Simploring 2021 (16) IMAGO Land

18 Apr 2021 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life, Exploring sims in Second Life Tags: , , , , , , ,

For my simploring tour on Thursday, April 1st, I selected IMAGO Land from scoop.it SL Destinations. The landmark description read really tempting to me – simploring and art in one place: “Nature, Art & Culture area open for visitors who love to explore, relax, take photos or admire the highly talented artists works displayed in IMAGO Art Galleries.”
The entry led to an entry of Maddy Gynoid “Simtipp: IMAGO Land“, which I read before visiting myself.

IMAGO Land – Bird’s eye view and orientation map

IMAGO Land is a moderate homestead owned Mareea Farrasco. It consists of one one bigger and one smaller island. The islands are quite flat and connected by a bridge. The landing is close to a dancefloor where are band is playing. Some people are watching the band. Mareea used quite some prim, mesh and animesh avatars to liven up her sim and this is one outstanding feature of IMAGO Land.

Impressions of IMAGO Land (1) – Dancefloor, Bar and Beach

Right where you land is a teleporter and a big board with the destinations: Dancefloor, Bar, Beach, Forest, Rocky Shore, Small Island. These are all destinations on the two islands. The destinations Storytellers Burrow and Studio are seperate skyboxes. And the destinations Carelyna’s Red Alert and Gallery I lead to two other skyboxes dedicated to art.

Impressions of IMAGO Land (2) – Forest, bridge to the smaller island, at the rocky shore

I visited all destinations. The islands offer nice backgrounds for taking pictures, in particular if you want to take pictures with a few people. You won’t be sitting alone at the bar and you won’t be the only one taking a bath in the sun – and there are children playing on the beach.
All buildings on IMAGO Land are relative small and simple but nicely decorated outside. And of course there are some animals, seagulls and other birds. There are plenty of motifs for photographers. I enjoyed exploring and taking a few pictures.

Impressions of IMAGO Land (3) – smaller island, another bar, Diomita and a mesh avatar on a pier

The two skyboxes Storytellers Burrow and Studio can be used for taking indoor pictures. As the name already gives away Storytellers Burrow is a flat with many books. The Studio is a luxury appartment in a high-rise building.

Impressions of IMAGO Land (4) – Two more picturesque buildings, Studio (upper right), Storyteller Burrow (lower right)

Carelyna’s Red Alert is an exhibition of Carelyna’s art – her red pictures, hence the name. The pictures are quite impressive and get a particular strength as they are all held in red and black.
I had come across Carelyna in October 2020 when she had a space at La Maison d’Aneli (read here).
Carelyna is in Second Life for more than 8 years. SL gave her the opportunity to reach two dreams of her childhood. She grew up on a boat, and she took art classes and learned to paint on an easel with oil paints. This is the reason why she tries to make her photos look like paintings. She replaced the traditional tools with the computer. Carelyna has also a flickr page.

Impressions of the exhibition “Carelyna’s Red Alert”

At Gallery I is an exhibtion of Mareea Farrasco herself. It is called “Painting the Summer”. The Gallery I is a modern gallery. Mareea’s pictures are quite large. They are based on pictures taken within Second Life. Most of them are in a little bit softened, without sharp contrasts, almost a bit blurred and held on light warm tones – reflecting the Summer.
I hadn’t seen any pictures of Mareea before and have no information about her, just that she’s over 11 years in Second Life and that she owns IMAGO Land and the two galleries. And of course she also has a flickr page.

Impressions of the exhibition “Painting the Summer” by Mareea Farrasco

I spent an enjoyable hour exploring IMAGO Land and visiting the two galleries. IMAGO Land offers something different with the many mesh avatars – and the two galleries were worth a visit itself. Thank you Mareea for sharing your sim, your galleries and your art publicly!

Landmark IMAGO Land
https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Broken%20Mountain/86/132/21
Flickr IMAGO Land
https://www.flickr.com/groups/IMAGOLand/pool/
Mareea Farrasco’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/96165669@N06/
Carelyna’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/99718983@N06
Maddy Gynoid’s blogpost “Simtipp: IMAGO Land”
https://echtvirtuell.blogspot.com/2021/03/simtipp-imago-land.html

Simploring 2021 (14) Ueno

29 Mar 2021 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Exploring sims in Second Life Tags: , , ,

I came across Ueno when I scrolled through scoop.it SL Destinations looking for a destination for my simploring tour on Sunday, March 14th. What caught my attention was the picture, a field full of sunflowers.

