Some goodbyes are both sad and sweet. My sister, Dawson, is leaving Second Life today. Her intent is to rarely return, if ever. And so, a vast void looms large in my second life that was once filled with adventure and discovery, sailing and helicopter thrills, laughter and sound advise, and so much sisterly affection and love. This is the sadness. That impending loneliness that would be unbearable but for the sweet.
For Dawson, this is a day for which she worked long and hard. Daw was born in China but was raised and lives in Holland. She is separated from her partner, residing in China, the love of her life. But in just a few hours, Daw's partner will arrive in Holland as a new immigrant, and they will begin their life together, never to be separated again. Dawson's life will be filled leaving little room for Second Life, she says. The sweet is my joy at my sister's impending happiness. And I find that the sweet has blended with the sadness to produce a melancholy that is warm and unexpectedly comforting.
A Portrait of My Sisters and Me
We said our goodbyes at Jaysun's new house. My sister Victoria was also there. And, as Jay noted, it was a rare gathering of all three of us. There were hugs all around. But was it a final gathering? I harbor a hope. Dawson is a creative force, and that creativity had an outlet for expression in Second Life. That creativity and the love of people here for her may someday pull her back, if only for abreviated visits. And the picture above may not be the final group portrait of my sisters in Second Live.
I had plans to attend the Costa Rica Independence Day Ball and needed a formal gown. The ball was one of a number of events celebrating the second anniversary of Cost Rica. Costa Rica Sims is possibly the most beautiful estate in Second Life and contains some of the more prestigious addresses on the grid. Costa Rica advertises itself as providing 'the luxurious experience of living in harmony with nature and being surrounded by the best Second Life has to offer.' Naturally, the ball would be a veritable fashion show of formal gowns by Second Life's top designers. I was putting myself in a situation where my fashion sense would be put to a severe test
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Every woman attending a ball wishes for a gown that will shine the spotlight of the evening on her. Attracting that spotlight requires a gown that is dramatic and original; yet, elegant and graceful. Sounds like a search for the Holy Grail of fashion. But I found it. It is called Fierce, and it was designed by Journey McLaglen of Prism by Journey Woman's Clothing, Bal Harbour. It's priced at $380L. Fierce juxtapositions the exotic stripe and spot patterns of two great cats - the White Tiger and the White Leopard - to dramatic effect. The stark contrast between the black patterns and the white background and the interplay of the tiger stripes and leopard spots immediately sets you apart in a sea of formal gowns. The originality and drama of this gown may attract attention; but, its beauty and flowing elegance will keep it on you.
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The ball was a marvelous affair. As expected, fashion statements were being made by the ladies (and the place was crawling with Miss Virtual World finalists). One of the highlights of the evening was the announcement of the winner of the Best Parcel Award which went to WK Ganesvoort. WK's residence and grounds are truly magnificent. I was thrilled for WK and also for my dear friend Jaysun Dagger who designed the interiors of the manor house. After the ball, a number of people gathered at WK's place for some more dancing. I took advantage of the opportunity to take pictures of my gown using WK Ganesvoort's wonderful garden and residence as background for the fashion shoot. Did my fashion sense pass the test that evening? I did receive many complements for my dress. But you be the judge. Click on the pictures to enlarge them for a closer look.
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It was also important to have the right hair style. I found the perfect hair at DrLife. Not only does DrLife make the best skins in Second Life, they also make some of the best hair. The styles and the quality of the textures are outstanding. The hair I am wearing is called Mei Wave and was designed by Leena Ying, the owner of DrLife. Mei sells for $350L which gives you a complete set of hair colors (Chocolate, Dark Blue, Dark Brown, Black, Blonde, Gold, and Red). I am wearing Black.
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I hope that you enjoyed this post. If you are in the mood to shop, try stopping by Prism by Journey and DrLife. There is fashion magic to be had. .
Friday afternoons at 2:00 pm SLT at Nantucket is a special time and place because Shantu Selene will be performing onstage at Nantucket's open air theater. Musician, singer, and composer, Shantu is among the most popular live performers in Second Life. And it's no wonder. Spending an hour with Shantu is a guaranteed good time. He will rouse you and set you rocking with one number and touch you and leave you sighing with another. His warmth and personable style on stage connects with his audience, and his fans adore him.
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Fridays 2 pm at Nantucket - A Special Time and Place
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In real life, Shantu is Danny Bowman. His bio on his website tells us that "Danny was flirting with music long before he picked up his first guitar. His mother favored country artists, but he couldn't stop singing Elvis tunes. Even as a child he was arranging, singing into a vacuum cleaner hose to create reverb." To the delight of his fans, he still loves to sing Elvis. He gives Elvis, Beatles, Hendrix, and Clapton as influences on his music as well as old time rock and roll with touches of blues and country. Shantu sings the songs he grew up with; but, the highlight of his performances are the songs that he wrote himself. Songs of joy, sorrow, passion, and love sung with the depth of feeling and experience that fathered their creation. This Love is perhaps his signature song and displays his considerable talent with the guitar. And what girl's heart doesn't flutter when Shantu sings Come Dream With Me? But, it was Dance With Me that made me a fan.
