Triana's Music Trivia 10th Anniversary (06.28.15)

Zak and Kat rocking TMT. Photo by Triana.

Here's some Zak Trivia for you: if not for one thing, I'm pretty sure that I would have been one of the many people who joined Second Life, checked it out for a short while, and then never logged in again. Can you guess what it is?

Did you guess "live music"? You'd be wrong. I was in world for a good month or two before I even discovered that live music in SL was a thing. No, the thing that kept me coming back into SL in the early days was something called "Triana's Music Trivia" (aka TMT). Kat and I initially got into SL based on the recommendation of a friend, and we found it to be a great way to be virtually together while we were living far apart at the time. But like many folks, while we did some exploring around various areas, it wasn't initially apparent back in 2006 that there was much to actually do in Second Life. It was a Sunday when we started looking through the listings of events, and noticed that some person named Triana Caldera was hosting a music trivia game. Kat and I are both big music trivia buffs, and it sounded fun, so we checked it out. It turned out that it was indeed fun; fun enough that the following Sunday, we said, "Hey, we should go to that trivia thing again."

That was in fall 2006. In the 8-1/2 years since, it's been rare that we've missed a Sunday evening without being at Triana's. More importantly, Triana herself ended up becoming one of our very best friends in the world. We've hung out in real life on many an occasion, even planning and going on vacations together. A lot of people talk about the connections they've made in Second Life, but I'd wager that few are as deep and long-lasting as our friendship with Triana.

A collection of good friends, old and new, attended the show. Photo by Triana.

I really like performing in houses, both in real life and in the virtual world. Photo by Kat.

Our TMT friends already know that we're kind of wacky. Playing live music just confirms this. Photo by Triana.

Two-thirds of They Stole My Crayon. Someday we'll make Bunny perform in SL with us. Photo by Kat.

Good friends, good tunes, good times. Photo by Triana.

Every year in late June or early July, Triana puts on a little party to celebrate the anniversary of the start of TMT, as well as her own SL rezday. Every year since 2007, she's had me perform at this event. This year was a big one, being TMT's 10th anniversary and her own 11th rezaday, making her among the oldest residents of Second Life. As has been the case in many years, Triana moved the trivia portion of the evening back an hour to 6PM to accommodate the show at 7PM. This year did have something new; since Kat has gained a bunch of experience as a musician over recent times as a member of our band They Stole My Crayon, she performed along with me, joining in on vocals and percussion. As always, the show was tremendously fun. I do songs at TMT that I never perform elsewhere, in that environment of close friends where no one's going to be judgmental about what I play.

TMT set list...
Triana (Zak Claxton)
Borderline (Madonna)
Vendetta (They Stole My Crayon)
I Like You (Zak Claxton)
Got Guilt (They Stole My Crayon)
Loser (Beck)
Banana Boat (Harry Belafonte)
*Still The One (Orleans)
Thanks Anyway (Zak Claxton)
Cat's In The Cradle (Harry Chapin)
Blue Skies (Irving Berlin)
Tribute (Tenacious D)

*Indicates the first time I've performed this song in SL.

Huge thanks to all of our amazing friends at Triana's Music Trivia. We love you all!