Guest star: Dove Swanson

The first time I met Dove Swanson of Long Awkward Pose, she was in her panties making poses. Somehow this impression of Dove remained, so when I went to snap photos of her for my sixteenth guest-star post, I said, "I figure you should be in panties in hilarious poses!"

Dove, being the generous woman that she is, complied. I think she looks dashing in that mohawk and those yellow bits and pieces, especially with her head between her legs.

"Why'd you decide to make poses?" I asked while she bent over and mooned me.

"MONEY!" Dove replied, "Okay just kidding. I was a photographer in SL once upon a time - and something that was always a factor was poses. I always wanted more, and different ones, and constantly thought 'Gee, I wish this pose was a little different' and that's kind of what provoked me. I mean, honestly, a ton of pose makers in SL are or were photographers at some point - it's just a natural progression I think."

I asked where her inspiration comes from.

"Usually from magazines...I probably get 80% from there. From time to time if it's a theme I am working on, I can google for pictures. Kind of like 'geisha' or 'goober' ..:D"


Dove Swanson in the signature long awkward pose

Dove gravitates towards designers with clean lines and flawless construction.

"I guess I always perk up when the big-names drop a load. Like Armidi. Even though I normally only end up buying one or two things. But I would say I also gravitate to the smaller, niche shops ...amerie's NAUGHTY would be one that comes to mind immediately."

I snickered.

"I just said drop a load? LOL." Dove laughed. "Feel free to edit that!"

"No wai. I'm totally using that."

Dove listens to her home stream when she creates, Radioparadise. She's a sucker for folk and indie music, with her current favorite musician being Deb Talan of The Weepies. I went poking at Deb Talan's lyrics for a way into Dove's head, and I found this. It's a fitting description of Dove's humbleness and enormous sense of humor:

I am humbled in this city
There seems to be an endless sea of people like us
Wakeful dreamers, I pass them on the sunlit streets
In our rooms filled with laughter
We make hope from every small disaster
-- The Weepies, Painting by Chagall



***Shirt: ki2 wifebeater dirty
***Hair: black maria - ruby, black
***Socks: surf courture - salleh sox, yellow
***Shoes: AC (aphrodite creations) cheeries RSH flowers (I think they're a red stick hunt freeb)
***Lashes: Cake bedroom lashes
***Eyes: Celestial Studios eyes deep green
***Skin: Celestial Studios vogue skin - cashmere vamp enchant
***Necklace: Ducknipple necklace boobnis [Dove, got an slurl for this?]

A grigori in the rafters

Azazeal Whitfield of October Rust

My fifteenth guest star is also my first featured boy (because Lawless doesn't count as a guest star, he's a bogger in his own right!). Said boy (fine, he's actually a man) goes by the name of Azazeal Whitfield, and he doesn't make clothing.

First, just what is an Azazeal? I had to look up such a rich and interesting name. Wikipedia (source of all my knowledge) says that he is one of the Grigori, "a group of fallen angels described in Biblical apocrypha who mated with mortal women." Mm, a fallen angel, eh? A naughty one, too.

So far I've blogged women who make skins, hair, eyes, shoes, and pretty outfits, but I've never blogged a Arch-angel-itect. Azazeal is obviously a creature of the night, and Azazeal's architecture is the haunting counterpart to his avatar's look.

I wandered through some of the builds of his firm, October Rust. They are spare of design, meant to be nice to your prim count. Despite this, they are still evocative of a mood, a feeling, as if your avatar has been sent to a pretty house's distant future, in which the family that made memories there have long departed. Only the faded wallpaper can tell the tales created within.

Azazeal is not only a naughty fallen angel, he's a cheeky one as well. I gave him my usual round of questions about inspiration, perspiration and design aesthetic, and he said, "Aesthetic? Or anasthetic? I use wine.. lots of wine." The real answer was, "From gothic decay to pretty french governess; movies, comics, MUSIC an things I see in the real world; people I meet."

The dark angel has built a lot of houses, so many that he's not quite sure how many, including gazebos and hearses, all in just under a year. (Damn, I've been on SL for about as long, and the sum of my creation is still a one-prim box!) He also uses wine and concentration when building houses, and says that the build can never be forced: "If I actively try to build something I have a hard time and end up deleting stuff. If I just have an idea and start work, things tend to flow well."

From the look of his haunting manors, the ideas must flow very well indeed.


Azazeal (up there on the roof of his haunted house)
is wearing Material Squirrel wings, Calico Ingmann Creations hair,
and a Silent Sparrow suit.

Red red wine you make me feel so fine

Rosemary Galbraith of ROSEMAR

Rosemary Galbraith, my fourteenth guest star, was one of the first people to read my blog. She contacted me right away with a warm welcome and invited me up to hang out with her in her shop, back when it was called Oh! What a neat...boutique! and floated high in the sky.

I teleported in...and there Rosemary was, totally nekkid.

"I'm overdressed!" I exclaimed, and she laughed.

Even back then, Rosemary was carefully putting together a line of skins. "I've been working on skins for weeks," She explained. "I'm especially proud of the tush." She turned to show it off. Indeed, the bottom on her first version of the ROSEMAR skin was perfectly shaded!

That was my first experience with Rosemary. She's been as cheerful and mellow as a glass of merlot ever since, a creator without a trace of diva (except for her AO).

Then, Rosemary disappeared. Her store poofed, and she surfaced only to work. Months later, a notice came out that her new store on Popfuzz was finally open. Her months of hard work on skins has paid off, and her line is carefully made and unique and lush, just like the lady who made 'em.

I showed up to photograph Rosemary and noticed that she was a lovely shade of bronze with some outstanding hair. "Are you this shade in real life?"

"Hm, I'm Native American/Swedish/German type mix in RL, so a pasty yellowish hue," she laughed. "In SL, i do enjoy to be darker. And my hair addiction is growing now that I don't have to buy skins!"



***Skin: ROSEMAR espresso - makeup 19
***Dress: ROSEMAR beaded dress in blue with reworked prims
***Earrings: Turnstyle sand dollar earrings (not for sale at the moment)
***Shoes: (Shiny Things) lulu pumps in black
***Hair: Creamshop Afro Pony

Quoth Draconic, Nevermore

Draconic Lioncourt of Draconic Kiss, in clothes and skin of her own creation

Meantime the hellish tattoo of the heart increased. It grew quicker and quicker, and louder and louder, every instant.

My lucky thirteenth guest-star had to be Draconic Lioncourt. At Halloween, Draconic released a series of four outfits based on the work of Edgar Allen Poe. I was immediately swept away by the cinematic nature of the clothing -- each outfit was meant to evoke a whole scene, and even came with macabre props to help stir your imagination.

At Christmas, Draconic made a series of clothing based around Dickens's A Christmas Tale, dresses so pretty and Victorian that they could've stepped straight out of his pages. I wore the Ghost of Christmas Future dress yesterday to interview Draconic. I stared at her through veiled and blindfolded eyes and remembered how I loved inhabiting the world she creates through her outfits.

Burning with curiosity, I immediately asked her, "so what do you think about when you design?"

"I guess I get inspired by things I've seen..."

We talked about inspiration. She finds it in many places. For her series of dresses set in the French Revolution, she'd been reading a book about the era. "The book really gave me the impression of a lush and rich lifestyle, and I find that romantic, ya know?"

"There's also an interest in decay, the macabre, in your work."

Then she told me something interesting and strange...

"I'm not sure. I think it's a kind of therapy for me. I've always found myself drawn to it, but ironically I have a phobia of death. Like, almost debilitating. I can't drive across bridges or fly in planes. But for some reason I really find it.. well I hate to use the word again, but romantic in a way..."

That tension, between fear and fascination, creates so much of her art...

Draconic recently saw Sweeney Todd, and says she's been creating ever since. I can't wait to see what she'll do with all that imaginative fodder!

You put the sting of mania into a mortal soul!

