Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation
Updates from the week ending Sunday, October 10th
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 6.4.22.561752, formerly the CEF update viewer, dated July 24th, promoted August 10th – No change.
Shawn Shakespeare recently poked me concerning Hidden Bottle, the Full region (complete with additional LI bonus) designed by Num Bing-Howlett (Num Bing) and Clifton Howlett, and which originally opened back in May 2021. In particular, Shawn wanted to let me know the region’s design has been updated, making it especially worth while paying a further visit.
Hearing things has changed both piqued my curiosity and my concern. As I noted back in May, Hidden Bottle offered a unique tropical setting of islands linked by cable car, with walks winding through them leading to event spaces and other points of interest. As such, I was leery of that design having been replaced – but my unease was unwarranted: Hidden Bottle retains much of its original iteration, whilst offering something new and different to explore.
Hidden Bottle: October 2021
Also still to be found are the setting’s two islands and its popular cable car system that provides a primary means of transport. Both of the islands are are both somewhat smaller than they were previously, leaving much more space for water and boats and swimming – although the shallows between the island are prone to being used by sharks for a little bit of paddling around – so swimmers be warned!
From the landing point – located on a deck extending over the water from the smaller, eastern island – it is possible to start explorations on foot, either up into into the rocky honeycomb of the east island, or via footbridge that rises by way of a single spire of rock to reach larger, western island. Or, for those that like to wait for a few minutes before setting out to wander, the deck serves as a station for the region’s cable cars as they sway their way around the eastern island and thence over open waters to the west island before dropping back to the deck.
Hidden Bottle, October 2021
Two other land masses rise from the water: a northern sandbar that is little more than a ripple rising above the waves, but which is nevertheless home to a quiet retreat; and a southern nub of rock that is home to a lighthouse warning of the shallows and rocks between it and the western island – although the wreck of a fishing boat on the edge of the shallows offers equal warning to their danger during daylight hours.
Of the two islands, the larger is perhaps the more natural in form, rising from its southern extreme to high cliffs at the north end, its flat centre forming a natural path with equally natural stone steps climbing down over its shoulders and slopes to connect highlands with lowlands and little nooks and places to sit – including one within a stone ring. At the northernmost end of the island sits a small beach from which two rocky pillars rise, one the home to the region’s bar and deck, only accessible via the cable car.
Hidden Bottle, October 2021
The smaller island is stranger in form – and potentially the more interesting to explore as a result. I used the term “honeycomb” above to describe it, and that is how it is; pillars of rock rising from the sands at the island’s base to support great slabs of rock that sit like table tops, the hollows beneath them offering more places that await discovery, their tops home to further places to sit in the open or under shade, bridges strung between them while wooden deck extending out into the air over blue waters.
One of the secrets of this eastern island comes in the form of a portal. Find it, and you can make your way to Zamonia, the other setting created by Numb and Clifton, and the gallery there (both of which you can read about here). Similarly, portals from that region and the gallery will drop you at the eastern island of Hidden Bottle.
Hidden Bottle, October 2021
Also – and if you can find your way into them – there’s a series of tunnels and caverns to be found winding under the west island. These offer further places to be discovered – including the pirates’ hidden still area referenced in the region About Land description. To make your way into them, look for the pool beneath the south hull’s ribs.
Perfect for photographing under a range of EEP setting and finished with a rich soundscape, Hidden Bottle remains an engaging visit.
Currently open at Gallery 3 of Mareea Farrasco’s MAGOLand is Mindstorm, an exhibition of art by Bamboo Barnes which opened on October 6th, 2021.
Hailing from Japan, Bamboo is, as I’ve frequently noted, one of the most vibrant, evocative, provocative, and emotive artists displaying her work in Second Life. She is also an artist unafraid of plumbing the depth of emotion and introspection – and this is again true with Mindstorm, which presents a series of images she has been working on for “a few years”.
The best way to describe this exhibition is to perhaps use Bamboo’s own words:
When you are feeling low, isolated, misunderstood. Look at your disturbed soul pretending it never hurts, The ocean of the pain roar to sweep all the goodness from you so you can feel the bottom. Like the wind and the tide, there are no keys to open the sea, keep you face over the surface to keep the breath. When the sun is up your skin is dry, start feel it’s in the past, then life goes on, there’s another day.
Don’t know what will come tomorrow, beneath the surface there is mindstorm.
Bamboo Barnes, describing Mindstorm
IMAGOLand Gallery 3: Bamboo Barnes
Presented in Bamboo’s familiar bold colours, the 16 images within the exhibit are joined by a number of 3rd part 3D pieces she has also textured, which together offer very visual statements on state-of-mind / relationships, which through presentation and colour emphasis speak loudly to mood and feelings.
