Cica Ghost opened her latest region-wide installation on Sunday, February 9th, and it is another absolute delight from an artist who can chase away the darkest clouds and turn the deepest frown into a smile.
Burlap is a marvellous setting where just about everything is fashioned from that fabric (also known as hessian in some parts of the world). The ground is a stitched-together pattern of plain and coloured burlap swatches, the houses, vases, pots and boxes that lay scattered across it similarly so, while a ribbons the fabric forms a road that winds around and over the land. Even the posts and fences are made from the stuff, as are the flowers that sprout from vase and pot.
Cica Ghost, Burlap
The only real exception to the use of burlap and thread comes in the form of buttons. These not only secure the clothes of the local population – of which more in a moment, they also act as wheels on vehicles large and small, some mobile, some static, some apparently being pulled along. Wheels even sit at the four corners or on either side of some to the finger-like houses, suggesting that with a firm heave-ho, they could be set rolling across the quilted landscape.
Within the setting, the local inhabitants watch the comings and goings of visitors with interest, forming a little community of burlap-dressed bears, rabbits, ducks, felines and mice (and even a giant fish apparently quite at home draped over a hill!). The bears, rabbits and ducks all have their own little neighbourhood areas, complete with their own burlap-fronted shop, while the felines – a lion jealously guarding his bag of potato chip (or crisps as we’re prone to call them in the UK), and a cat apparently out shopping with a little mouse literally in tow with her – stand apart from one another.
Touch the fronts of the shops, and the burlap “doors” will rise curtain-like, to reveal smaller versions of the locals available for purchase and display.
Cica Ghost – Burlap
As with all of Cica’s builds, Burlap includes a lot of places for avatar animation / interaction, with sits and dances to be found on multiple sufaces – just carefully mouse over things and watch for the Sit icon to appear. Some of the obvious places are the giant gramophone player, the swings and the chairs – but there are more that I’ll leave yo to discover 🙂 .
Also, keep an eye out for the gift giver – it’ll present you with your very own burlap sack you can use to hop around the installation and have sack races with friends. There is also a fish car rezzer sitting to one side of the region awaiting drivers (turn off your AO to sit within in properly). Do be warned, however, that it does tend to launch you and your car once you’re seated!
Cica Ghost – Burlap
Whimsical, fun and bright, Burlap will remain open for about a month. When visiting, do please consider making a donation towards Cica’s work, so we can all continue to enjoy her art in Second Life.
Garrigua, February 2020 – click any image for full size
Garrigua is a relatively new Full private region leveraging the full region land capacity bonus to present both an environment open to exploration and to offer a limited number of private rentals.
The region is apparently intended to offer a slice of southern France, although many of the houses found within it have something of a Tuscan lean – but are not out-of-place in doing so. Designed by Terry Fotherington, famous for the Kekeland / Bar Deco settings, the region offers something of an echo of one of his Keleland iterations along its north and south waterfronts – which also is not to say it is any way a copy of that build; the similarity being gained through the bright colours of the south side buildings and the harbour areas they overlook, and the north side off-shore mooring with their sail boats.
Garrigua, February 2020
The landing point is on a south-side road that cuts canyon through the aforementioned town houses and places of business, some of which separate the street from the beach and waterfront. Some of these building form a courtyard around a square garden, with the seaward side buildings of the courtyard sitting atop the region’s sea wall, and home to a bar and café that offer a view out to sea and the harbour to the west.
A place of business, the harbour offers fuelling and repairs for small boats and is home to a small marine research unit. It is overlooked to the west by a small headland camp site.
Garrigua, February 2020
The north side of of the region appears to be where the rental properties are located – three on the waterfront to the east, separated from the sea by a ribbon of wave-eroded land that might form a beach at low tide, while the fourth sits offshore as a walled villa, complete with its own landing for boats. Between the waterfront houses and villa sits a wooden pier with shallow water moorings for sailing boats watched over by one of the region’s three lighthouses.
A dirt track runs east to west across these north side lowlands to connect with a paved road that links to the southern aspects of the setting and the inland uplands and north side of the island. Rising from behind the three rental houses, ir separates them from a privately-held farm on its other side. Another farm sits to the west, but appears to be open to the public, the meadow around the two farm houses rich in lavender.
