LM Gallery: A Gallery in the Sky

By Wesley Regenbogen

Although there are many art galleries in Second Life, I think this one might be a special one. Like most galleries, there are many paintings on the walls, organized very well. But what makes this gallery special is that there are moving paintings. They were created by Treacle Darlandes. He makes these moving 3D paintings, which are awesome to look at. You have the feeling the paining comes towards you.

The place was created by Lattita Capalini, the deceased best Second Life friend of Meredith Staheli, who originally created the LM Gallery. It was always Lattita Capalini’s dream to create a place where people could admire artworks and to enjoy creative inspirations. It originally opened in 2007, but it closed down in 2010. Lattita Capalini passed away in real life in late 2012, but Meredith Staheli kept the idea alive by recreating the art gallery again but this time high up in the sky. So, not only do they have 3D art paintings, but also they are high in the Second Life sky. This is an interesting concept, if you ask me.

The new art gallery was built and decorated by Meredith Staheli herself, creating the gallery high up in the sky. The art gallery evolved from the new ideas and contributions of the deceased Lattita Capalini. When she created the original gallery, Lattita Capalini invited various SL artists like Treacle Darlandes, Teal Freenote, and Feathers Boa. They use the Arts & Artist Network group notifications. Since 2013, Treacle Darlandes has helped Meredith Staheli with the group notices. “I am not very good in public relationship and promotions,” Meredith Staheli explained to me with a laugh. Readers can find more information at these channels: Galleries of SL Kiosk and Treacle Darlandes.

As far as the music that is played in the art gallery goes, Meredith told me the stream plays, “Jazz, the 80's, contemporary singer-songwriter, easy listening. We are still exploring different alternatives and ideas (smile). As a continuous respect to Lattita's vision, we would like to keep drawing new ideas and SL residents to art exhibition.”

Unfortunately there are no future events planned at this point, due to the real-life work Meredith is working on. But she welcomes new singers and new artists to perform or exhibit in the gallery. So, new talent gets a chance in SL as well.

Personally, I think is art gallery has a bright future ahead and it’s a nice art gallery.Although, I haven’t visited many art galleries in Second Life, I think this one deserves a mention.

Let us hope that Lattita Capalini’s dream keeps on living in the future and that her vision may inspire everyone to make her dream true.

To visit the LM Gallery, go to the following location :

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Triglav/205/26/2510

Wesley Regenbogen

Club Vraiment

By Wesley Regenbogen

Club VRAIMENT, literally translated "The Real Club,  first opened on February 25th ,2014 until October 1^st, 2014. But the club reopened on February 17^th, 2015. The owner and creator is Colonel Komarov. He also decorated the club.

The owner told me that the basic idea was to create a “real club,” which means a club with a dance floor, lights and things you find in an normal club in real life. He didn’t want to create another beach club or something similar with a shopping mall and stuff like that. Although, the club is rather small, it’s a cool club with the lights and stuff. It is totally dark with flashing lights and a small DJ booth. The normal features of a club. 

The Live DJs are also very cool. They mostly play electronic music ( EDM ), but they also play rock or retro, not top 40 mainstream pop or tropical zouk reggae. DJ Robina Ewing, one of my SL friends, plays there sometimes. She told me about this club.

They have a group in-world and also a Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/vraiment.club/ ). They notify avatars through notifications from within the group. Since they are new, they don’t have a website yet, but I think that will follow soon.

Although it’s a small club, they need some attention too. Small clubs need love too, right? That’s what I thought as well. Personally, I think is small club is very nice, because of it’s minimalistic space and also it’s nice interior, which is also basic like in a normal club. This makes this club special and cool at the same time.

So, why not go to a “normal” club for once and go to VRAIMENT CLUB! Yet another club to add to my club list ( nah, I don’t have a list, just kidding ).

You can visit VRAIMENT CLUB at this location :

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/New%20York%20NYC/176/15/3002

Wesley Regenbogen

The Waterfalls Club

By Wesley Regenbogen

The Waterfalls Club was opened about a month ago by cяıƨтıαпσ (djcristianoo) and his Second Life girlfriend Fiuona (spiritofluv). Both of them also decorated the club.