As introspective pieces, these might be seen – not incorrectly – as reflections of Bamboo’s moods. Again, and as I’ve note before, her work is strongly bound with her mood, whether drawn directly from the emotions of life or as a result of the music to which she is listening while creating a piece. However, and as her own notes for the exhibition state, these are pieces to which anyone who has weathered feelings of isolation – not so much as a result of the on-going pandemic, but due to circumstances of life such as the ending of a relationship or an (obtuse?) misunderstanding directed towards you or the hurt inflected by the actions or words of another, and so on – can identify.
IMAGOLand Gallery 3: Bamboo Barnes
I’m not sure how long Mindstorm is set to run, but I do recommend it as an exhibition worthy of seeing.
SLurl Details
Please use the teleport disk from the landing point below to reach the gallery.
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.
Sunday, October 10th, 13:30: A Night in the Lonesome October
It is the start of the Haunted Month, and Seanchai Library (SL) are marking the arrival and passage of October with a reading of Roger Zelazy’s A Night in the Lonesome October, the last of Zelazy’s published works.
A Night In The Lonesome October
Every few decades, when the Moon is is full on the night of Halloween, the fabric of reality thins and the door between worlds becomes unlatched. At this time, those with certain Occult knowledge gather to engage in The Game.
Those who play take opposing sides; on one: those who seek to win The Game and throw open the door by the light of the full Moon to usher in the Great Old Ones from the other side so that they might remake Earth in their own images and enslave or slaughter the human race in the process. Opposing the Openers are those are those who would, by winning, re-latch the door and deny the Great Old Ones their prize – at least until The Game once more resumes.
Thus, through the month of October, the Players in the game – all archetypal characters from Victorian Era gothic fiction – form alliances, make deals, oppose one another, and even kill off opposing Players, until the night of October 31st, when the ritual of the door takes place, and the fate of the world is decided.
Each Player has his or her familiar, an animal companion with near-human intelligence, to help them complete the numerous preparations they must make and so be ready for the ritual on the final night. One of these is Snuff the dog, the familiar of Jack the Ripper, and who not only attends the play of The Game with his master, but also acts as the narrator of the month’s proceedings.
Alone in the desert, Daiya is faced with dilemma that will determine her fate. If she can successfully resolve it she will join the Net of her village, but if she fails, her life will be spent with the feared Merged Ones. Confused and torn between worlds near and far, Daiya harbours a secret of her people, and must find a way to move beyond her discoveries to a safe place where she can survive.
Join Gyro Muggins as he reads from Nebula-winning author Pamela Sargent’s Watchstar series.
On All Hallows Eve, young Pipkin is due to meet his eight friends outside a haunted house on the edge of town. But as he runs through the gathering gloom, Something sweep him away.
Arriving at the house in expectation of meeting Pipkin, his eight friends instead encounter the mystical Carapace Clavicle Moundshroud, who informs them that Pipkin has been taken on a journey that could determine if he lives or dies.
Aided by Moundshroud and using the tail of a kite, the eight friends pursue Pipkin through time and space, passing through the past civilisations – Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Celts – witnessing all that has given rise to the day they know as “Halloween”, and the role things like ghosts and the dead play in it.
Then, at length they come to the Halloween Tree itself, laden with jack-o’-lanterns, its branches representing the confluence of all these traditions, legends and tales, drawing them together into itself.
Wednesday, October 13th, 19:00 More from Terry Pratchett’s Wyrd Sisters
With Caledonia Skytower.
Thursday, October 14th,
19:00: The Last Photograph of John Buckley
When a photographic retoucher is commissioned to fix the abnormalities on a Great War portrait, he finds his own past and that of the subject beginning to connect. Are his personal nightmares returning, or is it something more?
A short ghost story in the M.R. James tradition, “The Last Photograph of John Buckley” is a dark tale of past crimes and unfinished business.
21:00: Seanchai Late Night Horror: It Came from the Multiplex
Welcome to tonight’s feature presentation, brought to you by an unholy alliance of the spellcasters at Hex Publishers and movie-mages at the Colorado Festival of Horror. Please be advised that all emergency exits have been locked for this special nostalgia-curdled premiere of death. From crinkling celluloid to ferocious flesh from the silver screen to your hammering heart.
Behold as a swarm of werewolves, serial killers, Satanists, Elder Gods, aliens, ghosts, and unclassifiable monsters are loosed upon your auditorium. Relax, and allow our ushers to help with your buckets of popcorn (and blood); your ticket stubs (and severed limbs) your candy (and body) bags… and kick back and scream as you settle into a fate worse than Hell. Tonight’s director’s cut is guaranteed to slash you apart.
Both sessions with Shandon Loring at the Haunted Hollow.
Friday, October 15th, 19:00: Ghostbusters
If there’s something weird And it don’t look good Who you gonna call? Cale & Shand!
With Caledonia Skytower and Shandon Loring in Ceiluradh Glen.
