Second Life correspondent Draxtor Despres reports on the San Francisco Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC), an organization that promotes the annual Producer’s Institute, a gathering of filmmakers and technologists, that aims to do collaboration to develop new media strategies for their projects. Centered around social and human rights issues, the film projects touch on subjects from healthcare crises to sex trafficking.

This is a series of interviews that starts off with Draxtor’s chat with BAVC’s Wendy Levy. Click on image below to view the video.

The Relay For Life® of Second Life® is the largest fundraiser in the virtual world. Last year, it raised a total of almost US$300,000 for the American Cancer Society. This year, Avatrian has joined Relay for Life in Second Life to contribute in raising funds for the American Cancer Society. We are combining our contributions with friends and family’s donations along with fund raising events at Avatrian to meet our goals.

Donations raised through Relay For Life® support the American Cancer Society’s efforts to fund groundbreaking cancer research, provide up-to-date cancer prevention and early detection information to educate people about the disease, advocate for all people to have access to quality cancer care, and offer free programs and services to improve the quality of life for people facing cancer and their families. You can learn more by visiting the Relay for Life and the American Cancer Society website here.

Every amount, no matter how small helps. If you would like to make a gift to support Avatrian’s fund raising for the American Cancer Society, please visit Avatrian’s Relay for Life team page here where you can make an online donation.

Thanks from all of us at Avatrian and Relay for Life!

The Bloodlines collection of armours are specifically created by Avatrian for the vampire population in SL. They range from attires for new borns to the fierce armour sets of vampire overlords. The following armour sets belong to Bloodlines:

Crimson Warrior - a relatively new convert in the world of vampires. Violent, strong and eternally thirsty.

Death Merchant - among the most feared, these vampire assassins were specifically bred to kill.

Immortal Darksoul - a breed of vampires that thrive based on their intellect and cunning.

These armour can now be found in-world at the Bloodlines sanctum of The Medieval Corridor at Avatrian Central.

This morning, Linden Labs officially announced the Second Life Gold Solutions Provider program. This new Gold Program identifies exceptionally qualified Solution Providers with a high level of client satisfaction, a track record of developing successful Second Life projects, and demonstrated expertise working with real world organizations. Avatrian is proud to be included in this list of 31 providers that met Linden Lab’s criteria for a high level of service. Thank you to all of our current and former clients to help us get to this point. We strive to maintain and improve your confidence in the work we provide.

For more information on the Gold Solutions Provider program, please visit the Second Life Grid official notice here.

Linden Lab also produced a flyer about the program which you can download here. It provides additional information and what it means to be a Gold Program provider.

Chenin Anabuki accepts NPIRL membership from Bettina Tizzy

On the evening of April 24, 2009, Chenin Anabuki accepted the invitation of Ms. Bettina Tizzy to join the NPIRL Group in Second Life. It is both a privilege and an honor. The event was made official with a short induction ceremony held at Chakryn Forest. As the 174th Member of NPIRL, Chenin Anabuki pledges to help other members of the group in a collaborative working environment. Even though competition can exist, keeping it to a friendly state is the philosophy of the group for a healthy and beneficial co-existence. As always, NPIRL is a group dedicated to identifying and sharing well conceived and realized content creation in Second Life which would not be possible in real life.

As the newest member of NPIRL, Chenin Anabuki proudly represents the whole development team of Avatrian and Machitopia.

I met Kaz about a year ago. She visited the Medieval Corridor with her good friend Bettina Tizzy. That was the first time I got to see one of her creations…the Dravyn. I remember my jaw dropping. Even though we are familiar with all sorts of content creation techniques and have become experts in sculpted primming, something about Kazuhiro’s creation stood out. Odd as this may sound, her creatures look and feel very much alive. Last week, I got the opportunity to learn more about Kaz’s process for creating her Dream Creatures. She invited several people for a “safari” into her workshop and showed us her drafts, design concepts and earlier versions of work. It was a wonderful experience to see the evolution of work by this talented artist.

The machinima that resulted from this safari is an attempt to share the creativity of Kazuhiro Aridian. Hopefully, it will inspire others as well.

You can read more about Kazuhiro Aridian’s Dream Creature safari at Ms. Bettina Tizzy’s blog pages.

On April 25th, RMB City will host a special event, featuring press conference by newly-inaugurated Mayor AlanLau Nirvana (RL: Alan Lau), and a preview of the People’s Limbo interactive art project.

After his inauguration on April 18th, Mayor AlanLau Nirvana announced a press conference to reveal his exciting new “RMB City Stimulus Package”, with innovative (and possibly controversial) ideas on promoting energy, action, and community growth in RMB City and the virtual world.

After the speech, Mayor Nirvana will invite all attendees to a special sneak-preview of “People’s Limbo,” a multi-phase project staged around RMB City. People’s Limbo seeks to rediscover the roots of this word, coming from the Latin limbus which literally means “edge,” here in the context of the global financial crisis. Risk and opportunity will be opened to individuals via interactive games and installations, just as the seals in Revelations. Instead of following the dominant narrative and throwing stones at particular capitalists, we would like to contemplate on capitalism itself, in order to deliver us from the illusion of “to sleep in the guise of waking up.”

Date: April 24th, 8pm SLT / April 25th, 11am Beijing
Venue: People’s Bank, RMB City
Teleport to SLURL here

The first annual Crystal Egg Hunt at Big Falcon was crazy…but a huge fun. Almost all 100 eggs were found within one hour of the official start. There are still 12 eggs unaccounted for. They might be lingering around somewhere in the Big Falcon still. But, all prizes for discovered eggs have been doled out. And here is the tally for all winners:

Reiko Akina………………………21 Eggs
Cuwynne Deerhunter………17 Eggs
Piercedcock Spiteller………16 Eggs
Tyra Sapphire………………… 9 Eggs
Miss Crumb…………………… 8 Eggs
shiloh Sweetwater…………. 6 Eggs
Sunny Ireland………………… 6 Eggs
Cariad Morgath…………….. 3 Eggs
aesculapius26 Melody…….. 1 Egg
Madeleine Zenfold…………. 1 Egg

Clearly, some have acquired a good amount of disposable income. If you’ve found some eggs but did not receive your prize, please IM Chenin Anabuki. Otherwise, enjoy your newly acquired Ls.

The courthouse in the City of Oakland houses the Superior Court of The County of Alameda. It is a classical building which defines the surrounding neighborhood. Next month, this structure will be known as well not just to Oakland or San Francisco Bay Area residents. A replica of the prominent structure is now currently under development in the virtual world of Second Life. The project was commissioned to Avatrian by Alameda County. When completed, it will host the first virtual polling place in Second Life. The installation will function as an outreach venue for new voters and a place to improve awareness of the election process. The sim is now open to the public and can be reached via SLURL here.

Alameda County is a county in the U.S. state of California. It occupies most of the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. As of the 2000 census it had a population of 1,443,741, making it the 7th largest county in the state, and by 2006 it was estimated 1,457,426. The county seat is Oakland.

You can view images of the Second Life project currently in progress at Avatrian’s Flickr set here…