Tag: Grauland

Update, July 20th: Jim dropped me a line of the lack of soundscape noted below – apparently it was an easily-done oversight, and has now been rectified, so be sure to have local sounds enabled when visiting!

About a couple of weeks ago, if memory serves, I bounced into Jim Garand’s Grauland on one of my periodic visits to see what might have changed since my last visit. At the time, Jim appeared to be smack in the middle of redressing his Homsetead region – also home to his M1 Poses store – and so I pretty rapidly bounced my way back out again to allow him to finish things off, but with my curiosity well and truly piqued. I had intended to return just a few days later, but life had other plans, and so have only just made it back.

Jim has a habit of pulling together settings that are a mix of landscape, art, architecture and narrative. Sometimes they are themed, as with the last edition of the region I blogged about – see: Grauland’s Last Trees in Second Life, or they may be inspired by an actual location; at other times they might be more nuanced in ideas and themes, and at others still, others they are simply offered as opportunities for photography and art. Grauland / Corsair Island appears to fall within the latter two groups, offering hints of a theme here and there whilst in general offered a highly photographic setting with a lean towards artistic expression.

The setting’s little  – Corsair Island – might perhaps suggest the idea of pirates, sailing ships, treasure and all that; however, this is not the case. Rather, the name appears to be taken from the World War 2 vintage Vought F4F Corsair single-seat fighter displayed almost as a museum piece towards the south-west corner of the region. Sitting with wheels on its own of concrete apron, a separate square of the same close by hosting a mighty sea anchor which might have hailed from a WW2 battleship of aircraft carrier, the Corsair looks out to sea from flat-topped table of rock with a broad throw of sand curving around its base to form a golden beach.

The local vegetation suggests this is a tropical island, one amidst a small group, with the Corsair itself immediately raising thoughts of the Pacific conflict of WW2. This is perhaps further enhanced by the general layout of the island, which suggest it may have once been an airbase for a land-based contingent of US Navy aviators and their aircraft. The road running north-to-south might have at one time been a runway, and whilst the sound side of the island is now in part excavated and home to free-standing art installations, there is a chance that it may have once been flat and home to a second runway.

Of course, the huge concrete bulk of a road tunnel rising from the sea and with its  darkened maw open to either disgorge or swallow road vehicles at the north end of the road tends to suggest that perhaps this is a place much closer to the US mainland, but it does not entirely eliminate the dance of the imagination in thoughts of airbases from past conflicts.

In fact, the placement of some of the buildings alongside the road might also add to the idea, their position suggesting they’ve replaced what may have been an aircraft dispersal area and / or hangers and workshops. But again, in opposition to that, the presence of the gas station and motel with its slab-sided beachfront cabins again give the impression this is a place much closer to the US mainland, and one which sees a degree of vacation traffic passing back and forth through the tunnel; so I’ll leave it to you to form your own backstory for the setting.

The southern side of the island is given over to art installations. Three of these are bound the draw attention, possibly at the expense of the fourth. The latter take the form of a series of disks, rings and cylinder elements arranged in a manner that presents a series of spaces that can be walked around and through. The three main installations, meanwhile, are a mix of the familiar and the new.

Many of Jim’s past installation have included the motif of standing blocks, generally in geometric arrangements. These have frequently been in the form of cubes resembling block of cement, but here Jim includes a pyramid to the eastern end of the island with its flanks being climbed by ranks of stone uprights in a design by Alex Bader. Next to this is the excavated area, walled by heavy blocks and its floor tiled. Within it stands a series of walls forming something of a maze-like area, squares of blue tiles mounted on the wall sections like windows. The maze isn’t hard – it’s not intended to be – and has a roofed platform at its centre, served by two stairways.

Alongside of this maze, sitting between it and the southern beach is an area suggestive of ancient ruins fronted by a large bust of a female torso. Steps down to a lower area passing under the “ruins” provides access to the beach. To the north of the island, hidden among rock formations, is a formal garden area watched over by Buddha, Psyche and a reproduction of Horatio Greenough’s (1805-1852) Arno the Greyhound as found at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts.

