Traci Nubalo - The Word

Mamaa Saiz - Songs From a Simpler Time

2012-01-28T12:12:00.000-08:00

by Traci Nubalo

Metaverse Tribune - January 28, 2012

Life has gotten complex - few will dispute this. Many of us are looking for something - anything - that will ease this complication. And we often find it in music.

When I first came across the name Mamaa Saiz I didn’t exactly know what to think. In fact, I assumed that “Mamaa” was female. Truth be told, I pretty much ignored the act during the short amount of time it took for the SL buzz to drift to my ears. Then I saw the listing: Mamma Saiz playing at the Slum Rock Christmas Party, an annual holiday event hosted by two SL social groups: the Hobos and the Lollygaggers. So off I went.

Much to my surprise, “Mamaa” is a dude. And no, the dude don’t look like a lady. He’s actually a tall, handsome, soft-spoken 63-year-old veteran performer from Texas. “I live in the Dallas area; was born in San Antonio several hundred miles from here”, he told me. The only name I am able to cajole from him is…Mamaa Saiz. But we do know this…

Mamaa Saiz: I came from a showbiz family. My uncle was the first human cannonball, but they fired him.
Traci Nubalo: {rimshot
MS: I played rock and roll as a teenager, and after the military, I moved to Dallas and got a job with long running comedy show Bowley and Wilson. I was there for 14 years, until it played out. I was the Amazing Jimmy Gray, keyboards and magic.
Traci Nubalo: Awesome!
MS: Around that time, I had my first child. So I left the business to work real jobs that would have me home at night. They were expecting to eat every day, so music is a bad choice when you have kids.
TN: Yes. I know it well.
MS: Now that they are grown, I am making my comeback, in Second Life.

Back at the Slum Rock bash, Mamaa takes the stage and my avi instinctively starts moving as we groove to his stylish version of “Operator” from Jim Croce. This description of Mamaa’s guitar style will hold true across the board for him: he’s a precise player; very good bottom-end play, excellent and imaginative right hand work. And he’s tasty. Mamaa knows how to swing and when to drive.

I also very much enjoyed Mamaa’s singing delivery. His vocal view of the material is thoughtful and often bittersweet. He has the world-weary voice of the veteran crooner who’s made a living with vocal chords seasoned by too many late-night gigs and too much tobacco and whiskey. (And if he doesn’t partake in those, even more power to him for pulling it off). That voice represents a unique and loveable characteristic from the first listen. And he has the smarts (as only a road veteran would) to choose material that takes advantage of the intimacy and casual strength in the voice itself.

He confesses to the packed crowd that he has a “weakness for the British invasion” then breezes right into music by a poster child for the early years of that era - Gerry Marsden’s “Ferry Cross The Mersey.” Now tell the truth - you smiled, too, didn‘t you? He does a gorgeous and vocally-spot-on rendition of this early radio hit that so many have long loved! Here we were exactly two songs into Mamaa’s set when it hit me that if Mr. Mamaa could sustain this authentic sound and emotional connection to the music for the remainder of his set list, he’d be gold! And he managed to do exactly that.

When someone shouts a request for a Bob Dylan song he gently wins the moment with an adroit bit of carny misdirection as he flatly replies, “I have a deal with Dylan: I don’t play his songs and he doesn’t play mine. And if I stay more than 100 feet away I don’t have to go to jail.”

His song introductions are soft-spoken, assuring and well-researched-and-delivered. He told the virtual audience that “Glenn Frey is one of my favorite song writers. He has a way of laying his heart out there. This one has been a hit for a lot of people. It’s a song called Desperado.” Hitting the jackpot again he eases into a superb rendition of this Eagles classic. He seems to have developed a winning methodology and it works for him and for his audiences!

Along the way I realized that there was a kind of sneaky lure to Mamaa that I hadn’t noticed at first: Mamaa Saiz is a raconteur; a storyteller. Every song choice; that easy audience chat; the set list; his unique vocal delivery and guitar arrangements - in a true and honest way, each of these serves Mamaa’s end result: a musical set which tells the story of a generation moving forward in time while simultaneously hanging on to and loving the amazing songs which they enjoyed growing up.

I’m grateful to Mamaa for bringing to our hearts a remembrance of a simpler time. He not only treats us to the depth and soul of some of the best music ever written, but he creates a ton of smiles along the way.

Copyright 2012 (c) Traci Nubalo. All rights reserved.

Russell Eponym: SL’s Favorite Male Musician

2012-01-16T12:34:00.000-08:00

by Traci Nubalo

photos by Jami Mills

(Reprinted courtesy of rez Magazine, January 2012 issue.)

His Christian name is Russell Taylor Ashby, but we in Second Life know him as Russell Eponym.

I met Russell within my first hour of being a new resident here in SL. I believe I may have told this story before but it’s a fun tale and demonstrates in just one way what an influence Eponym has been on our inworld art scene.

A friend in RL had spent significant time trying to explain to me how Second Life works and I’m afraid I just wasn’t grasping her message. Then she hit on what she thought was a surefire way to get me to log on and check it out. She said, “And there’s live music there.” So now she found herself trying desperately to get me to understand that in SL there are concert halls and nightclubs which residents visit to attend live performances by musicians from all over the world.

Armed only with a big empty space in my head just waiting to be filled by knowledge of this new universe, I logged on the very next day. I was determined to find out what all the fuss was about. Learning curves being what they are my entry was to be trial by fire (and error)!

So there I was bright and early, in SL and minding my own business: MMOB.

Well, I was a noob avatar - less than a day inworld. When you’re that new here you really have only YOUR business to mind! I was just standing there (wherever “there” is in a universe of pixels), looking around. I recall saying profound things like “wtf?” as I frantically pushed buttons and clicked boxes trying to make sense of this new world. Bear in mind, with my standard SL hair and that horrible pants and top set I must have looked a mess! But I was too new to even realize that I resembled a bag lady from the planet Ruth.

So - even if it was out of pure ignorance - I was truthfully MMOB.

And that’s when I met the true hero of this tale - no, not Russell Eponym. The real saint here is the one resident out of dozens that passed by who offered to help as I stood there totally perplexed. This brave and kind man took about 30 minutes out of his day to help me to calm down and learn how to walk (a little), and how to keep IMs and Open Chat separate, a skill which held me in good stead during my upcoming (and mercifully-short) “Gossiping in SL” period. But that’s a story for another time, and - if your luck holds out - another magazine, as well.

But he took me to school in a patient and nonjudgmental manner and along the way we began to chat a bit about my predicament. It was then that I realized that I hadn’t even considered that I would be chatting with people. I didn’t have a single thing to say to this guy, and I didn’t see anything coming down my intellectual turnpike, either. So I decided to ask him about music.

He replied that yes, what I had been told about live music in SL was, indeed, correct and that it really was my lucky day since he knew the very best live musician in Second Life. In short order my hero then determined that this mystery performer was, in fact on stage at that exact moment! He offered to go to the venue and tp me in. (Here‘s how noob I was: “What’s a tp?”).

He landed me right in front of the stage in some SL music space. If he was in any way bothered by being seen in public with me he didn’t show it; he patiently walked me through the process of setting up my sound preferences. I did notice, however, that as soon as I said that I could hear a guitar he was gone - faster than I could say “poof”.

And there was Russell, some ten meters or so away, his little avi hands moving smoothly across his little avi guitar with “people” dancing and swirling as he played. It was a very cute scene; very attractive and welcoming to the newest resident of SL.

But what was coming through my headphones was anything but cute. Attractive, yes; upscale, totally. But I could tell from first listen that this Russell character was a true world-class musician. A force to be reckoned with.

I’ll sum up Russell Eponym’s musical qualifications in short form, since his skill set (writing, singing, playing, entertaining) is so powerful that only seeing him perform live will suffice. He’s an expert-level guitarist with an exceptionally-strong and creative right hand. This provides him with the rare gift of being able to accurately and smoothly fingerpick even at the fastest of tempos.

Vocally, Russ delivers smoothly and consistently, in a crystal-clear British accent. Every syllable of every word is heard crisply. His harp work is intelligent and always tonally accurate.

Compositionally, Russ is a great songwriter with originals as diverse as “You Have No Eyes”, “To Be Free”, and a very well-written instrumental guitar piece called “Eponymous Rag”.

Russell’s overall packet of talents is offered via the wonderful medium of a speaking voice that seems custom-designed for his work: that of a perfectly-proper English gentleman.

To encounter all of these wonderful qualities together in one form (human or avi) made for a marvelous find, indeed, on my first day in a strange new world.

** ** **

A few years and a few thousand performances later I find myself preparing for this, my third article on Eponym and his craft. He’s from the North of Wales, and has had a long RL career as a musical professional in bands, folk groups and as a busker on the streets of London, Paris and Vienna.

When he arrived in SL he was one of the first professional musicians on the virtual scene. As this group of pioneer performers began creating what we now enjoy as a vibrant SL music scene each was forming his or her own fan base. While we all know that size isn’t everything, in terms of an artist’s inworld popularity it’s a decent determining factor of success.

Just before this piece went to publication the “Eponymous Family” hit the magic number of 1,000 members. That’s a lot of avis, ladies and gentlemen.
And the group recently held a party to celebrate Eponym’s winning of a major Second Life award:

TN: Russ, can you fill the rez Magazine readers in on your recent award?
RE: Yes, I was very surprised by the award. I had been informed that I had been nominated and I really thought no more about it. It’s the Avi Choice Awards. There are awards for a number of things in SL: design, clothes, animations - as well as venues and musicians. The award I received was 'Favourite Male Musician 2011'. There were other categories such as favourite rock singer, pop singer, country singer. I was not nominated in any of those categories.
TN: Who else was in your nominated group?
RE: Skye Galaxy - Max Kleene - Frogg Marlowe
TN: Wow!
RE: Antonio Galloway - Damian Carbanell
TN: Very stiff competition. Who did the nominating?
RE: Readers and residents.
TN: I see. Excellent! Congratulations from myself and rez Magazine, Russ.
RE: I was really delighted. And thank you. I accepted the award for myself and my family.
TN: Have you been getting response from your fan group - the Eponymous Family - on this?
RE: Yes, very much response from my fan group. And I’ve received a lot more interest in my work from venue and club owners.
TN: I hear that your fan group recently had some celebrating to do.
RE: Yes, we are going to delay full celebrations until the new year but the group has grown to 1,000 members. It was our aim to do this by Christmas and it’s a truly wonderful feeling to know that we have done it.
TN: That's a very large fan group. And wonderful people.
RE: Yes, you will remember my group when it had a more modest population.
TN: Yes I do! I first interviewed you back in '09 I think. For the Virtual Times. How did you achieve such a number?
RE: Well, I am fortunate in that very few people leave the group; the retention levels are high. And even if they do not come to many shows they still remain in the group, attending my shows when they can. They feel the community.
RE: Yes. I have by far the best family group in SL. They are highly animated and very loyal.
TN: That must be a good feeling for you.
RE: It is the best feeling. I do not do shows and concerts alone; they contribute as much as I do. They are well known for their generosity, their intelligence and wit, not to mention their delightful lunacy. I am sure you understand how all of that can enhance the experience of one of my concerts.
TN: I know first hand that your group’s private chat line is hilarious at times.
But, to tell the whole story, Russ, while the fan group's interactions are very fun (and very funny), I’ve witnessed a different side to them. I have been there when someone had gotten ill, or had RL family issues. You guys often will stop to talk about it as a family.
RE: The support of this group to each other is one of its remarkable characteristics. People care. We have gotten to know one other. We have welcomed new members on a daily basis and everyone is made to feel important - because they are. It’s a simple philosophy: we are all humans in various guises discovering the joys of the virtual world - encouraging, protecting and supporting.

We treat this seriously, and that is why we can have genuine fun.

So many times one will hear discussions on the relative merits of this musician or that technique - musical “shop talk” in other words. This can be particularly fascinating to observe when a few really good players get together, perhaps backstage at a concert. They will pass guitars back and forth commenting on ease of play and the various features each instrument offers. They will discuss styles and methods and ways to get maximum result from various systems for practicing and playing the guitar. Eventually, however, such discussion will usually result in one or more players reporting some physical wear-and-tear taking place in their hands. This is, of course, more prevalent among the guitarists who tour and/or record a lot.

Carpal tunnel, repetitive-motion damage; ligament issues; these are all relatively commonplace (but not publically-known, usually) miseries for the working guitarist to possibly endure. Russell’s long time in the market and strenuous playing schedules forced me to bring it up:

TN: Let's talk about longevity
RE: Well, I’ve been here for six years, playing fulltime.
TN: I know that at one point you were playing more than 1,000 shows per year in SL.
RE: Yes, and I have played well in excess of 5,000 shows here although now I play fewer.
TN: How long could you sustain the 1,000-show-per-year pace?
RE: You and I have talked about wear and tear before. I have learned that balance is important. There is psychological wear and tear as well as the physical. So while I could have sustained that pace indefinitely, it would have been at great cost to my health.
TN: Exactly. I know that at one point you were suffering some pretty painful hand problems to the degree that there was discussion of possible retirement from playing live. How is that for you these days?
RE: My joints are in good shape now. I play less these days and I do the simple things to ensure their safety: massage and manipulation; frequent changing of strings.
TN: Russ, you and I chatted the other day and you told me of an amazing therapy you do on your hands now. Can you share that with the readers?
RE: Ah! Yes, of course. In order to prevent repetition problems I use as many as six different guitars - and the banjo, of course. Each has different specifications: slightly different shapes, sizes, and weights so there is less tendency for my hands to become stuck in the repetitive positions.
TN: I thought that to be a truly zen sort of solution. How have your hands responded?
RE: They are feeling wonderful. By changing guitars so often my hands are being asked to explore more and to free themselves of the confinements of one guitar. My right hand has always been my main playing hand but this has enabled greater freedom for my fretting hand too. So I have pulled my old 1973 Martin off the wall.
TN: Tech talk alert!

