RacerX Gullwing Ten-Year Rez Day Party

There are many people who come into Second Life and then start making their virtual world just like their real one ... and then there's RacerX Gullwing who has had the coolest Second Life avatar for the last ten years running and does not do anything 'the regular way.'

It really makes me proud to play for his Ten Year Rez Day party as the history with RacerX goes back to my earliest days in Second Life when I was with Telia Soyer.  Of course he liked Telia better ... but so did everyone else.

Racerx has been bringing the Giant Snail Races to Second Life for years and most, maybe all, are run as benefits for Relay for Life.  He's definitely one of the Good Guys and I really am honored that he asked me to play for his party.


(I am not increasing the gig schedule.  They are very difficult and will likely become more so.)

The Perfect North Social Security Ski Club

Joie de vivre is living every possible moment.  Multiple people in this picture, my ol' Dad included, are seventy or so and it's from 1995.

This was an early effort in compositing.  I'm sure the guy in the front right was not really there as you can see his chair does not have the correct relationship to the one next to it.  As to whomever else I glued in there, I don't know for sure.

I asked my ol' Dad about social networks and I first had to tell him what they were, what with him being dead 'n all, and he asked only why do you waste your time with silly people.  He could easily speak for an hour without repeating anything but he did not use words unless they were necessary.  So, why do you waste time on silly people.

Voodoo and FunkyFreddy Enthrall Cat's Art MusikCircus

Voodoo Shilton's guitar skill is something I have admired multiple times but he has more than solo skill and frequently performs with other musicians, typically through some electronic trickery that permits playing from different locations (i.e. dual streaming).  What he did last night went beyond that is he was with FunkyFreddy Republic in his barn somewhere in upstate New York.  To my own taste, a jam is only real when you can see each other and that's exactly what happened last night.

They were using every musical source they could possibly find and sometimes there was no way to tell.  Whoa, what did that.  The guitar sound ranged from beautifully-precise acoustic to electric that's sometimes twisted in all manner of bizarre ways.  They were rolling synth into it as they liked.  Plus they were using things that were tough to identify.  It's all to push things out as far as they can possibly go as there's no way you can really know if you don't try it.

The above may sound it makes for some riotous cacophony but what came was a set that went by ridiculously fast.  With a really good set, the first time you look at the clock will reveal the set is practically over and it will shock you.  No!  Not yet.  The music was continuously beautiful with an ongoing dialog between the two of them.  There was no me, me, me as it's all about the music and who did what doesn't matter.

There was an announcement of resounding coolness as Voodoo and FunkyFreddy will be playing somewhere in Montreal on Sunday.  I do not have the location but you can contact Voodoo Shilton or FunkyFreddy on Facebook to get more information.  I don't know if there will be a cover charge but if there is one then pay it, they are definitely worth it.

I have may been (i.e. was definitely) far overboard on the lights.  I talked to Cat about it later and she likes the lights too but she wasn't sure if it had been too much.  There were people saying how much they enjoyed it and the lights were part of that so I'm mixed.  I'll be interested to hear what Voodoo thinks later.

I'm a B-b-b-black Sheep, B-b-b-baby

I'm a b-b-b-black sheep, b-b-b-baby
They'll come for my goat
Oh, I'm a b-b-b-black sheep, b-b-b-baby
They'll come for my goat
I don't got no goat here
I don't even got no cow
But they're comin' for my goat
and they want to have it now
I'm a b-b-b-black sheep, b-b-b-baby
They'll come for my goat
Oh, I'm a b-b-b-black sheep, b-b-b-baby
They don't get the joke.

(Bump and grind part)

Da dahhhh da dahh .. bump bump bump bump

Cheesy blues lead guitar bit that sounds like every other cheesy blues lead guitar bit except for Stevie Ray who shall always remain a god.

Da dahhhh da dahh .. bump bump bump bump

I'm a b-b-b-black sheep, b-b-b-baby
They'll come for my goat
Oh, I'm a b-b-b-black sheep, b-b-b-baby
They don't get the joke.

The Islamic World Cup in Iraq

Much has been made of the oh so incredible advances of ISIS, the goddess of angry rebel Iraqis who reject puppet governments.  They are amazed that a tiny force of only eight hundred men armed only with small arms, pick-up trucks and maybe a few camels could rout two divisions of trained and equipped Iraqi troops.

