Reader Submitted: Scenes From Caledon's Anniversary

Pictures from Cynthia Farshore

Monday February 26 was the 12th anniversary ball of the Independent State of Caledon. Among those there was Cynthia Farshore, who took a number of pictures.

Scenes From Valentines Day at the Isle of View

By Bixyl Shuftan

February 14 was Valentines Day. And while the day would have many themed parties across Second Life, it was "Hug a Linden/Dunk a Linden" at the Isle of View. This was a chance for the residents to interact with some of the Lindens, either get a hug, or dunk one into the water.

The Isle of View was a four sim area in the shape of a heart. Although residents could set their viewers at any time of day, it's default time was a permanent sunset with a dark pink sky. The light would also give everything on the ground a pinkish hue.

Many who were there went dressed for the event. And so did I in a Cupid look made with an old Luskwood mouse "Bunkie."

 There were a number of people there, Lindens, moles, and regular residents.

There were some Lindens in dunking booths

And when someone hit the target, it was a free bath, "Nuuuuuuuuu..."

And some were at hugging booths, such as Izzy Linden.

Squishy Mole was there, "From below."

 Garth Linden looked more ready for war than love with him sporting a huge gun.

Cupid Linden, who volunteered for the dunking booth.

Signal Linden had what looked like computer-generated zig-zag patterns on his avatar.

Xiola Linden was there in a pair of wings. No bow and arrow, though.

Silent Mole, who's not afraid of mice.

Strawberry Singh was there. In this picture she was trying to hug a friend. She had trouble getting one for herself, so I handed her a copy.



Strawberry recorded the time she was there, so you can see my avatar going about the place time to time in it.

Evie Linden also offered a hug. Unfortunetly, much of her head was missing.

Maraki Mole, in an elderly lady avatar, and Coyot Linden.

 When I first saw Maraki, she looked like she'd fallen onto the ground, "Help, I've fallen, and I can't get up."

Tommy Linden was also there. But with that t-shirt, the women weren't too eager to hug him.

Bender Linden was looking a little "crabby."

And there was April Linden, the bunny among the Lindens.

It was a fun Valentines Day meetup with the Lidnens.

Bixyl Shuftan

Samedi Gras: New Toulouse Pulls it off Again

By Klaus Bereznyak

True to form, New Toulouse dished up another resplendent "Samedi Gras" celebration earlier this month, on Saturday the 10th February. The carnival season coincides with that held in New Toulouse's RL shadow, the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, and it is always well attended, attesting to the historical status of this sim in SL and the popularity of the event.

Along with the annual New Toulouse hunts, it's one of the highlights of the year. Festivities begin with events in the week leading up to Samedi Gras: Masked balls, float decorating parties and parades come to a head when the authentically modeled French colonial streets are hung with purple, green and gold, and play host to an epic float parade. This is typically a huge technical challenge, tackled with dedication and humor by the Krewe captains.

The parade was scheduled to kick off at Noon, by which time the floats were lined up along Shotgun row, with their horses, unicorns, pegasus and various mythical draft animals rearing to go. The crowds kept piling in, at least 50 avs packing into the sim before the parade had even started. I was riding with the fiery Krewe des Flambeaux for the second year running, drawn by a pair of white horses ably driven by long-standing talooster, Francesca Alva.

Last year, the start was very much delayed with technical difficulties but, this year, while there was lag and a few crashes, we got moving around 12:20 amid cheers from the bystanders - "Laissez les bons temps rouler!" Residents, turned out on their porches and balconies to watch the parade throw beads and offer refreshment to the revelers as they passed.

DJ Outlaw kept up the patter and filled the airwaves with a steady stream of spicy New-Orlenian classics that made the whole event feel as close as could be to the real thing.

Apart from some interesting amalgamations of floats piling up at points along the route, and minor damage to some buildings on street corners that proved a little too tight for the tottering vehicles, the parade was successfully concluded around 1pm, with floats drawing up around the town square and krewes disembarking for a party in the park. The Mayor of New Toulouse, Henri Godenot, was there to greet them, and it was a chance to socialize and admire the effort that had gone into some of the costumes.

A good time was had by all, and it was gratifying to see that the affection for this unique sim and its events is still alive and kicking.

Links
New Toulouse Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/groups/696411@N23/
SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/New%20Toulouse/196/131/23

Klaus Bereznyak

Editor's Note: Among those who had a float in the parade was Baron Wulfenbach and Baronin Zantabraxu.  Zantabraxu had a well done avatar of Tinka the Muse of Dance from the "Girl Genius" graphic novel/online comic.

Scenes from One Billion Rising

Pictures by Gemma Cleanslate and Bixyl Shuftan
Article by Bixyl Shuftan

February 14 may been Valentines Day, but it was also the day of the "One Billion Rising" event in Second Life. "OBR" as it's sometimes called for short, is a worldwide demonstration in support of women's rights across the globe and a call to stop violence against women. The event has gone on since 2013, and Second Life has been part of it from the start. This year marked the fifth time it's taken place.

Gemma Cleanslate was one of the volunteers at the event. She went about in a tiny dinky avatar. There were pink hats available, for both normal sized avies and tinies.

The event took place over a 24 hour period in a four sim area, OBR Dance, OBR Unite, OBR Resist, and OBR Rise.A road went along the area next to the outer fourth of the sims, where there were various displays by artists.

Where the four sims met, there was a center stage for music and dance. Most of the songs were regular pop music when I dropped by, though there was at least one playing of the signature OBR song "Break the Chain," as well as one song about revolution.

There was also a dance theater in OBR Dance, and a poetry plaza in OBR Resist. In OBR Rise was the 2Lei Group area in the artists' section, where they did a particle show while I was around.

Among the artists' displays was this by Pixie Snowpaw.

 Alisiaundra Andrel had this display.

 Eliza Wierwight had two exhibits in two places.

 Giovanni Cerise had this exhibit that looked like something out of a computer.

 Skye Silverweb's display.

Storm septimus' exhibit resembled that of an unexploded bomb long after the battle.

The Steam exhibit emphasized the accomplishments of women scientists and engineers.

The center part of the four-sim area wasn't neglected, and had some well-designed areas of greenery.

And it wasn't just normal humans stopping by. Besides the tinies, a certain dark unicorn also showed up.

For more information on One Billion Rising in Second Life, check out their webside at (https://onebillionrisingsl.wordpress.com/previous-obr-events/one-billion-rising-2013/). No doubt plans will soon be made for OBR 2019.

Bixyl Shuftan