Avatars dressed in Jackie Graves' "Poison" paramilitary uniforms and participating in VB41 - Rock the Casbah

VB41 – Rock the Casbah

Avatars dressed in Jackie Graves' "Poison" paramilitary uniforms and participating in VB41 - Rock the Casbah

PORT OF LONG BEACH, 4 August — Newton’s Laws of Motion: First Law: A body in motion tends to stay in motion. Second Law: An idea in motion tends to go anywhere it flippin well pleases and there’s pretty much no predicting or controlling where that’s gonna be.

Newton’s 2nd Law (VB/CO Edition) had a lighthearted invocation at VB41 – Rock the Casbah today, that had a remarkable, unexpected resonance with it’s much grimmer invocation in the case of The Clash’s Rock the Casbah.

The King told the boogie-men ‘you have to let that rāga drop’

http://vimeo.com/26908737

Avatars dressed in Jackie Graves' "Poison" paramilitary uniforms and participating in VB41 - Rock the Casbah

In the Cultural Impact section of the Wikipedia entry for Rock the Casbah they note the irony that this song about fighter pilots refusing the order to drop bombs and playing rock music instead has somehow become a military favorite:

The song was chosen by [United States’] Armed Forces Radio to be the first song broadcast on the service covering the area during Operation Desert Storm. In 2006, the conservative National Review released their list of the top 50 “Conservative Rock Songs,” with “Rock the Casbah” at No. 20, noting its frequent requests during the Iraq War.

In one of the campfire scenes late in the 2007 documentary Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten, a Granada friend states that Strummer wept when he heard that the phrase ‘Rock the Casbah’ was written on an American bomb that was to be detonated on Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War.

Wikipedia further notes: “following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the song was placed on the list of post-9/11 inappropriate titles distributed by Clear Channel.”

Avatars dressed in Jackie Graves' "Poison" paramilitary uniforms and participating in VB41 - Rock the Casbah

In a far lighter invocation of Newton’s 2nd Law of Ideas in Motion, at today’s loosely scripted “clash” the most compelling event was the completely unscripted speedboat death match when Laurel Leavitt with her ridiculously underpowered boat foolishly challenged sweet, innocent, “who me?” speedboat maniac, Red Leader Yordie Sands. So dominant was Sands’ boat that Leavitt’s Team Purple Leader, Monerda Skute, resigned and defected to Sands’ Team Red.
 

R E L A T E D . M A T E R I A L S


Hot Summer
Rock the Casbah / Previz
Rock the Casbah / Production

Jackie Graves
Jackie Graves / Xue
GRAVES Leather Latex Metal / Second Life URL

Rock the Casbah / Cast
Raw Images / Flickr

Rock the Casbah / Wikipedia / Cultural Impact
The Clash / Wikipedia
Joe Strummer / Wikipedia
 

http://vimeo.com/29389953
 
 

Click any thumbnail below to enter “slide show” mode, then use arrow keys to scroll thru this VB41 document
Pro Tip: You can click play on the video, then click for the slide show, and keep listening to the song

As a virtual public artist my work invites avatar communities to express their identity, explore their culture, and demand their civil rights.

6 thoughts on “VB41 – Rock the Casbah

  1. These are so priceless! I laughed so hard remembering how it all went down. But ya know what? I had no idea who shot me in the back until now 😀

    Thanks to everybody for one of the most fun times I have had in SL while remaining clothed 😛

  2. Luv the post! I had so much fun rampaging around in the killer boat. hehe I didn’t have a chance to shoot a single pic because that Purple team was shooting me. I had to kill them you see? It was kill or be killed. And i had to kill. hahahhahahha

      1. Yeah… here’s the thing, Vanessa, you don’t know the thrill yet. I urge you to get a Street Dancer (L$0 on Marketplace, search “MM SD35”) and go to a Rez Zone on the Blake Sea (try Hona Lee Air Field docs). Rez that speedboat and then head out on the Blake Sea (be sure to have mini-map up). Here’s my bet, you’ll be a speed demon in a half-hour. I have many mild mannered girlfreinds who, when behind the wheel of a Street Dancer, become fiends. hehehe

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