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...

Easter Hunt at Mana

Literally speaking, 'Ignis Fatuus' means foolish fire, but there is nothing foolish about the fabulous builds on this outstandingly beautiful French grid. And once again, this spring, grid owners Max Well and Nadir Rae are making imaginations soar with their farfetched fantasies. An Easter Hunt, beginning on 20 April, is just part of the fun! 

Full HG Address at the end of the post, of course.

Here we are on Mana, on of a bunch of new regions springing up on Ignis - this is the region where the Hunt will be held. When you arrive in this intensely blue place, you're immediately reminded of the importance of music in the lives of these two creators, in particular, Nadir's love of piano which extends to her DJ work over in SL, something she's been doing for over a decade. Look at those waterside notes.

Saturday HIE25

The HIE region filled up nicely for our conference on Saturday, with a peak of 52 avatars on the sim during MorlitaM and Cherry Manga's flawless performance of "Dual Wave", an outstanding audio visual experience none of us are likely to forget. But lots more happened also!
For the full schedule, don't forget to bookmark the HIE website

The event kicked off with a five language, five person panel, welcoming everyone; Emil Jannings  in English , Richi Rizzoli in German, Minord Loup in French, Lorenza Colicigno in Italian and AnaMari Maggi in Spanish.

There were six events, apart from the Welcome panel, three in German and three in French. 

Loru Destiny of ArtDestiny grid spoke first, on her own philosophy of Opensim, the importance of tolerance, of creativity and exploration, and of course of friendship and community.

Elements of Azure

 In virtual worlds, the weather tends always to be nice. Bright sun, azure sky, or something dramatic to create the setting for a particular build. But sometimes it's good just to stop and think about the weather itself. What is it, how does it affect our moods, our sense of self and our interactions with others? A change in windlight can dramatically alter the context of an art build, ask any artist who has seen their installation wrongly lit, they generally get pretty steamed up about it. Weather is mood, and mood is fundamental to any creative endeavor.

Forest Azure at her build on the Opensim World's Fair

At the Opensim World's Fair build, on Wolf Territories Grid, (exact Hop at the end of the post) Forest Azure explores the theme of 'The Elements' as experiences inworld. She has evoked a potent portrait of the emotions that the weather can fill us with - mysterious, passionate, pensive, and more. 

It's a series of beautiful black and white photos, beautifully presented in a structure by Rez Rezzal that embraces and proposes the images without encroaching on their atmosphere. Forest is a fan of his style, and with good reason!

Forest Azure: he is all about the feel of something, an the story.

'Winter Wreath' is a glimpse into the liminal world of windows... what side are we on?

A lot of work goes into creating these scenes and tableaux, since, of course, Opensim has no natural weather of its own! So to get the right balance and vibe is down to the artist herself. The delicate brutalist walls of this build perfectly set off the monochrome images, topped off with a thundercloud in miniature, hanging above it at just the right height. 

Forest Azure's The Elements is one of the many art gems on display at the World's Fair, be sure to check it out, in this final week of the show. You won't regret it!.

HG Address/hop

hop://grid.wolfterritories.org:8002/OpenSim%20Worlds%20Fair/1168/1215/22

Lampi's Heart

Perhaps you're been depressed recently by that rather mean spirited ad on Opensimworld. Somewhat damned by self praise, it has probably turned off more people than it has attracted, as a possible home grid. To take the taste out of your mouth, why not go and see something completely different, and yet, in a way, an allegory that both real and virtual communities can benefit from, while enjoying some exceptional art. HG Address at the end of the post, of course.

The celtic ethereal beauty of Lampithaler Artist's Cloudshead Worldheart is breathtaking. Islands float and even fly away, uprooted from the great sim sea, seemingly freed of all the laws of physics, they form a little archipelago, untethered and fancy free. It's on Pangea Grid, a fabulous collective of truly creative people, run by the wonderful Marlon Wayne and ably maintained by the paws of Kitty Sarrasine,  who keeps the place in tip top shape, technically.

