Luskwood and Trotsdale's Anniversary Celebrations

By Bixyl Shuftan

Luskwood is the oldest known furry community in Second Life, probably the oldest community still around. It was founded in September 2003, just a few months after the virtual world was officially opened. They've been pioneers in many ways, including the first line of furry avatars, and the founders and been around longer than practically all of the Lindens. Trotsdale is Second Life's best known and largest pony community, fans of the "My Little Pony" cartoon. The community's current sims came about in September 2011 shortly after the collapse of the original ones. Luskwood has celebrated its anniversary in October, and beginning last year Trotsdale began having it's anniversary at the same time.

LW14B/TD6B/DL5B Celebration
It's anniversary time!
Luskwood has been around 14 years!
Oldest community in Second Life.
Trotsdale is having its 6th anniversary and Derpyland their 5th as the oldest running Pony Sims.

On Saturday October 21, both communities had their anniversary events. Like last year, Trotsdale would go first. But instead of one hour of music, the ponies had four. Derpyland, one of the other pony sims, used to celebrate it's own anniversary up to it's fourth a year ago. But it was decided this year to combine their efforts and expand the Trotsdale event. At 12 Noon SL time, DJ Cassandra started up the music, and it was party time on a disco dance floor that a distance away was obscured a bit by a Halloweenish dark mist.

Contrary to what one might expect, there was little music from the cartoons. Instead there was trance, 80s rock, and other kinds of tunes. There was a 'sploder in the room. Unlike most around Second Life, no one had to contribute a Linden to it to be eligible for a prize, so it was a few free Linden dollars given out to several residents every time it went off about every ten minutes. There was no tip jar next to the DJ booth. If anyone wanted to pay a tip, it was suggested they instead put a few Lindens into the sim payment fund board nearby. Later in the Trotsdale events, there was a "Caption This" game in which people were invited to make up captions to various pictures.

There were a number of people I recognized. Some I knew from Luskwood, such as Death Berger, and the popular Michi Lumin. Michi wasn't in the black stovepipe hat with goggles and black pants with purple suspenders I had kept seeing her in, but a burgundy dress and her hair dyed a shade of burgundy as well. During the event, she would briefly change to a pony form which had a smaller version of the hat. One person I recognized from a year earlier at Luskwood was Tiger Kitchensink, or "Pumpkin Spice Soprano" as she calls herself now. Some neighbors of mine from the Sunweaver/Angel Estates, such as Skylark Lefavre, were also there.

At 1PM, Cassandra handed the DJ booth to DC (Death Berger) to play for an hour. At 2PM, DJ Crayzee spun the tunes until 3PM. Finally came DJ Cera, who played for the last scheduled hour. As Cera played her last tune, people began heading over to Luskwood for it's events. Once the hour was up, Skylark offered to DJ for those who remained behind, and the ponies were happy to let her play some music for a little while longer.

The Luskwood half of the celebrations that day, the LW14B, began at the Retroskunk Cafe, located in northern Tehama southeast of the Lusk sim, at 4PM SL time. Shannon O'Herlihy was the singer at this event at the open-air venue, which had some fallen autumn leaves on the wood deck, on which a mix of furs, ponies, and human avatars listened to. Mounted to the side was a poster of the event, the Luskwood symbol in grey in the middle of a triangle with some lines from a document of some kind, some words blacked out, and stamped "Classified" in onr corner. In this conspiracy/secrecy theme, some had taglines such as Michi's "Double Agent," and Shannon was refered to in one or two of Luskwood's announcements as "Agent 0014."

We're very lucky to once again have Shannon O'Herlihy performing for the Luskwood birthday celebration! Shannon will be onstage performing her gorgeous music at the RetroSkunk Cafe in Tehama (landmark included) from 4-5 PM SLT today, to be followed by Keeba Tammas at the Amphitheater at 5.

Shannon sang for a while, then at 5PM the people headed over to the Luskwood Amphitheater in Perry. This location would see the most of the celebration time, two hours. From 5 to 6PM, Keeba Tammas and her Tiny Maniacs played for the crowd. This live band of a human and several tinies got cheers from the crowd, "My face is hurting from smiling too hard.  I love this!" "~*~ W00T!! It's KEEBA! W00t! W00T! KEEEEEBAAAAA!!!~*~" Some of the tinies were in costume, including a ghost, skeleton, "rattle dose bones!", and vamp. Keeba herself was wearing a "Bride of Frankenstein" hairdoo and a bloodied dress.

