Over the past few days, we have been trying to get through Hair Fair. It hasn't been easy. Everything I can find--most from designers and fashion blogs--squeals about how wonderfully low-lag the design is, and how perfectly sweet a setting was put together.
(Tekeli-li provides a welcome break from the Candyland nightmare.)
They also go on and on about how much money went into this, which is...not the point, is it? And frankly, if you really have to pimp those who donated, more than you pimp the charity? Something's gone wrong somewhere.
(Two chocolate jelly monoliths square off for battle.)
Locks of Love, the charity group behind Hair Fair, propels many people to come to Hair Fair and deal with the lag only in part because they love fun new hair--the other part is that they want to help support the gift of hair to those, frequently female, young people which through no fault of their own (cancer treatment, accident, or other autoimmune-system disorders that cause alopecia) have gone bald.
(The best picture I could get of Honey Hair's dripping honey-pot cottage.)
Now, I know there's another side to the story but even so, that's recent behavior--and even that's recent-ish--it still doesn't count for the donations made, and the money raised, over the course of their decade of operation.
(Pink and white, that's one thing. Cherries and faux whipped cream everywhere, okay. But shine? On just about everything??)
Now, some folks have been talking in the background about Wigs for Kids, which on the surface at least, sounds as good as Locks for Love does; but I would think the main problem would still exist, that of (at least American) donated hair being unsuitable due to frequent washing, application of products, and frequent heat treatments/dyes/bleaching sessions. So yet again, they may be set up to do much the same thing, and end up with a ton of hair they can't use.
(Full bright? DOES NOT HELP.)
All of that's beside the point, though. I remember the first Hair Fair. I remember it was two sims, and there was that odd lag spike in the middle, but for the most part, it was a fairly easy stroll, and we all got through it. Then came Hair Fair 2008, on the Rezzable sims...and all hell broke loose.
(I stood here for ten minutes for two reasons: first, I was trying to let the damned thing rez, and second, I was trying to decide if I really needed to know what all the yellow was flowing over the ground and out of the candy canes. I finally decided I not only didn't need to know, but I didn't need to wait, either, and snapped the pic.)
To this day I still don't understand the Aztec Sacrifice theme of Hair Fair 2008, but then, I completely fail to understand the cracked-out Candyland theme they've got going this year, so maybe I'm not the hair fetishist on drugs I need to be to truly understand their themes.
(The Good Ship Lollipop comes to life.)
All I know is...it was somewhat hard to move the first year; impossible to move the second without stripping down to bare prims; and beyond all hope moving this year, even with taking off everything, wandering around stark nude in a dead black single-tone skin (and I mean actually black, the little bald shadow you can see in some of these pics? That's me), with no hair, shoes, HUDs, AOs, and with nothing running in the background on Firefox.
(Milestone Creations' booth as seen from across the 'Chocolate Road' linking the four sims of Hair Fair '09.)
I pulled up some of the prim counts on the booths. I remember when it was ten or less per vendor display, and twenty or less per booth; now it's twenty or less per vendor display, and two hundred or less per booth.
Low-lag or not? This is insane.
(This booth pissed me off. I never figured out who they were; the sign never rezzed in enough. But it wasn't bad enough they had candy-striped flowers, and full-glow baby-teal/baby-pink trees; oh, no, they had to have scripted particle-spewing things outside of this overtly pastel tragedy!)
The couple wandering around in this shot? Both registered above 3700 on the ARC, too. Now, I know the ARC is invalid as a judgement system; I know it mostly just affects one's own processing speed...but even so, they caused a fair amount of resentment in people, simply because half of us were doing our best to cut down, and everyone else didn't seem to care.
(Miss Kyrianna Ares. Tattoos do not mean you're covered. This is another case of standing in one place for ten minutes, while she tried on various hair demos, and realizing she was never going to rez in.)
I won't even go into what she was wearing below the belt.
(Sari's bright little booth at Hair Fair.)
