revert to inert data held on a server? Building on the notion of virtual graveyards and online remembrance, artists Jessica Curry and Dan Pinchbeck invite residents and guests on a quest to draw attention to abandoned identities, joining Caspar Helendale on his last days of existence in Second Life. They are building a monument to these lost avatars, where you will be able to join them for a virtual vigil. This will include a specially composed requiem for the departed; and a Book of the Dead, containing the names of the lost and their reasons for leaving their second lives. At the end of the performance, Caspar will join the ranks of abandoned avatars and relinquish his second life. This event repeats at 6 AM and 11 AM. The monument will remain in place after Caspar's death on December 2 so visitors can hear the requiem, read the Book and reflect on the nature of mortality in virtual worlds. In 2nd Live (click here to teleport).
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Wednesday, December 3
4 PM - Class at the Epoch Institute: Where Are We Going with Virtual Reality?-- and Who Will We Be When We Get There?
Epoch Institute is pleased to present a valuble opportunity to explore the remarkable capabilities in the emerging world of Virtual Reality. Imper Fegte and Covey Homewood, both college professors in RL will examine the manner in which this technology can expand our reach and also affect us, both professionally and personally. This is part of an ongoing fourteen-week course but Residents "are welcome to join us as you are available." In Wells (click here to teleport).
6 PM - Hot Topics: Etiquette - Emily Post for Avatars
As part of its Hot Topics discussion series, Info Island hosts discussions on topics of interest and relevance to your Second Life or real life. This month’s topic covers the etiquette in our digital lives. In Info Island (click here to teleport).
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The Wild Card!
Looking for fun and adventure? The Wild Card! highlights just the day, time and a SLurl for an event. The Wild Card! may be anything, but I’ll try to pick something that promises to fun, lively, or interesting.
Wednesday, December 3 at 9 PM (click here to teleport).
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cosmic salon
October 2009 
Happiness
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