reinha da bateria/xica da silva/queen of mardi gras

at siyu suen's mardi gras 2009 ball masquerade....

it amuses me much that in my dual world, i have attended carnival in the real world and once in the dreaming, and the difference between my corporeal flesh and the pixel container of my soul is quite striking i think. it is one of my dreams to be reborn in a future life as a samba queen, a rainha da bateria, dancing at the head of a samba school, in full regalia. and so i resolved on wearing a brazilian style outfit. i was very fortunate that the first place i landed had such lovely costumes. the one that struck my eye was a bahia-style outfit. apparently the revelers in bahia wear costumes influenced by native american outfits. when i put it on the first thing that came to mind was xica da silva, the famous/notorious 18 century slave, who was the commander's mistress. i admire her and further more love the actress who played her on brazilian tv (tais araujo). it suited me very well, and so i got to work cutting it down.


siyu's parties are quite exclusive--she only lets 50 people attend for the first two hours, and to reduce lag she requires attendees to limit their ensembles to 200 prims or less. so i had to ask the maker to reduce the back piece by half, and i had to skip wearing hair, because the headpiece alone was 84 prims. all in all i was right at 200 prims. i was lucky because i had a skin with an afro on it already, so i wore that. the gown was not part of the outfit, the original being very skimpy indeed. the ball was meant to be formal, so i wore pieces from the Nicky Ree Mui dress, which magically seemed to match perfectly. my avatar eyes are very small and so i wore blue robot eyes to make them stand out of the mask a little better.

i could not take pictures as i was crashing constantly, at one point crashing during the voting. but it was quite the carnival of beauty. its probably better to look at the pictures, but there were several i thought breathtaking. one of the highlights of the evening was watching acha and momo dance. acha underwent a slight metamorphosis, but she ended in a green skin, with a flowing green skirt, and a black corset, masked and bald. momo wore gold thigh high boots, a flowing purple silk with a pattern on it and a gold belt, her purple skin and purple tipped hair. i voted for the both of them. carthalis wore an 18th century gentleman's outfit, complete with wig and cane and mask. morrigan was amazing, a swirling dryad in deep emerald silks and long black hair. north wore an amazing peacock outfit, full of feathers. there were a group of three evils, long thin women, elegantly attired in black, and looking like they were from an edward gorey book. imagine my utter surprise when the winner was announced and i had been voted queen of mardi gras. it literally never entered my head and so i was caught off guard. the evils shared the prize as an honorable mention, as was only just...i stayed on a little longer but my computer was slow and crashing and it hindered my enjoyment. so i left.

and the next day like a ghost i visited the hall where we had danced the night before, and whirled and spun in a lonely dance of my own.....................

stats:

Gloves, Top, and Skirt: DNR (Nicky Ree) Mui Magic set gold

Headpiece, necklace, shoes, hose, bracelets, tail feathers, earrings, and back piece: MF Bahia Fogo

Skin: Zulu Maiden (afro) Brazen Women Skins

Leg silks: Ronjas Golden Snake set