Safarying

Thursday, January 5, 2017

Safari Calendar 2017 - where, when, and why

          This year's calendar features 13 destinations visited by the Safari during 2016, with an emphasis on the landscapes we've seen.
           The calendar is available free and full perms inside the Clubhouse at Teravus Plaza, OSGrid - just 'buy' it from the box on the Rhino table. You can also get it if you visit the courtyard of the Safari Embassy at Mal Burns' Metaworld Township on Great Canadian Grid. And of course it's also available in the Safari Market on HGSafari sim in Francogrid.
          The calendar bit contains all kinds of opensim-relevant dates, the first hg experiment, the birthdays of most of the major grids, and so on, as well as real-world holidays.
          If you like to mix opensim with real life, you can also buy a high quality paper copy version at Lulu.com
            Choosing just 13 photos from the thousands we have from hundreds of places visited was a daunting task, and one that is never satisfying - we could easily have ten different versions of the calendar, and still find places and people have been left out.  But hopefully this goes some way to showing the wealth of variety that OpenSim has to offer.
             Not all of the places in the photographs are readily visitable. As time goes by, regions -and sometimes whole grids -  close, or change their look, or move beyond our ken. But these are all places where we had memorable Safari visits last year.


https://gyazo.com/c2737f3bbdec2098df1aaec2e81ed9c0
Cover:  Zweet ZurroundingZ, OSGrid by Amsterdam Bingyi.
HG Address    hg.osgrid.org:80:zweet zurroundingz
Amsterdam's build is a huge romantic playground, beautifully put together with delightful woods and glades, crowned with a splendidly palatial ballroom. Waterfalls, statues, gazebos, bridges and an exquisite coastline complete the the environment. Want more? Amsterdam has just completed a 9 sim mesh terrain project, right next door to ZZ.
Zweet ZurroundingZ

January:   Radiola
HG Address  vps228543.ovh.net:9000
This is a small grid by Livio Korobase, aka Livio Mondini. Known for his surreal installations in Second Life, Livio's opensim presence has the feeling of a strange but serene open air workshop, full of toys and scattered with statues. The Safari made a couple of stops here last year, including a visit to the warehouse style club in the sky for a Rockabilly event.
Radiola
February: Craft Grid
Cornflakes Week on Cybearland, Craft Grid
HG Address  craft-world.org:8002:cybearland
Cornflakes Week comes once a year, and is a uniquely opensim opportunity to celebrate. celebrate what? Silliness, old friends, primary colors, and our ever widening community. Each year for a week, grids and region owners are invited to join in with this non denominational holiday. Last year the Safari celebrated on Craft Grid with Licu Rau and Tao Quan who converted this children's playground into a Cornflakes set, using some of the free items traditional to the celebration. Are you going to join in this year? want to know more?
For more info, look on either Facebook Opensim Cornflakes Week  event, or G+ Cornflakes Week Community
Cybearland, Craft Grid


March: Saraneth, Ignis Fatuus Grid
HG Address ignis-fatuus.no-ip.biz:8002
A fantasy world by Max Hill, owner of Ignis Fatuus Grid, Saraneth is a vast landscape of towers and lakes, with magical caves, temples, pools and palaces. The inspiration comes from a video game called The Book of Unwritten Tales but in the grand tradition of OpenSim, it's been expanded and enhanced by a passionate amateur... with some not-so-amateur effects. Safari visited back in June 2016 and a second visit, the Return to Saraneth, is planned for later this Spring.


April: Nephtys

HG Address Available on request to Ange Menges, OSGrid
Nephtys is a strange, hostile but beautiful region by nani Ferugson and Ange Menges that tells the story of a society of misfits and mutants, half forgotten by the rest of the universe. This team of builders has been constructing temporary or ephemeral builds, often sim-sized hunts, for over 8 years first in SL and then on different grids in OpenSim. The regions generally celebrate the great festivals of the seasons, Halloween, Springtime, and Winter. There is a surreal, wild, dangerous feel to each one, By their nature, these regions are not open for long, or very often, and you need to ask Ange in order to visit. But you can also see their work in an extraordinary series of videos on Ange's Youtube Channel
Nephtys






May: Francogrid
HG Address  
The Eiffel-style tower, built by Pad Germe, was FrancoGrid's contribution to the OpenSim Community Conference back in 2013. It remains on Francogrid as a work of art and also a snapshot of the grid's community at that time. Friends who have moved on to other places, and those who have stayed. In our transitory OpenSim life, it is all too easy to lose track of one another, so this tower is in a way a monument to solidarity and mutual support. It also does a brilliant particle show.
June: Locks grid
HG Address Currently unavailable
Locked Semaphore welcomed us to his mini grid, Raious, a witty and beautifully created world of sci fi. The region is best seen through the eyes of the robot guide, who explains the history and culture of the locals... a wonderful take on the iPhone. How shocked we all were when Locked revealed that the whole grid was in fact inside an iPhone! 20 of us and not a whiff of lag. To rad more of our Raious adventure, go here.

July: Arcana

HG Address: currently offline
HG Safari visited Arcana in March 2016. This small grid, home to Isis Ophelia, has at its heart a love of music. The delightful medieval feel of Arcana made it a firm favorite with all visitors, and the many HG tools Isis provided were a real asset to anyone new to grid jumping.  It felt like a real place, and is much missed.

August: Fireworxxs

HG Address   hypergrid.org:8002:fireworxxs
Wordfromthe Wise has a reputation on the hypergrid for having the best light shows of all. His region Fireworxxs has a short show you can watch any time, but for our 100th HG Safari he put on a special show. Here you see some of the group lying down watching the amazing, intense photo-experience.

September: The Lost Gardens of Apollo
HG Address   hypergrid.org:8002:the lost gardens of apollo
This historic landmark of Second Life has been given a new lease of life by builder Delphi Bernard and the Carima group of Metropolis. With permission from the original creator, Delphi brings together all the colors and romance of Apollo, built by Dane Zander in SL in 2005. HG Safari visited in the Spring of 2016 with a concert by the great Torben Asp. Since our visit, Delphi has brought her re-creation back into Second Life, at least for the time being. But you can visit the opensim version any time.

October:  La Dolce Vita
HG Address  craft-world.org:8002:la dolce vita
This is the first region ever to be constructed specifically for a HG Safari visit. The group Sensation Millennium build it. Inspired by Federico Fellini's film La Dolce Vita, this region contains all the major Roman landmarks from the film, as well as countless cutout figures representing the characters. Poses and animations, NPCs and sound effect all come together to make this one of the most atmospheric builds you will find in opensim.

November: Condensation Land
HG Address  hypergrid.org:8002:condensationland
This region is home to virtual Art maven Zonja Capalini, curated and created together with Plastichansa Bade. The photo shows a sculpture by Pep Plastichansa. The Safari visit this winter inspired  Zonja to make a machinima, which you can see here. The region is full of diversity and delight, it would take hours to visit it all. Such a fun place. It has great significance in the Art History of OpenSim too so a trip to condensation Land should get all your spidey senses tingling!
Condensation Land

December: Creanovale
HG Address  hg.creanovale.ca:8052
Dabici Straulino and  Kelso Uxlay are the creators on Creanovale, a Canadian grid. Every year, they celebrate the changing seasons with a var region that captures the Canadian landscape. HG Safari has visited many times, and enjoyed parties, concerts, boat ride, skiing and sledding, not to mention the occasional slow dance with Santa...
Creanovale












1 comment:

  1. Wow, great work Thirza. I am also happy to see that we can order at Lulu from Canada in CDn $.

    We are very honored and thanksful to have our world in it.

    ReplyDelete