When the act was over, they got off stage and the tinies did a "tiny riverdance," with the sounds of stepping feet. Someone wasn't so sure if the structure could take even their small feet, "I'm not sure this balcony can handle riverdancing." But after the footwork, there was something missing, "Ohoh morton, someone stole your blue suede shoe." "Look, they gone." "We hafta buy him sum new wuns."

Woot, we're playing at 6pm for Luskwood's 14th birthday, and Trotsdale's 6th!  It's a bit laggy due to all the folks but hope you can make it.

At 6PM, the live music duo Jaycatt Nico and Frogg Marlowe got on stage. But they weren't in their usual feline and amphibian avatars. Instead, they looked like shaggy monsters, Jaycat the pianist as a white creature, and Frogg the guitarist as a black one with a huge mouth that looked more like he was eating the guitar than playing it: Specimens E92 and E30. "I am doing things for SCENICE!" Jaycatt tried to explain. Frogg responds, "No, things are being done TO you for SCIENCE!" "They said I'd get a cookie," Jaycat stated as his reason for volunteering, "when the testing starts, I hopes there is no needles."

Keeba, who was still around and listening, exclaimed, "no one said there would be testing! I was told there would be no math!" Michi gave an uncharacteristically sinister laugh, "Just a little pin prick. Keeba. there'll be no more... aaaa-aa-aah." "You can't test on my band! NO ANIMAL TESTING!" But not all of the tinies were alarmed, "Wot awesome monster up dere." Despite their very different forms, Jaycatt and Frogg would go on to play the good music they're known for.

At 7PM, it was time for the last act of the celebration. The crowd headed to a "Restricted Area" somewhere in Perry. The place was a mock-up of the legendary "Area 51" government facility that the authorities continue to refuse to acknowledge whether it exists or not. Nearby was a flying saucer abducting a cow and a smaller building in which an alien was on an examination table. There were a few other aliens about, including one next to a "take me with you" sign wearing a tinfoil hat. And there were "No Trespassing" and "Photography Prohibited" signs which were ignored by the crowd.

Haley Maruti, the busty squirrelgirl DJ, spun the tunes for the event, next to an alien with his own DJ headphones, "Dig through the ditches and burn all the witches and eat a big bowl of Count Chocula!" The floor was packed, and occasionally a 'sploder like the one for the Trotsdale parties would rain down a few Lindens on a few partiers. There was also a bomb, presumably defused, hanging from the ceiling. Behind the DJ booth was a mounted shark's head, not something normally associated with a military facility.

Besides Michi, Liam Roark was there, but he was becoming less active due to sleepiness. Others I recognized included Hagalaz Nilsson, Fury Rosewood, Tengu Yamabushi, and Ardy Lay. Cynthia Farshore, a friend of the Newser, came by, "Just left another place that was steampunk having a 7th annual Halloween ball, and (it) had half the size of this. ... Glad I made it here to see this first hand, was really busy tonight, first DJed a club, then ran over to another to dance, then drop in here" People danced to the music, chatted about things like what happened to the Munsters, or looked at photos of Luskwood's early years on the back wall.

The event had no set ending time, but as it went on and on, people began heading to bed. Eventually, Halley had to hang up her headphones, "Gonna need to pass out soon, but goodness this was a fun time tonight." Michi kept up the music a little longer. But unlike some previous anniversary celebrations, she couldn't stay up past Midnight. Well before that time, she told everyone she had to log off, saying she had to make a trip tomorrow. And with the popular but tired skunkgirl gone, the crowd soon dwindled to a few. The party was pretty much over.

But for those who missed the event, don't fret too much. Luskwook is sure to have some goings-on at Halloween. And next year marks Luskwood's fifteenth anniversary  And Second Life's oldest community will have it's pride on the line to make their celebration grander than ever.

"Happy Birthday Luskwood!"

