New monthly event coming to OUtopia!

Starting 11 January 2011 at 8pm, Elsbeth Biedermann presents "Tune Tuesday". This monthly gathering will have a musical theme, but could be anything from a classical chill-out to a Desert Island Discs style evening to a name that tune style quiz or even a live recital from one of our talented OUtopians.

The first session will be “OUtopian Island Discs” - chose up to three of your favourite songs and share your reasons for choosing them - so please contact Elsbeth Biedermann or Jadis Mai with your requests by Sunday 9 January 2011.

PUSS IN BOOTS WOWS OUTOPIA

(Written by Delayne, theatre critic
Photographs by Tori Landau, for more photos see http://www.flickr.com/photos/ouvirtualworlds/5274224719/)

Puss in Boots - the latest offering from FOUtlights (the OUtopia amateur dramatics society), was a wonderful start to the final week before Christmas.

The final scene of the panto - from left to right: Sahiz De Vaye the king, Tarquin the troll, Whiny Aimhouse the fairy godmother, Harry the miller’s son, Turner the page, Puss (aka Princess Raunchia)

A feature of this very enjoyable production was the eternal theme of ‘nothing is what is seems’ rather appropriate since the SL world is literally a world of its own. Thus, normally in panto we have a principal boy played by a girl in a tight fitting costume, fish net tights and high boots whilst a feisty female plays the female lead. In this production Princess Raunchia (played by Elsbeth Biedermann) cleverly amalgamated both elements by being definitely female including the fish net tights! Titiana Haystack played Harry, the youngest of the miller’s sons who had inherited only three bags of flour and cat upon his father’s death. Again, panto convention was ignored as Titiana’s avatar favoured an obese miller’s son who sported a beard which worked well as a good contrast to Princess Raunchia.

Good and evil are always represented in panto usually via Fairy Queens and Demon King type entities though the cast chose not to follow ‘panto’s’ unwritten rule of Good entering from stage right and Evil from stage left. Puss in Boots, also changed the rules by making the fairy godmother (Whiny Aimhouse) into the bad fairy too. This role was also played by Elsbeth Beidermann who courageously stepped into the part at short notice due to Elsa Dickens being unable to perform on the night. All Evil panto characters either end up being redeemed or destroyed. So in this time honoured tradition the godmother’s fate was sealed by her unwittingly signing away her own fate (and losing her magical powers) when she signed false marriage papers. This allowed Turner (the page) played by Kered Rickena, to come into his own as the ‘dues ex machina’ character (literally the ‘god out of the machine’ so favoured in Roman comedy). So, at the end of the play Turner tidies up all the loose ends (rather appropriate given Kered’s role in OUtopia as the prim warden!).

The world of panto (like many of Shakespeare’s comedies) thrives on mistaken identities and rebirth in another form. Thus, Douglas (‘a game bird’) played by Kickaha Wolfenhaut, was the unfortunate rook destined to repeatedly become pie fillings for the king’s delight by being reborn into various forms e.g. bunny rabbit and finally a multicoloured haddock. The humorous dialogue between the cat (played by Hennamono Morpork) and the rook delighted the audience who saw only too well that the naïve rook was about to become dinner. Pantos have always entertained their audiences by showing the actors skill at quick changes and Kickaha’s changes were well thought out though (as we noticed at the end of panto party) Kickaha’s final change did leave him sporting a haddock’s tail!

On SL where the text is all (and what the text doesn’t say then the avatar must visually show) it was lovely to see that Hatshepsut Linette, who played the king, had given serious consideration as to how he should be portrayed. One wondered whether her interpretation was influenced by Joseph and his technicolour dreamcoat’s use of a pharaoh based on the all-time king of pop – Elvis. Hatshepsut’s creation of the Elvis avatar (complete with rotund paunch) and his signature all white costume was a deft stroke and an absolute audience pleaser.

Congratulations to the writers of Puss in Boots (who at the moment we believe to be that world famous and prolific writer ‘Anon’). The dialogue abounded in puns including those within the character’s names, thus ‘Sahiz De Vaye’ appears to being a play on the phrase “c’est la vie” as the name of the king who cared little about life except food . No panto would be complete without the double entrendres (and there were plenty of those) and witty references that would be understood by their audience (in this case there were ample OU world, OUtopia and SL world references to go around).

