Madonna's "Cancer's Worst Nightmare"

By Bixyl Shuftan

Avatar challenges are nothing new for the Relay for Life in Second Life."Bid Me Bald" has been fairly popular among Relay teams for several years. Others have come up over the years from "Bid Me Human" in teams with furs, "Bid Me Biggie" among tinies, "Bid Me Pink" being a recent one for the Sunbeamer Team. But Madonna Daehlie, best known for taking part in Relay events, such as her DJing, in her distinctive rubber suit and tall blonde hair, took her avatar challenge to a new, and somewhat disturbing, direction: her "Bid a Nightmare to End a Nightmare" for Team Shadow.

Madonna has been injected with something awful and it gave her cockroach  arms like the woman/creature from "Nightmare on Elm street." What was the mad woman in the sweater said? "Live a nightmare to end a nightmare like cancer." So 20K for each week you wanna see Madonna bugged out cockroach style .We need to cure cancer more than Madonna needs human arms so let's put cancer in a roach motel and make Madonna creepy crawly to benefit Relay. Let's really BUG cancer.

The day of the event was July 5. I dropped by the Silver Creek sim where it was taking place.
Team Shadow. Madonna herself, the effects of the mutagen not having quite taken effect, yet, was bench pressing weights. Looking her over in a "Freddy Krugger" outfit was Rhea (rheata). Oldesoul Eldemar wasn't far away, and on stage were Gem Sunkiller and Sasha Fairywren along with Peter Savage (petersmith) and Shadow (victor.jaggernov), playing some tunes.

"Just in time Bixyl," Gem told me, "(It's) happening now." Rhea then told hold of Madonna's barbell, pressing on it, "Remember that shot I gave you some weeks back?" Madonna grunted as she struggled with the additional force on the weights. Rhea continued, "Well, that little beauty reactivates with exercise. Remember what I said about living a nightmare to end the nightmare of cancer?" Madonna nodded, looking fearful. Rhea then took hold of the barbell, and flung it aside with what seemed like impossible strength, "The nightmare starts now and lasts as long as the bidders have paid for. That's nine weeks with at least one more donations coming."

As the band changed their music to the theme of "Phantom of the Opera," Rhea shoved Madonna upright, and the transformation began, her arms turning lengthening and developing hard exoskeleton and barbs, resembling the limbs of a cockroach, "Eeeeeeek!! Owwwwwwww! Hey, Sis? We have a crazy woman on this team!" Sasha shuddered, "Look out, Madonna!" then after a pause, "Ohh my gaaahd ! She looks like a Nightmare!" The girl in the rubber suit looked herself over, "Geez, this is one hell of a makeover!" Looking at Sasha, "Well, uhhh, Sissy.. Thank goodness there's no tambourine in this song.. I couldn't play a tambourine now."

Commenting over a certain line in the "Phantom" song, Sasha commented, "Power over you? Yeahhhh. And I don't think ,it's all inside your mind.. looks like it's pretty much outside you, Sis." Madonna blushed and noded.. "I'd say so..." Peter commented, "Whoaaaa! Ya def gonna bug cancer, Mady.  And ya fightin' back. Daaamn."

In total, the "Nightmare" fundraiser took in 180,350 for Team Shadow

"Thank you again - for tonight, and all your help the last 6 weeks."

Bixyl Shuftan

Gina Gracemount's "Bid Me Bald"

By Bixyl Shuftan

On Wednesday May 8th, the Relay Rockers held another of their "Bid Me Bald" events. Their first one was on March 27th when T1 Radio owner and Rocker Co-Captain Trader Whiplash received the season's first shave. Since then, others have had their moment in the team's barber chair, placed prominently on the team's stage at their beach location. And on this day, Second Life Newser happened to have a reporter on the scene for their latest: Gina Gracemount.


Gina, a Jazz and Blues singer on the Grid, had offered to put her hair on the line, going bald for every 5,000 Lindens raised. With 70,000 raised, this meant a shiny scalp for two weeks. And so wearing a "Don't Panic, Go Shop" shirt, she bravely approached the leather seat next to the barber pole, with Trader playing the 60s tune, "Long Beautiful Hair." Her friend Dillon Janus, whom was already bald, sported the scissors, "Hee-hee! Have a seat."

As she sat on the chair, Janus kept poking his leg when lowering his hand. "Watch the ears!!" Gina shouted. Trader grinned, "Gina, we have sutures handy." "Oh, so you are used to blood then?" "Fiz's ear healed pretty quickly after we sewed it back on." "I feel a sting on my neck! Careful!"

