Category: Events

Fantasy Faire 2019: previewing the LitFest

Posted on by Inara Pey
via Fantasy Faire

Note: as this is a preview piece, SLurls will be added once Fantasy Faire has opened its doors on April 18th, 2019.

On Thursday, April 18th, Fantasy Faire will open for 2019, and will remain open through until  Sunday, May 5th, 2019 inclusive. Throughout this entire period, the Faire and the Fairelands will be host to the fifth annual Fantasy Faire Literary Festival (LitFest).

Lying deep within the Fairelands is Trollhaugen, the home of the LitFest. A magical realm and very special location for the Festival, it is a place where the magic of the spoken word will weave tales of wonder, relate stories of great adventure and daring; where talks by authors, discussions, creative writing sessions and performances will all take place. In addition, literary hawks and writers will be encouraged to join daily LitFest tours of the Fairelands and afterwards compose pieces related to their travels.

The full LitFest schedule is now available, but here are some preview highlights to whet appetites!

Guest Of Honour and Authors

Elizabeth Bear by Kyle Cassidy

The special guest for this year’s festival is the Hugo, Sturgeon, Locus, and Campbell Award winning author of dozens of novels; over a hundred short stories; and a number of essays, Elizabeth Bear. She will be appearing at the LitFest as follows:

  • 14:00 SLT on Tuesday, April 23rd: in an interview and discussion about her work as a novelist, writer and futurist, doubtless touching on her upcoming new novel, The Red-Stained Wings (The Lotus Kingdoms Book 2), which will be released on May 28th, 2019.
  • 14:00 SLT on Friday, April 26th: reading an extract for her work.

The Litfest will also feature two published authors who are also Second Life residents:

Milk Wood Writer’s Dash and NaPoWriMo Fantasy Writing Prompts

Want to hone your writing skills? Join in with one of the following:

  • Milk Wood Writer’s Dash (Friday April 19th through Sunday, May 5th, 06:00-06:30 and 18:00-18:30): spend 15 minutes writing poetry or prose based on a writer’s prompt. When time is up, everyone exchanges their writings with one another.
  • NaPoWriMo Fantasy Writing Prompts (Friday, April 19th, and Monday April 22nd through Friday April 26th, 08:00-09:00 SLT): April is National Poetry Writing Month, and participating poets are asked to write a poem a day for the month of April – so why not do so in-world with like-minded poets?

Ursula K. Le Guin Day

Ursula Le Guin by Eileen Gunn

On Wednesday, April 24th, Litfest marks the life and works of the late author, Ursula K. Le Guin, regarded as one of America’s foremost writers of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish Universe, and the Earthsea fantasy series. In a career spanning 60 years, she produced more than twenty novels, over a hundred short stories and many volumes of poetry, literary criticism, translations, and children’s books.

The day will be marked by a series of special events, including:

  • 09:00-10:00 SLT: Exploring Le Guin: A Brief Tour and Discussion: a “tour” of Le Guin’s lands, via favourite passages from her books – suggestions invited. Moderated by Aoife Lorefield.
  • 10:00-11:00 SLT: Aoife Lorefield Shares Readings from Ursula K. Le Guin.
  • 15:00-17:00 SLT: A Wizard in Earthsea Party: The LitFest Ball.
  • 19:00-21:00 SLT: Seanchai Library present Celebrating Ursula K.Le Guin.

In addition, and ahead of Ursuala Le Guin day, on Monday, April 22nd between 19:00-20:00 SLT, Seanchai Library’s Gyro Muggins will be reading selected excerpts from Le Guin’s Left Hand of Darkness, in which a human envoy arrives on the planet known as Gethen aka “Winter”; and from The Lathe of Heaven, where a battle of wits ensues between a psychiatrist and a patient with psychic dream powers.

Arrivals and Departures

On Thursday, April 25th from 14:00 SLT at the FaireChylde performance area, there will be a special performance of Arrivals and Departures, the story film by CEH Productions. Based on a short story written by Caledonia Skytower and recorded for Fantasy Faire Radio as part of Fantasy Faire 2018, the film was shot at a reproduction of Fantasy Faire 2018’s Erstwhile Station.

Arrivals and Departures: Him and Her (via Judith Cullen)

You can read more about the film at Arrivals and Departures in Second Life.

