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Dancing the Dance Game at Party Island, Las Vegas, Nevada
Twinity’s popular Dance Game made its debut on Miami Beach in Florida, but now there is a second location: Party Island in Los Vegas … and it’s even better than the beach. The designers have created an attractive oasis in the middle of the Nevada desert that is both pleasing to the eye and practical in that it produces almost zero lag. The latter factor is critical as success in the dance game requires exquisite timing. There’s a good sized Dance Game platform as well as sseveral other platforms for social dancing and some south sea island themed huts for hanging around. For the competitive minded there are a couple of billboards featuring Dance Game high schores. Party Island is a delightful place to drop in and do a little Dance Game dancing now and then … those scores will add up.
Dance Game platform on Miami Beach
The Dance Game itself offers achievements on two levels: in addition to the achievement badge, you receive 50 Globals for the first level and a whopping 200 Globals for the second level. Although I almost never leave Berlin, the Dance Game tempted me and I began stopping off at Miami Beach for a bit of Dance Game dancing some time ago … just something to do in the morning before my first cup of coffee really began to kick in. With the opening of Party Island, I got more involved and began making trips to Nevada at odd moments during the day for a bit of Dance Game dancing. It’s really a nicely designed little game, I think of it as akin to sight-reading music with only four notes to learn. And those short dance sessions add up to a nice reward … as of yesterday afternoon I’ve got two more achievements than I had before and equally pleasing, I’m 250 Globals richer.
Entrance to the Cinema and Discussion wing
The Museum was closed all day on Sunday for renovations – re-opening this morning. Renovation included creation of a Cinema and Discussion wing, stripping the walls to expose the original brick, and reorganizing of the exhibits for easier viewing.
Lighting in this building is a challenge, and after some experiementation dark brick was chosen as offering a more pleasing appearance than the previous blue painted brick. Fortunattely, paint stripping in Twinity is effortless. The considerable interest in a film about the Oberbaumbrücke as well as future plans for events including quizes, led to the creation of a Cinema and Discussion wing. The Plasma TV is now faced by six comfortable, bean bag chairs. Somewhat less comfortable wooden chairs have been added to create a discussion area. Just inside the entrance to the wing are facing portraits of the two chancellors who each in his own time, united Germany: Otto von Bismarck and Helmut Kohl.
Video viewing area
The computer crash debacle last week necessitated recreation of several exhibits. As the museum had grown like Topsy, there was some variation in the way exhibits were displayed. Recreating missing materials also created an opportunity to rehang all exhibits and provide a more standardized format.
Class / Discussion area
All of this took many hours, and as a result I will most likely have to push back the opening of the Reichstag Building exhibit (planned for Thursday) to the following week. I’m also looking at two additional kinds of events for the Museum. The “Guess the Famous Personage” contest last week drew a lot of interest, and it may be possible to offer a weekly quiz on German history – given the surprising success of many non-Germans in the “Quiz-German” in Twinity there’s a lot more knowledge of German history out there than one might have suspected. Also under consideration is the holding of a reception or two (“Party Events” in Twinity parlance), something often done at museums world-wide.
Improved appearance of walls and exhibits
Sorry for the prolonged absence. Here’s what happened …
Shortly after opening the museum, it became apparent that the available space would be inadequate for the extensive offerings I had in mind. With a lot of “above and beyond” help from my indomitable friend Monica and a very nice Junior Real Estate Manager, I found a huge “Commercial Loft” on the Spree, near the East Side Gallery. Aesthetically it’s something of a loser, but it provides a huge amount of floor space. Moving everything and getting set up to at least the extent where I could let people in the doors took a lot more time than I had expected. But … more on this later.
Then my Windoze laptop crashed and burned. I live in an Apple world, but there are a few people around who have Windoze computers and I became a computer nomad, springing from one computer to the next and stealing a little time to try and keep things running. And … trying to decide if it was worthwhile to buy another Windoze laptop just for Twinity (since that’s the only thing I do on the Windoze computer). In the end, a couple of IT guys salvaged parts from other “dead” laptops and were able to rebuild mine into a functioning computer again – and while they were at it they “optimized” my computer for Twinity. Hopefully there will be no more computer debacles for a while and I can focus on making something of the museum.
One final note: To make it easier to search in Twinity, the museum had a name change. It’s now The Berlin Historical Museum. I did keep the portait of Königin Luise as a logo.
