Cica Ghost is back for October with another whimsical installation with White, which opened its doors on October 14th, 2024. The setting uses a quote from the American portrait and genre artist, Charles Webster Hawthorne (1872-1930), who is perhaps most famous for for his lushly painted portraits and landscapes and for founding the Cape Cod School of Art (1899):
Put variety in white.
To be honest, I’ve no idea of the context in which the quote was originally given, but Cica has taken it to heart ahead of the coming of winter in the northern hemisphere to give us a symphony of white from the ground on which we walk when visiting to the sky overhead. Has it snowed? Is the world frosted? Are we perhaps in another realm entirely? You decide.
Cica Ghost, October 2024 – White
Certainly, the creatures scattered through the landscape are somewhat otherworldly; some appear slug-like (but friendly – for the most part!) as they sit upon the pockmarked white of the ground; others appear to be partially extruded from that very ground, as if squeezed up from below – or perhaps they are simply lying partially buried for some reason; still other looks like alien mice, small (compared to their companions!) and potentially huggable. Some even look like hills within the landscape – at least until their maws open in a long, slow yawn-like motion.
The structures here are equally strange, carrying with them the feeling that they’ve also been extruded from the ground – or some giant little boy or girl has been building the more extraordinary sandcastle-like creations as they raise trumpet-like appendages to the sky.
Cica Ghost, October 2024 – White
But then, also, there are the tall flowers, snowdrop-like in their white innocence and the monochrome butterflies flittering overhead (and under at least one of which people can ride); these look so natural, so familiar, it’s hard to place this strange place as being anywhere else than on Earth. And perhaps it is; perhaps it is a dreamscape, and we are invited to be travellers crossing it. The choice is yours.
And that’s the beauty of Cica’s installations: they allow us a moment of escape, a chance to relax and inhale the air of whimsy. so – enjoy!
Cica Ghost, October 2024 – White
SLurl Details
White by Cica Ghost (Mysterious Isle, rated Moderate)
Simurg – Halloween + Autumn, October 2024 – click any image for full size
In June 2024, I dropped into Simurg, an engaging 4096 sq metre parcel seated within a Full region leveraging the Land Capacity bonus and designed by Lintu (KorppiLintu). Presented as a photogenic location, it offered an engaging mix of ancient history and a touch of fantasy mythology (see: Simurg’s mythical beauty in Second Life). Since then, Lintu has been busy expanding that build (of which more later), and is also presenting another setting specifically for the Halloween season.
Also located on a Full region (but entirely separate to Simurg), this is Simurg + Halloween in Autumn. Occupying a parcel roughly twice the size of Simurg, it offers an equally engaging location for photography in which there is more to be found than might meet the eye on first arrival.
The landing point sits on the east side of the setting, which is itself located in the south-east corner of the region, allowing it to to have, in keeping with Simrug, open water on two sides. Indeed, the landing point sits with its back to the sea as it sits in the shadow of two of the buildings within the setting. One of the latter is the Simurg Gothic Cottage, designed by Kwoone Oui (Kwoone), Lintu’s Second Life companion, and it is the first in a series of scenes suitable for the season that are awaiting discovery as one explores.
Simurg – Halloween + Autumn, October 2024
Spreading itself out before the landing point is something of a stone-flagged village square or street, the local chapel and graveyard to one side showing more signs of ghostly goings-on, edged with touches of humour via some of the tombstones, along with plenty of indications the dead are not entirely content to rest. A large house looms up over the back of the chapel, and while it is unfurnished within, its nature is such that it draws the eyes to it. More to the point, a walk up the steps leading to it will provide arched access to a back terrace where fortunes might be read, together with a bridge spanning the gap to another rocky plateau.
This second plateau is home to The Ruined Retreat by Marcus Inkpen, and here offered as what I take – from the cauldron bubbling away in the remnant’s of one of the building’s rooms – is potentially the home of one or more witches. This house overlooks the northern end of the village, where a street runs west from the cliffs, passing assorted places of business and residence (façades), with two of the former being the local apothecary’s abode, where potions and other magical items might be found, and the local music hall where the bare bones of entertainment might be enjoyed (in a manner of speaking 😀 ).
