“And now you have complete balance,” The Librarian said to me minutes later. “Collagesity is finished in its limits. But at what price Baker Bloch? 3 Friends?
“I was aware of the subject matter,” I admitted. “And your mask. I knew I would return here…”
“… to find out more about me,” he finished. “Well. Let’s start.”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0003, 0110, Heterocera, Rubi
Home o’ Fibs returns (yet again) to Collagesity.
I now lease another small plot from the Markland rental group run by K9Mark, my landlord for about the past year and a half who I met for the first time inworld yesterday. This is the 624 parcel formerly owned by creative friend Art Oluja (for probably the past half year), which now becomes the westernmost part of Collagesity. And will most likely remain that way, as I’m probably through with recent expansions of the town. Now all I have to do is sell Baker Blinker’s 3856 on the other side of Robin Lane and its limits might be set.
I’ll miss Art as a neighbor, who I also met for the first time yesterday during the successful 3-way transaction. Below are a couple photos of some trapped bird creature living in her house on the plot before the sale to K9Mark. Then the last photo depicts a resonant collage I chose to exhibit for mutual friend Pearl Grey’s Jan./Feb. showing at her Wanderlust Bench Art Park titled “Bullrocks”, the 8th in my 2014 Falmouth series. I’ll have to remember to ask Art about the story of her own creature-trapped-in-a-giant-mason-jar sometime. And she also told me in a recent im that she’s won another LEA grant for the coming year. Congrats Art! I can’t wait to see the cool stuff you come up with for certain.
And while I’m on the subject of creative Second Life friends, long time Collagesity supporter Veyot (also friends with Art and Pearl) has started a very interesting fictional series set in a floating motel over at the Corsica continent. Check out the introductory post on her tumblr site “Veyot’s View” here.
Bird creature.
Inside the jar.
More Art Oluja creations on her former Minoa 624.
“Bullrocks” at Pearl Grey’s Wanderlust Bench Art Park.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0003, 0109, Heterocera, Maebaleia/Satori, Rubi, Sansara
Another excellent year of creative work, I feel. On the personal front, the wife and I are both healthy and well and that’s the most important thing. Work work keeps chugging along for both of us. Our house is cozy and warm, but needs some remodeling/repair work, which hopefully will come sometime this year, perhaps in the late spring or early summer. But that’s relatively minor compared to the positive health report. My quite ancient mother is very limited in what she can do but still lives at home, with aid from a home health care company. I have to go down to help her about every 2nd to 3rd weekend (less in the winter, when the snow and ice limits my travel). My wife similarly has to help take care of her aging father. Our 2 adorable sibling cats are gracefully entering their middle age together, still as buddy-buddy as ever.
So that’s the personal stuff out of the way. To creativity…
Fictional Writing
This was the big change from years past. Starting in Dec of last year, I have created not one but two larger works of fiction, published only to the Sunklands site here, but both still legitimate books of sorts, I feel. I call these, simply, “Collagesity 2015-2016 Winter” and “Collagesity 2016 Later”. In the last several weeks I’ve been able to create web pages showing these blog originating texts in the correct and much more readable past-to-present orientation instead of the
the present-to-past direction of blog posts. Here they are:
“Collagesity 2015-2016 Winter”
https://bakerbloch.com/virtual/collagesity-2015-2016-winter/
“Collagesity 2016 Later”
https://bakerbloch.com/virtual/collagesity-2016-later/
As you can see, “Collagesity 2015-2016 Winter” is divided into 16 chapters, many titled for a specific character in the work. The plot evolution is peculiar — I guess peculiar is normal for me, however (smiley emoticon). It involves not a standard beginning-middle-end, carrying all characters forward from an introduction to a resolution. Basically speaking the last two chapters, “Moon of Moon 01” and “Moon of Moon 02”, make up almost an entirely separate section from the rest of the book. I would classify the plot-line through the book linear but not particularly developmental. And characters can change into other characters, like the Ancient called The Master appears to change into Lockfry/ Devil Dave who in turn changes into Bogota/ David Bowie (“Ancients”, “Lockfry”, and “Bogota” are successive chapter titles in the work, you’ll notice). I suppose a good rubric for it would be post-modern literature.
Going a little further in the analysis, “Collagesity 2015-2016 Winter” can also be divided into 2 halves of 8 chapters apiece which can be further halved into 2 more parts of 4 chapters each. The 1st 4 chapters kind of act as a long and sometimes admittedly convoluted introduction, where, for example, we have brief forays into the Real Life woodland area I call Whitehead Crossing, featured strongly in other parts of the blogs. Sidenote type analyses of my collages and and other surreal things/events are common in this part as well. But when we reach Chapter 5, “Ancients”, everything starts kicking into high gear. We begin to have that shape shifting ability of particular characters mentioned before, which drives the narrative forward in an unusual way.
