lightning bolt

Doctor Pax

Furry Contest

I hosted a 'Best in Furry' contest at Industrial Dreamz yesterday. Since I'm always furry, and wasn't eligible to enter the contest since I was working, I decided to change up my normal look for something different - a female lulinae in an orange space-suit with matching guitar.

And here are 24 wide-screen pictures of the event. Sky Broome, the tall bunny in white, won the contest. Click the pictures for full-size versions.

Skunky

Anouk Tigerpaw is one of my favorite DJs in Second Life. She plays the most awesome noisy stuff, it is new and different and very exciting to listen to! I made a video of her at work at Club Industry last weekend, and she asked me special to make this one so here it is:



The first version was a little herky-jerky as it was made quickly with a single roaming shot, but not bad for just whomping something out.

Freak Girl Anniversary

Dancing on the FREAK GIRL sign at Club Lucente for the 1st anniverary of DJ cherry Jun and DJ Ema Burt's FREAK GIRL DJ Group. Fun!

Contemplation

The Joys of Stealing

Had an interesting confrontation with a resident in ID this evening about intellectual property which devolved into the usual dumb argument about stealing music is the same thing as robbing a house. Right, you keep believing that buddy. I could write 100,000 words on the subject but there were a few thoughts sticking in my mind that I wanted to expand on before they flutter away in my Bowmore drunkenness.

The IP rights crowd introduced the term 'stealing' to equate with 'copyright infringement' into the IP argument, so I have no qualms about using their terminology even though it's incorrect. I freely admit to stealing other people's work. It's part of my artistic process in music and graphic arts to use other people's work in my own. Since I do not profit from it I feel morally right in doing so. If I was doing it as a for-profit business I think I would make some kind of effort to share those profits in an equitable way with the original creators. But it's much more fun for me to do it without a profit motive and so that's how I approach it, making things and launching them out as messages in bottles waiting to land on someone's shore to be discovered.

I also create completely original works of art and music and writing and give them away on the internet via my own website and other websites for anyone to use how they see fit, and have done so for many years. I have a day job so I don't need to make a living with my art. The internet was originally created to share ideas freely, and I was on it before the IP crowd forced their way in and introduced such terms as 'digital rights management'. The day that Canter and Siegel spammed usenet with their Green Card offer was a sad day, indeed, and signaled the end of things as I and many others wanted them to be. Despite the fact that the internet has been hugely commercialized, I continue to create and disperse my work with no profit motive whatsoever.

Let's think about 'original work' a moment. I am a trained musician and artist and I am influenced by my environment, so is everything 'original' I create truly sprung originally from my mind or is it influenced by something I was exposed to during my life? I believe the latter is true. For example, my Symphony No. 5 is a direct response to hearing Radiohead's All I Need. I am merely regurgitating thoughts, musical phrases and images I have encountered over the past 46 years through the filter of my own neural network. The original artists long ago stole from nature, and today we continue to steal from nature and those artists' previous work. So I think whether I paint it from my own hand or sample it and reuse it is a minor detail in the larger picture of mass cultural heritage. The digital tools we have on hand at the moment simply make it easier to reference previous material already explored.

It's important to note that this post is a completely narcissistic and self-aborbed exercise, responding to an argument in real time by retreating to a blog and ranting. But oh well, what the heck, it's the Internet, you can do anything on it.

No longer a jobless bum

I had always resisted having a job in Second Life. My way of having fun is to wander randomly wherever I wanted to and do whatever I wanted to. And although I will still be doing that, I have decided to carve 2 hours out of my busy fun schedule a week and be a host at Industrial Dreamz for DJ Dorientje Woller on Saturdays from 12-2 PM. She is a great DJ and plays music I like, so I think this will be a great way to not only have fun with a good friend, but also help out a place in Second Life that I love very much.

So there you have it. ID Host Telefunken Peliatropis.

The interesting thing about my host trial was that at the time I was in the middle of a violent thunderstorm, but my lights didn't even blink.

Back to normal

The previous evening devolved into a "check out this avatar!" battle which I thankfully did not document. But it was quite good to get back to normal again. I think I am going to enjoy these wings.

How I spent My Rez-Day!

I woke up and put on the original avatar that was issued to me on the first day in Second Life. We call this the noob avatar.

Then I went to listen to my friend Nelly Reyes' DJ set at DutchDance Sensation for about half an hour.

Next, I attended a concert by J-Pop singer RiZ at my friend Petite Wozniak's LoveLess stage above her store.

Towards the end of the show, I got a message from SerenityDreams Destiny, an artisan who produces wings and tails for my current favorite tail store, Nek-o-licious, that my custom wings were ready. Check them out!

Outstanding! I can't wait to see how these look on the fox!

Then later it was off to Industrial Dreamz to catch Stephen Garsdale and Frenostra Twine's sets and freak all my friends out with the noob avatar. Shortly into Fren's set I took a break and finished my day at work.

After work, I took a short trip to Michael Cela's club Outpost 13 to listen to one of my favorite DJs, Aramanth Demonia. Or as I and others fondly refer to her as, Arapants. It's a long story. Outpost 13's canned dances are wonderfully dorky.

Then I went back to ID to catch the end of Dorientje Woller's set. Dori is excellent!



When Devin Audion took over the music stream, there was no host available. I have a hosting trial on Thursday so I hopped on the hosting box and practiced for a little while, hopefully not annoying everyone, until Hostess Kairi Seerose showed up a few minutes into Devin's set. Then I was able to go back to simple dorky dancing again, with a giant lolly-pop stuck to my hand.

After some time in ID I felt the need to go to the Sanada Family Temple to meditate on the events of the day and year. Just as I was settling down my friend Fenice Carlucci messaged me, and I invited her to sit with me awhile. We quietly discussed our virtual lives and the metaphysical aspects thereof for some time.

After she left, I spent some more time myself just sitting and thinking and listening to the sounds around me.

Then back to ID for a nightcap, to dance with ID Head Host Reagan Nicholls while listening to the soothing musical stylings of DJ Raith Valeska, and to be taken advantage of by VGtar Carlberg.

I think this was a good way to end the night.

The Furry Role-playing Backstory

So let's begin at the beginning.

My name is John Serdy, and I was born in Phoenixville, PA, USA on April 21, 1964. I grew up in a rural area on my grandfather's small farm outside of town.

Around 1979 I began playing Dungeons & Dragons with some friends of mine, and one of the characters I played was a small furry creature named Chandrashekar Zarathustra Pranhabinmahonran, an Illusionist sidekick/apprentice to my main character Radhruin. His species was a Gashta, or Golden Fuzzy, a species invented by science fiction writer H. Beam Piper.

When I got on the internet in 1990 I began role-playing Chandrashekar on FurryMUCK and Tapestries MUCK, and ran the character there until around 2003.

Many of the friends I had made on these MUCKs made me aware of the furry migration that had begun to Second Life. So on September 14, 2009, I created a character there named Telefunken Peliatropis. Within a month I came in possession of the collection of furry avatars created by wingless Emoto, and settled on the fox avatar. I have used it exclusively ever since.

Around this avatar I have constructed the persona of Telefunken, the rainbow rave fox architect.

The First Blog Post

In keeping with the great tradition of First Test Post, here it is. Hello Internet!