Get Your Groove On Tonight!

Calling all Dancehall Queens & Hooligans, Ladies and Gents, Boys & Girls!  The Lion's Den is now reopened on a fully revamped & fun sim with spectacular views & rides.  Come by and browse the land and shops. Staff will be on premises for any type rentals.  Opening ceremonies will be orchestrated by the top dancehall king himself DrScott from the Kinky Sound Crew.  Hurry down and join in the festivities,  today from 3 to 5 pmSLT!  There is a L$1000 prize for the Loudest Kinky fan, with voting starting @ 420pm.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Edgecliff/125/128/85

Calling All Dancers!

Greetings & Salutations!






Chocolate Entertainment Inc., home of Chocolate Boyz and Chocolate Gurlz Entertainment, is a high class group of dancers and escorts catering to the special and sexy needs of our clientele.  Their clients are set to host some of the best and most memorable ladies nights and bachelor parties here on Second Life, and Chocolate Entertainment is looking for dancers.  Each dancer will be hired for $1800L each PLUS tips for a two hour PRIVATE event. Dancers will recieve $500L plus tips earned for the event.  Each host will be paid $300L for each event they host plus tips.  They are hiring male & female human avatars that are at least one month old in SL age, with upgraded skin and quality clothes.  English Speaking is mandatory, while additional languages are definitely a plus :)  Their recruiters also ask that:

ALL STAFF MUST BE ABLE TO EMOTE EXCELLENT ACROSS THE BOARD NO MATTER THE AMOUNT OF A TIP OR SITUATION

ALL STAFF MUST NOT WORK FOR ANOTHER SL CONTRACTED PRIVATE DANCE TROUPE AND/OR COMPANY.

ALL STAFF MUST OWN AT LEAST 5 PERSONAL DANCES OR A CHIMERA TO USE DURING EVENTS

YOU MUST BE AGE VERIFIED AND USE PAYMENT INFO as LL is changing to a 3 tier rating system. PG, Mature, & Adult.



Drop by their offices at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Dysomia/202/122/900/ to fill out an application, and drop it into Godiva Rugani's profile OR drop it into the mailbox.  Good luck!

Help for Haiti--SHOP FOR A CAUSE!!!

Please join in the effort to help the people of Haiti.   Today is the last day of the Project Tents HAITI Benefit Expo organized by Project Tents and Peace Train Charitable Trust for ShelterBox – May 21st through May 30th, 2010.  Special designs including clothing, jewelry, shapes, shoes and poses are available, featuring items by:

Aimesi, Angel Dessous, ABJ – Aurora Borealis Jewelry, AZUL, Bamboo Soup, Baubles Boho Jewelry, BELLISSIMA!, Body Talking, C’est Moi! Boutique, Callie Cline, Di’s Shape Design, DmD Poses, Ear Candy, Essential Soul, Faster Pussycat, Fellini Couture, FK Virtues, Gabriel, MiDis, Moonbeam Fashions, PRISM, Premiere Modelling Agency, R.A. Crystal, Shiki, , Styles of edo, Tres Beau, Tukinowaguma Hair Style, U&R DOGS, Vamp Shoes, wonderkids, W&Y Hair

To learn more about the event organizers and sponsors, please visit:

* Shelter Box: http://www.shelterbox.org/

* The Peace Train Charitable Trust: http://slpeacetrain.org/

* Project Tents: http://sltents4haiti.wordpress.com/

* Time Magazine: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1989131,00.html
 
To Visit the Project Tents HAITI Benefit Expo, use one of these 9 Project Tents HAITI Landing Points listed below, with SLurls:


Project Tent Central Plaza:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Project%20Tents/129/127/30

Project Tent North Central:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Project%20Tents/128/177/31

Project Tent North East:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Project%20Tents/183/177/31

Project Tent East:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Project%20Tents/183/126/31


Project Tent South East:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Project%20Tents/182/76/31


Project Tent South Central:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Project%20Tents/126/75/31


Project Tent South West:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Project%20Tents/70/75/31

Project Tent West:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Project%20Tents/71/128/31

Project Tent North West:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Project%20Tents/71/178/31

Happy Memorial Day

Please visit Sunrise Mansion & Art Gallery's fascinating display of history and a recreation of the famous cemetary and monument dedicated to 251 black soldiers exhumed from a Charlotte, NC mass grave. Pay tribute to the sacrifices made by men of African descent to demonstrate their patriotism, in pursuit of freedom.  Come learn about our current holiday's origins as Decoration Day and a commemoration of black Union veterans of the American Civil War, especially these most recently acknowledged, who finally have the resting place that they deserve.  The installation will be on display until June 1st  at

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Diamond%20Serenity%20Caye/241/154/22/

Into Fantasy Skins?

