Random Museums in SL

Sometimes its fun to pick a word, type it into the SL search, and see what comes up. So I decided to try typing in “Museum”. The usual assortment of art galleries came up, but the cool thing about SL is that you don’t have to build a museum according to typical real world rules. Lots of walls with lots of pretty pictures, is not that interesting in a virtual world.

I was on the lookout for something different. The above picture is a good example. You may recognize it as Nighthawks, what you may not recognize is that its a 3D representation of the famous Edward Hopper painting without the people, and I’m sitting in one of the occupied chairs from the painting. The 3D model is located in a lot called Primtings, which hopes to make more 3D models of famous paintings but only has the one for now.

I previously did a There version of Nighthawks you can see on my There Magic page.

 

One of the first museums that came up on a word search of “museum” was the Museum of Robots, which sounds just strange enough for what I was looking for. This is a more traditional museum, with lots of 2D and three or 4 3D models of famous robots from TVs and movies. There is also an art gallery in the back featuring a set of paintings called “Robots and Donuts” that I thought was quite an original subject to paint about.

Back to the more interactive museums is the Museum of Prog Rock. Being a longtime fan of progressive rock, I had to check this out. It contains a lot of 3D representations of famous album covers from Genesis to Pink Floyd. Many you can pose for, including costumes you can purchase. Above is the famous cover of Rush Moving Pictures.

Below I decided to pose for a couple of other Rush poses. Left is the Rush logo, on the right is the cover of Hemispheres. The originals have naked men on them, thought I’d try the feminine touch.

Duran Duran and Suzanne Vega perform live in Second Life

In November of 2003, I went to the first live virtual rock concert in There. The band was Steadman, a British band not well known in the states. Server lag ruined the visuals, but we at least could hear the band, and they sounded pretty good. It was a nice “I was there” kind of experience.

Since then, it has been Second Life, not There, which has produced the most live concerts. Many small time but good performers often perform live at their own venues. The way SL handles audio on a lot basis is often superior to There’s jukebox method.

A couple of weeks ago it was announced that a NPR radio show was to be broadcast live in Second Life and that the show would include a live performance of 80′s singer songwriter Suzanne Vega as part of that show. Get more info here.

But now the BBC1 is reporting that 80′s megagroup Duran Duran will be playing in the BBC’s four islands in Second Life, and will be doing regular shows there! How cool is that?

I guess they discovered how popular the Club977 ’80s channel is in Second Life as a lot of ’80s bands (ok two so far) are dropping in.

I suspect their island will look like “Rio” and everyone who goes there will dress like “Wild Boys” or “Girls on Film” or “Hungry Like the Wolf” furbees. Need a TP? call “The Chauffeur”.

When’s there first concert? I wanna know, “Please Please Tell Me Now”!