Film Fest! Will you take part?

Loru Destiny: My dears, I keep seeing little films here on Facebook that you lovingly created. Now I got an idea: how about an Opensim Film Festival?

Hmm that got your attention! We all love them, watching and making films to celebrate your virtual worlds. If you want to be part of this event, whether as a filmmaker, or part of the audience, or both, you may have some questions. Let's get some answers!

When is the deadline for participating?
Loru Destiny:  The deadline is 28 February 2025. After that I will prepare everything for the festival. This will take some time. I also have to agree the exact date of the festival with the video artists. So I can't say exactly when the festival will take place. But I'll do my best to organise everything quickly.

Ōpunguriddo

On this round planet, distances are no object, and in the virtual, you can teleport to a grid on the other side of the world in a moment. But one thing that can defeat us is the time zone issue. A quick glance at opensimworld.com will tell you that Opensim is at its busiest in the hours of evening in Europe and the East Coast, let's say from 11am to 8pm SLT. That translates to 4am to 1pm, in Japanese time - yawn! work! ...not an ideal time to get inworld; the Opensimmers of Oceania can also relate, no doubt.

Teddy Dragoone

That makes it even more special when there's an opportunity to hear from someone who's not in your usual time window. Meet Teddy Dragoone, class of '09 in Second Life. We met on the newly minted Open Grid, and I asked him to tell a bit of his story.

Tabula Rasa

Tabula Rasa, the blank slate, is a concept as ancient as Aristotle, and as modern as an empty sim. Often associated with the human mind in that magical moment before impressions, feelings, opinions and experiences have made their mark, the very words 'tabula rasa' can fill a creative person with the thrill of possibilities.

It's also the name of Ieko Catnap's art sim on OSGrid, and it's home to pleasant pathways leading between attractive buildings with a provencale feel.  In one corner, a little grey graveyard is enriched by this lovely fountain, with prim fish that say they were made by Virtual Christine, giving the place the feel of an authentic history.

Charming too are the little shops, a flower market, bakery, newspaper printers and more, the cutest has to be 'Chik' Ânes' with a bit of a Latin American vibe going on. 

Taarna's Mesh Wizardry

Many of us remember Taarna Welles as one of the few makers of good quality original mesh clothing, shoes and accessories in the first years of opensim, back when mesh was first coming in. 

One of the shops on Savvy

Bubblesz, Taarna's personal grid, still features her legacy build La Barronie from the olden days of Metropolis, and her more recent build, Savvy ,  features mens and womens clothing and footwear, a refreshing break from the aspiring crack whore outfits that make up so much of the apparel assets of our platform.

Ballerina stature on Savvy

More recently, Taarna has been working on a themed region called Domadun, adding yet another point of interest on this always interesting grid. You get a hint of the new region when you arrive on the Bubblesz Welcome sim... the portals are all decorated with a little witch's broom.

Prince's Passions

 suprema citius solvet amor die

He's Prince Amor, or 'the PrinceofAmor' - his precise name fluctuates, but for simplicity's sake let's just call him Prince - is pretty new to Opensim. He's only been here two or three years, but of course he's got a whole lot of SL experience under his belt from before. Safari goers will be well familiar with his Solar System build on OSgrid which we toured back in September. There's much more Amor on OSgrid, and hopefully over time we will get to explore the trippy Maze of the Mind, or his Star Trek build, and perhaps his automotive sim with over 300 cars, just to mention a handful of his personal sims. Along with these, he is known as the landlord of about 100 sims; his renters are either on OSgrid, or have Dreamgrid sims. It's always informative to get someone's take on the two platforms, especially if they're a fairly recent arrival, and it will be interesting to see if your observations are in tune with his. 

Prince Amor

I asked first of all for him to give us an overview of his experience in Opensim and the Other Place.

Prince Amor: Both experiences for me were about the same. When Second Life first started people there were helpful and kind. I was quite worried over privacy in Second Life at the time and they helped me a good while there. Gifts etc....things were free or close to it. Of course when Second Life first started Osgrid and it were one and the same. So it was the same kind of people. I do believe Second Life is not the same place now as it was, I believe it is because the good kind people came to Osgrid. I wish I had known of Osgrid then, but such was not talked about in the circles I was in.