What makes this club unique is the waterfalls that you can find at the four ends of the club. Like many clubs, the interior is nicely decorated and modern. The DJ booth is located a bit in the back of the club, aside the two large logos with the waterfalls pillars below them. The falls are quite cool and nicely made. This makes this club unique of it’s kind. Behind the club there are waterfalls as well. To truly view the waterfalls,  you must actually fly around the club and see it for yourself. It’s amazing how they made it!

 Facing the DJ booth, there’s a bar in the club at your right. It’s a wave form thing and it’s cool. There are two rotating platforms made for dancers to dance on, located in the air. Let’s hope those dancers don’t have fear of heights!

The Waterfalls Club is a friendly club with a good atmosphere. They have awesome music and the best DJs. They play all kinds of trance music and also electro house in the club. What’s more, this club is only the beginning of a bigger project that they will launch soon.They will build shops and a business network and everything around it. This is an ongoing project that just started a month ago. Let’s hope this big project will succeed ! I wish them the best of luck with it !

Since this club is relatively new in Second Life, their ways of getting the word out are limited, such as events groups. They do have a group called “Waterfalls Club V.I.P.” When there is a party there and you're in the group, you will get notified. Because this is a new club, there are no major events planned yet.

Personally, this is the most unique club I encountered so far. Another club to add to my club list ( I don’t have a list, though ). The nice scenery in the background and the waterfall pillars are quite unique. Let us hope that this club expands it’s boundaries and will have bright future ahead of them. For being a new club, they have done a nice job creating it all.

You can find this club at the following location :

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/The%20Waterfall%20Club/75/112/37 

Wesley Regenbogen

The Singularity Viewer : A Lightweight Viewer for Second Life

By Wesley Regenbogen

A while back I wrote about the Firestorm Viewer that I tried out as a replacement for the standard Linden Lab viewer. After using it for a while now, I've began to have issues with it the last few times that I used it. My avatar wasn’t loading and clearing the cache of the viewer didn’t work either, so, I decided to search for another viewer to install.

After consulting "Uncle Google" ( no family relation), I tried a few viewers, like Catznip and a few others, but I had the same issue. Then I came across Singularity Viewer and I installed it. And … thank God! It worked like a beauty. So far I haven’t had any issues with it.

In the beginning there’s a bit of a learning curve, but it’s not that high. So if you want to try out this viewer, don’t be afraid, it will work fine. I chose the 64 bit version of the software, because I have a 64 bit Windows 8.1 running and I have a 64 bit processor in my desktop as well. It didn’t let me down yet and I hope it stays that way.

Although it’s based on an older version of the original Second Life Viewer, the look and feel is almost the same, but it has added a few cool features. One of them is “Streaming Audio Display” which serves as a “widget” which will be added to the HUD of your viewer. It will tell you the title and the artists of the songs that are currently playing when you are somewhere, if audio is streamed, of course. The toolbar buttons can be changed to the user preference, so it’s possible to change toolbar buttons at the bottom of the viewer.

Too bad there isn’t a “Landmarks” toolbar button, that would be much more handy than going to the “Inventory” toolbar button and then going to the “Landmarks” folder and get a listing of the landmarks that you have collected.

When you go to a parcel where there is audio streaming playing, the Singularity Viewer will ask you if it’s allowed to play or not. So when you push the “play” button on the media buttons on the lower right corner side. You have the option to either “blacklist” or “whitelist” a streaming audio on a parcel. So, this allows you to control whether or not you like to let the music play or not.

As far as I’m using this viewer, I’m satisfied with it. I hope it stays that way, and I will keep on using it indefinitately. 

