New World Notes

What's the Most Fantastic Virtual Hair in Second Life?

When I wrote about Rikka Koi's blue beehive hairdo with the Cthulu fetus growing inside, I thought that was quite likely the most fantastic virtual hair I'd ever seen. But perhaps a more likely candidate is Rococo Fantastico hair from Pandora Wigglesworth's Curio Obscuro. Emerald Wynn modeled it on her blog recently, and it's grand, gigantic, glorious, and you should probably take a look at the whole thing. No seriously, you should. Easy to understand how Drew Carey is such a fan of Curio too.

Who is SecondLie Scribe (Besides an Avatar Named After a Twitter Account Parody)?

Who is SecondLie Scribe, besides an avatar named after the owner's cute and snarky Twitter parody of Second Life's official Twitter account? Ms. Ana Lutetia asks the bag-headed Scribe some questions, and gets some answers, e.g., "Twitter is outside the scope of the Terms of Service/Community Standards, so it was fair game to create a collective account there to Parody all of the posts to @SecondLife and other SL-related accounts." More here.

Emilly Explores Drowsy During Obon

Last week I mentioned the Buddhist festival of Obon was being celebrated in the beautiful and strange storybook island of Drowsy, Ms. Emilly Orr has a nice exploration of what she found then, in a post with a typically lyrical if obscure title, "In My Heart That Barless Prison, Discolours All With Tunnel Vision".

Open Forum: What's Your Favorite Second Life or OpenSimulator Blog Post of the Last Four Weeks?

Read a great blog post on SL or OpenSimulator lately? Post the link and description in Comments, for possible highlighting later. Bonus points for a post written by a blogger who doesn't normally blog about the metaverse!

Second Life Tweet of the Day

A designer in Austin experiences reality displacement from a New York City colleague's Tweets. A version of this often happens with me too, where I'll explain a vivid memory of an incident that just occurred, and my interlocutor interrupts, "What world are you talking about again?" Retweet me your favorite SL Tweets here.

Second Life Avatars Sold As Cellphone *Idoru* On Major Japanese Mobile Carrier

SoftBank, one of Japan's leading mobile phone companies, is selling Second Life avatars as wallpaper personalities -- i.e., idoru. This news comes to us from Japanese language SL news site Second Times, and my brilliant NWN translator Sanny Yoshikawa. "This is the first project of 'AquaEdge'," Sanny tells me. "Usthem Labo works as a talent agency of these virtual idols and Second Life creators will develop them as a real idols. The virtual idols are expected to be exposed in photo books, movies and music." Somewhat calling to mind the idoru envisioned in William Gibson's novel of the same name -- a virtual celebrity crossing several medium.

More info (in Japanese) on Aqua Edge:"As real idols are polished by a fashion coordinator, makeup artists or musicians, virtual idols are also polished by many SL creators," Sanny translates for us. "The goal of this project is making virtual idols with metaverse creators and sending virtual idols to media such as movie, music and photo books." For now, however, SoftBank subscribers can get an SL-based idoru for their mobile phone, a service known as "Virtual Lovely Mobile", which'll run them 300 Yen/month, about USD$3.15 (see screencap, courtesy Sanny.) Image credit: aquaedge.jp

Chestnut's Choices 7/23 - 7/29: Explore the Future Via Virtual Art, Catch a Kabuki Play, Attend Mixed Reality Music Fest, Meet Bestselling Author Carleen Brice, & much more...

Chestnut Rau’s weekly round-up of upcoming SL events…

You never know what the artists at Caerleon Isle are going to do next.  Recently, Sabrinaa Nightfire asked a talented group of artists to create virtual artworks that represent an idea of what the future holds.  The wide range of interpretations are presented in an interesting exhibition called The Future Project.  The large scale works range from the thought provoking, to stunningly beautiful, to just plain fun.  The colorful Creation by Sabrinaa above rests high in the sky along side work by White Lebed, Solkide Auer, Kolor Fall, Al Lurton, and many more.   Do yourself a favor and make time to explore this series.  In Erato of Caerleon.  [SLurl teleport at this link]

Also after the break:  Crap Mariner Performs, Attend a Fashion Show to Benefit Project Children, Meet Author Carleen Brice and much much more

Evolution of a Photoshopped Avatar

Want to know how the bald, tight-lipped avatar on the left morphed into the fiery, candy-colored dream on the right? Let the artist Divine Tokyoska show you how, in a series of three videos compressing two hours of work into three 10 minute segments here, here, and here; somewhat overwhelming to the everyday viewer, but I suspect other SL graphic artists will glean some skills along the way. Final product can be viewed in many sizes here. Image credits Ms. Tokyoska.

Second Life Tweet of the Day

A teacher in Kuwait asks an instructor in Turkey for clearer communication regarding a recent presentation by Jewish rabbis in Second Life.

Retweet me your favorite SL Tweets here.

What's Your Favorite Second Life Sim of the Last 3 Months?