Audience participation is a key feature of panto. The audience happily contributed ‘he’s behind you’ at just the right place in the production as well as taking pleasure in being designated the Marquis of Carapace’s serfs and confirming that they were working on the Marquis’ land. (At this point the audience contributed to the panto’s humour as only one person managed to avoid the typo’s that infected the rest of the audience in the heat of the moment and correctly named his ‘master’ as the Marquis of Carapace. Of all the responses perhaps Xara’s was the most inventive with her “carspace guy”.) By the later scenes there was some enjoyable bandinage between the audience and the panto characters too. Like others in the audience, one didn’t want to interrupt the flow of the text with too many audience comments but it was apparent that the humour was so good that few could resist inserting the odd comment and there were lots of ‘lol’.

All pantos rely on the unexpected and the odd hint was given in the text that maybe Harry, puss’s master was not actually that attracted to Princess Raunchia and that perhaps his tastes lay elsewhere. So, in the final scene we could look forward to the civil union between Harry and Tarquin (an excellent troll avatar wielding a giant axe in an exuberantly camp manner) played by Rocky Joans.

There were two notable costumes. The fairy godmother went for the girly floral look complete with outlandish pink wand along with very attractive pink and white organza gown). Harry, once he ‘came out of the closet’, wore a very handsome Georgian style dark green suit complete with very tight tights - very appropriate for his new self! Various sets were displayed from the rural idyllic (as the background for the demise of the rook) to the finale where the set emphasised the fairy tale nature of the panto by displaying a little girl’s version of the exterior of a castle that we would expect Barbie or My Little Pony to own - bright pink with fairy-tale turrets.

So, at last we reach the puss – who was very well played by Hennamono Morpork. The reliance on text enabled a joke that would not have been possible in RL. Thus, the audience was quite happily reading the pronunciation of Puss (as in the word ‘cat’) only to find it revealed later in the panto that it was actually Puss (as in pustular infected ulcers caused by his ill-fitting boots!). In true form the panto finished with an unusual twist – Turner, the lowly page, being raised to high estate by the Puss. (It turns out that Puss was actually the king’s daughter Princess Raunchia who had been bespelled by the evil Whiny Aimhouse. At last all the jokes about the princess being into drink and cigarettes that littered the start of the play make sense once it was revealed that the evil fairy godmother had taken the princess’s identity many years ago.) So, at the end, the princess declared her undying love for Turner. The page seemed quite keen on the idea too (which may have been a bit of a surprise to Xara who was killing herself laughing in the audience!).

Puss in Boots did raise issues of just how one effectively translates theatre onto the SL platform. The production relied on a HUD which failed in the last scene, however, the cast quickly and seamlessly rose to the challenge by inserting their character’s name before each piece of dialogue. Song and dance are always a feature of a panto and Puss in Boots finished with the cast enjoying a bit of River Dance.

All in all, Puss in Boots (directed by Eshala Tabacznyk and Kickaha Wolfenhaut) was a very enjoyable and funny panto and no doubt the audience is already looking forward to next year’s production.

Cast
Hennamono Morpork - Puss (a cat)
Titiana Haystack - Harry (a miller's son)
Hatshepsut Linette - Sahiz De Vaye (a king)
Elsbeth Biedermann - Raunchia (a princess)
Kered Rickena - Turner (a page)
Rocky Joans - Tarquin (aTroll)
Kickaha Wolfenhaut - Douglas (a game bird)

Special guest appearance:
Elsa Dickins - Whiny Aimhouse (a fairy godmother)

Events special

With the introduction of regular party nights and pub quizzes there have been quite a few events on OUtopia recently. Here we present a round-up of the latest events. Big thanks to Tori Landau for writing up the articles and providing some great snapshots of the events!

Pub quiz 3
Pub quiz 2
We're off to see the wizard...
Eshala's 2nd rezzday party

Pub quiz

The monthly pub quiz saw a new winner!

It was Friday 25th June and soon after 8pm I teleported to The Open Arms for the ‘Fourth Friday’ quiz. Being a very hot evening, residents had decided to sit outdoors and were already consuming both virtual and real alcoholic drinks apart from Kered who was having a mouse for tea. A real life power cut meant that our Quiz Mistress vanished without warning for a few minutes before the start of the quiz, however, the time was filled talking about iphones, acupuncture, hypnosis, liposuction, and queries from the new contestants about the difficulty level of the previous quizzes. With the return of Jadis, but no sign of Rocky appearing to defend his quiz crown, the instructions on how to take part were issued.