Garrigua, February 2020
As is always the case with Terry’s designs, there is a huge amount packed into this region: there are numerous places to sit and pass the time; cars and scooters and bike sit along the streets, giving a sense of the comings and goings of life; the way the roads all lead to a tunnel that emerges from the central uplands, suggesting the region is connected to somewhere else beyond the far end of the tunnel.
A stream also tumbles from these central uplands, running westwards to meet the sea, partially dissecting the region with rocky rapids. Other natural touches include the sheep wandering across the road, bringing local traffic to a temporary halt; donkeys stand in a field watching the comings and goings along the farm track whilst geese no doubt tease them with occasion honks as they wander by, unhampered by the fences that hold the Donkeys in place.
Garrigua, February 2020
There is a subtle sense of age to the region as well: the local bus stop is little more than a corrugated tin shell, its paint slowly losing the battle with rust and held up by a wooden frame, while the carcasses of rusting vehicles can be found peppered across parts of the region, some turned into cuddle spaces, others left to turn to dust. Most striking of all is the old villa sitting towards the centre of the region.
Aged, plaster falling from the walls, the villa is dominated by a tree within its courtyard that has been left to its own devices for so long, it is starting to push against the walls. The rooms are similarly losing their battle with nature, with even a sapling taking root to push its way up through the floor ad seek the Sun by forcing its way through boards that once blocked a window before succumbing to death, leaving bare branches grasping outwards. All of which makes for a perfect location for photography.
Garrigua, February 2020
Given the volume of mesh and textures in the region, movement around it can be subject to performance issues, particularly if there is a reasonable number of avatars present – so be prepared to make adjustments to your viewer settings if you find things a little heavy going. However, the region makes for a picturesque, photogenic visit.
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 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, February 9th
13:30: Tea-Time Special: Death on the Nile
First published in 1937, Death on he Nile is one of Agatha Christie’s most famous and enduring Hercule Poirot murder mysteries. The book has been the subject of multiple theatrical, film and television adaptations, most of which had by necessity condensed elements of this tale of love, jealously, and betrayal to more readily fit the requirements of their format.
Over the next five weeks, Seanchai Library presents the opportunity to enjoy the story in full – and within a setting inspired by the novel, as Corwyn Allen, Da5id Abbot, Kayden Oconnell, Gloriana Maertens, and Caledonia Skytower bring Christie’s characters once more to life for us to enjoy.
The Karnak – Death on the Nile
So, why not join Poirot as he cruises aboard the river steamer Karnak in a trip along the Nile – although a tour of the sights is unlikely to be high on his priorities given the state of affairs between socialite Linnet Doyle, her new husband Simon Doyle and his embittered former fiancée (and Linnet’s long-time friend) Jacqueline de Bellefort, together with a host of other interesting travelling companions; particularly when they start to turn up dead.
18:30: The Secret Garden
Caledonia Skytower continues this classic of children’s literature by Frances Hodgson Burnett, first published in 1911, at the Golden Horseshoe in Magicland Park.
Orphaned after losing her parents in a cholera epidemic, young Mary Lennox returns to England from India, entering the care of her uncle Archibald Craven, whom she has never met.
Up until this point, Mary’s childhood had not been happy; her parents were selfish and self-seeking, regarding her as a burden over which they were not obliged to hold much responsibility. Not overly healthy herself, she is as a result a temperamental, stubborn and unmistakably rude child – and her arrival at Misselthwaite Manor and the relative gloom of Yorkshire’s weather does little to improve her mein.
Her disposition also isn’t helped by her uncle, who is strict and uncompromising, leading to Mary despising him. But her uncle’s story is itself filled with tragedy, particularly the loss of his wife. As she learns more about her uncle’s past, so Mary learns about a walled garden Mrs. Craven once kept, separated from the rest of the grounds and which, since her passing has been kept locked by Mary’s uncle, the door leading to it kept locked, the key to it buried somewhere.
Finding the missing key and the now hidden door, Mary enters the garden, and her passage into it starts her on a journey of friendship and discovery, one that leads her to the thing she never really knew: family.