LitFest Tours

The popular Fantasy Faire LitFest Tours will once again be taking place, leaving daily from the LitFest home base of Trollhaugen to explore the Fairelands and seeking the stories they have to tell as well as their special secret places and details. Each tour will be guided and accompanied by music, as some of the Faire’s best loved DJs offer selections of music, especially chosen for each of the regions visited.

The Tours for 2019 will be as follows (all commence at 17:00 SLT unless otherwise indicated):

Thursday, April 18th
 Region 1 – Fairholm
Friday, April 19th
 Region 2 – Light of Va’loth
Saturday, April 20th
 Region 3 – Nightshade Blossoms
Sunday, April 21st
 Region 4 – Sanguinely Garden
Monday, April 22nd
 Region 5 – Bayounimba
Tuesday, April 23rd
 Region 6 – The Shrine Tree
Wednesday, April 24th
 Region 7 – Department of Discarded Curiosities
Thursday, April 25th
 Region 8 – Twilight Spring
Friday, April 26th
 Region 9 – Tensors’ Flying Market
Saturday, April 27th
 Region 10 – Midas
Monday, April 29th
 Region 11 – Fairelands Junction
Tuesday, April 30th
 Region 12 – Urafiki
Wednesday, May 1st
 Region 13 – Genesia
Thursday, May 2nd
 Region 14 – Trollhaugen
Friday, May 3rd
 Region 15 – The Celestial Plain
Saturday, May 4th
 Region 16 – Thornfast

Keep up with all the news and information on the LitFest and Fantasy Faire through the Fantasy Faire website.

2019 Raglan Shire Artwalk: call to artists

Posted on by Inara Pey
Raglan Shire Artwalk 2018

The Raglan Shire Artwalk is one of the staples of the SL art calendar, and for 2019, the 14th Artwalk will take place between Sunday, May 12th and Sunday, June 16th, inclusive.

Every year over 100 artists and residents in Second Life display 2D and 3D art across a number of exhibition spaces across all the regions of the Raglan Shire cluster. 2D art is displayed on hedgerows in and around the regions, offering visitors the chance to view pieces as they explore the Shire, while sculptures and 3D art is displayed in a number of designated areas across the regions.

Those wishing to exhibit their work at the 2019 Artwalk are invited to complete the  Artist Registration Form, which should be submitted for inclusion no later than 21:00 SLT on Sunday May 5th, 2019.

General requirements for entry (ass also the official requirements page):

  • The event is a non-juried show.
  • Artists can display more than one piece if they wish.
    • 2D (“flat” art pieces will be awarded a maximum of 15 LI, and individual pictures should be 1 prim, including the frame.
    • 3D art (sculptures, etc.), will be awarded a maximum of 500 LI for up to three pieces of work. Artists are requested to state the LI per piece in their application.
    • Sales of art are allowed.
  • Types of art supported by the show are: representations of RL photography, painting, drawing, printmaking, collage, and digital fine art that can be displayed on a prim;  and SL photography, manipulated SL photography and SL sculpture.
  • Pictures of RL crafts, such as beadwork, leatherwork, etc., are not part of the show’s  definition
  • All the above art forms are welcome, but should be rated PG / G – so no nudity, please!
  • Group membership will be required in order to display work
  • Questions and enquiries should be forwarded via note card to Artwalk Director Karmagirl Avro, or Artwalk Assistants Kayak Kuu, Linn Darkwatch, maggi696 or RaglanShireArtwalk Resident.
Raglan Shaire Artwalk 2018: Bear Silvershade

Details on set-up will be sent to participating artists on Tuesday, May 7th, 2019. Step-up commences at 09:00 SLT on Friday, May 10th and runs through Saturday, May 11th. Note that space along the hedgerows in Raglan Shire for 2D art is NOT assigned, but can be taken on the basis of first come first serve. Certain areas of Heron Shire will be designated for sculpture set up and available locations set with a marker.

Key Dates

  • Sunday, May 5th: applications close at 21:00 SLT.
  • Tuesday, May 7th: Notification of exhibit space location issued to 3D artists.
  • Friday, May 10th / Saturday May 11th: Artist set-up days.
  • Sunday, May 12th: ARTWALK OPENS.
  • Sunday, June 16th: Artwalk closes.
  • Sunday, June 16th (after 2100 SLT) through Tuesday, June 18th: Takedown of works.

