There used to be a cafe, somewhere in Australia called Freckles. Above the counter was a sign that stated “A face without freckles, is like a sky without stars”. The idea being of course, that the light natural smattering of freckles adds a beauty and charm to a face, and without them, something is amiss.

Click HERE to read more at Sasypants.com .

Footwear Expo 2009

Still so many items to show from Footwear Expo 2009. One of the stand out items for me was from a store I love to visit regularly. I have shown in the past their heels and boots, one pair are even open backed which I love bunches, and are actually set up in their booth at the fair too.

Click HERE to see more at Sasypants.com.

I even played with my own decal today for this post, just because I wanted to add a little something, but couldn’t find one that sat in the right place. The first hair was a revisit to a incredibly popular store, I don’t get over there often enough, and until last night I only had this style in a mix blend.

Click HERE to read more at Sasypants.com.

More beautiful items from the Footwear Expo, I am loving the diverse range of this years fair. So far there has been an equal kind of ratio on new items and already released. But as I always say ‘everything old is new to someone” so those creators that didn’t get a chance to release new items for the fair, still have an audience.

CLICK HERE to read more at Sasypants.com .

Footwear Expo 2009

Wow what a rollercoaster. I ended up online for 20+ hours straight, tried to sleep in this disgusting heat, and ended up back on three hours later. But with so many gorgeous shoes to take pictures of, with their equally beautiful counterparts of skin, hair, clothing and accessories…I am not too upset about lack of sleep.

Click HERE to read more at Sasypants.com .

Footwear Expo starts at 10am HERE

Incredibly small prims are a challenge for anyone that builds, whether it be for clothing, Jewelry or accessories. It takes an ability to manipulate prims against all boundaries, there are of course nano prims now, and sculpties make that task easier…there are older creators who mastered it with regular prims though, and often it is just awe inspiring.

Click HERE to read more at Sasypants.com .

An interesting spin on things for this years Footwear Expo, is that there are going to be pose stores set up at the fair, and the exciting part of that, is that some – if not all – are going to be selling shoe style poses. Often it is difficult not only for bloggers and photographers to find the right shoe pose, but for shoe makers themselves. So if you do, or are planning to make shoes in the future, even if you aren’t at the fair this year, stop by the animation/poses stores and pick up some.

Footwear Expo – TELEPORT – starts at 10am tomorrow and a percentage of sales made at the event will go to charity.

Click HERE to read more info at Sasypants.com .

***SHOE FAIR *** SHOE FAIR *** SHOE FAIR ***SHOE FAIR *** SHOE FAIR *** SHOE FAIR ***

Shoe Expo 2009 starts this weekend!

From now until December 2nd there is a Flickr Photo Contest for all to participate in.
DETAILS HERE !

Anyone may enter the Flickr Contest, with as many pictures as they like, wearing any shoes that they like.

*Only photos submitted between 18th November to 2nd December at midnight slt will be considered eligible.

*Deadline for entry is midnight on December 2nd 2009

*You may enter as many photos as you’d like

*One photo will be selected by a panel of Footwear Expo staff

*Winner will be announced on 6th December 2009 during the final day of the Expo

*Please include SL avatar name in the description of the photo

*Photos should reflect both themes: shoes + winter wonderland/holiday

Have fun! Kick it with some fabulous shoes and show us your photo skills!

The prize package for one lucky winner includes :

* Dove Swanson [LAP] Long Awkward Pose

* aDORKable Poses

* Tillie’s Posestand

* Serenity Mercier’s AMS PhotoStage

* Idiosyncrasy Skins – Fatpack of choice in one tone from the store

* VR Foundry Professional Photo Studio and HUD

* Olive Juice Poses- Exclusive Pose Pack, Group Pose and Pose set

* 2000L from What’s New SL

2008 Submission

For more info click HERE to also keep up to date with what is occurring during the 2009 Shoe Expo

*Contact Rosie Shark if you wish to donate prizes for this and other events at the fair.

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Anyone hoping to buy a DSLR and fluidly enter the world of motion might want to read Wired’s Raw File blog first. There’s a big story on the technical challenges you may face if you’re an underequipped newbie. Stuff like the “jello effect” (previously seen only in swimsuit season) and a lack of manual control while using the video function.

“The more one learns about necessary software and conversions, the more one realizes how desperately the whole industry needs universal hardware and software standards,” writes Brian Seibel in “Hi-Def DSLRs May Be Cheap, But Talent Is Priceless.”

The piece kicks off with a discussion of Vincent Laforet’s films Reverie and Nocturne:

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When Vincent Laforet released Reverie last year, the digital revolution seemed poised to sweep across the world of moviemaking. Shot entirely on a prototype of Canon’s then yet-to-be-released EOS 5D Mark II, the short film revealed the camera’s extraordinary low-light sensitivity and HD video capabilities, all with the photographer’s choice of lenses. It appeared to be an all-in-one movie studio replacement.

The fact that HD video and cinematic quality was being offered at consumer rates thrilled the online video community. “Laforet’s, in particular, showed off the real upside of working with the 5DII’s light-sensitive sensor: When you can work with smaller lights, your production budget goes much farther,” said photographer and End User writer Ryan Brenizer in an e-mail.

It seemed that a few big Hollywood studios would no longer dominate our viewing agenda, that an indie revolution was imminent and that the dam on a reservoir of creativity had been destroyed. But that has not been the case. So why are we not awash in studio-quality, low-budget flicks? The answer is complex, and it zeros in on an ever more important relationship between the tools of production and the actual talent of filmmaking — the two of which people often confuse.

Canon’s announcement last month of their latest model, the EOS 1D Mark IV, was coupled with another release by Laforet, using a Mark IV prototype. Again shooting under tight time restrictions and using no additional lighting, the short, Nocturne, immediately became the subject of intense internet chatter.

Video enthusiasts were thrilled by news of the expanded ISO range and ability to shoot at 24, 25 and 30fps at full 1080p, but before many had the opportunity to see the movie, Canon requested it be pulled. No official explanation has been offered by either the company or Laforet himself, although it has been noted his use of Zeiss lenses during production may be the cause. The incident is just the latest in a series of missteps and blunders which has caused consternation amongst potential subscribers to the DSLR as movie camera.

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Provocative stuff, right? Click here to read the rest.

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The name July came about not originally as the name of the month at all, but in fact it was named that after Julius Caesar. Even though we are well past July now, these skins carry the name, and do so well.

Click the banner to read more at Sasypants.com

More Versatile Clothing Layers Jira :

Second life would benefit immensely from a simplification of the clothing layers. Modern SL clothing is cut using alpha maps, as the built-in sliders for trimming the clothing leave messy edges and are not really usable. The functionality that is worth keeping is the ability to change bagginess in various areas. Beyond that, there isn’t really any reason not to put all clothing on meta layers. A meta layer would be a single clothing article with 3 texture spots which would be by default a transparent texture. The 3 texture spots are of course legs/feet, torso, and head. The meta layer could then be applied to the avatar on a new set of clothing layers marked simply from 0 to 10, or 20, or whatever it is deemed necessary to fully outfit an avatar.

The benefits of this sort of change are many, beyond just the verastility of being able to put your undies on over your tattoo, or your shirt on over the bra that only came on the shirt layer because the designer was apparently high. For example, it is common practice for ambitious designers to put their clothing items on all layers – to allow for the kind of versatility of this new system (although it falls short). This means that for a single shirt, for example, you’ll have 3 inventory items: an undershirt, shirt, and jacket version. This means 3 assets the server needs to keep track of. A designer who uses this as their standard will generate about 2.5x as many assets to create an outfit as one who don’t offer items on all layers. This could be massively reduced, much to the relief of overstuffed fashionista inventories, asset servers, and sim servers the metaverse over.

Existing clothing might be able to be ported to the new system, although it would require experimentation to determine for certain. Lots of (ancient) clothing that does depend on the sliders to trim the clothing would wind up breaking if those sliders were no longer effective, since it is impossible to translate the sliders to a system that include shirt and glove components together. Thus it may be necessary to allow older clothing to continue using the old system of shirts, socks, underpants, etc.

Unfortunately this would mean that the new system would need to be flexible enough to allow people to create their own layer ordering to be able to put new clothing items under or over the older clothing layers, however this creates another opportunity to improve the versatility of older content. Since it would be necessary to create a layer organizer to allow people to choose the order in which clothing items stack, it would be possible to wear several shirts at the same time layered on different strata, allowing older clothing to be just as versatile as newer meta layers. This would also allow people with overstuffed inventories to go through and delete unnecessary duplicates of items that were created on all layers.

Notes:
# An additional feature allowing people to update their clothing to meta layer clothing might be worthwhile, though permissions would need to be investigated to ensure abuse is not possible.
# It could be possible to leave the layer limit as a very high value (like 50) if the clothing layers were not broadcast to the server until fully baked, like Emerald does when clothing layer protection is enabled.

Mel Vanbeeck
VOTE NOW http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-5059

haltsuchend
lehne ich mich
an mich selbst
stark genug
mich aufzufangen

engel der nacht
sitzt und hältst wacht
über die viele seelen
die sich mit sorgen quälen
sich wälzen und drehen
die nöte nur sehen
die nicht kommen zur ruh
schenk schlaf ihnen du!