And so the deed was done, one lady commenting, "I hesitate between calling you Britney Gracemount or Gina O'Connor."

But it was then Gina's turn for revenge. Dillon had agreed to go along with her in the "Bid Me Bald." But as he already sported a bare scalp, something else was called for. "Oh, you haven't seen what he's agreed to wear this time," Gina grinned. And so, the guy's shirt vanished, replaced by a black and pink blouse, and his pants faded into the virtual nether, with a frilly poodle skirt taking their place. The crowd reacted with laughter, "Oh *Lawd*, Dillon!" And to top it off, he sat in the chair for Gina to place on him a womens' wig, gluing it on, "A little squirt here, and across the forehead, yep, think you are ready to go!"

The chuckles continued, "and you still didn't shave your legs, (laughter)!" "I love the saddle shoes and bobbie sox." "The chest hairs really set the whole thing off!" "Oh we love you Dillon!" "Now he is prettier than me, (sigh)." "(I) just hope his poodle skirt don't have a lil accident on the carpet!" One girl dropped a bar of soap in front of the charity cross-dresser. With all the funnery, Gina and Dillon joined the Rockers on the beach dancing away.

Despite her now hairless look, Gina gave thanks, "Trader, thank you to you and your team... without you organizing these events, and the effort you put in, we couldn't raise half as much!" She also thanked, "Ms Tina, who has been in personal charge of the 'get Dillon to wear a skirt' campaign (laughter)."

The Relay Rocker's beach location, T1 Radio's Classic Rock Club, is at Arinultra Cay (182, 26, 24). So far this season, they have raised over 1,500,000 Lindens ($6200), making the Saphire-ranked team the second highest in cash raised for the American Cancer Society.

Bixyl Shuftan

Passionate Redheads' "Bid Dusk … Something"

On Friday May 19th, the Passionate Redheads held their second "Bid Me" event for the season. This one had a few interesting twists, including the subject: their new leader.

Dusk Griswold, the co-captain of the Passionate Redheads, was offering herself up on the bidding block for Friday May 18th. She wanted something different than the "Bid Me Human" event the previous week. Sunweaver leader Rita Mariner, whom had many of the Redheads living in her estates, joked the theme should be to bid her naked. Such an event would have been shot down by the Relay organizers, but the joke did promote discussion. It was decided that the event would have multiple kiosks, one for those donating to keep Dusk as she was, the others for each option as to what she should be.

Several options were suggested, including human and micro. In the end, the number of kiosks was limited to four. The first was for those wanting to leave her a vixen. The second was to turn her purple. The third was to make her a canine, the joke being Dusk had a dislike of dogs. And the fourth was an unusual choice of avatar: bird. And so, the following announcement was given.


RLF: Bid Dusk (?) event beginning in a few. 4 kiosks set up for you to vote if she stays the same, or changes to something else. 'Paint SL purple' theme, so get on your best purples!

And on Friday May 18th, a number of Redheads gathered at the Sunweaver Estates' Cutlass Club. There was a prize for "Best in Purple" to reflect it being "Paint Second Life Purple" week. But the real event was for the bid on Dusk, or "Ginger" as her display name has recently been, with it's four kiosks. For some reason, the bird kiosk took on an early lead, one that Rita soon cemented with some sizable donations. And soon the bird jokes began to fly, "Looks like Dusk will be a chicken soon." "Her goose is cooked." "I want some breast meat."

Yours truly wasn't able to see the whole event, having to leave well before it's conclusion. But I did hear of the results. The event raised less than the previous "Bid Me" event, but it did bring in about 5,000 more Lindens. And the winning kiosk? The team had given Dusk the bird, and thus made her the bird. Dusk would be a purple phoenix bird avatar until the next event.

As of now, the total raised by the Passionate Redheads is just under 140,000 Lindens. Other Relay events this weekend included an Elvis Tribute, and a "Poker" game by Sail 4 Life.

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Also on Friday May19th, there was an announcement from Daaneth Kivioq. "Effective immediately" he was giving up his leadership position, endorsing Dusk Griswold as Captain "for the rest of the season.  I will remain as active as I am able, and I will attend as many events as I can.  I am still passionate about my support for this wonderful team."

Dusk says she will hold onto her position until Sabine McGettin, whom took a temporary leave,  is ready to lead the team again.

Bixyl Shuftan