It's Moving Day!

I figured it was time for a change, and since I'm fairly happy with most things, I'll do a little change...soooo...


From now on, this blog's going to be hosted over at http://spacemanopus.wordpress.com. Why? I dunno...I swear, blogger.com...it's not you, it's me.

Hope you enjoy the new space as much as the old space. I doubt it'll make me post more, but hey...ya never know :-)

Dang time flies!

Man, I thought I just updated this thing :-)

Well, shows have been going well, and not so well.. I had a week or so of great crowds, then a week of 9 people total over three shows...that and some of the other usual stuff of late made for a depressing week last week, but so far this week I've played to some great crowds, and been getting to a lot more shows by other artists. The Live Music Scene in SL is just amazing these days...a lot of competition at the times I'm able to play in, but there's just so much great talent spilling onto the grid now. Check out a show whenever you can!

Now, for some Spacey news:

Last week, I was Resident Of The Week in The Metaverse Messenger. Check out my deepest thoughts about SL....hehe :-)

I'm also in a couple YouTube Videos, Check out a short clip from Crazy Sharks here, and a full version of Throwin' Stones from The Merry Prankster here. Sound could be better, but that's on my end...I'm workin on it :-)

And...shows, shows, shows!

Friday I'm at Crystal Sands at 5 (yay!) Saturday I have my regular slot at Crazy Sharks at 2 SLT, Sunday at 5 SLT I'm back at Bay Vista for the first time in more than 4 months....wrist injuries SUCK!! And of course, back at The Merry Prankster Monday at 5 SLT for Good Ol' Grateful Dead Night.



That about does it for this episode...tune in next time!

:-)

Another weekend, another bunch O' shows...

Hiya!

Well some shows this weekend, including a new aspect to Spacey...he's a DJ too!

Thursday (tonight) at 5 SLT, I'm at The Smoldering Joint, which still has the best club name anywhere in my experience.

Tomorrow, I'm over at Crystal Sands again at 6 SLT. Hopefully I'll be allowed backstage after last weeks debacle (again..sorry about the carpet, guys).

Then Saturday, I'm helping my dear friends Rose Farina, Irelyn Christensen, and Pukk Abel open their new sim "Ooohlala Mode". The fun there starts at 1 SLT, with Niko Donburi, then Cylindrian Rutabaga melts us all at 2. At 3, I'm gonna DJ for an hour or so, take a well deserved nap, and come back at 5 SLT for a live set of the usual stuff...then Rose is gonna take over the Wheels of Steel and spin some tunes for us til the wee hours (or so she says).

That about does it for this weekend...see y'all soon!






(See....now this is how *not* to do drama.....)

;-)

Welcome back my friends to the Show that never ends...

Crystal Sands was a blast! What a great place to play...great crowd, even a backstage area to hang out and get plastered in before going onstage (sorry about the burn marks on the carpet, guys).

So a couple days off to make sure the wrist is doing OK...seems to be so far, so I'm happy...then a full weekend coming up:

Saturday at 1 SLT, I'm performing at The Abyss Museum of Ocean Science, a fantastic build in SL. The opening in November won New World Notes Best Educational event in SL for 2007. Run by a pair of the best sculptors in SL, this build takes you to the extreme depths of the ocean to meet some interesting creatures.

(UPDATE) Then at 4 SLT, I'm back on the stage at Crazy Sharks, instilling fear into the hearts of the evil bunnies that lurk there :-)

Sunday, I've got two 1/2 hour shows...one at Sterling Vineyard's Weekly Open Mic at 3 SLT, then at 5:30 SLT, I'm playing at The Merry Prankster's 500th member party. That will have been going on for an hour or so once I get there, so please forgive any drunken nudity that may (or may not) occur.

That about does it for me....Thanks once again to everyone for all their support the last couple weeks. I wouldn't still be playing without you guys.

:-)

I'm baack! :-)

Yeah, it wasn't that long of a break after all...I found what I needed most was to play. So I started back at Prankster's, did the usual Dead plus a few others. It was cathartic...some songs took on new meaning for me, others that had meaning really didn't anymore...a very interesting experience. There were a few people there that knew what I have been going through, and that support and random IM hugs helped a lot :-)

And why not go right back in tomorrow with another show...this time at Crystal Sands at 6 SLT. It's my debut there, they opened right around the time my wrist started acting up and I never got the chance to play. Hope to see a lot of Spaceheads there, and maybe make a few new ones while I'm there...goodness knows there's plenty of room in the group now :-)

See ya!

Isn't that the way these things go?

So, as soon as my wrist felt better enough to start playing again, something else went awry that's gonna keep me from playing for a while :-(

To all of my friends that have poured out of the woodwork the last few days, I offer my heartfelt thanks. You know I would do the same for any and all of you, and that's really all I can say about that. I'll never forget it.

To all the Spaceheads that I so unceremoniously removed from the group, I'm sorry. I do need a break from playing to collect my thoughts and edit some of the song list, but I will be back soon. The Spaceheads group is still alive, so feel free to join whenever if you have a free group slot, or I'll get ya back in next time you see me playing.

