Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Mardi Gras Celebrated Madpea Style

As you  know the day before Lent is a celebration in many cultures. Some eat pancakes as a way of getting rid of all the fat in the home before Lent starts. Traditionally you couldn't eat any eggs, flour, milk or fat during Lent. Did we starve? well that tradition is not the same any more but the practice of eating pancakes and other things with egg and sugar and milk and butter has never really ended. In England we eat pancakes, the Welsh enjoy welsh cakes which are similar in mixture to pancakes but thicker and probably just as delicious. In Scotland they cook scottish pancakes, these are the ones Americans eat with eggs for breakfast dripping with maple syrup.

In some cultures Shrove Tuesday as this day is called, is often referred to as Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras, in some places its a place for great fun and frivolity and so the festival of Mardi Gras goes back as far as the Romans, but it has really come into its own as a festival during the late 18th Century.

There is a King called Rex and he drives the carnival float at the beginning of the float procession. He and his companions throw necklaces and doubloons and other regalia to the crowd. There is a frenzy to catch these items, many other floats travel by also throwing trinkets, doubloons, necklaces, cups, yes cups [plastic] are thrown out to the crowd and balls too.

So we decided to celebrate Mardi Gras at Madpea Games and tune into the New Orleans Radio stream for live music at the live event as Mardi Gras was celebrated in New Orleans so the Madpea Members celebrated in the Madpea Game Arena.
It was an impromptu event hosted by Rowanessque and Quan a surprise event for all the Madpea Members. The Madpea team donated some lindens and a competition for the craziest costume commenced.
The Winner
It was great fun, the Madpea Members had a great time, its such a shame if you couldn't be there because we had lots of fun and danced merrily to New Orleans Radio stream for over two hours straight.
The competition results where announced and the dancing continued until most of us Europeans went to bed and hoped that the fun would continue in our absence.

Sanity Falls Decorator Yelena


Before meeting Yelena Istmal we just had to go and see her shops. We arrived at one location we were thrilled to find, grungy, old, gothicesque furniture and artefacts of the Victorian Era.

To us it was like walking into a Second Life Victorian Doll House, everything set was usable. There were stuffed birds, ticking clocks, writing desks, books to read. No wonder Madpea Games wanted Yelly to work for them on Sanity Falls Decor and furnishings.



We spent well over an hour just looking around and spending Lindens on Yelena's creations, time and lack of lindens brought the spree to an end but we went "home" with enough of her beautiful creations to furnish our homes. Its great to find something so beautiful, reasonably priced, carefully decorated...


Testing the Bed Fell into Deep Sleep


We spoke to Yelena briefly, as you know Madpea Games is very international and Yelena lives "down under" whilst we live "up norf" as Yelena said. We liked her immediately, but with talent and beautiful creativity we had a feeling she would be a likeable and extremely interesting person to meet. So because of the time difference we didn't really get time to chat about what she was doing in Sanity Falls. We did discover that we have a lot in common. We both love Bram Stokers, Dracula, the adaptation with Gary Oldman is one of our favourites. We both want to immerse ourselves in the Balkans one day and visit Transylvannia. We know what your going to say there are sims that are Transylvannian in second life. Really we must look them up.

Getting Ready for the Ball should employ more servants! look at those cobwebs.


The very next day, we caught a glimpse of her work in progress on Sanity Falls. It is gorgeous and she has worked extremely hard to make sure that the scene she is setting fits in perfectly. Down to a pair of ring rimmed spectacles for the cleric.

Yelena contribution so far to Sanity Falls
We found Yelly at one of her projects, its super and we have to go back there and take a look, when we have more Lindens. We love her buildsm we sat down on a bench and were joined by a frog from her neighbours parcel, for an sl frog he was adorable. The bench we sat on was very much in vogue with the New Orleans setting. Yelena is lovely she was wearing a vintage outfit in black which would look almost as good in real life as it does in second life, save for the unclement and changeable weather we are enjoying in England. Mild and pensive springs to mind.

New Orleans shop
We were chatting about Mardi Gras and sadly we had missed a Mardi Gras procession of floats at New Toulouse by a day, Yelly went there and enjoyed it. Mardi Gras is not common in Australia, its not common in England either. Until we had read Terry Prachet's Disk World we never even knew what Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras was, but the internet is great place to learn about different cultures.

We talked about our love of New Orleans and Bayou and all the cultures that lived and melded together there, of course we discussed Voodoo which seems synonymous to New Orleans, yet  there is a lot more to the culture of the Deep South than Voodoo, its a place Yelly and I would love to visit some day. How uncanny that we share so many common interests and have russian blood in our real life veins.