More information about Singularity Viewer can be found at :

http://www.singularityviewer.org/

Wesley Regenbogen

Club Eclipse

By Wesley Regenbogen

Club Eclipse is a special club in open air that plays EDM ( electronic dance music ) and allows DJs from all over Second Life to play their tunes in the club. A friend of mine, DJ Robina Ewing, plays often in this club. A while back she invited me over to the club to listen to her set and it was a good one, I might add.

The club opened on Wednesday October 17, 2014 and was bought by Ɗل-ƊãՐԌØ (kardargo.adamczyk). It was a package that he bought from the previous owner and they managed to make the club in three days. The fact that it’s a “prefab” club doesn’t mean it’s easy to manage things. It’s not easy to keep a 177 man club crew and the DJs satisfied at all times, sadly. Communication is everything for them, so that’s why they have a Facebook page and a VIP group. The group  has 335 members.

When you enter the club it will ask you to adjust your windings settings, or something like that. I always accept it, although I don’t know what that means. The pumping beats are always awesome and I like them very much. As I’m a house/techno/trance music fan. Their music is always nice to hear. Furthermore this club is nicely decorated. The decorations were done by Igz Dragostino. At the moment of writing this article they were open 17 weeks.  They  had a New Years Eve party recently, but no further special events are planned at this moment.

The VIP group has put in 590,000 L$ of tips into the club.

Club Eclipse's current design is not the permanent one, but there is a new one under construction.

The builder of the current Club Eclipse is DCL ( Digital Cult Lifestyle ). The new club is built by DJ Dargo himself. A third design will be worked on next month.

In my personal opinion : This is a great club, because it’s in open air and also because I’m a dance music lover in real life too *smiles* I can add this club to my list of favorite clubs in Second Life. It’s a long list if you read my other club articles, but hey, I like clubs here, so, I hope you all have fun when you visit Club Eclipse and I hope to meet you there soon.

They have a Facebook page at : https://www.facebook.com/eclipseinsecondlife. The club doesn’t have a website yet, but the owner is working on it, so the site is “under construction” at this moment. More information about EDM ( electronic dance music ) can be found at : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_electronic_music_genres .

You can find the current Club Eclipse at this location :

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Magical%20Bay/60/191/30

Wesley Regenbogen

Gacha Market and The Arcade

By Wesley Regenbogen

Imagine a shop where you get items from so-named "fruitmachines" of which you make a purchase, and you're not a hundred percent sure what you might get. But if you're not truly happy with what you got, you can trade it with someone else who made a purchase whom had gotten something you like. This is "Gacha," a concept that's apparently been in Second Life for a while, but it's new and innovative to me as I haven't seen it around yet.

I took a look at two Gacha shopping locations. The newer one was the Gacha Market. The owners of the Market and its residential area are Erick Miles and Marc Bing, both are Dutch residents. You can also rent a home and a shop basement there too. They made the homes first, and then built everything around it. The decorations at the sim were done by both as well.

The older, better known Gacha area is The Arcade. It was co-founded by Octagons Yazimoto, Katharine McGinnis, and Emery Milneaux. The idea behind it started as a joke, but eventually the owners decided to put the project in action. The Arcade sim was created five years ago. You can buy items from the “fruitmachines” for L$ 50 or L$ 75 and you don’t quite know what you will get. It’s possible you get an item that you don't really care for, but it can also be that you get a rare item. So, it’s basically a “I buy something, but I don’t know what I will get” thing, which is quite original in my opinion. Different creators make stuff and they put it in the "fruitmachines," which can be totally different with every creator. If you don’t like the item that you bought, you can resell it on the “Gacha Market.” 

Of the team behind The Arcade, some might know Katharine McGinnis for her work on the "Fennux" breedable pet. Marianne McCann, listed as a chat moderator, is noted for helping organize events at Bay City and other places.

On the Arcade location there is a radio station that is played, with different styles of music. It has events four times a year at March, June, September, and December.

The music which is played in the Gacha Dream location is from the 1950's and 60's. There are no events planned in the near future yet, because the sim has just recently opened. But they promise that they will give an “extra twist” to things down the road. 

The Gacha Market shops and sim is a realistically designed place with homes and shops that you can rent. The homes are photorealistic and very well made.

