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 in Nowhereville, unless otherwise indicated. Note that the schedule below may be subject to change during the week, please refer to the Seanchai Library website for the latest information through the week.
Monday, August 1st, 19:00 Dandelion Wine
The inventor who almost took the pleasure out of life by building a Happiness Machine; the young reporter who fell in love with an alluring lady of ninety; the old gentleman whose last act was listening to the clang of a green trolley car going round a corner, two thousand miles away.
These are just a few of strange and vivid people who entered the secret world of a twelve-year-old boy during one enchanted summer when he discovered the fact that he really was alive…
“The summer of ’28 was a vintage season for a growing boy. A summer of green apple trees, mowed lawns, and new sneakers. Of half-burnt firecrackers, of gathering dandelions, of Grandma’s belly-busting dinner. It was a summer of sorrows and marvels and gold-fuzzed bees. A magical, timeless summer in the life of a twelve-year-old boy named Douglas Spaulding—remembered forever by the incomparable Ray Bradbury.”
There lived a girl named Petra Peña, who wanted nothing more than to be a storyteller, like her abuelita.
But Petra’s world is ending. Earth has been destroyed by a comet, and only a few hundred scientists and their children – among them Petra and her family – have been chosen to journey to a new planet. They are the ones who must carry on the human race.
Hundreds of years later, Petra wakes to this new planet – and the discovery that she is the only person who remembers Earth. A sinister Collective has taken over the ship during its journey, bent on erasing the sins of humanity’s past. They have systematically purged the memories of all aboard – or purged them altogether.
Petra alone now carries the stories of our past, and with them, any hope for our future. Can she make them live again?
Caledonia Skytower read Donna Barba Higuera’s 2021 winner of the Newbery Medal and Pura Belpré Award.
Wednesday, August 3rd, 19:00: Seanchai Flicks
A special for Star Wars month as the Seanchai cinema space plays host to videos and throw popcorn around!
Thursday, August 4th, 19:00: Dark
The library will be closed to events this evening.
Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation
Updates from the week ending Sunday, July 31st, 2022
This summary is generally published every Monday, and is a list of SL viewer / client releases (official and TPV) made during the previous week. When reading it, please note:
It is based on my Current Viewer Releases Page, a list of all Second Life viewers and clients that are in popular use (and of which I am aware), and which are recognised as adhering to the TPV Policy. This page includes comprehensive links to download pages, blog notes, release notes, etc., as well as links to any / all reviews of specific viewers / clients made within this blog.
By its nature, this summary presented here will always be in arrears, please refer to the Current Viewer Release Page for more up-to-date information.
Note that for purposes of length, TPV test viewers, preview / beta viewers / nightly builds are generally not recorded in these summaries.
Official LL Viewers
Release viewer: version 6.6.1.572458 – formerly the Maintenance M(akgeolli) RC viewer, promoted June 29 – no change.
Drug and alcohol abuse among you people – teenagers from 13 or 14 upwards – has long been a problem. So much so that today within many western countries, it scarcely appears to be on the radar of politicians, who instead prefer to point their fingers and rabble-rouse about imagined “evils” facing their countries from -*horror* – refugees seeking sanctuary or – *gasp* – the terror of equal rights for women, ethnic minorities, the disabled, and LGBTQ+ communities.
Terrygold: Crack, July 2022
In Europe, studies have shown that while not rampant, substance abuse – including the use of tobacco – as a whole has been increasingly found among children below the age of 15 (per the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA)).
Much of this has been put down to “experimentation”, although peer pressure has also been noted as a factor, as has the fact that in terms of illegal drugs, some dealers have taken a leaf out of the tobacco advertising playbook from several years ago, but “promoting” their wares to younger consumers.
Further, while many reports note that such experimentation / engagement with alcohol and drugs in particular has tended to be among younger male teenagers, the EUCDDA studies from 2007 onwards have shown that more and more young girls are increasingly following suit, and the gap between boys and girls in terms of drug use is closing.
Terrygold: Crack, July 2022
Drug use among young girls is something artist Terrygold has had to face in the physical world and within her own neighbourhood; and what she has witnessed, almost daily, has resulted in her latest installation Crack, which opened at her art gallery in late July 2022.
As with her recent pieces, it comes as a set of vignettes, each narrated by a static, NPC called “Terry”.
These vignettes – a pair this time – are literally framed as pictures; in the first, linked to the installations landing point (reached via teleport disc from the gallery’s main landing point), we she a happy time at home; a wife and husband in a comfortable lounge, their little daughter apparently tucked behind an armchair with her teddy as she plays hide-and-seek with her father. It’s a setting of domestic bliss, which can be seen – literally – through two frames set to either side of scene so as to present frozen images of a happy, safe home life.
A further frame – be it a window or a picture frame, it matters not – presents a view of a world outside this cosy home; a place where alcohol is freely available, the siren glow of neon drawing all too it regardless of age, with those standing in the doorways also caring little about identity or age. Close by, under a streetlight two young girls draw lustful gazes from an older male, whilst another girl, provocatively dressed, staggers down the middle of the road, the worse for – something.
Through the words of “Terry” as we stand next to her looking out onto the scene, we learn this vignette is a reflection of a tragic situation she has witnessed: a girl high of drugs or alcohol, wanting – needing – more – and desperate, spiralling ever deeper into an addiction that can only lead to worse.
Terrygold: Crack, July 2022
Within the house, “Terry” also vents the artist’s frustration in the way that stories of abuse and suffering have become so commonplace that not even the age at which youngsters find themselves trapped by addiction causes anything more than a raised eyebrow. And we, like her, should feel that shame frustration and anger; but how many of us turn the page of the newspaper, shutting out the story just as we can shut the terrors of the world outside by closing the drapes on the windows of our homes?
But just how safe are we, really? Herein lies a deeper layering to Terrygold’s piece.
The entire installation is offered under a dark environment setting. While this clearly adds atmosphere to the street setting, where faces are shadowed, and the sense of danger and intrigued raised, so to does it alter the “indoor” scene of familial bliss, casting pools of darkness that reduce the home to a small island of light, a visual metaphor of the fact that no matter where we go, the darkness in the world is never far away,
But more than this, the shadows within the house serve another purpose. If you view the family through one of the frames, that little girl playing hide-and-seek vanishes, and the faces of the mother and father can no longer be clearly seen. Suddenly the position of the mother as she sits on the edge of the coffee table apparently making a casual call whilst her husband and daughter play, becomes something more urgent, her look more worried.
Similarly, the smiling face of the father is now wreathed in darkness, his tall figure a shadow within a shadow, looming close to his wife. Thus, the entire scene becomes tense and foreboding. The stances of father and mother, together with the apparent absence of their child reminds us that little girls who play hide-and-seek grow into young girls who for whom teddy bears, armchairs and hunting daddies are not enough, but the world, for all its threats, is a wondrous place – and even the threats can tempt and attract, opening young lives to those who would hunt them and/or their money for reasons far less innocent than a game of hide-and-seek, and parents are left fraught and anxious; desperate for the reassurance of a voice on a telephone, for an ear to hear their pleas to come home.
Expressive, offering much to consider, Crack is best seen under the local environment settings (World → Environment → make sure Use Shared Environment is checked), and with ALM (Preferences → Graphics → Advanced Lighting Model) enabled (Shadows are not required, despite the instructions and the landing point, should enabling them impact your computer’s performance unduly).
Tourtour de Prouvenco, July 2022 – click any image for full size
Occupying one half of a Full private region leveraging the additional Land Capacity bonus, sits Tourtour de Prouvenco, a setting designed by Annisss Moreau (annisss) that is offered for public enjoyment.
Tourtour is a small French Provencal village where you can relax by the sea and listen to the best DJs of the second life at the Blue Note ‘Club evenementiels Djs LIVE’.
– from Tourtour de Prouvenco’s About Land description
This is a setting very much of two parts separated by a deep inlet that cuts across the parcel, a wide bridge close to its mouth providing the sole direct link between the two elements, helping them to flow together. The parcel itself offers an east-west orientation, the landing point sitting upon a small square.
