ZZ Studio’s Car show

By Grease Coakes

For a long time ZZ Studios has been around Second Life as a creator of adult videos and more created by Cindy Babii and her group of talented actors and actresses. But there’s more than just adult entertainment to ZZ Studios. Darkefur Fraker, one of the long time actresses and builders for the studio, organized a car show open to the public. Cars just like in real life and also in Second Life are amazing things to drive in as well as admire for fine craftsmanship in virtual reality and also the real world. Cars add to the spirit of life in America or any country.

The ZZ Studios car show was for three days at their location at Sheridan (68/104/2501) . I visited there on Saturday. I found Dakota Lyle (Kota) who’s been with ZZ for a while and she had this to say, "Well, it's been a traditional event for ZZ for at least the last six or seven years.  Car show and motorcycle show. Darke is the vehicle enthusiast so she kind of organizes all of these.  Every one we have has gotten a bigger and bigger turnout."

"Darke" was the nickname of  Darkefur Fraker. I met up with and joked with her. She also has other interests. I remarked, "Yeah I heard she likes other things too but it's awesome she loves cars." Dakota grinned, "Yea, ponies beware."

Another SL celebrity showed up helped me out, the ever retro hyena Ziba Roxley. She showed me Darkefur’s car the pink car behind her. At first I asked was it her car. She said she wished. However Ziba dreams of a special car, a 1956 Buick Centurion, and she showed me this link (picture). It wasn’t a car in reality quite yet, but Ziba said if she had the Linden or real life money she would certainly buy it.

One of the cars at the show that caught my attention was the General Lee from the show “Dukes of Hazzard" that I remember as a little kid. For those who don’t know about The Dukes of Hazzard check out the car here ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Lee_(car) ). There were also sports cars and I saw a military vehicle and a retro Volkswagen van.

To add more to the car show of ZZ, I added my own car, a Regalla. I was joking with Dakota Lyle that I told her what a bad driver I am. She also called my car lovely. I laughed and said it’s a James Bond type car and said I’m “Coakes….Grease Coakes." She laughed and said, "You have the perfect name."

Cars capture the imagination of everyone for James Bond flims or the fast and furious moives. ZZ put on a great car show and if you get the chance check it out and the wonderful cars.

Grease Coakes

Scenes From Team Sunbeamer's Road Rally

By Bixyl Shuftan

On Saturday June 27, the Pacific Waters sim in the north end of the Sunweaver Estates was the scene of some wheeled action. It was time for the "Road Rally" event, held by Team Sunbeamers, the Relay for Life team of the Sunweaver and Angels communities.

 In the days before, Cynthia Farshore had laid out a track around the the island. It was not a simple one with four curves and straight road, but had hairpin turns, a tight corkscrew turn, and a wooded area with deer running through. It was designed to be less of a test of speed, but skill. Racers could go up against one another, or by themselves.

The object was to get the shortest time, with a 1,000 prize awarded to the winner. It was expected though that all participants would make a donation to the Relay for Life kiosk that was there. Just a few days before, Team Sunbeamers had a total of 217,000 Lindens raised. By Friday night, the total had risen to over 220,000. Gold rank, 250,000 Lindens, was within sight, and it seemed all that was needed was one good push.

The event started at 8AM that day. Yours truly had to work in real-life and didn't arrive until much later. But there was much racing before that. Grease Coakes was among those racing then, and his quickest lap would be first place for most of the event.

Not all of the cars were racing. Some were up for show, such as Skylark LeFavre's "General Lee" Dodge Charger.

The car had a very detailed interior, worthy of the top Second Life car shows.

Skylark would race in another vehicle, a tank made for pony avatars.

 She and Rita Mariner would race a number of times in them.

 The tanks weren't too fast, but that meant they had good control over those twisty treacherous roads.

 Skylark held the lead at times, but it was Rita who won most off their races.

For the motocycles, a certain green mouse biker decided to get in on the act.

The motorcycle was faster, but had to slow down quite a bit to make the turns. This biker finished at a considerably longer speed than Grease's, a minute and twenty seconds compared to about fifty-five seconds.

The winner of the Road Rally was Tamara Stevens, Co-Captain of the Second Life Coast Guard Relay team.

The event itself raised a few thousand Lindens, but near the end there was a surprise. Shockwave had scrapped up enough Lindens to bring the Sunbeamer total to 250,000, and to Gold rank. Once again, the Sunbeamers, like the Passionate Redheads before them, had proven themselves as a top performing team in the Relay for Life in Second Life.

Go Relay!

Bixyl Shuftan

Hot Nights at Bay City

By Gemma Cleanslate

”Welcome to Hot Bay City Nights on the Fairgrounds here in beautiful North Channel. I'm your Master of Ceremonies.” Pygar Bu shouted to the crowd that had gathered for the Miss Bay City bikini contest.

Bay City is a mainland community, developed by Linden Lab™ and home to the Bay City Alliance. The Bay City Alliance was founded in 2008 to promote the Bay City regions of Second Life™ and provide a venue for Bay City Residents and other interested parties to socialize and network. It is now the largest Bay City group, and home to most Residents of Bay City.

This is the second year of their Hot Bay City Nights featuring vintage and retro cars on the fairgrounds from  24th through the 31st of August. Go see terrific cars  from several motor companies. There will be events all week long including  two more car washes, one on Wednesday 6-8pm SL time and next Saturday at 2-4.  The proceeds go to Child's Play charity. http://childsplaycharity.org/  

Saturday,  I was able to attend the beauty contest which was great fun. There were five entries including one male competing to be Miss Bay City. They all sauntered down the runway one by one.  Pygar asked each a few questions while the audience applauded and chatted while the judges looked on and made notes . There were some tense moments as we all awaited the results.  

