Getting ready to start my show at Hotel Chelsea while Max Kleene wraps up his last tune.
I know it's still a little weird, popping in here once or twice a month with these little reports on my musical activities. I can imagine someone who'd become a regular reader of this blog, skimming through bullet points every day and getting quickly caught up on various things in the USA and the world, and then it's like, "What the fuck is this shit?" It's like you're binge-watching a horror series on Netflix and then you cue up a random episode has the same main character hanging out at a concert, with nothing that ties into the plot.
Are There Regular Readers of This Thing?
Oh yeah. For sure. I can see the traffic to every single post of this blog. It's not thousands of readers every day, but it is quite a lot compared to what I'd expect. This blog isn't monetized or promoted in any serious way. It's as much a diary for my own enjoyment as it is an actual source of information.
Still, I hear from people over and over that they actually rely on my news bullets. Not everyone is active on the kind of social media where "everyone knows" what's going on. All I do is aggregate info that I see on various news media and my own social media sources. I'm not a journalist; I know what it takes to maintain sources, do investigative reporting, and this ain't that. But news is only as effective as its ability to be seen, and if I help people stay informed by passing along that info, I am performing a service that is needed and that people appreciate.
Thousands of people read this silly blog, and even more read my news bullets via other platforms like Facebook. It's definitely worthwhile to someone.
What Else Has Been Happening?
Like, with me? Well, I am working on a new song. I think it's good. I have no need to rush through it, and I'm spending some time on lyrics, as well as refining the song structure and production thoughts. I do hope to release it by year's end, or earlier if possible.
Beyond that, being less than a week out from a major national election, my focus has been on getting out info that allows as many people as possible to be informed voters, and to make them aware that their vote matters a lot.
And yeah, like anyone else, I've dealt with work issues and health issues and family issues and financial issues. That's just all part of a normal life in this era. You have challenges, and you do what you can to overcome them. That's all.
How About That Show?
Ah yes. So, I got into SL for my show at Hotel Chelsea, and decided to change my clothes, as I'd been performing in basically the same outfit for most of the summer and early fall. My appearance isn't my big priority in SL, frankly. Still, having months worth of show photos where I'm basically dressed identically isn't cool either.
So I changed a few things, and then went to TP to my show, and everything locked up. SL froze and quit automatically. I logged in again and the same thing happened. I logged in yet again and pinged my manager Maali for a TP to the show. Crashed again.
I did eventually make it to the show. Photo by Trouble Streeter.
There was a time years ago where this would send me into a mental vortex of anger and frustration, but after however many thousands of shows I've done, this was nothing at all. I next had the idea of teleporting straight to the show from the same link I'd used to announce it, and it worked fine, and I had plenty of time -- well, ten minutes, anyway -- to get set up and ready to play.
Max, playing before me as usual, had a typically large crowd there, and I was super happy that a good portion of them stayed for my show, along with a number of those who'd arrived to see me. I had a couple of weird glitches happen; primarily, my guitar signal kept fluctuating in volume, but even that didn't deter me... I just strummed a little harder when I heard it fade. I'll make sure it's working as expected before my next show.
Tunes?
Yes, had tunes a-plenty. I pulled out two I hadn't done before: "You May Be Right" by Billy Joel, and "Like a Virgin" by Madonna. I had no specific reason for doing them. I think I just ran across them at some point and decided to add them to my set.
For the rest of my set, I relied on some good old superstition. I went back to November 2018 and 2020 in my shows right before those years' elections, and used the same tunes. Both of those elections turned out favorably; why take any chances? Maybe it was me and my smooth-ass acoustic rock goodness that tilted the Blue Wave in our favor! Probably not, but I had no reason not to replicate those sets and hope for the best.
Me doing my thing onstage at Hotel Chelsea. Photo by Trouble Streeter.
I also had something rare happen at the show in that a person in the audience called out a request and I took it. I almost never, ever do that. But it so happened that a guy named Zack asked for something by Townes Van Zandt, and it was at a point in the set that I felt it might work well, so I did it. Kinda fun.
Hotel Chelsea set list...
Pecan Pie (Golden Smog)
Things Behind the Sun (Nick Drake)
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (Neil Young)
*You May Be Right (Billy Joel)
Mount Airy Hill (Way Gone) (Kurt Vile)
Pancho and Lefty (Townes Van Zandt)
All You Fascists (Woody Guthrie)
Thank U (Alanis Morissette)
Wichita Lineman (Glen Campbell)
*Like a Virgin (Madonna)
Space Oddity (David Bowie)
America (Simon & Garfunkel)
*Indicates the first time I've performed this song in SL.
Big ol' thanks to everyone who hung out at the show, with super special thanks to the following who helped support it!
jonny6452 Resident, Awgidawda Gazov, asimascott Resident, Zackooo Resident, KateHershey Resident, AutumnFoxx Sutherland, Trouble Streeter, my terrific manager Maali Beck, and Hotel Chelsea manager Shyla the Super Gecko!
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