Monthly Archives: September 2019

another chance

“Ah so. 7 Stones,” Mr. Babyface mutters to himself after The Man About Time left. “What am I doing here? Where’s Greg or Gregg? What happened to being oiled up all the time. Now I’m like acrylic: too fast to dry. Not fluid any longer. Ah so.”

—–

Like Elton John on the “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” cover, we step up and out of Fal Mouth Moon/7 Stones and into another world. A trailer.

—–

I’ve sent Space Ghost and Bullfrog away. The gay problem has been resolved here in the heart of Bill Country. Hecklers be gone!

—–

“This is your new home, Danny. Better than the old one in my opinion. And now you’re gainfully employed. You are custodian of a whole, huge gallery!”

“Thank you *so* much. I promise to keep it clean.” He hangs his head down here. “Unlike the old place.”

“Don’t worry about that now, Danny. I have faith in you. I believe in you.”

—–

5th floor now:

“We’ll be installing the new bathrooms (he points) here.”

“I’m ready, sir.”

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0016, 0107, Collagesity Fordham, Lower Austra^, Nautilus

penthouse

“See? It’s all about Greenup, Mr. Babyface. This Floydada Lime it’s called.”

“All (sections) named after fruit?”

“That is correct my fine neighbor.” His voice was mild and youthful; his neighbor’s gruff and aged, countering the babyface appearance.

“Well… if you’re Pierre, as you say, then this town is in for a lot of turning upside down soon. Do you plan to bring back Carr?” Carr was short for Carrcassonnee, the former, alien ruler of Collagesity/7 Stones before the 2016 coup.

“It all depends,” he replies to the babyface man with the gruff, aged voice. “Tell me all about this Wheeler.”

—–

“Damn eyesore it is,” Mr. Babyface suddenly declared, pausing in his spiel about present town ruler Wheeler. “Look at that thing looming up in the air.” He indicated out the window at the boxy Edwardston Station Gallery, the skybox everyone in town is voting on whether to keep. We have two naysayers in the matter sitting here in Mr. Babyface’s lower floor of his Kidd Tower apartment. Mr. Babyface decided “no” the minute he set eyes on the cube; The Man About Time’s choice came a little later. And now he had “Floydada.”

—–

“There’s also a ‘Floydadada’, Mr. Babyface. That’s the one I want next — might even be in SoSo. When I find that I’ll tell the townspeople who I really am, and that I wasn’t killed atall in that giant Lake District gash known as Piers Gill. Instead: Gills Pier. Michigan. 2052.”

But Mr. Babyface knew all about the legend of Pierre Schaeffer. It had been taught in his schools since he was a babyfaced lad.

“Let me show you something, neighbor. *Confidant*.” He scrolls the page down just a bit. “This is me.”

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0016, 0106, Collagesity Fordham, Lower Austra^, Michigan, Nautilus

lime lemon (orange) apple

It’s the first artwork he encountered when entering House Greenup. Lemons and limes again, staring him right in the face. And eyes… The Man About Time is reminded that a sim called Residentia exists beside the Humansville one he just examined today. Our Second Lyfe, which now includes the newest continent of Bellisaria with its Humansville, Residentia, and many more sims, is inhabited by Residents according to Linden definitions. *The* Residents are an experimental rock group who disguise their identity through giant eyeball masks. One wonders if Philip Rosedale, creator of Our Second Lyfe, had them in mind when applying this specific name to the inhabitants of his realm. After all, both hail from the streets of San Francisco. But I digress…

7 Stones townspeople have a decision to make soon. Whether to keep the separated groundside galleries of House Greenup, SoSo, and Gallery Jack holding the entire “Art 10×10” of 100 collages baker b. produced between 2004 and 2009, or whether to combine the 3 galleries into a skybox (literally in this case: a box in the sky) traditionally called the Edwardston Station Gallery, dating back to 2009 and the end of the series. The Man About Time has an important vote in the matter. He doesn’t take citizenship — *residency* — in the virtual village lightly. It’s an honor to be here, he says to town owners Baker Bloch and Baker Blinker the next Wednesday after the third Monday of the month, when he paid his first rent for a Kidd Tower apartment. Almost at the very top: how lucky was he? Only [delete name] lives above him and [delete name] is rarely at home. But, then again, the Man About Time is out and about a lot as well. Best to cast his vote today, before something else comes up in Bellisaria, etc., that demands his immediate attention, past present or future. Thus the visit to House Greenup today, and, afterwards, Gallery Jack, SoSo, and then up in the sky to see the whole displayed in ESG.