Tourtour de Prouvenco, July 2022
The home of a small open market, this square is book-ended on its west side by the bridge mentioned above, and a gatehouse accessing what might be considered the older part of the town. The square and the bridge offer good views of the almost rectangular inlet as it forms a natural shelter / harbour. Looking at the basin of the inlet, it is not hard to picture it as once having been a port of call for trading ships plying the coastal regions under the power of wind and canvas. Today, the stone wharf has been extended by wooden moorings that offer places of rest for a mix of small fishing boats and the shark-like forms of power boats and speedboats.
The way down to the boats is presented on the far side of the bridge from the landing point, steps descending down from road level, the buildings behind them set well back from the drop to the water to provide a broad waterfront area, home to stores, stalls, cafés, kids at play and a sandy pétanque court awaiting older players.
Tourtour de Prouvenco, July 2022The buildings here are suggesting of having been built in the 18th or 19th centuries, although they are centred on a much older structure, almost a ruin, lacking a roof, some walls broken and the floors they once supported collapsed. Accessed via an arch, this has in fact been cleared out and partially renovated to become the Blue Note referenced in the About Land description, and home to DJ events.
A further arched passageway facing the bridge offers the way between the tall houses and buildings, allowing visitors to reach more features with the setting. These include the western beach, overlooked by the Chocolat, where visitors can enter into a (kilo-gaining!) romance with all forms of chocolate and dessert. This side of the town offers the local cinema, and a marvellous courtyard comprising façades of shuttered houses.
To the east, the older element of the setting is far more rural in nature, and includes some almost Tuscan touches thanks to some of the selected architecture. sitting on the top of rocky cliffs that fall to a further beach on their north side, and cut through by a deep gorge, this is much the larger of the two parts of the setting, and offers a huge amount to take in.
Tourtour de Prouvenco, July 2022
The houses and stores here are furnished, giving a rich sense of homeliness, whilst the town can be explored by following various paths through it. The most obvious of these is the rutted lane that runs between the Tuscan-like buildings to cross a natural rock pass over the waters of the gorge as it empties into the sea. In the far side, this road curls back on itself to follow the southern lip of the gorge, passing below the local art gallery.
Set within a grand building reached via a couple of separate footpaths leading up to it – both of which should be explored in order to fully appreciate the region – the gallery dominates the setting in terms of its elevation, and does tend to draw the attention. However, and while a visit is recommended, do take the opportunity to explore around and behind the houses to discover all that the setting has on offer.
Tourtour de Prouvenco, July 2022
And also, when passing under the arch from the landing point square, be sure to keep an eye out for the teleport posters that will take you up to a couple of locations in the sky that I’ll allow you to discover for yourselves!
Charming, well designed and laid out with plenty of opportunities for photography Tourtour de Prouvenco is well worth spending time visiting.
Cica Ghost carries us through the end of July and into August with her latest installation, which opened on Friday July 29th, 2022, bringing us a touch of Jurassic Park meets The Flintstones in another easy-on-the-eyes-and-brain piece.
Dinosaurs and Coconuts comes with a quote from the Dalai Lama – Once a year, go somewhere you have never been before, and this is a setting that surely offers us the opportunity to do just that.
Like Jurassic Park, this is an installation that presents avatar the opportunity to witness the great reptiles of an prehistoric era as they go about their business. Scattered across the landscape visitors might find armoured dinosaurs mind of those common to the Cretaceous period (Taohelong, Dyoplosaurus, Struthiosaurus, et al); sauropod-like dinosaurs that bring to mind those of the Jurassic the Late Cretaceous periods (such as Brachiosaurus, Apatosaurus and the truly enormous titanosaurians); and two-legged carnivores suggestive of the infamous velociraptor genus.
Cica Ghost: Dinosaurs and Coconuts, July 2022
However, this is no trip down Archaeological Lane; Cica’s dinosaurs are not intended to be reflective of the great beasts that once called the world their own. Rather they are here to offer a lightness of mood and sense of fun, as demonstrated by their expressions and the tip towards the fantastical among some of them. This sense of fun is further emphasised by the landscape in which the are located; a place in which Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble may well find familiar were they to walk into it, with its stone-hewn houses and cobbled-together wagons and caravans of stone and wood.