So the other day I was flipping through some pics, fashion ones. I came across some ankle boots, and it was instant drool worthiness. Then later that same day, I came across a pair very similar, and they definitely deserved my attention.

CLICK HERE to read more at Sasypants.com .

Vad multi oameni, ca la un fel de miting, peste femei, copii si barbati se trece cu autobuzul. Tip la un barbat ca e vinovat “Chelule, de ce faci asta?” dar el imi raspunde, “Nu sunt chel. Chel e ala din fata”.

Sometimes you can find a piece of clothing, that has been constructed to not wear as it’s own item only, but definitely as an enhancement piece for many…allowing you to merge different pieces, and even different designers together.

CLICK HERE to read more at Sasypants.com

Click HERE to read more at Sasypants.com .

I swear she tried to stick something up my bum yesterday, and she also tried to marry my male me, not my male, but me as a male. It sounds complicated but it really isn’t, just another day of ours flitting about SL being all up in each others stuff.

Click HERE to read more at Sasypants.com .

Some refer to dressing up in Second Life, as dressing up their Barbies. That’s cool, but today I got to play with a life sized Ken.

Click HERE to read more at Sasypants.com.

Did you know Iris Ophelia did make ups? well I didn’t but I did, all at the same time. You see Iris did an incredible set of Geisha skins for Another Fundraiser 2008, and they were incredibly popular.
Well now she has taken her hand at creating make ups for another skin line.

Click HERE to read more at Sasypants.com

Ok so behind behind behind, it’s been an incredibly crazy week. Our group have all been experiencing bloggers bleeps and blunders, no really if I could film it, this week would have been hilarious, frustrating but hilarious.

CLICK HERE to read more at Sasypants.com

~ Inspired by Chopin’s “Nocturne”…as rendered by Joshua Bell…

~*~

My world turns as slowly
as the ebb and fall of your chest
A dove flutters to the window
I watch her as I lay next to you
Just as she watches me across the glass
I wonder…
if I could see the world with only one view
…as she does
Would I still view it as complete
…as she does?
Would I be as content with it
…as she is?
If I saw two different perspectives
which merge in the darkness that lies between my eyes
Would I still be as peaceful
…as she is?

The truth runs across the dancing everglades
With the storm clouds of dreams
threatening to explode above them
Would I be the woman
that lets her child run through them
willing to let it fall
to let it come back bleeding,
or would I protect it
so much that it never knows
to walk against the winds of change
never knowing what existence
my womb has to it lent?

Silence falls like feathers in the night
It’s a nocturne symphony the gifted are meant to hear
Fewer among them are the messiahs
betrothed to the art in their souls
who play them as if the world exists no more
I wonder…
if I were one of them
Would I find the song of every movement
…as they do?
Would I bleed willingly with the pain of so much tenderness
…as they do?
Would I close my eyes to open my ears to the Uni Verse
…as they do?
And let my soul depart from this containment to the towers of musical splendor
…as they do?

Form gives way to formlessness
the names hush into namelessness
griefs shatter into peace
and violence breaks down into melody
such is a magic…a thing called beauty…that lasts an eternity.

Lola Astanova is no stranger to readers of this blog.  In September, we saw her electrifying performance of Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Sonata.  October featured my extended interview with Lola, which touched on her early life in Tashkent, the influence of Vladimir Horowitz, and her views about contemporary classical music composition, among other subjects.

This month, we hear Lola perform three pieces by Frederic Chopin.  Lola is a passionate interpreter of Chopin; her longtime instructor and legendary piano professor Lev Naumov said of her, “Lola Astanova possesses a rare and truly ingenious intuitive ability.  Chopin performed by Lola is simply outstanding…” - an opinion I think you will share after watching these videos.

For our first video, Lola plays Chopin’s famous Nocturne Op. 27, No 2.  Many musicologists rank the two Nocturnes of Opus 27 among Chopin’s greatest compositions, and Robert Schumann referred to them as “the most heartfelt and transfigured creations evolved in music.”

In our interview last month, Lola spoke about the next piece as follows:  “I guess the first piece that I was consciously truly excited about learning was Chopin’s “Fantasie Impromptu”.  I was about ten years old, but I had heard and loved that piece from the early childhood.  The score looked very busy with lots of notes, so in my mind playing it well somehow symbolized being a good pianist.”

In our final video, Lola gives an impassioned performance of one of Chopin’s most dramatic études (and one of my personal favorites), Op. 25, No. 12.  She also delivers a short message on a subject close to her heart: the need for all of us to continue to support the arts despite a difficult economic climate.

I encourage you to visit http://lolaastanova.com, where you can learn more about Lola and watch additional videos.  You can also purchase her CD, which is entitled “Debut” and features the music of Liszt, Beethoven, and much more by Chopin.