Who is the man behind the Avatar? It's a mystery indeed. In fact the only way to catch Jax Live is in Second Life a virtual 3D online world of social and business networking or on his audio stream. Jax is currently on tour in SL:his "DosVidasTour" is stopping in all the best venues, gathering more and more fans.On June 26th he will do a stop at Milano Vera, using a stage built on 4 sims, able to host more than 100 avatars. Jax kindly answered to some questions about his all virtual SL career. First of all I asked him why did he choose to appear only in second life. "When i discovered the opportunity to perform live via second life, i saw a great opportunity to create a new art form and to use the power of the internet to then create a "Brand Name" around this new art form. The Jax Streeter Project was started with the idea of bringing to life a "Virtual Aritst and Celebrity" The project continues to develop quickly as Jax Streeter comes to life and has an identity of his own. Jax Streeter is the Star. Jax Streeter is real and marketable. A blend of reality and fantasy that is marketable across the worlds and across many countries and cultures. Jax has no idealogies or differences that seperate him from others but rather has qualities that bind us all ... "The Love Of Music" "Jax Streeter" is not only an artistic project, actually there's a defined marketing idea behind it which is worth to be explained and, maybe, studied as a case history: so i asked Jax to explain how does it work. "There is a great opportunity to work together in second life to cross promote one anothers interests. The Dos Vidas tour provides a way for artists, businesses and organizations to use entertainment as a way to reach out to the market places in an exciting way. What is more exciting than the sights and sounds of a live concert. Prior to each tour stop, all participating partners (sponsors) send notices to their own membership groups. The notices contain the schedule of acts and information about each tour stop along with a list of all the participating partners. This provides exposure to everyone partner and artist involved. We estimate that currently when notices are sent to each parnter's group members, it represents over 10,000 SL Residents. There are currently 21 partners." Jax thinks that second life gives a great opportunity to all the musicians residents to share experiences and enrich each other musical background.During his tour stops he has been followed on stage by the best SL musicians so i asked him his opinion about this sort of worldwidelive jamming in SL. "I think it is important to showcase the best talent in SL in the best possible way in order to continue to grow the entertainment industry in SL. It is still very new and there are many residents to reach that do no even know about live entertainment. So it is important to put our best foot forward with professional artists." For the Dos Vidas Tour italian stop you have selected a very cool venue, Milano Vera and an italian musician and his band – Swina Allen & the Moodies, so I asked why he selected this new SL band ? "Swina Allen is one of my personal favorite artists..I am a fan of music as well. Swina is talented and shares a similar philosophy about presenting concert like performances in Second Life. He and Sandy Demina of Italian Mood are pioneers in their approach to SL entertainment and I am happy to work together with them. I am always looking for others that share the same philosophy and goals about using SL for their music careers regardless of whether they are new to SL or not. Thanks Jax for your kindness:we all look forward your next italian Tour Stop at Milano Vera on june 26th at 12pm! http://slurl.com/secondlife/Italia%204%20Milano/31/2/652
Submitted by Simona Dawes

Second Life surfers Christine Daffodil and Craig Stallion have announced a cancer benefit surfing competition to be held in Second Life, called the Flynn Sheridan Invitational Surf Contest to benefit the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. The contest, named after Flynn Sheridan, founder and former director of the Second Life Surfing Association (SLSA), will take place at the Surfline Epic Rezzable sim on Saturday 21 June 2008 starting at 10am SLT.

Full details on how you can help to fight cancer by participating in the event as a competitor or a spectator are available on the Second Life surfing blog SurfWatch.

