Press Day At Burn2

By Gemma Cleanslate

 I had a wonderful time at Press Day at the Burn2 sims. I met my friend Leondra Larsson, a Ranger and builder  at the entrance and was greeted also by Molly Nakamori, one of the official greeters. The theme this year is Davinci’s Workshop. 

This event is described, ”BURN2 is an extension of the Burning Man festival and community into the world of Second Life. It is an officially sanctioned Burning Man Regional, the only virtual world Regional out of more than 100 Regional groups worldwide, and the only Regional to burn the Man! This unique virtual Regional spreads the culture and Ten Principles of Burning Man year-round in Second Life, culminating in an annual major festival of community, art and fire in the fall - a virtual echo of Burning Man itself.” Many volunteers work year long to put on this event. 

The area in the center this year is filled with the Center Camp which remains mostly in its usual form but is surrounded by the “Man” by Pygar Bu,’‘ The Temple’ by Toady Nakamura, and a lovely home for the Lamplighters. I visited with the Lamplighters for a while and watched them perform before I joined in. iSkye Silverweb, who is a lead for the event distracted me from my purpose and I spent time there playing instead of working! LOL .I did find out that the Lamplighters will be doing two processions a day after the opening Saturday morning at 10am slt where you will see them perform. They will be at the burning of the Man and the next day, The Temple next weekend.

I was able to take a tour of the sims in a flying machine. As I flew over in a device that is reminiscent of Davinci’s famous drawing I saw so many marvelous plots that made me feel I was back in the day of the artist. You can catch this traveling machine near the Deparment of Mutant Vehicles where you can also find some fun machines to travel along the roadways. I visited the DJ Stage where there will be parties every day during the event. I did see Toady sitting in the temple enjoying her work. She was happy to build the temple but told me that iSkye made the Da Vinci Printing Press/Censer where you can leave messages to be read while the temple burns. iSkye spent many hours preparing it Toady said. 

I also ran into some friends whose parcels I will be visiting during the week and will write about. I stopped to pick up some gifts at the gift area you will see near the entrance so don’t miss those. The greeters have a whole backpack of goodies for you too. Here is the entrance to get you started. Have fun and plan to visit often during the week.

 http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Burning%20Man-%20Deep%20Hole/164/33/25

 Gemma Cleanslate

Bay City's Seventh Anniversary

By Bixyl Shuftan

Sunday May 17 was the seventh anniversary celebration of Bay City, the "first project of the Linden Department of Public Works," described as being built to represent the North American urban experience in the mid-20th century (1940s to 1960s), and the community behind it. Every year, the event is marked by a parade down several sims, followed by a music and dance party with tunes from both DJs and live performers.

As the clock ticked to 12:30Pm, the starting time of the parade, people gathered at Harwich.

The idea was for the paraders to be divided in groups, Marianne McCann and Pygar Bu at the lead of the first group.

The horse rezzed, but the car didn't in this screenshot.

Finally at 12:31PM, Marianne started things up, "Here we go! Happy 7th Anniversdary Bay City! ... er ... Anniversary! ... ONWARD!" The others cheered, and followed her and Pygar, "Hoooo!"

I ended up crashing, but teleported ahead to a harbor area ahead of the parade, and took pictures as the procession approached.

 Going down the road was an avatar Yoda, as opposed to a toy yoda.

Marianne and Pygar were whooping it up as they went down the road.

 Where did this guy learn to brake? "The Flintstones?"

I had a hard time focusing the camera so this mesh horse would rezz. In the end, I managed to avoid looking like a horse's ... well, you know.

 I went ahead and skipped ahead to the finish line at the Fairgrounds in North Channel. That's my friend Shadow with me.

And before long, the parade was in the home stretch.

And one by one, the parade's participants made it to the finish line.

Kenny Luckless, in a mesh tiny skunk. He was looking a little "pail."

A couple horses in the line-up were among the last to arrive.

The paraders were welcomed with music from DJ GoSpeed Racer, the first of the music performers.

