Burn2: The Temple Burn

Last weekend, the Burn2 festival came to a close with two events: the Burning of "The Man," and the Temple Burn. The latter took place on the last day of events for the festival, on October 27. The event took place three times, 4AM SL time for the "European" burn, Noon for those on US Eastern Time, and 8PM for those on the US West Coast and Pacific. Gemma Cleanslate was able to catch the Noon Burn, and took a few pictures.

 On some Burns, the sim is cleared of people with a restart before each burning. It wasn't the case this year, and people remained inside as minutes ticked away for the temple.

 And at Noon Second Life time, the fire begins.

 In real life, anyone caught in a burning building would panic and flee. Not necessarily so in virtual reality. And certainly not at Burn2.

 It isn't long before the interior was soon ablaze.

 One of the Burners, glowing brightly.

Gemma wasn't the only writer at the Temple Burn. Daniel Voyager, noted for his blog, was also there.



Radioactive Rosca was able to film the Temple Burn (Click Here is video fails to load).

Gemma was hard at work at the festival, so wasn't able to write much. She did write a review of Ub Yifu's exhibit. Gemma's partner Qwark enjoyed the burnings of "The Man" and the Temple, though thought that they were better in previous years as clearing out the places meant less lag. Daniel Voyager wrote his own review of this year's Burn2, calling it a success, " I’m glad there is still interest for the annual BURN2 event in Second Life after Linden Lab stopped funding it back in 2010. I do think more needs to done to get the word out to more people on the grid to let them know of this well known event." With interest in alternative Grids growing, he suggested perhaps the Burners might see what they could do outside Second Life.

Daniel Voyager also posted pictures of this year's Burn2 on his Flickr page (Here).

And so another Burn2 comes to a close. Next week, the sims are cleared of builds, and like the desert location in real life, no trace will be left.

Pictures by Gemma Cleanslate

Bixyl Shuftan

Bay City Celebrates Five Years

By Bixyl Shuftan

Last weekend on Sunday May 19th was the 5th Anniversary celebration of Bay City. The day was marked with a street parade down the main road of the area and a party at the Fairgrounds in the east end of the region.

Bay City was created in May 2008 "by a set of resident builders known as 'moles' with in the Linden Department of Public Works," a group dedicated to improvements on the mainland. Bay City was described as "the American urban experience between 1940 and 1965, perhaps best typified by Chicago circa 1950." The region has seen a number of improvements every year, such as it's near-doubling in size with the merger of the sims from the former Teen Grid Bay City in 2011, and the "Hairy Hippo Fun Land" amusement part with mesh objects last year around the time of last year's anniversary.

The day before at a table with a Bay City Welcome Basket and tour guide, I ran into Uccello Poultry, the writer of the Poultry Report as well as the partner of the winner of the Miss Bay City Pagent Angela Seale-Poultry. She made a few jokes about the "mer-moles" in the canal getting upset if someone didn't find the key to the porto-potties on the big day, "There are quite a few swimming around the waters off the Hairy HIppo Funland, and one in the aquarium in Oak Bluff." She added a lucky 7Seas fisher might catch one around "Hippo." Marianne McCann, one of Bay City's prominent residents,  joined us soon afterwards. Marianne shared a picture of a number of the city residents gathering for a picture, which had appeared on the Second Life Viewer.

Marianne then talked a little about Bay City's first days, "I still remember when the Lab started to promote Bay City, pre-opening. Shots of the city 'in progress' an' stuff. and I was soooooo disappointed when I didn't get the parcel I wanted. ... I got one a couple days later. Uccello commented, "I remember meeting the Governor when she was at the train depot trying to setup the freebies. (giggles) Had to toss a script to her and explain 'Buy for L$0.' " Marianne went on, "I remember first coming into Bay City when it first was gridded. (It was so new, you could not TP into it. (The) map did not recognize it yet. I had to fly in from Cape Haven. My first in-person view was of Farpoint Park. A friend of hers invited everyone on his friend list over, which was the precursor of their weekly meetings.


The following day at Noon, people began gathering at the Hawich sim in the southwestern part of Bay City. Some would walk. Others were in cars and floats. Daniel Voyager would write that over 30 were at the gathering point.  Miss Bay City Angela Seale-Poultry was also there. And so was Marianne in her marching band director outfit, trying to organize this chaotic gathering. It didn't help when someone began showering the place with particles. Some wondered if this was a grieving attack at first, then someone noticed it was confetti. Unfortunetly, it was enough to send a number of residents crashing, including yours truly.

By the time I got back on, the parade had already started. I ported ahead to get some pictures. While enough razzed for me to see what was going on, sorry to say the lag meant most pictures were of fair quality at best. Fortunetly Daniel Voyager had taken a number, and gave his okay for the Newser to use some (like the one above).

Daniel was also in the parade as a flying dragon.

Other things in the parade included a huge "Stay Puft Marshmallow Man" avatar. Behind it was a "flaming noob" balloon.

And there was this float full of faux noob avatars.

Draxtor Despres of "The Drax Files" was also there at the parade (second image Daniel's).

 Bay City residents are always there to lend a hand, in this case a giant hand for a float.

And at the finish line, one car with Rosie the Robot doing chauffeur duty can be better seen with lag less of a problem.

