Category: Reviews

Sitting within the GEL residential community that spans some 40-ish regions, GEL Park is billed as an all-mesh public amusement park that offers some 26 different rides for the enjoyment of all who visit. It grabbed my attention after appearing in the Recently Added section of the Destination Guide, so over the weekend, I suggested to Caitlyn we hop over and take a look.

Utilising the entire ground level area of a Full private region and extending into the air overhead, the park is laid out in the manner of many a physical world amusement park – as anyone who has been to the likes of Disneyland, Six Flags Alton Towers and so on will likely recognise. There’s the familiar “main street” style of entrance next to the landing point, complete with mini arcades and store spaces (some of which are available for rent), with the rest of the region divided into five areas: Space, Adventure, Imagine, Yesterland and Funland.  There’s even a cable car to help give the sense of arriving from a distant car park.

Most of these areas carry something of a theme to them. For example, Space has a distinctly futuristic look to it and features rides related to rockets, etc., that culminate in the region’s version of Space Mountain. Meanwhile, Yesterland takes a trip into the past with rides themed on ancient Egypt, Vikings and Atlantis. However, there is some degree of cross-over: Funland for example, includes Torgon’s Space Ride, whilst it is hard to miss the Stagate franchise references in a couple of Yesterland’s ancient Egypt themed rides.

While there is a lean towards rollercoasters, the park does offer a good mix of rides large and small, and anyone who enjoys amusement parks in the physical world will feel right at home among the dodgems/bumper cars, drop rides, pendulums and spinning rides,  and so on to be found here.

The rollercoasters themselves come in both of the common varieties: those with cars on the track and those with cars suspended from the track. Some have apparently been specially built for the park, others are commercially available and some have a touch of history to them. Torgon’s Space Ride, for example, first appeared at SL13B, and I can recall riding it there and am pleased to say it is as enjoyable now as it was then.

There are a number of different approaches taken in how the different rides operate. Several will start automatically, waiting a number of seconds before setting off; some require you manually start them either via chat or the use of a supplied HUD, and some are triggered through the use of a local experience.

The latter are generally the rides that are located on sky platforms above the region, the experience intended to move you relatively seamlessly between ground and ride and back again. You’ll be asked to join it the first time you pass into the ground-level entrance for one of these rides (indicated by an area of deep shadow you’ll need to walk through); thereafter the experience will freely move you back and forth as required without any prompting or clicking.

The best way to appreciate most of the rides is to switch to Mouselook view, as this gives a more realistic sense of actually being on the ride (screen allowing), although a couple can result in a certain motion-induced giddiness, so a little care might be needed. Some rides will automatically drop you into Mouselook when you sit on them, others may require you to toggle it yourself.

This being SL, some of the rides can have the odd case of the jitters or have one or two small oddities (one rollercoaster is so compact, part of it seem to slice through you as you ride it!) but none of these hiccups actually prevent enjoyment of any given experience. My only real niggle was that I found the Haunted House ride in Adventure to be just that little bit too long (but then, I also feel the same way about LL’s annual Haunted House ride that rolls out each October).

Should the rides all get a little much, the north-east corner of the region presents Imagine, a garden space to wander within. This is home to paths, sculptures and water features, with places to sit and just unwind for a bit. It is also home to the Imagine Theatre, which I assume is home to dance productions and events – there is a auto-subscription board to one side of the theatre stage for the Imagine Dance update group (touching the board again will allow you to unsubscribe).

Amusement parks are not new in Second Life (I’ve covered a number previously in these pages), and can be hit-and-miss events for visitors. However, GEL has a clean, open design that makes for an easy, fun visit, and aside for the minor hiccups mentioned above, all the rides worked for us.

SLurl Details

• GEL Park (GEL Community 38, rated General)

Tolla Crisp invited Caitlyn and I to visit Frogmore 4.0, the fourth iteration of her popular themed region which recently opened to visitors.

Once again, the setting draws its primary inspiration from the county of Cornwall, in the South-west of England – a place noted for its moors, hamlets, fishing, surfing, beaches and rugged beauty and which was the inspiration for the design we last saw in June 2020 (see Frogmore’s Cornish twist in Second Life). However, the design adds a couple of little twists of its own to the mix as well as offering a completely new look.

Those twists take the form of a corner inspired by London’s Notting Hill, with another part taking the name “The Shire” – although whether this is a reference to Tolkien’s eponymous home of Hobbits or a reference to the shires of England in all their diverse beauty, is open to interpretation.

Now making use of the Land Impact bonus available to full private regions, this iteration has been designed by Dandy Warhlol (Terry Fotherington), who has been responsible for all of the various Frogmore designs. This ensures something of a continuity of approach as the region changes, helping to give it a sense of evolution / life in keeping with the continuing focus on Cornwell for on its inspiration.

