Scenes From The CDS Inaugural Ball

By Bixyl Shuftan

The Confederation of Democratic Simulators is unique among the communities in Second Life that the residents get to choose it's leaders, the most important one being the Chancellor. Twice a year, the community gets a chance to keep the current one, or elect someone new. This year, Kyoko (Samara Barzane) was the winner of the Chancellorship election. In honor of her, as well as the new Representative Assembly, the CDS held an Inaugural Ball. But this ball would be different as it was the new leader who was doing the decorating for the occasion.

The Confederation of Democratic Simulators (CDS) invites all CDS Citizens and friends to the Inaugural Ball for our 30th Term. The theme is TOKYO NIGHTS in honor of our newly elected Chancellor, Kyoko (Samara Barzane), and the Representative Assembly.  Music will be provided by Callipygian Christensen. Dress is not required to be formal, although you may feel welcome to wear evening dress. You are encouraged to dress for the theme; Japanese cosplay, kawaii or goth, would be welcome.

On Saturday December 15 at Noon SL time, people headed over to the Neufreistadt Schloss Ballroom. For those not familiar, "Schloss" is a German term for manor or palace. The building was created by Rosie Gray and Sudane Erato, with the help of others.

As RA member Rosie Gray put it, "Chancellor Kyoko has given us something very different for this Inaugural Ball!" The ballroom was set up like a scene from the streets of the downtown of a major Japanese city, like one would see in some magna or anime. Kyoko mused, "It's two weeks and (already) I have fled for foreign lands." Drewski Northman, her opponent in the recent elections, responded, "You're doing great so far, boss."  To the side were some refreshments, "Please avail yourselves of the sake and wine while we wait for Calli to be ready."

 Kyoko had been in a kimono when showing me around earlier. But for the ball, she was in a more formal dress. "Mostly in the last two weeks I've been learning the job.  I call it 'death by spreadsheet.' (laughter)"

Oldesoul Eldermar was there, in something not exactly traditional Japanese. Kyoko remarked, "Olde, I think you channel the last emperor very nicely. (smile)"

Han Held (Hannah Marie Tempestwolf), the previous Chancellor, was at the party as well.

 There were a number at the party, including some from the Representative Assembly. Kyoko told the crowd, "We are very lucky to have much of the Representative Assembly here. Rosie, Lyu, Tan, Lady Kiki and Em Warden. We are lucky to have such amazing people be willing to step up for CDS. So how about some applause for them?"

Callipygian Christensen was the lady performing the music for the event. Drewski commented, "I regularly attend a Sunday night set that Calli does."

Also there were members of Kikuyu and Kikutsuru's Geisha school. "Konbanwa Kyoko san and congratulations on your election to Chancellor, I am sure you will do a wonderful job. *smiles warmly*"

The event continued to get compliments, "What a great idea this was Kyoko." Drewski commented, "I love all the creativity in the outfits."

 It was quite an Inaugural Ball, and a good sign for Chancellor Kyoko for her term

Bixyl Shuftan

Caledon Christmas Parties

By Bixyl Shuftan

The Steampunk/Victorian themed community of Caledon has had a few Christmas events recently. Last week, two got my attention. They were the "Christmas at the Cave" event at the Goblin Cave in Caledon Downs, and the "Caledon Oxbridge University Christmas Winter Fundraiser" at Caledon Oxbridge Village.

Both events had the music performed by Cynthia Farshore, the owner of Farshore Radio, and Caledon Downs.

The "Christmas at the Cave" event was first, taking place on Thursday December 13 at 6PM SL time.

Duchy Cynthia invites all who hear to the Goblin Cave on Caledon Downs for a Christmas Dance Party on December 13th at 6 to 8 PM SLT. Lots of Christmas tunes, some a bit twisted, with some various thrown in. Plenty of room for the tiniest tiny to dragon size. There are games in the lower levels and in the lowest a Jacuzzi to warm you up after a long walk exploring the sim. There is a Christmas Express train running every five minutes to carry you around to the various points of interest. Included is an ice skating rink, 7-seas and Neo-Realms fishing, and sled rides and more.

There were a number of Christmas tunes from "Mr. Grinch" by Brois Karloff, "Joy to the World" by Bob Rivers, "Oh Holy Night," by Celine Dion, "Tune! Celine sings this ssooo well," "Toy Sack" ("Love Shack" parody) by Bob Rivers, some Mannheim Steamroller, "Jingle Bombs" by Jeff Dunham's Achmed the Dead Terrorist, and more. "Jingle Bombs, I haven't heard that one in awhile."

The event got it's share of compliments, "this has been wonderful Cynthia, thank you." Rita Mariner followed, "Cynthia has been a great hostess and DJ for the party as well."