But in staring around at the other collages hanging in the lower floor of House Greenup after ungluing his eyes from the first (which is actually the last: Greenup 20 instead of Greenup 01, although they make an animation with each other and The Man About Time is not the first visitor to make this last-for-first mistake), he’s already made up his mind basically. This house should stay, which means, domino effect, that SoSo must stay which means that Gallery Jack must stay.

“Ahh. ‘Floydada’,” coos The Man About Time after walking around the stairs. “What I’ve been looking for.”

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0016, 0105, Bellisaria, Collagesity Fordham, Humansville, Lower Austra^, Nautilus

10th (Danny’s Abode)

Game over, already? Aww. And I was just starting to enjoy myself.

—–

I’ve got to get on it and start to clean up this place, thought handyman Danny Pajamy after the fact, Mr. Clean outside his humble abode but totally slack within. Bob Dobbs would be proud.

Keys jingle somewhere — perhaps on the video he left, um, running? Then they jingle *again*. Someone… someone at the door! he thinks in a panic, remembering what just happened.

Yeah, cleaning. That’s what he’s doing. Cleaning.

“Hellooo? Anybody home?”

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0016, 0104, Bellisaria, Humansville

to prove you’re human

The continent is a wheel, The Man About Time thinks on the upstairs balcony of the 9th house he tried. Success finally? But 12:37: *time* for dinner.

—–

So I’ve marked that place with the filling recipe. You *still* want the apple pie, don’t you dear? ‘Cause I’m going to a lot of trouble with this.” She calls over while still washing her hands. “Dear? (pause) *Dear??*”

“Oh, sorry.” He looks down at the place setting and the contents. Apparently I’ll just do with the one apple right now, he thinks to himself, but says: “Sure. Er, since you’ve gone to all the trouble to find the recipe and all.” He again stares over at the lemon and lime on the far table.

The lemon and lime stared back at him.

“Um, *dear*?”

“Yes, husband of mine?” She was washing the last fingers.

“Do we still have that copy of ‘Floydada’ laying around somewhere?”

“Floy-*whata*?” She finally turns. It was then that Newtonia Kashkow realized the man sitting at the table with all the apples wasn’t her husband atall.

—-

“And *stay* out!” SLAM.

Oh well. On to the 10th!

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0016, 0103, Bellisaria, Humansville

Jim K.

“Aww *man*. And I was just getting use to the cackling…”

—-

“Humansville,” Baker Bloch spoke to the freshly landed Hucka Doobie beside him. “Must mean *something*.”

“Yeah,” said the bee person, staring around. “Should I take a seat? Will this take *long*?”

“No. Shouldn’t,” a mildly disappointed Baker Bloch responded, hoping to encounter more enthusiasm from his best and oldest friend. Besides Baker Blinker of course, who really doesn’t count.

“I’ll take one anyway,” Hucka Doobie stated, knowing Baker Bloch like she did. This might take a short time, but probably not short enough. Best to take it all in while reclining. “I wonder if there’s any objects offering drinks around here?” she then queries after sitting.

“Um. Unsure.”

They both scan the area now, with nothing that looks like a drink machine or dispenser around. “So… this is the new continent,” Hucka speaks after the pause, licking her lips at the same time. So dry.

“Yeah. Bellisaria.”

“Queer name. I wonder how they came up with it?”

“And sims like *Humansville*. On the opposite side of Polk County from Gold… *Tin*.”

“Tin Town, yeah. I see. Like the first post of… is this the new novel?”

“Suppose it has to be, Hucka D. *We’re* here. Talking.”

“Doesn’t have to be. We could just be chatting off the record, as it were. How do you determine what is a legitimate post and what is not? A metaphysical question, I know, but, after all, I’m the spiritual guru for the blog. I’ve been around a long time. Over a decade.”

“I know you have, Hucka Doobie. And I thank you for your service to the blog. It has been *invaluable*.”

“Thank you. Good to be appreciated.” She licks her lips again. “But I don’t think there’s anything *per se* in this Humansville. No Uncle Joe (laugh), no Aunt Zoe (chuckle).”

“When did you start laughing parenthetically, Hucka?”

A sound happened behind them. Keys jiggling. Someone was trying to open a door. “Who’s that?” she asks before turning.

