RFL Weekend: The Sunbeamer Camp

By Bixyl Shuftan

Every year in July, The Relay for Life in Second Life holds their 24 hour walk event, also known as the Relay Weekend or Relay Walk. Taking place on the American Cancer Society sim and close to forty others which appear just for the event, there are places for live music and DJs, as well as a few full sim, or designer sim, exhibits by noted builders. But the main attraction are the various campsites of the Relay Teams which have a spot on the track, each of which has an exhibit to fit the theme of the year's Relay, this year being "Once Upon a Cure." Most if not all teams have at least reached Bronze Level in fundraising.

Some of the teams represent Second Life communities. This includes the Sunbeamers, the Relay team representing the Sunbeamer/Angel community. Since it's founding, the team has always had a camp at the Relay track. And this year is no exception.

Quite a bit of effort went into building this camp, notably by Cynthia Farshore and Shockwave Yareach, with some help from Rita Mariner and Becky Shamen. Following the theme of the Relay, the camp tells the story of a "poor farmer's daughter" named Elizabeth.

I met up with Rita Mariner, the captain of the Sunbeamer Team, as she was putting on some of the finishing touches.

"Cynthia and I found people," Rita explained of the static figures which had been added since the last time I was here.

"Of course your suppose to read the books as you go."

In the story, Elizabeth loves being out in the sun and getting a tan. One day, a dark spot appears on her skin, and a few days later seems a little larger.

Eventually, Elizabeth heads to the village doctor to have it checked out.

 Not exactly the most comforting sight for a patient.

The doctor gives Elizabeth the bad news: skin cancer.

To get the treatment she needs, Elizabeth heads to the Castle of Hope.

For those wanting a little game, there's a hedge maze.

For solving it, one gets a chest full of coins. One small problem. While the power of SL magic allows you to take a copy, the coins are all melted into one mass. So no free Lindens.

 In front of the exhibit are a few items up for sale by Becky Shamen, the proceeds going to charity.

And then there's the Prayer Tower just to the right of the entrance.

And so there you have it, the camp for this year's track of the Relay Weekend.

RFL Support (18, 136, 23)

"Go Sunbeamers! Go Relay!"

Bixyl Shuftan

Club Cutlass: The Pirate Club of the Sunweaver Community

By Wesley Regenbogen

Club Cutlass is the club where the residents of the Sunweaver Estates, and everyone else, can have fun and dance. 

Club Cutlass and Club Zero G were created by Rita Mariner an her group “The Sunweavers” when she owned almost the whole sim of Pockwock, on the Mainland., back in 2007. She might have owned the clubs, "but we all kicked in our talents, from building to textures, to scripting, to create them. They were a labor of love and fun. Really cool places to just hang out."

The club is decorated like a pirate scene. How she came up with the idea of creating this club, she says, “Don't really remember, might be a group thing. Thought it would be fun to have a group hangout, play music dance, etc. And since the sim was partly pirate themed, what better than a pirate club?”

They hold a dance event every now and then and they also hold a dance contest as well. The club manager is Jenni Greenfield. They specialize in 'LIVE' Music from our DJ's It makes for a more fun evening when the DJ's try to out do each other with what songs they can find. While the Club is normally only open 3 days a week for a couple hours, "we do allow members to use the space for special events, parties, etc. That is what the club is there for."

The club is nicely decorated, making use of both pirate and steampunk elements. It's not how it first looked, but is the latest of a few design changes in it's history. The creator of the current version, up since Feb 2012, is Indio Quinnell.

The DJs decide which music they play. The music genre ranges from : Rock n Roll, My Little Pony, Steampunk, Heavy Metal, Weird Al, Humor, Country, Religious, whatever crosses the DJ's mind to drop on us. Plus they do take requests.

The radio stations that are streamed within the club are : 181.FM (a commercial radio station),  Farshore Radio, and also Nydia Tungsten's KVXN. So they have a large choice.

Rita Mariner owns both clubs in name, but they really belong to “The Sunweavers." They built them, they attend them, as long as they keep supporting them, they will exist!

You can find the club at :

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sunweaver%20Space/187/64/124

By Wesley Regenbogen

The Sunbeamer's RFL Exhibit

By Bixyl Shuftan

When I first came across the Sunweavers, I soon found out many of them belonged to a Relay for Life team, the "Passionate Redheads." The Redheads relayed for six years, raising over thirty thousand US dollars worth of Lindens for the American Cancer society. They had also come up with some truly great builds, such as the Wild West build in 2009. Sadly, the Redheads came to an end, and the team dissolved. It its place came two much smaller teams. One, was led by Sunweaver leader Rita Mariner, the "Sunbeamers."

"It's a new beginning," Shockwave Yareach, one of the Sunbeamers, told me, "we are a very small team."