Related Links

Empty rooms, chocolate factories and kaleidoscopes

Posted on by Inara Pey
Seanchai Library

It’s time to highlight another week of storytelling in Voice by the staff and volunteers at the Seanchai Library. As always, all times SLT, and events are held at the Library’s home at Holly Kai Park, unless otherwise indicated.

Sunday, April 14th:

13:30 Tea-Time with Sherlock Holmes’ Greatest Hits

Illustration by Sidney Paget, in The Strand Magazine

As voted for by Seanchai fans, followers and listeners. This week: The Adventure of the Empty Room, first published in The Strand magazine, and later the 13 stories from The Return of Sherlock Holmes.

Three years after the Death of Sherlock Holmes during his fight with Professor Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls, John Watson investigates the death of Ronald Adair. The young gentleman had been found shot to death in a closed room at his home in Park Lane, with no possible exit through the windows. A quiet young man, Adair’s only hobby was playing cards, and he had just had won £240 with his new partner, one Colonel Sebastian Moran.

As he examines the area around Adair’s house, Watson encounters an old man who eventually follows him to his office – and reveals himself to be Holmes himself. Explaining how he survived his encounter with Moriarty to a shocked Watson, he further reveals that Adair’s card partner, Sebastian Moran is – or was – actually Moriarity’s lieutenant. He further reveals that Moran is aware of Holmes’ survival, and plans to kill him.

But knowing of Moran’s plan, Holmes has one of his own. Not only does he plan to survive the attempt on his life, he plans to thwart Moran and bring him to justice.

With Da5id Abbot, Corwyn Allen, Savanah Blindside, and Kayden Oconnell in the Library’s Fireside Room.

18:00 Magicland Storytime: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Have you heard? Willie Wonka is releasing five golden tickets in candy bars! Charlie Bucket may have a chance to find one as Caledonia Skytower continues Roald Dahl’s classic.

Monday, April 15th 19:00: The World’s Best Science Fiction 1969

Gyro Muggins read from this anthology of science fiction short stories, edited by Donald A. Wollheim, featuring nineteen authors, including such names as Brian Aldiss, Poul Anderson, Samuel R. Delany, Fritz Leiber, Robert Silverberg, and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

This week, Dance of the Changer by Terry Carr. Are the aliens crazy or just alien? Is there a difference? ; and Fear Hound by Katherine MacLean. A detective novel, but this time it isn’t “elementary” it’s “psychic.”

Tuesday, April 16th 19:00: Kaleidoscope

When a brilliant young violinist dies in a horrific accident, Madame Karitska has only to hold the victim’s instrument in her hands to perceive the shocking truth. But when an insecure wife asks whether her husband will abandon her to join a sinister cult, Madame Karitska–as wise as she is lovely–chooses not to reveal all that she foresees. And when an attaché case is suddenly dropped into her lap by a man fleeing a crowded subway, she knows it’s time to consult her good friend Detective-Lieutenant Pruden.

A nine-year-old accused of murder, a man dying a slow death by witchcraft– for the hunted and the haunted, Madame Karitska’s shabby downtown apartment becomes a haven, where brilliant patterns of violence, greed, passion, and strange obsessions mix and disintegrate with stunning, kaleidoscopic beauty.

With Caledonia Skytower.

Wednesday, April 17th 19:00: TBA

Check the Seanchai Library website for information nearer the day.

Thursday, April 18th

19:00: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Part 2

With Shandon Loring. (Also in Kitely grid.kitely.com:8002:SEANCHAI).

21:00: Seanchai Late Night

Contemporary Sci-Fi Fantasy with Finn Zeddmore.

BURN2: Burnal Equinox 2019

Posted on by Inara Pey
Burn2 Burnal Equinox 2019

The Burn2 Burnal Exquinox event, which will run through until Sunday, April 14th, is now open. This is the traditional Burn2 event held midway between the annual October “big Burn” events year-by-year. For 2019, the theme of the event is Eyes to the Skies. Tied in with the annual global Yuri’s Night event, it is a celebration of space, “the final frontier” (or “great beyond”) and all that goes with it – science, mysticism and more.

