Gay…ety?
The Hot Males, originally uploaded by ::Prad Prathivi @ Amodica::
Prad Prathivi is not only a cool, funny, deliciously sarcastic, great creator and tons of more stuff guy. He is also a friend, even i think i would ask him for money (don’t worry, Praddles, no need right now 
). Some days ago he asked me to have a picture, naked together, because we both were included in the list of the 10 Hottest Avatars in SL.
I find the picture pretty cool, is tasty, even sweet. Just two naked friends talking together. Anyway when Prad posted (in Plurk, Flickr, …) the pic was interesting to see other’s reactions.
Some were funny, about our supposed “hawtness” 
, a few of them expressed doubts about Prad’s sexual preferences.
Ok, i know most of that comments were actually jokes but anyway that made me wonder: “Is it so important?”. People seems to care a lot about other’s sexuality, “bed preferences” and stuff like that, and, ok, i admit can be funny, but at the same time makes me feel weird.
Prad is straight publically, but was “suspicious” of being gay for that image. I posted the image at left and i was not “suspicious” of being straight (maybe yes, but nobody told me). That makes me think the possibility of being gay is still considered negative and something you can be “suspicious” about.
I know people had no bad intention, i know most of them were joking (even Prad, who likes to joke about it) and there is not intention of critic in this post. I’m only trying to say that some comments made me remember there are a lot of things we should change in our society about what is considered “normality” and how is considered “difference”.
Interview in Koinup Blog
Pier (AKA Koinup Burt inworld), one of the creators of Koinup, interviewed me some days ago for the Koinup Blog. I think is an interesting conversation, so wanted to share it with you all:
Raul Crimson is one of the best known Second Life photographers.
He is a acclaimed Metaverse Artist and he is sharing his creativity on Koinup since some time. Some Raul Crimson photos are camping in the coolest sections of Koinup. He’s also managing a cool blog, that I suggest to have a lookKoinup interviewed Raul about his art, tips and projects. Continue to read it….
Here’s the Interview
Q: When you’re creating new art and photos, where do you draw ideas and inspiration from?
A: Normally all come from my imagination, or the things I’m interested in, or fascinated by… Some other artists inspire me too, some modern photographers like David Lachapelle or Pierre et Gilles are really an inspiration to me lately. Also some “classic” artist, like Bronzino, Velazquez, or even El Bosco or the Old Dutch masters are really inspiring. Watching at their works always give me ideas or inspiration. Don’t use to “pre-draw” my works, I have them in mind and work on them, mainly because sometimes the concept grows or changes during the process, so i prefer to work “on-the-go”.
Q: What advice would you give to newcomers and beginners with Second Life art and photography?
A: First, watch and learn… learn new techniques, watch to see what others do helps a lot to learn…
Then, experiment, don’t be afraid to try new ideas, the important is to express yourself, to create the images that are in your brain.
For me the most important things in an image are light, composition and story. Techniques, filters, brushes.. are not an end themselves, are only tools.Q: Which are your fav works on Koinup and why you love them (if you can, please give me the links)
A: Oh! I have a lot! But will talk about some of them:
Tattered Memory by Bkiddo
This one is wonderful, is not only wonderfully done, has story, is evocative, full of sensibility.Tandem by Prad Prathivi
Lovely work on light and composition, also evocative, even melancholic.Lash BlueGirl by lashxevious Another jewel, just wonderfully done, inspiring, imaginative…
Self Portrait by Pilgrim
Really good concept, and lovely work in exploration of the “dark side”.I have a lot more… but well, don’t want to bore you.
Q: Which Koinup artists you should recommended for the next Koinup Interview?
A: Well, is hard to recommend when you see so much great creators, but I think to interview Ryker Beck would be a great idea, she is great in sharing her knowledge and techniques with people. Also Kimberly Mirabeau, who has a wonderful sense for beauty… and also Lano (Lano Ling), he is just someone full of sensivility and with a wonderful technique.
Q: If you should make a reportage from the Metaverse, what places you would love to photograph and share with your friends?
A: Oof! Hard one too! Well, I love some places around, I specially remember Las Arenas Doradas, Crimson Shadow or Creamshop as beautiful places, but I think I’d love to portrait also welcome Areas, Mainland, Infohubs… they are Second Life for many of us. It is always great to go there and see the imagination people have with their avatars.
Q: What are your upcoming projects in Second Life?
A: Projects… he he he… well, I’ll just tell a bit, I’m part of the team for a new magazine for SL, a really new concept with a great team, but can’t talk much about it for the moment… is a secret!
Also some projects of working a new line of furniture with someone, mainly for photography, and also have a plan for a new art and creation area, but this may take a bit…Q: Are you already exploring other worlds for creative ventures? What have you found there?
A: Well, I’m exploring some other virtual worlds or MMORPG like World of Warcraft, vSide, or the OpenSim new grids, but for the moment I’m more exploring than creating them. I feel comfortable with the tools I have in SL, so for the moment I’m creating more here.