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This week's performance at Nantucket was a most special event. Nantucket and Shantu's fan group planned a celebration of Shantu's third Rezzday in Second Life. And Shantu was truly surprised and overcome by the show of affection for him at the performance. Second Life allows us to explore and become. Always a lead guitarist, Danny Bowman wanted to be a singer. As Shantu Selene, his voice and musical talent have won him the devoted following of fans in Second Life. Memories were being stirred at Nantucket that day, and my thoughts went back to my first Shantu concert.
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Erin Kinkade, my best friend at the time and a Shantu fan, brought me to Nantucket. It was early in my second life, and not only was it my first Shantu concert, it was the first time I attended a live performance in Second Life. Naturally, I was impressed with Shantu and found his music irresistably danceable. Bored with doing homework while inworld, I got out of my chair and started stepping and swaying to the music. The song was Dance with Me. Closing my eyes, the music and lyrics drew me in. I became so dreamy as happy emotions lifted me ever higher and higher. Too high. My knees went suddenly weak and my legs tottered. I grabbed the chair to steady myself. I was stunned. Such a thing has never happened to me, should never happen to me. I always think of myself as highly rational and collected. But Shantu Selene made me swoon with his music and poetry. It's from that moment that I became a devoted fan.
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Happy Rezzday Shantu
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I hope to see you at future Shantu Selene performances. Shantu takes requests. I highly recommend requesting Walking in Memphis as Shantu's rendition compares with, if not surpasses, Marc Cohn. For sheer exuberant fun, request Sally Anne. And please request Dance with Me. Request it for me. . Shantu Selene on YouTube:
Danny Bowman (Shantu Selene) website with free downloads of his music:
Next week, the new Fall Semester begins for me. I am entering my junior year in college, and its hard to believe that I was a freshman when I first stepped foot into Second Life. I am enjoying my last days of summer and have placed some pictures in this posting from the closing weeks of August. .
On the Road with Brit and Dawson .
Dawson drove underwater all the way to Nantucket.
Ain't Second Life awesome? I was able to hold my breath all the way.
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Jaysun and I explored an Irish sim on horseback.
Nathan Hale, my horse, enjoyed the outing. .
The rugged coastal vistas are magnificient. .
The main inhabitants of this sim are sheep. Nathan Hale despises sheep. He calls them mutton heads and complains that they always vote Democrat. Well, only in Second Life can a horse call sheep nasty names on the basis of their politics. Shame on you, Nathan. Some sheep are actually highly educated; however, they do vote straightline Democrat. But, that's understandable, don't you think? They are sheep, after all. .
Putting on a new dress in my townhouse. . Lulubelle and I dress up and wear elegant hats when visiting this New York City Brownstone. Jaysun designed the interior of the house. . . .
Jaysun and I ran into this Giant Bunny on Long Island.
Like their smaller cousins, these giants are Vegans, lucky for us.
I recently dropped by Mimi's Choice to see some of the newly arrived Fall fashions.Mimi Juneau was in her store wearing a wonderful jacket/dress combination from MEB Fashions called Anette. Anette is a special package deal available at Mimi's Choice that gives you a sculpty jacket called Jane and a black dress called Cameron that are sold separately at MEB Fashions' mainstore. Anette sells for $590L which is a good deal as Jane and Cameron sell individually for $490L and $450L, respectively. Two articles of fashion magic in a special package deal, I needed little persuasion to convince me to acquire them for my own wardrobe.
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. Italian fashion designs are world class. And I love the Italian taste and tradition in fashion. This taste and tradition has been brought into Second Life by a talented core of Italian designers. Among that group of excellent fashion designers from Italy is MariaElena Barbosa, fashion designer and owner of MEB Fashions. MEB Fashions is a wonderful store to window shop and make a want list from its classy and sexy line of dresses and lingerie. It's almost certain that the jacket and dress in Anette will be on that list, and they go together so well. To see the details on this attractive combination, click on the pictures to enlarge them. Note the details on the Jane jacket. They are marvelous. .
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. The black Cameron dress is stunning. It is classy; but, very fresh and young. Cameron comes in two versions - with short sleeves and sleeveless. Its a very flattering dress for which I am very appreciative. The two versions of the dress are pictured below. .
. . . I am wearing blonde hair in a shag cut from Diorsis Hair Design called Brigitte. I have been wearing this hair for the past few days. It is a very simple hair style; but, I have gotten complement after complement for it. So, I am very pleased with this hair. Brigitte sells for $190L. The boots that I am wearing are Stiletto Boots by Blaze. The boots come in 6 colors (silver, chocolate, white, red, champagne, black). I am wearing black. These boots sell for $280L. However, you can buy all 6 colors in a bundle for $700L. . . Mimi's Choice Mainstore: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Deep%20House%20Island/208/10/23 . MEB Fashion Mainstore: http://slurl.com/secondlife/CZESTATE%20Kuai%20Nui/118/20/22 . Diorsis Hair Design: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Banior%20Bahoozamoth/161/246/87 . Blaze: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Blaze/73/118/23 . Pictures were taken in the library of the residence of WK Ganesvoort in Costa Rica. I would like to thank Mr. Ganesvoort for inviting me into his home and allowing me to take these pictures.. . .
