Consulate Games Day

The Consulate of Europa Wulfenbach is having a games day, and there are several events I’d like to draw to your attention:

I’ll be DJing the opening ball today at 12 noon SLT at Castle Wulfenbach.

There’s an ice-sculpture speed-building contest tomorrow from 11am-noon SLT, with a registration deadline of today at noon—so there’s still time to enter! Details here.

There is an En Garde tournament, with both team and individual competitions, and a closing ball DJed by Miss Cerise Blackheart tomorrow at 3pm SLT. Full schedule here.

Gabrielle Riel at “Music!” Aether Salon

I am oh-so-tardy in drawing your attention to the presentation given by her Grace, Gabrielle Riel at the New Babbage Aether Salon. Do go and read Aether Salon: Music! Edited transcript.

The first part of my presentation is all about the historical contexts in which Victorian Music existed. After a brief Introduction, I will discuss what is often referred to as “Classical Music” and its composers.

Then to the Ballroom, where I will give you an overview of the many types of dances that were invented in the Victorian Era, as well as the music that was needed to accompany them! Reaching further back into history, earlier than the Victorian Era, I will discuss Folk Music and its place in the 19th Century.

Next, a huge development in music that still affects us to this very day: Popular Music. I'll explain what it was and how it is the foundation of contemporary music. Finally, we travel inside of the Victorians' homes with Parlour Music.

Once I have provided you with the history, I can bring you into the present, and into what I call our “Imagined Past”, both in terms of music and how we all choose to live our Second Lives. Please keep in mind that many, many people would probably take issue with the overview I am giving you here of Neo-Victorian Music. They can go give their own presentation. 🙂 These are the examples I have chosen to give you today.

I'll speak about the music that is considered to be the some of the earliest “conscious” Neo-Victorian Music. And then I will delve into Goth (get out your black lipstick everyone), Steampunk, Dark Cabaret, Carnivale and Marching and Klezmer Bands.

And I will wrap up with how people in Second Life are using or applying both Victorian and Neo-Victorian Music in this environment.

Celebrating a community treasure

It will be my pleasure to DJ for the Palm Court Tea Dance at the Bashful Peacock, Sunday May 23, 3-5pm SLT. I started wondering just how long Sir Rudolfo has been hosting these events “for ladies and gentlemen who prefer the company of ladies and gentlemen, respectively,” and the earliest mention I found was a Radio Riel blog post on April 13, 2008. I’m very sorry we have not marked the second anniversary of these events!

In spite of other events in Caledon having been scheduled against the Tea Dance, I anticipate the same wonderful company and witty banter as always. Please do join us!

In honor of Ada Lovelace

In honor of Ada Lovelace Day, I want to highlight the generosity and good spirit of Her Grace, CoyoteAngel Dimsum, Duchess of Primverness, the Baroness Lovelace, Defender of the Faith(less), Keeper of the Light (Beer), Speaker to Machines. CoyoteAngel is to me the epitome of a “geek duchess”: creative, experimental, savvy, patient yet no pushover, and extremely generous. Not only are CoyoteAngel’s lands open to all for recreation, she also hosts the long-term site of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Second Life, with all its prims, scripts, avatars and their attendant lag. Anyone who needs a megaprim can find them in her domains, along with sculpty stairs and arches, girders, a variety of flying machines, and sculpty maps of parts of Caledon.

And all this while carrying on a career and building a business as a programmer in “real life.”

Brava, Your Grace!

Whither polite Victorian Steampunk society?

Both the Independent State of Caledon group IM and the Caledon blogosphere are bubbling with conflicting opinions about whether something is going wrong in Caledon, and if so, what to do about it. If you somehow read this blog but don’t already know about it (how could that be possible?), the Duke of Argylle has links to several posts as well as sharing his own thoughts. There is an active comment thread on Miss Orr’s most recent blog post, including a long response from Guvnah Desmond Shang. Meanwhile, Miss Callisto reminds us that things change (while also cleverly pointing out several old-timers who are still around and may be feeling dissed), and says she intends “to ignore you and your whole petty squabble, which I might venture to suggest has very little to really do with the Caledon chat, entirely.”

