Corn-o-graphy

 This week is Cornflakes Week, a festival of fun that is exclusively OpenSim. Only a handful of grids are  participating this year (we were up to 11 grids back in 2017) but maybe Cornflakes 2023 can prove to be BIG for original OpenSim silliness, if the world doesn't end up a cinder before then, 

Put it in your calendar just in case, February 22-28, 2023.

The idea of Cornflakes Week? It's not morbidly focused on one late lamented person. Goodness knows, so many dear companions, fine artists, and generous friends have left this virtual life and we miss them all. No, the idea of the week is that it's an open ended festival, in the sense that you can have your own home grown Corny party, it can be adapted to the style of any grid or region, it's not affiliated with the weather or time of day, or the local religious, cultural, social, or political goings on of any one corner of the planet. What the world needs now is more gentle silliness, more than ever, and Cornflakes Week is all about that in a uniquely OpenSim way. 

Just to show that the concept can be modded, brought forward from the aughts to the twenties, and from pure prim to magnificent mesh, Cherry Manga took a journey through the creations of Cornflakes and came up with her own take on gentle fun. The build is still visitable in the sky above our clubhouse on OSgrid, and guitarman Whirli Placebo agreed to sing for us. But before that, we popped over to see fireworks conjurer Wordofthe Wise, who kindly invited us to see a copy of the region where all the Corn fun began. 

As always, the addresses of the destinations are at the end of the post.

It all began with everyone loving Luna Lunaria's hair, which does  elfin swirly to a mesmerizing degree.

       There was magic in the air all round as we limbered up by doing a little line dancing with some of Corn's better known creations, the Birdy NamNam, Carpetman, Corny Ant, the Green Alien, and YinYan, which are available as prim based avatars at the Meshanthropy store on the clubhouse region and elsewhere (free to copy of course. That is essential.) 

If you just want the NPCs, they are available too.

Kelso Uxlay: Very effective confetti thrower

Cherry and Kelso prepare to get corny.

Cherry Manga: am I stoned, or the "yay" trigger works for everyone who wears it?

Thirza Ember:  Oh, it works just fine

Cherry Manga: let's go see Wordfromthewise

George Equus: Ahh, there they are

inanna beaumont

Wordfromthe Wise: Thirza ! HELLO !  Hi Mal ! Cherry! Hello ! nice to see you all

Sixtus Majus: Hi

Mal.Burns: Hi

Cherry Manga: Hi Word where ever you are!!! so happy to see you ♥

Wordfromthe Wise: nice Avi , as always .. wow ..  Nara Nook: wow the outfits everyone made are wonderful

Thirza Ember: Inanna you look superb

inanna beaumont: thanks, I got dressed silly.

               The region we had landed in is on a very small grid, really not built for crowds, and some people experienced quite a lot of lag. That may have been in some part thanks to Aphra's hair which, she freely confessed, had a complexity of one million. I believe that is a Safari record. The region has a carpeted floor, the kind of tough nylon twill you might replace, but will never wear out.

Wordfromthe Wise: Here are some things to see you may not have seen anywhere else if you did not joined the years before ..  I was working with cornflakes in OSGRID and before he left Earth and he left me this Region. This was his Playground ..

Nara Nook: Awww

Cherry Manga: it's really great that it's alive, now! he still lives by its works and energy

Wordfromthe Wise: yes AND that you guys still celebrate his work and ehnance it like Cherry and the others do !

Cherry Manga: the clothespin with terraform is pure genius. I didn't met him when alive, I only know his work, and it's magical, like you know, we all heard about Jules Vernes or Andy Warhol....Cornflakes is a true genius in metavers.

Wordfromthe Wise: while migrating from OSGRID to METROPLIS and to this grid her (our own server) I lost textures UUIDS, so the BIG GHOST that is usually flying around here is not visible today, but I will try to reanimate him for next year. All our 30+ regions including the firework show is always online,

George Equus: I like the Blowcat  :)

Thirza Ember: for those who don't know, Word is famous for his fireworks show

Cherry Manga: we need a Word's lightshow safari!!!!!

