Introducing Angelina Lerintzo, Founder of Levity Magazine™

 Thursday December 22nd 2011
Holiday article (Christmas)

(The LEVITY Magazine office building)

With Christmas just days away, I was reading the usual several magazines to get into the spirit of shopping ideas for Christmas,and for a few months now I've been reading the upcoming brand Levity Magazine and absolutely loved their December issue.

So I decided to approach the brains behind it for a review and introduction to the readers of The SL Enquirer™ ,OI Magazine blog and the Press Pass media network.
We met up at her lobby upon her agreement to meet me, her name is Angelina Lerintzo.

(Pic of Ms Lerintzo in her office chair)

After chatting a bit privately,I found out Angelina, who is currently only 18 years of age in real life,is from Indonesia, gorgeous and plans to move to the United States soon. Still in high school, she plans to pursue an Arts degree in college and is also a talented balloon sculpture artist in real life besides her communications skills.Without a doubt very bright and creative too being as successful as she is. It made me even more curious to interview one of Secondlife's newest entrepreneurs.


Her building is displaying her logo and advertisers, nicely done and professional, located in the Cheri sim.
Angelina invited me to have a seat with her in the lobby and start our interview............



Lanai:“Hello Angelina,thank you for making some time to meet and talk about you and your brand”
Angelina : “Hi Lanai, my pleasure, love your festive Santa hat! Please have a seat”


As we got comfortable I took out my notebook and started by asking her her early beginnings in SL™ such as her very first job upon rezzing inworld.

Angelina: “Well after awhile of wandering the grid,my first job in SL was actually becoming a virtual sex prostitute,which I hated. I rather work in a magazine, I wanted to own one but I had no lindens when I was a newbie.”



Levity's Angelina Lerintzo (left) and SLEnquirer's Lanai Jarrico

"So has it always been your goal to design a magazine in Second Life® or did you get the idea gradually?”

A: “I did dream of having my own magazine since I was 6 years old but now it has become a reality in a virtual world. I didn't know what to choose at first in SL as I love music, writing, I sing and perform as well and basically everything to do with creativity, it's my passion. So, I decided to work as a writer for Press Pass Media™ (click to read Ms Lerintzo's 2010 article at Press Pass) and eventually I finally ended up having my own lifestyle magazine that talks about real life and SL lifestyle, but the ideas to make the step to start the magazine stemmed from my friends encouraging me to create my dream.They are my source of inspiration and I hope that one day, I can turn it into a real life magazine. :)”

Photo of the lobby inside Angelina's LEVITY building on her sim showing her online beacon

”You are at your 4th monthly issue currently since your debut release in September this year, with great success may i add, how was it releasing the first issue,what challenges did you face?”

A: ”The first time when I just had this magazine, I was confused on how to start. I made the rates too high and people were just running away from me. I didn't know how to launch my magazine properly and it became a disaster. However, after the 1st issue, I got the hang of it. Now I get more clients and trust from people. I admit that I'm not perfect and I do still have some technical errors but I am human and I do improve gradually as I practice. I love the responses of our readers. It encourages me to be a better publisher and editor-in-chief. :)”

Pictured aboved is LEVITY Magazine's 4th release, their 2011 Christmas issue (click to read)

Can you explain to the audience what Levity stands for and how you came up with the name?Let me elaborate the question, like what topics you like your magazine to write about and which audience you attract the most?

A: ”Levity stands for humor and fun. I like to joke around a lot with my friends and I always make them laugh through my practical jokes and I decided to make it into Levity Magazine which represents the meaning of life. Without fun and humor, this universe would be dull and that is why I also made the slogan into Levity ' We embrace Lifestyle with Integrity!'
My audience are unisex, for both female and male. Most of the readers are from the age of 18 and above. People usually like Levity because of our style but it really depends on a person's taste. :)”

“Nice! Your Christmas issue looks great, we posted the link for our readers, do you also have any upcoming events you plan to do associated with Levity?”

A: “Levity is planning to have a music and art gallery event and we are still accepting artists of all kinds to contribute and come to this event. Feel free to contact me or my assistant editor Cali Karsin regarding the event on 'The Lightheart Soiree.' It will be held in Futurecity™. :)
This event will be held somewhere in January or February. So, for people who are curious, feel free to come by our office. :)

“Where do you see the virtual world technology heading in the future?”

Photography of Angelina Lerintzo's profile done by her pro photographer ReeseKylan

A: “Virtual Technology is going to evolve over time. With mesh going on, I believe that there will be endless possibilities in the future, I believe in less than a decade, there will be no more prim overload so businesses can thrive :)

Lanai: “Thank you Miss Lerintzo for this interview, btw have any Christmas holiday plans in your real life?