The Arcade is a circle path where the shops are at both sides of the path. The path is formed by a brick pattern and it’s beautifully made. It's website describes it as "set in a seaside build that evokes the whimsical feel of the penny arcades of early 1900’s Coney Island and Brighton Pier."

More information about Gacha Shop and Sim can be found at this website :

http://www.gachadream.com/

More information about The Arcade can be found here :

http://thearcadesl.com/

You can find the Gacha Shops and Sim at this location :

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Dreaming/104/127/24

The Arcade can be found here :

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Acerbus%20Silva/57/80/52 

image credit: thearcadesl.com

Addition: Scratch the part about Gacha Market being part residential, they don't do it any more.

Wesley Regenbogen

Interview With Lestat Zalivstok, Owner of the Winter Ice Rock Fest and Rebel Yells Concerts Sims

By Wesley Regenbogen

Wesley Regenbogen: Hello there Lestat

Lestat Zalivstok: Hello Wesley

Wesley Regenbogen: Who created the Winter Ice Rock Fest sim, more precisely the Rebel Yells Concerts sim?

Lestat Zalivstok: The sim has been created and decorated by myself and GuiltyAngel Rhapsody another owner, we are also owner of the Tribute band Rebel Yell Concerts, the N.1 Tribute band in SL with over 3000 members in group, and that's why the name of the sim is Rebel Yell Concerts.

Wesley Regenbogen: When was the sim created ?

Lestat Zalivstok: Me and GuiltyAngel are owners since a year and a half together with Monia63 Dirval.

Wesley Regenbogen: The place is Christmas themed. Who came up with the idea to create a Christmas themed sim anyway ?

 Lestat Zalivstok: This sim is a multi-event sim and (we will) change this environment following the major festivities. On Christmas is Christmas and winter themed, yes. The idea came to all of us owners so me Guilty and Monia.

Wesley Regenbogen: Did you also do all of the decorative things in the sim ?

Lestat Zalivstok: Yes myself and GG (Guilty) personally decorated the whole sim. Our goal was to have a photorealistic sim so we spent a lot to have the best trees the best looking ice textures the best houses and chalets etc. etc.

Wesley Regenbogen: Is the sim available all the time, or are there times when it's not available for Second Life Residents?

Lestat Zalivstok: All the time available and it appears on the SL Destination Guide

Wesley Regenbogen: Are there any other events taking place in the near future or what concerts are taking place in the upcoming weeks?

Lestat Zalivstok: We have concerts on monthly bases here brought by our company Rebel Yell Concerts, the latest ones was last Sunday Bonjovi and Iron Maiden tributes... We will have more shows on January, including one for the 3rd Rebel Yell birthday in the weekend 9/10/11, probably a Depeche Mode tribut, and more during that month not yet scheduled

Wesley Regenbogen: What makes your place special, what features does it have that no other places have?

Lestat Zalivstok: A very unique photorealistic look. It looks a real village, no fake textures or fake trees. The nature is 100% realistic and so is the rest of the landscape and buildings... Moreover it has basically almost all the winter sports available here, skating, sledding, etc. (We have) a real mountain built, or better say terraformed, by Guiltyangel Rhapsody, where you ski just like in real-life. And we are the one and only sim featuring a very good looking and realistic ski rail which brings you to the ski mountain.

The skating is very realistic too. You can skate using your own hud, or you can use one of the 4-tour on skates that makes you go around the huge skating rink in couple or single.

Wesley Regenbogen: Thank you for this short interview. I wish you the best of luck with the concerts and the sim in whole.

Lestat Zalivstok: Thanx a lot.

Wesley Regenbogen

Firestorm: A First Look at a Third-Party Viewer for Second Life

By Wesley Regenbogen

Many new users usually use the Second Life Viewer from Linden Lab after they signed up. I myself used it for many, many, many years used the standard Second Life Viewer from Linden Lab. But a few days ago, I downloaded and installed FireStorm Viewer. This is the most popular of the alternative, or third-party, viewers.