To Rose: You kept me sane this week. I have the discharge papers to prove it. Thank you.

And Yummie. I don't think I need to say a word...just...

:-)





See y'all soon!

Well, I suppose that's one way...

Yes, I don't update my blog very often, I know...but a chain letter, Sunn? ;-D *FINE* .

My good friend Sunn sent me this...apparently I am now required by laws of the universe too complex for mortals to understand to post 8 random things about myself, then challenge 8 random friends to do the same about themselves on their blogs. There was one story in the note he sent me about Mrs. Sherman Q. from Lockridge, Iowa. She only posted 6 random things about herself. The next day, her husband left her for a lemur, her pastor converted to Zoroastrianism, and fingernails started to grow out of her nose. So......

1. I named my 15 year-old cat after my favorite Beatles song.

2. I have competed against the world record holder for Joggling 100 meters (juggling and running at the same time) in an official race (I lost).

3. I have a black belt in karate.

4. Although it's a male name, my son is named after Cass Elliott's daughter.

5. I'm not a fan of piña coladas, or getting caught in the rain.

6. I have a fortune cookie fortune taped to my monitor: "Your love of music will be an important part of your life."

7. It only took me a minute and a half to find the "ñ" in "piña colada" on the Windows character map.

8. I used to put a cassette recorder in front of the TV and record episodes of The Monkees and fall asleep to them.

Welp, that's about it for "Spacey at a Glance". Tune in next month when we find out the answer to burning questions such as "What's Spaceman's favorite pasta topping?".

I suppose I gotta post the 8 people I'm sending this to now...and since she hasn't posted to her blog since September...I'll start with Irelyn, then move onto Rose, and flip it over towards.....Rosa might like it, Grateful can do it on his MySpace, Jaycatt cuz I'm at a show of his as I type this, Dolmere cuz I don't see it on his blog in the last few weeks, and....hey, look! Rez has a blog!

Anyone complains, I'm sending 'em to you, Sunn...

Ow Ow Ow Ow Ow!

Well....I've officially gone two weeks without doing a show. It started a few weeks ago, when I felt my old case of tendinitis coming back. I've had it in both wrists since I was a teenager, and one or the other wrist flares up once a year or so. A few days of extra advil and a wrist brace usually do the trick.

Not this time. I stayed off the guitar for a while, canceled a few shows, but the pain kept getting worse. I finally went to the doctor a few days ago, and was diagnosed with De Quervain's Tenosynovitis (affects under the thumb area) and Wrist Intersection Syndrome (affects the upper forearm). They put me on some anti inflammatories (nothing good tho...jerks) and gave me a cortisone shot. They told me the area around the shot might be sore for a few days, what they didn't tell me was their definition of "sore" and mine are completely different. It felt like someone punched the same spot on my arm about 150 times.

After that wore off, it was supposed to feel better, but it's not just yet. I've canceled my shows for the next week, and I'm just taking it easy on the wrist for now. Haven't picked up the guitar since the day of the Dr. appointment, and I start physical therapy on it in 10 days. As soon as I start feeling better, I'll post here, schedule more shows and be back banging on the strings...but until then...

Stay Spacey!

OK...quick change of subject

Never mind :-) I found what I was looking for...

Wait, you gotta update these things?

So there's this guy, see...He told me I need to update my blog or he'd break my legs. Man, since blogger got bought out by Google they don't mess around do they?

Well, not much to say, really. I haven't been playing much the last couple weeks. I stopped doing the Wednesday Lily Pad shows at the end of July. My total attendance for July at The Lily Pad was 15, so completely stopping them was way better than getting depressed over playing for 2-5 people every week. Drift wasn't too happy about it, which made me feel bad, but...

I dunno. My shows lately have been either hugely attended or not attended at all. Tuesday I played at Prankster's at 5 to a large (for me) crowd, then ran over to a wonderful club for my first gig there and played for 3 people, one of which was a host, and another the co-owner. The third person must've just felt bad and stayed for me, which was nice of her, but...I'm tired of using the excuse that 6 SLT is real hard, there's always so many other shows going on. Which is true, but I bet those shows have an audience (and frankly, I'm afraid to look).

Then on top of that, after the show, the co-owner (whose mix of text-speak and typos make her virtually impossible to understand. I hope English isn't her first language, because if it is.......*yikes*) IM's me and scolds me for talking about Who's Song, saying (or trying to) "I don't have a problem with it, but others get upset when you talk about that." Well, if you're the only one that doesn't have a problem, why have I been doing it for 6 months and you're the first one to mention it? Eh...it's too bad, because the place looks like a great place to play.

So, that's what's up with me, music wise, anyways :-)

Umm...shows, shows, shows....yes! I do have shows.

Who's Song has been sporadic at best lately. We were finally going to have another one this week, then that dreaded Real Life came along and forced me to have to work this Sunday. I'm not sure if it's canceled or not, so check events. It's still fun without me ;-)

Monday, I'm at Sterling Vineyards at 6, Tuesday at The Merry Prankster at 5, and Wednesday at 6 I'm back at The Koffee Klub for Polka Dot Undies night :-)

Thursday at 5 I'm at Orchard Music Park opening up for the lovely and talented Charles Coleman, and let's hope that next Sunday, all will be well for Who's Song Is It Anyway, at Crazy Sharks at 11 AM. (All times here are Second Life Time, or Pacific Daylight Time for you non SL'ers.)

