Serenity Gardens (08.26.19)

One of Second Life's premier live music venues, Serenity Gardens. Photo by Kat.

I sometimes -- okay, often, or pretty much always -- use this blog for topics other than its seeming purpose, which is simply to give reports on the music I create and perform. I don't do this with any kind of subterfuge; while the posts are almost always titled by the name of a venue where I perform and the date I played there, my "side topic" is usually the first thing you read when you click one of my blog entries.

Why?
There are a number of reasons I use this blog for things other than talking about my live music shows and new music creation. The first one is super easy: writing about music is boring and repetitive. Trust me, I speak from personal experience, with my career job being in the marketing of music and music creative products. I can't imagine how useless this blog would be if every post was a nearly identical report of the places I play, my musical repertoire, and so on. No offense toward anyone who exclusively writes reviews of music recordings and performances... hats off to you all. But as both a writer and musician on a professional level, I'd fling myself off a bridge before doing that day in, day out for my whole life.

The second reason is pretty simple: there's a lot of important shit going on in the world, and I'd like to believe that from time to time, I'm capable of offering a perspective that allows people to understand things in a way that aren't necessarily explained well by other sources of information. Before you chuckle smugly about my claim that this silly blog is a news source, you might not know that I do get thousands of page views each month. It's not a lot, but it's significant enough that I know for a fact people are coming here to do more than read what songs I chose to play at my most recent show in Second Life.

Third and final reason: I'm a low-key writing whore. While I often have to create thousands and thousands of written words each week for clients of my marketing communications business, that writing is purpose-based toward increasing the brand awareness and sales performance of those companies. The writing I do here is for me, and really no one else. I can't tell you how many times I've used my own blog as a research tool for various things that have happened in my life. It's indexed by Google (hell, this is a Google-owned Blogger blog) and the results are quick and effective. But regardless, when I write about news stories or political action or whatever topic I feel like covering at that moment, it's purely because I feel like it. It helps counterbalance the seemingly endless flow of words I have to generate to earn a living. Those words are for them; these are for me.

And Now, The Show
I usually am pretty good about writing and posting these blog entries the following day after my shows, but not this time. My workload has been excessively busy in recent times, which, to be clear, is a good thing for any business owner. But it does remind you of why the word "busy" is at the root of "business", because there are times where I can start working before 7am and find myself still cranking it out 12+ hours later with barely a break. But again, no complaints.

My virtual self, rocking onstage. Photo by Kat.

A nice crowd for a typical Monday evening at Serenity Gardens. Photo by Kat.

Monday night's show at Serenity Gardens was excellent, and the reason is pretty easy to understand. First and foremost, i started with a high-quality crowd already there from Grace McDunnough's audience. Second, I managed to put together what ended up being a really strong set list that included a couple of new ones (for me), both of which having gone very well for a first effort. Third, I'd just restrung my Takamine Pro Series P5DC, and the guitar was just singing (which assisted my singing in singing).

Serenity Gardens set list...
You’re So Vain (Carly Simon)
Crosses (José González)
*Drive (R.E.M.)
Games Without Frontiers (Peter Gabriel)
Wichita Lineman (Glen Campbell)
Friday I’m In Love (The Cure)
Free Man in Paris (Joni Mitchell)
Something Else (Zak Claxton)
Gardenia (Iggy Pop)
*Vasoline (Stone Temple Pilots)
Pickles (Zak Claxton)
Everything Is Scary (German Error Message)
Tea for the Tillerman (Cat Stevens)
Serenity Improv #4,368 (Zak Claxton)

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

Big thanks to everyone who hung out at Serenity gardens for the show, and bigger thanks to the following who helped support the show! You rock!
Kat Chauveau, Kat Claxton, Jano Runo, JT Qork, AaronCabottJones Resident, Nina Brandenburg, Triana Caldera, Trouble Streeter, Tricks Sockington, my excellent manager Maali Beck, and the fabulous team at Serenity Gardens, Tilly Rose and Ilsa Wilde!