There are people in this world you have got the love! Regardless of whether they live right next door to you or halfway across the globe in a, to you, unknown location! Not only is the person under discussion here a really good designer but also a good Samaritan!

I pounced upon this theme, which is called “aligned” and which really does live up to it’s name, on the very first day I went theme hunting after I upgraded my wordpress account. Unfortunately this theme, in it’s original format, has been designed in such a way that it holds ads. Google ad-sense things between the posts and also up top. And then also some on the sidebar. I briefly snooped around the code, realized it went far beyond my comprehension, became disappointed, gave up.

Then, the other day, when I was searching for themes that support category hierarchies, I looked at “aligned” again and decided to contact the designer. And, just now I received a zipped package in my email, telling me to try this one instead; ran off and installed it  – and not an ad in sight! Changed the rotating images up top, tweaked the sidebar widgets a bit… And voila! Here it is!

Thank you so much WP Pro!
:-)

So, I will be rotating between this one and the dark piano one and everything will be quite perfect. Except for that misaligned search box on the other one! grrr… Need to get one of my engineering students to fiddle that code a bit when the semester starts back up!

Note: Well, yes. Not sure whether having my SL/RL visage in colorized rotation up on the header is quite the thing to do. Very me me me that… However, the RL/SL juxtaposition really fits the agenda here, you know? Especially since I do intend to put RL “Good Things” in here as well? Hummm… I guess, they will have to stay put until I figure out what else to put there which is both RL and SL.

I have to admit that I have let my SL shopping lapse somewhat since things have gotten so busy with alpha.tribe. A state of affairs which needs to be remedied ASAP! What I was doing before, and should really continue to do so, was creating a collection of noteworthy SL design artifacts. Which is of course an endless undertaking, given how much of it there is out there…

grim bros is no secret: Most female avatars who have been around the block once or twice (and quite a few men too, I would guess), have probably ended up there and have been as gobsmacked as myself at the amount of imagination, humor and diversity that Cutea manifests, in fact is literally bubbling over with. And no, I am not being impertinent or brazen by calling Miss Benelli by her first name only. She is in fact an SL friend, although admittedly we hardly ever exchange two words from one month to the next – both of us way too busy rezzing for much time to be left over for social chitter chatter. That is certainly what it is like on the alpha.tribe end and given the volume of output at grim bros (phenomenal would be an apt word? Staggering? Unbelievable?) I would assume that Cutea is even busier than we are.

Added should be that these are by no means all the grim bros shoes that I have. There are more. And not to mention a diverse range of attachments from backpacks to goggles to spines. And outfits too, of course. A good story would be the time when I took my students on a “field trip” to grim bros. And forgot all about them and the class that I was supposed to be teaching and started running around like a maniac inside the store buying up everything in sight (the class was in RL, I should add – I was on the class beam for everyone to see what I was getting up to. My students were quite bewildered by my bare-faced greediness and ensuing speed of acquisition – hhh).

Oh and! You will have noticed that these are all high heeled. Well, truth is that in RL I cannot take two steps on high heels without falling over flat on my face. So, I guess this would be called making up for physical shortcomings (in this case very fragile ankles) through virtual means. Funny thing is this though: Although I have so many virtual heels I never ever wear them in the course of a regular day but stick to precisely what I do wear in RL also – construction worker boots! And there I have yet another pair of grim bros faves which are practically welded to my feet at this point. I never ever take these off, except when I am in alpha.tribe edit mode that is: My grim bros noir boots, which Cutea was actually kind enough to resize for me since they were men’s boots to begin with.

So, really good things right?

And, in the unlikely event that you don’t know where grim bros is, here is the slurl:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Clematis%20Island/121/53/22

(That is actually written with that specific purpose in mind, that is)…

Would be the layout of this page itself! I was moaning just now about how my favorite wordpress theme mnml does not support category hierarchies. So, I went looking for some more themes and stumbled upon this one that I am using right here, right now. It is called Piano Black, designed by mono-lab, who are actually the people who also designed the one called monochrome which I had on this blog for a very long time, and which is now also available as a regular wordpress.com theme.

I did noodle around a bit with this. Changed the background to a damask texture for one thing. Love it when minimalism meets rococo somehow. It is a bit like Freud’s description of the joke as the priest who weds the most unlikeliest of couples, particularly those whose relatives do not condone the union. I know that I did not quote this correctly, but I am sure that you are getting the general idea anyway.  So yes, I really do like these strange unions in graphic design. In life too, for that matter.

And for those who are in search of nice seamless fabric textures, here would be where to look for them: http://www.theinspirationgallery.com/. I have gotten a lot of mileage out of this place, I must say. Although, I hardly ever use them in their actual colors. Like this one in the background for instance. Was this rather insipid blue to begin with. Took care of that before the poor thing had time to hit the surface of the desktop!