So that we couldn’t spy on her for answers, Jadis stood away from the contestants, but Kered sat on top of the fountain to try and gain an advantage. Perhaps due to this, newcomers were then told that because questions are asked at a fast rate there is no time for cheating and were then taught how to make a note card in which to save their answers. To make a note card, open the inventory, click Create on the top toolbar of the inventory, click on new note, change the description of the note, write in it whatever you need, click save at the bottom of the note, then find new note in note cards under recent items in the inventory, right click it and select rename (for quiz mine was ‘Tori’s answers 25/06’). At the end of the quiz we would swap note cards, Jadis would give each of us the answers on a note card and then via instant message we would give her the score of the person whose answers we had marked.

With note cards at the ready and several people jokingly asking if they got points for doing that, Jadis finally got the quiz underway. There were five categories: name the rivers these capital cities stand on, food & drink, science & nature, sitcoms and film quotes.

Of the fifty questions asked, see how you fare with this selection (answers at bottom of the page)

1. Cairo is on which river?

2. What shape is the pasta called rigatoni?

3. Which subterranean animal shares its name with a measurement of substance?

4. Look at the picture and how many of these sitcoms can you name?

5. Which film does this quote come from: "All the best people have bad chests and bone diseases. It's all frightfully romantic!"?

Perhaps due to the difficulty of the questions frying our brains we then had a major and amusing mix up over the note cards with more than one person marking another’s card and then Jadis receiving different scores for the same person. Eventually the situation was resolved and around 9.30pm the winners were announced: joint second with each winning $500 were Groovy Magic and your very surprised reporter and the winner was Jonno Stromfield who received $750 and the congratulations of everyone. Organising the quiz is time consuming so many grateful thanks to Jadis for doing it and educating us all in areas outside of our academic interests.

Friday 23rd July (fourth Friday) at 8pm is when the next quiz will be held and with Rocky promising to be there to fight for his crown it should be an interesting and fun evening. Please come along and join the regulars, the more the merrier! All of the photos from this quiz can be seen at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ouvirtualworlds/sets/72157624232166845/

Answers to quiz questions: 1. Nile, 2. Tube shaped, 3. Mole,

4. The sitcoms are:

4. (1) The Young Ones

4. (2) MASH

4 (3) Friends

4. (4) Only Fools and Horses

4. (5) Open All Hours

4. (6) Fawlty Towers

4. (7) Chance in a Million

4. (8) Just Good Friends

4. (9) Two point Four Children

4. (10) The Ghostbusters of East Finchley

5. Heavenly Creatures

We're off to see the wizard...

Tori Landau reports on the latest themed party on OUtopia

Our usual party venue is OUtopia’s green, so as instructed I arrived at the green just before 8pm on Saturday 8th May expecting to possibly see the Emerald City. Our Events Officer, however, had other ideas so below me and leading away from the green towards the Exhibition Hall was a yellow brick road. Following the yellow brick road I soon heard voices and began to question my sanity but inspection of the road revealed it to be the source of the audio clips from the film ‘The Wizard of Oz’ with “I’m melting. Melting! Oh, what a world! What a world”, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain” and my personal favourite given that it was a university party, “Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking!” The road’s ultimate destination turned out to be the OUbliette which is below the Exhibition hall on the seaward side and so after seeing that it was being guarded by flying monkeys I took a deep breath, readied my axe (I was a tin woman) and ventured inside.

As a lot of regulars were either busy in real life (tsk!) or having problems logging into Second Life, for a short while the party was a bit on the quiet side but thankfully some new students turned up and ‘got the party started’. Whilst admiring Jadis’s decor we instructed the new students on how to hear the music, dance and as Linden Labs new policy had come into effect there was an extremely useful exchange of information regarding how to update 3rd party viewers such as Emerald and also Viewer 2 of the standard viewer. It later transpired that out of date viewers had been the cause of the late appearance of some regulars.

Though not compulsory, some of us had dressed for the occasion with Quentin as the tin man, Jadis as Elphaba, Titiana as Dorothy, Angel as a beautiful blue-haired witch, and Rocky not only dressing as but behaving as the lion. GiroBatol fitted in perfectly as a wolf and by bringing on his alt we then had two wonderful sentient wolves bopping away along with the DJ’s very cute dance–containing wolf. Not wishing to disappoint (regulars will know that I nearly always change outfit half way through a party) I changed from being a tin woman to Dorothy and then much hilarity ensued when Xara and Kered arrived – both as Dorothy though Xara had black hair. With Xara’s dog Cassie doubling as Toto for the evening all that missing was the Scarecrow. The conclusion regarding the lack of a scarecrow was that perhaps he had been used by Kickaha for a real life barbecue... a raven’s revenge?

