Pandoria is the creation of Bonny Greenwood, owner of Mindgardens Creations. It is described as a “celestial cosmic adventure full of many treasures, ambient music, amazing beauty and more!” – and it lives up to this description in full.

Located high in the sky over Magic Valley, where the Mindgardens store can also be found, Pandoria is a mixture of romance and meditation surrounded by planets, stars and a glittering white aurora.

This is a place one can enjoy alone, although it naturally lends itself to being a shared experience, whether or not romance and dancing is involved – and there are places here to dance. The music stream is well-chosen (the occasional “important messages” barely noticeable), and lends itself fully to one’s enjoyment while exploring the glittering islands in the sky.

For those wishing to clear their minds, there are places to meditate, while for those seeking entertainment, there is also a place to sit and play a quiz. For my part, Pandoria was a chance to wander alone and let my thoughts stray where they will. There is a very faint echo of Inspire Space here, another favourite venue of mine, but so faint as to encourage a feeling of warm familiarity, even on a first visit to Pandoria, rather than anything else.

Pandoria is a visual box of delights. It may not be big, but that’s part of the beauty, you don’t have to walk far to find something to captivate or enchant, although teleporters offer you the chance to see more elsewhere, whether it’s the Moonlit glades of Magic Valley itself or the underwater mermaids caverns or the Mindgardens Creations store itself.

This is a magic place to visit and will, it appears, become the venue for events in the near future – a calendar is available on the Pandoria blog, and a stage area can be found on the sky islands. I’m looking forward to seeing what entertainments and activities do occur; Pandoria is liable to be a place to which I’ll be returning a lot.

Related Links

• Pandoria (Rated Moderate)
• Pandoria blog
• SL Destinations in this blog

See also: My updated May 2013 review.

I was unaware of Keisei until Honour McMillan recently posted images in her blog. Once I’d seen them, however, it went right to the top of my list of SL destinations to visit. Anything having an oriental theme is going to get my attention, and Keisei is just that.

The region, rated as Moderate. is predominantly Japanese in nature, although there are small Sino touches which I find attractive as well. From the landing point, you’re free to wander where you will, with footpaths to guide you, or you can use the teleport board to pin-point selected destinations.

Keisei (Flickr)

There is a lot to see and enjoy here, and the landscape has been put together to encourage photography – and to encourage experimentation with Windlight settings; so much so, that I could have happily spent hours in Keisei snapping away and tweaking my settings through Phototools (which I think I’m finally starting to get my head around, although I have a long way to go yet before I can pull off anything half-decent).

Water is very much a feature here, with streams, pools and waterfalls in abundance. There are places to sit and admire the gardens, places to climb, and places to sit in quiet contemplation. Keisei is also the home of  Shiraito-no-Taki Hanamachi, located to the North-west of the region.
Keisei (Flickr)

To the North-east side of the region sits Enkatsu Yama, the private home and garden of Famke Faith (also known as Phoenix DaVinci). The outer ward of this is open to the public, and visitors are welcome to stroll around and enjoy the tranquillity. Beyond the inner gates,  guarded by two Chinese looking lions, sits the house proper in a private ward, where visitors are asked not to stray.

Sim extenders are used to great effect around Keisei, giving the feeling  that this is a small, coastal community, lost in time and free from the hustle and bustle of modern life. Out in the bay to the west of the region lies a wood-framed light house, waiting to guide ships to a safe berth.

Keisei (Flickr)

There are a number of Windlight presets in operation around the sim, so you’ll likely get requests to change your Windlight as you go – it’s worth doing, as some of the presets really do set off the sim’s landscaping and architecture perfectly. The music streams also vary from parcel to parcel – so if you use a viewer with an active media filter, be prepared for a few prompts from this as well. The music I heard was again in keeping with the tranquil nature of the sim, and didn’t detract in any way from my enjoyment as I explored.

This is a wonderfully relaxing sim to visit and, as mentioned, a photographers delight. My thanks to Honour for raising my awareness as to its existence.

Keisei (Flickr)

Related Links

• Keisei (Rated Moderate)
• SL Destination Reviews in this Blog

End of Time comprises four regions in Second Life: Crow, Eotia, Tide and Wabe. It offers wide open spaces to explore and enjoy, complete with water on which to sail. Wabe carries an Adult rating, otherwise the regions are all moderate. All four are open for people to visit, although there are some private residences on Eotia, and visitors are asked to respect people’s personal space around these.

Teleporting to End of Time will deliver you to the North-east corner of Crow, with the backdrop of the sea behind you, from which rises the tall finger of a lighthouse. Before you lay rolling hills, meadows, beaches, walks, and places to simply sit and enjoy, either on your own or with a friend or loved one.

Where you go from here is up to you – there is a teleport board if you want to hop around the main sights, or you can set off at random or follow the signposted paths. If you’re not up to walking and the teleport doesn’t appeal, take the steps down from the arrival-point and pick up a bicycle, which can be a fun ride – and the nice thing about it is that it doesn’t immediately de-rez on dismounting, so you can actually get off and walk around a spot for a few minutes before resuming your ride. Be warned, however, that the bicycle doesn’t handle going up slopes very well! For my part, I like to wander when I arrive, although I have a few favourite spots I enjoy, and sometimes go directly to one of them.

Several of the beauty spots in the regions are within their own parcels, which have parcel privacy enabled, allowing people to sit and talk without being overheard from outside, or having to rely on IMs.

