Coopersville Parade

Yesterday was the Coopersville Flotilla on Kitely, and after many weeks of planning, devising, testing and of course building, nine waterborne vehicles and about 20 people gathered to enjoy the show!

The event was coordinated by Koshari Mahana on her VAR region, Coopersville.

Coopersville is a historical region, with an emphasis on the early 20th Century American style - lots of clapboard, gambrel roofs, and opulent villas, and although this is not a RP region, it offers the opportunity to dress up in your jazz-age finery, or your best Edwardian top hat and tails, and soak in the atmosphere.

Coopersville offers opportunities for people to take up residence, or open a shop on the region, provided it's in keeping with the look of the place, so if you're thinking about sampling life on Kitely, it could be an option worth considering! Contact Koshari Mahana in person for more details.

Koshari Mahana - Beatles Yellow Submarine - Four Winds

And it was the lady herself who wins the 'Yellowest float' award for her Beatles inspired barge, helmed by the Fab Four and carrying a raft below it with a fabulous array of Pepperland-style plants and animals.

Rosa Alekseev - DJ Rosa

Rosa Alekseev easily won "Best Use of a Headset in a Marine Environment' award with her DJ themed float. How fun to have people flying around the boats as they parade! Very NPIRL

Cooper Swizzle & Everyone from Education Consortium - VWEC

The VWEC float was a little allegory of books and bridges, with some particle action going on which was never fully explained. 'Best Book on the Water' award for them! Shockingly, this gif records the attempted sabotage by...

GM interactive & Colorado Glasswing - Let's Talk About It

... the GM Interactive craft! Oh wait, probably was just some overenthusiastic driving. Or maybe the lag.'Fastest Float' prize to GM. Let's say no more about it. Luckily, these vessels are all unsinkable.

Mike McHugh - Hang Glider Boat

Not just unsinkable, but gravity defying! This entry to the flotilla by Mike McHugh took to the skies with three bright parachutes. As you can imagine it was quite hard to get good shots of all these moving parts - to be honest, we were suffering a wee bit of lag, over on the Observation Desk - but luckily Mike is a master multitasker, so he took a video which will fill in some of the pictorial gaps found here.

Valibrarian Gregg of the Virtual Worlds Education Consortium will soon be posting her video on the VWEC Youtube channel which is also a great source for updates and info about the many events they hold to enhance, encourage, and evangelize the educator in places like Second Life and Opensim.

Ada Radius - Whale House Boat

'Most Literary Launch' is the award that belongs to Ada Radius, who came up with this ship that has touches of Melville, Verne, Collodi, and even a bit of  Akiyuki Nosaka about it. The mouth is the cockpit here, guessing there was a bit of a fishy aroma while driving.

Mike Lorrey - Hypersonic Systems (Naboo)

Alive with Neon lights, Mike Lorrey's boat was more of a floating launchpad - the 'Best Use of a Jet Engine in a Civilian Parade' award has to be his. The vehicle is a reminder of the Safari's recent visit to Naboo, where we spent an hour sampling the joys of the Gunga Palace. Fun times!

Cooper Swizzle & Carla Kincaid Yoshikaw - Training in the 21st Century

Cooper Swizzle and Carla Kincaid win the 'Most Surprising Float' award for this rock-like entry. It already seemed to be a floating island, but at a certain point, it rose out of the water a few meters, and a sort of waterfall effect fell around the base, greating a flowing grask skirt, and giving the whole thing the look of a hula dancer.. 

It was so surprising and great looking that of course I forgot to take a photo. But plenty of other people were filming, so hopefully there is a record of that!  I did, however, remember to snap this pic of Kimm Starr, dressed up as Jeannie, from the iconic 1960s TV series with Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman.

Kimm Starr

Kimm Starr's float immortalizes the moment when astronaut Tony Nelson finds that fateful bottle, and releases into the world one of the best TV characters of all time.

Kimm Starr - I Dream of Jeannie - Virtual Vignette

Impressive attention to detail went into all of these boats. This was such a fun event, hopefully there will be many more in the future, and people from other grids will become aware and participate.

The flotilla sails past the observation dock

 It would take a 'making of' documentary to tell the tale of all the thought, planning, imagination, and self expression that is going on here, while we the public blithely sat there with a cocktail and looked on. 

Coopersville is a vast network of waterways and islands, as well as the funfair, the Edwardian town and so very much more. Built by Koshari, it's worth a visit any time.

HG Address: grid.kitely.com:8002:Coopersville