Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Saturday, November 6, 2010
You are the music, while the music lasts ...
One of the great joys of my Second Life has been the discovery of "virtual" band, Deep Sky Traveler, and it is no secret that I am devoted to their cause. I try never to miss an event, I buy their albums, and where possible, I try to promote their efforts.
My association with them began when I heard FacelessAPe Mefusula perform his live show. For a time I had him booked to play regular shows at Idle Rogue, and I became aware that he was part of a band performing concerst in Second Life.The emphasis is applied becaue it was always my desire to showcase the "band" experience at Idle Rogue. I am still guilty of it lol. I will sign bands to perform without hearing them, so much do I desire to be a "live band" venue.
For many months, Deep Sky Traveler played a regular monthly gig at Idle Rogue. And, of course, as soon as I heard Bowie Bravin was doing solo shows, I booked him, because to me, Bowie Bravin is simply the finest vocalist working today. I am now managing his bookings inworld, and consider him to be a great friend, so that point is probably moot.
I feel the need to address the "track singer/not live" issue, because the bias is so entrenched in the live scene in Second Life. It is not, at least at this point, possible for complex music to be played live into SL. Music of the calibre of Deep Sky Traveler's would be difficult enough to stage live in a real venue, let alone to stream from three different locations into SL. The cost would be prohibitive, and the fact that the economy in Second Life is akin to that of a third-world country means the effort would not be worth the return. When you are ready to pay $100-200 in real money for tickets to a gig, you will see changes.
Until then, our musical choices are limited by time, distance and resources. At the moment you can listen to a range that goes from your grandad banging away on his guitar to a few of his friends, to the multi-layered tracks and loops used by some very fine musicians to augment their more or less live input to music they create.
Music is fundamental to my personal needs. I must have it. I go to hear djs, including those who mix "live" and those who simply have great playlists. I go to hear live musicians, whose quality varies wildly, and whose material may be original or covers. To me, Second Life blesses us with the many musical options we have, and I am delighted that I can hear fresh, well-made original music, no matter how it is presented.
I tell you all this because I plan to write an entry about their two recently-realeased albums, Into The Blackwater and The Sacred Science Of Souls, and wish to establish my obvious bias from the outset. I read enough sycophantic gushing from the fashion feeds to know it's perfectly acceptable to review a product when you are clearly going to be biased in its' favour, but let me clear: I ❤ Deep Sky Traveler. I would like to tell you about their recordings, and I feel privileged that we are able to communicate with the musicians who choose to engage with us using Second Life.
My association with them began when I heard FacelessAPe Mefusula perform his live show. For a time I had him booked to play regular shows at Idle Rogue, and I became aware that he was part of a band performing concerst in Second Life.The emphasis is applied becaue it was always my desire to showcase the "band" experience at Idle Rogue. I am still guilty of it lol. I will sign bands to perform without hearing them, so much do I desire to be a "live band" venue.
For many months, Deep Sky Traveler played a regular monthly gig at Idle Rogue. And, of course, as soon as I heard Bowie Bravin was doing solo shows, I booked him, because to me, Bowie Bravin is simply the finest vocalist working today. I am now managing his bookings inworld, and consider him to be a great friend, so that point is probably moot.
I feel the need to address the "track singer/not live" issue, because the bias is so entrenched in the live scene in Second Life. It is not, at least at this point, possible for complex music to be played live into SL. Music of the calibre of Deep Sky Traveler's would be difficult enough to stage live in a real venue, let alone to stream from three different locations into SL. The cost would be prohibitive, and the fact that the economy in Second Life is akin to that of a third-world country means the effort would not be worth the return. When you are ready to pay $100-200 in real money for tickets to a gig, you will see changes.
Until then, our musical choices are limited by time, distance and resources. At the moment you can listen to a range that goes from your grandad banging away on his guitar to a few of his friends, to the multi-layered tracks and loops used by some very fine musicians to augment their more or less live input to music they create.
Music is fundamental to my personal needs. I must have it. I go to hear djs, including those who mix "live" and those who simply have great playlists. I go to hear live musicians, whose quality varies wildly, and whose material may be original or covers. To me, Second Life blesses us with the many musical options we have, and I am delighted that I can hear fresh, well-made original music, no matter how it is presented.