Pic above: Flynn Sheridan
Submitted by Barchan Paderborn

Star Thiemem, here. This is Themiskyra, an Egyptian themed Sim in Second Life. This is Second Life at it's grandest when it comes to applying imagination that you can virtually experience.
Visit Themiskyra (35, 239, 36)
Posted by Star Thiemem

In Second Life there are many opportunities for Role Playing. Old West, Victorian Era, Domination/Submission and others. One of them is based on Vampires. The players in the game say their interest is similar to other super natural entertainment. Dracon Dyszel, 'Clan Voice' says, "Tell me do we all not have an affinity for the mythical?" Information from Bloodlines indicates there are five objectives in the game. Become a Vampire, by being drained and then replenishing your blood to full capacity. Increase your Status by collecting souls, that is, being the first to bite new vampires. Accumulate blood wealth, purchasing from Bloodlines or collecting from victims with a spike. Win honors by attaining great numbers of fresh bites in a 24 hour period. Stay alive by regularly drinking blood from any source. Daily needs are a quarter of a liter of blood with a maximum capacity of 5 liters. Math tells us a vampire can go 20 days before being cursed. Players get credit for a soul by being the first to bite the victim and that victim purchasing a HUD from Bloodlines for $L599. "It can be used as erotic RP for some - others as a sense of a family. We don't encourage or discourage [the erotic aspect]." reported Dracon. If you are intrigued by the mystical melding of science fiction and vampire lore, check out Bloodlines on Liquid Designs (121, 126, 238 )

Posted by jimsella

Is an outlandish mockery of the American Cancer Society happening right now?

A truly bizarre thing has happened; it appears people have flipped their noggins and have forgotten this serious battle against Cancer.

Instead of using their time to have a community bake sale or do a car wash, so to contribute to this years American Cancer Societies Relay for life, it looks as if they have decided to waste their time to "only do virtual RFL activities" in the virtual, on-line world of Second Life instead.

Not only are people from across the US playing in this absurd game, but it shockingly seems people from across the globe have decided to join these Second Life absurdities as well. Spanning from Japan, the UK, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands and more all the way over to the United States, thousands of people are logging in each and every day to take part in this global charade.
What they have done is set up Virtual RFL teams, they then proceed to make virtual items and hold virtual events all to raise a virtual currency for the RFL.

How can people from across the globe make such a mockery of our American Cancer Society? What a waste of valuable time playing virtual games instead of getting out there in the real world and utilizing their time for truly productive activities instead?

Or perhaps it is not a waste of time? After all, would the American Cancer Society waste their time to endorse all these virtual activities, if it was?

Perhaps all this absurd nonsense would make sense if one knew that the virtual currency of Second Life is actually equivalent to the value of a small countries currency. That in fact all $L's, as in Linden Dollars, can be traded thru a number of currency type exchanges for USD, or on that matter to the currency of the country you happen to live in. Perhaps it makes sense after all, since last year this world-wide community of Second Life people managed to raise over 110,000 USD for the American Cancer Society.

Before introducing a wonderful RFL event being hosted in Second Life, and my main reason for writing this piece, I would first like to build a bridge to close the gap between our Second Life and the main stream public.

It seems what seems at first only a game should now be given more consideration.
Conceivably too many people, who have heard of Second Life and thus quickly disregarded it, are making the error of reducing its activities to be the same sort of frivolous nonsense as, hours each week going thru silly e-mails, entering chat rooms, perusing the web or frolicking thru myspace comments.

One could debate, e-mails, chat rooms, web surfing and myspace hold some valid purpose, such as offering us methods to communicate business and to network with people across the globe. On that note, one could debate, that all of these things, from the frivolous or to matters of more importance, are "immeasurably" more personably in Second Life.

I will bring forth the following example that I am pretty sure all of us have in common.

We can all draw upon the empathy we have shared watching a suspenseful or dramatic movie. We have all sat, captivated and sucked into the stories the directors had wished to unleash on us. We have all walked out of a movie theater, or turned off our TV's, still memorized in the surreal echo of what we just watched. We have reacted with tears, happiness or frustrations all in result of the movie's visual stimulants, music and voice.

This is exactly why the community of Second Life is powerful. This is why we are growing; this is why we are seen as a dramatically improved platform for the upcoming generation's web interactions. We are not just following a characters role thru a film, thru some wondrous land and wondrous adventures. We are not just playing a game to get to a new level, frustrated against some computer-generated villain.

