Interview with SL Photographer Dixmix Souce -Seersha Heart Reporting...

Becoming a resident of Second Life in November of 2006, Dixmix Souce has been active in the SL photography scene for almost ten years.  In 2012, he was one of the artists who provided tours for the Virtual Ability Tour group and in that same year was part of GIFT [GA International Fine Arts Tour].  This year he has curated Escape In Landscapes in July and has recently opened Dixmix Gallery.  Dixmix Gallery is a new venue for 2D and 3D artists in world.

 Let’s get personal with Dixmix.

Saoirse Heart:  Welcome Dixmix and thank you so much for talking to me today.  I thought I would start off with a basic curiosity question, tell me how you got into Second Life.

Dixmix:  When I rezzed I thought SL was a chat room.  It took me one week to jump over the wall around the house where I was!  Then I met someone who taught me the basics of Second Life.  It did not take me long to discover the camera and take my first pictures.  My first house was a NY loft and of course it was also my first gallery.  I got into the photography scene and got brand new friends.  Some of those friends are still here and have not disappeared.  Others sadly died or maybe they just TP to heaven.

Saoirse Heart:  You have collaborated a lot with well resident Megan Prumier.  She built the new gallery.  She is the creator of the darkly enjoyable builds Crimarizon and Deadpool.  How did you meet her?

Dixmix:  It was in September 2011 at the Blacksilk academy, she went there with a mutual friend for some kind of fun or maybe just to see my exhibition.  Later Megan asked me if I would like to be the curator of the gallery she was building in a strange jungle sim called Crimarizon.  I accepted the job even though I already own my gallery.  Within a few months she had rebuilt it wonderfully.  Since then we have done a lot together and have a strong friendship. We both are Capricorn maybe it helps us to understand each other.

Saoirse Heart:  Let me ask you about something another artist said to me.  He said that "chicks dig artists'.  Do you find that to be a true statement?

Dixmix:  To be an sl artist, and it’s the same in rl too, you need to be alone. In my solitude is where I find my inspiration and my time to shoot.  Yes you can be surrounded by some cute AVI, who is smart and funny but when you’re starting a photo session you don’t have much time to talk.  You have to set the light, select the poses, have a look on every detail of the outfit.  Usually I tell them, sort your messy inventory or get ready for the next outfit.  Otherwise I have close friends, close enough to know the name of our children, talk about life, bitching about the weather, like many others I believe have in world.

Saoirse Heart:  On Saveme Oh’s blog she posted dialog from the one of your gallery openings in September 2016.  You were gracious and polite, yet her behavior earned her an ejection.  What is the most outrageous thing someone has done for your attention?

Dixmix:  I will not talk about about Saveme oh.  For me nothing is outrageous, I respect every kind of second life choices; you can be human, elf, hobbit, monkey, wear strange clothes or even a fashion addict. We are all pixel, but if you talk to me for 10 minutes, you will understand I'm real I'm not role playing as an artist or as a curator. I'm always talking to the person in front the screen.  I save my RP for some places where I always keep my clothes on.

Saoirse Heart:  Many artists and builders use ALTs as part of their creative process.  Do you use an ALT for creating or other purposes?

Dixmix;  Not really.  I’ve an Alt but he’s my banker.  Some years ago, someone stole my money by a script when I didn’t have much L$.  So I have him saving my money, no friend no group no sl just an account. But I know some have for different reasons, last week I spoke with someone who said ‘I’m the alt of my alt’.  I don’t really need to hide myself under another AVI.  I like the light and the darkness I can mix both in one SL.

Saoirse Heart:  Brings me to my next question, what do you do in second life besides your art?

Dixmix:  I wander a lot, shops, galleries, nice sims, thematic lands.  I chat with friends online and discovering new people.  My friends are not only photographers. Some are builders, sculptors, designers, DJs, dancers, Bloggers, famous models even some weak submissives owned by some kind of pixels master.  It’s a network but I’m very busy with photography and curating the gallery. 

Saoirse Heart:  It has been said that 'everyone is an artist in second life' do you believe this to be a true statement?  What do you think of this statement?

Dixmix:  Everything in SL has been created by someone.  Yes everyone is an artist there some are amazing and while some suck.