Simurg – Halloween + Autumn, October 2024
The western end of this street takes the form of the open maw of a cave which at first appears to be a rocky tunnel passing under the witches’ house. In fact a wander into it will bring one to the three witches gathered around their cauldron as if awaiting a certain Macbeth to come to them in much the same way as he found the three weyward Sisters (to use the description from Shakespeare’s First Folio) as he crossed the “blasted heath”. Beyond an encounter with the three, the cave will bring those walking through it to a ribbon-like meadow beyond, where horses peacefully graze and water tumbles down rock to fill a pond on which a leaf boat awaits those looking for a place to rest. More on this anon.
However, a look to the left as one reaches the three crones when entering this subterranean walk (or to the right, if coming from the meadow) will reveal a second passage downwards, lit by what first might seem like the flames of hell, given the denizens found along its length. However, allowing for the spider and the webs she has woven, it leads to a quite unexpected and hauntingly attractive setting sitting is a large cavern. With access also provided by steps descending the cliff-face to the south of the Gothic Cottage mentioned above, the cavern also provides access to another little sitting area well away from the rest of the village for those who seek it on the water.
Simurg – Halloween + Autumn, October 2024
Now, to return the to meadow, which can also be reached by walking through the village and passing under the bridge leading to the witches’ house. Follow the path meandering through it and past the pond, and you’ll come to both a further little seating area, and open against the rock wall a teleport portal that will carry you to Simurg, delivering you to one side of that setting. Here, a further portal directly behind you will take you up to the gardens, or a walk through one of the arches under the stone curtain and then across the stepping stones beyond, will bring you to the ruins.
Neither the gardens nor the ruins have significantly changed since my last visit (although some details have been added / removed), although they do now sit under a most dramatic sky. Two enormous craft hang in the sky above, their form perhaps vaguely reminiscent with Stargate SG-1’s ships of the Ori for those familiar with that show (a not entirely out-of-place line of thinking, given the show’s dives into mythologies and an ancient history, etc.).
Simurg – Ancient and Underwater City, October 2024
However, the most significant change is to be found by using a further teleport portal located within raised garden to carry you below the flagstoned and partially-flooded floor of the main structure. Here you will find the aquatic element of the setting that gives it its extended name: Ancient & Underwater City. It is a place of flooded ruins where a trio of Roman deities – Venus, Mars and Saturn – are joined by the Romano-Hellenistic goddess Diana in poses of battle, as kraken-like tentacles rise from even greater depths below the submerged ruins, while sea plants and fish calmly go about their business.
I did not find a teleport portal linking Simurg back the the Halloween setting – which might be simply a case of lack of seeing on my part – so I’ll add the Simug link below as well, as if you’ve not visited either, both are more than worth the time, offering as they do compact settings with plenty to explore and appreciate. I assume Simurg Halloween + Autumn will vanish some time after October 31st – so be sure to visit on or before then!
Simurg – Ancient and Underwater City, October 2024
Seconds from capture: Super Heavy Booster 12 descends between the “chopsticks” of the Mechazilla lifting system of the tower from which it and Ship 30 launched less than 8 minutes previously, as the arms close around it in readiness for a safe capture during the fifth integrated flight test of SpaceX’s starship / super heavy launch system. Story below. Credit: SpaceX via the NSF.com livestream.
Hera: Return to Didymos
On November 24th, 2021, NASA launched the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, a vehicle aimed at testing a method of planetary defence against near-Earth objects (NEOs) that pose a real risk of impact, by smashing an object into them and using kinetic energy to deflect them from their existing trajectory.