I met with Shockwave and Rita at the location of the Sunbeamer build in RFL Research. The exhibit was on the top left former of the sim, just north of Team Lag, and across the road from the Breedables exhibit. Half of the build was of a garden area, which was next to the road. The other half was a building in the back with pink tubes sticking out. The building's purpose was soon revealed by a sign next to the road, "Ride The Mad Wolf 'New Brain Cancer Cure' Ride."

"Basically, this time four of us did the work," Rita told me, Shockwave, herself, Dusk Griswold, and a newcomer to the Relay, Felina Fermi. Felina made the Newser earlier this year when she made a movie theater for her Sunweaver neighbors. "I … put her in charge of landscaping," Rita told me. "She's a very detailed builder," Shockwave commented. "We play all this by ear," Rita added, "and see what works."

Attention went to one bag of coffee beans near one kiosk, "Who wants coffee?" Shockwave asked. Rita commented, "Once Shocky put down the ride, we knew what space we had left for the rest of the build." Shockwave pointed to the coffee, "I transplanted my coffee machine from the bay. Even added a table to sit and relax." Rita felt needed more was needed, and added more bags of coffee.

When asked what the theme of the build was, Rita answered, "Remembrance, remember those we have lost and hope for the future, that we will beat cancer." There wasn't much time left in the Relay season for another event, but they did have some fun times, "We did have the one event at Cutlass … where they tried to bid me human. … I got enough donations to stay a bunny. There were two kiosks, one for human, one for bunny. whichever one had the most donations by the end of the dance, I had to do. The bunny kiosk had the most, but not by much. I think we raised like 30,000L."

She also mentioned the event that was a cooperation with the New Bastogne WW2 RP, "The Bastogne event was fun, everyone was paying 100L to shoot the 88mm guns at the Dunk Tank and drop the victim. Dusk was the best shot, she got a hit with one round. I came in second with two rounds. Either way, folks were having a 'Blast.' … Have to repeat that next year."

Rita showed me around the exhibit a little. The place was bordered by a hedge fence with the front half a garden area with numerous trees and flowering plants, with walkways of stepping stones and a few waterfalls. There were also a number of pony statuettes around, "look atop the flagpole, Rainbow Dash," plus one larger pony statue in the middle of the grounds. There was also the pink fox statuette representing Artistic Fimicloud, the beloved vixen of the Passionate Redheads who passed away several years ago.

The back half of the exhibit was Shockwave's ride. It was a variation of the inner tube water slide ride, but instead of riding inner tubes, one would ride a red blood cell. Residents going in touch the stone to rez one, sit on it, then enjoy the ride. The narration is a bit quiet, and I had to turn up the volume. As the player goes down the tube, it talks about how the blood/brain barrier has historically been a barrier drugs couldn't get through, then the player emerges from the tube to the main room, "Behold, the brain." It then talks about recent developments in brain cancer treatments, and after circling around, the player leaves out the other tube. Upon exiting, the player can get up any time, and the blood cell soon vanishes.

"Still pretty good for a first time team," Rita commented. She then noted there were a few minor details to take care of, notably getting a "Sunbeamer" flag for the exhibition, which at the time was flying the Sunweaver Estates one. Shockwave would later comment on Facebook, "You never know how much it takes to fill a half acre, until it's your job to fill it. Or mow it. Fortunately, I don't have to mow the thing. Constructing a 40 m by 40 m brain mock-up, things you never think you'll get the chance to do, and then one day you do them."

Rita concluded, "Even though the Sunbeamers are a very small team and we can't be involved with RFL 24/7 like most of the others, we will do what we can, as much as we can. Anyone that reads this, stop by our campsite, ride the ride and grab a cup of coffee."

The exhibit is at RFL Research (122, 224, 22), but will not be accessible to the general public until Saturday.

Bixyl Shuftan

Felina’s Movie Theater

By Grease Coakes

Last year I reported on Shock’s movie night which is now a staple of the Sunweavers. Every evening at 6pm SL time, Shock plays a movie or two at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sunweaver%20Space/253/175/451 one of the hangouts of the Sunweavers. Recently, I heard of something new. There's a new movie theater for the Sunweavers by Feilna Fermi.

By grabbing a random LM sent by Rita Mariner through the Sunweavers group, I found Feilna’s theater. Shockwave Yareach and Rita Mariner were there when I warped in. Once in, I saw the front of a movie theater you might see in real life. When I walked in, I saw multiple theaters showing movie posters like in real life for example "Thor" and a "Lord of the Rings" movie.

Many other furry hangouts like the Ark and Anthroxtacy also have their own movie night but Felina's Theater http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sunweaver%20Isle/213/115/23 is another movie theater showing the same movie at the same time. Felina Fermi has been a Sunweaver living on Rita’s sim for a couple years before she added her own movie theater.