East of the garden and most directly reached via a winding paved driveway that links it to the main road, is a large warehouse style of building sitting walled-off from the rest of the island, giving the impression it is separate to the rest. It is dressed as a private home and not for public access, but the gates guarding it open on approach and there is no security system in evidence – so I have no idea if it is meant to be public or private, so I remained circumspect.

As always, this iteration of Grauland is photogenic and attractive, holding a lot to see (not all of which is mentioned here). It is strangely devoid of any soundscape (either that, or my viewer simply was not registering local sounds during my visit!), but to make up for this (if it is the case), a gift from Jim is available for visitors at the landing point.

SLurl Details

• Grauland (Liberia Isle, rated Adult)

Jim Garand never fails to intrigue / please with his periodic re-designs of Grauland, his Homestead region. Since 2019 he has consistently offered environments for people to visit which have mixed themes and ideas in multiple ways – landscapes, art, architecture, history, mystery, science fiction, and so on.

As such, it is always a pleasure to drop in and witness what he has most recently created for people to enjoy. And for me, this is particularly true of the April 2024 edition of the region, which he has called Grauland – Last Trees, as it reminds me of one of my favourite – and potentially one of the most underrated classics of of the genre – science-fiction film, Silent Running.

The region does this in two ways. The first is that – like the film – it appears to offer a commentary on the environment and the damage being done to it by the human species. In this, the setting also perhaps echoes Waterworld, given it appears to be a lone outpost rising from an unending sea; but I’m sticking with Silent Running simply because of the two great biodomes sitting to the north and south of the outpost. If you’re familiar with the film, then it’s hard not to see these two massive geodesic structures of glass and steel and not think of Valley Forge and the precious cargo she and her sister ships carried in the home of one day replanting Earth.

Here, however, the domes do not protect woodlands or the fields of plants and all the insects and smaller animals vital to a healthy biosphere as seen in the film. Instead, each dome is home to a single giant oak rising from a sea of grass and spreading their boughs in defiance of the glowering sky outside of the gentle lights (and warmth, perhaps?) of the domes. But as with Silent Running, it would appear that this outpost, anchored to the bed of the shallow surrounding sea, is dedicated to the preservation of these two great trees and also to the renewal of plant-life to some degree, given the hydroponics farm located in the lower level of one of the great domes.

Whilst not out in the void of space near Saturn, Grauland’s outpost is crewed by people clearly trying to make the best of things – as were the crew of the Valley Forge. Part of the station is devoted to living quarters offering creature comforts and sitting over floating docks where jet skis and RHIBs are available for recreational enjoyment on the water (and yes, you can ride the jet skis), while lidos and floats bob on the water, suggesting swimming is also to be had. In this, the jet skis – for me – offered a further indirect link to the film, standing-in for the four-wheeled buggies Freeman Lowell and his colleagues used to let off steam as they raced around their cargo ship.

Sadly, Huey, Dewey and Louie are absent from Jim’s design – probably because the similarity to Silent Running is entirely of my own making -, but there are three android-like heads and upper bodies awaiting discovery instead. Quite what their purpose might be is for anyone visiting to guess. Perhaps, within their I, Robot-ish looks, they are the brains monitoring the station. You decide.

A series of landing pads, four of them occupied by hopper shuttles, suggest that flight is required to get to the station from elsewhere (wherever that might be), with two of the craft apparently for rescue / evacuation use. However, given a wheeled amphibious truck is hauling itself out of the water onto an elevator platform, there is also the suggestion that land of some kind might not actually be too far away.

If land is relatively close by, then the question must be asked what has happened to require a station such as this, dedicated as it seems to be, to the preservation of the two great oak trees and the growing of new plants (or trees)? Indeed, is this base actually on Earth at all – or are we perhaps somewhere else in the cosmos, a place sufficiently like Earth so as to support Earth-based animal (i.e. human) and plant life? In all of this Jim offers no clues, instead leaving the door of the imagination wide open to allow us to formulate our own ideas and stories about this place.

What is clear is that while the waters here might be shallow, they would appear to be wracked at times by storms of a sufficient enough violence to warrant sitting the majority of the base atop massive girder-like legs, presumably to lift the buildings, landing pads and so out wall out of the reach of ravaging waves and spray. It’s also clear that there is much to explore here as well – stairwells climb between levels, catwalks, ramps and gantries connect different areas, elevators offer ease of access to the water up to higher sections of the outpost for those who don’t fancy counting steps, and the crew quarters offer their own curiosities.

All told, another expressive and imaginative build by Jim, and one well worth visiting and exploring.

SLurl Details

• Grauland (Liberia Isle, rated Adult)

 

 

 

It was off to Grauland for me for my first of 2024 trips to Jim Garand’s always photogenic region, which also serves at the home for his M1 Poses store (tucked neatly out of the way in the sky). The last time I visited, the region was home to a setting featuring ancient stone ruins awaiting exploration, set with a somewhat tropical environment; it’s a theme which-sort of continues with the iterated I visited in January – albeit featuring ruins of a very different kind.

For this setting Grauland presents an almost flat island; whether temperate, tropical or sub-tropical is hard to say at first glance, although there are clues to suggest the former is likely the case, rather than the latter two, and on which stand the remnants of what may have been a sizeable industrial operation.

Quite what that endeavour might have been is open to to imaginative interpretation; to one side of the island, old pumpjacks stand in a field of wild grass, the “nodding donkey” head of one still rising and falling as the little group comes close to resembling a drove of their four-legged namesakes grazing quietly. They suggest that oil might have been a focus of efforts here; however, two of the surviving structures suggest something else to have been the mainstay of work here.

To the west of the island, and partially build on blocky concrete stilts over the water, stands a massive elevator / silo building with eight massive silos forming two column- like rows supporting the high roof built over the great hall between them – a hall now oddly home to a grove of trees which reach from main doors to the iron stairways climbing the far wall to provide access to the upper levels of the building as they stand out over the watery shallows. An outer wall of these levels, complete with their glassless windows staring across the island and out to sea, proclaims the building to belong to Black Stripe Grain, Inc., although it is a little hard to imagine the eight massive silos being home to mere grain – so might the building’s labelling by a cunning disguise? As I said, this is a place open to imaginative interpretation!

A short distance from this huge elevator with its silos stands a hopper for loading bulk goods onto railcars. Again, its looks suggest it was used for something other than grain, but such has been the passage of time here, who can really tell? And it is clear that a fair amount of time has passed here.

The rail line that once proceeded out from the hopper and – one assumes – over a low-lying trellis across the waters to – well, somewhere – now lies rusting and broken. With rails no longer carried over the water but instead sloping down into it, the line is blocked by derailed boxcars and a rusting carriage which might once have carried a workforce to and from this place.

Contrasting the sense of human desertion present across most the island, the east side of the complex remains relatively intact, with concrete wharves still in good working order and offering berths to a large boat – perhaps a trawler pressed into other duties – which appears to be in good working order, and a smaller cabin cruiser to which time has been less kind.

But again, while the wharves remain relatively pristine compared to the rest of the island thus far described, the same cannot be said of the warehouse / factory built alongside them. With one side either collapsed or ripped open, it is in a sorry state, now apparently the haunt of graffiti artists visiting the island, whilst the intact section its upper floor reveal it to have once been a literal body shop or sorts, the sad remains of its produce scattered on decaying pallets, sitting in aging crates or hanging from rusting irons.

Elsewhere there is yet more evidence of past use and hints that further buildings once stood here whilst the workers at least enjoyed some amenities. For example a single, lonely bus sits out on the dirt, its paintwork slowly fading in the sunlight or being slowly corroded by rust. It’s presence suggests it once spared workers the drudgery of walking too and from the rail carriage(s) which may have once brought them here.

