It’s the economy…. you silly goose

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread… so I’m probably a fool to even address this subject. But it has been weighing heavily on my mind. Believe it or not, I do have a conscience and sometimes it nags me mercilessly.

First off, let me say up front, thank you to all the venues that have ever paid me a fee. I realize that I generated little funds to offset the expense I’ve incurred. Your generosity is noted and much appreciated.

In times past I’ve played shows for fees I would not play for tips. From now on, I’m not going to do that anymore. I would rationalize that the venue I was playing was not a real music venue and the patrons would not tip me reasonably, so a fee was in order. I should not play these shows at all. It’s a waste of my time and a rip off of the venue owner, whom I suspect is trying to cash in on my popularity.

News flash… I’m not really that popular. The people that love my music love it very much, but there aren’t a lot of them.

That being said, let’s press on to the deep end.

When somebody opens a music venue in Second Life, They are going to be spending a lot of money. In theory, people attending the events they host will tip the venue and you’ll offset at least a portion of the expense. The actual amount generated by the generosity of those in attendance varies. But the overhead of running a venue is constant.

When the venue starts paying fees to performers the basically volunteer to operate at a deficit, because I’ve never seen venue tips equal even the most modest fee charged by a performer.

The performer gets their fee, and then pockets his or her tips. Cha-ching.

I’ve done it. Feels good to watch my Linden balance go up. Feels good to “Cash out”. All venue owners do it put “Cash in”.

I don’t feel good about this. Not one bit. Tips are fine. People choose to tip. They choose how much and how often they tip. They feel I’ve earned it, and I agree. I’m sure most venue operators that pay me a fee feel I’ve earned it, and I won’t argue with them. But let me try to put this into perspective.

Breathe deep and feel free to read this a few times. I feel it’s important.

When a venue operator pays the overhead to have a venue, he or she is in effect already paying me. They are buying (or renting) me a place to perform my music. When an artist insists on a fee, they are in effect saying, “Thanks for paying the overhead so I have somewhere to perform, now give me some more of your money”.

I don’t have a problem with the generosity of venue operators at all. I do take issue, with artist that feel they should demand compensation for their time, while choosing to ignore they fact they are not really providing the venue operator with any method to offset their expenses.

Venues work for tips, why shouldn’t the performer?

There are a lot of elaborate plans on how to make it profitable for a venue to operate. I mentioned one suggestion in my “Crazy… it’s the new black” entry. But the simple fact is if there were no fee due the artist, every L$ generated by the artist via the generous tips of the audience, would go towards defraying the venue’s cost of operation.

The artist would be asset instead of a liability.

There is nothing wrong with a venue operator choosing to be generous, or an artist in accepting the boon offered by a generous venue operator. But in a more perfect world, if the venue got by on tips, so would the performer benefiting from that venue.

I’m not presuming to tell anybody what to do. I’m just telling you what I’m thinking. I can only control my own actions. I intend to support as best I can the venues that love and support live music in Second Life. Not because I’m a “Good guy”, (and for the record I am a good guy) but rather because it is in my own best interest, and the interest of music in second life overall.

Confederation vs. organization

The world is full of delusional people. People that assume if they want something to be a certain way, it is that way. They are only interested in facts that indicate their way of looking at things is correct and ignore anything the might be suggesting they are failing miserably. The really sad part is, if you don’t recognize your mistakes you don’t learn from them.

Delusional people are not interested in learning, succeeding or progressing. They are interested in maintaining their worldview, and that seems to be all they are interested in.

How does music scene actually work in Second Life?

Somebody opens a venue, books a performer or performers, they hold and event, people in various numbers and mindsets come and listen. Tips are collected, perhaps fees are paid and when all is said and done… that is all she wrote.

Frankly it’s a very organic and anarchistic system of getting things done, the fact it works at all indicates the devotion people on all levels have for this three-legged stool system.

The Venue operators
The performers
The listeners

So just where does organization fit in with all of this?

It doesn’t.

