I got to be me and see Becky.

Yesterday my good friend Becky Rawley invited me to her OpenSIM SIM in the opensource metaverse at osgrid.org. What was very interesting is when creating my account, I could pick my first and LAST name. So naturally I picked my RL name (mainly so some other yahoo wouldn't get it). I have to say it was a different experience to be looking at my avi and it was ME.

Becky had recreated her Stockton Springs SIM and it was beautiful. She is probably one of the most talented builders in SL for creating Americana flavored venues.

You should contact her if you are trying to create a SIM with a distinct flavor of America.

Leading Cause of Death

Technically, according to medical doctors, everybody dies of the same thing....

a broken heart.

But I humbly submit that many many of us die of something else....

a hard head.

I know every major problem I've had in life was the result of chronic hardheadedness.

Don't die of this crippling disease. Listen to the ones that love you today.

MT Streams

Stumbled upon an inworld stream provider here. Not the cheapest I've found - contact Clarissa Pastorelli inworld for the least expensive stream I've found to date. And I have not tested MT Streams for quality. But for $250L you can check them out and see if you like them. At the very least you can add them to your list of possibles.

Welcome to "So You Think You Can Sing" the Home Edition

I got the studio up and working. So now it was time to lay down some tracks. Ran into some problems with using a Microsoft PC style keyboard with a Mac like there not being a Command key (I have to research the mappings, but I'm leaning toward a Mac keyboard). Ran into a much bigger problem.

I can't sing. Yet.

I mean I can sing, I have for a long time. But when it's just my voice on a recording studio track, it's a bit of a splash of cold water to hear it standing out by itself - warts and all. I missed tons of notes. So one more thing added to the todo list, need to do a little research on the right way to sing.

The thing that seemed the worst was trying to do covers because I was trying to "knock off" the original. That seems like a huge mistake because everything that isn't like the original is "wrong". So I made a mental note to work up all the covers Catfish style. Make them my own. Bend them to fit my voice.

I do understand that a lot of it - is working with it until I get it.

After telling so many folks in sLife that I was going to perform this month, I'm thinking now I'll have to take a more realistic assessment. I think a realistic time frame may be April of next year.

Peace.

Studio is GO!

Well after an afternoon of dusting with an old sock and some lemon Endust - the recording and broadcast studio is almost completely set up. GarageBand didn't magically record my first song for me but after setting up a Windows Vista laptop and a Mac Mini, I gotta wonder why we ain't all using Macs. I'll write more later but WOW what a different experience. Zero trial software crap and a clean desktop. Now where did I put that guitar?

Heart of the new recording studio arrives

After pricing out USB audio interfaces for my laptop to record my new album and trying to dicipher the bewildering array of software options the little light came on that for a few (very few actually) dollars more I could get Mac Mini and just use GarageBand 08. I checked with my more
seasoned recording musician pals and they both gave two enthusiastic thumbs up to the idea. So this morning I unboxed my new recording studio. I had a monitor, keyboard, and mouse (the BYO items) laying around. From all I can tell GarageBand can produce a music CD of sufficient quality to distribute electronically. I'll blog more after I actually get it up and running.

Forsythe Whitfield at The Plug

A while back I was talking to a lovely lady about blues musicians in Second Life. She was adamant I check out Forsythe Whitfield. So much so she made me join his group (ahhhh a precious spot given up to someone I've never even heard). Well the universe hiccoughed (or burped) and I happened to be on when I got a notice to go see Forsythe at a place called the Plug. Well I could hear FW before I could see him and he was ripping out a tasty version of Johnny B. Goode - a song that should be so done by now - but he had marinated it in his one man blues band style and it was sounding damn good.

I walked into the Plug and for the first time in a long time, I felt like I had walked into a little live music joint. Layed out smart and loaded with ambience the Plug had a palpable vibe of good times. I mean a cool little venue. Remind me I want to play there when I finally get off my ass and do it.

As for Forsythe, he was definitely worth forcing someone to join a group for. You can check him out anytime at his myspace page. But I recommend signing up for his group which is unambiguously named the "Forsythe Whitfield Fan Club".

FW plays to what can only be custom made backing tracks and it sounds great. He sits behind a drum kit and fingers his resonator. Come on down and ask that lady over there if she wants to dance - you know her partner don't play anymore.