That story gets a lot of airplay but what's so interesting.  John Lennon said if you don't like a war then don't fight it.  They didn't (shrug).

Obama has been taking testosterone shots like they're Vitamin C supplements to prevent premature balding and excessive nostalgic review of his younger days.  He's a nuclear bad-ass in Ukraine.  He's such a bad-ass in Pakistan.  So now he's considering launching an assault on Iraq ... for the third fucking time.

Anywhere else one would think after two failed efforts that maybe these have not been such good ideas.  That's not how it works at the White House where two failures always mandate a third one.

There is always an alternative.

The rebellion is driven in Iraq by Sunni Muslims, the majority in the country.  So what if they win now, they will anyway.  The consequence of this win is a large Sunni state that may include significant parts of Syria.

But.

Let's review.

To the North of ISIS is Iran which is dominated by Shi'a Muslims.  Sunni Muslims and Shi'a Muslims always hate each other for reasons I couldn't possibly be less interested in determining.

So.

This is an opportunity for some CIA guys to (gasp) do something useful.  Send in these guys to stir up shit as Sunnis in Iran and as Shi'ites in Iraq.  Just like Jiffy Pop, she gonna blow.

When Iran and ISIS / Iraq start shooting, we will be right back to where we were thirty-five years ago.  Grab a beer, kick back, and place your bets on who wins.


Um, yah, Halliburton and the Republicans made big bucks on that one as well.  That was when they supported Hussein and Iraq.  So it goes.

Who Would I Invite to Sing - Updated

Someone asked what artist you would want to come to sing at your house.  Everyone else named singers but I want Vincent van Gogh.  I seriously would.  You've heard all the others so I'd play while Vincent sang and splashed paint.  I'd find Jeffrey Lipsky and make it a fookin' painter duet.  Maybe they work on the same piece, maybe different ones, who knows what they do but it would be loud and it would be colorful.  So, yah, sing Vincent.  Splash that stuff all over the place.  Screw the LEDs and the flash pots, let's see oil paint flying.

I forgot my niece, Valerie.  I want her in this too.  She has the passion for it and she does mad abstracts.  For all of them I want big canvases, really big ones.  Dali-size.  If they need helpers, find some.

See it!  If you can see it, you can do it.

Where's the Raven.  Get on up here, mate.  We need yer troupe with the fireballs out here.  There are stunts and then there are Fraser stunts.  You have it in your blood, young grasshopper.  Make it happen!  Maybe not with me but do it!

Don't think of it for a stadium with a hundred thousand people, that's only for the money.  Think of doing it for a hundred or so but really really cool people, they're probably artists too.  Now it's a happening.  Welcome to the sixties.  This is how you do it.


Cat didn't believe it at first but she knows it now that I really don't know going into a show what I will play.  The only practice is to play a little for the strings as air conditioning makes them crazy.  They get cold and go out of tune.  Tune them and play for a bit.  The strings and the guitar as a whole get warmer ... and go out of tune again.  Tune back up and all set ... unless she sits for too long until the set starts and then the strings will cool off and go out of tune again.  (With the locking keys on the Godin, it's harder to knock out of tune than any guitar I've ever owned.  I would never have a guitar without a lock on the keys or the nut, preferably the keys as a locking nut looks so cyborg.)

There's a great obsession just now with musical impressionism.  I can't throw away chord progressions in my head but it would be almost cool if I could.  I learned after forty years that I have learned nothing at all but that's how long it sometimes takes to discover.  If you think that's crap then you tell me you have not finished your study yet.  When you tell me you have finished, I will tell you that you have just begun because I love to screw with the minds young white guys ... they believe this crap.  Unfortunately or not, so do I.  Perhaps it's irresponsible to use my mind like a beach ball but no-one else will let me play with theirs.

I've listened to the "Death March Digression" from last night and that's the first time I've listened to the capture from a set for a while.  All I know going into it is that I'll play some piano stuff around the chords and maybe that will be it.  The other night that's all I did.  There's also a reserve of maybe go to guitar and also maybe get loud and distorted with it.  I need the Angel Voices for all the people who have been shot ... or not.  I didn't use them last time either.  Last night they showed up, tho.

The verdict after listening is that I have no idea.  It's almost cool but whether it will ever be cool enough to satisfy is questionable.  That's not a tragedy but an observation.

Voodoo was there and that can be either intimidating or exciting, maybe both.  It was good as he really is a good guy and in part I was thinking on a long sustained note that Voodoo may think I'm just playing it for the sound.  It may seem obvious that you play a note for the sound of it but the sustain, for me, is like chocolate and it's best to let it slowly melt, not all the time but it's good when you can.  The length of the sustain may depend on how many 'colors' come from it as feedback may dance around in it and you can draw that with the volume pedal.  In this regard it really is a matter of savoring the sound beyond the value of the note.  I don't feel criticized in this thinking as Voodoo didn't say it, I say this to myself and it's a question I want to ask.  I love the colors but I don't want to chuck the whole can on the canvas at the same time ... well, unless it seems cool at the time.

Cat and I talked about putting all kinds of speaker cabinets about to make it look all Rolling Stones but both of us thought that would suck.  It's virtual!  When you can have a stage that looks like a galaxy, why would you not!

Dousing the Cigarettes in Touchie Feelie Pics on Profiles

There was no request to remove the cigarettes and I have no sense of political correctness.  It wouldn't hurt my conscience in any faint way if a kid took up any of my bad habits ... except for smoking cigarettes.  Motorcycles may hurt them but not as badly as cigarettes.

Every Web site has to have a damn profile page because everybody just has to know who the hell you are.  In fact they don't and in many cases it would be better if people didn't but they seem to like this stuff.  What that means for me is there are profiles all over the place and it will take a while to flush out all of these pics but they will go.

Part of the reason for the post is to verify whether Facebook picks up the new profile pic.  It hammered the last one I tried.  It is such woefully incompetent software.

Show Me Your Side Boob, Baby

At this stage of my life I thought I was already well-familiar with boob geography but I had not heretofore heard of the side boob.  This is something that manifests when the socialite is wearing a designer garment so poorly tailored that part of her breast (i.e. the side boob) is revealed while she walks.  Ordinarily this would be trivia of the order of knowing the brand of hair dye Sarah Palin uses to keep the grey out but the side boob is fashion news for England's Mirror.  Admittedly, it's also news for the Mirror when an Englishman gets his penis stuck in a pipe (yes, this has really happened).

This is the generation or so after the ones that thought it was so interesting to show us their lingerie.  When people were not much interested, they branched out to multi-color lingerie ... and people were still not interested.  These may have been 'designer punks' which says nothing more to me than punks who didn't get the joke.

My contempt is because the sixties approach is if you want to see breasts then you take off your shirt.  In sixty years that has evolved to 'show me your side boob, hippie baby.'

Fark.


Yes, of course the garment is designed specifically to reveal the precise amount of side boob needed to get your picture into the Mirror.  That's what gives this a special award for prissiness.

Reis and Aldo Psychedelicize Cat's Art MusikCircus

Reis Alter brings her beautiful, soaring voice and Aldo Brizzi brings the computer and the keyboards to make music that doesn't seem like it should work together and yet they make it beautiful.  I've written about them multiple times previously so here are some pictures from the show last night.  Cat and I might have got a little (i.e. a lot) out of hand with the lights and lasers.

You can find more about the Reis Project on Facebook and you can learn more about Aldo Brizzi's music on his Web site.

Silas Trips and Fantastic Lights at Cat's Art MusikCircus

When there's a problem with a show, I'm tempted to tell Cat that I can substitute but then I think, hmm, I don't want her to feel obligated ... but that didn't happen tonight as it looked like she only needed about thirty minutes so I asked her if she would like some music.  Yes she would and on with the show.

Playing at Cat's Art MusikCircus is very relaxed as I know already Cat likes it so I don't have to convince anyone of anything, I only have to play something that doesn't suck.  I don't have to play like someone just tazed me bum and no-one wants to hear Pink Floyd covers.  I haven't listened to the playback and I don't know if I will as that gets into a packet of existential drivel that would be boring just now.

Sidenote on uploading tracks to Soundcloud:  tracking cookies, etc are disabled in my browser and I discovered this means Soundcloud won't work.  It will permit me to upload things but it won't let me see the list nor will it let me play anything back, mine or anyone else's.  What that means the other way around is that the podcast is the only place I can put anything that won't load you with tracking cookies for listening to it.

It started with "Death March Digression" as I like the chords.  The sentiment is important to me as I do see two hundred million guns marching blindly to shoot each other ... but ... that is a total destroyer for a tune.  Hey, kids, here's a song ... everyone dies.  Are you ready?  If it were an opera or some such then it could be tolerable but a reading of a poem is a destroyer.  Nevertheless I like the chords.