Saoirse Heart:  Some artists and builders work on multiple platforms.  Have you ventured onto other grids/platforms to create such as the O/S grid or High Fidelity?

Dixmix:  Not yet, I’ve enough with SL.  You know maybe one day SL will be out of date or will get stronger after the next metaverse revolution. 

The Dixmix gallery is a realistic gallery now playing host to SL’s Art, Photography, Sculpture and Music.  Built by Megan Prumier, it celebrates five years of collaboration between she and Dixmix.  Artists now on display are Ariel Brearly [entrance], Grazia Horwitz [first SL exhibition, black and white in Black Gallery], Ziki Quest [Grey Gallery], Megan Premier [pink images behind the Atom] and Dixmix photography [3 shades of monochrome, a selection of B&W].  A great place to hang around and see works from talented artists.

SLURL:  secondlife://BAY%20PORT/45/235/22

URL: https://www.flickr.com/photos/10mix/29670812672/

And https://www.flickr.com/groups/dixmixgallery/

Read More

End of Summer madness at GizzA - Lottie Knotted Shirt & Jody Denim Shorts hits the main store.

Summer in SL isn't  quite over til we say it is!

The tied up knotted shirts and buttoned open shorts are breezy and dare to defy the summer temperatures. The options to mix and match colors and patterns are plenty!

Both GizzA - Lottie Knotted Shirts (6 color packs) as well as GizzA - Jody Denim Shorts (4 color packs) hold 2 color options each pack and all are available in standard SL mesh sizes, Slink Physique and Hourglass and Maitreya sizes/

Main-store: 

http://slurl.com/secondlife/GizzA%20Creations/128/129/72

Read More

An in depth interview with Elite Management - Dean Lawson reporting

*Elite Equestrian*, the leading purveyer of all things equine and equestrian, is an enterprise that offers shopping and role play for Second Life horses and riders. I had the good fortune to chat with Elite Management to learn more about their original sim and their new Elite Riding Academy. 

Dean :  Could you give me a brief overview of the history Elite Equestrian?

Elite Management : Elite Equestrian was formed this year as a spin-off to my parent brand, ~Ladies' Pleasure~, which was founded in November 2012. EE is a maker of the RealHorse horse breed avatars, tack and accessories for our 12 breeds of horses.  We have two regions, one is our main store location at Cherry Island, where we do most of our work and have our stores laid out conveniently for horses to shop.  Our original sim is where all of our demo models may be seen in action, and in some cases, even ridden!  Our second region is our roleplay sim in Tamarillo Island. We launched our roleplay sim, the Elite Riding Academy, in August of this year.  Other than being horse-centric, the two regions are very different. Cherry Island is our display sim; ERA is open to the public and to registered roleplayers, and while there is a small mall at our landing point, that is not the point of the region,

ERA was inspired by one of our customers, who said that she was unable to find a sim where she could RP with her RealHorse. We thought that was an opportunity for our team and so we asked our customers for input about what they'd like to see in an equine roleplay.  After talking to them for a week and collating their responses, we put the sim together in about 3 days and opened it that same week. One of my business partners, Cherry Lastchance, is responsible for the design and the decoration of our sims, and she has done a beautiful job.  

Dean : How would you describe the roleplay at Elite Equestrian?

Elite Management : I think it's important to make clear we have two different sims. Our store sim is not a roleplay sim. Horses talk, shop, run around, do their thing, but it's totally not a RP place.  the Elite Riding Academy, however, is a full on RP sim, with horses and humans expect to engage in roleplay.  Our sim differs from other animal sims in several ways. First of all, we are focused on having an experience as close to a RL equine industry trainin facility as we can. Many of our RPers currently own/train/ride horses and quite a few have been horse owners/riders/trainers in the past, so there is a strong body of knowledge about the horse in our roleplay community.  We offer narrative roleplay, where roleplay is storyline driven, and again, in a way that would be logical in a high-end, American-based horse training facility.  Thirdly, we require all horses who are roleplaying at ERA to have an open RLV relay set to our group, so that the human RPers can bring them out, ride them, and otherwise RP with them as if they were RL horses.  That's another thing that makes our RP move more smoothly.  Human RPers aren't left dangling about 'how do I RP with this barn full of hostile horse avatars?' They know that if a horse is at the ERA, and in a stall or the turnout paddock, they are up for RP and they will respond to the human like a horse would.

