Bloom's MIDI Magic

 Maia Antarra: the one hud to rule them all

Our final stop today was on Winxtropia, to see Bloom Peter's MIDI tool. There was an extended post about it a few weeks ago but of course reading about a place isn't anything like actually visiting, and projects like this one are always getting developed, expanded, and moved ahead in ways that the written word can't always keep up with.

Bloom is undoubtedly an Opensim treasure. The first visit by the Safari to one of her sims was - can you believe it? - in July of 2014, on OSGrid - we visited her famous roller coaster build, back then we knew her as the avatar Cuteulala Artis. 

It all begins with the keyboard.

But today's visit was all about the keyboard, all about the software, the music, the dancing. the cats, and making something even more outrageously fun... We arrived on Crescent Melody Studio (HG Addresses at the end of this post) which is a minimalist space, giving all possible energy to the explanation and demonstration of Bloom's MIDI tool

A Princely Safari

A slightly shorter trip today to visit Maze grid, run by Prince Amor. He's a big Star trek fan and we visited his Solar System region about a year ago, if you recall that flight between all the planets on a saucer, over on OSGrid. This was before the recent Asset event on OSgrid, and this time we're checking out Prince's own grid which boasts about twenty public regions plus plenty of residentials.

Fitheach Eun: Hi Prince

Tosha Tyran: Hi Prince, you look like it is best to keep a little distant... :D

Maia Antarra: hi Prince,  if I bump into anyone...I can't see you so sorry about that... ok now that is one scary avatar prince!

Prince Amor: I try to be different, different avatar a day keeps ones mind fresh

Thirza Ember: saves on soap also

The Welcome sim on Maze has a large Building Supplies store, and if you look on the map you'll see a whole sim dedicated to free complete avatars, organized into separate stores according to category, but since the Safari doesn't do well at a Mall between everyone getting lag and getting distracted, our trip was focused on Prince himself and two sims, Maze Grid Home and Medieval Desert Fortress Fantasy -  good old HG Addresses at the end of the post as usual.

Prince Amor: feel free to take what you like there and share them long as you don't charge for them that is what they are there for

The Return of Guinguette

Some days ago, a few friends gathered to celebrate the return to health of Nadir Rae, of Ignis Fatuus, and the setting was itself a welcome return to Opensim - Guinguette is back online.

If you're not French, you may not know the term. A guinguette is a sort of open air tavern. located on the outskirts of big French cities, especially Paris - the most famous is probably Maison Fournaise at Chatou, immortalized by Renoir in 1880, shown here. 

They were places where townies could escape the grime of the industrial lifestyle and get a taste of nature, to dance and drink and generally have fun in a pastoral setting. In our self-conscious tourist-centered times, modern guinguettes are often  hopelessly posh - like the one at Issy or good lord the accessible-only-by-boat Chalet des Iles in the Bois de Boulogne - places where your penniless painter couldn't hope to get in. But on Ignis Fatuus grid, the charm of the old guinguette is intact, a place to kick off your shoes and enjoy a tune or two, in the company of friends.

Colored fountains and bistro tables surround the central dance hall, just steps away from the river. Speaking of steps, the region gives the visitor the impression of having many delightful spots for a pleasant walk in turn-of-the century style...

Star's Hereafter

Star Ravenhurst waited for us on a dusty, grungy street corner by a sign that said 'Welcome to Hell'. 

No, not TP or IM hell for once, this was the 'other' place, our second destination of the day with, as it turned out, a surprising coincidence in the architecture, but more of that later, This region Heaven & Hell is on Star's own grid, TenthDimensionGrid.

Francisco Koolhoven: Well I made it to this grid :) wasn't able to go to alternate metaverse

Star Ravenhurst: Sorry to hear that Francisco

Francisco Koolhoven: it happens sometimes,  I'll try to go there later

James Atlloud: It was great Fran... Oh! Shared environment makes a difference, thanks... rats!

Star Ravenhurst: A lot has changed since you were last week Tina

Kelso Uxlay: A rats parade

Thirza Ember: hmmm definitely a dry heat here

Star Ravenhurst: Yep and dry heat is terrible for the skin!

Thirza Ember: ok we're all here

Star Ravenhurst: We can walk down the block and see if we can catch the bus... This way...

James Atlloud: a bus!!

On Satori

Our first trip this week was to Alternate Metaverse Grid, and the lovely sim Satori which at first glance would seem to be simply a well appointed beach resort, until you discover a whole other world up in the sky.  

It doesn't happen every week, for sometimes there's mad chaos in the minutes before the HG Safari tour begins, when a host goes awol or a region goes offline or someone asks a question that does not compute. But sometimes, there's a delicious calm before the storm, and this week was one of the delicious kind. Not least because our first stop was at the home of the deliciously golden Maia Antarra, DJ, builder, choreographer, Reiki practitioner, and more... 

