Reader Submitted: "The Very Best of Broadway"

By Ciska Riverstone

Logging into Second life last night I didn't know, I was up for a precious treat. My friend Bergie IMed me shortly before 1 pm asking if I would like to go to "The Very b=Best of Broadway."  I admit, I made it a last minute appearance on my side and was just able to grab the empty red velvet chairs beside her, when the curtain opened up at the Oval Theater to reveal a perfect gym and a full cast, dancing Footloose.

My first surprise was a pure technical one: everything rezzed fast and effortlessly - something I am not used to on my laptop in second life shows.  So I looked around for a moment expecting a small audience only to see that most of the chairs of this very cozy but still spacious theater were taken. Realizing that I just missed the performance, my attention returned quickly to the vivid choreography.  "Footloose" is of course an easy opener to groove to - the perfect number to get into the mood. It did set the tone for what's to come in a charming way!


The curtain went down and somehow I expected a longer pause for reconstruction - maybe because I saw that often in the past in theaters in Second Life. But here came surprise number two. We just had time to talk a bit and teleport in another friend before the stage was set with an admittedly more simplistic but still very fitting stage building for the cheeky "Dance 10, Looks 3" from "A Chorus Line."  Champagne was served by an attentive staff member, while we enjoyed the atmosphere slowly building up and it did! I won't give away more details to not spoil your fun!

The song list, although taken from the classic Broadway Musicals you would expect, did not always go to the most obvious song choice and so managed to hold the balance of the whole spectrum of emotions you can walk through in such an evening. The special effects carefully orchestrated towards a stunning finale come and go in a wave like form and together with all kinds of choreography - from freestyle " just singing and acting" to ballet - like arrangements u will see all of it.  The stage builds totally serve each musical number in style, simplicity and low lag. while still having eye catching details....not to forget the perfect costume choice. All in all the whole performance felt like a labour of love for me. We left the theatre after more than an hour in heightened spirits and enthusiastic.

The show is still on at the 17th 19th and 23d at 1 pm slt and will be followed in August by a program called "Make 'em laugh".  I can only recommend to grab your loved one, friends or even a new acquaintances you like to get to know better and watch it. The whole atmosphere together with those tunes will not cease to spark up fun conversations, entertain you and put a smile on your face.

While you are there be sure to grab one of the monthly theater magazines from the free vendor. It will tell you what's in the pipeline of this amazingly creative and vivid venue!

The Oval Theatre Company, Devils Cave (144, 79, 21)
Ciska Riverstone

Jamm for Genes Raises 380,000 Lindens

The “Jamm for Genes” is an annual event in Second Life. Every year in early August, musicians get together on the weekend to raise money for the Children’s Medical Research Institute. Although the charity is in Australia, the benefits are global, " ‘Jamm for Genes’ is all about live music raising money, for research into cell biology that helps with both prevention and cure of childhood, congenital and genetic diseases.”

Lacey Lohner called the event “an initiative of ‘Jeans for Genes Day’ here in Australia. Wear jeans to work for a donation - many workplaces run it!” With OhMy Kidd leading the organizing, the event took place at four venues: Lacey’s Place, The Pocket, Endavour Cove, and B&B’s.


Welcome to our Jamm for Genes event! We are raising funds for the Real Life charity "Jeans for Genes" in Australia. All proceeds go directly to the Children's Medical Research Institute: http://www.cmri.org.au/ . Jamm for Genes in Second Life has been running since 2007, and has raised over $4,000 for the Children’s Medical Research Institute. That's right - over 4K! Thanks to all of you - the Second Life community. Let's make 2011 our best.


Dropping in on “The Pocket” at Freestar Bay on Friday night August 5th, musicians and audience alike were ready to “give it up for down under.” Musicians such as Freestar Tammas and Kentucy country music singer Ande Foggarty were on stage at the Australian club once owned by the late Delinda Dyrssen, now run by Cellandra Zon. By this time, over 50,000 Lindens had been raised, and the audience was chipping in more. Ande entertained the crowd with songs like “Horse with no Name,” in honor of the musician who wrote it passing away recently, and “Little Red Riding Hood,” which brought a number of howls and other wolf gestures from the audience. At 11AM, the “Army of Ignorance” played, but instead of their avatars coming on stage, the tricksters instead put up cardboard cutouts of themselves.

“We worked very hard on this jam,” Cellandra told me, “Ohmy Kidd did most of the prework. ... I miss Delinda. She was instrumental last year. ... We work very hard to get the musicians lined up for people's enjoyment so they get something back for donating. And so many musicians are so generous with their time. I LOVE the musicians in Second Life, most of them are so open and generous.”