To achieve this, the spacecraft was both a science probe and impact device, and it was launched to rendezvous with the binary asteroid 65803 Didymos (Greek for “twin”), comprising a primary asteroid approximately 780 metres across, and a smaller companion called Dimorphos (Greek: “two forms”). These sit within a heliocentric orbit which periodically cross that of Earth whilst also reaching out beyond Mars , which occupy a heliocentric orbit that periodically crosses that of Earth. On reaching the pair, DART smashed into Dimorphos, successfully altering its orbit around Didymos.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 lifts-off from Cape Canaveral Space force station’s SLC-41 on Monday, October 7th, 2024, carrying the European Space Agency’s Hera asteroid mission to the binary asteroids Didymos and Dimorphos. Credit: ESA/SpaceX
I covered the launch of the mission in Space Sunday: a DART plus JWST and TRAPPIST-1 updates, and the aftermath of the impact two years ago in Space Sunday: collisions, gamma bursts and rockets. Since then there has been much reported on what has happened to Dimorphos in the wake of the impact, but scientists have been awaiting a planned follow-up mission to the Didymos pairing which could survey the outcome up close. And that mission is now underway, courtesy of the European Space Agency (ESA).
Launched at 14:52:11 UTC on Monday, October 7th from Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, ESA’s Hera mission made it away from Earth just ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Milton. Lift-off marked the start of a two-year journey for the 1.1 tonne solar-powered spacecraft – also called Hera, after the mythological Greek goddess, rather than the name being an acronym –, as it heads first for Mars, which it will pass in March 2025 at a distance of between 5,000 and 8,000km. Taking the opportunity to test its science instruments in studying the tiny outermost Martian moon, Deimos as it does so, Hera will use the Martian gravity well to swing itself onto a trajectory so it can rendezvous with Didymos in December 2026.
Hera spacecraft design. The locations of the different payload elements are indicated (AFC = Asteroid Framing Cameras; TIRI = Thermal InfraRed Imager; PALT = Planetary ALTimeter; SMC = Small Monitoring Cameras. Credit: Michael, Kuppers, et al, ESA
The cube-shaped vehicle will have a primary mission of six months orbiting the Didymos pair, split into 5 phases:
Initial characterisation (6 weeks): determine the global shape and mass/gravity together with the thermal and dynamical properties of both asteroids.
Payload deployment (4 weeks): release two small cubesats, Juventas and Milani. The former will attempt to land on Didymos to conduct direct surface and sub-surface science, the latter will gather spectral data on the two asteroids and the surrounding dust cloud resulting from the DART impact.
Detailed characterisation (6 weeks): metre-scale mapping of the asteroids and determination of thermal, spectral, and interior properties.
Dimorphos observations (6 weeks): High-resolution investigations of a large fraction of the surface area of Dimorphos, including the DART impact crater.
Experimental (6 weeks): study the morphological, spectral, and thermal properties of Dimorphos.
Overall, the mission is designed to accuracy access the overall success of the DART mission if deflecting Dimorphos in its orbit around Didymos (and thus the effectiveness of using kinetic impact to deflect NEOs threatening Earth with an impact) and to characterise both asteroids to help us better understand the composition, etc., of typical NEOs, so that the data obtained might help further refine plans for potential future asteroid redirect missions.
Hera, with the crescent Earth to one side, seen from the SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage following vehicle separation and prior to solar array deployment. October 7th, 2024. Credit: SpaceX/ESA
One of the major elements of the mission has been the development of sophisticated guidance and mapping software which will allow Hera, using a series of compact sensor systems, to autonomously construct a map of the Didymos system and the space around it. It will then use this map to determine for itself the safest orbital trajectories around the asteroids to avoid impacts with any remaining rock and dust debris remaining in orbit around both bodies from the DART impact, and of a sufficient size to damage it in a collision.
Following launch, Hera successfully separated from the upper stage of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle and called ESA’s mission control to confirm it was operating correctly and ready to start crucial operations such as deploying its solar panels. In November 2024, the vehicle will perform a “mid-flight” adjustment to better align its trajectory to Mars.
Starship Flight 5
October 13th saw the launch of the fifth Starship / Super Heavy combination from the SpaceX facilities at Boca Chica – and the first attempt to bring a booster back to the launch pad and catch it using the “chopsticks” of the Mechazilla mechanism on the launch tower.
A lot of people – myself included – severely doubt(ed) the ability of both the long-term viability of the idea of catching boosters and launch vehicles out of the air, or whether this flight could prove the concept. Credit falls where due, and for this flight we were proven wrong.
