Closing AM Radio’s “The Refuge and The Expansion”

 

"Saying goodbye for now.." by Callipygian Christensen, posted on Flickr

From exhibition organizer Callipygian Christensen…this is one of those moments where it’s completely appropriate to lament the impermanence of Second Life builds.  

 

The Refuge and Expansion has been installed in the Wales sims for 10 months – a long time in SL, but it feels like such a short time as I sit and say goodbye. Sunset falls on The Refuge and Expansion on Sunday May 31st. There will be a final benefit concert for Heifer International from 3 -6 PM SL time, featuring Colemarie Soleil, Joaquin Gustav and Kelvinblue Oh.

Please join us to support a great cause, and to say goodbye (for now) to the Refuge. 

Get your last looks in now!

Last Day of May celebration at Lauk’s Nest

Courtesy of Lauk’s Nest owner Graceful Aeon…this is one of the truly wonderful builds on the Second Life grid and has been a topic of interest at Second Arts for some time. It’s a fantastic place to visit regardless of the events, but the activities give you more than ample reason to return.

 

Lauk's Nest waterfall by Lukas Mensing, posted on Snapzilla

 

 

Lauk’s Nest “Last Day of May” Celebration schedule

Sunday, May 31 2009

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Join us for a day filled with events celebrating renewal of the Lauk’s Nest Center community and reminding us of the joy we first felt in Second Life.

Highlights of the day include a concert by singer Ichie Kamachi, dancing to guest DJ Pauline Windlow from Rob’s Rock Island, the opening of two art exhibits (one by a wonderful new artist Six Igaly and another by an incredibly talented rl photographer, Mystic Dexler), and a live poetry reading by writer and poet sial Orbit.  We will be starting the day with a formal dance with resident DJ Gary Kohime.

Graceful will be sending out announcement with more complete information.  IM Graceful Aeon with any questions.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

8:00 am to 10:00 am slt

Formal dance with Lauk’s Nest DJ Gary Kohime and hosted by Saronda Jewell

10:00 am slt

Opening of Mystic Dexler’s photography exhibit

11:00 am slt

New waterfall and cave opening and tours by Gary Kohime

12:00 noon slt

Opening of Six Igaly’s art exhibit

2:00 pm slt

Concert by singer Ichie Kamachi

http://www.myspace.com/ichiekamachi

4:00 pm slt

Poetry reading with Sial Orbit reading and illustrating her own poems

5:00 pm – 7:00pm slt

Rock & Blues dance with guest DJ Pauline Windlow from Rob’s Rock Island

http://robsrockisland.com/

Ongoing throughout the day:

Drum circles at both Lauk’s Tree and Sunset tree

Dancing at Sunset tree

Meditation circle

Boat rides

Lauk’s Nest “Last Day of May” Celebration schedule

Sunday, May 31 2009

􀀂

Join us for a day filled with events celebrating renewal of the Lauk’s Nest Center community and reminding us of the joy we first felt in Second Life.

Highlights of the day include a concert by singer Ichie Kamachi, dancing to guest DJ Pauline Windlow from Rob’s Rock Island, the opening of two art exhibits (one by a wonderful new artist Six Igaly and another by an incredibly talented rl photographer, Mystic Dexler), and a live poetry reading by writer and poet sial Orbit.  We will be starting the day with a formal dance with resident DJ Gary Kohime.

Graceful will be sending out announcement with more complete information.  IM Graceful Aeon with any questions.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

8:00 am to 10:00 am slt

Formal dance with Lauk’s Nest DJ Gary Kohime and hosted by Saronda Jewell

10:00 am slt

Opening of Mystic Dexler’s photography exhibit

11:00 am slt

New waterfall and cave opening and tours by Gary Kohime

12:00 noon slt

Opening of Six Igaly’s art exhibit

2:00 pm slt

Concert by singer Ichie Kamachi

http://www.myspace.com/ichiekamachi

4:00 pm slt

Poetry reading with Sial Orbit reading and illustrating her own poems

5:00 pm – 7:00pm slt

Rock & Blues dance with guest DJ Pauline Windlow from Rob’s Rock Island

http://robsrockisland.com/

Ongoing throughout the day:

Drum circles at both Lauk’s Tree and Sunset tree

Dancing at Sunset tree

Meditation circle

Boat rides

Free movies

 

Lauk’s Nest “Last Day of May” Celebration

Sunday, May 31 2009

Lauk’s Nest Center

Join us for a day filled with events celebrating renewal of the Lauk’s Nest Center community and reminding us of the joy we first felt in Second Life.

