So, Mrs. Lincoln, How was the Play?

Last night, we had an Interstitial Art Salon in the online community Second Life, including music, readings, and plenty of great conversation. We fielded great questions from the audience, too.

Here, seated from left to right (sort of) are F. Brett Cox, Cecil Castellucci, Carlos Hernandez, Delia Sherman, me, and Ray Vukevich.

And then, God help us, we danced. Aimee and I are clinging to our dignity there in the foreground while Carlos does a little breakdancing and Delia gazes off on the left, likely toward an escape from this madhouse.

The pluses to Second Life:

• It brings together a wide audience of people from all over the world.
• It offers all sorts of creative ways to design content of all kinds, mostly visual, audio, and performance art.

The minuses to Second Life:

• The technology isn’t quite there yet, it seems: we had issues with audio during the presentation, but nothing we couldn’t overcome. Also, loading times and image quality can fluctuate wildly based on the vagaries of your Internet connection; I’m bemused that I can mow down three dozen enemy players in Modern Warfare but I can’t always see people just standing around and talking in Second Life.
• I get the feeling that Second Life is the MySpace of vast online immersive communities, waiting desperately for a better-designed, classier-looking Facebook analogue to replace it.

Still, we had a great time. Thanks to everyone who helped set it up, including Tammy Domike of Jackson Street Books and Erin Underwood from the Interstitial Arts Foundation.