Fantastic array of Magical and Spiritual artefacts.



We wanted to talk about her work, and have put some pictures here for you to see if for yourself, but do go to Yelena fantastic shops because if you love anything steampunkish, gothic, victorian, vintage, or just beautifully textured furniture Yelly has it all. You could probably furnish your second life home from top to bottom for under 2000 lindens. We did!

So how did Madpea productions approach Yelena, well first off they sent her and email and then an video of Madpea and yelly was hooked. We remarked that her work looks as if it had always been in Madpea and yet she was a recent discovery.

We talked about Peatonville Asylum which is/was a much beloved work of all the Madpeas, its a shame it "blew up". Yelena asked if it was an accident, but we think the ghosts came back to claim it, you know like in the Poltergiest movie directed by Stephen Spielberg. Despite the loss of our beloved Asylum it is probably for the best, because its kind of crazy to love spending time in an asylum is it not.

Beloved Peatonville! shot be Kiana Writer.


So we will console ourselves with Sanity Falls and all that entails and mourn our beloved Peatonville by getting the heck out of Sanity Falls as fast as possible to win the game perhaps.

Yelly admitted that when she saw the video she "loved the tone, the asthetics and the quality of it," we asked if she was aware of the subliminal cuts in the video that tell the viewer to "join madpeas". Then we apologised for our "wicked" humour but Yelena didn't mind and we are honestly joking about the use of subliminal cuts*.
We share a wicked sense of humour.

The schedule is a tight turn around but Yelena is as enthusiastic as the rest of the building and decoration team to get it done and get it right. She admitted that even though her work is fantastic she is still learning, its hard to believe when you see her work its fantastic but she is right in saying we never finish learning.
 'show me a man who has finished learning and i'll show you a man who has finished living' Yelena quoted.

In real life Yelena is a graphic designer, we mentioned the artist of The Order of Perception Harter Fall and suggested she should visit his exhibit some day. We need to go back there too. Its fantastic that second life brings such a wonderful selection of skilled people through its doors. People seem to think its just a game that "kids" play when we bet a high population of the second life "players" are well grounded adults who just enjoy the freedom to explore, build, create and make life long friends in world. Second Life really can open real life doors and avenues to even the most shy or introverted adult in real life. Not to mention that it can help people who are limited through either an  illness or physical disability to live their dreams on the screen.

Some great books, voodoo, spiritual and other.


We talked about her building, textures she used and her furniture, like me she uses sculpt maps and ready made textures from a very good friend of ours. Twisted Thorn Textures the quality of these textures is second to none, from building the perfect bed, prim or sculpt her textures fit like a dream and she has some great fellow vendors in her store. We also have a fondness for Anthony Republic a brilliant sculptor along with Katelyn. It was strange that both looked at one of his fantastic products and are eager to buy but don't actually know what build we would put the item in. But the product we where discussing is a Weather Vane, its expensive, its gorgeous they provide all the textures all the fittings and its well worth the money but do you do with something you want but have no purpose for, its one of those items you keep on your "must buy" or "keep in mind" lists that we are sure builders and creators across second life have but wish they had a reason to buy the product.


We love sculpting but we are more into clothes creation and then when we make the clothes we go out and wear someone elses. A lot like making food in real life and someone else enjoying it. Yelly wants to make a victorian dress and when she does we have no doubt people will be knocking down the shop door to buy it.  We talked about our preferences, again we have so much in common except I live "up norf" and Yelena is "down under"

Yelly also gave us some tips on mesh, just can't get the textures to fit on it so she told us that we are better downloading the texture and modifying it. She said mesh provides a lot more detail and as you know folks we are still very much undecided about mesh although we did go out and buy some mesh clothes to make so we are venturing nearing the dark black hole of mesh with intrepidation.


Our Wicked sense of Humour could not resist this!

By Rowanessque Whitewood

*subliminal cuts where used in the 1960's movie cinemas to encourage people to buy food and drink during the interval. They where banned from the movie cinema but some say they are still out there. You can read more here.



Monday, February 27, 2012

Day 40






Is the lighthouse light warning ships of perilous rocks, or calling lost souls home.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

"Show and Tell" Today!


After having a great evening yesterday with live music, DJ and contest board the next highlight is on the way!


‘Show and Tell’ last week had again a classy range of contestants. All of them pleased the audience with interesting works. Last Sunday’s happy winner of the contest was Cherry Hotaling with a scripted Doll Key that pleased the audience very much. 


