The Second Life Birthday celebration officially began yesterday. There were some technical difficulties as some, including exhibitors who had been in earlier in the day, found themselves unable to teleport over. But eventually the glitch would be repaired,and the residents could all head over to the SLB grounds.
The first of the events was Philip Linden's opening speech at the Orpheum Theater. But relogging after a crash, I couldn't see his area of the stage. I ended up getting a picture through Vic Morningon's youtube. You can also see a replay on the Second Life Youtube.
Brett Linden spoke first saying a few words then introducing Philip Linden. Philip gave short speech, complementing the audience on their avatars, saying "one of the coolest things that I think signals change in Second Life is the changing avatars that I see." He would give thanks to the creators, as well as the Lindens and Moles involved in The Birthday. He would also give his thanks to Patch Linden, "who was the one who initially created this event and helped us grow it to where it is today." He gave a few statistics, "nineteen exhibit regions with 240 exhibits built by over 500 exhibitors ... over 480 creators participating in the Ship and Hop ... 600 scheduled music and dance performances held across five different event stages ... and there are about 125 volunteers helping as stage crew and greeters, thank you so much."
"As I look at you and all your avatars, I'm reminded of the early days of Second Life," He would talk about how he and Leviathan Linden first imagined Second Life as an "artificial life garden. We weren't even sure exactly what role people would play in the whole thing. ... We didn't know what avatars would look like. ... But ultimately look at us all here today. This room represents an evolution and an enormous amount of content production and changes that you created in the very nature of Second Life. ... we are very much driven by all our collective work." He would comment that he felt one of the reasons Second Life was still around was because it's residents "collectively exist in a place here that can be shaped by all of us."
He would also comment that when Second Life first started, the total number of sims was smaller than those dedicated to the Birthday event. He would talk about some of the first areas the Lindens made for the residents such as a kind of "Coney Island" amusement park and a "giant black pyramid disco" called AltZoom, SL's first nightclub. Very quickly, the people got control, demolished the first builds, and created things of their own. Philip would also comment Second Life was like an alternative history, noting the social media was often known for it's nastiness and SL was in some ways what could have been in terms of people on the whole treating each other better. "Thank you for being part of this."
Philip then went over to a kiosk on stage, the "Golden Ticket," saying people would soon be able to click on five of them around the SLB grounds for a chance at a million Linden dollar prize that they could enter every day (more on this later). He stated he would take no questions today, but would answer some at the Meet the Lindens event next week, his being at Monday at 1PM SL time. "Congratulations everyone, it's wonderful to see you. And I hope to see you around the Birthday celebrations. Thank you."
"As I look at you and all your avatars, I'm reminded of the early days of Second Life," He would talk about how he and Leviathan Linden first imagined Second Life as an "artificial life garden. We weren't even sure exactly what role people would play in the whole thing. ... We didn't know what avatars would look like. ... But ultimately look at us all here today. This room represents an evolution and an enormous amount of content production and changes that you created in the very nature of Second Life. ... we are very much driven by all our collective work." He would comment that he felt one of the reasons Second Life was still around was because it's residents "collectively exist in a place here that can be shaped by all of us."
He would also comment that when Second Life first started, the total number of sims was smaller than those dedicated to the Birthday event. He would talk about some of the first areas the Lindens made for the residents such as a kind of "Coney Island" amusement park and a "giant black pyramid disco" called AltZoom, SL's first nightclub. Very quickly, the people got control, demolished the first builds, and created things of their own. Philip would also comment Second Life was like an alternative history, noting the social media was often known for it's nastiness and SL was in some ways what could have been in terms of people on the whole treating each other better. "Thank you for being part of this."
Philip then went over to a kiosk on stage, the "Golden Ticket," saying people would soon be able to click on five of them around the SLB grounds for a chance at a million Linden dollar prize that they could enter every day (more on this later). He stated he would take no questions today, but would answer some at the Meet the Lindens event next week, his being at Monday at 1PM SL time. "Congratulations everyone, it's wonderful to see you. And I hope to see you around the Birthday celebrations. Thank you."
Following the eight minute speech was a period of quiet, then Merryjest Starchild performed the first of the SLB's music events.
Sometimes he would sing alone, other times he was joined by dancers. But there was one point in which things hit a snag. There was one tribute to the 80s in which the dancers appeared over the stage on giant cassette tapes, then they just vanished. I would later hear the way the dancers were arranged, one cassette touched the sim border, which then cased them to be "yeeted" halfway across the SLB grounds. Some had a soft landing in the water. Some didn't. The short time that was available for rehearsal didn't reveal this possibility. For those wanting to see the performance again, Merry will be repeating it later this weekend at a favorite venue.
And the shows are going on today, this weekend, and next week. Two DJs familiar to the Sunweaver community where the SL Newser office makes it's home will be spinning some tunes. Today at 2PM, DJ Minty, aka DJ MTV, will be performing at The Salty Saloon stage at SLB Smoldering (20/252/23). DJ Scratch will be spinning his style at the same venue on early Wednesday June 24 at 2 AM. Another friend of the Newser, DJ Tantari, will be performing at the Golden Palms at SLB Mesmerize (76/184/25) at 3 PM SL time.
Stay tuned for more about the Second Life Birthday.
Bixyl Shuftan
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