As we had new students to educate some absinthe was handed out ensuring that drunken dancing was again a feature of our parties. Quentin as always played great music and it was wonderful to see so many new students attending the party and having a great time.

When gently asked about the night’s festivities Rocky responded with, “I was vvvvery nervous going to the the Wizard of Oz ppppparty. The music was vvvvery loud and scccary but everyone was very kind and caring - apart from the nasty things behind the ccccurtains. I particularly enjoyed flying round the dance floor. Yours, The Cowardly Lion (please don't yell at me if you don't like these comments)”

Pub quiz

Tori Landau reports on the latest pub quiz.

Shortly before 8pm on Friday 28th May I teleported to my allotment and flew over to the pub. There was a distinct chill in the air so I found the rest of the Open Arms regulars inside and already helping themselves to sandwiches and beverages. Our Quiz Mistress for the evening, Jadis Mai, logged in on time ready to start the quiz; however, due to real life meals being consumed an executive decision was made to wait until 8.15pm. These 15 minutes were not without some excitement though due to the appearance of Kickaha’s alt, Loyd Grossman. The rumour had been that the beautiful red fox had been killed off by the raven; however, here he was in all his magnificent furry glory sitting on a barstool and conversing with OUtopians. It seems though that the raven still has the upper hand in the avatar stakes as just before the quiz started Loyd was logged out and a few minutes later the raven logged in... we thought it may have been to heckle the contestants, but no, he stayed away from the pub much to our relief (just joking Kickaha!).

Jadis sat away from the contestants so that we wouldn’t see the answers (and I think to have a sneaky drink) and then explained to anyone new to the pub quizzes how cheating would be avoided, which is basically that the questions are asked quite quickly so the answer is whatever pops into your head first. The next query from newcomers was how would the answers be recorded and marked. So, the quiz was already becoming educational for anyone who didn’t know how to make a note card in which to record answers. For anyone reading this who doesn’t know how to create a note card you open the inventory, click Create on the top toolbar of the inventory, click on new note, change the description of the note, write in it whatever you need, click save at the bottom of the note, then find new note in note cards under recent items in the inventory, right click it and select rename (for quiz mine was ‘Tori’s pub quiz answers 28/05’). At the end of the quiz we would swap note cards, Jadis would give each of us the answers on a note card and then we would give her the score of the person whose answers we had marked.

Again we were all individual contestants with no teams being entered and after checking this, Jadis started the quiz. There were five categories: Animal Groups, Capital Cities, Collectors, Inventors & Inventions and Sport.

Here is a small sample of the questions asked (answers at bottom of the page)

1. A shrewdness of ...?

2. Capital city of Spain is?

3. A Conchologist collects what?

4. Who invented jeans?

5. Who was the 1996 Formula 1 world champion?

With a bit of false start due to contestants not paying attention, complaints regarding the difficulty of the questions this time around (including accusations directed at the Quiz Mistress during the Collectors round that the words had been made up), swearing, the Publican and others coming in to see how brainy or not we all were and a few note card mix ups that made me think of ‘pass the parcel,’ this quiz night was a lot of fun and very different to last time around when we had all been very quiet and well behaved.

With everything sorted out and note cards finally marked, shortly after 9pm Jadis announced the winners in reverse order: 3rd was Lilac Lupindo winning $250, 2nd was Kira Gilgandra winning $500 and Rocky Joans was the winner (for the second time running) and received $750 and many congratulations. Many thanks to Jadis for organising and running the quiz.

Answers to quiz questions: 1. Apes, 2. Madrid, 3. Shells, 4. Levi Strauss, 5. Damon Hill

Eshala's 2nd rezzday party

Four Daleks and an Engagement by Tori Landau.

Sunday 2nd May and busy with finishing articles for the previous edition of LOL! for publication on the following day I sent some inventory items to Eshala... and then noticed that her rezzday was the following day. Initially, the thought was to have a surprise party so on Sunday evening Hatshepsut distributed note cards, QC was booked, Jadis enlisted to assist with decorating and I came up with a ruse to ensure that Eshala would be on OUtopia at 8pm the following evening. Monday morning arrived and realising that it was the official May day holiday I saw an opportunity to ensure that not only could Jadis and myself decorate throughout the day but that we could contact everyone about the party and so it became a May day party with a Doctor Who theme (Eshala had suggested having a party with this theme). Decorating began around lunchtime and thanks must go to Umbra who made a delightful dalek and to DavidMike who left his TARDIS as part of the decor. Jadis managed to find posters of the Ood, Cybermen, Daleks, K-9 and made a very clever sign that could be changed from reading Happy May Day to Happy Rezzday Eshala. Along with a weeping angel doubling as the dance ball and a spinning vortex dance floor the scene was set to spring the surprise.

