Category: Reviews

More hopping through Bellisseria

Posted on by Inara Pey
Everfaire Coffee Shop, Bellisseria

Back in May 2019, I produced a piece called On the Road in Bellisseria. At the time, it was intended to be the first in a series of “road tours” around the continent to various public places that form a part of the continent, and also a look at some of the public facilities – pubs, cafés, galleries, show homes, etc., that have been opened by Bellisseria residents.

For a variety of reasons, that idea didn’t go as planned, and given Bellisseria is a dynamic place, constantly growing in terms of physical size and population, offering a road tour isn’t easy. So instead, here’s a short list of places I’ve dropped into of late that might be of interest to those wanting to take a hop around the continent.

Many of the public places provided as a part of Bellisseria  – the Fairgrounds, for example,or Campwich Lodge, added with the arrival of the Trailers and Campers and the Bellisseria railway lines (see: Bellisseria: of Trailers, Campers and trains in Second Life) and original airstrip, together with the various bars, pool, beaches and undersea spots – are all reasonably well-known, so I’m again focusing on a handful of resident-provided spots.

Picards Wharf contains one of several undersea sites around Bellisseria, this one comprising the ruins of a sunken lighthouse in two parts, with accompanying undersea caverns (seen in the background)

These are perhaps a little harder to keep track of, simply because people have the freedom of choice with their Linden Home styles, that they can easily swap designs and purposes – so a house that might be a café for a time might later be switched back to being a cosy home, whilst a houseboat might switch from home to gallery and back again, depending on the owner’s desires. Nevertheless, the following were all current at the time of writing.

For art, two places in particular come into mind. There is Diamond Marchant’s Beckridge Gallery, and Ladmilla’s Gallery, which might be regarded as a “branch” of her much larger gallery, THE EDGE.

Ladmilla’s Gallery

Both galleries offer slightly different approaches to displaying art, with Beckridge offering a more “gallery” style environment at the time of my original visit (see: Celebrating Apollo 11 in Second Life and Sansar), where the focus is on the art, with minimal emphasis on furnishings. Ladmilla’s offers a more studio style of gallery, where her own work – including some of her images-with-poems, produced in collaboration with her SL partner, Eli Medier – is displayed in comfy settings with sofas and armchairs. Other galleries within the continent include The Little Gallery (RuffertasAlt), and Bellisseria Squirrel (Halo Rain).

Those seeking café or pub-style environments might be interested in Cain Wycliffe’s Bellis Blues Café. Taking full advantage of Chic Aeon’s add-on elements specifically for Linden Homes, Bellis Blues is presented as the continent’s only Blue-oriented café / club, and features regular events on Tuesdays (10:00 – noon SLT), Fridays (14:00-16:00 SLT) and Saturdays (20:00-22:00 SLT).

Bellis Blues Café

Staying with the café theme, those exploring the Trailer and Campers regions by train, truck or (most enjoyably) horseback might want to drop-in to Mitchel Torok’s Mitch’s Hideaway, a place that demonstrates just how versatile the trailer homes can be. An added attraction at the hideaway is the inclusion of a Teaglepet Animesh horse rezzer, allowing visitors to take a horseback ride on a choice of mounts – just remember to turn off your own AO!

Other cafés and pubs I’ve enjoyed dropping into are Soulgoodie’s Everfaire Coffee Shop and the Queen’s Head pub, run by North Crannock, one of the driving forces in the Bellisseria Citizen’s group, and which is modelled on an English country pub. A point to note when visiting resident created public places is that some may also include bicycle rezzers, giving visitors the opportunity to take a ride through the streets and along the paths of Bellisseria.

Mitch’s Hideaway

Further places of interest within Bellisseria include the The Drowned Mouse Arcade for video games, Jupiter Projects, promising “a series of limited engagement interactive environments” and the Pearl Dreams Business Compound, offering a “Surf Shack Café & Bakery, with Chopper Tours” and other elements. I can’t really vouch for any of these or how active they might, be as I’ve only paid them very brief visits courtesy of a landmark list provided by PrudenceAnton.

