//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js One year ago today, on April 15th, I became a Linden and started working for a company that completely changed my life. I am so thankful that I found Secon…
Source: First Linden Rezday – StrawberrySingh.com
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Congrats to Berry! She’s one of the best-known of us all, and can definitely be a voice to and for us at the Lab. (Lab, not “Labs,” as Berry correctly points out.) This article gives a lot of good information for us to chew over and use.
We at Around the Grid just picked up the news of Dani Plassitz’ sudden death on December 15. While not a friend, I admired Dani’s dressmaking skill many times, and her abilities as a singer and performer are also well known to many in Second Life. Her many friends will miss her, and I hope you will join us in praying for her and her family at this time — an especially hard time to lose a loved one.
Both dresses by Dani
Ham Au at New World Notes passes on a Facebook post from Seth Regan, seeking donations for the family of Brandy Maltas. Brandy is another Resident who has recently died of cancer (why is it that cancer has such a high rate of incidence among Second Lifers?), and her children are in straitened means. You will find a link to Seth’s PayPal account at both links above, if you wish to add to the fund; I’ve put in a contribution just before publishing this.
As you can see here, a simple top or T-shirt doesn’t need to look sloppy. I ran into Melyna last night/this morning at Fantasy Gacha, and just had to take a photo.
If you’re of my generation and into science fiction, you grew up with Star Trek. And one of the great cast of that show — and extremely popular with the ladies — was Leonard Nimoy, who personified the logical lifeforms of the planet Vulcan in his character of Spock. His family announced Nimoy’s passing today from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, possibly caused by smoking back in his earlier days.
Nimoy was a versatile actor, and played in roles other than that iconic one — I recall him as Paris, the master of disguise who took over from Martin Laudau’s “Rollin Hand” on Mission: Impossible. (He also had notoriety as one of the aliens in the old Republic serial, Zombies of the Stratosphere.) But he became almost indelibly associated with the Vulcan from those 79 episodes of Star Trek. The role at times felt as an albatross about his neck; however, he came back to it in the end, filming nine Star Trek movies as Spock, including both of the movies so far in the J. J. Abrams reboot of the ST Universe, and a two-part episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
The strange and fantasial became something of a stock in trade for him: a part in the 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers alongside Donald Sutherland; and he narrated the Alan Landsburg syndicated television series In Search Of…. for its entire run. Beyond these things, though, he was much more — Theo van Gogh in Vincent; Morris Meyerson in the miniseries A Woman Called Golda (opposite Ingrid Bergman); a director of both movies and television. His distinctive voice and cadence made him a natural choice for work as a narrator and voice actor — he appeared several times on The Simpsons as himself, did “recitations” on the computer game Civilization IV, and did recordings alongside the a capella group The Western Wind in celebration of the holy days of his Jewish background and faith. And I know of at least one exhibition of his photography, as well as his two memoirs and poetry. Truly a Renaissance man in his achievements.
He will be missed.
Daniel says it all in his article. Dirk Talamasca will be missed, and I hope you’ll attend the memorial; it may be tricky for me to get there, but I’m going to make the attempt. Blessings on Dirk, and sympathy for his family
As you have no doubt heard, Dirk Talamasca passed away in real life last Sunday 30th March 2014 which is really sad news for the grid and I received word today that there will be a special memorial service held in Second Life to remember him.
The plan is to gather at the Linden Memorial Park this Saturday, April 5 at 4:00 PM SLT to remember the wonderful times, help, and laughter that Dirk so freely gave to all who had the good fortune to meet him in his nine years in Second Life.
Please spread the word in SL and via social media. Everyone is welcome to attend.
Linden Memorial Park, Pinechapel
“Some may find them [songs] merely diverting melodies. Others may find them incitements to Red revolution. And who will say if either or both is wrong? Not I.”
I really have played a little guitar in my time, long before I had to hock my axe at a particularly bad financial period. Never one for picking, I’d rather strum chords and sing along, and so I was attracted primarily to folk songs with simplified chord structures. Not surprisingly, as I scoured the library looking for song books I could copy out or photocopy, I came across Pete Seeger’s The Incompleat Folksinger, writings by him and others on the history and basis of folk and the early consciousness protesters.