The party started promptly and soon there were three sentient daleks (Prash, Joie and Johnt42) ‘ex-dance-inateing’ (thanks to Johnt42 for that!), three 10th Doctors (Kester, Jon and an unidentified someone) a 5th Doctor (QC), a 4th Doctor (Jonno), a weeping angel (me) and glamorous assistants of both genders all bopping away together in peace so it could be said that OUtopia lived up to its name. The rezzday girl arrived slightly late due to changing into a cyberman but thankfully she had not been fully assimilated as her emotions showed through when the true nature of the party was revealed to her via the sign and she was presented with her rezzday cake. “I forgot it was even my rezzday so the party came as a huge, and very lovely, surprise to me”, Eshala commented when armed with my sonic screwdriver I cautiously approached her for a quote.

A sentient K-9 then appeared in the form of Rocky who decided to guard QC’s TARDIS tip jar and threatened to bite the ankles of people who didn’t tip our wonderful DJ so it wasn’t long before the total reached $1000 at which point K-9 was happy enough and went off to dream and count electric sheep no doubt. Several new students came along so it was an opportunity to teach them about the OU in Second Life and there was also discussion of the Doctor Who and Torchwood sims.

A couple dance ball was then requested which proved very popular, caused me to become human and gave Lilac the opportunity to announce her SL only engagement to Kester much to the delight of the assembled partygoers. Lilac and Kester are having their SL only wedding at Kester’s home on 3rd July but there will be a party on OUtopia on 4th July. On behalf of everyone I would like to extend my best wishes to the happy couple for their SL life together.

After that the three sentient daleks started fighting and armed with sonic screwdrivers the rest of us attacked; the result being that the daleks blew up and Breen was hit on the head by a dalek part. And so, after a very eventful evening, the party ended in true Doctor Who fashion with the daleks defeated, Breen recovering from his battle wounds and the rest of us heading back into real life once more to sleep.

Quick pics

Our resident photographer Squiddlenuts Tigerfish presents a selection of the best snapshots from recent events and happenings on the OU islands.

Getting into the party spirit on St. Patrick's day

Exercising the grey matter at the pub quiz

Partying at OUtopia's 1st birthday party

Relaxing outside one of the village homes

The Time Ladies ready to defend OUtopia

A beautiful sunset over the village

Easter egg hunt

The Easter weekend saw students and tutors turning OUtopia upside down in search of Easter eggs!

Across the village twenty eggs were hidden in locations ranging from the top of the tor to the bottom of the harbour steps. Residents taking part had to travel the length and breadth of OUtopia searching for the pretty eggs and several entrants remarked how they had found little places they never knew existed before. The organiser popped on to see how things were going and, thanks to a series of IMs, discovered that egg 09 was proving somewhat troublesome to find!

Tori admires her stash of eggs

The first folders full of eggs landed in the organisers inventory on Friday morning and continued to arrive at regular intervals throughout the Easter weekend. First person to find all 20 was pdunstan Greymoon (pictured below with a giant version of the infamous egg 09).

When all the entries were in it was decided to split the prize fund amongst the entrants who had found all 20 eggs while everyone who took part got a Easter-themed goodie bag. A plaque is currently adorning the wall near the bench outside the pub honouring those who successfully completed the egg hunt.

Happy Birthday OUtopia

Tori Landau reports on OUtopia's big day.

Difficult to believe but one year has flown by since the excitement and fun of having a social island began. To mark this auspicious occasion we did what we do best – have a party!

So on Saturday 10th April at 8pm I meandered over to the green to see rezzing in front of me a striped circus tent complete with beautifully written sign saying ‘Happy Birthday OUtopia’ above its entrance. The fun began and since this was a fancy dress party some of the fun involved playing ‘guess the av’. For a start there appeared to be no sign of our wonderful Events Officer until a pink iced cupcake (complete with candle) was spied zapping a dance ball. The little cupcake had been busy as the interior of the tent was furnished with straw, rotating lights and an upper walkway.

