Sweet April Whirls

          This week, two of the best opensim performers, at two of the greatest OSgrid regions. On Amsterdam Bingyi's Zweet ZurroundingZ, an audience with Emil Jannings, a star of the spoken word, and then, a fascinating visit to the Belfast regions of Stiofain Mactomais, culminating with a concert by talented guitarman Whirli Placebo. HG Addresses are at the end of the post.



          The origins of Zweet ZurroundingZ, romantic arcadian hills and woods topped by ethereal palaces and rotundas, are lost in the mists of Second Life.

Amsterdam Bingyi 

            Having made the shift to OSGrid back in 2008, and expanding his lands to occupy a gigantic var, Amsterdam Bingyi is a master of subtle detail.


          Realistic textures blend through layers of light and shade, impeccable terraforming and innovative use of mesh that never jars, but always invites exploration, excursions, under a gorgeous windlight sky.


           It's a region that takes a while to rez, but you will not regret it if you take the time to see it in its full glory. We sat on the terrace overlooking a beautiful valley.


          Emil Jannings read to us a series of April inspired texts, leading us through Chaucer up to Edna St Vincent Millay's Spring, Seamus Heaney's Rite of Spring and even a couple on the theme of pirates - including Robert Louis Stevenson's A Pirate's Story - all read with Emil's usual erudition, wit, and charm.

Emil Jannings 

          It's always lovely to hear poems well read, in a beautiful environment, and even better to have erudite thoughts interpolate the readings. Emil invited us to reflect on why the month of April can be so stressful. It's the time of year when in the Northern hemisphere Nature is waking up, and an awakening always requires energy to shake of the slumberous habits of the indoor live, in winter.

           You can find the full text of the selected poems in the LM box on hgsafari region, FrancoGrid.

          And then, on to celebrate ten years of the Maritime Club in opensim, with Stiofain Mactomais, and live music by Whirli Placebo.

The Maritime and the Curzon 

            The raison d'etre of the various Belfast regions is Stiofain's deep love of the everyday architecture of the city of Belfast. For decades the city suffered from the effects of political violence, with bombs and defensive architecture - reinforced barriers of one kind or another - blighting the face of the capital of Northern Ireland. When peace finally came to the city, the familiar landmarks, many of which were in a somewhat rundown condition, faced a new menace, in the shape of property developers coming in and buying up buildings, demolishing them or repurposing them as luxury flats or upscale office complexes. What to an outsider might look like a clearing and refurbishing of the city center is seen in the eyes of the locals as the wholesale robbery of their heritage - and it hurts!

Inside the box office of the Curzon 

          Stiofain's collection of virtual buildings goes a long way to giving the visitor the chance to imagine what it means to lose much loved streetscapes. Not all the buildings on these regions have disappeared in real life, the Ulster Hall is still going strong, but others are gone, like The Maritime Club (Belfast's equivalent of Liverpool's Cavern Club) and the Curzon Film Centre, which Stiofain and George Equus have turned to an excellent purpose, a place where you can watch interesting videos about the history of Belfast.

Stiofain Mactomais 

George Equus: Here are some online pics: The Curzon as it used to be and how it is today
stiofain mactomais: hopefully u will all return another time to explore further there are 9 regions here with a variety of belfast exhibitions lots of old buildings that no longer exist belfasts most famous export the rms titanic .... which was alrite when it left here ... and a lot of music and art related stuff
George Equus: Called progress...

Comfy seats at the cinema 

stiofain mactomais: To watch one of the five featured videos on the history of Belfast, u just need to choose a year at front of stage then clk play media. If u dont know about the history i wud advise 1969, if u want to see the worst 1988, or if u want more positive 1994.
Hans Nerido: with popcorn and beer ???
Phred: 1969 if you want the best music :)
stiofain mactomais: geo set up the video here in the Curzon.
George Equus: It is standard Youtube TV setting. The script only needs the proper video link. This setup is open source that Nebadon Izumi made long ago Benefit is any number of ppl can watch at the same time from any number of videos set up
Lucy Afarensis: very cool


          Then off we went, across the road, to the iconic Maritime Club, which has been offering Live Music in OSGrid for ten years now, quite an amazing milestone for any club in any kind of reality - congratulations to Stio and all his performers!! Whirli Placebo, the guitar man we all love to hear, reminded us that he quite rarely plays music inworld these days, but this venue is one of his favorites. He certainly made our evening complete.


            Whirli is one of those rare performers who reads the chat as he plays, so there's a great rapport with the public, and that makes the event even more fun and intimate. Take a moment to check out Whirli's YouTube channel and subscribe, you won't regret it.


          Even when there's no live music happening, the Belfast regions are well worth a walk or cam around the whole area (including under water) for you will find much to delight you, such as the Ormeau Baths, nowadays a fancy office complex in RL, and in virtual, a gallery of paintings by Catherine Kingcome and Barry Kerr. Another must -see, on the upper floors of the Maritime, is the exhibition of representations of Celtic gods and goddesses.

cam up at the Maritime, and you'll find many art treasures 

            Live music from Whirli Placebo, with a selection of truly beautiful covers, re-imagined in this distinctive, seductive style, was the perfect end to our tour.


stiofain mactomais: will just post that again after all the well deserved whirli applause folks for any one hasn't been here before, we do a live show every sunday at 10 pm gmt this week we have Truelie Telling live from nashville with her special guests Black Rhinocerous - watch their video here

HG Addresses
Zweet ZurroundingZ hg.osgrid.org:80:zweet zurroundingz
The Curzon Cinema, and Maritime Club hg.osgrid.org:80:maritime club belfast