Bixyl Shuftan

Luskwood and Trotsdale's Anniversary Events

by Bixyl Shuftan

On the weekend of October 22 and 23, the Luskwood and Trotsdale communities held a double celebration of their anniversaries this month. It was in September 2003, just a few months after Second Life was officially opened, that Luskwood began. But it's anniversary celebrations have been in October for as long as this writer can tell. Trotsdale was one of several pony sims that appeared after the collapse of the original Bronyville, probably in September 2011 as it's fourth anniversary was celebrated in September.

Over time, the communities have helped one another, notably Luskwood founder Michi Lumin helping with the pony sims' financing. But the Trotsdale anniversary celebration had always been a separate one, until this year when it was decided to combine the two, as well as giving both a Halloween theme as the date would be late in the month, Saturday October 22, and Sunday October 24. There would be one event in the pony area, and the rest at Luskwood.

Things started off in a forest at night high above the Trotsdale sim at 2PM.The darkness gave the place a spooky look, though all those ponies around helped give a cartoony kind of spooky feeling. There were all kinds of pony avatars around, including some sporting a costume of some kind such as a cape, or wearing a pumpkin with a space cut out for the nose. Someone showed up as the character "Nightmare Moon." Another showed up in a giant pony avatar that must've been close to 20 feet tall.

Not everyone was a pony as there were a number of furs around, notably Luskwood regulars, a couple four footed ferals, and a couple normal humans. Among the costumes that stood out was a  kind of battleship outfit on Hagalaz Nilsson, which he later called a "Yamato," that was worn like a jetpack, with swiveling turrets all over. Another was a kind of armor or robot that looked like it was from an 80s or 90s video game, and a feral with a "dogecoin" (a digital currency made as an alternative to bitcoin with an Internet meme as it's logo) in it's mouth. A couple of the Luskwood founders were there, including Michi Lumin.

DJ Crayzee was the pony DJ spinning the tunes for the first hour. For the second hour, Luskwood's DC Cyberfoxy took over. There was also a 'sploder, which most experienced residents will recall as a party game in which people put in amounts of cash and it either gives it out randomly with one lucky winner getting a larger share or half ends up in the hands of the last one who chipped in. But after their 'sploder went off the first time, it was obvious it was giving out far less then it was taking in. So it was set to not accept more cash from all but the staff, and would every so often shower the crowd with cash, some getting more amounts than others. Yours truly got totals from 2 Lindens to over 50L that added up to a few hundred over time.

At 4 PM, the celebration moved to Luskwood at the Perry Amphitheater. For two hours, there were live music performances. The first was by singer Keeba Tammas and her band of tiny avatars, the "Tiny Maniacs." The Maniacs were their usual funny selves with their squeaky voices , one holding a sign "I want your body." Following Keeba was Shannon Oherlihy, who sung while playing her guitar. People watched from the stands, or standing in a few boxes above the stands. There were some anniversary shirts available for anyone to take, but these were from last year's anniversary.

At 6 PM, the party moved to a new platform, one that Luskwood dubbed "Heck." Teleporting over, the place was mostly a hellish scene with a molten lava river and rock, with bleached bones and red sky, with only a couple small corners where anything alive grew. In the center was entched a red circle and demonic-looking symbols around it with a yellow dragon and pentagram in the center. Why this place of fire and brimstone was called "Heck" I never asked, though as swearing is discouraged in Luskwood and outright forbidden in Trotsdale, it was most likely a joke about their policy.

Haley Maruti, Lusk's squirrelgirl DJ spun the tunes for three hours as the crowd danced away apparently the ground not too hot for their bare feet (perhaps the rune offered some protection). When she was finally done DJ Apoth took over. The schedule only required him to play until 11PM SL time, but he continued on until close to Midnight, entertaining the group of furs, with a few ponies and a couple normal humans mixed in.

During this time there was much wisecracking and joking, with a few oldtimers such as Beatfox Xevious dropping to to make a once in a blue moon appearance. Besides Michi, founders Liam Roark and Eltee Statosky. The crowd remained thick until about Midnight SL time when Apoth hung up his headphones and got out of heck, "Goodnight everyone, thank you again for letting me help celebrate Luskwood's 13th." This was followed soon by Michi, and others began following soon after. It was indeed a heck of a party in Heck.