The 2021 Second Life Sci-Fi Expo launched on Friday, October 8th, 2021, and will remain in orbit through until Sunday, October 17th, 2021 in aid of The American Cancer Society and the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer (MSABC) campaign.
Active across multiple regions located alongside the American Cancer Society Island, this year’s even carries the theme of visiting New Eden, a major hub for galactic commerce and exchange located on an ancient forested world and protected by an all-encompassing sky dome.
As with previous years, the expo presents a broad range of science-fiction related role-play, entertainment, and activities and the best place to find out about all that the Expo has to offer is via the official website, where you can find information on:
And details of all of the available events and activities (ignore the calendar referring to 2017!), including opportunities for role-play with some of the groups participating in the Expo.
Sci-Fi Expo 2021
This year’s setting a especially well considered; the regions offer plenty of open territory that gives room for event spaces set out among the canyons and woodlands that give a lot of opportunity for simple wandering and exploration. The majority of the shopping, meanwhile, is found within the New Eden city, presenting the opportunity for visitors to ramp down draw distance and shop without too burdensome a load on their viewer.
As befitting an untamed planet, New Eden is a rugged place, so be sure to follow the trails and stairs up into the hills to discover all of its secrets; and if you get lost, keep an eye out for the teleport portals – walking in to one will return yo to the main landing point (you may need to accept the event experience for these to work). So, as I’m prone to say when previewing this event: whatever your interest in science fiction, be sure to set your phaser on fun and head back to the future with a visit to the SL Sci-Fi Expo!
Sci-Fi Expo 2021
Out Shop Cancer
Also underway throughout October is the 4th annual Out Shop Cancer, a grid-wide shopping event that this year sees more that 70 creators and merchants participating. Offering a broader range of shopping opportunities than the sci-fi theme offered at the Sci-Fi Expo, Out Shop Cancer presents items for adult and child avatars, home and garden and DFS goods, and more. New for this year is a grid-wide hunt. Just find the black Out Shop Cancer shopping bags tucked away inside participating stores, pay them L$25 (all proceeds to RFL of SL / Making Strides), and claim a bag full of goodies.
For full details on the event, please refer to the Out Shop Cancer website, where you can find the complete shopping directory and full details on the hunt, together with the latest news updates.
Currently open at Feint and Bone, the immersive arts environment operated by Flower Rainforest and Tarhai Breen and curated by Bryn Oh, is Lifted, an environment by Kirumi Yoshikawa and Berkeley Burnstein that offers a lot to see – and to interpret; a place where apocalypse meets the realm of digital uploads.
The city of Korrosion was always pulsating with one Bass or another. One day while traversing the Galactic Meta, Rumi might have acquired more than anticipated with a new pet. She didn’t get the full instructions and the biggest no-no was NO BASS. Guess what ? We had BASS and it let the little pet she found grow to an unmanageable size. Bass was outgrowing the hunger so the city fell little by little, slipped into the sea. Uploading was the city’s last resort for preservation and this is where we are today; mid-upload while Rumi’s little pet devours the remains of the city.
– Kirumi and Berkeley describing Lifted
Feint and Bone: Lifted
Thus visitors are placed in a midnight setting that exists partially on land, partially under water and partially in the sky; individual island and vignettes interconnected by teleporters that take the form of closet mirrors – at least two at each location throughout the installation – that offer their own path through the story; although, as the artists note, those who prefer can walk through the region on their own voyage of discovery.
The landing point provides four of these teleporters, offering the most direct way to get around – but note that they may not deliver you fully into the next scene. Where this is the case arrows flicker along the ground may point you in the desired direction, indicators that are also useful for those exploring on foot.
The individual vignettes vary widely: one offers the remnants of the city mentioned in the description, buildings canted or sinking into the waters, kraken-like tentacles rising up through streets and structures; are these part of the oversized “pet” that brought doom onto the city, or do they belong to something else? The other vignettes offer gardens that lie under the waves, protected by domes, or which float in the sky, pulsating with light, whilst some bridge the space between in the air and under the water.
Feint and Bone: Lifted
What we make of these environments is a matter for individual interpretation. Some may well be parts of the failing city; others recreations sitting within the digital domain. Still others, gardens and buildings both, appear to be caught in the upload process – solid in form, but blue lines of light pulsating up into the sky like binary notations of their form moving from the physical to the virtual.
This idea of transformation sits further in the mirror teleporters. As well as offering a means to move through the installation’s vignettes, they present – as the artists note – a means of reflection. We stand before them in a “physical” form, and see within them an image of ourselves; thus they mirror, as it were, the idea of transformation as embodied within the installation’s story.
Feint and Bone: Lifted
Overlaid with a subtle rumble of bass that is again in keeping with the central theme of the installation and rich in colour and
On All Hallows Eve, young Pipkin is due to meet his eight friends outside a haunted house on the edge of town. But as he runs through the gathering gloom, Something sweep him away.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld