Remember, remember, the 5th of November, gunpowder, treason and plot

It’s November 5th, ‘Guy Fawkes Day’ in England, when we hold bonfires and burn an effigy of ‘Guy’ to recall a plot to blow up parliament in 1605.

In recent years the event has sometimes been a little bit politicised, with the effigy of ‘Guy’ being replaced with more contemporary hate figures.

Prime Minister David Cameron is being torched somewhere tonight, a reaction to what’s perceived to be an uncaring government.

As I type, a march is underway in London to protest against the government.

Being dubbed the ‘million mask march’, a nod towards America’s ‘Million Man March‘, the mood can be seen above. ‘Our bank owners are our slave masters : wake up!’ is the general sort of message that gets delivered. Yes, that’s Nelson’s Column in the background of the photo. Yes, that’s central London right now. And yes, I’m not so very far away from where this photo was taken, right now, as I’m in London on work related matters today and tomorrow.

Guy’s image has been appropriated recently in the wake of the film V for Vendetta, and is growing into a symbol of resistance to government actions in many countries around the world.

I got a Guy mask on the Marketplace for L$0, and my protest, if I have one, is the manner in which some sim owners and Second Life bloggers object to nudity, with even skin designers blogging their products with ‘pasties’ or pixelation. It’s a computer game’s depiction of the male or female form. Everyone reading possess one or the other, and blurring, pastifying, or being in general denial of what each of us has is silly.

Back to ‘the southern hemisphere’ tomorrow after a flying visit home.

Abigail

It all began with the photo above, of a couple of older people, perhaps not even ‘naturists’, leaping from a dock into water, with a positive message about not caring what anyone else thinks. I just loved the positivity of it all.

Maybe they’re going skinny dipping for the first time, just grabbing an opportunity. One thing then led to another, less regarding ‘older’ naturists or skinny dippers, but that moment of entry into water, a leap into the unknown, not unlike a first time naturist experience.

So I looked and found

Leaps, dives, moments of entry, a sheer sense of skinny-dipping joy in each.

The Belleck House sim has its own dock, so I asked Nan, an older avatar I know, if she’d like to pose for me, as there’s a couple of superb animations at the dock that capture the sense of joy in that leap, while still acknowledging the ‘older’ skinny dipper of the first photo.

I didn’t try to make them ‘arty’ at all. These are raw photos. I just felt that they’re one of the very best SL animations I’ve seen in a long time.

Diane