LEA artist in residence and Happy Valentines

 I imagine that in 30 years or so Valentines Day will rival Christmas as an economic powerhouse holiday.  My Father often tells me how Christmas today is barely recognizable to how it was when he was a child.  I tried to listen to his stories but sadly those pretty blinking Prozzak lights on the tree distracted me from his words.
  
    Ever read about the greatest slogan of the 20th century?  "A diamond is forever".  It's an interesting history of marketing manipulation.  Can read it here if you like.

      So I was reminiscing, as I am wont to do, and thought back to the exciting Valentines days of my youth when we would tape a brown paper bag onto the front of our school desk. Then, at a signal by our teacher, they would (hopefully) be filled by adoring schoolmates.

      I recall one year a Valentines letter was included inside a card which asked me whether I wanted to date the person who wrote it.  And if so I was to check "yes" or "no" in a hand drawn box below the question.  I picked "yes" and we dated for a month or so without ever actually speaking or touching.  We simply made eye contact a few times a day and those glances were like electricity through my body.

Later that year we were both at a birthday party for a boy who lived at a Funeral home (we attempted to get in the morgue), and at one point everyone demanded we go inside a darkened closet to kiss.  We came out after a few minuites and it was assumed we had, but in reality we stood silently in the dark and touched fingertips.

     But well before that were the Puritans who, no doubt, struggled mightily with Valentines day and here are a few humourous cards to mark the occasion.

And in other news...

The LEA is now accepting applications for the fourth round of its Artist-in-Residence (AIR) programme. Complete details and information, time frame and how to apply are available here, deadline February 19th!

The LEA AIR programme seeks to promote and nurture the arts in Second Life, through providing limited term full-sim land grants to be used for creative projects and art installations over the course of a few months. Recipients can be individuals or groups interested in creating or curating art, or proposing cultural projects which would require/utilise a full-sim build and can be completed within the allotted time frame (5 months). The LEA is able to offer land grants through the generosity of Linden Lab.

While many well-known virtual artists have received grants, the LEA has also had the pleasure of hosting ‘younger’ AIRs and hopes to continue in that tradition. You need not have a great deal of experience, just some good ideas. The application is a bit more detailed to help guide you in thinking through your project, which we do expect at this point to be an idea in progress and not necessarily a portrait of the final result - more like a loose sketch! We also welcome applications from across the spectrum of the arts, for example performance groups that might want to embark on a bigger/longer term project than we can support at our performing arts space!

If you still need a little more inspiration, take some time to visit the current artists-in-residence, which will be open until the end of the month.