Safari meets The Man

 LadyK Braveheart: I purposefully left Cali in RL, why would I want to go back? LOL...

Angelic Kisses: lol

Doctor Dave: Because we are FUN.

Dr Dave

Grid Nomad: Hi everyone, nice to meet you!

Nara Nook: cool cars

Grid Nomad, pic by R. Kisses

Angelic Kisses: ツ  hello Nomad

Thirza Ember: ok we are just missing Aphra and Roff I think

LadyK Braveheart: -*- HeLLo-*-

James Atlloud: Hello

Beth Ghostraven: Aphra might be feeding her cat,  it was sitting in front of her screen, lol

Grid Nomad: cats are kinda demanding that way lol

Angelic Kisses: and Roff was snapping pics

Youca Godel: Welcome everyone.  This is a recreation of Wet Willie's a bar in the bay area Delta

Doctor Dave: Welcome everyone to our short but chaotic tour of Burning Man.

Grid Nomad: Can I take some pics of ya'll? We are so excited you have come to visit!

Thirza Ember: we would be offended if you didn't

James Atlloud: Sure!  We luv photoz!

Doctor Dave: Burning Man is an Art Festival focused on community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance.   It's held the week before labor day but for the organizers and volunteers in months of effort setting up and tearing down.  The event has been located since 1991 at Black Rock City.   We will visit that later.

Thirza Ember: wow over 30 years that's a long time!

Grid Nomad: NorCal is still very new... how old is it Herbie?

Doctor Dave: Youca, Miranda, Herbie, and myself are Burners - weirdo artists who make things for the event in RL and in VL.

Thirza Ember: loving the weird!!!

Doctor Dave: The Burner Community embraces the Ten Principles: radical inclusion, gifting, decommodification, radical self-reliance, radical self-expression, communal effort, civic responsibility, leaving no trace, participation, and immediacy. We try to incorporate these 10 guiding philosophies into our lives. The event originated on June 22, 1986, on Baker Beach in San Francisco as a small function organized by Larry Harvey and Jerry James, the builders of the first Man. It has since been held annually, spanning the nine days leading up to and including Labor Day. Over the event's history, attendance has generally increased. In 2019, 78,850 people participated in the event.  The Baker Beach site was recreated by dee zee.  It's the megasim to our south.  The Northern California region was recreated by Herbie Haven. 

Herbie Haven: just started building this region in Jan, lots left to do have a few sections almost done, the gold mine and cavern, the pot farm in Humbolt, the falls, the ski resort, the redwood road is more or less done, and the ranger station.  Both of these sims are 6-by-6.  Due to the sheer size, doing a tour to see everything would take hours.  We encourage you all to come back and explore when you have time.

Youca Godel: The first Burning Man events were held on Baker Beach in San Francisco.  We have a 6x6 recreation of the Beach next door to this Nor-Cal area

Thirza Ember: was it held in 2020?

Grid Nomad: I see the golden gate bridge over there, how big is that?

Youca Godel: No, not in 2020

Doctor Dave: Everyone took time off for the pandemic.  We joke about Safety Third, but no one wanted to make a disease vector that would cover the globe. We are building a network of sims so that we can all start at original Baker Beach site, Burning Man's birthplace, and either drive or take a train across the soon to be 4 sims all the way out to Burning Man. For many of us, the journey out is also part of the experience.  From the bay area we have to drive over Donner Pass in the Sierras, almost 8000ft high.  We pass near Lake Tahoe and drop down into Reno.  Then it's a two hour drive out into the desert, leaving "civilization" behind.

Herbie Haven: feel free to take one of the Quad Bikes over there to get around if you like when you have some time, this region alone is 36 sims combined so its a large area to explore

Grid Nomad: And you can sail or fly to Hawaii

who need s Hawaii when you can Thelma-and-Louise it with the lovely Nara Nook

Doctor Dave: (yep, Hawaii is to the west and you can sail out there.  We have lots of MegaSims.)

Grid Nomad: it is the event/ethos that brought us all together.

Forest Azure: but ... what IS the burning man? sorry i know so little

Grid Nomad: burning man happens each year out in the Nevada desert

Forest Azure: yes, but why a burning man? it sounds kind of cruel

Thirza Ember: better than a burning woman

Star Ravenhurst: Haha Thirza! Agree!

Forest Azure: plenty of burning women in the past

Doctor Dave: That's a cool part of our history

LadyK Braveheart: Forest, read about it on google... I follow Trey Radcliff, Photography artist and he had made some amazing art of Burning Man over the years.

Forest Azure: well, i can google of course, but I hoped I could be lazy and hear it here

Grid Nomad: it all started by burning an effigy in the shape of the man on Baker Beach over 25 years ago... it IS all about art, radical self expression... and so attracts some pretty creative peeps

Doctor Dave: The artist, Larry Harvey, made the original effigy for an obscure reason never quite documented. One theory was he made the effigy to represent the guy who stole his GF.

Forest Azure: ah!

The desert is full of witty or thought provoking art

Thirza Ember: how long have you been working on the OpenSim version of Burning Man?

