Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Nothing Rhymes with Orange



I’d like to mention, again, that I don’t spend all my time dancing in clubs. I do other things. I do poetry for example. So I was delighted to discover a poetry reading to go to. I think I arrived (wearing a brown jacket with leather patches on the elbows, of course) with a few misconceptions though – for example that they would actually read my poem to the crowd – so my oeuvre about an agile, partly nocturnal, quadruple carnivorous animal with smooth fur and retractile claws that was reclining on a piece of coarse, woven material used as a protective covering for floors went unheard.

At the start I also failed to realize that the poems were being read over voice chat so I was a bit confused about all the applauding going on, but not really: Poets = Substance Abuse (see pic to the left as proof: Those were the people at the reading).

Having figured that out I proceeded to sit through a number of well read but slightly confusing poems. I was also a bit annoyed that they were reading poems from avatars who weren’t even present at the event – and I couldn’t find D.H. Lawrence’s or Margaret Atwood’s profile in search either! But I still hoped I’d hear the presenter saying “And now a poem from someone here. This is from Eaton and it’s called ‘The cat sat on the mat’”. But nope, she went on to read something called Clovis by Klannex Northmead – who was actually there and got two of his or her poems read. One was about being a Clovis arrow tip, if I remember correctly.

For being such a poetically inclined crowd the people there weren’t really that eloquent. “Applause!!!” and “Applauds!” seemed to be what any poem merited. I asked if we actually discussed the poems and was told that we didn’t, just listened. That’s poetic license for “shut the f**k up”, I guess. But they did talk a bit about ampersands for a while – which I personally believe should be read aloud as their ASCII number, but I guess I’m the minority view on that.

With a last poem from the presenter things closed down. I wanted to go away with everybody to a nice pub to discuss the poems – and maybe quickly tell them my own. But my suggestion fell on deaf ears. Snotty, snub poet lovers!


Saturday, June 6, 2009

Trying to be civilized



Lest you think that I spend all my time on SL frivolously wasting my time away in clubs, I can assure you that I don’t. Well, as of yesterday I can, at least. Having nothing better to do I decided to go out and do something for my edyoukayshun and happily discovered a discussion group discussing “Civilization”.

We were a small crowd of normal SLers, a few humans, a guy in a suit of armor and a cat-headed giant lollypop, a small green robot- The discussion was moderated by a woman that looked like one of those actresses in a Hollywood movie who plays the role of the bookworm but would eventually remove her glasses, release her hair and you find out she wears lacy underwear. She didn’t actually.

This is how it started: “A HOME TO OR A COMMUNITY? HOW DOES IT AFFECT US ? AND WHY IS THERE CIVILIZATION WHEN WE CAN LIVE ALONE? ... HERE'S A QUOTE AND SEE WHAT DO YOU THINK? "Underlying the whole scheme of civilization is the confidence men have in each other, confidence in their integrity, confidence in their honesty, confidence in their future." - Bourke Cockran” (The caps were to show that the moderator was inserting an idea or thought into the discussion)

The conversation sort of went off in two directions for a while. One group which I’d call the intelligent, thinking group and which I just accidently belonged to went on to discuss how the division of labour, partially aided by the rise of agriculture had a major effect on the creation of civilizations.

The other group which I can’t think of a name for that wouldn’t be at least mildly demeaning decided to go to the dogs. Or first the wolves. Here’s an example:
“take for instance the ways in which a pack of wolves or a pride of lions interact with each other”
Or maybe:
“the cheetah civilization depends on quick trite kills to survive while the leopard is strong enough to enjoy a more lengthy conquest this are traits inherent in the animal civilizations”

I think we started talking about ants as well. The moderator, who still hadn’t removed her glasses spiked the conversation with a few “hmmm.. Interesting” every once in a while – which made me feel a bit like I was lying on Sigmund Freud’s couch. So I went off to dance.