Shock’s movie hangout is just a grass square in midair with some furniture. Felina’s land on the other hand is a small theater with multiple movies. Using million media, Felina’s VCR was showing a large assortment of movies that you can choose from. First ask Felina Fermi to allow you access to the XL and Millions media video devices. It only takes a moment for her to add your name. Then using a text-driven menu you can pick out for hundreds of movies ranging from the "X-Men" movies to John Hughes’ "Breakfast Club," and more. Felina’s friend Earthy creates the stream for her XL movies. If you look through the movie list and you don’t see the movie you’re looking for click the store option and you may be able to find it.

On the night I wrote this article, Shock played "Hardware Wars," a spoof of "Star Wars" which had cheesy effects, and then "Kung Fu Panda" 1 and 2.

Another neat feature of Felina’s land is that her home is right there. I checked out her house and it was amazing. A lot of décor like pictures and kitchen assortments along a reproduction of her real-life home. Among the things I happened to see was her music keyboard along with her posters of video games art. Another thing I noticed there was 4 or 5 cats meowing like crazy in her back room with the video game art and her keyboard. It was interesting to hear random meows while I wrote this article. Good thing about the SL cats is they don’t knock over your coffee to mess up your computer.


So for her it’s like having a movie theater at home. Felina isn’t just a one trick cat though. In real-life she has a music keyboard and she also composes musical remixes of video game music tracks. I got her Skype information she gave me a lot of her music files. Later on I’ll try them out and see how they fit with my live DJ mixes. She mentioned a couple times that she heard a song in her dreams in real life and she was able to create the song like that on her music keyboard. She recommended I try her final fantasy remixes that she created I might just do that.

Felina’s movie theater was certainly a welcome addition to the sunweavers group and family. Just
in case Shock’s movie land was filled up or maybe you wanted the movie theater feel Felina’s movie
theater might do the trick. Also ask her about access to her movie library if you want to check out a movie by yourself or with a friend. Just don’t mind the cats next door.

Grease Coakes

Club Cutlass

By Grease Coakes

One of SL’s oldest clubs is a steampunk/pirate inspired club. It’s been around for six years which is a long time for anything in real life or Second Life. Club cutlass may not be popular like IYC or SGB but it’s a long time staple of the Sunweavers. One day when I was djing Jenni Greenfield the longtime manager of Club Cutlass was a nice enough lady to tell me about her club. The Sunweavers are a group of furries that been around SL for a while headed by Rita Mariner who’s usually a bunny.


The Landmark takes you to a floating pirate base with a skull and cross bones dancing floor. In fact to dance you click on the dance floor and your avatar starts dancing in a complex series of dances. Not your average click a ball and pick a single dance ball, but instead a full set of dances to animate your character. Jenni says the club has been through many changes for six years. The newest design is simple and detailed for pirates and party goers of all ages.

One of the djs of Club Cutlass, Cynthia Farshore, likes to play rock music from old to new. Other clubs that came to mind were Dusk Griswold, Akea Grommet, and Shockwave Yareach. (No not the transformer the furry wolf named Shockwave).


Jenni said one of the cool things about Club Cutlass is how there’s little or no drama. One of the plaques I saw was “Drama Llamas will be and shot and mounted (not necessarily in that order).” Every week there’s three events as Jenni ask for DJs to fill those events. Each event has a contest for men and women to win a Linden prize of 200 or so. For example going through the alphabet one event was best in anything U. Lots of furries come to that event in their underwear and or an umbrella. Better ask quickly if you want to dj for one of these three events the slots fill up fast. I procrastinated one time and the next day the slots were all filled already.

I asked Jenni what she liked most about Club Cutlass and here’s what she had to say.

Jenni Greenfield: That we've lasted so long, while I've seen many clubs die after a few months.

That’s certainly true, I agreed. Not all clubs and hang outs stand the test of time.

Jenni said she loves Halloween events around Club Cutlass. I told her in real life that I have a velvet cloak so I never have to buy a Halloween costume anymore. She said something similar

Jenni Greenfield: "I have a black cloak with celtic markings!"

She also admitted to being a puppeteer for a long time like Dusk Griswold. I wrote an article about Dusk and her puppets in the SL Newser. Jenni says she has been puppeting since 2002, but hasn’t been practicing as much as her friend Dusk.


Jenni’s Club cutlass is certainly a neat club to hang out at. The music styles of the DJs are easy going and the conversation is laid back. Usually the DJs are good about music requests just ask and you shall receive. If you want a good place to relax and be a pirate Club cutlass is the place for you.

Club Cutlass is at Sunweaver Space (245, 88, 123), with parties on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday from 6 to 8PM SL time.

Grease Coakes