I was wandering around newBerlin, an ambitious Second Life project that will be a true to scale 1-to-1 reproduction of the city of Berlin. As an actual city, much of it is mundane, and it is easy to get lost given its size. So naturally, I was walking about totally bewildered when I unexpectedly came upon a store and was overjoyed to have the opportunity to shop. It was also a very pleasant surprise to find some exciting fashion magic. The store was INDI Designs. I obtained a land mark to the main store and immediately teleported to its location in Blue Sky.
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INDI Designs features women and men's fashions and footwear. It's the women's outfits that are the store's highlights. Jamie Holmer, fashion designer and store owner, obviously loves designing for the female form. She adorns it and shows it off well. There's no denying, her fashion line displays considerable attitude. And yet within the boundaries of attitude, her designs are also graceful. This is not grunge. This is style and, much of it, high style.
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. I wanted leather and denim that projected attitude and found it in Rebecca. A friend, seeing me in this outfit, remarked, "Mariko, you look dangerous." Extremely dangerous and Very Sexy, I might add. Rebecca sells for $400L and includes 2 jackets (short and long sleeve), 2 tops, 1 pants, belt, wrist bands (gloves), 2 armbands, 2 bras, stockings, and string. The looks given by the short and long sleeve jackets are shown in the pictures below as well as the look without the jackets. I like all three. Of course, the more daring among us can also dress down to the leather bra and string - sexy minimalism with plenty of attitude. .
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. The hair that I am wearing is from Magika and is called Game Over. The store certainly lives up to its motto: 'Hair and lots of it'. Game Over is on sale for $10L and is located on the far left wall of the store, bottom row. Game Over had a lock of hair falling on one eye which I moved to the side through the Edit function to get a look with an unobstructed view of my face. . . I hope you enjoyed this fashion magic. I highly recommend dropping by INDI Designs and putting some attitude into your clothing inventory. . . INDI Designs Main Store: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Blue%20Sky/213/42/303 . Magiki - Hair and lots of it!: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Magika%20Land/128/125/24 . Photos taken at School Girls Gone Bad Detention. . .
Forty years ago today, half a million people converged on a dairy farm in Bethal New York for a three day festival that became the greatest moment in popular music history. Woodstock has risen in national memory to mythic proportions; but its reality and true meaning is the subject of much debate, even after forty years. Some commentators draw comparisons of this event with the another event that occurred a month earlier - Apollo 11, the lunar landing, a triumph of the World War II generation, a generation disparaged at the time by the generation of the concert goers at Woodstock. Others point out that while a half million Baby Boomers frolicked in the mud at Woodstock, another half million of their generation were fighting in a lost cause in South Vietnam. The nobility of that cause is routinely denied, if not vehemently disparaged, by a large segment of the Baby Boom generation (pity their moral obtuseness, especially given the hindsight of history). And Boomers still fight that war among themselves. But what cannot be denied is that Woodstock was a significant cultural event, and, while we may argue about its social meaning, what we can celebrate is the music.
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Woodstock was celebrated in a monumental concert in Second Life given by Song-Goddess ArorA Chadbourne. ArorA was actually at Woodstock forty years ago, sitting with her girlfriends directly in front of the stage. Today, in her home studio, she's wearing a t-shirt that was given to her at Woodstock, and that she had autographed there by all the members of the Grateful Dead (she should take that shirt to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame or to the Antique Roadshow). The reminiscences and vignettes ArorA shared with us about her experiences at Woodstock were wonderful oral history. For her program, she sang the musical numbers that were performed at Woodstock. Her performance was electrifying. Without a doubt, I was enjoying the best retrospective of Woodstock given anywhere, in Second Life and in real life.
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Apparently, there were a large number of Baby Boomers in the audience (easily identified by their commentary). And I said to myself, "My God, I'm here partying with people who are older than my parents." I thought it amazing that I would be celebrating a happening that transpired twenty years before I was born with people of that far time long ago who were there in person or in spirit. But the music was transcendent, cutting across time and generations. To the Boomers, the music was nostalgic; to me, it was both vaguely familiar and in some ways fresh and awakening. And the energy of ArorA's performance gave me a sense of the thrill and excitement felt by the performers and audience at Woodstock. It was then that I realized how Woodstock should be understood. Let the pundits argue about its so-called 'meaning' in the grand march of social history. Woodstock is best understood on the individual level. What did it mean to the people of the time who were there or wished they were there? It's simple. Woodstock was Youth, Music, Sex, and Drugs - all the makings of a monumental good time in 1969. Youth is freedom, take advantage of it while you can. I'll take that lesson to heart. . ArorA Chadbourne Celebrating the 40th Anniversity of Woodstock.
