Amazingly enough, I have two performances in SL today. It would be great if you could come to listen!

Rocky Shores

The first today is at one of Second Life’s best live music venues, Rocky Shores. Ticious Trottier and her crew always book some great acts; I’m always humbled to be asked to play.

Show starts at 1 PM SLT. Rocky Shores can be found on the Cascadia sim.

Stonehenge

Lyn Carlberg has invited me back to the druidish (is that a word?) live music venue Stonehenge. I’ll follow Nad Gough, so it should be a fun time [and stuff].

Show starts at 4 PM SLT. Stonehenge can be found on the Windlesham sim.

Studio relocated

I’ve recently moved my home studio to a different room in the house. Yes, Sierra has banned me to the dungeo… erm… basement. But it will soon be this recording musician’s paradise! Until then, however, I’m slowly tuning the room so that it is not so “bouncy” and “boomy.” There may be some unique sounds coming from the area as I perform. We’ll just mark that down as “ambient experience.”

Spence Wilder Makes an Appearance

Originally uploaded by Rich_Palmer

It was great to see the long-lost Spence Wilder at the Lonely Yak Texas Roadhouse this evening! He showed up during open mic with Cylindrian Rutabaga on stage. Her ethereal sounds must’ve brought him back to life!

I recently received some considerable criticism for not spending more time in the Second Life environment. I was chastised for not being more “involved” and for not performing more shows. There were references to other musicians that play “every day” sometimes more than once a day. This was the baseline comparison I was given and I was apparently expected to meet this qualification of standard.

I can only say this. Second Life is a great place to network, a great place to find live music, to explore new interests, to learn about new technologies, and more. However, Second Life is not MY life.

I am a very busy person. I have a fairly demanding career position in media relations and safety education with a suburban fire department. I am a voice over talent creating content for clients during my “non-work” hours. I am a singer/songwriter that is also desperately trying to find time to finish producing an album. I have two children, both active in a variety of activities. I produce two independent media programs (podcasts) and one for my employer.

I would say that I do quite well with a performance or two each week in the Second Life environment. I would like to spend more social time, but I have to realize my limitations. With the extended obligations that I have committed myself, I must also find time to spend with my family. They certainly deserve the attention, right?

And, considering that I have been a Second Life musician for going on two years, I believe I’ve developed a healthy balance of reality and virtual presence.

Please don’t give up on me, though. I’m still around, I’m reachable via IM (through my email when I’m not online) or at safesongs [at] gmail {dot} com, or even via this blog.

And please don’t think that I’m not a contributing member of the SL live music community just because you don’t see me every day or that my shows aren’t more frequent.

Sometimes its really fun to just do something because it is the right thing to do.

Tonight I’ll be playing a one hour performance to help raise money for the Relay for Life effort. The group sponsoring this evening’s event is the Relay Raiders.

Won’t you join us in Second Life for this great cause? Show starts at 5pm SLT at Haute Couture.

I wanted to share this info for anyone that may not have received it in-world. This text was in a notecard recently distributed by Yxes Delacroix. You can now find the open mic at the Lonely Yak Texas Roadhouse on BlaksleeWorld.

Hello all,

This is a notice to let all our loyal Open Mic friends that Rich and I have relocated to a new venue for our Monday Night Open Mic event. The landmark is [http://slurl.com/secondlife/BlaksleeWorld/225/225/25], and we hope to see you at our new place this Monday, and each Monday you can make it!

Yes!, we are still having the Open Mic on Monday nights, 6-8pm SL time, with the same great talent that we have brought to you over the last year. We will continue to show off the talent you all know, as well as giving new talent a place to perform and get into the SL Live music scene.

We are opening a new “group” for this new venue, called “Roadhouse Open Mic”, and will be sending out invites later this weekend, so you can get the announcements of who will be performing each Monday night! (And we already have a full show planned for this coming Monday at the new venue!!! Hope to see you there!)

Hopefully, you have a slot open for the invite, and will be joining us for Open Mic Monday Night at our new place!!

See Ya’ll then!
Yxes and Rich

Blarney Stone Irish Bar

I will begin my day at 7 a.m. [SL time] at the Blarney Stone Irish Bar in Dublin. Yes, I know it’s very early to be finding the pub, but artists recently have been invited to sing at this earlier time so that the UK and European folks can enjoy some live music.

About Dublin in SL

From their web site:

Dublin in SL was designed to be photorealistic, to give a sense of a real place. Dublin in SL has been praised by real Dubliners for its realism and accuracy: “It’s just like being there!”

I-World Music Festival

I will also be performing at the I-World Music Festival at 9 a.m. SLT. This event is in conjunction with the opening of the I-World Island sim. According to Matthew Linden:

…we’ve been thinking about what more our team can do and part of our efforts is to establish I-World Island, a place where we will try to offer additional signposting and guidance for some of the in-world issues that occur.

To officially unveil the island, on Saturday 5th 19th April, we are hosting the I-World Music Festival and want to offer you the opportunity to tune in to our broadcast (stream details to follow) or to drop in on us at I-World Island and enjoy some live music over the course of 24 hours from Midnight PST until Midnight PST…

The broadcast stream

If you are unable to get onto the island for some reason, you are encouraged to listen via the broadcast stream. http://38.96.148.22:4240 This is playable via WinAmp or iTunes.

Land owners are encouraged to set their land media to the stream, as well.

The performance roster

Throughthesewalls Moody is our musician hostess today. On behalf of the many musicians participating, I’d like to thank her for her efforts and dedication to this event. She shared this lineup with us:

12am Mikelec Criss
1am Jackdog Snook
2am Cromwell Hoobinoo
3am Dann Numbers
4am Allister Westland
5am Phemie Alcott
6am Lacoppia
7am Spaceman Opus
8am Erin68 Frog & Satin Galli
9am Rich Desoto
10am POL Arida
11am Jean Munro
12pm Shamanes
1pm Kaklick Martin
2pm SRV4U Conacher
3pm Virtual Live Band
4pm Jaycatt & Frogg Marlow
5pm Friendly Fire
6pm Kyle Beltram
7pm Zed Essex
8pm Forsythe Whitfield
9pm Kelvinblue Oh
10pm Tallguy Kidd
11pm Von Johin

I’ve finally gained enough strength and interest to add a post here (and on other sites I manage).

My many thanks

I want to thank each person that visited my shows this past Monday… and especially those of you that stuck around. I had truly looked forward to the performance at StageBar and was hoping for a top-notch performance.

However, as the set drew on I gradually lost my voice. By the time the set was over I had nothing but raspiness and loss of air. Some of you are very dedicated to have stayed on for the entire hour.

My work ethic

When I perform I try to do the best job I can every time. And I dislike performing when I know that my voice is not up to standard. However, because I’m not on the grid performing as often as others, I also hate to cancel shows. It creates a dilemma because I feel extremely obligated to honor my commitment to the venue owners and managers.

I do appreciate the well-wishes and great comments from the audience this past Monday. I know that people are extremely supportive in this environment. It is one of the reasons that I continue to perform in the virtual world. Audiences there are amazing.

Logins resume

From the official blog:

[3.30 AM] [RESOLVED] - The doors are open and we are back. It turned out there were multiple issues with our ISPs network which have been worked around for now. The network provider is working to resolve the issue permanently - Matthew

No festival today

However, the I-World Music Festival is postponed, possibly to next Saturday.

Here’s the message I received in-world from Matthew Linden:

Hello all, due to the difficulties with our routing (see the SL blog) we are regretfully postponing our launch. We would like to look at putting it on again perhaps next Saturday but we will get back to you on that. If there is apossibility you can offer the same availability next week then do let me know.

Sincere apologies to you all.

I hope we can get the entire event back on board. I know this will be a scheduling nightmare for Matthew and the crew, though. Some performers will obviously not be available due to other commitments.

Logins disabled

It seems that the entire grid is down for now. According to information by Jack Linden, as posted by Teeple Linden, there is some problem with the way their network provider is bundling network links. This information was posted on their blog at 2:30 a.m. It is now 3:21 a.m. PST as I post this.

I-World Music Festival performances

I do not know how this affects the schedule I-World music event. Perhaps they will attempt to reschedule the performers that were unable to play to another time or date. I actually awakened early today. I wanted to log in to catch Dann Numbers’s performance and to show a brand new resident (and life long friend) the joy of live music in SL.

Tech failures

It is a shame that technology sometimes fails when events are planned. However, we all know that technology does have occasional hiccups. We have to roll with the punches sometimes.

Matthew Linden recently blogged about the I-World Team and the opening of I-World Island. According to him, “This team answers support tickets and live chats from residents who are experiencing some difficulties or looking for guidance with in-world issues.”

There are several things that the team is working toward to enhance the experience of residents in-world. One of those is the opening of I-World Island. According to Matthew, it is “…a place where we will try to offer additional signposting and guidance for some of the in-world issues that occur.”

Here are his comments regarding the opening of the island (embellishments my own):

To officially unveil the island, on Saturday 5th April, we are hosting the I-World Music Festival and want to offer you the opportunity to tune in to our broadcast (stream details) or to drop in on us at I-World Island and enjoy some live music over the course of 24 hours from Midnight PST until Midnight PST Sunday 6th April. We’ll follow up with some more details later in the week but you can be assured there are some fantastic live musicians gearing up to perform for you on the day!

Naturally we won’t be able to host everyone on one island but don’t forget you can tune in and hopefully be able to pop in for a wee while at another time during the day.

I’m pleased to be added to this roster of performances. This is an impressive event in that the performances last a full 24-hours! Here’s the lineup that Matthew shared with me:

PROGRAMME for SATURDAY 5TH APRIL 2008

12:00 AM Mikelec Criss
1:00 AM Jackdog Snook
2:00 AM Cromwell Hoobinoo
3:00 AM Dann Numbers
4:00 AM Allister Westland
5:00 AM Phemie Alcott
6:00 AM Lacoppia Hax (Fontana Orchestra)
7:00 AM Spaceman Opus
8:00 AM Heath Elvehjem
9:00 AM Rich Desoto
10:00 AM POL Arida
11:00 AM Jean Munro
12:00 PM Shamanes)
1:00 PM Fable Sinatra
2:00 PM Kei Mars
3:00 PM Virtual Live Band
4:00 PM Jaycatt Nico & Frogg Marlowe
5:00 PM Melanie Keller & Keiko Takakura
6:00 PM Kyle Beltran
7:00 PM CTM Underwood
8:00 PM Chouchou
9:00 PM kelvinblue Oh
10:00 PM Melodee McDonnell
11:00 PM KevinMThomas Carpool
FINISH

I hope to see you there! If you can’t make it, definitely tune in to the stream to hear these great performers. Many people use iTunes or WinAmp to listen. At this time Windows Media Player does not support these live music streams.

Live music in SL is definitely one of the things that enhances my experience there.