Wildlife is very much a part of End of Time, with rabbits, birds and butterflies all around the main teleport arrival point, deer in the woodland glades, ducks on the water, and more butterflies flittering around meadow flowers.

Butterflies is also the name of an art exhibit by Feathers Boa, and which can be found in – or rather under – Eotia. It features seven images by Feathers depicting the seven ages of woman. The pictures carry one from babe to old age, each stop along the way marked by words which encapsulate the age being depicted. Given my own position in the seven stages, I find it an evocative piece which causes me to recall past years and give thought to the future. If I’m honest, it also raises the question as to why I devote a fair amount of my time sitting in front of my computer using a virtual world – but that, perhaps, is something for a future post in this blog.

To the east of Eotia and Crow lie Wabe and Tide, both of which are largely devoted to water. Both have open rezzing, and visitors can, if they wish, rez their own boats and sail in the lagoon-like waters (please remember to take back anything you do rez when you’re done!). For those without boats of their own, a sailing skiff can be found at the quay at the north end of Crow, which you can (with a little cheating) sail into Wabe and Tide.

All four regions offer a relaxed approach to exploration and places to share with others. There are a number of dance anywhere systems among the places to visit, allowing the romantically inclined to dance some of the time together – and the music stream lends itself to romantic dancing. All four are also well-suited to photography as well, and lend themselves very naturally to a wide range of Windlight settings.

End of Time is one of those places that provides exactly what it says on the bottle: a place to relax and a place to explore. Enjoy!

Related Links

• End of time Teleport Crow SLurl (Rated: Moderate)
• End of Time website
  

 

Chouchou is a Japanese duo formed in Second Life “to search for new possibilities of music”. In-world they are musician Arabesque Choche and vocalist Juliet Herberle, who have been together since 2007.

Together they have three regions in Second Life, centred on Chouchou itself, where one can visit and hear their music or attend their concerts. The regions contain unique and fascinating builds open to the public, and which are well worth a visit by SL explorers and photographers alike.

Before you pay a visit, however – and I hope you will after reading this article – please make sure you have your viewer set to use the region Windlight defaults and that you have media enabled in order to hear Chouchou’s evocative music.

Chouchou region at ground level is a minimalist build – just a series of sand bars in the water, interspersed with a few seemingly random items: a piano sitting under a lone tree, a cage of some description and a ladder leading upwards to the sky. Feel free to wander and listen to the music; Juliet Herberle has a wonderful voice when singing in both English and Japanese, and it forms a melodic accompaniment to your wanderings – which will no doubt lead you to the strange, heaven-pointing ladder.

The ladder is actually a teleport, and will whisk you  to one of three unique sky venues which are an essential part of any visit to Chouchou. Additionally, the teleport can take you to a store (on another region) where you can obtain an in-world radio which allows you to play Chouchou’s music on your own land as well as Juliet Herberle’s own radio show (presumably in Japanese – I confess to not having tuned-in).

Islamey

Islamey, one of the three skyborne venues, is a Japanese-themed garden and a venue for Chouchou’s monthly concerts. When not being used for these, it is a place of quiet contemplation where you can come when you want to give free passage to thoughts and ideas, or when you simply want to find peace and let Chouchou’s music soothe you gently. It would be nice to have a few more places to sit quietly around the garden, but this doesn’t detract too much from the serenity of the place.

The Babel

This is a musical construct comprising boxes, elements and levels, which may at first glance appear completely random – but there is order. Each box is a sound – a note or chord – which is played when touched. Some will play once when touched, others work on a toggle – they will play until touched again.

Boxes themselves are arranged in musical elements, with the lowermost boxes in an element representing bass notes or chords, and the boxes above containing percussion or melody elements. By touching the boxes in an element you can create various harmonies – or, if you opt to stay with the lower boxes in an element, what amounts to a discordant noise.

Elements come together in the levels of The Babel, with each level perhaps analogous to an album, and the elements the tracks of the album. It’s a fascinating idea and anyone with any interest in music will doubtless finding it enticing and spend time producing harmonies and melodies – I did.

Memento Mori

Literally “Remember your mortality”, this is a magnificent build styled after the great medieval cathedrals – hence, perhaps the name – sitting high in the sky. To stay this is a stunning build would be an understatement; it is magnificent. You arrive on stairs leading up to the cathedral proper – and it is worth not camming ahead to spoil the impact (Windlight allowing), as it is quite breathtaking to arrive at the top of the steps to see this magnificent build before you, arching high overhead, the wide nave drawing ones eye to the distant piano sitting on a raised dais.

Here you can walk down the nave and past ornate pews awaiting an audience, or climb one of the many and spectacular stairways up into the high reaches of the cathedral and look down on those below. Several Windlight options are in use in the build, so don’t be surprised in the lighting levels charge as you explore.

Memento Mori lends itself to be photographed, whether using the default Windlight settings or those of your own. In fact, it is next to impossible not to take photos, and if I’m totally honest, there are times when the build is slightly spoiled by being too saturated by the local ambient lighting, so some experimentation on your part might be required to achieve the perfect result.

Taken individually or as a while, Chouchou have provided a series of builds that represent one of the great strengths of Second Life: freedom of expression. Beautifully themed and executed, framed by Chouchou’s own fusion of traditional Japanese music with modern styles, this is a place one should visit – and savour.

Related Links

• Chouchou in-world SLurl (Rated Moderate)
• Chouchou blog
• Chouchou’s You Tube channel
• Chouchou on Facebook