We have formal RP times, when horses are introduced into the RP narrative through something we call 'Barn Walk'. Barn Walk takes 1 1/2-2 hours and we try to RP with as many horses as show up.

We also have competitions, clinic and other events, including performances off the sim.

Dean : Are the horse avatars in your stores created exclusively for Elite Equestrian?

Elite Management : Elite Equestrian is the spin-off company from ~Ladies' Pleasure~.  We are the maker of the *E* RealHorse, which we made because we wanted a horse avatar that was as close to RL as we could get. We now have 12 breeds, each in 2 genders, so a total of 24 horse avatars, with more breeds coming soon.  We spend much of our time working on our horses and the tack, hair, skins and accessories they wear.

Dean : Are all the horses avatars or can riders "wear" the horse they ride?

Elite Management : All of our horses are avatars. Some of our customers get the best of both worlds, by purchasing a horse to put on an alt that they register as a bot.

Dean :  With Halloween approaching are there any events that you will be hosting or that involve equestrian events?

Elite Management : yes, many in fact! We currently have a leaf chase going on, with random leaves appearing in the sim for the horses to chase to win 1 of 48 prizes. We have an upcoming Cross Country competition at Equine Island, which is currently decorated in their best Halloween spookiness.  We will also be participating in [ Free Bird ]'s 'Live Trick or Treat' at the end of the month, where our Percherons will be providing hay rides to our visitors.  (Our 'treat' will be a very cute limited edition 'Tiny Tails' horse avatar, in 6 different halloween patterns).  We've been invited to provide horses for hayrides at several events and of course, we have our special Costume Show on the 30th, with both ridden and driven dressage in costume.

Dean : Do you have any advice for anyone who is interested in roleplay but is new to SL RP?

Elite Management : Well, gosh. I myself am not what I'd call an epic RPer.  There are tons of places to go learn about RP, but I guess my best advice is to rememebr that IC actions usually bring IC responses, and if you don't like the IC response, maybe you need to stop your IC actions that generated it! Also, IC is not the same as OOC, and if you visit RP sims be respectful of the owners and mods, many of whom are doing what they do as a passion, not a job.  Respect their rules if you visit; usually it's not that hard to do and most places do list their rules pretty prominently.  There are tons of groups you can join to help connect you to a good community, as well. Search is a great tool, just type in 'Roleplay' into the groups tab and a lot of options will pop up.

Dean : Is there anything else you would like our readers to know about Elite Equestrian?

Elite Management : We have built what we feel is the best horse avatar in SL, and we encourage anyone with an interest in going equine or riding to come try them out at our Cherry Island store or visit the Elite Riding Academy.  Horsing around in SL has been a lot of fun and I still find riding my personal horses a total blast, whether we're jumping, driving, or riding dressage.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Cherry%20Island/153/31/25

Read More

Rock your Rack Presents...Def Leppard! Saturday 10/08/16 at 8pm SLT

Brought to you by the Hiess Experience!

* This is a Tribute Band

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/City%20of%20Concord/168/130/29

Read More

GeekSpeak – what are you going to do on Mars? Saturday, October 8th at 12pm SLT

Last week Elon Musk unveiled his plan to send a million people to Mars.  Suddenly the question has changed from how to get there to what job will you do on Mars when you do get there.  Will you start a barber shop?  Or run a pizza hut?  Or become an oxygen dealer?  Or set up a hydroponics farm?  When will the new nation of Mars be established?

Give us your thoughts on how to start a society from scratch in a 38% gravity environment.  Will it succeed?  If you think it is all an impossible dream, tell us why.

Bring your space suit or terraforming tools to GeekSpeak.  IM Kathen Ohtobide if you need a teleport.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Danmu/141/128/51

Read More

The Hiess Experiences Presents at Frank Elite's Tears for Fears is opening up for... The Go- Go's Friday Oct. 7th at 8pm slt

You Don't want to miss out on this amazing show coming to you
This Friday 10/7/16 at 8pm SLT at Frank Elite's

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Franks%20Place%207/132/46/26

Read More

ADELE, RUMOR HAS IT… - Luc Fray Reporting...

