Riding the Zero

Riding the Zero

Model P51 on the Sidewalk at My Parents' House. I Lay Down

to Get the Photo With My Light-Leaky $5 Camera. I Was 14.

Above: Screen Shot From Empire of the Sun

Written 31 October, 2008

Riding the Zero

At the top of a crystal tower on the Yamato sims Sweetie and I found a miniature Japanese fighter. When we touched it, a full-scale plane rezzed, and we rode it (singly, as it’s a one-seater), around Yamato, finallly making a water landing at some conveniently-located (for their owners) shops.

Flying level alongside the Yamato battleship, I was reminded of a great visual from the Spielberg film Empire of the Sun. A young Christian Bale, who has been interred by the Japanese in a prison camp, is on top of a control tower as an American P-51 Mustang fighter, canopy back, flies parallel to the runway, 25 feet from the ground. The shot was magnificent on the big screen, one of my favorite video images ever.
I happen to have the Empire DVD. I had hoped to contrast a still from the film with a snapshot I made in Second Life, but I can’t seem to capture the image. Oh, well. So here instead is a photo I made of a plastic model P-51 with my first camera, which I got for Christmas when I was fourteen.

Late-breaking news! I did manage to capture one image from the CD!

Ride the zero here.