Your source of news about the people, places, things, and events across Second Life.
The Christmas season is upon us. And so there are a number of Christmas-themed events across the Grid from the Christmas Expo for Relay for Life to the "Who Melted Frosty?" whimsical mystery and more. Plus there are the normally scheduled events from music club dances to live performances to talk shows and book & poetry readings.
Sunday December 11th marked the last show of the season for the noted Second Life game show "The 1st Question," hosted by Pooky Amsterdam and Hydra Shaftoe. Three of the top winners this year were invited back in a contest of champions.
~*~ It's beginning to look alot like Wootmas! ~*~ ~*~ All across the shire you go! ~*~ ~*~ Take a look at the village chalet, ~*~ ~*~ The snowmen and the sleigh, ~*~ ~*~ With candy canes and tinsel all aglow! ~*~ ~*~ Its beginning to look a lot like Wootmas! ~*~ ~*~ Tinies in every store! ~*~ ~*~ But the nommiest site to see ~*~ ~*~ Is the waffles that will be ~*~ ~*~ Inside your own front door. ~*~
Phelan Corrimal, ZenMonso Wormser, Romane Levee were the previous show winners whom were the contestants for this show. Besides that it was a show among former champions, the show was unique that in the "Word Up" in which the audience was asked to judge which made-up word of the players was the best, it was a three way tie. Pooky gave each of them full credit for that part of the show. The contest was a hard-fought one between the three men, but eventually ZenMonso Wormser emerged as the winner, and the season champion.
World of Warcraft made news recently with it's new commercial and plans for the next expansion at least one year away. But what's been going on in Azeroth right now? Plenty. Even if you have little to no interest in Player vs Player battlegrounds, there's still things to do from Holiday events, one having been changed a bit, a new amusement park island, and the quests for killing the big villain of the latest expansion have finally arrived.
In October, the Kristen's Viewer Project's creator made an effort to fund continued research on the third-party viewer for a year through the British fundraising website "Crowdfunder." In about a week, the fundraiser may be canceled and further work on Kristen's Viewer suspended indefinitely.
Tyrehl Byk, whom made news last year with his groundbreaking “Event Horizon” particle show last year, was a busy artist in November with his shows at the LEA6 sim. Besides his “Not-A-Knot” exhibit, Tyrehl had another particle show, “Catharsis.” It offered all of what Event Horizon had, and then some.
And before long, the music started, along with the colorful particle flashes in the night sky.The particles were a little more sophisticated than last time, taking on the shapes of buildings, roads, yards, even entire pictures. After a while, the show took on a certain theme, more so than it did with “Event Horizon.” The first segment after the introduction could be called “Jesusland” after one of the songs played, a look at the American south known for it’s churches but becoming more and more around discount shopping malls. The second segment could be described from the line of one of the songs, “Buy it now!” There were a few money themed songs, with plenty of particles of dollar signs, pound symbols, and other currencies, with pictures of avatars living it up.
Segment three was a brief play of American Indian music along with a scene of a desert mesa. Then the music changed to “I Wanna Rock an’ Roll All Night,” and the screen was filled with lots of splashes of particles. Then came a sunset, with more American Indian music, and images of pairs of faces could be seen. This was followed by arrows flying across the screen, splashes of red, then the screen turning to night. And as the night went on, the bleak landscape began to bloom.
In Honolulu Hawaii on Dec 7th in real life, there was a memorial service to those who fell in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. In Second Life, there was also a tribute, at the Oahu sim at the USS Arizona Memorial, with a number of residents gathering to pay their respects.
Gemma Cleanslate noted that at times a kid avatar in a scout uniform was at some of the events the newspaper covered. She decided to take a closer look, and found a whole community of scouts. Here, she takes a look at one of the scouting sims, Camp Kawabata, where the scouts would meet. But they didn't always stay there, taking a number of field trips.
On Saturday December 3rd, Bay City held it’s official Treelighting Festival. At the North Channel Island sim, the area had been given a winter look with snow on the ground and an ice rink in the middle of the park, complete with a box where one could pick up free skates. In the middle was a fair-sized evergreen tree, decorated with a number of ornaments on it. East of the park was a small amphitheater, where for a few hours musicians played for a crowd. Not everyone at the sim was dancing. Some skated on the rink while listening to the music.
Marianne McCann, a noted Bay City resident, every so often would remind the people about the items about the park which were part of the silent auction. Many were 2-D avatars of various gaming characters from Nintendo games. But there were others, such as an antique Model A car. Talking to Marianne, she told me this was the second tree lighting festival at Bay City. They wanted to make it more special, so they made it a fundraiser event. The group involved was Child’s Play, “a game industry charity dedicated to improving the lives of children with toys and games in our network of over 70 hospitals worldwide.” The event was mentioned on the Child’s Play website.
At 2:30, attention was directed to the rink, and residents asked to change their views to Midnight. Doing so, the tree was a dark outline for a moment, then lit up as the lights on it illuminated, making for a beautiful holiday sight. The party would go on until 4 PM. As of 3PM, over 27 thousand Lindens had been raised for the charity.
It's a week full of events as we go through the first full week of December. There are a number of happenings from the London Winter Festival to the USS Arizona Memorial Service in Oahu. And of course our regular selection of club music events and talk shows.
One of the perks of Premium accounts is certain sims that only they can access. Today is Netera's report of one of her more interesting experiences there: an adventure game where one gathers crystals. However, the game has a few hazards that made Netera jittery.
In November, there were a number of performances of two works at the LEA6 sim by artist Tyrehl Byk. Longtime readers will probably remember him for his “Event Horizon” particle show over a year and a half ago. Besides his new particle show “Catharsis” (more on it later), there was also his “Not -A-Knot” artistic exhibit.
Finally one arrived at what at first looked like a recreation of the scene of “American Gothic,” a farmer and his lady in front of their farmhouse. But this wasn’t the bald, spectacled farmer in the famous painting, but Tyrehl Byk. His voice was on, but instead of him talking I could only hear nonsensical noises. I thought he was Away From Keyboard as he never answered by questions. The farmhouse itself kept fading in and out. Next to it was the edge of the floating island, the words “Not A Dangerous Ledge” floating over it. I never did go over to test it.
Later on at his “Catharsis” set, I had a few words with Tyrehl. Asking him about the American Gothic theme, he answered “That was just one component of it. It is a very large, very complex build with much subtlety, and it comes alive more when I'm there actually doing a performance. Many folks rush through and only see the surface of it.. So much like how they navigate off-world. It's tricky to see the depth when one gets hung up on surfaces. There are also many hidden items that are in play if you look hard enough and touch/sit on many things.”
Second Place - Gawwain Inglewood
Third Place - Undine Collinson
The exhibit will be on display through March, 2012.
Grey Lupindo
