Week 7 - Imagine All The People

Much on my Second Life journey has surprised me these past couple of months.  The warmth which people have shown toward a lowly noob.  The relatively short period of time it took for me to be welcomed as "part of the gang".  How easy I found it to be myself, albeit in the guise of this virtual alter ego.  The simple joys of sharing music with others.  The existence of a peculiarly unique cover version of YMCA.  The ambiguous nature of Graz Firecaster's relationship with AAi's resident camel.  So many surprises, but none quite as touching or genuinely emotional as I experienced this past week.  The week that marked the 30th anniversary of the untimely and tragic death of John Lennon.

AAi is, as I may have observed many times before, always a place where I can expect to encounter great music coupled with great company and never was this more true than last Tuesday.  In remembrance of John Lennon and the incredible gift of music which he left to his and future generations, AAi resident DJ's Graz Firecaster & Claire Elgund brought us a 3 hour Beatles marathon taking us from the Fab Four's early days in Hamburg all the way through to that iconic rooftop performance.  Whilst expectations were inevitably high due to the sheer quality of the back catalogue available, I don't think any of us were quite prepared for just how emotional the night would prove to be.

The music was of course fantastic, accompanied by the usual smattering of banter but with the added element of interesting little Beatles facts and stories which Graz & Claire would use to introduce each track.  This extra dimension added a huge amount to an evening already heavy with meaning and the local chat was even busier than usual with everyone sharing thoughts and memories triggered by specific songs, pretty much every one of which seemed to carry some kind of meaning for someone in the club that night. It was truly a memorable night and one I was incredibly glad to have been part of.

Although I was alive that day 30 years ago when John Lennon was shot I was still too young at the time to really carry any memory of the event. Nevertheless his music, and the sense of loss which so often comes with it, has been there pretty much my entire life.  Here at AAi however I was able to hear how his death had affected others as they shared stories of where they had been when they heard the news, how their parents, friends or schoolteachers had reacted and so on.  These shared tales brought home to me more than ever before just what a shocking moment Lennon's death had been for so many people across the world, and how 30 years later those effects were still felt.  The sharing of music and experiences certainly made the night both memorable and moving.

The evening was brought to a close with a minute of silence where we all stood, AOs and Dance HUDs falling still, to simply remember and reflect, after which the unmistakable "Imagine" floated over the still silent crowd as we allowed ourselves to be struck by the simply power of this shared moment.

The genuine emotion in those moments, shared by a group of people who would be unlikely to ever be gathered together in RL, was for me the single biggest surprise I've experienced in SL.  I don't think the same meaning or reaction could even be replicated in a RL environment - there was simply something unique and magical about all of us being united in that one moment.   The music and memory of one man who had, in some way, touched each of us reaching out without heed to differences of nationality, religion, gender, age or any of the other labels we too often use to divide ourselves.  Something tells me that's exactly the kind of thing he was trying to tell us back then and here, 30 years later, we were still listening.

Imagine all the people, living life in peace....

Week 6 - Come Back To What You Know

So I'm into week 6 and still updating this blog pretty regularly.  Frankly I'm astonished since patience, conscientiousness and staying power (or indeed the simple act of remembering to do something) are not traits which I'd normally associate with myself.  So what is it that keeps me coming back?

I guess there are two parts to that question - what keeps me coming back to SL and what keeps me coming back to the blog.  So, for the purposes of padding this entry out a little, lets consider each of those.

It's probably pretty easy to list out what keeps me coming back to SL, indeed my "Slanksgiving" blog for Week 5 listed out many of them individually,  but while the people are inevitably a huge factor can they be the sole reason?  In theory I could talk to all of these guys or a similar bunch in RL but I don't, we're interacting entirely in SL (though frankly the whole thorny topic of SL vs RL isn't something I'm entirely sure I'm qualified to opine on just yet so maybe I'll park that for a later blog).

Of course one of the advantages of SL is that people with similar interests will tend to gravitate toward certain sims and, with geographical boundaries no longer a barrier to meeting people, a hugely increased number of potential chums to hang out with becomes instantly available to you the moment you log in.  So the setting, or at least the availability of this type of setting, must also be a major factor.  Without the setting, you simply don't have the opportunity to meet the people in the first place.

So when it comes to setting, I inevitably come once again to my home away from home here in SL.  I've talked at some length in previous posts (in fact probably all of them) about AAi and how much time I spend there, which as I think about it is perhaps one of the least surprising things about my Second Life experience to date.  Music is a big deal for me and for a long time before discovering SL I'd bemoaned the fact that I simply don't get enough time to just enjoy music, discover new tracks from new bands or just kill some free time talking with like-minded folks about what they like to listen to themselves.  SL seems to me the perfect forum for just this kind of thing and has definitely helped redress this imbalance, putting something back which I felt had been somewhat lacking in my RL of late.

For some reason in RL, sitting around just listening to music has in a way ceased to count as a valid use of time - there always seems to be a pressure (both external and internal) to get off your butt and actually "do something" rather than wasting your time like this, particularly if you're in a group environment.  Thus far in SL I've never really felt any similar pressure and many of my most enjoyable times thus far have involved nothing more than simply kicking back and letting the music wash over me, allowing myself to actually relax and not worry about whether or not this might "count" as a good use of my time.

Having a friendly DJ on hand who can hijack the AAi stream outside of scheduled event times to play some tunes has of course been a massive bonus too :)  Indeed on occasion these have taken on a life of their own as more and more friends have teleported in to join the unscheduled fun.  It's things like that which, more than anything else, probably keep me coming back.

So what about the blog?  What keeps me coming back and updating this?  Well that's perhaps a much trickier one to answer.  Although I originally started to write this as much for my own benefit as anything else, it has probably been the reaction from others who have taken the time to read my ramblings which has kept me at this.  I always surprise myself with how much I actually enjoy just writing for the sake of it, but without the kind words from everyone else it is doubtful I'd have made it much past week 3 of the blog.  Without that feedback it would be all too easy to convince myself of the rank amateurishness of the whole thing and simply stop bothering.  

There's also the fact that each week I'm invariably introduced to someone, something or somewhere new and this is a pretty good forum to both record those experiences and potentially share them with others who might be interested.  While I was writing my blog last week for instance I would have had no inkling that within a few days I'd have beaten Pixie at SL bowling (despite her initial warning to me that "I'm really good at this") and had a blast making virtual snow angels at one of the seasonal, winter sims which are now cropping up on the destination guide.

Of course every time I sit down to actually write the blog it occurs to me that it would be a great idea to actually provide links to the sims which I'm talking about or posting pictures of in case others might want to check them out too, but by then it's too late since I've usually forgotten where they were.  Also I'm not entirely sure I have the first clue how to post links to in-world locations here.  Clearly an area I need to swot up on and improve for future updates then!

Finally, I'm also aware of how much I enjoy reading the blogs which others have put out there (see Meri's Pixie's and Moonletters links to the right), so it seems somewhat churlish to expect them to keep producing content without making some kind of an effort myself!  Even if only a few people are reading and enjoying, that's plenty good enough for me so thanks for stopping by :)