From here, thanks to Pier and all the Koinup team for your great work, and for this interview, of course!
Customers or citizens of a benevolent dictatorship?
Sometimes, in the past, i protested for some comments of Philip Linden, the founder of Second Life. Most of the times i though he was having a wrong idea about the community of residents. Anyway, although all that M Linden is making me miss Philip badly. And we are having M for the last six month, so maybe is time to analize his work.
M said in an interview by Dusan Writer some days ago:
80% of our business is focused on the consumer market — which of course includes content creators. We are putting more than 80% of our investment in the consumer market because a good part of our investment in Enterprise crosses over (shared media). We talk about Enterprise because we are doing new things there. We need to talk more about our plans for consumer because we have many big projects under way there.
Ok, is only me? I don’t see where this 80% is going, and i don’t think it is for LDPW and the roads. Either seem to be for software development, because performance is getting worse in the last months although the “lower” impact of Openspaces now that almost 2000 sims disappeared in the last month.
We still don’t know how many islands will be lost until July next month, when the process of changes on Islands products will change. I just know we are having less “land” to explore and enjoy… and more residents (users hours and residents inworld are peeking), and that produces more problems with servers, so the “excuse” of poor performance to change the Openspace product is just going against Second Life itself.
As you may know Reuters left Second Life recently, Eric Krangel (Eric Reuters inworld) wrote a really interesting article talking about his vision of Second Life and why they left. I think you should read it because his opinion is pointy.
Personally i think all that is due the bad work of Linden Lab, Public Relations must be on holidays, Software development to be too it seems, so we just have M saying in an interview basically “All is good, all is ok.”.
Linden Lab acts like if the residents were citizens of a benevolent dictatorship, where M is the “Emperor” and the Lindens, the government. A dictatorship where they do “the best for the nation and its people” under their point of view ignoring the citizens. But they seem to be forgetting we are not citizens, we are customers! They seem to forget Linden Lab derives its revenue from user fees, not compulsory taxes. They seem to forget Second Life is NOTHING without the residents and their creativity but empty virtual land, where teaching virtual classes or making business presentations, of course.
I’d like to quote here, to end this post, something Vint Falken wrote in a blogpost, something that explains also my feelings with Linden Lab in the last times:
Excuse me my bitterness. But I still feel betrayed: a 2 year relationship, that you _know_ is dying. You still wish to fix everything, mainly because of the effort you put into it, because of you’re used to it and because of the mutual friends you now have, not because the butterflies are still there. You keep trying, attempt to be bedazzled again, but the other party just f*cks it up, each time. Eerrr… overreacting, me?
If the resident had the power to vote for Linden Lab CEO, be sure i would never vote for M.
UPDATE (Dec. 02 2008): Just after posting this M published a post in the Official Linden Blog in the same line “We are better than ever and nothing is happening”.
Places to visit in Second Life #11: Nautilus
I’ve been visiting Nautilus lately, is one of the “themed” areas built by the LDPW (Linden Department of Public Works), like Bay City, and as Bay City is not only one sim (region) is a bit group of them, as you can see in this map:
The theme this time is some like “Atlantis”, partially a Mediterranean culture, partially a fantasy. The place has some public areas and spots by LDPW and plots for auction where residents can build their businesses or homes. About this auctions system Linden Lab is using there and in Bay City, well, i don’t like it much. Prices there are way higher than in any other place in Mainland and that sale system impulse the speculation on Land value, anyway that keeps the average value of Mainland a bit higher and that’s good for Linden Lab business plans, but is a false avarage, becuase it concentrates the high value on some areas and the rest is simply cheap. Maybe the right thing would be having LDPW working more, and they are doing it with the road system in Mainland, but possibly more people working there will increase the value of Mainland and will give more beauty to it. Let’s hope they keep working and working. Anyway, the objective of this blogpost is to talk a bit about nice spots in Nautilus… so let’s do it.
One of the coolest place in Nautilus for me is The Market (SLurl), a place where LDPW placed lots of quality freebies to help residents in Nautilus to keep the theme in the area and to have nice homes. I think is good anyone visits The Market if you are building something in Mediterranean style, the textures and objects are nicely done and can be really useful. The Market is in a public garden area what is nice also as a place to stay and meet people of the community in Nautilus.
Free textures and objects to customize the buildings in LPDW areas is one of the best ideas they are having, because helps a lot residents who may not be skilled on texturing or complex building.
Other places to visit in Nautilus are (in the same order as the pictures) The Gates of the Citadel (SLurl), the Eastern Sea Temple (SLurl) and The main Temple of Nautilus (SLurl). As you can see the details on this public buildings are quite good and inmersive in the “Atlantis” style of Nautilus. The influence in this buildings is mainly Mediterranean in Classic times, specially about the Minoan Civilization in some areas, but, of course, a fantasy view of those cultures.
Nautilus is full of nice spots to visit and explore, i gave you here some clues but is better you go and try to find all the places to visit, including the place where Magellan Linden arrived the first time to Nautilus.
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