Maia Antarra

... and the darkly suited and harder to get on camera Savage Taurus, the master scripter whose work amplifies and animates this cleverly laid out region.  Normally there's one Thirza at the Clubhouse and another goes a few minutes before the event begins to our first destination to facilitate our arrival. 

Savage Taurus: hello Thirza,  have you come for the tour? 

Maia Antarra: she's the ringleader

Savage Taurus: awesome. I think the saucer is working right

Maia Antarra: well it if has a malfunction we all get jettisoned into space that's all...  spacesuits available in the shop over yonder

Sybella

Vlad Helsing: on est en voice je ne sais pas si tu nous entend

So, you know how I'm always on at you about 'we have to do the Safari in Local Chat and not in Voice', bla bla bla, because Voice tends to exclude a lot of folks whose English is pretty good but who, in the evening on a weeknight, aren't up to following a full conversation at top speed; not to mention those of us who, for one reason or another, can't join in with anything audio during the tour, and you all secretly (or not so secretly) think that's a terrible idea...  

Max the Guide, on Sybella

That's why it's always fun to meet with the frenchies, who absolutely don't care that the majority of Safari visitors can't follow a thing being said in Voice. It's good for your souls, to see things from the other point of view, and it gives me a delicious opportunity to say I told you so. But that's not the main reason we hopped over to Ignis Fatuus Grid this week. 

Pure Lunacy at Magicland

Lunacy? No, it was a great idea. Stone and  Hope Lunasea invited the Safari over to Neverworld grid for a visit this week to Magicland. The theme of the visit to this region is theme parks, as in Disney and co - all the fun of the fair. We met outside the cinema.

Stone Lunasea: Welcome everyone to Hopestone's Magicland!

James.Atlloud: great music

Hope Lunasea: Hey there, everyone. Welcome.

Dings Digital: Hello :)

Generally there are two Thirzas on every tour, one arrives before the crowd, and the other is the last to arrive, so it's always interesting to see the two different perceptions of a sim on the same screen. This region responded manfully to the onslaught of 15 plus strangers from all over the HG. In terms of avatars, Safari people on the whole try to go for something not too complex or full of daft scripts and HUDs, (using a legacy body instead of a basic mesh one can instantly lower your complexity by over 100k, for example) and we generally also try to keep our My Suitcase folder pretty empty, knowing that the sim has to comb through all our belongings when we arrive, including broken assets we maybe have from freebie shopping in OSGrid, and that all takes resources away from the main thing, which is showing us the sim.

Star Ravenhurst: Hugs... I see a lot of body parts floating around,  and I have no hair!!

Dings Digital: who's leg is this?

Taarna Welles: Not mine :)

James Atlloud: Am I all white again?

Thirza Ember: no james you're in a dinner suit

Kelso Uxlay: Nice suit James

James Atlloud: ty Kelso - my favorite so far

Stone Lunasea: There is a big gold dance ball up in the air behind me if anyone wants to dance :)

Taarna Welles: Need to dance with this music

Thirza Ember: lol gradually all will arrive... it's like going by train, some of your stuff is in the end wagon, but it will all get to the station eventually

Govega Sachertorte: lol give it a minute

Yara Eild: Hello everyone :-)

Alex .Salamander: Hello everyone :-)

Star Ravenhurst: Hi Alex and Yara!

Hope Lunasea: Lots of people. lol...

Tosha Tyran: you are all... alll... transparent

Govega Sachertorte: yea but slowly coming in

Tosha Tyran: now I am all dressed, dear Forest... to me...

Forest Azure: lol, that is what you think, Tosha :)

Star Ravenhurst: Nope Tosha, still undies - Gotta love traveling the Hypergrid!

Stone Lunasea: Alright, everyone rezzed in?... I thought I'd start with a bit of the park's history

Stone and Hope Lunacy

Stone Lunasea: Established in 2014 as That Place Amusement Park on SecondLife and in 2016 in Opensim, we quickly rose to fame as a Top 10 Hot Spot on SL and were eventually blogged by the Lindens and made a Featured Destination. We still operate a park on SL in the Linula region, next door to The Unknown Theme Park on the mainland. We've changed grids over the years, but have been on Neverworld for over 3 years now and are pretty sure this is our permanent home. It's a great place to live!

James Atlloud: So good to hear positive stories about grids.

Dings Digital: yes, great

Stone Lunasea: Magicland, our most recent expansion, was launched just last year at Christmas time. This region features our Electrical Light Parade, Movie Theater, and Shopping District. There's also a few rides here: the Magic Carpet Ride, Alien Abduction, and Santa's Sleigh Ride, a left over from Christmas, as well as our Hot Air Balloon Merry-Go-Round. Finally, behind the theater you'll find Mickey's Fishing Hole, where you can fish for prizes. We have Free Movies every Monday here at Magicland Theater, the schedule can be found at the main landing point or on the wall inside the theater.

The Cinema schedule. In the foreground, Uta Warbaum

Hope Lunasea: Oh yes and I think Neverworld is our perfect fit. :)

Stone Lunasea: yeah we try to do both, they both have their pros & cons

Thirza Ember: why both? what does each offer that's different in your experience

Stone Lunasea: Honestly....not much at this point. We're actually talking about shutting the SL park down....eventually Used to be the traffic but our traffic here nearly matches SL these days so it's more nostalgia keeping the SL park open

Lynnestra Parker: What is the name of the park in SL?

Stone Lunasea: Hopestone

Thirza Ember: do parks make money in sl? if you don't mind me asking

Stone Lunasea: haha no

Forest Azure: you wat to open one, Thirza?

Thirza Ember: I already have a freak show, Forest

Stone Lunasea: Back when there were a lot of parks on SL we did, at least half the tiers. But these days I might see $5 in tips on a good month.

Lynnestra Parker: I love amusement parks in virtual. I don't get sick on the rides. hehehe

Hope Lunasea: We have plenty here to ride, Lynnestra. :)

Stone Lunasea: same here, for me I started building rides after a car accident left me walking with a cane. I can't ride real ones anymore so I build them in VR

Stone Lunasea: First up, we'd like to present our Electrical Light Parade.   If everyone could kindly clear the Main Street & move onto the sidewalks that'd be great :)  It takes a couple minutes for the parades to reach this part of Main Street, but it syncs with the music best if we watch here in front of the theater.

Grid: Ladies & Gentlemen! Boys & Girls! MagicLand proudly presents our spectacular pageant of Night time Magic & Imagination! Please set your viewers to SHARED ENVIRONMENT, enable radio and prepare to be dazzled by the Mainstreet Electrical Light Parade!

Hope Lunasea: /me holds in excitement. :)

James Atlloud: OH wow.

Lynnestra Parker: How cool!!!

Dings Digital: woooooooot

Forest Azure: you are typing my back, James :)

James Atlloud: does it tickle?

Forest Azure: yes! /me will have sweet sweet revenge

Hope Lunasea: lol

Tosha Tyran: Joshua! You are safe now

Joshua 7: rofl

James Atlloud: So a fence for Safari... hmmm

 Stone Lunasea: The parade took over 6 years to develop, all of the floats and NPCs were built by Hope, then I scripted everything to move, and play nice. Getting the floats to not rear end each other was harder than you'd think!

Hope Lunasea: It's to be sure you don't get ran over by Goofy. We know how he can get. And yes. The floats were made by me.

James Atlloud: I see Mickey and Minnie!

Govega Sachertorte: great team Stone is a great scripter and mover and Hope is a great builder of things

Stone Lunasea: we make a good team :)

Stone Lunasea: Should be seeing the parade coming down Main Street now and make sure Parcel media is on. The Electrical Light Parade has always held a special place in my heart. Growing up in California, I was at Disneyland frequently as a kid but the parade was always at Midnight; by that time, my tiny butt was sound asleep in my stroller! I got to see it a couple of times but it became an almost obession - and the Magicland Electrical Light Parade was born! Now everyone, no matter where they are, can enjoy a touch of that ol' Disney magic!

Govega Sachertorte: love the mushies

Dings Digital: lol great jazz music

Nexus Storm: Nice !!!

Tosha Tyran: wow, it looks lovely, can I hitch a ride?

Stone Lunasea: no, but I like that idea

Hope Lunasea: Interesting fact: I've never seen the Electrical Light Parade in real life so all this was watching like at least five different videos on YouTube.

Not all the NPCs showed up for the parade, but we got the general idea.

Lynnestra Parker: Pete's dragon!!!

Stone Lunasea: We have the parade every Monday in between the weekly movies at intermission, so there's always a chance to see it again in it's full glory :)

Akila Mobian: That was really cool! :D

Uta Warbaum:  BRAVOOOO!!!

Stone Lunasea: it was a lot of fun to build

Stone Lunasea: We have a double feature every Monday starting at 2pm grid time

Govega Sachertorte: it's on our website schedule 

Lynnestra Parker: The music is terrific too!

Gemmalynn Sabine: very impressive

Stone Lunasea: Next up we'd like to bring y'all over to the Amusement Park where the tour will continue. I'll summon The Doctor here shortly who will transport us as a group. Once The Doctor tells you to, touch the T.A.R.D.I.S. to be included in the group teleport.

The Doctor: Give me just a few seconds to tidy up and we'll be on our way!

Lynnesta Prarker: Hello Doctor. Got any gummy babies?

Dings Digital: do you have a bus?

eva Nowicka: oh, i want that TARDIS

The Doctor: Course set for Amusement Park.  Waiting 60 seconds for additional riders.  Touch me now to join this teleport.

The TARDIS teleport wouldn't play with us, possibly we overwhelmed it, but there was an easy fix...

Stone Lunasea: We have a hover taxi waiting for us at the amusement park but I'm not sure if it can handle this many rides so we may be walking, we'll try it :)

Thirza Ember: it went without us... but unlike Xenon's bus, at least we're not crashing into a river

Star Ravenhurst: Her bus was crazy with a mind of its own. 

Govega Sachertorte: omg lol who hasn't done that a million times we have so many roads here... we found out the secret to sim crossings.  it doesn't require anything special either but it works. Anyone want to know I will share at our next Never Riders today at 2 pm

Hope Lunasea: If all else fails, you can open up your big Map and type in "Amusement Park" and just TP that way.

Taarna.Welles: ok

Stone Lunasea: Sorry for the glitches! Welcome to The Rabbit Hole, this is the original entrance to the Second Life park and was installed in Opensim due to popular demand. To begin, simply walk in and allow yourself to fall down the rabbit hole.

Stone Lunasea: Touch the potion on the counter if you get stuck. :)

Whirli Placebo takes a sip

White Rabbit: shouts:  Welcome to Wonderland! Start your adventure by going down the Rabbit Hole. If you get stuck, EAT something or DRINK something; and remember, the way forward is sometimes the way back.

Stone Lunasea: Ok, I think everyone's down here?  Welcome to the Amusement Park! Out on the river here, you'll see part of the Alice in Wonderland ride, a truly memorable experience! This region features more than 25 different rides and attractions, we don't have time to see them all today but we'll see a good amount of them - and you are always welcome to come back later!

Brad: whispers: Hold on to your prims, off we go!!

Brad the bus driver had a secret up his sleeve... it was a flying bus! Up we soared into the sky, too quick for my camera, but very impressive in person.

Star Ravenhurst: Are we moving and I don't realize it?

Whirli.Placebo: the show must go on

Dings Digital: yayyyy

James Atlloud: whaa? expectations challenged!!

Akila Mobian: That caught me off guard lol

Stone Lunasea: Our first stop is our Pirates of the Caribbean Ride, based off of the original ride at Disneyland, it boasts an exciting adventure where you will encounter pirates, have to evade the Royal Navy and survive the deadly Kraken! If that's too much action for you, we also have the Wild Rapids ride, a great way to cool off on those hot summer days!

Govega Sachertorte: a flying coach

Thirza Ember: and in a good way, this week

Whirli Placebo: ooohing and ahhing

Stone Lunasea: Our Video Rides have taken years to develop. Using specially encoded Point-of-View (POV) videos, we take you into a full immersion experience and transport you into the real world rides! Featuring rides such as Roger Rabbit's ToonTown, Harry Potter & The Escape from Gringott's, and The Simpsons, we have some of the most popular rides on the planet! If you're feeling nostalgic, you can take a trip with Captain EO which was discontinued from Disneyland in the early 1990s and even take a trip to Endor on Star Tours, your ticket to the stars!

James Atlloud: That was so cool!

Inside the Simpsons ride

Stone Lunasea: A special note about Star Tours, the video sequence we use is actually not from the real life ride itself! An absolutely brilliant YouTuber went through the old videos of the original ride, recreated every last detail in mesh, then filmed it in 3D. I've been doing this 20 years & I just thought someone had finally managed to upscale that grainy old 1980s footage to HD, but nope. It's truly a sight to see and an awesome application of 3D VR tech!

Whirli Placebo: amazing, Stone

Stone Lunasea

Stone Lunasea: There's more to see but in true Wonderland style, WE'RE LATE! Go figure. We'll go a head and wrap things up here, if everyone wants to jump off the Taxi :) If anyone has any questions or feedback, we're all ears. Hope you guys enjoyed the tour and let me know if you need a landmark to come back later!

Gemmalynn Sabine: thank you so much! That was amazing!

Thirza Ember: I love the bus, it  has restored my faith in mass transport... thanks so much everyone from neverworld and of course Stone and Hope most of all

Stone Lunasea: yeah Brad did pretty good considering I stretched his Taxi from a 4 seater to 20 LOL

Star Ravenhurst: We have been known to sit in each others laps!

Dabici Straulino: thanks, nice colourful tour

Tosha Tyran: for the place, for showing us, for the imaginative rides and all the fun

Dings Digital: yes, thank you so much, it is wonderful

Francisco Koolhoven: this was great, thank you!

Stone Lunasea: Thank you all so much for coming! This has been fun!

Govega Sachertorte: thank you for coming

Forest Azure: thanks a lot! that was real fun :)

HG Address: 

hg.neverworldgrid.com:8002:Magicland
hg.neverworldgrid.com:8002:Amusement Park