The outfits were brilliant and while the gents chose outfits of power as Quentin was King Henry VIII, Jonno was a knight, Kered chose to be a Sheikh, Lazarus wore his devil avatar and Kickaha, who had returned to being a raven after spending several weeks as a red-haired woman, turned into a large, spider type monster. The ladies, however, were either clad in something fun such as the aforementioned cupcake, cowgirl (Eshala), a chick (me), Bender the cartoon robot (Squiddlenuts) a fairy (who else but Elsa) or in elegant spring outfits such as Firestone, Jasmine, Lilac and Jen.

The great music provided by Quentin included the Open University’s anthem, ‘Crazy Nights’ along with popular oldies and contemporary tunes. As usual some mayhem ensued although for once the absinthe was not consumed. When the raven disappeared for a while Jen attempted to set fire to the tent, but thankfully for all of us the tent had passed the latest British Standards in fire safety and stubbornly refused to ignite.

One of the new students, Jasmine Pheocene, said that, “I would just like to say that it was a great party! I really enjoyed myself and everyone was really welcoming! Roll on the next one! Oh and thank you to everyone who made it happen xxx”

Follow the yellow brick road

The first of our new monthly party nights takes place on OUtopia on Saturday 8th May.

Pub quiz

It was a beautiful, sunny evening when some residents gathered for OUtopia’s first pub quiz on 6th March. A collective decision was, therefore, made to sit outside and hope that a wind would not pick up and drown out our Quiz Mistress for the evening, Jadis Mai.

Before we began, however, there was the issue of how to avoid cheating which Jadis assured us would be impossible as we would not have time to cheat; answers would be whatever came into our heads first. Then there were the questions of how to record our answers and how would they be marked. So, for those of us who didn’t know how to make a note card in which to record our answers, the quiz was already proving to be educational. For anyone reading this who doesn’t know how to create a note card you open the inventory, click Create on the top toolbar of the inventory, click on new note, change the description of the note, write in it whatever you need, click save at the bottom of the note, then find new note in notecards under recent items in the inventory, right click it and select rename (for quiz mine was ‘Tori’s answers’). At the end of the quiz we would swap notecards, Jadis would give each of us the answers on a notecard and then we would give her the score of the person who’s answers we had marked.

Finally we were ready to begin and after checking that we were all individual contestants with no teams being entered, Jadis launched into the quiz. There were five categories: 20th Century, film songs, general knowledge, music and places. So dear reader let us see how you fare with a question from each section (answers at bottom of the page)

1. James Earl Ray was responsible for whose death in 1968?

2. Which film is ‘Show me heaven’ by Maria McKee best known for?

3. Which children's TV show did Roy Castle present?

4. What is the home country of Van Morrison?

5. Which English county with a sea border has the shortest coastline?

Silence mostly reigned during the quiz itself as we scratched our virtual heads although one avatar was heard to mutter that most of their answers were ‘pass’ and they hoped that in the places category that ‘pass’ may be an actual answer. After the quiz ended and answers marked with some role reversal going on as students marked tutors’ note cards, Jadis announced the winners in reverse order: Joint 3rd were Strangie Vaher and Jemsyn Fairlady, 2nd was Kered Rickena and, trumpet fanfare please, Rocky Joans was the winner. Congratulations to Rocky and many thanks to Jadis for organising and running the quiz.

The next pub quiz is at 8pm on Friday 28th May so im Jadis Mai if you wish to enter as either an individual or part of a team. Hope to see you there!

Answers to quiz questions: 1. Martin Luther King's, 2. Days of Thunder, 3. Record Breakers, 4. Northern Ireland, 5. Durham

Partying for the Saints

St Patrick’s Day and St George’s Day parties by Tori Landau

17th March and 23rd April were St Patrick’s Day and St George’s Day respectively so as OUtopia’s representative I decided that we needed to learn about and celebrate the special days of Ireland and England (as if OUtopians need an excuse to party).

With the help of Kickaha, Hatshepsut, Kered, Kira , Jonno and Arthur Arkright, decorations and outfits were found, megaprims supplied, levelled and transformed for the dance floors, dance balls given and cunningly disguised, the Irish jig dance transferred to everyone, St George’s flag vendor made and very importantly music supplied via a music url.

On St Patrick’s Day R2D2 became an honorary Irish droid whilst supplying drinks to fairies and leprechauns who had been busy taking chocolate coins from the pot of gold while spinning through the shamrocks. PDunstan and MDunstan engaged in synchronised dancing as a couple but perhaps the Absinthe had effected Kered and Xara as several times Xara was caught on camera giving Kered a kick making me wonder what the usually impeccably behaved Kered had done. To the sound of Riverdance belting across the dance floor, harmony was restored as couples and singles alike joined in a group jig on the gold floor. Of the evening’s shenanigans, Elsbeth Biedermann commented, “"it was a fantastic party, and we all had a wonderful time, to be sure, to be sure ;-)".

