XX/XY

Mind Carlberg has a new art project named XX/XY and invites everyone to participate.

"Named like that because they look like the letters, these two chromosomes determine our gender. A famous french writer, Simone de Beauvoir, once said: “You’re not born a woman, you become a woman.” What if we mixed up all the dolls and firetrucks in the world? What if we played together with these two magic letters ?

- Ladies, find YOUR OWN WAY to look/to feel ultra-masculine.
- Gentlemen, find YOUR OWN WAY to look/to feel ultra-feminine.

The pic can be funny, of course, but this is not only about wearing makeup or a mustache. It can be more subtle, more surprising, more intimate, it can be absurd, it can be shocking, it can be conceptual… find YOUR OWN WAY.

& JOIN PICS'TRAP (SL Group, my remark)
THE BURIED MAN Love Land (SLurl)"

Mind posts the contributions he likes best to his Flickr photostream: Mind Carlberg - Flickr

The picture in this post is one of my contributions to the project, you can see the other two on my Flickr photostream (NSFW). 

"naked with a chair" - An Art Project by Mind

You all know how it is. When you login to SecondLife you are overwhelmed by notices, note cards, IM's, invitations and more. Sometimes you just click away or discard, other times you mean to read and respond later.

Well, if you are as forgetful as I am, that "sometimes" means you don't get to read important and interesting stuff, like an invitation from min cher ami Mind Carlberg to join in a fun photography project. 

Sample from Mind Carlberg's Flickr

Luckily, I was made aware of the project yesterday as I am surrounded by great photographers much of the time. One of the guys suggested we go over and take a look, as far as I could see neither my husband Tomais or my brother JJ had made a picture, nor had JJ's husband Wayne.

So when Wayne logged off to enjoy his Friday and my hubby and bro went to model in a photoshoot, I stayed on to take a nudie pic of myself and take part in the exhibition.

This morning I got an email from Mind ominously informing me "you've been framed" and thanking me for my picture. He had accepted my picture although I had informed him that I am not a photographer, merely a snapshooter.

If you want to see all the naked women and men with chairs who have taken part so far, please visit Mind Carlberg's Flickr page (url) or visit the interactive installation at THE BURIED MAN/Love Land (SLurl). While you are there why not undress and take a picture at the chair that is set up there.

The exhibition has been extended, so go, go, go!

"It Gets Better" in SecondLife

Petr yesterday announced that he is continuing his SecondLife project "It Gets Better" for the Second Pride festival, read more on his blog Confessions of a Digital Daddy Bear: As Pride Season approaches I want to share this again….

Please contact Petr a.s.a.p. and join in his project.

The New Barn at SC

All landowners feel the need to improve their real estate properties from time to time. This is also true for the Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm, prince of Cascade Falls etc., etc.

The laird and his consort have entertained themselves with a project at the parcel in North Western corner of the Southern Charm sim, the barn.

The agreed upon goals before the project started was to beautify, modernize and - hopefully - cut down the LI ("land impact", i.e. in the old days "prims").

The old barn was replaced with a new one in mesh, some of the old stuff with nostalgic connotations were kept and reused, while others were removed and in some cases returned to their owners as the rights to move them had been lost.

One particular benefit of the new barn is that the new barn has a proper attic, which has been insulated for comfort both in hot and cold weather and has central heating and cooling installed. The lairds blogging office can now be used all year and not only in spring and fall.

Storing memorabilia

A Looooooooooong Weekend

I was supposed to work half the day tomorrow, but I have taken the day off, Friday is a holiday and then there is the weekend, so now I get f-o-u-r whole wonderful days off from work! WooT!!!

And boy do I need it!

Since my last visit with my sweet Hungarian doctor a month ago I am under instructions to reduce my normal daily dose of antidepressants from 20 mg to 10 mg. I have done that quiet successfully without any major setbacks. I do however feel unfocused, tired and in need of more sleep and I also feel an increased melancholy. Although my doctor told me that I can increase the dosage to 15 mg or 20 mg if and when I feel the need, I still want to give the lower dosage a chance to stabilize so I can get a sense of how I will feel.

I am going to use the long weekend in first life to relax, rest, sleep more and visit with mother once or twice. My laziness during these four days will break every existing record, I can promise you that!

In SecondLife I am going to kick-start the immense "Organize Your Inventory"-project. It hasn't been done before during my more than eight years here, so it is really high time to take control of it and get it in some order. Every time my well organized hubby gets a glimpse of my Inventory he cries out in shock and amazement "You have everything stored in the root folder, that is crazy!" or something to that effect...

Furthermore I am hoping that Botanical will finally release it's new products so that we can finally finish Project -15, the landscaping project in the South-East corner of the sim. It already looks wonderful and I am extremely happy with the results so far of the toils of Samuel Fallen, of Lytton & Fallen, and Tomais Ashdene and Butch Diavolo, of Southern Charm.

Once the landscaping is all done Tomais and I are going to throw a party to celebrate. You will all receive an invitation through the blog and/or personally.

Badass Performance Art

A 26 y.o. Russian-born performance artist, Mischa Badasyan, has announced his latest project, which is named "Save the date".

In this art project the Mischa will attempt to have sex with a different man every day for a year, starting in September. According to what the artist has told Arts.Mic, the goal of the project is to "explore the link between loneliness and casual sex", believe it or not.

To facilitate finding the 365 men he needs Mischa, who currently resides in Berlin, Germany, has downloaded the meet-up apps Grindr and Scruff, but also intends to use more traditional ways to pick up guys.

If you should wish to assist Mischa in his project and schedule a session, you can contact Mischa via email erde88@gmail.com or through F*c*book Mischa Badasyan on F*c*book

"Art is not a crime" the graffiti says. The picture is from
another of Mischa's performance projects named "Adbusters"

Now here is a challenge for our SecondLife performance artist SaveMe Oh to tackle. What on earth can she come up with to outdo this badass (Yes, this is a play on Mischa's extremely suitable surname) performance , I wonder... 

Parvin to the Rescue

Yesterday the Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm, prince of Cascade Falls, Sovereign Ruler of the Commonwealth of Southern Enchantment Region and Outer Territories and finally UN appointed Protector of the Solace Island and Mount Whitney sims in SecondLife, was close to a nervous breakdown.

The laird was puttering about at his ongoing supersecret project - which is to be revealed to the world in the not to distant future - but there was a building thingamabob that he just couldn't get quite right despite having been at it for hours. As he saw that Parvin, a.k.a. Xcept Atlas (left, archive photo) the laird's friend and the Market Lead of the Gay Archipelago, was close by the laird in his desperation called out to him for help.

Parvin swiftly responded to the cry for help, took a look at the problem at hand and said in a calm voice: "Well, I am not a builder but I am good at maths and I believe this issue can be solved with three prims, a square, a triangle and a semicircle." Whereupon he immediately started working on proving his point.

The laird looked on in wonderment as the brilliant man worked on the solution to his difficult situation. Parvin was done in less than  five minutes. The result was amazing and the botheration was completely solved to his satisfaction.

The laird was so relieved and overjoyed that he was prepared to knight the beautiful and highly respectful young man on the spot. Uncertain whether that would fit into the rest of Parvin's chosen existence in SecondLife the laird instead settled on giving him a gold medal for his excellent service.

I of course at once contacted Rico, the Lead of GA, to inform him what a brilliant and accomplished Market Lead he had.

When Tomais arrived at the scene he was put to work on texturing the prims according to the lairds wishes and his own better judgement. 

Let me tell you, the final result is stupendous and fabulous, as you will get the opportunity to witness with your own eyes in the near future. 

I am a man with no real talent for SecondLife, which so highly relies on the creativity and skills of it's resident's. However, to paraphrase Blanche DuBois in Tennessee Williams play "A Streetcar Named Desire", "I have always depended on the kindness of my family and friends."

I do have a knack of inadvertently surrounding myself with an abundance of amazingly skilled and talented family and friends who can help me out and guide me whenever I need it. I love them all dearly!

Lounging About

After the recent weeks, which have been intense and filled with chores, duties, running round in shops and overseeing an erratic - yet always brilliant and sublime - builder/interior designer there was finally a moment of peace and quiet.

The builder was away resting in first life so there was no one around barking orders and telling me to "Now unlock that part of the building, no not that part, that part!"

I enjoyed the stillness and calm that had temporarily settled over my home-sim. The work in the house was almost finished but for a few finishing touches and then there would be that much smaller project of rebuilding the welcome-area if we decided to go ahead with it. After that finally my kind hearted, generous and humoristic friend Butch Diavolo would once again emerge in place of the cantankerous "artiste" (French pronunciation please!). Ahhh happy days to come...! 

When I Had to Put My Foot Down

It is sometimes essential to draw the line, to say "this far, but not beyond", when one is dealing with a temperamental, highly talented, creative personality - an "artiste" (French pronunciation) no less as he likes to refer ti himself - like my builder/interior decorator Butch Diavolo. The two of us usually get along famously and share the same taste in many ways.

We were looking at lamps and lighting accessories today, when he suddenly spotted a huge lamp shaped like a full scale, female figurine where her gown was a lamp and told me that we "simply had to" buy it.

I inhaled deeply, while looking at the hideous thing, and then told him with my calmest, firmest and sternest voice, "No, we definitely do not!"

When my brilliant and sometimes even sublime creative advisor heard this, he threw a temper tantrum. He told me that I was impossible to please, that my taste was lacking, that I did not recognize when something was "en vogue" and that he even - here comes the worst part - sometimes wondered if I was truly gay at all, as I did not recognize the potential fabulousness of the marvelous lamp.

To have ones gayness challenged in a dispute over a silly lamp is really hurtful. Despite that I remained adamant, whereupon he threatened to leave SecondLife on the spot and never come back as he had never, ever, in his whole life had to deal with someone as impossible and lacking in good taste as me. Luckily I have dealt with children earlier in my life, so I just pointed at another lamp and asked him what he thought about that one instead.

These god-gifted people are easily distracted, even pointing to something else and starting to talk about it helps. If that does not do it you can always start discussing their latest "wonderful" hairstyle. However, I would suggest you only use that as a last resort. After all, how often can one really discuss someones hair or where they bought it, if they got the fullpack or not and which variety of tones it comes in?

A Day in the Life of an Overseer

Exhibit A. No harness or safety line used while working on a unprotected place.

 As you all may know, I am at the moment highly involved in the project of getting my new home at Southern Charm built and decorated.

For the menial and the creative work I have enlisted the services of a friend of mine, Butch Diavolo, who is a builder/interior decorator all rolled up into one hot and hunky avatar. The man is actually brilliant at everything he does, but being brilliant does not mean he is an infallible god, no way! As every man he sometimes makes mistakes - huge boo boos in fact!

Exhibit B. Working in an unsafe position

Exhibit C. No shoes worn on building site

Being overseer of the work force at the building site, my most important duty is to see to it that the regulations surrounding workers safety are adhered to and that the builder/interior decorator gets through this project alive and without permanent mutilation or severe injuries. It is by no means an easy thing to try to steer a renegade Dutch "artiste" (which is how he - for some reason beyond me - prefers to refer to himself, with the French pronunciation no less) to a safe and steady working schedule without unnecessary risks involved.

"A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do", so I try to manage the rebellious Butch, with some small success so far. I cannot even get him to wear shoes at the building site, in spite of the fact that he has already stepped on several nails and almost had to have his right foot amputated yesterday.

Keeping the work force happy

But I will persevere and hopefully we will soon see the end of this project with Butch still alive. Meanwhile I will do my best to keep the laborers safe and happy.

Belated Blogoversary and More

Bock in Secondlife turned three years old on August 25, 2012. During these past three years 1,594 posts have been published, 3,711 comments have been made (a few more but I don´t allow spam and filth) and 82 lovely and sexy followers have joined.

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday, dear Bock in SecondLife

Happy Birthday to you!

May you have many more,

May you have many more,

May you have many more, dear Bock in SecondLife

Happy Birthday to you!

The reason I missed the actual day is of course my special project which is now reaching it´s successful end. The team of cleaners - well, two persons can be a team too - are coming tomorrow morning and I am just doing the final touches, shoving stuff into cupboards and drawers or throwing. I will be finished in time to get a good nights rest, well deserved even if I say so myself.

Some days I have been so exhausted that I have gone straight to bed after work and slept all night, but most of the time I have been my proud pedantic parents well-behaved son and have clenched my fists and jaws and just gone ahead and done what had to be done ignoring my momentary weakness.

Love you all and miss you! Think of my sparkling clean and decluttered apartment tomorrow and share my joy!

Plans Are Being Laid

It is with great pleasure that I inform you that I have decided to collaborate in a new blog project involving the man you see in the picture to the right.

The project is however still in it´s earliest stages of plotting and we are tossing ideas around but things are looking good already. My partner in crime is terribly inventive and creative so most of the time I only have to tell him "NO" with great conviction and a steady voice. (I am good at that, even if I have to say so myself!)

This will be fun and I look forward to working with him in a playful project which we hope will engage and amuse you all.

We will hopefully be able to tell you all more about this soon, meanwhile you can try to guess who my partner in this project is.

Secret Project

My boys, Janttu Winkler and Guyke Lundquist, during the project

Well friends, when I resigned as generalissimo for the Swedish Lucia pageant I really thought I could start taking it easy again in SecondLife. Let me tell you that did not happen!

The big upcoming holidays always drove my Ars into a frenzy of decorating the sim, the house, himself and even me. He loved getting ready for Christmas as a very young boy would. He also loved going out shopping on his own to bring back home the perfect presents, the perfect trees, plants and flowers, the perfect ... well in short everything.

To tell you the truth it drove me crazy and I thought everything got just a little over the top. I tried to talk with Ars about this once, but I soon noticed he got sad at my rebuke, so I quickly dropped it and started encouraging him instead. It was only for a few weeks anyway, I thought as I resigned myself to the Christmas cheer in overabundance. During our years together I really grew to love it in the end, not to the point that I took part in it but just seeing the beauty that Ars created around me.

This year I haven´t done a single thing to show Christmas is coming, except perhaps I have started the wall of Christmas greetings as they began dropping in.

I do not want to do the Christmas decorating at home because it´s my Ars job! Yes I know that´s a totally irrational feeling as Ars is no longer with me, but that what I feel and I am going with it (even if some Scandinavian may write a post about me with the title "Sob, sob, sob"). I do not feel sorry for myself, I am just sharing my thoughts and feelings, and if that´s how it is interpreted go ahead.

Well today I started my only Christmas project (a bit late I admit but anyway), and it has nothing to do with decorating my sim or building gifts. (I started building gifts awhile but stopped because I had no inspiration.)

The project I started will be something everyone on my friends list will notice in due time and some that are not on it also I am hoping. The picture in this post is a clue.