Some Christmas Events in Second Life

 By Bixyl Shuftan

Christmastime in Second Life brought about a lot of parties. There were too many for me to keep track of, but I did attend a few.

Thursday December 17 had the Happy Vixen Beach club's "Twisted Christmas" party, which had Christmas parody tunes from mild to wild to "Oh emm, gee!" There are more pictures of which can be found (here).

Sunday December 20 had Caledon's Christmas Ball. There were people in formal dress, often Victorian, dancing to songs such as older Christmas songs, and more familiar ones such as "Frosty the Snowman" and "Rockin Rudolph."

The dancers talked about a few things such as someone hoping screenshots were being take, "I hope everyone is taking lots of pics, I can't take pics with this many avatars (giggle)." To someone surprised by how complex one of her outfits was, "I found one dress in my inventory that had a complexity of 1,700,000...." "1,700,000. complexity? HOW?!" "It had a lot of jewelry and maybe 17 flexi skirts." "I remember Tensai once crashed Steelhead by making a robot avatar with about 3000 individual screw and bolt prims." And more.

At one point, someone started to toss snowballs. But it stopped moments later when the Caledonian anthem, the final song of the ball, was being played. 

Monday December 21 had the National Space Society's Winter Solstice party. There were classic Christmas songs such as by Burt Ives, to more modern ones like Mannheim Steamroller. Some were skating on the pond, others were at the table chatting about various things, such as the brief time nukes were tested in space. Among the people there were ambient musician Cypress Rosewood.

The Sunweaver clubs would have various Christmas parties this week, such as the "Christmas Rock & Roll" at Xanadu on Tuesday Dec 22.

Starting in a half hour at Xanadu, DJ Christine returns for Part-2 of her 2 Christmas events this year.  Tonight's subject is Christmas Rock & Roll.  Featuring many rare tracks from our archives that haven't been dusted off for 60 odd years. 

The Happy Vixen would have "Frost and Sweets" and "Red and White," also on Tuesday Dec 22.

Club Zero Gravity had "Twas The Night Before Christmas" on Wednesday Dec 23.

Also that night was Club Cutlass' Christmas party.

Thursday December 24, Safra Nitely had a Christmas Eve party at Devon Dream.

As Safra and her friends partied, they saw Santa's progress on the NORAD tracker.

Also on December 24 was a Christmas party at Furry Fashion.

Amethyst Crystal, the owner of Furry Fashion, was there, offering a 3500 prize for the top three in the contest.

Sheeba Metaluna, the owner of the Flying Pickle Lounge in Montecito Bay, was the big winner.

Christmas Night, I took Cynthia Farshore's Santa Sleigh Ride out for a spin, while it was being worked on for bugs.

 Cynthia was still making sure all the bugs were gone so "Ho ho ho!" wouldn't turn into "Oh oh oh!"

On Christmas Day, many places were closed. But at the Grendle's Children store, a number of tinies from Raglan Shire were caroling,

[16:19] Raglan Shire Carolers:
~*~ It's beginning to look alot like Wootmas! ~*~
~*~ All across the shire you go! ~*~
~*~ Take a look at the village chalet, ~*~
~*~ The snowmen and the sleigh, ~*~
~*~ With candy canes and tinsel all aglow! ~*~
[16:19] Raglan Shire Carolers:
~*~ Its beginning to look a lot like Wootmas! ~*~
~*~ Tinies in every store! ~*~
~*~ But the nommiest site to see ~*~
~*~ Is the waffles that will be ~*~
~*~ Inside your own front door. ~*~

[16:19] Raglan Shire Carolers:
~*~ A pair of bunny hop shoes and lazors that shoot ~*~
~*~ Is the wish of Copper and Reign! ~*~
~*~ Dolls that will talk and go for a walk ~*~
~*~ Is the hope of Jillan and Jane! ~*~
~*~ And Kayak and Toady can hardly wait ~*~
~*~ Till Raglan U opens agaaain! ~*~
[16:19] Raglan Shire Carolers:
~*~ Its beginning to look alot like Wootmas ~*~
~*~ All across the shire you go! ~*~
~*~ Theres a great tree name of Steve, ~*~
~*~ That all the tinies can see, ~*~
~*~ He's GINORMOUS, and doesnt mind the snow! ~*~
[16:19] Raglan Shire Carolers:
~*~ Its beginning to look alot like Wootmas! ~*~
~*~ Soon the bells will start! ~*~
~*~ And the thing that will make them ring, ~*~
~*~ When all the tinies sing, ~*~
~*~ Is right within your heart!!! ~*~

Store owners Flea Bussy and Toady Nakamura were there. It also happened to be Toady's birthday, "YAY TOADY!"

 Female Winslet was holding a party that day. It was near her "Season of Love and Friendship" display set up by volunteers. The music was being played by Crim (Crim Mip), whom had recently started DJing again after a break for a while.

 

 

Friday December 26, the day after Christmas, had one more Christmas party, at Club United. The club was a Christian-themed one. 

Alaskansnowwolf Barkley would tell me the party was actually for several groups, besides the Club United regulars there were people from Ann's Place of Grace, Chain of Love, Faith Filled Furries, House of Prayer, and The Fire Escape. He would go on to say, "all the groups came together for Jesus,and to show how we are all one under the name of Jesus. We want Jesus to get the recognition of course, the point of people knowing groups came together like this is to give people hope, different people can unite" 

 

Foxwing Tigerpaw would add this was the fifth year in a row they were doing the party. There were also about fifteen gifts around the area.

I would drop by The Dickens Project that weekend too, seeing some people do some ice skating. The area will be up until January 3.

Halloween Celebrations in Second Life

By Bixyl Shuftan

Halloween is a favorite time of many in both real life and Second Life. It was once considered by most to be just for kids (and their parents), and limited to the United States and Canada. But in the past few decades it has become increasingly popular with adults with costume parties, zombie walks, and even dressing up in costume at work. It's also becoming an event in places at Europe and Asia. The attraction, to put on a costume whether it's to just be out of the ordinary or emerge as the "real you," or some segment of it.

In Second Life, people can already look more or less like they want to and come here to get away from the drudgeries of real life. So some might think Halloween for most residents would be redundant. Wrong. Many take the chance to dress up as something they normally wouldn't. And of course there's always room for spooky stories and songs. So there were numerous events inworld across the Grid.

On Tuesday October 25, the Happy Vixen in the Purrfection Estates sim had their "Monsters" event, with the energetic DJ Tantari spinning some "monstrous" tunes. Among the spookier avatars there were, skeleton, naga, and vampire bat.

 Two days later, the club would have it's "Night Creatures" event. There, vampires and bats walked (or flew) about. This one looked a bit "heartbroken."

Some of the children of the night were more cute than creepy.

On Friday October 28, The "Green Fairy" in Ravenwood held it's Halloween party.

Fuzzball Ortega, the sheriff of the now gone Steelhead Estates, was the DJ for the event, having "wolfed out" for the occasion.

For Club Cutlass of Sunweaver Bay, the theme was "70s Night," but some people took on a Halloweenish look for the occasion.

Saturday October 29 would see a number of Halloween parties. Nydia Tungsten, whom got her start in Second Life as "DJ Naughty Nydia," performed for a small party. She would dress as a character in a novel she has been writing recently.

The Sunweaver community would have their main Halloween party that night, but not at Club Cutlass. Instead they put decorations around the Drunken Parrot Pub, also in Sunweaver Bay, and turned on the fog machine.

Cynthia Farshore played a set of spooky tunes that night, from "Monster Mash," to "Flying Purple People Eater," to the recent classic, the theme to "The Nightmare Before Christmas."

There were two 2000 Linden dollar prizes up for grabs that night. The one for women was split between Miyuki Naidoo and Dusk Griswold, pictured above in the Wonder Woman costume.

Among the other locations having their Halloween party that night was Luskwood, doing so on a platform high above the sim with a spooky jack o' lantern face on the dance floor.

 Like their anniversary event the week before, they were packed with dozens of people over. Squirrelgirl DJ Halley spun the tunes for the event.

Although a "Furry" community, the one of the best costumes was that of a human avatar at the party.

Halloween fell on a Monday, which is a slow day for parties usually, but it would see some. Safra Nitely would host a party in her sim's dancing room, which was all decorated and with spooky lighting. She would play the selection of Halloween tunes herself.

That night at 7PM SL time, the Happy Vixen would hold one more Halloween party, with DJ Khyra spinning the tunes

 It was a small party, but one with some good outfits, such as Miyuki Naidoo's.

Pink is not a color usually associated with Halloween, but Marusame Ari (aka "The Pink Wonder") made it work.

This was also the day of the "Creepy Crawl" in Second Life. We will display some of the pictures taken there later (time permitting).

It was quite a Halloween in Second Life with it's share of treats among the tricks.

*Correction* - Originally, Miyuki Naidoo and Valkyrie Ice were listed as the winners of the Halloween contest at Sunweaver Bay, but someone alerted me to the error. 

Bixyl Shuftan

Christmas Displays at Devon Dream

Longtime fans of the Giant Snail Races may remember Devon Dream as having once been the location for the wacky obstacle course for those huge avatars as they slimed their way to the finish line. Today, the races have moved on, but the sim, owned by Safra Nitely, is still here. This month, she gave it a Christmas winter look and invited me over to take a look.

In the biggest area of builds, next to a frozen lake was Santa's Workshop. There were a couple reindeer resting outside, next to a cart with a few presents. Inside, were animated figures of Santa and his elves, moving around a bit. The elves were working away on more presents and decorations while Santa  himself was checking over a list.

Elsewhere were more decorations. Not far from Santa's place was a manger, with Mary and Joseph with the baby Jesus along with the Three Wise Men and the Angel. In the other direction was a tall Christmas tree, with a number of presents underneath and a sleigh. There was a wooden road leading away from the pond with lightposts with wreaths helping to light the way. The roads led to a few places, including a holiday themed bumper car ride. There were other builds around the sim, though I didn't get a close look at them all.

December 20 was when Safra held a special party at the sim. A number of her friends were invited over, including Saffia Widdershins of "Designing Worlds," and myself. A DJ set and lots of colorful lights were set up at the frozen pond, turning it into a dance area. Chatting with Safra, she told me, "Well the deal is, once a year I put on a huge concert to say thank you to my friends and family for all their support for the year as a big Christmas present. (It) costs a fortune, but worth it. ... it's the only way to say thank you properly in SL."

Safra's friends, a combination of human, neko, furry, and other avatars would dance away for a few hours. Eventually, the party would soon end. But the displays would remain. "This location will stay open for a month," Safra told me.

Bixyl Shuftan