Then in the exact middle of the book, at the end of Chapter 8 (“Woods”), we have a bond forming between long time Collagesity and Second Life characters Karoz Blogger and Baker Blinker. Although they’ve “known” each other for years and years now, as chronicled in the both the Baker Blinker and Sunklands blogs, it is only in “Collagesity 2015-2016 Winter” that they fall for each other emotionally. Then in the follow-up “Collagesity 2015 Later” book we find them getting married. In a way, both books are built around their relationship and fusion as seeming soulmates. But the bond is not without its troubles, especially illuminated through the character of (Wilson-)Wheeler, who only appears in the “Collagesity 2016 Later” work.
But I don’t want to become mired in heavy duty analysis here. This is a review of the entire year of creativity, not just fiction. So I’ll briefly touch upon the structure of the follow-up work and let it be for now. “Collagesity 2016 Later” is put together a little differently from the earlier “Collagesity 2015-2016 Winter”. First off, there’s a kind of bridge or prelude, as I put it, that links one to the other chronologically. These are found on the “Collagesity 2016 Later” front page and feature Sunklands posts from the 5 months starting in March and ending in July. Then in August “Collagesity 2016 Later” starts properly, and continues on in constant form (through 4 “parts”, each representing a month’s time) until at least the end of November and perhaps beyond a bit. And like its predecessor “Collagesity 2015-2016 Winter,” this later book terminates in an extraterrestrial environment, Mars this time instead of the Moon location for the earlier one.
So that’s a kind of introduction to these two “books”. I’ve written quite a bit of fiction in the past, but I believe these linked works represent my best effort to date. They depend heavily on the many Second Life snapshots accompanying the text. I feel like this fills in my weakness for narrative description.
Collages
For the first time since 2011, I didn’t complete a collage series in a calendar year. Yet Boos came toward the end of 2015, and I *have* appeared to start another series (Bogata — displayed in Castle Jack), albeit of slower development than the rest and a bit different in other ways as well. We’ll see how it goes.
Audiovisual Synchronicities (Synchs or Syncs)
It’s been a long *long* time since I haven’t created a synch for a particular year, going back to 1999 I suppose. It finally came about in 2016, but, again, I’m not too worried. Only 1 synch had been produced in the 2 years before 2016 (“Carrcass-11” in 2014 and “Carrcass-12” in 2015), so the slow down has been going on for a while after a type of landmark year in 2013 which produced 3 full synchs. I’m trying to generate energy for new audiovisual synchronicities through, for example, the Wheeler-as-Bowie character of “Collagesity 2016 Later”, and listening to a lot of David Bowie’s music after his untimely death in Jan of 2016. If you haven’t heard it, his final album “Blackstar” is an amazing work. Combined with the excellent “The Next Day” coming before it, Bowie went out on a high note for certain.
Audiovisual synching, like collaging, will continue into the future. It’s just that 2016 was focused on Second Life and the 2 books outlined above. Along with…
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0003, 0108
Since Baker Blinker owned Collagesity North, she felt it was her responsibility to first attempt to make contact with the younger Carrcassonnee on the newly rezzed Temple of TILE’s top floor. Carrcassonnee was certainly aware of her presence last week, but could not or chose not to speak that day.
Yesterday she tried again. After a long pause, Carrcassonnee managed a “sit down” using a somewhat higher than normal but still quite bass voice. With chills, Baker Blinker looked around for a seat. She saw several. She chose one closer to Carrcassonnee.
“How’s this?” she asked the staring olive entity. Carrcassonnee is alive! she thought.
Another long pause. “That’s fine,” she managed again.
“Okay, Carrcassonnee, I’m going to go ahead and ask some questions of you.” Carrcassonnee didn’t respond, but Baker assumed she was a go for this.
“I’m gathering that you are a younger version of Carrcassonnee, coming from, perhaps 2012 or 2013, maybe from VWX Town over in Rubi next door.”
No answer. Baker Blinker continued.
“I assume you are different. You don’t seem to speak as much. Maybe–” Baker Blinker thought of stating that this Carrcassonnee was perhaps less cartoony than her more recent iteration, but decided against it. “Let’s just leave it that you are different. And move on to other questions.”
Baker Blinker waited a long time now. “Okay,” is what Carrcassoneee said after about a 3 minute pause.
“Are you having trouble processing what I’m saying to you?”
Baker waited again. “No,” eventually came the answer.