But civilisation has not entirely deserted this place. As noted above, the old factory has obviously has the attention of street artists, whilst between the towering “granary” and the factory sits a concrete-side tank. although it might be surrounded by iron railings which may have once suggested it to be a place of potential harm and has machinery alongside it which dips the snout of a pipe into it, the waters within it are clear and blue enough to encourage whoever visits to turn it into an outdoor swimming pool, regardless of its former use. Several places to sit have also been established around the island, further suggesting it receives frequent visitors, something backed-up by the RHIB drawn on up one shore, a picnic basket and blanket close by.

Desolate yet remaining strong hints of life, carrying a sense of mystery among its deserted buildings, this iteration of Grauland has much to say about itself whilst at the same time holding back enough of its history to set the imagination wandering as much as feet might wander through its structures and open spaces.

SLurl Details

• Grauland (Liberia Isle, rated Adult)

For summer 2023, Jim Garand offers a new iteration of his Grauland region (and home to his M1 poses store, located in the sky over the region).

Partially surrounded by off-region landscape elements (ALT-zoom out a distance and then tap ESC to race your camera back to your avatar if the off-region elements don’t render – this will hopefully cause them to pop-up), this is an engaging simple region design of a tropical or sub-tropical nature that mixes a cocktail of features and locations and encourages the imagination to take a sip and take flight.

Sliced almost entirely in two by the presence of an east-west oriented water channel, the region presents a landscape similarly oriented along the same cardinal points across both of the resultant land masses, with the uplands to the east and lowlands to the west, where sits a saltwater mangrove swamp. To the east and within the uplands, a waterfall drops from sheer cliffs into a broad pool, the water from it flowing east to enter the wetlands to mix its waters with the sea – although how much longer this is to remain as the sole route for the out flowing water to take is open to question.

This is because all that separates the pool from the waters to the east is a low rock-and-shingle bar, its presence suggesting the cliff at this point which may have once connected the two land masses has collapsed. It forms a low barrier ripe for the tide to wash away as it seeks to reach the cove, watched over by a single thumb of rock sitting just beyond the shingle.

However, the major point of interest for this setting lies with the ruins scattered across the landscape. Comprising hewn but unfaced blocks of stone, these take a variety of forms of mixed potential use. For example, one might be taken to be the remnants of some form of small fortification, with the footings of three round towers linked by curtain walls form a triangular courtyard; another overlooks the wetlands as the water channel passes below.

Across the water – spanned by a stone bridge – is a more extensive collection of ruins. In part, these suggest they may once have been a part of a western religious centre; the layout of the main structure resembling as it does that of a Norman-era church. However, the stonework seems to by far older than might be associated with such as structure. Perhaps the neighbouring ruins predate the church, and their stones were used in its construction. Let your imagination offer up stories of its own.

A stone stairway climbs the hill behind the ruins to where what’s left of a tower sits alongside of an open pool forming the head of the waterfall. From here it is possible to look back to the southern highlands and the strange arrangement of stones crowning the hill there. Quite what these are is also open to the imagination. Are they all that are left of the raised floor once belonging to a temple or palace, or something else?

More mysteries can be found down in the waters of the wetlands. Here among the mangroves and pines are two statues on raised plinths, offering hints of both Roman and Greek mythology. Also to be found over the waters here is a hanger belonging to the Grauland Flying Service – a place connected to the land via a wooden boardwalk. Its presence suggests this might be a remote destination for charter flights by those wishing to explore / study the ruins.

One the same side of the setting as the hanger is a cabin. Makeshift in nature it nevertheless offers a cosy retreat – but to whom is again open to the imagination – although whoever it is would appear to be a keen musician.

As with all of Jim’s builds, this iteration of Grauland offers multiple opportunities for photography, while the places to sit also scattered across it give plenty of choice for those wishing to sit and pass the time. And don’t worry about the jaguar (possibly acting as a stand-in for a panther?); he’s more interested in keeping to the shade (or having his picture taken!) than in hunting anyone!

