Last night was Sister Julie's real-life birthday party so, naturally, it was celebrated in the virtual world. If that doesn't make any sense to you then this article may be a wee bit strange to you.
It's a huge honor to play for Sister Julie and maybe you say of course that's what I do as she's my friend but it's more than that as she picked me to play and she could have picked anyone. She also picked Max Kleene and Rosedrop Rust and that's what made it JulieFest.
The object is to tell you about my show last night and there are three problems with this picture for doing that:
Oh yeah, and how about them fireworks!
My own set hit the rocks from the first moment. There were enormous feedback problems that were so bad I couldn't even get the audio stream started. I'm still not entirely clear what did it although it seems SL Voice might have been the culprit. In any case, it took some minutes to get this resolved and that's the worst. Gigs that start late suck bad.
The main thing when that happens is not to go silent as the venue owner, in this case Sister Julie, will panic ... what does she do with all these damn people. Do you expect me to play fucking canasta with them while you sort out your little wires. They don't like fucking canasta and they will leave. No matter how bad it gets with yer wires, let the venue owner know what is happening!
So the audio situation was off-balance right from the top. I get everything dialed before a show so the last fifteen minutes should be pretty laid-back. All the buttons should be pushed by that time so I can kick back, smoke a bowl of this cheap-ass reefer, and then kick out de jams. That isn't precisely what happened ... more accurately, it isn't even close to what happened.
Rather than shredding myself for parts of the show about which I would probably be over-critical, one of the best things was after when Crap said he liked the 'experiments' as it means a lot to hear that. The experiments are in starting out with a bass, adding keys, etc and growing the bit into some abnormal musical beast. They're usually just simple melodies but then it goes to, well, let's see how big this thing gets. I think about doing this far more than doing anything else and it's almost always what I will be doing when I'm just playing for myself. That you like it too means huge to me as what do I really know about what people want to hear.
Rosedrop Rust came up after me for the third set of JulieFest and his act is in part singing and in another part poetic readings. He has a highly-unusual set in Second Life and he's been doing quite well at it for a long time in SL. Rusty may accompany himself on guitar or keyboard or nothing at all and he sings or reads on top of that ... which is all toward saying you don't know what he is going to do next and that's what makes him fascinating.
Rusty often works with Sister Julie in poetic readings. Crap Mariner is in this sordid group as well and they read fairly regularly. There are quite a few regular readers and this is bigger in the virtual world than you may realize. If you want more from poetry than writing books no-one will read, you might want to try this kind of reading. (No, I'm not criticizing you. I wrote a poetry book that no-one will read. It's the nature of poetry books.)
So there's only one thing left: Happy Day After Yer Birthday, Sis!
It's a huge honor to play for Sister Julie and maybe you say of course that's what I do as she's my friend but it's more than that as she picked me to play and she could have picked anyone. She also picked Max Kleene and Rosedrop Rust and that's what made it JulieFest.
The object is to tell you about my show last night and there are three problems with this picture for doing that:
- There is no Facelight so you can't make out my stunning profile
- That is not an electric guitar
- The picture is not of me and looks suspiciously like Max Kleene
Oh yeah, and how about them fireworks!
My own set hit the rocks from the first moment. There were enormous feedback problems that were so bad I couldn't even get the audio stream started. I'm still not entirely clear what did it although it seems SL Voice might have been the culprit. In any case, it took some minutes to get this resolved and that's the worst. Gigs that start late suck bad.
The main thing when that happens is not to go silent as the venue owner, in this case Sister Julie, will panic ... what does she do with all these damn people. Do you expect me to play fucking canasta with them while you sort out your little wires. They don't like fucking canasta and they will leave. No matter how bad it gets with yer wires, let the venue owner know what is happening!
So the audio situation was off-balance right from the top. I get everything dialed before a show so the last fifteen minutes should be pretty laid-back. All the buttons should be pushed by that time so I can kick back, smoke a bowl of this cheap-ass reefer, and then kick out de jams. That isn't precisely what happened ... more accurately, it isn't even close to what happened.
Rather than shredding myself for parts of the show about which I would probably be over-critical, one of the best things was after when Crap said he liked the 'experiments' as it means a lot to hear that. The experiments are in starting out with a bass, adding keys, etc and growing the bit into some abnormal musical beast. They're usually just simple melodies but then it goes to, well, let's see how big this thing gets. I think about doing this far more than doing anything else and it's almost always what I will be doing when I'm just playing for myself. That you like it too means huge to me as what do I really know about what people want to hear.
Rosedrop Rust came up after me for the third set of JulieFest and his act is in part singing and in another part poetic readings. He has a highly-unusual set in Second Life and he's been doing quite well at it for a long time in SL. Rusty may accompany himself on guitar or keyboard or nothing at all and he sings or reads on top of that ... which is all toward saying you don't know what he is going to do next and that's what makes him fascinating.
Rusty often works with Sister Julie in poetic readings. Crap Mariner is in this sordid group as well and they read fairly regularly. There are quite a few regular readers and this is bigger in the virtual world than you may realize. If you want more from poetry than writing books no-one will read, you might want to try this kind of reading. (No, I'm not criticizing you. I wrote a poetry book that no-one will read. It's the nature of poetry books.)
So there's only one thing left: Happy Day After Yer Birthday, Sis!
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