I’ve just created a really super-open Transparency subsite for SL Shakespeare Company public funds. Here is perhaps the core of my naivety: as explained on the site, all funds raised go towards paying tier to Linden Lab — and there is a significant debt just in that arena, not even getting towards actual non-venue production costs–basically, people who do the most work don’t get paid at all in funds, and end up putting in both time and money themselves, so it’s just for artistic license. It’s truly art for art, the cause qua cause, which, imhno, is the way an ideal nonprofit should be run.
This is the policy that I’ve always worked with since I first entered SL. Back then, I was much more naive about money, believing in donated land and ideal collaborations. When owners of donated land became destructive, I realized that such a model doesn’t work. That was why I ended up purchasing four islands on SL for my artistic endeavors. As you might have noticed with my less-and-less frequent endeavors on SL, that idealism doesn’t work in RL. When I started, I had a significant personal fund saved up to do something like this, but that’s been pretty much depleted. It seems the largest source of disputes centered on my creativity–few people could believe that I worked without pay in my long-term maniac-loads of time put in to create on SL. That might also stem from envy, to an extent–whether of people who would wish for such a chance, or for inferiority-superiority reasons. But, for what it’s worth, I am making public the meager funds we’ve raised and explaining their usage in SLSC Transparency.

So, this year, I will again be hosting a 24-hour drawing marathon (no, not the *chance* kind of drawing, but rather… the thing you do with a pencil–no, not *that* thing! Oh, come on, don’t you draw?!) on the first Saturday of June, the traditional international drawing day–June 6, this year!

I’ll be taking drawing requests gratis ad nauseum–that is to speak, no Sicilian mafia artist can ever refuse a (drawing) request on Drawing Day. The best way to send me your request is to drop by the Drawing Day gallery inworld on Second Life anytime on June 6, 2009 between midnight and 11:59 PM PDT. You can also plurk or twitter me your request. Drawing Day gives me a chance to relive my undergrad days skipping out on NSF research to be a derelict sketch artist on the beach–actually, I meant, I’ll produce quick semi-abstract sketches of whatever your request is. Feel free to go crazy with your ideas! Here are some items I drew last year (some personalized with requestor’s name):

Incidentally, all participants (who log on SL this special day) get to display their drawing day artwork for free at the Drawing Day Gallery! Further details available at the sLiterary Drawing Day Gallery Venue Website.

Last month, I spent a couple of hours applying to TEDGlobal. Admittedly, the biggest reason I did that was because it’s held in Oxford, and me being in my Shakespeare phase… the UK is the one place in the world I’d want to un-hermit myself to go to. I also convinced myself that it’d be a worthwhile experience to attend, if only to meet people who can help sponsor my projects — sadly, the prospect of art for art sans funds just doesn’t work out, especially when (though you thrive at it!) you end up having to do everything yourself. Then again, considering that my formal education is nothing in what I’m perusing independently now (virtual worlds, Shakespeare and virtual theatre, historical reconstructions, medieval studies), maybe I might find some sort of epiphany there that might guide me on a different path…

Reasons why TED should choose me, which I’ve tried to convey within the box limits of the application:

1. I create more than I talk. Most of the time I don’t have the time to update my blog; I am so immersed in actually doing things instead of reflecting on them.
2. Projects mean more to me than anything else in the world; I exist to create and do.
3. I am a true polymath, adept in many things across the spectrum, and not limited to just math/science or arts for example, but in both that and more.

Reasons why TED shouldn’t choose me:

1. I might not be sane. My mental processes are abnormal; normal people don’t have their speech functions disabled in order to maximize creativity. My visual IQ typically far overshadows my auditory IQ.
2. I’m quite evidently a hermit; I was even candid enough to mention in my application that I find myself antisocial. There’s too much uncertainty in my nature.
3. The cynical mentality behind the (Shakespearean) Authorship Question - People might not believe me. Most people don’t sacrifice their lives to do everything well.

And, though I made it to as far as receiving a phone interview from Logan (TED Program Coordinator), today at brunch, the verdict came out the negative with a rejection letter! I believe the phone call revealed my insanity. So, we know now that TED polymaths are the sane types…

I’ve been musing on creating a Shakespeare Concordance that includes side-by-side comparison of Folio, playscript (as used by my SL Shakespeare Company), and (interpretive) Modern English editions, as well as other language editions, with video and audio segments (SLSC again!) and inline notes (and perhaps even some rudimentary scansion — stray syllable counts, if not some de-dum marks!) Beautiful(ish) layout with jQuery perkiness, and just convenience, in general, especially for acting troupes who use the first folio for analysis.