On arrival, you'll se a topiary lady with a book. It contains the German text outlining the story, but go to Lampi's website and you can read a sample of the plot in English. 

Crazy like a Phos

The second destination on this tour was also very special - a chance to meet a builder and storyteller from Mobius Grid. We were on sim Phos - as always, the HG Address is at the end of the post - and the arrival point is a small island, just off the main build... from here you walk down onto the dock and through the teleport - first accept Experiences, which allow you to get the full effect of the sim! 

The teleport takes you to the giant tower which is full of portals taking you all over the sim, to places high in the sky as well as many neat places at ground level.

Knight Knox, also known by his Display Name KAZO the FOX (Mobius is the only grid in Opensim that we've visited so far to have SL style Display Names enabled) immediately began by giving us a bit of the backstory.

Knight Knox, aka KAZO the FOX

KAZO the FOX: The story of Phos on the planet Daqtheion can be best told starting like this:  Phosfortia was the first planet in the system that started the story, but that planet was destroyed by a threat from space (cyberspace).   Now that planet is the destroyed one you see in the sky over the Desert Zone.  The main resident here Kaze the Fox got in his spaceship and escaped Phosfortia before it got pulled into the void. He traveled through space looking for a new home and found Daqtheion. Its named that because its a place that has multiple climates that range from hot to cold. The name is unique but the original languages it was made up from is lost to time.

Thirza Ember:  I love these awesome teleport rings, look at the image in the middle...  it's really fancy

Lavia Lavine: almost mystical

Thirza Ember:  we're in the heart of the sim now...

Karsten Runningbear: i hear the beat : )

Tabula Rasa

Tabula Rasa, the blank slate, is a concept as ancient as Aristotle, and as modern as an empty sim. Often associated with the human mind in that magical moment before impressions, feelings, opinions and experiences have made their mark, the very words 'tabula rasa' can fill a creative person with the thrill of possibilities.

It's also the name of Ieko Catnap's art sim on OSGrid, and it's home to pleasant pathways leading between attractive buildings with a provencale feel.  In one corner, a little grey graveyard is enriched by this lovely fountain, with prim fish that say they were made by Virtual Christine, giving the place the feel of an authentic history.

Charming too are the little shops, a flower market, bakery, newspaper printers and more, the cutest has to be 'Chik' Ânes' with a bit of a Latin American vibe going on. 

Tina on Pangea

Tina Bey's life has been one of art for just about forever. The person behind the avatar is an award-winning artist with a wealth of academic knowledge of Fine Arts, and a long experience of working with galleries, patrons, students, teachers, and lovers of art in general. She got her first region on OSGrid eleven years ago.

Tina Bey: My first region was called "Araucana" (Antarctica in English) thanks to someone generous who lent me his server. I wanted to create futuristic constructions floating on the seas. Later I had, for many years, the "Araucana" region also in Osgrid. It had a purely science fiction theme, which I continued with for several years... until I started seeing and attending exhibitions, galleries and museums dedicated to art in the metaverse. It was almost a replica of my real world, in which I had navigated quite successfully, with a good resume, awards, scholarships, commitments with galleries and contracts to fulfill... too many things. When one has already gone through all that, the 3D virtual world opens up as a great breath of freedom, where a canvas can be walked and walked on literally without restrictions.

For the Love of Lucy

Lucy was always there for me inworld with a word of encouragement, a joke or a useful observation. Always the same, generous, funny, creative.

In virtual worlds, when you don't see someone around for a while, it is easy to assume that they're simply busy elsewhere, or perhaps not feeling up to sitting in front of a computer. That happened with me and Lucy. This summer came along, the Safari trips took a break, and so did I, from virtual worlds... life got busy, and I totally missed seeing the news on Facebook that Lucy (in RL Peter Jones) had passed away. Only today, going to check his Facebook profile to see how he was doing, did I find out what happened.