As with my previous piece on places to visit in Bellisseria, this article is hardly complete – and as noted, places may change purposes over time. However, whether you have property in Bellisseria and want to explore more or are simply curious about paying the continent a visit and looking around, hopefully what is listed here might help you. Those interested in events in Bellisseria might want to take a poke at the Bellisseria Citizen’s Group, which is free to join.

Drune: a further visit in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Drune: East of Eden, November 2019 – click any image for full size

For the third time in 2019, I dropped into Drune, this time on the recommendation of reader Robin Lobo, although it is a place that has been getting a lot of attention of late due to a photographic competition that is running through until November 27th, 2019.

Designed by Zee9, we visited the region at the start of 2019 and then during the summer (see: Time at 2019-XS in Second Life, January 2019 and Drune IV: an Aftermath in Second Life, August, 2019), although Zee9’s designs go back beyond either of these dates. Throughout all of their iterations, Zee9’s builds have focused on a sci-fi / cyberpunk feel that incorporates certain key motifs drawn  – as the About Land description notes  – from the likes of Blade Runner and The Fifth Element, Neuromancer, and Altered Carbon.

Drune: East of Eden, November 2019

This latest iteration of the design is called Drune: East of Eden. Whether or not the title is a reflection of Steinbeck and the underpinning themes of his novel I’ve no idea, but given the dystopian state of human civilisation seen particularly within Blade Runner, and the novel’s examination of humanity’s capacity for self-destruction, the link would seem to perhaps be apparent.

Focused on a single, neon-lit street, complete with Spinner-style police cars buzzing and hovering around, the build perhaps leans more towards Blade Runner than the past two builds offered – although equally, there is less of a feel of the multi-level nature in the setting than previous builds that also move it a little away from that film. However, there are numerous nods and touches to a range of influences beyond the films named in the region description (one of the more obvious being Sulaco Corporation – a name that would seem to draw on the Alien franchise).

Drune: East of Eden, November 2019

There are familiar elements from earlier builds to be found as well – notably the subway that serves as the landing point, some of the vehicles, the little hovering robots, the night club and the bar. These help to give a sense of continuity to the setting that eases those familiar with some of Drune’s past iterations (such as 2019-XS) into this one, such that the feeling is not so much that this is not so much a new build, but another part of that city.

For me, the enclosing region surround give this iteration of Drune a depth perhaps lacking in some previous versions – and it is clear that Zee9 has taken a huge amount of care to ensure the the edges of the region break up the surround such that the high-rise buildings of the latter feel like a genuine continuance of the setting, adding to that feeling of depth noted above. It is as if one could walk through one of the road tunnels, the canyons between those skyscrapers would indeed lead to some of those past Drune designs, sitting as further outliers of the city.

Drune: East of Eden, November 2019

Always evocative, wonderfully thematic and rich in colour, Drune always offers a setting worth visiting and appreciating – and for photographers, the photo contest mentioned above gives an added incentive for visiting. Details can be found on an ad board in the landing point subway.

Recommended – and thanks to Zee9 for the chat.

Drune: East of Eden, November 2019

SLurl Details

In the clouds in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
In the Clouds, Nils Urqhart

Currently open at his Rill’Arts Gallery is In the Clouds, a series of stunning physical world images by Nils Urqhart of the French Alps either caught within, or against the backdrop of, cloud-laden skies.

Across just shy of thirty images, Nils paints a stunning portrait of the Alps – which forms one of the world’s stunning mountain ranging – that fully captures their intensely rugged, almost romantic, looks, and does so in a completely beguiling manner.

In the Clouds, Nils Urqhart

By presenting the Alps – slopes and peaks, capped by snow or naked – Nils has created a series of images that not only suggest the mountains are almost living, breathing entities, but that they are entirely otherworldly in their nature.