I tell you all this because I plan to write an entry about their two recently-realeased albums, Into The Blackwater and The Sacred Science Of Souls, and wish to establish my obvious bias from the outset. I read enough sycophantic gushing from the fashion feeds to know it's perfectly acceptable to review a product when you are clearly going to be biased in its' favour, but let me clear: I ❤ Deep Sky Traveler. I would like to tell you about their recordings, and I feel privileged that we are able to communicate with the musicians who choose to engage with us using Second Life.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Teardrop featuring the Guerrilla Burlesque Dancers
My girls rock. Practicing for a Guerilla strike on Bowie Bravin's show (for my rezzday), we were captured by the eagle eye of Ormand Lionheart. This is his machinima.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Is it enough to have some love?
small enough to slip inside a book
small enough to cover with your hand
because everyone around you wants to look
it is enough to have some love?
small enough to slip inside the cracks
the pieces don’t fit together so good
with all the breaking and all the gluing back
and I am still not getting what I want
I want to touch the back of your right arm
I wish you could remind me who I was
because every day I’m a little further off
but you are, my love, the astronaut
flying in the face of science
I will gladly stay an afterthought
just bring back some nice reminders
and is it getting harder to pretend
that life goes on without you in the wake
and can you see the means without the end
in the random frantic action that we take
and is it getting easy not to care
despite the many rings around your name
it isn’t funny and it isn’t fair
you’ve traveled all this way and it’s the same
but you are, my love, the astronaut
flying in the face of science
I will gladly stay an afterthought
just bring back some nice reminders
and I would tell them anything to see you split the evening
but as you see I do not have an awful lot to tell
everybody’s sick for something that they can find fascinating
everyone but you and even you aren’t feeling well
but you are, my love, the astronaut
flying in the face of science
I will gladly stay an afterthought
just bring back some nice reminders
yes you are, my love, the astronaut
crashing in the name of science
just my luck they sent your upper half
it’s a very nice reminder
it’s a very nice reminder
and you may be acquainted with the night
but I have seen the darkness in the day
and you must know it is a terrifying sight
because you and I are living the same way
ugh
I feel so alone at the moment. None of the people I can usually reach out to are available. The things I normally fill my time with are on hold or gone. And things are changing ...
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
chain of events
tip, noun, verb
a small present of money given directly to someone for performing a service or menial task; gratuity: He gave the waiter a dollar as a tip.
Things you may not know about me: In my country, "tipping" is not a cultural norm. Here, we are paid wages for work, and rarely, a gratuity for a job well done. I have many years of RL work history in the hospitality industry and can count the instances of tipping on one hand.
No matter where you are from, however, it only takes a few days in SL to realise that "tipping" forms the basis of the economy. At almost every venue and many shops, you will be invited to tip the venue, the performer, and sometimes the staff working for the venue. In every venue I have been to, this "tipping" is, in fact, the only payment for any entertainment enjoyed by people using the venue. There are no cover or door charges, and very few membership or subscription fees.
Since I started working inSecond Life, I have worked for tips. To me, from my cultural perspective, this means, in order to be tipped for my work, I must do a "better than usual" job; as an entertainer and as the owner of an entertainment venue, I have struggled at times to ensure that my work was the best it could possibly be. I did what I could to make sure my work as a performer was diligent and committed. I made sure my venue was competently run and outfitted.
As a performer, I was aware I was not to everyone's taste. Knowing I was "light" on the standard themes and practices (grrr@emoting). I always assumed I would appeal to a "niche" market, and was comfortable with that.
But lately my niche has dropped away. Lately I have made consistently less in tips than the other performers. And it has occurred to me, as I watched my ability to provide for my virtual life dwindle, that perhaps times or tastes have changed. Often, at shows, the audience would be filled with friends of one or another dancer. My friends either couldn't attend, or were broke. And I was not reaching the audiences who were in attendance.
On Saturday night I made a clear 500L less than the other dancers. All of them. I am well aware of how and why it occurred, and there IS reason, but let's pretend that I am wrong, and I am just 500L less quality than other dancers. That's a significant difference. Particularly at a Factory show. The Factory is supposed to be the flagship venue of Virtual Burlesque. In my opinion, if a dancer is 500L worse than the rest of the team, she is below the required standard.
So I retired.
And as I considered retiring from burlesque, I remembered that I took up burlesque to pay some of Idle Rogue's expenses. And that my work has not, for some time, come close to meeting the weekly outgoings of running Idle Rogue. And that was when I realised that Idle Rogue had to stop too.
more to come ...
a small present of money given directly to someone for performing a service or menial task; gratuity: He gave the waiter a dollar as a tip.
Things you may not know about me: In my country, "tipping" is not a cultural norm. Here, we are paid wages for work, and rarely, a gratuity for a job well done. I have many years of RL work history in the hospitality industry and can count the instances of tipping on one hand.
No matter where you are from, however, it only takes a few days in SL to realise that "tipping" forms the basis of the economy. At almost every venue and many shops, you will be invited to tip the venue, the performer, and sometimes the staff working for the venue. In every venue I have been to, this "tipping" is, in fact, the only payment for any entertainment enjoyed by people using the venue. There are no cover or door charges, and very few membership or subscription fees.
Since I started working inSecond Life, I have worked for tips. To me, from my cultural perspective, this means, in order to be tipped for my work, I must do a "better than usual" job; as an entertainer and as the owner of an entertainment venue, I have struggled at times to ensure that my work was the best it could possibly be. I did what I could to make sure my work as a performer was diligent and committed. I made sure my venue was competently run and outfitted.
As a performer, I was aware I was not to everyone's taste. Knowing I was "light" on the standard themes and practices (grrr@emoting). I always assumed I would appeal to a "niche" market, and was comfortable with that.
But lately my niche has dropped away. Lately I have made consistently less in tips than the other performers. And it has occurred to me, as I watched my ability to provide for my virtual life dwindle, that perhaps times or tastes have changed. Often, at shows, the audience would be filled with friends of one or another dancer. My friends either couldn't attend, or were broke. And I was not reaching the audiences who were in attendance.
On Saturday night I made a clear 500L less than the other dancers. All of them. I am well aware of how and why it occurred, and there IS reason, but let's pretend that I am wrong, and I am just 500L less quality than other dancers. That's a significant difference. Particularly at a Factory show. The Factory is supposed to be the flagship venue of Virtual Burlesque. In my opinion, if a dancer is 500L worse than the rest of the team, she is below the required standard.
So I retired.
And as I considered retiring from burlesque, I remembered that I took up burlesque to pay some of Idle Rogue's expenses. And that my work has not, for some time, come close to meeting the weekly outgoings of running Idle Rogue. And that was when I realised that Idle Rogue had to stop too.
more to come ...
Thursday, August 12, 2010
t3h boots
I am a boot girl. In both lives. The photo to the left is of my RL favourite boots. The happiest day of the year, for me, is the day it's finally cold enough to pull out t3h boots.Boots are sexy in the feisty way (my favourite kind). They say "don't fuck with me". They are feminine, but they are never sissy. Even high-heeled boots make you feel like you could climb mountains or kick heads.
In Second Life, of course, boots are the easy option. No matching skin tones, no scary Linden feet, no cankles. And they still send that feisty, head-kickin' message ;-D
My first boot love in SL was for League's Sinaed boots. I wore them everywhere for months, until J bought me a pair of Stiletto Moody pumps. I finally took the League's off, though, when Bax Cohen (note the new slurl, if you didn't know) released the Prestige boot. They are divine, it is true. They are also on every well-shod boot-lovin' avi on the grid, as has been pointed out several times (thank you Marnix).
Slappy Doobie released her Blitz boots this week. You can buy them on xstreet by clicking here, and you should, because these are some mega-feisty sexy boots. They took me to At World's End and made me take off my clothes and play cello. It's true!
Seriously ... please visit At World's End. Take a treasured companion. It's a great place to try out your new boots :-)
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