Highlights of the day include a concert by singer Ichie Kamachi, dancing to guest DJ Pauline Windlow from Rob’s Rock Island, the opening of two art exhibits (one by a wonderful new artist Six Igaly and another by an incredibly talented rl photographer, Mystic Dexler), and a live poetry reading by writer and poet sial Orbit.  We will be starting the day with a formal dance with resident DJ Gary Kohime.

Extensive schedule of events after the fold!

Refreshing the Blogroll…help!

A quick stroll through the blog to read Nazz’s great new piece  revealed a neglected Blogroll of GREAT Second Life-related arts (both visual and music) blogs.  So it’s time to update it.

Any suggestions for additions/subtractions from the readers?  Post your ideas in the comments!

What makes Chouchou more special than any other creative mind?

Hamlet Au notes that the inworld musical duo known as Chouchou has announced that they feel that they need direct financial donations to justify staying inworld.  This is downright silly.

Let’s be honest with ourselves as artists (or in my case, quasi-artists who like to support the art-creating class): You get support if you actually DO something.  It’s even easier to get support if you are talented, which Chouchou is.

Photo posted on Flickr by Abigale Heron

Problem is, Chouchou has been largely absent from inworld performing for the past 6 months or so.  I can’t recall the last time a group announcement promoted a show (but their group notice archive, I can only look back 2 weeks and only see a notice of a new song release).  Looking at Chouchou’s blog, I note that either they are not keeping their performance schedule up to date or have not performed inworld since July 6.  In fact, the only activity on their blog since July was the announcement of a new song right after Christmas.   Their MySpace activity is a little harder to gauge, but it appears that they may have uploaded a couple songs recently by comparing playcounts.  That, and their note of poverty…

I am a fan of Chouchou.  I have purchased their music online.  I have gone to their shows and tipped them generously.  I likely would continue to do so if they DID SOMETHING worth contributing to.  But even U2 has to put out new music and goes on tour to maintain relevance in the music and cultural worlds. 

Photo posted on Snapzilla by Seagel Neville

Also, this concept of extorting the inworld populace in exchange for the presence of Those Who Are So Much Better Than Thou is crap.  The only way to get anything close to welfare inworld (barring a sugar daddy, and I’ll acknowledge that some talented artisans have such arrangements) is to get a premium Second Life account from Linden Lab and get – what – L$300/week?  Otherwise, I’ll echo Hathead Rickenbacker, who commented on Hamlet’s blog:

Everyone needs a bail-out these days. Where I do get in line?

New Komuso blues downloads include “Bay City Visions” piece

Komuso Tokugawa offers holiday greetings as only he can…

BRINGING THE BOOGIE TO THE BITSTREAM

Thank you for your generous support of my SL Live music experiments.
Please enjoy this 50 minute sonic snak pak of 2008 live music cuts from both SecondLife ™ and Real Life (tm*2).

Komuso’s SonicSnakPak is donationware, so if you like it and have some spare change feel free to drop whatever you want on me in L$ in SL or US$ via paypal at komuso@sonicviz.com

I’d also mucho appreciate it if you could pass it on to your music loving friends who you think might like it! Your enemies even!!;-))

The SL tracks are all genuine SL Live gig recordings. I record all my gigs at 24bit 44khz before it goes out on the stream to SL so I always have a high quality master recording in case I actually play some blues instead of mistak…er, jazz!

SL Toons @ 256kbps mp3
1. St James Blues 5’18”. Recorded at Second Arts Photo Exhibition opening 08 Dec 2008. Thanks to Morris Vig for the gig! [My pleasure, Komuso!]
2. Dia De Los Muertos 4’29” (tip o’ the hat to George Thorogood’s Delaware Slide). Recorded at Pat O’Briens 14 Dec 2008. Thanks to Votslav Hax, Bobbyjo and the crew for the gig!
3. The Desert Blues 9’19” (Apologies to Percy Bysshe Shelley) Recorded at Twilight Jazz Club 17 Dec 2008. Thanks to Colleen, Lazlo, Quote for the gig!
4. Poor Boy 10’58” (Trad and Howlin’ Wolf/Chester Burnett) Recording at Triumph Cove 19 Dec 2008. Thanks to Ursula Cinquetti, Cher, and Blaze Columbia for the gig!

Thanks to all the other venues, hosts and musicians as well.