Tenshi Vielle of [CRAP] and Shopping Cart Disco

I teleported my twelfth guest star over to my studio and what appeared was something cute and fluffy. "Tenshi?" I asked.

"Whoooo?" Tenshi replied, craning her neckless head upward.

Well, not really, but her barn owl avatar was so cute that I begged her to pose with it. I began to think about the symbolism of the barn owl while we took pictures.

"I've always liked birds," Tenshi admitted.

Tenshi likes a number of things, including anime, if you couldn't tell from her name (which means "angel"). She isn't Japanese, but it's clear that her mind goes everywhere.

Owls in ancient Greece were a symbol of Minerva/Athena, the goddess of wisdom. This made internal sense to me, that one of the wise and thoughtful voices of the SL fashion world should be drawn to them. Tenshi's blog is always full of questions that make me think. One post that I remember went something like this: Come on guys, stop blogging the same outfits. When are you gonna show me something new?! Her injunction that writers should show people things that they haven't seen before has remained with me.

What strikes me most about Tenshi is her fearlessness.

Birds appear on the bottom hem of Tenshi's new dress on her human avatar, too. The dress is just as quirky as Tenshi's blog and fashion line. She has yet to produce anything that looks recycled or made just for sales. In fact, she often gives items away for free, especially the items that are made with a strong social consciousness. Tenshi has taken on SL content theft from the top down, not only writing about it at length in her blog, but also keeping us abreast of her work to make the Lindens care about the artistic creations in our world.

I was amused to find these words in reference to Athena, and think they fit Tenshi very well:

Maiden with the sublime heart, Slayer of the Gorgon, Mother of Art in all Your abundance, catalyst of progress! You bring folly to the corrupt and a sense of purpose to the pure!
-- From the Orphic hymn to Minerva



***Owl: TINY LOVE an's shop - barn owl
***Shoes: Hays Uriza
***Dress: Tenshi Vielle's [CRAP] Bird Dress
***Skin: Popfuzz
***Hair: [Aden] retextured "Rhianna" hair, and the Milla bangs

More than meets the eye

Neferia Abel of Ivalde

Much like superheroes, designers must all have secret lairs where they create. I guess I understand this, it's their "room of one's own," just like my little secret studio.

Neferia Abel, my eleventh guest star, was no exception. I popped over to her hideaway and was immediately struck by her cheeky grin. "Hello! I dance up here sometimes," Neferia said.

"What do you dance to?" I asked, grinning back.

"Placebo...The Cure...Depech mode..." she answered. Dark music for a cheerful girl!

Perhaps it's not surprising that Neferia is so cheerful. She used to rehabilitate people with serious drug problems, but not any longer. "We moved away from that city. I quit and started work in here. This is now my RL job. I am really enjoying it, always home when my little kids come home from school."

While I snapped photos, I asked Neferia how she fell in love with clothes, because with the breadth of outfits stocked by Ivalde (from the 17th century to the modern day), I had to know. First, Neferia studies fashion history, and second, she's always been in love with clothing. This proved to be a charming story:

"When I was a little girl my mother built a new house. The old one was to store clothes! I had so much fun in the old house, my favorite place on earth. It had clothes from my mother, my grandmother, aunts, everybody. It was heaven for a little girl, I dressed up a lot. I have still some old clothes in my closet, my mom's dresses from the 50s...and I still use them."

I'll leave you with some enlightening words from Neferia's favorite Placebo song, Twenty Years.

There are twenty years to go
And twenty ways to know
Who'll wear, who'll wear the hat

Thems the breaks
For we designer fakes
We need to concentrate on more than meets the eye.

...Hmmmm.



***Hair: Armidi
***Skin: Chai Antique The Ricci
***Outfit: Neferia Abel's own (Ivalde) Hetty, just released today
***Choker: Balderdash Entanglement choker
***Shoes: Lassitude & Ennui Asuka in snow

Bright Young Thing

Fallingwater Cellardoor of Shiny Things

Fallingwater Cellardoor, my tenth guest-star, is BUSY. It took me several weeks to hunt her for photos, but when she did, she was an amazing resource for the shoot. "Sure I can bring some poses," she said, and brought four boxes full. She wasn't sure what to wear, however, and we finally settled on the hallmarks of her trade: shoes and jewelry.