So, about the piano theme? If I have to be totally honest I would have twiddled around a bit more with some of the design components, had I been it’s designer. Like that search box. That could certainly use some alignment. The category tabs up top. Not sure if I would place them there or to the left – or even maybe the middle. And then the blog title. I actually changed that. That was bigger and brighter. And if I knew my way around CSS some more I would certainly have a go at said search box and those category tabs. But, one cannot have everything and I am perfectly content to have it the way it is! In fact it is totally gorgeous – unaligned search box and all!… ;-)

*sniffle/sneeze*…

I have the flu. And it has been malingering for the past month or so, sometimes better sometimes worse. These past few days definitely worse.

So anyway, I am lying in bed, thinking of this that and the other. And… The last two posts have given me an idea. Why don’t I write about things which I like? Which others have made? Not an NPIRL-alike obviously. Nothing that thematic and well organized. Something much more random and haphazard. Also RL stuff, not just SL. Anything and everything that catches my fancy, that I buy or see or hear or read?

Of course, the one minor fly in the ointment is that what you like is in the end all about “you” also. Particularly with things that you appropriate. And quite a bit of this would inevitably be about stuff which I have somehow appropriated, as in bought, for instance. So, in this very convoluted way, it may still all be about me me me. But hey, the convoluted part of the equation may make all the difference here! Right? Anyway, I am going to start giving this a go… Soon…

*sniffle/sneeze*… oh dear…

…

2 hours later, continued:

Now I am beginning to get excited about this. So, fever shmever, couldn’t stay in bed, came crawling back out and created a whole bunch of sub-categories and a main category I am calling Good Things. And, funnily enough, there already seems to be some stuff here on this blog that can be classified like this. Great!

Only problem, I need to use a theme which shows category hierarchies, which my ultra-fave wordpress theme mnml does not! grrrr…

I will probably be adding categories as they occur to me. Also taking some out or changing names. Like I do not like “art” and “design” at all. Very pretentious sounding they are! Have to think of something else for those for sure.

…

hhh… fixed! Art has become  Places, which will also cover installations and architecture very nicely. If and when I write about art that hangs on a wall, I will cross that bridge when I get to it. Doesn’t seem very likely somehow… Design is more problematic, since I will probably be talking about design related things 99% of the time. So, probably this has to end up becoming a lot of different ones. Like clothes, vehicles, hair, bla bla…

Teeeee heeeee… Having a blast here!

…

And the best one of them all? People of course! What else?

…

Well well well… Two post in a day! Whatever next?

I made myself this promise that I would not write about me, myself and I. So, the previous post is certainly good testimony to that. And this one is almost devoid of me me me as well. Alas, not quite, I’m afraid: I ended up doing this at Syncretia, which does, of course have everything to do with me, although I am hardly ever there anymore. Why? aaaah… Now that would be about me me me again, and I am so not going there!

Anyway, Naxos Loon gave me a landmark yesterday. I have yet to receive something from him which has not turned out to be some spectacular find or other (and particularly of the hilariously funny kind), so this evening I made my way over there. I am not a good SL traveler, in fact I am no traveler at all. But, when Naxos tells me to go someplace, I usually go. And am I glad I did so in this case!

Isn’t this great? It can be obtained here and has been created by pallina60 Loon, whose profile left me none the wiser since it is mostly, if not entirely, in Italian.

I love this! And Syncretia is in dire need of a lick of paint. Long overdue, in fact! The trail stays rezzed for a really long time by the way, so I was in no kind of rush to take these photos. Took my sweet time with camera angles and sky presets, in fact. That’s how long it was around for! The sky preset I used to take these is one of the ones by Mescaline Tammas. And needless to say, the ones I took without the custom preset are not nearly as nice.

…

Note: I will be writing a whole big post on Naxos sometime soon, have been meaning to do it for ages, almost a year now. And that one will be an academic post by the way. That is probably what is taking me so long to get going with it…
:-)

I am putting this here for the benefit of my graduate students, and particularly Onur. Although they do follow my blog, I do not think they venture forth as far as my Flickr, where I have already posted this a minute ago. I will not be seeing them until the third week of February and they may want to visit this before then. It is not going to be around for ever and may in fact already be gone by the time we all re-adjourn.

This was created by Selavy Oh in Second Life. What actually “makes” the work is the virtual earth itself, which reconfigures itself into an ever widening circle which wipes over an underlying earth spiral. And no, I will not be blubbering on about durée here (I think that that is what this work is all about), but simply link back to the wiki page, which explains it all like I never could anyway.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alpha_auer/4296503412/

A bit of a discussion seems to be brewing on my Flickr (although I seem to be the one blabbing around the most – as per usual :-\). But I thought it might still be interesting to post it here as well. Scroll down to the comments please…
;-)

… and Tautologies!

I have been giving some thought to these of late. I found a gem of a one the other day, but I am saving that one for later. And if I continue to find some more, who knows, I may even start a weekly rubric called “Artistic Oxymorons and Tautologies by Alpha Auer” right here on this semi-dead blog. Neat, huh? Pump some action into this place!

