Dear Friends, Clients, Collaborators, and all those associated with Last Call by DHC,
I am posting a formal statement to address the current squall of rumors, innuendos and libelous accusations circulating the gossip/ Blog market. Allow me to state first that this is in now way shape or form a publicity stunt, marketing scheme, or plot for financial advancement. It is solely and whole heartedly an attempt at honesty in light of a very sudden and tragic development in my life and the lives of all those touched by my lifelong best friend. Now before anyone gets all bent out of shape, and complains that their feelings are hurt by what I am about to say, I would ask that everyone takes a moment to stop and consider what has been achieved through both the Dazzle and Last Call fashion lines.
For the past two years, Dazzle and Last Call has been a cooperative effort between two best friends sharing a house, a life, and a business. One of the partners concentrated wholly on the creative process through Photoshop and Lightwave (only occasionally setting foot in SL) while the other not only performed all of these tasks but also handled the majority of the Avatar based portion of the business.
–As I asked earlier, take a moment to think about the quality and quantity of product created under the DHC and LC lines before you feel as though you have been misled (we did not lie about the partnership running DHC/LC, and on one was ever concerned enough to ask). If you compare what we built to that of any other designer in SL (you know for a FACT was operating as an individual) it becomes obvious that at least two people ran DHC/LC. Yes, without a doubt there are solo designers of equal quality, BUT has a single content creator ever been able to produce in the prodigious quantities we achieved as a team? We once tried to expose the public to this notion of dual creatorship at LC through Katterina Dagostion’s line, but realized quickly that Ginny Talamasca was the heart and soul associated with both DHC and LC. At which point we returned to the original system of producing under Ginny alone for the woman’s line.--
We each had individual avatars and always conducted ourselves according to the laws of Linden Labs Second life and the social rules/norms enacted by the community at large. That being said, yes, SL has been notified of the current situation and has received all pertinent paperwork they requested for an event such as this.
Now for the hard Part…
As 10:32am late October, the LC member not writing this post was suddenly, tragically, and absolutely unnecessarily taken from the lives of all those who knew him, loved him, and/or simply enjoyed that little piece of his being reflected in every item he created. I will say it now one more time for all of the gossipers and blogger, this is NOT, NOT a stun or a ploy. I wish with every fiber of my being that such a sentiment were true, and that someone out there could prove me wrong, but alas some events are too horrific for any person with a modicum of a soul to fabricate. This being such an instance!
After reading blogs and receiving note cards of conversational snippets traversing the grid, I am asking that everyone please, please not bother, badger, and/or harass any member of the Quad at this point in time. The owners of those Sims closed their businesses for approximately five days last week out of respect and mourning for a friend senselessly taken long before his time. Again, IT WAS NOT A STUNT for monetary gain!! (How can anyone make money off a business when it is closed for five days?)
Currently the future of LC will remain unwritten and all plans and prospects previously lain out for the future have paled in the shadow of my grief. I ask only for patience in this period of transition so that I may allow my emotions to level out and so that a thoughtful decision can be made as to the future of LC by DHC.
I ask that all questions, concerns, and/or customer service requests be put to Ginny Talamasca in the form of a NOTE CARD only.( IMs will cap and most likely not be received) I will be logging in briefly 1-2x a day solely for the purpose of business related events. The turn around time on those cards will be slower than usual but I promise to answer them with all due haste. As to the question of when I shall produce again? That I am not sure and can only offer the hope that I will be able to approach a computer without falling apart sometime before The New Year.
Thank you to all those who loved my best friend, appreciated his style, his aesthetic, and more importantly his presence. He is greatly missed and forever lost, but I hope that every time someone thinks of LC they take a second to think of what he gave and not what has been lost.
Thank you
“Je me souviens de rien
Le temps m’emporte un peu loin
Tout m’entraîne et s’envolent
Les visage, les parfums
Les souvenirs, ceux que al lumière éteint
Dès que la nuit revient, je me souviens trop bien”
--Patricia Kaas ‘Je me Souviens de Rien’