Ueno is a full moderate region, owned by unico Bailey. There’s no landmark description. Ueno is part of 6 connected sim, all built in Japanese style. Maddy Gynoid has written about Ueno back in 2018 and 2019 (see his blogposts in German here and here)

Ueno – overview and orientation map

The highlight of Ueno is clearly the field of sunflowers that covers roughly half of the sim. Sunflowers as far as you can look. That reminded me of other sim whith wheat or corn fields. And of course it is a great motif for photographers. Maddy has some really great pictures of the sunflowers in his two blogposts.

The sunflower field at Ueno

Besides of the sunflower flield Ueno is a Japanese town with a train station, some residential homes and some shops. The sunflowers actually reach out into the town and to the train station. Close the a bridge leading to the neighbourhood sim is also a field of carrots (yet not as impressive as the sunflower field). Right at the end of the sunflower field are large boards for selling huge robot avatars. And there are some more shops at Ueno.
Over the town and the train station levitates a space ship (for what reason ever).

Impressions of Ueno – a Japanese community (1)

The train station itself and the town offers nice backgrounds for making urban pictures. But the huge sunflower field is for sure the outstanding highlight of Ueno. It is always great to see what other create.

Impressions of Ueno – a Japanese community (2)

Thank you unico Bailey for sharing your place.

Landmark to Ueno
https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Ueno/193/55/23/
unico Baily’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/160145918@N03/
Maddy Gynoid’s post “Das Sonnenblumenfeld auf Ueno”
https://echtvirtuell.blogspot.com/2018/03/das-sonnenblumenfeld-auf-ueno.html
Maddy Gynoid’s post “Das Sonnenblumenfeld auf Ueno – Teil 2”
https://echtvirtuell.blogspot.com/2019/06/das-sonnenblumenfeld-auf-ueno-teil-2.html

Simploring 2021 (12) Skrunda-2

14 Mar 2021 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Exploring sims in Second Life Tags: , , , , , , ,

When I was checking scoop.it SL Destinations on Sunday, February 21st, I came across Skrunda-2. The entry led to a blogpost of Maddy Gynoid “Simtipp: Skrunda-2“, which I read before visiting myself.
The landmark description is precise and a short version of what to expect: “Skrunda-2 is loosely based on the town of the same name in Latvia. It was run by the Russians to host radar. They left in 1998 and what remains to this day is a complete, but empty ghost-town, a time capsule to Cold War paranoia and Soviet styling.”

Skrunda-2 in Second Life is built on a full region. It is owned by Titus Palmira and was designed by Megan Prumier and Sofie Janic. I remember that either Megan or Sofie had invited me over but busy me had forgot about it.

Skrunda-2 – bird’s eye view and overview map

I strongly recommend to read more about Skrunda-2 before visiting. You will get offered a notecard upon entering the sim, that contains the main information. But a look into wikipedia might also be very helpful.

Skrunda-2 in the physical world

When I started my tour I kept the preset windlight which is set to night. It gives the scenery an even more odd atmosphere. I went to the residential blocks in the center and visited the water tower. The lights are set nicely to illuminate the abandonned town. Nonetheless the pictures were a bit dark and won’t show the many details. Therefore I decided to change my environment setting to “Anan Adored Realistic”.

Skrunda-2 – at the landing, the water tower and the residential blocks.

There is really a lot to explore and discover at Skrunda-2. Unfortunately the sim was quite full and even without using shadows and with a low drawing distance the lag was quite heavy and made moving around difficult for me. I enjoyed my visit nonetheless.
I went to what I named “meeting hall” first. The hall seems to be used for events nowadays. But in general every building looks like it was just abandonned, there’s garbage, graffiti, stuff, furniture as if the town was just left yesterday. But what proves that is is already empty for many years is the returning vegetation that slowly takes over the place again (as in RL I assume).

Skrunda-2 – at the landing / the meeting hall

From another former residential part only ruins are left over, dogs stray through the roads and there’s still furniture outside and other relicts of former life. I’m sure there’s more to discover but lag prevented me from sneaking into every corner.

Skunda-2 – the residential ruins

Of course you also find the leftovers of the Russian army, cars, barracks, water and fuel tanks, antennas .. and you find spots to sit and to think about how it might have been here in those days.

Skrunda-2 – Impressions

Quite outstanding is a large building with many antennas on its roof. Inside you find several large rooms with art on the walls, vegetation inside of the building… and a funny statue on the roof. I have no idea if that building is part of Skunda-2 in the physcial world (it might be) and what its purpose was, yet the art inside is impressive.