SLurl Details

• Grauland (Liberia Isle, rated Adult)

It was off to JimGarand’s Homestead region for me recently, after several people poked me about Jim having both joined Emm Evergarden’s The Nature Collective and opened a new setting within his region, temporarily abandoning his normal name for his settings – Grauland – in favour of Grauvik, a name suggestive of  Scandinavian / Norse roots. There’s no accident in this as Grauvik offers a fictional island apparently sitting off the coast of Iceland.

As a fan of Jim’s work, I always enjoy seeing what he has produced, but learning he’d settled on an Icelandic theme I was almost immediately off to take a look: Iceland is one of the many places around the world I’ve been fortunate enough to visit, spending time in the south-west and travelling extensively around the north of Iceland (it’s no accident my primary home in Second Life is dubbed Isla Myvatn – I spent part of a very happy vacation close to the lake and the impressive lava fields of  Krafla  🙂 .

I’ve no idea if Jim has based his build on a specific location in Iceland; “Grauvik” appears to be a concatenation of “Grauland” and “Viking”, rather than the name of an actual place (although “vik” itself is a common place ending in Icelandic – e.g. Keflavik, Reykjavik -, which is said to mean “bay” or “inlet” or a derivative of the old Norse for “harbour”. However, I have seen mention that the little fishing village of Grenivik, nestled on the eastern side of the fjord Eyjafjordur may have served as inspiration.

I’ve no idea if this is correct, not having been able to talk to Jim directly. However, Grenivik does sit on the east side of the impressive fjord (which offers a spectacular descent down into the local airport at Akureyri, the airliner flying down and below the mountain peaks on either side of the fjord, including the 1,100 metre tall Kaldbakur beneath which Grenivik nestles), and with the island of Hrísey sitting within the fjord’s waters, I wouldn’t at all be surprised if it did play a role in helping for some of the ideas for Grauvik in Jim’s imagination.

The setting certainly contains elements which are not uncommon to Iceland as a whole: the volcanic “sand” of the beach areas, the brightly-painted, wood-built houses, its rugged, flat nature (several of Iceland’s islands tend to be relatively flat, or flat-topped – with Flatey (literally “flat island”) being the obvious example); while the wooden boardwalks are mindful of those which can be found extending over various hot springs and also located in places like Thingvellir National Park – of which some parts of the walkways in Grauvik reminded me). Also like Iceland are standing stones and outbursts of modern art, short, hardy grass and heathers growing from the soil, etc.

Having mentioned Flatey Island, I’ll admit that from some angles when camming, Grauvik put me in mind of photos of various parts of that island I’ve seen (I confess I’ve not as yet visited it, although it is one of the places I would like to see whenever I make a further trip to Iceland, partly because friends have told me it’s a lovely place to visit and partly because of its connection with the Flateyjarbók, the largest medieval Icelandic manuscript and noted for bringing together the histories of notable Norse settlements.

Jim’s work often includes interior designs – he’s as skilled in this area as much as he is in creating landscapes – and this is again on display within Grauvik, the little cabins carrying the look and feel of having been fitted-out as a holiday retreats, utilising the clean lines of décor and furnishing frequently found in such houses and in hotel rooms in Iceland.

This is an easygoing place to explore, again mindful of some of the nature walks common to some of the islands of Iceland as well as within the inland parks. In fact, rather than “explore” I’d suggest Grauvik is a place to meander through, perhaps reflective of the easy-going nature of many Icelanders. Touches of Norse history are awaiting discovery along the modern art, notable outside the large café / landing point building, and again over at the operating boat builder’s shed sitting on the top of what appears to be a very modern quayside which itself extends down to what might be the remnants of an older set of wooden wharves.

All told, another engaging build from Jim, and a fitting addition to The Nature Collective.

SLurl Details

• Grauvik (Liberia Isle, rated Adult)

JimGarand is back with a new iteration of Grauland, and it is one that was bound to grab my attention sooner or later given it presents a sci-fi / Mars vibe in which a realm of potential touches might be found if the eye and the imagination are willing to have a little fun.

