Dangazi Win-Win

Our very last stop this season was on a small but riotously lovely grid called Shipyards, the HG Address is as always at the end of the post. You may remember our epic tour of another sim here, the Dew Drop Islands. Today instead, it was the turn of The Dangazi Forest, we were on a walking tour in countryside with an interesting origin story. Owned by Danger Lytton and Azi Az, who were both on hand to welcome us at the small island in the stream.

Danger Lytton: Hello and Welcome.  Please be sure to set your ENVIRONMENT to shared and set MEDIA to automatic.  Take a copy of the umbrella by mousing over it and clicking. We are in a rain forest so you will want it.  And finally touch the TP board to the sea shell beach and wait for all of us there. You can go beachcombing there and find the 20 or so beautiful sea shells while you wait for the others to arrive.

Azi waiting for us on the seashore

Tina Bey: jeje veo a todos desnudos lol

Tosha Tyran: yes, Tina, me too ah, I was too much time in the sun my ass is all burned

Azi Az: here you can hunt for shells. If you enjoy beach combing there are nice shells to collect on this beach :)))

Nara Nook: I got a seashell

Yes We Candoranien

Willkommen in Candoranien: whispers:   You are greeted!

 It has been determined that I will meet you right here.

 Thus i would like to correspond to my destiny and tell you: Welcome!

  Welcome to the fantastic world of middle ages roleplaying.

Arrival point on Candoranien

This Safari finale began on a stunning playground for anyone who loves adventure, gallantry, and enjoys their chivalry with just a little taste of vampirism and piratical good humor thrown in. It's a 'yes we can' kind of place. That's CandorsRPWorld - and specifically the big region called Candoranien, the HG Address is of course at the end of the post. There's loads to see on this grid, you may remember this post about it from last year. When Scarlett Von Candors said she would be willing to host us, we jumped at the chance to go!

A bit like last week when lots of Frenchies from all over opensim were there to welcome us to Vulcano Stirpe region on Bloodmoon grid, there were lots of residents and friends of Candanien on hand to help Scarlett welcome the Safari group; - Butschi, Marlis, Rufus, Cosa, Briana, Calvin, Isabelle, Doris, Thalion, Theodor, Muna, Trawell, Udo,Willi, Calvin, Karsten, and Loru, although I may have missed a few names. How great it is to have such support and intergrid friendships. That's the spirit. 

Belze Cherub: Hallo-Hello-Salut-Γειά σου-Ciao-Привет-¡Hola-Merhaba-

Theodor Schildhauer[de→en]: Be enjoyed valued ​​guests

Star Ravenhurst: Hello Everyone!

Karsten Runningbear[de→en]: Greetings to you, Sir Theodor. Hello everyone and cheers :)

Whirli Placebo: waving

Cosa Wiefel: Greetings travelers

Scarlett vonCandors[de→en]: First of all, welcome to our medieval role -playing play in Candoranien. We are going to make a little excursion today about our Sim, we normal citizens, nobility, knights, beggars to Vikings, vampires, magicians and a lot more.

Romance and the 'Rose

Weddings - they're so romantic! At the beginning of this month Chrissy Coage of Moonrose Grid and Dark Wolf of Adult Life grid got married inworld. 

Weddings aren't uncommon in virtual worlds, and they come in all shapes and sizes, from those who renew their vows every year, to those who barely get through the honeymoon before the whole whirlwind is over.  There was, however, something about this wedding that made it clear that this was not just an excuse for a good party,

Dark Wolf and Chrissy Coage

In this case the good party was on Moonrose Grid, Chrissy's home. In fact it was thanks to this grid that they met! It is a relationship based on a close friendship, a creative partnership, and some serious talent.

Chrissy Coage: I was looking for a manager for Moonrose grid. We were introduced in Teamspeak because Dark was a software guy, it was a good match for the task I needed. We are together every day We talk a lot about opensim, we do everything together and have been doing so for 3 years now.

Dark Wolf: I've been running my grid for about eight years. I like to "animate" dead objects. Showing other users what's possible with scripts is also a great thing.

Chrissy Coage: We are only a couple in Opensim but we also know each other in RL where we are very good friends. why we got married I think we are so close with each other. That we express it that way.To show that you belong, to show the bond to the outside world - that's what a wedding in a virtual world is all about. I think we were 25 people at the wedding, the wedding itself was not open to the public, with planning and building it took us 1 month and healthy nerves.

Chrissy and father of the bride, Silver Mare (Photo by Icelady Pearl)

Dark Wolf: For my part, I really like Chrissy. I love her direct, tough, but not pushy manner. Over time, we've gotten to know and appreciate each other better. As many of you know, I'm a gay man, so we want to show others that love and affection don't always have to involve sex and eroticism.

Moonrose Arrival

You get the feeling that love is in the air the moment you alight on the Moonrose Welcome area, it's full of blue sky and fluffy clouds, cherry blossom and cute umbrellas, and of course lots of moon and lots of roses, naturally. 

