Sunday, June 22, 2014

Playing for RacerX Gullwing at his Ten Year RezDay Party

RacerX Gullwing has reached the point of being an institution in Second Life but you wonder if that's such a good thing to be like a building or a brick, those are really old, aren't they.  I have no idea of his real life birthday or age but he's been RacerX for ten years now and he's the only one I know who has made it to ten.  (It's possible Slim Warrior might but she's not much involved with SL anymore.  I can cheerfully report she has been far too busy recording and producing lately.)

This man, erm, rabbit is one of a kind.  Sometimes people who have not experienced Second Life dismiss this as hiding from reality but in fact it's creating reality.  It's not about hiding but rather about becoming.  Many of the people who aren't given to making things have left SL and have gone to Facebook where they can jibber jabber all day long.  The ones who remained are now part of the biggest art commune that has ever existed in human history ... and RacerX Gullwing has been in the thick of it almost from the beginning.



RacerX Gullwing is a very giving man.  He's been running the Giant Snail Races for much of the ten years in Second Life and that aspect is highly-visible and spectacular.  It looks like a virtual amusement as who really needs to take a ride on a Giant Snail, much less race one ... but ... that's only part of it.  He runs the races as a benefit for Relay for Life.  He doesn't do it once in a while, he does it all the time.


At first I was thinking, man, got to draw some people for this Party but that's not likely when I don't do many gigs, I rarely promote my group, and my ability to antagonize people on Facebook is unparalleled ... but ... that wasn't a problem as people started pouring into the place.  I don't have pictures as I can't shoot them and play at the same time.  Cat was there but we haven't talked about pictures as, man, it's World Cup time and Nigeria was playing Bosnia.

Side-note:  Cat and I already knew Argentina won so Joaquin will be feeling good.  We're also pulling for Chile because Voodoo leans that way ... but ... the big show is on Thursday when Germany and America play.  Both have played Ghana and America won while Germany played to a draw.  Therefore this should be a good contest on Thursday.  I will be pulling for Germany but it looks like America can make a good showing and this could be a very exciting game.  The players have to play for their own countries in the World Cup but the coaches don't ... so America got a German coach (laughs).

The World Cup has been crushing gigs in Second Life and it will for some weeks yet but it sure didn't crush anything last night.  My screen is quite small so it was tough to tell who was there but I did get to talk a little bit with people I hadn't seen in a very long time.  Petlove Petshop was there and I'm not sure if she was one of the Tinies but these days she shoots lots of video and, better yet, she gets paid for it.

Just before submitting this article I realized I had not mentioned by own name and that'd be Silas Scarborough.  Here's a picture of my beautiful self.


Dazzling, aren't I.  (laughs)


The show started loud as the problem with Feedback is finally resolved.  This has been a Demonic Plague for quite a while and telling you about it would be sharing a Demonic Plague so better to get things going with "Necromancer" as he hasn't been flying around in quite a while.  So there were a couple to start that came out hitting hard but then over to the looper to screw around with that.

You can sound any way you like on a guitar, do anything at all you like with one, anything, anything ... except ... sound timid.  When you reach for a note and your finger touches the string on that fret, you hold its heart with your finger.  If you hold it timidly, all the blood will run out and it will die.  This isn't so important with electric as the sustain of volume level carries over that to some extent but you can never ever get away with it when you're playing clean.  If you can't hit a note strong then don't hit it at all, particularly as you push high on the neck.

The reason for remarking on that is the play in the show last night felt very confident to me with very little meandering.  I like to meander as that's how you find new stuff but there's a time and a place.  The MusikCircus is the best place for experimenting.  For a Party, I want to blow it out and it was feeling good for that.  As to how I did, I really don't know.  A Party is for socializing and much less for shouting YOU RAWK at the band.  Cat said new people signed up for my group and she doesn't think she does much but I can't do these things.  In fact, most of the people in the group are there because she added them.  Thanks to all who did join and we hope to see you again soon.  Most of all, thank you Cat.

Here's to Ten More Years for RacerX Gullwing and a hat tip to the Rabbit!

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