The installation process is painless (read : very easy) and the first time you run it, you get a login screen like you had with the Second Life Viewer, but there’s a difference, you can change the mode of FireStorm Viewer. You can go into : FireStorm, Phoenix, Viewer 3, Hybrid and Latency. I have only tested two modes: FireStorm and Phoenix mode. Both work smoothly.

The Standard Viewer uses the “Pie menu”, like it was used in older Second Life Viewers. Personally, I turned that option off, because I didn’t like the “Pie menu” that much. But you can leave it turned on, if you wish, of course. It’s a user preference thing, you know.

You can also choose other worlds to view as well : InWorldz and many others, which I don’t really know about. But we are on Second Life, so I suggest to leave it set for here. Once logged in into Second Life you will notice the HUD of the Viewer is totally different if you're used to the Linden Lab Second Life Viewer. But don’t panic or be afraid, you will get used to it sooner or later.

You will see buttons at the bottom of your screen, you can change them if you wish with things you use the most. At the left of those buttons, you will see a field to type in your text in Nearby Chat. But you can also click the text balloon icon and chat from there, it will open a small window called “Nearby Chat’.

So, you see FireStorm Viewer has much more ways to use different features.

At the left of your screen you will see an icon : if you click that it will open the “Destinations” windows where you can choose from the list to view other places.

As mentioned earlier, there are buttons at the bottom of the Viewer screen ( here’s a little explaination of the icons. I will only review the most used by most residents ) :

• The “briefcase” icon, will open your inventory.
• The “Search” icon, will open Second Life Search.
• The “map” icon will give you a map according to where you are in Second Life now
• The “minimap” icon, will show a minimap of the surrounding areas you are currently in.
• The “People” icon, will allow you to view who of your friends is online and which residents are nearby and also you can access your groups here.
• The “eye” icon, let’s you control the camera options and adjust the camera around your avatar.
• The “microphone” icon, will let you speak with your microphone in-world.
• The “headphones” icon, will let you hear voices nearby and let you morph your voice and things like that.
• The “Facebook” icon, obviously let’s you share things on Facebook.

You are able to change the icons that you want to be placed at the bottom of the GUI.

In my personal opinion, this is much better than Linden Lab’s Second Life Viewer. More options, more privacy protection and more customizable.

More information about FireStorm Viewer can be found at :http://www.firestormviewer.org/
If you decide to use this Viewer, have fun with it !

 

Wesley Regenbogen

Pocket Metaverse

By Wesley Regenbogen

Communicating with your Second Life friends inworld is easy enough when you are at your computer or laptop. But what about when you're not logged in Second Life and not at your computer/laptop, and you want to send an IM to a friend who is in-world?

Don’t worry, there is an iPhone app for that.

Pocket Metaverse is a cool app that lets you login into your Second Life account. The free version's features are limited, but you're able to use it to get in touch with your friends. You can see who’s online and send IMs to them. There is even a minimap to see where you are in Second Life. You can also view Second Life residents' profiles.

The Pro version of the app gives more options such as allowing you to open notecards and access groups and stuff.



Although you can receive and see pictures and send snapshots you've taken earlier, you can't directly see what's around your avatar, there is no 3D world view on this app. For that, you'd have to get SL GO, but that needs at least a tablet, and costs a monthly fee. Pocket Metaverse has no monthly fee.

I have yet to try out the Pro version of Pocket Metaverse, but I probably will after using the Free one for a while.

So, if you are looking for an app to get you connected with your Second Life friends on your iPhone and iPad, Pocket Metaverse might be the app you are looking for. I suggest everyone with an iPhone or IPad  check it out. Enjoy the app and chat with your Second Life friends.

More information about this app can be found at : http://www.pocketmetaverse.com/

 

Wesley Regenbogen

Club Bed

By Wesley Regenbogen

Club Bed calls itself a “Dutch Hangout” and the club is placed on what looks like a large bed. That explains the unusual name of this club.

The club was created in September 2014 by Deborah8 Cortes and Magdalena1 Kira. Magdalena also has the job of decorating the club, doing a very nice job of it. The setting of actually a large bed, is quite unusual, but that makes it different from other clubs I have wrote about in the past..

The club warmly welcomes anyone that enters. They have a friendly staff and is a great “Dutch Hangout.” And they have great DJs that play in their club seven days a week. They also have a romantic garden and a wedding place too. Avatars can give their rezzday party and other events for free.

The club has theme evenings sometimes as well. I was there at one of those theme evenings, the subject was “Indian evening.” There were a lot of avatars, ( 10 or 11) at the evening and they had good fun at this event.

Future themes include: movie, adventure, pirate, Indian, Halloween, Christmas, Eastern, summer, winter, all Dutch themes, and more. Too many to list here, in fact.

In my personal this is one of the best clubs I've encountered so far. The fact that the club is set on a large bed, makes it an amazing gem that I found in Second Life. I haven’t found anything like it elsewhere.

Readers can find more information about this club in Second Life Search, and in the club itself. They communicate their events and other information through their Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/307719049414186/?fref=ts ) , their group ( and group chat ) and SL Nederland. On their Facebook page,  you can find videos taken from within the Second Life environment.

The team of Club Bed consists of following members :

Owners : Deborah8 Cortes and Magdalena1 Kira

Builder : Bjoet Wonder

Managers : Rosita Balan  and Scilla Capra

Dutch DJ’s that play in the club: DJ Brenda Bates, DJ Black, DJ Silver, DJ Han Fallen, DJ Diablo, and DJ Threes.

CLUB BED can be found at Olympus Island.

*Addition* The Newser was later informed one party had a total of 32 avatars present. Plus of the staff, Bjoet Wonder does the bed decoration "and cleans the bed too." 

*Addition* the location of the club has changed, now at Stormy End (75/119/1001 )

Wesley Regenbogen  

Commentary: Silver Fire - My Virtual Horse in Second Life

By Wesley Regenbogen

A short time ago, I wrote about Hope Driftwood’s Ranch and Dreamscape Ranch, where they raise virtual horses. I mentioned they offered me one of their pets, but I hadn't made up my mind whether to raise it or not. So for a time, it remained not yet born, stored in the bundle of hay that appears when breedable pet horses in Second Life reproduce.

I’m glad to report that I made up my mind and let the colt be born. I have a virtual horse now. He is a male gender Amaretto virtual horse, who’s name is “Silver Fire.” Hope Driftwood helped me setting it up and I now rent a box to put the horse as well.

These are the stats of Silver Fire at the moment of writing this article ( it might have changed after the article has been published ) :

Silver Fire

Version 5.0

Age 2

Gender male

Nourishment 0%

Energy 84%

Happiness 87%

Fervor 0%

Coat: Silver Mecklenburger

Eye: Fire Element

Mane: Long

Tail: Long

Coat Gleam High

Hair Gleam High

Coat Luster Low

Coat Gloom

Hair Gloom

Coat Opal

Hair Opal

Hoof Kiwi

Ear Style Half Droop Left

Wing: Wild Turkey

bb7dff45-aac5-82e4-9ae1-84b3bfc756be

It’s getting used to having a virtual horse,  but it’s cool. I can recommend that everyone in Second Life get one! In my personal opinion, this is the coolest thing around here.

As I’m now settled, I got a virtual home, I have a career here that I like -  being a virtual journalist for the SL Newser, and I got myself a virtual horse. I think this is the best thing that ever happened to me in Second Life. I just now need to see to it that I can pay all of those things, of course. So please suggest to me new places, people, and events to write about.

Nevertheless, it’s a awesome thing to have once you get the hang of it. It’s nice to have a virtual horse. Everyone can do it, so if you want one, talk to Hope Driftwood or Chris Dreamscape and buy one. For information about how to set it up, you can talk to them as well, they will help you getting it set up and will support you when you are unsure about things.