Miss Bay City will represent Bay City at as many events held there as possible and ride in the annual parade. Her  prize is  an elegant lavender pink convertible donated by  ADudeNamed Anthony. The 2012 Miss Bay City, Angela Seale-Poultry (angela.seale) took to the runway for the last time as an appreciative crowd applauded her service for the past year. Finally Sylvia Tamalyn was announced to be the Miss Bay City 2013.

The closing party will take place September 1 , 3-7 SL time. Take a trip over to view the cars and pick up some freebies along the way. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/North%20Channel/105/128/29

Gemma Cleanslate 

Editor's Note:  Check out an interview of Angela Seale at the Poultry Report (Click Here).

The Sunday Night Demo Derby

It's probably something you've fantasized about during a traffic jam: revving up the engine, then charging and smashing into the mass of cars. Well, there's a place in Second Life where that behavior is not only allowed, but encouraged. Every Sunday night in the Random sim, there's a Demolition Derby in a track a few hundred feet above the sim.

The track for the event isn't circular, but a few times longer than wide. Guard rails keep vehicles on the track, at least when drivers don't have a case of lag that causes them to travel a distance away before reappearing back on the track. At one end is the entrance in which participants can walk onto from the entry area, which has a notecard giver explaining more details about the derby.

Dropping by one night, I heard the people running the event ask for all those interested in racing to be on the field. About a couple minutes before the event, cars were rezzed in two rows, one for each side of the track and pointed back end in. The racers were asked to get in, and about twenty seconds before the start, those cars still empty were derezzed and the racers told to get ready to start.

And once the staff yelled "Go!" the cars charged, rear end first to keep the engine from being hit. Or in this case, to minimize the number of hit points taken away. It was a chaotic scene as cars moved around to ram one another and avoid being rammed. None of the cars tried to circle around and stay out of it as the rules stated everyone in the derby had to "actively and continuously fight" or otherwise be flagged and disqualified.

Once a vehicle's hit points reached zero, it blew up. Drivers were asked to at least fly up into the air so they wouldn't get in the way (free flight feathers were in the lobby entrance for any newcomers). Voice chat was openly encouraged, and I could hear a few excitedly calling out as they went around the track. I didn't hear any insults or taunting.

Different rounds had different vehicles. Round two involved racing in semi-truck cabs. Round three had a unique race. The participants jockeyed about in small flying saucers, obstacles resembling planets were added into the course, and vehicles could suddenly go up the sides and on the underside of an invisible force field, going upside down. It could be quite confusing and disorienting.

Round four involved something not usually seen on wheels: driveable pool tables. Back to a normal course, it wasn't long before the less skillful drivers were behind the eight ball. Round five was back to smashing around in cars, but police cars. There were no tickets for reckless driving that day as all but one ended up disabled. The sixth and final round had another unique run. The drivers were in shopping carts, and when they bumped they would loose of of the items inside, and it would appear on the course a few times larger as an obstacle. The course was soon quite a mess, "Clean up on isle 9."

The winner of the final round got an 800 Linden prize, with 400 going to second place.

Following the event, I had a chat with one of the people  there, Barbie Alchemi. She explained her brother AlmostThere Inventor ran the place, and she herself was the head of the Creations for Parkinsons sim. So besides a great place to have a smash-up-derby, the track has connections to a major charity in Second Life. One which will be for another story.

To get to the Sunday Demolition Derby Track, head to Random (6, 92, 301). Once again, scheduled races are from 6 to about 7 SL time every week. Between events, the track is available for "practice and grudge matches."

Bixyl Shuftan.

The Hot Bay City Nights

As a man (or furry) with five years behind me in Second Life, there’s things to be seen still. I heard about a classic car show held at Bay City so I checked it out. I was greeted by a nice lady named Uccle Poultry who told me all about it. Walking in, I saw cars from the 50’s that reminded me of the movie Back to the Future starring Michael J Fox. Also by dumb luck I met one of the Lindens, Tommy Linden. He was quite happy to give me his teddy bear and participate in the event. Anytime you meet any Linden, ask him or her for their teddy bear.

Besides being a classic car show, it was also supporting Childsplay, a charity that buys video game systems for children in hospitals. You can learn more at http://www.childsplaycharity.org/ One of the car sellers named Anthony who makes 2zoetic Motors cars said that half his profits will go this charity. Wanting to support Childsplay I bought his Regalla car for 750L.

An event I wished to see but was too late was a “Miss Bay City” Bikini contest held on the 18th. I’m writing this article on the 20th. Doh!


The car show is being held August 17th to the 26th. One of the main events that I was told about was a car wash being hosted  by Pygar Bu on Wednesday August 22nd that also supports Childsplay. His car wash is 10 till noon. If you happen to miss that car wash, you can still catch another the same day at 6-8 hosted by Ever Dreamscape. The last car wash is August 2-4 pm, also hosted by Ever Dreamscape.  The car wash donations go directly to Childsplay. I might have to check out one of the car washes with my new car.  The last day has a party with Benny the Boozehound  at 5-7 pm SL time the 26th.

Doing a random search I found a raceway to test out my new car. There were speed controls on the hud and also the option to change color of the car. Matching my white griffin self I kept the car as the original white. It was a thrill to both support Childsplay the nonprofit and drive around in a vintage car for kicks.

The car washes are hosted by Bay City volunteers ready to greet you and to wash your car.
Bay City is still looking for more volunteers to help with this event. Anyone who is interested is donating their time contact Marianne McCann or Ever Dreamscape.

If you get the chance check out the Hot Bay City Nights event. I had fun browsing around looking at the stylish cars, and actually buying one. Or if you have a SL car already, go to one of the car washes and get your car clean and support the charity Childsplay.
http://www.childsplaycharity.org/

Grease Coakes