Going Fishing

Here's something sort of weird: this Saturday, I'm doing something I don't like to do that I've postponed for over five years, but nevertheless will probably enjoy. Intrigued? Read on, dear reader. Read on.

When my son was a wee lad, maybe 6-7 years old, he played a video game that included a fishing mini-game. He really liked it, and mentioned to his grandfather (aka my dad) that he wanted to go fishing for real sometime. Well, my pop is an old-school guy from the Midwest who grew up hunting and fishing, and he couldn't wait to go out fishing with me and my boy. However, "wait" is exactly what he did. Getting our schedules to mesh is a pain in the ass. Between the three of us, with my son's school, my music, my dad's golfing, and both of our jobs, it just hasn't happened.

There's another reason it hasn't happened: I'm not a big fan of killing wild animals. While I did my fair share of fishing as a kid, as I got older, my philosophy about the importance of life changed to the point that now, I am hesitant to kill even things like spiders, or ants if I can help it. So, I kind of sat on the idea for awhile, taking no real effort to make it happen. However, I will say that fishing is a valuable skill. It may seem like an anachronistic attitude, but you never know when you'll be in some situation where you might have to get your dinner from a source other than a grocery store, or McDonald's for that matter. As the ancient adage goes, if you give a man a fish, he eats for an evening. If you teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime. You get the idea.

The Redondo Pier, just a few blocks due west of me. Seems like a good place for my kid to try fishing.

It tends to get pretty busy at the fishing area of the pier, especially on weekends.

All this is leading up to my telling you that after five years of nagging from both generations, my son and my pop, we're finally going fishing this weekend. One of the big hold-ups to doing this was the idea that we'd have to travel somewhere far away, but wait... what's that giant blue thing outside my window? Oh, it's the Pacific Ocean, which has been rumored to contain fish. I live in Redondo Beach, a suburb of LA that has a large pier which is well known for angling. So as opposed to making a big production out of it, we're heading down the street and spending a few hours casting our hooks, lines, and sinkers over the edge, hopefully to catch a few calico bass, mackerel, and other such sea creatures.

The Pacific Mackerel. Not exactly the most impressive fish, but it'll be fun to catch one for my boy in any case. Once it's caught and I can hopefully pull the hook out, back in the ocean it goes.

To do that, I took my kid to Big 5 last night, and we bought some rather cheap Zebco all-in-one packages that include the rod, reel, and all the tackle. It's even pre-spooled with line, so we'll have an easy time and avoid the frustration of dealing with all that. One thing you should know: while I'm happy to acquiesce my ethics for a day of family fun, I'm also not taking any fish home with me. It's all catch-and-release, with hopefully as little damage to the fish as possible. I'll bring the camera, and if we do catch anything, it'll be just long enough to preserve the image for good memories, and then back in the ocean for the fishy.

So, wish us luck this weekend. My kid can find out what it's like to fish for real, and I can spend a little time with him and his crazy grandpa. We'll fish until we get bored, then grab a late lunch and head home. Should be cool.

The Islands of New England (08.08.11)

As I've mentioned here about 10 million times before, I love playing at new venues. Not necessarily new in the sense of "just opened"; I mean new in that I've never played there before. Last night was my first-ever show at The Islands of New England, and making it all the more fun is the fact that the venue is managed by a lady who I've gotten to know through Second Life and Facebook, Christine Haiku. Christine is one of those people that lights up a room with her presence, and I've always been a sucker for a gal who has charisma (as is certainly evidenced by my darling Kat).

When Christine asked me to perform at New England, I didn't think twice. I barely thought once, truth be told. I'd been to the venue to see Taunter Goodnight sing, and liked the vibe there. But moreover, I was sure that Christine could help put on a great show even if it were held in a shoebox, and my instinct turned out to be correct.

I like the way the Islands of New England venue is set up. By having a relatively narrow space for the crowd, it keeps everyone closer together and makes the place feel lively. One of the biggest design errors of many SL venues is making them too big. This one is just right. Photo by Kat.

A side note: I really prefer being scheduled so that I'm not the first artist in a series of performances. Why? It's simple: when you have people playing before you, there's already a crowd at the venue, and as an artist, I have an opportunity to get some of those folks to hang out and see what I'm all about. Also, there's that responsibility I feel for bringing people into a show, and it can be hit-or-miss depending on the day/time and place as to whether that happens successfully. I'm happy to say, though, that despite the fact that I opened the show yesterday, we ended up having a great crowd... good-sized and enthusiastic. Happy me! Oh, and an interesting coincidence that I noted during the show: the sim where the venue is located is called "Marblehead". Well, as a little kid, I actually lived in Marblehead, MA. It was my last home before moving to Southern California at age 6 (where I've remained ever since).