Happy virtual horsing.

Wesley Regenbogen 

The Vinyl Museum: The Club for Lovers of Classic Rock

By Wesley Regenbogen

The Vinyl Museum is a place in the Sunweavers Estates area and it’s the place where music lovers will find what they are looking for. The place is beautifully designed and it has a central fountain is really in the main area. It was built about five years ago in 2009. RECoyote Mindes created the location and his SL wife Perri Prinz created the club, known at the time as "Perri's Xanadu." Since then, it was renamed the "Green Meadows Club," after a club in Perri's stories, and then given it's current name last year.

In the center of the main area there is a large water fountain. There are also a few shops nearby. "Who will you be today?" is the message one reads before going into a place offering a selection of outfits.  One corner is the meeting place of the FCA (Furry Club Alliance). There's also a teleporter which can take you to a few other locations. To teleport to another area within the sim, you need to click the colored area on the ground just in front of the club's entrance. Once you right-click on it, you need to choose “Touch” and then a chair appears. A menu appears with the locations you can teleport to. Choose one of the areas. You need to right-click it and choose ‘Sit here” on the chair to start the teleporter. You will be teleported to the area you choose within minutes. The teleporter will teleport you “Star Trek”-wise towards your new location, which looks very cool. When I gave it a try, there was a problem with the teleporter, but I’m sure that the owner fixed it already.

There is a radio station playing music when you enter the place, 70s music. Perri's personal stream is called "Rockin' Rabbit Radio," but there is often another classic rock station playing between events.  If you feel the need to rest a bit, there are chairs to sit on in the main area. The place has a very colorful dance floor, with  lights shinning down, and  the center looking like a huge slow-spinning vinyl record. The walls are well decorated with rock music artwork. Very cool.

There is a group called “The Vinyl Museum” where you can get more information about the place and also where you can get notified when there are events taking place.

In my personal opinion, this place is the place to be when you are into music, especially 70s music. Since we mostly use CDs and DVDs, vinyls are a bit old-fashioned,but every medium has it’s charm, right ?

You can find this place at : http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/HV%20community/69/208/4051

 

Wesley Regenbogen 

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

Woods Club Reopened

By Wesley Regenbogen

The Woods Club was created in 2008 and closed its doors in 2011. But in January 2014, the club reopened with a new owner, Leila Roddenham and a CEO, a Belgian with the name Viktor Galli (he speaks Flemish, like me), who was also the CEO in the Old Woods Club. The club recently celebrated its 6^th birthday in Second Life.

The Woods Club was created by two people, Ezio Gears and Mercedes Auer.They also have an excellent team of managers and DJ/advisors. Club notices state you can find the best quality music there and also a good many DJs. They play different genres like : Techno, House, Electro, Hip Hop, Dubstep, Breaks, Tech House, Afro/Tribal House & Soulful.

They try to separate themselves from other clubs in Second Life by not having a lot of commercial music. They prefer to use more underground sounds. But they try to keep the traditions of the Old Woods Club as well. The owner and the CEO carefully reviewed, planned and put in place each step. If a DJ wants to spin within Woods Club, they need to possess something special, something that another DJ doesn’t have.

When you enter the club a voice says “ No Woods, No Life.” That slogan can be true if you are into dancing in Second Life.

The traffic of visitors varies anywhere between 25,000 to 36,000. They are open Tuesdays through Sundays between 10am and 10 pm. But soon they are going to change the opening hours on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday between 8 am to 8 pm. Soon there will be more information will follow shorthy.

Woods Club fans have their own group called “Element the 8^th” which is also owned by Woods Club. They communicate via Facebook and other groups within Second Life. Our readers can find more information about Woods Club on these 3 pages :

https://www.facebook.com/Woodsclub?fref=ts

https://www.facebook.com/WoodsHouseMusic

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1468714730012420/

I would like everyone to visit this club and enjoy your stay in the New Woods Club and hopefully you can dance with your friends and other people you have met and have lots of fun !