Angelina: “You are very welcome, I am planning to go to NYC for the holidays.There I will do some shopping, meet up with my SL friend who lives there and also spend some time with my mother!”



Ty for reading the review of Levity Magazine in Second Life® and its founder,Angelina Lerintzo ,visit her website at http://www.issuu.com/levitymagazine

From the SLEnquirer http://www.slenquirer.com/ wishing you happy holidays and always welcome to leave your comments!


Editor/reporter for Press Pass Media:
Lanai Jarrico,
CEO/President The SL Enquirer



Update April 2012! :

Angelina created the LEVITY production live talk show "The Angelina Lerintzo Show" which has approx. 9 Youtube videos featuring 3 full 15 minute episodes featuring famous guests such as Kay Fairey (BOSL executive and fashionista), Jessie2009 Warrhol (SL Flying Tigers executive) , Synapse Joubert (Poetry Club owner)and guests in the audience like Frolic Mills, Persia Bravin, Filipa Thespian and many more! check it out at LEVITY's Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TI4C9YrCbDw or watch the first episode embedded below.

Video still of the first episode, showing the two guests, Michael (DJ) and Kay Fairey with Angelina in center

Caption of the audience at the first episode, taped live (far left is the camera woman Nova filming)

View of the set at the premiere of Angelina's first show

Angelina treating her staff to a party at Mimi's Choice in the Redgrave sim later that day after the first episode

Update October 2012! :

Angelina publishing her first anniversary of LEVITY, featuring her 12th issue October 2012 (Halloween themed)
To read it , just read the embedded version below or follow this link! http://issuu.com/levitymagazine/docs/levity_magazine_volume_12_october_2012 .

Angelina also succesfully had her first LEVITY Halloween event, featuring a haunted house and a live music event with singer KevinThomas in October 2012 (see pic below)

The sim had excess of 50 visitors at the event

From the SLEnquirer http://www.slenquirer.com/ wishing you happy holidays and always welcome to leave your comments!

Main editor/reporter in 2011:
Lanai Jarrico,
CEO/President The SL Enquirer

Co-editor for updates in 2012:
Carmichael Caudron

Pictures provided by courtesy of Angelina's Facebook and Carmichael Caudron (field photographer)

Sephiroth Juran and The Next Day

September 9, 2010
Written by Angelina Lerintzo





 

The Next Day -- A Role Playing Sim

When I visited The Next Day in Second Life® there were a lot of breath-taking views. The different coloured lighting schemes reminded me of urban lifestyle in the district parts of my hometown. As I went deeper and looked at the structure of the buildings, I saw a futuristic theme inside the sim. However, it kind of reminded me of different cities and countries. So, I view it as a mixture of four countries like Macau, Byron Bay, Hong Kong and Japan. 

Press Pass: The Next day, it’s very nice. Whose idea was it at first?

Sephiroth: Well at the beginning my partner, Sana Dagger, was building a RP futuristic vassel in space, then the sim owner Morgane Nyle, who belongs to this chain of sims, and had only middle age ones, wanted to change one of them in urban style and asked Sana to build it. So she left her vassel project to begin building here. Morgane chose the name. The idea of building a sim in this style is Sana’s. We began to build it together, then sweet Tantulus joined us later. While we were building the first sim, we decided to add a second one. Finished them both, we opened 3 months ago.

How did you meet Sana Dagger, Morgan  Nyle, and Tantulus?

I met them on an RP sim, as I’ve been RPing for 3 years on SL. So I met Sana and Sweet as players like me and we became friends. Morgane was a sim owner of the sims where I played, so when I got invited to join the staff of those sims I knew her too.

From left to right: Sephiroth Juran, Press Pass Reporter Angelina Lerintzo, and Sana Dagger.

Hold on, I’m kind of curious. How much money do you earn every month for creating the Next Day?

We don’t earn money, it’s just for passion. We rent shop spaces and apartments or clan bases just to cover a part of the sim’s fees. 

Wow. That’s real commitment. How do you manage to balance between real life and The Next Day in Second Life?

I spend free time in SL, depending on RL commitments. SL is a creative environment that allows you to create things you can't in RL, and to free your fantasy. So it’s quite fun. Many think of it as a game, but for me it’s more a place to create. Of course this takes time, let’s say it’s a “hobby,” not different from many others.

What is the CCS (community combat system) meter for?

It’s a combat meter, very diffused. It’s used for roleplay in the sim, as  it allows people to fight.

The Next Day

That is indeed fascinating. What languages does the community use to communicate with others?

