Remembering Mal Burns

Mal Burns died a few days ago, and if that comes as a bit of a shock, you're not alone. 

The news of his passing has with much dismay and sadness rippled across Opensim, where he had his home, and in Second Life, where he got his start in virtual worlds in February 2007. A vital piece of our virtual network is now missing. 

From his earliest days in virtual worlds,
Mal always loved to see a beautifully landscaped sim.

News aggregator, videographer, talk show host, critic, builder, intrepid traveler, and all round communicator, in Mal's eyes virtual worlds were an opportunity to discover one another, to be better, more creative, and to stay in touch with the people who matter to us, despite the challenges of our far flung real lives. 

In a world where most people's pronouncements on social media are all about themselves, Mal kept the focus on others, on the places and projects that he found fascinating. He probably would be a bit embarrassed to think that people were reading and talking about him, rather than some cool new sim or innovative development in virtual worlds.

Mal will no doubt be memorialized in Second Life and of course RL. As you know, this blog is about Opensim, so the focus of this article is to share comments by a few Opensim friends of Mal, their words represent hundreds of voices from all over the hyperverse. 

Let's start with James Atlloud and Tosha Tyran, Mal's current co-hosts on his talk show Inworld Review. It's worth pointing out that the original 'Inworld Review' - an offshoot of other talk shows Mal produced and presented - first aired on January 13, 2013 in SL, with Tara Yates and Petlove Petshop.  The show was revived in Opensim in 2016 with Maria Korolov as co-host beside Mal and James, at Mal's studio on the Great Canadian Grid.

James and Mal on Inworld Review, 2025

James Atlloud: My relationship with Mal was a unique and amazing journey.  In YouTube production there were times I became so irritated with him! I’m also sure he had those moments with me, and even so we made it all work - just like so many of us do in virtual worlds.  I will miss him more than I can say and I know I’m in a huge community of people who will never forget his influence on our lives.

Osgrid turns 18

Well, it's official. At the end of this month OSgrid will turn 18, old enough to get a tattoo, go skydiving, and vote. And of course, the grid is celebrating with the traditional show-and-tell festivities on the OSGB regions. 

Spaces are still available, although many are already spoken for, so don't wait too long - get building! At time of posting, there will be at least three exhibition sims, each with a dozen or more original installations, rides, gifts, and exhibitions celebrating the diverse and ingenious group of people who make up the OSGrid population.

 To get a parcel, contact one of the grid Admin. Who are the Osgrid Admin?  Dan Banner, Paela Osgrid, Sarah Klein, Foxx Bode, Wizard Atazoth, AlbertR Landar, and Aussie Envee. Aussie organizes the Event Plaza music shows which of course will be a big part of the festivities. And speaking of music...

Event Space

Theater in Opensim is a lot of hard work, but well worth it, both for the performers and for the audience. The challenges are many - getting together a troupe who are able and willing to commit time and talent to the group project, figuring out how to convert a text into something workable in the virtual environment, where considerations about lag and scripts and assets can at times be super frustrating, plus the effort of getting an audience to come and see the performance - that's essential of course! We all know that the fragmented nature of opensim, and, let's confess it, the grid-tribalism we still suffer from just a bit, can make it hard for special events to get the audience they deserve.  Tristan Dehais and his opensim theatrical company "Les Théâtreux" are planning a long term project to put on "The Little Prince". 

By 'long term', we're talking about months of prep, with the idea of having the play ready next Spring. So you may ask, why blog about this now, so far in advance of the opening night? Well, that's s that you - yes you, you talented devil! - can maybe get involved; there are lots of ways that can be done, in terms of being an actor, helping out with props, scripts, loads of things on and off-stage. 

Tristan speaking during the French session of the Hypergrid International Expo, 2025

Tristan Dehaie gave an interesting talk about his experiences in virtual theater with "Les Théâtreux" at this year's HIE event and I asked him to go into more detail about his Opensim experience. He's French, so I wondered which grids had been to most impactful on his non SL virtual life. 

Tristan's Opensim theater, Event Space, is located on SV3D grid

Tristan Dehaie:  France-RP and SV3D. But it's more the people involved than the “grids” themselves, or their owners. In fact, I believe that anyone who sets up a grid (necessarily and consequently) wants activities to develop there.

Thirza Ember: That's for sure ! Can you tell us more about your activities in SL and opensim, and how the two compare? Does it keep you very busy?