Miss Bay City at the finish line of the parade.

Another car at the parade.

The parade went down "Route 66," the main road of Bay City. It went on to the Fairgrounds in the North Channel sim, which is several sims west of Ahern and Luskwood.

There, the paraders and onlookers whom had been watching from the streets joined up with the small party, which had already started at the stage and dance floor. DJ GoSpeed Racer was starting things up with her selection of tunes. The number of avatars there was close to 40 at times.

Among the dancers, a "Primitar" from "Linden World," the unpublished alpha version of Second Life.

Marianne dances with Loki Eliot of "The Goonies," and a few other child avatars. Daniel for whatever reason put on a carrot top. Holocluck Henley was also there.

Following DJ GoSpeed, there was a performance by live singer Christov Kohnke.

Overhead, there was a blimp getting a view from above.

The party went on for a few more hours and two more live musicians. There was also a display of fireworks. Marianne sent this message after the end:

Thank you to everyone who made out anniversary such a success! Our performers, our parade block captains, Ever for work above and beyond. Those who tossed into the hat to provide some great performers, and all our marchers, viewers,and partiers. Thanks for making Bay City’s fifth so great!

For more pictures, you can find more in Daniel Voyager's and Marianne McCann's Flickr.

Happy Birthday Bay City.

Bixyl Shuftan

Sources and Links: Second Life Wikia, Daniel Voyager's Blog, Daniel Voyager Flickr,

A Few Scenes at The Birthday in SL8B

In the “Important Dates” mentioned in the official SL8B blog, June 23 was listed as “The Birthday.” I heard there was going to be something going on around Noon SL time. Getting a chance to log in earlier than usual, I headed to the Cake stage. I had been exploring a couple steampunk areas with friends earlier (more on that later), so was wearing a Victorian outfit. As it turned out, I didn’t have to change. Getting to the Cake, it was one big party.

On the stage were the DJ of the hour, Xilion Iceberg, and Michael Linden. Michael was in a tiny avatar, that of a mole, dancing on stage. In the crowd were a mix of avatars in a variety of dress. News blogger Daniel Voyager was also there, though without the anthro snow leopard I’ve known him to wear lately.

Michael Linden wasn’t the only mole about. One resident, TheDoctor Footman, showed up in the same tiny av, accessorized by a mining cap and pickaxe. Seeing Michael, he went up on stage for a few moments, the two looking like they were twins. TheDoctor later made a screenshot of the scene his new profile picture.

There were a couple mishaps at the event. Just after I arrived, my avatar was suddenly knocked away several feet, and one of the sims connecting to the Cake stage vanished, taking away with it a slice of cake. At least it seemed to vanish. Michael Linden and Daniel Voyager were nowhere to be seen, but we could still read their chat. Someone suggested this was the work of griefers, but there were no signs of particles. The missing sim soon came back.

The second mishap was one of the choice of songs. The sim was a PG one, and at one point after the music change I heard a few people making a bit of commotion, “can you do this in a PG area?” I then recognized the tune as, “I Want to **** You Like an Animal.” Not the best choices of tunes in a “family friendly” place, especially with a Linden around, but all he did was cover his ears. DJ Xilion chuckled halfway through the song, then apologized, “Sorry Michael.” Someone decided to “sneak off” at that point rather than being caught on “that blog.” But most didn’t seem to mind, someone joking, “Aawwww, he’s playing for his lady.”

This wasn’t all that happened that day. I heard about Rodvik Linden dropping in earlier with a spaceship avatar. I wasn’t around to see it, though Daniel Voyager was. He wrote of Rodvik as funning around, “Mesh? I hear it is coming. The end of times is upon us! I always wondered what that red button near my desk did.” Rodvik gave no speech this year.

After DJ Xilion and Michael Linden had left, I decided to look around some. One place I came across was the exhibit for the Instituto Español, which Grey Lupindo attends. Wilson Voight and one of the teachers Eugenia Calderon, were there. Eugenia did most of the talking while Wilson was occupied with something. She described Grey as doing well, becoming an advanced student. This was their second appearance at a Second Life anniversary event, “Last year with we were able to let the virtual community know about our education project that we have had for the last 4 years. Also, we were able to show all the artistic and cultural activities that take place throughout the year. Besides our Spanish Language classes, we try to give a fully immersive program for our students in regards to the customs, culture, and art of Mexico and Latin American countries.”

The Spanish Institute has it's exhibit at SL8B Spectacular (216, 105, 22), and has it’s own website.

Looking around some more, one place I heard some chatter at was the 1920’s Berlin Roleplay exhibit. Stepping into a cafe, “Welkome, Herr Shuftan” they greeted me. They talked a little about the sim, as well as continuing to chat among each other about the SL8B. There was also a little music and dancing, one guy getting on stage at one point. In the middle of this, a German chef walked in sporting a sausage wrapped in a newspaper, which could be taken for free in a booth outside the cafe. Also nearby was a small movie theater. I never did stop in to see what was playing.

The 1920’s Berlin place is at SL8B Dazzle, (75, 230, 21).

Well, all for now. Sorry about this post being a day late, but there’s been lots to see.

Bixyl Shuftan