Safari: Art and Craft

[12:23]  -:  How to please the public – that’s the test,

[12:23]  -:  But nowadays I find I’m in a fix;

[12:23]  -:  I know they’re not accustomed to the best,

[12:23]  -:  But they’ve all read so much they know the tricks.

[12:23]  -:  How can we give then something fresh and new

[12:23]  -:  That’s serious, but entertaining too?

Goethe, Faust, Part I: Prelude On The Stage; 

first performed 1808 translation by John R. Williams (1999)

          Wait a minute, that's the beginning. Let's start where we ended. Two of us on a tower, in a bijou grid called Bearly, home of Marcus Llewellyn.

           It was this week's final, poetic stop.
           Poetic because a) that wasn't the plan and b) there were just two of us, Wizard Gynoid and me, exactly like week one.  Next week, there will be a piano concert on
NGrid, and a trip to historic Neogrid, beloved of HGAC members.
          But not just yet.
          For now, we are standing on a tower on a postage-stamp of a grid, taking a break, talking about Svarga and the passage of time. Thirty-eight weeks - that's an entire pregnancy. And there have been plenty of labor pains, not to mention a fair bit of shrieking and pushing and unidentified goop, on the Safari so far.

But not here on Bearly. All is serene here, with the quiet promise of freebies to come in the still-empty storehouses in the valley. It's the kind of archetype of the best of open sim. Unhurried creativity, without brash boastful ambition rearing its ugly, ludicrous head. Making things for the joy of sharing, whether it be portable goods, or just the experience of a unique environment.
    Before we got to Bearly, we had already been treated to a good dose of sharing, on Craft Grid. This was only our second visit to Craft, and I'm not sure they knew what to expect. Our visit focused on sim Suq, (it doesn't, by the way) where Craft held its 5th Anniversary party this past weekend. The party is over but the winning entries from the annual building competition are still on the sim to be admired. 
  The theme was 'Travellers in a Parallel Universe' and the installs are interactive, so go over and take a look; the variety of interpretations on that theme is quite amazing. This is the winning entry by Louis Servita. It's eye-catching.

          A lot of people come to OpenSim because they have control issues, and like everything to be just so, micromanage and so on, as you know. But if you've ever done even a tiny bit of mass hypergridding (and so far, more than 140 people have grid-jumped with us on Safari, at one time or another, to something like fifty different grids) you will know that there is no need to be freaking out about lag and grid performance.  You'll also know that you can't make people clear their cache, or reduce their inventory, or refrain from adding to the chaos by bringing multiple avatars to events. Everyone knows that the Safari visit gives people a hint, rather than a high-def portrait, of the grids we visit. Most people keep the landmarks and return later for a proper look.
          Learning to grid jump is a craft. Just relaxing and not worrying if people crash or not is an art.
          I thought Suq held up pretty well.
Thirza Ember: can you believe it? 5 years, Tao. What an achievement
Tao Quan: yes five years :))  and 4 building competitions
Wizard Gynoid: I was here five years ago
Neo Cortex: yeehaw!
Neo Leo: weeeee
Spike Sol: nice to see you
Serene Jewell : Congratulations, Tao and all of Craft!!!!!!!
vladimir Djannovic: bonsoir. C'est la fete!
Tao Quan: bonsoir vladimir
Thirza Ember: Tao how many residents when you started?

Tao Quan: we started with 10 sims, and Licu and me. It was when Cyberlandia closed. Later the remaining people of Cyberlandia joint us here on Craft, and we grew. Now we have both domains.
Licu Rau: if you put cyberlandia.net in place of craft-world.org, you arrive here.
Thirza Ember: how many regions are there now?
Licu Rau: 160-180. We do not make fake regions to increase statistics
Thirza Ember: it lives up to its name, the friendly Grid. You always find friends here.
Tao Quan: thank you thirza that is the biggest compliment for us. We have a philosophy of sharing.
Wizard Gynoid: Scotti has a Craft login too.
Scottius Polke: Oh yes, I made that one years ago.  I came here with Thirza
Thirza Ember: Tao and Licu also have always really promoted hypergridding too. I remember Tao going all over the place, exploring new worlds, and forming a sort of Embassy sim, some years back
Tao Quan: I think I was the original gridhopper

Gridhopper and Craft co-founder Tao Quan

            Some of us who had already seen the exhibits on Suq snuck over to say hello to Roxelo Babenco on her newly refurbished MdM sim. More about that in upcoming weeks. It was nice to see OpenSim newbie Neo Leo, an old friend from the art world in SL, is settling in on Craft. It really is the ideal place to start, if you're interested in getting a not-for-profit foothold in the worlds beyond Second Life.

honestly, I have no idea.

          Art, before Craft. Speaking of lag, we got pretty lucky on the first stop of this week's Safari. 'Stop' may be a misnomer, for Art Blue's show was held on our very own hgsafari sim in Francogrid. 

The improvised auditorium on HG Safari. Don't open any of the crates.