By 11:30 Friday night, 64,000 had been raised. By Saturday 7PM when Ichie Kamachi was singing at Endeavour Cove, the 150,000 mark had been reached. On Sunday August 7th at 1 AM, the event moved to B&B’s in the Utopia and EnGedi sim. On the final day of the Jamm, musicians such as the SOAR band (who played earlier this week at another benefit). Starrfish Ohmai, and Rock Doghouse played. Dropping in at 5PM, KevinMThomas Carpool had joined Onehempcat Oldrich on stage, and the frisky girls in the audience demanded the two guys take their shirts off if they donated a certain amount more money. The 300,000 barrier had been passed, breaking last year’s total, and soon it was at $322,000, “Kevin for 325K do the pants come off?”

By 7 PM, the 350,000 mark had been reached. At 9PM, the last singer, Veronica Wekster, got on stage, "maybe I need to do my Britney Spears impression - haha!" As she sang, the amount continued to climb. Near the end, Veronica herself chipped in 5,000 Lindens. B&B owner Bundy “Fluffball” Xue blurted, “Oh my God! I don’t know if I want to slap V or hug her!” At 9:58, the total was 367,000. Last minute donations poured in, some after Veronica left the stage. At 10:05, the total was $380,457 Lindens raised. With the event over, the musicians there took a few moments to congratulate each other, OhMy Kidd calling it, “an absolutely amazing weekend Jamming for Genes.”

For those wishing to donate to “Jeans for Genes,” you can visit their website at: http://www.jeansforgenes.org.au/ .

“Thank you ALL for donating your time, talent, Lindens, and ears to this wonderful cause!”

Bixyl Shuftan

They Had Him COVERED

From the man who brought us The ORIGINALS and Monsters series of events, once again, POL Arida orchestrated yet another unique even in the SL music community. This event, titled "COVERED," can only be called a tribute to the man and his music. On Sunday, 28 November, at the Idle Rogue venue, 10 enormously talented musicians came together, each covering one or more of POL's original songs.

The event was coordinated by Ms. Elura Galacia, an avid fan, who played the gracious host throughout the two and a half hour event. The venue was donated by ChryBlind Scribe and the all musicians donated their time, performing free of charge.

Opening up the show with 'Brief Encounter' were Lexie Luan and Zorch Boomhauer. This was followed with the pairing of Zorch and Nya Raymaker, Zorch streaming from the US and Nya from Germany. They performed the very poignant song 'The Suicide of Jane,' a song based on a RL experience of POL's.

Next up was Hazideon Zarco, another well known musician, doing his rather interesting rendition of the song '1,' a song about collective and singular responsibility in the world. Taking the stage next was the talented DeadEye Foggarty, who did a very POL-like version of 'Gotta Get Out of Here.' With a slightly slower tempo, DE did the song incredible justice. He next performed 'The Last Song,' ad libbing POL's story about this song with his own version of POL's encounter with the dreaded Joneses and the awful spaghetti Bolognese, as well as the rather less than satisfying consequences of the actions on that chaotic evening. Well done, DE, very creative indeed.

This was followed by a Lexie solo cover of 'Mother of Three' accompanied by Zorch on guitar. Lexie commented that she chose this song because it has personal meaning for her. Most especially, it has deep meaning for POL as it is written about his own mother, widowed at a young age leaving her alone to fend for herself and her 3 boys. Zorch then performed 'Love Confessions of a Serial Killer' with Lexie accompanying, followed by 'Happy Go Lucky Girl' with a very Zorch twist.

Rising to the occasion next was the inimitable Grace McDunnough performing 'Welcome to Winter' in her sultry style as only Grace can do. Following Grace was "bad boy" himself, BlindBoy Gumbo. BB commented that the first time he heard POL he thought he was rubbish; the second time, worse than rubbish. Fortunately, he came around by the third, fourth or fifth time (BB, why did you keep coming back?). BB played 'Catch the Wind.' Imagine POL a la Gumbo, slide guitar and all!

Once the piano movers got her piano into place on the stage, Phemie Alcott did a beautiful piano version of POL's recent song 'Winning.' Strum Diesel followed Phemie on the piano, leading with one of his own songs and ending with a beautiful segue into POL's 'Passion.' It should be noted that Strum performed while standing on his head on the keyboard!