The weekend kicked-off on Friday, April 12th, courtesy of a live set of electronic music by Hao Zaytsev, and the marking of Yuri’s Night. This is an annual celebration of the first human flight in to space, completed by cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin. He lifted-off from from Baikonur Cosmodrome atop his Vostok 1 booster on April 12th 1961 to become not only the first human to reach space, but the first to orbit the Earth in a flight lasting 108 minutes. On his return, he actually completely his flight via parachute, the mission calling for him to eject from the capsule prior to landing. Since 2011, the date of his flight has been celebrated as the “World’s Space Party”.

via Burn2.org

Gagarin’s flight is marked on the Playa by a model of his Vostok K rocket, steaming with vented gasses as if awaiting launch, the Vostok 1 capsule sitting within its launch shroud sitting atop the rocket. It is just one of a number of installations both on the ground and in the air directly over the Playa awaiting exploration, which celebrate space flight, astronomy, science fiction, extraterrestrials, and more.

The full schedule for the weekend available on the Burn2 website. Highlights include:

  • Changhigh Sisters Fireshow – Saturday, April 13th, noon SLT
  • Burn/Fire Dancers, Sunday, April 14th, 10:00 and 16:00 SLT.
  • Burn2 Fashionistas, Sunday, April 14th, 14:00 SLT.
  • DRUM, Sunday, April 14th, 15:00 SLT.

And there will be live performers and DJ sets through both days. The event closes at 23:00 SLT on Sunday, April 13th.

About BURN2

BURN2 is an extension of the Burning Man festival and community into the world of Second Life. It is an officially sanctioned Burning Man regional event, and the only virtual world event out of more than 100 real world Regional groups and the only regional event allowed to burn the man.

The BURN2 Team operates events year around, culminating in an annual major festival of community, art and fire in the fall – a virtual echo of Burning Man itself.

Burn2 Burnal Equinox 2019

Related Links

Fantasy Faire 2019: nominations for king, queen and chancellor

Posted on by Inara Pey
via Fantasy Faire

One of the fun elements introduced to Fantasy Faire in 2015 was the opportunity to nominate and then vote for the King and Queen of the Fairelands and their (strictly non-human) Chancellor. Nominations came from across all realms of fantasy, with the top five for the positions of king and queen (human or human-looking nominations only) and chancellor, went forward for a public vote-off during the course of the Faire.

The event has since become a staple of the Faire, and it is once again back for 2019, with nominations now open. It’s important to note that this has nothing to do with avatars or people per se, but is a fun election purely for characters from works of fantasy, with the “winners” announced at the end of the Faire.

Nominees can be from written fantasy, graphical novels, cartoons, films, television or radio series, and from genres such as fairy tales, high fantasy, magical stories, urban fantasy, vampire sagas or steampunk, etc. The only major requirements are that nominations for king and queen must be human (or human-type) characters, whilst nominations for chancellor are restricted to non-human (or non-human type) characters, and that the winners from the previous year are no eligible for re-election.

How It Works

  • Nominations are made between now and the end of Saturday, April 20th, 2019 (23:59 SLT), using the form below.
  • The top five nominees for each role – king, queen and chancellor – will be selected for a final vote-off.
  • During the Faire, people will have the opportunity to vote for their favourites.
    • There is a fee payable for voting, but all money raised will go to Relay for Life.
  • The winners will be announced at the Fantasy Faire Live Auction on Sunday, April 28th, 2019.

Past Winners

  • 2018: king: Gandalf; queen: Galadriel; chancellor: Totoro (these three are not eligible for nomination again in 2019).
  • 2017: king: Severus Snape, queen: Leia Organa;  chancellor: Rhiow the Wizard Cat.
  • 2016: king: The Goblin King; queen: October Daye; chancellor: The Last Unicorn.
  • 2015: king: Havelock Vetinari; queen: Granny Weatherwax; chancellor: Greebo the Cat.

Additional Links

VWBPE 2019: Patch and Grumpity Linden

Posted on by Inara Pey
via vwbpe.org

On Thursday, April 4th, 2019, a public Above the Book events was held at the VWBPE 2019 event featuring Grumpity and Patch Linden, who answered questions about the platform and Linden Lab. The following is a summary of the broader points raised during the session, with the full video also embedded at the end.

A general Q&A session from the audience was held

Grumpity Linden

Grumpity Linden – Director of Product for Second Life

Grumpity originally came to Linden Lab while working for The Product Engine, a company providing end-to-end consulting and software development services, and which supports viewer development at the Lab, and she was initially involved in the development and viewer 2 (as designed by 80/20 Studio).