          We have a regular monthly appointment with Art Blue's performances, so don't say you haven't been warned. This time, the show was on hgsafari, because Metropolis grid has ongoing login difficulties and we didn't want to risk lag or rezzing issues making it harder to understand the show than usual.

          Now, I'm not going to lie to you by saying I know what was going on, what the chess part was, why there was a big bird in the sky, and I was part of the production. And I won't lie and say we didn't all crash at one point. 

Thirza Ember: part of Art's performance will be on the radio, so turn it on, and tell friends as they arrive.
Art Blue: i wait until 21.20 - ok? and play music until this time stamp
Thirza Ember: Hmm metro radio is pretty good.
Spike Sol: hihiih a bit crazy some times
Scottius Polke: oki I go get a sandwich and be back

Scottius bravely risks serious rust issues in the hgsafari lagoon

Serene Jewell: Should I be hearing voice?
Thirza Ember: That's between you and your psychiatrist
   >>Director:  Welcome Audience to the play within the epic Dream Games: DEATH SHALL HAVE NO DOMINION. Welcome the candidates: Thirza Ember and Art Blue. Take a seat Thirza and Art at the chat area. Relax and listen to the prelude of the Dream Games. Flight control will take care for clearing the scenery so the dreams will not get disturbed by unidentified flying objects.I call the game designer Claudius Metrosmith and give him word.

   Scottius Polke: sandwich and music...I am set
   >>Claudius Metrosmith: Thank you director. The lights are focused on a chess set that generates today the dreams. We can’t see the Dream Machine itself but the results. he chess set works like a relay for the Dream Machine. Cherry Manga is the creator of the chess. She created also the land INSANITY in grid Metropolis where I am come from. The pilot of the Red Baron, now over the clubhouse in orbit, reports all fine and no flying avatars. The Dream Machine has taken control over the scene and started the timer for the game. The clock is running.

Wizard Gynoid: (I think they are both very good actors. Don't you?)
Han Held: (yes)
PatriciaAnne Daviau: (extremely good. academy award good.)
Han Held: (I don't want to interrupt)
    < Thirza Ember and Art Blue moving the first stone in the chess of life. >

nope, still not got a clue

    >>Thirza Ember:  As I have the white stones I make the first dream and I dream the digital Wizard dream.
   < The artwork of Wizard Gynoid appears >
Wizard Gynoid sips vodka straight out of the bottle for lunch.
   >>Claudius Metrosmith:  A fine move, just a classic one. I see a construction out of Vulcanicus, stored there. The Dream Machine gives her 5 points and - a joker. A joker! She gets a second move! A dream double!
   >>Art Blue:  Unfair! She has already 5 points!
Wizard Gynoid cams into the game and tries to figure out what's going on.
   >> Claudius Metrosmith:  Shut up Art. Never before a second dream got more as the very first!
   >>Thirza Ember:  It is like a nightmare for me. I invited Art Blue to this world called Francogrid and now I shall send him to death to safe the Hypergrid? Audience what shall I do? A nightmare, a nightmare!
   >>Claudius Metrosmith:  Ohhhhh, something emanates! A horse I see …
   < The artwork of Bryn Oh appears >

If we'da had Flash, we'da seen this.

Wizard Gynoid: Sacrifice him!
Thirza Ember: a horse? where's Quan?
Wizard Gynoid takes another slug off the vodka bottle. *sigh*
                        There was more. A lot more. Somehow, the Thirza in the play lost her five points. There was a pizza delivery boy, and of course tons of Annoying Light.

Serene.Jewell: We are ruined by art.
Serene Jewell: Just as my mother predicted.
Wizard Gynoid: "I hate artists." -- my Dad
Art Blue shouts: welcome everyone once more as the stress is gone I need no longer to shout
Thirza Ember: you did such a good job
Wizardoz Chrome: lol .. :)
Billy Bradshaw: don't shout, i nearly crap myself

Art Blue: welcome Artefice, he does all the work, I do just the concept, so without him: nothing would exist
Artefice Maximus: Hey surprise :)
Artefice Maximus: hope you liked it :D
Thirza Ember: was brilliant well done
Wizardoz Chrome: beautiful :)
Art Blue: we look what is possible and working simple and we use it   
          A likely story.
          And before all of that happened, I finally finished the landmark archive for the Safari. it's inside the clubhouse, divided into seven week 'chapters'. You don't really need them, there are so many resources for you to find interesting places in open sim, from other hg groups like Hypergrid Nights and Metaverse Tours, both of which advertise on G+; there are traveler's blogs like the Weltraumbahnhof and the Hyperzette as well as directories like OpenSimWorld.com.
See you on Safari next week, and until then, Happy Jumping.

LMs and HG addresses for our first 35 weeks, available inside the Francogrid Clubhouse and elsewhere.

This week's URIs:
Safari Clubhouse         hg.francogrid.org:80:hgsafari
Craft Birthday Build    craft-world.org:8002:Suq
Bearly grid                  grid.verymad.net:8002