Noted techno-electro beatmeister Cari Lekebusch (Mantis Oh in SL) threw one hell of a party to celebrate the release of his new album, State of the Art, today in Second Life. As you can see in the photo above (click to enlarge), the place was packed. Lekebusch, well known in Europe and North America for his sonic wizardry and flawless production skills, is also a familiar figure on the SL rave scene. He commissioned Hern Worsley of AVZ, creator of the legendary Poetik sim, to  build the dark and magical setting for the parties. Keep on rockin’ in the v-world.

The year is 1998. Thom Yorke, lead singer for the rock band Radiohead, sits exhausted in the hallway of a Tokyo hotel. He’s nearing the end of a promotional tour for his new album, OK Computer, and director Grant Gee is recording his every move for the documentary film, Meeting People is Easy. In this scene he’s also being shot by a swarm of Japanese photographers, looking for all the world like a man standing in front of a firing squad. In a sense, he is.

Two of the photos taken at that instant become the basis of a magazine spread. Tracing it from the beginning, this is the journey those images have taken through the maze of media that make up our postmodern lives…

1. The Real Moment occurs.

2. Japanese photographers capture his image in that moment.

3. Grant Gee’s cameramen capture both Thom and the photographers.

4. In the interim, two of the photos become part of a magazine spread.

5. The film containing the magazine spread is shown on the Independent Film Channel.

6. I photograph the televised image of the magazine spread with my iPhone.

7. I upload the photo to my laptop.

8. I then upload the image to the virtual world of Second Life.

9. I place the image on a virtual canvas and hang it on the virtual wall of my virtual studio, then sit back in my virtual Eames chair and listen to OK Computer while reveling in the wonders of modern technology. Happy St. Patrick’s Day.

Back to the magic of the metaverse…. is it possible that I could be standing alone at a jukebox in my studio in Second Life and suddenly be transported back in time to the childhood of my human self, staring, mesmerized, into this gleaming cathedral of sound and color, listening wide-eyed and reverent before the tabernacle as the spinning wafer teases out a piece of paradise itself? Yes, anything is possible in Second Life. In this world, in fact, you can still get to heaven on a buffalo nickle. I put a spell on you…

Jumped into machinima big time yesterday, not only overcoming my fear of working in three dimensions, but throwing time, space and sound into the mix. Since we’ve been recording our first original tune in real life this week, Botgirl and I have also begun discussing the music video we’ll be using to introduce it to the world. Since  my digital paintings were to be incorporated in some way, I finally realized I’d have to go in there myself and experiment with the medium hands on, in order to get the full sense of how it should look and feel.

I decided, at least for the sake of experimentation, that I’d put together one of my art cubes using my most recent paintings, and set up a brief shoot with Camille on guitar and myself on drums. Then I downloaded several machinima (screen capture) software programs and began to try them out, one by one. The programs were Camtasia, fraps, and jing… in each case, the free – and, I should also add, limited – versions.

Though I wasn’t able to do some of the more important things, like pan, zoom, select and frame – nor did I get around to editing; this is raw footage – I concentrated mainly on the look and feel of the scene, using lighting and atmosphere, much as I would in my paintings; then I shot the film in HD. I also had to settle for streaming audio on my sim since my software skills are limited in this medium, and I didn’t have any editing software (I’m sure you veteran machinamators out there are chuckling at this). One of the clips, if you care to check it out, can be seen on vimeo. Fyi, this particular clip was shot in fraps.

“Most of the guitars on the market in the late 1950s had their share of feminine curves, but the Strat was the wood and metal equivalent of a pin-up model.” -from Wired Online

A mighty big birthday high-five is winging its way to the man who invented one of the most important musical instruments of the 20th century: the Fender electric guitar. As you may have noticed, many of the greatest rock guitarists in the world have built their sound, career and image around the sleek, sexy and fluid Fender Stratocaster, making it the central force in rock culture in the ’50s and ’60s, a period which continues to dominate almost every genre of popular music to this day.

The late Clarence “Leo” Fender was born 100 years ago on August 10, 1909. Thanks for the many soul-searing moments, Leo.

Finally came up with a new logo for the band, after wrestling with it most of the weekend; designing logos, apparently, is not much like riding a bicycle. Though once a professional designer, it took me a few days to re-orient all those brain cells to the task of twisting letters and images into something that didn’t explode in every direction – in spite of all its cherrybombness. It had to stay together just long enough to capture the message and get it across to that mythical consumer. So, I thought the abstract notion of explosion would work just fine, and the cherry – well, hell, how can you screw up a cherry?

Got it done in good time for another reason as well…. Xaviar Thunders, the man behind the XTC line of leather clothing in Second Life, had heard about the band and contacted us about his idea of starting a new line of cherrybomber leather jackets – an offer we simply couldn’t refuse. So, look for the new jackets hitting the streets before long, new logo and all, at his chain of stores. We’ll keep you posted on that one, and will provide you with the slurl when the big day arrives.

Lest I lose track of my original intent in all of this, I want to return to the font, the source – the tree of beauty. I am merely an artist, after all, and despite all the razzle-dazzle of technology, it is the song and cry of the human heart that I am striving to capture and express here; without that, I become just another sounding brass or tinkling cymbal. But here we are, like it or not; that song and cry is now being pumped through God’s tinny little speakers, heard ’round the world.

Photo above: Chrome in front of new digital mural, Orbit.

Thought it might be time to focus once again on Juliette, the lovely and loyal subject of much of my attention in Second Life. She is the face and figure of all of my digital artwork, the focal point of my search for the human heart and mind within the avatar. Fortunately for me, though, she is kind, generous, and very, very patient. She has to deal with an obsessive perfectionist, after all, and pulls it off with grace and poise. Can’t figure out how she does it, actually.
Suddenly, however, a new side of her personality has begun to emerge. To give her a break from the lights and cameras I began a series of photo shoots using myself as a blissed-out rock star for the subject of my next painting, and Juliette took one look at those shots and decided she was not gonna be left out of this party. She has long wanted to be on stage, she claimed, and not just as a pretty face. She wants to be a rock star herself, dammit, and then went on to inform me of her considerable musical talent and experience. I was floored. We then, of course, had to go shopping. Women.
The photo above was taken at Bowling Green State University, where she began to unpack and test her new guitar – a classic Stratocaster from KLP Productions, one of the best musical equipment builders in SL. She has been rocking the house ever since; the studio will never be the same. We also picked up a gorgeous set of drums, btw, since she is multi-talented, and, well, drumming runs deep in this family. We’ll talk more about that later, though; looks like this story line has just begun.