Christine Haiku! Photo by Kat.

I've been making a purposeful attempt to bring out some of the songs that I don't play very often. It's fun dusting them off, not just for my own desire to stay fresh, but to keep the interest of my crowd ignited as well. Since it was my first time playing at New England, and since Christine Haiku has been such a cool person to me, I decided to commemorate the occasion with a special tune for her; I took "Cheer Up Murray" by Flight of the Conchords and modified it for Ms. Haiku, and opened the show with it.

What a pretty place to play live music and enjoy the company of friends. Photo by Kat.

The Islands of New England set list...
*Cheer Up Christine (Flight of the Conchords/Zak Claxton)
Falling Down (Zak Claxton)
I've Been Waiting for You (Neil Young)
Save It for Later (English Beat)
†Sour Girl (Stone Temple Pilots)
Thanks Anyway (Zak Claxton)
Six Underground (Sneaker Pimps)
Fire & Rain (James Taylor)
Nobody Home (Pink Floyd)
Broken Day (Zak Claxton)
Rock and Roll Woman (Buffalo Springfield)
Always Tomorrow (Zak Claxton)
A Day in the Life (Beatles)

*Indicates the first time I've performed this song in SL.
†I've only played "Sour Girl" three times since December 2008. It's a rare one.

Huge thanks to everyone who came to my show at TIONE, especially those who helped support it!
Triana Caldera, Sommer Shepherd, Aurelie Chenaux, Alba Sonata, Diana Renoir, Sassy Nitely, Xerxes Ninetails, TheaDee, Kat Claxton, my wonderful manager Maali Beck, and a terrific venue manager if there ever was one, Christine Haiku!

Key West (08.03.11)

Well, it's been an interesting week so far. Monday seemed to start off fine, but around mid-day, I noticed I wasn't my usual chipper self. By 2:00 that afternoon, I was having trouble focusing on my work, and felt a bit nauseous with a slight headache coming on. By 5:30, I had to do something I almost never do: took a break from work and laid down "for a minute". That minute turned into hours of agony, because I'd been nailed with a severe migraine. I've only had a few of them in my life that I know of, and they are about as horrible as anything I've ever experienced.

So that, in a word, sucked. The next morning, after a fitful night that I only made it through with my sanity thanks to my darling Kat helping to take care of me, I was a lot better, but I still felt weak and had to cancel a show that evening... something I loathe doing. But I knew I couldn't put on a full-bore Zak Claxton show at that point. I was determined to be well enough the following day to perform at Key West.

My fun crowd at Key West. Photo by Kat.

I'm happy to say that Wednesday continued my path of improvement, and I was surprised to find that I was full of energy and raring to play by the time my 6:00PM slot rolled around. Christopher Quan was playing before me and sounding great, which is always inspiring for me to put on my best show. Strangely, some poor planning on my behalf turned into a positive; I was busy with work for longer than I'd expected, and wasn't able to put much thought into choosing my set list, so I ended up doing a last-minute shuffle through my songbook and grabbing a bunch of tunes in a more random way than I usually do. Turned out great. Crazy, huh?

What a pretty place to play live music on a Wednesday evening! Photo by Kat.

Key West Set List...
Waterloo Sunset (The Kinks)
This Afternoon (Zak Claxton)
California (Joni Mitchell)
Sex and Candy (Marcy Playground)
Space Oddity (David Bowie)
Falling Down (Zak Claxton)
Blue Skies (Irving Berlin)
After the Goldrush (Neil Young)
Help Me (Joni Mitchell)
Jane (Barenaked Ladies)
You're Like a Cloud (Zak Claxton)
In My Time of Dying (Traditional)

I rock while Kat kicks it on a box. Photo by Kat.

A funny side note: we had a freshly-minted noob at the show, some guy named dan12203 Resident, who was running around begging/screaming that he wanted someone to kiss him. It made for the greatest of comedy for at least half of my set, and led to exchanges such as the following:

[17:13] dan12203 Resident: can i kiss you
[17:13] Taunter Goodnight: < snort >
[17:13] gwampa Lomu: NO, you can not kiss me dan
[17:13] Taunter Goodnight: if you can find the animation, go for it
[17:14] Maali Beck: hehe
[17:14] dan12203 Resident: whars anmation
[17:14] Taunter Goodnight: I rest my case

It's stuff like this that makes playing in Second Life uniquely worthwhile. You're not going to see that at your typical bar gig. Well, at least I hope you won't.