Sari Telling's place, btw? For all that it didn't rez in either, it was fresh, clean, and entirely what I've come to expect from her. The only candy connection she had was to the waffle-cone siding on the place, and if I squinted, I could blithely pretend that was ikat.
(Writhing dark tentacles on the moon...or somewhere sufficiently other-planetary.)
Enough complaining about Hair Fair. Remember when I said I was boycotting SL6B this year? Because the concept of celebrating six years of a company who doesn't ever listen to us, behave rationally, or learn from their mistakes is far, far beyond ridiculous?
Welcome to Cyber Octopus World. I got sucked in by accident, because the LKC notice didn't mention it was in SL6B.
(The tale writ in green upon the space rocks...)
This place has a whole backstory, apparently. And--if you click either the floating 'baby' octopus overhead (give plenty of time to rez things, or you won't see it), or the tentacles poking out of the shattered space wasteland directly in front, you can get the octopus head to wear, or a full 'mother octopus' avatar.
...
Seriously.
I haven't checked them out yet, but I thought, hells, I went there anyway, seems kind of ridiculous to go home with nothing to show for it...besides, 'mother octopus' wear? That's still rare on the grid.
Maybe I can wear it to Hair Fair if I go back in. Along with three belts, 250-prim legwarmers for each tentacle, and all the scripts I can pack into a set of sixteen face lights...
*coughs*
No, I'm not bitter. Why do you ask?
if I speak, I get an earful, if I don't, I'm a cad
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7 Comments:
"Low-lag"? Jeez, compared to what? Being dead?
I couldn't make it through HF '08, and damned if I didn't try again this year - perhaps saying something about my inability to learn from past mistakes. And the theme? "Candyland" is an excellent moniker.
Will anyone start to wonder if the whole concept of lots of hair vendors in one place makes sense if half the textures will never rez?
Or would it be too much to ask to have a layout of nice, plain, 0% transparency, no alpha layer, nicely enclosed boxes? For crying out loud, I could. not. care. less. about the scenery. Enough with the corny themes, already. I want to see the hair!
Hearty agreement with both of you. I can't count the number of people, myself included, who couldn't even *try on* the demos and expect them to rez--it was more a case of grab all the demos, take them home, try them on, then remember where each store was...and not much alternative beyond that.
Many hair designers have taken to sending out demos of their hair designs for Hair Fair, and this is a good trend--but even so, it doesn't go far enough.
Remember this is for charity; keep things simple; people are there to a) support the charity and b) see all the new hair designs. The design of the buildings is entirely non-essential.
What is SL6B...I went to their sim to hear an advertised comedian, waited around 15 minutes past the scheduled time, asked if the show might begin shortly and was ejected. They do not seem very friendly.
Really? That's all you asked and you got bounced for it?
SL6B refers to Second Life's sixth-year celebration--which means it's supposed to be an event that celebrates every visionary moment on SL--historically, currently, anything we can be, anything we can dream.
That's supposed to be what it is. Last year, they pulled a great deal of controversy down because a) they made a spur-of-the-moment decision not to allow female nudity (think statues, here: someone who had imported an image of the Venus de Milo was told she had to take it down; she pulled up the base texture, and airbrushed out the nipples, and brought it back in, and was told grudgingly that would work), though male nudity seemed perfectly fine, and b) not to allow any portrayal of children standing next to adults, in any context--even SL family photos and perfectly, fully dressed PG crowd shots.
Yowsers, HF sounds as hard to navigate as ever then - I'm with Rhianon, Otenth & Emilly: keep it simple so we can get it!
In fact, I'm past asking for things to be demoed *there*--have everyone bundle up everything in a set of demo boxes rezzed out at the landing point. Pop in, pick everything up, try everything on--take notes--then come back, buy what you want and leave.
No fancy sculpted candy houses, no bleeding heartless Aztecs--just merchants selling things, people buying things, and money going to charity.
We're all happy. Why would this not work?
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