Romance and beauty are strong symbols, but there's an undercurrent of tenuousness - all that stormy weather kept just on the edges of this world; perhaps a reminder that changeableness is a constant in the virtual as in real life, so we need to hold close the things and above all the people we love and value, and never take them for granted. 

Wyld Ride

 Fitheach Eun and Tessa Lacombe were on Wyldwood Bayou Grid to welcome us for the second stop of our Safari this week. Wyldwood is well known for its Rockin' the Blues events, its roleplay groups, and its lovely New Orleans build, a popular stop off during carnival season in particular. Today though we were heading for another sim entirely, Wyld Thangs, a region of rides and relaxation.

Fitheach Eun

Neo Cortex: Safari incoming! Take cover!

Contessa Lacombe: runs into the barn... Hey Star! Hi Mal! Hey Forest! Hi Alex!

Thirza Ember: lots of body bits!

Star Ravenhurst: We have a crowd.

Malburns Craftster: Fear and Loadings in the metaverse - has a certain ring to it

Fitheach Eun: Welcome to Wyldwood Bayou’s Wyld Thangs Ride Park. Kith Whitehawk, Contessa Lacombe, Harmony Beningborough and I (Fitheach Eun) built this region as a play-ground for the Wyldwood Bayou Grid. It has always been open to Hypergridders looking for fun. We have an awesome and scary motocross, a skate park with an obstacle course, a beach area, an outdoor cinema and some really beautiful scenery along with 2 music venues where we occasionally offer events.

Star Ravenhurst and Contessa Lacombe consider their options

Fitheach Eun: It’s a great region to tour on horseback, 4-wheeler, or motorcycle. You can bring your own vehicles and rez them in the designated areas. We will take you on a brief tour and then you can choose where you want to play. We also have freebie shops at the Water Park, Skate Park and Vehicle Barn. There is even a Food Court next to the Skate Park. The sign in front of the barn has folders of information on how to fix a number of common Opensim issues. We spent a lot of time re-searching and testing to create those for our music club audiences. Please grab any that interest you.

Safari Visits Vulcano

Our first stop this week was on Bloodmoon grid, run by Vlad and Vanessa Van Helsing, previously owners of Virtual Dreams grid, and before that, the beautiful Les Carpathes grid, among other iterations. Largely a francophone grid, today on Bloodmoon we met up with the Spanish-speaking  Arponera Vulcano  together with her beautiful and creative family - Jaina and Desiree Vulcano. 

Lots of people showed up in solidarity with the Vulcanos, so there were already about 12 people at the arrival point before the Safari group headed over there at exactly 12 noon SLT - yeah, we try to be good guests and not show up early when the hostess is still putting on her lipstick and setting out the canapes!

Jaina, Arponera, and Desiree Vulcano [l to r] wait on the castle steps for their guests

A big group inevitably leads to some arrival lag but we did pretty well this time. A lot of that is thanks to the fact that Safari goers try not to wear super complex avies (in other words, less than 300k complexity) and they also mostly try to keep their MySuitcase as empty as possible, just to give the grid a chance to absorb our arrival. Keeping draw distance down to something around half the maximum possible setting is also a good move. Why? Your Viewer, when you arrive in a new place, communicates with the new sim (and 'child' or adjacent sims) and grabs info on every object, script, texture etc within draw distance. Exhausting! But we did really well and soon Arpo was able to begin her introduction.  

From Paper to Pixel

You're invited!
There's a great Fashion show/party happening tomorrow Saturday 17 May, at 1pm SLT, on Kitely, and specifically the sim Gino's Butterfly, owned by Karima Hoisan -  check the end of the post for the HG Address. 

Animated by Kimm Starr of Virtual Vignette, and inspired by real world art, this original and captivating event will include a dance party with the lovely Rosa Alekseev - lots of fun for all!

Karima Hoisan outside Ottobre

Chances are, you'll remember our HG Safari trip to Gino's Butterfly about a year ago, to see the art installation where Karima - with lots of scripting assistance from her partner Dale Innis - celebrates a fashion designer and family friend, Gino. 

War veteran, artist, and designer, Gino spent the final years of his long and creative life living near Karima, in Costa Rica. On Saturday, that creativity is further celebrated with a Fashion Show called "A Designer's Legacy: From Paper to Pixels" with animesh made by Kimm Starr.

Karima Hoisan: It was the name where he worked with another designer who started him off, James Ottobre, and they became creative partners. Although all these fashions shown here are Ginos. They worked together for years then sold the store and came down to drop out in Costa Rica.

It was another sim by Karima, AI Dreams in Art, a showcase of  Dale Innes' Ai pictures, that was the creative catalyst. MidJourney pictures were new to Kimm, and she was blown away by the setup there. That led to an early collaboration, of animesh Goth girl and guy, still to be found on that sim, and from there....

Kimm Starr:   That's how it started, then Karima gave me a tour of Gino's Butterfly where I first saw Gino's drawings.  I was so inspired to do something with them.  They were absolute eye candy! I was really inspired by the late 1950's & 60's vibe.  I created vintage looking animesh models and then recreated 14 of his original designs

Karima Hoisan: She fell in love with the sketches parading all over the sim..