At the end, Cynthia wrapped up the songs with Caledon's anthem, "Caledonia" by Celtic Thunder. Then people began going their separate ways,"Thanks cousin Cynthia, great party (smile)." Cynthia told the people, "Thanks for coming guys, but course the cave never closes."

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Caledon%20Downs/104/89/32

A couple days later on Saturday December 15 was the Caledon Oxbridge University Christmas Winter Fundraiser. There were actually two dances at Caledon Oxbridge Village, the first at 1PM SL time, the second at 7PM SL time.

Once again, Cynthia was playing the music as the DJ.

 There were a number of outfits from the festive.

 To the comical.

 Looks like every Christmas has it's Grinch.

 Besides the music, there was trivia, " In which Country is it traditional for people to decorate banana and mango trees for Christmas?" "India."

At the event, people donated to help keep Caledon Oxbridge University funded. This month's total was raised to 35.750 Lindens.

It was quite a party, and once again Cynthia was thanked for playing the music.

Bixyl Shuftan

"A Christmas Carol" by Seanchai Library's Dickens Project

By Gemma Cleanslate

Again LEA7 has the  marvelous depiction of “A Christmas Carol”  by Dickens. This is the 8th year of the project, November30 - December 30: The Dickens Project 2018 Edition presented by Seanchai Library.. It has happy events as tours, readings, and parties are  going on during the month.

A collaboration of many built the scenes in the town and all the sights and sounds.  I remember last year Caldonia Skytower, one of the majors of the project,  saying it is like walking into a picture book. And it is.

This year they have also added the Urchin Experience. I saw some of the urchins while I was wandering the streets. If you would like to be an urchin read about it here. I looks like great fun .   http://irelandslstory.blogspot.com/p/urchins-in-dickens-london.html

I took the carriage ride over the bridge and around through the town to see the marvelous build. Or take the balloon tour for an overview. Take a walk and enter the buildings to see life as it was back then. Pick up the staves (chapters) around the region that tells The Christmas Carol. It will be open until the end of December .

“A soundscape created by Dagmar Kohime will enhance the immersion of the region-exploring experience. Sounds of all kinds can be heard all over the region: a fiddler plays at Fezziwig's warehouse, the sounds of Nephew Fred's party guests wafts into the street near his home, and the Merchants Alley rings with sound of urchin laughter.”  So listen...
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/LEA7/128/131/22

Sunday afternoon I spent at the premier of” Christmas Carol” ballet at the Royal Opera Garnier Auditorium . Ina Carpaccio created  the performance by the Deja Vu scenic group and was performed to classical music and Christmas Carols. I almost felt sorry for poor Mr Scrooge when the Marley’s ghost  descended upon him. He was very frightening.

The Spirit of Christmas past and present  danced by Ina  in a lovely costume was not as frightening.  Mr Scrooge followed her willingly. The party from Christmas past was held in a giant snowglobe. The visit to the Cratchit home was poignant with Tim sitting on the bed as the family danced around the room.

Christmas Future was not very optimistic for Scrooge, who is nearly frightened to death . Ina danced the Christmas Future in a costume that matched the frightening view and left Scrooge kneeling by his own grave.

However.. all is well the next morning as Scrooge is able to take care of the Cratchits and all is well as the last scene shows.

The choreography is stunning as usual as is the costuming . It is always a delight to attend any performance by Deja Vu. The audience was entranced during the entire ballet .As one audience member put it ,”beautifully dynamic and tasteful”.

You have several opportunities to see it before it closes:

 Sunday, 23 Dec 2018, 2 pm slt   http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Oceanea/14/126/39
Saturday, 29 Dec 2018, 5 pm slt,  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife//128/108/952
Sunday, 30 Dec 2018, 2 pm slt    http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Oceanea/14/126/39 

Gemma Cleanslate

The Luskwood Tribute Party

On Thursday November 29, The Happy Vixen club held a tribute to the Luskwood community. For those who don't know, Luskwood was the original furry community in Second Life, and probably the oldest one still active. They're also the people who came up with the first company to make and sell furry avatars instead of each one being custom-made, also called Luskwood.

The exact date in fall 2003 of it's founding is unclear, but it had always been celebrated every October, their LW10B being a particularly big event. The last few anniversary events have been combined with the Trotsdale community of which the two share ties, the last one being the LW14B/TD6B celebration. But this year, a series of events in real life took up the time of the founders and others that would have otherwise organized another anniversary celebration. So after about a month of waiting, the people of the Sunweaver/Angel community decided to take matters into their own hands with a "Luskwood Tribute" party.