Skrunda-2 – the Military complex

The residential blocks are a very good replica of those in the physcal world. Again you can go inside and see the leftovers of life. I did not explore this part in detail as navigating was too difficult for me, but Maddy had some pictures in his blogpost. I visited the old indoor pool, found a statue overlooking the sea and went into another building which purpose I couldn’t find out. I decided to name it “Logistics” as there were cardboard boxes inside, and large piles of bags of coal and some ropebelt conveyors.

Skrunda-2 – indoor pool, residential blocks, the statue overlooking the sea, logisitics building

Skrunda-2 is a paradise for photographers as there’s so much to discover, so many backgrounds you don’t easily get some place else. It is a place I’d never visit in real life, I didn’t even know about it. It reminded me immediately of Serene Footman, who also had many installations of odd places in real life. Hence for me this visit was also educational and made me doing some research.
There is much more to see than I saw during my visit of 1 1/2 hour.

And Randonee Noel made a short video of Skrunda-2. In the video you see the bunker. It is quite close to the landing, just turn right after you passed the entrance barrier.

Skrunda-2 – the bunker and the barracks close to the landing

I enjoyed my visit a lot and I learned a lot and I took many many pictures and I finally traveled to a foreign place again which made my day particularly during these times. Thank you Titus Palmira, Megan Prumier and Sofie Janic!

Landmark to Skrunda-2
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Rockford/206/20/22
Wikipedia about Skrunda-2
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skrunda-1
Maddy Gynoid’s “Simtipp: Skrunda-2”
https://echtvirtuell.blogspot.com/2021/02/simtipp-skrunda-2.html
Video Randoneenoel
https://www.flickr.com/photos/randoneenoel/50943905512/in/pool-14746851@N23/
Sofie Janic’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/154984823@N02/
Megan Prumier flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/meganprumier/

Art in Second Life 2021 (22) Stars by Cica Ghost

06 Mar 2021 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , , , ,

On March 4th, Cica opened her newest installation named “Stars“. I went there spontaneously at the opening day and besides Cica herself I met Inara Pey and Maddy Gynoid. I think we have all covered Cica Ghost’s installations in our blogs over the last year. Inara and Maddy have both already published their reports about “Stars by Cica Ghost” (see here and here). I added the links to their posts under this post. Maddy wrote that it is Cica’s 70th installation, yet it is her 55th installation as she told me herself. Nonetheless, an almost incredible number of installation, proving Cica’s almost endless creativity. Congratulations Cica! I must have missed out quite some, in particular the earlier installations.

It is important that you use the shared environment to see “Stars by Cica Ghost” the way Cica has it planned. I use the Firestorm viewer and the setting is on the top menu under “World” -> “Environment”. With this setting you will see a dark, brown sky covered with yellow stars. Hence the quote that Cica provides with her installation “When it is dark enough, you can see the stars“.

Stars by Cica Ghost – Overview / at the landing

I zoomed out and made a bird’s eye view first to see the structure. The landing is quite in the center of the sim. “Stars” is difficult to categorize. It is a town with 6 main courts, all of them are connected by a road. The whole sim is held in brown colours, the air is dusty. The houses are build in Cica’s style, some of them are accessible. It is a steampunk like setting. You see lots of gear-wheels and other metal objects and of course humans are comparably small as usual in Cica’s worlds.

Stars by Cica Ghost – Impressions (1)

All beings are made of metal, yet you can still identify them easily as Cica’s creations. You find snakes, snails, birds, seahorses, fish and other beings. And there is a lot to do at Stars. You can enter the houses and sit down in the huge chairs, you can hop on a large car that takes you on a tour around “Stars“, you can sit on a swingboat, you can visit a room full with keys and gear wheels.

Stars by Cica Ghost – Impressions (2)

You can watch a band play or watch a puppet theatre. You can dance on several courts, you can watch Cica’s robots which move on one wheel, or you simply listen to the music which is fitting to the setting steampunk and from the early 20th century.

Stars by Cica Ghost – Impressions (3)

Don’t miss to look on the roofs as there are more Cica beings like the one in the poster. You can easily spent a lot of time exploring “Stars” and you will for sure discover even more than I did as I had only about one hour for my visit.
What I missed was a cat, be it a steampunk metal cat or one of Cica’s cats. It looks to me that Cica has forgotten to rezz one. What I also missed was Cica’s matchstick man riding a bicycle, but it is there, I just didn’t see it (it is in Inara’s and Maddy’s posts though)

Stars by Cica Ghost – Impressions (4)

Cica’s shop, where you can buy the robots, is a bit aside and can be reached by walking over a bridge.
Stars by Cica Ghost is another excellent fantasy world that made me smile like all of Cica’s installations. It is like a short trip into another peaceful world, I simply enjoyed it. Thank you, Cica.

