In this episode, we explore Fantasy Faire, and visit 11 of the fabulous 22 regions that were part of the Faire this year, which took place recently in support of Relay for Life of Second Life, the major Second Life fundraiser for the American Cancer Society!
Fantasy Faire is now, sadly, over for another year. But this year the event, held in support of Relay for Life, raised an astonishing L$29,884,100 ($119,536 USD) by the end of the Faire, the highest total ever.
So do join us as we explore the remarkable regions that made up this years Fantasy Faire, with the aid of our brilliant roving videographer, Bain Finch, and our wonderful photographer, Wildstar Beaumont.
Sipala, photographed by Wildstar Beaumont
And Part 2 of our explorations will be shown on Monday 5th June at 2pm – you won’t want to miss that!
Or you can join us for our Watch Party in the beautiful Designing Worlds studios in the Garden of Dreams, where we’ll be discussing our peep into the past – and our own Second Life memories.
In this episode we look back to 2010. It was billed by Linden Lab as the Year of Delight – and whether or not that was a true prediction will, we hope, emerge within the show. But here are some clues – two changes of CEO, massive lay-offs, viewer wars, rows at the SL7B … it all makes for a fascinating discussion with our resident historian, Marianne McCann.
And there are other treats in the shape of extracts from shows in 2010, including not just Second Life but visits to other grids like the Reaction Grid and the beautiful Heritage Key, as well as fascinating Second Life locations.
And there’s even a little fore-warning of the coming of mesh, with what was a very rare occurrence in those days – the appearance of a Linden on the show!
Again, many places in this show have vanished – but there are a few you can visit!
In today’s episode we’ll be helped by Marianne McCann, Second Life historian, who will share with us some of the features that arrived and frictions that enraged the residents of Second Life in those years, and by Wildstar Beaumont who has ransacked his photo archive for us!
Saffia talks Second Life History with Marianne McCann
And you’ll have a chance to see extracts from those early shows, including our very first visit to the Home and Garden Expo, a glimpse of the 2008 Relay for Life builds, our very first Babbage show … and much more!
Discussion deep underground in New Babbage
And we end with one of the most moving regions we have ever visited … and it’s still there!
Places to visit featured on today’s show: Most of these have gone, but you can still visit New Babbage (although you’d be wise NOT to explore any tunnels that run under Clockhaven) 1st World War Poetry Archive
This episode of Designing Worlds is our annual Hallowe’en Tale – and we have a great one for you this year – The Monkey’s Paw by WW Jacobs. In the story, three wishes are granted to the owner of The Monkey’s Paw, but the wishes come with an enormous price for interfering with fate.
William Wymark Jacobs (1863 – 1943) was an English author of short fiction and drama, with his best remembered story being “The Monkey’s Paw”. Jacobs was also known for comical tales about sailors, on ship and ashore but “The Monkey’s Paw”, published in 1902, is a classic tale of the macabre – a standout even when MR James and EF Benson were writing some of the best tales in the genre. The Edwardian period was a highpoint for this genre, and perhaps you won’t be surprised to learn that we therefore filmed this episodes in the streets, the homes and the factories of New Babbage.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Readers: Saffia Widdershins Mavromichali Szondi Fakey Jewell Corwyn Allen
Locations used in the film: HorrorAddicts.Net HQ, Babbage Square Bookhaven, Wheatstone Waterways MCM Tower, Babbage Canals Bedrock, Wheatstone Waterways
Images by Wildstar Beaumont and Saffia Widdershins
This was our special episode of Designing Worlds for the 2022 visit to some of the stunning places created for Halloween in Second Life.
This year we are going for atmospheric designs (although, if you prefer your Halloween as gory as possible, we do pay a brief visit to the Halloween Haunted Tour, built by the Moles).
And we found three wonderfully atmospheric and haunted designs …
We start at Haunted Hollow, created by Honey Heart of Elite Equestrian, and Sillve, along with others from the Elite Equestrian. It’s a beautiful creation, rich with touches of the pagan and filled with amazing detail – just stop and examine every place you pass!
Next we take a trip to the beautiful Shadowfell, created by Tymus Tenk and Truck Meredith of Calas Galadhon. This year they have gone for spooky mystery (and a few jokes too!) to create an absolutely lovely environment. Take the boat tour for an initial exploration – and then explore on foot to see the hidden places, such as the caves.
Finally, we visit the wonderful post-apocalyptic vision of New Orleans, complete with zombies and other ghostly happenings -created by the region landscape designer, Kaiden Tray. Realistic details mingle with dark fantasy here – and are not to be missed.
And there’s location film from Bain Finch, and wonderful photography of other Halloween places from Wildstar Beaumont.