Yes there are all kinds of “Agencies” and “Management organizations”, but frankly they seem to be the fleas and ticks of the Second Life music scene. The purest of the “Hangers on”. They have no actual value, and only feed on the insecurities, and or delusional dreams of others. The management types are also feeding their own delusions, and masking their own insecurities, but my point is not to underline what doesn’t work, but rather what might.

I saw something quite remarkable today.

A three-hour event that was simply packed out from beginning to end. This was not due to some brilliant feat of organization, but rather a simple homogeny of the artist involved. If you liked one of the artist chances are you would like the other two as well, and from all indications it worked flawlessly.

I’ve actually seen this several times, but today it really clicked for me. This simple arrangement works better then all the elaborate plans of the delusional schemers, and when all was said and done, more was affected then the norm. Yes, tips were collected and fees were paid, but in the end, there was a different feel. When the smoke cleared, the “Axis of Ego” was born. While it may all seem like an elaborate joke (and just between you and I it is), it really did resonate with people.

I know this because somebody sent me an “Axis of Ego” emote.

An operator of a venue talked to me about booking “the Axis of Ego” line up for her space.

In essence people where saying, “this works”. And you know what? It did work.

Nobody planned “The Axis of Ego”. I just coined the phrase and it caught on. It gave people a handy brand to associate with this rag tag collection of musical geniuses.

Organization had nothing to do with it, but it is, by nature, an informal confederation. This informal confederation benefits the venue operator, the musicians and the listeners.

I don’t have a clue what will happen with “The Axis of Ego”. Frankly all the primaries involved are more the willing to embrace the chaos that is the Second Life Musician Lifestyle. But for a brief moment, people could see something bigger then the show, the tips the fee and the audience. For a fleeting moment original live music seemed the most vital thing in Second Life, and because of that impression, suddenly music in general seemed more viable as well.

Now I’m sure the “Experts” are clicking their tongues right now and saying in a smug voice, “who is delusional now Zorch”? But anybody that was at the show, and was not a MNP spy will tell you… it was wicked cool.

Management is a joke.

Organization is ignoring the nature of the music scene in Second Life.

But an organic confederations of musicians, venues and listeners works.

Crazy… it’s the new black

Great googly moogly is it getting crazy in here or is it just me?

Yesterday was just knee deep in crazy shit and I seem to be the CRAZY magnet. Why is this so? Well every since I’ve deemed to find it in my best interest to expose the hypocrisies of a certain management (aka donkey fuck) organization, people have been informing me of all kind of shenanigans. Perhaps a monkeyshine or two, as if I could address these issues and correct them via the awesome power of this blog.

News flash, if I could fix anything it would be me… and I’m working on me, but I’m not fixed yet. Of course, each item is kind of interesting, but I’m not about to get into personalities here. I’ll mention what happened, but not who did it. Figure it out for yourself. Here is a test item.

A popular singer in second life can’t seem to actually sing in tune.

Did you fill in the blank? If you did, you are right. Now lets continue.

Crazy Item one

Seem there is an Internet radio station featuring Second life performers. This radio station has a request list that has been manipulated by one of the more crafty performers so that he or she dominates it.

Hold on now, that is not the crazy item; all charts are created to be manipulated. Here is the crazy part. Seems the radio station has a policy of only featuring “Original music”. They do this so they don’t have to pay licensing fees to BMI, ASCAP or SESAC. Now, it seems the crafty performer is posting songs written by Mojo Nixon, and I don’t think the artist is Mojo Nixon hiding out in Second Life… but I could be wrong.

Perhaps the crafty artist thinks he or she actually is Mojo Nixon. A victim of self-delusion, you know some kind of… loon.

Scandalous… shocking… did you fill in the blanks? You’re right again. Amazing.

Crazy Item two

Seems some self proclaimed “Second Life Expert” took it upon him or herself to send a note card out to an unnamed music group, concerning the need for performers to PAY UP. Seems this person feels the performers in Second Life have a lot of nerve asking for fees, and the venue operators should have a reasonable expectation for a return on their investment.

The note card distributing wacko then detailed his or her master plan for venue operator equity. As far as I can figure, the artist is required to “Draw” X amount of people to the event, and then split his or her tip jar with the venue owner… all this in order to get paid his or her fee.

