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

RFL "Rock the Cure" and "Bid Me Bald"

Even though people were celebrating in Second Life’s Seventh Birthday, Relay the Life’s quest to raise funds went on. From 10 PM SL time on Friday June 25th to 10 PM Saturday June 26 was the OD Designs Music Shop’s “OD’s Annual Rock the Cure.”

Team OD Relays 24 Hours For Life, Fun, Games, Music!!! Special Sales, Contest Boards, Free ODPoints, New Guitar Release, all to benefit the American Cancer Society, RFL!!!! We All Did Great Last Year, and This Year We All Going Do Even Better this year!!! 100% of everything the store takes in goes into the Kiosk!!!!

Beginning with a Van Halen Tribute, various DJs and live musicians rocked the store every hour for the next twenty-four hours. In addition, they sold some special items for charity. “Some rare guitars were sold,” told store director Leilani Teskat, “Some one offs and one of the very first guitars Ortho ever built. He had signed it too and sold it for all proceeds to the Relay For Life and the American Cancer Society.”

“Ortho is very, very, very big on charity work for ACS. He's very passionate about stamping out cancer. He got the whole gang of us involved like he does, some really great tribute players, with some long running tributes. Lots of DJs and also helpers too.”

“Rock the Cure” raised a total of 302,000 Lindens

* * * * *

On Monday June 28, DJ Dione Kohime was the volunteer for the Relay for Life event “Bid Me Bald.” Hosted by DJ Hansel Blaisdale at Eternal Beacon, the event took place from 7 PM SL time to 9 PM. Dione danced away during the event on a white platform above the crowd, often with one or two friends with her. At various times, she would change her hair, from long and flowing blonde, to red beehive, to shoulder-length pink, etc. Hansel, in his dirty blonde hair with pink highlights and certain shade of arm tattoos looked a little green at first when rezzing.

The spunky neko had volunteered to go bald, nothing on her head but the fuzz on her kitty ears, for one day for every 5,000 Lindens raised. By 8:30, enough had been raised to keep her bald for 8 days. During the event, a few in the audience decided to get into the act. Not by going bald, but blonde. “K, its weird seeing **** as a blonde,” someone in the audience muttered, “Stop it, you are all freaking me out.”

At the last minute, there was a push that raised the amount to 45,000 Lindens at 8:59 PM. A few more was raised in the few minutes the event went over, but it was not enough for another day. A total of 47,500 Lindens were raised. There were a few jokes afterwards about what to do next. such as getting a certain guy to go female, “Just sit around an look cute, and watch the guys ask to have sex with you in IMs. (laughter)” When someone suggested that they strong-arm a guy into going back to a “noob” look, that was dismissed as too sadistic.

And true to her word, Dione went hairless, “I guess just that this is more than just a symbolic gesture of support. It helps us bring more awareness to Relay For Life of SL. It's a simple gesture, but it's been a successful and well received one.”

Dione has her own personal page on Relay for Life: Here.

Rock on ladies,

Bixyl Shuftan