Burn2: The Burning of the Man

By Bixyl Shuftan

Saturday October 24 was the day of the "Burning of The Man" at the Burn2 Art and music festival. In the Burning Man Black Rock sim, the effigy of "The Man" was set up on top of a maze of circus signs, made to look like a wooden structure lit up by neon tubes.

The maze was made of of signs from carnivals and freak shows of old. Though a few were just parodies of them done to poke fun at things.

Underneath "The Man," a couple of the volunteers were presumably making last minute checks to make sure all was set.

The map showing the numbers of people in the surrounding sims. The greatest number were in Looking Glass, the closest to the effigy.

Many of the onlookers in Looking Glass were on this walkway near "The Man."

 Me with a couple friends, watching as sparks of flame appear.

Just sparks at first, but they'd soon grow.

An explosion sends fire and smoke around The Man.

And the first supports of the structure begin to fall off. Unlike The Man in previous years I've seen, the neon tubing stayed lit.

 More pieces began to fall. Once again, a difference from previous Burning of The Man events becomes clear. It's not falling apart from the head down, but all over.

A major piece of the head falls off, though the rest is still atop the burning the structure, refusing to fall.

More parts of the effigy fall as it burns.

Another explosion, but still The Man maintains it's basic shape.

By now, it's clear in real life, The Man would have at least partially collapsed.

 The head of The Man continues to defy gravity, even as most everything else is burned away.

 Finally the structure is completely down.

The head, usually the first big piece to fall off, was among the last this time.

Dawn begins to break as the Burners are invited to head to the wreckage and dance among the flames.

 Looks like one Burner made an ass out of himself.

The burning of The Man didn't go completely as expected. I guess someone like me who's been to several is just used to the structure falling apart from the top down like it would in real life. Still, it was an enjoyable event well worth going to. And there was the Temple Burn which would take place the next day.

Bixyl Shuftan

Luskwood's Twelfth Anniversary

By Bixyl Shuftan

On Satuday October 17, The Luskwood community held it's Twelfth Anniversary Celebration, also known as the LW12B. It was in October 2003, when the Grid was just a few months old that Arito Cotton, Liam Roark, Eltee Statosky, and Michi Lumin (May 2012 interview) got together in what was known then as "Eltee's Treehouse." But from those small beginings would come a much larger community, the first of many Furry communities in Second Life, and the oldest continuously occupied social spot on the Grid, Furry or otherwise. Every year, Luskwood holds an anniversary celebration, and this year they held a number of music performances at three of their venues. The locations were in or mainly in the Perry sim, which the Luskwood group owns.

It's time for Luskwood 12B! Join us as we celebrate 12 journeys around the sun, starting with Alazarin Mondrian at 12:55 PM SLT in the psychedelic forest!

The "Psychedelic Forest," created by Eo Fenstalker and Kumba Digfoot for Luskwood's Tenth Anniversary, would be the scene of the first event at 1PM SL time. The dragon musician Alazarin Mondrian and his band performing for a packed crowd. Getting there, it took some minutes for most everything to rezz into focus.

There were a number of regulars at Luskwood, and some from the Trotsdale community which has become closely linked to this group of furs in the past few years.

 In the past, special hats had been given as presents for those attending the anniversary. This time commemorative T-shirts were given out, resembling a Lunar mission logo.

The party went on the Psychedelic Forest for an hour, then at 2PM SL time, the celebrations shifted to the ampitheater. The Luskwood Ampitheater is mostly on the Perry sim, but part of it goes over Lusk for those hit harder by lag can attend events. Keeba Tammas and her band of tinies performed live music for the enthusiastic crowd, which had a number of normal human avatars and tinies amongst the furs and ponies.

At one point, someone from the audience got on stage and strummed his own guitar. As he wasn't interfering with the band, he only got smiles. Then one of the ponies got on stage, and it wasn't long before Michi Lumin, the most popular of the four founders, was talked into joining in, the real-life engineer heading to the keyboard instead getting a guitar, "Hope she is not nervous and sprays here at stage," one wag commented. But of course she didn't.

From 3 to 4PM, there was an intermission as the Luskwood staff took a break. But after the break was over, the popular Jaycatt Nico and Frogg Marlowe took to the stage with their own live performance.

At five, it was Shannon Oherlihy's turn, strumming her guitar as she sang.

At 6PM SL time, it was on to the third location for the celebrations. The crowd headed over to the "Disco Moon" platform, so named as it's located inside a large globe resembling a moon on the outside. The first to DJ for the crowd was Chippingham Millions.

After a couple hours came the last DJ on the schedule, squirelgirl Haley Maruti.

Like at the previous two venues, not everyone showing up was a fur or pony.

The celebrations would go on late in the evening. At one point, Scentuallust, one of the administrators of the pony sims was dancing next to founder Michi, and then a third skunk got into the act. Then someone else changed to his own skunk avatar, resulting in a line of monochrome with four stinkers dancing away.

The fun went on past Midnight SL time. DJ Haley eventually had to go to bed, "THANK YOU LUSKWOOD!!" "Thank you Haley!"And one of the ponies played some music on the stream for a little while. 

But eventually it was time for those left to retire for the night, Michi commenting, "I am so losing it. I've now been going 13.5 hours if you count pre-party stuff." She shared hugs with those nearest to her. LW12B was over.

While the anniversary celebrations were done, the Luskwood staff doesn't have long to rest. Halloween is coming, and one can bet the Big Tree will be the host of some "Spook-tacular" fun then.

For this online reporter, Lusk isn't just any location. It's where I more or less got my start in Second Life, and I still use the Luskwood Red Fox as my everyday avatar. While I no longer hang out here every day, I still come by time to time to check on things.

Happy Birthday Luskwood

Bixyl Shuftan

Press Day at Burn2 "Carnival of Mirrors"

By Gemma Cleanslate

The Burn2 Carnival of Mirrors opened its doors to the press Friday and I was glad to get a preview of it. Burn2 is always a busy Second Life event and very crowded at times. So it is a treat be able to dash around to see all the marvelous builds that creators have been working on for weeks. There will be parties all day at the stages too starting from the opening October 17. 

Since I used to be a ranger I know all the work that goes into the preparation . The sims must be set up with the roads and plots. The Man has to be created to be seen from all sides so the burning will be visible from a distance in case the nearby sims are full as they usually are. The Temple also takes precedence over other plots and burns the day after the Man. 

To really understand this event, it is good to check out the website that will tell you the history of the real Burning Man every year in Nevada USA. http://burningman.org/  It is a huge event drawing visitors from all over the country and the world. Burn2 has a history in Second Life too for the past years involving many Lindens http://burn2.org/burn2-history . “This year’s theme is about mirrors and masks, mazes and merger. It will be a kind of magic show that takes the form of an old-­fashioned carnival. This Carnival of Mirrors asks three essential questions: within our media­-saturated world, where products and people, consumption and communion morph into an endlessly diverting spectacle, who is the trickster, who is being tricked, and how might we discover who we really are? “ Those words were for the creators and their designs. 

 On arrival I was greeted at the entrance and offered my press kit of information. I picked up some nice freebies just outside the tent. Don’t miss them. I took off to view the Man and there he was tall and straight waiting to burn. My next visit was to the Temple which is absolutely gorgeous. It was built by Toady Nakamura and so fits the theme. I checked out the Center Camp where many events and parties take place and it looks very comfortable as usual. There is another stage also where parties will take place .

I ran into Yman Juran riding through. Her CHANGHIGH SISTERS FIRESHOW of Light, Life and Love will be performing Saturday the 17th at 1:00pm slt and again at the same time on saturday the 24th. The show fits the theme so well,Carnival of Mirrors .Try to see it. There are invited and juried artists who have lovely plots and I will write about them during the week.here is the list Juried and Invited Artists: Johannes1977 Resident, Ilianexsi Sojourner, Marianne McCann, Daark Gothly, Kerrryth Tarantal, Caro Fayray, Galatea Gothly, Secret  Rage, emilia Avindar, Attica Bekkers ,Veleda Lorakeet, Alesha Hax, Jce Emoto, Leondra Larsson, iSkye Silverweb, Quinny Placebo...Some familiar names and some new. 

The Playa looks wonderful from all directions. The street signs are topped by jaunty top hats or masks . The Lamplighters will pass along the roads daily to light the lamps and  Skye Silverweb told me “ and something special this year with Lamplighters:  I should mention...on the 25th which is Temple Burn day, the Lamplighters will have a special procession 3 times that day, 1 hour before each burn, and we will feature a Fire Dance in Center Camp for about 10 minutes as part of our processions.  Processions at 5am, 11am and 5pm.” I am glad to hear that . I could never seem to make the lamplighters procession  last year because of the time it was held and it is a favorite of mine. 

A wonderful way to get an overview of the Playa, all six sims, is to hop on the balloon tour that starts not too far from the entrance and is visible . I stopped and looked at the cute circus tent of Coяᴘᴛєᴅᴅʏ Aяᴀωɴ (corpteddy) who is in the burn2 for the first time. Make sure you look around for gifts as you pass through the builds. Many of the artists leave items for you . I picked up a windturbine at corpteddy’s site . The greeters at the gate have a whole back pack of goodies . The BURN2 Carnival of Mirrors opens to the public at 12:00pm SLT  October 17 and will be kicked off by a Lamplighters procession. You have a whole a whole week to visit and enjoy before the Man burns and the next day the temple. The schedule will be found on the website above . Here is the gate.  More to come.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Burning%20Man-%20Deep%20Hole/153/245

 
Gemma Cleanslate