Summer-palooza on AMV

 A long weekend of summer fun on AMV and it all begins on Thursday 11 July! 

Alternate Metaverse Grid is famous for its many festivals and special events, and this happening is bound to be a great one, with five VAR regions dedicated to getting your summer started with a swing. If the great outdoors has been nothing but heatwaves and downpours, why not stay inworld, where the best weather is always guaranteed?

HG Addresses, as usual, at the end of this post, and of course if you look here you'll find the calendar of events on the grid's website

Cat on The Arts

Cataplexia Numbers: OpenSim and its community are blessed with so much art and creativity! This is our way on Alternate Metaverse to celebrate that, and encourage more arts in every genre! We open our festival to all who wish to be a part of it! Join us on July 11th through July 14th - Help us celebrate and enjoy the arts!

Community Art exhibition

You've probably visited this festival in previous years, and will remember the names of the sims - The Arts, In Tribute, OpenMic Arts, AMV Special Events, and Festival of Arts. Having 5 regions allows for plenty of space for exhibits, fancy stages and unique venues for all the performers and presentations.

What kind of summer fun? It's fair to say there's something for everyone, from burlesque to community art exhibits you can tour by boat. 

Happy 17th Birthday OSGrid

 Yes, it's that time of the year again, as OSgrid is celebrating its 17th anniversary from July 22 to 28.   As always, there are a whole lot of parties planned, and as well as the usual dancing, there's a special emphasis on music, because the theme of the Birthday Expo builds this year is exactly that. 

As always the builders of OSGrid have come through with some special builds celebrating the field. There are four regions, and it's recommended to use region environment settings in order to see the installations at their best. Wow are we all getting old or what? The first time I covered this event was a ten years ago... These were the exhibits, on that occasion.

Victoria Logan's delicious little dancing park has a very apt message board 'Music connects generations, crossing barriers of time and space" and this installation is just on of the gems on show this year. Here's a few hints - you should definitely go yourself to see these builds properly when everything's in place and up and running.

Genesis Evolving

 New from Genesis Roleplay grid, getting bigger, better, and every more HG  friendly!

Grid co-owners Lavia Lavine and Tango have increased the overall square mileage of the sim by a significant number, adding 6 new 4x4 regions and 8  8x8 regions. 

All but one of these is set to private, but if you're the exploring kind, you will be interested to know that the RP sim The Crucible has now been set so that anyone can visit.  Be ready for a challenging maze when you arrive! Your reward will be some information about the roleplay activity on the grid.

Another new feature of the grid will be the "Showcase Plateau". 

Snack-fari?

The HG Safari clubhouse on OSGrid is closing down, because now the travel group's main HQ is on a dedicated grid, hopefully you already know that if your planning on joining us in the next season of trips. 

The HG Address of the new sim is at the end of  the post, where it belongs.

New HG Safari sim

So - exciting times, but it is a bit of a sad goodbye to the sim that Ange Menges gifted in the fall of 2021 when it became very clear that our old home on FrancoGrid wasn't going to be viable any more as our main base for the revamped HG Safari group.

The FrancoGrid clubhouse, 2015-2022

Over past months, regular visitors to the HG Safari sim on OSGrid may have noticed gentle reminders that it's closing, as the land got smaller and features like the Archive House, the Self Guided Tours, the Marketplace, the dancing places, and the mesh clothing store, Meshanthropy, all gradually disappeared.

 Leaving just the mountain in the osgrid ocean. 

Cool Poule

 Over the past weeks,  the group Les Theatreux has been working hard on a play called 'Et l'oeuf engendre la poule' which is a reference to the old expression 'which came first, the chicken or the egg', and Thursday night was the final performance. The whole thing took place in the purpose-built theater on sim EventSpace, on Minord Loup's grid, SV3D. The full HG Address is at the end of the post, of course.

Using as the soundtrack a radio broadcast of the  play from a few years back, the team took the story and interpreted it into 3D sets with appropriate lighting, poses, props, scenery and so on - all the bells and whistles of a theatrical representation. Kudos to the man behind the control panel, Tristan Dehaie. 

Tristan Dehaie, the man at the controls.

 It's a play by Jean Vilain - no, not the guy from the Expendables! - here's a potted autobiography by the author who has clearly had a long and entertaining career in theater in France. 

Rural Retreat

In a corner of the gloriously rural Ruritania region on Littlefield Grid, is a beautiful old barn, converted by sim owner  Xi Shi into an airy art gallery,

It's a perfect little jewel set in a many faceted 4x4 VAR build that celebrates so many aspects of England that is will take you hours visiting and contemplating in order to take in all the delightful details, as it draws you back to another time, not just in the style of the vehicles and the road signs, which belong to the era of Dr Who's TARDIS, but also in the allusions and references to UK film and television, gently reminding you of classics like Brief Encounter, and the Two Ronnies discussing fork handles - or should that be four candles - to mention only two of the dozens of 3D throwbacks... make sure you have your wits about you, or you'll miss a lot of the fun. The HG Address is, of course, at the end of the post.

Vicky Does It Again

 Victoria Logan is a delight, and she's pulled off another successful art collaborative on her OSGrid Var region 'Arts-&-Friends'.

Victoria Logan at Arts-&-Friends in 2024.
The region features a mall showcasing some of Victoria's fractal art

 Last year, the connecting thread between builds was the subject of Women, with celebrations of everything from Disney's princesses, to Amy Earhart. 

It's all about OSGrid this time!

Victoria's installation sets the theme

Victoria Logan is a familiar figure on the virtual art scene.  The Argentinian artist has been a resident on OSGrid since 2012 and has been building ever since.  You may remember her build dedicated to her home country, on sim Vicky's Dreams, back in 2015. She invited the Safari over for a visit on Christmas Eve, and our experience was further enriched with a concert by Joaquin Gustav.