Artistic Fimicoloud Memorial Dance

It has been two years since Second Life resident Artistic Fimicoloud, Fimi as she became affectionately known, passed away from cancer. In real life, she was Stephanie Koslow, an artist whom did a number of pictures whose work can be seen in the Metaverse to this day, in both an art gallery and private homes. Battling the illness for years, the woman behind the pink fox avatar kept up to the end. She was 49. A member of the Sunweavers and Passionate Redheads, she remains fondly remembered by both.

A year ago, the anniversary of her passing was marked with a candlelight service. Recently, a number of people in both the Sunweavers and Passionate Redheads have had family members pass away. So instead of a solemn service, it was decided to hold a memorial dance in her honor. The event was held in the Southern Colorado sim near what is now known as Fimi Falls, land owner and Passionate Redhead organizer Daaneth Kivioq explained, I only met Fimi a few times, but I was abel to show her this place, and she fell in love with it - so I dedicated the falls to her memory.

Come join us on Wednesday, May 26th at 6PM for a wonderful live music event
Celebrating the Life & Art of Artistic Fimicoloud. The event will be held by Fimi Falls
in the beautiful Southern Colorado Sim. There will be Music, Dancing and Fireworks!

At the beginning of the event, there was a snag when the musician for the first hour was unable to show op. So Shockwave Yarearch took over, offering a mix of songs, including Smurfer Girl and a few other parodies, Fimi loved my little silly songs. No formal wear was required. Come as you are, Daaneth told people, normal human and furred, dropping in, Im wearing T-shirt and jeans. One lady dropping in had been absent from Second Life for months, her computer busted and then busy with college.

Relay for Life in Second Life
Celebrate
Remember
Fight Back!
GO RELAY

Throughout the event, people talked about Fimi, her art, and her life. A Relay for Life kiosk collected donations as they came in. At 7 PM, Shockwave stepped down and Vaughan Michalak stepped in with live music. At one point, Daaneth handed the crowd a challenge, Fimi spent many years fighting cancer before she lost her battle - as a result, she often hid pink cancer awareness ribbons in her paintings - now a few of you know where it is already - but there is one hidden near here too - can you find it? Several people spotted the hidden ribbon.

At 8 PM SL time, DJ Nydia Tungsten began spinning her mix of tunes. During this time, there was a fireworks show, the sparkle of lights exploding all around. One sparkle of lights didnt fade, but kept going, changing color, occasionally appearing as pink as Fimi. Eventually, the end of the event approached, and Nydia put on her last song, I Run For Life.

As the event closed, Daaneth thanked Nydia and everyone who came, You are all my heroes! thank you for being here tonight! ... FOR FIMI!! Thank you Nydia! And thank all of you for your support and generosity!

Over 34,000 Lindens had been raised during the event for Relay for Life.


I run for hope, I run to feel,
I run for the truth for all that is real.
I run for your mother, your sister, your wife.
I run for you and me my friend, I run for life.

Bixyl Shuftan

The Little Dove RFL Steamclub Opens

 
The Southern Colorado sim is noted for being a location for Relay for Life events, notably Hope Gardens. It now has a new place to hold events. On Monday March 5th at 4PM SL time, Club Little Dove held it’s Grand Opening.

Club Little Dove’s creation is due to one lady: Nydia Tungsten. She constructed the club in four levels, with the top level originally a pilothouse, but later changed to a landing field. The place was designed with a Steampunk look (for those unfamiliar with the term, think H.G. Wells and Jules Verne). There were features such as the main dance floor showing turning gears underneath, 19th century dials and huge lightbulbs making up much of the equipment, carved wood and stained glass making up much of the walls and furnishings, the occasional steam-age gadget or vehicle, a few hookahs around the place (the Victorian-Era had a libertarian view on drugs, and in some ways encouraged their use), and others.

The official name of the club is Her Majesty’s Airship Little Dove, or HMAS Little Dove. Club Little Dove is named after a former resident in Second Life, who sadly passed away last year. She was the real-life partner of a close friend of Nydia's, “she was devastated.” Nydia saw the naming of the club in her honor as, “just the right thing to do.” Nydia is part of the "Passionate Redheads" Relay group, but says the club is open to all RFL groups.