A drones-eye via of the starship / super heavy launch facility, Boca Chica, Texas as IFT-5 propellant loading is underway. Note the clouds of liquid oxygen forming as a result of venting from the propellant feeds and vehicle tank vents. Credit: SpaceX livestream
The launch came at 13:25 UTC, with the ignition of the 33 Raptor 2 motors lifting the roughly 5,000 tonne mass of the combined Ship 30 and Booster 12 into the morning skies above south Texas. All 33 motors had a good clean burn, and the stack quickly gained altitude. At 2m 40s after launch, and approximately 50km altitude, the majority of the engines on the booster shut down and the six motors on Ship 30 ignited in the “hot staging” burn ahead of separation. Following separation, the booster immediately commenced a manoeuvre to steer away from the starship, in readiness to commence a flight back towards the launch pad.
This started the critical phase of Booster 12’s flight. Initially it continued to gain height ballistically, reaching an altitude of approximately 100 km whilst performing a “boost back” engine burn to slow its ascent and then start a fall back towards the launch site. The manoeuvre was completed with a level of accuracy such that SpaceX confirmed they would proceed with the “return to base” and attempted booster capture. Had the boost-back been off, the capture phase would have been abandoned and the booster allow to make a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.
Boost back: with the hot staging ring a bright dot at the bottom of the image, Booster 12 fall back towards Earth heading towards the launch site. Credit: SpaceX livestream
There followed a series of visible pulses from the booster as it purged excess vapour from this primary propellant tanks while the three central motors gimballed to direct their thrust and steer it away from the jettisoned hot staging ring falling below it. Canting over to being close to horizontal, the booster descended to some 10 km altitude, racing back towards the launch facilities with a speed of 2,860 km/h, before the inner ring of 10 motors fired committing it to an initial braking manoeuvre.
At this point, and abort and splashdown was still possible, but the guidance system on the launch tower was working perfectly, allowing the booster to home into it. At 5km and still travelling at over 1750 km/h the 13 motors that have been firing all shut down, the booster gradually righting itself and decelerating through 1200 km/h before all thirteen re-fired in a final deceleration move before the inner ring of ten engines shut down and the three centre engines took over at at 1 km altitude to steer the booster in for capture.
With propellant vapours also burning form the mid-point vents, Booster 12 approaches the launch tower in readiness for capture. Credit: SpaceX livestream
The final part of the descent witnessed flames rising along two sides of the booster. The first, and larger of the two appeared to originate at the Quick Disconnect ports at the bottom of the booster (the connectors for loading propellants into the booster). The second appears part-way up the booster, possibly at vent ports for the main propellant tanks. This may have been ignited by flames from the lower fire reaching around the vehicle and setting vapours from the vents alight. Neither fire affected the vehicle’s performance as it slowed rapidly and descend precisely between the Mechazilla “chopsticks”, although it did actually come quite close to striking the tower in the process.
At precisely the same time, the “chopsticks” started to close on either side of the booster such that once it was vertical, the arms were close enough for it to gently lower itself onto them using four hard points around its hull (called “pins”, and specifically designed to allow the “chopsticks” take the booster’s unladen weight when raising / lowering it), which came to rest precisely on “shock absorbers” running along the length of the arms, designed to dissipate the weight of the booster as it dropped onto them. At this point, the Raptor engines shut down, and because of the fire, the onboard fire suppression system appeared to activate.
Even so, the fire rocket continued for several minutes, giving rise to fears of a possible post-capture explosion, but vent valves at the top of the booster were opened, allowing any remaining propellant vapours in the header tanks (smaller propellant tanks used for the final decent and capture) to be released away from the vehicle, greatly reducing the rick of explosion, and the vehicle remained intact on the launch tower.
In all, a remarkable achievement for a first attempt. Kudos to SpaceX.
However, the booster’s successful capture just under 8 minutes after launch wasn’t the end of the flight. As Booster was making its return, Ship 30 continued on its way to orbit, reaching a peak altitude of some 211 km as it cruised half-way around the world.