RE: It’s a 1973 Martin D18. I now have all of my guitars lined up and ready to play.
TN: What others do you use?
RE: A Taylor acoustic/electric; a Takamine 2001 Ltd Edition; an Epiphone; the Breedlove. And the Yamaha, which still has a great unplugged sound.
TN: Russell, what is left for you to explore musically in SL?
RE: I am now combining elements of the creative arts; I am doing more and more poetry and story readings, combining with music. This is a new area for many listeners. I love the experience of reading poetry and prose to my audiences. Also, I have enjoyed one or two live joint sessions. David Perdu came to my home and we streamed together for a few shows.
TN: Oh yes. He’s a fine musician.
RE: And Mel Cheeky and I are hoping to do a few together too - the Welsh Connection.
TN: Awesome. I love her voice.
RE: A phenomenal voice; the warmest voice.
TN: What does the future hold for Russell Eponym?
RE: My aim is to explore extensively the possibilities of live music in the virtual universe, and to meet as many SL music lovers with me as possible. The level of of energy and excitement I experience in this job never drops, even after all of these years. And as always I‘d like to thank my listeners, my family - your readers - for the undying support and loyalty they have shown me on a daily basis over such a long period of time.
TN: Congratulations to you and the Eponymous Family, Russ.

And I would like to thank that thoughtful and patient avatar who took time to help me way back in September of 2008. Your kindness paved the way for this article, and for many others like it.

Copyright (c) 2012 Traci Nubalo/Jami Mills. All rights reserved.

Edward Kyomoon: I Wanna Pick You Up

2012-01-09T10:51:00.000-08:00

by Traci Nubalo

images by Jami Mills

(reprinted courtesy of rez magazine, December 2011 issue)

Where does one begin? At the beginning, of course.

At our Rez Magazine staff meeting one night I happened to half-jokingly ask if anyone knew of any killer SL musicians who I might like to go see.

So Jami Mills pipes in: “Edward Kyomoon. He’s playing tomorrow. Come with us.”

You know Jami. She’s one of the very best photographers in Second Life. She’s clearly the most amazing artist of imagery that I have ever worked with - by far. She’s been here with me for quite a few gigs now - each issue cooking up delectable eye candy to go with what we hope will be a good story. And in the process of becoming the musical eyes and ears (by proxy) for concert lovers across the artistic grid, we have become friends.

So just about 24 hours later, Jami introduced me to the wild ride of Ed Kyomoon.

My first impression was that it was a great crowd at Sweet Whispers. It was inspiring to see so many SL music lovers gathering for the concert when so many deserving performers and venues are catching light crowds of late. Then I noticed that many of the fans seemed to know one another. They seemed to have done this before. This, I realized, is Ed’s core group of fans - the ones who show up for almost every show.

Sweet Whispers just celebrated their first anniversary in Second Life. It’s a lovely outdoor venue with plenty of room and excellent sightlines to the stage. In speaking with Isabelle Brucato, who co-owns the room with Jessica Gabardini, I learned that they work very hard to make Sweet Whispers the “place to be” for quality live music. One of the strategies that they have successfully employed is to strive to have the best SL artists available to play the room regularly. And this is Ed Kyomoon’s regular night. (In future visits I was to learn that Sweet Whispers is becoming a “place to be” for SL musicians and others working in the business).

The gunslinger appears right on time and he MUST have gotten the memo: black tee shirt; black jeans; black hair grown into a long bang over his left eye. Black shoes; black Fender Stratocaster (“with custom black pick guard and knobs,” he would later clarify); grim game face. This guy is ready to kill. He has that elusive aura of a man who intends to take no prisoners. Not tonight.

Jami and I discussed how much we'd like to get a shot of Ed at work up on the videoscreen.
At an evening gig at The Roof@NYC she captured this amazing four-dimensional photo.
I love how she got Ed the poster, Ed the avatar, Ed on the screen, and Donn DeVore in RL.
Thanks to Lingual Markus and his awesome SL venue The Roof@NYC!

As his avatar moves through the venue and arrives at the stage, Donn DeVore (he is Ed Kyomoon in Second Life and Donn DeVore everywhere else!) appears in realtime on the huge video screen provided by Kyomoon’s production team. For the next hour we joined the packed house and just flat-out partied! Watching Ed’s intensity on the live-feed screen caught and held my fascination and attention for the entire hour. I’m a very big fan of the relatively-new process of artistically merging RL and SL via interactive real time broadcasting of gigs. I regard this as a huge leap forward for all involved, especially the listener/viewer. So I asked him:

Traci Nubalo: My readers really enjoy some technical discussion. Can we open this interview with some ‘Tech Talk’? I’d like to discuss the vidscreen a bit.
Edward Kyomoon: Sure. I'm an audio engineer in RL so the technical is fun for me.
TN: To me, the realtime video screen is a major development. It brings you (and your avatar) right into my living room.
EK: I use Quicktime Broadcaster, a free Apple app, to capture the live video and send it to a relay server that sends it to the viewers, using the built-in iSight cam on a 2007 Macbook Pro.
TN: You are one of only several in live SL music who uses this new technology. I wonder why so few?
EK: I've seen a few other people use video in SL. I think I might be the only one that uses it at nearly every show now.
TN: I agree.
TN: CraigLyons Writer was the first that I saw using the real life hookup, I think.
EK: Yeah, I saw Craig using it as well. He had different cameras he could switch between.
TN: Yes. He also used the vidscreen to very successfully demonstrate his loop pedal stuff - building the song structure by using looped layers of sound. I liked that guy’s performances a lot.
TN: I‘ve also covered Tone Uriza when he used his screen. You know, the fabulous SL blues guitarist.
EK: Oh yeah. I know Tone. Also Anek Fuchs does video, too. Great guitar player.
TN: Yes, he is. If I’m not mistaken, I think that Anek is in on the tech aspect of vidscreening as well. It really is a great development though and I'm glad to see you using it.
EK: Since my decision to use it I’ve added colored lights, backdrops. I used to use lava lamps close to the cam so they looked huge!
TN: Really? Too funny.
EK: Yes. They were framing the scene - blue lava lamps?
TN: LMAO. Yes, I love it. The whole real time video thing is very cool for the viewer. It really adds another dimension to the SL experience.

TN: Awesome. Moving on - you play a black Stratocaster guitar?
EK: Yes, my main guitar is a Fender Standard Stratocaster HSS. I customized it a bit with black pickguard and knobs, and had new frets put on it. It needs a new bridge now, because I play the thing so much.
TN: *smile* It is awesome-looking.
EK: My acoustic is a Taylor 110. Simple guitar, no pickup or built in mic. I use a stereo mic setup for that.
TN: With the strat - what sort of rig are you using?
EK: The electric guitars use a Line 6 POD for all amp sounds. It lets me switch between lots of different sounds and amps, effects, etc. And I use a Boss Phaser effect pedal a LOT. Hehe, probably too much!
TN: Does the Boss have the cry baby effect as well?
EK: Yes, it's like a auto-wah effect. A sweeping sound.

One of several truly-amazing features of his live performance is his slide guitar work. I have seen and heard some amazing slide players: Ry Cooder, David Lindley, Duane Allman, Max Lasser, Bonnie Raitt - I could go on and on and never break the surface. But Kyomoon takes all of those styles and puts them together and adds a bunch of “nasty” to the mix. And when he stalks onto the stage he carries that swagger with him: it’s an abiding sense of authority and confidence that he demonstrates night after night.

Opening with “She Sets Me Free” he laid that hot metal slide onto the steel strings and coaxed and wrenched perfectly unearthly sounds from the Fender song after song. Along the way he adroitly covered Tom Petty, doing a commanding version of “Listen To Your Heart”. He also treated us to one of my all-time favorite songs when he swung into a fascinating and musically-powerful rendition of “Romeo and Juliet” by the great Mark Knopfler. He opens with a tonally-sweet echoed electric guitar to which he adds some soft, conversational, almost-spoken-word lyrics to further sweeten an already-excellent performance. His intelligence and openness (as both artist and man) allows him to read this one almost perfectly: passion and romance.

Despite such stellar covers at his fingertips the focus of his live set seems to be his original material. And rightly so. Tonight Ed featured some more downright skuzzy-sounding guitar on “I Miss You So Much I Go Crazy”. The beginning of this clever tune also reminds me of Dire Straits, until he starts blazing with intensity and frenzy (and a tone so wicked that I had the urge to excuse myself and go wash my hands). All musical hell broke out during the fast-paced mid-break when he put the figurative (and literal, eventually) pedal to the metal. Everyone I was chatting with (yes, sometimes I do shop-talk during a set) was literally blown away at this point. This was the moment when I recall having the thought: “This is the real fucking deal.” I was convinced; I had become a Kyomoonie. I was to notice in the nights ahead that I would enjoy these songs even more on the second or third concert listen.

The 38-year-old from “somewhere outside of Seattle” displayed prodigious prowess on standard (non-slide electric) on another smooth original entitled “I Wanna Know”. I’m thinking that this must be a fan favorite, based on audience response to this, my first listen. Everyone in the room just beams and wiggles and flat-out rocks this one top to bottom.

“Wanna pick you up…
Wanna take you out…
Wanna take you home…
Wanna taste your skin…
Wanna be your sin...
Wanna know your name.”

This is radical, raw, cutting edge power rock with hook-laden lyrics that any songwriter would die for.

Looking around, watching the avatars spinning in their ecstatic connection I feel my spirit released and enlivened; and if there’s a better way for human women and men to spend their free time, I don’t yet know what it is.

* * *

Like any good, solid musical performer, Ed has found himself in the midst of a fascinating group of supporters and friends to help him along the way. It’s even become a family affair. His SL wife Zoey Starsider takes the role of #1 fan and fulfills it perfectly. One of the things she does best is to flash the current lyrics into Open Chat, making the original material, especially, more accessible to the newcomer and more exciting overall. Edward's RL mom, known as Foxxie Fang here in SL makes the appearance at most shows, (“as long as it’s not too late”, she mentioned in one IM to me) helping with the vid screen. In fact, when I was having trouble getting the image up at one show it was Foxxie who kindly took the time to talk me through the process of reinstalling the current version of Quicktime, a process which took all of four minutes and did the trick perfectly. Thanks, Mom!

In the middle of my time hanging with the team at Ed's SL concerts while writing this piece a major piece of SL music news sweeps through the camp: longtime Kyomoon personal manager Carol Greenwood has stepped down. Information begins to circulate that the team will announce that Sher Salmson’s crack management team SpiritFire Management has taken the booking/management helm. Arguably one of the most powerful figures on the gridwide live music scene, Sher and I go back a long way in SL music, so I had a chat with her about the acquisition.

Traci Nubalo: Hi Sher. Congratulations on signing Ed Kyomoon to SpiritFire. I think it's a master stroke for both of you.
Sher Salmson: Thank you, Traci. I can tell you - I am thrilled. *smile*
TN: In my opinion this is a major SL music story: “market leader joins forces with market leader.”
SS: I know without a doubt that Ed is a professional, which pleases me to no end. Not only is he a great talent but he knows how to enhance his appeal through his professionalism. I'll let you in on a secret, too. You know that I rarely get to go to concerts outside the artists on our SpiritFire roster, simply because of time restraints. But when I did have the time Ed is one that I would always try to go see. I would go to his concerts. The energy at his concerts is exceptional and always energized me!
TN: This a perfect match, then. Okay, Sher - myself and Rez congratulate you!

Next, I grabbed Kyomoon personally and discussed the move with him:

Traci Nubalo: Congratulations, Ed!
Edward Kyomoon: Thanks, Traci! I’m really excited about going to the SpiritFire group. It seems like the best thing to do. I was on my own for a couple of weeks. Not fun.
TN: It’s a master stroke, Ed. You could not have chosen better. And perfect that this breaks during my article. I'm doing a rewrite to include this.
EK: Well, I was always happy working with Carol Greenwood. But this move is to a new level entirely. Also I know most every other musician on the team, too. I was Allister's [Westland] best man in SL years ago. I stayed at Gina [Stella] and Anek's [Fuchs] in RL when I was in Chicago in 2010.
TN: What do you expect SpiritFire can do for you that will be growth-oriented?
EK: I hope that working with them will get my gig calendar full again and give me access to more venues. I‘m playing about ten per week now and I’d like to play at least twelve. 12 -15 live shows is a good week for me if I can keep up. My face hurts after a few nights; my fingers bleed…
TN: SpiritFire Entertainment is top of the line, Ed, both as managers and as people.
EK: Yeah, I feel very comfortable with them. It’s all very exciting.