Monday, February 10th 19:00: Out of the Silent Planet
The first novel in C.S. Lewis’s classic sci-fi trilogy which tells the adventure of Dr Ransom who is kidnapped and transported to Mars
In the first novel of C.S. Lewis’s classic science fiction trilogy, Dr Ransom, a Cambridge academic, is abducted and taken on a spaceship to the red planet of Malacandra, which he knows as Mars. His captors are plotting to plunder the planet’s treasures and plan to offer Ransom as a sacrifice to the creatures who live there. Ransom discovers he has come from the ‘silent planet’ – Earth – whose tragic story is known throughout the universe…
Join Gyro Muggins for more.
Tuesday, February 11th 19:00 More from the Liaden Universe: The House
With Ktadhn Vesuvino
Wednesday, February 12th, 19:00:The Starless Sea
Caledonia Skytower reads selections from Erin Morgenstern’s novel.
Deep beneath the surface of the Earth and upon the shores of the Starless Sea, lies a network of tunnels and rooms filled with stories and tales. The ways into this secret place are many, but hidden, and perhaps set for just one individual to find. They exist where least expected: on the floors of forests, behind doors inside private homes or around alleyway corners or within mountain caves – almost anywhere in which they cannot be anticipated.
Zachary Ezra Rawlins is searching for his door, though he does not know it. He follows a silent siren song, an inexplicable knowledge that he is meant for another place.
When he discovers a mysterious book in the stacks of his campus library he begins to read, entranced by tales of lovelorn prisoners, lost cities, and nameless acolytes. Suddenly a turn of the page brings Zachary to a story from his own childhood impossibly written in this book that is older than he is…
Thursday, February 13th
19:00 A Pocketful of Crows
I sent his letter back again, Saying his love I valued not, Whether that he would fancy me, Whether that he would not.
The bonny brown girl, lives in the forest, unnamed, untamed. Her people, the “travelling folk”, have no need of towns, or houses, or linens. Nor of each other, save at occasional seasonal gatherings. The Brown Girl lives in the wild, inhabits the wild creatures when she wants to hunt in the forest, or soar through the sky.
Then one spring day, the day before May Day, she meets William, a young royal, and quickly falls in love. Though she denies being in love, and swears to remain wild, William insists on giving her a name, Malmuira, the Dark Lady of the Mountains.
“Thus are you named, my brown girl. Thus do you belong to me.”
Join Shandon Loring as he continues this tale of love, loss and revenge. Following the seasons, A Pocketful of Crows balances youth and age, wisdom and passion and draws on nature and folklore to weave a stunning modern mythology around a nameless wild girl. Also in Kitely – grid.kitely.com:8002:SEANCHAI).
21:00 Seanchai Late Night
Contemporary Sci-Fi-Fantasy with Finn Zeddmore featuring stories from sources including Escape Pod, Light Speed, and Clarkesworld on-line magazines.
Friday, February 14th, 15:00: Seanchai Library at One Billion Rising in SL
Aoife Lorefield, Dubhna Rhiadra, Willow Moonlight, and Caledonia Skytower share an hour of stories and poems in support of this movements annual global statement to end violence against women. (SLURL available in posts and notices on the day of the event).
Saturday, February 15th, 15:00: Seanchai Library at Lanagan Parj with Love in Words and Music
Ktadhn Vesuvino and Caledonia Skytower reprise their creative exploration of love in its many iterations through poetry and songs – it’s not all hearts and flowers! Some new selections added this year. Live on stream.
I recently wrote about the The Phoenix Artists Collaboration (PAC), a group formed to support artists from across Second Life by providing large-scale exhibition spaces capable of supporting multiple artists free-of-charge (for up to 100 land capacity).
The group was founded by Robert73Miller and Luke (Marshmal), with artist Anibrm Jung curating the gallery. Set within a Full private region utilising the additional 10K land capacity allowance (so 30K total capacity), PAC offers a range of gallery and events venues, with some 42 artists currently availing themselves of the gallery’s core exhibition space, as I noted in The Phoenix Artists Collaboration in Second Life.