As it passed across Africa, the vehicle started a slow decent back into the atmosphere, passing over the tip of southern Madagascar as it gently dropped from 119 km to 115km. At around 100m altitude, it started to show the first indications of plasma built-up due the frictions created as it pushed the air molecules around it against their neighbours in the increasing atmospheric density, signs which quickly grew in intensity.
Plasma flow around the side of the starship as it passes through the re-entry interface and enters into the period of maximum dynamic stress during descent. Thanks to Starlink, transmissions from the vehicle were largely uninterrupted during the re-entry phase. Credit: SpaceX livestream
At around 75 km altitude, the vehicle entered the period of peak heating – the roughly 10 minute period when the plasma generated around the vehicle reaches its highest temperatures. It was during the period during IFT-4 in June 24, that the starship started to suffer significant burn-through issues and structure loss with one it its aft aerodynamic flaps, and which continued through its decent, destroying pretty much all of the flap in the process. Not of this was evident at this point with Ship 30.
As re-entry progressed, propellant from the header tanks in the vehicle started to be pumped through the three motors that would be used during the final phase of the flight in a “chill down” process to get them down to the desired temperature for full ignition.
At 47 km altitude, and slightly lower than the previous flight, one of the aft flaps on Ship 30 (top left) shows evidence of burn-through along the hinge mechanism. Whilst showing there is is still an issue with the hinges, this time the burn-through did not result in the partial loss of the entire flap. Credit: SpaceX livestream
It was after the period of peak re-entry heating, as the vehicle entered the period of maximum dynamic stress on its structure that the first hints of plasma burn-through began to make their presence visible on one of the two aft flaps (at roughly 48 km altitude), although there was no visible sign of large pieces of the flaps disintegrating, as had been the case in June. Transmissions did break up at this point, resuming as the vehicle entered aerodynamic fee-fall (the “bellyflop”), which showed all four flaps functioning despite the burn-through damage to one.
With less than a kilometre to fall, the three Raptors ignited, and the vehicle tipped upright, and 1 hour 5 minutes after launch, it splashed-down at night, precisely on target in the Indian Ocean. There was around a 20-second period where the vehicle appeared to settle in the water prior to it exploding, the event caught via a remote camera on a buoy positioned a short distance from the target splashdown zone.
20 seconds after splashing down in the Indian Ocean and precisely on target, Ship 30 exploded, the moment caught by a remote camera mounted on a buoy anchored close the the landing zone. Even so, IFT-5 can be counted as nothing short of a successful flight. Credit: SpaceX livestream
The cause of the explosion has yet to be determined – but given that Starship isn’t actually designed to land on water, and the mix of super-heated engine elements and cold sea water isn’t a particularly good one, the explosion shouldn’t be surprising, and doesn’t negate the overall success of the flight.
There is still much more to do in testing this system – such as demonstrating these kinds of “return to base” flights and captures can be achieved consistently. There is also much that is questionable about the starship / super heavy launch system as a whole, particularly in terms of crewed missions to Mars and even in supporting NASA’s Project Artemis lunar aspirations. However, none of this negates what is a remarkable first time achievement for SpaceX with IFT-5.
And here’s another view of the Booster 12 capture – from a camera mounted on the launch tower:
Europa Clipper Update
Previewed in my previous Space Sunday update (see: Space Sunday: Europa Clipper, Vulcan Centaur and Voyager 2), Europa Clipper, NASA’s mission to study the Jovian moon Europa, which had been due to lift-off on Thursday, October 10th, suffered a launch postponement courtesy of Hurricane Milton. The launch is now targeted for 16:06 UTC on Monday, October 14th for launch from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Centre, Florida.
Alex Riverstone sent me an invite to visit his Sugarfish Village, which opened its doors on October 8th, 2024, with a celebration of art running through until the end of the month entitled the Sugarfish Village Art Walk, run in collaboration of Michiel Bechir.
The Village sits within a tropical location at ground level below Alex’s Sugarfish Photography gallery, a place I first visited in July of 2024 (see: A Sugarfish Gallery in Second Life), and offers a number of attractions and points of interest and fun. First among these are the studio spaces, available for artists to use for up to 3 months at a time, rent-free – for more on this see below.
Sugarfish Village Art Walk, October 2024: Raven Arcana
For the Art Walk event, invited artists have been able to set-out their art along the sands and flagstones of the beach, with each artist allocated space for four pieces each. Those participating are: ArtemisDemeter, KharisAdrasteia, TaniaAltAlbatros, YsabellaRose, Alex Riverstone, Ceakay Ballyhoo, Franny Fairywren, Georgie Iceghost, Karsten Iceghost, Lalie Sorbet, Maggie Runo, Noa Cloud, Prins Evergarden, Raven Arcana, Shosha Stransky, Therese Carfagno, Thomaz Blackburn, and Zia Branner. Given this list, the art is diverse, covering Second Life landscapes, avatar studies, and physical world art uploaded to Second Life.
The studio spaces, meanwhile, take the form of shipping containers converted for land-based use. Each is raised on legs and has a deck fronting it, allowing artists to use both the interior and exterior space (such as for seating in the case of the deck). A very generous 100 LI per unit is provided – although Alex informs me this may vary, depending on what else is set-up with the Village. Other details of note on the use the studios includes:
Units are offered on a quarterly basis, with quarters commencing on the first day of January, April, July and October each year. Available units can be requested at any time during the given quarter.
Artists are allowed to sell their art and decorate the interiors of their studio, if they wish. A request to staff can be made to have interior colours in the containers changed as well.
Sugarfish Village Art Walk, October 2024: ArtemisDemeter
All images must conform with the Second Life Terms of Service. Images depicting ageplay, sex, pornography, racism, hatred or of a political nature will not be allowed.
Nudity is allowed, within the bounds stated above.
The emphasis is on art and photography created in the physical world or Second Life; images created using AI or similar tools is not allowed. The focus of the Village is the talent of and techniques used by photographers.
A full notecard on displaying at the Village is available on request.
Sugarfish Village Art Walk, October 2024: Ceakay Ballyhoo
As well as the studios and the open-air exhibitions space along the sands, the Village boasts the O-Shen Diner sitting to one end of the studio containers. Set back a short way from the beach and reach via steps is the cosy little Tick Tock Café with seating indoors and out and a dance area just below it, between it and the beach (and presumably for opening events or just a little dance hang-out.
There’s also something of a clubhouse where people can hang out, complete with table games and fishing, and which has an over-the-water deck behind it offering another place to hang out. For those feeling energetic there also are rock walls behind the clubhouse, while a swan boat rezzer is available alongside the deck for those wanting to go a-paddling on the waters of the bay.
Sugarfish Village, October 2024
In all, Sugarfish Village makes for an engaging place to both visit and appreciate art, and to display your own art if you are an artist / photographer. Highly recommended.
Witchcraft & Voodoo in New Orleans: The End, October 2024 – click any image for full size
In August, I wrote about New Deer Isle and the touch of America’s New England that Kaiden Glocke Tray (KaidenTray) had brought to Second Norway (see: Second Norway’s touch of New England in Second Life). Kaiden is a gifted Second Life landscaper and his work can be seen across the grid places large and small, some of which I’ve also covered in these pages over the years.
For Halloween 2024, Kaiden presents Witchcraft & Voodoo in New Orleans: The End, a region-wide build presented on a Full private region leveraging the Land Capacity bonus. It’s a setting with a lot packed into it, both in terms of what to see and what is happening there throughout the month of October.
Witchcraft & Voodoo in New Orleans: The End, October 2024
Welcome to the most haunted and realistic location of New Orleans. It is a post-apocalyptic and dystopian environment, which was left bare after the flooding of Hurricane Katrina, There is an abandoned but interactive theme park with rides that still work, but ride them at your own risk! Release your competitive side with bumper cars, become lost in the mystical swamp, challenge your courage in the haunted house, create some amazing memories with photos, or get a real life reading from tarot readers!