—–
“It took *three* hours to get even what story I received,” states an exhausted Baker Blinker to Baker Bloch the following morning at Perch.”
“Another beer Blinks?” Baker Bloch then asks, seeing Baker Blinker’s glass emptied after the latest swig.
“Better not. And that old beer we left about, what, a *month* back has turned brown over there. It needs to be thrown away. All of these objects need to be removed or reorganized. The Table is not what we spoke of back then. Things have changed.”
“Lennon, er Lemon,” recites Baker Bloch.
“Synchronicity continues,” adds Baker Blinker. “No stopping now.”
Baker Bloch smiles.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0003, 0107, Heterocera, Rubi
The two pictures below are of the newly placed “We Have Arrived Let’s Get Out of Here” Memorial to Collagesity founder and then deserter Ryan “Skippy” Rye, the front of which depicts his landing in the Rubi area during the year B.L. 2130 (with the B.L. standing for Before Linden in case you didn’t know). This was during the golden years of Lemon, when the high seas were dominated by lumberjacks and astronauts and the air was constantly filled with confetti and popped maize.
Skippy ordered Castle Ryan to be built by his slave equivalents, deemed it amateur and stupid, and departed from what would become the Minoa sim after only 6 days, steering his land-ship back into the Rubi Woods and departing through its central portal for destinations unknown to this day.
Arrival.
Departure.
Castle Ryan was rebuilt and rechristened Castle Jack in 23 A.L. by dictator and stand-up comedian Jack “Jiff” Danielsonlanderscroft (stock photo missing).
Collagesity resident and Skippy Rye descendant Karla Danielsonlanderscroft with son Alf at the new memorial.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0003, 0106, Heterocera, Rubi
Baker walks out of that mysteriously appearing door in the Blue Feather again from the Table Room and notices another opening he hasn’t paid much attention to, down through the years now: the double iron gates into the property of his never seen neighbor Clarity Dagostino. The two neglected openings become linked in his brain. No stopping now, I suppose.
Just after that, he goes back into the Blue Feather to find what he originally thought was *another* “intruding” avatar like the one encountered the day before — get to that in a moment — but what turned out to be a mere 2-d flattie placed there by unknown hands.
The flattie holds a guitar with the name Mykall Skall scrawled on it. I quickly discovered this was the fellow who founded the Virtual Hotel Chelsea (or Virtual Chelsea Hotel), located in a sprawling Heterocera continent municipality I simply call VHC Town in this blog after its dominating, centerpiece structure. This could be significant for several reasons. But what next caught my eye was the t-shirt the flattie was wearing: it’s obviously suppose to double as the one John Lennon famously posed in during a promotional shoot for his “Walls and Bridges” album. And then the flattie’s army jacket is also a Lennon inspired garb.
Back to the intruder from the day before. Baker Bloch had decided to open up the formerly banned property of the Blue Feather so that visitors could take a look around the recently upgrade Table Room and its mysterious door (etc.) if they wished. Very soon after that, Baker found a male avatar appearing by his side as he positioned a representation of the 4 Beatles walking Abbey Road on the wall of the room, just at the top of its stairs. Seeing only a naked (male) human torso for the avatar’s profile picture, Baker decides to quickly delete the Beatles cutout and temporarily log out of Second Life. 10 minutes later he returned, with no avatar in sight. He quickly reinstated the ban on the property. He didn’t return the Beatles to the wall — until the second intruder showed up the next day. Because, of course, both involved *Lennon* now. And Lennon was and is a major player at The Table itself, projected to sit there under the guise of Salad Bar Jack LINK.
I must be forthcoming here to fully explain the oddness of the juxtaposition. Through Baker Bloch, I actually *did* rezz the Mykall Skall flattie in that corner of the Blue Feather but it was a spontaneous action on my part. I didn’t know the flattie would be projecting a strong image of Lennon. And I didn’t make the avatar from the day before show up just as I was positioning Lennon and the rest of the Beatles on the wall just up the stairs from him. I was merely rezzing stuff spontaneously here and there, going through my inventory. It was, as one could say, an *accidental* juxtaposition. But we know in the Blue Feather that such accidents are too frequent to be called chance. This is synchronicity again.
I’m going to perhaps shock the reader by stating that I believe Lennon himself (or an official representative thereof) wanted to make his presence known in the Blue Feather. He knows I’m working on The Table and he is to sit there. He is, broadly speaking, the gateway figure into (“Billfork”) and out of (“Uncle Meatwad”) my peak grouping of audiovisual synchronicities created during the Pierre Schaeffer era of 2004 through 2007. He knows this is important to protect and eventually disseminate. The organization goes beyond the Oz/Floyd Paradox.
