CW & FAn Imports and Exports-Virgin Islands-111,140,21

Fantasy Rhode and Kara on the beach






Today I visited another new sim. CW&F Imports and Exports-Virgin Islands, 111,140,21 is owned by Fantasy Rhode and CW Henhouse. I'm told CW does the majority of the building and Fantasy focuses more on a lot of the texturing and decorating. When I popped in at the recommendation of another friend, Fantasy greeted me and offered a tour. Fantasy explained their sim houses 3 large shops, 4 smaller ones and a huge detailed pirate ship full of treasures in addition to all the scenic areas, bumper cars, sky diving, huge slide, art gallery, bargain yard sale area, dancing, and pose balls. The place appeared to be a decorators dream come true and seems to offer something for everyone to enjoy from playing, sightseeing and home decor as well as the large variety of styles of furniture and art represented.

At first glance I mainly saw a nice pottery shop on a beautiful beach but just around the corner were small shops including an adorable food, bakery and wine shop, garden area, lights and lamps, candles, and Egyptian decor shops. Across from that docked the beautiful pirate ship that was filled with interesting things to see and buy. I could not pass up buying a vanity that offers products and allows a person to actually brush their hair, apply lipstick at the mirror and even paint toenails on the floor with wonderfully realistic animation. Fantasy advised me they pride themselves in the realistic animations they try to offer in most of their furniture, and it shows in the quality.

We tp'd up to another huge area that houses several buildings including a large 3 story art gallery that offers a wide variety of styles of art at very reasonable prices. After Fantasy told me a customer had purchased 20 items and told her the prices were too cheap I had to scan one which was listed for only 50L. Fantasy indicated later they may offer some SL artists shows in a gallery, but the place is not quite finished, although ready for visitors. They have been open for approximately 8 weeks and a grand opening is in the works. Toward the end of the tour CW joined us for a fast paced bumper car round and a very high sky dive from the upper levels back to the ground level. This classy sim is great for for people who like to decorate and/or explore and play. check it out here: CWFAn Imports.


CW Henhouse, Fantasy Rhode, and Kara (me) bumper car fun!

LOWE RUNO PRODUCTIONS LLC

A couple of my Second Life friends have a new SL/RL Limited Liability Company, Lowe Runo Productions, LLC, a company currently owned and managed by Lowe Runo and his business partner Sonicity Fitzroy.

Today I was given a tour of their new facility and was impressed at the beauty, functionality, and professionalism of the facility and their corporate goals overall. Lowe Runo Productions are creators of both animated video graphic features and real world media including production and post production services.




Most everyone in SL has heard of machinimatographer Lowe Runo for his impressive machinima/
videos that rival any animated RL movie, his web sites, Machinima Artists Guild and Pro MAG, his exceptional special effects, and his support of education focusing on machinima and media incuding presenting at SL/RL various conferences. Lowe also takes an active role in assisting his company partner in RL/SL media class education. He recently produced a silent machinima and donated it to the university for students to add all sound as an assignment. (My avatar was in this production since I am friends with both Lowe and Soni and it can be viewed here: SilentLearningVidHere. ) He has produced featured and award winning machinima in SL and has worked for Best of Second Life as a machinimatographer. Lowe Runo is a graphics artist with over 30 years experience in still photography, animation and video production. I've been fortunate enough to be in some of Lowe's productions and photos and he is great fun to work with. Lowe has been supportive of SL media and arts for many years and in the past year has established himself as a leader in SL machinima. Lowe recently signed a contract together with Soni for a RL book on machinima. To learn more about Lowe and his work follow the links below.
LRhere.
MAGhere.
PROMAGhere.
MAGeducation.
LoweYoutube.
LoweVimeo.
Moolto.
Lowe can also be found on Avatars United, Facebook, Twitter, Plurk, Koinup, Flickr, Avatars International and all over the worldwide web for his machinima. Contact information in the links or at: lowe_runo@hotmail.com














(photo of Soni, courtesy of Sonicity Fitzroy)






Sonicity Fitzroy, who I previously featured on this blog regarding her role as a BOSLradio DJ, is a former RL DJ personality and is currently an associate professor of media at a university. Dr. Fitzroy conducts some of her RL undergrad and graduate level media classes in or around SL. She is the machinima reviews editor for the Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds, is a ProMAG machinima reviewer and has several of her own blogs. She has been a speaker in numerous SL/RL conferences. Internationally, she has presented at Cambridge University, IT University of Copenhagen, and Bangor University, among others. In SL Dr. Fitzroy is also active as a BOSL events writer for both the monthly publications and their blog. She and her RL/SL husband Shock Soderstrom, also own and operate the Chicagoland Club and mall area with shops featuring Soni's own designs and clothing. Soni's primary role in the LR Productions partnership will focus on education, class instruction, literary needs, and media outreach. Dr. Fitzroy is a multi-published author, with her most recent RL book, Second Life, Media and the Other Society to be released June 7th with a SL book launch party and media fair Sunday, June 6 from 11am to 6pm SLT.

