A few months ago, the Newser wrote about the owner of the "Busty Belles" club, Jodi Eyre passing away. Despite her loss, the handover and continued operation of the venue went smoothly.
Talking to Frost Beam (JD013 Resident), someone on the staff with build permissions leveled the place when they weren't getting their way, "the co-founder ... nuked it, when we were waiting for them to make up there mind on a few issues." A couple days later, the situation was better, "Mostly needing the help getting stuff, like the beach back up and we have our GM working on building new rental homes. On top of the co-founder taking the building the club was using, he also took the clubs beach and all the rental houses which had some people living in them. ... I wasn't expecting himm to take all the rentals (frown) That made me feel really bad for making people homeless.
"My GM Tiffany had to rush build the new building for the sets. But I think we still need some for other parts on the club, like the beach and the homes." Frost was optimistic, "When a founder or co-founder up takes the building a club is in, that normally spells out the end of it. We are still here, still rockin, and always welcoming in people. I kinda of treat this place like my home, and my staff and patrons are like my family." One nearby dancer, Domino Sorbet Presley (DominoPresleyTS Resident), commented, "Yah good thing we had hurricane relief. Whether we are here or somewhere else we won't quit."
So Busty Belles won't go bust any time soon.
On a final note, later this month on the 18th, Busty Belles will host a Making Strides fundraiser, a "Pink Ribbon" event, starting at 6PM SL time.
Good news for fans of the recently closed Tempura sim. A team of fans is rebuilding the area. Or rather, making a new place, "The Tempura Project," with the same look and feel of the old one. The new area in Sweety Bay is still a work in progress, but much has already been done. Besides looking around, I had a few words with the land owner and head of the team, Tribish Tammas.
Longtime readers may remember the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Second Life, also known as "The Wall." Built in 2007, it stood for four years until it vanished in 2011. But after over ten years, it's back, or rather rebuilt. This wall is high over the Heavens Sunset sim.
This version of The Wall appears to have all 58,000 names. There are some differences as the Three Soldiers Memorial statue isn't there. Still the return of "The Wall," is good news.
Before the Newser closes out our reporting on the month of March, yours truly decided to take a look at our sponsor Montecito Bay. When we last looked at the place in February, some more property had been bought up by a previously unheard of company. The locals hadn't been saying much to begin with, and had been saying little since. So I took a trip over.
The place has been greatly changed from the look it had in it's beginnings. The look of a coastal city in the American southeast in the fifties has given way in places to more futuristic-looking buildings. The Sandbox area no longer looks like a baseball diamond, but an arena for some different kind of sport (and has a billboard to aid in newcomers wanting to learn how to build with prims).
There are some places I hadn't seen before, such as the Wasa Bay sushi bar near the beach. Deeper in the town is the Flying Pickle Food Festival. And with the change having started with stories by an entity named Azucar, there's a tall office building with the Azucar logo. No information is yet available on who they are, or who owns it.
But some places are still around. The beach area is still around, although it's boardwalk is still being worked on. The Avagora Mall has been getting some new shops lately. Becky Nosferatu told me they plan to have, "a ton of stores that will be open by the end of next month." Clubs like the Flying Pickle Lounge and Studio 86 are still around. Dropping by the latter, when I brought up the subject of the changes, not much was spoken, one local commenting, "I'm just glad that they haven't snapped up that lovely Taco Crux restaurant."
The town is still in the middle of renovations with some places obviously halfway finished and some loose prims here and there. Stay tuned for more information.
Book Island has been the location of writers workshops, book discussions, and this year some Relay for Life fundraisers. They've also been the location of a small auxiliary location of the Newser of almost nine years (our main office has always been in HV Community). But lately, the place has been rebuilding. So this means a temporary relocation of our place there until it's done.
It was almost five years ago in June 2011 when the "Lost Gardens of Apollo" vanished from Second Life. Built in 2005 by Dane Zander, this was a beautifully designed sim with stone architecture and mosaics built well into an island landscape, with high towers stretching high into the sky, and cuddle spots set among a number of pillows and pools. A popular spot for couples who could snuggle or find a spot on a platform or floor to dance in the sunset, it's end was a sad event for both longtime fans and for people whom had just found out about it as word got around. The Newser was around to get a few pictures before it closed.
Usually when a location disappears from Second Life, there's nothing left but screenshots, videos, and memories to look back on. In the case of Svarga and the SS Galaxy, Linden Lab intervened to preserve the places, but this would not be the case with the Lost Gardens. Instead someone would step in to bring back the Gardens on her own. The result is the "Lost Gardens of Apollo Memorial" in the Sorbon Beach sim, built and owned by Delphi Bernard. The sim is a rebuilding, and not a true duplication. But the structures are done in the same style, capturing the beauty and soul of the original Lost Gardens.
"I want to bring back some memories," Delphi told me when I met her at the Gardens. She told me in trying to rebuild the place, she had a double challenge. She basically had just screenshots and videos to work with, "to rebuild the terrain just from memories and pictures, that was not easy. And (to) find the original textures, it takes some days." She told me the Newser article was one such source. Another problem was that this wasn't a full sim but a homestead, "A big challenge was to rebuild that all just with 3750 prims. ... This is just a homestead sim, so I can not rebuild all. I hope you can feel the spirit (of) Apollo a little." She told me it took four to five weeks in total to rebuild. She went on to say Dane Zander, the creator of the original Apollo had seen the place and was happy with it.
Delphi says she should be able to hold onto the sim for the foreseeable future, so both longtime fans of Apollo and those whom had heard about the original but had never seen it can enjoy the location, "I think a little bit retro is good for all."
And so the Lost Gardens of Apollo are back. Perhaps some of the statues and a few other items are not there, but what defined the old Apollo sim is there. For longtime residents whom have seen sim after sim fade away, the return of such a well built area is welcome news.
Just in time for it's ninth anniversary, the Raglan Shire area, the home of Second Life's best known "Tiny" community, is getting a makeover. Last week, the sim the community gets it's name from was closed to the general public as older structures are taken down, and new ones, apparently to be built on huge trees. Zayn Till gave some details via Facebook on April 1.
So with only one more day until EVERYTHING is cleaned off the Raglan Shire sim, just a reminder to our amazing Merchants on the sim that everything must be taken up and into your inventory including any physical buildings that you may have built on the grounds. Tomorrow while Bunneh tornadoes fly across the sim, there will be a Grand celebration on the central grassy grounds of Raglan Shire that we have dubbed: THE ULTIMATE SPRING CLEANING AKA THE EXTREME CLEAN SWEEP PICK UP & PICNIC™ Starting at 1pm SLT and featuring live musical performances from Cranston Yordstorm, Grif Bamaisin and QQQUARTZZZ Plus tons of delicious NOMS. Come to Raglan Shire for the Shindig, hear some great live music and watch everything around you disappear as we prepare to turn the sim over to NIL & THE CATS™ Sunday as the New Tree City begins to be placed down and the entire sim undergoes Transmogrification!
While the community as a whole was excited to see what was to come, some locals had mixed feelings. Peach Lartel posted on Facebook this picture of a mock protest, "I'm not leavin.' "
Yours truly went over, and panning above, yours truly saw some of the crew, a few in hard hats, working away. Work was far from finished, so by now, no doubt the place looks much different from what I saw then.
Yours truly will soon be back for another look at Raglan. The Raglan Shire community has a reputation for industriness, low drama, and no shortage of humor and general wisecrackery. It should be interesting to see what they come up with.