Next the mastermind of this fantastic event, POL Arida himself took the stage. He performed a handful of songs not covered by any of the other musicians, including, appropriately, 'Screaming Song for a Retard,' which is a personal commentary on how the laws treat mentally retarded adults who unwittingly commit a crime. He also performed 'War Zone,' 'Immune to Collusion,' 'Home' and 'The Birds Fall Down.'

Wrapping up the show, POL commented on the interesting spin the others had done with the covers of his songs. He also noted that during his time performing in SL, not only did his fan base grow, but it included other musicians, which has to be the highest compliment and honor any musician can have. He stated that in the virtual world of SL, music as an art form has not been forgotten or ignored but rather embraced as a true artistic expression, with words that actually convey ideas, thoughts and feelings, contrary to commercial mainstream music.

This event was truly a success and clearly demonstrated the mutual admiration among the musicians here in SL. I look forward to possible future events like this.

Shellie Sands

(edit, some days after the event, it was made clear Pol Arida was not behind the event)

Roselinda’s Paradise Party

Roselinda’s Paradise was the fantastic setting for a whole day of party on Sunday July 18th. Eymerich Lane and Roselinda Mayo graciously opened their home for the event. There was music from an array of DJs including Arcangelo Hellmam, and Qwark Allen who entertained the guests with their music for dancing. In between Eymerich Lane himself took to the airways with his streaming.

The elegant sim was open for visiting. The private Art Gallery is amazing, filled with a collection of pieces gathered over the past four years. After the DJs, there was a live performance by Skye Galaxy, songster, whose music is lovely and enthralled the guests.

There was more to come! PA DeCosta sang next and was well received. He was followed by CraigLyons Writer. He was ready at the top of the hour and the crowd started to build up right away. The large screen over the lake was set up for CraigLyons live video feed of his real life performance.

The affair began at 8am and went on until 5pm. All enjoyed visiting the sim and listening and dancing to the wonderful music.

Gemma Cleanslate

"The Fire" by Mysty Mellison

Mysty Mellison is a playwright/producer in SL. Her play, "The Fire", will open on Friday, June 25 at 4:00 SLT at the SL7 B Mainstage SE, SL7B Imagination (29, 220, 22). I met up with Mysty recently to learn more about her and her latest play.

Grey Lupindo: Can you tell our readers what "The Fire" is about?

Mysty Mellison: It́'s a haunting tale about Pete and his quest to save his family from famine. Pete is a peasant, and Frankey is an American boy. The conflict is grain vs. gold.

Grey Lupindo: What́ is the time period and setting?

Mysty Mellison: The play starts in 2010 and goes back to 1789. It is set against the back drop to the French Revolution. We join Frankey as he visits Paris, France in 1789.

Grey Lupindo: How did "The Fire" come about?

Mysty Mellison: I wrote "The Fire" for a RL theatre. However, as I am a struggling writer, I did not have the funds to produce it.

Grey Lupindo: How much was it going to cost?

Mysty Mellison: The cost for a theatre is $4k - that́s US Dollars, not Lindens.

Grey Lupindo: Do you have an estimate of how much it́s going to cost to produce the play here in SL?

Mysty Mellison: So far next to nothing. I met some generous people at Trendone and L'Ecole SL who donated some builds. Xstorm Radek and his wife Patty are wonderful. They helped build the sets. Wolveli Kas has been a wonderful help to the production. She goes beyond her acting responsibilities and steps in for missing actors. She proofread my script, making changes for the better. And Friday night, she made a timezone chart. The actors are volunteers.

Grey Lupindo: How many actors are in "The Fire"?

Mysty Mellison: Twelve. My actors are passionate. It is work, but it is fun.

Grey Lupindo: What has surprised you the most about producing it?

Mysty Mellison: The scheduling of actors is a challenge.

Grey Lupindo: Who are the main actors?

Mysty Mellison: Pete is played by Intelkid Craven. Frankey is being played by either Valentine Easterwood or Gimly Beck.

Grey Lupindo: Besides SL7B, are there any future performances planned?

Mysty Mellison: There is a tentative one July 17-18 3pm slt at O'Caseys.

Mellison, who has been a resident since May 2009, said that the group currently perform as storytellers, too. The photo for this article was taken at Hestia's Hearth, where rehearsals are held. In the future a full production of "The Fire" will be performed there. Hestia's Hearth, Trendone (114, 70, 47) This location is symbolic, like much of the play, Mellison said, because Hestia is the Greek goddess of the fire.

Grey Lupindo