* * *

The move to Spritifire, however, marks the entry of the artist into the top realms of the SL entertainment scene. I knew Sher (and wrote about her and her performers) back in the days when she was doing everything but selling AcousticEnergy Nitely music from the trunk of her virtual car! Now her roster still carries the always-amazing AE, plus the incredible talent of a strong list of artists including: Allister Westland, Anek Fuchs, Gina Stella, and the powerfully-original singer-songwriter Quantamis Navarathna (who will be featured in an upcoming issue of rez magazine).

And Ed Kyomoon.

* * *

Since seeing the show last time I had been pondering what it is that makes this artist’s concert set so very enjoyable to see and hear (and feel!). There are obviously several factors which are common to most successful acts in either world: excellent singing/playing ability, compositional abilities, astute song selection at concerts, ease of communication with the audience, strong technical prowess, etc. Leave out one of these factors and your band may very quickly find itself playing Saturday mornings at an empty inworld garden center, or performing on a multiple bill onstage at the slave market on Gor.

Then it hit me! There’s a deeper level to this creative story than audiences in SL ever get to see - and never should: long before any other set of ears have heard it - maybe even before the song is finished - our guy is in his studio laboring long and hard; sweating out grueling, meticulous hours to create tracks which will eventually give the song not only its heart: drums, bass and rhythm guitars, but also its soul: lead guitars, backing vocals, effects, etc. This is where Kyomoon shines. These tracks - so lovingly nurtured in the studio - polished until the magic is revealed. And it’s this enchantment that gives the guitarist a musical backing that can not only stand up to but enhance his incredible live skills. In other words, his live “band” is him. And when recorded and performed with artisty it becomes just that: the total package from Ed Kyomoon is an art form unique to himself.

Traci Nubalo: So, yes. You have a studio background?
Edward Kyomoon: Yes, I studied music and audio in college in the early 90's, and then worked as a live sound tech for a few years in Houston where I grew up. Then I moved to Seattle to pursue a career in the recording industry, which I've been doing since 1998 here.
TN: What kind of recording are you doing?
EK: Every thing you can think of: rock bands, jazz, classical, voice-overs, TV ads, radio spots, demos, major label bands, bluegrass, too many to list.
TN: Awesome.
EK: Eventually I became the owner of a very large studio and ran that for a few years. I’ve made thousands of records with thousands of musicians. It’s become second nature to me. When you are in a studio 30 days a month, 12-16 hours a day, you get good at it.
TN: Your studio background really is evident in your backing tracks. Do you produce/engineer your live backing tracks?
EK: Yes, I use Logic Pro 8 and Protools software for composing and recording all my backing tracks for originals songs and many of the cover songs, although there are many well-produced backing tracks available online.
TN: Your backing tracks are (in my opinion) one of the keys to your live SL set, Ed. I think they are so well-produced that they free you to perform live. They augment your show, not get in the way.
EK: Yes, I started out just playing acoustic guitar, no tracks. Simple setup. I'm always trying to make it sound better. I try to blend the tracks with my live vocal mic and guitar to make it sound like a band. Sometimes it’s tricky - mixing while playing and singing, but I get bored easy, I guess.

* * *

Back in the world of live music, the tour has stopped by for an evening at Key West Resort and Marina, one of SL’s musical mainstays. Liz Harley, the vivacious owner of Key West, has been personally greeting every single avatar who has walked through the door since July, 2007. It’s one of those venues that is loved equally by audiences and musicians. The room sits outdoors right on the water and it has that laid-back “beach club” vibe that we all love so much.

I’m sitting here pretty-well stunned by a wonderfully- orchestrated live version of Ed's amazing original “Twilight’s Sparkle”. I find myself so deeply absorbed into the layers of sound that I have moments where it all fits together precisely. Like an audio satori. Later (when thinking reestablishes itself) I realize that this was caused by the preciseness of the recording, arranging, and live playing (excellent slide guitar, again); everything perfect in itself. “Sparkle” could very well be used effectively for a film score. I hope that Ed is able to pursue this lucrative avenue.

[Hours before handing in my final version of this article Kyomoon hit the stage with a more recent version of "Twilight's Sparkle" complete with supporting vocalizations from the "My Little Pony" cartoon series of which he seems to be a major fan. It’s amazingly cute, musically-valid and clearly a step in the cinematic direction.]

Truth be told, I found it very difficult to review only a few of his originals in this piece. I wanted to write about all of them. (An earlier incarnation of this article was actually a lot more tune-heavy, but weighed in at an onerous 5,000 words!)

Tonight’s set also featured a surprise (for me, anyway)! Out of his pocket Edward pulls the opening notes of “Black Magic Woman”, which most of us ~ myself included ~ assumed was written by Carlos Santana. Ed will quickly correct you in that endearing rockstar way he has about himself that it was penned by Peter Green of early Fleetwood Mac fame. He then proceeds to burn the house down with it.

** ** **

After about 15 live shows on the virtual road with Ed Kyomoon I reluctantly decided that my career demanded that I move on. I told one friend that I could happily rewrite this article using all of the new info that I gathered just in the last few shows. But everything moves forward…

It’s great when the tale finishes with everyone so happy. Jami is happy; Ed Kyomoon makes a positive career move; Sher Salmson lands another top group for her roster; SL music fans will get to see more of this great act live; and my editor will be thrilled that I am finally turning this article in.

So, where do I end this? At the end, of course.

THE END

Copyright (c) 2011/2012 Traci Nubalo/Jami Mills. All rights reserved.

Edward Kyomoon: I Wanna Pick You Up

2011-12-19T09:16:00.000-08:00

by Traci Nubalo

images by Jami Mills

(reprinted courtesy of rez magazine, December 2011 issue)

“Wanna pick you up…
Wanna take you out…
Wanna take you home…
Wanna taste your skin…
Wanna be your sin...
Wanna know your name.”

This is radical, raw, cutting edge power rock with hook-laden lyrics that any songwriter would die for.

Looking around, watching the avatars spinning in their ecstatic connection I feel my spirit released and enlivened; and if there’s a better way for human women and men to spend their free time, I don’t yet know what it is.

* * *

Like any good, solid musical performer, Ed has found himself in the midst of a fascinating group of supporters and friends to help him along the way. It’s even become a family affair. His SL wife Zoey Starsider takes the role of #1 fan and fulfills it perfectly. One of the things she does best is to flash the current lyrics into Open Chat, making the original material, especially, more accessible to the newcomer and more exciting overall. Edward's RL mom, known as Foxxie Fang here in SL makes the appearance at most shows, (“as long as it’s not too late”, she mentioned in one IM to me) helping with the vid screen. In fact, when I was having trouble getting the image up at one show it was Foxxie who kindly took the time to talk me through the process of reinstalling the current version of Quicktime, a process which took all of four minutes and did the trick perfectly. Thanks, Mom!

In the middle of my time hanging with the team at Ed's SL concerts while writing this piece a major piece of SL music news sweeps through the camp: longtime Kyomoon personal manager Carol Greenwood has stepped down. Information begins to circulate that the team will announce that Sher Salmson’s crack management team SpiritFire Management has taken the booking/management helm. Arguably one of the most powerful figures on the gridwide live music scene, Sher and I go back a long way in SL music, so I had a chat with her about the acquisition.

Traci Nubalo: Hi Sher. Congratulations on signing Ed Kyomoon to SpiritFire. I think it's a master stroke for both of you.
Sher Salmson: Thank you, Traci. I can tell you - I am thrilled. *smile*
TN: In my opinion this is a major SL music story: “market leader joins forces with market leader.”
SS: I know without a doubt that Ed is a professional, which pleases me to no end. Not only is he a great talent but he knows how to enhance his appeal through his professionalism. I'll let you in on a secret, too. You know that I rarely get to go to concerts outside the artists on our SpiritFire roster, simply because of time restraints. But when I did have the time Ed is one that I would always try to go see. I would go to his concerts. The energy at his concerts is exceptional and always energized me!
TN: This a perfect match, then. Okay, Sher - myself and Rez congratulate you!

Next, I grabbed Kyomoon personally and discussed the move with him:

Traci Nubalo: Congratulations, Ed!
Edward Kyomoon: Thanks, Traci! I’m really excited about going to the SpiritFire group. It seems like the best thing to do. I was on my own for a couple of weeks. Not fun.
TN: It’s a master stroke, Ed. You could not have chosen better. And perfect that this breaks during my article. I'm doing a rewrite to include this.
EK: Well, I was always happy working with Carol Greenwood. But this move is to a new level entirely. Also I know most every other musician on the team, too. I was Allister's [Westland] best man in SL years ago. I stayed at Gina [Stella] and Anek's [Fuchs] in RL when I was in Chicago in 2010.
TN: What do you expect SpiritFire can do for you that will be growth-oriented?
EK: I hope that working with them will get my gig calendar full again and give me access to more venues. I‘m playing about ten per week now and I’d like to play at least twelve. 12 -15 live shows is a good week for me if I can keep up. My face hurts after a few nights; my fingers bleed…
TN: SpiritFire Entertainment is top of the line, Ed, both as managers and as people.
EK: Yeah, I feel very comfortable with them. It’s all very exciting.

* * *

The move to Spritifire, however, marks the entry of the artist into the top realms of the SL entertainment scene. I knew Sher (and wrote about her and her performers) back in the days when she was doing everything but selling AcousticEnergy Nitely music from the trunk of her virtual car! Now her roster still carries the always-amazing AE, plus the incredible talent of a strong list of artists including: Allister Westland, Anek Fuchs, Gina Stella, and the powerfully-original singer-songwriter Quantamis Navarathna (who will be featured in an upcoming issue of rez magazine).

And Ed Kyomoon.

* * *

Since seeing the show last time I had been pondering what it is that makes this artist’s concert set so very enjoyable to see and hear (and feel!). There are obviously several factors which are common to most successful acts in either world: excellent singing/playing ability, compositional abilities, astute song selection at concerts, ease of communication with the audience, strong technical prowess, etc. Leave out one of these factors and your band may very quickly find itself playing Saturday mornings at an empty inworld garden center, or performing on a multiple bill onstage at the slave market on Gor.

Then it hit me! There’s a deeper level to this creative story than audiences in SL ever get to see - and never should: long before any other set of ears have heard it - maybe even before the song is finished - our guy is in his studio laboring long and hard; sweating out grueling, meticulous hours to create tracks which will eventually give the song not only its heart: drums, bass and rhythm guitars, but also its soul: lead guitars, backing vocals, effects, etc. This is where Kyomoon shines. These tracks - so lovingly nurtured in the studio - polished until the magic is revealed. And it’s this enchantment that gives the guitarist a musical backing that can not only stand up to but enhance his incredible live skills. In other words, his live “band” is him. And when recorded and performed with artisty it becomes just that: the total package from Ed Kyomoon is an art form unique to himself.

Traci Nubalo: So, yes. You have a studio background?
Edward Kyomoon: Yes, I studied music and audio in college in the early 90's, and then worked as a live sound tech for a few years in Houston where I grew up. Then I moved to Seattle to pursue a career in the recording industry, which I've been doing since 1998 here.
TN: What kind of recording are you doing?
EK: Every thing you can think of: rock bands, jazz, classical, voice-overs, TV ads, radio spots, demos, major label bands, bluegrass, too many to list.
TN: Awesome.
EK: Eventually I became the owner of a very large studio and ran that for a few years. I’ve made thousands of records with thousands of musicians. It’s become second nature to me. When you are in a studio 30 days a month, 12-16 hours a day, you get good at it.
TN: Your studio background really is evident in your backing tracks. Do you produce/engineer your live backing tracks?
EK: Yes, I use Logic Pro 8 and Protools software for composing and recording all my backing tracks for originals songs and many of the cover songs, although there are many well-produced backing tracks available online.
TN: Your backing tracks are (in my opinion) one of the keys to your live SL set, Ed. I think they are so well-produced that they free you to perform live. They augment your show, not get in the way.
EK: Yes, I started out just playing acoustic guitar, no tracks. Simple setup. I'm always trying to make it sound better. I try to blend the tracks with my live vocal mic and guitar to make it sound like a band. Sometimes it’s tricky - mixing while playing and singing, but I get bored easy, I guess.

* * *

Back in the world of live music, the tour has stopped by for an evening at Key West Resort and Marina, one of SL’s musical mainstays. Liz Harley, the vivacious owner of Key West, has been personally greeting every single avatar who has walked through the door since July, 2007. It’s one of those venues that is loved equally by audiences and musicians. The room sits outdoors right on the water and it has that laid-back “beach club” vibe that we all love so much.

I’m sitting here pretty-well stunned by a wonderfully- orchestrated live version of Ed's amazing original “Twilight’s Sparkle”. I find myself so deeply absorbed into the layers of sound that I have moments where it all fits together precisely. Like an audio satori. Later (when thinking reestablishes itself) I realize that this was caused by the preciseness of the recording, arranging, and live playing (excellent slide guitar, again); everything perfect in itself. “Sparkle” could very well be used effectively for a film score. I hope that Ed is able to pursue this lucrative avenue.