In the Clouds, Nils Urqhart

For example, in some, they seem to float as islands in the sky, breakers of clouds rolling against their flanks as they seem to float on a sea of white and grey. In others we are offered small glimpses of what life among mountains like this – to look out over forest coated rocky slopes whilst also overlooked in turn by the towering, stern presence of these huge rugged faces.

One of the fascinating elements of this exhibition from my perspective is the aforementioned sense of life given to the Alps through the sometimes rolling, roiling set of the clouds around them. In numerous shots, this play of cloud caught on turbulent winds colliding against the sides of the mountains not only looks like that vast ocean breaking upon the flanks of an island, but also the longs exhales of breath from the mountains themselves.

As always with Nils’ photography, this is a marvellous collection of images that are perfectly presented. Those taken by Nils’ work can also find it available for sale in the physical world through American Fine Arts.

SLurl Details

Somewhere Else in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Somewhere Else BKLYN, November 2019 – click any image for full size

Somewhere Else BKLYN is a region design that’s be getting a lot of attention of late, offering as it does one of the more unique settings for Second Life photography.

Designed by Littlesquaw and ToXxicShadow, it presents an urban setting (the name suggesting it might be drawn from Brooklyn, New York), looking across a narrow stretch of water (the East River) towards the shining towers and sky scrapers of a city’s beating heart.

Somewhere Else BKLYN, November 2019

The region – a Homestead – offers its own high-rise buildings, but these are dwarves in comparison to those across the water, and they are sa lot shabbier. They form what appears to be little more than a thoroughfare for traffic that is busily trying to get among, or coming from, the gleaming spires of the city. Two busy roads run into the scene from a single bridge that reaches out towards the city’s promise of wealth and (literally) high life, the occupants of the vehicles cramming them perhaps unaware of the place they are attempting to drive through and the fact that it has life of its own.

Perhaps they prefer not to dwell on thoughts of those living in this seedier setting that sits between plush office and outlying suburban home. Which is a shame, as there is the promise of life all around in the side streets and alleys here; even if it does form a mixed bag.

Somewhere Else BKLYN, November 2019

Down one street, for example, sits an oriental market, complete with open air food stands where meat sizzles on hotplates above naked flames and seafood broils in a broth. Elsewhere, a sign sitting atop a building, but at a distant eye-level from the roads here offers the promise of Little Italy, while flashing neon signs entice with offers of food or other distractions.

This is a place where art comes in the form of wall-covering graffiti and where age is always apparent – not just because of the grime and stains of automobile exhausts and decades of wear-and-tear on road surface, sidewalk and building, but also in the way old-style wooden advertising hoarding rub shoulders with their more modern electric counterparts.

Somewhere Else BKLYN, November 2019

It’s clear that this is also a place of commerce – the subway station is proof of that, the maw of its entrance busy with the hustle of people coming and going; but it’s also clear that this is a place past its prime and wanting a little TLC: refuse lays piled here and there, some of the streets are littered and uncared for while poverty is embodied in the lone waterfront sentinel of a bag lady’s shopping cart laden with the bric-a-bric of things she has acquired and which to her offer a meaning for life.

Packed with detail larger and small, and given life through the  many characters to be found in its streets, Somewhere Else BKLYN offers an immersive environment (have your local sounds on) environment that is easy to explore and rich in opportunities of Second Life photographers.

Somewhere Else BKLYN, November 2019

SLurl Details

Callum Writer’s Colors in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Callum Writer: Colors

Currently open at the Boston Town Hall is Colors, an exhibition by Callum Writer, an artist I’ve come to admire for the breadth and depth of her work.

Callum found her artistic inspiration through the snapshot capability in the Second Life viewer. From this, she has worked to expand her artistic ability and expression to incorporate techniques such as fractals, collage, abstract, and mixed-media approaches. In all of this, her ability to express emotion, harmony and life through the use of colour is clearly evident, as can very clearly be seen with this exhibition.