Then the self appointed savior of venue investment return blathered on endlessly about the fact musicians are getting away with murder more or less, and that probably didn’t go over well with the membership of the group he sent the notecard to… being mainly musicians.

Here the deal bucko. If a venue operator expects a return on their investment, they obviously didn’t read the “Venue operators hand book”. All venues bleed money. Maybe a few break even, but I doubt any venue breaking even is paying fees. People run venues for various reasons and anybody doing it to make money won’t be doing it long.

Musicians also play for various reasons. If you approach some about a show, they mention the fee and point you at their manager. Some just say, “Yeah, give me a land mark and I’ll be there”. Musicians never point a gun at a venue operator’s head and force them to pay a fee. They choose to pay; their reasons are their own.

Scandalous… shocking… did you fill in the blanks? You’re right again. Amazing.

I feel I should mention, it’s crap like this that inspired me to stop posting at an unnamed Second Life Music Community Forum. People focusing on money and not music.

Crazy Item three

The death of an Internet troll.

A while back there use to be an unnamed butt nugget that would post stupid, hateful things in the comment section of this blog. Seems this person walked about with their ass on their shoulders a bit longer then they should have. One day, a misstep caused their head to slip up their asshole.

They struggled in vain to extract their diminutive head from the steely grip of their anus to no avail. They thrashed pathetically around the room screaming, “Help, I can’t breath my head is up my ass”… at least that is what I think they were saying. It sounded more like “Murpphhs mah… ack”. But if I were in the situation that is what I would be saying.

Scandalous… shocking… did you fill in the blanks? You’re right again. Amazing.

Does any of this matter?

Then… I woke up.

Venues

Yeah I’ve talked about fees, so isn’t it right to talk about venues as well?

I’m a big fan of music venues; they give me a place to do what I do. Some of my most beloved friends are venue owner/operators. When the venue does its job, and I do my job, everybody has a good time. I sometimes comment if you want to find out where the good venues are… follow me.

However, I on occasion do play new venues, and every time I do I’m rather apprehensive. The simple fact of the matter is a poorly run venue can cause you to play a poor show.

What are the venue operator’s responsibilities for the show?

Promotion. This is one of the biggest gaffs I see. And I’m not saying because they promote the show poorly, the simple fact is many operators don’t promote the show at all.

Many of these venues book artist for tips only, then do little to insure the artist get as big a draw as possible. They seem to depend on the artist support group showing up and filling the venue.

When venue operators fail to list the show in “Live Music Events” they do everybody a disservice. The artist works hard getting his name out and the simple fact is, not everybody that would attend the show is in the artist support group. Some people rely on the events listing to find shows they want to attend.

The show I played Saturday didn’t list the event. They didn’t even send a message to their own group until 15 minutes into the show. They did not send out notices to any of the music related groups.

They did nothing to promote the show.

Not only did they make the show as invisible as possible. The Land Mark put you at the front of the building when the show was on the back porch. Took people a few songs to just find the stage.

The show was well attended, but this is due to the size of my support group and the time of day. It was even profitable. Mostly due to the fact one of the attendees bought a bunch of MP3 collections. I even added a few more Zorch Nation Members… so the good guys win again.

But in spite of the results, the venue failed to do its job. Promotion is job one. How many more people would have shown up if the event were listed?

Next job… get the stream running.

Seems simple enough. But how many times have you been to an event where it seems nobody knew how to change the stream? And of course, the artist doesn’t have permission. Stream issues generate stress and stress affects the quality of the show.

Group tag, group tag, who’s got the group tag?

Another snag is acquiring a group tag in order to rez your tip jar. I hate showing up early to set up an empty stage and then end up spending my time seeking somebody who can invite me to the group simply to rez my gear.

Now I’m not saying all venues mess these things up. All the venues I play regularly get them spot on every time and that is why I LOVE them so very much. But every time I play a new venue I’m rolling the dice. Will these guys do their job right? Or will I be mega pissed, mega hassles and still put on the best show I can muster up?

