Second Life has many malls, but how many can boast having their own sky-high waterslide?
On Thursday June the 11th, the Tanglewood City Skymall will have it’s Grand Reopening Ceremony. The event will last from one minute in the morning after Midnight to 2 AM Friday the next day. The mall will have numerous attractions. “It’s a mall with hand picked designers,” Skymall manager Kaii Kiranov explained, “We will be having 26 hours of DJ or live music. And the main event will be the Cher and Carm Show, broadcasting live from the skymall from 2pm to 4pm SL time. Lots of other stuff too, like a treasure hunt, prize giveaways, and more.”
“Oh and there is the 250 foot high waterslide in the mall. Hee-hee.”
Kaii explained the owner of the mall, Defbiggiec Gagliano, had owned another previously, and built the place to correct what he saw as shortcomings in the old mall. Here, “he made the stores much bigger for lots of shopping room, and he created his plans around catering to designers. That is number one here. We hand-picked and invited everyone here. First, they had to be way above average in their work. Second, they had to be really nice people. So, it took a long time to find these designers. ... For example, Gaia Phoenix and Rita Groshomme from Curio ... this is a really big deal that Gaia put her whole line of skins in our mall.” They also sell the Twisted Titlers seen at parties, “The picture of me and my twin sis was taken by Phia from Twisted and Spoiled for a poster she did for the fur coat in the picture. She told us we could use it for our shop.”
The Skymall is appropriately named, 300 feet in the air. It has three floors, curved rampways allow access to one another. Much of the upper two floors are see-through grillwork, while the bottom floor has a transparent center to allow a view below. There are a few Relay for Life posts, and XstreetSL exchange terminals, as well as Metaverse Exchange their newest competitor, “going through beta testing right now.”
Kaii explained that the designers even have a say in what rent levels were, “Defbiggiec Gagliano tried to think of everything he could to make this mall cater to the designers here. ... Every shop has a Landmark lot that they can use to TP customers directly to the front of their shops. ... very few malls, let alone skymalls make arrangements for direct TPs to each store.”
“On the shoppers side, they can rez what they buy anywhere in the mall. There is a huge shopping area in each store to make camera use easy. We advertise the first and third levels separately, and they each have their own Landing Zone. We also do what we call Dance Shopping Rave Parties in the stores themselves to get customers in front of the merchandise. ... We do ask designers to support our efforts in anyway they feel motivated to do. We want to draw them to participate, not require it. They only have to do one thing, that is list their (store) in SL Search.”
Regan Becloud, the owner of the Artists’ Lounge Cafe, explained that Defbiggiec had started small, buying just, “a little bit of the land on the sim. Then more, and more, and more. And soon, we owned 2/3 of it.” Defbiggiec eventually bought the rest. ”He had this fabulous idea to make the skymall, became his pet project. Originally, there was not going to be a waterslide. He was making a track up there for bikers. And I had been hoping to get bike shops in the mall, maybe with demo bikes people could ride on the track. However, while it sounded awesome, it didn’t work so well. You’d go shooting in the air, and crash into the ground below. Def got POed, and we got a waterslide instead.”
The beginning of the waterslide ride is way up over the mall, 550 feet in the air. The easiest way to get there is a teleport on the mall’s first floor. To go down the slide, one clicks on the small red ball at the entry, and when an inner tube appears sit on it and go down. Gravity then takes care of the rest as you sloosh downwards. One may get stuck while going down, but all one has to do is nudge the tube left or right. The trip ends at the mall’s first floor, where one can TP back up to start all over again, or “stay in the tube for a spirited game of bumper tubes with your friends.”
Regan then explained how her cafe came to be, “I was telling Def ... about how I had gone to a cafe and how in real life I want to open a cafe for the arts. *Not a club,* a cafe, to hold poetry readings, have live music, comedians, filled with books people can read, good coffee, and some interesting snacks, filled with artistic, open-minded individuals. And how that would be cool to have in Second Life. So he said, ‘Go for it Regan,’ and I made the Cafe. That is my baby, and everything there goes through me, just so ya know. Hee-hee.”