-11am SLT-Media fair showcasing art & media of some mentioned in the book
-12noon SLT-SL Journalist Persia Bravin and Machinima Artist Guild founder Lowe Runo will emcee the opening festivities, which includes a special screening of various media works
-1pm SLT-opening remarks will feature BOSL CEO Frolic Mills on the community role of media in virtual worlds. Dr. Fitzroy will provide an informal introduction to her book, and acknowledge the more than 20 contributors, as well as the approximately 50SL residents who are mentioned in her book.
-2pm SLT-Live music by AcousticEnergy Nitely
-3pm SLT-Live music by The Follow
-4pm SLT-Live DJ and closing
All events will occur at the Moolto Community region: BookLaunchPartyHere.

For more information about Sonicity Fitzroy she can be found reviewing for ProMAG as linked above, as well as the above mentioned MAG link. Soni can also be found on Flickr, Koinup, Avatars United and across the internet as both Sonicity Fitzroy and her real life being. Note: Soni has an impressive RL Vita, but that is her real life and my blog is about SL. She can be reached at: sonicityfitzroy@yahoo.com
Additional informatoin can be found:
SoniMagnum.
BOSL.
SupSoni.
SoniSongs.
Soniblog.
SimplySoni.

Second Life, Media, and the Other Society examines the convergence of media in the largest residential virtual community to date in the gaming world: Second Life.
More about this book here on Amazon: Amazon.

Today during the tour I snapped a few pics as seen here. The large area houses the corporate office at the base level, with studio, green room, numerous sets and other portable things as needed in other areas. At the ground level in back is a beautiful stadium with nice seating features that will be ideal for machinima reviews, educational presentations and possibly other activities such as some types of fashion shows with the beautiful walkway to the stadium and scenic beach area. The large main building currently features offices, large class or board room areas and some beautiful art works by SL artists gifted over time to Lowe.




For a professional quality machinima you will forever treasure contact this company for price lists for machinima in the areas of advertisement, education, documenting weddings, birthday or rez day parties, live music performances, Youtube videos, any SL memories, making a story, just for fun, or anything SL will let you dream up. RL inquiries can also be discussed.

On a personal note I secretly refer to Lowe and Soni as the dynamic duo with Lowe as Machinima Man and Soni as Word Woman.. shhh don't tell them I said this. They are both great people RL and SL and deserve their well earned RL/SL company and success. They are very hard working professionals who I sometimes have to remind to take a break and play and relax a little. And lucky for me of course they do!

Sci Fi Heaven: Heaven's Romance Garden in Sylverbird

A friend of mine recently asked if I wanted to visit his place. I said sure, fully expecting it to be a typical beach house, skybox home, or something of that nature. Boy was I in for a surprise when I landed on a HUGE spaceship with several adjoining spaceships that I would have previously called huge but now somehow seemed small compared to the largest one. The area was put together and is owned by barry Richez. First barry showed me a bit of the large spaceship with its many corridors and nooks and crannies filled with pose balls and space equipment to play with. Then he took me out into space for a heavenly experience that equals any of the top sims I have visited so far in SL. There are many places to relax as an individual or as a couple and the teleporters named them as follows: -Espace Omega Meditation in Space, -Galerie Alphaluna Creations, -Espace Vision, -Espace Tai Chi, Skybox, -Espace Meditation, -Espace Paradise Island, -space Concerts, -Space Fantazy, -Xena 2 Accueil et Club Alphalune. Clearly barry is French but he communicates well in English too and we had a great time checking the place out.

There are several gallery areas in the spaceships dedicated to art and some of the artists currently featured that I happened to notice include barry himself (he is a RL artist too), Fushia Nightfire, Edith Hifeng, Fredyulajoie Merlin and others.

