`Village' soaps up cyberspace
"The East Village." As if life didn't already offer millions of other reasons to procrastinate.
"The East Village" is -- be very, very frightened -- a cyber soap opera produced by Marinex Multimedia. No, it does not feature high-tech, cyberspacey characters à la Lawnmower Man . What it does have is a cast of somewhat contrived and (literally) two-dimensional characters. One might find them shamefully engaging. But this is not something anyone would ever admit to, and I'm certainly not admitting to anything myself.
"The East Village" takes place in New York City's East Village and follows the tumultuous lives of quirky, rising jet-setters like Daphne Butcher, an underemployed, Buddhist actress whose wish is "to live on the French Riviera and be filthy rich." Or like Lila Ashton, a glamorous model who is escaping Paris and her control-freak boyfriend.
Eve Ramsey, the central character, is actually an aspiring high school teacher. Her life does not make for a very interesting soap opera. Make a few changes, and it could very easily be my life. "Maybe I can make some money this way," I thought after my initial surf-through.
But then I checked out the "alternative" episodes, which serve as exposition to much of the stuff that's going on behind the scenes and in the wings of Eve's life, using the viewpoints of the other characters.
There's rising pop-star and budding heroin junkie Sam, whose lifestyle is a little more hard-core than Eve's. And then there's Lila, the surly, sultry supermodel-next-door. Seeing Eve's life from the perspective of the other characters is interesting because the characters include snippets of their own sordid lives as well. Splendid soap material.
And if you, like myself, were never much of a soap opera junkie, "The East Village" does its damnedest, via numerous gimmicks, to suck you in. It features "character cliques," which are essentially chat rooms designed for gossip about the characters. You can even access the "East Village Radio" if you happen to have the appropriate computer hardware.
As far as standard soap material goes, it's there: Visitors to the site are informed that Maria is the "nice girl ... for whom tragedy awaits." Don't touch that dial -- I mean, mouse.
The soap has links, scattered throughout each scene and on the homepage refrigerator, to detailed biographies of each of its characters. Included are their horoscopes, vices, family trees, "pet projects" such as photo essays and a history of the East Village.
If you have a few minutes to spare, check out "The East Village" at http://www.theeastvillage.com for sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. However, it won't be time well wasted.
This item appeared in the Arts & Entertainment section of the April 26, 1996 issue.
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