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0016, 0102, Bellisaria, Humansville

for my dopplegangers

“In looking back — in line with the Blackstar Event — I really, truly think at least an aspect of David Bowie entered Collagesity right after his death, stayed a spell, and then left after flirting with my female counterpart Baker Blinker.”

“I *know* who Baker Blinker is,” countered Merry Gouldbusk, softly playing a Bach piece currently as background music. One of the “Goldberg Variations” I might assume.

The male Baker, Baker Bloch, continued. “This would be January 2016, as told in the first Collagesity photo-novel.”

“Yes. ‘Blackstar’. Amazing album. I know of what you speak.”

“He also said he was there to read one specific book called ‘Blood Curdling Tells of the Rubi Woods’…

“….formerly ‘Blood Curdling Tales of the Rubi Woods’, ha…”

“… about the hauntings of an old forest bordering Collagesity immediately to the west. Through it he learned of a legendary creature called the Tinbaby. At the end of his stay, he used the power of the Tinbaby in the woods, which can somehow fold up space seemingly, to leave Collagesity and continue his journey through the afterlife. Also afterwards, the woods had to temporarily be erased — purified — because, I believe, Bowie had to become fully separated from the Tinbaby, which was also the same as Dr. Blood or the Ozian Tinman, who shows up next.”

“The woods had to be purified,” spoke wise Merry Gouldbusk, “because David Bowie had to move on, yes. Had to move on from Baker Blinker primarily. Because…”

“… that was Karoz’s girl. Destiny they were to be married. Right in the center of novel 1.”

“But… you go.”

“But the Tinbaby — it never hit me to associate this with a tin can.”

“Tin Machine,” Merry Gouldbusk finished, and then switched from Bach to a different metal after picking up a guitar. “Goodbye Mr. Ed.”

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0016, 0101, Jeogeot, Sunklands^

Billhillies

Does Tipton escapee Incognito, cousin to Pipersville’s Colored TV and Rumpkinhead who also lived in the burg *directly before* the bomb went off, currently reside in this house with a great view of Turtle Hill or Butte, shortest but most central of the three main Hills of Bill…

… or in this house below Bill Hill, highest of these hills but not as centrally located?

Again, time-space-options remain confused. It’s becoming difficult, nay impossible to keep writing about such situations. Once again, we must end our story in the Hills of Bill.

—-

Wait… late breaking news: a *car* is coming down the road from Bluefield, US of A, Real Life and into Our Virtual Reality. Rumor has it that the relatively new vehicle is a blue Fit, but some reports comfirm it is red. Let’s say purple to cover both realities. Relatively new Athlon Village employee Valerie Kempbill (or Kemphill) monitors the portal day and night with eyes in her headless head from a nearby 4th floor apartment while taking voluminous notes in her yellow and black notebooks. We’ll keep you the reader posted.

—–

Are Space Ghost and now-friend-formerly-foe Bullfrog really and truly a gay couple as the hecklers across the grassy parcel from their Bill Hill tippy top trailer believe? Where B.F.’s (former?) lover Aqua Dude if so? Tracking down Kevin A. Orchardsity in X-City who he knows is the same as his arch-enemy Super Guy? Probably. Could go something like this:

“I’m looking for someone. He looks exactly like this.”

—-

Well. That appears to be it! We didn’t meet Bullfrog’s intervention team headed by his brother-cousin Peepee, but no time remains. The car from Bluefield must appear sooner than later. We are left with a picture again.

Next up, we may shift to the Nautilus continent above Satori-Maebaleia for more of the North-South-East-West conflicts. I can work this drama from my new home base of 7 Stones. Will residents vote 7 Stones to be renamed Collagesity? (More) time will tell!

END OF “COLLAGESITY 2019 LATER”!

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0015, 0704, Hills of Bill^, Maebaleia/Satori, X-City^

Hill Bill Bill Hill

So much more could be written about the continent of Maebaleia or Satori, the focus of the current Collagesity novel, 15th in our continuing series. It was also the focus of the 14th — bookend works, as I’ve described them previously. But we must soon move on.