If you are interested in trying out some unique makeups for role-play, you might want to check out CStar Skins.  The store specializes in offering limited-edition skins, an interesting concept if you want to keep your look truly unique.  Unfortunately, their dark tone in the fantasy skins like Bloody Mary, Inferno or GoreJus is still only a light brown (but it is genuinely brownish), while their tan will work for light-skinned girls.  The demos I tried  came with cleavage, hairbase and no-hairbase options which looked fine on the body, but I think some skin tone in the face may have been sacrificed to render the makeup colors--so the face didn't really match the body!  The store is busy right now because of a recent posting on a freebie blog announcing the Lucky Chair giveaways, but experimenting with skins there, and adding some adventurous choices to your inventory can be worthwhile and fun.  The most interesting thing I saw there was a shape and skin --inspired by the recent James Cameron film Avatar--called Neptune Savage, and though the Ocean Teal (blue) version that most closely resembles the Na'vi character played by Zoe Saldana is sold out, there are versions in Ruby (red), Emerald (green) and Poisoned (purple with some green highlights) that are a pretty cool way to totally transform your own avatar.  The Geisha skins come in Modern and Modern Stone versions; while the former comes in natural skin tones with dramatic and unusual but still pretty makeups, the latter offer a total transformation of your look for really challenging your imagination--the skin of your body is grey, like stone, but it is still quite pretty too.  Unico Solo's store is at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cstar/156/103/1661/

President Obama's Visiting UM

I'm so excited that President Obama is giving the commencement address at my Alma Mater, the University of Michigan, this Saturday, May 1!  I'd actually forgotten that it was that time of year already, since I'm so focused on getting my own students ready to graduate and counting down those last few days of class myself.  I don't have any really good reason to be there in person, but I plan to tune into the Big Ten Network to hear it all, and sit in my living room and cheer and applaud and reminisce about being in Ann Arbor.  It's funny how I can sit here and mostly remember good times and good friends and feel all warm and happy about it now, when at the time, most of the time I was wondering what in the world I was doing there!  It was a big transition for me, coming from New Orleans.  First I thought I was going to die of starvation because I couldn't get used to Midwestern cooking, and then I thought I was going to die of sun-deprivation and SAD, but I survived.  Now I just want to go to Zingerman's for lunch!  I guess I will have to settle for sharing the experience with Michigan people in SL, which is the next best thing to being there!

Shopping for Skins?

I was pleasantly surprised to find so many choices for representing women of African descent when I dropped in on the sale going on now at Pulse!  Lorac Farella has developed a great deal of skill with her designing, and has made a great effort to offer a range of darker-toned skins that are flattering and realistic.  If you like freckled looks, you should check out the Emotional skin in T4; if you are expecting a wedding proposal any time soon, you might want to purchase the one of three Tears versions, which have cleverly drawn smudgy eye makeup.  If your SL is more adventurous, you may need to add the Lessons, Chafed, Fight or Punished versions that include some strategically placed bruises, band-aids, cuts and scratches, or other marks.  I found the Valeries skin in Bistre to be a bit flat and gray rather than brown, but Valeries in Sienna or Sand will work if you are going for a mixed-chick/light-skinned girl look.  I really love the dramatic makeup too, really strong eye or lip colors, and the variety of brow colors; they will make your AV's face distinctive and memorable.  I feel like I'm looking at an albino version of my familiar digital self when I try on skins that are light; it took a few tries with the i skin before I found that Nos. 1--11 were all meant to be super-pale, so skip those.  Elegance 7 is a nice warm, honey brown, with makeups named for the months of the year that are subtle and natural, and ones for the seven deadly sins that are very dramatic--they will get LOTS of attention!  There is also a choice of makeups named for the virtues (are there seven of those too?), and they are really pretty and romantic.  I think the Life skins are my favorites, and Tones 8, 9, and 10 are all warm brown skins with 8 different makeups each.  They have just the right amount of shading and highlighting to make your AV look great, and you can get it clevage-enhanced too!  Almost all skins are marked down 50% right now, so check it out!

You Are Invited!

You are invited to the opening of an expanded new gallery at Sunrise Mansion!  Join Indea Vaher tomorrow 5pm SLT, for the opening of SRM GALLERY II,  featuring the artwork of Sistagrlo Wei, Miles Eleventhauer, JudyLynn India, Miles Barbasz, Aruba DeCuir, C.C. L. and Indea herself.  Guests will be entertained by world renowned singer TJ Oanomochi.   Indea hopes you can make it:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Diamond%20Serenity%20Caye/224/190/1201

Is This Really a Dark Skin?

My pet peeve about SL (besides lags and crashes) has always been skins.  Now I do recognize and appreciate the difficulty involved in making good skins.  I'm not a designer, but I have talked about the process with those who do have experience making them, and I do have faith in many of the creative types out there who have taken on the challenge of designing quality skins.  I also appreciate being able to go into a new skin store and being pleasantly surprised to find a range of choices for women of color (those of African descent as well as those who are not) to represent themselves.  The idea that there is only one variety of *darkness* is completely passe--besides simply being inaccurate!  There is not one single version of blackness any more than there is only one kind of pale whiteness, so if designers can make variations and degrees of *tan,* consumers ought to be able to see a full range of *dark* skins too.  Whether we are Asian, South Asian, Latina, African or African American (or some combination thereof), we want to be able to create avatars that look like *real* women!

Beautiful Bodies in SL

I'm playing with Picasa, since they've finally added a feature that lets me add my snapshots to my blog.  The varieties of female beauty in SL are mostly variations on the same Barbie-doll body, but I have to say, it can be quite fun to pretend to be a Victoria's Secret model!  The three bottom photos represent some shapes available for sale; the top one is me, at home in SL.  I'm not sure whether to be happy to see choices for women of color to be female and of color in SL, or to be upset about the still somewhat limited choices that are represented.  Are we really being recognized for our uniqueness, or are we being made into exotic objects?