Category: Reviews

Black Kite – click any image for full size

In writing about the closure of Namaste and Kamigama recently (see here for more), I made mention of the fact that with all the “new” regions and ever-changing region designs in Second Life, it is sometimes easy to forget the more long-lived locations in-world that are open to public visit.

Those comments put me in mind of a region I first visited nigh-on six years ago, and to which I haven’t written about in the last four. So, I decided to heed my own suggestion and hop over to it and spend a little time there.

Black Kite

Black Kite is the home of Cloudy (Theblackcloud Oh), and it has been open to the public for as long as I can remember it being in Second Life. Over the years it has undergone changes here and there, but by-and-large it has always remained a tranquil, water-focused setting, and this remains true today.

This is a place where azure waters gently flow under a matching sky broken by lazily drifting clouds of white. The ankle-deep water is dotted with wooden decks and board walks, some connected one to another, others sitting as isolated islands to be reached by gentle wading, short steps offering a way up onto them.

Black Kite

The decks are home to assorted points of interest – a couple are the location of the 8f8 store, another offers the chance to rest alongside the Moon, a third features a little open-air café (one of the elements of Black Kite that tends to remain as other elements come and go), while others offer places to simply sit and while away the time.

Watching over this is the region’s signature kite, caught on a mystical wind and aided in its oversight by the strange bobble-topped trees that rise from the waters alongside platforms and around the landing point. Throughout all of this are invitations to throw aside worries and care and just be: “Do what you want”, Celebrate”, “Nothing really matters”, “Dream” … Even “Go fly a kite”, painted on the water beneath the floating kite, reads more as an invitation than it’s more usual sentiment.

Black Kite

For those who have previously visited, the 8f8 store, the kite, the trees, the café and the water tower will all be reminders of Black Kite’s endurance in Second Life. So to are the bottles and jars scattered around, offering those who want to meditate in peace and quiet – and behind glass – the ability to do so. But so too are the subtle changes to be found on repeat visits spaced a little time apart from one another.

In my case, and on this trip, these changes took the form of a tower of shipping containers I can’t recall having seen before, and the arrival of assorted “cuteness” around the region – the “ice cream bunnies” at the café, for example, or the plushie birds. Small changes, perhaps, but enough to keep the camera and eyes roving, and the feet wandering through the region to discover what else might be.

Black Kite

Cloudy does still keep a private residence in the north-east corner of the region, and this is barred to public entry – but the rest of the region remains as open and as free to wander as ever. In fact, one of the joys of Black Kite always has been the fact it is uncluttered. Board walk, decks, platforms – all are scattered across the region with sufficient water between them as to engender among those using them a sense of being apart from others, free to relax in your own little space on one of the decks even when others may be a-visiting or enjoying a break for themselves.

Given that so many places occupying private islands come and go with (sometimes alarming) frequency, that Black Kite remains in-world, open to the public and asking so little in return, for more than six years now, having originally been claimed in March 2012, and remains under its original “ownership” is pretty remarkable. As such, I’m glad I’ve made the time to not only revisit for the first time in several years, but also to write about it once more.  And as with my two previous posts, I’ll again suggest that if you’ve never visited Black Kite before, and wish to see somewhere just that little bit different, you jump over and take a look for yourselves.

Black Kite

SLurl Details

Black Kite (Black Kite, rated: Moderate)

Namaste – click any image for full size

I’ve written about the region designs of Lokhe Angel Verlack (Jackson Verlack) since April 2015, when I first discovered one of his first iterations of Pandora Box of Dreams – the name he has largely used to denote the regions he has designed and run with his SL partner, Miza Cupcake Verlack (Mizaki).

Over the years, these designs have grown in complexity and vision, he and Miza have also moved from the Pandora Box of Dreams approach to design role-play regions inspired by the World of Darkness universe (see here and here) before returning once more to the Pandora Box of Dreams “brand” with region designs that have mixed rental accommodation with stunning places for visit and spend time, such as the former Pandora Resort, and more recently Namaste and Kamigami, both of which I visited in 2017 (see here and here).

Namaste

Sadly, word came from Miza that Namaste and Kamigami will be closing on August 1st, 2018. In fact, Jackson has already started dismantling Kamigami. What’s more, it’s likely to be the last public region design we might be seeing from Jackson for a while.

The reason for the closure isn’t the hoary old devil of tier per-se – whilst offering rentals for people, Jackson and Miza have largely covered the cost of the region out of their own pocket. Rather, its a lack of footfall through the region. Despite frequent events, the opportunity to enjoy two very well-designed and captivating locales, the region has seen a steady decline in traffic which, sadly, has reached a point where Jackson and Miza feel they’d rather focus on more personal projects and things that give them enjoyment.

