Sunklands

Carr.:

Baker Blinker has travelled far since February, don’t you think. She got that alien purse from the distant planet Birmingham, also known as Muff. Rule 110 is involved, which is also Q109. I was in the middle, which was unfortunately in the way.

Karoz (tiring of the 12 Oz Mouse references?):

I’ll need lots of spiritual advise, Carrcassonnee. If you are the true center again.

Carr.:

I am. I always have been. Always will be. And *carrcasses* are not dead. 13th is in store. That’s me again.

Karoz:

Obviously I don’t wish to take *over* the town from Baker Bloch or The Bakers.

Carr.:

No. You must work as an illusionary triangle. Checks and balances. No one specific ruler, yes. Except me.

Karoz:

I just know that TILE revolves around the 3d Big E.

Carr.:

That is correct. (pause) Me.

Karoz:

Baker…

Carr.:

Blinks has come full circle. Since February and the middle of the Collagesity Winter document, a series of stepping stones have formed, leading her away from her former self. Yet her former self still exists for all else in the town. To them the circle, this circle of stepping stones leading all the way to Birmingham (and beyond), never occurred. And it must remain this way. The Circle must remain Invisible. Known only to you, obviously. And me. And the other Baker. But we will not call Baker Bloch Other Baker. Because it’s a triangle now. Baker Blinker doesn’t have to go back into mothballs now. She is saved. She will be around until the end of Second Lyfe and Collagesity along with it. This is more of its art and magic. In February, you could not have guessed.

Karoz:

No. She is moving far beyond me in that way. So much so we are in danger of losing any connection. Thus I laid down the law. TILE must be the ruler.

Carr.:

Me. But we all work together. Obvously good you recognized this. And the magic of the Invisible Circle, as we’ll call it. Baker Blinker appears to not have changed. But she is an octave higher now, although to others — the 2d people especially — she appears the same *note*.

Karoz:

It’s scary. It’s as if she is entering Real Life.

Carr.:

No. That is not possible.

Karoz:

Sure seems like it. She is emerging reborn from the water.

Carr.:

No. That’s Illusion Roostre in action.

Karoz:

But it *is* happening.

Carr.:

No. No?

—–

Carr.:

The thing is, Baker Blinker knows it’s not her fault. And with that knowledge she can complete the illusionary circle and make the octave the unison. She can unite the two parts — be comfortable in both skins at once. Trying to think of a comparison…

Karoz:

Like the two Dariens of “Bewitched”, played by different actors but the same person. It’s like the two Beckys…

Carr.:

Something like that, yeah. And of course she’s changed since her Azure Island days. She’s already been through one octave in a way. Now another.

—–

Carr.:

And you *too* have been saved, Karoz. TILE saves. You *will* change. Subtly. Even Baker Bloch if he wishes. But I don’t think he wishes.

Karoz:

No Need.

Carr.:

None atall.

—–

“We have some work ahead of us, Hucka Doobie.”

Carr.:

Baker Blinker thinks she is not good enough to break the spell.

BBloch:

My user tells her that’s not so. It’s the animator’s fault for that particular product. We will go back to the drawing board. And admittedly retool.

Carr.:

Retool, yes. Good that Karoz has imposed religious vigor on his community.

BBloch:

I guess so. We had to do something.

Carr.:

You know now you weren’t quite abiding by the laws of TILE, Baker Bloch. I’m speaking to baker b. through you. TILE possesses the true energy. To move past Illusion Roostre, we must turn to it. Karoz is correct. It’s not Baker Blinker’s fault. She has defeated Me in a different sense. She *had* to come along at this time period. Now it’s your responsibility to abide by TILE. *I* am the center of TILE, yes.

BBloch:

Big E, yes. Big Blue E.

Carr.:

Little e (in I) turns to big E. That’s what it is built around.

BBloch:

Yes.

Carr.:

You have done good [so far]. You have created an Illusion Triangle. Give and take, but no real center at this time.

BBloch:

That would be TILE.

Carr.:

Special.

(joined in progress)

BBlinker:

I’ve failed. I’m not good enough. Illusion Roostre, I suppose.