A visit commences on the ground level, a setting presenting what appears to be the surface of a Mars-like planet. It’s a place where a small human base has been established within – given the surrounding hills and central peak – what appears to be a complex crater somewhere on the planet. Whether it is Mars or somewhere else in up to you to decide (although I’m opting for the former, even if the clouds aren’t very Mars-like in their hue; but then with my interests, I would, wouldn’t I?!).

Whether you want to place it, this is a lonely, dry place, devoid of vegetation, the sky a colour suggestive that it is heavy in fine dust. The squat, utilitarian modules of the base sit on one side of the crater’s peak, what looks like a landing platform to one side one them – although this hasn’t prevented someone landing a small shuttle a little further from the entrance to the hab modules.

Across the crater floor from this, and hidden from view but the carter’s peak, two surface excursion vehicles appear to have found something interesting to examine (although admittedly, going by the barbecue and a couple Adirondack chairs set out alongside one of them, they might have just stopped off for a little home-cooked lunch!).

It’s is simple setting, offering a sense of magnificent desolation (if I might so quote, even if this is clearly not our Moon!), and ideal for sci-fi photography. However, the planetary surface is not the only point of interest in this setting. Sitting on the landing platform at the base camp is a teleport disk; it offers a choice of two destinations served by five options: a platform that is home to Jim’s M1 Poses store and an art gallery (each with its own teleport disk), and three options to deliver people to a space station.

The latter is a large, multi-level complex that clearly has its own gravity generators; it’s also a place where the imagination might have a little fun. The transporter platform sits over what might be the main control centre, a place with a strange mix of tech: in the centre are plasma-like information screens with touch keyboards; however, against the outer hull bulkheads are chunky stations with a distinct industrial edge to them, covered in solid coloured buttons you feel will give a very satisfying click when pressed – and might even stay depressed until again pressed, just so you know they are active.

Looking at these outer consoles, it’s not hard to imagine Lorne Green’s Commander Adama standing within this space. One the walls over them are image displays, one of which appears to be a one of the conceptual vehicles produced as a means of illustrating the (equally conceptual and speculative) Alcubierre Drive.

Beyond this, visitors find themselves in a medical bay where – if not Leonard McCoy in residence – one might not be surprised to find Dr. Phlox asking, “Now, What seems to be the problem?” Elsewhere, and after travelling by the internal elevators, it is possible to pass through a couple of biodomes which, whilst their growth might not be as luxuriant or their placement as exotic, might nevertheless result in mental images of Bruce Dern’s Freeman Lowell trying to teach Huey, Dewey and Louie the basics of how to care for the plants and animals within the domes of the Valley Forge.

Laid out along obviously vertical and horizontal lines (ah, the limitations of SL’s physics!) and in place looking like parts of it warehouse or hotel’s leisure facilities had been beamed wholesale into space, the station offers a lot to explore and some artistic oddities (take the, umm, bathroom, for example!). Some of these might bright to mind thoughts of other film franchises and their doom-laden theme by Jerry Goldsmith due to their dark corners and narrow confines, or the disappointment that the green lights of the machinery aren’t “moving back and forth without any purpose” (yes, I’m still playing spot-the-reference…).

And while this might sound like I’m taking the Michael out of the station, I’m not; it is an interesting place to explore whether or not you have a hidden sci-fi nerd lurking inside your head.

More to the point – at least for some – are the opportunities the station presents for playing with EEP settings to offer different outlooks and views. This is something I ended up doing – as seen in some of the images above, notably in the case of Saturn (and an intentional nod to the Silent Running vibe of the station’s biodomes) – courtesy of Stevie Davros’ EEP packs available via his Marketplace store (and which I reviewed back in December 2020).

Once the ground level and station have been visited, there remains the opportunity to visit the gallery / store level. Both can be reached via either the Gallery or Store options displayed by the ground level teleport disk or the three “transporter beams” active on the level above the space station’s control room. At the time of my visit, the gallery was featuring the avatar photography of Wiona (dx61005).

All told, another fascinating and engaging build from Jim.

SLurl Details

• Grauland (Liberia Isle, rated Adult)