There is a new simulation area in Second Life devoted entirely to Ray Bradbury, and you are invited to the grand opening.

Second Life is currently the most well developed "irtual world." A virtual world looks a lot like a video game, but instead of killing orcs or selling drugs, you can conduct business, find friends, teach, etc... A Second Life account is free by signing up at www.secondlife.com. (I'm afraid you need a computer with a newer graphics card to do second life.)

Anyway, as part of the NEA's Big Read program, which this year features Fahrenheit 451, Alliance Library System has created Bradburyville, a simulation entirely devoted to the works of Ray Bradbury. The grand opening of Bradburyville takes place this Sunday, October 5th from 4 p.m. - 8 p.m. Pacific time. THe schedule is:
4-6 pm Guided tours
6-7 pm Lecture "Bradbury the Man" by Dr. Loren Logsdon of Eureka College
7-8 pm Social time, with additional tours available.

The simulation features a replica of Cooger and Darks Panedemonium Shadow Show from SWTWC, with rideable attractions, locations from Dandelion Wine, Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451, a museum, and a theatre where the lecture will be held. However, the feature attracting the most attention is the "walk-in" book of Fahrenheit 451. Visitors will literally walk through the cover of a large copy of Fahrenheit 451, then watch and interact as scenes from the book appear around them. Narrations describe the action and themes of the story as the scenes change and evolve. Participants are left with a question to ponder regarding what book they most value or would choose to protect.

Visitors will need to have a Second Life account, download the SL client and be logged into the program to attend. Click on the following link to teleport to Bradburyville.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Bradburyville/129/127/24

It is a pretty crazy weekend for me with the Grand Opening, but if you have questions feel free to try me at jphoward7@gmail.co*

Hope some of you fellow Bradbury fans will choose to attend. And Ray, if you want to come, email me and I will make it happen.

The simulation will be open to the public, so even if you miss the grand opening feel free to visit at any time.

Loren Logsdon is the best!

If I sign up, will I be able to hear/watch his speech in real time or may I return and listen another day?

The lecture will be live, so if you want to come you need to be there at 6 pm Pacific (9 pm Eastern) to hear it. As far as I know, it will not be recorded. Recording events is not very easy in Second Life.

I wonder what Bradbury himself thinks of this, with his criticisms of the internet culture's "tides of mediocrity" and such.

Of course I would have no way of knowing, but if he would like a tour, I would be happy to arrange it.

Anytime you do a visual represenation of a book, whether it is painting, play or movie, it can do violence to the vision you carry of the book in your imagination. (A good example is Elijah Wood ruining my image of Frodo Baggins with his amateur overacting.)

But it is powerful, in the walkin book, to be buffeted from 3 sides by the tv screens in Fahrenheit 451, and gave me a sense of it I did not get from the book itself.

This place is fantastic. It was my first time in SecondLife, and thanks to Corwin for giving me a tour. It was a very new feeling of talking to a person from another continent with a feeling like he is very close to me. Maybe it's not a second life, but it's a second web. And the place is really nice: all those buildings and devices are built with love and imagination. I'd surely return here.

Wonderful!!

I see Bradburyville is right next to Emerald City. Took a walk around and visited a few places but didn't run into anyone. (Hey, Pavel, hope to meet you in Bradburyville!). First time in SecondLife; and see that you can verbally talk with others as you meet them while visiting places. Nice job all around. Thanks!!! Will visit often!!

http://www.youtube.com/user/RayBradburyChannel

____________________________________________

Then there's Tativille.

I will be visiting Bradburyville, but it's a shame the live event will be so late in the day. It will be long after midnight in the UK, so I will miss it.

Phil (philnic) ~ Am I missing something here? Bradburyville is always available in live-time. If you went on it now, and I was on it, we both could walk up to each other, verbally talk, and shake hands.

John (Doug Spaulding) ~ Tativille doesn't have live interactions. But it's fun. A friend of mine had a CD of something very similar (created in Japan) about 10 years ago. Very nice.

I just got my membership the other day but so far I haven't been able to teleport!

Firefox and IE both give me error msgs (something about not having a protocol associated and the classic "This page cannot be displayed," respectively). Any idea if this is a common problem, or one easily fixed?

quote:

Originally posted by Nard Kordell:
Phil (philnic) ~ Am I missing something here? Bradburyville is always available in live-time. If you went on it now, and I was on it, we both could walk up to each other, verbally talk, and shake hands.

I was referring to the lecture (and other scheduled events) taking place around 6pm PST, which is about 2am UK time.

Bradburyville is indeed accessible 24/7, and I took a quick look earlier today. We could all meet up in there - but how would we know each other? We could share our Secondlife character names here.

I will be in there again in a few minutes if anyone cares to join me...

quote:

Originally posted by philnic:
...but how would we know each other?

We could all wear white hats.

quote:

Originally posted by Corwin Howlett:
A Second Life account is free by signing up at www.secondlife.com.

But when I go to sign up, it asks for a first name, which I put in, then instead of asking for a last name it says "get available last names"(!?)

I click on that and then it says "Sorry, all the last names are taken. Please try a different first name. Please select a last name."

What's up with that? I don't believe I've ever seen anything like that.

quote:

Originally posted by Doug Spaulding:

quote:

Originally posted by Corwin Howlett:
A Second Life account is free by signing up at www.secondlife.com.

But when I go to sign up, it asks for a first name, which I put in, then instead of asking for a last name it says "get available last names"(!?)

I click on that and then it says "Sorry, all the last names are taken. Please try a different first name. Please select a last name."

What's up with that? I don't believe I've ever seen anything like that.

____________

Douglas, later I'll have to get back and review the itemsw. But there must be a way to make another last name.

I just finished visiting and met philnic (PHIL) from England, in Bradburyville. We didn't know much what to do. First 5 minutes we stood looking at each other figuring what the heck we do now. There is a laugh button where we both laughed at each other.


I have a speaker on my computer, so I was able to talk with him and he could hear me, but I could not hear him since he had no speaker, so he just typed away and I read his messages.

We took a walk to the Auditorium hoping to meet others, but we were the only two around. I had a tough time walking, because you have to use the 'arrow' buttons, and I wound up falling in the water.

Walked on the very large Hollywood Star of Bradbury's. Grabbed a bottle of Dandelion Wine that someone left. Tried to fly like Peter Pan buit hit my head on the roof of the auditorium and fell back on the floor. Our first run thru this Bradburyville. Amazing. Phil was hoping you were popping up somewhere, Doug, but no show. So figure this sign-in/sign-up thingie and we can visit together.

Others have to join. This is great fun!! A whole bunch of us together at the same time would be a blast!