LibDescent

Yes, OSGrid still has logins restricted, but it'll be open again soon, and when it does, here's a place you might like to (re)visit. It's a piece of virtual history and also - what could be better - a bit of a freebie shop, by Plastichansa Bade.

If you're a bit of an oldbie you'll remember the golden days of Metropolis Grid, and among the vast number of great artists from Germany and around the world who made that grid their home, you may recall the art of the Plastichansa Bade - and it's hard to think of Plastic without Zonja Capalini. They met inworld in 2016 and were a great artistic team for years. 

Two artists from Spain, they've graced the pages of this blog more than once. Even before our Safari trips began, Zonja's little grid Condensationland featured on this blog - later the oar was attached to Metro, making it easier for people to see. They participated in AvatarFest, that much loved pan-grid annual event, back in 2017, and of course, a lot of you will remember the tango place in SL called Arrabal - the Safari went there too, back in the day. 

Tina on Pangea

Tina Bey's life has been one of art for just about forever. The person behind the avatar is an award-winning artist with a wealth of academic knowledge of Fine Arts, and a long experience of working with galleries, patrons, students, teachers, and lovers of art in general. She got her first region on OSGrid eleven years ago.

Tina Bey: My first region was called "Araucana" (Antarctica in English) thanks to someone generous who lent me his server. I wanted to create futuristic constructions floating on the seas. Later I had, for many years, the "Araucana" region also in Osgrid. It had a purely science fiction theme, which I continued with for several years... until I started seeing and attending exhibitions, galleries and museums dedicated to art in the metaverse. It was almost a replica of my real world, in which I had navigated quite successfully, with a good resume, awards, scholarships, commitments with galleries and contracts to fulfill... too many things. When one has already gone through all that, the 3D virtual world opens up as a great breath of freedom, where a canvas can be walked and walked on literally without restrictions.

Safari Finale 2025

 And so here it was at last, the Season Finale of HG Safari - in fact, the finale for the whole year, and where better to end our long journey than at a futuristic build most definitely not possible in real life even with all the cool light effects that galleries and concerts now can give people, none of it really compares with Nyx Breen's combination of 3D objects and environments, lights, particles, animesh and EEP. If you're not sure what EEP stands for, there is a nice big fat link for you. 

Nyx Breen wearing a special shiny outfit designed to enhance the Finale experience

It's been, what, two years, maybe a little more than that, since this new way of manipulating the environment in your sim was launched, and for many residents and builders, it's probably seemed a bit too complicated, so they have perhaps grabbed some freebie EEPs to liven up their sim, and left it at that.

Not so Nyx Breen, who in his RL career is a photographer of great talent and so is preternaturally in tune with the importance of ambience in terms of light and density. He has turned EEPs into such an art form, on sims that the folks over in the other place can only dream of - vast cathedrals of color are here in Opensim for us to enjoy, to wonder at and of course, to dance in.

Vets in Neverworld

 Tig Eberdene: If you wish, you can click the box by the sign here and receive a poppy to wear. Remembrance Day is one holiday that everyone should celebrate. I am a Canadian veteran so I very much agree

Beth Ghostraven: Remembrance Day is one holiday that everyone should celebrate ...maybe "celebrate" isn't the right word - I think I mean "honor)

For our first destination of the day, the HG Safari crew landed in neverworld to explore ways to remember those who have served in the Military, with two veterans, Tig and Troy. Though each served ina different country, and have independent regions on Neverworld, they have found unity of purpose in the way they'll celebrate on Monday the many lives dedicated to the various branches of the armed forces. The event will be posts on Opensimworld and Facebook, and the HG Address to get to Georgetown (and to Troy's aviation collection, on Painted Sky) you'll find at the end of the post, as always.

The commemoration area is right next to the forced landing spot on sim Georgetown

Tig Eberdene: As you arrive in Georgetown you can see we are set in autumn right now. The setting is to be as how it is in Real life Northern Ontario.  Georgetown is a special place, named for my father George Thomas Wilson. He was a WW2 veteran and my personal hero.  My aim in Georgetown is to make it feel like a real place. There are 3 2x2 sims here, which are all based off a combination of places I have been or lived in RL. This sim is the downtown area. The sim directly to the North is homes for anyone who wishes to live in Georgetown, as well as a small lake and Provincial Park.