I quite agree with Miss Callisto on a number of her points, especially about Caledon chat not being the real point. (I must say that I doubt it is all attributable to fallout over a land squabble, however, nor that it is a petty squabble, as I believe the rest of my post will make clear.)

Here’s a Venn diagram for your amusement:

[unremembered diagram, image lost to data corruption long after the event]

This diagram is obviously not drawn to any scale—indeed, the actual and ideal relative sizes of each portion are part of what is at issue. The diagram helps to clarify for me that focusing on Des, Caledon, or Caledon chat is missing a major piece of the picture: We (those reading this blog, those who live in Caledon, those who visit Caledon, those who think something is wrong, those who don’t think anything is wrong, those who think the only thing wrong is that some people think something’s wrong) belong to and create a human community (a real community, not a virtual one, even if virtual worlds and electronic communications make possible the vast majority of our interactions), which is not synonymous with Caledon.

This community long ago ceased to be a single village, or a single conversation—and let us give thanks for that! Des, as a visionary small businessman, has nurtured a number of other fledgling estates as well as creating a community against which others can sharpen their own visions, creating their own attempts at Steampunk, Victorian, or “historical re-imaginist” and fantasy estates in Second Life. What an amazing eruption of creativity in just a few short months, relatively speaking, since Caledon began with a single sim on February 26, 2006. (Perhaps we are just experiencing the last bit of the Terrible Twos?) Anyone who looks only to ISC chat, or to the ISC membership, or to who rents land in Caledon, will inevitably miss a much broader context. And that larger context is one of change, growth, and the conflict that often accompanies (or even creates) both.

I would be remiss were I not to mention something that I don’t believe has been directly addressed elsewhere thus far: We don’t all like one another. Of course, you might say, of course we don’t. But it bears repeating, and really let it sink in: We do not all like one another. We are a real community: There is everything from simple lack of friendship to dislike to enmity to broken hearts to feuds. There is rivalry and competition, in business and socially. Most of us have learned to navigate these realities of the human condition in our daily lives. There are limitations imposed by the technology that makes possible our particular community, however, which make these realities more difficult to deal with. But deal with them we must, and shall.

I confess that I had been of the opinion that “Des should do something.” And there are times I still feel that way. Residents of Caledon are Des’s customers (whatever else we may be), and as a customer I have on occasion complaints about the way his other customers behave, or wish that he would take Caledon in a different direction than he does. In some ways, Des and Caledon are frighteningly parallel to Linden Research and Second Life. (If you have not done so, please go read the Guvnah’s comment on Miss Orr’s blog. This is a long post; it will be here when you get back.) Not only is Des disinclined to become a tyrant (or even an enlightened moderator), I’ve come to realize that it would be impossible for him to do so. The Guvnah did not create a community, and he cannot control it. He did create a wonderful seed-bed for community, and I have to trust his good business sense as a steward of that seed-bed.

Here are my woefully inadequate and incomplete thoughts about what has made us a community (with another nod to Miss Callisto for pointing out many of the talented people who have lived and live still in Caledon):

  • Gathering places: Where would we be without CrystalShard Foo’s dance machines, the venues provided by any number of generous landowners, and DJs of every stripe? Or the pubs and bars with their storytelling and poetry sessions?
  • Places of learning: The Caledon Library, now the Alexandrian Free Library (libraries of Caledon, Steelhead, Winterfell, New Toulouse, New Babbage, Amatsu Shima, & West of Ireland), with its ethos of service and a commitment to deepening our understanding of history, literature, the arts, and all fields of knowledge that might inform our Second Life communities.
  • The web, specifically Excalibur Longstaff’s forums and wiki, Gabrielle Riel’s Google calendar, and the many blogs and journals: Imagine being limited to the group communications channels provided in Second Life. (And there I reveal a bias; there are dozens if not hundreds of Second Life residents who are part of our community who do not extend that community beyond Second Life itself. They, of course, are limited to the group communications provided by Linden Research, most, I must assume, by choice.)
  • Who created your skin? Your clothing? Your hair? Your AO? Your house? Your gardens? Your armaments? Your sailing ships, riding horses, buggies, and flying machines?
  • Events: Relay for Life; Caledon anniversary events; balls; the Grand Tour; races; dogfights; regattas; duels; banquets; CaleCon; informal RL meetups.
  • Friendships: Let’s keep them strong.