Landmark to Stars by Cica Ghost
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Meropis/143/144/28
Cica’s flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/64860898@N05/albums
Maddy Gynoid’s post “Simtipp: “Stars” von Cica Ghost”
https://echtvirtuell.blogspot.com/2021/03/simtipp-stars-von-cica-ghost.html
Inara Pey’s post “Cica’s Stars in Second Life”
https://modemworld.me/2021/0cicas-stars-in-second-life/3/04/

Simploring 2021 (9) Cravone City

23 Feb 2021 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Exploring sims in Second Life Tags: , , , , ,

I scrolled through scoop.it SL Destinations and came across Cravone City. The published picture of a big city caught my attention immediately. The entry led to a post from Maddy Gynoid “Simtipp: Cravone City” (in German) which I read before visiting.

Cravone City is built on a full moderate region, that is owned by a group, the Cravone Land group. The group founder is november grant-craven (November Sorbet). Cravone City was designed by Paradox (Paradox Ivory), who also created “Tokyo Street and Umi” (read here) and just lately “The Apartments” (read here).
Cravone City features quite some shops: Bad Unicorn, Scotch, Chuck Size, Resilience, Rossi, Animosity, Radix, HEVO, Shybird.

Cravone City: Bird eye view and orientation map

Zooming out you can see the concept of Cravone City: Syscrapers surround the sim, inside are just a few blocks on two to three different levels that are connected by stairs and streets. No matter where you are, you always see skyscrapers. The landing is at a train station, a train is just passing by. I haven’t seen before an endless train coming from and leaving into a tunnel in Second Life. That’s a great idea to liven up the scenery.

Impressions of Cravone City (1): Landing at the train station / the skating park

The town has a lot to offer beside all the stores. I first explored the area around the train station. Right next to it is a skating park with a shop for skaters nearby. I walked around the corner of the skater shop and … came to the red light district of Cravone City. I thought to myself – Why do I get here first?? Maybe because I was too lazy to change and didn’t wear my simploring clothes? Anyway, Cravone City has its own red light district. Close by is also a tattoo shop.

Impressions of Cravone City (2): Red light district / Row houses

I left the district and entered the next block. On both sides of the quite steep street are nice row houses with small balconies and fire escape stairs. These small row houses look like being protected landmarks from another century. And there are even a few rooms furnished inside. Have a look!

I continued my simploring tour and saw a nice tram, several shops, an Irish style pub “The Golden”, the Regent Hotel and a pizzeria. Everything fits together, seems as if it growed naturally over decades, new and old houses, modern and classic architecture, the old tram, the Irish pub and a modern sports car.

Impressions of Cravone City (3): Irish pub “The Golden” / the tram / Regent Hotel / Bad Unicorn shp and pizzeria

In a seperate part of the city is another shopping center with two anchor stores “Animosity” and “Hevo”. You reach it walking up stairs through garden terraces. Paradox added quite some green to the city. At this shopping mall is a nice hidden café where I took a break. Then I continued my tour and had a look into the billard bar.

Impressions of Cravone City (4): Shopping mall and café / Billard bar

From the bird eye view I had noticed a roof terrace with a pool. This part was also highlighted in Maddy’s blogpost. I tried to get up the roof but I didn’t find any way up. Hence I had to take advantage of SL’s features and used far sitting to get up. The roof terrace is a nice oasis admist this busy urban city. It is for sure an extraordinairy event location and I spoiled myelf with another break there. At least I was dressed accordingly for this place *winks*

Impressions of Cravone City (5): The roof terrace

Cravone City offers a lot of great backgrounds for pictures and there’s so much to discover, many little details be it some NPC’s (static non-player characters), the big bill boards, art on the walls of the houses, advertisements, small food stores and several more cafés – or the bakery with Paris baguettes next to the hotel. For sure I missed some furnished places and I also haven’t yet strolled through the stores.

Impressions of Cravone City (6)

Thank you Paradox (Paradox Ivory) for building Cravone City, thank you november grant-craven (November Sorbet) and who ever else is involved in this project. I do hope that the stores have enough inworld traffic so that Cravone City will stay available. I enjoyed my visit.

