Those of us who don metadentities are accustomed to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune — not to mention the love/hate relationship that mainstream media has with virtual worlds and those of us who inhabit them. So when my friend, Persephone Milk (she of fabulous Persnickity glasses and Musical Alchemy grand pianos), told me she was going to be interviewed by her local FOX News station for a piece on SL, I confess, I was worried for her.
My concern stemmed from a few places. Wired’s recent glorification of the grief culture has made it seem like even media outlets that should know better will stoop to playing the “you geeks take all this virtual stuff too seriously” card when it suits their purpose. And, of course, there is the fact that anyone who knows Seph understands that the person behind the keyboard is a man — something fairly common and ho-hum in our universe, but which could have been taken out of context and portrayed any number of ways.
WATCH THE YOUTUBE VIDEO CLIP HERE
I am thrilled beyond words that the piece was actually handled very professionally. It focused on the business end of Seph’s endeavors, but it did touch on her creativity and that of Seph’s RL counterpart, if only briefly.
So much of SL’s media coverage focuses on what big-name RL business is invading - completely ignoring our home-grown geniuses and artisans and the rest of it tends to drool over Scandal X or Trend Y. So, score one for the home team and YAY Seph!
(Many thanks to Stroker for editing and getting this up so that we could all enjoy it!)
For those people who occasionally ask me what the hell I’m doing with my SL that keeps me from blogging, I can finally answer you 
Over the past several months I’ve been working on a new project: Facade Furnishings is finally ready for prime time.
Today, at the Freudian Slip we’ll be having a “get Salome a drink already” launch party featuring over 8 hours of live music goodness from some of SL’s hottest talent with fun and freebies tossed into the mix. Are you enticed yet? You should definitely be feeling enticed. The concert party is open to one and all and I certainly hope you’ll feel inclined to attend.
The music line-up is just sublime.
When: Saturday, March 22, 2008
Where: The Freudian Slip
2pm - Tweety & The Tomcats: Funky bluesy trio of sax, bass, and guitar - we dare you to try and keep still.
3pm - Raspbury Rearwin: Alt-rock-pop singer/songwriter, cute-as-a-button and lover of bulldogs.
4pm - Montian Gilruth Mouth-watering Canadian vocalist and finger-pickin’ genius.
5pm - Tone Uriza: Big Daddy Bluesman crunhin’ the blues so hard they hurt in all the right ways.
6pm - Shadrack Band: Contemporary country and Americana trio of rockin’ bass and two wickedly delish guitarists combined with creamy, creamy harmonies.
7:30pm-ish - Grace McDunnough: She’s all mine and you can’t have her, but you can come listen to our beloved songbird croon her sultry siren song until you’re ready to sell your soul for more.
While I’m not even going to try and walk the unethical tightrope of reviewing my own items, I can tell you that Facade Furnishings is a low-prim furniture showroom geared toward proving that low-prim can still be faboo. Many items in the store are only 1 or 2 prims, and complete room sets start at 15 prims or less.
Facade item textures are almost entirely created “from scratch” starting with custom-created wood grains, wickers, and lacquers. This lets us provide textures with high resolution crispness and clarity for a realistic, but not photo-sourced feel. Primwork is at a minimum - it’s all about tricking the eye into lavish faux 3D (thus: Facade). I wanted to create items that helped foster atmospheres of immersion within the Second Life environment and I really feel that too much photo-sourcing distracts from our artificial paradise (setting the ethics aside).
I also wanted to offer an item that contributed to the multimedia aspect of SL, so I teamed with our newest little neko dynamo, Chastity Vandeverre, to offer visitors these freebie scripted radio media tuners. Each set comes with a master unit and three remote units in either Vintage, Retro, or Boom Box style. From the master unit, you can store radio stations for easy tuning on any parcel where you have media rights. The remote units can be placed on other parcels in the same SIM, or within shouting distance to permit you to change streams at multiple locations. Features include textures that change when you flip radio stations streams, hide/show and owner lock options. I think it’s a pretty nifty freebie, but then, I’m biased
Scripts are driven by a notecard that you can customize for your own stations and options. Full instructions are included and updates should be released when necessary.
At today’s party, we’ll also have fun freebies that are not nearly as impressive, but give us a giggle. Seeing as I’d like nothing more than to get completely blotto after the months of going blind in Photoshop, we have the One Too Many Lampshade Party Set, complete with lampshade hat and Uncle Feterish mouth bulb (touch on/off).
Where To Go:
Launch Party @ The Freudian Slip
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Seven%20Veils/20/19/23
Freebies & Shopping @ Facade Furnishings
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Seven%20Veils/121/50/23
Just an FYI for you decor and furniture junkies The official press release is after the cut.
Date : 17 December 2007 (Monday)
Time : Grand Opening all day but 25% sale ends at 11:59pm SLT
Venue : Caledon Brigadoon - Rossini Esta, Caledon Brigadoon (205, 78, 22)
Rossini Esta, Caledon Brigadoon
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Caledon%20Brigadoon/205/87/23
(Read More | Where to Buy)
When I first met my friend, Shadowe Shaftoe, I was buying a bed set from his then newly begun shop - Studio 3D. It was a lovely four-poster deal and it still lives somewhere in the recesses of my inventory. Of course, being me, I had IMed him because I wanted about 2500 changes to it (yes, I am a furniture store owner’s worst nightmare). We have since kept track of one another and every so often he shares nifty stuff with me like his creepily fun coffin bed and my favorite chaise.
Recently, he dropped a full set of modern leather furniture on me. Now, modern is not usually my thing, but textures are, so when I rezzed this set, I was simply thrilled at the great texturing on the items. Shadowe’s day job, like mine, involves a lot of Photoshop time and it really pays off in his sets like these.
Leaving the textures and style aside for a moment, what really buzzed me about this set was the animation/pose options. Driven by a touch-menu system, the sofa has 18 poses (6 couples poses, 6 male sits, 6 female sits) and each of the chairs has 12 (6 male sits, 6 female sits). All of them are really nice poses too - none of the cheap “thrown in to puff up numbers” crap. The lamps are also touch on/off as all lamps should be ;-).
The set is available in black or brown leather and includes all of the items shown (sofa, 2 chairs, 2 table lamps, 2 end tables, cocktail table, and rug). There is also an optional side-set with a lounger and floor lamp and additional items are sold ala carte. Also, even though the signs in the shop say otherwise, I know for a fact that he offers bulk discounts for club and business owners who are looking to buy a mess of items at one time. He’s an old softie that way.
But don’t let on I said so.
(Read More | Where to Buy)