These elements of being a community were and are created by us, by our friends—and by strangers, and by those we may dislike. (Notice that few of these elements of being a community were created by Des, although without him any number of them might not have happened.) In order to continue to enjoy these fruits of community, do we have the will to find our way through disagreements and conflict? Can we become better at building what excites and nourishes us now and letting go of that which does not, no matter how affectionately we may once have regarded it?

I hope that this very long post has more in it than “Can’t we all just get along?” But in the end, perhaps, that is exactly the greatest challenge for us as a community—the human community.

Tolerans, Civilis, Innovus, Laganum

So—is there anything I’m actually going to do? At this moment, I’m tending towards these things (not a prescription for anyone else, simply my thoughts on what might be best for me to do):

  • I’d like to be kind and to personally act with decorum. I will attempt to address people as they wish to be addressed, except when strangers ask me to use their first name in Caledon (because I do value that in Caledon; in Steelhead and Winterfell, not as much).
  • I will not put any effort into ISC chat. If it annoys or bores me, I’ll simply close it. My “communications” time and energy will continue to go to the Caledon Forums, Caledon Wiki, and the Aether Chrononauts Google calendar (which has a handy mnemonic: http://tinyurl.com/aetherchrononauts).
  • The Guvnah and I have had conversations about coordinated events within what I will call the “Aether Chrononauts” world, or perhaps the “themed” estates, if one includes Raglanshire. I want to encourage distinct communities in Second Life and within Caledon to recognize and develop their distinctiveness, while also serving as I can to encourage cooperation and creative co-existence.
  • Last year’s Caledon Social Season was an uneasy marriage of role-play and community education. Like the Duke of Argylle and the Marchioness of Giggleford, I am interested in creating opportunities for non-RP but themed education, which might serve as one form of introduction to Caledon and its related communities.

Bashful Peacock

I was privileged this evening to present music at the Bashful Peacock for Mr Rudolfo Woodget’s Palm Court Tea Dance series. This was my first time presenting for this event, and I had a wonderful time. I took as my goal to create a coherent playlist using only gay, lesbian, and bisexual performers. (I included groups when one or more members met the criteria.) Outmusic.com was invaluable in identifying some performers to round out musical styles.

The first section of the evening was traditional folk music. I leaned heavily upon Ashley MacIsaac, a Cape Breton fiddler, and The Klezmatics, from their Woody Guthrie album Wonder Wheel. The middle section was Bessie Smith, Noel Coward, and Cole Porter. I finished off with a set of contemporary music anchored by k.d. lang.

All in all, a wonderful event with congenial company. I look forward to my next engagement at Mr Woodget’s establishment.

Land available

In light of the coming changes to open space sims, my current open space sims will be consolidated into full sims by the end of the year, at which time new rental parcels will become available. I invite anyone looking for long-term land ownership (one quarter sim or more) to contact me. I offer very attractive terms in a congenial, rustic estate, in exchange for long-term stability from congenial, low-drama tenants.

Sadly, I am likely to relinquish tenancy of Caledon Murdann. (I am certainly going to relinquish it unless the Guvnah decides to consolidate it into a full sim.) Please contact me if you have always dreamt of renting a duchy in Caledon.

Thank you, Miss Malaprop

The brilliant Miss Malaprop, on the recent open space sim brouhaha: Shouting into the Void

I do not, myself, believe in conspiracy theories that this was all some sort of cunning plan by the Laboratory, a “bait and switch” as the phrase has it, to encourage the purchase of OpenSpace areas and then suddenly charge more for them. The main reason that I do not believe these theories is that it would imply a level of long-term planning, and successful long-term planning as well, that I consider utterly unrealistic for the Laboratory.