Landmark to Cravone City
https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Cravone/41/85/29
flickr group for Cravone City
http://www.flickr.com/groups/14747982@N20
Maddy Gynoid’s blogpost “Simtipp: Cravone City”
https://echtvirtuell.blogspot.com/2021/01/simtipp-cravone-city.html

Art in Second Life 2021 (7) Bermuda Locket

24 Jan 2021 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I came across “Bermuda Locket” when I scrolled trough scoop.it SL Destinations . The entry led to a blogpost from Maddy Gynoid “Simtipp: Bermuda Locket“. Actually Bermuda Locket is the newest installation of Lex Machine (Archetype11 Nova).
Archetype11 Nova was formerly known as Schmexysbuddy Resident and created the Hotel California sims, which I visited in 2019 (read here and here). I saw Lex Machine’s installation “Isolation’s Passengers” last year (read here).

Bermuda Locket is a collaborative build of Lex Machine (Archetype11 Nova), Anastasia Falcor (Anastasia Nova), Mr. X Zenovka (Marcomr2 Zenovka) and Sheraton Falcor (Sheraton Voom). In the landmark description Lex writes: “As you enter into my curse, our dreams reverse and the demons burst…“

Bermuda Locket – overview and orientation map

Bermuda Locket consists of two islands. On one hand it is a lovely beach themed sim with two residentials houses, a beach hut, a boat house, two motor yachts and a sport boat and places to wind down and dream. On the other hand it is a collection of 3D-art, the visualisation of dreams, of temporary thoughts, be it nightmare or beauty or surreal.

Impressions of Bermuda Locket (1) – around the landing point

The presented art is quite dominating as most of the objects are very large. The landing is opposed to a broken lighthouse (which I came across already a few times in different sims) by the feet of a large laying female sculpture. You see two other oversized female sculptures kneeling and sitting nearby and strange fishes fly over your head. A surreal scenery. The fishes were created by aki69, most of the oversized sculptures at Bermuda Locket are from wassaabii.

When you look around you see many oversized sculptures. There are 2 beach houses, a traditional on one island and a modern beach house with boat house and beach hut on the other island. I first visited the traditional beach house. On my way to it I encountered an armada of “Wasp Angels” created by Bryn Oh. Close to the house is an intriguing sculpture created by CioTToLiNa Xue surrounded by flying shadowy females. At the beach are several cars sticked with their front into the sand. The cars are the work of Rena (guraa). And finally the ensemble of surreal art is completed by sculptures of Rebeca Bashly.

Impressions of Bermuda Locket (2) – around the traditional beach house: Bryn Oh’s Wasp Angels / CioTToLiNa Xue sculpture / wassaabii’s and Rebeca Bashly’s sculptures and Rena (guraa)’s cars

The tradiditional beach house is furnished quite with style and with love for the detail – and nothing reminds of the surreal world which is outside.

Impressions of Bermuda Locket (3) – in and outside of the tradional beach house / Rena (guraa)’s cars

The beach house on the second island is modern. Together with the boat house, the beach hut, and the 2 big motoryachts it radiates luxury. The furniture inside is similar to the furniture in the traditional house, again very stylish! I sat down outside on a swing and enjoyed the surreal scenery.

Impressions of Bermuda Locket (4) – in and outside of the modern beach house

In the corner of the second island you see a couple of horses (also created by wassaabii). On the beach lies anothter oversized female. Closeby I noticed a raft and sat down for a break.

Impressions of Bermuda Locket (5) – wassaabii’s sculptures, the raft, the beach hut and wassaabii’s horses

Bermuda Locket is an outstanding art sim. I rarely saw that many oversized sculptures and it is strange to see how they dominate the scenery. The mind (at least mine) isn’t able to differentiate between the lovely beach islands and the oversized surreal 3D art. Again Lex Machine created an outstanding composition of art and the featured homes of MZ Creations by Mr. X Zenovka (Marcomr2 Zenovka). And because of the dominance of art I categorized my visit under “Art” rather than under “Simploring”.

Thank you Lex Machine (Archetype11 Nova), Anastasia Falcor (Anastasia Nova), Mr. X Zenovka (Marcomr2 Zenovka) and Sheraton Falcor (Sheraton Voom). I enjoyed my art-simploring-tour.