I imagine Wheeler will be super pleased to find out about this turn of events when I next catch up with her.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0003, 0105, Carrcass+08, Carrcass-00, Heterocera, Rubi, VHC City
“See Hucka Doobie? There’s definitely a door there that wasn’t before. And watch when Tin S. Man stands up — go ahead and stand up please Mr., um, Man.”
“He stands directly in front of the door,” Baker Bloch continues. “And the Kubrick lampshade is exactly the size of his cylindrical thigh.”
“Where does the door lead to?” Hucka Doobie asks.
“I’ll show you. Go ahead and sit down again Tin S. Man.” The giant does as requested. “Then I just open the door, see, and walk through.”
But Hucka Doobie notices Baker Bloch disappears slightly before he walks through the open doorway. And if Baker could have bothered to turn around at that point, he would have noticed Hucka Doobie disappearing from view as well.
“Go ahead and walk through, Hucka Doobie,” Baker calls from the other side.
“I’m here,” the bee-person says. “I made it.”
“It’s precisely aligned with this outdoor table,” Baker Bloch then says.
“Are the door and the table the same size?” Hucka Doobie asks.
“Not quite. Now let’s go upstairs and look at the other things. Oh, and there’s also Tin S. Man’s axe poking through over there. And a bit of his sitting stump. Keep that in mind.”
“Where?” Hucka Doobie asks.
“Behind the door from you. Here, let me shut it.”
“Oh, right,” Hucka Doobie says, now seeing the objects. “Looks like [the axe handle] might be made from the same wood as the table.”
“Maybe. And you’ll notice the door has completely disappeared from this side when I shut it. We’ll have to walk around and back in.”
—–
“Go ahead and stand up again Tin S. Man,” Baker Bloch calls through the floor now as he reaches the corner of the room above him in the Blue Feather. In order to get to it, however, Baker had to drop down into the first floor from the second and take the teleporter up. Wheeler insists that these Lemony ways of traveling through the building remain in place. “Traditional — like Castle Jack,” she says, always with an unwavering voice. But no one seems to mind that much. You just have to go from first to third to get to second and The Table, unless you come in from Perch, which is tricky in itself. Most of the town believe and take faith in the Lemon past of Collagesity, before the coming of the Lindens. It’s one of the things that sets it apart from most artsy villages of its kind. The proximity to the Rubi Woods and its ancient growth helps in this respect.
Hucka Doobie caught up with Baker Bloch, but, once again, couldn’t see him in this corner, even though she heard him. But both saw the projecting funnel hat.
And the impossible second Tinman stump.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0003, 0104, Heterocera, Rubi
3 Floors (for both Blue Feather (within) and Castle Jack (without))?
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0003, 0103, Bogota, collages 2d, Cricket, Heterocera, Rubi
Floor 2’s Collage 06, a 2-part animation (upper left), is from the past again, like Collage 01 directly below it on Floor 1 of Castle Jack. Collage 07 beside Collage 06, another 2-fer-1 animation, is brand new. In common with Collage 02 beneath it, in turn, Collage 07 is set in the Blue Feather. A blue feather appears on each. Collage 06 and Collage 07 both depict multiple versions of Dr. Blood/Tin S. Man. More analysis soon enough.
Collage 07:
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0003, 0102, Bogota, collages 2d, Cricket, Heterocera, Rubi
A man only wishing to be known as The Librarian came to visit the Blue Feather yesterday. Baker and Wilson have decided, for now, they’re not going to worry about who’s sitting at The Table at any one time. So we’ll say it’s Baker here. The Librarian bought quite a number of books with him in his traveling van…
… with only 1 in Baker’s discard pile when I took the top picture of the sale (“Salvador Dali: Go to Mars!”). Curled Paper was especially pleased to find a signed copy of “Floydodo”.
Dr. Blood, who was giant at least for the day, brought in a huge stump to sit on — too big for The Table, you see. Permanent size change? To be determined. “Remember Oz,” is about all the suggestions he chipped in, to which Baker replied that the town library was already well stocked with Oz books, including the complete run of Baum and Thompson. “More,” he added in his bass voice, then became silent for quite some time after Baker didn’t reply.
A framed picture Dr. Blood also brought to the meeting.
When it came down to how much money The Librarian wanted for the good number of books Baker Bloch wished to purchase, he said he didn’t want any. Taken aback, Baker asked him what he meant. “What I *want* in return,” he said, pausing dramatically before completing his sentence, “is to sit here. With you guys.”
The eighth? Is this Martian Chesterton again in disguise?
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0003, 0101, Heterocera, Rubi
Sunklands 