Interview with Tantari Kim

By Grease Coakes

Just recently, I turned six in Second Life. I may be old, but there are still avatars in the grid older than me. Like I stated in my interview with DrFran Babcock, Tantari Kim has been here a much longer time then I have. She heard about Second life through a MUCK which is a text based roleplay.

Tantari Kim was part of the SL beta where everyone was building and messing around. She didn’t like that as she wanted to be more of a social butterfly. She left the SL beta going back to a place called there.com, where everyone built cars and had races a lot of the time. Then later someone on a muck said 'come back to SL, someone named Cross Lament can make an avatar for you.' For a one-time fee of $20 in real money Tantari Kim joined Second Life again. She said that Linden labs was nice enough to grant her last name of Kim from the beta Second Life when she rejoined Second Life in April 05, 2004. In April of next year 2014 Tantari Kim will be a decade old, where in comparison my avatar only turned six recently.

I may be old in Second Life, but other avatars are still older than me and Tantari Kim takes the cake. I remember one time hanging out at my fave human club SGB, which is shorthand for Sounds Gravis beach. I TPed Tantari over. When people saw her profile age, a human or two paid her Linden and Tantari was humbled by that. SGB is here at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sounds%20Gravis%20Beach/114/30/30

Back then Second Life was very different where before mainstream furry avatars were available. Furry avatars were custom made for others at the tune of 5,000L vs. buying a regular furry avatar from a vending machine. Back then furry avatars were clunky and had what Tantari said had bubble tails. The lower legs were very skinny on the avatars.

The first furry vending machine made by Luskwood was a big event back in 2004. To Tantari’s knowledge at that time it was a major party back at that time period. Tantari showed me a picture of the grey vixen she bought.

Back then people made Linden by giving ratings to other avatars. Based upon being nice and personality how your avatar looked and building skills. You paid the reviewer 1L per aspect you were asking to be reviewed on for a maximum of 3L. Tantari gave lots of reviews as she made 1,200L per week. I said that would be plenty to live on in Second Life. Get an avatar every week with money like that.

The SL that exists today made accounts free, but now you had to pay real money for the Second Life Linden currency. Tantari and other furries saw the downside as lots of griefers attacked furry clubs like the Ark. Tantari said if a human avatar came to a furry club people would look up the avatar’s profile right away in case they had to report the human avatar. Furries were fearful that humans might grief the sim. But now with free accounts anyone can just make new accounts to regrief the same sim again. When people paid $20 for an account people thought twice about greifing sims or people.  Linden Labs terminated anyone’s account caught greifing.

There’s a place around called The Shelter where they still have a game show going on. Similar to "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," every question you got right was a certain amount of linden where you can choose to keep that Linden or keep answering questions to try and earn higher amounts of linden. Get a question wrong and you lost it all. The game is called payment Podium. Furries and humans are both welcome at The Shelter as a PG sim where tolerance and being polite was the norm. Seems like a nice place to go to if you had a bad day or just wanted to take it easy. It’s still around at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Isabel/47/237/81

In fact a group she created herself is called the Vixen Scouts International as she made her very own vixen scout outfit. The motto is vixen scouts are helpful and kind. The vixen scouts is exclusive however as you must be using a vixen avatar to join in. Tantari is very much like that as she greeted new accounts/avatars at Tutorial Island back in 2005. She described various things on the picture she showed me like a board game called prim attack that she never played. On the right was the circle where new avatars loaded when they finished their tutorial. The purple bike in the picture was free for anyone to use.

She also said how next to the Tutorial Island was Luskwood which was SL’s first furry sim, which is still around today. Tantari showed me lots of pictures with her avatar among various other furry avatars. The avatars including herself shown in the pictures were state of the art years ago, but today could be used as freebies as avatar creating and building has advanced over the years.

I joined in 2007 and I really didn’t know much about Second Life. I went to the Ark which is still around today and met Tantari. She was helpful and guided me around. Another thing she remembered about the Ark is when voice chat was still introduced a few months after I joined Second life. The people who talked in voice chat killed the music played by the stream. The other side of the coin was music got in the way of those having conversations over typing. Tantari said not all people on voice were the sharpest tools in the shed though. Tantari and I talked over Skype we remembered how the ark looked and SL looked a lot different back then. She also showed me lots of pictures.

Tantari was and still is a good friend of mine as she was helpful and kind I was a clueless newbie when I first started. I may be an old avatar in Second Life, but Tantari Kim’s experiences and adventures are great in number as she is one of the first avatars in second life that we all live in today.

Grease Coakes 

DJ "Naughty" Nydia's Day at the Relay

Sunday April 15th was a pretty active day for the Relay for Life. There was live musician ax Kleene performing for charity, and a Relay Road Rash party and racing event that I stopped at briefly. Among the events was an afternoon of DJs playing not just for the audience but also in a competition for the "Best DJ in SL" from 1 to 4 SL time.  It wasn't just for the day. Those who came out on top would be competing later in semifinals.

Among the teams there were the Passionate Redheads. And whom better to compete for the Redheads than the head of the FCA club alliance, the owner of Club Zero Gravity, and experience from numerous clubs around Second Life: the Redheads' own DJ "Naughty" Nydia Tungsten.


TP on down and bring your friends- at The Legends Classic Rock Club - party is on the beach - jump on down! Nydia is getting ready - vote her best DJ in SL by donating to the kiosk while she plays!


The event was just outside the club, right beside the boardwalk and onto the beach, people dancing away on the sand as the DJ spun the tunes while dancing behind the stand. Madonna Milena was the DJ before Nydia, whom looked a bit naughty herself with her green latex outfit. But soon it was Nydia's turn, and friends of the "Vixen of Steel" human and furred alike ported in to both enjoy her music and support her in the competition. Nydia has a reputation for playing entertaining but occasionally raunchy fare. But she kept her selection somewhat tame for the Relay. Still, there were a few tunes that reminded people why her KVXN Radio's slogan is "where the random tunes are … random." Among them were, "He Had it Coming," "God is a Girl," and "Sexy Naughty Bitchy Me."


I pick all my skirts to be a little too, sexy,
Just like all of my thoughts, they always get a bit, naughty,
When I'm out with my girls, I always play a bit, bitchy,
Can't change the way I am,
sexy, naughty, bitchy me.


Throughout the hour, the crowd danced to Nydia's music and chipped in at the kiosk, a mix of avatar types and members of various Relay teams, as well as people outside the Relay coming for the music. Finally, the hour was up. Trader1 Whiplash thanked her, "Thank You Nydia. … Your Total was $L7,281." This put Nydia third among the DJs at the event in raising money, and at the end of the event, she was still in third.

Talking to Trader later on, he told me there would be two more weekends for the DJ contest, round two this weekend, round three next weekend. On May 5th, the top four of the DJs of all three weekends will compete in the semi-finals. The next day on May 6th, the top two face off at the May Day main stage.

The Passionate Redheads will be involved in another DJ event in a few days. On Tuesday April 24th, Dusk Griswold will be playing at the "Dual Decades" event at Club Cutlass.

Later on, Nydia and the Redheads headed to "Le Palais Du Soleil" in Southern Colorado (98, 170, 51). The purpose: to give out a motorcycle as the prize for a raffle. At locations, there was a special RFL kiosk, one with a purple crescent, and a picture of the prize motorcycle. But this wasn't just any motorcycle. This was a Special Edition MLCC Majestic with the RFL logo painted on.


April 15 one of the most hated days in the U.S.A. due to the fact it is the deadline to pay all TAXES, so why not give someone a great day by giving away the MLCC Majestic RFL special edition motorcycle  back where it all started the Le Palais du Soliel from 4 to 6 dress ready to ride , the tunes will be provided by DJ Naughty Nydia, so come ready to have a good time.


In contrast to the DJ contest, the dress at the raffle was more formal due to the settling. Attendence for the event was light at first, the raffle taking place at the same time as a number of other Relay events. But numbers soon picked up. For almost two hours, everyone danced to more of Nydia's tunes. Then it was time to choose a winner.

Nydia Tungsten: okay lets see who the winner is
RFL of SL 2012 Official Central Networked Raffle Vendor shouts: Whoo!  Well done to Skylark Lefavre You have won the raffle!
Nydia Tungsten: Heh, Skylark won!

Skylark "Strawberry Sweetkins" Lefavre, one of the Passionate Redheads team, had won the bike raffle. The raffle had brought in 4200 Lindens, bringing the total raised by the Redheads to over 40,000 Lindens. Nydia expressed her wish that the raffle had brought in more, but everyone else was pleased with the results.

As of the writing of this article, the Passionate Redheads have raised a total of 44,300 Lindens. This despite several key members being absent due to various real life problems. There are more events in store, including Dusk Griswold's DJ at Cutlass, and even a "Bid Me Human" event in the works.

Bixyl Shuftan