The community stagnates
without the impulse of the individual. The impulse dies away without the
sympathy of the community.
William
James
Sometimes, I come across a
community which is just a group of people joined by the enjoyment of each
other’s company and common interests such as music, dance, or just hanging
out. Recently, I visited one such sim
and this story describes my experiences there.
(Don’t worry, everyone, including me, kept their clothes on.)
The sim is Beau
Belle Village and I first visited a short while ago after Morgana
Nagorski invited me to the Unified Hearts Revisited exhibition
there after one of her art exhibitions openings. I was intrigued by what I saw in terms of
visible beauty of the sim, the camaraderie of the residents, and the
hospitality of the event’s hostess and one of the sim’s owners, May O. Mingzi.
May, at that time, offered
to give me a tour of Beau Belle and I subsequently took her up on her
offer. Recently, I returned there to
meet her and look around and learn about the sim.
I rez into Beau Belle and
meet May who is waiting for me. May is
one of the three owners of the sim. The
others are Bluebell
Broome, one of the original founders, and Kelly
Cross. Actually, Kelly joins May and me as we begin.
May was brought to SL
originally by a number of (Real Life) RL co-workers who had done SL, so that
was one factor in her decision. Another
was her past roleplaying in her life, live action roleplay (LARP),
and Dungeons
& Dragons, and that sort of thing as she puts it. She
was at Great Wolf Lodge
and played MagiQuest. So
May thought it might be fun to do SL. But strangely enough she’s never been
involved in a roleplay sim here inworld.
May juggles her SL and RL. In the
latter, she has a full time job as a writer (that’s real writer unlike yours
truly) and editor and has a ten year old child.
She is also a photographer in both lives and maintains a photo shop in
Beau Belle. May generally handles publicity and events – the
recruiting for and hosting thereof.
Kelly was looking for
something new online and thought it was a game at first. (I think many of us made that mistake.) In RL, she’s in the IT field. In SL, she’s the owner and operator of
Kelly’s Closet.
I ask if it would be fair to
say curiosity brought both of them inworld.
They reply affirmatively.
As for Bluebell, she is known for her hats and cozy
woolen attire (in both SL and RL). Her rez date inworld is July 2007.
In RL, she works in the film graphics and effects world, and has “an
unstoppable passion for art, craft and design, which emerges in Second Life in
the form of a passion for building”. She built many of the buildings in
Beau Belle, rather than buying, and created most of the textures herself with her
camera and Photoshop/Gimp. Bluebell says that if anyone sees anything
that’s not just so, to blame her, and she'll come and fix it.
Beau Belle began years ago
with Bluebell and several friends who had ambitions of creating their own
community, based on the principles of fairness, friendliness, openness, and
creative design values. After a brief faltering start on another sim, they
bought a quarter sim, which is the north-east corner of the current Beau Belle.
She and the other co-owners started building, planting trees, renting out
homes, and starting a small community.
They moved through a half sim and finally to a full sim which Beau
Belle’s current plot. (BTW, Beau Belle
Village has a great blog
with history, owner profiles, upcoming events, and other information for those
looking for more. I sourced part of this
story from there.)
May and
Kelly explain to me the groups that comprise Beau Belle’s community which May
describes as a mixed use sim. The three
venues are the coffe shop (Belle’s), the Leonard Cohen Club (LCC), and Kelly’s
Closet. The latter two are private
clubs but all work together for the mutual benefit of the sim. In addition, there are many homes and
shops. The entire sim is modeled on an
English village. There are also private
sky islands.
Belle’s, the
coffee shop is intended to be a community center, so it's more integrated with
the "English village" look May explains to me. While Kelly’s Closet has a more contemporary
club feel to it. Kelly’s is intended as
a location to give the transgendered community a nice, no sexual club to hang
out at inworld. LCC
has mostly European members.
May and
Kelly guide me through Beau Belle. We
start at the coffee shop and move to Kelly’s Closet. We visit the game room where a variety of
board and other games are available for residents. I go upstairs in windmill. (Very accurate detailing BTW, I visited
several when I once lived in Holland so I know a little something about this.)
My guides tell me that there are hidden rooms across the sim for their guests’
enjoyment such as the VIP Lounge which I’m shown but asked not to say where it
is. (Go visit for yourselves, it’s worth
the trouble to find and see. Enough
said.) I’m told there are other secrets
to be found as well. (Hint, hint.)
I see the
homes where May and Kelly live and am impressed by their comforts and
appointments. May has some photographs
from our mutual friend, Hitomi
Tamatzui, hanging on her walls.
(Kelly, thank you for letting me raid your refrigerator.) I see where the village green bordered by
residents’ homes and where the St. Patrick’s Day Parade began. (Seems wherever
I go, SL or RL, there’s one of these parades on March 17th, even in
Singapore!)
Time does not permit me to
see other sites in Beau Belle such as the fishing docks, a cannon where one can
shoot themselves out of (whom am I to say), cars to drive, a meditation spot,
and a snuggle cave. We also don’t have
time to visit LCC or the inworld dating service, iMatch. (Don’t worry, I have more than a few good
ideas for future stories.)
By this time, Kelly has to
leave to handle Village business and I do want to be mindful of May’s
time. Of which we have enough for her to
show me her photo shop, Hearthaven, where I see her works. Definitely worth a visit to see some very
good photography especially if you need to fill an open space on a wall in your
SL home.
I thank May for her time and
hospitality. I ask her to extend my
thanks to Kelly who did not plan to spend part of her evening touring me
around. I then take my leave.
I’m impressed by Beau Belle
Village and the community that Bluebell, Kelly, and May, along with many
others, have built and maintained. There
is a vibrant, diverse group of people from across the world who have either
made their virtual homes here or have included it in their inworld social
lives.
There are issues in running
a community like this. Sadly, griefers
seem to appear when there are events. As
for finances, May says Beau Belle is not a commercial sim. It’s not about making a profit. Rents and tips cover about 70% of the
operating costs. May and the other
co-owners are making a serious commitment of their own time and monies to keep
the sim alive. They try to keep the
place active, are on almost every day, and like to believe that they are not
absentee landlords.
May keeps a full schedule of
events running at Beau Belle and the calendar is
available online.
I encourage all who are
looking for a fun place to visit and hang out inworld to drop into Beau
Belle. Support the shop keepers and
leave some tips in the jars placed around the sim to help offset some of the
costs. If you’re looking for a place to
hang your hat and take up residence inworld then check Beau Belle out. The sim adjusts for the seasons so drop by if
you’ve visited before, things will have changed!
I’ll return in the future
for some more stories, there’s a lot more to see and write about. Maybe I’ll run into you there! (Please don’t use my presence to stay away. You can just avoid me if you prefer.)
I want to thank May and
Kelly again for taking the time to show me around, answer my questions, and
raid Kelly’s fridge.
As always, I’m grateful to
all inworld for their kindness and time in stopping to talk with a stranger who
was passing through their lives.
Below I’ve included a few
links to pictures of Beau Belle Village.
Pictures are fun but, trust me on this, go visit for yourself, see the
place, meet the people, and have a great time!
