Saturday, August 23, 2008

Art To Go Opening!

This just in from Kelly Yap:

Opening for the Art To Go Exhibition I

Sunday August 24th
3-5pm.

DJ CHECKERS will be spinning some traveling TUNES!
VOTING for the Art To Go Art Contest will begin!
PARADE at 5pm from the gallery with anyone in a vehicle participating....let's see how many vehicles we can get in a line and how far we can go on this funky Linden road!

GUEST ARTISTS are Nayeli Writer, Eeyore Ogg, MarieAnn Roogus,Sycho Kidd and Holly Loll
RESIDENT ARTISTS are LawnDart Curtiss, Drumstick Ah, Inkspots Voom, Exosius Woolley, Jankasse Broome, Grandaddy Republic, Kato Salyut, Sonia Stardust and Gillylou Messmer

Be there or be oh so square!

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

If SL Pottery Is A Lottery, We Hit The Jackpot

Tonight's article consists of three quick stops in at SL's established pottery stores.

I first arrived at Pottery Pavilion at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Bietschhorn/208/232/36. My first action was to await the popping of several dozens sculpted prims, thanks to my low-grade eMachine. I first thought I was in the middle of some sort of pod invasion, but everything shaped up beautifully. Two tiers of color-sorted pottery presented themselves nicely, but the show-stealer here was not the pottery but the stunning water temple, lavishly and perfectly decorated with Egyptian textures. Many times I've seen people come close to realistic texturing in SL, but I can definitely say that this place is a triumph and a marvel.

Pottery Pavilion also sells a neat 39-prim Mushroom/palette-swap Tree House for L$300, a 157-prim giant birdhouse for 450L, and a 92-prim tree stump home for L$350. Unfortunately, it's a case of too little, too late; with an impressive 9088m and a traffic of just 8, and the owner not online since July 31 and a L$100000 price tag hovering over the property, the Pavilion's glory days are coming to an end.

For a Mexican flair, El Refugio (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Kochoomo/137/105/58) is where it's at. Located both in Kochomoo and JC Anvil's Bungalow Zone, El Refugio features vibrant designs with many sun and moon motifs, flowers, birds, fish, and Mexican abstracts. Pinatas, plaques, wall art, fountains, wrought iron lamps, and many kinds of bistro chairs and tables round out the satisfying selection you will find here. And if that is not enough to quench your thirst for fine culture, ladies may still browse the new clothing store and anyone can browse the dedicated furniture store.

For anyone seeking the exotic SL store, Absinthe Minded Pottery and Pation in Skyridge (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Skyridge/179/113/301) offers a largely sign-free, text-free shopping environment that soothes anyone used to rows of laggy overlapping white text. Potted plants, birdbaths, and urns are the order of the day at 300m (kudos for not having the awful X-shaped flowers you see everywhere else in SL!) and at ground level there is a homey tiki shop with plenty of variety (they even have a stove for those chilly nights)! In all it's very well arranged, and a pleasure to see a place that isn't jammed with numbers and letters, for once.

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Monday, August 11, 2008

Thanks A Latte: VM Reviews Three SL Coffeeshops




Open Latte Coffee Shop used to be my favorite coffeehouse back when I had time. It has a very professional build through and through and radiates luxury and charm like a serene Charles Baudelaire poem. Featuring a fireplace, outdoor patio, library, and a few hardwood-accented rooms, the views are all very relaxing and uninterrupted by ad farms and other detritus. It was fairly happening for any SL business when I got there, with around 8 people. The music was a bit sugar-watery when I got there but it did little to detract from the ambience and they've had better music before.




Solace Coffee House is built high, with a walkaround height of 216m, right around the cloud level. Surprisingly, the land can be found ascending to this height! The realism is supported by waterfalls and a series of platformed walkways going all the way down to 160m. Solace's textures don't stand out like Mill Pond's do, but they're competently done and the architecture is superior, with a misty Pacific outdoor look modeled on Nepenthe Restaurant at Big Sur, California. Lots of poseballs and doodads like the Conversation Bomb, a comfortably close couch-covered interior and a product selection right out of any RL cafe round out this fine establishment. The music is fun and contemporary, laid-back and nothing I've yet heard.