I made a little video of some of the areas, but it really can't do justice to this wonderful place to explore. barry is multi talented and has made and owns many different types of avatars so if you see him around there, good luck recognizing him the next time. When I first met him he looked like a large tree, but I haven't seen him like that since. I should have known his place would be anything but average. This place is a lot of fun to explore alone, but take a friend to enjoy even more. Check it out: HeavensRomanceGardenHere.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sylverbird/74/156/3184 Sylverbird, barry's sim from Kara Trapdoor on Vimeo.

China Tang Empire-Grand Opening Events This Week

The beautiful and detailed new sim, "China Tang Empire", is having it's grand opening events this week running 5-26-10 through 5-29-10. The sim owner, Valor Renilo, provided me with some details about the sim. He created the sim to be a doorway to part of the Asian/Chinese cluture, knowing that SL provides this opportunity to explore and see, when often RL can't. The ground level of the sim is Tang dynasty including the Tang palace, zen garden, stone pagoda, other pagodas, temple plaza with some nice areas for couples and friends including taichi and kungfu balls and a love island at the corner of the sim. There are 3 levels of underground to explore with various nooks and crannies. This is an absolutely gorgeous sim with a great deal of detail throughout. There are many pose balls and opportunities to interact as well. One of the first things I did was play a konghou then a taiko while another couple enjoyed some green tea in the same area. I found a beautiful flowery area with intan and made a new friend. Check out this sim that I think most everyone can fully appreciate. ChinaHere.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/China%20Tang%20Empire/40/165/29

The schedule of events for the grand openening are as follows:
*** Opening Week Music Performances ***
--MAY 26 (Wed) 9AM SLT - 10AM SLT
MoShang Zhao
--MAY 26 (Wed) 1030AM SLT - 1130AM SLT
jaynine Scarborough
--MAY 27 (Thu) 12PM SLT - 130 PM SLT
Mankind Tracer (good time to catch up with him as I heard he may cut back on SL performances for RL ones)
--MAY 29 (Sat) 9PM SLT - 10PM SLT
MoShang Zhao
--MAY 29 (Sat) 3PM SLT - 430PM SLT
Andreus Gustafson
--MAY 29 (Sat) 5PM SLT - 6PM SLT
Young Zeid (see my prior post and mini vid that included Young)
--MAY 29 (Sat) 7PM SLT - 830PM SLT
Quinton Diavolo

Valor Renilo

Emerald Viewer Issues-Not To Be an Alarmist, But................

So I log in to SL today minding my own business only to find that apparently not everyone is minding their own business. One of my best SL friends asked if I have heard about the lastest Emerald scandal. I thought, "O no, not my beloved Emerald again". Sure enough there is yet another Emerald issue to deal with and I don't know much about it or even understand it much, but the gist of it is that reportedly somehow documents were recently leaked from the ModularSystems.com web site that includes a dump of a secret “datamine” data base containing over 39,000 entries tracking 16,740 Second Life players, detailing avatar name, avatar key, and IP address. OF COURSE Kara's name HAD to be on this list. Maybe I should not advertise that. Well I changed my password for whatever that is worth and will carry on and hope there are no Kara stalkers out there in RL. (Note to potential stalkers: Large vicious dogs and guns are not uncommon where I live) A note is circulating around SL today as follows: IMPORTANT !!!!

Important for Emerald users.
for all the people who use or used Emerald :
It is reccomended to change the password and to check if your avi name is on the list of the first link below...a datebase of Emarald has been stolen...it contains IP adresses, UID and timestamps of 16.000 avatars.
http://alphavilleherald.com/2010/05/emerald-devs-modular-systems-data-mine-tracks-16740-avatars.html
http://modularsystems.sl/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=regarding-the-concerns-over-the-database-compromise.html&Itemid=1
Spread this NC, and check your friends also on the list.

LeakedEmeraldListHere.

Well for all I know this may or may not be a problem or even real, but here is a direct link so maybe you can all now figure out where your SL friends live in RL. Just don't mess with me, I like to relax in SL and am too busy for stalkers in RL. Thanks

Delicatessen Reopens-Just Amazing!

Me in foreground as tree with brains- Mariana, one of the 3 full avatars they provide free for the plucking like fruit from a large tree!

Meilo as Madalena in Delicatessen


The Amazing Delicatessen sim reopens today Saturday, May 22, 2010. I jummped in early with high expectations since I know the sim owners, Meilo Minotaur and CapCat Ragu (via Flickr friends), and what great works they do. I saw a few sneak peak pics on their Flickr streams and knew it was going to be great. This is NOT a sandwich shop by any means.

Thankfully Capcat put a little write up in Flickr about the place for better understand and I will paraphrase here a bit: "de Maria, de Mariana, de Madalena" is a a project conceived for the 5th edition of All My Independent Women, a platform for feminist thinking and exhibition that occurs across Portugal. Most projects are on display in Coimbra at Casa da Esquina, between May 21 and June 18, 2010 RL.

This year's edition of AMIW revolves around the book "Novas Cartas Portuguesas" by Maria Isabel Barreno, Maria Teresa Horta and maria Velho da Costa, first published in 1972, banned by the dictatorship until April 1974.

This SL display invites visitors to embody themselves as a woman. They have 3 unique avatars free for all to pluck as fruits from a tree in the sim. Be sure to click the words, notes and trees for a English translation of the Portuguese notes. The sim is filled with many unique sites and I have a few pics here. There are pose balls around and photographers as well as explorers and artists will love this place. Check it out.

Poses by Del May, Frigg Ragu, and CapCat Ragu

Check it out for yourself here: Delicatessen.

"It's a Wonderful Second Life: Breathe 2" by Sam Lowry

SL in a nutshell for me. Check out Sam's other machinima on Youtube.
SamLowry.

Post note: This is the craziest story, but seriously happened. Not 5 minutes after I saw Sam's machinima on Youtube, made a comment and dragged a copy over here to my blog, I dropped into Lost World and right in front of me was Sam as a knight in shining armour on a horse. Of course I had to start a conversation as this was way too ironic plus I wanted to talk to him. He changed before my eyes into this creature as also seen in his machinima, and I snapped a few quick shots. He was very nice. I was just blown away by the coincidence.

Rhythm & Time Nightclub... coming soon!

Located in the Chicagoland Club and mall area, this new club was taking staff apps. last night so I popped in and flipped on the camera. DJ JonAri Turbo owns and operates the club and the sim is owned by Shock and Soni. Keep an eye open for this club... it's gonna be great! The main dance floor is huge and you can see all the lights and effects, and there is a upper level lounge type space with games too. I tried to show both areas. I added How Low music by Ludacris becuase I like it, but JonAri plays all types of music.

Ok, actually I made this video becuase I got a brand spanking new doorknob, I mean space navigator from the postman. I hate instructions, but plugged this sucker in last night, ran to this club, flipped on the video, and gave it a go. I can tell I am going to LOVE it once I get control over it, but for the moment it has control over me and I didn't have the patience or time last night to work on learning how to really use it. I am sure there is a tutorial or something that will help me some day or maybe I will just wing it like everything else. In the mean time it flew all over the club without me so I basically just watched then edit out a little video to put up. It's good PR for the club anyway.. well haha I think. The club is cool though, so check it out. R&TSLurlhere.

Untitled from Kara Trapdoor on Vimeo.

Teagan Darkness & EQuality Creations

The Large glowing flying pests!
The huge shrimp-like sea creatures

This weekend I found two amazing sims right next to each other that meld into one huge place to explore. I spent hours there and kept finding new corners of beauty and horror. The strange place elicits very mixed emotions and even the beautiful music is in great contrast to the overwhelming sounds which I switched back and forth between so I could get the full effect of each. I took many pictures and am afraid they don't do this place justice at all, as it is best viewed dark in order to enjoy all the beautiful photoluminescent plant life and also capture the breathtaking freakishness of the strange animals/monsters around each corner just waiting to suprise a person time and time again with the strangeness of it all. I can only say.. don't miss a thing.

Some of my favorites were humming giant purple flying pests around the beautiful underbrush, the rat filled, green goo flowing pipe tunnel that at the end opens to a gorgeous underwater dance area confused with colorful coral and water plants that houses monstrous sea life and a HUGE alien glowing eyed THING just outside the glassed dance area that seems to be watching. The EQuality Creations area says it's under construction, but it is pretty full and so well done that I can't imagine any changes being made. I enjoyed all the various and many earth and sea monsters, giant spider cave, king kong, underwater observation areas, games, two very unique rides, horse rides, elven drum area, buildings, tunnels, towers and actually just everything about this enormous place.