Going into it I was thinking it might be cool to bump it up from 80 bpm to maybe 120 bpm.  That runs the risk of it becoming a boogie woogie Death March but so it goes.  It would be difficult for the marchers as they're all marching backwards but they didn't have to march.  I didn't play it that way in the set as it was more about stretching it out and pushing it to see what it might do.  I was fairly pleased with how it went and, this is the existential part, maybe it's best to leave it at that.


As to the Fantastic Lights, I saw a laser display and knew this just has to be in the Circus.  I did a lousy job of keeping a secret so, when Cat saw the lasers, there was only one thing to do:  get more stuff.  Now she can even make Jupiter and its moons float around the dance floor.  But the pictures are not in this report.  This one is only to inform you they exist.

The Evolution of the Titanian Fishlizard

The sound of all the Republicans flip-flopping on Bergdahl reminded me of the Titanian Fishlizard as they are similar to Republicans in their desire to control you but they go a step beyond and they will eat your children if you piss them off.  Fracking for oil is bad but having your children eaten by fishlizards is probably worse.  I can't say for sure which is worse as I don't know your children.

In speaking with a Republican friend yesterday, I discovered the thinking that the Titanian fishlizards, assuming they pose a threat, will have to be eliminated.  He said the same thing about Muslims and that hasn't exactly worked out so well.  There is a bigger problem now, however.  The thinking that humans are more advanced than Titanian fishlizards, from an evolutionary perspective, is more than optimistic, it's on the level of believing 'voodoo economics' can actually work.

Human evolution wasted a lot of time solving problems that were not important to the advancement of civilization.  For example, the invention of shoes does little to impress a fish.  Humans spent so much time adapting to life on land because there so many mandatory changes.  We had to learn how to climb trees, how to run fast, and how to make aluminum cans to leave on the beach.  The Titanian fishlizards didn't have to do any of this.

It is an important caution to drop any fixation on the course of human evolution as an anthropocentric view may prevent acceptance of alternative models.  The human hand is an extraordinary mechanical device but the evolution of appendages to do clever things is not unique to humans.  An octopus doesn't have only two hands but rather eight and all with a high level of tactile sensitivity and capability.  So it was in the course of the evolution of the Titanian Fishlizard.  Even though it evolved in a liquid environment it still evolved appendages capable of complex tasks and, what's more, they evolved much faster than with humans.  While humans had been tool users for about one hundred thousand years, Titanian fishlizards had been using tools for well over a million.

There is no problem at this time as the fishlizards are content to stay where they are, practicing the Ancient Rites as passed down in the Gospel of the Fishlizard.  There is talk among younger fishlizards that the Gospel of the Fishlizard is rubbish, that fishlizards are destined to burst forth and explore the Cosmos and trade with other civilizations.  The Elders do not tolerate much of this talk as they know well if humans ever come to Titan then soon their beautiful oceans will be full of plastic soda bottles.

Still there is time to reconsider the ill-advised NASA mission to Titan for surely the peril of opening the world of Titanian fishlizards to the solar system invites the same thing that happened with China.  American jobs will be outsourced and there will be no jobs left except as car washers for rich fishlizards.  This is much as it is now except these lizards are much more vicious and tend to eat employees they don't like.

Beware the Titanian Fishlizard

NASA is soliciting solutions for radical exploration in the solar system and one specific intention is to send a submarine probe to explore Titan, a large moon of Saturn with oceans of methane.  (RT:  What's next for NASA – a Saturn moon submarine?)

At first I thought the submarine can't possibly work as there would be no way it could use solar panels for power.  However, the submarine is floating in an ocean of methane.  All you need is some oxygen to make a very big bang.  This could be an excellent power source providing, of course, the moon doesn't explode.

An alternative would be to use plutonium as a power source but this will enrage PETA.  Even worse, it will enrage the Titanian fishlizards and the result of that is unpredictable.  However, if the fishlizards get out the consequence is inevitable as they will be spreading Titanian fishlizard religion everywhere they can.  Hear me my brothers, accept the Gospel of the Fishlizard.

Just think of them as Muslim jihadists with spaceships and laser weapons.

Hear me my brothers, accept the Gospel of the Fishlizard.