LadyK Braveheart: they said Jan?

Grid Nomad: the Playa has been around longer... how long Dave?

Herbie Haven: started this region about 6 weeks ago and been loving working on it, lots of room to work :)

Grid Nomad: Herbie is a beast!

Thirza Ember: yes that is the joy of opensim, the space

Grid Nomad: Yasss!

James Atlloud: Lots of room - OpenSim is great for that.

dee zee: I started the  Beach region to the south around thanksgiving

Grid Nomad: The beach is really something special....

Doctor Dave: Back to where we are standing, The Nor-Cal sim loosely based on Northern California from Mendocino up through Humboldt, over to the Sierra Nevada range then down to the California Delta. The goal is not to replicate places or things but to get a general feel for the areas you might drive through in the Northern parts of California. Herbie has built gold mines, hiking trails, pot farms, ocean shores, and we are standing in the Sacramento River delta. Hit Herbie up for LMs are you want to explore :)

Thirza Ember: are we all allowed to friend Herbie in case we need pot or gold or something?

James Atlloud: pot or a pan or two

LadyK Braveheart: I'm overwhelmed it all just standing here.. lol...

Youca Godel: Soon, it will be a real thing to be able to take a long road trip through these sims all the way out to the Northern Nevada desert. Deezee has done a beautiful recreation of San Francisco's Baker Beach

Hawaii sim on groovyverse

Doctor Dave: Trust me, it gets better as your explore the place.

Herbie Haven: was just working on the airport on the region to the south, will have float planes, shark diving in the Farallon islands, whale watching etc... can sail to hawaii or fly there

Star Ravenhurst: The terraforming is very nice. Love that bar

Herbie Haven: terraforming was a treat hahaha this place is so huge i have a hard time with scale

Grid Nomad: the attention to details are everywhere...  love details.

Thirza Ember: so, is it a sacrifice in any way to not be on SL doing this? did you have to leave a lot of inventory behind? or are you build-from-scratch type people?

Youca Godel: This alll...waving...is not possible to do in SL due to the expense of so many sims

dee zee: we miss some of our less adventurous  friends  who  can't seem to find OpenSim [mostly]. We are  builders, we  make  what we need out of  what we can find  :)) that part  hasnt really  been an issue

Grid Nomad: We have a mix of talents in our happy crew, many are talented builders.

Youca Godel: Build from scratch!  Herbie has a chop shop here where he scrapped some vehicles and built a quad motorcycle to use here.

Herbie Haven: lots of this stuff is free things found here and there, some edited and textured some just built from scratch. I made that quad from a ducati motorcycle, ford pick up, willies jeep and a mustang, robbed parts and made a few bits... have matching snow mobile and wave runner also, over at the chop shop

Thirza Ember: will you have music this August? can musicians sign up for it?

Grid Nomad: We hope to have events sooner than then, and YES we love musicians

Thirza Ember: Time to head for the second region on this stop of our Safari the LM is marked 2.2 ... called hugeburn

dee zee: enjoy!

Doctor Dave: The grid owner tells me the the CPU is running great, no danger of crashing.... yet.

Thirza Ember: congrats to Hyacinth!!!

Doctor Dave: When the other half gets here, I'll keep talking... rambling... pontificating...and vomiting cool factoids.

Beth Ghostraven: I'm allergic to pontificating, sorry

Doctor Dave: *passes an antispeechamine*

Youca, center of photo, without whom this Safari would neve have happened

Grid Nomad: heard that's illegal in some states ;P

Beth Ghostraven: haha Grid, how could it be? All of the states have politicians!

Doctor Dave: PHOTO OP in front of the train, tall people in back... There are 13 of us here so we lost a few.

Doctor Dave: The train holds 14 people.  Some of the spots are seated poses, some are dances. The train is a nod to an art project we did at Burning Man years ago. "The Great Train Wreck."

Thirza Ember: that may happen again today

Doctor Dave: We built a wooden train, Reno built a train, and we lit the two full sixze trains on fire and pulled them into each other loaded with fireworks. 6 seats in the caboose, 2 seats in the tower, dance spots on the locomotive, and two seats on the very back

Grid Nomad: Allll abooooarrd!

Doctor Dave: Roffellos, there is a spot on the nose of the train

Grid Nomad: that's the BEST seat in the haus!

Another train came out of nowhere, and rushed off ahead of us.

Angelic Kisses: wow...they must be on an electric train...think ours might be steam.

Nara Nook: vroom vroom... definitely train is smoking something

Angelic Kisses: lol

LadyK Braveheart: Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ  HaHa  Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ 

James Atlloud: wow - my head is spinning!

Forest Azure: a heavy cigar

Doctor Dave: The Black Rock Desert is a semi-arid region northwest Nevada, about 100 miles north of Reno.  The Playa is an alkali flats over 20 sq miles in size, this lakebed is the dry remnant of Pleistocene Lake Lahontan. The Black Rock Desert is just north of the tiny town of Gerlach, a historical railstop.  Instead of recreating the town, we made our artistic impression of it.  More fun instead of just copying reality. We call the town Bruno, named after a RL pillar of their community (and the guy who saved our bacon on our very first burn). The running joke is you can call the town anything you like as long as it's got Bruno in it.  I like Brunopolis.