Thirza Ember: was it a challenge to work with a real design? rather than just making up your own art...

Kimm Starr: yes , considering I'm not a fashion designer but I really wanted to do the designs justice. They were designers in the late 50's early 60s in Beverly Hills.

Queen of the Paths

 Tutz Zabelin is, frankly, Queen of the paths. This week for our second destination, we visited one of her many beautiful landscape regions, this one called The Waterfall Swamp, on Pangea grid... HG Address is at the end of the post... but you knew that already. 

Tutz Zabelin

Our visit of the swamp was originally scheduled for later in the year but due to a last minute cancellation, so we were very happy that Tutz and grid owner Marlon Wayne were able to lay on our tour with very little notice. Shout out to grid gal Kitty Sarrasine also for making sure we had everything optimal! And yeah, the Fall Safari calendar is already beginning to fill up, so if you're interested in having us come visit in September - October - November, it's not too soon to get in touch. Read this page first though. Points 3 and 5 at the end of the page are pretty much a deal breaker.

 Pangea is of course one of Opensim's premiere art grids, with an embarras de richesses - so much to choose from! - this however was a brand new sim to everyone on the tour, and as usual Tutz quickly gave us the lowdown on the origins of her creation. 

Arriving on The Waterfall Swamp

Dings Digital: this place looks awesome

Star Ravenhurst: There are a lot of us today.

Tutz Zabelin: welcome to Pangea grid and sim Waterfall Swamp. Most of you know my background, but in short I started in SL in 2006 and have been in Open sim most of the time since 2014.

Lily Willow: all these places are super amazing  :-)

A Tout Sweet Safari

 The region Novale on Creanovale grid has four glorious seasons, just like the real world it represents, the wildly beautiful Eastern Canadian countryside. It is the home of an extraordinary couple, very talented both in scripting and building, Dabici Straulino and Kelso Uxlay.

Spring comes relatively late to Canada, there's still snow in April, but of course when the sun does finally break through, then it's go time in the garden, and everything changes. Dramatic scenery on every hand has proved to be a great inspiration to Dabici who lays our the region, full of charming details like this garden-in-a-bottle. Kelso's speciality is, of course, scripting, and the many rides that animate the sim are signs of his skill.

This seasonal build will soon give way to the Summer Novale build, so don't delay if you want to visit! HG Address is as always, at the end of the post.

We arrived at the big tent in the corner of the region, which offers excellent resources to find your way around the build if you're a newcomer. Here's Mal Burns in his trademark stetson (no, not a turban, Forest, we all want to see a photo of whatever it is you see on Mal's head)

We all took a seat and got some background about how the sim goes through four big changes each year as it's dressed for the season. This arrival point has at the moment lots of spring and Easter-related items like the chocolate egg, and animals...

AMV Blue

 There's that magic blue in the air over on Metasea. You know, that magic blue that says family vacations, long summer evenings, and relaxing with friends. That's the underlying message behind the upcoming event here, from Friday 16 May to Sunday 18 May. 

I got a Notecard about it from grid owner Cataplexia Numbers. It was shorter than I expected, and very intriguing. A weekend campout that all are welcome to enjoy, with both community stuff happening like concerts and games, but also the change to get out into the wide blue yonder, and enjoy some outdoor sport, from the comfort of your own laptop.

Cataplexia and pet sheep at the campground.

Thirza Ember: what inspired this event?

Heart of Coal

In the summer of 1956, in a small town in Belgium called Marcinelle, disaster struck. Marcinelle was a coal mining town. Belgium in the 19th century was one of the most heavily industrialized countries in Europe, and coal was a big part of fuelling that industry. The mine at Marcinelle had been active since 1822 and had survived two world wars, fought intensely and bloodily in that part of the world. 

Belgium and Italy had signed a 'men for coal' deal in 1946, which gave Italian miners the chance to escape the poverty of postwar Italy and bring their expertise and fortitude to a new coalface. Italy, in exchange, got cheaper coal to help revive their ravaged economy. 

Over one hundred thousand miners over ten years headed north to make a living underground. By the mid fifties, then, the Italians in Belgium, often shunned by locals and obliged to live and work in stark conditions, had created for themselves and their families a distinct way of life, and the chance of a more prosperous future.

Sadly for many that future was cut short. On that morning in August, a poorly placed mining cart in an elevator cut through some cables, causing a fire in the Marcinelle mine.  There were 274 miners below ground; the fire created toxic gas, all but 12 of the men suffocated to death. This colossal tragedy took the lives of 136 Italians, mostly from the Northeastern regions of Friuli and Veneto. The youngest of the dead was the 16 year old Agostino Sacco.

Cut to this year, and the community of people who use, develop, and generally appreciate the content management system Joomla. (you use it to make websites). In Italy, one of the key members of that community is Druskus. He's also an oldbie in Opensim, owner of the historic Clone Life grid, and these days, of ZoneNations grid  and you may know his social site, Hype Metaverse, aimed at gamers of all kinds, but with quite a few opensim people on it.

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