I blogged recently on the upcoming Drax Files Radio Hour, which launches on January 10th, 2014. At the time, I remarked that the show has a Facebook page and that I hoped it’ll also gain a website as well.
A major element for the new show is that of community involvement – getting input and feedback from all of us who engage with Second Life and virtual worlds and who are active users. As such, the new blog is very much a part of the show, and the first post invites people to drop a note to Drax and Jo on what they might discuss in the inaugural broadcast.
They’ve also done a lot to make it possible to contact them at the show:
You can even contact them via an in-world avatar account, The Drax Files Radio Hour (draxfiles), and leave an IM or voice message. Here’s some more from Drax on the show (also in the show’s initial post):
As regulars here will know, Drax and I regularly discuss matters raised as a result of the highly successful The Drax Files video series. What probably isn’t known is that the discussions are very far-ranging and cover a huge amount which never gets into print. As such, I’m confident that The Drax Files Radio Hour will bring the same breadth and depth – and, most importantly balance to the table and all things to do with Second Life and virtual worlds are discussed, analysed, taken apart and put back together again.
The broadcast time for each episode will be 07:00 SLT every Friday, starting on January 10th, 2014. As mentioned last time, I’ll be following the show closely (if not more than just following 😉 ), and the show’s blog is now listed in my blogroll (right).
Baz Luhrmann isn’t the only one to bring a contemporary beat to that most famous of tragic love stories of all times: Romeo and Juliet. Throughout most of 2013, The Basilique Performing Arts Company has been presenting its own unique re-imagining of Shakespeare’s tale of love, loss and tragedy.
Romeo + Juliet production poster (courtesy of Canary Beck)
Conceived, directed and narrated by Canary Beck, Romeo + Juliet presents the story of star-crossed lovers in an inspired mix of renaissance-inspired sets, 1940s costumes, and contemporary music from the likes of Nat King Cole, Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman, Michael Buble, Jack Black, Carl Douglas, Moby, Duran Duran, The Indigo Girls, Queen and more. At two hours in length, the show is a veritable tour de force of the creative and collaborative capabilities of the Second Life platform, and sets new standard for presenting dramatic pieces within SL, combining dance, animations, voice-overs, dialogue and an unforgettable sound track.
The show is now into its winter season, and if you haven’t seen it yet, now is the time to set a date in your diary and make sure you get along to the Basilique Playhouse to see this extraordinary show for yourself.
Upcoming dates are as follows – all times SLT:
December 2013:
Sunday December 8th 12:00 noon
Saturday December 14th: 13:00
January 2014:
Sunday January 4th: 12:00 noon
Saturday January 11th: 13:00
Sunday January 19th: 13:00
Saturday January 25th: 12:00 noon
February 2014:
Saturday February 1st: 13:00
Saturday February 8th: 13:00
Friday February 14th: 13:00
The cast at a curtain-call (image courtesy of Strawberry Singh / Canary Besk)
Notes on Attending a Performance
Do note that the Basilique Playhouse is located on an Adult-rated region, and that age verification is required in order to teleport there. The show itself does not feature sex or nudity, although one scene does suggest sexual relations. All performances are free, but gratuities to the cast and crew are always appreciated.
In order to enjoy the performance to the fullest, it is recommended that audience members:
Remove unnecessary scripted attachments (hair, accessories, and shoes tend to be the worst offenders)
Turn off nametags and Look-ats
Wear mesh if possible
Keep local chatter and gestures between scenes only
January 2014 will see the launch of The Drax Files Radio Hour, a new weekly radio / podcast to be hosted by Draxtor Despres and Jo Yardley.
Tooting my horn a little, I’ve actually known about the series for a while. It’s pretty fair to say that the seed of the idea was likely planted during one of the many back-and-forth discussions Drax and I had and have about each segment of The Drax Files (he prodded me a number of times to do a podcast with him. While I passed at the time, I may still contribute to the show if there is interest from Drax and Jo in having me do so).
Balanced discussion of Second Life tends to be in short supply nowadays. While Metareality has returned, I have to say that I’d personally found that show to be increasingly biased (and at times under-informed) prior to if going off-air over summer, which is a pity. Hopefully, The Drax Files Radio Hour will be able to shine a light on the good, the bad, the strange and the wonderful within Second Life and virtual worlds as a whole and provide good, informed discussion across all.
The show is set to be broadcast “without permission somewhere from an attic in 1920s Berlin”, and will feature discussions, guests, visits to regions in-world, looks at emerging technology, and so on. I’m laying odds that two hot topics on the tech side which will be featuring are the Oculus Rift and Leap Motion, particularly given both Jo and Drax have an interest in each, and both are set to be coming to Second Life in 2014 :).