Unfortunately, PACs future is now uncertain. While Luke and Robert have funded the region through until the end of March 2020, due to personal reasons, Robert has had to withdraw his involvement in the project as a funder, and this has cast doubt on the group’s ability to meet the cost of region tier from April onwards.
Phoenix Arts Collaboration
However, rather than simply give up on the endeavour, Luke and Ani are hoping they can find assistance in continuing PAC’s work beyond March through the wider support of those within the Second Life community who might be willing to get involved in both the group and the running of the region. Specifically, they are very keen to hear from:
Individuals or a group willing to:
Either take total ownership of the gallery and region, and meet the L$16,999 per week tier (and with Ani continuing in her role as gallery curator)
Or join with Luke and Ani in managing the group and gallery, and meet an agreed share of the region tier.
Individuals or groups willing to sponsor the region and gallery for a fixed weekly amount, in return for advertising space within the region, and with all promotional material issued by the group for exhibitions and events.
Those interested in doing any of the above are asked to contact either Luke or Anibrm in-world, and at their earliest convenience to discuss ideas and opportunities.
The following notes are taken from the TPV Developer meeting held on February 7th, 2020. A video of the meeting is embedded below, my thanks to Pantera for recording and providing it. As always:
Time stamps are given with links that will open the video at the appropriate point.
Core points of the meeting are listed below. Other subjects of lesser import may have been discussed, please refer to the video.
This was a relatively short meeting, information-wise, with much of the actual meeting time given over to general text chat.
The Yorsh Maintenance RC viewer updated to version 6.3.7.535996 on February 7th.
The Love Me Render RC viewer updated to version 6.3.6.535087 on February 6th.
The remainder of the current SL viewer pipelines are as follows:
Current Release version 6.3.6.535003, formerly the Xanté Maintenance RC, dated January 22nd, promoted January 27th.
Release channel cohorts:
EEP RC viewer, version 6.4.0.535668, February 4th.
Camera Presets RC viewer, version 6.3.6.535138, January 24th.
Project viewers:
Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, December 9th, 2019.
Project Muscadine (Animesh follow-on) project viewer, version 6.4.0.532999, November 22nd, 2019.
Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.3.2.530836, September 17th, 2019. Covers the re-integration of Viewer Profiles.
360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, July 16th, 2019.
General Viewer Notes
The three potential candidates for the next release promotion are quoted as being the Yorsh Maintenance RC, the Love Me Render RC and (even though it is still a project viewer at the moment) the Legacy Profiles viewer.
The Camera Presets RC viewer is experiencing a higher than average crash rate, with investigations on why still ongoing.
[19:47-20:30] As noted in my week #6 CCUG summary, EEP is now in burn-down mode – which means more bugs are being fixed than are being reported. It is anticipated that the formal deployment is now weeks, rather than months, away.
[28:06-28:41] The cache replacement viewer project is once more making progress, but there is no date as to when a public version of the viewer is likely to surface.
In Brief
[2:46-11:30] The new Premium Plus subscription level requires viewer-side changes. These predominantly relate to logging-in, where a user’s account level (Basic, Premium and – in the future – Premium Plus) is obtained from the back-end via a received block of LLSD code containing benefits tags and values.
This code is now in a public repository, and will be seeing some changes to various values specified within it prior to Premium Plus being launched.
The server-side code supporting the new LLSD code block will be made available on some Aditi servers soon, so TPVs can ensure the code doesn’t interfere with their ability to connect to the SL servers with their current viewer versions, and to start testing the viewer-side code in non-public versions of their viewers in preparation for the launch of Premium Plus.
At some point the server-side code will be deployed to the main grid, where it should not impact current viewer versions.
As side notes to this:
Once Premium Plus has been launched, the new code will refuse to connect if the required data is missing, but the system will let a viewer that ignores it to connect.
However, under the current roadmap, Premium Plus will not be going live until some time after Name Changes has been released (as per statements made at the monthly Web User Group meetings).
[14:42-14:50] Work on migrating viewer repos from Mercurial to Github is progressing.
