The Line

An innovative new play opened in New York City last year.  It is filled with everything that makes a play great, romance, violence, clandestine meetings, rivalry, crime, double suicide, sword fights.  Yes, Romeo and Juliet is in production once again.

But wait, Romeo and Juliet?  What could be new and innovative about Romeo and Juliet?  Isn't that the Elizabethan play that you had to read in high school? You know the one where Romeo ummm whatziname?  Ahhh, Capponi falls head over heels for that Juliet chick from that family across the alley that his family doesn't like. And, anyway, he has to sneak into her Sweet Sixteen party just to see her and gets lost in her garden and then does that really famous speech about how she looks like the sun.  You know that one;

"But hard what light through yonder window breaks, it is the moon and Juliet looks like the sun."

Romeo and Juliet as told by imperfect memories of people who may (or may not have read) the actual play, produced by a man who has never read or seen the play, performed by actors in full Elizabethan regalia, on elaborate sets, with fake accents.  Misquoted lines and rambling tangents are the rule of the day in a hilarious farce.

The play is a sort of Telephone Game, where you hear one thing and, through processing of your mind, say something else.

Quirky creativity at its best.  One could even say creativity run rampant.

Second Life lends itself well to creativity.  There are the designers who clothe us, make our hair, build our buildings and animate our avatars.

There are also the quirky creativity running through Second Life as well, whether it is a group of avatars getting together and recreating a staged rock show or the annual Burning Life where you can build what you want just because you can.

It is interesting to see just how we Telephone Game our Real Life into Second Life.

Take for instance the Toon House in Pandora.  Lleah Lupis, who looks like the Warner Sister Dot built herself a gem of a cartoonish house with bright colors, big simple looking flowers, comfy looking chairs, and particle showers of musical notes.  Roger Rabbit would be right at home there. Lupis's home has been in Pandora for a long time, and it is a masterwork of quirky creativity.

Burning Life has seen even more quirky creativity with bowls of spaghetti, pirate ships, temples and crystalline caves.  Burning Life is Second Life's answer to Burning Man in Nevada's Black Rock Desert.  Once a year for a week, this desert becomes Black Rock City dedicated to community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance. It has grown from a few hundred people getting together for a week to explore the cycle of life.  Each year is themed.  Next year's theme is Metropolis which will center on the cyclical life and death of the city as a whole.

Burning Life, however is not themed, but relies upon the creativity of the community of Second Life to give it power and vision.  It too has grown from six sims to over 25 sims at last years' gathering.

Quirkiness and creativity run rampant.

Quirkiness even runs rampant in how we choose to present ourselves to Second Life.  Do you love anime?  There is an avatar for that.  Do you love Victorian England?  There is an avatar for that.  Do you like to imagine you are a Klingon?  There is an avatar for that.  (Co-opting a telecommunications advertisement for a moment)

Or perhaps you should look in on Greenies Home Rezzable.  Here you are shrunk to the size of a mouse and get to explore a house where little green aliens have taken over.  It is a fantastic view of the world from an angle we rarely see.

Quirkiness abounds in world and out.  Where does your quirkiness lie?  How do you express yourself in your daily life and in your Second Life?