If you want to stay abreast of plans, there is a Facebook page for the show, but no website (as yet – I might prod Drax on that as well on behalf of all of us Facebook avoiders :)).
The first broadcast for the show is currently scheduled for Thursday, January 10th, 2014. I’ll be following things here, and will hopefully be able to help people keep up-to-date on things as the show develops and we move closer to the premiere. In the meantime, make a note in your diary!
Update, December 1st: Oopsie on my part. I mis-read information on the show, and Juliet Ceasrio will not be re-joining the cast. Peter Jurasik will, however be joined by Gameela Wright, and I’ve updated the article to reflect this. My apologies to Gameela and the cast and crew!
Sunday December 1st sees the re-opening of Harland Quinn’s toughest case to date, the mystery of The Blackened Mirror.
Those who watched season one of the show will know that things all began when the mysterious Ms Alais Alleyn (Aisling Sinclair) and her faithful companion, Mr. Biggins (Mavromichali Szondi) stepped into Quinn’s office seeking his assistance to “find their way home” – home being something entirely unrelated to what you or I might consider it to be. By the end of the season, Quinn, Ms. Alleyn and Mr. Biggins were trapped in a bar surrounded by murderous zombies when in walks none other than Quinn’s own bespectacled doppelgänger, complete with a sinister greeting.
Season two picks-up the story precisely where season one left-off and promises more twists and rides. As I’ve hinted at in previous posts, the show also features a special guest star: none other than Mr. Peter Jurasik.
Peter Jurasik
While perhaps best-known for his role as the tragic Centauri Ambasssdor (and later Emperor) Londo Mollari in Babylon 5, Mr. Jurasik has had a long and distinguished career on stage and in film and television, including several recurring roles on popular television series over the decades, such as that of Sid “the Snitch” Thurston in Hills Street Blues and its spin-off series, Beverly Hills Buntz.
Interestingly, he also appeared alongside future Babylon 5 co-star Bruce Boxleitner in both Boxleitner’s own TV series The Scarecrow and Mrs. King and in the feature film Tron.
He is also no stranger to Harland Quinn’s world. In 2012 he guest-starred as “George” in the radio show featuring Quinn, Death in Velvet.
Also accompanying Peter Jurasik in joining the cast is Gameela Wright. Based in New York, Ms. Wright has over 15 years experience in theatre, television, voice overs, film and commercials. She has appeared in such top-rated US shows such as Blue Bloods, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, and Orange is the New Black.
As in AvaJean Westland in Second Life, Ms. Wright has worked with the Avatar Repertory Company, and also developed projects as Virtual Girl Productions in Association with Running Lady Studios. In 2013, she took over hosting duties for the Second Life leg of the 2013 Relay for Life. As well as appearing as the character of Martha Pearse later in the season, Gameela Wright played an invaluable role in the show’s production, puppeteering a number of the characters on behalf of those actors unable to be in Second Life for the actual filming, creating a physicality to the characters to match the voice performances.
Both Mr. Jurasik and Ms. Wright will be joining season one regulars Scott Simpson (Zander Greene in SL) as the enigmatic Harland Quinn, Aisling Sinclair as the mysterious Alais Alleyn, and Mavromichali Szondi as the light-on-words Mr Biggins, as well as a host of guest stars.
Scott Simpson
Star of stage, screen and television, Scott Simpson has appeared alongside the likes of James Earl Jones, Teri Hatcher, Katie Holmes, Charles Shaughnessy, Charlotte Ross and Ellen Burstyn, to name but a few. He’s been directed by Michael Apted, and has played the lead in Richard III for NYC’s Looking Glass Theatre, as well as “Vanek” in Audience as part of New York’s 2006 Vaclav Havel Festival. He is also an accomplished voice-over artist.
In Second Life, through his alter-ego, he is an educational and non-profit environment developer for organisations including the American Cancer Society and Valdosta State University and the original moving force behind Fantasy Faire. Not only does he play the hero of the piece in The Blackened Mirror, he also creates the music for the series.
The talent involved in The Blackened Mirror isn’t restricted to in front of the camera, either. David (or Da5id, if you prefer – all the v-spellings had gone when he signed-up, so he improvised), is a writer who has published both fiction and non-fiction and worked in radio. The Blackened Mirror stands as a perfect example of the subject for his next book, You CanNot Do It: The Power of Procrastination, which he would have been writing but for the fact he put it off to write the The Blackened Mirror. The show is directed and produced by Saffia Widdershins, co-host and executive producer of the show Designing Worlds and CEO of Prim Perfect Publications.
