Mo Hax

This post is a little personal and, well, very sappy, but I include it as a case study in the miracle of social media and virtual worlds–specifically Second Life.

I have been to New York a few times. Love that town, more now than ever. Alicia (my wife) came to New York to pitch her future book to agents at the BEA Writer’s Conference Pitch Slam. I tagged along for fun and we called it an anniversary excursion. It turned out to be a dream come true for all the reasons a week alone in New York with your spouse is …

Plus one big reason more. I met a long time Second Life friend Tamra Hayden (SL: Sands) and her husband Glenn who showed us around their New York, including Central Park …

Wish you could have heard Tam belt it out under this famous walkway, which has been completely reconditioned with a wonderful ceiling. Just glad she didn’t shatter it (but she held back). What an amazing talent.

We ate Thai food at one of Tamra’s places she found while living near the garment district and working at the now closed Zipper Factory Theater. Later, while on the upper west side,  we laughed as we ate cake and goofed off at the most serendipitously perfect little dessert cafe, LaLo’s, where Tom Hanks first meets Meg Ryan in You’ve Got Mail. I smiled so much my face hurt.

A couple days later, while Alicia hobnobbed with book people, (which has an amazing story in there as well I’ll have to tell sometime), Glenn, Steve and I went to a great deli and toured the Intrepid while watching ships leave from Memorial Day weekend. Steve is like a brother, an uncle to my boys. I have worked with him almost 10 years and have only seen him in person three times. Yet my boys regularly brought their rock collections and other interesting things to show him over video conferences when they were growing up.

[By the way, I learned a valuable lesson when trying to bring Steve into Second Life, never start with skin shopping. Scared the hell out of him I think. He hasn't returned, yet. But I talk to him at least three times a week over Skype, SameTime, and phone conferences.]

Turns out Glenn is a fellow pro coder and I wanted him to meet Steve. Glenn and Steve also both grew up in New Jersey or thereabouts.

We talked code, talked engineering, talked about New York. What a great day.

It really is a miracle

Some people wonder if I have lost my mind when I gush about Second Life. But in what time or place could a closet-bound, pro coder, repressing his inner madrigal, ever happen to meet and befriend one of the biggest Broadway stars to live, let alone hear her sing live, dance with her, and eventually enjoy touring her stomping grounds with spouses? These glowing, wonderful experiences happen every day to people from all backgrounds and interests all over the world who come together–usually quite specifically–in Second Life. Can anyone question this tangible value of technology, social media, immersion and community?

Once upon a time…

I met Tamra when I attended my first live performance in Second Life. Trip Povtin and Tamra Sands knocked our pixeled socks off with their music on Broadway Live Island (SLURL). I found a YouTube video of part of the event. In fact, that’s me in the orange-ish shirt unable to walk. So nostalgic:

Tamra sang Think of Me, among many other beautiful pieces, and not one whit less than Emmy Rossum’s performance in the film. That song is like a HellFire seeker missle trained on the tough guy in me. Many years before that I saw Phantom on Tour with my wife. Tamra’s performance affected me no less profoundly than the live one did when I experienced Phantom some years back, likely because of the memory it invoked. Little did I know it would be the beginning of a miraculous Second Life dream come true later.

I had created autograph pads for the performers in the Second Life Ballet (as it was called then, Ballet Pixelle now) and gave Tamra and Trip one. It felt like such a trifle compared to what they had given me, but it was all I had to offer. I showed them around a bit and we had great fun shooting this Broadway Live island machinima together. [That rose in her hand is the first object I ever created in Second Life, a Valentine's present orignally for my wife.]

I will never forget the party after when one of Tam and Trip’s friends got out his otter and I mine and we ad libbed an entire distant cousin ferret family reunion. My stomach still hurts from laughing so hard.

Just yesterday Tamra closed out a Second Life performance with the song that my wife and I had recently heard performed live at Wicked, For Good:

(Elphaba):
I’m limited
Just look at me – I’m limited
And just look at you
You can do all I couldn’t do, Glinda
So now it’s up to you
For both of us – now it’s up to you…

(Glinda):
I’ve heard it said
That people come into our lives for a reason
Bringing something we must learn
And we are led
To those who help us most to grow
If we let them
And we help them in return
Well, I don’t know if I believe that’s true
But I know I’m who I am today
Because I knew you…

Like a comet pulled from orbit
As it passes a sun
Like a stream that meets a boulder
Halfway through the wood
Who can say if I’ve been changed for the better?
But because I knew you
I have been changed for good

(Elphaba):
It well may be
That we will never meet again
In this lifetime
So let me say before we part
So much of me
Is made of what I learned from you
You’ll be with me
Like a handprint on my heart
And now whatever way our stories end
I know you have re-written mine
By being my friend…

Like a ship blown from its mooring
By a wind off the sea
Like a seed dropped by a skybird
In a distant wood
Who can say if I’ve been changed for the better?
But because I knew you

(Glinda):
Because I knew you

(Both):
I have been changed for good

(Elphaba):
And just to clear the air
I ask forgiveness
For the things I’ve done you blame me for

(Glinda):
But then, I guess we know
There’s blame to share

(Both):
And none of it seems to matter anymore

(Glinda):
Like a comet pulled from orbit
As it passes a sun
Like a stream that meets a boulder
Halfway through the wood

(Elphaba):
Like a ship blown from its mooring
By a wind off the sea
Like a seed dropped by a bird in the wood

(Both):
Who can say if I’ve been
Changed for the better?
I do believe I have been
Changed for the better

(Glinda):
And because I knew you…

(Elphaba):
Because I knew you…

(Both):
Because I knew you…
I have been changed for good…

Tamra’s performance was every bit as powerful as Kristin’s, perhaps more so because she was singing to us in the room. Many of us left that performance moved to tears, smiling, changed for the better, like so many before them.

Alicia and I have indeed been changed for good. Thank you Tamra, Glenn, Steve, and Second Life.