It’s amazing how time can pass by quickly. Sometimes you still keep the people you meet. Often, however, you’d lose them. A busy schedule either in RL or SL can do that, but I’m happy to say Adele Bumblefoot belonged in the former rather than the latter category.

Three years ago, I first met her in one of the RP sims I frequent. It had been a very long day for me. I was already sleepy to begin with. I should have gone straight to bed and probably shouldn’t even have logged in in the first place.

I remember I accidentally fell asleep in the middle of our RP and then waking up 6 hours after to realize what just happened. I was horribly, horribly embarrassed. I apologized profusely to her and to our now-common friend, Petunia, who was in the RP too. What made it worse was that they waited, and they were still there standing next to me when I woke up. I felt like kicking myself after that.

Luckily, they took it well. More RP grew from that encounter. I didn’t mind joining plotlines with them as they were talented role-players and possibly two of the best I’ve ever encountered in the grid. They became two of my closest friends in SL. Although our interactions were mainly through IC, they taught me a lot of things OOC too. They were incredibly funny and creative and smart, and I would never forget how they showed kindness to me.

I was going through a lot that time. I was on my own and was just kind of drifting around. I didn’t really have any SL family like most of the people in the game do, but they were the closest thing I could call one.

Although I rarely talk to them these days, when I do manage to find them online, I like to chat with them just to catch up on things. Such was the case a few days back when Adele popped up in my contact list.

Stitched’s Verra Silken Coat* for Maitreya Lara.

Luc Fray: So Adele, how long have you been in Second Life? How did you first find out about it?

Adele Bumblefoot: Now this is going to sound silly but someone told me about Second Life as another game like Sims 2.

Luc Fray: And? *laughs*

Adele Bumblefoot: So I checked it out! It wasn’t Sims 2, apparently, but I explored and found out about role-play communities. Those were weird at first, but I liked medieval stories, so I remained on Second Life anyway! It is nearly 8 years now!

Luc Fray: Wow! Is this the first account you've created? How did you come up with the name?

Adele Bumblefoot: No, this is the third one I think.

Luc Fray:  What happened with the first two?

Adele Bumblefoot: My first account was a fairy; my second account was a drow; then this account was for an elf. I didn’t think of having multiple characters on one account at the time!

I was searching a name database on the internet, and I liked the sound of Adele. Then I chose Bumblefoot from the list of existing last names; I thought it was a bit funny and went with it! Never took myself too seriously, so why not? Then I said, I'll use that as a flaw for my character, so I did. I gave her the trait clumsy or something similar.

Luc Fray:  *laughs* So, you only created accounts for the RP.... Tell me, what were your newbie days like?

Adele Bumblefoot: Fun! Even as a newbie, with prim and flexi hair, it was fun. I was role-playing in a sim called Terabithia back then. People were nice and it felt like a big family.

Luc Fray: Do you still RP there?

Adele Bumblefoot: Naaah. I don’t really RP anymore to begin with. I moved on from Terabithia years ago, went to multiple sims, and expanded on the genres I role-played at. I started with medieval but I also did sci-fi, post-apocalyptic, urban, and star wars, just to name a few.

Davos Doublet* from Stitched.

Luc Fray: It was through role-playing that I met you. *laughs* How do you get ideas for your characters?

Adele Bumblefoot: The Universe. And I observe what everyone else is doing so that I can do the opposite. In a way, it’s my effort to be special, paradoxically by playing very non-special people with very usual traits. Most people go for the extraordinaire. I enjoy playing the everyday people and still getting good stories.

Luc Fray: What kind of role-player are you and what usually gets you interested in a scene?

Adele Bumblefoot: I don’t know how to label myself, but I enjoy scenes that leave me wondering. So, for the most part, I don’t want to know more than I need to know, and I want to find out more as the story progresses; otherwise it’s not too exciting, right? I think that’s the most interesting thing in a scene for me, the thrill of discovering and having all the questions the reader/player wants answered but can’t have the answers yet.

