Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Scenes From The FCA (Creepy) Club Crawl


By Bixyl Shuftan


On Friday October 26, four clubs took part in one event that lasted over ten hours: the FCA First Annual Furry Halloween Club Crawl. To begin with, for a while not much went on with the Furry Club Alliance as an organization. Club Zero Gravity and Happy Vixen were both under White Vixen Enterprises and talked with each other on how to avoid schedule conflicts while Club Cutlass always had it's events on the same days and times. Then Urban Furry joined, the first club outside the Sunweaver/Angels community for quite some time. The four clubs talked about an event for cross promotion. Then came the idea of a club crawl. For those who don't know, a bar crawl is when a group of people go to a number of bars in a day or evening, spending a small amount of time in each. Since Linden Lab was having some luck with it's "Creepy Crawl" events every Halloween, why not one of our own? It was decided that it would be on the last Friday before Halloween.

TODAY'S THE DAY!
Come one, come all to the FCA's first Annual
Furry Halloween Club Crawl

Here is the route. All times are SLT.
12 - 2pm Club Zero Gravity
 2 - 4pm The Happy Vixen 2 to 4
 4 - 6pm Urban Furry
 6 - 8pm  Club Cutlass 6 to 8
 8pm back Zero G for a MAJOR event
 Each Venue has the Sign boards with the LM's as well Teleporters to the other clubs
 SEE YOU THERE!



Friday October 26 came, and at 12 Noon SL time, people headed over to space station Club Zero Gravity. The "party among the stars" would be the first stop at Sunweaver Space (129, 249, 3597), with DJ JB spinning the tunes.


We hope you attend the special event of the year, The best ever, And you will see many you never met. We have JB, And his Halloween show! We call today's the Creepy Crawl Event that has been started longer then we been here. Many will come He will have some great Halloween Music! May even have a contest.

And Many will Crawl all over the space station, So come and be creepy to, Even Creepy Cute! Dont miss out!



The "creepy crawl" took on new meaning when took girls took on drider avatars (were-spider), and one unleashed her "minions" in the form of dozens of regular sized spiders. Some reacted by backing away. Others talked about "pest control on eight legs" or how the space station's garden could use them.


We are Halfway Through and in a Half hour The Creepy Crawlers shall come and crawl all over us, Surround us hehe. But I am creepy so I shall be just fine, I have wings^^ Anyway JB Has much more Blues and Halloween Mix of all kinds to come. Contest... " Alll  Things Spooky" just dress up for such if you wish. 


The 1600 Linden dollar prize for the event was split between Hawke213x Resident and Biohazard707 Resident.


At 2PM, the crowd headed to the Happy Vixen's Haunted Manor at Purrfection Estates (126/175/2004), which was a special build for the month described more (here). DJ Applebloom, aks DJ Hakrua, played the music.


The WVE Club Crawl continues with DJ Hakrua as she plays her set only at The Haunted Mansion. Who knows maybe she will throw in some fun Halloween tunes at us. Come party with us 2 - 4  pm SLT. Celebrate Halloween with us today  with the theme Creepy Vs Cute. The spirits are waiting.


The 2000L prize was split between Dusk Griswold and Rain0dash1.


4PM came, and the party moved to Urban Furry's haunted area. The landmark given to Mystic Timberland (164/239/2701) didn't lead directly to the club, but the start of a haunted trail with a few scares. Once inside, we got music from DJ Soundshifter.


?¸.•*? CRAWL TO THE GATES OF SNHELL (SNAKE HELL!) ?*•.¸?
¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦
? DJ: SOUNDSHIFTER
?WHAT: ROCK/METAL- THE THIRD LEG OF THE HALLOWEEN FCA CLUB CRAWL IS BEAUTY AND THE BEAST!
?WHERE: URBAN FURRY
?WHEN: 4PM-6PM SLT
¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦
?¸.•*? JOIN US AND ROCK OUT WITH YOUR GUTS OUT! ?*•.



It was quite a "monster mash."


At 6PM, the party moved to the Club Cutlass airship at Sunweaver Bay (114/117/757). And the place had been decked out with decorations and mist.

Leg 4 of the Club crawl! $1000 L's to start!
It's the first of 2 Halloween events at Cutlass. Tonights event is part of the Halloween Club Crawl. Get on your Halloween costumes and come party with our scary DJ Crim. The haunting begins at 6 PM.



 DJ Crim, who often DJs for Cutlass on Fridays, played the music for the two hours.


So for two hours, the party went on, the crowd cracking Halloween jokes and puns.


Club Manager Jenni Greenfield won the contest for the ladies. The winner for the guys was a certain fox who went "bats" for the holiday.


And at 8PM, the party moved on to it's final stop, back to Club Zero Gravity. DJ Lexi spun her musical spells for those on the dance floor and lounge area.


 Welcome one and all to the last stop for our First Annual Halloween Club Crawl where ghost ghouls and goblins run amok, Souls of all ages embarking through the journey of sounds now find the, Final, Destination, on tonight's tantalizing tour of terror. 





The lovely sounds of our DJ Sexi Lexi, the Sexy Nezumi dj as she shares her love of lore and lyrics matched with sounds and sin.   Celebrate Halloween of past, present and future.  Nightmare Scare for the theme.   Come, enjoy with us if you dare. and the finally amount for the Crawl is $5000 L's


And what avatar would be really scary in a party of mostly furry avatars?


Mia Launay won the prize for this part of the event: 5000 Linden dollars.


 Club Zero Gravity manager Ranchan told everyone, "Thank you all for coming out,  thank you to our DJ's  Thank you to Our Hosts, and most Important, thank you to , you, our friends, family and new faces as well as old that came out tonight during this First Annual Halloween Club crawl."

And so, the FCA Creepy Club Crawl was over. But it wasn't the end of Halloween events. Goblin Bay would have it's Halloween party the following night, plus at least three of the four clubs will have parties on Halloween. And of course there's Ziola Linden's Creepy Crawl at 10 AM.

Bixyl Shuftan

Friday, October 26, 2018

Scenes From Burn2


By Bixyl Shuftan


 Second Life has a number of yearly events, but one of the longest lasting and best known is Burn2. The biggest art and music festival inworld, it's the virtual version of the Burning Man festival which takes place every summer in the Black Rock desert in Nevada. It has a noted place in Second Life's beginnings as some of Linden Lab's staff, including Philip Rosedale's staff attended in the company's early days, and had a partial inspiration on the concept of Second Life. The Lab would subsidize it's counter part event inworld, at first called Burning Life, by providing them the sims free of charge. But after several years, the Lab stopped, and the volunteer group began paying for the sims themselves, renaming the event Burn2.

The entrance to the event is in the Deep Hole sim, where one appears on a road with a few buildings nearby.


 Near the entrance was a memorial sign for Ladyslipper Constantine, whom was one of the more notable members of the Lamplighters group, until her passing in September 2016.


There was also a memorial to Burning Man founder Larry Harvey, whom died on April 28 this year. But the yearly festival he created, and it's virtual reflection, go on.


Burn2, as does Burning Man, has a different theme every year. In one building were posters of previous celebrations.


This year's theme is "I, Robot." The name comes from the science-fiction novel by Issac Asimov that has influenced thoughts about the idea of fully intelligent robots and computers and how humans might interact with them. Would humans treat them as slaves, give them the same rights as they had, or something in between? Would the robots eventually revolt and try to take over, justify their position of service to themselves and continue on, or something else? The artists were asked to make exhibits to express some of their thoughts, and there were a number that ranged from hopeful to cautionary to amusing.


"Welcome home," how Burners greet people dropping in.


It was a little late when I had finally dropped in, so the two greeters were dancing to amuse themselves. They still saw me and greeted me with a welcome.


There were some free gifts available, such as a translator.


The first exhibit I saw was of robots waiting at the repair shop to be fixed.


This artistic build wasn't quite with the robotic theme, but it was pretty. Relaxing music could be heard inside. Inside was a table with seats around it, where one could have some tea or a fruity drink.


 A few other builds didn't quite reflect the main theme either.



 But others did, such as this one showing automations taking items to work.


 This Ranger station had a few robots on guard.



"The Cavern," a DJ place that was empty when I saw it, looking like an abandoned area.



 The theme this place had was one of the cautionary ones.


The story behind this exhibit was of a future in which robots conclude humanity as a whole is a danger to itself and the world, and needs to be changed to become more like it's creation.


One place had dust clouds in the air, which would be at the real-life event.




Are these robots engaging in some kind of devil worship, or are they just fans of "metal" music?



 A robot wrestling match, where the contestants really do have nerves of steel.


This exhibit looked like a scene from a holodeck, or perhaps inside a computer, a digital robot half-sunken into a surface.


One of the club areas in Burn2: Organica.


It was late at night, but people were dancing away.


One girl was dancing with a neon hula-hoop.


DJ Pink Christole was dancing on top of the booth, encouraging the crowd.


"Eye Robot" is a build in which robots with eyeball-like heads are described as living as equals


 A maze with a spiderlike robot looming overhead.


 This build of robots building a "Mother robot" had a couple free robot avatars.



 And where would Burn2 be without it's "Porto-potties?" In the real life Burning Man, the festival simply couldn't be held without them. In Burn2, they're amusing works of art.


 Not a place to be if you have hydrophobia.


Looks like this one sprung a leak.


The Iron Giant's head and hand.


Probably the central exhibit of the festival is"The Man." This is a large man-shaped build that is burned on the day before the festival ends. This will be tomorrow, Saturday October 27.


This year, "The Man" was built smaller than it often is, though is on a very large base.


Second only to "The Man" is The Temple. It is burned on the final day of the event, this year on Sunday October 28.


It's orange glow inside, particularly under a night sky, give the impression of a huge firey furnace. Not a good place to be inside for either human or robot.


A friend ported me to this "interactive dancing" as she called it,"the women who created it put in a lot of work." Dead Kyra (Kyra Msarko) and Dead Cordie (Cordelia Cerise) led the crowd. "Killer moves!" Kyra told them, "I might have to hire you all!"


One of the more amusing exhibits, robots waving in front of a picture of the Paris Arch of Triumph, with someone placing half a toy in front so it resembles a robot's legs.


The "Metropolis Awakening" exhibit, based on the 1927 silent sci-fi movie of the same name and a sculpture made by J. Steward Johnson, Jr., "The Awakening."

"With respect to these artists I mashed their two ideas together to form 'Metropolis Awakening.' A giant robot inspired by the Metropolis original replacing the statue of The Awakening man, emerging from the Playa. The Playa itself bending in resistance to the emerging robot, becomes part of the sculpture. The back wall and 'Metropolis' sign is a stylistic rendition of the Metropolis movie poster.

Sadly, there is not enough time to post all the pictures I took, including some great ones. They will have to wait until the next article.

Bixyl Shuftan