Wordfromthe Wise: That would be fun .. we will make an appointment ..

Lifted Pixel mashup

lifted pixel: The aesthetic is something I seriously fuck with. It's hard to put a finger on it, but it perfectly encapsulates early 3d art boomer humor, like sillysculpts, but honest and weird instead of trying to tug heartstrings for money

Thirza Ember: this ant is my favorite of his creations, it looks so good and it's just prims

Cherry Manga: the ant  was really creative as an avatar - imagine it with bento features!!! :P

Wordfromthe Wise: This Grid is always online, we have around 30+ regions,  as we are working in opensim for at least 10 years or more. I will set some teleporters here to the other regions if you like ..

Cherry Manga: yes please

Wordfromthe Wise: and i hope the openim Devs really stand up to their "promise" to get openism a technolgy step further, like real 3d models , and VR Suport and all that ..  but as i know them .. i see this not in the next 1-2 years, but hey, maybe something magically happens ... BUT it is soo gòód to see that we have some hardcore opensim users in here ...

Thirza Ember: well what technology can't do, maybe community can.

And then, back to the clubhouse, on OSGrid, and the box in the sky, by Cherry Manga. 

Literally a box, inspired by the primary colors of Cornflakes. Complete with custom EEP, special effects, and gifts. It looks like a giant box, out of which is spilling a bubbling colorful surface, where the event happened. 

The box has arms and eyes and has a lot of personality, so if you didn't cam out at the event, you missed quite a bit. Cherry added to this confection a little lightshow, the kind of thing you wish could be repeated over and over, and a little set of gifts, including a couple of cute companions in animesh.

Whirli doing the sound check

Singer songwriter Whirli Placebo is a kite. Partly well rooted to the ground, he has plenty of commonsense, the mature humor of someone who has seen it all, and can cut through the crap with razor sharp wit. But part of him is also free, flying high, dueling with the elements, dancing on the breeze. With the tingling possibility of being struck by lightning.

His musical style was perfect for the event, bringing with it both thoughtful reflections, as an observer of what it means to be part of the Opensim part of the general universe of virtual existences, and also for his hilarious and down to earth take on it all, something much needed where personalities and small issues can so easily swell up to ridiculous proportions. 

Gif courtesy Nara Malone

For just over an hour, Whirli entertained us with his light yet perceptive musings on hypergridding, on ye olde Second Life, the mysteries of gridhopping, and the way he looks at the philosophy of Cornflakes Week and the man at the heart of the corny creations - always a difficult and yet rewarding meditation, when you take on someone famous yet ultimately unknowable.

He sat in an extraordinary music box made by Cherry Manga that, when you have Advanced Lighting enabled, seems to have infinite sides, making the experience rather psychedelic, if the strange avies and all the odd decorations weren't enough.

Tina Bey: Me encanta Cuanto dinamismo!! Felicitaciones Cherry!!!

Dorena Bree: Cherry this is an amazing build! I want to live here

Nara Nook: The view from above https://gyazo.com/64f09c6018a56f74e76784ff20fc05f8

Roy Batty: Man, this is what I needed after a shitty week

James Atlloud: Whirli u r singing real gud

George Equus: Looks fantastic with Midnight setting

lifted pixel: the cornflakes concept seems to incorp both big all the way down into small details, you can keep zooming in or out and see more

Gif courtesy of Nara Malone

Luna Lunaria: you know how hard it is to concentrate on RL work when this kinda fun is going on?

          Whirli played so many good songs, and the hour flew by so fast and so funnily, it was pure joy; among the nubers was this original ditty, Third Life. There was a general feeling that there's nowhere as fun as Opensim, but of course, we would say that, wouldn't we? Perhaps Tina Bey said it best of all.

Tina Bey: no cambiaria jamas mi LIBERTAD de aqui!!

Addresses:
Cornflakes Mad World                   scriptedart.work:8002/cornflakes-tribute
Cherry Manga Cornflakes build   hg.osgrid.org:80:HG Safari and look for the tp up to 1500 m