New World Notes

Survivor of the 9/11 Attack Created This Powerful Memorial in Second Life, A Somber Site Where the Names of the Fallen Are Just Out of Reach

Along with being incredibly powerful, Liam Kanno's September 11 memorial made in Second Life (video tour above) is a landmark in immersive design:

"Watching the massive towers fall was unlike anything I've ever seen," Liam continues, explaining his design. "The scale was immense, and I wanted to give as much scale to this build as possible... still, at the same time I had the intention of making it as intimate and private as possible, and wrap the visitor in the space."

Unlike Maya Lin's Vietnam memorial, which this evokes, the names of the fallen remain at a close remove, just out of reach.  "Personally for me, when I saw the people fall from the towers... the biggest thing for me is that I could do nothing ot help them... they were there, but no one could catch them.  So in the design I have in-world there is about a three foot gap between the names and the walkway."

Read more about it here from my original 2007 post, and the story of how Kanno came to create the memorial: 

Second Life Community Raises Over USD $9000 for the Maui Food Bank!

Thanks to everyone who contributed content and donations to the Maui Wildfire Relief Second Life fundraiser, with all proceeds going after Linden Dollar cash-out to the Maui Food Bank, one of the main non-profits helping victims of the Lahaina blaze. I took the above pic by the banyan tree tribute just before the final tally, which was L$ 2,342,991 -- i.e. about US$ 9,012, before service fees. 

Pretty impressive amount for an event that quickly came together after the wild fire tragedy! Much mahalo to lead organizers Cort Brandriss, Wendz Tempest, and Amanda Bork for putting it together.

Also great that many of the participants, including co-organizer Wendz, have a Maui background. Wendz jammed live on the ukulele, while DJ Johnathan Heiss shared a personal story about his time in Lahaina; Tatiana, who grew up in Lahaina, created a promo video for the event (watch below).

Speaking of service fees, perhaps Linden Lab will waive them in this case, as the company occasionally does for other fundraisers they help promote. (Hamlet hinted with much aloha.)

Maui Fundraiser With Special Sales, Live Music & Linden Lab Vetting Open Until End of Saturday -- Let's Raise Three Million L$ for the Maui Food Bank!

Click here to teleport into the Maui Wildfire Relief drive in Second Life. Running until end of this Saturday, over 75 SL brands are selling excellent items (full list of participants here) with 100% of net sales going as cash donations to Maui Food Bank.

Several live music events are also planned today and tomorrow, including a very special one: Today at 5pm PT/SLT, event co-organizer Wendz Tempest, who's from Maui and still has family there, is set to jam live on her ukulele!

Since launching last weekend, over L$1,874,517 (almost $7000 USD, after 5% cash-out) has been raised. Since then, Linden Lab has vetted the donation process and is actively promoting the fundraiser on Second Life's social media channels. Let's double that raise and get it to over L$3,000,000 this weekend!

Speaking of the L$ cash-out fee, I definitely recommend also consider making a direct US$ donations to Maui Food Bank here. At the same time, there's tens of million of USD already in the Second Life economy, and if you have L$ in your account to spare, consider spending some of it to help the people of Maui. Not to mention being part of this virtual community event featuring several SLers from Hawaii including Wendz on the uke!

Starting This Weekend: Second Life Shopping Fundraiser to Benefit Maui Families in Need, on a Sim Shaped Like the Island

Click here to teleport to a Second Life fundraiser to help the people of Maui now in desperate need due to the wildfire tragedy. Dozens of top SL brands listed here are donating content to the project, Maui Wildfire Relief SL, with all Linden Dollar proceeds converted to USD and going to the Maui Food Bank. 

The fundraiser starts August 19th, 9amSLT and runs to August 26. (The teleport link won't be live until then.) And yes, the island sim has been shaped to look like Maui itself -- the creation of event manager Wendz Tempest, who is herself from Maui. (As are several other members of the volunteer team.) 

Go here for more info, and if you're a content creator, consider signing up to participate!

The sim itself has a chill beach party / flea market feel, with a gorgeous stream of Hawaiian music setting the vibe. Wendz even created a tribute to Lahaina's vast famous banyan tree, which now struggles to recover from the blaze:

A Second Life Memorial to George Floyd's Murder -- And a Plea Not to "Move On" From It

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

On this day, just three years ago, George Floyd was murdered and the clarion call of “Black Lives Matter” that began with Trayvon Martin’s murder spread far and wide. It even looked like there was a sea change happening. Sadly a lot of the energy behind that has since been dissipated.

Jupiter Firelyte's picture above, “Say Their Names”, could be interpreted as capturing that “moving on” sense. The avatar is walking past a mural of murdered Black people without pausing in much the same way most of us move on, because it’s not an existential threat to us. She posted it in September 2020, when politicians were afraid to speak in favor of police reform and we decided silently, one by one, that order was more important than law. 

For a tribute to the Black Lives Matter protests, click here:

Celebrating the Drag Queen Community in Second Life

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Lady Arsenika Satanis’ shot this fab pop art self-portrait. I love her style -- and love to see that drag queens are active in Second Life. Her picture, “Pop Art Fantasy” is the apotheosis of drag queen glamor. It seems appropriate to amplify and honor the beauty and courage of drag queens after this weekend’s tragedy. 

