The Face of Machinima

Glasz DeCuir has a new project called 'The Face of Machinima'.

The project aims to collect avatar portraits of machinimatographers, producers, actors, musicians, voice artists, builders - in fact, all categories of avatars who work in machinima production teams - and display these portraits as part of an exhibition at the AviewTV Machinima Gallery.

Tutsy and I were both invited to submit a portrait each. I volunteered to take them.

I made two of Tutsy and two of myself. We'll decide which ones we will submit over the weekend.

Pixie xx

'Tis Sometimes Better to Receive Than Give

Dream Worm Shoulder Pet by Madcow Cosmos

I was brought up in a secular family.

Hitchens and Dawkins were, and still are, discussed far more than, for example, Mohammed and Christ. It is not that anyone in the family is particularly disrespectful of religious figures, not at all – it’s simply that they are not considered important enough to warrant any serious discussion outside of mythological or other academic studies. In our house, Mohammed and Christ are considered in similar vain as, say, Osiris or Mithras. 

As such, I am rarely motivated by religious festivals.

Dali clock & baked beans by Dave Vellhi
Hand drawn sketch  & Xmas tree by Tutsy Navaratha

Yesterday and today I watched a 20min film shot by a close personal friend of his meeting with the Dalai Lama, (or to use the official title ‘His Holiness the 14^th Dalai Lama of Tibet’).

I found the film to be deeply moving in a strange and quite unexpected way.

'The Creature' by Markus Inkpen
Asphalt & Shovel by Dave Vellhi
'The Watcher' from Tutsy Navarathna 

It seemed to me that the Dalai Lama radiated humanity and warmth, a natural love and empathy for his fellow man which is often spoken about in religious circles, but sadly rarely ever seen in my, admittedly limited, experience.

Today, for possibly the first time, I seriously wondered if there may actually be “Holy Men” on this crazy planet that orbits a rather ordinary and nondescript G-type star.

Stilts by Heb Dexler

My only other exposure to such ideas as “Holy Men” was an in-depth documentary about the Hindu Kumbh Mela pilgrimage held every 12 years on the banks of the Ganges. Although fascinating for many reasons, proof of the authenticity of “Holy Men” was certainly not one of them.

Ground mist/fog from Bazz Soulstar

So did my friend’s film of his meeting with the Dalia Lama cause me a personal epiphany of sorts? No, I don’t think so. But it was nevertheless emotionally beautiful - causing bodily streamings from the crown of my head to the base of my spine, as mentioned in traditional yogic texts describing the ‘Chakras’.

Violin from Lar Jun

I am at home from University for Christmas, staying with my parents. The best thing about being home for Christmas? Central heating. Oh, and on-demand hot water. Seriously.

We have a Xmas Tree in the corner of the living room. It is really pretty with delicate blue lights playing against the silver tinsel. But there is neither star nor an angel or any other symbolism remotely religious on it.

Latrine by Dave Vellhi
Shopping Trolley by Bryn Oh

I am sitting here wondering if that is a deliberate policy of my parents. If so, how much influence has it had on my professed atheism, if any?

On Christmas Day, while my mum and I cook dinner, dad and my brother will go to the local pub for a few pints.

Ciggy by Squonk Levenque

We exchange gifts on Christmas morning and that is the subject of this blog-post. Or rather, *receiving* gifts is the subject matter.

This last year I have been blessed to have been given some extraordinary special gifts in Second Life from some extraordinarily talented people.

Comic book speech bubbles by BobE Schism

Some of these gifts, like Madcow Cosmo’s ‘Dream Worm’ shoulder pet or Lucia Genesis’s beautiful outfits are free to anyone who visits their sims.

Others, like Byrn Oh’s shopping trolley or BobE Schism’s comic-book speech bubbles are props they have used their in installations or films and have generously given me a copy of.

TV slideshow by Lollie Razor
Portrait by Jinx Jiersen

Other gifts have been made especially for me - like the pile of asphalt, baked bin tin, latrine, Dali clock and lots of other things by Dave Vellhi. Or the hand drawn RL sketch from Tutsy Navarathna.

Shopping trolley by Bryn Oh

Squonk Levenque and Miuccia Klarr of Kamikaze generously gifted me items from their store; Lisa, owner of Warm Animations, overwhelmed me by giving me a copy of her whole store’s stock after noticing one of her animations being used in ‘Rapture’.

Cello from Lar Jun
'The Watcher' from Tutsy Navarathna
Ciggy by Squonk Levenque

Other gifts have been purchased for me – Lar Jun brought me my violin and cello, for example; Tutsy ‘The Watcher’.

I have been extraordinarily lucky.

Not only to have received the gifts themselves, although that as well of course, but to have found myself in the right place at the right time.

2012 Machinima calendar by Glasz Decuir

In almost all cases, I could not make these gifts as well as the Creators have. And, even if I could, they would not have the same meaning to me or be as special as they are.

These gifts make my Second Life special and meaningful to me.

I am incredibly grateful.

Rocking chair by Dave Vellhi

The biggest single gift is that Debbie Trilling and Adec Alexandra so generously let me live on and share their beautiful island. It is such a privilege that I hardly know where to start. As I student, I could never afford to live on a sim like this with no prim policing forced upon me.

Debbie & Adec

I love my corner of the Metaverse; I love my existence in the Metaverse.

I am so, so thankful to all the people who have helped me. I wish I could return more than just my thanks and my love. But I, being poor, have only my dreams…and you are helping me realise them.

The gifts that people have given me are special. They help me feel good about myself, my work and my life.

And, because of that, ‘tis sometimes better to receive than give.

Happy Christmas to you all, regardless of your beliefs, religion, timezone, skin colour, mental health records or any of the rest!

Pixie xx

Being Bobo Puddlegum

"The reason I will not exhibit this picture is

that I am afraid that I have shown in it the secret of my own soul."

Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)

(click to enlarge images)

For at least a year Bobo Puddlegum and I have been kicking around ideas for a machinima loosely based on the 1999 black comedy-fantasy ‘Being John Malkovich’ – a film which, seriously, if you haven’t already seen you really should make the effort to track down and watch.

It is brilliantly original, funny and, in parts, really quite bizarre.

Just like Bobo himself in fact!

However due to schedule conflicts, other project commitments and RL generally, none of these ideas have managed to come to fruition.

Three nights ago though, I had a dream!

Usually my dreams involve giving finite but infinitely-expanding blowjobs to respected UK physicist Brian Cox – a name which has more Freudian connotations and psychoanalytic comedy-value than anyone truly deserves, no matter how bad their karma. Whenever I dream of Cox, I always wake suddenly when, just as I approach the event horizon, Brian prematurely ejaculates down my throat at the speed of light.

I dream some weird shit sometimes.

But this particular dream, which dear reader I assure you I have no intention of boring you with, managed to combine elements from Wilde’s ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’* with ‘Being John Malkovich’, Bobo Puddlegum and, significantly, the forthcoming 2012 MachinimaUWA V machinima contest.

Like I said, I dream weird shit sometimes.

Because of encouragement from Iono Allen, Glasz Decuir and Tutsy Navarathna, last month I finally committed to entering a machinima into the UWA 5 contest.

The dream of three nights ago provided the broad conceptual subject matter for my MachinimaUWA V entry. No! It doesn’t star Brian Cox (although I am sure I could find an opening or two for him!) but rather a film which is to be entitled “Being Bobo Puddlegum”.

Bobo & I will need to work out the details and finalise a script. We’ll also need to know what the MachinimaUWA V theme will be. However, there are some things which are already clear:

1)    It will not be disrespectful to other peoples’ art work. Although, most likely it *will* be irreverent this will be done in a respectful and humorous way.

One day I intend writing about the work of SaveMe Oh who frequently walks the precarious tightrope between irreverence and disrespect. The debate rages which side of this equation she most often falls!

2)    It will not be a porn movie. I cannot rule out nakedness – Bobo’s natural state – but it most certainly will not be pornographic and very unlikely to have any sex scenes.

I understand and accept the fact that this almost certainly means that this particular film will be of no interest in certain circles. This is fine.

3)    It will essentially be a comedy. We hope. Or light-hearted, at least.

With all that settled, Bobo & I thought it only right to give Jayjay Zifanwe fair notice to organise a Plague Doctor,  because that pandemic pestilence that is the Puddlegum’s are about to befall the previous piety and purity that is MachinimaUWA.

Sorry.

Bobo & Pixie Puddlegum xx

* 'The Importance of Being Earnest' is subtitled 'A Trivial Comedy for Serious People'

The 'Being Bobo Puddlegum' poster created by Bobo Puddlegum.

All other images by Pixie Puddlegum.

The 'Plague Doctor' performed by Tutsy Navarathna at Innsmouth region

Miss July 2012

Glasz DeCuir is the curator of the AviewTVMachinima Poster Archive – a permanent in-world exhibition where you can watch numerous machinima from many of the top film makers working in Second Life.

It is a very professional set up and I will blog about it more fully soon (after I have finished my bloody homework - it's ten past midnight already!)

Three of my films – ‘Rapture’, ‘Showdown’ and ‘Sex With Strangers’ – have been chosen to be the very first films to be screened in a brand new  permanent “NSFW/Erotic” section of the exhibition, currently under construction.

Not only that but Glasz has also created 2012 in-world calendars (pictured above) – each page of a calender displays a different Second Life machinima poster. My 'Rapture' movie poster has been selected for the ‘July’ page!

At the in-world exhibition, you click on the movie poster and the machinima itself is played in-world using media-on-a-prim.

There are scores of machinima to choose from - something for every mood.

The machinima are initially uploaded to and hosted on a site called Aview TV co-owned by LaPiscean Liberty.

The machinima are also viewable from this web site as well as in-world.

To accommodate the three films I uploaded, a new "Erotic - Adult" category was specially created.

The movie posters for all machinima in the exhibition can seen on a flickr group and are also separately displayed on a machinima poster blog.