GoSpeed's KONA stream no longer operates on a regular basis, but she plays it for special events, such as Bay City celebrations.

While no relation to the anime character of almost the same name, GoSpeed did have a cheerful "big eyes small mouth" cartoon on her stream info sign. Of her ethnic look, she commented at one point, "Everyone should have at least one ebony avatar (in one's inventory)." I responded, "Does a Luskwood furry black cat count?" GoSpeed laughed, "No!"

 And the dancing began.

Conga line, with a couple tinies mixed in with the normal human avatars.

Marx Dudek was going to DJ for the event, but there was a change of plans, "One of these days, I won't have a system that chokes."

Live performer Christov Kohnke followed DJ Gospeed, singing to the tunes of his guitar.

And we soon had a blue dot on the map, a Linden had showed up. April Linden, appearing in her old Lusk bunny avatar, came to join in the dance. The locals happily greeted her, "Welcome April..wonderful to see you!" She couldn't answer any questions about the Lab's policies, "I'm just an engineer." Someone asked if there were tours of the Linden Lab office building available. April answered no, "They only let me in because I have a key."

Following Christov was Oble (Obeloinkment Wrigglesworth), in his marionette avatar. His act had no strings attached, even if he did. Amforte Clarity (no picture) would be the last performer.

 Daniel Voyager, who can be seen here in his owl avatar, put the number of those at the party at 55 avatars.

At one point, Marianne told the crowd, "Hey all, I also want to take a moment to thank those who made the event happen today! Thanks to Kinn for helping to arrange the music, and for GoSpeed Racer, Chris Khonke, Oblee, and AMForte for performing! Thanks also to Marx Dudek who was originally going to DJ today Thanks, Marxie! Also, thanks to our parade marshals.... ADudeNamed Anthony, Rachel Seelowe, and Uncle Galaxy... er, Uccie Galway! Thanks to the Bay City Alliance for being here and helping to put on great events like this... ...and to Linden Lab - especially Michael Linden and Xiola Linden for help above and beyond. And finally, to BlueGin Yifu, Hyper Mole, and Ever Dreamscape for all the did, and for continuing to inspire today. Shine on!"

It was a party to remember as Second Life's biggest city celebrated seven years.

Bixyl Shuftan

The Burning of the Man 2014

Last Saturday October 25th, the most noted event of the Burn2 festival, the Burning of the Man, took place. The real life event the festival is based on, Burning Man, draws it's roots from the burning of a nine foot wooden man in 1986 in a "radical act of self expression." And the high point of every Burning Man festival involves a huge wooden effigy, most of the most recent ones over a hundred feet high.

Second Life's Burn2 has it's own build of "The Man." Unlike the real life festival, there were two times The Man was burned. 12 Noon Second Life time was the "European" burn, and 8PM SL time, the "American" burn. Despite the labels, some Americans preferred the earlier time.

On my viewer, The Man wasn't completely rezed when looking at it from a distance. Still, it made for an impressive show. And at Noon SL time, it began with several spots on the tall effigy turning alight.

Before long, the head disintegrated, the wood burned up.

And soon after, the body began to fall apart as the support structures were weakened. Note the numbers of people on the minimap.

Marriane McCann and Pygar Bu, the ones who set off the fire stand by as The Man burns.

 

 

It wasn't long before the arms were gone, save for the main beams.

Among those there was Torley, or rather his alt was, done up in watermelon pink and green..

Soon the torso collapsed, leaving only the legs.

 Pieces were starting to fall some distance away, one landing just feet from me.

With the collapse of the last of the structure about to happen, the Burners are invited to dance in the fire.

Kenny Luckless, a Second Life "Oldbie" was also there.

The Man is down, and the Burners dance among the flames.

Marriane was among those doing the Burner dance.

What's left of "The Man" seen in daylight, with a club nearby. I would find that a piece of burnt wood had made it to the dance floor.



(Click here if the video fails to play)

A "Neo Geo" had filmed the event and put it on Youtube.

And so, another burning of The Man had taken place. The following day would be the Temple Burn, and the end of the festival.

Bixyl Shuftan