Namaste

In this, they are far from alone: the truth is that such is the vastness of Second life and the constant popping-up of new regions and new places to visit, those places that offer a sense of longevity and comforting familiarity, unless located on the mainland, do become harder and harder to maintain when it comes to drawing a steady flow of traffic. Even with things like tier reduction (and depending on how that is passed on through land companies when it comes to rented regions), a point can so easily be reached  where the effort in trying to maintain that flow and meeting the cost of keeping a region has to be put into perspective and a decision sometimes made.

I admit, I feel a little guilt here; as a Second Life travel blogger, I’m all too keen to hop to the “new” places and write about them, or hop back to those that are given a make-over every few months. It becomes all too easy to forget about those that are there, month-on-month and never overly changing, but offering a consistent beauty for all to enjoy. Perhaps this is something all of us who write about Second Life need to keep in mind, and consider looking back at some of the regions we’ve visited in the previous year that might not have changed in the intervening time, and just dropping a “reminder” note about them for readers who may not have had the chance to visit, or might be unaware of their presence.

Kamigami, Pandora Resort

In the meantime, the gradually disappearing Kamigami notwithstanding, there is still a little time before the region closes on August 1st, 2018, to visit Namaste and say farewell, and perhaps drop a note of thanks via IM or notecard to Lokhe and Miza for sharing their vision with us.

For my part, I hope this is not the last we’ve seen of Lokhe’s designs; he has amazing vision in creating special places, and my thanks to him and Miza for allowing us to share in them.

Namaste

SLurl Details

• Namaste and Kamigami (Hurricane, rated: Moderate)

Ponto Cabana – click any image for full size

Lemon Beach is a place we’ve frequently visited in Second Life. From at least 2015 through until early 2017, it was held by Silvermoon Fairey under the name It’s A New Dawn (see here and here for more). More recently, it has been held by Iska (sablina), who initially gave it the name La Virevolte (The Twirl), occasioning us to visit on two occasions in the winter of 2017 and the spring of 2018.

Iska, working with working with Chimkama, and Toxx Genest (ToXxicShadow). has now give Lemon Beach a further makeover, and a new name, Ponto Cabana, presenting a reason to make a further visit as July drew to a close.

Ponto Cabana

In its new guise, the region offers a curious mix of settings. On the one hand, there is a feeling that perhaps this is in part an old Spanish colonial plantation somewhere in the tropics. A grand house sits on the highest point on an island, steps descending down through what might have once been cultivated terraces to where the old road runs past the foot of the hill before snaking its way up to the house. In doing so, the road turns sharply past the single remaining wall of an old chapel. This may have once been a part of the estate, but time has not been kind, the lone wall with its forlorn bell sitting above the sea.

Some of the terraces below the house are still being cultivated, although these now appear to be more for personal use than for growing produce destined for market or export. The rest, sitting before the house and cut by both winding road and grassy footpath, are given over to an informal garden. Meanwhile, the house with its white, adobe-like finish cracked and broken in places and clearly roughly patched in others, has a sense of stately age about it, perhaps just a little at odds with the furnishings within and around it, which suggest the current occupants lean towards a more bohemian lifestyle than one focused on the cultivation of local plants and fruits.

Ponto Cabana

Across the water, on another rocky-sided island, there is a slightly different look and feel. The structures here are mostly more modern in style – if a lot more run-down than the adobe fronted house. A paved road, leading to and from nowhere, arcs past a large house – or about what’s left of it, given its broken form is now subject to nature’s claim. Across the short sweep of road sits an old swimming pool, a pelican perched on the rusting frame of a diving board perhaps wondering just what happened to the water.

Up on a headland, beyond the ruin of an old fort, sit a raised wooden hut with evidence of some occupancy scattered about it, but on the whole the feeling here is of a place now deserted; or at least in the process of being deserted. A car piled high with luggage sitting incongruously on the road outside of the ruined house as if ready to forever depart, a stubborn donkey standing before it, determined to stare it down. The road itself ends just behind the donkey, a set of steps leading down to another pat of the setting that again has a feeling of age about its occupancy in the form of the ruins of a stone chapel.

Ponto Cabana

Of grander stature than the lone, bell-carrying wall near the old plantation house, this ruin speaks of a once proud centre of worship with something of a medieval bent in its design. The way to it has long since been flooded, but stepping-stones offer a way across the water to the foot of the steps leading up to its stone flagged floors even as a wooden bridge offers access to the lands around it. Flamingos wade through the water, while humming birds flitter busily around the flowers growing from it and – in another incongruous, but oddly acceptable touch – two little hippos stand knee-deep in the water.

All-in-all, Ponto Cabana is a strange and eclectic mix. However, it is an eclectic mix that works, and works delightfully well. With places to sit and relax – notably around the old plantation house, surrounded by off-sim islands heightening the tropical feel for the setting, and even a couple of off-shore perches to enjoy, Ponto Cabana makes for an ideal and photogenic visit.

Ponto Cabana

SLurl Details

• Ponto Cabana (Lemon Beach, rated: Moderate)