Luc Fray: I understand that some players have limits; what are yours? What usually turns you off a scene?

Adele Bumblefoot: That depends on the scene, but usually I am not okay with my character getting killed—unless my character has killed some other character, of course, then that's only fair!

Luc Fray: Are you currently active in the RP world right now? And which sims are you frequenting?

Adele Bumblefoot: I am really not active in RP right now, but when I get some time, I check out sims, usually medieval ones or Game of Thrones ones.

Luc Fray: You mentioned earlier that your career in SL is on its third year. How did you start out in the business?

Adele Bumblefoot: It started out like a hobby. I first gave Blender a go 4 years ago, so around summer 2012, but I didn’t have an easy time with it. I was trying to make a mermaid tail, but it was really hard for me. Almost precisely one year after that, summer 2013, I tried Maya instead, though that time I didn’t try to make anything particular. I just dabbled and then it went on from there.

EPOS hairs in display at Adele’s main store (http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/AMERICAN%20BAZAAR/31/62/1994).

Luc Fray: Tell us something about EPOS, Stitched, and Daire.

Adele Bumblefoot: EPOS is the mesh body brand and the hair brand. I created it as a separate brand from Stitched later on since it has to do with a different field. Daire is the brand of furniture (whenever I feel like making something like that!) and, of course, Stitched is my main thing, where I make clothes and shoes and accessories, mostly for medieval and fantasy! All my brands—but primarily Stitched—are focused on creating products that are customizable and easy to mix and match. They are products that people ask for. I really love fulfilling my customers’ wishes and that’s why I often get contacted to customize some of my releases with special patterns or colors or some role-play sigil for their characters and such, which I honestly love. People being happy with what I make is my primary source of inspiration.

Luc Fray: *grins* I’m glad to hear that you’re one of those kinds of creators. Which one usually takes up most of your time? Do you do everything for your store? Like managing the financial aspect, making builds, making textures, marketing, etc.?

Adele Bumblefoot: I manage everything, yes. Each product I make is my own—from the mesh to the textures to the advertisement pictures (save for a few times when I have other, more talented people help me out with that!). But if you are asking which one of all these activities takes up the most time, I would say, depending on the item, it could be rigging or it could be texturing. If the item is a clothing piece for a mesh body, the rigging needs a lot of work to grow and shrink and bend like the body it is meant for. Otherwise, the texturing, I’d say. My favorite part is meshing, starting with a box and making it something different every time.

Adele’s meshing for an armor*.

Luc Fray: How do you get ideas and inspiration for your creations? Do you have like a favorite book or movie or TV series that just lights the bulb up? How do you improve your craft?

Adele Bumblefoot: I usually get inspiration from TV series, movies, books, actual history, and whatever sources for real outfits that existed in our past I can find. I collect those in a Pinterest board, so that once I find something I like, I always have it there for later use. Now for the improvement, that’s something that comes natural for me, cause I always want to make this other new shiny thing (which is usually harder than what I've done up to that point), so I have to find new ways to work, or more efficient ones, or try new software to see what it can offer me in my pipeline.

Luc Fray: Art inspiring art. What’s next then for the very wonderful Adele Bumblefoot? Any plans for the future?

Adele Bumblefoot:  Right now, I am finishing up the details of my main store—which I’ve built all by myself—and finishing with making all the purchases easier, installing scripted vendors, gift cards, redelivery terminals, and all that but, from October 4th onwards, I’m releasing products again in some sale events, gacha events, and the like, so I’m back into production! In 2017, I have plans on expanding on another field too, but that’s a secret for now, you’ll have to wait and see!

Luc Fray: *laughs* And that concludes our interview. Thank you so much for your time, Adele! It was lovely talking to you again.

Achilles mesh body. More information can be checked on her website: www.adelebumblefoot.com .

*Images are taken from Adele’s Flickr Account with her permission. https://www.flickr.com/photos/secondlife_photography

Read More

GRAND OPENING OF DIRTY CHAPS SALOON! October 4th!! 6pm slt

DJ Nat will be rocking the tunes and taking requests.

Bullriding contest starts at 8pm with a 1000linden

going to the high score!