Want to know the real story behind Hitler’s mustache? Or how the Quadriga was stolen from the top of the Brandenburg Gate (and later returned)? … Stay tuned!
The Königen Luise Stiftung is now open at Köthener Straß 1 – ground floor. This is sort of an experiment – a modest effort to provide some historical background that will interest twinizens. It’s certainly not something for everyone, but for those who are interested – I’ll do my best to keep it interesting.
There’s a film room on the second level and I hope to be able to find both entertaining and unusual film clips every week. The first floor is rather barren at the moment. There are a only few paintings, not even descriptions yet. But this will change.
A word of thanks … without a lot of help from Monica Zaldivar, the Stiftung would still be an empty storefront. Thanks Monica!
Twinity’s recreation of the Berlin Wall is particularly clever and not to be missed. And for me it was a reminder of two films relating to the wall that I really liked.
In Der Tunnel, Harry Melchior (well-played by Heino Ferch) leads a group determined to help friends and relatives escape East Berlin by digging a tunnel under the wall. There are numerous obstacles to success, not in the least the famously efficient Stassi (East German secret police) and what could have been a boring construction epic is in fact an exciting movie with some unexpected twist and turns that maintains suspense to the very end. Twinizens can see a clip from this film at the Königin Luise Stiftung, Köthener Straße 1, for the next week. Der Tunnel is based on an actual events.
Also based on a true story is Die Frau vom Checkpoint Charlie. The incomparable Veronica Ferres plays Sara Bender, a single mother of two daughters who was imprisoned for attempting to leave East Germany. After her release she was deported to West Germany, but without her young daughters who are kept in East Germany. For the next several years she stood every day at Checkpoint Charlie wearing a placard “Gebt mir meine Kinder zurück!” (Give me back my children). The resulting worldwide publicity both embarrassed and offended the East German government and the escalating maneuvers of the Stassi to rid themselves of this embarrassment are disturbing. Although it gets off to a slow start, This movie will grip your interest as Frau Bender struggle with the Stassi (and West German bureaucray) deepens.
The Karl Friedrich Schinkel statue
Inscription
This modest statue memorializes the architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781 – 1841), the Prussian architect, city planner and painter who designed the Neue Wache, the Schauspielhaus, Altes Museum and Friedrichswerder Church among others. But reading the inscription, it becomes apparent how very special this statue is to members of the Twinity community: “Ermöglicht durch den Twinizen Reinhard ‘Hardy’ Rupsch.” (Made possible by Twinizen Reinhard ‘Hardy’ Rupsch). Reinhard is well known for his passion for and knowledge of Berlin and its architecture, and it comes as no surprise that he was the moving force behind the construction of this memorial in our virtual Berlin. Thank you Reinhard.
The statue is located just off the Unterwasserstraße, not far from the Unter den Linden.
Hex, respected clothing designer and one of the sharpest minds in Twinity, today invested her [Twinity] life savings at auction in a beautiful and spacious store on the prestigious Potsdamer Straße. The aptly named Hex’s Last Penny is located at Potsdamer Straße 3. The store is rumored to be destined to become a high-end clothing retailer. We will have to wait and see.
Twinity’s periodic real estate auctions are a unique opportunity to acquire real estate for Globals [the game currency] rather than Euros or dollars.
Remarkably, Hex bought the property for an undisclosed (but rumored to be substantial) sum of Globals which were accumulated by prudent living and arduous attention to available earning opportunities in Twinity. A remarkable achievement, and we wish her well in her new venture.
Konzerthaus Berlin
Places you might have missed … Konzerthaus Berlin
Designed by the great German architect Carl Friedrich Schinkel, the Konzerthaus is located in the Gendarmenmark facing Markgrafenstraße between Jägerstraße and Taubenstraße. The Konzerthaus, then called the Königliches Schauspielhaus, opened in 1821. Although heavily damaged by allied bombing attacks and during the battle for Berlin in 1945, the building was reconstructed during the late 1970s and early 1980s and is now considered to be acoustically one of the five best concert halls in the world. The sculptures of composers on the building are faithful reconstructions of Schinkel’s design, while the interior was adapted somewhat for contemporary use and includes a pipe organ with 5811 pipes. Well worth a visit.
Waiting to be paired up
Matchmaker Event … although there was a pronounced shortage of men, the indomitable Monica was undeterred and the event turned out to be a success.
alexandraberlin 