The Art of Aaack

For many years, Aaack Aardvark and his original mesh creations, available free and full perms in his store Arcadia on OSgrid, have been a familiar and much loved part of the opensim galaxy. Recently, Aaack decided to step away from the platform, but he very kindly took a few minutes to tell his story.  Like so many of us, he came here from SL.

Aaack Aardvark and his signature store

Aaack Aardvark:  When I was in Second Life I spent all my time in a sandbox called Little Blue; I made friends with the owners and eventually helped moderating it, all my available time there was distributed into play with friends and build, especially build. One of my friends there started to experiment with Open Sim and used to comment his discoveries about the platform. That was my first contact with OS, at the time I learned two very important things:

1. You can be in SL and OS at the same time, it’s not like you go to hell if that happens and,

2. OS exists.

N'orlins Night

 Our second stop this week was among the tombs of the Lafayette Cemetery of New Orleans. It's located on Ms Cal's grid Lagniappe ( you will find the HG Address as always at the end of this post) and she was on hand to show us around this extraordinary, photorealistic region.

Ms Cal: Welcome, explorers, to the heart of New Orleans—the iconic Lafayette Cemetery No. 1, a true gem in the middle of the Lagniappe grid! Please be sure to click shared environment for the best experience... follow me and I'll give you a little history while we walk to the city of the dead....

Ms Cal

Ms Cal: Back in 1788, New Orleans faced a major yellow fever epidemic. The old St. Peter Street Cemetery was too close for comfort, and the water table made in-ground burials a rather soggy affair. So, city officials created Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 as a solution.

Pumpkins and Prizes on Yaksha

 It's that time of year again and we were guests of Nani ferguson and ANge Menges on their Halloween Hunt this week. The sim will be open until November 6, so you can come back and complete the Hunt, if you wish. It's called Yaksha, over the years I've often asked Nani if there's some sort of storyline or cultural reference behind the odd and distinctive names they pick for their sims, and she's always said something like 'it's funny' so I'm guessing this year is much the same. You can invent your own etymology - bonus game! The full HG Address is, as always, at the end of the post.

Ange Menges: Welcome to all the safarista, you don't have a lot of time, so I will help a little those who want to play the game. You can visit the sim as you like, and for those who want to play the game, start by reading the panel carefully. In the region you can find 10 laughing pumpkins that will give you a gift.  Follow me inside the castle so I can show you one.

Escape 2 Halloween

 Back in 2010, Mystic found her way to Opensim, and settled on OSGrid. Relatively recently, she  made a move to a new grid, which she shares with friends, Escape2Reality, and here she has an annual Halloween region worth a look! The HG Address is, of course at the end. It was too much of a good opportunity to miss when we met up to ask her a few questions about her life on the platform and to know a little bit more about her home.

Mystic Moonshine: Ozzmosis  started this grid  a year and  2 months  ago. We  are finally getting things done here, it's been a slow process - rl  things of course take first place - but  Ozzy, Purr, myself and  Hippie are admins here and trying to make a  wonderful and inviting grid for all to  come use and explore. Many nice places being set up here... I love that the grid is  filled with friends and  family  that  want to get together and share and build a happy environment for anyone wishing to do the same.

Mystic Moonshine: It's  always  nice making friends. However we have had people come  join  the  grid then not  come on  to hangout or join into the grid activities. We want  people that are  wanting to  stay and interact and  enjoy and make the grid better, if that makes sense.

Fair Progress

 This week's HG Safari involved a visit to Wolf Territories to see how the Opensim World's Fair project is getting along. Several of the core organizers were on hand to give a warm welcome to the group! Most of the photos here are by Rosa and Kimm, you can also see some great pics by Star Ravenhurst on Facebook, and of course, the great Lifted Pixel filmed the whole event - you can watch that video on YouTube - don't forget to like comment and why not subscribe to her channel.

This is a massive sim, and the landing point has a 200m tall Observation Tower which seemed the ideal point to arrive  - don't worry, no stairs, there's a convenient TP down to ground level. The view from the top of the tower, when there are a lot of people, takes a moment to kick in, as you would expect of a well filled VAR  of epic proportions. The HG address is... yeah you guessed it, at the end of this blog post, where it always is.