– Witchcraft & Voodoo in New Orleans: greeter message
Unless you are there simply to pose for very specific photos of yourself, this is a place best experienced as it is designed to be seen – using the Shared Environment (World → Environment → Use Shared Environment). As there is a lot in the region that is going to keep the viewer business, I’d suggest that having Shadows enabled is not vital to the overall experience, and some might find they will need to adjust draw distance if they have it to the upper end of the scale. Do make sure that if you’re running a pre-PBR viewer, that you have enabled Advanced Lighting Model (ALM: Preferences → Graphics make sure the appropriate check box is ticked, but not you do not also need to enable shadows), and enable local sounds if you have them off.
Witchcraft & Voodoo in New Orleans: The End, October 2024
So, with all that said, and in the words spoken by Benedict Cummerbatch, “Now, shall we begin?”†
The Landing Point sits towards the western side of the region, along the main street of a Section of New Orleans as it runs north-to-south cross the region, and which is in places flooded (with the tide being held at bay at one end by a wall thrown across the road). The town forms the greater part of the setting, and at its southern end, merges into swamplands crossed by wooden board walks, the waters around them heavy with crocodiles. Among the mangroves and the cabins scattered around are various ritualistic goings on, whilst on the far side of the swamp, what appears to have been an outburst of murderous mayhem has struck the little village there.
Witchcraft & Voodoo in New Orleans: The End, October 2024
Both the bayou/ wetlands and the town also connect with the abandoned theme park as it occupies the north-east portion of the region. Partially flooded, this is fast turning into a wilding of a place – although the rides are still working (if some of them manned by ghoulish characters!), so be ready to try them out. The Landing Point is not enforced, so it is possible to hop around, but explorations on foot are really the only way to go lest you risk missing out on some of the frights.
When arriving at the main Landing Point, a greeter will provide an invite to the local Group, and information on both tours and a special show being staged in the region. Visitors are also offered a flashlight, and ADDing it helps with explorations.
Exactly which path you choose to take when exploring is entirely up to you, and I do not want to give too much away here and possibly spoil things. I will say that the theatre for the stage production is neatly tucked away (if apparently still under construction at the time of my visit, going by the raw prims), so it can sit within the setting without interrupting the overall flow of exploration or seeming to break with the overall region design.
Not all of the buildings have interiors, but those that do should be entered and appreciated / explored. Surprises may await and objects may require touching. I particularly liked the Black Cat Inn offers a cosy and relatively spooky-free place in which to relax. I will admit to being a little confused by the reference to a haunted house; not sure if I simply missed it (or maybe a teleport to it…) due to a case of the Stupids on my part, or whether you have to join one of the tours in order to visit it.
The performances I referred to above feature Theatre 6 in The Witches of New Orleans, with shows at 12:00 noon SLT on Sunday, October 13th, 2024 and 13:00 SLT on Saturday, October 26th, 2024. Dates and times of tours, meanwhile, are per the poster, above right.
Witchcraft & Voodoo in New Orleans: The End, October 2024
I’m not a great fan of Halloween as we treat it in modern times – haunted houses, trick-or-treating as it is now, etc., – although the tapestry of Gaelic influences and the link to Gothic fiction which are tied to Halloween are a different matter. As such, I tend to be a stick-in-the-mud when it comes to the plethora of Halloween themed events and regions and so on which pop-up between late September and early October in Second Life.
However, there are exceptions to this – and Witchcraft & Voodoo in New Orleans: The End is one of them. The region is well-crafted, and explorations offer surprises and things to poke at or ride or enjoy. It offers fun and engagement over simply trying to shock or excite, offering plenty of opportunities for photography as well as offering something just that little bit different by way of events within its boundaries (and some nice (and occasionally lewd!) touches of humour present in some of the signs around the place). So why not head over an have a look?
October brings with it all things spooky in the run-up to Halloween. Within Second Life, this means a plethora of region designs focused on ghostly goings-on, spookiness, haunting, monsters, vampires and the like, many with associated events and activities.
One such Halloween-ish event combining exploration, activities and entertainment in a more nuanced manner, and making a return to Second Life for its second season, is Seanchai Library’s The Bradbury Project. As it’s name implies, the month-long event is a celebration of the life and work of American author Ray Bradbury (August 22, 1920 – June 5, 2012), with a focus on some of his more spooky writing.