Their own, there’s not an official language. Mainly the community is English and French speaking. To interact they are requested to use a translator, or try to communicate in RP as they would do if they meet a foreigner in real life. I mean it's SL, the best mixing of cultures.

How and when did your love affair with creating massive structures grow?

I began to build in SL 2 and a half years ago. The items in my shop include weapons, armor and gorean outfits. I began with large buildings on those sims 1 year ago.

The colours, the design, and variety of culture. You astound many for creating such brilliant places full of details. How many people told you that you are their source of inspiration?

Well there are many creators in SL, really talented. Yes many probably take inspiration from here to make new works, but the problem of building a sim like this is that it takes much time, and RL commitments. Even keeping a sim closed for months while you build it is a cost that not many wish to substain. It’s a lot of work and time.

Sephiroth and Sana

Some new members who just started playing second life want to create amazing structures, buildings, and shops. Can they learn to build big structures fast? What is the secret?

It takes time to learn. The problem is that it’s not something you can teach. Personally I did try, I got an info notecard somewhere in my language that teaches the basics, then I began trying. For sure it’s a great speed up having someone sharing the passion, because you learn faster while helping each other. 

It seems easy. I’ve built a table when I experimented with it. It was fun but quite challenging. Do we need a lot of patience if we want to build such structures? Does it frustrate you sometimes?

It doesn’t because I love it but for sure you must have a passion to do that at a certain level. Some people find it easy, some not. Those who do are sure candidates. The problem is not so much learning to build things in SL, but going on to learn at a certain level. For example building a sim like this needs sculpted prims, using programs outside SL like Blender 3D, or Maya or 3DMax. Same thing for textures, you must learn to use Photoshop to make things different from what is already seen. You can even purchase nice stuff. We did that even in many parts of the sim. Sometimes you must learn to script, as building a sim needs many scripted things. So if you are a team, everyone puts their knowledge together and it’s easier. Sana is really talented with photoshop, sweet with Blender 3D. I learned to use Blender too, I’m quiet good in scripting, and we all are able to build. But learning to build on SL means learning other software.

Have you ever argued with your colleagues about disagreements? 

Yes, we did a lot. Sometimes building a sim is frustrating, as you think you’ll never finish. So yes it happened.

 The Black Bunny

What are the famous spots in The Next Day?

The Black Bunny, the main club.  Damville, the criminal street. The Arena. The Dock Art Fair, that is the art gallery. But there are a lot of places, clubs and bars. 

Where can we find the location of Black Bunny and Damville?

Damville is at the north east side of The Next Day sim, where there’s a police car. Black Bunny is under the same sim, you reach it from a tunnel in the same area, using the elevator, but it’s easier to reach it with the sim teleport system. You find teleport screens everywhere. Touch them, select the destination, right click and teleport.

This is a common question people ask. Which location is best for combats and battles?

The Arena is the place to train, but people fight everywhere. Battles happen during RPs. This is not a counterstrike sim. The combat meter is used when people begin to struggle and aggress in RP, or decide to use force to solve problems.

What groups exist in The Next Day and what role do they play in the community?

We have 4 RP groups: criminals, Next Police Department (whose role is quite clear), MedLabs for those who like hospital and researcher RP, and Citizens for those who wish to manage a non-RP activity like a club or a bar. There are even some CCS clans, really old, but people can create their own RP groups as they wish, following the background of the sim. The ones we created are just an idea to help RP, the only limit is their fantasy.

Is there any competition between you and the other designers in second life?

Well, I can’t speak for the others, but personally I like to explore and look at what others do and create. I like when people create here, I don’t see that as competition but as a source of inspiration and a way to see new ideas. But for sure it’s a personal thing.

In real life, some people want to escape their life and continue it in second life. Do you agree that escaping from life would be a good thing?

Hmm. No, but I think this is something a lot of people think about second life. People can escape real life with a videogame, with Second Life, with a hobby, and a lot of things. It’s simply their problem. Second Life is part of life just like anything else and saying it’s an escape is usually from those un able to use it. 

I wish I could do that. There must be a lot of compliments and people who want to meet you. Do you find it frustrating and satisfying?

Yes, we get many messages. Personally, I find it satisfying. It depends if I’m busy when they contact me. But no, it’s not frustrating.

Why should more people come to the Next Day as a destination?

It's mainly a RP sim, but many just come to visit the place, as the build is quite accurate and took 1 year of work.  Many come here to take photographs and so on. There are clubs with events with live DJ mixes. There’s even an art gallery, where we allow monthly an SL artist or photographer to display creations for free. Most people come to immerse in the town life and start RPing, create their own character and play in the town.

Thank you for reading.

Press Pass Reporter

Angelina Lerintzo