Today there will be again L$ prizes split among all presenters, the pot will begin at L$1,000, but audience members are encouraged to toss more into the pot.
'Show and Tell’ became a real highlight of the week. Due to the success the MadPea team decided to run ‘Show and Tell' weekly. So be prepared for more fun today. Wonderful host Lorin Tone awaits you.

Builders are requestet to show up early and to register.
‘Show and Tell’ today, Sunday at 2 PM SLT. Don't miss it!
by Quan Lavender

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Party and Contest Today: COME IN YOUR WILDEST AVATAR



After having huge fun at our Mardi Gras Party last week, we decided to have a similar event today and to share the fun with our friends of MadPea who could not attend. We found a nice motto and offer a couple of highlights for your fun. This will be a great evening!

 
Contest: COME IN YOUR WILDEST AVATAR

Get this avatar as gift for tipping

Don’t we all have some fun avatars in our inventory but never the chance to wear them? Now is the time!  Set them free and come to our Madpea Party! All visistors can participate the contest board for the best avatar and have the chance to win 500 Linden. This cute creature is our demon boar Aperux.  Feed the tipjar and get this avatar as gift! Expose the inner beast in you! But please no extra huge avatars, our arena shall not explode :))


LIVE MUSIC: Peet Peterman at 1 PM SLT

Peet Peterman
No singer could fit better to the theme of the day as Peet Petermann. The Dutch singer performs in Sesond Life as monkey. He plays folk, country, blues, pop covers and originals in Dutch and English and started playing in sl in spring 2007. He started making music when he was young. Peet played as a bassplayer in some bands and made some years music on the streets. Most of his life he has been a hometaper. Made and recorded his own songs. At the moment he plays 3-5 times a week in sl. He also likes to make paintings, drawings and photo's.

Peet Peterman performing in SL


DANCE TUNES: DJ Freckles at 2 PM SLT

Dj Freckles

DJ Freckles (Everest Piek Tones-Commons) is builder and role player with huge family  in SL. His great passion is DJ. His fans know him also from his frequent sets at SimKast Radio. The repertoire consists of 5 decades. Today he will concentrate on 80ies dance sounds. 

Dj Freckles
 Come and join uns for great evening at MadPea!


by Quan Lavender



Day 38

The door opened slowly, creaking for want of oil on its joints. Who was that in the shadow.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Day 35

Are the boards to stop entry, or to prevent something getting out?

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Day 33 Sanity Falls


"Knock and the door shall open, seek an you shall find the answer, or will you?"

Calling all Vendors

Calling all Vendors for Sanity Fall Hunt.

Do  you own a shop, have you been in a madpea productions Hunt before? we found some great stores that have previously applied and participated in a madpea hunt. We went back to some of them, there are 50 stores per hunt so as much as we have loved to visit all our previous vendors we physically can't do that.

Previous Vendor


Why are we telling you all this, because now its your turn to be one of those shops. Yes YOU could be a vendor for our very latest and very mysterious Hunt which is out on the 1st April, thats right it all starts on April Fools Day, its going to be one of the best, and its success is down to the team behind it and the great vendors and you could be one of those vendors if you apply now, inworld.

Previous Vendor


Application Forms are available just im one of the following, if we had the pea power would be dropping them off to all those fantastic shops in secondlife but its down to YOU to get noticed and be in the hunt of Sanity Falls. So get those applications, get applying and get lucky, we would like to take every shop that applies but we have to narrow it down to 50 and we want YOU to be one of those that tried, even if you have done it before, even if you think your not good enough, even if you don't own a stall but have a great sim/parcel that we deem suitable. Let our team decide if YOU are suitable but you have to be "in it to win it" and there are no exceptions to the rules. So if you fit the criteria, your not a mall, reseller or adult sim, who knows that HUD could landing on your land soon.

Previous Vendor

Best of all you get a percentage of the revenue for every HUD sold, at 100 lindens a hud, if you got 30 or 40% thats 40 lindens per hud, wow. If you only sold ten in your store thats 400 lindens and thats just to play the game, then those hungry weary hunters will be back to seek out your hunt prize and you don't even have to write the clue, the team take care of that for you.

Hurry now, get that all important application in now. Today, don't wait do it NOW.

Previous Vendor


For more information, please contact Kiana Writer, Tichelle Teebrook or Clicquot Oh.
http://madpea.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/MadPea
www.madpeagames.com

By Rowanessque Whitewood.

MadPea High Mystery Crystal

High School was so quiet and I couldn't think why until I saw her standing there covered in Crystal Glass.
Madpeas Crystal Prison only 175 lindens

So I went upstairs to the Principles Office and there they where all the teachers where Crystalised.


They where calling Help Me, Help Me! But as I got near to them.