[Hours before handing in my final version of this article Kyomoon hit the stage with a more recent version of "Twilight's Sparkle" complete with supporting vocalizations from the "My Little Pony" cartoon series of which he seems to be a major fan. It’s amazingly cute, musically-valid and clearly a step in the cinematic direction.]

Truth be told, I found it very difficult to review only a few of his originals in this piece. I wanted to write about all of them. (An earlier incarnation of this article was actually a lot more tune-heavy, but weighed in at an onerous 5,000 words!)

Tonight’s set also featured a surprise (for me, anyway)! Out of his pocket Edward pulls the opening notes of “Black Magic Woman”, which most of us ~ myself included ~ assumed was written by Carlos Santana. Ed will quickly correct you in that endearing rockstar way he has about himself that it was penned by Peter Green of early Fleetwood Mac fame. He then proceeds to burn the house down with it.

** ** **

After about 15 live shows on the virtual road with Ed Kyomoon I reluctantly decided that my career demanded that I move on. I told one friend that I could happily rewrite this article using all of the new info that I gathered just in the last few shows. But everything moves forward…

It’s great when the tale finishes with everyone so happy. Jami is happy; Ed Kyomoon makes a positive career move; Sher Salmson lands another top group for her roster; SL music fans will get to see more of this great act live; and my editor will be thrilled that I am finally turning this article in.

So, where do I end this? At the end, of course.

THE END

Copyright Traci Nubalo/rez magazine 2011/2012. All rights reserved.

Marc Ezra: Get Off My Cloud

2011-11-19T06:08:00.000-08:00

by Traci Nubalo

reprinted from Rez Magazine - November, 2011

So there I was - minding my own business.

Well, I was actually at a large gathering helping to celebrate the rez day for my friend and stellar SL musician Pilgrim75 Swashbuckler (Pete Mroz). But I was minding my own business (MMOB).

Well, except that as I stood near the stage watching Pete’s set I kept noticing that there was a not-fully-rezzed avatar standing to my left. He was a cloud is the best way I can say it.
So there I was, back to MMOB and enjoying the music. Then the cloud IMs me.
Cloud: hello

Me (MMOB): ummm hello
Cloud: enjoying the music?
Me (still trying to MMOB, but being forced now to look at the cloud’s profile which tells me he‘s a SL musician): yes, I love Pete’s music.
Cloud: I’ve heard him twice before. I really like his vocals.
Me (thinking, “Oh god…he wants me to write an article about him”): yes, I like his vocals too.
We chat amiably for a little while until I realize that he actually doesn’t know that I’m a SL music journalist. Now I’m thinking: “Oh, god…he’s hitting on me.”
Me: ummm dude…you’re a cloud.
Cloud: yeah I know.
Me: just checking
Cloud: I tried rezzing twice.
And on it went - maybe the sweetest conversation I have had with a stranger in SL in like, forever.

To make a long story not so long, I found out that the cloud’s name is Marc Ezra and that he is managed by my friend Alexxis Lefavre (who also co-manages Pete Mroz). Marc had a SL gig the following day and I headed over there, really not expecting much musically from the cloud-dude.
Was I ever surprised!

Marc Ezra is the real deal. Let’s just put that on the table right away. He can sing; he’s a very accomplished guitarist; he writes excellent original songs; and he understands how all of this goes together to create a live music experience that’s both exhilarating and entertaining. I’ll go on record now as saying that the 27-year-old Southern California resident is one of my current favorites and one of the brightest new SL musicians to come onto the scene in quite some time.
I was so impressed that we quickly made plans for me to attend a Halloweenish live show at Paisley Park, a killer SL music venue owned by Alexxis. Rez Magazine sent me to the concert on my first assignment for this great publication. I took with me the amazing SL photographer Jami Mills, who has shot most of the concerts I have covered in recent months. She and her awesome and lovely assistant Friday Blaisdale also attended the interview with Marc at Paisley Park a couple of nights later.

* * * * *

Traci Nubalo: Marc, many of my readers are into tech stuff. Are you up for some tech talk first?Marc Ezra: SureTN: What guitar(s) do you play in SL?ME: I play a Taylor 814CE

TN: Acoustic-electric?

ME: Yes.TN: Do you mic it? Or go straight into the board? Or both?

ME: Everything goes into a mixer, then is fed into a 2-channel USB interface.

TN: Do you use any effects?

ME: Currently I use only reverb, but I plan on using more and broaden out.

TN: Awesome. What vocal mic are you using?

ME: The Audix OM2. It's a dynamic mic.

TN: Marc, your sound is clear and direct. Can you tell us how you broadcast to SL? Take me and my readers into your studio.

ME: I broadcast from my Butt.

TN: Uh huh.

ME: From my Butt broadcaster that is. My mix is sent through a mixer, through an interface, and into the Butt broadcaster which connects my stream to SL. I have no idea why they named it that.

TN: I see. Let's talk about your writing process a little.

ME: Sure.TN: Words? Music? Which comes first?

ME: Definitely the music. I speak through my music. Words simply allow me to let you understand what I'm feeling.

TN: Gotcha. Marc, you have some stunning guitar work on some of your originals. Do you begin with a riff?

ME: Usually. I try to be as open-minded as possible in the creation process. It's all about the inspiration. Everything starts there. You find inspiration in whatever it is at the moment and you channel and refine it into something that captures yourself.

* * * * *

At the Paisley Park gig, Marc opened his set with an awesome original song entitled “Gone”. It features a complex, almost-baroque opening segment on guitar, then segues into a very comfortable extended passage (think Mason Williams’ “Classical Gas”). Ezra claims no formal, classical training whatsoever, which makes his guitar work all the more appealing to his exuberant group of fans. He’s basically self-taught, but it’s obvious that he grew up with that Taylor living in his hands. There’s an ease and comfort in his playing, whether stating a backing theme or performing complex and blazing-fast double-picked lead passages.

The room was rapidly filling with Ezra fans and special guests who were invited to see him in one of his first SL performances. It was obvious that Marc held the crowd in his hand from the start, as he followed up “Gone” with another guitar-based original called “Tarantula”. This quick-step piece triggered a barrage of “Tarantula” gestures from the audience, a pleasant surprise for an artist so new and fresh on the scene. It made me appreciate even more the depth of support work that Marc’s management team - the gorgeous Alexxis Lefavre (who is the owner of Paisley Park, one of SL’s super new music venues) and the equally-awesome Lizzy Nightfire. (By the way, this dynamic duo also handles business and bookings for one of SL’s premiere artists, Pilgrim75 Swashbuckler aka Pete Mroz, who was mentioned at the top of this article). By providing a new audience with a simple thing such as a gesture with a spider image in it, the management team created a solidarity between artist and audience on the second song of the set. Great work, ladies!

The artist adroitly moved into yet another solid original that he calls “Goodbye”. It opens with a very dark, minor-key delivery that Ezra very much seems comfortable with. Lyrically, the track asks the important questions of self-reference that we all seem to share: Who am I? Why am I here? What’s the point of this existence? The tale rolls out in two distinct voices until the very effective galloping fast triplet bridge.

Ezra seems deeply rooted in mysterious, even dark minor key signatures and lyrics which are insightful and which at times can seem like escapees from a Poe volume.

* * * * *

TN: You define yourself as a storyteller.

ME: Yes, very much so.

TN: Your stories tend toward a dark mode. Is that a fair observation?

ME: Mos def. More than fair.

TN: Can you expand on that for the readers?

ME: It's input/output. It’s the dark eras of my life that have been channeled into my fingers.

I write about some very specific, and at once tragic stories. But all tragedy requires hope and redemption. So it allows me to share more emotions and how people convene on the journey.

TN: Can you share one or two themes with us?

ME: Sure thing. The theme to SerehNIty And Peice dialogues a girl raped by tragedy, and the voices in her head are telling her something quite specific, while the angel in her heart is pulling for her redemption.Another of my pieces “The Haunting” has a trio of voices, where as a man and a woman find themselves entangled in a terrible situation, while the third voice sort of narrates on the first two characters.

TN: Marc, can you identify what it is that draws you to such themes of tragedy?

ME: Wow. That's a powerful question.

TN: *smiles*

ME: It would have to be my life experiences. Watching my step dad die. Having my best friend die at a young age. I practically withered my personal life away a few years ago. I've written songs for these experiences, and more.

TN: Thank you for sharing that. Is it helpful to address such life experiences through your writing?

ME: It is. It doesn't make it hurt any less, but I feel I get my chance to speak my mind. It's not so much therapeutic, but more medicinal.

TN: Do you experience any kind of catharsis from writing?

ME: Absolutely. I feel at ease.

* * * * *

Back at the venue, the crowd was heating up as Marc burst into “Everlong” from Foo Fighters. His vocal clarity and super-clear enunciation wooed the audience's attention away from a ridiculous griefer who seemingly came to the gig determined to suck all the fun out of the event. Fortunately, Lexi was up to the challenge and the fool was quickly dispatched. Too bad that brass knuckles are frowned upon in SL.

Next came an amazing version of his original entitled “Don’t Have To Say Your Sorry.” This one featured more super-clear audio, in which the bright top end of the guitar shimmered and glistened, shining up an otherwise-sinister lyrical content. Of note was Marc’s very fast flamenco-style pivot note guitar break.

He quickly morphed “Sorry” into a piece called “SarehNIty And Peice” which contains a well-delivered hammer-on/pull-off solo and some intricate arpeggiated chord structures. It was a superb almost-classical segment during which I began to note with a deep certainty that this young artist is, indeed, one of the more talented instrumentalists on the SL scene. His ability to fluidly insert a monster guitar break without breaking a sweat is a testimonial to those hours (weeks and months!) spent carrying the instrument 24/7.

* * * * *

TN: Lets shift gears a bit. Your guitar work is stunning at some points in the concert act.

ME: Thank you.

TN: What's your guitar background?

ME: Well my musical background is that I played piano from age six to eleven. At that point I pretty much dropped piano like a hot rock to go to guitar. I was just the nerdy kid who couldn't afford lessons, and at a certain point just too proud to take them, so I would play and study hours every day.

TN: Did you work in RL bands?

ME: Yes. I've been in a few, but nothing that ever went anywhere. I don't thing I've played in a band yet that I truly believe in. That's why my music means so much to me. I can say what I want.

TN: How did you discover SL music?

ME: My manager Alexxis Lefavre is my RL friend, so she told me about it. I've never done something like this, so she thought it would be a good fit.

TN: Well, for playing such a short time in SL you are taking your concert audiences by storm. How does it feel compared to RL music gigs?

ME: Why, thank you. Truly, I owe it all to Alexxis who has all the keys to all the doors. Thanks Lex! It's amazing. You definitely lose crowd interaction because of the delay, but in all honesty people interact differently here. They pass out at shows, Make funny gestures, etc. Or maybe I'm just tired of moving amps in RL. That's why I like it so much here. LOL

TN: Marc, this is your opportunity to speak directly to your SL fans via the pages of Rez Magazine. What would you like to say to them?

ME: Thank you so much for sharing this journey. I might take you up, I might take you down, but I'll never take you to the same place.

TN: We at Rez are behind you 110% on this journey Marc. Thank you for a great interview.

ME: Aww. I feel so loved! Thank you!!!

TN: You are loved.

* * * * *

Paisley Park was past the point of no return; a great Saturday-night crowd had appeared, most of them new fans of both Marc Ezra and the venue. It was a lively bunch with lots of vibrant noise and conversation in the Open Chat windows. All night long i had been trying to come up with a point of reference for Marc's sound, depite Lao Tse's admonition, "Comparisons are odious." Then it hit me - the great Elvis Costello! I hear Costello in Ezra's vocal work, and i hear a bit of his unique, flowing arrangement in Marc's originals.

Marc closed down Paisley Park with a stunning version of Eddie Vedder's "Society". It was spot on, both capturing the original feel of the song while also adding his own musical taste to the mix. The audience went home happily-satisfied, a sign that i always look for, especially when previewing a new SL artist.

My prediction: Marc Ezra will become a mainstay on the SL live music scene. He will grow in originality, and he will make many, many music lovers very happy with his craft. Get out and see this kid before the venues get too crowded for his gigs!

Copyright (c) 2011 Traci Nubalo/Rez Magazine. All rights reserved.

CraigGore Redfield: There Is Always Hope

2011-05-01T16:49:00.000-07:00

By Traci Nubalo

Reprinted courtesy of Palais SL Magazine)

One of the things that I have always found interesting about music is that often we don’t really know why we like - or don’t like - a particular piece of music. A number of years ago I had the great pleasure of helping a young band from Virginia put together their first record for a large label. The band came to the project with a lot of music already in the can, and then spent several more weeks in the studio recording the basic tracks for the disk.

At some point pretty close to the end of the project we got word that the owner of the record label was unhappy. It turns out that he wanted a specific song removed from the record. I was flabbergasted not only at the late date (and the huge expense of making such a change) but also at the fact that the piece in question was one that the whole team (including some other executives at the label) agreed was the strongest song of the lot.

Despite our begging and pleading the owner of the label held his ground and we sadly watched this song go down the drain. And that was that.

Or so we thought.

Quite a number of months later I was in a nail salon when a familiar-sounding tune came over the radio. It was that very piece of music! Written by a wonderful songwriter named Julie Gold, the song was called “From A Distance”. Turns out that Bette Midler had apparently loved the piece as much as we did since she had decided to record the track, also. Bette’s version the proceeded to win a Grammy later that year!