Today I’ve gone through creating its first data file (and, there are also several foreign language files, aside from some of the Mandarin Chinese, all translated by volunteers, each one lined up by row numbers).

It’s initially a series of flat files, for reference for actors. At the current rate, aiming to produce a Shakespearean-play-a-year, it’d probably take a bit for the actual lexicon to fill up. The spreadsheet above should easily convert to csv for php’s text processing functions to shrill!

It started when I was trying to catch up on what our original Mandarin Chinese translator was supposed to translate, but didn’t get to do. Fortunately, for OEP1, I’d finished much of the wardrobe assignments and scenic design items months ago in our preview season in late 2008 - so I had some time for manual labor. But, the Chinese texts I found were all so sterile, I ended up translating my own versions, where I attempted to convey more of the poetry and interpretive meaning I’ve applied in directing Twelfth Night. (You can see a bit of what I mean in the “first data file,” especially my Modern English interpretive translation.)  This unexpected bout of creativity made me remember how when I first encountered Shakespeare’s plays in seventh grade, I’d read them quite differently than the standard interpretation. So, it’s given me chance to (literally!) find my own meaning in the play, where I disagree with the various editions (and, it seems, that many words in the concordance are taken out of context — or perhaps not viewed as creatively, as should — for example, there’s the reference of fools’ breast in Act 2, which might have been taken literally, with a drunken Andrew noting Feste’s breasty breast!, instead of interpreted as voice).

I’ve been working on getting fashDoll ready for a semipublic beta. On one hand it might be considered another one of my super-fancy super-extravagant pet projects (of startlingly limited scope. read: lots of work; little point. ), but, considering that my fave programming projects are typically “weekend projects“, this was good experience having to plan it out, and work on it across several weeks to create a large-scale program with serverside PHP/MySQL and multi-link LSL/http-re to render the (esoteric) clientside interface. Anyway, here’s a brief preview and draft of a manual-esque for fashDoll:

{fD} fashDoll is a fashion “paperdoll” social networking platform. It lets you dress “fashDolls” by creating “dollfits” from both existing outfits and outfit pieces that either you create (upload the imagery) or find on the fashDoll network. (Here’s a screenshot from Second Life.)

Each fashDoll dollfit consists of at most 4 layers, with the lowest layer consisting of a “base layer” (or semi/nude “paperdoll”) and the other three clothing layers being any combination of transparent or paperdoll outfit design. Essentially, a fashDoll dollfit is a paperdoll that lets you easily put on up to three possible layers of “paper outfit”.The fashDoll HUD has three core modes: Create, Browse, or Shop. Both Shop and Browse display a collection of possible outfits for you to choose from, and Create lets you create your own outfit component.

Shop: This is where you shop for clothing and base layers and dollfits! Clothing and base layers are just individual layers, but dollfits compose of up to 4 layers. You can find out more about each item by clicking on it to find out who created it in SL, and more!

Create: You can create outfit components or base layers by submitting the UUID of each layer texture. Each layer consists of a SL photo (1680×1030) you take of an avatar, whose background has been made transparent. These photos are easy to make: The fashDoll Photobooth is a “pinkscreen” booth, which you can use with either the default fD magenta skin and avatar, or recolor to use with a different set, depending on your colorset. Once you take a photo of your outfit or base, you take it into photoshop, Select > Color > and put the eyedropper on magenta, expand by 1 radius, cut and delete, then crop to fit 512×512 — or you can use either the “de-pink” or “de-pink and size” Photoshop actions.

Browse: Unlike both RL and SL, you never start with an empty wardrobe! By default, the fashDoll library consists of several dozen outfits and base choices either created by its maker (Ina Centaur) or used with permission by its respective creator(s). As you add in outfits, your inventory will grow in size, and newer outfits will be displayed first. Similar to the Shop mode, you can also search tags to find outfits.

Once you select or upload an item, it is shown in the fD Preview Pane. Any item in your wardrobe that you set for a non-0 price will be publicly available in the Shop mode for other users to share and create from; you can change the price of an item by clicking on the Price Pane.

Each outfit component is classified by a base type–by default, the fashDoll Photobooth has the classic paperdoll pose, but you can create fashDolls based on other poses (or other shapes). Each outfit component (and dollfit) can be named, and anyone can add tags to it to help others find it on the fashDoll network.

The Search button lets you search for things based on tags, separated by comma’s. There’s also a neat “BUY LOTD” button that lets you buy the “Look of the Day” featured in the panel above that button.