Carr.:

No, it’s not your fault, Baker Blinker. But we must admit partial defeat at this time. You cannot revive. By yourself. But that’s good. Good that Karoz imposed his religious authority on the town. Everyone must now abide by the TILE religion/philosophy/game. Everyone must keep the Big E in mind. The big blue E.

BBlinker:

But that’s you.

Carr.:

No baker, you can come see me any time. That’s why I was elected. I’m available. My hours are 8-11 and 2-3 on Monday, 8-10 and 2-2:30 on Tuesday, 8-9 and 2-2:15 on Wednesday, and then on Thursday and Friday I’m available through telegraph. Then the weekends I’m off, of course. What times are it now?

bb:

It’s Tuesday, er, Wednesday at 4:06 in the morning.

Carr.:

I guess I’m always here, then. When do I get to move around again? I enjoyed being in the forest, except for the frozen-in-place part. But then I had a lovely camping trip with the boys. What were their names (taps hand on chin?). Spunky and Weatherspoon?

bb:

It was Dr. Blood and Homer Simpson.

Carr.:

Oh yes, of course. My two dear friends. Sucked up into oblivion. Have you fixed that hole yet?

bb:

I think so. Where are we?

Carr.:

White all around. That White Palace you speak of so much. (calling:) Hucka D.?

bb:

I don’t think he wants to be a part of this much any longer. *You’re* the town deity, he told me just last night. It’s her job to advise, he said.

Carr.:

Advise I can with the best of them. But don’t you have to split in two for me to talk to you? This is new.

bb:

Do you want me to become one or the other?

Carr.:

Bloch, please.

Carr.:

Let’s walk around town instead of just sitting here. No need to take me apart. Just wear me and we’ll walk around together.

BBloch:

Okay. Whatever.

—–

BBloch:

Where are we heading? I’m just walking in a random direction.

Carr.:

Let’s go to the woods. It’s good to get out. Thank you.

BBloch:

You’re like a balloon. (both laugh)

Carr.:

Hi Jim. Just talking a little walk.

Jim:

You may pass.

BBloch (after they’re out of earshot of Jim):

You know, I didn’t know he could talk.

Carr.:

Guardian of the Woods he is. Speaker for the dead. Slayer of Tin Dragon Babies. Marcher for the poor and ugly. Instigator for… here we are.

BBloch:

Meditation Knoll?

Carr.:

The K is silent. But: yes.

BBloch:

Here Carrcassonnee, let me reajust you so we’re looking at each other again.

—–

BBloch:

That took more work than I expected. Are you still on the clock?

Carr. (breathing in?):

Ah, the woods. I can see! No, we will come here often from now on. Save the attachement. Sit on the knoll. It should be okay. No need to spin me around much again. Dizzy.

BBloch:

Sorry about that.

Carr.:

So… what’s on your mind tonight?

BBloch:

I came here at your request.

Carr.:

No. No?

BBloch:

I guess just Collagesity in general. The parallel or interface between me and Blinks. Karoz. Hucka Doobie, even. The original family members. It’s been a long time together. What next?

Carr.:

What now is a more interesting subject. Have you seen the purse?

BBloch:

Um no. I don’t want to see it.

Carr.:

Purchased on a distant planet. Alien technology. A bargain for the price. Everything is becoming more real. But am *I* still real? I’m the only other girl here, presently.

BBloch:

I have had theories about you. You are from the future. You are [delete name].

Carr. (pondering):

Yes. Yes I am. I am many things but I am also that. Well… what am I suppose to say about what’s going on in Collagesity these days?

BBloch:

Speaking as [delete name]?

Carr.:

Yes.

BBloch:

I would tell you that Blinks is nothing like you. She’s designed for Second Lyfe and works inside of Second Lyfe but not outside. She’s Karoz’s spouse now, I suppose. I have nothing to do with her except be her brother and her friend.

Carr.:

It’s interesting that you cannot speak like you’re also her now. Here. In these woods. In Collagesity. You are split.

BBloch:

Yes.

Carr.:

But you’re her. (changing subjects) Oh, where’s *Unch*? Isn’t it nighttime?

BBloch:

Not here. Not in Second Life. Just in my real life. As I type these words. I have a black square of a window to my left. A primarily black cat to my back.

