Portions of the Second Life Pie

http://aspire.mlml.calstate.edu/aspire04/updates/nov/20nov/happy%20pie.JPG

Some statistics for my research

Cultural stats
http://www.secretlair.com/index.php?/clickableculture/entry/second_life_stats_expanded_early_2006/

Economic stats
http://secondlife.com/whatis/economy_stats.php

http://secondlife.com/whatis/economy-market.php

Numbers. Hooray

R2 USPS

photo courtesy of my friend Sean

Greenville, SC

Yeh!

Chronicle of Higher Education Criticizes Baudrillard

http://chronicle.com/weekly/v53/i29/29b00901.htm

Support for a material system of labeling.

Useful for my research, but it is also a bit uncomfortable to echo The Chronicle's sentiment that "That would have required the spirit of criticism, which he
lacked."

It seems almost mean and nasty-ish.

If Baudrillard lacked "the spirit of criticism," he certainly inspired it.

Internet Killed the Boy Band Star

Re-affirmed what Adbusters had said on its back cover last spring...

"Small is the new big."

In a market of multitudes. The new hit is niche.

It's fascinating...but the media ecologists and anyone with an eye towards the strong 90s onward broadcast/print/record label consolidation have been searching for this trend for a bit now.

TED: the BMW planet?

Technophiles take note.


http://ted.com/tedtalks/

Free videos=praise for the public sphere. Sure couldn't afford the six grand for a ticket to this thing.

Most Recent Version

One More

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Tr9WgGBkLE

Article about Baudrillard

http://insidehighered.com/views/2007/03/14/mclemee

A slightly better(?) draft

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p831qMx-dU

Rough Draft

Baudrillard passed away yesterday. I've been in a bit of a fog about it. Reading his work changed many things for me. It fueled my interest in theory. It led me to drive to Boston to sit in on a conference. Aside from planning for school projects like this one, I think about his work every day. It's a bit awkward for me to write about my progress today.

Still need to enter SL, film residents and start editing. I'll be using a tutorial from http://www.machinima.com/article.php?article=433 to capture real-time video in SL.


Outline for Video

I. Introduction to Baudrillard's work in virtual reality
a. title page/ music from Hummingbird Cafe in Second Life
b. fade to residents dancing to music
c. cut to cover of book and Baudrillard's quote about "the desert of the real"
b. voice over and Montage of Second Life images

II. Introduction to Second Life

III. Filmed interviews with Second Life Residents
IV. Montage of residents in second life with voice over of argument

SL Interview

My first extended chat with another SL resident. Was too shy to find someone random. Interviewed a volunteer at The Shelter for newbies. I cut out the 'noise' from other folks' convos.

[11:06] You: hi dylan
[11:06] Dylan Rickenbacker: Hiya mymeesis
[[11:06] You: if you're not too busy can i ask you a few questions
[11:07] Dylan Rickenbacker: sure you can :-)
[11:07] You: cool
[11:07] You: i'm a student and entered SL for class...so the questions might be a bit dry, sorry
[11:07] Dylan Rickenbacker: okay hehe
[11:08] You: how long have you been a resident?
[11:08] Dylan Rickenbacker: about 5 months
[11:08] Dylan Rickenbacker: lets get out of the way and sit at the table
[some of convo got cut out on accident]
[11:12] You: what does a shopping mall manager do?
[11:13] Dylan Rickenbacker: finding tenants for the shops and seeing to it that hey are happy :-)
[11:13] You: ahh nice
[11:13] You: how much time do you spend in SL typically
[11:13] Dylan Rickenbacker: typicalls too much lol
[11:13] You: lol
[11:14] Dylan Rickenbacker: several hours a day
[11:14] You: do anything outside of SL while you're logged in?
[11:15] Dylan Rickenbacker: yeah, sometimes I have it just running in a small window and listen to the music while I'm working
[11:15] Dylan Rickenbacker: just reacting to incoming IMs
[11:15] You: what kind of music do you like?
[11:16] Dylan Rickenbacker: oh my taste is very broad
[11:16] Dylan Rickenbacker: I like the music here
[11:16] Dylan Rickenbacker: I got a piece of land where I'm streaming my own music from my web space
[11:16] You: how do i listen?
[11:17] Dylan Rickenbacker: do you see the music control above your chat line?
[11:17] You: ummm no?
[11:17] Dylan Rickenbacker: then you have to enable music in your preferences
[11:18] You: ahh. thanks :)
[[11:18] Dylan Rickenbacker: ctrl-p, Audio & Video tab
[11:19] Dylan Rickenbacker: they play an 80s mix here
[11:20] You: nice. can hear it now
[11:20] Caterpillar Uggla: !stand stevan
[11:20] Dylan Rickenbacker: takes a few secs sometimes for the music to start
[11:21] You: sorry brb
[11:21] Dylan Rickenbacker: kk
[11:24] You: ok. sorry about that. i'm in a former closet/now office and someone came in
[11:24] Dylan Rickenbacker: lol np
[11:25] You: do you have a job outside of SL?
[11:25] Dylan Rickenbacker: sure, I'm a freelance book translator
[11:26] You: which language(s)?
[11:26] Dylan Rickenbacker: English to German
[11:26] You: what type of books?
[11:27] Dylan Rickenbacker: novels mostly, some biographies, a self-help book now and then
[11:28] You: anything i might have read/heard of in English?
[11:28] Dylan Rickenbacker: well, I suppose so ...
[11:28] Dylan Rickenbacker: recently I've been doing new translations of the Narnia books
[11:29] Dylan Rickenbacker: Steve Turner's Johnny Cash biography
[11:29] You: awesome
[11:29] Dylan Rickenbacker: some novels by Dale Cramer
[11:30] You: what's the English to German demand like compared to German to English?
[11:31] Dylan Rickenbacker: considerably more I should think
[11:37] Dylan Rickenbacker: sorry, I was on the phone
[11:39] Dylan Rickenbacker: the lag kills me today lol
[11:39] Dylan Rickenbacker: about your last question:
[11:39] Dylan Rickenbacker: there's a constant influx of English and American books in Germany
[11:45] You: sorry. Was trying to copy the chat stuff into pages. I've gotta run to a class in a bit and going to grab a bite first. Thanks so much for chatting with me.

If we could talk to the animals...

Heard this in the car the other night.

"Some philosophies fuel a belief in the self, constructed to keep one's goods on one's own shelf...
If something in the deli aisle makes you cry, you know I'll put my arm around you. And I'll walk you outside, through the sliding doors...
You're not a baby if you feel the world. All of the babies can feel the world. That's why they cry."
The Blow, "Parentheses"

Thanks, WSBF (88.1 FM)

http://www.vegcooking.com/

They are Twins. That is Why. Group X does Super Mario

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/mario.php

In this animated flash video, Group X uses seemingly basic visual language to represent the visual interface of Super Mario Brothers 3.

It appears to be a step down from the graphic art of the actual game.

Holistically speaking, however, Group X may have chosen an ideal style of visual language to appeal to their intended audience.

From the beginning, the animation seems silly and childish. "Shiggity, Shiggity, Shwa" doesn't seem to fit.

The video begins with a close up of cartoon feet.

The childish style is appropriate to this video because the target audience members for Group X were probably children when the game came out. It's the same demographic that have Mario Brothers ring tones. It's my age group.

The feet are appropriate because Mario's feet (and maybe his P-wing and racoon tail) propel him through the boards. It's a linear mission. Move from left to right. Don't run out of time. Get some coins. Feet matter here.

The improvised music matches the rough sketch style of the animation. It's not supposed to seem perfect or professional. It's self-aware fun.