Sunday, May 3rd, 2009
The last 24 hours have been hectic around the venue as Anrol Anthony and Steve101 McCullough renewed their wedding vows in a recreation of an 18th century cathedral. The models and pageant participants helped in this effort by playing the roles of the clergy for what turned out to be a lovely ceremony last night.
My congratulations to the happy couple and wish them many years of happiness together.
Saturday, May 2nd, 2009
The theme for the night was “belly piercing.”
Yea. That’s right, belly piercing.
I confess, when I first saw this my first thought was, “Buh?!”
I mean what guy wears a belly button piercing?
Um. Well, seems like the answer to that is, “A lot.” I did some research and found out that I lead a sheltered existence. Men frequently have an “inverse” pierce and the most commonly used is a simple ball and bar. So, that was where I began. I ended up here:
This is difficult to show in pictures without doing a lot of them really close up, but that pic should give the sense of it. At the navel, I have three gold beads arranged on a loop. I’m also wearing a matching gold ear clip with a single ball at the lobe and a pair through my upper ear. For balance, I added a simple eyebrow ring on my right eyebrow.
The challenge after that was finding the outfit that let the piercings show and still created a uniform look. In my world, this much metal in skin is associated with “old war wounds” and not high fashion, so I followed that idea with the V-Twins “Rush” Jacket, a pair of Original AlphaMale jeans and my favorite Boho Sandals from Shiny things. A pair of fingerless gloves, a bearded face from Belleza’s Thomas, and :sey’s edokin necklace gave the outfit a level of cohesion I’m not really able to do all the time.
In addition to the outfit, I spent some time this week looking for a better walk. My old walk was pretty good, but I’ve really been wanting a walk that didn’t act so much like I was lumbering around the stage. Something with a little snap, crackle, pop. I found it in the new Vista Animations “VAmocwalk1.5vacilon” in the new AO vendor at the main store. At 150L it was pricey but I love the way it makes me strut.
Last, I’ve been tweaking the shape. I think I look ok in my normal Roland shape, but I’ve been looking at some of the other male models around and, frankly, I look kinda whimpy. So for the last couple of days I’ve been adding the odd tweak and adjustment to go for a more broad shouldered, “dark and angry” look that matches what I’m seeing around me in terms of models.
I was really pleased with the look as I went out. My goal was to put together the best look I could and this was it.
The Result
A shocking Third Place.
There were a lot of good looking belly piercings and some fantastic looks. It was a total surprise when I heard my name called for third place.
What Would I Do Differently?
Given that the contest was on the Beach Stage, I might have gone with a beachie theme, or perhaps my short-denim shorts and an open shirt. The outfit would have to be simple, to keep from overwhelming the simple design of the jewelry
Rather than the gold ball-and-bar design, something with more point and edge might have given a nice look as well, particularly if done in silver.
In any event, I got more than my 2 votes toinight and I’m tickled.
Stuff
Jacket: VTwins “Rush” Motorcycle Jacket
Gloves: VTwins fingerless gloves
Jeans: Alphamale – Original
Sandals: Bo-Ho Sandals from Shiney Things
Necklace: :sey – edokin
Piercings: Roland Zepp
Skin: Belleza – Thomas Tan Bald 2
Hair: Unclewebs – Hibiki (coffee)