[21:38-26:08] The SL system requirements page no longer references Windows 7 as this is no longer a supported operating system version. However, a broader update to the requirements page is being considered, as the current information is considered “woefully to aged.”
As part of this discussion, it was reiterated that when EEP does go live, it removes the option for turning off basic shaders, which will prevent systems than cannot support basic shader operates from accessing Second Life. The fixed function OpenGL code that supports the disabling will then be removed as a part of a future viewer code clean-up pass.
[15:19-17:20 (incl. text chat)] Both Singularity and Alchemy have been working towards making formal releases Soon™. Singularity has an up-to-date beta available to users, and Alchemy is close to making an updated beta available as well.
Villa Eirini, Calas Galadhon, February 2020 – click any image for full size
Calas Galadhon is one of the gems of Second Life – and somewhere we always enjoy visiting. Designed and operated by Tymus Tenk and Truck Meredith, together with their team of volunteers, this 13-region park offers something for everyone: wide open spaces to enjoy on foot or via horseback – those with wearable horses can use their own, while there are horse rezzers to be found around the park; there are opportunities for boating, balloon rides, dancing (including at events at the park’s various locations), and much more.
February 2020 saw the addition of a new attraction to the park: Villa Eirini, and as with everything else at Calas, it is a delight to visit, and offers a lot to be enjoyed and appreciated.
Villa Eirini, Calas Galadhon, February 2020
The villa is located on the Bay of Bel, part of the park’s extensive waterways, which extend from Eriador and Erebor in the west (and which are home to the Calas holiday settings at the end of each year, as well as being home to the stunning recreation of Santorini that made a return to Calas in 2019 – see The return of Calas’ Santorini in Second Life), to progress east and north to Long Lake (although they may not be fully navigable by boats due to the low bridges bordering the bay). This affords the villa extensive over-the-water views that – providing you can pump up the viewer draw distance sufficiently – offer stunning vistas from the villa and its immediate surroundings, with the view back to Santorini perfectly framing the architecture of the villa.
Sitting within low walled grounds, the villa is fully and delightfully furnished to offer a place where people can relax, chat and dance, either indoors or out on the terrace that looks eastwards to Santorini and the open-air events venue that sits on the far side of the bay with its flooded gardens and ancient ruins.
Villa Eirini, Calas Galadhon, February 2020
A flat table of rock rises immediately to the south side of the villa, coming close enough to almost touch it. With its top reached via spiral stair from the terrace and connecting walkway from the villa’s upper floor, it is home to a secluded and welcoming Zen garden constructed using Alex Bader’s excellent building set (which I’ve coincidentally used at Isla Pey – see Bringing a little (Studio Skye) Zen to your SL garden).
The eastern end of the villa’s island offers a small circle of sand and a causeway linking it to the fens of Belgaer, from which rises the equally welcoming Two Loons waterside café, another addition to the park Ty and Truck added in 2019 (see: The Two Loons in Second Life). The causeway actually forms part of the Calas riding trail, which skirts around the villa to continue north-east over a second causeway to reach the shores of Santorini, before doubling back north and west over natural rock arches across the waters of the bay to reach the headlands of Grey Havens and, beyond them, Armenelos and Long Lake.
Villa Eirini, Calas Galadhon February 2020
We first rode this trail back in 2017, just after it opened (see: A little (Bento) horse riding at Calas Galadhon in Second Life), and places like Santorini and now the Villa Eirnini make it an even more attractive and worthwhile ride today. While the trail does pass the villa, there doesn’t appear to be a horse rezzer close by, so those using the Calas horses to explore and who opt to dismount to spend time at the villa may have to continue their travels on foot.
If walking isn’t to your liking, a pier on the north side of the island offers a couple of boat rezzers. The first will, when touched, present you with a pontoon boat capable of carrying up to 6; the second (and by way of a colour picker dialogue) will present a 2-seat paddle boat. Note that the “driver” *must* select the seat farthest from the pier and sit first / stand last to avoid the boat being unexpectedly derezzed.
Villa Eirini, Calas Galadhon, February 2020
Boat niggles aside, Villa Eirini forms another superb addition to Calas Galadhon and makes for a perfect place in which to spend time and relax.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 