On the day before the Luskwood party, Wednesday November 28, Trotsdale was given it's own event with a "Trotsdale Tribute." The Vixen's own pony DJ Applebloom played the music. While the beach club had pony parties before, this one had more four-footed residents than usual, "All these little ponies! I think I'm gonna die from a massive overdose of cute."

The chat went from pony sims, to the music, to food, "I know Kirins don't have cutie marks but I really do love Cheesecake a lot." "Good cause I want everyone to know how much I like Homemade NY style cheesecake with cherries (smile)." "You're making me hungry for that, silly pony!"

There was a "Best in Pony" contest, of which the board had two pages of entries. Crim Mip and Six String (Roleplayismylife Resident) split the prize, "had a good crowd of ponies in here."

On Thursday at 8PM SL time, the Luskwood Tribute began. The club set out a couple signs with the community's symbol on it. And besides the regulars from the Sunweaver/Angel community, such as chieftess Rita Mariner and Nydia Tungsten, a number from Luskwood dropped by as well. "As the Queeen of Hearts said!  'Off With Her Head!' " "But Rita, we already have the Lusk head logo (grin)."

It was fifteen years ago that Second Life's first furry community (and oldest still around), and the makers of the first furry avatars, came to be: Luskwood. So tonight, we're holding a tribute event for them. Dress up in any furry avatar, Luskwood or otherwise. Our furry bunny DJ Snowbuns plays the tunes.

One of the four founders of Luskwood, Michi Lumin, was there. Michi was thankful for the tribute event, "Sorry guys I just been -completely- slammed lately, that's the only reason we haven't done LW15B yet... (I say yet because I still intend to do it late, but we just haven't had time 'because life')."

Michi is known for her skunk avatar (and steampunkish top hat), and there were a few other black and white avatars around."Beware of the Skunk ..." "We're gonna need more air fresheners." "This is turning into a stinker of a party it seems..." "It's the Fetid Inner Core (grin)."

For the first time ever at the Happy Vixen, a Linden showed up at an event: April Linden. Needless to say, the reactions from most were positive, "A cute purple bunny," though one guy reacted, "OMG, a Lusk Avatar older than mine!" April just giggled, "Hehe, yeah."

DJ Snowbuns (Skylark Lefavre) played the music for the event. Nikkita (Aubrytia Resident) did hostess duty, "If everyone's having a rockin good time, Let's make some NOISE for our Rockin Dj....The One....The Only....The Lovely....The Awsome, Dj SnowBuns!!! as she rocks the club with her tunes for you here at, The Happy Vixen Beach Club!!!"

There were a number of tunes playing, such as "Numa numa." April reacted, "Ooh I haven't heard this song in forever." Someone else went, "This song is jsut as old as SL."

Cynthia Farshore and Shockwave yareach, the latter in a Luskwood Jogauni, which that comes with a quest to find a staff, "I'm wearing a CLASSIC Luskwood avatar."

April Linden soon moved from the edge of the party to in it. DJ Skylark Lefavre ended up with one of April's bunny bears. As more people came by, they commented on April, "You are the first Linden that I've seen and met." Michi remarked, "Heh, I've seen so much, in so long, that to me, Lindens are just more folks, now, with jobs to do.... and I know jobs to do x_x ." April responded, "Luskwood has always had a special place in my heart. (smile) " <3 br="">
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As time went on, there were more than a few jokes, "If SL years are like dog years, we should turn this place into a nursing home." Michi responded, "Eh, people remind me that I'm old (grin)." Rita commented, "You're in nice shape for old."

There was some talk about the early years of Second Life and Luskwood, which Mich described in her 2012 interview. At the party, Michi commented, "Heh I remember standing looking at the map when they were about to add 22 new sims. I think at the time there were like,  9.  And we were standing there thinking all about the future like, 'I wonder what the world will look like with 31 sims. wow.'"

Cynthia commented, "You know if you think about it, it is the furries who made SL happen." Michi responded, "Yeah kind of, most of the people really doing the early work in the community, a lot of them were furries. To the point where it annoyed some people (big grin)." Snowy suggested, "I think the proof in all of this lies outside of SL. The other Grids where there were no furries showed little promise of good content." A fourth added, "I think furries have more reason to be interested in virtual worlds than other people. Gives us a chance to be furry without having to get a fursuit (grin)."

The party would go on for two hours. The contest prize would be won my Cynthia Farshore.

Before leaving, Michi did tell that the Luskwood anniversary wasn't canceled, only postponed. They would have it later on when things settled down in real life for the planners.

With about thirty-five people at the place at one point, it was the most successful event at the beach club in a while, and the first time a Linden dropped by. It was a party that no doubt the Sunweaver/Angels will remember for a while.

Bixyl Shuftan