The Designing Worlds Team was saddened to learn this week of the passing of Breezy Carver, for many years one of the leading lights of New Babbage. Breezy was a keen blogger, a stalwart supper of Relay for Life and, as the owner of Piermont Landing in Wheatstone Waterways, New Babbage, a leading hostess for wonderful Balls.
The Ballroom at Piermont Landing, photographed by Wildstar Beaumont
As a tribute to Breezy, this week we shall be showing the episode in which she appeared – the Theft of the Carver Diamonds, featuring not only Breezy and Edward Pearse but, of course, the indomitable Mr Biggins!
This coming weekend sees the climax of Relay for Life of Second Life 2022 – which we will be covering later in the season. So it seems a good time to look back in this week’s show to a former Relay for Life – in 2009.
Firstly we talked to Aeolus Cleanslate and looked at the wonderful New Babbage campsite, from one of the most inentive steampunk sims in the Second Life world – an imagining of an Exposition Universalle, based upon that of 1889 in Paris when the Eiffel Tower was first revealed. Aeolus Cleanslate explained, how under the Team Captain Breezy Carver, the New Babbage team created this amazing display – and also created the special Mars sim that won the overall prize for best designed sim!
New Babbage Build at RFL 2009
Then we talked to KiVanyel Adria of the Elf Circle, who told us not only about the beautiful build that the Elf Circle had created, but also the full programme of events that the Elves had created to share their community with the wider world. And we spoke with Helena Kiama and Jessie Sinister who were two of the key builders on the beautiful Wonders build, re-creating four of the Wonders of the Ancient World (the ones that they chose were the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Lighthouse of Alexandria and the Colossus of Rhodes).
Wonders of the World Build at RFL 2009
And finally we spoke with Zander Greene and Lauren Thibaud of the Friends Fight Cancer group who had created Anatomica, the most amazing sim, which combined information and a great interactive learning experience about the physiology of cells and cancer – with a fast and furious game where you got to dress in a red suit for surfing the bloodstream and blast cancer cells yourself!
And there was also a stunningly beautiful ballroom in the sky for those who ventured up to 1,500 feet!
Filmed at the 2009 Telethon location, the build designed by Dellybean North and landscaped by Anhayla Lycia.
~~~~
Find out more about this year’s Relay for Life of Second Life 2022 weekend at:
Today is one of our Archive shows, falling between our two visits to Fantasy Faire. We will be looking back to November 2012, when we explored the island of Temasek with its owner, Veritas Raymaker.
Temasek is inspired by the island of Singapore, and Veritas has brought something of the history, geography and ecology, and the culture of Singapore into the virtual world. Ranging from Mangrove swamps and a fishing village to a second world war fort (complete with an aerial attack!) to Concorde and modern builds … and not forgetting a look at traditional food on the way … this is a very rich and exciting environment to explore!
Temasek, photographed by Wildstar Beaumont
Elrik Merlin was on holiday when the show was shot, so Saffia is joined by Zander Greene as co-presenter as Veritas takes us on a journey around his island from the tunnels beneath to high in the sky!
In this episode, Designing Worlds paid a first visit to Fantasy Faire, one of the mega events raising money for Relay for Life of Second Life.
Fantasy Faire closed last week, having raised this year L$25,834,863 ($103,339 USD) by the end of the Faire, its highest total ever.
Doriath, photographed by Wildstar Beaumont
In the first of two shows dedicated to the Faire, we talk to Elizabeth Tinsley, her High Faireness, and then explore ten of the beautiful regions that made up the Fairelands this year, with the aid of Bain Finch, our camera person – and the other ten and some of the fabulous events that were such a feature of the Faire, captured by our photographer, Wildstar Beaumont.
The Clouded Mountain, photographed by Wildstar Beaumont
It makes for a stunningly beautiful show – make sure you don’t miss it.
In this episode, Designing Worlds paid a second visit to the Second Life Home and Garden Expo, an annual event we have supported since 2009.
In this show, we look at the very popular Decorating Contest, which Designing Worlds sponsored, where competitors had to decorate a home of their choice. We were joined by some of the designers (Liz Wilner, Aphra Hendrix, Mystic Blackbart and Melina Firehawk) who told us about their designs, and how they managed to great great homes with only 450 land impact!
Then with the aid of our terrific machinematographer Bain Finch,, we explore the sixteen homes.
The winners of the competition were: Ist Prize: Devon Rayne (devondistrict) and Aşɧʆγŋ Ήєανєռlу Ńiɠhŧ ʀǟŷňɛ (Ashlyn Darkheart) 2nd Prize: Alisha Yardley and Torty (Squeeakers Resident) 3rd Prize: Liz Wilner
This was the last show in our spring season, but we will be back soon! In the mean-time, take a look at Fantasy Faire, an event that a number of the Designing Worlds team are involved with! See: https://fantasyfairesl.wordpress.com/
Designing Worlds 