I'll try to update more, but.....ya know :-)

So anyways, as I was saying...

Yes, yes I know. But that Project Open Letter was important enough to leave up for a while (not 2 1/2 months, prolly, but a while).

Anyways...let's see. I've got many shows coming up this week, and I'm gonna post 'em all too (who knows when I'll update again?). I took the week of the 4th off to take a lil break, and now I'm missing it, so I'm rarin' to go :-)

Saturday, I play at Rocky Shores at 2 SLT. I love playing for Ticious, and I need to remember that standing invitation more often ;-)

Sunday is Who's Song Is It Anyway? at Crazy Sharks at 11AM SLT. It's been a few weeks since all four of us have been able to get together, so I'm gonna guess that we'll be in very silly mode real quick.

I also have a RFL gig Sunday at 2 SLT. I'll update with a landmark as soon as I have one.

Monday I'm back at Sterling Vineyards at 6 SLT, for my favorite stage view anywhere in SL.

Tuesday at 5 SLT I'm playing The Commune for an event-to-be-determined, but guaranteed to be fun.

Wednesday I'm at The Lily Pad at 6 SLT. The last time I was there, I DJ'd to an audience of zero for 20 minutes before I gave up. Let's have a few more than that turn out this time, hmmm? :-)

Thursday, I'm at Orchard Music Park at 5 SLT, and at The Merry Prankster's Grateful Dead night at 6 SLT.

OK...I've done my part, and it's been a long time since I've been heckled (and I know you're out there, Mr. Heckler/Teacher), so get to it! :-)

From Project Open Letter

Dear Linden Lab:

In the past eighteen months, Second Life has expanded, growing from a small community of early adopters to a platform supporting millions of users. Linden Lab has created a world that inspires a deep level of passion in its users and provides unprecedented opportunities to share creatively, socially, and financially.

With explosive levels of growth often come unexpected problems. In keeping with your company's policy and rich history of resident involvement, we the undersigned would like to take this opportunity to address some concerns that we feel have gone unanswered for too long.

There are some consistent, ongoing problems that are getting worse under heavy load, not better, and are not simply irritants but problems that are causing financial loss in some cases, which is unacceptable. Here is a brief list of the main concerns:

* Inventory loss - this is a devastating problem that is worsening. We have no ability to protect our own inventories through backups, and are trusting you to protect that data. This is the highest priority. Sensible inventory limits (on non-verified accounts only), combined with better management tools and ways to protect our inventory ourselves would help to mitigate the problem as well. Regardless, this cannot continue - we will not accept financial loss as a feature of Second Life. It is your responsibility as service provider to ensure our data is not lost, and you are failing us.

* Problems with Find and Friends List - we continue to see search outages on a far too regular basis. It is bad enough trying to get anywhere without being able to use search, but many users are also paying money for classified ads. Our friends lists just do not work reliably any longer, after years without an issue with them. If America Online/MSN/Yahoo can provide presence information for hundreds of millions of users, surely there is a way to make our friends lists work again.

* Grid stability and performance - teleports fail quite regularly, especially under heavy load. Attachments end up in places they did not start out in, and sim performance varies wildly. None of this makes for a very pleasant experience for users. Long promised improvement to physics and scripting would help dramatically to reduce these problems, but there are a lot of other scalability issues as well. It often feels like the grid is coming apart at the seams. The promised use of limiting logins of non-verified accounts during peak load has been severely lacking. This would be an effective interim solution to load issues, but Linden Lab seems unwilling to use it.

* Build tool problems - the importance of build tools that actually work as promised cannot be overstated enough - we rely on them to create content. Prim drift, disappearing prims, imprecise placement, problems with linking and other issues with the tools need to be addressed. Too much time is being spent trying to work around the problems.

* Transaction problems - inventory deliveries are failing with an alarming (and annoying) frequency, leaving merchants with the burden of replacing missing content and having to try to confim the transaction in the first place. We trust that our L$ balances are accurate, but given recent problems, that is a cause for concern as well, and one we place our full trust in you to ensure its accuracy.

We remain fully supportive of Second Life and are more than willing to continue doing our part to help, but our confidence is steadily being eroded due to a general lack of communication and the apparent failure to successfully address the many issues detailed above. What we are asking for is that these problems are addressed immediately, ahead of new features, and that we are able to see tangible improvements. We accept that this will not happen overnight but it also cannot be allowed to continue indefinitely either.

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

Too much fun...

Well, apparently I won "Who's Song Is It Anyway?" :-) Yeah, so I had to go "blue" to do it, but hey, when your topic is "The 'My Attachment Doesn't Work' Blues", there's really not anywhere else to go :-)

All 4 of us musicians went three times, I would've gone 4, but I chickened out on one of the topics (two holes are better than one), and Charles took it. Man, that guy's a riot. His first topic was Neil Armstrong, but he couldn't use any moon references. He took it and made a song up about how good Neil looks in a thong :-)

So I guess this is going to be an every week thing. Next week, I have a RL thing going on, so I can't make it, but it looks like Sundays in the future are going to be booked (yay!). I also should mention that that was one of the biggest crowds I've played for, at one point going over 50 people! (ooooohhh...)

Yesterday's regular no-going "blue" show at Crazy Sharks went great too. I once again was able to keep my pants on for Polka Dot Undies (it sounds like such a triumph...and it is).

Yesterday I mentioned I've been seeing some really great new musicians in SL lately. Now I want to talk about something in SL Live Music that bugs me a little: Karaoke. It's not live music. There...I said it . Now I've heard some fantastic voices at these shows, and some of them are among the most popular SL musicians around. Yes, the human voice is an instrument, etc...but it's still not live music. I've heard some other SL musicians playing with a backing track or two, and I'm honestly not sure where I stand on that. If it's to enhance a song, like to have a backing drum track or something, I'm all for it. But, yesterday I saw something in SL that floored me: Karaoke guitar. There was a performer, playing, note for note, lead guitar licks over instrumental versions of rock songs. Hmmm....This person was a fantastic guitarist, and sounded just like the performers he was covering, but, hmmm.....that's really all I can say about that is hmmm.....

Anyways.

Psst! Hey, you! Yeah, you! In the funny hat! Wanna go to a music show? C'mere....I'll tell ya how! First, wait until 615 or so Second Life Time tomorrow (or Pacific Daylight Time for you non SL'ers...if you're one of them, go download Second Life first), then come back here. Click on this link that says Sterling Vineyards...see? They run a classy joint tho, so make sure you get there early...k? Music starts at 630 SLT, and plan on staying til the end...otherwise I might have to come hunt ya down, capisce?

Now, while you're waiting for tomorrow to come, why don't you leave a few heckles? :-)

Yeah, I know :-)

The Dreams show went great. It seems I'm getting talked in to doing polka dot undies a little too easily lately, and the old "But it's a PG sim..." excuse doesn't work as well as it used to :-) Oh well. I know they've got a picture of me at Crazy Sharks, so I think I'm safe today...

The Lily Pad show was fun too. Only 9 people showed up (gotta love Friday's at 6 SLT), but we had a great time...

Before I played the Lily Pad though, I played a last minute show at Prankster's. I got to ring in 420 SLT on 4/20/07, which is like the hippie New Year, cept instead of toasting with champagne, hippies smoke joints :-) I couldn't join them however, as I was busy playing a show, and I certainly don't smoke joints! Bong Hits FTW ;-)

We all had a great time, and I was able to keep my pants on for a change, too! :-)

I've been seeing some newer musicians in SL, and wow...there's still a lot of times I want to just up and smash my guitar :-)

But - before I do that, I have some shows scheduled :-)

This afternoon I'm playing at Crazy Sharks at 2 SLT, which is always a good time...as long as the Bunny leaves me alone...

Then tomorrow, at 11 SLT, I'm back at Crazy Sharks along with Mel Cheeky, Charles Coleman, and Dan Octavia. We're playing "Who's Song is it Anyway?", obviously based on the British improv comedy show. The audience gives random song theme suggestions to the host (the aforementioned Bunny, actually), she spins the Wheel of Fortune to find out which musician gets stuck with making up a song on that theme. Should be lots of fun, specially since I don't write songs, I do covers :-O I'm really looking forward to it though, there will be lots of laughs, that's guaranteed :-)

Heckle away!

Now that's more like it :-)

Well, Saturday's show at the Rock went well, cept for the sim crash ;-) I tend to view sim crashes as a badge of honor...means I had a lot of people :-) It actually wasn't me that had all the people, it was the performer before me...she had already crashed the sim once before I got there, and after I started playing there were still 70 people in the sim, and it just couldn't take it anymore. I was smooth enough to log back in during the dramatic pause in Dear Prudence, and got back to the stage in between songs. This time tho, unlike when I went through as restart at The Point, a good chunk of the people came back. I think I saw around 40, so that's great for me.

Primtionary Saturday night went well too...not as big of a crowd as Wednesday, but we had a good mix of experienced builders and newbies to go through the words. I think I converted a new addict too, cuz we can never have too many Primtionary addicts :-)

Last night at Sterling Vineyards was fun as always. I know I say it every week, but I love playing there if only to look around between songs...it's so purty! :-) Apparently I was Ruthed to some people, but that's OK...long as the voice came thru :-)

So, tonight I'm at the Dreams Community Fair at 6 SLT. It's a weeks long event, and it's all to benefit the American Stroke Association. They have a full amusement park, there's gonna be a "Dunk a Linden" game in a few days...the next couple weeks are filled every day with something to do there, and like I said, it's all for a good cause. Come on down tonight to see me, but make sure to check out the schedule at the TP point and come back often.

Thanks as always for your support, and your heckles...

Oyster Bay

So Thursday's show at Oyster Bay felt (to me anyways) like the best show I've done in SL yet. Every song just clicked, my voice was dead on for each song, it was just all around great if I do say so myself :-) I started off a little off, Sympathy could've been better, and I goofed the words to Jack-a-Roe a bit (still kills me that the songs that I have the lyrics right in front of me for are the songs I always screw up), but once I started Sweet Sister, something clicked, and everything from then on was Just Exactly Perfect, to borrow a phrase.

Was nice to have a night off from playing last night, but I'm really looking forward to my debut at The Rock. I've played for them before, just not on the new sim, and not a scheduled show, either...the times I played at Willow Point, I was either opening (or standing in) for Charles Coleman (Something I do well....Oyster Bay even changed my group title to "Not Charles Coleman").

This afternoon's show at The Rock at Rocky Shores is at 4 SLT, and tonight at 7 SLT I'm filling in once again as host of Primtionary. Fly on in, build some stuff, have some fun!

:-)

3 in a row!

Well, the RFL gig went great. I had the biggest crowd I've had in a long time, and got lots of L donated to this very worthy cause. I even got to keep my pants on during Polka Dot Undies for a change...nobody was there that would've made me take em off ;-D. This also gave me the opportunity to threaten the crowd with taking them off if the tally didn't increase a large amount in 5 minutes. I ended up giving a large chunk of that donation, cuz I wanted to keep my pants on, but it was still a great time :-)

Hosting Primtionary was a great time as well...I have newfound respect for Yummie, and thanks that my performances are done with my voice, not by typing. Man, my hands hurt from typing so much!

So...this is gonna be a quick update. Don't forget to come see me at Oyster Bay Sculpture Garden and Aquarium Thursday 4/12 at 7 SLT. It's a later show than usual so a favorite heckler of mine can show up *for a change* ;-)

Heckle away!

Yay quick updates!

So I was only supposed to have one show tonight, right? Wrong, if you're Mel Cheeky ;-)

I went to catch the last 20 minutes of Dan Octavia's show at Harmony this afternoon, and Mel told me there was a rumor going around that I was following Dan...news to me. Turns out she started the rumor herself, the little sneak ;-O But, since I can't pass up a chance to play, I was easily talked into it, especially after Dan told the audience I was coming right up...heh.

So I played Harmony again this afternoon.... :-) Always a great time, and I still consider it a stage of honor, since so many of my SL music "heroes" play there. I played the usual stuff, and broke out Chuck Berry's Around and Around. Surprised me, since I wasn't planning on playing it til I worked out the kinks (hmm....mental note...need to do a Kinks song), and I had to Google the lyrics to make sure I had em right, but it ended up being OK.

So, after I Pied-Pipere'd the Harmony crowd to see Mel at the Blue Delta, I hopped on over to The Lily Pad (yeah, I know....sorry), set up, and started singing. To 1 person, and he was afk. To be fair, he was at Harmony as well, so he'd heard it all before :-). Ended up with about 15 people trickling in over the course of the hour, so I have no complaints.

Around and Around snuck into that set as well, as did the first verse of Turn On Your Lovelight. That was Grateful's fault. Seems we're trading GD song teases at our shows now...(in-jokes are so kewl), and last weekend he finally called one that I happen to know how to play all the way through. I've played it 3 times now, and only remembered the 2nd verse once. Eh...there was one tour that Bob Weir did a few years ago that had a huge "Applause" sign behind him that lit up whenever he forgot the words...if he's allowed to forget the words, I think I can be a bit forgetful too, and I can have some fun with it too.

Welp, that's it...Tomorrow night I'm at the Relay For Life gig at Gunbunnies II (can anyone tell me what happened to Gunbunnies I?) at 3 SLT. I have a sweet slot too, following Juel Resistance, and right before Maximillion Kleene, so the crowd should be a pretty good size.

And, as I mentioned last night, I'm filling in as host for Primtionary at 7 SLT. Primtionary is basically the SL version of pictionary. I give you a word, you have to build it, and the audience has to guess what you're building. Whoever guesses gets to build next. It's one of the things that kept me in SL before I started attending (and playing) live music shows, and I can't wait to sit in the big ole chair and see things from that angle. Come on down and have some fun!

Heckle away...I know you're there, I can hear you breathing :-)

Hey, look! He does update once in a while!

:-)

Wow...I gotta update more often, cuz I forget where I played and how the shows went :-)

The Lily Pad. Hmm.....it was a great show, I had fun, but Friday night at 6SLT is *not* the time to have a show. Unless of course, the 9 other people having live shows decide that, then it'll be the time for me to have a show :-) I had an average of 4 people there the whole hour, including the hostess...s'OK tho. I'd play to an empty sim if I had to.

Oh, almost forgot...I had a little "experience" Friday night after Frogg's show too. I'm not gonna get into specifics, but I got an IM asking if I had a second (I didn't) and I apparently didn't respond courteously enough, and lost a shot at a show. Oh well. Sorry (name withheld to protect the extra courteous), but if you're gonna react to an innocent question from me the way you did....I don't think I want to play for you anyways. But I would like to take this opportunity to publicly apologize to that person, cuz after I started getting lectured about how to speak courteously...well.....I wasn't very courteous. :-) OK...I think I've seen the word "courteous" enough these past few days to last me a loooong time.

Gimme Shelter Saturday morning went a lot better. I had a much better crowd, and as much as I say I'll play for an empty sim and still have fun (see above :-D), I'll take a full sim over an empty one anyday. It's a lot easier to play off of a crowd that actually exists :-)

Ahhh...Crazy Sharks....fantastic people, great audience (especially the evil Easter Bunny that tried (and almost succeeded) to stare me down (thank god I don't play while in Mouselook)), great time :-) I've been hopping on the "Keep Live Music Free" Soapbox at my shows a lot this past week, and it was great to see all the tips that went to the venue, and hearing from many of the venue owners that they have no intention of charging admission (those that weren't at the meeting, anyways)

Tonight I was back at my regular slot at Sterling Vineyards. My voice was a little rusty, since I'm running on a bout 3 hours' sleep from last night , and I prolly shouldn't have attempted the high notes in Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" (it's still in the early stages for me), since I watched the sim numbers drop from the mid 30's to under 20, but, other than that...I did great. Cryene runs a beautiful sim, it's a great setting, and she has as much fun at my shows as I do :-)

And speaking of that certain soapbox (as I was a minute ago):

At some point over the weekend, I received a copy of the chat log from the venue owners meeting last week from someone I promised to leave nameless (thanks again!). First off, I gotta admit I was wrong about the admission charge (150-200L instead of 1000), so I guess that's a little bit of a load off my mind, but it was interesting to watch the idea go from only charging for special events such as metajams (which I would happily pay to see...last year's was fantastic) to charging at each and every show.

Also interesting to me was the control factor that I mentioned in the last post. If I want to play for these venues that charge, I'm forbidden to play for venues that don't charge. I guess it makes sense, I mean...why would I pay to see someone play when I could see them for free in an hour, or a day? But I'd rather make the decision on where to play than leave that decision in the hands of someone else. I'm not going to name any names or venues, but I will say that those names and venues are readily available at a certain online SL magazine that starts with the letters TheAvast** (how's that for subtle?).

Anyways, this meeting was invite only, and only some of the venue owners in SL were invited. A lot of venue owners didn't know about it, as well as a large chunk of musicians. That problem was solved at Harmony yesterday afternoon, when Mel Cheeky hosted an open-to-all informative meeting on the subject. There were a few people there that didn't understand the "informative" part of "informative meeting" and thought we were all there to get the torches lit and storm a certain sim and lynch some club owners. That was never the point. The point was to let performers (and other venue owners that apparently weren't "kewl" enough to be invited) what's going on.

The meeting was dominated by a few people (as was the venue owners' meeting last week), and fairly hard to follow (just like a RL meeting!), but in the end...I think we (well, they) accomplished what was wanted: Get the news out in the open, let everyone interested know what's coming, and give people enough warning so we're not all blindsided in a few weeks, if the plan does in fact come to fruition.

OK, off the soapbox again (for now), and back to me :-)

Concerts, concerts, get your concert dates here!

Tuesday night, I'm back at The Lily Pad at 6SLT, Wednesday I'm playing a Relay For Life Benefit at 3 SLT at Gunbunnies II, and Thursday I'm back at Oyster Bay Sculpture Garden and Aquarium at 7 SLT.

Also, Wednesday and Saturday at 7SLT I'm filling in as host for Primtionary. Heckles are welcome there as well, but keep in mind that I'll be paying you, as well as accepting tips, so the heckles might go both ways...

But, heckles are only one way here, so....get started!

:-)

Whew!

Well, Monday's show at Spunky BT's went great. I was kinda worried after the show on Sunday that the sim restart wasn't the reason nobody came back, but my worries were put to rest when I saw the crowd Monday. We all had lots of fun...cept, well...let's just say I gotta remember to take my socks off before I play and leave it at that :-)

Tuesday night I played at Prankster's Open Mic Nite. I had a half hour slot, kept to the usual stuff, threw in some extra GD since that's kinda the theme of the club, and got a great reception.

OK, soapbox time: KEEP LIVE MUSIC FREE IN SL!!!! There are some rumors going around the live music community that some clubs are thinking about charging residents to attend live music shows. Well, I can understand the reasons, for sure...owning an island in SL is an expensive undertaking, and it's great to recoup the costs. The parts of the rumors going around that are bothering me are the admission price some of them are allegedly thinking of charging ($L1000?...come on), and the (alleged) fact that if you want to play for these clubs, you can't play at any of the clubs that don't charge admission. Now, let me state that I have no proof of these statements, but I do trust the musicians I heard them from. I personally don't see myself even getting offered one of these deals, but I wouldn't take such an offer. One of the great things about SL is that you really don't need money (Lindens or otherwise) to have fun. My favorite thing to in SL is attend shows, and if they weren't free I wouldn't have started going. Dear readers (all two of you), one thing you can do to keep live music free is tip the club you're attending as well as the musicians that play there. The costs of owning and maintaining an island in SL are large, plus there's the cost of the stream so you can hear our beautiful music. The next show of mine you go to, don't tip me. Tip the club what you were going to tip me, then tip the club some more. Thanks!

/me steps down from the soapbox.

OK...got that off my chest :-) OK...shows, shows, shows, I got shows! Let's see...Friday the 6th, I debut at The Lily Pad at 6 SLT, Saturday the 7th I'm playing at Gimme Shelter at 10 AM SLT (thank god I'm 3 hours later) then at 2 SLT, I'm at Crazy Sharks. So far, I'm off Sunday (which is good, cuz I gotta work IRL), then back at Sterling Vineyards at 630 SLT on Monday.

Wow...looks like I'm getting to be a pro or something! :-)

Heckles welcome as always....

Whoops!

Yeah, I know...less than two weeks into the thing and I'm already slacking :-) Oh well...stuff happens ;-)

So...Monday's show at Sterling Vineyards was lots of fun...not too many people showed up, but those that did seemed to have a good time. I had Tuesday and Wednesday off, then I got a chance to go back to the Hummingbird Cafe's Open Mic night, which is where I made my SL debut. They run a real fun time there, for all their shows, but the Open Mic nights are usually something else. :-)

Friday, I played at the Point Arena in Rio for the first time. It would've been a great show, but of course, my luck....I have to be the sucker that has SL's bi-weekly rolling restart roll right through their set :-( So, for my first song, I had 35 people there (a fairly good crowd), then the restart happened, so we all left and came back a few minutes later. I spent the next 40 minutes playing to as few as 3 and as many as 11 people. Ah well :-) Grateful was there, so at least I had a cheering section :-)

OK, that's the past week :-) Friday night at Frogg and Jaycatt's show, I talked with Spunky Burrito a lil bit, and finished "with see you Monday!" I'm playing at Spunky BT's at 6 SLT Monday (last minute Edit: 7 SLT!)...we scheduled it weeks ago. Yesterday morning it hits me...I play Monday at 6 at Sterling Vineyards for my weekly slot! ACK! So I asked Grateful if we could switch, but he has RL plans. So I IMd Creyne this morning and told her how dumb I was :-) She gets back to me with (paraphrasing) "It's OK I did the same thing". She had set up with another musician to play Monday at 6 before getting me in the weekly slot, and just remembered herself :-) So, go figure, we both flaked about the same day, and it worked out perfectly :-)

Well, that about does it! Heckle away....

Ahh...weekends at...

...Crazy Sharks :-) I have so much fun playing there. Even Sunn showed up to heckle. I dunno tho; he hasn't had much to say the last few shows he's been to. Either he's getting rusty, or I'm getting better. Must be him :-) Anyways, I had new RL strings, a new SL guitar, and a hell of a good time. Thanks Dan and Cat!

Spent most of the rest of the day at other shows. Caught SanityInn early in the afternoon. I'd forgotten how good he was. I saw him when he first started playing, and never had a chance til today to see him since. After SanityInn was Charles, who never fails to please, then over to Mel's first ever 2-hour show. A fine time was had by all, and she even saved some strength to come see me :-)

So that was my Saturday :-)

And my Sunday went like this "Nah, nothing going on today, just going to a few shows. Not playing, I need the day off." "Yay Jaynine!" "Yay Mel!...can't wait to see Charles!" "What? Charles can't get online? Sure I'll fill in for 1/2 an hour!" :-) I can never get enough playing, so hanging out at Crazy Sharks was a good idea for me today :-)

Quick little show, just ran through the standards (well, my standards), had a good time, said thanks and hopped of to make room for lofthesedazimgonnacutuin2ltlpc Rust (and as a side note, why doesn't my spell checker pick his name up?). He put on a great show...Moondance (one of my all-time favorites) was fantastic.

Well, I think that's all for today. I'm at Sterling Vineyards tomorrow at 630 SLT starting off my regular weekly slot (yay!). Come on down and have some fun!

Phew!

Well, I made it :-)

Harmony went great, although I was stupid enough to finish with Good Lovin', which always kills my arm, since I usually rush through it. The other thing was, I put a new video card in yesterday (yay!), but when I plugged everything back in, I must've plugged the mic into the wrong mic jack (the new computer has a few mic jacks), so nobody could hear me. Took a few minutes to figure it out, and I was rolling. I learned Jack-a-roe a couple hours before the show, so I pulled that out, and I thought it went pretty well. Good crowd, good friends there, and of course I want to play there again as soon as I can :-)

After a little rest, I headed over to the Shelter a few minutes early to test the stream, and I found out the stream that I rented didn't work for some reason. Dolmere suggested I ask Charles to borrow his, which would also make it so he wouldn't have to switch streams between the two of us. I got rolling a couple minutes early, and after a lil bit of a scratchy start, I had a great show. Polka Dot Undies went over well, as it always does, tho I felt a little chilly while I was playing it. I played Medication, and that's coming along nicely as well. I finished with possibly the best version of Loose Lucy I've played, and Nix wasn't even there to see it :-(
Maybe next time...

I have tonight off, and I'll be at Crazy Sharks at 3 SLT tomorrow (yay!).

Two days off in a row!

Whatever am I gonna do with myself?!

Why, pay for it tomorrow with two shows inside of 3 hours :-)

First off, I'm playing at Harmony at 4 SLT, hosted by the lovely and talented Mel Cheeky. I love playing at Harmony, almost as much as I love seeing Mel play! Mel was the second musician I saw here in SL, and, while I didn't get into her music right away (sorry Mel!), her voice convinced me fairly quickly (and now that she sings my name whenever I see her...I go to her shows as often as possible!).

Then, after a half hour's rest, I'm opening for the lovely and talented Charles Coleman at The Shelter in Swinside at 530 SLT. This show is hosted by the lovely (altho a little thin for my tastes) and talented Dolmere Talamasca. I played there in early February, and we all had a great time scaring newbies away with really bad music :-)

Hopefully, I'll be able to still type after that to review these two shows, but it'll prolly have to wait til Friday.

Come to my shows, and as always...heckle away!

Wow, what a fun night!

OK, so.....

I've been meaning to get in touch with Cryene at Sterling Vineyards for a while now, to ask about playing there. So tonight, Grateful was playing there, so I figured I'd see a happening show, and see if I could play there in the future all at the same time.

So I showed up late (I'm learning), and listened to a few tunes and finally got around to IMing Cryene. She asked if I wanted to play after Grateful (!). And since I'm stupid, and had spent the weekend saying I was gonna enjoy my few days off between Sunday's show and Thursday's show (although I had also told Yummie that I somehow knew I'd be playing on Monday :-) ) I said to have Grateful play one more so I could set up.

Well, I got on stage, and tried to play my lil heart out (just don't ask Rose for the picture...hehe). Apparently it worked, since during my "Thank You" IM to Cryene, she said we should set something up for a regular basis (!). SO...I now have my first weekly gig, and it's a great place too...Sterling Vineyards is in a beautiful setting, with great people to boot. So, from now on, if you want to catch me on a Monday, come down to Sterling Vineyards at either 6 or 630 SLT (it switches every week, starting at 630 next week). Yay!

Afterwards, we went to see Jaycatt playing at his house to celebrate his RL birthday, and as always, he didn't disappoint. That cat can sure play the piano (and the harpsichord, and the melodica, and....)! Happy Birthday again Jay!

Also, Cat at Crazy Sharks asked me this afternoon to play this Saturday at 3 SLT. I had to ask who I was filling in for :-), but it's one of them real type gigs! I love playing at Crazy Sharks...they're so nice there, and I always have a great time (when don't I?).

Well, that's all for now...heckle if you wish!

Space

Spunky's success!

OK, well....

Spunky BT's went great, once I finally started. I got there about 10 minutes early, since I'm not a real musician yet :-), looked around and got logged out of SL because the sim went down :-(

So, after IMing Spunky herself, who got in touch with the sim owner, who got in touch with the Lindens, I was finally able to get in. Only problem was, there was a pole dancer on the stage where I was supposed to be playing. I personally wouldn't have minded having a backup strip- umm.... dancer, but she left, and I headed on up.

Grateful Stryker (another fine SL musician) was there, so I knew I had to pull out all the Dead tunes I do. He seemed suitably impressed, which is good, cuz us DeadHeads are our own harshest critics. We had no issues telling the band when they sucked, and certainly have no issues telling Dead cover acts that they suck as well :-) I got lots of "whoooooooo!"'s from Grateful, and, from what I remember from Dead and GD related shows, that's a good sign.

I even got to pull out Loose Lucy, cuz my vocal & guitar coach Nix wasn't there, and she hates me doing Loose Lucy cuz, well....I can't play it very well :-) Barre chords and Spacey just don't mix well, never have. I s'pose if I actually worked on them a little, I'd get better at them, but who wants to work? :-)

Anyways, a great time was had by all, 'specially me, and I'll be back at Spunky's in a few weeks.

Thanks everyone that showed up!

It begins....

Well, it's about time I started one of these bloggy things....I had one a coupla years ago, and I just let it pitter out, so maybe this one will last a bit longer.

First off, a little introduction.

My name is Spaceman Opus, and I'm a resident of Second Life (like who isn't these days). I've been there since May of last year, and I finally got up the guts to start playing live music inworld at the beginning of January. I've been having a blast so far, and I'm prolly one of the few people that enjoys the challenge of a good heckle.

Anyways....

For now, this is going to be mainly another place to put my music schedule, review my own shows, and possibly to write some reviews and opinions of other SL musicians. I heard recently that there's over 100 musicians in SL, and I think that's fantastic. The more musicians in SL, the more fun I have, and that's basically what I'm in SL for...fun :-D

So, I'm playing this afternoon (3/18) at Spunky BT's at 2 SLT. I've only been there once before, to see Frogg and Jaycatt play, and it looks like an interesting time. I'll try and post a review soon after, but procrastination is one of my strong points, so bear with me.

Enjoy the ride...I sure plan on it!