One could, of course, make this little vignette into a cautionary tale about the spurious nature of the record business. But I prefer to adapt a more educational approach in telling the tale.

As I mentioned earlier, much of the time we don’t specifically know exactly why we like a piece of music. There are certain measurable indicators - time signatures, key changes, lyrical patterns that we might point to. But at the end of the day, sometimes we just don’t know! There’s a lot of subjectivity that goes into the process. This fact creates lots of controversy and leads to musical arguments galore.

The same can be true when it comes time to discuss what we enjoy (or don’t enjoy) about certain musical groups, composers, albums, etc. Clearly, some groups or writers just get in my face, flat out, from the word “Go”. I just can’t deal with them and nothing is about to change that. The inverse - for me - would be that there are just some artists who I simply adore no matter what they write or record. I call this the “Springsteen effect”. I just like the guy. And I like his records. End of story.

But usually the water is quite a bit more murky. There are songs (or records) which can take a little time (and a lot of listens) before they truly reveal themselves. A number of releases from The Beatles were in this category for me (think “Sgt. Pepper”). After the initial listen I would swear that I really disliked it, only to find the thing living on my turntable exclusively for the next month, titillating both mind and heart.

Yet, paradoxically, it turns out that these were (and are) the very pieces of music that I have ended up loving the most!

CraigGore Redfield’s release “True” is very deeply within this category for me. When I first took a listen (after having been positively impressed by Craig’s live SL show) I was a bit taken aback in that I was just not knocked out! I mean, I liked it, but it just didn’t hit me in that “deeply-satisfied” sweet spot. But a week later there I was, listening again and again and appreciating and digging the tracks more each time! In fact, it wasn’t until I received a “We Miss You” note from some of the other pieces of music in my collection that I realized the depth of enjoyment that I was getting from this sparkling new project! I was truly beginning to understand why iTunes had named “True” to it’s “New and Noteworthy” list. One I “got it” this record had me body, mind and soul.

The only explanation I have is that “True” is a deceptively subtle song collection. In those first couple of listens I seem to have missed some things that were revealed later, as I went deeper and deeper into the disk. To begin with Redfield - a Tennessee boy - started off with some damn fine songs for this project. There had been no denying this from the start. And the compositions seem to have been very well-treated during the recording process by the stellar collection of musicians that Craig chose for the studio. He makes excellent use of the pedal-steel-driven acoustic sound delivered by members of the great kd lang’s band. They produce a sonic signature which has, of course, served lang very well over the years, and they help create a unique Redfield sound on the new release, which we brought up in the interview.

I had known from the first time I saw him live that I was going to write this article. After all, I regard Redfield to be on of SL’s top composer/performers. But once we decided to actually get it done things got off to a very slow start. After a number of frustrating delays Craig and I were finally able to sit down for what turned into a delightful and most-informative discussion. We were joined by my gorgeous Mistress, the amazing Miss Linda Doune, who is also a member of Palais’ executive staff. On hand to document the event visually was the remarkable photographer Jami Mills who has been my photographic “partner in crime” for so many of these journalistic adventures. As is my habit, I opened the interview with some “tech talk”:

Traci Nubalo: Craig, my readers always seem to enjoy a little technical background. So I’d like to begin by asking you about the really crisp, clean live sound that we enjoy from you. What guitars are you using?
CraigGore Redfield: Thanks. I use an acoustic Gibson Hummingbird from the early nineties and I play into a nice condenser mic. I do not plug in. This is how acoustics sound best.
TN: Any effects?
CR: I stream though an audio program. There a little compression and reverb
TN: Awesome. How about vocals?
CR: I sing through a really awesome tube mic into a tube preamp. This is a studio quality setup; I can record a CD here in my little studio with guitar and vocals that would sound comparable to a CD.
TN: Using the same gear that you use live in SL?
CR: Yes. I made my first solo CD on this gear.
TN: Is that how you recorded "True"?
CR: No. I recorded “True” at the studio of the producer, using much more gear.
TN: I see. I want to talk about “True” a bit more but let’s stay with a different technical discussion for a bit. You have a fabulous guitar sound on the disk. Even though it's not out front in the mix, as it is in your live show, your right hand seems important to me.
CR: Somebody knows how to listen. *smile*
TN: Can we talk about that a bit? What's going on?
CR: With my right hand?
TN: Yes, the theme statements, etc.
CR: Sure. Upon writing this record I taught my self fingerstyle guitar. I decided that I needed a way to express myself differently.
TN: Aha. Bingo. Were you a flat picker?
CR: Yes. I was solely a flat picker; but it wasn’t working for me anymore.
TN: How long had you been picking?
CR: 20 years, Traci. And I've been playing fingerstyle for three years now. My current style is known as Travis picking. The bass line is played with the thumb.
TN: Yes, alternating.
CR: Yes, and it was murder to learn it. Then I thought I had learned it. But when I tried to sing at the same time I ended up having to learn it all over again with the vocalization in mind.
TN: But it’s well worth it both live and on the recording.
CR: Thank you. It is so rewarding. I have such a great time playing solo.
TN: To me, it's the "heart" of your current sound, Craig.
CR: Agreed. It really evoked a whole new kind of song, too.
TN: So, you reinvented yourself as a guitarist for this record. And you brought aboard a very special team of musicians.
CR: I am so lucky. Josh Grange agreed to produce -
TN: Yes!
CR: He is a noted "utility player" and producer. He plays for kd lang. In fact, he’s out on tour with her at the moment.
TN: Readers, a “utility player“ is one who plays lots of instruments, creating a variety of options that can be used in the mixing process to blend the perfect sound for a particular song.
CR: Lord, yes. He’s a genius. He really is one of the great players of my generation.
TN: Agreed.
CR: He plays pedal steel, banjo, acoustic guitar..
TN: Who has he worked with?
CR: Dixie Chicks, kd, Dwight Yoakum. So many…
TN: Any big names? LOL
CR: LOL He's still underrated. But so brilliant.
TN: He is the kd lang sound, in my opinion.
CR: He has contributed lots to her sure, for sure.
TN: Who else is on “True”?
CR: Bass - Ian Walker, who at the time was with kd and now is producing and writing with various artists. On drums, Mitch Marine, drummer for Dwight, Brave Combo, a great session guy...and Daniel Clarke on keyboards. He’s played with Ryan Adams, Dixie Chicks. He’s also out with kd now.
TN: To the new listener - on Craig’s disk you might recognize a little of that "kd sound" but the group has artfully managed to serve Craig's songs so well, and so originally.
CR: Well. Thanks. I think that we relate pedal steel to her sound. But what is different about mine is the fingerstyle guitar. But I agree the hi fi production quality is common to both.
TN: So you and Josh often play in amazing counterpoint to one another but you also stack the sounds very tightly at times. It’s a great, full sound.
CR: Thank you.

Rooted by this astonishing gathering of super players, the tracks unfold along their way with an organic, enjoyable feel. The true center of this release is in the writing, however, I was interested in Redfield’s inner process. So I asked him to give us a brief peek behind the “compositional curtain”:

TN: In terms of composition, did you write at all in the studio?
CR: No, Ma’am. All by myself at home. It just poured out of me.
TN: Tell us about that feeling, Craig. What’s it like when it really flows?
CR: It’s an urge; it’s like a hunger to describe my feelings and to express myself. I have it all the time - a craving. And when the notes and words come together it feels like elation. Like a drug.
TN: One of our favorites is “Tiny Bombs“. Can you talk about that a little? CR: Sure. It’s the story of a woman who is unheard. She’s afraid; captive to a life. And she plays herself like a character, while inwardly she longs for something different. She hurts. I think that’s pretty common, Traci. We all want the courage to live a full life - to be true to ourselves.
TN: Yes, it is a common theme in life, but your description is SO right on.
CR: Thanks.
TN: Craig, what you just described brings us to a central theme of this article. It's something that I noticed about “True”. There is a deep sense of subtlety; it’s like the disk demands several listens at least.
CR: Thank you. May I speak about that subtlety aspect?
TN: Please.
CR: Traci, I have worked and worked and worked and worked to be able to bring that to my writing. I try to make a song specific and universal so you are aware of it consciously, but not browbeat the listener with it. And if the listener would like to go deep they can go miles and yet still enjoy what they hear. So, you have no idea how much that comment honors me.

On “Diamonds”, one of my favorite tracks, Redfield reminds us to recognize the good that comes along with every situation in life. The group creates a hauntingly-open production feel that gives the listener an audio seat in the booth right alongside the players. In one of the CD’s tastier interactions Craig’s gorgeous voice cries, “Don’t forget the diamonds we find along the way,” while Josh Grange provides a chilling underpinning on pedal steel. One thing that really comes through is that this is a band that not only listens to one another - they hear one another!

I had noticed early on that with his newly-learned fingerstyle guitar work, Craig is able to state the central themes to his songs very powerfully on the recording. On disk these statements might often be found tucked back among the other excellent instruments in the sublime mix. In the live arena, however, these right-hand guitar figures become the entirety of Redfield’s ability to state his theme. This creates a wonderfully-powerful sense of presence and motion in the live tunes, especially in the ear of the listener who has already enjoyed the recorded version of “True”.

In his SL performances CraigGore Redfield’s fans will be treated to the most stripped-down possible delivery of his poetry. No loops, no tracks, no pedals - just that amazing right hand guitar work backing the sweetest voice possible. The message of the show carries a depth of bittersweetness rarely found on inworld stages, and the man delivers with the best of them. This is a guy who is coming into his own as both a player and a poet. He deserves to be listened to, and more than once if my experience is to teach a lesson.

We engaged Craig in a brief discussion of his excellent live work, and then took a peek into his future plans. Craig closed the interview with a sweet and loving message to his many SL fans, who show up at his gigs filled with love and admiration for the man in return.

TN: How are things going for you in the live SL scene? (I love your live show, by the way).
CR: Things are good Traci. Oh thanks. Its an extension of my writing - a present tense expression of my feelings, and a connection to my fellow man.
TN: This is why I mentioned your right hand work at the outset. If the listener has heard the disk first, they will be delighted with how your right hand work subtly states the themes on the recording, yet stands out in the live show. I love how you treat the listener to a second "vision" if they have already heard the disk.
CR: Right. Thanks. Traci, we all need love, myself included. And that’s what “live” is. It’s the connection; emoting together. I need them to complete it. We finish it together.
TN: And they love you live, Craig.
CR: Yes. It feels amazing. Every day someone approaches and says "I felt". That makes it all worth it. You know, people are so beautiful; all the differences. The colors of feelings; ideas; viewpoints. I get to swim in that. *BIG smile*
TN: Wow. Your happiness really shows in the live performance.
CR: Thanks.
TN: What's next for you?
CR: I am touring RL and doing more SL shows. And I am proud to announce
that I am writing two new records. One for me and one for a new trio I am starting. I met a RL record producer here that has become a brother to me and a female singer that has moved me so deeply that I have to make records with them.
TN: I know your fans will be eagerly awaiting both of those projects.
Well, Craig - speaking of your SL fans - this is where you get to speak directly to them.
CR: So glad to get a chance to do that.
TN: What would you like to say to the many Palais SL Magazine readers who are fans of yours?
CG: I love you so much and thank you from my depths for being with me here and being so generous with love and appreciation.

And - there is always hope.

So - Hope.

To contact CraigGore Redfield log on to www.craiggore.com or contact his wonderful inworld manager Katejupitar Rae. And support your SL musicians and venues.

I Met Paul McCartney - or did I?

2011-04-19T12:47:00.000-07:00

by Traci Nubalo

When I learned that I was about to meet Sir Paul McCartney I felt a thrill that I had never experienced before. After all he is more than a living legend. Much more.

My friend and I were ushered into a large, private, very-nicely appointed hotel visiting area. There were probably fifty of us on hand to greet him on the night before we were to enjoy his concert here in Los Angeles.

And there he was, smiling and shaking hands while we waited our turn. He wore a very nice deep blue suit and a crisp white shirt, sans necktie. And he was gorgeous!

As we waited nervously for our minute or two with him my mind began to spin as I decided what I would say to him. Clearly any mention of Yoko Ono or Heather Mills was out of the question! I began to wish I had come better prepared.

Suddenly he turned to us and I had this amazing feeling that ALL of his attention was focused on us for that moment. I stood there gaping at him, running a very high risk of embarrassing myself in front of a man who I had held in awe my entire life.

***
I missed Beatlemania by a decade-and-a-half. But their music was part of my life from my earliest memories. I’m sure that a little cultural explanation is required for me to tell you this story, since I got some of it by word-of-mouth myself. But it’s a fascinating tale, one which we’ll never again come close to witnessing. This is because we no longer have music stars anywhere near the popularity of The Beatles in their prime.

I know, I know: someone wants to challenge me already. Maybe a Beyonce, or Led Zeppelin, or even Bruce Springsteen fan. But trust me (sorry Bruce!) as great as our current-day acts may be, The Beatles were in a league of their own in terms of cultural popularity and social importance. And as you read on, you’ll see how I found out firsthand that the Fab Four literally changed the course of world history!