Landmark to Bermuda Locket
https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Solveig/93/135/21
Maddy Gynoid’s blogpost “Simtipp: Bermuda Locket”
https://echtvirtuell.blogspot.com/2021/01/simtipp-bermuda-locket.html

Simploring 2021 (4) White Binemust

18 Jan 2021 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Exploring sims in Second Life Tags: , , , , ,

For my simploring tour on Saturday, January 2nd, I picked White Binemust from scoop.it SL Destinations. The entry led me to post from Maddy Gynoid “Simtipp: White Binemust – (Winter 2020)” (in German). After reading the post I had to see White Binemust. I haven’t been to Binemust for quite a while. I visited the sim in 2016 (read here) and a revisit is on my list of things to do as I read that it has changed a lot.
White Binemust is part of Binemust, a full adult region owned and built by Biné Rodenberg.
Biné Rodenberger has a seperate Winter installation on a platform every year. I saw the installation of 2017/2018 (read here).

White Binemust – overview and orientation map

For 2020/2021 Biné has built something very different to the Winter installations that I saw so far in Second Life. Her Winter village is embedded a high mountain area. The sim surround is really large and the village is small inbetween the mountains. When you visit you have a great view on the mountains and feel like being there – and that’s something we miss these days. But in SL we can make short trips to dream destinations!

Impressions of White Binemust (1) – The village embedded in the mountains / at the landing point

As you can see on the overview White Binemust has two levels. The landing is in the forest on the higher level. A trail leads you to a chapel, that is really picturesque settled at one edge of the forest. Here you encounter two of the nice oddities that Biné has added to her White Binemust: One is a steampunk dragon flying circles around the Chapel, the other is a greenhouse used for a Christmas model train.

Impressions of White Binemust (2) – The chapel, the steampunk dragon, the greenhouse with the Christmas train

White Binemust is a little village with just a few houses, some of them are small, some of them are large and at least one is an architectual gem in my opinion. After visiting the chapel I saw the Christmas tree farm and a larger and a small house in the forest. At the larger house you can stroke a deer that lies there in the snow. The smaller house is the prove that no house is too small for a Christmas tree. The tree fills the house.

Impressions of White Binemust (3) – The Christmas tree farm, a large and a small house in the forest

At the edge of the forest is a modern house that stands out by its architecture. It is built above an artificial waterfall and has two levels. The house has large windows and from the rooms you have a great view to the mountains.

Impressions of White Binemust (4) – The modern house overlooking the mountains

I left the forest and went down to the second level of White Binemust where you find a cattle farm and three more houses. The house close to the cattle farm is a large American style lodge. It was open and I went inside. It is furnished like all houses at White Binemust. What caught my eye most inside is the Christmas decoration placed on a cupboard.

Impressions of White Binemust (5) The cattle farm and the lodge

The house next to the lodge is comparably small yet it looks really comfy inside and is also decorated very nice. There’s a steampunk Christmas tree inside that can be switched on and off. Maddy has a picture of this “tree” in his blogpost and you can also switch the tree on and off in his post (!). Well done, Maddy.

Impressions of White Binemust (6) The small house with the steampunk tree, the A-house

I finally visited the A-house at the other end of the lower level. The bedroom on the 2nd floor offers great view on the mountains. Image to wake up looking into such a panorama!
In front of the A-house is another oddity that made me smile: a snowman holding a bottle of desinfectant “Sanitize your hands”.
Appropos oddity. If you go to the edge of the lower level, you can see the wreck of an old Viking ship down in the valley.

Thank you Biné for this great installation. I enjoyed my visit a lot!

Landmark to White Binemust
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Binemust/138/140/890
Maddy Gynoid’s “Simtipp: White Binemust – (Winter 2020)”
https://echtvirtuell.blogspot.com/2020/12/simtipp-white-binemust-winter-2020.html
Binemust Flickr
https://www.flickr.com/groups/binemust/pool/
Biné Rodenberger’s blog
http://bine.se/

Simploring 2021 (1) The Isle of Elar – Still Memories

08 Jan 2021 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Exploring sims in Second Life Tags: , , , ,

For my simploring tour on Saturday, December 26th 2020, I picked “The Isle of Elar – Still Memories” from scoop.it SL Destinations. The landmark profile is quite fitting and sums up perfectly what it is about: “Elar is a woodland themed sim depicting natural beauty all around you, Here you can explore, be romantic, spend time with friends, or take creative photos!“

The Isle of Elar – Still Memories: overview and orientation map

“The Isle of Elar” is a full adult region. It is group owned. From Maddy Gynoid’s post “Simtipp: The Isle of Elar – Still Memories” I learned that The Isle of Elar was designed and is owned by Shayn Mackenzie.