Bradbury is perhaps best known as a science-fiction and futurist/speculative fiction author responsible for titles such as Fahrenheit 451 (a book perhaps of special relevance currently), and his short-story collections The Martian Chronicles, and The Illustrated Man. However, he cast his writing net far wider, dipping into coming-of-age stories, screenplays, television scripts, poetry and both fantasy and dark fantasy. In the latter categories we have (the semi-autobiographical) Something Wicked This Way Comes, and The Halloween Tree.
The Halloween Tree
The latter is the story of eight boys as they attempt to rescue their friend on Halloween night. Under the guidance of the mysterious Carapace Clavicle Moundshroud, they travel through time and space, learning about different cultures, and the role that the fear of death, ghosts and hauntings has played in shaping civilisations down the ages, and how it has all contributed to much that is encompassed in modern-day Halloween activities. It’s is also one of the focal elements of The Bradbury Project.
In 2023, the project took place on sky builds within Seanchai Library’s home region of Nowhereville. For 2024, and thanks to the support of Linden Lab, the event expands into a dedicated Full region, allowing for more space for activities. However, like 2023, all donations / tips received while the Project is open through until Sunday, November 3rd, will be donated to Reading is Fundamental.
A major feature of Bradbury’s writing is Green Town, a fictionalised version of his place of birth, Waukegan, Illinois. It is a place of safety and home, featuring in a number Bradbury’s darker tales and in his short stories, and which has a result is depicted at several different points in the 20th century. Green Town is also the starting point for The Bradbury Project, which offers aspects of Green Town as it might have appeared in the 1950s.
Visitor arriving within the Project will find themselves within the garage of one of the houses lining Green Town’s main street. This offers information boards about the Project and the planned events, as well as information on the two Second Life Experiences operating within the region – both of these should be accepted in order to enjoy the Project to the fullest; however, if you an unsettled by the idea of using Experiences, a box of landmarks can also be obtained from the landing point to ferry you around.
Seanchai Library: The Bradbury Project 2024
A wander around the town will reveal its charm and also some points of interest – information boards that provide more insight into Bradbury’s life and work, and other interactive pieces (such as a television presenting the short film The House I Live In, which whilst not in any way focused on Halloween or the like, nevertheless carries a message of relevance).
Cutting through the region from east to west is the Ravine from Dandelion Wine, a collection sf short stories, and which is considered to be Bradbury’s most personal work. The Ravine can be accessed from the town at its eastern end , beyond the railway tracks, were a path slopes down into it. looping back under the railway bridge, the path will take visitors through the Ravine and up the far side to the residence of Carapace Clavicle Moundshroud, esq., and the Halloween Tree. Here again, indoors and out, is more to explore.
Seanchai Library: The Bradbury Project 2024
Events at The Bradbury Project
Story Tours of “The Halloween Tree” (presented in three episodes):
13:30 SLT, Sundays (October 13th, 20th, and 27th).
19:00 SLT, Tuesdays (October 15th, 22nd, and 29th).
Other Seanchai Library events will take place in The Project, and some additional readings from Bradbury may take place. Check out the Seanchai Library Special Projects Calendar.
Note: not all events presented by the Library this October are associated directly with this project.
eClipse Club & Resort Presents at The Bradbury Project:
Monday, October 21st, 21-23:00 SLT: DJ JAdmiral Maelstrom.
Friday, October 25th, 19:00-21:00 SLT: DJ Momma Hoi.
Saturday, October 26th, 19:00-21:00 SLT: DJ Iniry Vaher.
Sunday, October 27th, 19:00-22:00 SLT: DJs Caledonia Skytower & Tiger Pawz present Dr Frankenstein’s Halloween Boogie – music, dancing, and prizes!
In addition, those crossing the railway bridge spanning the Ravine can step through the tunnel to reach a Trick or Treat surprise. So when not pop over and have a look around / join in the events?
The Bradbury Project was created for Seanchai Library by David Abbot, Dawn Greymyst, Dagmar Kohime, Gloriana Maertens, Stevie Morane Basevi, Iniry Vaher, and Caledonia Skytower.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 