Huge thanks to everyone who made this a fun and exciting night a Key West! Special thanks to those who supported my show...
Triana Caldera, sedonajane Silverpath, TheaDee, Rusty Seisenbacher, Alexis Fairlady, Christine Haiku, Agent Zelnik, Kat Claxton, gwampa Lomu, Taunter Goodnight, my manager Maali Beck, and Key West owner Liz Harley!

The Majestic (07.28.11)

I've been performing at The Majestic in Second Life every other Thursday at 6PM for the last couple of months now, and despite the challenge of the 6PM time slot in SL (where there seems to be hundreds of different shows happening at once), I'm starting to get a groove rolling. Even though I'm still getting over the tail end of a flu-like illness and didn't have the level of energy I usually exhibit (possibly a good thing, now that I think about it), last night's show was quite decent, and there's an interesting reason why this is so.

Who's In Your Crowd?
I can't speak for all musicians in SL... no one can. It's a highly varied group of individuals, just like musicians in the fleshy world. However, in my experience, having a lively and engaged audience produces the best shows. That doesn't mean the biggest audiences, per se; it means that however many people you have there, that they are talkative, responsive to the songs you're doing, and making the experience fun for everyone. Now, I'm well aware that there are some artists who want to be taken very seriously, and that's fine. Perhaps those folks would be offended by the audience chatting during their songs, or just politely applauding after each tune. But I can't stand SL shows where people are deathly quiet. It makes me think that they're busy checking Facebook instead of being involved in the show.

So, my favorite shows happen when we get a collection of witty people in the house, and then it's a two-way street. The audience entertains me, and I, in turn, am energized to perform better for them. My Zaksters who come to most of my shows all qualify, and there are many others who make shows all the more fun when they pop up.

The lovely EvaMoon Ember. Having my fellow SL musicians in my crowd is always a plus. I also consider many of them as good friends. Photo by Kat.

Xerxes Ninetails (left) with Crap Mariner (right). Two of the kind of people who make shows fun for everyone. Photo by Kat.

Majestic Set List...
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (Neil Young)
Come Around (Zak Claxton)
The Weight (The Band)
Furry Sings the Blues (Joni Mitchell)
Tea in the Sahara (The Police)
Perfect Girl (Zak Claxton)
†Sister Golden Hair (America)
Always Tomorrow (Zak Claxton)
The Worst (Rolling Stones)
Broken Day (Zak Claxton)
Woodstock (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)

†My last performance of "Sister Golden hair" in SL was on January 4, 2009. Coincidentally, it was also at the San Diego City sim. I played this in tribute to Dan Peek, America founding member, who passed away last weekend.

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Majestic, especially those who supported the show! See you back there in a couple of weeks (Aug. 11)!
Diana Renoir, EvaMoon Ember, Crap Mariner, Aurelie Chenaux, TheaDee, Kat Claxton, Xerxes Ninetails, and Majestic hostess Tialicia Muircastle!

Report: Liquid reunion show at Keegan's (07.23.11)

As I previously mentioned, after a four year hiatus, my old rock cover band Liquid decided to have a reunion show, and after a couple of rehearsals to shake the dust off our rock chops, headed over to Keegan's Pub in Torrance, CA on Saturday night.

Sayonara, Amplifier
Upon arrival, the very first thing I was greeted with was a grim portent of possible gig failure. The guitar amp which had worked perfectly and sounded great in our rehearsals had simply died. All that came out of its two 10" speakers was a loud hum. Randy and I took the amp apart and checked the tubes, made sure the connections were set correctly, plugged it back in, and... nothing. Fortunately, we were able to rig together a backup plan. I used the little amp that Randy was supposed to use on the few songs on which he plays guitar, and he plugged directly into the PA. Not the best system, but it would have to do. Once we got all set up, it was passably good, and we got rolling with the Liquid rock!

The Tunes
The set list went back and forth through a couple of revisions, and (as always, it seems) we were tweaking the list while we were onstage due to various reasons. All in all, though, people seemed to like the choice of songs quite a lot.

- Set One: Roadhouse Blues, California Dreaming, Stray Cat Strut, Come Together, Mary Jane's Last Dance, Break on Through, My Own Worst Enemy, Sweet Emotion, Cinnamon Girl.

- Set Two: Vaseline, Man In The Box, Heartbreaker, Custard Pie, Born to Be Wild, A Little Help from My Friends, Black Velvet, Love Me Two Times, The Immigrant Song.

- Set Three: Tush, Purple Haze, Good Times Bad Times, The Real Me, Pinball Wizard, Interstate Love Song, Red House, Fire/Drum Solo, White Rabbit, You Oughta Know, You Got Another Thing Coming, Communication Breakdown.

