Well, they appear to when their master mind is afk; but I would suggest that it is akin to the sleep of zombies; ie, a mere momentary suspension of activities. It occurred to me the other night, though, while watching an episode of True Blood, that avatars may have more in common with vampires. They don’t breathe, they have no blood, they don’t age and can theoretically live forever, and occasionally even have fangs; hey, one even bit me on the neck the other night on Help Island. I brushed off the bite marks and the invitation to the vampire ball, but it started me thinking.

As I said in my latest post on mikimojo, one of my favorite pastimes is to shoot pictures of Things I Found on Television, so I’m having a mini-exhibit of some of my faves. I took this painterly masterpiece during the fourth episode of my favorite vampire fantasy on HBO. In this scene Bill grabs Sookie and runs out the back door of Fangtasia, the big vamp club in N’Orleans right after the cops burst in through the front.

Click image to see full size

Tuesday…. oops. Fangtasia is in Shreveport. How utterly stupid of me.

Wednesday… By the way, can an avatar see itself in a mirror? I’m gonna have to go check that one out.

Chrome standing in front of his latest work, The Possibility of Physical Immortality in the Mind of Someone Famous. The 10-foot high glass tank installation contains British artist Damien Hirst suspended in 2200 gallons of formaldehyde.

Speaking of On the Road, it wasn’t all that long ago that Chrome, the immortal bohemian artist and writer, blew in on a fresh breeze from the New Wilderness, fully formed, jazzed by everything and everyone around him. He touched down briefly in San-Fran-cisco to cast his spell on the Love Generation along with fellow poets Michael McClure and Bob Dylan, seen above, standing outside the Six Gallery in 1965.

He saw the best minds of his generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, while In the rooms around him his friends would come and go, talking of Michelangelo; you know, measuring their lives in coffee spoons, blah, blah, blah. It was so hip to be cool, he once said, that he could barely contain himself. Hence, that legendary road. Ahh, but he was so much older then; he’s younger than that now.

Twin brothers Chrome and Manhattan are seen above meeting for the first time in over a year, earlier today. Read the heartwarming story of their reunion, The Light Brothers On the Road, at our twin site, Chrome Never Sleeps.

It has been many a Linden moon since Chrome and his twin brother, Manhattan, known collectively as The Light Brothers, had gotten together. They lead such busy second lives, you see; there just hasn’t been much room for family get-togethers. Today, though, on a quiet Sunday morning, they decided to hook up, if only for an hour or so, and catch up on old news, new shoes, and the state of the Metaverse. Busy boys.

They decided to meet at Waterhead and, not being big nature lovers, eschewed the nearby trails and explored some of the local roads by cowboy boot instead. Initially, they had intended to take a long ride in Chrome’s vintage WWII army jeep, but for some reason the owner of the land wouldn’t allow them to rez the vehicle. “Protected Land,” it said. Some guy named Linden, I think. God, what a jerk. What the hell are roads for?

One topic of discussion during the long march was the possibility of getting back together again as The Light Brothers. Chrome, the popular writer/artist, and Manhattan, the gypsy musician/photographer, had previously collaborated on a conceptual piece called Crash Landing, a minimalist interpretation of the flying saucer incident in Roswell, New Mexico. It was called ‘conceptual’ because it only happened in their own minds. They’re very avant garde, you know.

The day concluded by each of them sinking his teeth into the other’s neck and drinking about a pint of blood; an old ritual of theirs, which also happened only in their minds, because they actually have no blood. That’s also why they decided not to call themselves The Blood Brothers.

Seen in photo above: Manhattan on the left, and Chrome to the right. Photo by the photographer. Click image to see full size.

Our superhero, ever on the alert for danger, is seen just as everything went up in flames last night in Ahern (3, 3, 40). Since Chrome doesn’t begin to melt until the temperature hits 3465 °F, however, he was never in any real danger; but even superheroes take no chances, so he donned his fire-repellent vest moments before, just in case, and walked away unharmed.

Others in the vicinity, apparently, did not fare as well. Chrome will be devoting some of his time today to visiting some of the victims, who were taken to Mercy General Hospital in Dudintsev. (47, 221, 64)

She approached me from behind as I stood bewitched by the rare midnight blossoming of a mindflower, all but faded from the forest floor. So intent was I on absorbing its perfume that I never heard a sound… so gone that I was knee-deep in bliss when I fell; nothing in the air but her smell, and the voices hidden in the night wind.

Last evening, just before dusk, I walked onto the plains at Help Island and came upon two young gladiators practicing their deadly moves. One, a spiky flaming warrior princess, fire-hardened metal to the core and brandishing a flaming sword, stood against her opponent, a large, lightning-quick robospider, his golden whiplash tentacles splaying in all directions.

I was fortunate to be there and be able to get inside the action, armed only with my trusty Kodak Brownie. The deadly dance, as you will see, was pure art. You can join the action at my flickr set, At play in the Cosmic Sandbox.

Click image to see full size.

Chrome Underwood, our virtual representative in Second Life, has just signed a deal with Ruttan Gallery, the premier exhibition space in the Cetus Gallery District. His first exhibit of recent digital paintings will be in December. Read the full story at our parallel site, Chrome Never Sleeps.

Photo, above: Chrome discussing his work with Xander Ruttan, founder of Ruttan Gallery. Click to see full size.

Needless to say, I was delighted when my good friend Harper Beresford contacted me to let me know that Xander Ruttan was interested in meeting with us to discuss my digital art and a possible exhibition at Ruttan Gallery, the premier space in the Cetus Gallery District. Digital art? How interesting. I had almost forgotten I was an artist.

Up until a couple of years ago, I had been cranking out large works of art at a pretty good clip, kind of a one-man digital Warhol factory (Andy would have loved it); printing many of them on canvas or archival rag paper, a select few chosen to exhibit in my local neighborhood, Southern California. Then it all ground to a halt.. no, actually, I should say that it was more like I jumped from one moving train to another, before the first one had a chance to grind to a halt. I became a writer.

Xander, a well-known artist, critic and gallery owner himself in RL (California, no less), was also the driving force behind the creation of the Cetus sim, now the locus of a number of galleries, home to a growing arts community and host to many other arts and media events. He proved to be a more than gracious host by welcoming us into his brand-new, mid-century modernist home, and then led us into town to check out the gallery space, where we discussed more of the details of the show and experimented with size and setup arrangements. What fun.

The first show will be sometime in December, drawing from my current body of work; to be followed later in 2009 with a show of entirely new….. well, exactly what that work will be after having spent the last few years writing and wandering virtual worlds may prove to be as great a surprise to me as it will to the patrons of Ruttan Gallery. I honestly can’t wait to see it myself.

Cetus Gallery District – Chosen , Cetus (216, 5, 37), Second Life

Photo: Chrome, standing in front of his digital painting, Origami.