"Sauce" by Maya Paris

Contrary to popular belief, Second Life is not a dating site. A lot of people use it as one, but that's not actually what it is. I should know, I've been on Match.com com since forever, and I promise you, you can't build anything there and the fashion sense is less, um, exuberant. But because so many people use Second Life for hooking up, it makes perfect sense that the satirical Second Life artist Maya Paris has created an installation about personal ads, called Sauce: This Time It's Personal.

In her inimitable way, Maya pokes fun at our desperate and sometimes ridiculous efforts to find Someone, so frantically pursued in both the physical and the virtual worlds. Sometimes one just has to laugh at what we do; Sauce is one of those times. The installation has five areas:

"Sauce Factor," where you can try your luck to see just what sort of lover you are (NB -- I don't know what a gobby lover is, and I don't think I want to know):

"Sauce Factor," in Maya Paris's Sauce

The "Saucy Science Lab," where you can learn all about the science of sexual attraction:

"Saucy Science," in Maya Paris's Sauce

(Full disclosure: Maya tells me I'm to blame for one part of the lab; what can I say, whenever I meet Maya, sparks fly, as Francis Picabia can attest.)


"Dr Mildred's Modern Love Bureau," where you'll come across cases of (I think) actual British self-deprecating personal ads (one-liners, probably from the Age of Printed Newspapers), and you'll get very saucy with someone:

"Dr Mildred's Modern Love Bureau" in Maya Paris's Sauce

"The One," where truly, you will find The One (well, possibly two who are The One), and have a ball with him/her/it/them -- but first you have to have a blast:

Entry to "The One," in Maya Paris's Sauce

And finally, the secret seaside resort "Sauce Lido" (groaner pun), where there are lots of fun things to do, including driving around the pool in a beach chair, launching fireworks, throwing a tantrum, taking a very invigorating train ride, and laying about with a whole lotta fish and chips.

"Sauce Lido," in Maya Paris's Sauce

Maya has an obsession with food, usually fruit and fried eggs, but in Sauce the main one is that famous British comfort food, fish and chips. Why this time she's obsessed with fish and chips, I don't know. Maybe it's because fish and chips have a special sauce known as "vinegar," which tells you a lot about British love lives. Maybe fish and chips are a British aphrodisiac. Maybe vinegar is the British version of Love Potion #9 (which Sauce alludes to). Brits are strange.

Maya provides her usual array of fun gifts and an avatar -- all perfect for Date Night.

A number of elements in Sauce involve two people, so I strongly recommend that you see Sauce with a friend. Preferably a friend who likes you.

SLURL for Sauce: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/LEA25/36/176/1801