We are a global, interacting, growing, massive community who are taking our PC's out of the ice (cold) age and into truly heart felt interactions.

Second Life has expanded to the point that if I were to try and attempt to cover all it has to offer, I would be more consumed then as if I were trying to describe all of New York, from city to upstate and all it's nooks and crannies.

So that will bring us back to why I began writing this piece in the first place.

If you have yet to guess, I am a member of the Second Life Community and in addition to that I am a full team member on the RFL team Designers in Seclusion. As a builder/designer in Second Life, who earns a living creating attire and other goods for our SL communities' daily activities, I have passionately lent my skills to the RFL efforts. Information on how the American Cancer Society and the RFL works in Second Life can be found through this link. http://www.cancer.org/docroot/GI/content/GI_1_8_Second_Life_Relay.asp

The RFL teams within Second Life are comprised of all sorts of different people from all over the world. From professional telecommuters to social butterflies to those physically too hindered to make their way out into their local communities. A wondrous advantage of the Second Life platform is that those who are too ill in their battle against cancer finally have a very real way to contribute to the fight against this awful disease inflicting them. With so much energy in their hearts, yet not in their body, they can make their presences known and have some fun too, thru the fairy tale assortment of activities invented for the RFL in Second Life.

Personally the battle to fight cancer is one I hold close to my heart.

Back in 2003, I had lost an extremely close, dear friend, Marianna Thompson, who was affectionately known to those close to her as Mickey. Mickey was fighting Hodgkin's Lymphoma for over four years before she finally succumbed to the battle of it and passed on. Her energy, one word; brilliant.

She is dearly missed, and in keeping her memory alive, everything I have contributed to the RFL has been for her names sake. I even have built, passionately and with purpose, a high school, detailed and (as I have been told) amazingly nostalgic. It was decided by our RFL team we would host a Prom for our main RFL event. It was a chance happening, you see, I didn't know that Mickey never had got to experience her Prom. It wasn't until I was nearly done building when I told Mickey's mother, we are having a Prom for our RFL event. She explained, this was something Mickey always wanted, but due to circumstances she had never got to experience it, and in ways she deeply regretted missing hers. I cried on the phone with Mickey's mom. I had no clue why this build was so important to me, and in my tears I finally knew there was a purpose to what seemed a state of creative madness.

I invite you, and yours, to enter our Second Life, it's free to explore! Spend a night or two with us at Memory Lane High School, June 14th 3pm and June 15th 5pm.

Come relive the Magic of Prom or realize it all for the first time. Entrance is Free; Donations are encouraged thru RFL certified vendors only. Acts of donations & amounts are private. If you'd like you can outfit yourself with dresses, tuxes, all for a few pennies and yet have a million dollar night.

We impatiently await your arrival In-World.

Posted by CaSimone

Of shipwrecked twins separated in a foreign land, love triangles mixed with identity confusion, and girl masquerading as guy falling in love with her noble... The SL Shakespeare Company takes a brief hiatus from Hamlet to pursue a full length performance of Twelfth Night-broken down into "bite-size" chunks in a series of full-costume staged readings. The production will be performed by a moving cast, and audience members from the last week who wish to enlist would have the possible chance to make the cast.

According to director Enniv Zarf, "This production is an experimental way of performing Shakespeare. But hey we are in Second Life. If we can't try it here, where else could we possibly try this." Ina Centaur, Artistic Director, tells of the visual differences in this production, "The SL Shakespeare Company is known for our unlimited extravagance in visual adornments and animations. Because it is a staged reading, the overall look of this particular production will be distinctly different. The outfits will be grayscale to emphasize that this is a staged reading, and because we have a possible shifting cast with the same person playing multiple characters on the staged reading stage, we may use scripted changing sculpted masks."

The performances are from June 20 to July 20, an Act a week, every Fridays at 7 PM, Saturdays at 11 Am, and Sundays as 3 PM.