Carr.:

Cool. I wish I had that. But I am happy with my role here, my *job*. I am well compensated. Let’s say The Tables were turned. I was you and you was me. Can you do that?

BBloch:

Sure. (thinking) Well, I’d just say, keep it within that realm and don’t let it come into Real Life.

Carr.:

Which is impossible.

BBloch:

Which is impossible.

Carr.:

There will be a midnight hour for the Adam and Eve then turned Romeo and Juliet. Poison will be applied, like mice tails. Like relish. The woods remain squeaky clean.

It will be 5 to 6 years, however. Then you will have another decision to make. This is the 5-6 years decision dealie. Blinks is keeping you safe in your realm. This is what she was designed for all along. Fate. You just couldn’t see it because it was too weird. Weird!

BBloch:

Yes. It is definitely that.

Carr.:

So: Queen. But you have to have a King for all to revolve around as well, like chess. A Queen with all moves in unlimited space and a King with all moves in 1 space.

BBloch:

Karoz.

Carr.:

No need for him to change. He is the center, however.

BBloch:

Is he [delete name]?

Carr.:

You’re worried about the curse. The Purse Curse, as it is called[ sometimes].

BBloch:

A bit. A tiny bit. Not really.

Carr.:

Karoz is many people, just like me. He can have multiple users.

BBloch:

I’m not sure he totally likes me any longer.

Carr.:

You and he have different ideas about what Blinks should be doing. Somewhat different. A bit, again.

BBloch:

She needs a role.

Carr.:

She needs a role.

The fire goes out, leaving only a lemony green leaf.

—-

“Halt!” Jim said as I tried to reenter town from the woods after detaching Carrcassonnee.

Carr.:

One on one tonight, eh? Well, just glad you selected me to be town deity. Very glad to be of service to you. What can I do for you tonight?

BB:

I’m afraid The Woods may be closing up when the heat arrives this week, Carrcassonnee. Bigfoot I’m mainly talking about here, because that’s about the only place I go these days. Whitehead Crossing seems to drain me.

Carr.:

Oops. I just realized I’m missing a lunch engagement. Kerch again… doesn’t like to be kept waiting… makes him grumpy, especially if Alice isn’t by his side. You understand. Ta-ta!

BB:

Hmm.

(Baker Bloch’s surroundings fade out. He’s back in the white nothingness. Hucka D. appears.)

Hucka D.:

Howdy baker!

bb:

Howdy Hucka D.! You still advising me as well?

Hucka D.:

Kind of. Best to have a physical setting for the pep talks, however. Carrcassonnee’s up for reelection this year. Might be up for a run at the seat myself.

bb:

Town deity.

—–

So Hucka D. begged off as well. It’s just me… and me. Well, I’m just trying to figure out what to do with the Table House and Collagesity as a whole. A couple of months back now, I decided that this would be my permanent Second Lyfe home, and I was finished moving around. Mainland’s just not worth exploring any more. Maybe what I call VHC City (on The Diagonal) has some more stories to yield. I suppose Nautilus City has more tales, actually. I was going to move a small part of Collagesity there last fall in an attempt to downsize (see also: Mystenopolis from last summer). Baker Bloch is an explorer at heart, after all, his forte.

But now the summer heat has arrived I must shift back, in real life, to exploring the Blue Mountain Urban Landscape, like I did this same time last year. And, sure, I can keep returning to Bigfoot (just outside this landscape). I have a couple more pictures to share from recent visits. A toy happening didn’t, er, happen this spring however, although I moved some new junk from the Plateau of Raw Art into a developing area of Bigfoot which, for now, I’m calling Chester I think, a hidden center. I could make a map of the area, true.

The main path I take to get to Bigfoot can only be used after the leaves come out on the trees in Blue Mountain, which means mid to late April, usually. Summer is arriving earlier that when I was younger — global warming in action, I suppose.

When the leaves come out I can also explore more around the Bigfeet Swamp, since I am more protected from prying eyes of others living just opposite Leola Creek. But at the same time poison ivy and underbrush limit me in other directions. So for Bigfoot, the arrival of spring and summer is a give and take in terms of poking around. There are probably narrower bands of time in mid to late spring (say, mid April to late May) and then in mid to late fall (like mid September to late October) where I could comfortably create happenings there.