Combined, the two areas make for many hours of fun. I imagine the Teagan Darkness area as some cave visited by beings from outer space who left something toxic that mutated the animals and plant life. Of course this is just a wild guess. I wonder if there was a note card or instructions in there somewhere telling what it really is about. I will have to go back and see and probably spend another few hours in there. Be sure to visit this one. Teagan Darkness is by Ed Exodus and EQuality Creations which is owned by Ed, but EQuality Creations is presented by Tricia Farella who also brings us the extrodinary Retropolis, another impressive sim area that has to be carefully explored in order to not miss the not so obvious and most extreme. I have seen and heard of many people going there and only exploring one level and missing so much of the best stuff. If anyone needs a grand tour give me a hollar.

Equality.
Teagan.

Some of the pretty fish
One of the rides


Post Note: I was back (of course) and Ed was there so I had to ask and he said he feels his area is somewhat post apocolyptic and part underwater. He did say he has plans for much more for this sim. And when I gushed forth my many praises over his work he handed me a landmark for another of his sims he said has many hidden places I might enjoy finding. Wraith. Yay, I'm off to explore new worlds. Again.

Washes' Art Street Fair: May 15th to May 31st, 2010

Yesterday May 15th was the grand opening event of this art street fair.. THAT I MISSED... thanks to real life and being so caught up in one new sim during the time I did have inworld (which I will cover next). It sounded great so I went today, since the fair does run all month. I regret not see the live music and probably a lot of my Flickr friends who were at the opening day events yesterday, but today was lag free and I took my time browsing. The Fair and events are brought to us by Car Wash and M.T. Gallery, Washes.wordpress.com.

Some of the artist on display include: Mariella Tammas, Nai, Musique Gable, Senna Coronet, Paolatauber, Del May, Starlash, Ariel Brearly, Fingers Scintilla, Theoretical Afterthough, Lifer, VENK, Morgan Mocha, Monika Finchy, ahlan Bingyi, Zeeva Quintessa, Noir Maelstrom, Scarlet Highfield, Lena Bloch, Skip Staheli, Natalia Gustafson, Lulu Jameson, Kato Salyut, Gianmario Masala, Morgana Nagorski, Aelin Quan, Ocean Blackthorne, Metadored Lonesome, BAZZ, nano Enigma, Ado, Raven, Looker Lumet, Burk Bode, Lisbeth Jummibaum, Di Hoorenbeek, riri Bazar, Medina, Tamzin Xigalia, Mr. Munro, Jeddazen, Domino Bristol, and Six. Well anyway, some of these names may not be exactly right, as I know most of them from Flickr which is not always the same at SL, but you get the point.

This is a very cool place to shop and while I was there for the new art which is set up on crossboard displays in the roads throughout the area, I did also enjoy the regular shops and HAD to visit the old time car wash of course. This is the cutest car wash with music and dances inside the shop and a real SL car wash attached that I drove my own rezzed Mustang through, first getting the soapy bubbles, roller wipes, rinse and then dry. I was tempted when done to peel out with my shiny clean car, but then remembered there were quite a few very impressive art displays in the roads done by my friends and so decided I could release my need for speed on a track later.

It was still early in the morning when I visited, yet I saw some Flickr friends around and I'm sure this will be a hangout for many. Check it out. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Car%20Wash/123/194/24
CarwashHere.

The Finest WorkSong: REM, Machinima by Shock!

Check out this great machinima by my friend Shock Soderstrom! He made a cool vid, and if you look fast you can see Kara in there!!! But check out his YouTube channel and leave him a sweet message too. Shockhere.

2 Day Music/Fundraiser Event at Gwampa's

GwampasHere.

Gwampa's Dance Camp, the 4 sim live music area known for being virtually crashless, is host to a 2 day event/fundraiser for a online crisis prevention network brought to you by TWLOHA, 1-800-suicide and PostSecret. Gwampa's has art by suicide survivors set up on either side of the stage for this event. I'm currently here listening to The Follow and there is a whole lineup of live music scheduled for today and again tomorrow.

Odds N Ends... Saturday things to do

5-8-10
12-2pm SLT-Vaneeesa Blaylock Company /Performance Artists presents VB17 Dark Side of the Moon where 30 avs will make a Plato body formation 3 1/2 kilometers above the Booville sim, freefall, then finish by parachuting in at the Booville skydiving area.

BOSLradio-friend Sonicity Fitzroy DJ: Soni.

1pm SLT- The Avatrait Gallery, Casablanca Estates Two-featuring Adianna Price and Kahlan Bingyi, with music from DJ Javier Dulce.