On St George’s day, 3 avatars met on the green for a chat at 5pm and then the idea of a party was raised (talk about last minute) but with the wonders of modern communication contact was made with a good number of people and lots of fun had. Oddly enough dragons and knights were popular attire although the dragons veered on the side of caution and not only wore armour but air danced to avoid Sir Rocky’s swinging sword. For the first time ever that your reporter can remember she found herself wearing the exact same outfit as a guy (Prash) although I quickly managed to find shiny boots and belt. Several ladies (Xara and Elsa to name several) came as elegant maidens prompting queries from the male knights as to whether or not they needed rescuing. With the flags fluttering in the breeze and roses wafting past us, we partied to not so late as usual but, Hatshepsut Linette said, “The venue was resplendent with flags of St George around the perimeter of the dance floor, which was itself a giant flag. Fabulous idea. Unfortunately, I was not able to stay to the end, but gather all those present had a fantastic time.”

New monthly events

Introducing new monthly events on OUtopia

February parties

With a Valentine’s Ball and the FELS (Faculty of Education and Language Studies) party for new students the week from 13th to 19th February was a busy time for our Events Officer Jadis Mai and DJ Quentin Calvert.

The theme for the Valentine’s Ball was ‘Enchantment under the Sea’ from the film ‘Back to the Future’ and Jadis built an amazing set on OUtopia’s green that would have been fit for a film itself. With sharks circling above as opposed to around us this time, jellyfish floating about, wrecks and treasure on the sea floor and some residents dressed as mermaids (Jadis and Xara) or other sea creatures (Kered), we really were transported into another world. Other residents chose elegant attire with Lilac looking radiant in red and Elsbeth shimmering in silver. Our DJ was clad in a white suit for a while before changing and revealing that his true love was the England Rugby team by wearing their t-shirt and playing ‘Swing low sweet chariot’ by UB40. Hennamono meanwhile rezzed a cube, river danced to cover it up and then proceeded to raid the treasure chest! “It was pawsome!” according to our publican at the time, McDude Snoodle and although I was only there for the 2nd half due to an electricity failure in rl (yes, that place!) I wholeheartedly agree!

For the introduction of the language students to SL Jadis decided on ‘Alice in Wonderland’ for the theme which took me back to when I first came to the OU sims and talked to a raven and a tiger cub at the sandpit. With the green covered in giant mushrooms, a caterpillar doubling as the dance ball and butterflies flitting about it was up to some of the councillors to fill the roles of Alice in Wonderland characters. Alice was provided by Elsbeth with Jadis being the Chesire cat and your reporter as the Queen of Hearts... there was only one person who could ever be the mad hatter of course and the role was duly filled by Kickaha. The overall effect was slightly hallucinogenic with fairies appearing, our DJ as Willy Wonka, a wolf bopping around, an ‘Avatar’ avatar appearing, a pipe smoking multicoloured owl and to complete the effect, Titiana’s head appearing under a mushroom although thankfully she was back together shortly afterwards. Of the night’s festivities, pdunstan Greymoon said, “Was the first party I managed to get to. Had an awesome time, with a great DJ playing cool music. Haven't missed a party since!!”

So that no-one has an excuse to miss our official parties from now on the second Saturday of each month has been designated as the party Saturday with the next party being on 8th May at 8pm on OUtopia’s green and the theme is the Wizard of Oz. Hope to see you all there and that you give me plenty to report on for LOL!

Grease is the word

Tori Landau tells us about the latest themed party night.

Saturday 5th September saw the village green transformed into the beautifully balloon bedecked wooden dance floor of Rydell High. Residents had obviously done their homework as T-Bird jackets, tight black combinations, bright 50’s dresses and hairstyles were de rigueur. Most residents took to dancing immediately at 8pm whilst others decided to observe first from the safety of the benches.

Our delightful DJ, Quentin Calvert, provided music, including Ernie (The fastest milkman in the west), fly dancing moves and narration until 1:30am on Sunday when everyone staggered home, with one in particular still recovering after imbibing a potent brew that Kickaha had distributed. This had resulted in some avatars lurching about and collapsing onto the dance floor much to the amusement, or possibly bemusement, of onlookers.