With this iteration, the region offers a look and feel of the more rugged parts of Cornwall’s coast that can feature rocky coves with little fishing hamlets tucked into them. Split into a series of islands, there is no set route to finding your way around the region, instead, visitors can wander as they please, causeways and bridges connecting the various areas.

The core influence for this design is the north Cornish fishing village of Port Isaac. It’s a place that may not be familiar to those outside of the UK, but since 2004 it has been the setting for the comedy series Doc Martin, at least one season of which has been streamed in the United States.

It is also the home of Fisherman’s Friends, a male singing group who have been performing sea shanties since 1995. In 2010, they garnered worldwide attention after signing a recording deal with Universal Music, and their story was used as the basis for a 2019 romantic comedy film. The village is also part of the Baltic Live Cam network, with a 24/7 webcam stream.

Listed as a Conservation Area due to the buildings at its centre representing 18th and 19th century architecture, Port Isaac is historically significant, having likely been founded in Celtic times; its Cornish name, Porthysek means “corn port”, reflecting the use of the bay in shipping corn grown inland to centres of populace. It’s importance as a point of trade grew in the Tudor period, when Henry VIII had the bay dredged and the main pier and breakwater constructed. Apart from the corn that gave the town its name, cargoes of coal, wood, stone, ores, limestone, salt, pottery and heavy goods also passed through the harbour.

However, pilchard fishing formed the backbone for the village for most of its history up until the late 1800s, with fishing still part of village life today, together with tourism. A curiosity with Port Isaac is that it shares a stretch of the coast with the hamlet  of Port Gaverne; whilst separated b around a kilometre, the latter is often to be an outlier of the village, something that might be reflected in the way elements of this design stand aside from the rest, but nevertheless appear to be part of the whole.

With its harbour cove caught at low tide complete with breakwater, the heart of the region captures something of Port Isaac’s waterfront look whilst offering a wilder,  more rugged landscape that is not so densely packed with houses and buildings. These are represented by the cluster of houses, barns and public building clustered on the island directly to the north.

The Notting Hill aspect to the region can be found in the south-west corner, where an antiques boutique typical of those found along Portobello Road is waiting to be found. Sitting on a finger of land reached by a covered bridge, it sits separated from the main Cornish village element by The Shire.

This is a location that sits both aside from, yet a part of, the rest of the region. As already noted, whether one takes the area’s name from Tolkien or stands in reflection of England’s shire counties is a matter of choice. Certainly, there are no Hobbit holes waiting to be found, and the buildings, drywalls and gardens are suggestive of places like the Home Counties shires mixed with a dose of Yorkshire and Derbyshire. However, the high mountains surrounding the region – which are definitely not of England – give a New Zealandish feel to the setting, putting one in mind of the likes of Peter Jackson and his iconic visualisation of Middle Earth through his films, and thus call forth thoughts of Hobbits.

As with all of the Frogmore iterations, this setting is rich in opportunities for photography, exploration and simply sitting and enjoying the view. Do be aware, however, that given many of the buildings are furnished, it is a place packed with mesh and textures,  and this can have an impact on viewer performance, so be prepared to make allowances should this be the case.

But that said, from the compact gathering of houses and buildings clinging to the shorelines and cliffs complete with narrow streets, to the sweep of a northern beach overlooked by the ruins of a promontory fort, the richness of the Cornish landscape is hard to deny; while the twists within – the hints of Portobello Road to the touch of the Mediterranean in some of the buildings – make Frogmore a delightfully engaging visit.

To mark the re-opening of the region, Tolla is holding a photography competition with a L$17,500 prize pool, details of which can be found here.

SLurl Details

• Frogmore (rated Moderate)

Now open at The Eye Arts, operated by Wan (Wan Laryukov) is a new exhibition of photography by the magnificent Hermes Kondor. Offered under the joint title of The Museum (The Visitors), it is a collection of Hermes’ work from the physical world that could also be called Watching the Watchers.

Spread across the two floors of the gallery is a series of black-and-white photograph that offer a unique take on a visit to a museum that Hermes explains thus:

I passed a few days in the Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon, seeing how people react and behave in the presence of Art and Beauty. Some stop, look and enjoy it, others sit in front of it, looking deeply into the details trying to find the hidden magic and beauty of each piece of Art. Quite a lot, with ‘phone in hand take photos of every work, keeping it in a memory card for later enjoyment.

– Hermes Kondor

The gallery is home to what is regarded as one of the most important private collections of art in the world, that of Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian. Comprising some 6,000 pieces covering 5,000 of human civilisation, it includes 2D and 3D art representing Egyptian, Greco-Roman, Mesopotamian, Islamic Oriental, Armenian, and Oriental history, as well as westen art which in includes sculptures, the art of the book, paintings and one of the most extensive collections or pieces by the French glass artist René Lalique, from whom Gulbenkian personally commissioned 140 individual items.