Callum Writer: Colors

Located on the ground floor of the town hall building, the exhibition feature 15 marvellous pieces of Callum’s work. Each and every one of them is stunning in form, colour and expression, starting with Portrait de Femme, to the left of the front entrance to the hall, and proceeding around the space on both the walls and free-standing easels.

The creativity seen in these images is stunning, making any selection of individual pieces meaningless to a degree – although I admit to being drawn in particular She and Dancers 14, alongside the aforementioned Portrait de Femme, because of the manner in which they meld colour, light, movement and life. However, it is impossible not to be taken by each and every piece on display.

Callum Writer: Colors

An absolutely captivating exhibition – and one highly recommended.

SLurl Details

The growth of Bellisseria

Posted on by Inara Pey
Pootling through some of the new Bellisseria continent regions by rail

It’s been a few months since I last wrote about Bellisseria, the Linden Homes continent. At that time, the trailers and campers selection of homes had just been deployed – and proven as popular as the Traditional homes and Houseboat ranges before them.

Since that time, as has been reported elsewhere, the continent has been expanded with a lot of new regions slotting into the southern side to fill out much of the “missing parts” when compared to the SSPE “test continent” used to initially develop Bellisseria’s layout.

These new regions have dropped into Bellisseria fairly close to where my houseboat is located, and I’ve tended to take the occasional look at them as things have been under development (see A little Culprit Moonwalking in Second Life, for example). However, as this a is quiet Monday, I decided to drop in to the regions at a time when I’m unlikely to get in the way of the Linden Department of Public Works (LPDW) as they continue to build-out the regions with everything from landscaping though flora and infrastructure to the Linden Homes themselves.

The new regions bring together a mix of Houseboats, Traditional houses and Trailers and Campers

The majority of the regions continue with the current themes of Traditional, Houseboat and Trailers and Campers homes. This means – on the surface –  that the new regions could be dismissed as “more of the same”, but as my Monday trip through some of them – by rail and horse – shows that while they may contain the same types of houses, they have their own unique character and look.

Take, for example, the Bellisseria railway. While this was introduced with the release of the Trailers and Campers, the extension to the continent illustrates it in not to be restricted to regions containing these types of Linden Home – as has been hoped would be the case. Within the new regions, the tracks pass from “camping” regions into Traditional homes regions, and back into “camping” regions once more. Along the way the tracks also branch for what I think is the first time, presenting two potential rail routes through the regions, and one of the new Traditional homes regions has markings for what might be a more substantial station than seen elsewhere (or at least one directly served by road).

The new regions see the Bellisseria rail lines extend into Traditional house regions

Given the continued popularity of the Houseboat styles, it comes as no surprise that the coastal regions offer more moorings for houseboats – some of which have already been populated. But again in what might be an interesting turn where popularity is concerned, the new regions offer an extensive reach of the camping parcels along the coast, presenting people who like the Campers and Trailers with the opportunity to enjoy coastal living, rather than being restricted to just the banks of inland waterways and lakes.

The new regions also offer the first real “blending” of Camper and Trailer regions and Traditional House regions. Until now, the boundaries of the two have tended to be denoted by water. With these new regions, the two types of Linden homes draw together more naturally, sometimes with just low mounds between them, sometimes abutting almost seamlessly.

Trailers and Campers move to being along the coast with the new regions

There are perhaps one or two little things that it would be nice to see. The rail tracks for example run through the regions, passing Campers and Trailer and houses alike running over and under bridges and through deep cuttings; but there are are no tunnels – it would be nice to see one or two in the more hilly areas.

Similarly, while the Traditional house regions and the Trailer and Camper regions do more directly abut one another, the roads of the Traditional house regions and the tracks of the Camper and Trailer regions never actually come together; rather they each end abruptly with a stretch of grass between them, it would be nice to a a more natural joining, asphalt gradually giving way to a narrower, rutted track, for example. Or at least have a fence and (open) gate between them, rather than curbstones, footpath and pristine-looking grass.

Food for thought for Linden Lab, perhaps?