Wales has given us many great exports besides coal. One has been the beauty of its poetry, and the other the beauty of its music. In the video clip below, from 1970, Tom Jones does something other than sway his hips — he recites for us from countryman Dylan Thomas’ A Child’s Christmas in Wales. Accompanying him is The Treorchy Male Choir, singing holiday carols in the lovely sounds of the Welsh choral tradition.
This is a multi-page story; just click on the “Pages” links at the foot of each page to move back and forth.
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The woman gazed at the ident-block on the door’s security panel with a nervous expression. She had passed any number of such panels on the way up to this office, but none of them had read:
Sherman, Ariel Chairwoman / CEO Fantasial Productions ILC
It felt strange to Taraia to be interviewed by the CEO of a corporation for a job … especially when the job was really an entrance-level position. Her college advisor had told her that Lady Ariel was peculiar in this way; she wanted to get a feel for new-hires outside of the production aspects of her theatre’s show and night club. Was it because, again according to her advisor, promotions came from within the corporation, and so she might have closer daily exposure with the Boss than at two or three removes …?
I’ve been wound up with outside affairs this past few weeks, and I just managed to squeeze in a run through this year’s Fantasy Faire. There were several extremely creative regions this time through, and I snapped my favorite views in photos, so to preserve their memory and share it with others.
There will be two sections here; the first is a gallery of landscapes, while the second shows what I wore, built mostly from offerings at the various vendors. You can click on the gallery for larger views, and there’s a link at the bottom for full size. (Some of these are 1920 wallpapers.)
When I was writing this up, I found not just one quote to use, but two. I’ll title this with Joe Jackson’s song and include the video at the bottom. But following is another sonnet from Harper’s beloved Poetry Magazine archive (which really is a nifty source of material!)
How can I offer you the dull, frayed song Of love I know? Each word would stumble on A memory; and I should see a long Blurred line of faces grimacing upon A musty curtain of the past …. Ah, no …. Let me be silent …. Words would only sound A monotone: a toxic, cloying flow Of echoes would sift through, and eddy round My voice, and all the rapture that I feel Would turn into a harlequin and steal Away beneath the vivid, measured hum Of mockery. Ah, dearest, may there come An ecstasy of stillness in each day, That you may sense the thoughts I dare not say!
I love this song, and this video illustrates what we do in Second Life (as I did in my photos above) quite nicely, transforming ourselves for a time into whatever life we want to live, to change away from the humdrum and pains of daily Real Life.
Thank God for Second Life right now! A safe place to meet, and mostly a place of calm, where you can get your head together for an hour or two outside of the fears and panic of the times.
And a woman spoke, saying, “Tell us of Pain.” And he said: Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain. And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy; And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields. And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief. Much of your pain is self-chosen. It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self. Therefore trust the physician, and drink his remedy in silence and tranquillity: For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided by the tender hand of the Unseen, And the cup he brings, though it burn your lips, has been fashioned of the clay which the Potter has moistened with His own sacred tears.
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet, “On Pain”
Skin: Raonhausen Gweneth (BOM; Milk Brows)
Head: LAQ Skye 3.07 Bento
Body: Maitreya Lara 5.0.2
Eyes: Ikon Triumph (Chocolate)
Hair: no.match no.sir.
Outfit: Ricielli Vivian blouse (14) and skort (4) (purchase as separates; available at Cosmopolitan through April 4)
Shoes: Ohemo Daisy block-heel boots (available at Cosmopolitan through April 4)
Teleport to Tokyo-Windhill City (SSOC region).You will not land in the park, as this is a sim with a dedicated landing point! Exit the arcade you land in, then open the Map and change the Location numbers to 133 / 209 / 33, so you will get a beacon to walk toward (no flying allowed in the sim). The park will lie northeast of your landing point, 1-2 minutes’ walk.)
Contact Sheet is an irregular column of selected photographs and portraits from Residents of Second Life. All rights to featured images are reserved to the artists under appropriate copyright laws and/or allowances under the Creative Commons. Click on the links as necessary to go to the required blog or Flickr page. Please go to these artists’ pages in any case to leave comments, (as well as comments here).