Lucy Afarensis

That's part of the paradox of the modern world where in theory everyone is in touch with everyone else and we all know everything. In reality, we only know what we know, follow what we follow. Information we need and care about doesn't always get through.

Lucy was key to the HG Safari tours around Opensim throughout the years. More than either of us ever put into words, whenever we got the opportunity to chat - I wish told him more often what our friendship meant to me. Lucy was in SL from 2007 and in Opensim not long after that (Lucy's regions faced onto the OSGrid Moat, close to LBSA),  and the choice of the name name 'Lucy Afarensis' was a humorous reference to age - by a person who was never a fossil by any means.

We had a memorable visit to Lucy's region, including the Grove Gallery, in May 2018. We visited her place on Francogrid back in 2016 also, enjoying a concert by Nazira Avro - Lucy was always a canny opensimmer, spreading the wealth of builds over different grids, so as not to risk losing all if one of them should fail. That's not a lot of Safari visits, you may say, considering how interesting these places were, but Lucy was always the first to give up a spot in the HG Safari calendar, in favor of some other builder or artist, so to finally get to bring the whole group over to experience the horseback trip across this vast landscape was an absolute privilege.

Pangea's Birthday

 This weekend there will be a big party event to mark the 4 years of Pangea grid.

There's a parade, a ballet, a party, on 12 October from 11.00 am SLT on region Koeln not to mention en exciting GoKart competition. Marlon Wayne and his merry band of builders, scripters, and artists are celebrating a big milestone. Here's an in depth interview with the man himself.

Marlon Wayne: My virtual life began in 2006 in Second Life. Back then, I was fascinated by the limitless possibilities of this virtual world, where one could build their own projects and immerse in communities. I was especially drawn to virtual Cologne, partly because of my real-life proximity to the city. I quickly became part of a special family in the virtual city and was passionately involved in the carnival, as well as in music and show projects.

When Second Life changed its terms of service (TOS) in 2011, I decided to move to Avination. I was allowed to take my virtual version of Cologne with me, which remains an integral part of Pangea today. In Avination, I met many new people who accompanied me on my virtual journey, and some of them are now part of Pangea.

After Avination closed in 2015, I began looking for a new, stable grid that could be a reliable home for my vision and the virtual communities we had already built. However, the search proved difficult because many grids at the time were struggling with technical issues and unstable servers. Although I didn’t have the technical expertise to run my own grid, I was determined to try. I rented a server, but I knew I would need support.

sim Koeln as it looks today on Pangea

Luckily, I had already met Kitty Sarrassine in 2010, an extremely talented server administrator and programmer. Thanks to her technical knowledge and tireless effort, I was able to bring my vision and long-held dream to life: creating my own grid. Kitty supported me from the beginning and played a crucial role in making this project a reality.

On August 31, 2020, the first avatar of our new grid was born—Kitty Sarrassine herself. She worked meticulously to ensure that every detail was set up correctly and that the grid ran smoothly and reliably. After weeks of hard work, it was finally ready, and on September 27, 2020, the second avatar, Marlon Wayne, was born.

Gino's Butterfly

Dale innis asked why we meet, and where we meet, before heading to destination 1 on Safari.

The 'why' is simple. If we all meet together before jumping to the first destination, then I can let the hosts know how many people to expect, so it's easier for them to know when to begin their presentation. Meeting at the Clubhouse means anyone new can make some friends beforehand, so they can ask for help if they get lost. Also, there are often last minute changes to the Safari, so if you come to the Clubhouse, you'll have the latest news about what's going on. Lastly - have you ever invited a group of friends over for a meal, and one person shows up waaaay too early, and you don't know what to do with them? We want to avoid that situation, which is embarrassing and stressful for our hosts.

Dale Innis and Karima Hoisean, on Gino's Butterfly

The 'where' is simple too. We meet at the Clubhouse on HG Safari grid and there's usually someone on the sim to welcome you half an hour before the event begins.