1pm SLT-FoamDome Party at Zodiac Zodiac. This is a SUPER cool space themed area that I posted a flickr pic on a couple of days ago. Great place to play and explore. Today they will rez the foamdome an hour before the party. Sounds like fun.

3-4pm-SLT-Classical Piano Concerto Azael Glom event area of the MCA. Museum of Contempora Alajuela

4pm SLT-Acousticenergy Nightly at Chain of Love.

4pm SLT-Alice in WonderSLand by Repertory Theater. Runs May 2 through May16th. Not the cutesy Alice you find in movies, but a little girl's dark fears about growing up. Tickets are 500L and can be purchased on xstreet.

6pm SLT-UWA-BOSL Amphitheater grand opening celebration. This is a large 4 sim open air theater with 200 seating capacity. This space was donated to use for non-profit art, education and charity events-free to use by persons willing to organize such events. Schedule includes Jayjay Zifanwe, Patch Thibald, Frolic Mills and concert by Mankind Tracer. UWABOSL.

4-12pm The Cypress Rosewood flood relief benefit concert mentioned below.

OtherSLEvents.


And a little someting cool for Sunday Mother's day -6-8pm SLT in NYCShh club, DJ Vixie Durant with Lady Gaga night: LadyGaga.

Flood Relief Benefit for Cypress Rosewood

This evening I joined over 80 other avatars in the French Quarter sim to enjoy some back to back live music by some of SL's most popular musicians raising donations for Cypress Rosewood, whose home has been ravaged by the TN flooding. I made a short vid of one of my favs Skye Galaxy and a friend of mine, Kolor Fall, who were up consecutively. By the time I left there was almost $400,000L in the tips jars and more music left in the lineup to come.

Cypress himself showed up for a short time and talked about how he was away from home when his wife and daughter had to rush to leave the house, how he had seen a black crow just prior and wondered if it was a sign, how a special guitar was saved when many thigs around it were a total loss, and some of his observations and feelings about the flooding. He said he most likely would not be able to be back in full swing in SL for a few weeks because of the flooding and losses. I previously had a note telling how the flooding was up to the window sills in his home. I'm sure this is a very traumatic time for him and his family and hope everyone has a chance to donate to this gentleman who has been very supportive of SL musicians.

There will be another live music benefit 5-8-10 from 4 to 12 SLT at The Pocket Freestar Bay Isle/216/32/24.. At 7:45 SLT Azar Shelman, friend to Cypress (Tony Dyson, the man who built R2D2 RL) will do a Q&A session annd pass out gifts to the audience. Another artist I look forward to seeing is ColeMarie Soliel at 6pm SLT.

If you haven't heard Cypress before, he's a RL/SL live musician himself and a RL/SL radio host. To tip direction go to: http://www.Cypressrosewood.com

Below is a quick little vid I took between crashes with the newly installed updated viewer and yes I did overlap Skye's music becuase I thought it was cool and he hit the high notes.

Untitled from Kara Trapdoor on Vimeo.

Hybrid.. A Sophia Yates Machinima

A fun thing I was lucky enough to participate in a short time ago was the filming of a machinima by Sophia Yates. The video can be seen on Youtube here:
Hybrid. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvtEE8DQEss
I snapped a few shots while they were filming so of course these pics on my blog focus on me, but Sophia & Edward star in the machinima. This is a story about aliens and I was pleased to get to play both an alien and a woman. The main character is a mix between human and alien. The women had the mix breed children and were sent back home, but this one woman could not forget her child who then revisits her later in life. Watch it for youself and see how the tale unfolds. Sophia features some of the sims I previously blogged (Utopia) for the World Expo. Some of the cute things during the fliming included Sophia's hybrid baby frequently wretching and along with the loud God awful sounds spewed forth disgusting green vomit occasionally. (I really wanted one of those). I think it was Lapiscean, Ataria and I who as aliens had the wood conversation.. and um.. someone had to go to the bathroom and couldn't find toilet paper in the woods which led to a whole conv. about what could be used. Sophia and Edward missed this convo. becuase they were up at the house filming, making their way slowly to us aliens hiding in the woods laying in wait for them. I wonder if they would have fired us extras had they heard us. In the end I even got an alien dance which was kind of different than my normal Kara SL days. It's a cute machinima and was tons of fun to be a part of. Check it out.

Vote for Second Life Sesame Street Machinima!