I believe now that the continent represents the closest approach Our Second Lyfe ever came to Earth. This virtual reality was at its peak when the large and long landmass was forming. Greed bred by the success even permanently scarred its landscape by creating an artificial division between North and South via severed, main highways — arteries originally designed to connect and culturally bind the two into one — eventually resulting in the short but still rather devastating Maebaleia-Satori Civil War we’ve been talking about so much lately. Who won the war? For us in the Real World, it was the North, as our American Civil War best resonates with this virtual conflict. But in Virtual Reality *below* Real Life if you will, the situation was turned on its head. The *South* there had the principle burgs, the most resources despite less area.  And they were the ones who developed the Bomb, thanks to the time traveling A.Team historically based in Cassandra City. A bomb was launched from near Regaltown with little effect on its destination of Chip Shot. Although wiping the city out, almost everyone who lived there was currently in another location for various reasons. To this day, no one knows why. And then a different kind of (retaliatory) rocket-bomb from the North hit Golden City at or near the original’s launch site. Apparent loss of lives this time, although, again, details remain fuzzy. The South negotiated with the North. The North, like ours up here in the US, seems to win. Then novel 15 took up the story from 14 and we understand that Golden City and resulting impact crater of Golden Sink was not exactly what it seemed. Neither was Sink X (bomb crater for Chip Shot, which became Pipersville after the war), but not quite in the same way. A new strategy for winning the war emerged from this confusion over time, space, options. Bit by bit, outlined in this novel 15, the South regained the advantage over the North and eventually enacted a victory with a direct strike at the X, the crossroads, the heart of X-City and, indeed, the heart of the North as a whole.

Axis married Teebestia; heart turned into a spade. The menacing black figure in the skies will always be there now, like a modern day Death Star. It has the surface appearance of a Mickey Mouse silhouette to novel 15 producer/director Eraserhead Man, true, but more: one of the ears (especially) withers down and turns into a droopy dog’s. A corruption is revealed in the center of Florida, directly etched into the land (again). The South wins the war through a central black hole that inverts the left hand into a right hand. This black hole was placed by smart Southern scientists, engineers, managers in the center of Golden City. It was a counter-weapon to the Bomb. This black hole eventually became the silhouette. Takes two to know.

(to be continued)

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0015, 0703, Golden Sink^, Maebaleia/Satori, X-City^

Hills of Bill

There was not a lot around the trailer positioned at the very top of Bill Hill, the highest hill of the eponymous Hills of Bill. Nearest neighbors: a couple called Little Heaven and Little Hell. Reminds me of Teebestia and Axis and their Heart and Spade relationship, spade being basically a heart turned upside down and opposite in color. Angel; Devil. So maybe it is fate that such a couple live near Bullfrog and Space Ghost now. Is it actually Teebestia and Axis living there? No. But, still, maybe nearby.

How about the nearby sim of Littlefield, then? Littlefield, Texas is the seat of a county called Lamb, reminding me of Pitch’s wife Mary and the beloved little lamb she lost back in Olde Lapara Town in a grassy, grassy field. You still can’t mention it without her starting to weep a bit. The county also contains a village named Spade. And exactly seven miles and also exactly six seconds directly north we have a Hart Camp; Heart and Spade again; seven and six even. Littlefield (and accompanying Lamb) must be important. Currently there is a quite cheap 4096 square meter parcel for sale there that Wheeler Wilson could own with a couple clicks of the mouse. Adding in tier, I’m not sure that’s the direction to go.

How about this building called Musix Club immediately south of the purchasable land, in Belmont this time? Belmont was the site of the Bluebox Gallery, as I’m recalling, which represents, in a different way, the center of the whole continent formerly sprinkled with Blue named galleries south to north, namely Bluestocking (South), Bluebox (Middle), and Blue Strawberry (North). The current Collagesity photo-novel, 15th in the series, is divided into these same regions based on continental directions. Bluestocking was mentioned by Grey Scale Kimball in the South part (sections 1-3). Blue Strawberry by Baker Bloch in the North division (sections 4-6). Now Bluebox in the Middle (section 7). Was it also unfortunately in the way and that’s why it’s gone now?

But back to the building still present in Belmont, and nearest the old Bluebox Gallery property. We’ve seen it before in the novels, specifically in 14 before the current one, also all about Maebaleia/Satori and a kind of bookend work to this one. Now I’ve discovered the additional curiosity that the picture of Pink Floyd (pink!) on the front wall turns into a picture of The Doors from within.

And then “doors” over the two doors of the establishment next to it.

Is Pink Floyd a door into a different dimension? How about the big, rainbow colored marbles spinning in a tube just outside? Is ‘Rainbow Sphere’ infatuated Roger Pine Ridge suppose to show up next? He’s probably due.

(to be continued)

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0015, 0702, Hills of Bill^, Maebaleia/Satori