Back to the music. I should play more often than I do. It always feels good. Photo by Kat.
So yes, here I am with a music thing and not a news thing. I find that I miss this style of writing. Bullets are great for their purpose of quickly imparting a bunch of info, but in terms of the enjoyment of communication, actual writing is my preference.
That's Your Actual Job, Right?
Yeah, it's part of it. I'm a marketing communications specialist who doesn't specialize in any particular form of communications. I do create a shit-ton of written content... for web sites, for ads, for product descriptions used on retail sites, for brand social media, long-form, short-form. I've been writing professionally for going on 30 years.
But I also do graphic design, and web design, and PR, and media relations, and interview people for articles, and coordinate and strategize and help budget marketing efforts for many brands. It's all part of the same umbrella of expertise, which is understanding how people prefer to perceive things. One thing I learned very early in my career: lying is for assholes who don't make the effort or have the ability to understand how the truth can be found and used to a brand's advantage. If you can't find anything true and positive about a brand or product you're promoting, politely decline to work with that business entity and walk away quickly.
Me (right) at work in real life. I get to hang out with rock stars, write about it, and get paid. I promise, there are so many worse ways to make a living.
But If You Write for Work...
Why would I enjoy writing here? Like, why would a car mechanic want to fix their own transmission after working on other people's fucked-up cars all day?
Chances are he or she would not. But this is different. Almost all of the writing I do... no, make it 100% of the writing I do for work is purpose-based. When you read text used to describe a product or service, every word is carefully thought out for the purpose of making you see the value of what's being sold and making want to spend money on it.
My first post on this blog, in April 2008. Beyond hilarious is the reference to my moving to this platform off my previous blogging efforts on (drum roll)... MySpace.
When I write this blog, it's for no purpose at all. There's almost no proofreading or editing (though I do sometimes correct a typo that I stumble across a year or a decade later). I enjoy the process of documenting things... especially my processes in creating and performing music. I am not here to sell my music, or to get bigger crowds at subsequent live shows. If those things happen organically and the blog is one way people have to meet me and maybe become interested in the things I do, that's fine.
But it's not the purpose of this blog. There is no purpose for it. I never go back and read the posts. I have, upon occasion, used it to look back at specific events in my life, and it's been convenient to have a tangible reference point for various reasons. This actually happened when I suspected that I seem to get the same respiratory problem every single year like clockwork, and I used the blog to confirm the fact.
So that was cool. I've also used it as a guide to the music I've performed over the years. Every show I do includes a setlist, and having that as a reference point has proven very handy from time to time. But mostly, this blog is about nothing and has no reason to exist, which makes it pretty great.
So That Show...
Yes indeed. I arrived as per usual, at about half an hour before my show was scheduled to start. On this first-Tuesday-of-the-month gig at Hotel Chelsea in Second Life, I have always followed my friend Max Kleene and his typically large crowd, with the exception of a few times that he couldn't make the show.
We had a fine little crowd going at Hotel Chelsea and I really enjoyed this show. I should play more than once per month, but I truly appreciate each show all the more this way. Photo by Kat.
I knew pretty quickly that Max wasn't playing... first when I saw only a small number of green dots on the map indicating how many avatars were present at the sim, but also when I pushed the play button upon arrival and heard a good voice singing, but it wasn't Max's distinctive tenor. Instead, it was a guy I'd never heard before named Nigel Freeman. He said during his set that he wasn't very experienced in SL performances, but I thought he did a fine job. Seems like a nice dude too, and I wish him well and hope to check out his show again soon.
I had a couple of things going on for my own set. First, it's getting into the midst of the holiday season, and since I have no other reason or desire to play some of that music during the year, I enjoyed doing a number of Christmas songs, and also some just themed on this time of year. Second, I felt compelled to do a small tribute to one of the most important musical voices of my life... that of Christine McVie, who passed away last week.
My view from the stage. It's not always easy trying to pay attention to my audience onscreen and simultaneously focus on playing guitar and singing, but over the years, it becomes somewhat second nature to do both. Photo by Kat.
Me, rocking onstage at Hotel Chelsea. Photo by Kat.
Hotel Chelsea set list...
Long December (Counting Crows)
From The Beginning (Emerson Lake & Palmer)
Mad World (Tears for Fears)
Bring On The Night (The Police)
You Make Loving Fun (Fleetwood Mac)
Over My Head (Fleetwood Mac)
*Say You Love Me (Fleetwood Mac)
Northern Sky (Nick Drake)
River (Joni Mitchell)
Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth (Traditional/David Bowie)
Holly Jolly Christmas (Burl Ives)
Sex and Candy (Marcy Playground)
*Conjunction Junction (Schoolhouse Rock)
*Indicates the first time I've performed this song in SL.
Big thanks to every single person who hung out for my show at Hotel Chelsea, with special sauce thanks to the following who helped support it!
Luis Lockjaw, NigelFreeman Resident , Trouble Streeter, Wodie Hax, AutumnFoxx Sutherland, Aurelie Chenaux, Kat Claxton, my terrific manager Maali Beck, and and Hotel Chelsea manager Shyla the Super Gecko and Chelsea's great staff!
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