Kimm Starr:  Hi and welcome to the Opensim Worlds Fair build.   Your presenters today are  Kimm Starr, Cooper Swizzle and Koshari Mahana along with our Entertainment Co-ordinator Rosa Alekseev.  We're excited to have you here today for an early sneak peak of the OpenSim World’s Fair, which officially kicks off on March 1st, 2025! This project is under construction and has been since February of 2024 and is no way complete. Everything has been designed to be conveniently close—whether you prefer walking, flying, or driving, all exhibits and entertainment are easily accessible. Directly below and surrounding the landing zone is the heart of the OpenSim World’s Fair, full of amusements, games, and rides. 

Dings Digital: I am looking forward to all this

Who Goes There

This week's first destination was to one of the wonders of Opensim, the Doctor Who region on Littlefield grid, often known as lfgrid because it's shorter! As usual the full HG Address is at the end of the post. The sim creator, Toy McBride, lives on the other side of the world to most of the Safari-goers, so she wasn't able to join us in person.

Dirk Mathers

However Dirk Mathers, one of the founding members of Littlefield grid, a master scripter and none too shabby builder in his own right, was kind enough to step in as guide. He's a knowledgeable Whovian, but even he admitted to getting a little lost in this build, which is encyclopedic and labyrinthine. Much like the long, mysterious and twisted plot of one of the most popular ever sci-fi shows on TV. 

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past half century, you probably know that Dr Who is a British TV show for children which began back in 1962, took a hiatus in the 90's and came roaring back in the naughties to an even wider audience of all ages, and it is still going strong.

OSCC Past and Present

 Every year for over a decade, the Opensimulator Community Conference has offered an opportunity for the platform to unite and learn about projects, passions and plans for the future of Opensim. But what is the OSCC? 

James Atlloud: Many people think Avacon is involved with the development of Open Simulator but that isn't the case - Avacon was created to build the community of people who use and care about Open Simulator. 

Avacon Plaza already looking festive

Inworld, there are two distinct grids - Avacon, and OSCC. The Opensim Community Conference, on its dedicated grid, is a weekend of talks, workshops, and parties about opensim. 

It's held this year on December 7 and 8, 2024.

The conference is live inworld, and you can also watch on Youtube. Here's the link to the 2023 presentations so you can get an idea of what goes on. But how did this come about? what are the origins of the event?

Joyce Bettencourt aka Rhiannon Chatnoir got into Second Life in 2005 and was drawn immediately to the community aspects of the platform. That included people and inworld places, and of course people and real world places. Rhiannon attended real world meetups for SL people, and in 2007 she had joined the Second Life Community Convention organizing team. 

Rhiannon Chatnoir: By SLCC 2009 in San Francisco, she was the conference content lead - coordinating all the talks. At the end of that year, the original SLCC planning team decided not to organize any more events, so a new group formed, called Avacon. The original Avacon team was Fleep Tuque of Chilbo, Linden Lab's Misty Rhodes, musician Katydid Something, and virtual fashion designer Crucial Armitage. We did two more real life events, in 2010 and 2011 but as we got more interested in Opensim, - Fleep set up Fleepgrid, if you remember that - our focus shifted.

The OSCC conference area

Rhiannon Chatnoir: We decided with the skills and lessons learned from organizing SLCC, we could help bring together the greater OpenSimulator user community in a way similar to what we had done in SL. We reached out to the Overte Foundation, the organization run by the Core Developers of OpenSimulator. That began the collaborative planning process, Nebadon Izumi initially setting up the OSCC grid and eventually launching the first OpenSimulator Community Conference in 2013!

Neverworld's Ninth

 Neverworld will be turning nine in a few days and there's a big party planned for October 22 - 25 over on a dedicated sim, NWBB9  

It's a chance for Gov and the guys and gals of this builder's paradise to celebrate another year of challenges and achievements.

Mike's Towns End

Our second stop this week was with the magnificent Mike Townsend, friend of the Safari and frequent tripper with us back in ye olden days when it was a three hour, uncertain slog through any number of  destinations. These days, Mike is busy with his Tropicana sims, where you can rent a bit of pixels for yourself in some very atmospheric places! HG Addresses at the end of the post - but you knew that already.

Coming from another grid, we all met with a fair dose of lag but the welcome was warm from both mike himself and a bunch of Tropicana friends.