Thirza Ember: welcome Kjs, bonsoir Prodyck, grande soiree pour les frenchies ce soir!

Prodyck.Theas: hellooo... On va voir ça :)

kjs Yip: Hi, I know I'm early, but I don't want to be late...

Thirza Ember: omg Kjs sitting on that Hand chair I made... I feel very proud and happy now

kjs Yip: It looks very comfortable...

Tosha Tyran: incl. one finger for back scratching

kjs Yip: It's the thumb...

Kjs Yip on hand at HG Safari clubhouse

Thirza Ember: i hope it doesn't leave fingerprints on the clothes! I am really happy that Prodyck says he will be one of the French speakers at HIE in 2025. it's going to be a great event

Tosha Tyran: I am sure it will be! Hi Prodyck

kjs Yip: Hi all... I'm a newbee at the safari, please be kind ...I try my best to run behind you...

Tosha Tyran: if you want, kjs, I take you by the hand,  or better yet: Forest will, heheh

Forest Azure: you can always tp to Thirza's head, kjs, she likes pple landing on it

Thirza.Ember: I have big hair so it doesn't hurt me if you tp to my skull

Tosha Tyran: Holzkopf

Safari Goes Into the Light

 First stop this week, Dorena's World! We visited a beautiful art sim, more More Than Lights, in company with two of the creators, Miara Lubitsch and Kjs Yip. HG Address is, of course, at the end of the post.

Our arrival point on More Than Lights

Every Safari begins with an avalanche of greetings... and some teasing. ON the practical side, here's how Safari works. The LMs and a notecard explaining our trip are located inside a giant prim, at the Clubhouse on HG Safari grid. Simply touch and 'Buy' the pack, which has the Week number on it. The weekly LM pack is generally left up from Wednesday to Sunday, for anyone who wishes to take the tour but wasn't able to join the group. 

This week, we had the nice mixture of first time Safari goers, occasional and regular Safaristas, as you know all our welcome, and we're very happy to provide TPs and help if you're new to this group hypergridding lark, so don't be shy - join us if you can.

Inside the theater - very comfortable seating!

Star Ravenhurst: Hi Yara and Alex

Yara.Eild: Hi Star, Loru :-)

Loru Destiny: -*- HeLlO-*- everybody :-) I hope I'm not naked

Forest Azure: hi loru .. and no

Loru Destiny: ahh great, a new experience when I HG

M is for Music

Morlita Quan's Second Life adventure started 16 years ago, and it was pure boredom.

Morlita Quan:   I even remember myself thinking : " Ok, I won't stay here more then two days". But as you well said, SL is a nest of creativity and very soon, I had the luck to meet persons there who used SL as a professional tool for art and music, and not like a simple social game. 

Morlita at her new, as yet unfinished, gallery on sim MorlitaM on OSGrid.

Sixteen years later, Morlita is still working on projects that overlap between the real and virtual worlds. Recently she has revived her interest in Opensim, and has an exciting new sim on OSGrid - address at the end of the post, as usual!  What, though, makes virtual worlds a special place to be creative?

Dreams on the 10th Dimension

All is like a dream

Star Ravenhurst's new grid Tenth Dimension is home to her art gallery Le Beau Retrouvé, and there's a big new show scheduled for September 29. 

You're still just about in time to participate. If you make art this could be your chance to exhibit alongside the likes of Tina Bey, Xenon Darrow, Remmy Ravenhurst (no relation), Savannah Joy, Forest Azure, Arcfury and a huge multimedia install by Cherry Manga  and Nico Kailani. The deadline to submit art is September 23, although the sooner you do it, the better it is for Star's nerves! Organizing art shows can be onerous, so why does Star do it?

Star Ravenhurst: It can be difficult to get into a gallery in the real world and most artists never get that opportunity. In fact, they are lucky if anyone beyond their family, friends, or instructors ever sees their work. Having my own grid, I can now give them more opportunities to showcase their work in virtual.

