NPIRLer Lash Xevious' "BEST of Second Life" list

Imagine asking a much admired and advanced content creator - or a hardcore adventurer - to share the very best of Second Life® with you, and then being handed a list of favorite haunts, lesser known destinations, preferred builds and best loved sites... what they consider to be The Classics. Now imagine that treasured list multiplied several times over, and that's what you will experience on this blog over the next few days and weeks.

I'm asking members of the Not Possible IRL group - and these are among the people who know and love the grid best and have a profound understanding of what was involved to deliver the quality seen at the installations - to recommend and share both well-known and undiscovered places with you. Their favorites... their Top Ten... or fewer.

Lists like these cannot be comprehensive. They are highly personal and deeply reflect the preferences of a generous, expert, and opinionated taste-maker.

Just in time for your weekend explorations, here is a list by the very lovely Lash Xevious. She has been in Second Life since May of 2004, and her spectacular and artful sim, La Reve, is a personal favorite of many NPIRLers, including myself, and a must see (teleport directly from here). She's the artist's artist. - Bettina Tizzy


Research, text and photography by Lash Xevious

It was great to get back to my roots as a newbie "photojournalist" and just take pictures of places I enjoy and finding the story in them.

All these places inspired me to write something or sketch, even revisit them in my dreams. I appreciate that I can come to Second Life and receive that kind of inspiration from other people. There are some places I would have loved to share but they no longer exist ... Felonhall City comes to mind. There are remnants but not the same... I would've also wished you could have seen the builds Bedazzled made a long time ago. Anyways, here's a mere handful of places that get me sentimental and happy.

* The private dance room in Crimson Shadow by Jimmy Thompson
Crimson Shadow is a sim that brings me back to the days where I romanticized the vampire, but in particular there's a small room in the sim that is sensual and voyeuristic without being overtly perverse. It's a private dance room, rich textures, very decadent feel; (teleport directly from here).


Crimson Shadow

* The Vernian Sea Lighthouse built by Kandace Commons
I remember exploring this back when it was on the Babbage sims. I especially love Kandace's take on the lighthouse because of how lived-in it she made it feel. It's more than a shell, it has knicknacks, personal touches strewn about the place. Really says it's someone's home, and I relate strongly to that. Plus, the times I've visited Kandace has always been around building, saying hello. It totally obliterates whatever disconnect I would have, and it makes Second Life feel neighborly again; (teleport directly from here).


Kandace Common's lighthouse


Vernian Sea Lighthouse - Interior

* The abandoned high school on Cellar Proper by Outy Banjo
The Cellar sims resemble a whole neighborhood with this dread hanging over it, or the aftermath of that "something wrong happened" event. The high school creeps me out exceptionally, I can't wander in there by myself, let alone cam inside. But yeah, it's awesome to have that feeling take over when we're in a world that makes us practically godlike; (teleport directly from here).


Cellar


Comfortable nightmares at the Cellar

* Soror beach's flowers by Soror Nishi
I mostly try to kiss the flowers that are scattered about the place, or talk to them. Some are as big as my head. ^_^ When I'm there, I feel my own possibilities in textures, sculpties, building. It's an inspiring place to visit; (teleport directly from here).


Soror's Beach Flowers


Soror's flowers

* Grendel's Children landscape
Every time I visit these sims, it's never the same experience. It's the seemingly never-ending landscape I love the most. It's a place for me to go virtual hiking, sit under a tree, write or sketch something. It just clears my head after a long day at work; (teleport directly from here).


Grendel's Children - Avaria


Grendel's Children - Landscape

* Cloud Chateau particles
This was the first "You need to see this" place someone brought me to back when I was a newbie. Years later, on a different sim, and with Windlight, this particle show is better than ever. For me Jopsy Pendragon's Cloud Chateau is a place not just to see but feel. And by dancing in the middle of that storm of glow, I do feel a certain digital warmth surrounding me. Instant immersion. Teleport directly from here and take the hot air balloon to the Cloud Chateau.


Jopsy Pendragon's Cloud Chateau, as photographed by Bettina Tizzy

Anyway, these are my favourite haunts in Second Life. The list is sure to grow bigger as time goes by, but for now, these are the places that mean a lot to me. I would terribly miss them if they disappeared.

See also:
* Amalthea Blanc's List of Faves