Mike Townsend, flanked by Blancanieves and Tina Bey

Mike Townsend: Welcome everyone to Tropicana Village, If everyone is ready we can start the tour

Leoa Urmah: (pt:en)  I'm very ready

Mike Townsend: We will explore the area around the abandoned village and then take the path to the Trailer park. In a state of part ruin and abandonment there is still evidence of people living here. Lets walk to the trailer park.

This part of the build is a great mix of grunge and rundown architecture, with everything from nodding donkeys to a nice red phone box. Walking among all these detailed elements proved to be tricky, to say the least, but while we lost Mike for a moment, most of us were able to power through it. OSgrid's ongoing inv issues and unexpected kicks, when paired with a mass avatar event, kind of reminds us what a privilege it is in reality to be able to be part of a global community, despite the ructions of RL with its solar flares and political shenanigans.

Playing with Infinity

On sim Sirocco, one of the VAR regions belonging to the 3rd Wind community, on Zetaworlds, Han BoShi, Dolfke Barbosa, Jed Dagger, Ellemir Maven,  Nila Mari and Alia Soulstar awaited the arrival of the Safari crew. What better time to confirm or deny a popular myth about Star Trek 

Dolfke Barbosa: am I the only one wearing a uniform?

Thirza Ember: my other avatar has a red uniform on... does that mean I'll get eliminated in the first scenes ?
Nila Mari: /me chuckles

Alia Soulstar: yes, our priority is to thin out security every mission

Ellemir Maven: There was an analysis done that said red shirts are not actually more prone to death and dismemberment.

Left to right, Jedburgh, Alia, Nila and in red, Security Officer Dolfke Barbosa

Dolfke Barbosa: they tend to seed death and dismemberment

Ellemir Maven: lol it does seem to be true of the original series.  I have not checked these numbers... Being a "Red Shirt" on the USS Enterprise is one of the most dangerous jobs in any (imaginary) military. Don't believe me? SiteLogic founder Matt Bailey crunched the numbers: 13.7% of Kirk's crew died during their three-year televised mission. 73% of the deaths were Red Shirts.

Jedburgh Dagger: but as a whole there were more redshirts on the crew

Ellemir Maven: /me gets dol a second red shirt to wear

Dolfke Barbosa: thx for that, Elle, I will wear it with care at my funeral

Alia Soulstar: the dangers of space are best represented by the violent deaths of security

Dolfke Barbosa: Tasha Yar her dead was not necessary for the plot, and she wore yellow

Ellemir Maven: It was necessary for her contract though

Dolfke Barbosa: are you offering me a contract, Elle

Alia Soulstar: with a Christmas bonus... if you reach Christmas

For the Love of Lucy

Lucy was always there for me inworld with a word of encouragement, a joke or a useful observation. Always the same, generous, funny, creative.

In virtual worlds, when you don't see someone around for a while, it is easy to assume that they're simply busy elsewhere, or perhaps not feeling up to sitting in front of a computer. That happened with me and Lucy. This summer came along, the Safari trips took a break, and so did I, from virtual worlds... life got busy, and I totally missed seeing the news on Facebook that Lucy (in RL Peter Jones) had passed away. Only today, going to check his Facebook profile to see how he was doing, did I find out what happened.

Lucy Afarensis

That's part of the paradox of the modern world where in theory everyone is in touch with everyone else and we all know everything. In reality, we only know what we know, follow what we follow. Information we need and care about doesn't always get through.

Lucy was key to the HG Safari tours around Opensim throughout the years. More than either of us ever put into words, whenever we got the opportunity to chat - I wish told him more often what our friendship meant to me. Lucy was in SL from 2007 and in Opensim not long after that (Lucy's regions faced onto the OSGrid Moat, close to LBSA),  and the choice of the name name 'Lucy Afarensis' was a humorous reference to age - by a person who was never a fossil by any means.

We had a memorable visit to Lucy's region, including the Grove Gallery, in May 2018. We visited her place on Francogrid back in 2016 also, enjoying a concert by Nazira Avro - Lucy was always a canny opensimmer, spreading the wealth of builds over different grids, so as not to risk losing all if one of them should fail. That's not a lot of Safari visits, you may say, considering how interesting these places were, but Lucy was always the first to give up a spot in the HG Safari calendar, in favor of some other builder or artist, so to finally get to bring the whole group over to experience the horseback trip across this vast landscape was an absolute privilege.