Mock Stardom for Ninety Minutes

Summer & Lightning

So this is what it's like to be a mock star...

The ELO show went surprisingly well, even though - yes - my hand missed the fret bar like some spaz noob  avatar.  You know I even took the lowest common denominator route and wore tight jeans, just in case.

Heh.

I have to say the New London folk were very kind and turned a blind eye from the primcount of the instruments. Mayo - a neon fur space wolf - was just awesome on drums while coaching the crowd into a frenzy.  Jayne managed the lights while she played synths, guitar, and violin.  I ran the stream, controlled the weather (successfully) during certain songs, played two styles of guitar, keytar, and piano after Jayne & I played dual snares for the opening introduction (Drum Dreams).

It all went perfectly. I was shocked with how well it went actually, but certainly not complaining.  Would I do it again?  Got a year to think about it.

As for the saucer, there was no time to make a "serious" build, so I went with something that looked more like an inflatable object and added a little valve to it.  Other than the actual ELO logo the rest of the textures were original ;). I put two levels of tour shirts in it and a dance umbrella as freebies.

Of course in the end the most important thing was the music.  I put new songs, old songs, "previously unreleased" songs, with instrumentals at both ends to allow for much green chat.

 Ticket to the Moon

Lol we even had a stage diver who had to be removed.

All in all a great time. With it out of the way I got to check out the other events like the SL Cheerleader Squad, "Elvis", Wellzy's awesome Ska party, and a few others.

If you attended the ELO show, thanks for coming and hope you had a great time!

It was also a weekend for things in New Toulouse, including an old jazz/big band party on Sunday afternoon.  I'm really feeling comfy there. I guess I shouldn't have tried to fit into something so ill-suited for me with New Babbage. NT is more my speed and it's a part of my heritage.  Annnd tonight is Madhu's after my DJing at Bacchus.

btw fair warning: I got me a few new CDs of stuff I only had on vinyl, so I'll add some of the songs to Bacchus and New London playlists :)

Pre-Show Whining

I spent too much money on instruments I may never use again.  I probably need 3x my prim alotment. Someone is BOUND to break their leg right before the performance...

Have 3 more textures to make for the saucer, then it's set planning time.  Can use a sandbox I know.  Where things should be rezzed etc...

I decided not to go with the spacesuit.  Can't have elaborate joint torii on your body AND play instruments.  Might just stick with a retro rock'n'roll look. 

I want to offer a free tour shirt to attendees.  That's another prim.  Tipjars are to be 1 prim for each of us.

Headset.  Functional this time for carrying my voice (I have a script somewhere).  Might actually reduce the saucers for the design if not just use the available logo from the Jeff Lynne night I had last month.

And true to form:  someone has planned an event opposite my itsy 90 minutes guaranteed to divert contact list friends from attending.  Story of my life.

I'll be too busy with streaming, switches, animating, and counting to fifteen at the start of each song to think about taking snapshots, so if any of you attend tomorrow and get good pics, do share?

I wonder if I should make freebie dancing umbrellas like I did for Mardi Gras?  That's a thought!  Another prim...

Oh right.  One more thing to get... at 4D Studio... heh...

New London Festival this Saturday

Hmmm...

I don't think I've ever seen a guitar player with convincing animation in Second Life.  And while I've seen a mock-up Wilburys concert once, it was a bit weird and I'd have just wanted to dance to the music regardless of who or what was on stage.

The pressure's on to put together something special this Saturday for my set at the New London Festival.  Well for someone like me it's pressure.  I'd like to hover a giant build over the audience.  I'd want it to produce lightning and storms... Yeah I think full contol of local environment via the saucer is what I'd do.

I guess I'd contol the colors and meteorological activity by a HUD.

It's not something I'd do as a habit,  but being a special event there are expectations and I want to live up to them.  After all I do it for everyone's enjoyment.  Give them a good time from their real lives.

If I could script.  Right now it's can only be an idea.

A Good Week for a Change

It's been a good week.  While it's easy to be moved to write when there's misrepresentation or bullying to bring to light (I'll gladly leave irrational hate and fibbing for the schemers to spew forth), it's always great when things fall into place.

Removing certain groups from my list was very therapeutic.  I have one friend left whom I made in "that place" and I get a strong impression they're too polite to remove me but may prefer that I no longer existed in their world.  So far it's been only me saying hello.  I could be wrong, but I might remove a weight off their shoulders if I don't see a change.   It's times like these I'd like to be proven wrong, but conditional friends are barely any friends at all, if not grounds to be a friend when the tide turns.

We had an 80s Night at the beach on Monday.  Best dressed avatar contest in addition to 7Seas'.  I even made a plastic-look headset for the occasion.  The playlist was both easy and tough.  I had ripped a lot of CDs the day before and in minutes had almost three hours of music picked.  The tricky part was deciding what to leave out.  In the end everybody had a great time with many not having heard some songs since they were hits.  It always feels good when you know you've made someone's downtime worthwhile.  That's why I do it.  This is all about downtime.

New Albert Hall's working out as well.  I try to put something Who into that one for obvious reasons.  I've been invited to participate in London Fest.  I'd play a 90 minute set from one band (got dibs on Electric Light Orchestra).  Will see what I can prepare for that one in the way of multimedia accompaniment as it seems customary.  If anything it compensates for not having a Burn2 plot.

Furnished the treehouse as much as I'd want to. Who needs a bathroom or a kitchen in Second Life?!

More good news: deleted Google+

What negative occurrence can we turn into something positive?  The most unhappy news of all: the mortality of Abbotts Aerodrome.  Cubey Terra announced that it's up for sale in September.  This is more than just property, and many of us wish Linden Lab would strike a deal so it becomes property of LDPW with mole attractions and continued trips to Nova Albion and Hau Koda.  Even with a little arranging planes can start from Hau Koda back to Abbotts as well as out to Calleta's Hobo infohub (should they ever manage to stabilize the northern Sansara corridor).

 We can only hope to continue to see that grand tower as a symbol of the best our earliest mainland settlers had to offer...