Coming home from work just now, stuck as I was in heavy traffic on the bridge, another really good one occurred to me. Which seems quite an appropriate location for inspiring thoughts to spontaneously burst forth by the way. Given how you are stuck between two continents, there would have to be some added planetary (not to mention cosmic, of course) energy, right? hhh… So, really no wonder at all that several million Istanbulites hit peak levels of misanthropy on this very spot on a twice daily basis…

But hey! What the bridge evoked in me tonight is not just another good one! Oh no! This one is the cherry on the icing of all artistic tautologies of all times: Conceptual Art!

As opposed to?… ? What?

Un-conceptual Art? Now what could that possibly be? The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel maybe? Wonder what Michelangelo would have to say about his pride and joy being called un-conceptual? Rembrandt’s Anatomy Lesson? I am sure he would not have been best pleased either! The cave paintings of Lascaux? Let me tell you, those shamans would have had fits! Elgin’s Marbles – Phidias, dissolved in tears over the insult? Monet? Cezanne? Who? What? What in the entire history of art that is even worthy of the slightest mention therein is un-conceptual? Could ever be so?

So, if anyone out there can enlighten me on this subject, I would be truly indebted to them. Mind you, I am up to scratch on all of my Kosuth reading and so forth – so, I am most definitely not looking for any elucidation on what conceptual art is. What I would very much like to know is the other one…

So, please people – tell me: What exactly is un-conceptual art?

I am updating my other blogs, especially the one for alpha.tribe, which I haven’t touched in ages. I am writing down the stuff/ideas/problems that went into the design of the outfits, going in reverse chronological order and got as far as de.stijl today. Which turned out to be a good one. (Or, at least so I hope). So, here it is.
:-)

If you talk about a musician who is special to you, are you (in the end) (again!) talking about yourself? Well, yes. I suppose you are. But, no matter – I do want to talk about Bob Dorough, for whose music I placed a big order at Amazon last week. Apparently they manufacture one of the items I wanted only on demand, so I am still waiting for the whole shipment to arrive; but this is my Syncretismas gift to myself this year. You can listen to the samples if you are not familiar with the man’s music here.

I had not thought of Bob Dorough or listened to him in a very long time. I used to have his stuff on audio cassettes. Then when that technology became extinct I tossed out the whole kit and caboodle which I had accumulated during one of my major clean out sessions some years back and Bob Dorough’s music went out with the rest. And then lately I started hearing his songs in my head. Why I hadn’t done so in so long I have no idea. Anyway, the real music should be arriving in a few weeks and I cannot wait!

For someone who adores The Who, Bob Dorough may appear to be a somewhat bizarre choice but nevertheless I love his music – and I love Bob Dorough. He does “vocalese”, which means he adds lyrics to jazz standards that are essentially conceived of as instrumental music. And then he also sings quite a few regular jazz standards that others have in their repertoire as well. Like Polkadots and moonbeams, after which I named a whole alpha.tribe outfit. I do not really care for any of the other versions of this song sung by other vocalists, but his I love!

And much the same also goes for Devil may care and even Midnight sun (although admittedly Sarah Vaughn does a pretty mean Midnight sun as well).

He sings almost like as if he is talking, even maybe whispering. And yet there is still the melody. But he sort of teeters on the edge of melody, doesn’t seem to make a big deal out of it almost and yet it pours out perfectly of course. Off the cuff he is. Naughty. Mischievous. The voice of the refusal to grow up. Sticking to your guns of childhood as you plod through your boring old grown up life. And it carries both the joy and the sadness embedded into that state of being, which would inevitably bring with it humor and idiosyncrasies. And somehow Bob Dorough sings all of this, brings his psyche through in his vocals: Very tongue-in-cheek, very mercurial, very tough to pin down. Almost impossible to categorize, almost impossible to put a label onto.

Like I said – I love Bob Dorough. I love the music itself  of course, it is awesome. But I do more than just love the music in Bob Dorough’s case. I hear the one who sings it and love what the voice tells me of its owner

I just rooted around online a bit and Bob Dorough is alive and well at the age of 87. He has a page on my-space and I am almost tempted to sign up and become his friend there. Bloody shyness stopping me of course. In any case, although it is extremely unlikely that he will ever hear me doing so, I wish him all the very best of health and longevity and good spirits in the upcoming decade!

And!!! Major discovery: I have been desperately trying to find one of his albums which he recorded together with Bill Takas called Beginning to see the light in 1976, particularly for the track called Better than anything, the lyrics of which can make me chuckle on even the lousiest of days – but really the whole thing from one end to the other. I was willing to pay whatever anyone was asking for it but it seems to be extinct. And then voila! Here it is! What a find! What a blog! What generosity! YAYYY! Thank you Cat and LauraDoe!