I first met Fally at an event of hyasynth's. We were both dancing, and it took me a little while to realize that the sweet person boogying around next to me was the creator behind the lovely shoes and jewelry of Shiny Things. My first big purchase was from her shop -- Old Laceup Boots. I wore them around Second Life for weeks, and I still have fond memories of unboxing those boots. The amazing thing is that I'm not alone -- everyone's got their own favorite story about Fally's shoes.

Which brings me to the Fally behind Fally. Who is this busy, busy woman? She seems to be all motion, creating in concentrated determination, and then popping into the world to release and deal with all the nuts and bolts behind running a viable business in Second Life. All this is to say that she's too busy for me to have figured out the Fally behind Fally.

But then there's her name.

Fallingwater. Same as the house designed by one of the most well-known architects of modernist America, Frank Lloyd Wright. The house looks sleek, but pays careful attention to the natural form around it. Hmmmm.

Cellardoor. J.R.R. Tolkien (who was also a linguist) pointed out that the words Cellar Door held intrinsic beauty in English because of the way the vowels and consonants sounded together. Hmmmmm.

Fallingwater Cellardoor, paying homage to the modern, the natural, and the beautiful. I can see it.



***Hair: Kin
***Tattoos: Canimal
***Skin: Fleur Shoujo
***Shoes: (Shiny Things) Mary Geos in lime
***Jewelry: (Shiny Things) Glass Chunk Bracelet and (Shiny Things) Spring Leaf Cuff

Welcome to my world...

Antonia Marat of /artilleri/

It's hard not to think of Elvis tunes when you consider my ninth guest-star, Antonia Marat:

Welcome to my world
Won't you come on in!
Miracles I guess
Still happen, now and then.

I mean, the woman made not just a line of clothing, but a whole world in which to wear them. It's a world that's stuck in that precious moment of time before Elvis bloated up; when cars were big and waistlines were natural and the proper way to flirt was to say, Tell me about it, stud.

Like most designers, Antonia projects her clothing aesthetic through her avatar's look. She's got an air about her as if her avatar was a former diner waitress that had a great idea, worked her ass off, struck paydirt, and kept her down-to-earth mentality. She calls herself "Antie," and I bet she's equally at home making flapjacks, showing off her tattoos, discussing the latest juicy gossip, and creating great clothes!

Have I mentioned rockabilly yet? Antonia's living proof that nice girls smoke, drink, think, design things, and wear frilly bloomers, all without breaking a sweat.



Hair: *TRUTH* Bridgette - Carrot_Light
Skin: LF CHAI skin - Custom skin in ginger
Eyes: Miriel - Eyes - Summer Woods
Dress: /artilleri/ - lovely leo dress
Jacket: Nylon Outfitters - Banana Smoothie Jacket
Tattoos: /artilleri/ (Old school lower + Maggie tattoo)
Earrings: /artilleri/ - Bead Hoop Earrings
Glasses: /artilleri/ - Greta glasses *teal*
Hairflower: /artilleri/ - Orchid hair flower
Bracelet: /artilleri/ Brazil bracelet *teal/orange/lime*
Shoes: ETD - Peep Slingbacks *Daffodil* (tinted green)

A Touch of Elegance

Betty Doyle of Ingenue

I arrived at my ninth guest-star's studio studio and had a strange moment of Hitchcock-esque synchronicity. We stared at each other and I realized that I looked almost exactly like Betty Doyle!

Like many designers, her most recent design is her current favorite, and so we both had the same dress. Not only that, she had on a skin from MiaSnow Myriam (MiaSofia), whom I'd just met. Same skin, same dress, and those Tesla Ziggy boots. It was eerie how matched we were, as though we were members of the same posh (and quite possibly undead) girl's boarding school. No wonder I love her clothes!

I admit that I am a sucker for a certain clothing aesthetic that is marked by covering instead of revealing skin, and that echoes an earlier era. There are stories and stories in Betty Doyle's clothes. She likes Audrey Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Paulette Goddard. Each of these women marries sex and innocence in a way that makes the screen shine, and Betty Doyle's clothes are similarly evocative.

MiaSnow's skin sheds another light upon the outfit, and in my mind, I cast Betty in A Touch of Evil, or perhaps The Birds. Innocence, sexiness, and just a bit of the macabre.

***Hat: Chapeau tres mignon
***Hair: Ingenue - Deco Doll in black
***Skin: MiaSofia - *mia* DAHLIA skin - the starlet
***Outfit: Ingenue - One Boy
***Shoes: Tesla Ziggy boots

Bodies naked and ablaze

Roslin Petion of Fleur

"I'm shy," exclaimed my seventh guest star, Roslin Petion; but she was still kind enough to let me in to her workshop high above the beautiful sim of Fleur. Roslin is the skin designer of Fleur (formerly Tete a Pied), and she's wearing her current favorite skin, Shoujo Lotus 2.

She's got a lovely shape, and I neglected to ask her anything about it because I was distracted. Her skin really does glow, and it's weird, because I own that skin too and it doesn't look the same on me at all. Here she is, beautifully naked, and I'm reminded of Robert Graves:

Lovers without reproach will gaze
On bodies naked and ablaze ...

Here's where I have to pause and wonder about Second Life. Two people can have the same skin and hair (like myself and my pal Pip the other day) and look totally different. Shape has something to do with it, obviously. More important than this, however, is personality.

It's all about how you move...and speak. The clothes you wear (or don't wear), your animation override, and more than all of that ... what you do with your life, or Second Life.

Oddly enough, I think that Second Life is the perfect container for your brain. Why is Roslin glowing? You can see her brain beyond that avatar, beyond that skin, beyond the two-dimensions of a screencap.

Too bad you can't make an "intelligence" attachment.


***Skin: Fleur Boutique Shoujo Lotus 2
***Hair: Miriel Enfield, Gibson in Fox
***Eyes: Miriel Enfield, Big Eyes -- custom made
***Necklace: Muse Pearls, draped
***Pose: [ANIMAH] nude4 (barefoot)

Guest star: Hethr Engle

Hethr Engle; click for a larger photo

Hethr Engle, my sixth guest star, presented me with a serious issue. She runs Closet Crisis, of course, which means that she's always dressing up in her favorite clothes! Therefore, instead of asking Hethr to dress in her current favorite outfit, we decided that it would be neat to style each other instead.

It's a fearsome thing to watch Hethr change. She mentioned that she's got 25k in her inventory, and when she puts together an outfit, items flicker on and off her avatar so swiftly it's like watching ghost clothing... She's got very strict rules for putting together outfits, too, and if you watch Closet Crisis maybe you'll discern them.

I decided that I wanted Hethr to look all Victorian, so she put on her primmest skirt and shoes and top and corset and hat... and then I had to giggle at the gloves. Wear those gloves around Caledon and your ball date is going to be feeling up your arms! Trust Hethr to make something demure into something dead sexy.

Hethr (and the guest star spot on Closet Crisis) inspired me to start fashion blogging. I felt so chuffed that someone wanted to post a picture of my avatar in pretty clothes that I wanted to do it MORE! My blog, which had been a very normal blog, became clothing-obsessed, and Hethr is pretty much to blame.

That is why she is my sixth guest star, for her quirky, creative, inspirational style.



***Earrings: (Second Mirage) Black pearl and silver cameo earring
***Hat: bossa nova - norma veiled hat (white-midnight)
***Parasol: *Cherry Tokyo Kimono* Parasol - Ocean
***Necklace: ::Violet Voltaire:: Cameo Gargoyle Necklace - Black
***Eyes: (Miriel) Eyes - Custom Hazel (Big) [Color only available from Miriel directly not in store]
***Hair: ETD Vivian - Blonde Burnt
***Skin: Celestial Studios (CS) Vogue Skin - Champagne (Classic Glitter - Silver 1)
***Skirt: (Material Squirrel) La Belle Skirt
***Gloves: Fireflies Vivienne - Gloves - Dark
***Puff Sleeves Prim: "Savvy?" Miss Rebecca Set (FV) (jacket,primsleeve)
***Corset: ::Soda:: Renee Corset - can't find SLURL, apologies!
***Shirt: Luxe Brand - White Victorian Blouse *Not sure if this is still available in her discount store*
***Shoes: TESLA - Ziggy *birth*

Guest star: Morrigan Hyun

Morrigan Hyun of Elegance Hats; click for a larger image
Back in Victorian times mercury was used to cure felt for hats. This meant that haberdashers inhaled a fair amount of mercury while making hats, resulting in madness, of course. This is why Lewis Carroll's Mad Hatter was mad...

Morrigan Hyun, my fifth guest-star, is a haberdasher, but she is not mad. In fact, when I hopped over to her secret laboratory under her shop, she was the picture of cool composure in her sleek Audrey Hepburn-esque Ivalde frock.

"Elegance Hats had been open for two whole weeks when Neferia Abel stopped by. She offered me a place in her sim on the spot," Morrigan chuckled.

I can see why. Morrigan's shop lives up to its name. I can't pin her hats into one particular era, but if I could, it would be the late 40s and early 50s before women's hats went out of style. I could see them in a film noir, especially the hats with veils, sweeping forward to hide a lady's expression when she's feeling something she shouldn't be.

Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?

For Valentine's day, Ivalde and Elegance Hats sent out complementary group gifts -- a sleek pink dress and an adorable gauze-covered bowler, resulting in an outfit that would've made Kim Novak proud. In this photo, Morrigan is wearing Ivalde, and her own creation, the Martha elegance hat in black.


***Hat: Elegance Hats, Martha hat in black.
***Dress: Ivalde
***Necklace: Second Mirage
***Earrings: Valena Glushenko, Diamonde
***Skin: Cryogen Lab
***Hair: Aden Breyer

Guest star: Bambi63 Rehula

Bambi63 Rehula, creator behind The Closet
Today, let's discuss beauty, the asian aesthetic in specific. I was born in Bangkok and grew up in Hawaii, so I must admit that my own ideal body is closer to the asian norm than the western. The asian female body is slender, almost impossibly so compared to western women. Short. Small-chested and small-hipped. The beauty of the form lies in the spareness of bone, movement, slender thighs, and the long, lean line from shoulder to hip.

To me, asian avatars seem almost fragile. I've watched my fair share of anime and notice that the anime ideal holds true in SL. Large, pretty eyes, slender proportions, an aura of innocence. This holds true for Bambi63's avatar too.

Bambi63 Rehula is the Japanese designer of The Closet. She's my guest star today because she embodies a certain delicate aesthetic that makes me think of 物の哀れ (mono no aware)...awareness of the ephemeral nature of life. Yes, it puts me in mind of Elton John: It seems to me she lived her life like a candle in the wind...

Or perhaps I should put it this way: despite the fragility of life, still creativity burns brighter.

Bambi's outfit (jacket, scarf and skirt) are her own design from The Closet.

More violet, more violet

My third guest star in her current favorite outfit is Violet Voltaire.

In Second Life, I'm drawn to the creatives. They're the people who spend most of their time on a pose stand staring into space, very carefully fiddling with PhotoShop and three dimensional objects. They talk to you between uploads, so that the conversation can sometimes be disjointed. They're great fun to chat with, however, because they have all kinds of stories (they're wired into the deep structure of Second Life) and the desire for company...

Violet Voltaire creates jewelry that makes me drool. It's edgy and punk and cute all mixed together, as if each piece was the love child of Vivienne Westwood and the Gothic Lolita Bible. Japanese sims adore Violet! And she adores them right back...

Violet looks all proper and ladylike here in ~silentsparrow~, but when I first met her, she was at Curious Kitties in her Kindly State University outfit of shorts and knee boots. She was staring up at something cute and frilly, and said, "I'm trying to find something to wear for my new necklace!" I thought it would've looked fine with what she had on, but who am I to dissuade anyone from shopping?

Although her personality is downright bubbly for a creative, her name is deep. It comes from this song:

And the sky was made of amethyst
and all the stars look just like little fish
you should learn when to go
you should learn how to say no
And the sky was all violet I want it again,
but more violet, more violet
hey, i'm the one with no soul
one above and one below.
-- Violet, by Hole


***Hair: ETD - Sofia, Blackberry
***Eyes: E's Handpainted Fantasy Eyes - Gleaming -Silver
***Skin: CHAI Skins
***Top: ~silentsparrow~ Sprocket vest & shirt - Dusk
***Bottom: ~silentsparrow~ Dreaded Sunny Day - coal
***Shoes: (Shiny Things) Glossy Ribbon Boots - Black
***Earrings: ::Violet Voltaire:: Girl Germs - Gargoyle

Tableaux in Tableau

click for a larger photo of fallen Allegory!
Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez!

Mardi Gras. Once, I wandered Bourbon Street and saw a girl sitting in the grotesque Mardi Gras street mud (part vomit, part garbage, part spilt booze). She was crying, her pants were around her knees, and she was peeing where she sat. Out of the corner of my eye I saw people on a high balcony, um, subverting normal social mores. The dichotomy of pain and pleasure, mixed with the wildness of the unexpected, is why I love Mardi Gras. I love knowing that once a year, people give themselves over to a kind of holy vice to get it out of their system before the sobriety of lent. I love knowing that somewhere, there's a version of the Christian God that cheers on humans acting silly.

In honor of Mardi Gras, my second blog guest (in her current favorite outfit) is Allegory Malaprop, creator behind Schadenfreude. She's got such a unique style that I can pick her out at 200 paces. My child's color might be pink, but Allegory's sure is green, of a shade best described as "bright ****ing." She pulls it off with her elegant skinny malinky shape and inimitable style.

We're in Tableau, and the story is this: Once upon a time Allegory drank a lot for Mardi Gras. Then she posed for a picture, after which she keeled over dead drunk on Hurricanes.

Shout out to my homies who are at RL and SL Mardi Gras this week. Shake your booty for God, girls! And go get your free beads at Allegory's store.


***Skin: Allegory's own
***Eyes: Miriel
***Shirt: ~silentsparrow~ trenchant jacket
***Hat: Schadenfreude -- to be released eventually
***Earrings: Schadenfreude Jerry skull earrings
***Necklaces: Schadenfreude freebies from the table in Allegory's shop
***Bracelets: "Someday I'll probably do something with these"
***Pants: Allegory's own
***Shoes: ::69:: Succubus pumps in black

Guest star: Saiyge Lotus

I've decided to do something new in my blog. I got tired of staring at my same ol' avatar all the time, and figured that I'd feature someone else for a change!

Yep, I'm going to be running a segment on another avatar wearing their favorite outfit. I'll keep to the sensibility of this blog, meaning that the people I bother for my posts will all be elegant, quirky and not very mainstream.

I asked Saiyge Lotus (designer of Balderdash) to be my first victim.

Saiyge's outfit is so complete Saiyge! The clothing complements not only her avatar's shape and skin, but the inner Saiyge as well. She's a gypsy designer (one of her vardos is behind her), and the coat, belt and widgety hat almost seem like tools of the wagon-making trade. I love it when form and function coincide in Second Life.

Saiyge's outfit reminds me of a more feminine version of Patti Smith, when her beautifully androgynous cover for Horses came out.


***Shoes: Tesla
***Pants: PixelDolls
***Belt: Manna Yoshikawa, Manna MainStore
***Hair: RaC
***Ears: Hybrid
***Cigarette holder: The New Zero ~ Boudoir apparel by Torridwear and PixelDolls
***Skin: Celestial Studios Vogue
***Coat and hat: TonkTastic