The field shook itself out fairly rapidly for this year’s Oscar Fashion Photo Contest. As ever, thank you to all the entrants, and I hope you enjoyed the opportunity to show off your red-carpet chops.
The main difficulty this year was between First and Second Places. It could easily have gone the other way, and almost did. A fresh evaluation gave this order, however; and I’m pleased to welcome a new First Place winner this year.
So, with further non-ado, here’s this year’s placers ….
With thanks, as ever, to the Rose Theatre in Angel Manor for the ability to borrow their lavish halls.
We thought long on this one, considering last year’s performance, and whether we could pull off the publicity factor this year. But finally, tradition won out, and so the time has come once again. The Flickr group is open for submissions of your finest evening gown photos. Who will be the best-dressed avatar on the Hollywood red carpet when the Academy Awards are handed out? Around the Grid is accepting submissions for its 9th Annual Oscar Fashion Photo Contest!!
The contest group will open for submissions once this article is published, and the prize pool has been placed in escrow (so to speak). Time to talk to your stylists, find your hairdresser and book an appointment, call in favors at the jewelry stores, and decide what you would wear if you became a nominee for the little gold man. For those considered outstanding in their evening couture and artistic portrayal, there shall be (15 minutes of) fame, (a bit of) fortune, and hopefully fun in playing the game.
Entry is free; just submit a photo to the appropriate group on Flickr, or leave a comment with a link to your photo. (However, make sure to read all the rules, okay?) The prize pool is again guaranteed at over L$50,000. First place will receive L$25,000. So, if you want a chance at filling your virtual closet at my expense, come on and enter!
I’d finished the posing for my last article — well, I had to get myself into the stadium somehow in Second Life as well as real life, and that takes some photographic tricks — and was taking the time to meet with Jem, to discuss the next piece she was planning on. (You’re seeing a sneak peek here.) We were talking about where might be a good place to pose, when there was an almighty whoosh of air, coming out of the cavern entrance I use as a teleport point for the temple platform we were at.
Taking a peek inside the cavern, we found something what didn’t belong there — a big glowing ball of blue radiance. A little scary looking; but, being reckless, uh, curious women, we walked carefully forward into the blue mist.
Last year, during my “rookie” period (lol), Harper introduced me to Fantasy Faire. Beyond the good work that will be done for the American Cancer Society, this event, maybe the biggest in Second Life each year, is just plain fun. I loved roaming around in costume last year, from full kimono to barbarian princess. In fact, the barbarian princess mode I was in was my inspiration for some of the costumes I’ve shot myself in since.
As of today (March 31), there’s 20 days until the gates between worlds open once more. Start saving your money, put together your most fantastic costume, and drop in beginning on April 20. Harper, Conan and I’ll be doing our usual photo work, as well as coming up with fresh costumes from what we pick up in the fifteen regions of the Faire. And, when you can, be generous in your giving to the Relay for Live vendors or kiosks. Cancer is something that’s touched almost all of us in one way or another, both in RL and in lost SL friendships.
See you at the Faire!
It arrives like the first ray of sunlight in the spring, like the scent of budding leaves in the wind, the stirring of slumbering spirit. The very first word from the Fairelands, as they begin shifting and changing, stretching and awakening, growing from dreams into reality.
Throughout the whole long year the Fairelands have been dreaming. They try on shapes like we would clothes, mix sea with forests, cliffs with towers, magic with mundane. Spires reach up toward the skies like blades of grass in the spring, caves emerge as dug by ground-dwellers over millennia, corals twist into mer-castles, gardens bloom. Fairelands dream, dream and breathe magic.
Some shapes they keep, some they set aside. Some dreams go together, form a chain of worlds holding hands with natural ease like siblings. Some need to wait for their family of worlds longer still, gaining strength and spirit.
This year, this spring…
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Here they come, sashaying down the red carpet — this years placing photos for the Oscar Fashion Photo Contest! The potential pool was disappointing this year in terms of size — the smallest slate of entries in the eight years of the OFPC — but the winners are deserving of their selection, and of the prize money (grin). So, with further non-ado, here are our choices for this year.
Last normal update before the contest closes in a few weeks. The good news is that we have enough entries for a contest. The bad news is that there’s only 13 entries so far. That’s way down from past years. I always work hard to get the word out, but it doesn’t seem to be taking this year. So I’m calling on all of you who haven’t entered yet, or who haven’t written anything up on the contest this year — help me out. I want to have the toughest judging year in the eight-year run of this contest! Start submitting entries to the group, and spread the word! With 50 grand in linden dollars up for grabs, half to the winner, it’s worth the time to enter — you’ll be able to afford a couple of Catwa heads and a substantial makeup suite, and still have money left over for a new dress! Plus fame and fortune (at least within Second Life). So enter now, and get the word out!!!
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Jem and I managed to snag a good box at the theatre for this year’s Academy Awards. And, even though we weren’t nominated for anything, well, this is the Oscars. You dress to the nines for this show!
Can you rock the red carpet and get your name into this envelope? You still have time.
For the first seven callers, we offer at no additional cost, fame, fortune and 15 minutes in the limelight!!!
This year’s entries for the OFPC can be described by an adjective a writer of my acquaintance used to refer to international mail in the 1970s and 1980s: “lentitudinous.” I can’t find a formal definition, even in Oxford, but I’ve always taken it to be a £50 way to say “sluggish.” This point in the competition always drives me up the wall, and makes me start worrying that I’ll have a small pack to judge. I’d rather have scads of entries than a mere handful. That sends me off into the convoluted coils of Flickr, looking for evening gown shots that aren’t necessarily on theme, but might be contenders.
Please keep me from buying a bottle of St. John’s wort this year. You still have time to enter! Of course, you should do so only if you want a shot at L$25,000 and an opportunity to bask in Hollywood-like glory for a time. You know how to find the rules (grin). And, if you’re on Flickr and get an invitation from me to enter, don’t turn it down. It’s no guarantee of placement; I give the invitation to anyone who has a likely looking photo. But it is an encouragement to take your shot — or do another shot, and submit that one officially!
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