Tag: Second Life Events

Linden Lab and Draxtor Despres Launch the Second Life Book Club

Yesterday was the first episode of a new, livestreamed weekly book club series called the Second Life Book Club, hosted by Draxtor Despres. If you missed it, you can watch it here:

Drax, the truly indefatigable video chronicler of both Second Life and Sansar, is also an avid reader and book lover. He has been hosting The Drax Files Book Club Show in Sansar for well over sixty episodes, interviewing various authors in his broadcast studio tucked away in the basement at 114 Harvest, every Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time. So it was perhaps inevitable that he would become involved in this new initiative: a book club in Second Life!

A press release from Linden Lab about the project states:

As book publishers adjust to coronavirus-era restrictions, the virtual world Second Life is launching the Second Life Book Club, a new “virtual world book tour” initiative that enables authors to have real-time book readings, engage in meet-and-greets with their fans and promote their publications in front of a live audience within the Internet’s largest user-created virtual world.

The Second Life Book Club, which debuts April 8th at 10 a.m. (Pacific), will kick off with a multi-author panel that will discuss the new reality of writing and selling books in the age of COVID-19. The event will feature a live Q&A with best-selling authors Matt Ruff (“Lovecraft Country”), Ken Liu (“The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories”), SL Huang (the Cas Russell series) and CB Lee (the Sidekick Squad series).

Upcoming shows will feature guests such as Tad Williams, Christopher Brown, Qiufan Chen, Kelly Robson, Chana Porter and Premee Mohamed.

The Second Life Book Club is hosted by virtual world personality Draxtor Despres, who is also producing the series in partnership with Linden Lab (creator of Second Life).

“When I first reached out to authors, some of them very high profile, I was surprised to get super enthusiastic feedback like: ‘Of course I will come on the show. Can I be a tentacle monster? Can I be a parrot? Can I fly?’,” says Despres. “It’s a dream come true for a book nerd like me!”

Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg adds, “Second Life offers a safe, fun retreat during a time of great anxiety, stress, and social isolation. Through the virtual world, people can stay connected and engage in friendly conversations and fun social activities such as visiting live music performances, virtual nightclubs and deejay events and now even book readings. Virtual world interactions offer a much deeper connection with other human beings than for example video conferencing: through the avatar and the shared space we feel as if we are fully present together.”

This is a win-win-win situation: a win for Linden Lab, a win for the authors, and also a win for Draxtor Despres, whom I believe to be the hardest-working man in virtual worlds, a non-stop whirlwind of activity! Drax is busy making promotional videos for Second Life, hosting regular shows and events in Sansar, running The Drax Files Radio Hour podcast—and on top of all that, he found time to complete and release a well-received, full-length feature documentary on virtual world use by the differently abled, titled Our Digital Selves: My Avatar Is Me. He’s truly an inspiration.

The Second Life Book Club will be every Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. Second Life Time/Pacific Time. And you can join the live studio audience on the new Book Club Island! (Be sure to pick up a stylish free Book Club T-shirt for your avatar at the entrance!)

See you there!

Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: Presents From the December FaMESHed Event (Plus a Few Advent Calendar Gifts)

The December round of the FaMESHed Event in Second Life is upon us, and once again, most of the vendor booths have beautiful Christmas gifts for us! There is some really lovely stuff, both for your avatar and for your home. You do have to join the FaMESHed group for free to pick up all the presents.

Here Vanity Fair is wearing two gifts from vendors at FaMESHed: the Christmas Deer sweater from Just Because and the Hanna red heels by Phedora. (The blue leggings were part of the Dec. 4th Advent calendar gift from Appliqué Chic, and are still available today for free, but they will be L$10 after today):

The red Joy throw pillow and the neon Santa hat on the wall behind Vanity are also gifts from FaMESHED, by Fancy Decor and EQUAL respectively.

Now we have the Merry plaid blue zipper skirt (part of the same Dec. 4th Appliqué Chic Advent calendar gift as the leggings in the previous picture), plus a lovely cropped sweater, the FaMESHed gift from Giz Seorn:

Here we pair the red cable knit mohair sweater by COCO Designs with the sexy red thigh-high Cate boots by Garbaggio (my favourite shoe store!):

Next we have the Shayla robe in green from Ricielli, which comes in both closed and open versions (obviously, I’m not going to show you the open one!):

The Scandalize gift is the Nairi dress in black with a separate black lace bralette:

The gift from Neve is this lovely outfit consisting of two separate pieces, the top and the matching skirt:

This is the Jane sweater by RIOT (which comes in green as shown and also in red), paired with the Adriana red glitter shorts by Bombshell. (The RIOT gift box also includes Jasper sweaters for the men.)