The next day, Sunday October 23, the celebrations went on with two performances that day. At 2PM, the dragon guitarist Alazarin Mondrian and his "Invisible Band" performed on stage at the colorful platform that was the setting for most of their performances on their tenth anniversary celebration, still called the "LW10B build." There was less dancing then standing and listening this time as the dragon gave a firey performance for an hour and a half.

Following the rock concert, there was a three hour break in the festivities, then one last event at 6PM when Frogg Marlowe of the popular Jaycatt and Frogg musical duo performed at the Perry Amphitheater. As it turned out, Jaycatt was on vacation, but he was on his way home and managed to get his laptop connected to the Internet in time to watch the show in the audience. It was an hour of relaxing music, a smooth end to a busy two days of celebration. 

There were numerous praises of Luskwood and it's founders and staff during the course of the event, by both regulars and friends who made their home elsewhere but come back once in a while. Among them, "just want to thank you Luskies for some of my happiest and most memorable memories. I know I'm not around much at all anymore but I'll always have a ton of love for this place. Thank you for getting me through a really rough time in my life and for being friends to me. I do appreciate it a lot. Very much."

For me, Luskwood was more or less where I got my real start in Second Life. While I might have moved on, I still come back to say hello. And the red fox avatar I got here in summer 2007 is still my main one over nine years later. One never forgets where they came from, and it's nice to drop by once in a while at the Big Tree to chat with those who still make it their home.

On a final note, the partying isn't over this month. It was announced later on that there would be a separate Halloween party after all on Saturday October 29 at 6PM at the "Perry Graveyard" at Perry (150/139/2016). So they still have plenty of celebrating to "scare up."

For more pictures of the event, check out those on their imgur account (here).

Bixyl Shuftan

Ponyland's Closing

By Bixyl Shuftan

On the evening of  December 31 2015, ScentualLust announced in the Luskwood Community group (and presumably Trotstale's as well) that the Ponyland sim would be closing.

Fe-fe, fi-fi, fo-fo, fum
I smell a skunk in the auditorium!

We're gonna close the sim, just you wait and see...
What a perfect way to ring in 2016 ?

Fe fi fum fory, I have wrote my own story.

The end! Of Ponyland...cause nothing can stop the smooze.

Happy new year everypony! Come celebrate it and say farewell to Ponyland.

Chatting with ScentualLust, she told me the sim was indeed closing tim for the place, "Farewell time, we made it many months longer than anticipated. I had half a dozen ponies IM me saying how the sim made them cry from childhood nostalgia. Michi Lumin's heading over later. Her and I were the sims only admins, it was just my labor of love for G1. And all the thanks goes to her and OldVamp (he did the builds) for making it happen." I asked where the idea for the sim came from. Scentual answered, "It was a secret I was keeping so none of the other pony sim owners would jump on either a G1 sim, or naming their sim Ponyland (which is where Firefly's Adventure and My Little Pony Tales takes place). I sent Vamp pics of the builds I wanted, and he built a majority of the sim before I bought the sim itself to place the builds in."

Scentual had only planned for the sim to be online for a short time, "I planned on three months. But donations from people like JeanetteDJennet and LeatherTail kept it going, combined with Lindens I had saved up since my rez day. Many nights of Primtionary, etc. $30L here and there can add up. (smile) ... I had a list of intentions, a party in the skating rink, a party in the sky (which you were at), a party in the ice cream shop, and a party in Dream Castle. There was a whole skating "conga" line at the skating rink party. Limited edition MLP roller blades and inline skates were created for it, complete with an AO. This is the kinda stuff that makes it worth it to run a place like this." Amehana Arashi (Amehana Ishtari) commented, "You have no idea how cathartic it was for me to explore it."

Anticipating I would write about it, Scentual added, "I'd want to say to anyone reading that article, that if they missed out on this sim, they can still watch the G1 material it was based on. Firefly's Adventure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kknbjwYWwaU&list=PLfp_59rbOG-gDt_c0VZO4qlu306Kg3XTF and My Little Pony Tales: http://yp1.yayponies.no/prevgen.php ." Her plans for the future? She told me, "I'm going to work on the Trotsdale Museum of Pony Past, which is an attraction ran by DC the cyberPony in Trotsdale. We'll get Ponyland added in there, DC got quite the handful of pictures for us to hang in there, and I even got a video archive of the sim thanks to Flutter Riff (who has also helped with scenery and a lot of ground work here)."

I hung around the place long enough to take a few pictures. As New Years Eve was a busy night for me, I was elsewhere when Scentual messaged me when the sim finally had closed, " Michi Lumin got the last words in the Ponyland farewell party, 'My heart will gooo oooon and oooooooon!' Everyone at the party made a gesture of going down with the sim. It was touching." Scentual then sent me a picture, the last that would ever be taken from the sim, "This was the auto screen grab as the sim went down, a wonderful final snapshot of what was."

When asked if she had anything else to say, "I wouldn't be where I am today if it weren't for Michi Lumin providing a solid role model as a sim owner. Watching her carefully led me to running Derpyland (which is a sim that Dashy and Cera founded) and having it go from not only being an overnight sensation, but turning into a self sustaining pony sim for over 3 years and counting. In a world where your average SecondLife sim only lasts a few months, one would think looking to Luskwood would be common scents since they're the oldest running community in Second Life. I'm a big believer in divine luminous wisdom and experience. And I attribute a lot of those qualities to what lead Ponyland to 9 months of sim life, instead of 3. With no specific community group, and no rentals...it has very much surprised me." Scentual would later remind me Derpyland was the second oldest of the pony sims, Trotsdale being around first.

And so, the sim had it's final curtain call. But it won't be forgotten as there will be an exhibit on the place should all go as planned. And of course there's the memories of those who had fun there.

Bixyl Shuftan

*Addition* I had accidentally left out a couple paragraphs of the interview when the article first went up. When discovered, the error was corrected. 

*Second Addition* The Newser was asked to note Derpyland is the second oldest of the pony sims, with Trotsdale, run by Michi Lumin, being the oldest.

Trotsdale's Third Birthday Celebration With Musicians Jaycatt and Frogg

By Bixyl Shuftan

 Last Saturday, September 20th, the Trotsdale pony sim celebrated its third anniversary, with a party high above the sim. A few dozen locals in their characteristic "My Little Pony" avatars, along with some visitors from Luskwood and other places danced away to the music of a live performance by Jaycatt Nico and Frogg Marlowe.

"Frogg and Jaycatt are now playing at Trotsdale's third birthday here at Trodsdale Heights. After F+J, Suri will be DJing, and we're going into the night."

Michi Lumin, one of Luskwood's founders, was among the two-legged visitors helping to celebrate.

The locals came out in pony avatars large and small, one whom dressed up for the occasion.

Eventually Jaycatt and Frogg finished their routine, and the audience applauded, "Thanks for the the music-ings!" "It would be nice to see you two perform at Trotdsale more regularly." "Thanks again, Jay, Frogg." "Thanks for playing F&J you two are awesome." "Hopefully we don't have to wait till next year to hear you guys again." "Dont' worry, Trotsdale has a catch and release policy for musicians I'm sure."

There were a few comments about making the pair honorary ponies, "We could declare them already ponies by fiat," as the tender part of a horse's hoof was sometimes called a "frog," "We're walking on our frogs." That got a few chuckles from Frogg Marlowe, "never heard that before! Cool!" There were also a few jokes about their avatars being contagious, "You will get ponied in your sleep. It happens." "Unleash the ponification ray!" "... ponification isn't required, it just sorta ... happens around here (grin)."

Jaycatt and Frogg thanked the crowd for their well wishes, "It was a lot of fun." "Always glad to be a part of special occasions like this ... Thank you all so much!" Then they headed out as the local DJ,  DJ Dash (shurikenangel), began playing, "Thanks again everyone. Happy anniversary Trostdale!" Michi also headed out, "Thanks everyone for being here and I'll be back later tonight. But mostly, thanks for three years of this, putting up with our growing pains, and the changing pony sim scene, and sticking by. It really is appreciated, and you guys being here is what makes this possible."

*Addition* I later chatted with Michi. It seems she's not exactly just a friend to Trotsdale, but the owner of the place. She told me she was co-owner for a time, then made full owner.

Bixyl Shuftan