Impressions of The Isle of Elar – Still Memories (1) – Landing pier, Welcome hut, Residential home, Diomita simploring

The landing point is on a pier with a sailing yacht. Right next the landing point is a little welcome Christmas hut and several boards. I got welcomed by a bot: “Welcome to Elar. Our Sim is designed for exploring, romance and photography. We may be an adult sim, but we ask that you refrain from sex while visiting. Artistic nudity is allowed Suggestions welcome. All prims will be auto returned after 2 hours.“

You can explore the sim on foot or rezz a horse right next to the landing. I rezzed a horse, rode a bit but then continued my simploring tour on foot. There’s a long trail leading to the center of the island.

Impressions of The Isle of Elar – Still Memories (2) – Chess park, Waterfall, Meditation cave

The Isle of Elar is coined by its many waterfalls that make great backgrounds for pictures. And there are really countless places to sit and cuddle and to enjoy the beauty of this virtual paradies. There’s a residential house and a park with a chess board not far from the landing point.

Impressions of The Isle of Elar – Still Memories (3) – The elevator

One outstanding feature is the wooden elevator quite in the center of the island. A bot explains how to use it: “Hey You!! If ya need the elevator., just stand on it and click it to go up. If ya don’t see it, click this wheel thingy here to get it to come down…..Ya that’s it!!!!”
I went up and found another little paradise overlooking the island – and again places to just enjoy.

Impressions of The Isle of Elar – Still Memories (4) – Cathedral ruins, Christmas tree shop, Beach, Waterfall

On the ground level, right opposed to the elevator is a passage to a meditation cave, a place to take a little break.
What else? There’s a Christmas tree shop, there’re the ruins of a cathedral, there’re trails from which you get great views on the waterfalls, there’s a nice large beach and …. places to sit and enjoy.

Impressions of The Isle of Elar – Still Memories (5) – a small collection of the many selfies I made enjoying my visit

The Isle of Elar is just a great place to enjoy the nature and take a little time-out. I enjoyed my visit a lot. Thank you Shayn for creating it and for sharing it with the public!

Landmark to The Isle of Elar – Still Memories
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Elar%20Imerra/143/232/22
flickr page for The Isle of Elar – Still Memories
https://www.flickr.com/groups/14782016@N22/
Maddy Gynoid’s blogpost “Simtipp: The Isle of Elar – Still Memories”
https://echtvirtuell.blogspot.com/2020/11/simtipp-isle-of-elar-still-memories.html

Art in Second Life 2020 (80) FOCUS

08 Dec 2020 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Art in Second Life Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

When I was looking for a destination for simploring on scoop.it SL Destinations Sunday, November 15th, I came across a picture of FOCUS. It led to another post of Maddy Gynoid “Simtipp: FOCUS“. After reading Maddy’s post, I decided to visit myself.

The installation “FOCUS” is built in a full, moderate region named Coppelia, Coppelia is an artist cooperative sim where the primary objective is to provide studio space for artistic exploration. As of now the cooperative consists of: Jo Ellsmere, Glyph Graves, Penumbra Carter, Dekka Raymaker, Ultraviolet Alter, DB Bailey und Cuirec d’Erc.
FOCUS is a joint work of David Denton (DB Bailey), Bob Johnson (Thoth Jantzen) and Jane Leffer (Jo Ellsmere).

FOCUS – the start on the surface / zooming out from the landing point for an overview

The landing is on the ground but the installation FOCUS itself is on a platform at 1.600m. Upon landing you get some information how to set your viewer in order to play media. You get to the installation with a teleporter – choose FOCUS LP.

As you can see in the overview picture where I zoomed out, FOCUS is a very complex installation built of countless structures, a lot of light and which is very colourful. The first views were just overwhelming,
There are several ways to get around within the installation. With the teleporter pads you can go the predefinded points: Cathedral, Roller Coaster, Hippycampus, Media Magic, The Marble and VortexTop. I began my simploring tour using one of the bicycle trainer right next to the landing. The bicycle began to move and to fly and I could look around while I was moved – the impressions you get are simply WOW. I took way more pictures than I can publish here.

FOCUS – at the landing point / my trip with the bicycle trainer

I returned to FOCUS LP and used another “vehicle”, a pad that put me into a green cyclinder and moved me around a bit. This tour ended close to an Egypt sculpture. Funny, the sculpture follows you with her view. FOCUS is permanently changing, most elements are not fixed but move around, depending on your viewing point, cam distance and angle what you see is unique, temporary and the pictures I took are unique as well for this reason.

FOCUS – using the cyclinder / the Egypt sculpture

I continued exploring the world of FOCUS on foot and walked through tubes, went upstairs and downstairs. On the ground of the isntallation I found a carousel and a chessboard with the head of Donald in the center “Covfefe! The New World Disorder” – funny (and hopefully history very soon).

