One of the things you witness, if you’re up early enough in the morning on summer holidays, is that locals walk their dogs on the beach, be it in a textile or naturist location.

In France, in Spain and in Croatia, my usual naturist summer destinations, this is a fact of life.

On naturist beaches, the dog-walker may also be nude. It’s just part of the routine. Equally, as the sun is rising and a slight breeze may be blowing, it can feel just a little chilly on the beach, so the dog walker, male or female, has maybe thrown on a T shirt of some description. I’m often surprised how often that seems to be a ‘uniform’ of sorts, one of those loose, cool, linen shirts that form part of many people’s wardrobe for summer.

We’ve bought our very own puppy, a beagle called ‘Fang’ (because ‘Fang’ isn’t a very beagle-y name) and so I decided to walk him on the beach, replicating a familiar scene from holidays (naturist or textile).

You can see, day one, that a breeze was blowing, so I decided to wear a full shirt and trousers ensemble I bought on the Marketplace (L$250). Yes, it’s the mens version, because I wanted it specifically to have a billowy, loose look.

Fang looks like a little rascal, doesn’t he? 🙂

By the second day’s walk, it felt warm enough just to throw on the shirt and dispense with the pants, reprising a familiar naturist beach morning.

Fang came from Miki’s Pet Shop, and comes with his own kennel, food bowl, ball to play with and a little tree to have a pee against 🙂 The best L$450 ever spent in Second Life!

On morning three I felt more energetic, and decided to have a jog, another familiar look from the early morning beach, before it gets too hot to jog or run.

My male friend decided to accompany me, and so we adopted the familiar jogging outfits of naturist destinations. For a male, that comprises of trainers (and optional socks), whereas female joggers very often put on a sports bra to stop that painful boob bounce that occurs when jogging. Both of our outfits came from Plausible Body. The shoes are designed with female avatars in mind, so my companion’s trainers look a little on the small size, but there’s lots of trainers available for male avatars around the grid.

Abigail.

In life, few of us will pack in as much, or be as ground-breaking, as David Bowie.

Being a woman of a certain age, his music has been with me, well, forever! Part of his appeal, part of his talent, part of his genius was the manner in which he was able to effortlessly move between characters. Ziggy Stardust. The Thin White Duke. Mod. Aladdin Sane. Pierrot (Ashes to Ashes video, embracing the post-punk/synth-pop era readily as the scenery changed again). Never standing still. Shape-shifting. Evolving.

In life, most of us go through many fewer scene changes. Teenager. University student. Employee. Spouse. Parent.

In Second Life, though, we have the capacity to be our own Bowie, changing skins, hairstyles, clothes, look at will. And with that, often, we reinvent our Second Life character.

Some of David Bowie is certainly in Second Life. Gender-fluidity, for example, was a large cultural change he managed to effect in Britain (and around the world), and thus have an effect society. Without his look, his words, would the ‘Is that a boy or a girl?’ image of him singing ‘John, I’m only dancing’ on British TV show Top of the Pops, and the outpourings of homophobic attitude at the time, would not have led to a future Top of The Pops less than a decade later when macho lorry drivers would say, of Boy George, ‘he might be a poof, but I’d sleep with him’. Bowie changed people’s mindsets to the very nature of sexuality.

Many people now embrace the fluidity of sexuality within their Second Lives. We change our look as often as Ziggy, the lad insane, once did.

Rest in Peace, David. The shape-shifting possibilities of Second Life owe something to you.

Trine