Hotel Chelsea (12.05.23)

Doing my thing onstage. Hey, where's my tip jar? Photo by Kat.

Greetings and salutations to you, loyal reader. It is time for our monthly departure from news bullets, and instead to tell you about some personal goings-on, couched in the form of a report of a live music show. We'll get to my fun show at Hotel Chelsea in Second Life in a moment.

Why You So Late?

Yeah, sorry. My show was on Tuesday night and here it is Sunday night before I could even think about writing up this report. Simple answer: it's that lovely time of year when there aren't enough hours in a day for me to barely hit the myriad deadlines involved in my work. So when it comes to non-essential work, like this blog, well... shit falls by the wayside when I'm making sure my income is steady and reliable. I'm sure you understand.

Why You So Busy?

It's the same reason I've been busy in December for most of my entire professional life. I am a marketer in the music and audio products realm, and the start of a new year means the launch of new products and -- in all but the past few years, due to the pandemic -- the large industry trade show called NAMM that happens in January.

So it's the time of year when a person like me is doing a ton of planning and strategizing and writing and launching special promotions and marketing campaigns, and so on. I do that stuff throughout the year, but it's super intensified between November and early January. I won't get into the granular level of the things I do here; it's just boring business shit that many of you hear all day at work.

Me at work. I still do get to hold guitars at work too, so it could be worse.

But, no joke, I do typically work 12 or more hours each day around the mid-December area each year, and I have done this every year since 1993. It's fine; there's a bit on an adrenaline buzz that you can ride in the process. But it leaves little time for things that are actually fun and enjoyable, like -- ironically -- music.

What Else Is Going On?

I mean, a lot. Some of it good, some of it really bad. I lost a couple of friends in recent times, which just sucks. Ted Hoffman was a guy I met over 20 years ago via the Music Player forums. Known as "Tedster", he was a bit older than me and most of my other pals, but he was hilariously funny, genuinely kind, encouraging in that "cool uncle" kind of way, and a fucking great guitar player. He passed away recently at age 66. Heather Willams was a person I met via Facebook, and we connected via mutual friends due to our political interests. We spoke often about the goings-on in the world on topics of feminism, gender equality, LGBT rights and much more. She'd had a variety of health problems for much of her life, and went in last week to have heart valve surgery that I assumed would be routine. She didn't make it out. She was only in her early 30s.

Ted Hoffman, Heather Williams. Two friends gone way too soon.

So that's been rough. I'm pragmatic about death as a whole, but in both the cases of Ted and Heather, I felt like they had a lot more left to offer the world before getting cut off early, and it makes me angry to think about, despite there having been nothing I could have done to extend their lifespans. You always wish you could have known and made better use of your time with someone who's suddenly not there anymore. Though neither of them were part of my closest circle of friends and family, I interacted with both of them often over the course of years, and I'll miss them both.

While I'm talking about shitty things, let's not leave out my teeth. I've had ongoing issues with my teeth since... well, since I've had teeth, but recently things have flared up to the point that I actually am going in to see my dentist for the first time in about a decade. No, that's not smart, but life happens that way sometimes.

Anyway, I'm hoping I can take some steps toward improving my dental health on a couple of fronts, and at least I've started doing something about it. Sometimes the first step is the hardest. I'm glad I made the appointment.

How Was That Show, Though?

Hotel Chelsea was great. I've never had a truly bad show there, not once. Most of them have been exceptionally good. Tuesday night's show went super well, with a good-sized crowd who all seemed receptive to the songs I'd chosen.

One item of silliness: since I'm rarely performing more than once a month these days, I find that while most of my actions as a Second Life musician are well ingrained after doing it since 2006, I still manage to slip up in one way or the other. This time, it was forgetting to put pout a tip jar before I started my show. No excuse at all... no one playing before me, wasn't running late. Just blew it right off. I got that handled after my first song was done.

A fine little crowd, all of whom seemed to be having fun. Photo by Kat.

My view from the stage. Photo by Kat.

Since I have no idea if I'll have another show between now and Christmas, I did throw in a couple of holiday tunes that I can only do this time of year. When else am I going to do those songs? Speaking of which, and this is still very much up in the air, I am considering doing a little Facebook Live show next weekend, in which case I will definitely be reaching into my bag of holiday favorites.

Hotel Chelsea set list...

Wildflowers (Tom Petty)

Linger (The Cranberries)

Either Way (Wilco)

Long December (Counting Crows)

The Waiting Boy (Zak Claxton)

From The Beginning (Emerson Lake & Palmer)

Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth (Traditional/David Bowie)

Don't Let It Bring You Down (Neil Young)

Swirl (Charlie Martin)

Barely Breathing (Duncan Sheik) 

Man of Constant Sorrow (Traditional)

Holly Jolly Christmas (Burl Ives)

Dead Flowers (Rolling Stones)

Thanks to every single person who hung out with us at Hotel Chelsea on Tuesday night, with super extra spicy thanks to the following folks who helped support the show!

888Moor Resident, Elke Shepherd, Trouble Streeter, Kat Claxton, my terrific manager Maali Beck, Hotel Chelsea manager Shyla the Super Gecko, and Chelsea's great staff.