President John F. Kennedy had just been assassinated; the country was in a desperate way. Our government was in severe disorder. Unrest from the failing Vietnam war was showing up in ugly demonstrations on campuses nationwide. Russia’s Premier Nikita Khrushchev was banging his shoe on the table at the United Nations, threatening to bury us under a hail of the dreaded nuclear weapons that both super powers had stockpiled in dizzying fashion (a scene to be accurately and chillingly depicted in Sting's future dark hit "Russians"). We were clearly moving into territory that we as a people had never imagined possible.

Into this sad and bewildering scene appeared the strangest music group imaginable at the time. To begin with they had hair all the way down to the collars of the fashionable collar-less suit coats they wore! And they were very, very good musically! Immediately the country (and the world) sat up and took notice. The Beatles were so talented that they immediately began to thrill their fans and frighten their detractors.

And they were masters at working the press! They held some of the funniest press conferences in history:

“When do you plan to get haircuts?”
George Harrison: “I had one yesterday.”

“How did you find America during your last tour?”
John Lennon: “We turned left at Greenland.”

When they arrived on the scene they hit hard…and they just refused to go away! They broke into the American music scene in 1962 with their first hit “Love Me Do”. By mid-1963 Beatlemania was in full swing on both sides of the pond, and the group’s live appearance on The Ed Sullivan television show in 1964 sealed the deal in the colonies. During that historic one-night appearance 73 million television sets were tuned to the show, and a number of major U.S. cities reported that not a single crime took place during that hour.

By April, 1964, the group had cornered the world music market. They had written and recorded the top five best-selling singles in the U.S. while simultaneously owning the #1 and #2 slots on the album charts. They had also scattered other assorted hits throughout the Billboard Top 100. The Fab Four continued to place #1 hits consistently until their breakup in 1970.

At their concerts worldwide, girls would scream and swoon making so much noise that the band complained that they were unable to hear themselves play! The crush of the fans (and the press) literally imprisoned the members of the group everywhere in the world they traveled. George Harrison described being on tour with The Beatles as “a car, a hotel room, a theatre, another car, and another hotel room.”

Despite this insane lifestyle the group’s recordings contained a message of peace, love and hope that was carried around the world. Even behind the Iron Curtain kids played Beatles albums behind closed doors in secret gatherings, eagerly trying to decipher which face on the outer jacket belonged to which member, since the remainder of the liner notes were banned in Communist countries. The young men and women involved never guessed that they had begun a process which was to change the world. Beatlemania had just been turned loose behind the Iron Curtain.

Into this amazing cultural petri dish entered a dark and enduring mystery. In 1969 reports surfaced in the media claiming that Paul McCartney was dead. The story said that the heartthrob singer/bassist, who had co-written some of the most popular songs in recorded history, had stormed out of a late-night recording session at Abbey Road studios after an argument with his band mates. On a dark and rainy British motorway, the reports claimed, he suffered a fatal auto accident, being decapitated in the process.

At this point, the British version of the CIA, the Special Operations Executive (SOE) allegedly cornered the remaining three members and their management team. They were forced into a bizarre conspiracy to prevent millions of potential suicides among the band’s fans.

The tales goes on to claim that one William Campbell, a recent winner of a Paul McCartney look-and-sound-alike
contest was recruited to replace the young Beatle in public appearances. Extensive plastic surgery ensued and the game was afoot with the fake Paul (“Faul”) now appearing in public as part of the group.

Eventually, of course, reports of the charade sifted through to the worldwide media. Denials from the group’s management quickly followed and McCartney (or was it his doppelganger?) issued a statement from his home in Scotland in which he cribbed a great line from Mark Twain: “Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” The always-ascerbic and opinionated John Lennon was widely quoted as saying: “It’s rubbish. It’s all a load of shit.”

But the tale persisted and was bolstered by stories from many sources that The Beatles - by now growing unhappy with this bizarre arrangement - had begun to place clues on their albums alerting fans to the situation. Such clues ranged from supposed “backward masked” messages in the music to visual clues inserted into the accompanying album art. Quite a few such pointers were claimed by some to be found in the group's lyrics directly: "He blew his mind out in a car..."; "...the walrus is Paul". Literally hundreds of clues were purported to be found on all of The Beatles records to follow. In fact, there are just too many such clues to repeat here. I would suggest that the interested reader simply Google “Paul Is Dead”. Leave yourself plenty of time because you’ll be inundated with lists of sites covering the topic ranging from the deeply fascinating to the absurd.

***

I found myself running out of time. My hand was holding the hand of the man who had written “Yesterday” and “Let It Be” (not to mention “I Want To Hold Your Hand”). I heard myself stammer something to Paul about how important the group’s music had been to me throughout my life. I saw him patiently nodding, politely pretending that this was not the millionth time he had heard this. He replied that, yes, many fans do offer such reports and that he found it humbling and very sweet. “We were really just four lads who formed a tight little group. Then we watched in amazement as the situation swept us into history,” he said.

I began to take my sweaty hand back, but he held it in a soft grip - not a day of hard labor had ever been done by this hand! - and then he leaned forward with his beautiful sixty-year-old face next to mine.

In a half-whisper I heard him say, “But there is one thing that happened to us that really blows my mind to this day.”

***

It’s 2010. John Lennon has been dead almost three decades - shot and killed by a deranged fan outside his NYC apartment. George Harrison, after cheating death at the hands of an intruder who stabbed him in his palatial home outside London, has passed away from throat cancer. McCartney (or was it Faul?) has continued to record and has mounted a number of wildly-successful world concert tours, performing with all of the vocal and instrumental skill evident in the early years. The plot thickens yet again:

Los Angeles film-maker Joel Gilbert claims to have received a plainly-wrapped package at his office reputedly posted to him by George Harrison (my favorite Beatle) just before the lead guitarist’s death. Claiming he was fed up with holding this secret, George states in an enclosed hand-written note that the tapes are his “last will and testament” and that he wishes to finally unburden himself of the guilt of the decades-long deceit. Gilbert claims to have used Harrison’s voice from the tapes as the narration for his documentary “Paul McCartney Really Is Dead - The Last Will and Testament of George Harrison.”

When I saw the DVD advertised I contacted the film company who graciously provided me with a review copy. (Thanks again, Howie!). I was also offered an interview slot with Joel Gilbert, which I passed on for reasons I will explain in a moment.

I think that it’s very important for me to state that I do not believe that Paul McCartney was killed on that dark and lonely motorway decades ago. In fact, I find it laughable that anyone with good sense could believe that a conspiracy as far-reaching and farcical as this could survive. That said, however, the question arises, “Why are you bothering to write yet another article on the topic?”

What I’d like to comment on in this piece is the cultural and political (as you will see) significance of an urban legend that could last so long and create such a volume of interest as this.

One thing should be said in fairness to the legend itself : in a way, Paul (as the most public representative of The Beatles) had, in fact gone through at least a symbolic death at this point in history.

The group’s touring career was over, ended by the sheer inability of the boys to show their faces in public without causing mass hysteria and risking being torn limb-from-limb by their own fans in the frenzy. As the two most famous songwriters in history the very prolific Lennon/McCartney duo had long since been dissolved. The hit songs which were still topping the charts were actually written by one or the other, with a simple contractual arrangement in place making it seem like the two were still writing partners.

Ever trying to lead the creative charge, Paul/Faul had produced several disastrous short films featuring the band vamping to the latest now-psychedelicized single release. In these disappointing efforts, however, he unwittingly blazed the trail for the music video craze which would revolutionize entertainment in a decade or two.

But, as Lennon wistfully sang “the dream is over”, in all practicality, The Beatles (and Paul McCartney with them) were - at least for the moment - no long among the living as creative entities. Such a fall from grace! It must have been an unbearably-crushing blow to the egos of four men who had known only massive success for their entire adult lives.

This - in my opinion - is the true “death” which visited the band, despite the efforts of Joel Gilbert and his creative team to re-re-spin the “Paul Is Dead” legend. By the way, the DVD is a mildly-entertaining 90 minutes, but will prove interesting only to the profound Beatle devotee who MUST consume all things Fab Fourish. It was on that basis that I declined the offer to interview Gilbert.

But, as the sun began to set on the British empire’s most famous four citizens, there was much, much more happening on the world political scene for the group. These events would equal or surpass in significance anything that The Beatles (or the world) had ever dreamed of!

***

To this day, I don’t know why Sir Paul chose to semi-whisper this to me rather than making a stir by sharing it openly in the room. Perhaps this was just one more piece of evidence of the man’s true and deep sense of humility and his honest awe at the band’s incredible list of accomplishments.

His lips to my ear he said, “I really wish that John, George and Ringo could have been with me to hear this. But when my current band and I played Moscow for the first time, I was invited to meet with Mikhail Gorbachev, then President of the former Soviet Union. During my conversation with him he said ‘You four boys with your messages of love and hope accomplished something that the combined political and economic forces of the world failed to do: you helped to bring down the Iron Curtain and you helped to end the Cold War. You brought freedom to the people of my country.’”

I stood there stunned. This was a concept that I would never have thought of in a million years and it had just been stage-whispered to me by Sir Paul McCartney himself!

And whoever it was that who so graciously placed a respectful kiss on my cheek - Paul, Faul or the Walrus - he was clearly one of the most alive and exciting men I have ever met in my life!

Copyright (c) 2011 Traci Nubalo. All rights reserved.ver met in my life!

Giving Us Paws For Thought: A Visit with The DogFather

2011-04-02T09:08:00.000-07:00

by Traci Nubalo

(Reprinted courtesy of PURE Magazine. February, 2011 issue)

One of the great joys of my years in Second Life has been the owning and training of my artificial intelligence dog, a gorgeous black lab named Bella. When we first got her I had no idea what an wonderful and fun adventure was about to unfold for me and my SL family. We took Bella home and found that she was a bit on the, shall we say, rambunctious side. She loved to run all over the sim, as any RL dog might. She loved to jump into the water which our SL home was next to. She even loved to sit in her food and water dishes, a trait that I knew from RL was peculiar to Labrador retrievers.

But she also had some rather irritating traits such as excessive barking and even a nasty, frightening growl that we really disliked, especially when company was visiting. We learned that this is where the AI aspect came in for the VKC dog. Whenever Bella did a behavior that we disapproved of we would type “Bella bad” into open chat. Similarly, positive behaviors would be rewarded with “Bella good”.

Over time we began to see changes in her. And over these few years Bella has become a fun, fascinating companion. But there’s a deeper tale to be told. After purchasing Bella we began to interact with an AI dog trainer named Vitolo Rossini. He’s also known as The DogFather.

Vito is a fun, 59-year-old guy who is the owner and operator of Dog Park in Rhoda. We SL dog owners know him as someone who is passionate about the dogs and their owners and is always willing to help by answering questions, holding training classes and generally being a source of information and inspiration. Those of us who know him all agree that a more kind and fun-loving soul is to be found nowhere else in Second Life. On more than a few occasions we were delighted by his friendliness and willingness to spend as much time as necessary to make our dog-owning experience all it could be. He would even end each visit bowing from the waist saying, “Bowing with respect.“ As I got to know Vito more he began to open up to me about his past and how he became The DogFather.

In 2003 Mr. Rossini was a practicing martial arts teacher in Tucson, AZ who spent his days happily selling ice cream from his neighborhood truck. One day at work he was run over by another vehicle. In that instant Vitolo Rossini became a victim of TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury). He spent 6 ½ weeks in a coma and two more years in rehabilitation. While being driven to an appointment one day he struck up a conversation with his Paramedic Services driver thus meeting his current wife of four years Patty.

In a recent chat he described the condition in which this horrible accident has left his body: “I am currently partially paralyzed on my left side. I have moderate to severe spasticity, primarily on the left side of my entire body, but it moves to the right side as well. I walk with the assistance of a walker (or dual canes) and I have chronic double vision, which is corrected by prisms in my glasses.”

Rossini also says that he suffers from short-term memory loss and is in a great deal of pain. He takes medications to control the spasticity and pain, but finds that sufficient pain meds seem to dull his mind. So he chooses to live in significant pain, but he’s able to stay alert.

In 2006 Vito discovered SL, and found a world perfectly suited to his limitations. He found that he could function fully in SL, and do things that impossible for him in RL. Using this new-found freedom he quickly got involved with AI dogs and their owners, discovering that he had a knack for the scripting languages used in the virtual pets. Soon he had created Dog Park and developed the TBI Center that flies above it. Other TBI patients heard about Vito’s work in SL and followed him here. Many of them purchased AI dogs and began attending the numerous training classes offered by him.

Some amazing things began to happen. At first Vito got reports that the TBI patients who had AI dogs were beginning to experience new and different kinds of dreaming experiences, often followed by positive emotional changes in life. Vito: “Owning and training a dog in SL creates a form of relationship between person and the K9. This shift in focus distracts a resident from the pressure that often accompanies learning; he is able to achieve learning without stress. A reason for this is that the participant feels as though he is playing with and loving a pet, rather than mentally putting emphasis on the often-scary process of learning new concepts.

“Second Life gives us (TBI patients) a new chance to function. We have notes to remind us of what we are doing, and a handy inventory window which reminds us of our tools. We are more able to function independently, and these tools offer us helpful assistance. As we use the tools and increasingly learn to function independently, our brains begin to build new neural pathways - new synaptic connections. This results in people finding new ways to think and function."

I asked Vito what it is about Second Life (and other virtual worlds) that attracts millions of us, whether physically-challenged or not. “There are no limits as we traverse the metaverse; there are fewer physical or personal constraints,” he replied. “When one becomes an avatar they also become free, in a sense. One finds a place where he can be amazed, or even just begin to feel comfortable within once again. We begin to make friends more easily and start to enjoy learning about others. Communication is of great value to all human beings and even more so to those who are home bound via injuries and for other reasons. And SL fills this need!”

At this point I felt like we had moved universes away from AI dogs and K9 training classes. The conversation had morphed into a fascinating new look at virtual worlds and their potential uses as platforms for personal growth and change.

The DogFather then made a startling claim: he believes that at least half of SL residents are in some way at least partially bound to the home. This shocked me until he pointed out that being “home bound” needn’t mean living in a wheelchair.

He wisely stated, “There are the physically homebound - but there are also the emotionally homebound, and the spiritually homebound residents. The physically homebound encompass many disabling conditions. But some people feel like they can't face the public for whatever reasons - valid or not. Emotionally homebound people have thoughts within that do not allow them to feel comfortable out in public: ‘I am too ugly,’ ‘I am not good enough,’ ‘I am stupid.’ Some are afraid of strangers, some of germs.

A person becomes spiritually homebound when they find that there is nothing that they have in common with others. They feel that they ‘can't relate’, and so they withdraw. In each of these cases, Second Life allows some interaction with a ‘world’ and with real people. It‘s a ‘window to the world’ in more ways than we might be aware of. ”

It dawned on me that most men and women in the world exhibit symptoms of such spiritual malaise. Essentially, we are lonely. We are seeking connection - every one of us. And for most of us finding deep connection in what we call the “real world” is becoming as increasingly-difficult process.

Yet, from the adversity that befell one simple man springs a vision of a greater Awareness. Via the unexpected vehicle of pixel pets many of us are finding fresh avenues to happier lives. New vistas in personal growth are appearing and many are finding freedom in areas that once felt restricted.

Perhaps you’ll decide to pay a visit to Rhoda, where you’ll find dozens of AI dogs to play with and be amazed by. You might choose to teleport to the TBI Center high in the sky above Dog Park or spend some peaceful time in the gorgeous meditation area adjoining the Center. But by all means make it a point to get to know the man whose wisdom and vision is quietly changing and enriching so many troubled lives on a daily basis.

Vito Rossini will tell you that the six-and-a-half weeks he spent in a coma brought him to his true potential to live his life in service to others. He will tell you that practicing good karma in SL is as important and effective as it is in first life. And he will ask you to always be aware of the fact that the avatar you are interacting with online may be suffering some very real physical, emotional or spiritual challenges that you will never know about.

And this guru-in-disguise will ask you to remember that each moment in Second Life is a gift and an opportunity. We are given this new life and we are offered the chance to create our virtual world in a way that centers us in peace and understanding of one another.

Pilgrim75 Swashbuckler (Pete Mroz): I Can’t Do It Alone

2011-02-11T12:20:00.000-08:00

by Traci Nubalo

Reprinted from Palais SL Magazine, Jan. 2011

“Give them the best show possible;
but do not take them backstage.”
- William Shakespeare

Life for a performing/recording musical artist can be downright tough. Even after achieving success he has to struggle to maintain that level and push further into new turf.

I recall being in NYC to see an amazing jazz/New Age artist play Radio City Music Hall. After the stunning show I walked with the band and a handful of major-label record executives to a restaurant for the after-show party.

To get into the restaurant the party had to take a tiny service elevator, big enough for six or seven at best. The band took the first car and I jumped in with the others, several of the most influential people in the international recording business. At the last minute a hand slipped between the doors and in stepped a very well-dressed, handsome young black man bearing an audio tape. “I would really appreciate it if you guys would take a listen to my songs,” the man said sincerely.

The record guys laughed right in his face, making vulgar comments like, “Not in this lifetime!” and “Not tonight. Not ever.”

The musician didn’t seem the least bit bothered by all of this rudeness. In fact, he winked at me as he slipped the cassette back into his jacket pocket. Exiting the elevator he said, “Nice to see you again, Traci.” And off he walked into the huge restaurant.

They all turned to me. I smiled sweetly and said, “You guys just insulted Darryl Jones. He’s Sting’s bass player, and was just signed to play bass for the Rolling Stones.” There was a brief “pin drop moment” then the hilarious visual of six grown men scrambling to find and apologize to Darryl.

While it’s a fun memory, what’s significant about it is that even if you are already successful, you still have to hustle.

* * * * *

Pete Mroz (Pilgrim75 Swashbuckler) knows what I’m talking about. After a couple of decades in the real life music industry, Pete’s been building his SL audience for about two years now. He sings with the voice of an angel, plays guitar like a madman, and writes killer originals. When merged, the three arts create a synergy of sound and energy that is second to none.

Several months ago Pete began dropping five-minute video clips onto his website www.petemroz.com, chronicling his effort to record a new CD. What a gift to give to Pete’s fans everywhere! Most music fans never get to see what really happens in the preparatory phases. So this could turn out to be a form of the true backstage pass that I like to talk about: a ringside seat to a process usually witnessed only behind closed doors.

To begin with, everything that Pilgrim touches turns to entertainment. On his website one finds the four installments amidst some high-quality recorded bits of Pete performing. Chapter 1 shows Pete heading off to check out a recording studio. It’s a pretty funny bit, not just your ordinary “talking head” delivery.

The second installment shows Pete dealing with two industry types over lunch. The table talk - about golf and free lunches - gave me a sinking feeling. The highlight of this clip is the great shot of the pickle bowl on the table - perhaps an unconscious nod to the future?

Part 3 involves Pete doing some cool and campy dance steps as he discusses hooking up with managers and publicists. He’s building some tension in reminding us that the deeper the deal goes the more people start dipping into his bank account.

And Part 4 is a brief - and somewhat poignant - discussion about financing a record deal. Pete nervously confesses that he has a month to raise $25,000. Pointing to a wall clock he says, “Time is not on my side.” He looks tired from the Herculean effort he’s made, and even points out some grey in his beard.

I found these all-too-short clips to be entertaining and quite revealing. But what really comes through is Pete’s heart. We see in his face that rolling this rock up the hill has been taking a serious toll on him; his honesty is totally endearing.

But why is it so hard? Pilgrim is an immensely gifted man. We’re talking about a musical package that is almost unparalleled in Second Life. He’s one of a few SL artists (including Pilgrim’s good friend Buckley Moonwall) who make me wonder what is going on in the RL music scene. How can people this talented and this committed get passed over while Willow Smith becomes the rage of the industry?

* * * * *

My lovely Mistress Becca Coveria and I arrived at Bottom Line in Pando for Pete’s first 2011 gig. We joined Palais SL Magazine photographer Jami Mills and settled in for the fun. Neither of my companions had heard Pete play before and it took less than a song or two before they were burning up my IM window with praise.

I’m not going to review this particular concert in detail. If you have not seen Pilgrim75 Swashbuckler perform, nothing that Traci - yes, THAT Traci! - can say will make a difference. Just go: support him and support the venues.

One comment I will make is about the audience. This was a love fest from the minute it started. The Open Chat window was alive throughout with woooots and whistles and comments ranging from happy to ecstatic. One great exchange overheard:

Neuro Wonder: “It's like Pete's voice is a serotonin and dopamine injection in my ears.”
Shady Forsythe: “Be still my synapses.”

Too funny. The audience went wild, and the music was smoking hot through the entire concert. It really was a great show, a perfect start for a new year.

* * * * *

It’s January 2, and Pete and his awesome manager Jemma Bonne have just tp’d onto a cozy skybox rooftop for the interview. We all settled in after a little small talk, then began:

Traci Nubalo: So Pete - after you did the four videos for your website what happened next?
Pilgrim75 Swashbuckler: Well, the music biz is fickle. My investor went MIA on the 25th hour. I had everything planned but it takes money. But I’m still working with a great producer named Warren Huart. He has worked with The Fray, Howie Day, Augustana, James Blunt, and others.
TN: Was Warren in the videos?
PS: No, Warren has never been in the video. The guys you saw were potential people. Warren lives in LA.: warrenhuart.com. I had contacted him because I really liked his work. He listened to my stuff and decided to work with me. This is HUGE, Traci!
Guys like him get the music to the peoples’ ears. They are a bridge. With his production value and name the right people will listen.
TN: Is he part of the project officially as of now?
PS: Yes.
TN: *smiling biggly*
PS: Me too. I have waited a long time for something like this.
TN: Now, backing up just a bit - your fans and I watched the four vids and loved them. Did anyone we met in the videos make it to the team? The publisher? The tour manager? The guys eating pickles?
PS: The publisher, yes and the tour manager in some ways. The guys eating pickles, well Glenn is a great friend and the other guy I’m pleading the 5th on.
TN: LOL So at the last minute the financing fell apart.
PS: Yes, I mean at the very last minute; ten days before recording.
TN: Damn.
PS: Big damn cause a lot of people are affected by this. It was an expensive mistake. But the good news is that Warren and I are right on track.
TN: Pete, let's get down to it. How were you able to keep going after that?
PS: Music is in my soul and no one will ever take that. Some people look at it as a let down; I look at it as a opportunity to show my true colors and build a stronger relationship with Warren. You see someone’s true self in the face of adversity and I hope the way I dealt with it made Warren and my relationship more solid.
TN: But in the middle of the night what were you feeling when this happened?
PS: When it happened? Well, can you guess? Let down, but I won't let anyone squash my dream. I am not gonna back down when I believe in something and music is what I believe in most. I am the captain of my ship. I mean that.
TN: I hear it. So you got up and went back to work. What came next?
PS: Well, I had to regroup - get through the holidays and the shock.
Then I had different people come to me and tell me about a site called kickstarter.com. It’s a way to reach out the fans, to have them truly be a part of the record by pledging cold hard cash. I want you all to be a part of what I do because YOU are why I play. You are my energy. Otherwise I am playing in my room or at a party. And while that is cool I want to reach out and get the music to as many people as possible.
TN: So the fans can put up some cash on the site to help with the production costs. How does this work?
PS: You pledge whatever you see fit and if I hit my goal then you pay. This way you are protected from people that don’t raise all the money and keep it. Here’s the "kicker": if I don’t raise all the goal money I don’t get any.
TN: Awesome.
PS: Yeah, I am really impressed by this site. I have never seen something so interactive.
TN: When does the campaign begin, Pete?
PS: I am in the middle of editing the video for the project now, so I am shooting for Jan 14th.
TN: I just LOVE this concept. It's a take on "Pay It Forward".

* Pete shows us some of the printed material for the campaign*

PS: As you can see this is BIG stuff and I know it will be hard but I believe in power in numbers.
TN: Will your website have the information we just saw?
PS: Yes! My website will have links. And believe me I am gonna let the world know!! LOL
TN: *smile*
PS: Ready for the goal number?! Sitting down?
TN: *squinting*
PS: 20K…and not Lindens! *smile* It is actually gonna cost 35K but I am funding the other 15. And I should be. We can do it!!! I just know it!!

All I can say is this: a lesser man would be down for the count by now. I kept trying to picture how I would have felt - sitting alone on a motel bed, having just learned that my project funding is gone! I would have been emotionally devastated beyond repair. But here he is, still positive, still upbeat, and most importantly still in the game! My admiration for Pete Mroz as a man and as a member of our music community has gone sky high. I intend to support Pilgrim through the kickstarter.com website, and I encourage all of my readers to join in. Let’s get this guy into the studio where he belongs!

TN: At your set yesterday I kept getting this image of a boxer, battered but still on his feet, fighting back.
PS: Haha! That’s me, girl!
TN: You were inspired vocally. *yesses from all those present*
PS: I am very competitive. I have to win and if I don’t I try again.
JB: If he goes down, he's going down swinging!
TN: Is there anything else we can share with the readers, Pete?
PS: I just hope people know how much I appreciate them. I try and give my best show possible and I hope that people know when they hear me it is just that - ME!
I feel like we are all on this journey together. I can’t do it alone, nor do I want to.

Copyright (c) 2011 Traci Nubalo/Palais SL Magazine. All rights reserved.

Tone Uriza: Second Life’s Blues Pioneer

2011-01-14T12:24:00.000-08:00

by Traci Nubalo

　
“The blues ain't nothing but a good man feelin' bad.” - Leon Redbone

Tone Uriza is a nasty man.

Don’t get me wrong. He’s actually an educated, soft-spoken, well-dressed gentleman who hails from Tucson, Arizona.

But something happens when he straps on his Fender Strat and hits the “on” button to his amplifier rig. Like Jekyll changing to Hyde, he morphs into one nasty-ass bluesman - Second Life’s Big Daddy Blues.

PURE sent me on assignment to interview Tone. I had written a piece on him quite some time ago when I was with another publication, so I was looking forward to the get-together. He’s one of my favorite performers on the grid and I really like him, both musically and personally.
Tone Uriza has been on the RL music scene for about thirty years. He’s a mainstay on the blues circuit in his hometown, and has gone global with his act through SL. Personally, Tone is what I lovingly refer to as a character. He’s amazingly talented and thoroughly down to earth as a human being. He has an infectious high-pitched laugh which is heard liberally all throughout his live performances, which are always fast-paced and a ton of fun.

“Once I was checking into a hotel and a couple saw my ring with Blues on it. They said, 'You play blues. That music is so sad.' I gave them tickets to the show, and they came up afterwards and said, 'You didn't play one sad song.” - Buddy Guy

He’s an expert guitarist and a very proficient dobro player, as well. He plays with the expressive feeling that comes only with spending many years with the instrument in your hand. Big Daddy has one of the most fascinating singing voices I have heard. He somehow is able to blend a smooth, even tone with a gravelly undertone. It makes for a most appealing and unique sonic delivery. And Tone is a natural showman. He is completely engaging with his audience, many of whom (like me) are long-time fans.

At a recent event, Tone made use of a new video technology that allowed us in the SL club to see him in realtime as he performed his set from his home studio. His nasty nature began to surface almost at the gate, with lots of banter about his actually being naked from the waist down. He kicked off his set with Joe Medwich Yeasey and Don D. Robey’s “Further On Down The Road”, then spun directly into a hilarious ditty from Son Seals entitled “Frigidaire Blues”. The premise of this one was that his girl was a tad on the frigid side and the song was laced with one clever image after another ranging from “getting into her vegetable drawers” through “my lips got stuck on her ice tray”, and ending with the cold girl falling asleep on his sofa (before putting out) where “she opened her mouth and a little light came on.”

“It was really stumbling on to the bible of the blues, you know, and a very powerful drug to be introduced to us and I absorbed it totally, and it changed my complete outlook on music.” - Eric Clapton

Traci Nubalo: Great to see you again Tone. And welcome to the pages of PURE Magazine.

Tone Uriza: Thanks Traci. It‘s always a pleasure.

TN: Tone, the main new thing about your show is the amazing streaming video system that you are using. What’s different about this new system?

TU: It’s a feature that the Lindens promised and have actually delivered. It uses the new viewer features, and the person watching must have Firefox or Safari on their machine with the latest flash player plugin that is specific to those browsers only. What it does is allows live streaming flash encoding which has an almost zero latency. The lag is 3 seconds if that.

TN: Wow

TU: Yes, it's very tight. Communication with the audience is almost instant. No more waiting fifteen to thirty seconds. And there is a very nice natural compression that occurs from the audio encoding, so it’s slightly better audio. It makes the sound kind of jump out at you. It’s as if you are in the room with the performer

TN: Yes, it really does. It looks and sounds great from the avatar point of view. I was way impressed at Bottom Line.

TU: It’s definitely a step forward for performers and it doesn't have to be video too, but having both in many situations can be an advantage.

TN: You have always had a very natural relationship to your audiences. Does this help you in that regard?

TU: Omg, yes! I had gotten good at it before but now it's like having a concert in my studio, with people all around me watching.

We had great fun watching you watching you like that. It enhances things from a fan perspective.

TU: Awww, thanks! I'm glad. It means that I am doing my job.

TN: But…we all want to know...were you REALLY wearing no pants that night?

TU: *giggles*

TN: *smile*

TU: Let‘s just say that I had on clothing. Hehe

TN: Good answer. So…what is this new live video system called?

TU: Well it really has no name. It's what Ustreamtv and Livestream and Justintv have been doing for awhile. And Youtube as well. But the Lindens finally made the viewer a true browser.

TN: Thanks for sharing all that Tone. I think it's a big development for you and very big for music lovers

“I guess music, particularly the blues, is the only form of schizophrenia that has organized itself into being both legal and beneficial to society.” - Alexis Korner

Back at The Boondocks, Uriza had kicked into the old chestnut “Night Life”, and watching him on the video screen we could see the pure joy on his face. This man means it when he sings the blues. Without missing a beat, he swung from Willie to Buddy Guy as he cranked out a super-danceable “Messin’ With The Kid.” The open chat box was full of woooots, and it seemed to me that the video screen was actually increasing the level of communication between Tone and his fans. After chatting and giggling for a bit Big Daddy slowed it down for one of his original compositions called “Silhouette.” This number features the audience slipping on dance orbs which create silhouettes around them as they dance.

“Blues means what milk does to a baby. Blues is what the spirit is to the minister. We sing the blues because our hearts have been hurt, our souls have been disturbed.” - Alberta Hunter

TN: Big Daddy, what is the blues to you?

TU: Hmmmm...

TN: Tough one - I know.

TU: It is many things and that is probably the appeal. It has many dimensions. But if I had to narrow it down to a favorite thing it would be the fact that what it was first created for still holds true today - to make one feel better.

TN: Lean Redbone has a great quote, “The blues is just a good man feelin' bad."

TU: Yup.

TN: There are so many different forms of music one could choose to learn and perform. Why the blues, Tone?

TU: It chose me, big time. It touched me so deeply via Muddy Waters that I haven't been able to shake it yet. LOL

TN: Wll you ever shake it?

TU: Kind of doubt it at this point. I had a drummer, Jerome Kimsey. He is in his 60s now but he has played all his life. Never made any money at it; always struggling. So one day he was talking to his brother about all his troubles and his brother said, “Jerome, don't even think about quitting music. If you do, you will invalidate your whole life.”

TN: Wow. Well, as you know, I have met quite a few of the great blue players and worked with some of them. One thing that has always struck me is that while they may be characters, almost all were extremely nice people. Does the blues exorcise one's demons or something?

TU: That‘s because I think playing the blues is great therapy for the player as well as the listener. Someone has to talk about the things everyone else is afraid to express.

TN: How has the blues changed you, Tone?

TU: It's made me extremely sensitive to others, really. Made me more patient, more sympathetic to all that we share in common. My favorite thing that we all share and need is laughter.

“I suppose I was waiting until I was old enough to have some sort of experience to sing about. When you're young, it's hard to sing the blues. Nobody believes you.” - Nick Lowe

On the video screen Tone could be seen reaching behind him to pick up the dobro and the metal slide bar that he slipped onto a finger on his left hand. He stepped right into the opening slide guitar intro to Little Feat’s classic hit “Dixie Chicken.” Again his voice was perfectly straddling his bright close-to-falsetto voice with the nasty dog-growl underpinnings that would make most listeners be able to pick him out of a singing lineup.

In between numbers he kept up an amusing and fascinating banter with his audience, enjoying wonderful laughter from both sides of the microphone. The group quickly shifted into high gear as the Master kicked off “One Way Out” from the Allman Brothers Band. Like he does with just about every cover I have heard him play, Tone made this one his own with some anxious-sounding vocals and tasty slide parts.

“Blues is a natural fact. It‘s something that a fellow lives. If you don't live it you don't have it. Young people have forgotten to cry the blues. Now they talk and get lawyers and things.” - Big Bill Broonzy
　
TN: Do you see that you are one of the current representatives for this art form? One of a long line of great players?

TU: God, I hope I am even close to being that. I don't know that I am, but I sure give it hell.

TN: Well, let's get real my friend. The last time I interviewed you, I wrote about working with the great Muddy Waters.

TU: Uh huh.

TN: This morning I realized something: you could have so easily been on that stage with Bob Margolin and Pinetop Perkins and Muddy. You would have fit right in.

TU: Honestly, I know I would.

TN: *smile*

TU: And something else - just knowing that one person believes that is enough for me. Thank you, Traci.

TN: Good. But there's more. You are also a blues pioneer. You bring this art form to the world via virtual performance - something that none of the old blues players was capable of doing.

TU: I really want to. It's my destiny.

TN: I find this so exciting, Tone.

TU: *smiles*

TN: Well, Tone, this will be going out to the readers of Jayme Carolina's great new magazine PURE and this is your chance to speak to those readers directly. *hands you the microphone*

TU: The blues never made me sadder in my life. It's always made me a happier, better person. And that's all I have to say about that.
　

Tuna Oddfellow: How Odd Can It Get?

2010-12-24T10:17:00.000-08:00

By Traci Nubalo

How odd, indeed? It was a Monday night - early at that. I’d been in Second Life for just a short time. I was still walking into walls and entering chat into the wrong window. But I was on a mission. I was exploring this new virtual world to see what forms of musical and entertainment species lived and thrived here. And one person I spoke to told me that I had to - HAD to - see a show by this Tuna Oddfellow character.

At that point I didn’t know that Tuna (who has been called the “Peter Max of Second Life”) was already a longstanding inworld favorite.

I hadn’t heard that Tuna had won a million lindens in a popular NBC television series “America Has Talent”.

And I really didn’t know that Tuna (and his “Beautiful Assistant” Shava Suntzu, also his rl significant other) were busily working at the very cutting edge of the science of performance art.

So, armed with such a pathetic base of knowledge (and with no warning that one day I would be called upon to write this article!) I appeared in Tuna and Shava’s theatre standing nervously under a huge magician’s hat along with a couple dozen other avatars. Then, in an instant, as Shava admonished us to keep our hands inside the car, off we went into my first experience of the Tunaverse.

The printed word could never do justice to what is to be experienced at the Odd Ball, other to say this: you are totally immersed in - drenched in! a 3D visual imagery experience heretofore unknown to even the most ardent dance club fans. The music - primarily streaming trance/dance/techno, first rate - provides the sonic impetus while Tuna, manning a coliseum-sized control console, deftly improvises the imagery to fit the musical changes. It’s truly art in it’s most creative and intense form!

Let’s let Tuna and Shava fill us in a bit more:

Shava Suntzu: We call it the Cathedral Effect in our documents. There are elements of sacred architecture that use some of the same geometric tricks we use - statically, of course - to get that hushed awe when you walk into a cathedral or a mosque. It's also the feeling you get looking out over a valley from the top of a mountain.

What we are working on is a set of neurotransmitters that are all based around vision, proportion, the internal model of the body (proprioception) and those are also the systems that hallucinogens work on.

Tuna Oddfellow: I'm a performer in my first life and when I came to SL, I thought, how can I connect to people? How can I get that "WOW!" that I get from a crowd with my magic in a world where people learn to fly the first day?

Traci Nubalo: *smile*

TO: I mean, cutting a lady in half doesn't do much for folks here. So one of the things that dazzles people, virtual/real space, is fireworks. It started with fireworks and effects
and then Shava came into the picture. We got the award from NBC, and people started hiring us for sim openings and such. It made it worthwhile for me to learn to make my own effects, and commission what I couldn't make.

And for the first time, it really started to feel more like, you know, my art.

TN: So - when someone shows up at your theatre what will they experience?

TO: Oh, that's hard.

TN: Sorry *smile*

TO: Well, I like to say, "I blow minds for a living."
I'll create a texture, and then find 20 ways to reinterpret that texture, and get new filters and twists, and there's a lot that get thrown out. In order to generate these textures I use a variety of tools, like TextureMaker, GIMP, FilterForge, BluffTitler (makes animations) - we're doing more of those into the future. Various little toys and gadgets.

TN: Very often there is a sort of tubular X-shape that appears.

SS: Yes, those are toruses.

TO: I've been trying to find similar processed textures and do the animation by hand, because that's easier on everyone's computer than doing actual animations a lot. I have a few animated PNGs I use, with a script that makes them come to life as people watch them.

TN: The immersion aspect is important.

SS: There's a sense of immersion that's intense. LOL! We said it at the same time.

TO: But it gets to you. I'm the artist, Shava's the science geek, but I know what grabs people. So I do things intuitively and then she spends library time figuring out what we just did.

Back in the studio, avatars were blissfully whirling about the sim, making utterances in Open Chat that seemed to be taken directly from an arcane Hindu spiritual text. Clearly, all of this torus-manipulation (or whatever they were talking about LOL) was having a deep and positive effect on those present, including me. I felt a great sense of ease and an almost giddy style of happiness such that I couldn’t tell what was causing it, the music, the images, or the combination of the two? And you know what - I really didn’t care and I still don’t.

TO: Sometimes it'll be an entirely different style of texture that just grabs me, and sometimes new shapes and ways to manipulate things.
One of my behind the scenes projects is to double the amount of hypercubes (rezzing devices) we use in the show.

Currently I'm using 9 channels of rezzing devices, and I want to use 18. It'll take a few tricks to make it work but some of the visuals will blend and pop and go together more easily for me

TN: In the madness of the show it can be easy to miss the fact that this is absolutely cutting edge art. There's also a very evident "here/now" component to your work

TO: While it's all happening, the music is always there, and the music moves me to keep effects slow, or speed things up, color, mood. People give me textures and I've manipulated the texture on the fly and thrown it up into the balls. I'll look for images relating to conversations and manipulate it, mash it up, and put it in the show, just right then. It's like graphical jazz, juggling, and magic all together. It's crazy!

TN: Yes - wonderfully crazy. wonderfully crazy

By the end of the evening I was exhausted! I mean seriously physically spent! I had only pixel-danced but my body felt like I had been grooving and whirling for the entire two hours. I’ve since experienced dozens of Odd Balls - each wonderfully different from the others. I’ve probably taken more than 100 friends to the Tunaverse and not one has ever been less than enthusiastically complimentary.

Like my new friend tried to tell me early on - this is an event that simply HAS to be seen!