Next up is the Scarlett bra and panties, the gift from Belle Epoque, shown with the Punta Cana shoes by Essenz, which comes with a HUD to change the colour of the shoes themselves (3 options: grey, blue, and red), the sole (4 options), and the tie around the ankle (18 options):

Here’s a closeup on the shoes, which like everything Essenz sells, is wonderfully crafted, with much attention paid to details!

Finally we have the Cindy dress in mint green by Kaithleen’s, paired with the Dec. 5th Advent calendar gift from Essenz, the sand-coloured Honolulu shoes:

Here’s a closeup of the Honolulu shoes, which are bit too frou-frou for my taste, but they might be perfect for you!

You do need to join the Essenz group for L$350 to pick up their daily Advent calendar gifts, but all are beautifully crafted footwear, and I think that L$350 for 24 quality pairs of shoes and boots is a bargain.

The hair used in all these pictures is the Dec. 5th Advent calendar gift from Firelight Hair, a curly hairstyle called Melvena (you will have to join the Firelight group for free to use this calendar). The hair comes with a 3-colour HUD to change it to brown, black, or red:

UPDATED! Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: Monthly Midnight Madness

One of things I love about a mature, fully-evolved virtual world like Second Life is that I am constantly surprised and delighted at discovering a store on the grid that I hadn’t heard of before, or finding an event that I previously knew absolutely nothing about.

And such is the case with Monthly Midnight Madness, an event I learned about only through a recent video by SL vlogger Cassie Middles:

How Monthly Midnight Madness works is simple: participating stores will have a free item (limited to the first 1,500 avatars who slap the board), one released at midnight Pacific Time/Second Life Time (SLT), and another one released at noon SLT, twelve hours later. The purpose is to bring foot traffic into the stores (in much the same way as traditional Midnight Madness boards do), and I think it’s a great idea.

There are a couple of stipulations before you can pick up your freebies, however. First, you must join the Monthly Midnight Madness group for free. Second, your Avatar Rendering Complexity (ARC) has to be below 25,000 for you get into the stores taking part in this event, to reduce lag for everybody.

But once you have taken care of those two items, you are away to the races! Here’s one example of the lovely freebies available at midnight SLT at the Monthly Midnight Madness event, a turtleneck dress in a bold floral pattern courtesy of Belle Epoque, one of my favourite Second Life womenswear stores. The Alessandra dress comes in only one size, to fit the Maitreya Lara mesh body, but as you can see, it fits well on the Altamura Juliet mesh avatar I am wearing! (I have found that most clothing designed for the Maitreya Lara body fits Altamura mesh bodies with a minimum of fuss, although you might need to use the included alpha HUD to alpha out parts of your body like the arms and pelvis as I have done here.)

This avatar is wearing:

  • Mesh Head and Body: Juliet by Altamura (former Valentine’s Day group gift; the Altamura group costs L$50 to join; Omega compatible with the separate Omega system kit)
  • Omega Skin Applier: Flower by 7 Deadly S[k]ins (a box of Omega skin appliers was the June 2019 group gift)
  • Hair: Kelsa by Firelight (a free Advent Calendar gift from last Christmas)
  • Dress: Alessandra dress by Belle Epoque (free gift from the Monthly Midnight Madness; group is free to join)
  • Shoes: part of a free set of women’s classic pumps by Marquesse, available from the excellent freebie store at Ajuda SL Brasil on the third floor (here’s the SLURL)

TOTAL COST FOR THIS AVATAR: Only L$149! (L$50 to join the Altamura group and L$99 for the Altamura Omega system kit, which is available at this exact SLURL).

UPDATE 2:28 p.m.: The noon SLT freebie from Belle Epoque is this beautiful Alessandra coat in orange, which fits perfectly over the earlier Alessandra dress gift:

Here is a complete list of midnight and noon freebies available at the November 2019 round of the Monthly Midnight Madness event. Happy freebie shopping!

Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies: Uber 5th Anniversary

The popular monthly Uber shopping event in Second Life is celebrating its fifth anniversary, and the many vendors participating are giving away free gifts, such as the following simple but beautiful pink ballgown by Storybook:

Here I have paired Storybook’s Briar Rose gown in bubblegum pink with the Bella floral headpiece, a free gift by the Bauhaus Movement from the recent Second Life 16th birthday shopping event. They look as if they were meant to go together!

The Uber event is absolutely jam-packed, so I would recommend that you wait at least a week before you try to get in (you have until August 22nd). In the meantime, watch this unpacking video by Naria Panthar, as she methodically goes through all the gifts available, and you can take notes as to which gifts you want and what stores they are at. I did this and it saved me much valuable time. Thank you, Naria!

As always, in addition to the gown and headpiece, Vanity Fair is wearing: