Tag Archives: BeScene

Without Borders

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Before I became ill, I would get a call every two or three months to meet with a delegation of people touring the US with the State Department’s International Visitors Program. Generally the people I met with were activists in their own countries working to advance democracy and human rights or elected and appointed leaders in newly formed democracies. I would talk about activism and organizing, explain how we choose issues, organize volunteers and our efforts to combat racism, sexism and economic oppression in the United States. It’s hard to explain the excitement of teaching Get Out The Vote methods and strategies to someone preparing for their countries very first election in 41 years or discussing ways to frame gender oppression issues in terms of widely held values with women activists advocating for women’s rights in Afghanistan, Somalia and Pakistan, but it is intoxicating. These are people who risk far more than I ever will to make fundamental changes in the lives of their people.

A firm believer in the pedagogy of the oppressed as a teaching method, I learned as much from the visitors as they learned from me. One of the most inspiring and fascinating visitors was a volunteer at Médecins Sans Frontières who lead their work against human trafficking. Before I met him, I knew trafficking existed, but had no idea how extensive it is. MSF, or Doctors Without Borders, won the Nobel for their work providing aid to people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe, primarily due to armed conflict, epidemics, malnutrition, exclusion from health care, or natural disasters. It’s exciting that the huge fashion event Culture Shock that begins on May 1st will be raising funds for this wonderful and courageous worldwide charity.

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There will be 174 stores participating in this huge event – all producing three exclusive items for the event and donating 50-100% of sales to MSF.  In today’s outfit, the dress and hair are items you will be able to find at Culture Shock. Sissy Pessoa of Baiastice created this stunning Mattina dress for Culture Shock. It comes in several colors but I absolutely fell in love with this beautiful parfait colored dress – the hot colors version of the dress. I shot the pictures at Dragonfly, a magical sim where you cannot shoot a bad picture.
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Spooky

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I went to the atmospheric haunted sim Innsmouth to shoot this lovely gown from MiaMai. The layered full skirt, the pouf of fabric on the shoulder, the filigree adornment at the neck all seemed perfect for a noir shoot. Add the hot fishnet gloves from Adore & Abhor and I am ready for noir.

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Spooky!
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Whimsy At Fashion For Life

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I thought this would be a whimsical final post for my exploration of the Fashion For Life event. It’s the Nyte’N’Day Pop Dress and it’s been a hit and been featured in several posts. However, everyone has a different approach to styling, which is what makes fashion so interesting. With styling, ten people can wear the same thing and still have very different looks. For me, I added some capri length leggings for a more casual look.
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Charity Never Looked So Good

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The Second Life® community never stands still and it never stands by either. There’s always someone with the energy and courage to step up and do something when something needs to be done. So, now we have more than one charitable event going on at the same time. What to do? Why, shop of course. And why not put together an outfit highlighting items from both events just for fun. That’s what I have done here with items from Vanitas Vesture and Kouse’s Sanctum for Fashion For Life and from Peqe for the Pacific Crisis Fundraiser.

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Now, while you are admiring the front view of this gorgeous jacket and texturing details in the skirt and top, I want to take a moment to remind you that the donations are from the creators. If you are getting clothing at the market value at a charitable event, you are not donating, you are shopping. I just think it’s useful to remind ourselves of that when we get ideas about how events should do this or that differently. The donation is coming from the participants who have the energy, talent and courage to put themselves out there on behalf of charities. The rest of us, including me, can support their donations by buying stuff, but we are getting our money’s worth.

Since CNN pulled one sentence out of the paragraph above, some people who did not read the post have gotten the impression that I think our participation in charity events does not count.  As you can see from what is bolded, that is not true. However,  the key ingredient to conflict is isolating an opinion from context to make it more polarizing, which is what happened, unintentionally as it probably is.  No fundraising event can happen without the synergy between the people who contribute items to sell and those who buy. Much of the shopping is motivated by the desire to support the effort and to raise funds and people often buy more than they planned.  I know I sure do.

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Color Me Coddly, Color Me Happy

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I had planned to blog this before I went into the hospital for surgery, but ran out of “oomph” and didn’t get it up. I shot this for Luna Jubilee’s 52 Weeks of Color Challenge because I love this gown from Paper Couture and it’s blue, blue, blue!!!!

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The gown may be blue and the lovely Endless sim may be blue, but I a not feeling blue at all. I am a happy woman. When my best friend came to visit me after surgery she said, “before we chat, go look at your blog.” I cried, of course, touched not only be the treasure trove that is Gidge’s boundless heart, but also by the outpouring of good wishes, hopes and prayers from friends, acquaintances and readers here on the blog, in SL and in plurk. There was a whirlwind of love and kindness that circled the globe, gathering up hope an dropping it gently into that operating theater here at OHSU. And it worked. My surgery was complete within the minimum estimated time and there were no complications at all. Despite a rough day of illness and drama yesterday, I woke up this morning full of energy and optimism. Thank you each and every one for adding your voice to that whirlwind of hope that lifted me up through a very rough few days.
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Texture Love

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Oh, that Sissy Pessoa! Her new collection is jumping up and down and hollering at me for attention because it’s just so luscious I want to wear it all at once. The colors are right up my alley with lovely creams, olives and salmons. What really has me excited about this dress, though, is the marvelous texture of the fabric. I love the three-dimensional look of it – as though it’s been puffed somehow – more like paper in some ways, than fabric.

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The setting for this shoot was Carpe Diem – a lovely pastoral sim with wheat, farm buildings, animals and like any good garden – a snake.
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The Black Swan

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Traveling on a space highway,
Three long years to this day.
A billion million trillion miles.
Home is a long, long way away.

From bow to stern she’s 20 miles long,
Ten miles high and wide.
A beautiful swan in a silent sea,
No water to slow her down.

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Sometimes it seems we’re motionless,
Caught between time and space.
Other tiny star systems rush headlong by.
Signs are bursting in the rain

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Ooh, Baby, It's a Plaid World

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Vogue made me happy by telling me that plaids are in this season. Of course, I could have told them that plaids should always be in, but that’s another story. Seriously though, can something as beautiful as this gorgeous full-length plaid taffeta skirt from Casa del Shai ever be anything but in? If this be plaid, give me more!

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I shot this set at Alpha Point – a sim I discovered linguistically. I have shot many times at Omega Point. I don’t know why it took me this long to wonder whether there being an Omega meant there was an Alpha, but it did. I did a search and there it was. Alpha and Omega – should have known long ago.
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Rumor Has It

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Rumor has it that Hair Fair is coming soon! It starts next weekend, to be specific. You should check out the Hair Fair blog for up to date information, including an explanation for their decision to set up as two sets of two sims instead of one set of four. As someone who has spent 20 minutes or more at a time bouncing off a sim border – that explanation makes sense to me.  However, I think the best idea for this year is the creation of a Hair Fair Demo group you can join.  Think of the possibilities. Not only can you try on the demos at your lag-free home at your leisure, but you could get together with friends and have a Demo Dance. Gidge & I threw a Hair Demo party once and it was hysterical.

Speaking of rumors, here’s a happy one and a true one. Miko Omegamu is back releasing new clothing for Icing. It’s been nearly a year since her last release, so I was thrilled to go to Icing and pick up this gorgeous Pink Lemonade dress.

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Okay, neither of those were rumors. However, since I shot the dress at The Rumor, I could not resist the conceit. The Rumor is a beautifully made market sim that has a very photogenic landing point. And a camel with pink hair!!! Continue reading