Shelly Island

Imagine a place that's a little bit Neverland, a little bit Castaway, a little bit Survivor, Lost, and Treasure Island, and above all a LBGTQIA and straight friendly. Located  on Dark Wolf's grid, Adult Life, It's Shelly Island.

The landing point gives you a little glimpse at the amount of backstory that went into the planning of the sim. Remember to join the group when you arrive, without it, you can't go any further into the build. It's a place for romance and for parties, which are Saturdays at 8pm German time, 11am SLT. Here's Chrissy, Dark Wolf's wife, with me at the entrance. Guess who's not been to the tanning salon in a while...

Chrissy Coage:  Clothes are very optional at this sim...

Dark Wolf:  Shelly Island is somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle. Several ships and planes have crashed here, and the survivors have escaped to a deserted island. Shelly Island was founded.

Free Expression

 Summer time, and the livin' is easy... if by living you mean taking a wander around Opensim and seeing some beautiful and meaningful art, and being able to snag a lot of gorgeous original freebies. The talent and the generosity of this artist are so well known in Opensim, and you probably guessed who's being featured just by looking at the photos. 

Cube, Cherry Freebies, Pangea  Grid

In her fifteen years in Opensim, on Francogrid and here and there on a dozen other grids, not to mention her years in SL before and during her Opensim sojourn, Cherry Manga has never failed to delight us and amaze with her spirit and her vision of both the Opensim community, and of her own RL battles. So many can relate to her artwork expressing the frustration of illness and the toll it takes on mind and body. Despite that, her art is capable of wild flights of fantasy,  of beauty and tenderness,  of dreams and nightmares, into the past and into a techno future.

All at See

Redwood Bay is a relatively new region on Neverworld grid, and it's home to The Rocking the Seas cruise, which was launched on 4 May this year. The event was a big success, so another is planned for some time during the July 4 weekend, so keep an eye on the Neverworld grid events to check times and dates. There's so much to see!

Put together by Gundahar Bravin, the cruise build has a contemporary East-West coast feel to it, and the ship sits alongside the Opensim Coast Guard boat, an essential piece of kit if you think about the vastness of the virtual sea! Neverworld owner Govega Sachertorte was very happy with the May event.

Govega Sachertorte: Gundahar did a magnificent guided tour, with DJs. We had 25 people on the initial tour and were thinking in the future to have you guys come visit us for a hg safari tour ... its really amazing,  the whole cruise is scripted on a 4x4 region, gift shop, undersea submarine tours, and views of the bridge.

Gundahar Bravin: I decided to build a cruise ship because, well, the idea came from wanting to provide new and dynamic event venues for our Residents and visitors. Not just a club, but a truly memorable experience! I first thought of a cruise ship, because I wanted a moving platform, with entertainment, drinks and many beautiful sights to see while enjoying dancing and interacting with others. I owe many thanks to our Assistant Event Manager Amanda Greenthumb, she deserves a great deal of credit for much of the modification work and countless hours helping me put all of this together.

Small Screen

Erwan is a pretty uncommon name native to Brittany, that anciently romantic and windswept peninsula in Northern France, full of legends and stone monuments like the Carnac Stones that are fabulous cousins of Stonehenge. Breton is a Celtic language, like Cornish or Welsh, and the name Erwan corresponds to 'Yves' in French, the closest we come to it in English is the girl's name Yvonne. 

An etymologist's delight, the progression from Erwan to Yves to 'if' - modern French name for the yew tree, that most mysterious evergreen with its bright winter berries and deadly needles, something mysterious and after-lifey going on there. Golly, so Chateau d'If is Yew Tree Castle! Who knew? Well, Frenchies everywhere did, obviously. I'd always thought of it in terms of the English 'if'... "if ever I escape from here, I'll get my revenge", that kind of thing. Anyway, enough Montecristoing... 

The talented Erwan, now in the ava-iteration Roman Fox, has set up a successor of sorts to Serenity Grid, and it has a definite flavor of the rugged Breton land and seascape. Some of you may remember a couple of glorious regions on Serenity that I blogged about a while back, the Monet house and garden, and Mont Saint Michel both unbeatable for the instinctive realism of familiarity and just good old building chops. It was a small miracle of a grid, and it was very sad to learn that it had gone offline. When I learnt about this new grid, also quite minute, I had to come see.