Checkout this nice new club at this location : http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/WOODS/107/127/22/

Wesley Regenbogen 

Hoverboard Wars

By Wesley Regenbogen

Hoverboard Wars is a Second Life game where you need to ride with a hoverboard and try to get over the many ramps and shoot the opponents and try to eliminate them as soon as you can.

At the startpoint, you must first right-click on the hoverboard that is in front of you and select “Ride.” Then your avatar will glide down the mountain and the game starts. Navigation is done with the standard keys W, A,S,D, but also the good old arrow keys are usable to navigate throughout the game.

The object is to navigate with your hoverboard over the ramps and bridges and other blue structures on the sim. When hit by another opponent, you loose hit points ( HP ) and need to find health repairing objects to make yourself healthy again. This is easier said than done, because it’s sometimes not easy to get on the ramps using the arrow keys. Nevertheless, you can try to make the best out of your game and try to shoot your other players as much as possible.

When your health points reach the zero level, you are teleported back to the beginning point of the game and can start over. If you decide to give up the game, just click the hoverboard itself and you will give forfeit. Giving forfeit is not the best option, though, so try to go further as much as possible. So, it’s your skill, ability and keeping your momentum to keep your avatar on your hoverboard.

It’s fun and exciting to see your avatar floating over the water and getting enough momentum to get over the ramps. The competitive gameplay allows you to avoid getting hit by the other opponents and trying to stay alive at all costs. You can also perform some cool moves while you are in air. Avoiding getting hit, is one of the trickiest things to do, because your opponents will follow you at all times.

There's a spot on the sim where it looks like one cat is teaching other cats how to play the game. But no kitties went after me.

You can find this Hoverboard Wars at this location : Hoverpark (240, 239, 37)

Enjoy your ride at Hoverboard Wars and maybe we can challenge each other one day.

Wesley Regenbogen

Bergson Bowling Center : Let’s Get Bowling in Second Life

By Wesley Regenbogen

Bowling, it must be the most famous indoor sport in the USA. Where I live in real life (Belgium, Europe), there are many bowling centers as well. Luckily, you can bowl in Second Life as well. Just head over to Bergson Bowling Center, it’s THE place if you are into bowling.

I’ll explain how you can bowl there in a bit, but first let’s explain some of the terminology that is used in bowling (for those unfamiliar with bowling, that is) :

Strike  all 10 pins are down in one throw)
Split (two outer pins are still standing when thrown)
Spare  (successfully taken down the remaining pins in the second turn)
Double strike (two strikes in a row)
Turkey (three strikes in a row)
Four Bagger (four strikes in a row)
Five Bagger (five strikes in a row)
Perfect Game  (all strikes in the game, meaning it’s the perfect game, 300 points maximum score )
Indian (two pins standing behind each other)

Ok, so now you know the most common terms used in bowling. Now, let me explain how to bowl in Second Life. In Bergson Bowling Center you must first go to the large pin at the left when standing at the door. You then right-click and select “Touch” and a menu will appear. Now choose a lane that is available. Once you have assigned a lane for yourself, head over to the lane and then click on the bowling ball thing right under the scoreboard. Right-click and select “Touch”, once again it gives you a menu. Now select “Ball” and you will be given a bowling ball. Wear it on your avatar to proceed further.

Now choose ( in the same menu, you might need to click it again and re-choose it ) “Start game” and then head to the bowling lane and get to the line there. Now you need to go into “mouselook” mode, you do this by using your scrollwheel on your computer mouse. Once you are into “mouselook” mode, there will be a crosshair in the middle of your screen.

To bowl you must first choose where you want the ball to go. Once you did this, you need to hold down the left mouse button and hold it there until the speed indicator says “100%”, then you can release the left mouse button and your bowling ball will go to the destination you chose earlier.

I know it’s kinda getting used to, but once you get the hang of it, it’s fun.

I hope you enjoy your stay at Bergson Bowling Center and we might meet each other there one day. Enjoy and keep on bowling!

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Foale/30/22/28

Wesley Regenbogen