Pete was a man who wasn’t afraid to speak what was on his mind and call a spade a spade. Witness his troubles with the House Un-American Activities Committee, starting in 1955 and lasting until 1962, when he refused to name names or answer any questions about his past political affiliations, based on his First Amendment rights. That conviction to do what was right, not what was easy, never wavered in Seeger; he protested war, pollution, discrimination and violence with his music wherever he found it. On the head of his banjo, his preferred instrument, he usually wrote the phrase, “This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender,” in imitation of his friend Woody Guthrie’s guitar, which was emblazoned with “This machine kills fascists!”
Many of us didn’t see this, probably. We were attracted first of all by the music; traditional songs, original songs, funny and serious and heartbreaking songs; they made us laugh, and cry, and — most of all — think about things. Pete always encouraged his audience to sing along with him, and they would, knowing almost all of his repertoire as well as he did. In recent years, as Pete’s high tenor started fading due to age, the audience would help fill in the music, and everyone — especially Pete, I’d wager — was happy. It wasn’t a pure Forties or Fifties hootenanny — not when you had to buy a ticket to get in — but it came fairly close. I’d be willing to bet that, if Pete’s fetched up beside the Apostles after dying yesterday, he’s got that old five-string banjo in his hands, and a twelve-string guitar sitting in a stand nearby, ready to use, and he’s started leading the singalongs. Blessings be upon you, Mr. Seeger.
You’ll find a different sort of article right now at It’s Only Fashion. Written by Cajsa Lilliehook, it’s entitled “Can’t Orkney firbkkk phone”, and it’s about something that Linden Lab could do to increase user satisfaction and attract new people — instead of mega-events and various things, why not try emphasizing the ways the people connect with each other? The proof of Cajsa’s thesis derives from the title, which is the last line plurked by our friend Gidge Uriza as she was going under for some surgery today. As you’ll see in Cajsa’s article, she and Gidge connected via shared experiences in Second Life, and later extended that connection to the real world as well. Gidge was there, figuratively, for Cajsa when she was undergoing some serious medical problems a few years ago, and now Cajsa is there for Gidge.
I hope you’ll stop by and read. I hope this especially if you are someone from the Lab; you might want to consider recommending this to your public relations department (grin). Get well soon, Gidge!
Ruriko Bracken, a Japanese Second Life Resident and a lovely model and photographer, takes a break now and then from the virtual world for some Real Life. She’s currently back in, and most welcome in both her roles.
In this feature, found on her own Japanese-language blog, Ruriko Style, Ruri-chan does a pair of excellent photos of Tyako Coage, Miss Virtual World Japan 2012. Tyako is wearing a gown from AZUL that was designed for her. I’ll include one thumbnail here to get you interested; if you want more, go visit Ruri-chan’s article. There is a Google Translate button on the right side, so you can get a (species of) translation into your language easily.
Copyright 2012 by Ruriko Bracken; all rights reserved
By the grace of Her Ladyship Eva Bellambi, Lady Chief of the Clan Bellambi, Patron of the Order of the Red Rose, & etc.:
Lady Eva Bellambi is pleased to invite you to a celebration of the Celtic holy night of Beltane, to be held in Winterfell Anodyne on the evening of April 30 at 6:00 p.m. SLT (0100 UTC/GMT, 1 May). This will be the fifth annual Beltane feast held by Lady Eva, and will include music May poles, and the lighting of the Beltane fires.
More details, including a synopsis on the tradition of Beltane, may be found at her Ladyship’s blog article.
Please consider donating, especially in times of disaster, to Episcopal Relief and Development, a worldwide ministry of the Episcopal Church in the United States. 100% of your donation goes to relief work; no administrative costs are taken from contributions.
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Sister Gatling Gun of Love and Mercy.
My Johari window -- visit and offer your ideas on my personality
Around the Grid 