I only was able to take one quick screen grab from last night's show at Serenity Gardens! I get spoiled by often having people like Kat, Triana, or Thea around to take pics for me. Anyway, this is better than nothing.
Hello blog readers! It's been awhile. How've you been? Oh wait, you can't answer me. This is a one-way street. I'm going to assume you've been well.
I won't lie; it's been a challenging time here in Claxtonville. Christina was in Washington from March 11-31 to support her family during a tough time. While she was away, my elderly mother managed to fall and break her kneecap while her husband was away on a trip, so that involved trips back and forth to the hospital (she's home now and improving). Immediately upon Christina's return, we all ended up getting sick with a nasty cold that she most likely acquired from her delightful little nieces and nephews. Just as a little icing on the cake of life, Sunday night had me swinging open my front door and misjudging the distance to my own kneecap... bam. Ow.
I promise, it's not all bad news. The smoking reduction effort that I began at the start of March is still going on just fine. I have very successfully gone from being a smoker of 20 or more cigarettes a day to being a smoker of 8-9 cigarettes a day. It's been super easy to halve my smoking amount. But going down below that level is going to take some extra effort. Since I'm planning to see a doctor soon anyway, I will likely ask about some help in smoking cessation.
The Depression Perspective
There's something I keep in mind while going through what I consider to be a rough time. It's not to minimize any of the very real aspects of difficulties that I and pretty much every human being go through from time to time, but one of the most challenging things for the human mind to perceive are the things that aren't there. Every day I look at my son, I keep in mind that he doesn't have a congenital defect, or a life-threatening illness. If that was the case, I'd do anything to have him be exactly as he is right now... perhaps a little aimless and not super motivated, but healthy and mostly happy. Every day I walk outside and look around at the relatively peaceful environment in which I live, I need to acknowledge that a lot of other people live in war zones, or places where they don't have basic life necessities like clean water, access to food and so on. My life is far from perfect, but it's so much closer to perfect than so many other people, it would be beyond reproach for me to constantly complain about the possibility of it being better than it already is.
Does that mean I should always just accept things for the way they are and give up on trying to make it better? No, of course not. Both for myself, my family, my friends, and the world at large, it's my belief that people have a responsibility to recognize areas that can be improved and strive toward making that happen. At the same time, immersing my thoughts in negativity doesn't help achieve that goal either. I suppose the balance that we all hope to find is being able to live in a world where we are both appreciative for the good things (with a solid awareness of how much worse it could be) and also focused on how life can be improved for ourselves and those around us.
Back to the Music
I'd last performed live music in Second Life on March 11, about a month ago. I'd had a scheduled show on March 25, but that was right when my mom was in the midst of her hospitalization, and it would have been impossible for me to dedicate the time and focus to do a show on that day, so I reluctantly had to cancel. Last night at Serenity Gardens marked my return after that unplanned hiatus. And, of course, I was taking the stage while fighting this cold, and with a bum knee.
Here's another example of how some folks simply don't get what it means to do a virtual show. "Who cares?" they opine. "It's not like you have to travel to the venue, lug around PA systems and amps, blah blah blah." That is true, yes. But I still have to do the fucking show! That involves singing and playing guitar, two very physical activities. It involves warm-up and practice before my show, and focus while I'm performing. None of these things are made easier when not in top physical condition.
Regardless, I wasn't about to cancel. My performances in Second Life are more rare now than at any time since I started doing them in 2006. That is a conscious choice for the most part, but for the few remaining shows I do, I feel a responsibility to my friends/fans, to the venues where I play, and to myself to follow through and be reliable in the times I've committed to play. That having been said, I didn't have high hopes for last night's show for all the reasons described above. Once I started playing, though, and became aware that my pitch and vocal quality and ability to play guitar seemed pretty good, my confidence level arose and I think the rest of the show went better than my expectations. We ended up having a really good crowd, and folks seemed to have a good time. I ask for nothing beyond that.
Serenity Gardens set list...
This Afternoon (Zak Claxton)
Strawberry Fields Forever (The Beatles)
Bang and Blame (R.E.M.)
1979 (Smashing Pumpkins)
If I Had a Tail (Queens of the Stone Age)
Peaceful Easy Feeling (Eagles)
Don’t Let It Pass (Junip)
Blew the Dust Away (They Stole My Crayon)
Pink Moon (Nick Drake)
Among the Leaves (Sun Kil Moon)
Hand In My Pocket (Alanis Morissette)
Roxanne (The Police)
Save It For Later (English Beat)
Big, big thanks to everyone who came out to the show, with a special tip of the Zak cap to the following who helped support it!
Rosie Arnaz, MyMaria Boucher, Pato Milo, Trouble Streeter, Diana Renoir, go2smoky Resident, Kat Chauveau, hynesyte Harbour, Aurelie Chenaux, my excellent manager Maali Beck, and the fabulous team at Serenity Gardens, Tilly Rose and Ilsa Wilde.
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