If you're a regular dipper-in to this blog, you may remember reading about Le Beau Retrouvé here although bear in mind, the location of the gallery has changed since then (just part of the way opensim is always in flux and keeping it interesting), and perhaps you caught the episode of Inworld Review where Star spoke about the gallery, among her many other projects. 

Star Ravenhurst:  What does the gallery mean to me? I am an artist in RL and have formal education in Fine Arts, Graphic Arts, Art History, and Design. During college, I worked for an art gallery and learned a lot during my time with them and also took classes in Marketing and Professional Practices to help me learn the business side of art. I do not have the funds in RL to open my own gallery, but in virtual, everything is possible. I have seized the chance to create an art gallery that is welcoming and supportive of new artists as well as established artists. 

Rural Retreat

In a corner of the gloriously rural Ruritania region on Littlefield Grid, is a beautiful old barn, converted by sim owner  Xi Shi into an airy art gallery,

It's a perfect little jewel set in a many faceted 4x4 VAR build that celebrates so many aspects of England that is will take you hours visiting and contemplating in order to take in all the delightful details, as it draws you back to another time, not just in the style of the vehicles and the road signs, which belong to the era of Dr Who's TARDIS, but also in the allusions and references to UK film and television, gently reminding you of classics like Brief Encounter, and the Two Ronnies discussing fork handles - or should that be four candles - to mention only two of the dozens of 3D throwbacks... make sure you have your wits about you, or you'll miss a lot of the fun. The HG Address is, of course, at the end of the post.

Dan Banner's Rec-Creation

 If you're allergic to flashing lights, this post is not for you - but if  you're partial to a little bit of kaleidoscope every now and again, then Dan Banner's multi media experience over on OSGrid's Recreation Plaza could be right up your street. 

If you haven't heard of this sim, then add it to your list of must-see places, for it's a bit of a landmark in opensim culture.

Cherry on Hie

Believe it or not, we're halfway through the Safari trips for 2024 and this week was a special occasion for all fans of the Hypergrid International Expo, better known as HIE, that weekend once a year where we blend theater and lecture and outrageous displays of language-y excess, not to mention a huge amount of publicity booths with freebies and info about places all over the metaverse.  

The Safari crew, which seems to be getting better by the week, descended on Craft grid for our first destination, after of course the usual Clubhouse banter among old friends, plus new friends to Friend, if you know what I mean.

If you ever wonder why there is a pre-meet at the clubhouse, rather than me just giving out the addresses of the places we plan to visit in social media, it's because the whole point of our venture is to be there for one another, to be there for newbies, to check on oldbies, and to give our hosts an exact time when we will arrive. 

Because nobody likes people who show up too early for a party. 

If you're curious about what is involved in being a Safari destination, there is a whole page about that here on this blog. And yes, the 'six' is a lie, well spotted. 

More Arts, More Friends!

Victoria Logan's OSGrid "Arts And Friends" adventure has a new chapter, this time it's all about 'We are OSGrid'.  

The inaugural party will be late May, so keep your eyes open for the event details which will be listed on opensimworld.com ad elsewhere on social media.

Lots to see here and also plenty of places for partying of course! 

Le Beau Retrouvé

 Tomorrow Sunday 28 is the grand opening of Star Ravenhurst's new gallery called le Beau Retrouvé. It's on Genesis RP grid - the Address is as always at the end of the post - and it's a project she has spent many months putting together. It's beautiful!

Lampi's Legends

Lampithaler Artist's latest build Cloudshead Worldheart is an enchantment of pixels. To have a heart as big as the world, to have your head in the clouds, that describes the perfect intersection between childhood dreams and artistic inspiration.

The region is all islands, of improbable shapes, and the main party is inside the biggest, almost pumpkin like, but with a distinctly bark-like feel to the outer shell.

Inside, in the base, is the dance floor where we foregathered to enjoy dome tunes ably dished out by DJ Marlon Wayne.