On Monday, the club was up and ready for it’s opening event,Relay for Life’s Daaneth Kivioq sending out an invite, “Commodore Tungsten invites you aboard the HMAS Little Dove, now flying high above Hope Gardens in the beautiful Colorado Sim! We will be celebrating the Grand Opening of this new venue with a Steampunk Ball. Music will be provided by two of SL's finest DJ's - Dusk Griswold from 4PM to 6PM, and the Commodore herself, Nydia Tungsten from 6PM to 8PM. All Proceeds from this event will go to benefit the American Cancer Society. Please join the Passionate Redheads as we launch the HMAS on her maiden flight!”

And so after 4PM SL time, the dance floor was soon full of men and women, both normal human and furred avatars, dancing away. There were no tip jars out. There was only the Relay for Life kiosk, which people chipped into. Although the theme of the party was Steampunk, which called for Victorian fashion, the music as thoroughly modern with a variety of music from the 70’s to today. “Rocky Mountain High” got a few chuckles, “Appropriate that we play this song, as we’re in the Southern Colorado sim.”

And of course, “I Run For Life” played as well. It played twice, the second time near the end, with Nydia calling out, “I run for life ! I run for Little Dove! I run for Fimi! I run for my Stepfather! Run for them all, and remember them all!”

Club LIttle Dove is in the Southern Colorado sim at (187, 37, 1002). During it’s construction, it’s location changed from where it began.

Bixyl Shuftan
 

Autism Awareness Raises over 200,000L

Late Saturday night on January 9th at the Tiatopia sim, after a week or poetry readings, art contests, live music events, and a lot of fun, the Autism Awareness Project came to a close. With a climatic performance, singer Ichie Kamachi wowed the crowd and brought donations over the top. The final total, not counting last-minute donations, was a total of 226,290 Lindens raised, or $874 US dollars.

We started with a goal of 65,000, sim owner Tia Macbain explained, Then when we saw we made that in the first day, I was like Okay, so lets go bigger. And so we pushed it to 100K in each (of the two) pillars here." Added to that were the amounts from the art contest, the art auction, wedding certificate purchases, "a big chunk of stuff.

Story continued in Community

Relay Raiders Charity Dance Goes on Despite SL Troubles, Makes Goal

At  Haute Style & Co. in the Haute Couture  sim, Nevar Lobo, Bcreative Wilde, and the Relay Raiders held a charity dance for Relay for Life. But events made it more than just a simple fundraiser.

An announcement Nevar made gave the fundraiser extra meaning, the passing of Teri LaFollette, "... most of you know a very good friend of ours passed (away) on Thursday ... this event is to help celebrate her life..."

The dance began at 6PM April 4th Friday, and continued through the night with Bcreative as the one and only DJ. Then on Saturday came another problem. The dance had the ill fortune to be scheduled at the same time as  the login mess as the Second Life gird began going haywire at 7:30, and soon after no one else could get in. "I was one of the lucky few who was stuck online," Bcreative explained.

Nevar spoke highly of Bcreative, "she got almost 200 US dollars in online donations for the Raiders ... on top of what is (already) here. She had them listening on winamp and we managed to stay online until they finally closed the grid."

At 9 AM Saturday, those still on were booted out. It wasn't until about 1 PM in which people could log back on, and there were still problems for some hours. Despite this, the Raiders came back on and continued the fundraiser, calling on people to come over and donate for charity.
Pips Fetid remarked, "When the Raiders have an event, they have an event, whether or not SL cooperates."

At 6:30 PM, the Relay Raiders made the goal of passing what the McDunnough Team raised in 2007. By 7 PM, they had passed 300 thousand Lindens. The final total was 304,121L.

After staying up for the 25 hours, BCreative finally hung up her virtual headphones just after 7PM SL time, "(I) was begining to think this was going to be a big flop, but you guys pulled through in the end. ... I love you guys. You guys are my heroes. ... We were up only a quarter of the time. I almost did quit. But you guys kept me going."

Bixyl Shuftan