Our bike track is open, with a raffle for a motorcycle

come join the fun!!

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Shocking%20Blue/217/103/24

Read More

CALLING ALL PHOTOGRAPHERS! Submit your best photo of the theme Blossoms of Hope for a chance to win prizes!

The MSABC 2016 Photo Contest is sponsored by .Glitter, {Nantra}, and Spice it up!

All photos will be put up for silent auction to raise funds for Making Strides Against Breast Cancer in SL.. MSABC raises money for cancer research through The American Cancer Society..

1st Prize L$4,000 in gift cards and lindens
2nd Prize L$2,750 in gift cards and lindens
3rd Prize L$1,500 in gift cards and lindens

+ winners will be posted on our website and Facebook page

Photography Contest will run from Oct. 1 to Oct. 23 and is open to all Second Life residents

To enter the Photo Contest, take your best pictures with our chosen theme "Blossoms of Hope" and add it to our flickr group

Rules :

♦ Photo cannot show privates or nipples (pasties may be used). We ask for tastefully done photos with no explicit scenes.

♦ Size must be 1600 x 1200 and full perms

♦ One entry per avatar

♦ Photo should reflect the theme of "Blossoms of Hope"

♦ Photo editing is allowed

♦ Upload your entry in the flickr group :www.flickr.com/groups/makingstrideswalk-secondlife

♦ Send one full perm copy of photo in world to Leala Spire

♦ Photos will be on display and up for silent auction from October 23rd - 29th to raise funds for Making Strides Against Breast Cancer in SL

♦ Include "MSABC 2016" in the title of your photo

♦ Winners will be notified on the 30th October

Help us make Strides against Breast Cancer.  We Are So looking Forward to your submissions.  Contact Leala Spire or Sandie Loxingly if you need more information.

Good luck!

About Making Strides Against Breast Cancer:

Making Strides Against Breast Cancer or MSABC is the largest network of breast cancer awareness events in the nation, uniting more than 300 communities to finish the fight. Every breast cancer walk and event is an incredible and inspiring opportunity to honor those who have battled breast cancer, raise awareness about what we can do to reduce our breast cancer risk, and race money to help the American Cancer Society fight the disease with research, information, services, and access to mammograms for women who need them.

About The American Cancer Society:

For more than 100 years, the American Cancer Society (ACS) has worked relentlessly to save lives and create a world with less cancer and more birthdays. Together with millions of our supporters worldwide, we help people stay well, help people get well, find cures, and fight back against cancer.

For more information please visit the sites below:

https://makingstridessecondlife.org/

http://makingstrides.acsevents.org/

http://www.cancer.org/

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts:
Leala Spire or Sandie Loxingly

Read More

SWARM OF DECOR 3

In a few days, the 3rd annual Swarm of Decor Hunt created by Earth Nirvana will open. With 23 designers bringing you the best in home & garden decor for only $7L, this hunt is sure to be a hit. From October 3rd until closing 12 midnight slt, October 24th hunters will have the opportunity to grab some great gifts and vote for their favorite hunt designer. The winning designer will receive $500L!

Check out a few of the fabulous gifts up for grabs.

Harambee Gwassi-Kenya Charity Shop (Loredana Loring)

Halloween Delights & Christmas Delights (Joell Jurgis)

StoraxTree (Kate McLaglen)

Elysium (Aleida Rhode)

Whimsical Happenings (Earth Nirvana)

Dragon Magick Wares (Dragonia DeCuir)

De Baza (sphynx soleil)

See https://4stores2behunted.wordpress.com/ for the full designer listing, locations, hints & poll. May the best creator win!

Read More

Please welcome the GizzA - Andrea Vested Suits. An all time classic for the ladies that will never go out of fashion.

Sharply tailored around your frame the GizzA - Andrea Vested Suits accentuate your feminine form and with the countless color options for the jacket, vest, shirt and tie which are accessible via the texture changer HUD. The trousers are a single color.

For fitting, GizzA - Andrea Vested Suits come in the 5 standard SL mesh sizes as well as Slink Physique and Hourglass.

Main-store: 

http://slurl.com/secondlife/GizzA%20Creations/128/129/72

Read More