Tuesday, April 9, 2013

We interrupt this blog post series...

We interrupt this regularly scheduled blog post series to bring you images and information from our two performances this weekend.

On Saturday afternoon, Pearly Dynasty invited us to perform for her Qingming Festival, part of the grand opening for World of Jingju.  Her sim is amazing, and if you have the time you should definitely check it out. We performed an OOC show based on Chinese Ballet and the traditional folk tale "The Spring of Butterflies." We utilized music from real (and modern) Chinese ballet. It was a lot of fun and you can see the pictures below.
Kara-san and Medusa-chan dancing; they were the ill-fated
lovers, the focus of "The Spring of Butterflies."

This is me, dancing on a small pond of water. 

That pond was later raised to reveal a full fountain.
You can see the entire stage and the seating area here. 

On Sunday afternoon, Sengoku invited us to perform in their stunning teahouse. Sengoku is mostly focused on combat and has daily raids with other groups; every now and then they have a cultural element, and Shinmachi was pleased to be part of it. Jinchi-san and Gnosis-san performed Daffodils - I neglected to get any pictures, but I do want to end this post with the haiku that began that beautiful show:


Silent trumpeter
Your yellow shout promises 
New life and summer

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Maruyama, part 1

Last week, I talked (probably too long) about how Shinmachi went from being a full sim recreation to a guiding concept for our group. This week, and for the next few weeks, I want to give you a glimpse into the different sims Shinmachi is involved with and what we do there. Should be fun, right?

Our current home is Maruyama Hanamachi and we are active at Aosagi, in Kurogawa Machi. Beyond those two locations, we travel to a variety of sims to perform and RP in. I don't expect that this series will cover all of those locations, but we'll see how things progress. 

Starting with Maruyama Hanamachi and the well crafted speech about the sim:

Looking through the great gate of the Maruyama Hanamachi

 Maruyama is a unique destination in SecondLife with a vibrant range of groups and activities that will appeal to those interested in learning about Japan. A treasure best discovered in the early morning mist, or by lantern light as they are lit after sunset. A glorious land, nestled between mountains and the sea, where Geisha and Tayuu appear of an evening.

With the glow of the sunrise...
through the trees of the small grove, you can see the  shrine

Our Hanamachi is based on old Japanese pleasure quarters, mainly the Maruyama District of Nagasaki. Our sim is not set in a specific era, but meant to resonate the beauty of history as a backdrop to performance and education opportunities from different periods in Japanese History. 

Two piers near the rice paddies, 
where a boat awaits the return of its owner

Next week, I'll talk more about our place in this magnificent place. Hope you enjoyed the pretty pictures!