The SL Shakespeare Company is the premier professional Shakespeare performance troupe in the virtual world of Second Life. The Company performs in a meticulously accurate replica of the Globe Theatre ( http://visit.SLshakespeare.com ). Since 2007, it has continued to provide immersive live Shakespearean theatre accessible to anyone anywhere in the world with a high speed Internet connection.

For more details on this and other SL Shakespeare Company productions, please visit http://playbills.SLshakespeare.com

Posted by LLZane

People download the program Second Life (SL), create an avatar and after learning all the basic movements and technical stuff, quite often arrive at the SL mainland and ask ‘What do I do now?' I have heard this said many times from avatars a day or two old who are wandering aimlessly around. Some never understand things and quit after a few days. Most people, before they join the virtual world, think it is a game with rules and targets, so it's no surprise that they are a little lost once they are ‘in world'. I suppose that's why some of the ‘gamers' who join turn their hand to griefing, as they expect a win or lose situation and have no social skills.

Many, however, soon realise that the beauty of SL is the social networking, allowing you to meet and talk to people from all over the world, and the possibilities to create an actual ‘new life' career are endless. I have been fascinated by the way some people have actually combined SL with RL to make a business or show their skills at creativity in whatever form they specialise in.

One person who intrigues me, is avatar Cher Demonge. Cher is a very talented graphics artist in real life and shows all the talents of being an outstanding entrepreneur in SL. Therefore, I have been watching Cher's SL career develop with interest.

Cher is an absolute powerhouse of ideas, his artwork is unique and outstanding and SL has given him a chance to display his work in a way that real life has never done. He even has his own gallery to display his work. Cher first bought a small parcel of land to build a meeting place for all his friends, he jokingly called it ‘Murray Rehab', using it as a place we could all use to get away from the griefers at Murray.

However, within weeks Cher had sold up and bought a large parcel of land at the ‘Ministry of Media (35, 162, 21) Neon Nights Complex'. He soon installed a nightclub, ‘Neon Nights', inviting people to dance there to earn Lindens, and within days he had expanded the whole of the area into a shopping precinct as well.

Because of his artistic skills, Cher designs his own products and builds them himself, anything from designer handbags (so lovely I bought one!) to household items and clothes. One of his main successes has been a range of designer kitchens, using vivid, strong colours, they would make an outstanding feature in any SL home.

I asked Cher how he started off, he said that he bought a piece of land to build on ‘just to see what he could do'. He had opened a few businesses in real life, but they were secondary to being able to let his creativity run free, creating his own individual world, which you don't get to do in real life!

He admits that, like a lot of people in Second Life, he has got addicted to the building side of things. He said that he builds something and then thinks, ‘I could build a gallery to show my art', then thinks about building something else as well. Cher says, because of this, he thinks his place will always be evolving. He is building rental properties at the moment, smart houses to rent out, and he says he would like to create his own ‘Neon Nights Community'.

In real life Cher has created lots of pieces of artwork and has a graphics degree. However, his real life work doesn't really allow him to pursue his creative side, so Second Life gave him that opportunity, he has had lots of positive feedback from the other virtual residents ‘in world' as well.

For those of you who are wondering why I have a picture of Cher as a beautiful girl avatar, Cher says that he appears most of the time in Second Life as a girl, although he is a real life guy. He says that he always used female characters in computer games and says he finds women very interesting and it's a ‘different view' on the way people treat you. He told me that as he knows what it's like to be a boy in real life, being a girl SL gave him the opportunity to try something far removed from his real world. Well all I can say is that Cher's av puts mine to shame, as he has created a really glamorous looking girl, wearing all his own designs as well.

Just like real life, there is no such thing as a free lunch, and to set all this up, Cher has invested a little real life money into his Second Life adventure. But there is the crunch, if you are willing to invest a little, work hard and market your product successfully, the world may be your oyster in SL. The day you created your avatar, like a new baby, you came into the virtual world with nothing, accept the challenge and see how high you can climb!!!

Teleport to Cher's place at Ministry of Media (35, 162, 21) Neon Nights Complex and be inspired!

Posted by JaneyBracken