The movie screen displaying images from Grease assisted residents in voting for the male and female best costume competitions which were won by Jonno Stromfield and Tori Landau with DeeDee Bookmite kindly sponsoring both prizes.

Of the night’s event, Quentin Calvert commented, “The OU crowd always enjoy themselves and like to dress up. Of all the people I’ve DJ’d for, the OU are the best - most fun, pleasant and encompass the true spirit of SL.” Whilst Jonno Stromfield added, “The party was a great success. It’s always nice to catch up with people and bop the night away.”

Party on dude!

No OU event would be complete without a party and the Sun, Sand and Second Life event was no exception.

The normally lush and, well, green village green was transformed into a palm-tree covered beach complete with waterfall for a beach party to celebrate a successful day’s event on OLiVe. Having spent the day in the ocean and on the beach with the Beach Boys greatest hits providing an apt musical backdrop residents came out in force for the latest OU party night.

Our regular DJ Quentin Calvert provided the tunes.

Surf’s up

LOL! donned its boardies and headed for the beach for OLiVe’s first ever summer activities day.

On a bright and sunny Saturday in August one of the best places to spend the day has got to be the beach - even if it is virtual! So that’s exactly what residents did on August 15th as the Open Life islands hosted a day of fun in the sun.

For those up and about early a champagne breakfast was served on the magnificent HMS Primafore berthed in the harbour. On a number of occasions the cry of ‘avatar overboard’ was heard as the champagne kicked in but everyone seemed to find their way back onboard for more.

After having a tour of the HMS Primafore it was time to take to the water. Still full up on champagne LOL! decided to sit back and take it easy with a leisurely trip on the African Queen. This beautiful vessel took us round Open Life ocean allowing us to relax and enjoy the tranquil beauty of the ocean.

Once back on the beach at OLiVe an array of wacky ways to navigate the ocean were found. First up we found the octopus and took her for a trip out; next we hopped aboard a seahorse (as you do); an eel provided us with a way to slither through the sea; and finally, our personal favourite - a turtle. Where else but SL can you honestly say you sailed round the ocean on a turtle eh?!?

Once we had been round the ocean a number of times on the various creatures we decided to do a spot of sunbathing. This did not last long however as we spotted......surfboards! Having no sense of balance in real life surfing is one of the last things we would attempt but in SL anything’s possible so we grabbed a board and paddled out to sea. The waves were perfect for surfing and after a few gentle rides through the waves we even decided to try a few tricks - not always successfully I might add.

No sooner had we put our surfboard down than we were out in the ocean again - this time windsurfing. Amazingly we didn’t fall off despite colliding with the little island in the middle of the ocean at one point. Filled with confidence from our surfing escapades we next decided to get ourselves a jetski and race round the ocean. Thankfully no-one else was in the ocean at the time else there may have been a few injuries. For our final trip we headed under the ocean in the automated submarine. This was one of the most relaxing trips of the day as we simply sat back and let the sub take us round the ocean while we admired the fish and flora.

After another spot of sunbathing and sitting in the beach huts we found the energy for a game of volleyball. After a few false starts and cries of ‘has anyone got the ball?’ and ‘why do I keep hitting fresh air?’ we got the hang of it and managed to have a good game. We did however have a headache from being hit on the head with the ball during those early ‘what on earth is going on’ stages. Despite our best efforts we were defeated in the volleyball game although as we all know it is the taking part that counts!

As the afternoon turned to evening we reluctantly rolled up our beach towel and trundled off home to get ready for the evening party - but not before we had our picture taken on the event surfboard stand to prove that ‘we were like THERE dude’.

Quick pics

A selection of snapshots from life on the islands.

Treasure hunt champion Strangie Vaher alongside her trophy.

Spacecub meets alien aka the DJ’s tip jar.

Partying on OLiVe in front of the wall of sound.

ABBA party

The dancing queens (and kings) were out in force for the Abba-themed party on Saturday 8th August. White was the colour to be seen in is as residents got into the spirit of the party by dressing up in Abba-style clothing. Unbeknown to everyone a resident, who wishes to remain anonymous, had donated prize money for the best-dressed avatars! First prize went to Titiana Haystack and second was Leornian Naidoo.

The backdrop for the Abba-fest was the village green where a venue had been specially built (in white of course) by Kickaha Wolfenhaut. In one corner of the venue a photoboard allowed residents to put their head onto pictures of the members of Abba which caused much amusement! For four hours residents bopped around the spacious dance floor to the tunes played by DJ Quentin Calvert before heading off - some of us still humming Abba tunes to ourselves into the early hours!