Finally, when you’re done with your dollfit, you can click the “WEAR on VIZ” button to have your SL-sized non-HUD vizDoll wear it! VIZ sort of hovers around you like your own personal daimon from the Golden Compass — so, anyway, via VIZ, fashDoll is your fashion pet and new best friend

And… Should you (or anyone) wish to by the 3D SL version of each fashDoll component from its original SL creator (before being turned into a fashdoll paperdoll piece), you’d just click VIZ for more info about the outfit and its components.

So, if you’ve read through this far, I should mention that you’re welcome to join in on the upcoming semipublic beta! Please post your SL name to the comments!

Reposting an article I wrote on Bard’s Birthday 2009 on SLSC Blog:

As announced, the Blackfriars Museum (a.k.a. the Blackfriars Theatre Museum) grand opens TODAY on the Bard’s Birthday 2009! The museum is a humble shack adjacent to the north end of the Blackfriars Theatre, as such it’s more of a mini-exhibit, but should give you a good overview of the historic elements behind the construction of the world’s only complete replica of Shakespeare’s indoor playhouse, the Blackfriars Theatre in Shakespeare, Second Life.

While creating this exhibit (the sketches are modified from Irwin Smith and the Public Domain; the text is mine), I couldn’t help but notice the similarities between a cathedral floorplan and that of a theatre, and so here’s my sort of “pet paradigm”:

The above, in context, is displayed on a wall in the Blackfriars Museum, unedited SL photos as shown below. (Clicking on the “Cathedral in a Theatre” panel inworld also gives you a free inworld info HUD so that you can take these three panels home–or anywhere on SL–with you!)

The Museum illuminates the historical basis for the construction of the Blackfriars Theatre, which was actually built within a building inside a lavishly *rich* Dominican Monastery (hence the name Black Friars — the Dominicans wore a black cloak over their habits). Conjectural diagrams of the monastery are shown, although only the building segment housing the Blackfriars is built (due to funding shortages — I can’t afford to buy another sim for my pet projects anymore but, if you’re crazy enough to fund a sim dedicated to a build of the *complete* Dominican priory that the Blackfriars Theatre was set in, give me a poke!). In addition to… yet more diagrams… the museum also shows a scaled-down version of the roof structure, explaining for its historical basis. Faux-original documents, such as Piers Plowman and diagrams/photos from archaeological digs are also displayed in context (emphasis on faux-original — admittedly, they’re made to look da-Vinci-Code-esque, i.e., Hollywood style imitations of ori doc’s).

For the detail-pious, just a note of excitement to look forward to in the next few months: The Blackfriars Theatre will have both rushes and candlelight installed for our summer staged reading series in preparation for our 2010 production of Henry VIII (and stage stools!). We’ll also make use of the rear-stage, and trap-doors as well even though it’s a staged reading series! Last year, we tried a costumed staged reading series, but this year, we’ll try a staged reading series with (perhaps?) some basic blocking. For sure, we will be going for an Tudor-accurate production of Henry VIII, when we start showing the full ensemble performances in 2010!

As future Challenge Productions, we also hope to try out a couple (at least?) of the many historic play manuscripts with explicit blocking for the Blackfriars!

But, for now, I bid thee check out the Blackfriars Museum! And, happy birthday Shakespeare!

So, I finally forced myself to take a break from writing my… neverending novel ;-D Happy for you, because the long-awaited Twilight SL release of Edward Cullen on Second Life has come!!! Egahds. Ed Cullen. Yes. ED CULLEN!!! *zOMG* EDWARD!!! Available? Yup!

You can now *be* (or have someone else impersonate) Edward Cullen, the elusive telepathic yet ever-so-sympathetic vampire heartthrob hero of the Twilight Saga. Both photorealistic Edward Cullen and Bella Swan skins based on photos of the RL actors who portrayed them in the recent movie — are available… for your SL voyeurism purposes, and perhaps beyond.

Free Cullen Family vampire eyes are also released! And, Bella-Swan-grade band-aid’s are also still free! Grab @ Twilight SL Shop.

Be safe. Get Edward now - Only at the Twilight SL Shop! ;-P

Next up, Alice Cullen. And, the fun continues… The cast is slowly be SL’ed…

As always, all Twilight SL Shop proceeds benefit the SL Shakespeare Company, a nonprofit organization dedicated to giving Shakespeare a virtual life — so, really, this is your chance to get Edward and do good on SL! Go for it!