Hotel Chelsea (04.02.24)

Me onstage at Hotel Chelsea in Second Life, doing my thing. Photo by Kat.

Hi there, peoples. It's me, your friend Zak, finally getting back to writing a little report on a live music performance, as opposed to my daily Random News bullets. Nice for a change. I can write to you like an actual human as opposed to an info-compiling, news-spewing AI of some kind.

I will definitely tell you about my first live music show in six weeks (and my first back at Hotel Chelsea in three months!), but perhaps I'll just fill you in on some normal-ass stuff that's happened since we last got together here.

These Teeth Were Made For Chomping

I mentioned back in February about what ended up being one of the worst days of my life when I went in for dental surgery and ended up spending most of the night in a hospital. That sucked, to put it mildly. I'm happy to say that after that, all of my dental adventures have been smooth sailing, especially in comparison to that worst-case scenario.

I've had two more extensive dental procedures since then, in late February and March, and it's pretty incredible how much better your life can be when you're not in varying degrees of pain all the time. I should also note that due to the dental woes, I'd probably been fighting an infection for months, maybe even years. Both of the sessions with the dentist and endodontist were lengthy -- over three hours on each subsequent trip -- but it all ended well, and my repaired and freshly-crowned teeth should last a good while. All in all, I just feel better beyond the teeth themselves. Hats off to Catalina Dental and Dr. Asemi here in Redondo Beach.

I'm also incredibly happy that I'm done with this shit, hopefully for a good long while.

What Else?

Oh, ya know. This and that, mostly not exciting, which I appreciate more and more as time goes by. I do spend a chunk of time each day being involved, in my slacker activist way, in the political and social goings-on in the USA and the world. It's an election year and I find it likely that things are going to ramp upwards quickly as spring heads into summer and the election of 2024 becomes the top story on a daily basis.

I'm going to enjoy this coming Monday's total solar eclipse. "But Zak," you say, "You're nowhere near the path of totality!" That is correct... I'm over 1,000 miles west of the small swath of North America where the eclipse will actually blot out the sun for awhile. But I've been a fan of celestial phenomenon for many years, and I will tell you... the eclipse will be noticeable in varying degrees across the USA. You will see things dim and the world will look odd and interesting if you can focus on the details of light. In the Los Angeles area where I live, about half of the sun will be visibly covered by the moon, and in San Francisco, one-third will be. It’ll be the last partial solar eclipse for L.A. and San Francisco until 2029.

In most places in the USA (sorry, Seattle), the eclipse will be at least somewhat noticeable, even a thousand miles from the path of totality.

About the only other thing I'll mention here is that I am seriously overdue for some kind of vacation. My last trip out of town was over two years ago, during a trip to Joshua Tree in March 2022. Why don't I take more time off? Because I own a business and I'm also the only employee of said business. When I'm not here and not working, it creates problems with my clients, and that gives me varying kinds of stress. However, I am starting to consider some kind of short trip to at least get a change of scenery for a bit. Perhaps in June. That sounds nice.

But How About That Show?

Ah yes. The show went fine. As has been the case in previous times where my performances are fewer and further between, I had to spend some significant time getting warmed up and ready for this one. But both my voice and guitar playing seemed acceptably good while I was running through tunes before the show.

One thing that's certainly not only true of Second Life's music scene but performing of any kind in general; when you go long spans without doing shows, you can't expect your audience to wait for your return. Not that I'm complaining; we had a small but very enthusiastic crowd at Hotel Chelsea on Tuesday night. They enjoyed it and I enjoyed playing for them. I actually am ramping up my performance schedule a little bit in upcoming times, so hopefully the crowds will grow a bit as they become more accustomed to my being there on a regular basis.

My view from the stage. Photo by Kat.

And their view of me. Photo by Kat.

Hotel Chelsea set list...

Saved By Zero (The Fixx)

Heart-Shaped Box (Nirvana)

Loading Zones (Kurt Vile)

Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm (Crash Test Dummies)

Something Else (Zak Claxton)

Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie)

God Only Knows (Beach Boys)

Homeward Bound (Simon & Garfunkel)

Everyday I Write the Book (Elvis Costello)

Bang and Blame (R.E.M.)

Things Behind the Sun (Nick Drake)

Big thanks to everyone who hung out or popped by my show at Hotel Chelsea, and super giganto thanks to the following who helped support it!

cristoofarr Resident, Zachariah Loon, Varistentia Varriale, Trouble Streeter, Alex Zelin, Silvermain Seljan, Nina Brandenburg, Kat Claxton, my terrific manager Maali Beck, Hotel Chelsea manager Shyla the Super Gecko, and Chelsea's great staff.