I realised they where Modifiable and Copiable and so I changed the colours to green and pink and blue just for fun.

Just then I moved a little closer and it drew me right into it, it was all consuming, I could have clicked WEAR or just been sucked right in by it. It was only a crystal, it couldn't hurt me could it. Who were the people inside though.

So I took one home just for fun, and scared everyone with my Crystal Prison. Available now at Madpeas Shops for only 175 linden, copy/mod. Scare your friends, multiply them tell your current boyfriend or girlfriend, thats what happens to cheaters. Wrapped in a crystal prison for ever. Just who are the avatars trapped in these Crystal Prisons, who knows. People who eat peas for breakfast, dinner and tea I suspect.

By Rowanessque Whitewood.

MadPea Ghosthunters Kit

Have you ever wondered how to catch a ghost, a soul perhaps you need the all new Madpea exclusive Soul Catcher.

95 Lindens Capture any Soul Wandering SL





When you catch a soul your necklace glows, be careful not to release it less the spirits inside escape.

A book on spirit release suggests releasing the spirits back into the water, where they came from. You know that some of these spirits where captured in the sand of the river bed, that makes mirror glass. When you break that glass they say you release the spirit, who knows where these spirits come from. In second life releasing them into the water seems to work well.

75 Lindens for this belt.
Sometimes you need a little extra help, the Spirit Hunter belt is equipped with spell pouches, soul catchers, an pentacle for protection, even a knife incase you need to make a fast escape. Why would a Ghost/Spirit hunter need a knife I wonder. Well you know an athame is used to cut the air, in a protective measure and to cut herbs and spices. A knife is extremely useful to replenish those potion pouches. Even if your not hunting ghosts the Soul Catcher Necklace and the Spirit Hunter belt make interesting items to add to your Madpea apparel.

Be prepared, a motto known to most Scouts across the world. A good motto for the Ghost Hunter too. Always be prepared in your second life because you never know when you might need a Soul Catcher or protection of the Spirit Hunter Belt. What about vampires and werewolves you may well ask. The spirit hunter belt pouches can be filled with garlic, just incase you need to scare away an unfriendly vampire creature you might meet in the woods of second life.

Silver Bullet Bracelet 49 Lindens Bargain

Silver Bullets kill Werewolves don't they? So I think just wearing this handy Silver Bullet Bracelet might be enough to protect you from Lycan and Werewolves, especially the ones that eat your dinner or best friend. Of course you might want to be swept up by a hot blooded Wolf Like creature so may be the Silver Bullet Bracelet is just a fashion accessory.


Belt, Necklace and Bracelet available at Madpeas Shop and at Market place. Ready to wear, ready to go, be it Spirit Hunter, or just in vogue with a range of designer items, only available at Madpeas. Available in black leather while stocks last or Ghosts haunt your sims.

By Rowanessque Whitewood.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Great Live Event: Jaynine Scarborough at MadPea


MadPea is proud to announce another great live concert. Jaynine is one of the best known singers in Second Life. Her fans especially appreciate her great voice.


Jaynine Scarborough aka Juliane Gabriel lives in Berlin, Germany and performs in SL since june 2006. She studied classic singing and acting, worked in performing arts but also as a director and teaches singing and energetic vocal work in Berlin and in international workshops such as South Korea, United States and within Europe. She performs with Roland Satterwhite and Kristoff Becker in Berlin, but also outside Germany. In SL she sings mostly Jazz and Folksongs, but also opened the Ratepoint Eldrich-Broom Concerthall and The Cairo Theater with a Casual Arias Program. 

About Jaynine RL:  http://www.myspace.com/julianegabriel

Hear her singing the beautiful song Mad World:


Jaynine Scarbourough performs Saturday, 18. at 12 PM SLT

Don't miss it!



 

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Day 31


Reading is good for the soul, the Minister said to his pupil as she perused the pages of the Bible.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Sanity Falls CatchUp




Hiya Peas, treat for you today, not one photo but several photos to bring you up to date with Sanity Falls creative process. Its getting exciting, so exciting Gremlins have been taking our photos for their post cards, we managed to get some back and here they are. Are you ready?


Make your choice Traveller, choose wisely or your fate could well be sealed.

Life is about building and mending broken bridges, on every path we choose.

The sign says open, are you open to every possibility this task will lead you on?


That sinking feeling gnarls at your stomach when you see the boat is empty and sinking.



Out of your depth, the coldness gnaws at your bones and sleep seems like a luxury.


 Step in and take seat, short back and sides, all off, you decide.

The butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker, a childs rhyme or a clue for you?