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Welcome to the world of Videoranch March 2016 Videoranch started 1998 in a small chapel that was on the property of Michael Nesmith's New Mexico ranch, and that previous owners had converted into a guest cottage. We set up in the kitchen and living room of that cottage with our computers and some software that we put together with help from neighbors and friends. Douglas Adams, the author, was part of the crew as was Christopher Langton who lived just up the road. There was Jessica, Victoria, Terecita, Baboon, and Rachel. Others came and went - including a part time worker whose day job was at Los Alamos National Labs where she made bomb brochures - for real. No one remembers her name - only that she was very nice and seemed competent. She answered the phone if it ever rang. None of us were sure what we were doing, and we had not started Videoranch as a business but more of a hangout where we could play with the new Internet software, meet people online, and sit around playing guitars and telling stories. It was altogether a magic time - like those times are. Langton and Nesmith and Adams also spent a lot of time at a local restaurant drinking margaritas and eating guacamole made tableside. There they hatched the idea for the online service that became the Videoranch store that you see now, and VR3D a virtual world that embedded live streaming video in a virtual world. VR3D can be accessed here. VR3D, the virtual world is operating at a very low level these days - with only just enough programmers to keep its technology happily robust and waiting. Even with that, VR3D is our prime objective and Nesmith has committed his work and the support of the Gihon Program for the Performing Arts to its success. We are writing code and solving weird technical problems even as this is written. It is not all it will be, yet - but it's still cool. We are expanding the VR3D technology base to include a new 3D Engine and some other feature sets that we are targeting to come online later in 2016. If you are reading this in 2050 and it's still not working, then you should probably sign off and go home - it didn't work. But if it's Spring of 2016 then we have some things in the target window that we hope will fulfill the mission and purpose of VR3D and gather people together around the cultural hearthfires we are building in-world around live performances. The store still runs as it was built and as you see it - with all of Nesmith's merch - books, T Shirts, music and videos and such - and he still runs things around here. All the works are his personal selections and curating. From time to time he will do a special edition of something to post here, and of course we get a lot of news about his comings and goings and we share what we can. The Videoranch shopping engine is there for your convenience and access to Nesmith's works which can be hard to find we know and is a fully secure online retail setup that accepts all kinds of payments except for bitcoin, which we are working on - which is to say "trying to figure out but haven't". We would love to have you on the mailing list and send you emails about what we are doing and if you need to contact us you can go here. Be aware "Contact Us" doesn't always work. We moved to California in 1999 and are in great digs here but the laid back and convivial spirit of the original remodeled chapel on the Reservation in Nambe, New Mexico is still our guiding light - so sometimes we are off thinking more things up, talking and laughing, eating homemade guacamole, and we don't hear or see the ping. Just know we are glad you are here, happy to talk to you, keep trying, and we will too. |