Suggestions are appreciated; please send descriptions and links
to me by in-world IM, notecard, E-mail to harper.ganesvoort@gmail.com,
or leave a comment below.
NOTICE: Some of the photos/links may contain nudity. Viewer discretion advised.
Many of you probably heard today of the death of Kenny Rogers. The singer was most known today for his solo country singles from the time of “The Gambler” forward, and his duet with Dolly Parton, “Islands in the Stream.” But Kenny had a career dating from the Sixties, when he started with The New Christy Minstrels during the later part of the Folk Revival.
Rogers eventually left the Minstrels, along with a few other members, and founded The First Edition. The group was never a rock sensation, but they did score two good hits: “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In” … and “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town,” the much more successful of the two.
Alsatian Kidd worked fast today, and put this photo together with help from another avatar. A fantastic tribute to an excellent singer.
Many Second Life bloggers, including us at Around the Grid, do more than just shoot pretty pictures of pretty clothes or wonderful builds. We also try to talk about what we’re photographing, and we like to add quotes to further help along the story.
The first blogger I recall using quotes was my friend and “namesake,” Harper Beresford. She hasn’t published very regularly since about 2016, as far as I can see; but, when she does, there’s usually a quote of some kind in the text that catches your attention. Many other bloggers have done so over the years; for instance, Anne Daumig at The Wanton Wardrobe makes the quote her entire text, aside from the product list.
One source we’ve been using lately at AtG is the Web site for Poetry Magazine. I’ve known about Poetry for years in print form (I’m a trained librarian, remember, and I worked at college in the periodicals department), but I’ve visited their Web site on occasion since about 2012, when the magazine celebrated its 100th anniversary. They did a cover every month of that year with Pegasus, the symbol of divine inspiration; I chose the January issue to keep on my desk (so to speak [grin]) as a reminder that Real World arts reaches into the Second Life, and that the humanities is more than just prose and visual arts.
Poetry is just a few years shy of its 110th anniversary now, and it’s outlasted any other attempt made to publish interesting verse in the English language. For years, until a bequest by the estate of Ruth Lilly, its finances were, to say the least, living on a tightrope — writing and publishing poetry has never been an insanely profitable enterprise, even in the days of the bards. The publishers and editors have persisted like Elizabeth Warren, though, their mission to bring to attention the best in verse, both old and new, and to show there’s more to poetry than 19th-century romanticism, especially in America. You can learn more of the magazine’s history at their site.
The publishers have done a truly excellent thing, which draws me back time and time again to their site — they have placed their entire issue archive online for free. This brings an extraordinarily deep reservoir of work out into the widest possible availability, and I’ve been using it lately for my pieces here on the blog. I encourage you to stop by their site and browse through this collection, as well as searching by keywords for poems that may strike you as useful … or just for your own personal reading and enrichment. Remember that Goethe said, among the things we should do each day, is read a good poem. It gives you something to think about besides the depressing cadences of the news and Facebook.
This well and building are only part of a lovely build called Otter Cove, with lots of opportunities for photography. See below for the landmark.
Still half asleep, I sought the hill and found My vantage place, then stood a moment there To probe the wind for some familiar sound; But no vibrtation moved along the air, And I learned nothing that I did not know From the far east’s faint conglomerate glow.
A lovely build deserves a lovely dress. This spring outfit from Meva fits the need quite nicely!
I asked the stars, what destiny awaits Beyond this dark incalculable night? … And suddenly, incredibly, the gates Of morning opened to approaching light; Then, somewhere near, a bird began to sing — And my heart heard the whole world listening.
“… [I]n the absence of sensory information, the imagination always tends to the grotesque.”
Patrick McGrath
I’ve been doing a little cleanup in my Inventory, and found this gown. It’s vintage now, along with the hair and fur, but worth sharing in some photos.Read the rest of this entry »
Second Life® with Harper, Conan, Jem, Diana and Morgan
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