It was Saffia who coaxed Aisling Sinclair, who among many other talents directs the Designing Worlds show, out from behind the camera to star in The Blackened Mirror. Saffia also helped introduce us to the character of Mr. Biggins (now voiced by builder-creator Mavromichali Szondi as noted above) through the New Babbage comic series produced by Prim Perfect.
Alais Alleyn reveals the secret of a blackened mirror to Harland Quinn
Other talent involved in the show includes Honour McMillan, Petlove Petshop and Emmo Wei, and you can read more about all of the season one cast and crew on the show’s website.
The first instalment of season two of The Blackened Mirror airs at 14:00 SLT on Sunday December 1st, 2013, and you can catch it on Treet TV.
On November 21st, I posted an article about LL requesting tax information from some customers. Specifically, people had started receiving e-mails from the Lab asking them to complete IRS form W9, Request for Taxpayer Information, which caused some concern and confusion.
As a result, on Tuesday 19th November, Linden Lab moved to try to clarify matters, issuing a blog post entitled Required Tax Documentation. This indicated that the Lab is required by the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to collect and retain either Form W-9 (for US citizens) or Form W-8BEN (for non-US citizens) “at certain transaction volumes”. The blog post also noted that those falling under the criteria who fail to submit a completed W-9 or W-8BEN risk having 28% of their gross amounts received withheld. Finally, the post indicated that the Lab is required to file Form 1099-K with the IRS for US residents “with 200 or more transactions with a total amount in excess of $20,000” in a calendar year.
While this went some way towards clarifying the situation, it still left a number of questions and concerns unanswered; one of these being what exactly constitutes a “transaction”, as I noted at the time:
Is it related solely to cashing-out from Second Life, or is it based on the number of user-to-user transaction through the LindeX (i.e. the number of L$ sales a person makes per amount of L$ they offer on the LindeX? Or is it somewhere in between?
Long-term SL user and LL customer Desmond Shang decided to try to seek further information and answers from the Lab. As a result, he’s posted a couple of useful pieces on the SL Universe thread where some of the discussion on the matter has been taking place.
In the first, he recommends that anyone with specific questions / concerns should contact Linden Billing, noting that they have been reasonably responsive. He also points-out that while circumstances will vary from individual to individual, depending upon a range of factors, those who might be regarded as a “hobbyist” in SL might be able to claim some relief on revenue they receive through the platform. In particular he suggests IRS Publication 529 Miscellaneous Deductions might be worth a read, together with Can You Deduct Your Expenses From a Hobby? from Nolo.com.
More specifically, Desmond posts the Lab’s definition of a “transaction”:
Transactions are currently defined as sell orders placed on the LindeX and applies per person not per avatar. How that order is filled does not currently impact the transaction count. For example, if you place a sell order for L$5,000 and that order is matched with three different residents while being filled, it counts as one transaction.
The Lab also note that IRS criteria on withholding taxes is only on the transaction count itself and is only required if they do not have a valid W-9 or W-8BEN on file.
The key points here remain that firstly, these requirements will not impact everyone in Second Life. Secondly, if you have received a request for tax information from the Lab, it is important you do not ignore it, as you risk 28% of your gross amounts received withheld if you do. This applies whether or not you are a US citizen.
Additionally, those who have received a request from the Lab and who have questions / concerns should consider: a) contacting Linden Lab Billing for further information / with specific questions; b) seeking the advice of a tax professional.
This week is Thanksgiving week in the United States, which means that not only will Americans be celebrating on Thursday and the weekend, it also means some disruption to the modus operandi in Second Life.
As I’ve noted in mt recent SL project updates, this week is a code freeze week, which means there are no planned server deployments or viewer RC releases. It also means that there will be some reduction in support for users in order to allow staff to enjoy time off with their families. In particular, concierge phone and chat support will be closed on Thursday November 28th, as announced in a Grid Status update which reads:
Concierge phone and chat support will be offline this coming Thursday, 28 November, so that team members can spend the Thanksgiving holiday with their friends and family. Both services will close at midnight Wednesday evening and will re-open at 8am Pacific on Friday morning.
All other Customer Support departments will be staffed at customary levels.
I blogged recently on the upcoming Drax Files Radio Hour, which launches on January 10th, 2014. At the time, I remarked that the show has a Facebook page and that I hoped it’ll also gain a website as well.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 