If you're free this Saturday, anytime between 7 to 9 a.m. SLT, do swing by the Glass Ark to check out the latest addition to the Glass Ark roster. DJ Azu has created the Wild Mix event specially for us, and we're looking forward to it immensely!

See you soon!

This is one beee-lated post. It's true - I'm a bad blogger. You can spank me if you like! ;-)

But there's been a whole lot of stuff happening at Shiki. New shops, new events, even a whole new event venue. So we thought you should hear about it - hey, better late than never, right?

First off - a big welcome to our new tenants - over the last 6 weeks, we've had new stores join us. (drumroll please!)
They are:

1. Zaara Indian Couture - yes she's here in Shiki at last! Yay!!! A big shoutout to our favourite Bollywood-wear mama, Zaara Kohime, and her magnificent Indian and Indian-inspired clothing store. Her SHIKI branch only carries womenswear, but you can find Indian menswear at her mainstore.

2. Zusi's Creation Atelier, a lovely Japanese shop that specialises in scrumptious little platters of Japanese bites, which (honestly) look good enough to eat.

3. L.A. This furniture shop, the joint creation of CheerNo Destiny and Deko Vought, goes by the very mysterious moniker 'L.A'. What we do know about it is that it's linked to CheerNo's great Brazilian menswear store called A.C. Store - wonderfully textured furniture to be found here!

4. GetButch GBStyle is a men's undergarment store offering Butch Adzebills' very sexy thongs and undies - all designed to hot things up in the bedroom (or wherever else it is that you can wear underwear and nothing else).

5. Route 17 - Scotland Beck built our new events venue, 'The Glass Ark', and with this biker-themed accessories store, he reveals even more of that genius and wit with prims - bracelets with billiard balls for beads, great belt buckles, and some awesome dragonnish armbands.

6. Tiki Tattoos. Last but by no means least is a new Polynesian tattoo and accessories shop by the Frenchman Hatzfeld Runo. Hatzfeld bills his tattoos as 'the only real tattoos in Second Life' - which seems a jawdroppingly large claim to make, but when you actually see his tattoos and Polynesian outfits, you understand why - the guy's meticulously researched his stuff, and if you want authentic tribal tattoos from the Pacific, this is the place to come.

I'll save the developments at the Glass Ark for another post - apart from that, here's a quick roundup of noteworthy happenings around the Shiki sim:

1. Excelsis had their 80s Fashion Show on 13 Sep 2008 - following the link takes you to Tillie Ariantho's awesome set of pix from the show.

2. Niyanba's remodelled his grungy Japanese biker bar into something out of 1950s USA! There's a lovely retro-fied diner, a garage (Niyanba loves his vehicles), and what looks like a drive-in movie lot!

3. Shinichi's remodelled the inside of his store - it looks bright and glowey now, and feels incredibly welcoming. Also check out Shiki Heights - Shinichi's new openspace sim that now adjoins Shiki along Shiki's eastern border. It's all virgin territory right now, but Shinichi tells me it's going to be a cool residential sim when he's through with it. 

More on the Glass Ark to follow in another post!

SHIKI's having a Fall Photo Contest (yay!!!) called 'Fall In Focus'. Some really lovely prizes to be won, and more details follow below. If you'd like to speak  to one of the SHIKI people in-world about it, please look up Jura Shepherd or Jeckie Hax.

FALL IN FOCUS: Our very own Photo Competition at SHIKI

ELIGIBILITY AND SUBJECT
- To be eligible, submitted photos must feature items from the Shiki sim and be in theme with the season.
- Photos must be taken on the Shiki sim grounds.
- Photos should have the Shiki logo with the season and year text (please download the zip file above) 
- All submitted photos should be full permission (copy, mod, transfer)
- Any image that, in the sole discretion of Shiki, is considered inappropriate or unsuitable for publication will be deemed ineligible by Shiki.
- By participating in the photo contest, you hereby grant Shiki a nonexclusive,
non-revocable license to edit, publish, use, adapt, modify, and
license to others any image you submit.

SUBMISSION OF ENTRIES
- Contest entries should be submitted in a folder named with the season of the contest and the full name of the contestant.  e.g.  Fall Season - Jeckie Hax
-  Drop the folders on the provided drop box.

PRIZES
- Grand Prize Winner selected by contest judges to receive L$5000 cash prize.
- Peoples Choice Award of L$1000 selected by public voting.
- Photo will be used as the AD of shiki for the fall season.
- In the event that the Grand Prize winner also receives the most Peoples Choice votes, the Peoples Choice award will go to the contestant with the next highest vote count.