Given this, the halls of the museum offer a considerable amount to see and appreciate – and, as Hermes notes, captivate those who visit. As such, it is a rich source of material for the skilled photographer, and Hermes demonstrates this to the full in the images gathered in this collection.

These are a remarkable set of studies in human nature and behaviour, the use of monochrome giving them a timeless edge that perfectly fits the historical context of the museum and the collection within it.

The richness of human interactions – direct and indirect – found within these images cannot be overstated. Within them we find multiple expressions of how we interact with art and one another; from the unconscious use of stance – leaning forward or backwards whilst studying a painting – to the close inspections Hermes mentions and the manner in which phones are being used; even the manner in which some interactions can take place seemingly without awareness for those around us, caught as we are within our own social group, is perfectly reflected in some.

For me, what makes these pictures especially captivating is the fact that they have often been taken without the awareness of the subjects within them. Thus, there is a natural vigor about them that gives the museum itself a vitality of life. In addition, this approach allows the pictures to be presented as a most unique series of studies into the human body as a statement of art.

As well as the individual images being available for purchase, Hermes has also collected them together as a book that can be purchased at the reception desk on the lower floor, allowing visitors to keep a memento of the exhibition.

SLurl Details

• The Eye Arts (Gigli Waves, rated Moderate)

Recently opened in Second Life is a new region design by and Fred Hamilton (frecoi) and Lotus Mastroianni. Beira da Ribeira (roughly translated at “border river” or “riverside border”) is a lush forest setting strongly suggestive of the Amazon rain forest that is both simple in presentation and yet layered in potential message.

Cut into three main and unequal parts by the passage of water, the region’s two larger landmasses are home to a rich rain forest style environment – tall trees offering high canopies that leave the land below so in shade that little else has the opportunity to gain either the height of the trees or the density of their foliage. Instead, the ground is given over to a tangle of roots, ferns and low-lying shrubs through which natural trails speak to the passage of wildlife among the  shadows.

Between these two arms of the forest and sitting with a fork of the river, is a pair of islands, the larger of the two forming the third principal land mass. It  is separated from the smaller island suggests by a shallow channel of water that suggests they were once joined, but have separated perhaps as a result of rising waters – perhaps the result of seasonal rains.

That rainfall  is liable to be a factor here is shown by the fact that the little village that has grown on these islands (and extends along one bank of the river) is raised up on long-legged platforms. Made of rough-cut boards, it comprises simple houses and structures  made of whatever materials came to hand: wood, corrugated metal, clay tiles …

Those who built the village appear to live off the waters around them and responsibly use available timbers for their boats and buildings (the logos around the town indicate the villagers are licensed to use local wood), while their lifestyle presents a curious mix: the buildings are all clearly hand-made, somewhat makeshift, but they are not without modern amenities: a generator sits on one palette, providing power together with the solar panels located at the far end of the village. Also, a row of water butts are racked over the generator, apparently drawing clean, drinkable water from somewhere well beneath the river.

Even so, and despite the power and the presence of a little café-bar, it’s fairly evident that this is not a wealthy place; it merely sits in the passage of wealth that passes overhead in the form of microwave communications being relayed by the tall mast rising from a nearby hill. But as poor as it might appear, the village carries with it a strange sense of warmth and homeliness that is attractive.

Its presence also speaks to the changing times within the the Amazon: close by within a clearing is a trio of thatched huts that bring to mind the tribal heritage of the Amazon basin, a heritage that – thanks to the arrival of “civilisation” – has in places migrated over time to places like the riverside village, gradually adopting modern abilities as and where they can.

The landing point for the reason sits to the north-west and is a reminder of the manner in which the rain forest is being exploited  – be it for wood, to create room for agriculture or the extraction of other natural resources. It presents a tract of land entirely denuded of trees, the ground laid bare to the ravages of the wind, former tree trunks, cut and sized, either aboard ship ready for transport or piles awaiting their turn for shipment.

While it is far from clear, the float plane moored by the town might belong to those responsible for the deforestation; it’s unlikely it belongs to anyone living in the town – although it might just be responsible for bringing curious tourists to the basin, hence the café-bar with its two neatly-kept dormitory rooms.

Rich in detail – particularly throughout the village – with birds, animals and reptiles also awaiting discovery, Beira da Ribeira is a fascinating, natural setting which – as with all builds be Lotus and Fred – offer plenty of opportunities for photography.

My thanks to Shawn Shakespeare for the pointer!

SLurl Details

• Beira da Ribeira (STYX, rated Adult)