- Set Four: I Want You To Want Me, Back in the USSR, Hard to Handle, Can't Explain, Everybody Wants You, Jenny (867-5309), Suffragette City, Two Princes, You Really Got Me, Panama, Surrender, Hot for Teacher.

The Fun
All I wanted out of this show was fun, and I got a lot of that. Like, tons of it. Playing for four hours (even with breaks between sets) beat the crap out of me, and I've been moaning and groaning all day today. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat. Huge thanks to my good friends Randy Harmon, Phil Gilbreth, and Dante Silva for their outstanding musicianship and great personalities... they make it easy for me to look good up there. And even bigger thanks to the folks who came out to Keegan's and saw us tear it up. As I told people last night, it won't be the last time that Liquid rocks the South Bay.

The Video
Here's the "Cliff's Notes" version of the show, with four+ hours boiled down to 16 minutes.

Waking up in a foul mood

I have yet to meet a human being who's in a good mood 100% of the time... at least not one who isn't full of shit. I do often describe myself as a "happy person", and that's no lie. I've managed to get to a point where I am appreciative for the things I have, and have grown as a person to the point where I don't take the little things for granted. On a side note, I get really annoyed when I look through people's Twitter posts or Facebook/Google+ status updates, and it's a steady stream of doom and gloom (often in regard to things that are incredibly trite). I mean, in a world where people die of famine and get jailed and tortured based on political beliefs, is it really justifiable having a fit over a package not arriving when you expected, or a software update not functioning as advertised?

But I digress. I awoke today in what many people would call a shitty mood. I mean, right from the start. Alarm went off, and maybe three milliseconds later, I was unhappy. Why? I have no idea. You would think that it had something to do with some event that happened the day before, and it carried over into the next day. Nope. Yesterday was just fine. Got a lot of work done, had some laughs, played with the new cat. All fine. You might think it was inspired by something that happened overnight, but no; I slept soundly for a solid 7-1/2 hours, and what dreams I could remember in the AM seemed my normal mishmash of imagery. I do have a slight headache and the weather outside is deeply overcast, gray and miserable, but neither of those facts would generally inspire me to snarl at people as I'm tempted to do today.

What To Do?
I tried to shake it off in the shower, which often works. Tried some music, which is sometimes helpful. Tried some coffee, because... well, it's fucking coffee, and I need it regardless. Currently, I'm trying to pressure it out with potassium, in the form of a delicious banana. But nothing, it seems, is working. And now, I have a whole day still ahead of me, and no desire to really do anything, or see anyone, or... well, you get the idea. It's not the best way to spend one of your 29,000 days on the planet.

Everyone, to the best of my knowledge, has days like that. Unexplained and unfocused feelings of gloom. In terms of being grateful for what I have, the huge saving grace is that unlike periods of my life where I've gone through situational depression, I am positive that this won't last long. For people who have to live like that day after day with chronic severe depression, well... it's no wonder what the outcome often is.



It Gets Better
Back in the late '90s, I also used to struggle with anxiety, but the main thing that helped me beat that is the awareness that while it may rear its ugly head now and then, it doesn't last long and then it's gone. I'd start to feel an attack coming on, but instead of letting it spiral out of control, I'd just remind myself that in 10-15 minutes or so, provided that I didn't feed it with negative emotions, it would just dissipate. All I needed to do was to wait it out. Gradually, they stopped coming altogether.

A moody, depressive day is like that, but it usually lasts a little longer. But the result is the same; it eventually goes away. Sometimes you do need to force the process a little, and there are a number of ways to do that (I'm doing one now, as you'll see below):

- Exercise: It usually the last thing you feel like doing when you're down, but guess what? It works on two levels. First, the physical aspect of getting blood flowing, oxygen pumping, and possibly endorphins kicking in will magically make you at least a little better. By the way, I'm the world's biggest hypocrite at this moment, since I couldn't muster the energy to workout yet today. Maybe later.

- Do... something: Doesn't really matter what it is. Write a blog post (hint hint). Do your laundry. Go grocery shopping. Play with a pet. Read an article about something scientific. Play a guitar. Watch a silly video on YouTube. Walk through a park. Even doing something for work that you don't ordinarily equate with being joy-inspiring can help you refocus your thoughts in a more positive direction. In any case, sitting there wallowing about your pitiful self is probably the last thing that will help make it go away.

- Talk to people: This is a double-edged sword, since often, you're not in emotional sync with people around you, and though I hate to say it, sometimes having interaction with someone who is chipper and happy when you're anything but is more annoying than helpful. However, it can be a reminder to you that your current mood is an aberration and that eventually, you get to be the annoyingly happy person again.

- Give yourself a break: You're not perfect. You're a human being who might just get run down every so often. I don't know about you, but I work hard and have a lot of responsibilities and commitments, and I often bite off more than I can actually chew. I handle that well most of the time, but even when I'm not directly aware of it, it tends to build up to the point where my mind and body say, "Okay dude, we've had enough, and we're going to close the gate for awhile." If you can't fight off a moody day using your normal set of tools, perhaps it's time to stop fighting and just let it flow until it goes away.

No Easy Answers
As I said above, I am one lucky bastard: due to whatever combination of brain chemistry and environmental factors I have, I don't suffer from depression very often. In fact, during the time it took me to write this, I'm already coming around a little bit. Not everyone has that ability. Each person is an individual, and it's going to be easier or harder for different people to fight the bad moods that will undoubtedly hit you now and then. I really don't claim to have answers for everyone, and what works for me might not do jack shit for you.

However, the one thing I think I can say universally is that it's better to be proactive about fighting off bad moods, temporary depression, or whatever you want to call it. If you can summon the will and the energy to do something about it, you'll probably feel better than being a passive participant to your mood swings. Easier said than done for some folks, I know. But it's what works for me, most of the time. Hopefully, it'll work for you too.

Crystal Gardens (07.19.11)

A little history lesson is needed to explain the significance of last night's show at Crystal Gardens. I joined Second Life back in 2006, and at the time, had no idea about the possibility of live music in virtual worlds. It didn't take long for me to find people doing their shows, though, and I quickly jumped onboard with my own. However, like most new players in SL, it took awhile before I built up an audience and found cool places where I liked to perform. Sometime in mid-2007, I was doing a show and someone from the audience came up and spoke to me after my set was done. Her name was Sandi Benelli, and it turned out that a) she owned a venue named Crystal Sands, and b) was a big fan of the music I tended to cover then, which included Neil Young and similar acoustic-based artists.

Sandi asked if I was interested in performing at her place (I was), and after my first show there, she booked another... and another. It wasn't long before I was performing every Monday evening at 5PM at Crystal Sands, and one of the fun things about a regular gig is that you get to know the other artists who play around your time slot. I recall Elvis Duffy having the 4PM slot, and Ictus Belford playing after me at 6PM every week. We would do things like perform each other's tunes (forcing the others to scramble and find songs that hadn't been already done), and those nights were almost as fun from a comedy standpoint as they were from that of music performance.

Unfortunately, like everything in life, there were some changes. Sandi wasn't able to sustain the financial obligations in paying so many artists (she was hosting a lot of shows by then), so in late 2008, she had to cut way back, and eliminated the Monday night shows (which, to be honest, was a tough time slot to get good crowds in any case). I certainly understood, and by then had plenty of places where I could play, so I moved on. Like most situations where you're not seeing the same people all the time (like a job change, for instance), I gradually lost touch with Sandi and her gang of friends over the next couple of years.

Sandi Benelli with her RL fiancé Mikal Beaumont.

Back to the Now
As you all know by now, in February I started working with a manager in SL for the first time, the lovely Maali Beck (who has been outstanding). Maali recently attended the Chicago SL Jam, and happened to hang out there with Sandi Benelli, who is from the Chicago area. They spoke and discovered their mutual connection to me, and the next thing I knew, Maali had booked me to play at Sandi's newer (and much nicer, may I add) venue, Crystal Gardens. It seems that Sandi and her man Mikal have an entire island sim there, with a coupe of venues that are very well designed for both performers and audience members alike.

The most fun you can have on a Tuesday night with your clothing on. Photos by Kat.

I played on their Beach Stage, and while we didn't get a massive crowd, the people who were there were very fun, and we had a great time reminiscing about the "old days" (which in SL means just a few years ago). It was great to be back! Some of the songs I chose for this show were purposeful nods to the material I was playing back in 2007/2008.

Crystal Gardens Set List
This Afternoon (Zak Claxton)
Tangerine (Led Zeppelin)
Summer Breeze (Seals & Crofts)
Broken Day (Zak Claxton)
Big Yellow Taxi (Joni Mitchell)
Landslide (Fleetwood Mac)
Love Hurts (Everly Brothers)
Tribute (Tenacious D)
Heart of Gold (Neil Young)
Thanks Anyway (Zak Claxton)
Suite: Judy Blue Eyes (Crosby, Stills & Nash)

Huge thanks to all who supported my show!