Some of the latter sit on the ground, others upon stilts and trestles. Quite who built them is open to debate; no sign of early Man here – although the local technology has clearly reached the point where the wheel is understood, as is the concept of the see-saw and that of the bridge (a concept a couple of the local raptors perhaps have yet to grasp, befuddled as they appear to be by the stretch of water which divides them, despite the bridge that sits close by…).
Cica Ghost: Dinosaurs and Coconuts, July 2022
At least one of the mysterious locals has even reached a point of understanding matters of ecology, a small windmill jutting through the roof of one stone house, presumably to supply power, and rudimentary garden spaces have been established to help give a sense of homeliness with some of these dwellings.
But it is the dinosaurs who hold sway here. From small to large (and in some cases I do mean large), they all have characters of their own, given life by a subtle sense of expression that suggests some of the thinking going on behind their eyes. Even the raptor-like dinos look like they’d be more interested in fun over hunting.
Cica Ghost: Dinosaurs and Coconuts, July 2022
Quirky and fun, and with a number of places for people to sit (or carry out handstands!), Dinosaurs and Coconuts is another fun installation from Cica, and the Dinos are available to buy though the little shop within the region.
Oh, and the coconuts? Just keep an eye on the local giant palm trees – and be careful not to stand too close to them!
The dates and initial details of the Relay for Life 2022 Renaissance Festival and Sci-Fi Expo, both of which take place in Second Life, have each been made available over the course of the last month, as have initial registration details, etc.
Both the Renaissance Festival are focused on raising funds as a part of the Relay for Life Making Strides Against Breast Cancer campaign, and the dates for both events are as follows:
Renaissance Festival: Friday September 23th through to Sunday, October 2nd, 2022, inclusive.
Sci-Fi Expo: Friday, October 14th through to Sunday, October 23rd, 2022, inclusive.
Renaissance Festival
The Renaissance Festival offers something for everyone interested in the medieval / renaissance period. It will take place across multiple regions – or kingdoms, presenting a wide range of activities, including: shopping, role-play, auctions, tournaments and entertainment.
The theme for this year’s event is The Silk Road, and t following registration opportunities are now open:
Special Events Sponsorship – show your support by sponsoring the event via one of these special packages.
Merchants – a range of packages with assorted options. All fees are a 100% donation to the American Cancer Society.
Role-play packages – designed for Medieval / Renaissance / Norse & Similar Genre Roleplay Regions & Guilds & Alliances & Groups who wish to have a presences at the SL Renaissance Festival. Packages are prices at LS $2,500 each.
via SL Sci-Fi Expo
Sci-Fi Expo
With the theme of Voyage to the Stars, the 2022 Sci-Fi Expo promises to carry visitors aboard The Nexus, a mobile space station and one of the crowning jewels of the United Earth Council fleet, as it continues its journey of exploring the vast uncharted reaches of interstellar space.
Applications are now open for the following:
Exhibitors – with packages ranging from L$1,500 to L$50,000. Please read the FAQ below the package descriptions when applying. Applications available through until October 10th.
Events and Perfromers – DJs, singer, dance troupes, and entertainer as invited to apply for a performance slot at the epxo – with applications open through until October 10th.
Bloggers – applications are open through until October 1st, and the application page also outlines requirements bloggers are asked to meet.
About Making Strides Against Breast Cancer
Making Strides Against Breast Cancer is the American Cancer Society’s premier event to raise awareness and funds to fight breast cancer. But it’s more than just the name of a walk – it describes the amazing progress we’re making together to defeat this disease. Since 1993, 4 million walkers have raised more than US $280 million through Making Strides. In 2007 alone, nearly 500,000 walkers across the country collected more than US $50 million to help fight breast cancer. Learn more here.
The inventor who almost took the pleasure out of life by building a Happiness Machine; the young reporter who fell in love with an alluring lady of ninety; the old gentleman whose last act was listening to the clang of a green trolley car going round a corner, two thousand miles away.
There lived a girl named Petra Peña, who wanted nothing more than to be a storyteller, like her abuelita.