DEADLINE
Contestants have until Oct. 17 to enter and awards to be given on Oct 25th.

TIPS AND ADDITIONAL INFO
The Grand Prize judging will be based on how well the photographer used and portrayed Shiki and items found around the Shiki sim in a seasonal setting. Artistry, creativity, and technical ability will be considered.

Voting for the people's choice award will be open to any visitor to the sim. Contestants are encouraged to notify friends to come vote for them.
These rules are subject to change and although it is not a requirement, contestants are strongly encouraged to join the Shiki Enterprise group to receive information updates.  Contest info and notifications will only be distributed to the group. Contestants will not be contacted individually.

25 August 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PR Contact: Domch Raymaker, Communications Officer for SHIKI Enterprise
Re: MOONGLOW: the SHIKI Autumn Moon Festival
 http://slurl.com/secondlife/Shiki/109/106/22
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Autumn Moon Festival, the best-loved festival in Chinese culture will be brought to Second Life™ at the Shiki sim on September 14th. Dating back over 3000 years, the festival is a cultural and visual feast. On the night of the brightest and fullest autumn moon, cities and villages glow with beautifully made lanterns hung from houses, shops and temples and carried by children as they walk along the streets. Today the festival is not only lit by the traditional lanterns, but also by elaborate floats and whimsical light shows. Lanterns are made by children and adults from paper or silk and are decorated with traditional scenes from history.

Known for extravagant events in SL™, Shiki promises Moonglow will be no exception. This two hour event begins with the Moon Masquerade, a fashion show where the best-dressed Moon God and Goddess on the moonwalk will win L$1000 each.

Contestants will be dressed as moon deities from their own cultures, giving them a chance share the charm of their homelands with the eclectic, east-west mix at Shiki. Second hour combines the remarkable sound of recording artist MoShang Zhao with the spectacular light and dance presentation known as ChangHigh Trinity Sisters Fireshow. Guest of the festival may also enter a lantern making contest as they enjoy the event and the rich, cosmopolitan surroundings of Shiki sim.

For more information regarding the SHIKI Autumn Moon Festival or the Shiki sim, please contact Domch Raymaker (SHIKI Communications Officer). Media wanting to have a tour of the location may contact Domch Raymaker directly to set up an appointment. 

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Shiki/109/106/22
© A SHIKI ENTERPRISE PRESS RELEASE AUGUST 2008

Just came out of a wonderful 90 minutes of CQ Bravin's mellow music - a wonderful to wind down on a Sunday evening (or to wake up to on a Sunday morning, depending on which part of the world you're in!).

We had a wonderfully appreciative crowd, heard CQ use naughty words on more than one occasion, and had quite a number of Japanese and Singaporeans turning up. Mid-way through the show, Shinichi auto-returned foreign objects quite by mistake, which saw the stage (and microphone and CQ's trademark paper windmill tipjar) vanish before our eyes and hist feet, literally!!! :)

Special thanks again to Ehme Sands for running security, Jura Shepherd for helping out with publicity, and Tillie Ariantho for the gorgeous photos. I've included a selection here, and Tillie's full set can be seen here.

Keep watching this space for news and updates about our next major sim event: Moonglow, SHIKI's celebration of the Chinese Autumn Moon Festival.

Okay, okay, so I'm terrible with blogging - this is a much belated post! :)

We had a real blast at the launch some 2 weeks back, on 9 August (in spite of some minor hiccups)!

Shinichi, Jeckie and I want to record our special thanks to DebbiePebbles and Incolumis from Excelsis for their help with the dress competitions and for hosting CQ Bravin's concert. Thank you to Morgan from Digital Eyes, who helped us put together the Store Treasure Hunt at super-short notice, and tapped her contact network to help us get word out about it. And we're immensely grateful to everyone who contributed freebies for the Welcome Centre, goodie bag and treasure hunt - you were all so generous and gracious!

We also want to commend to you Jura Shepherd, the director of MetaHype, who did a wonderful job in helping us publicise and run the event. MetaHype has relocated to Shiki, we're glad to announce! Should you need PR help for your own sim or business, please don't hesitate to look up Jura. Her shop is behind Ryusuke's Massimo store.

Ehme Sands helped us with security, Satoshi Timeless with 'live', on-the-spot Japanese translations, and Tillie Ariantho captured a truly magnificent set of photos of the event. I've posted some here, but the full set can be found at: