Sorry I haven't written here in a while.  Sesi has been laid up.  "Winston" has been put on hold a bit, at least as far as performing goes, until Sesi is back in action.  Her recovery has been a little unsteady as of late, but we are still looking for good things in the near future. 

Hope to see you at a show soon.

I'm happy to announce that my new album, Indignities of the Age, is available inworld.  At this point, I have no intention of releasing it elsewhere.  Yes, you'll be able to download mp3s of the songs onto your computer as well as listen inworld.  And I included a Lyric Book for those who like to sing along.  :)

Where to find it?  Inworld, there is a listening room here.  http://slurl.com/secondlife/Twas/131/39/901/  .  Also, I have it on sale through Xstreet SL.  I'll also have a vendor rezzed at shows.

I've been playing the songs from this album at my live SL shows ever since I wrote them in January.  I've gotten good, constructive feeback on them which guilded me when I was recording the songs.  I hope that, when you listen to the CD, you'll like what you hear.  Personally, I think it's some of my strongest work.

Last weekend, all over the US and parts of the UK and Europe, recording artists who took part in the RPM Challenge gathered to share and enjoy the fruits of their labors at listening parties. One such party took place in Second Life.  Music from RPMers streamed at Red Rock, and it was good to talk to the other artists, some of which I had heard through the RPM website.  A few SL noobies who came in from RPM for the party (you can tell by how they dress... :-0)  I encourage any RPMer to consider playing live in SL.  No better audiences anywhere.

On Sunday afternoon, I played a live set there.  There is something satisfying about playing your record live in front of an audience of fellow musicians and friends.  I enjoyed it so much. :) 

Thanks to Reslez for turning me onto RPM.  And thank you Boondoggle for putting on such a great party.

Pretty light week this week.  Sesi and I are talking about doing shows for time zones we don't normally cover... last night weekend shows.  More to come on that.

I finished my RPM Challenge album!  Mailed it out yesterday.  It's called Indignities of the Age.  I'm very happy with how it turned out.  I posted the first song from it, It's Coming Down, here on MySpace. 

See you at a show inworld?

That is the challenge put forth by the RPM Challenge, and I decided to give it a go.  I joined up in mid January and, by the time February (recording time) rolled around, I had written 8 new songs.  And that's a lot for me.

I've been very good about working on the thing.  It's going to be called Indignities of the Age.  I have seven songs completed so far, each a quite different style from another.  The challenge calls for at least 35 minutes of material or 10 songs, whichever comes first.  I have just over 32 minutes now, so I could do one more song and call it finished, but I would like to see how far I can go.   I need to mail it off to the challenge no later than March 1st. I'm hoping to get some cover art from my friend Xengu.  Won't be able to finish the cover art until I know how many songs I have and what the running order is.  That means I need to have the whole thing pretty sown up by the middle of next week.  Here's hoping. :)

If you are wondering about my progress on the RPM Challenge, go to the website and search my rl name in the Participants section.  Lyrics, a few recordings and pictures and some bloggy goodness await.
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Some of you may know that I am playing a show at Erie Isle on Saturday.  There are rumors that my life will be in danger there.  Something about the Dreadshift having something dreadful planned for me.  I pay it no mind.  I ain't afraid of no ghost!  LOL

RIP

We went to see Marley & Me on its opening day, Christmas Day.  Sesi and I took Sesi's rl family (parents, daughter, brothers, sisters-in-law, nieces, nephew and a couple of friends), our treat.  We sat down and looked at each other... well, here we go.  We had first heard about the inclusion of my version of the Nirvana song, Lithium, back in July.  So, you can imagine how unbearable the suspense had become.  As the movie got underway, I sat looking for what might be a good time for it make its appearance.  As it turns out, the song shows up in the middle, when the Grogans first find out that they are to have their second baby and are in need of a bigger home.  It was surreal to hear music that I had made playing over the aerial shots of suburban Miami, all big in that movie kind of way.  They used almost a whole verse of it, and there was no dialog over it at all.  Amazing. 

In the middle of the scene, my sister-in-law screamed loudly and yelled, "This guy right here did that music!!"  LOL.  That was unexpected.

Sesi and I are planning on going back to see the movie again next week.  This time, we can watch without the distraction of trying to figure out when the song will be on, and we can enjoy the story of the World's Worst Dog.

Looking for the song?  You can find it on itunes and at cdbaby.com.

Last Sunday, I played a Storytellers show at the Stargazer Cafe.  When I first agreed to do this show a couple of weeks before, I sort of liked the idea of recreating that VH1 show inworld.  There are a fair number of people who are familiar with my songs, and it might be fun to tell them where the songs came from and what they mean to me.  As the date got closer, however, I started to wonder just who the hell I thought I was, and why would people be even remoted interested in any of it.  I underestimated the kindness of the people who come out to the shows.  And, to each one of you who came to this show, I honestly and humbly thank you.

As it turns out, most of my stuff has to do with a bad marriage, infidelity, depression or death.  Or any combination, thereof.  To my surprise, the people just went with it.  There was a lot of energy in chat, especially during the "bad marriage" sections.  I guess many of us have had or are currently in, bad marriages. I know that Sesi and I had had our share before we met.

I did give away a bit more info than I had intended.  You know, you get going on a roll, and it's hard to stop.  No matter, though. 

So, thank you to Kenton Morgath and Zoya Grigorovich, from Stargazer, for providing me a place to air my dirty laundry, musical and otherwise. 

And I think that you should book Blindboy Gumbo for a Storytellers show.  Guaranteed to be a big hit!

A big, big thank you to Sesi Ackland and Toxic Menges for their tireless work on the video for All the Little Fishies!  Sesi's vision and Tox's eye... they took this thing so much further than I could have imagined, really bringing the song to life, visually.  From the start, Sesi was not content to make a video that was just performance or just SL eye candy.  She wanted to tell a story.  She and Tox did just that, and, in the process, they showed some things that are cool and fun in SL.

My fave scene?  Jumping off the moon and then floating down to the sea bottom on a leaf.  It was not an easy scene to shoot, and yet Tox made it look so effortless in the cut.  Kudos!

Sesi and Tox have truly upped the bar on SL music video production. I'm so happy to be a part of that.

I'm dying to see what their next project will be.

I had a great show with Xengu Kurka on Friday night at The Lunchroom.  The Lunchroom is actually a set for a video we are working on for All the Little Fishies.  It was a chance for me to build the elementary school cafeteria that I remember from my childhood.  I think it's a great looking stage, and we thought it would be cool to do some shows there.

In addition, Drew Carter, who owns Sunset Beach, was having a RL party that evening and streamed the show to his party.  So, we would do shout outs to everyone at "Miller's Bar" and hope they would hear.  It worked out great.  Sesi heard from Drew the next day, and he said that it was a big hit.  There's something about SL and RL blurring in this way that appeals to me.  I'm looking for other opportunites to stream SL shows live to the outside world.

Inworld?  Come visit the Lunchroom.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Twas/58/34/350