She became a “full-time Linden” in 2014. Her current position involves coordinating the various teams involved in bringing features and updates to Second Life (e.g. Engineering and QA), liaising with legal, financial and compliance to ensure features and capabilities meet any specific requirements in those areas, etc. This work can involve looking at specifics within various elements of the overall SL product, such as UI design and layout, etc.

Patch Linden –  Senior Director of Product Operations at Linden Lab

Patch Linden

Patch originally a Second Life resident, he joined linden Lab in 2007, after being invited to apply to the company as a result of his work as a community leader and mentor from 2004 through until the invitation was extended.

His role also encompasses Sansar, as he manages the respective support teams for both platforms. In this regard, he recently established a support centre in Atlanta, Georgia. For Second Life, his work also involves overseeing the content development teams, the Mainland Land Team, the Linden Department of Public Works – LDPW, aka The Moles, and managing the account support team.

Status Update

  • A lot of focus is on infrastructure work; making SL more performant for those in-world, and on moving Second Life services to the cloud.
    • The latter is especially time-consuming and difficult, as it requires moving services over without disturbing the way things are currently set-up.
    • As has been previously stated in public forums, there are currently no projections on whether this will lead to any reduction in region costs.
    • Currently, this work is taking a lot of resources in terms of staff, time and effort.
    • Overall, it is hoped the move will result in LL being more operationally streamlined and cost-effective, however, this could take time (a few years?) to achieve.
  • Feature work has obviously included:
    • The recent release of Animesh.
    • The continuing work to fully deploy the Environment Enhancement Project (EEP) that will replace the current windlight settings for controlling the appearance of the environment.
    • The continuing work to deploy Bakes On Mesh (BoM), that will allow system layers (skins / clothing) to be directly applied to worn mesh items.
    • The new Estate Access Management (EAM) capabilities (see the Alternate Viewers wiki page for the latest EAM RC viewer).
    • See my Content Creation User Group summaries for information on Animesh, EEP and BoM.
The Estate Access Management update sees significant changes to the region access controls in the viewer
  • The work on a mobile solution (iOS) for accessing Second Life is continuing.
    • This will initially be text-based.
    • Should be able to take advantage of the naked accessibility options available in iOS.
    • Won’t be available for some time yet.
    • iOS was selected because there are already popular Android solutions (notably Lumiya and Mobile Grid Client – there is also MetaChat for iOS).
    • An official Android client will follow, however.
  • Linden Homes are progressing (there will likely be another preview at SL16B).
    • Work is progressing on the new continent; this will be more organic and natural than the old Linden Homes mini-continents, and will be water / air navigable.
  • There has been the re-vamp and re-launch of Linden Realms.

What Audience Does Linden Lab Try to Address with Features?

  • Everyone who uses the platform.
  • The roadmap is designed so the Lab spends time on features for home / land owners, features for content creators, features for new users, features for consumers, features for Premium members, etc.
  • Communities in SL tend to use the platform in a wide variety of ways and continue to surprise LL in how they use the platform. Thus, the Lab try to plan development of SL with as many communities as possible in mind.
  • For the education sector, a lot of work has been put into the RegAPI / Gateway programme to allow educational institutions to bring students directly into their in-world environments, and even brand user accounts specifically to their own institution.
  • Accessibility is always foremost in the Lab’s thoughts.
    • This can in part be addressed by communities themselves in how they take the RegAPI to build their registration process, and gear their gateways.
    • Accessibility options within the viewer are harder to build, due to the nature of the viewer, although some capabilities are presented through third-party viewers  – Radegast being the most obvious (although currently stalled in development).
  • When considering features and updates, backwards compatibility is also foremost in the Lab’s thinking, both because of content available in-world that may be in use, but no longer actively maintained / updated, and because users have become reliant on specific capabilities / content.
    • This isn’t always possible, simply due to the age of SL.

In Brief

  • SL Search: there is a project on the roadmap (yet to be started) to overhaul SL search. It’s too early to discuss specific changes, but Search is complex, and a similar project performed with Marketplace Search took far longer than anticipated, although it yielded positive results.
  • Age Restrictions and Mobile: it is not anticipated that the arrival of an official mobile app for SL will change the current age range access restrictions (just as it hasn’t for the current mobile apps). Any changes in age related access will be a policy change, not the result of any specific technology change.
  • LEA and Art: the LEA is on hiatus and being restructured, and LL are in conversation with the LEA committee and others for the arts community about ideas for moving things forward.