Into the October country
Ray Bradbury has written rather famously over the years in books and story collections about things deliciously and delightfully macabre. Evocative titles like Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Halloween Tree and From the Dust Returned hint at the fantasies and wonders to be found in the pages that lie between the covers. Of all Bradbury’s strange and wonderful autumnal fantasy titles, perhaps none more so than The October Country seems somehow to speak directly to something deep inside, something visceral, something primal. Ray’s vision is of not just a time of year but an almost-actual place where everything is slightly askew, where the weird is not at all unusual, and where the Pumpkin King reigns supreme. In autumn, the leaves fall and rot gently into the soil, the green of summer grass long gone. In autumn, the air turns crisp and cold, and often smells of bonfires. In autumn, jack-o-lanterns gleam and spirits roam the earth. In autumn, we journey into the October country.
To attire myself for my own October country journey, I began by turning to the design work of Sciffer Mortenwold. Sciffer’s clothing designs are quirky and interesting, with a slight but distinct goth sensibility…really quite perfect for the season. I particularly like the Deconstruct shirt (L$175). The fabric’s bold and clean, almost formal stripes contrast with the casually unbuttoned collar for a look that’s dressy and fine but sexy, even slinky, and not at all stuffy. The sculpted cuffs and collar are handsome and quite successful—fitting them was a matter of but a moment’s work.
These pants are called Bound (L$200), and for very good reason—they’re enhanced with a clever non-prim strap that binds the legs together, yet stretches to allow normal movement. It’s a subtle but unusual effect, something I’ve not seen done before, and I’ve had more than a few admiring comments. The sculpted cuffs are embellished with skull-motif medallions and the flexi ends of the binding strap. Subtle artwork in the fabric repeats the skull theme—the faces, once noticed, are quite clearly present, and they appear to be…screaming. The effect is unsettling, to say the least.
A relatively new SL designer, Sciffer has as yet no inworld shop for his clothing designs—you can find and purchase his creations on SL Marketplace.
I knew that nights in the October country would bring a deep chill that would go right to my bones. Fortune smiled on me in the form of this Aviator Jacket, a truly beautiful new release by Paul Lapointe in the S’Wear line at Lapointe & Bastchild. Sculpted with great precision, handsomely textured, lavishly detailed inside and out—it’s nothing short of an astonishment when the sculpties snap into “focusâ€. The proliferation of buckles alone is worth the price of admission, but then there’s the unique double-layered collar. Resize scripting makes the five separate attachments easy to fit. L$449 each in six colors (or L$999 for all six—a substantial discount) at Lapointe & Bastchild (Evocative 116, 90, 31); basic Black, naturally, is worn here. I’ve already given one of these as a gift to a very appreciative friend. He may well not be the last.
Although my look here is intentionally realistic, it’s a matter of but a few clicks to transform into a stylish contemporary demon worthy of “Supernaturalâ€. Sam and Dean would no doubt find a way to rid the world of this menace, at least for now, by the third commercial break. I’d like to think that I’d last longer, but given their track record it’s highly unlikely, unless it’s a two-parter or I have some collusive backing from Crowley, or maybe that duplicitous Castiel. The world is a safer place for mere mortals because of Sam and Dean, and we love them for it. Especially Sam. But I digress.
The October country is intriguing, beguiling, even welcoming once one finds one’s way there. Any warmth to be found will most likely be flickering at the center of a carved pumpkin, or raging at the heart of a roaring bonfire. The air will be chill, but it will also be crisp and clear, and the moon will be yellow and full. Marshmallows will be roasting somewhere just down the block. Apples will be in season. Spirits will roam the earth. Be sure to dress warmly.
I really enjoyed your writing in the introduction to this piece, Ryan. Big Ray Bradbury fan here ;*)
I got the Aviator Jacket… at first I was annoyed cause it is NO Mod with resize scripts but adapting it to my unusual body shape was rather painless. And dayum does it look nice ! Well worth the money.
There is one thing I noticed during shopping at L&B though: the colors are not explicitely written out on the ad vendors.
You ahve to guess them from the picture.
So if the daylight time is worng, if the light in the store is bad, if your hardware settings are flawed or even just if you have bad eyes, you will have trouble judging the color from the picture alone.
The difference between “black” and “black dirty” is not THAT obivous, dear merchants. L&B, you should learn from that.
MoShang – Thanks for your encouraging comment. I’m a big Bradbury fan too, as I’m sure you could tell. I like to have fun with these posts whenever I can. Connecting them to something that’s meaningful to me in RL is one good way. Thanks again!
Marcus – We’ll probably never be finished debating the pros and cons of resize scripting. For me, it definitely falls squarely into the gift/curse category. I certainly see the arguments in favor of resize scripting: it’s easier for new residents, and it allows designers to sell no-mod items that can still be adjusted. That said, I think both of these arguments only go so far. It’s certainly easier to just click and resize an attachment up or down, and I do this all the time—including when it’s possible, not just when it’s necessary, because the item is no mod. But manual resizing isn’t difficult, and it’s an at least potentially useful building skill that I think anyone can and should learn.
I think there are two main reasons designers like being able to sell no-mod items with resize scripting. The first is a desire to protect their creative work and intellectual property; the second is an effort to reduce the number of sold items that are “broken†while modding and require replacement or other customer assistance. I understand both of these motivations, and I’m deeply sympathetic with content creators who have struggled with inworld theft. And I’m sure it’s no small frustration to have to spend large amounts of time helping customers who have inadvertently ruined something they purchased…and failed to make a backup copy first. But, at the end of the day, satisfying customers has to be the name of the game, and from that perspective resize scripting, while impressive and useful, is far from a perfect solution. It’s not going away, and I’ve made my peace with it, but I can’t help wishing for something better.
What it really comes down to for me is that resize scripting is well suited for some things, but not for others. I think it’s fine for simpler accessories like shoes and belts, and as Marcus pointed out it worked very well for this jacket. (For me, it helps that the jacket is worn as five separate attachments, each of which can be resized independently. The natural flare of the jacket’s waist also helps, as it minimizes intersections with your avatar in a wide range of poses.) As far as I’m concerned, resize scripting is all but useless for hair, which for me almost always requires non-trivial editing via edit linked parts. In my experience, even resize scripting that includes a prim-position mode cannot be used for precise prim re-positioning without endangering one’s sanity. Despite improvements and enhancements that have been made to many of the widely used resize script sets, they tend to be tedious and frustrating to the point of being useless for anything other than a straightforward resize up or down.
The issue of color representation on sales vendors is another age-old problem—I can’t tell you how many times I’ve looked at the clothing colors in the vendor artwork and failed to remember that my lighting settings were anything but neutral. The absence of a text description on the vendor itself is an additional complication. Sometimes you can look at the vendor’s contents to see if the items being sold have a color named in their own descriptions. For a variety of reasons, I often look up items on the SL Marketplace, even while I’m shopping for them inworld—among other things, I can get another look at the items, often in larger, more detailed views, and I can get a hopefully more neutral look at the colors. (Problematic monitor and graphics card settings are a whole other issue.) For convenience, you can find L&B’s Aviator Jackets here. Even so, these workarounds may be handy but they’re still workarounds. Marcus’ point that designers would do well to consider the environment of their stores and descriptions on their vendors is a good one. I was in a shop not long ago that used very familiar, traditional vendor panels on the walls, but some of them were set to full bright while others were not (probably just an oversight). The full bright setting is hardly subtle, but I was surprised to see how much it helped to get a clear look at the item pictures in otherwise natural store lighting conditions. No matter what, be sure to use neutral lighting settings when shopping—you’ll be glad you did!
i purchased two shirts from Mortenwold. this designer is someone to watch!