COMMUNITY | editionfive

Welcome to the newspaper for the citizens of Second Life's Bellisseria!

Fifth Edition

07.28.2019

Letter from the Assistant Editor

Bryce Sun

This marks our 5th Published Edition of The Bellisserian and we wanted to take a moment to thank all the people who stepped up to help us make this happen. Our reporters, our bloggers, photographers, dreamers, idea makers....

The purpose of this paper is to unite the new community and bring some fun life to the new continent. There are many groups associated with Bellisseria, many of which are linked in our Links page for your viewing. Please take a look at the local groups to keep up on the latest and most accurate event information! Things happen faster than we publish sometimes.

Finally, thank you to the readers. We wouldn't be here at all if not for you!

xoxox

Bryce Sun

Assistant Editor - Web Genie

Bellis Blues Cafe

Kaos (kitten.kaos)

The lively and lovely Bellis Blues Cafe was packed to the rafters with dancers today at its Grand Opening, featuring an eclectic set of celebratory music by Pirate DJ Doc Rast and Pirate Host BJoyful. And by the time you read this, many of you might have already enjoyed various DJs while enjoying the hilltop ocean views at this Bellisseria hot spot.

But at this opening party, as the burgeoning music scene in Bellisseria scored yet another prime location to dance your days & nights away, I spoke to the wonderful owners Cian and Prudence about what brought them and their Blues Cafe to Bellisseria. Sitting in the shaded, expansive dance pavilion and helping myself to some strong coffee that promised not to chase my blues away but help transform them into music to lift the soul, Cian and Prudence chatted with me as we watched the party goers enjoying Doc's fine set.

How long have you both been in SL and what has kept you here?

Cian: 12 years 10 months. Pru kept me here, she kept asking questions. I had to stay around to answer her. Now here we are 13 years later married in RL and she's still asking questions, they're just harder to answer. *laughs*

Pru: Since Oct 15th, 2006. Him, sitting on a set of airline flight steps at the Plum Welcome area, waiting for me to return after meeting on my first day in Second Life. I've been with him ever since, from Second Life to real life, nearly 13 years later, he's my partner, companion, husband, laughter, headache & joy. *winks*

As music lovers, how did you react to finding out about Bellisseria?

Cian: Pru brought me here to check it out. After we joined a couple of groups here and saw the sense of community, well, enough said.

Pru: I missed information about the initial release, but when I saw the beautiful new Linden homes and the community, I knew we wanted to be a part of that. Then we discovered all the wonderful events throughout the community and found that so enticing. We couldn't help but want to partake.

Did you immediately start planning a Blues Cafe or did it come after getting a home here?

Cian: No, it just came up when we started decorating our house. We were like "lets make a club for the community" and both liking the blues, it was just a natural flow after that.

Pru: Not at first, no. Our focus was on finding a home, pretty much like the rest of Second Life premium members and it was challenging. After a time, Cian gave up the hunt for finding a houseboat when he got the parcel that the Bellis Blues Cafe sits on now and we discussed the idea of doing something with it, to give back to the community. After reading a post on the forums, that was where the blues cafe coffee house idea was born. I reached out to Chic Aeon for help in creating the cafe and the rest as you can see is the fruition of our work together.

Why Blues, what about that genre of music drew you in?

Cian: It's the blues need I say more...

Pru: We both love pretty much all genre of music, but really enjoy going to clubs to listen to the blues. The popular ones though are often so crowded its difficult to enjoy. Most of the places that hold parties on Bellisseria have a pretty wide variety of music, but we noticed that the blues genre was missing and thought what a perfect idea to have a place here that can offer that scene to the community.

Tell me about your earlier soft-opening event at the Bellis Blues Cafe.

Cian: It just happened. One notice went out about the cafe and next thing I know, it was 7:00 AM the next morning. We had a great crowd, a DJ showed up out of nowhere and the rest is history.

Pru: Totally spontaneous. A notice went out in one of the Bellisseria groups and suddenly people started to teleport into the club. One happened to be a Blues DJ and offered to play his live stream for everyone. Next thing you knew, we had our very first impromptu party. It was awesome!

What are your short and long term hopes for the Bellis Blues Cafe?

Cian: Short term: Getting the event scheduling organized so we can relax more and just enjoy the events fully with the party goers. Long term: For this place to continue to be here for the community to enjoy the music we can provide to everyone, along with the many other venues. Just to be a part of Bellisseria.

Pru: Short term: Getting the event scheduling organized so we can relax more and just enjoy the events fully with the party goers. Long term: For this place to continue to be here for the community to enjoy the music we can provide to everyone, along with the many other venues. Just to be a part of Bellisseria.

Anything you especially want residents of not just Bellisseria but also SL to know about Bellis Blues Cafe?

Both answered together: Yes. Bellis Blues Cafe is here for all of you.

Where and how can people stay up to date with all the wonderful musical events you are hosting?

Both: They can find out about upcoming events several ways. Through our Bellis Blues Cafe group, the Bellisseria Events group and on the BellisseriaHappenings.com website.

The Beckridge Gallery

Kaos (kitten.kaos)

50 Years ago, humans took "one small step for a man; one giant leap for mankind", through the heroic efforts of Neil Armstrong and NASA. Concurrent with the 50th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing, the Beckridge Gallery (in Beckridge, Bellisseria) is celebrating the historic achievement of Apollo 11. At the exhibit, you'll find an amazing and inspiring display of newspaper reporting about the event that makes one feel transported to 1969 and living through the wonderment and hope inspired by humans setting foot on the moon.

I asked Diamond Marchant what inspired her to share her collection of headlines and articles with us.

"The inspiration for the exhibit is that I have been saving these newspapers for 50 years with no clue as to what to do with them.... and then when the Apollo 50 things started up and I had this gallery, I thought.... that's the ticket! No real memory of why I saved them at the time. I don't think I ever saved any other newspapers except for some of Apollo 12.

I suppose there was a sense that significant human history was unfolding and I wanted to retain a piece of it. I'm influenced by my daughter, who has a career in curating historical exhibits. Every time I let her know I'm doing exhibits like this, she gives me notes and advice. In particular, she helped very much with organizing my Parker Solar Probe exhibit which is still up on the mainland."

(author's note: I strongly urge people to look at dianmond's profile picks for a LM to her mainland Parker Probe exhibit and go see that as well.)

diamond's Apollo 11 exhibit runs for another week at The Beckridge Gallery

For more on this stunning accomplishment that put humans onto the surface of our home world's satellite, see this Youtube Playlist.

Rumors & Randomness!

Rumor has it there will be a train station on Bellisseria.... somewhere possibly on SSPE185. This is all we could find so far!

Did you know there is a rowboat near the top of Mount Rabelais? There are so many hidden treasures around the new continent including houses and house boats that have sunk into the ocean like this one at SSPE169

We were told of the 2019 Molequake recently! We are not sure what happened, just that several Moles made an appearance to deal with some bad construction, code violations and over all unexpected visit from our favorite Moles!

One witness, Hendrix Portal said, "I was on my back deck and saw a new Mole nearby. Then Squishy sat on the deck next to me, then all the Moles in the area and Kona Linden sat on the deck and it "collapsed", there was some fun chatter, and Abnor Mole mangled some Guns & Roses.."

The houses were soon fixed, but not before Hendrix managed a few snaps. Thanks to all the Moles who work so hard for us to have such a great and entertaining place!