Vote for Second Life Sesame Street Machinima! Super cute and would be great for SL and for machinima if this wins and/or gets a lot of attention! Check it out here:

SLSesameStreet.

http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2010/05/sl-on-sesame-street.html

World Expo-SL Machinima, Art & Sims Featured

The 2010 World Expo runs May 1 through October 31st in Shanghai, China (real life) this year. Expo. The Expo hosts over 250 countries and expects 70-100 million guests.

The SL group, "Open This End", was selected to be a part of this event. I have been made aware of numerous SL sims, art and machinima participating and will try to show and list some of what I have seen here. I'm told Aino Baar, a first life curator, has been instrumental along with Bryn Oh in this venture. The expo showcases SL machinima on five 4 metre wide monitors on the "air tree" structure at the Madrid Pavillion. Bryn Oh has been given 5 sims by Linden Labs to showcase SL art. Some of SL's leading artists have been asked to participate creating unique sims echoing a traditional chinese folk story "The Whisper Tree". The tree is the central theme to each sim.(credit: Kazuhiro Aridian) Some of the artists involved include Bryn Oh, Glyph Graves, Marcus Inkpen, Colemarie Soleil, Soror Nishi, Azuhiro Ardian, and Desdemona Enfield. Sl residents are also invited to get involved by submitting machinima of the five islands.

Each island will be missing something. Island one is missing love and joy. Island two energy, three colour, four sound and five light. When an avatar whispers to a tree within each sim it grants a wish. The wish is to return that which was missing.


Island one (no love/emotion)= UtopiaNoLove. This sim by Bryn Oh has unique structures that I had a difficult time capturing all together in one shot, as it is set with specific windlight and spread out a bit. It's a great disply with moving parts, and the first thing I did when visiting this sim is to fly into a big ball that shattered upon impact only to rejuvinate itself for the next of many victims I watched do the same. The tower structure has the dropping balls in true Bryn Oh style and the tree is the central focal point as it is in all 5 sims. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Utopia01/124/99/29

Sim One, No Love



Island two (no energy)= UtopiaEntrophy. My friend Glyph Graves gave me information about his contribution to his sim, Entropy, Island two. The main thing to emphasize about his is that you absolutely have to experience it first hand to fully appreciate the complexity and beauty of it. True to his form, the sim is interactive and when visiting be sure to read the notecard provided to learn simply how to cause the statues to fragment, color change, flex and float around for a very surreal experience. He even has more excitment planned for this sim, so I intend to keep my eye on this one. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Utopia02/145/101/25

Sim Two, NO Energy


Island three (no colour)= UtopiaNoColor. Another of Bryn Oh's additions with Soror Nishi is an interesting sim I have seen pictures of popping up around flickr and youtube machinima for a little while now. The old time background music emitting from an old floating tv lends a nice touch to this interesting sim, but when further from the tv, I only heard the humming of machine type noise. I tried to use Bryn's windlight presets again, but these are best for visiting or close ups really and don't seem to lend to full sim pics. The sim includes the Vessles Dream web link. This sim is best known for it's shopping cart pile up surrounded by crows, but while I sat in the top cart, as everyone does, the pile suddenly changed and I was sitting in a beautiful tree, only to see it later chang back to the shopping carts again. Maybe someone else whispered to the tree. A fun sim. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Utopia03/138/126/31

Sim Three, No Colour



Island four (no sound)= UtopiaNoSound. A sim I visited last night, and posted several pictures to my flickr, is Utopia, No Sound, by Marcus Inkpen. This is a very impressive sim with two primary structures with lots of uniquely designed rooms, texture and style and I hope you can get a little bit of an idea of this from my pictures. This amazing sim is an explorer and photographer's dream. Be sure to check it out. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Utopia04/128/128/21

Sim Four, No Sound

Island five (no light)= UtopiaNoLight. The last in the series I visited for the first time today and is also by Bryn Oh. The central tree in this sim is covered in lights. At first glance it appears to be the smallest and least detailed of the five sims, but I was plesantly surprised to find many small items of interest upon further exploration. When visiting be sure not to miss any of the tiny details around. While there I even ran in to Colemarie one of the above mentioned artists. href="http://slurl.com/secondlife/Utopia05/131/132/21



Some of the machinima I am aware of that are involved are listed below. Check them out on Youtube when you get a chance.
Artists:
Colemarie Soleil Colemarie

Bryn Oh BrynOh

Chantal Harvey ChantalHarvey

Mescaline Tammas