FOCUS – exploring on foot / the carousel and the Donald chessboard

I arrived at the Cathedral and had a look inside. It seems to be used for events as well. It’s a really impressive structure. I continued my tour using the teleport pads. I visited Media Magic and danced surrounded by all the lights and structures.

FOCUS – Cathedral / Media Magic

I visited Hippycampus and the VortexTop, where you can rezz a ball, sit on it and roll down. The ball becomes invisible and this way your roll down making yourself as small as possible. That was fun.

FOCUS – Hippycampus / rolling down from the VortexTop

I visited the Marble and finally the Roller Coaster, which is another highlight of FOCUS. Enjoy it in mousellok if you can handle it – or simple enjoy the views!

FOCUS – The Marble / Roller Coaster

FOCUS is a great art installation. I was thrilled and did enjoy the views for more than an hour and I took far over 60 pictures. Thank you David Denton (DB Bailey), Bob Johnson (Thoth Jantzen) and Jane Leffer (Jo Ellsmere) for this great installation which proves once again the endless possiblities for virtual art.

Thank you all others in the cooperative of Coppelia for enabling FOCUS.

Landmark to FOCUS
https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Coppelia/133/123/22
Maddy Gynoid’s “Simtipp: FOCUS”
http://echtvirtuell.blogspot.com/2020/11/simtipp-focus.html

Simploring 2020 (80) The Apartments

04 Dec 2020 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Exploring sims in Second Life Tags: , , , ,

For my simploring tour on Sunday, November 8th, I picked “The Apartments” from scoop.it SL Destinations. The entry led me to a post of Maddy Gynoid “Simtipp: The Apartments” (in German) which I read before visiting myself.

The Apartments is built on a platform in the skies. Creator and owner is Paradox (Paradox Ivory). I saw Paradox’ sim “Tokyo Street and Umi” last year (read here). Tokyo Street was a big city installation and Umi was a Japanese village. And now she created “The Apartments” which is also somewhere in Japan, just in the future, yet it is no a scifi installation.

The Apartments – bird’s eye view

The Apartments is a quite smart installation of a big city, done with less than 5,000 prims. Zooming out you see the layout. A labyrinthine building extending over 2 floors surrounded by skyscarpers. Inside you feel like in a big Asian city. You enter the one building and get lost in hallways. The hallways are used as additional living space. At most entrance doors there’s stuff stored, be a bottle boxes, chairs, sofas, table football, garbage, a bike and many tools (amost a whole garage), etc.

Impressions of “The Apartments” (1) another bird’s eye view and around the landing point

You see a lot of cats. They occupy many chairs and couches and in particular the window benches. They seem to love seeing out of the window and watching the rain falling and all the raceways. From the windows you also see the traffic … flying cabs and flying police cars. If you have your sound turned on you often hear the sirens of the police cars.

Impressions of “The Apartments” (2) cats on window benches / in the gym

You will find almost everything within the labyrinth of hallways .. a fitness studio, a laundry, a sushi bar, lots of vending machines, parking, a gathering room and much more. There’s a lot of stuff to dicover and I’m sure I didn’t see everything.

Impressions of “The Apartments” (3) parking garage / hallways

There are also some fully furnished appartments that you can visit. They are packed with stuff, tiny appartments with large windows so that you are admist the city and have something to watch. The rain, the raceways and the traffic, the infrastructure and so many other things can be seen through the windows. For me it is one of the highlights of The Apartments that the city looks very busy.

Impressions of “The Apartments” (4) inside Apartments / public meeting point (lower left)

Appropos busy, during my visit there were a lot of other people visiting. Maddy wrote in his blog that The Apartments is listed in the SL desination guide and hence it gets a lot of traffic. The upside is that the hallways are not empty, the downside is that I had to wait with my pictures or that avatars ran into my picture when the textures had just cleared up.

Impressions of “The Apartments” (5) views outside into the city (left) / Sushi bar (right)

“Hallways, endless rain and cats lots and lots of cats” – The Apartments is a place you shouldn’t miss when you enjoy simploring (like I do). Thank you Paradox (Paradox Ivory) for this great place and for sharing it publicly. Well done!

Landmark to The Appartments
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Cuscus/122/59/2060
Maddy Gynoid’s “Simtipp: The Apartments”
http://echtvirtuell.blogspot.com/2020/11/simtipp-apartments.html
The Appartments flickr-page
https://www.flickr.com/groups/2984011@N23/pool/

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