private eye

i am very fond of koinup....they have the most interestingly cool things there. i rely on it most to find new and interesting sims. and by extension i end up learning new and ever more obscure factoids. like enka, a style of japanese music.



this sim is apparently a kind of red light district prevalent in japan before wwii. i was wearing a newly acquired accessory from a designer i like but who has appeared to be inactive for nearly 2 years. its apparently for photographing ghosts. if there are any in second life, i can't say i have seen them, but it made me think of private eyes snooping around. and i wandered around but found no ghosts to speak of.

juana p.i. wears:

egyptian dress by fumi
peppa hair by diversity hair
trophy skulls hat by i love 13
neck corset by ru
hair rose wine by gfield
skull pendant, coffee bangles, & armlets by grim bros
apneatic embrace corset & stockings by blacklist
carpe noctem shoes by nightshade designs
dollhouse skin 25 by lionskins
camera obscura, heaven's tears eyes, and pose by tohru

in the akesan sim
listening to Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuss auf Liebe engestelt
sung by marlene dietrich

teddy bear hotel....and shiny innards

all work and no play makes juana a dull girl. so i had to rectify the situation, wandering in SL.

i visited poetik velvets, and found myself highly amused at one of teh doorways in the hotel. one of them opened into a large gullet leading into various stomachs. you pass through steaming puddles of digestive juices, with the most evocative background noises, and at the end of it all is a vast room with prim noobs being digested. most amusingly one was labeled "phillip linden".

of course i had to pose with such an important personage.

my amusement with entrails goes back quite into the mists of my personal history. sadly they were often a part of our daily lives, as tripe is considered a delicacy among my peeps. it's so gross, but i remember very distinctly seeing goats slaughtered and their intestines removed, cleaned, and cooked.

later in life i had another little brush with entrail-dom. i think i must be one of the few people who has ever been complimented on their intestines. during my caesarean an unnamed person remarked very amused, that my guts were very pretty, all pink and shiny. i was conscious at the time (heavily drugged) and not amused at all. but now that it's past it makes me laugh because it is sort of funny, in a peculiar sort of way. its not every day that one's entrails get complimented on their beauty.

which brings us to the other doorway....

it was full of teddy bears. apparently there's a 50s children's book featuring teddy bears and dolls in subversively naughty scenarios...i could not resist.

i could hear tedi's voice saying the vilest of things as i wandered through the dollhouse doing semi-questionable things with the teddy bears most thoughtfully provided by the hotel.

the naughty doll juana wears:

sleeps with butterflies gown set by gauze
harajuku streetwalker shoes by the black canary
Xia hair by DrL
forbidden 14 skin by LionSkins
cut gloves from brood set, KC designs
curlicue undershirt, chichi set, cutea benelli
stockings from Misa set by sugar
cigarette by primitive design.

in the hotel at poetik velvets.....down the hallway, left and right doors.

murderous ballerina

everything old is new again.

at least it seems that way. but my infatuation with visual kei continues unabated. this is an old dress, and an old outfit, remixed.

though this reminds me more of what juana might throw on in the middle of the night to run to the drugstore to buy razors and tampons.

despite the expression of despair, it was a happy occasion, being a shopping excursion to a new place i'd not been before.....made in hell.

the disheveled midnight ballerina wears:

skin: forbidden 20 by lionskins
hair: rQ Coy Noir
Collar from Ouka Saki Some ni Keri, armbands from the Amaya set and gloves from Gauze set by Gauze
Immaculate heart necklace by Tekeli'li
Candy tattoo MiaSnow
Murder Ballerina tutu, pants, and top by Snatch
Cut Stockings Brood Set by KC Fashions
Black Widow boots by Nightshade designs
Coffin ring by Schadenfreude

gothic oiran part two

wandering the grimy streets of sick..........

this is one of those outfits, that one must keep picking at like a scab. it is probably among my most favorite outfits. in the intervening days i had bought an Oiran outfit from Sweetaholic, my most favored kimono vendors. I put it on and loved it, but still the gothic oiran wanted to come out. so i went to Sick, a lovely dingy japanese-esque cyberpunk sim, and hung out in a seedy bar......in the interests of hiding ugly prim feet i wore dark tabi, which i hear is a total no-no. but to hell with it, i hate SL feet. And the adorable toothed geta from Sweetaholic--utterly charming...........

the bored and weary oiran wears:

gothic oiran kimono: Illuminati Ouka Saki Some ni Keri
other clothes: Susie Armwarmers barbed wire, trick pants
hair: Sweetaholic Oiran set (comes with combs)
skin: Clown skin (Crossed out)
pipe: (kiseru) Sweetaholic Oiran set
Geta: Sweetaholic Oiran set

gothic oiran

Originally uploaded by al-zahra

i meant to post this earlier but sometimes it seems an outfit evolves.....i found this magnificent outfit from a place called "Illuminati." I didn't realize at the time that it was based on an actual outfit worn by a j-rock band. I have always been fascinated by courtesans, and oirans completely enthrall me. when i first got this outfit, i went to a dirty peepshow sim to dance, thinking that it was appropriate for an oiran. but then i laughed because i am sure my friends wondered what the hell i was doing there.

i wonder though what i am truly saying in kimono-ese, to those in the know, but what struck me was the gothic styling of this, and the distinctive front tying obi, which distinguishes it from a geisha's outfit. so i removed some of the pieces and added some gothic accessories like armwarmers and pants, thinking that this is what a cybergothic oiran would wear as she paraded down the street going to her next assignation.

my new favorite outfit
Originally uploaded by al-zahra

this first version stats:

kanzashi: Ookami Ningen Silvered Kanzashi
hair rose: GF suede Black rose hairpin
gothic oiran kimono: Illuminati Ouka Saki Some ni Keri
tother clothes: Susie Armwarmers barbed wire, trick pants, Goth boots
hair: Magika Lucy
skin: Whispers of Night Deathly F Lost Gloom Stalker
fan: Sweetaholic Rose particle fans
Abranimations Geisha dance

poor mermaid

poor mermaid
Originally uploaded by al-zahra

i'ld been on a binge looking for clothes to wear for grady and momo's party. while searching like mad, i found this impressively detailed japanese mermaid outfit. my conception of mermaids has always been a bit dark, reinforced by the scene in onmiyoji where lady aone eats mermaid flesh to remain young forever--and the bone dress graphite version, which i have struggled with, seemed to fit really well with it. and so this is my favorite outfit now.

i went to the whale basin at alpha auer's sim, syncretia, and made my poor little avatar dance underwater.

Mermaid costume and AO and dance by Kami-Hitoe, custom skin by Nomine, nosering by AVZ, black rose ring from GF, skirt, tophat, and chest attachment from Graphite Bone dress by Cutea Benelli.