Wel­come to 2023 and we wish all our lis­ten­ers, friends and spon­sors a very Hap­py New Year.

Two of our orig­i­nal series will be on hia­tus for a while:

“Where Have You Been?”, where we sug­gest things to do and places to vis­it around the Sec­ond Life Grid, will be back for a new series in late Feb­ru­ary. In the mean­time we’ll be re-broad­cast­ing a few pro­grammes from Series 2, start­ing with Seren­i­ty Val­ley (S02E08). While “WYB” includes quite a few time-relat­ed items like gallery exhi­bi­tions and places based around the time of year, there are some places we’ve vis­it­ed which are longer-term in scope and we’ll be revis­it­ing a few of them in the show’s reg­u­lar times­lots of 12 noon and 4pm Pacific/SLT, on Wednes­days and Saturdays.

“The Mag­ic of The Musi­cal”, our month­ly series on musi­cal the­ater, will return with a new series — and a new venue! — in the Spring, and until then we’ll be run­ning some past shows in the show’s 2pm Pacif­ic, third Sat­ur­day in the month slot.

As the end of 2022 — and our sec­ond anniver­sary — draw near, we’d like to invite Vir­tu­al Com­mu­ni­ty Radio lis­ten­ers, friends and spon­sors to a Year’s End Ball on Fri­day Decem­ber 30th at 2pm Sec­ond Life Time. Here’s the loca­tion.

Elrik Mer­lin will be play­ing a selec­tion of Clas­sic Rock tracks and the event will be held in the Ball­room in Hon­ey Heart and Sil­lve’s Win­ter Won­der­land at Chest­nut Hills. And if you haven’t vis­it­ed Win­ter Won­der­land yet, now’s your chance! There’s a sleigh ride, horserid­ing and an amaz­ing col­lec­tion of build­ings decked out in sea­son­al attire, plus a wealth of places to sim­ply hang out and enjoy the view.

We’d like to thank our lis­ten­ers, friends, and spon­sors for your much-val­ued sup­port in the past year that has made Vir­tu­al Com­mu­ni­ty Radio pos­si­ble — we do hope you’ll stay with us in the com­ing year and we wish you a hap­pi­er, health­i­er 2023.

Today, Box­ing Day (Decem­ber 26th), join Vir­tu­al Com­mu­ni­ty Radio pre­sen­ter Elrik Mer­lin par­ty­ing to music from the Vic­to­ri­an era at the Skat­ing Pond in the Dick­ens Project in Sec­ond Life — or lis­ten-in on Vir­tu­al Com­mu­ni­ty Radio — from 2pm Pacific/SLT, 10pm in the UK.

The pro­gramme will include clas­si­cal waltzes, Eng­lish Coun­try Dance and Mor­ris Danc­ing tunes, Music-hall songs, pieces from musi­cals by Gilbert & Sul­li­van, Lionel Mon­ck­ton and Edward Ger­man, and much more.

Use the skat­ing paths, dance, or BYO skates!
Tele­port Avail­able at the Wel­come Center

Image: Scene from The Arca­di­ans, an Edwar­dian musi­cal com­e­dy styled a “Fan­tas­tic Musi­cal Play” in three acts with a book by Mark Ambi­ent and Alexan­der M. Thomp­son, lyrics by Arthur Wim­peris, and music by Lionel Mon­ck­ton and Howard Talbot.

On Decem­ber 24, Christ­mas Eve, tune in to Vir­tu­al Com­mu­ni­ty Radio at noon or 4pm Pacif­ic Time – 8pm or mid­night in the UK – for a spe­cial pre­sen­ta­tion of Charles Dick­ens’ sea­son­al clas­sic, “A Christ­mas Car­ol”, adapt­ed for radio by Cale­do­nia Sky­tow­er, with Shan­don Lor­ing, Cale­do­nia Sky­tow­er and Elrik Merlin.

And what bet­ter place to lis­ten than at The Dick­ens Project in Sec­ond Life, where Vir­tu­al Com­mu­ni­ty Radio pro­vides the audio track? Here are the details!

Dur­ing the day, we’ll be play­ing a col­lec­tion of sea­son­al music and Victoriana.

To tune in, use the play­er on the right hand side of the brows­er win­dow. If this does­n’t work for you, open a net­work play­er such as Winamp or VLC and play this URL: or it may open in your brows­er. http://main.vcradio.org 

May we take this oppor­tu­ni­ty to wish all our lis­ten­ers, friends and spon­sors a very hap­py Hol­i­day Sea­son and a hap­py and healthy year ahead. Thank you very much for your sup­port and encour­age­ment which has made it pos­si­ble to bring you our unique pro­gram­ming for the past two years — and hope­ful­ly many more!

This pro­gramme will super­sede oth­er pro­gram­ming at noon and 4pm SLT on the 24th, so we will not be broad­cast­ing “Where Have You Been?” at this time (you can catch it on Wednes­day next).

Sat­ur­day, Decem­ber 17th sees the lat­est episode of our orig­i­nal series, “The Mag­ic Of The Musi­cal” with your host Cale­do­nia Sky­tow­er;  this month brought to you live from the Opera House at the Dick­ens Project in Sec­ond Life, at 2pm Pacif­ic Time/SLT.

This episode is now avail­able on Mixcloud

This month the theme is “Christ­mas on the Musi­cal The­ater Stage” and Cale­do­nia’s spe­cial guest is Chris Ser­face, Man­ag­ing Artis­tic Direc­tor of Taco­ma Lit­tle The­atre and Past Pres­i­dent of the Amer­i­can Asso­ci­a­tion of Com­mu­ni­ty The­atre.

Fea­tured music for the day con­sists of music from the stage of the Vic­to­ri­an era includ­ing musi­cal hall songs, songs from the shows such as those by Gilbert & Sul­li­van and Lionel Mon­ck­ton, and much more, such as mechan­i­cal instru­ments like the street piano, Polyphon and street organ.

In the lat­est episode of our orig­i­nal series “Where Have You Been?”, where we sug­gest places to go and things to do around the Sec­ond Life grid, we vis­it the region of Coun­try Hide­away for “A Who Christ­mas” cre­at­ed by MORPH pro­duc­tions and TNC.  A Who Christ­mas is inspired by How The Grinch Stole Christ­mas, which start­ed its pop­u­lar life as a children’s book by Theodore Geisel, known bet­ter as Dr Seuss, and was first pub­lished in 1957.

The MORPH pro­duc­tion of  A Who Christ­mas in Sec­ond Life is a joy­ful, light-heart­ed cel­e­bra­tion of Geisel’s sto­ry and the lore that has grown up around it. If you are look­ing for some­thing dif­fer­ent — per­haps less sub­lime and scenic; more burst­ing with the col­or and ener­gy of the sea­son — you might enjoy a stroll through MORPH production’s A Who Christ­mas.

This episode will go out at 12 noon and 4pm Pacific/SLT on Decem­ber 17, 21, 24, 28 and 31, and is the final episode of “Where Have You Been” for this sea­son. After that, we’ll be tak­ing a few weeks off: look out for a new series start­ing in Feb­ru­ary 2023.

S02E24 — A Who Christmas

Own­er: Raven Ban­ri­on Fal­con­er (Raven­Starr Resident)
A Who-Christ­mas by MORPH pro­duc­tions and TNC

SLURLS/URLS:

Region: Coun­try Hide­away — Moderate

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Country%20Hideaway/187/136/26

https://www.flickr.com/groups/a‑who-christmas/

Join us today, Wednes­day 14th Decem­ber, for a day of music from the Vic­to­ri­an era (and some­times a lit­tle beyond). The pro­gramme will include pop­u­lar songs and bal­lads famil­iar to those of us who fre­quent the music-halls, and the occa­sion­al sea­son­al performance.

In addi­tion we shall be enjoy­ing some of the mar­vel­lous musi­cal con­fec­tions of Sir Arthur Sul­li­van and Mr Lionel Mon­ck­ton; and, from time to time, we shall regale you with the sounds of the lat­est in Mechan­i­cal Instru­men­ta­tion, includ­ing the famous Carousel Steam-Organ. We will also hear some music from the Band-stand at the Gar­dens of the Crys­tal Palace, Sydenham.

In addi­tion, do lis­ten-in to “Where Have You Been?” at 12 noon and 4pm Pacific/SLT, and “Engines of Our Inge­nu­ity” every four hours from 4am.

We guar­an­tee that a most enjoy­able time is to be had by all.

Our friends and val­ued spon­sors Sean­chai Library are proud to present The Dick­ens Project 2022 Edi­tion. This Sec­ond Life win­ter hol­i­day tra­di­tion invites guests to walk in the steps of Ebenez­er Scrooge in an envi­ron­ment inspired, in part, by Charles Dick­ens’ 1843 novel­la “A Christ­mas Car­ol.” An invit­ed com­mu­ni­ty of Sec­ond Life groups and orga­ni­za­tions are pre­sent­ing a vari­ety of music events, dance per­for­mances, as well as sto­ry pre­sen­ta­tions. Oth­er Project fea­tures include skat­ing, sled­ding, a bal­loon ride, a horse cart tour, and plen­ty of pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties. The Dick­ens Project regions are open until the end of the day on Tues­day, Jan­u­ary 3rd.

The 2022 Edi­tion fea­tures an Expe­ri­ence-based tele­port sys­tem. Please accept the “Cale­don­ian Stu­dios” Expe­ri­ence in the Wel­come Area to ful­ly explore The Project. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/The%20Dickens%20Project/129/128/1401