Club Q’s drag show in Colorado Springs had just ended and the DJ had started playing when he was wounded, shot in the back, by a man radicalized and incited by political hate rhetoric. It is painfully ironic that the shooting was at midnight as the Day of Trans Remembrance began. While drag queens are not trans women, they are targeted along with people who are trans by a political party that centers itself on hate. The political strategist behind the current moral panic over drag queens and trans women advocates conflating the two because that makes them sound more frightening. 

As someone who has gone to countless drag shows, lurid is not the word I would use. Fun, glamorous, exciting, hilarious, friendly, warm, and welcoming are more apt descriptions. See for yourself at CLAT Drag Club [To teleport, click here.] The acronym stands for Club Legends Art Theater. Or you could try out the London club Madam Lala’s [To teleport, click here.]

For more Second Life drag artistry, click here:

Angry Second Life Creator Offers Free "My Body My Choice" Tattoo to Feminist Avatars

Now available for free in Second Life thanks to Edyn Starlight -- an abortion rights avatar tattoo. Edyn writes:

I don't typically like to get political, not on the best or even the worst of days, but Roe vs. Wade being overturned is fucking ridiculous... In support of those affected by this, I'm releasing this tattoo as a free gift, and it will remain free forever. I'm not a US resident, but I have so many friends whom have been there for my entire life that are affected by this decision.

Click here to teleport to Edyn's mainstore in Hamamura to get a copy.

Are there other abortion rights events and content in Second Life -- especially those which benefit real life orgs and women/girls impacted by the end of Roe? Please post details in Comments, and I'll highlight some in another post.

By the way, I've also asked Linden Lab if the company plans to make any policy announcement around the gutting of Roe and the coming of anti-abortion laws throughout much of the US. Specifically:

Applications Open for Hair Fair, the SL Community's Annual Fundraiser Selling Amazing Virtual Hair to Benefit Real Kids -- Here's Some Previous Favorites!

Click here to apply as a booth participant at Hair Fair, the annual SL community fundraiser event that sells amazing virtual hair styles for avatars, with a portion of all sales donated to Wigs for Kids, a non-profit that creates real wigs for children experiencing hair loss due to chemotherapy, alopecia, and other issues. Launched in 2006, the annual event led by Sasy Scarborough is attended by a large percentage of the Second Life community, and has converted L$ sales into USD cash donations approaching $100,000.

Sasy tells me that roughly 50,000 SLers -- about 1 in 10 of the active user base! -- attend every year, with most of the donations made through hair sales. A labor of love run by her and her partner Mel Vanbeeck (pictured here), Sasy tells me it's the stories that attendees and donors tell her, which make it most meaningful.

"[T]hey often share something that happened to them, a family member or a friend, and I cry and then I share with my team and then I cry more," she tells me. "People stop me during the event and share information and how much it means to them that we do it, or that they also donate their hair to Wigs for Kids, or are going to now that they know about it from the event."

She and co-managers Vanbeeck and Whimsy Winx, are also in contact with the real life non-profit during the event: "[T]hey are so happy about what we do and genuinely think that Second Life and what it is and how it functions is amazing and over the years have even come in [the virtual world] to see the builds and the event, which is just awesome."

The booth application is here, with a deadline of April 24. As an inspiration lewk book for 2022's event, here's some favorites New World Notes has featured over the last 15+ years:

Second Life Community Rallies to Help Ukraine-Based Creators on Platform

A Tribute to Ukraine  - "Long may Ukraine stand proud and free." by Rhaenys Targaryen

Update, 2/26: Bumped up for weekend support!

This is a Google Spreadsheet of Second Life stores and website Marketplace shops owned by Ukraine-based creators on the virtual world platform. It was quickly created by SL community members within the first 24 hours of the Putin regime's invasion of that country, with a goal of supporting these merchants with L$ purchases -- which they can subsequently convert into their local currency. (Whenever, that is, they are able to find a stable Internet connection in the now-embattled region.)

I have not yet personally verified that all the listed merchants are indeed based in the Ukraine, but a top expert in the SL economy confirms that these brands on the list, at least, definitely are:

• Loki (Marketplace here, SL store teleport link here)
• Osmia (Marketplace here, SL store teleport link here)
• Rouly (Marketplace here, SL store teleport link here)
• RAMA Salon (Marketplace here, SL store teleport link here)
• Evani (Marketplace here, SL store teleport link here)

The "Ukrainian Stores" list, as it happens, was created in great part by Second Life users based in Russia, who are now sickened by their government's military assault:

Starting This Weekend in Second Life: Halloween Fun Fundraiser to Benefit the American Diabetes Association!

Click here to teleport into a Second Life event with some Halloween month thrills for a great real world cause: Helping people with diabetes. More info and events on the Scare Me Silly site:

The 6th Annual Scare Me Silly Event in support of Team Diabetes of Second Life will take place October 15 to 22, 2021 and will feature shopping, a hunt, art, live music, contests, giveaways, tricks, treats, & more!!

100% of the funds raised during the extravaganza, Team Diabetes of SL Marketing Coordinator Jessii Warrhol tells me, go directly to the American Diabetes Association: "Funds are donated via an official avatar to our online donation and authorization page." That page is here.