Doctor Dave: Next stop is Robot Ranch. Northwest of the RL town is the Fly ranch valley, containing the famous Fly Ranch Geyser (recreated by Youca).  We changed the name to Robot Valley for reasons you can see from afar if you dial your draw distance up to max.

James Atlloud: has the train been moving all this time?  It just warped to a new spot for me.

Doctor Dave: It has been moving.

Thirza Ember: for me it has been pretty smooth, got good gifs of it

James Atlloud: huh - weird.

Doctor Dave: We have never had 18 avatars on it before. We are all stress load crash test dummies.

Thirza Ember: not the first time today i have been called a dummie

Angelic Kisses: the "crash" part is what alarmed me

LadyK Braveheart: I love train rides.. especially ones I can dance on while moving

Forest Azure: this is great!

Roffellos Kisses: oo ok - a ranch of robots

Doctor Dave: To our right is the Fly/Robot Ranch Geyser. It was created in RL by a drilling accident.

LadyK Braveheart: are we supposed to be stopped?

Grid Nomad: yes, the train waits 60 seconds at stops then continues on

Thirza Ember: question: are we driving you crazy with all our questions?

LadyK Braveheart: Is the geyser supposed to be flowing? I don't see it.

Thirza Ember: it might be an old geezer. they tend to be slower

Doctor Dave: It's a work in progress and Youca tweaks the particle emitters. The mineral laden water can built up tofa tube deposits and bult up the mounds that spray water.

Doctor Dave: Up ahead is our Robot, made by Jeff.

Forest Azure: ah... I thought it was the man to be burned

Thirza Ember: I love it all, but that robot is particularly charming

Doctor Dave: It was made as an effigy for our Burn event is SL.  He imported it over to Groovy. To our right/south are builder parcels, our workshops for art projects.

Forest Azure: did James fall off?

Nara Nook: hard to tell thru smoke

LadyK Braveheart: he's flying around looking at stuff.

James Atlloud: The train wasn't moving for me so opted off.

Forest Azure: /me points a thirza's lap

Thirza Ember: it's so much easier to cam the train and then i can type, beats walking

Doctor Dave: The Burning Man event is located on the flat lake bed, a near perfect canvas to create your art.  We arrive, build, and live out there for over a week. RL conditions on the playa are harsh - hot, cold, dry, and very windy at time.  It can searing desert during the day and then freeze at night.  We have sudden wind storms kicking up dust causing white outs.  So masks and goggles are necessary. My RL camp structure was designed to withstand 50 mph winds.

James Atlloud: Oops Star fell off the train.

Star Ravenhurst: The train wasn't moving

Doctor Dave: The finale of the tour is lighting the man on fire. We have scripts that simulate burning. The Man is standing ahead on the right. Near the Russian Easter Egg effigy, and the huge Hourglass Both the egg and the hourglass were burns made in SL and imported over to here. The area we are passing thru will be our driveby shooting range.

Thirza Ember: is this where we alight?

Doctor Dave: Everybody Off! Meet the MAN.

Forest Azure: hello man

LadyK Braveheart: /me o/ waves to the MAN.

Forest Azure: poor man

Doctor Dave: The City is usually over 2 miles across and built like a clock.  People camp between 2:00 and 10:00.  The Center Camp Plaza is down at 6:00 and the Temple is at 12:00.  The map of the streets was created by Indy.

Grid: Youca Godel gave you Twirly Firestick L.

Forest Azure: a huge match! dangerous in my hands

James Atlloud: Lite 'em up!

Frank Gresham: Thanks everyone. I have to drop. Glad to see the groovy big burn.

Doctor Dave: The highlight of the event is when we burn the Man, a tall effigy.  He is either built on top of a structure or free standing.  But always very tall and in the middle of the city. This next part is best viewed on MIDNIGHT setting. We are still working out the bugs in the scripts.  The FALL stage is supposed to allow the structure to collapse slowly but it seems to not like Bullet Physics.

Forest Azure: this looks so great!

Doctor Dave: For our virtual burns, we usually have music during the burn and everyone dances in the fallen embers. You can move closer if you want, with his height, panning for a good view becomes a challenge.

Thirza Ember: well, i think you can count on us all coming back to see your progress over the next months, and to come to Burning Man this summer! what a great build, congrats to you all and to hyacinth for a super grid... thanks for the wonderful explanation, the tour, everything

Grid Nomad: Hya is amazing! She's given us a HOME... this is a beautiful burn Dave

James Atlloud: Super visit!  Thanks so much.

Angelic Kisses: This was great!

LadyK Braveheart: Amazing

Roffellos Kisses: yep what a great place

Doctor Dave: Come again and explore when you have more time.

humbletim metaverse: /me waves!

HG Addresses:  groovyverse.com:8002:Nor-Cal

                           groovyverse.com:8002:Hugeburn