So developments *did* happen in Bigfoot this year. Must remember that. Not sure how much junk remains to be cultivated at the Plateau of Raw Art. I could move more junk in myself from outside.

But back to Collagesity — I’ve set up the Table House last week, I believe, but haven’t done anything with it. I don’t have the “Art 10×10” collages set up anywhere in Collagesity presently. The Toxic Art Gallery use to sit on the same spot as the Table House, but I deleted it to free up prims when I was writing (and staging) “Collagesity Winter 2015/2016”.

And while I’m on the subject, for anyone trying to tackle reading that “book”, I’d suggest starting 1/4th the way in to see if the subject grabs you, or at the section called “Ancients”. That’s where the myth making really picks up. It’s not a standard, linear plot. Not really. What I might do soon is just take notes on it and prepare a type of lengthy interpretation, like I did for the most recent collage series coming just before it (Boos). Perhaps Hucka D. can help me with that.

Another project I really need to talk about is The Table, intimately tied to The Table House but without a developed story yet. The Table itself is very real, however. As I’ve done with maps this spring (moved info from old master atlas to Google Earth to create a new master database) I may now attempt the same with The Table and attached carcasses. All carrcasses before 2008 have been protected. But that still leaves a lot created beyond that in a danger zone. The theory goes that if I had a good enough Table or “tile database” standing behind each individual work, that I could re-create it without too much trouble.

There are two tables which are one table, or the smaller and earlier “Lesser Table”, and then the complete whole I call the “Greater Table” in this scheme. Lesser Table covers the years from “Dark Side of the Rainbow” and “The Rainbow Sphere” (collectively called “The Rainbow Complex”) up until “SID’s 1st Oz” and a little beyond. The works within, slanted toward the Pink Floyd related ones (like “Dark Side” and “SID”), are unfurled in The Oz/Floyd Paradox Document from 2003, written after the creation of “SID” in late 2002. The Lesser Table contains a 100 or so audiovisual tiles, if I remember correctly, about a quarter of which can be found in “SID’s 1st Oz”. The Greater Table contains way over a 1000 at present count. This is a large undertaking.

Where to start? A number of synchronicities, especially the larger ones, have never been completed. The *tiles* are there, but have never been totally fitted together in a single work. The problem with the larger works, like “4orrin1” from 2005 (my first foray into a full platinum tiling synch — get to the levels in a moment?) is that they’re just too sprawling to gain intellectual and emotional control over. As I at least hint at in my interview by Karl Tune last summer, it was as if “4orrin1” came too early, too close on the heels of SID’s 1st Oz. There’s a natural progression from “SID’s 1st Oz” (26 tiles) to “Billfork” (32 tiles) to “Head Trip” (47 tiles) to “4orrin1” (*180* or so tiles), but the step was just too large for the jump between the latter two. In the next run of synchronicity from 2006 and 2007, my peak years of creating such things, I made a similar progression up to another large work that probably even eclipses “4orrin1” in scope. I call this work “1 Pink”, and it may also be my best overall work in this field, along with another called “Peewee Big” coming just before it. All works after that have been composed on a lesser scale, containing tiles that number between Billfork’s (32) and Head Trip’s (47). But at the same time, the works starting in 2010 are more linked to each other in succession.

I think the creation of new collages has stolen some of the energy from new audiovisual synchronicities, which are, after all, collages themselves of disparate audio and video sources. To continue in a/v synching, it seems I must make another jump into the realm of digital production. The philosophy behind tiling must be refined.

Also, “The Shining” represents a kind of omega point to the beginning seed of Oz and The Rainbow Complex. I’m not sure I’ll find another movie quite like that one — unique. Like “The Wizard of Oz” in a very different way before it. And it’s really cool that we have “The Shining Forwards and Backwards” experiment that *isn’t* my creation but piggybacks upon the same kind of excitement and energy. “The Shining” changed things. This is “Carrcass-10”, which has, er, replaced it??? 10 is perfection. Spongeberg understands now.