The Skymall will also have a movie showing at a temporary theater. And not just any movie. The Tanglewood City Movie Theater, sponsored by Dream Garden, will be showing the Rocky Horror Picture Show from 7 to 9 PM SL time, hosted by Roguewolf Vollmar. “The movie will have a synchro-start at 7:15 sharp,” Roguewolf explained in a notecard, “so don't come late and miss the Time Warp! We encourage audience participation from all so break out those rice emitters and noisemakers and all things associated with this cult classic.” In avatar, Rougewolf had this to say, “Well, when we have hosted the movie before in a club, it was well received as many had not seen it, and many (who) have, we could emote for those and give a very real ... experience in Second Life. And many bring props they have themselves to the show.” Several prizes will be given out to some random viewers.
The music and dance schedule is as follows:
Thursday, June 11 SLT/PDT
00:00 - 01:00 - DJ Kaii - Dance Shopping Rave Party at Shabby Cat
01:00 - 02:00 - DJ Kaii - Dance Shopping Rave Party at The Tenk Tank
02:00 - 03:00 - DJ Kaii - Dance Shopping Rave Party at Rathwynn’s
03:00 - 04:00 - DJ Kaii - Dance Shopping Rave Party at F.A.B.
04:00 - 06:00 - DJ Eifa - at The Artists Lounge Cafe
06:00 - 08:00 - DJ Kaii - Dance Shopping Rave Party at Curio
08:00 - 09:00 - DJ Kaii - Dance Shopping Rave Party at Boom
09:00 - 12:00 - DJ Mina at The Artists Lounge Cafe
12:00 - 14:00 - DJ Mshenny - Dance Shopping Rave Party at Aqua
14:00 - 16:00 - The Cher and Carm Show at The Artists Lounge Cafe
16:00 - 18:00 - DJ Kizza at The Artists Lounge Cafe
18:00 - 19:00 - Onehempcat
19:00 - 20:00 - FacelessApe *LIVE* at The Artists Lounge Cafe
20:00 - 22:00 - DJ or Live Act
22:00 - 23:00 - Grif Bamaisin LIVE at The Artists Lounge Cafe
23:00 - 24:00 - DJ Ricky at The Artists Lounge Cafe
Friday, June 12 SLT
00:00 - 02:00 - DJ Poise at The Artists Lounge Cafe
Prizes will be given out at the events, as follows:
Rathwynn's Arms & Armor - Two Boxed Sets of Medievil Weapons valued at $L1400 each. To be given away between 12:00am and 1:00am SLT.
Strapped - 3 great gifts to be given away between 1:00am and 2:00am SLT.
Shabby Cat - Gifts to be given away between 2:00am and 3:00am SLT.
F.A.B. - 10 prizes to be given away between 3:00am and 4:00am SLT.
Curio - Hair and Fashion - 5 Fat Pack Gift Certificates Valued between $L800 and $L1600 To be given away between 6:00am and 8:00am.
BOOM - 6 prizes to be given away between 8:00am and 9:00am SLT.
AQUA - Up to 40 prizes to be awarded between 12:00pm and 2:00pm SLT.
Gala Skins - Gift Certificate for a Fat Pack of the newest line of Gala Skins valued at $L3000. Will be given away between 2:00pm and 4:00pm SLT during the Cher and Carm Show, which will have prizes given out every 15 minutes.
Prizes to be awarded at various times in the Artists’ Lounge Cafe.
100+ Prizes from stores including:
AQUA
Poised
Curio
F.A.B.
Shabby Cat
AbbeyDawn
Twisted Sisters
Tenk Tank
JJs Designs
Tesoro Jewelers
Neko Gear
Princess Gear
There will also be freebie vendors in various stores in the skymall.
The Tanglewood City Skymall is at the Tanglewood City sim, the entry area at (88, 110, 302).
"Be sure not to miss this!!! Come to the celebration, tell your friends, tell the world!!!"
Bixyl Shuftan