And Kelly Yap's gotten a lot more down to earth! Formerly the owner of a hip, cozy skybox art gallery/coffeeshop, she's brought it all down to the ground and separated it into a spacious coffeehouse (Fiction & Lattes) and her art shop, Artifice. Upcoming events include Art to Go, a vehicle contest, and a L$1000 Traveling Tales Writing Contest, both accepting entries by August 15th.










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Friday, August 8, 2008

Loki Ball's Marrowstone Horror Sim Opens



Fluid Creations owner Loki Ball's sim has already evolved rapidly from a tranquil green square into a sprawling Second Life industrial-apocalyptic-horror complex. Stocked with his tried-and true bestselling grunge-gorged builds, the sim is also taking on an unlife of its own, with a giant white-knuckle, three-floor underground arena and much more on the way.


Marrowstone is the home of the Fluid Creations Crematorium, Grungy Industrial Warehouse, Gothic Cathedral, Control Station, and Personal and Commercial Room Switchers.


Newer builds and items featured include the darkly humorous I Gots Gas Station and the dead-serious Demented Motel, and there are countless other interactive accessories on the property to try and buy. Loki's security cameras and multi-animation beds stand out as new must-sees.

That's Loki in the distance.

If you're a brave soul in need of somewhere new to explore, follow the massive sewer pipe into the groundwork for the upcoming arena, which will soon be complete with drains, obstacles, barricades, and more. Several famed SL creators will be providing their creative talents here to make sure this is a top-level attraction.

Buying and using Loki's products on SLExchange is a perfectly fine thing to do, but if you want to see the sum of the parts, come to Marrowstone tonight, set the lights to sunset or midnight, and let the darkness fall all around you.

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Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Coming Soon: Our Coffee, Pottery and Comedy Series

Second Life business isn't all about walking into a store, waiting for things to rez, buying the best thing, and rushing to test it out. There are some amazing pottery stores in SL where you could visit with friends for hours, coffeeshops where you can soak in some great music, art, and, well, coffee, and comedy clubs where you can come in and take the edge off!

Next week, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday I'll be featuring a mini-series on some of the more eclectic businesses in SL. Stay tuned!

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Sunday, August 3, 2008

SL's Age-Old Problem Fixed by Loki Ball

Friends,

If you're tired of having a collection of objects you know will make you money, provided you re-rez them all painstakingly in the right spots, at the right angles, and setting up shop is preventing you from having fun every once in a while, then you owe it to yourself to check out Loki Ball's Room Switch.

Ranking right up there with Cheshyr Pontchartrain's Tardis and Toneless Tomba's Thinc Press in my favorite gadgets, the Room Switch is unbelievably handy. In a way it's like having 9 times the number of small parcels that you currently own! What the Room Switch does is let you save your favorite multi-object configurations for your land. Rezzing and clearing things en masse has never been more fast and convenient. Want a bar on your land? Put it together and save it to notecard! Do the same with a store setup, romantic getaway, cache of destructible RP (role-playing) objects, or anything else that suits your needs or fancy.

Want to mark down all your goods for sale for twenty minutes? Room Switch out your old setup with the discounted setup, then switch it right back with just an extra touch. Need to disappear into a secret hideaway? Rez a previously inaccessible and undetectable escape tunnel. Got a favorite tried and true event stage you'd like to set up? Go for it.

This is not a temp rezzer; the Room Switch rezzes one-rez setups at your convenience and leisure, and once they're set up, your object configurations are there with no extra temp-rez lag.

If you're an established merchant who wants that little extra time-saving edge, or you're just starting out in Second Life, you owe it to yourself to start saving time by purchasing the Room Switch. Try it out today!


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