RL Toons 21’18” track @ 256kbps
Live recording from Amnesty International Xmas party at “What The Dickens”, Ebisu,Tokyo 14 Dec 2008. Straight into a Peavey Classic 30 amp with my trusty Hohner G3T guitar. Not a great harp sound and dodgy vocals, but hey, there you go!
Rough and Dirty Blues – mind the Jazz!. A quick throw together band and our first live gig after only a quick rehearsal beforehand.
Ken Hayashi (Spitfire Hulcranz in SL ) on drums, and Forrest Nelson (Duzzy Ryder in SL) on Bass.
Toons:
1. Help Me (after a rather strange start!) Little Walter Jacobs
2. Give Me Back My Wig. Hound Dog Taylor
3. King Bee. Slim Harpo/James Moore
4. Delaware Slide/Dia De Los Muertos – ode to George Thorogood and more…

Y’all take care.
2009 is going to be tough year all round, so stay safe, be nice but keep your wits about you, and don’t forget your weekly random act of kindness.

Download here (free registration required)

Komuso to play at Second Arts!

That’s right, Komuso is going to offer up his blues brilliance inworld at Second Arts this coming Sunday!  If you’ve seen the Aussie sensei play live from Tokyo, you know what a treat it is.  If you haven’t shaken your pixel thing to the rhythms provided by Beato-san and Basso-san, you owe it to yourself to check out what all the fuss is about.  (Warning: Komuso shows are VERY popular.  Show up early to make it into the sim, and be ready for a little lag.)

See you then!  Can’t wait!

Dancing at The Ruins dance club to Satin Galli

I had never been to this venue before, nor had I heard this performer.  Both were pleasant surprises.

Walkabout: MoShang Zhao at his Comfort Zone

After another big day at RL work, I arrived home (too late, really) to see that MoShang Zhao was playing a gig at his SL residence, “MoShang’s Comfort Zone.” It’s always great to hear my friend from Taiwan. He’s added backing tracks for a few new songs – or at least pieces that I don’t recall hearing before.

Such a wonderful talent…It’s always a treat to spend time listening to MoShang’s Chinese Chill. I always leave in such a better frame of mind!
posted by Morris Vig on Evanda Island using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

Back from vacation

Hey ‘dere, you readers of this here blog-thingamajigg…

I’m back from vacation, which was mildly disappointing, but I got the suntan (sunburn, actually) that I’ve never been able to get from my monitor.   (Oh, LCD screen.  Hmmm.)

Anyway, time away (less my hanging out at Mitch Kapor’s ballyhooed “important announcement” at SL5B) gives one time to ponder things like my “OMG you gotta be kidding me” RL job and my “WTF happened to Morris?” grid existence.  I’ll spare you the RL stuff, but let’s talk about the Second Life ™ side, which also has been impacted by my scan of a week’s worth of RSS feed speed-reading:

• Nothing I heard from Mitch Kapor inspired any confidence in Linden Lab or Second Life.  Period.  The guy doesn’t get what SL ™ is about to the residents, but it’s his (and Phil’s) toy…and we’re oh so lucky to be playing with it.
• My most compelling reasons to stay in SL right now are 1) my inventory and 2) my friends.  Considering the inevitable interoperability of different grids, I’d pay Linden Lab to let me take my “second identity” with me as I hop around the grids.
• I like my new place @ Bay City (especially the $8 tier!), but I’ll probably hop to a Void Sim once Linden Lab opens them up individually to registered users.  Or maybe a OpenSim sim once the server product improves and the service providers prove some longer-term reliability.
• The new Release Candidate viewer FINALLY got rid of the glow bar and grid design on my snaps.  At least during the one time I used it.  Let’s hope the fixes stick…and the impressive new memory leaks get plugged SOON!  (Paging Dr. Beresford…)
• I’m so happy that the new Release Candidate viewer is fixed, because I REALLY want to get moving on my next book.
• A friend suggested I improve the ties between my Bay City place and this blog.  As in, promote an SL artisan on this blog and then showcase their work inworld.  I’m really intrigued by that idea and will likely implement it soon.
• Even though I own land again on the grid, the walkabout continues.  Probably will for a while.  I’ve enjoyed the exploring a great deal.  Another cool side-benefit of the viewer fix is that you should see more walkabout snaps around these parts.
• I need my Komuso fix.  Real soon.  I miss the SL music scene…

Free (or ridiculously inexpensive) Lovespirals music!

Hey crew – I just got an email letting me know that Anji and Ryan at Lovespirals have uploaded their “Free and Easy” CD at Amie Street.  If you don’t remember, Lovespirals was a pivotal band in my musical exploration of Second Life.

Amie Street, for those who don’t know, has a real unique approach to music sales.  The first download is free for each song, and then the price goes up by just a few pennies for each download.  As a case in point, I downloaded Chouchou’s CD for less than US$4.00. (As I type, you can get the whole 15-song CD for US$8.01.)

I already own the Lovespirals CD, having purchased their 3-CD package (complete with autographs by Anji and Ryan!), so let my chance email be your gain!