Do you remember that new venue I mentioned falling in love with? A part of that is simply because I’ve never had to ask them for ANYTHING. They were prepared, knew what I needed and offered it to me before I had the chance to ask. They got my stream info and kept me informed of anything I might need to know.

Basically, they did everything they could to allow me to do my job the best I could, and because of that, I play excellent shows there.

When a venue supports my music, I support that venue plain and simple. Do you want to know the best venues in Second life????

Follow me.

Fees

I really wonder who was the first guy to say, “yeah I’ll play your venue, but you have to pay me a fee”.

When you think about it, venue operators make no money whatsoever in Second Life. Yes, there is a venue tip jar, and some people do tip the venue. However the overhead of running a venue prevents it from every being profitable.

Every month the venue owners pay out of pocket to keep live music happening. Thank you all.

On the other hand, I remember the first time I got a fee for playing a show. They told me they would pay me 5,000 L$ for an hour show. I told them I didn’t feel right taking a fee and they told me that was what they paid everybody… so… I accepted it.

Once you cross the fee line, it’s impossible to go back. Those few extra Lindens make every day a bit more satisfying. Yes, it’s very nice to be compensated for your time. I don’t play a lot of fee-paying shows, and I’m very grateful to the venue operators that can afford to show me that little extra token of respect.

Thank you, thank you very much.

For the record, if anyone is interested, when asked about a fee I tell people my fee is 3,000 L$ per hour-long show. In case you’ve not been shopping around, let me assure you it’s reasonable. Some performers ask for 6,000 L$ an hour and that seems to be the top of the scale. The average, from what I’ve seen is about 4,000 L$.

I came up with the number 3,000 L$ simply because that is an average of what I make in tips at a good music venue. This allows me the latitude to play… questionable shows and not have to worry about the lack of tips.

Now you might wonder why I even bring up the topic of fees. Well I’ve been noticing a few performers that seem motivated only by fees. They announce their price at the outset of the conversation and storm off is the venue owner can’t afford it.

While it is reasonable to expect to be compensated for your time, performers have to keep one thing in mind. The fee they are demanding is coming out of somebody’s pocket. And while all tips come out of somebody’s pocket, the fee demanded of the venue operator is only compounded by the fact they have to pay the overhead on a venue that makes them no money at all.

Some venue owners can afford to pay a fee and do, but this should be viewed as a token of appreciation the venue owner has budgeted for, not something you are entitled to.

I play one regular show per week that pays a fee. I pick up a few shows that pay a fee. But the majority of shows I play are tips only. I feel I should point out; some of my most profitable shows are “Tips only” shows.

I appreciate it when a venue owner can afford to pay me a fee; I see it as a favor and not something I’m entitled to.

I feel some musicians need to start putting music first and not sweat a few bucks here and there. It’s not a lot of work to start the stream and play.

Building a more perfect world… for me

Goodness the title to this entry sounds horribly selfish. Building a more perfect world is a wonderful idea. But to do it for ones own benefit seems a bit priggish.

But I don’t see it as selfish, priggish or any other kind of ish. I see it as honest.

I could cop out and say nobody is selfless, and for the most part that is true. But there are a sad few with so little to offer and so little to lose; they constantly sublimate themselves to a grander ego. So in effect they are selfless but still subordinate to an individual’s ego and agenda. In effect they are selfish for somebody else’s benefit and that is just wacky.

What are the features of my more perfect world?

Pretty simple really. People get to hear my music and decide if they want to hear more. Those that want more I provide more for them.

With a plan so simple, you think it would be easy. No so much so. I’m learning a lot and become less ill informed every day. I’m taking steps toward being informed and hoping some day to reach “Well-informed”.

This is what I’ve learned so far.

The music community is broken because there isn’t one. There are people making something like music, then holding hands and singing Kumbyah. But the end results are just a bunch of people singing Kumbyah badly.

There are some amazing artists in Second Life. Most of which are summarily dismissed by the Kumbyah choir.

Some venues are all about the venue operator’s ego. Some venues are all about the music.

Strip clubs gigs, even if they are paying gigs, are never worth the bother.

If people don’t tip the venue, sometimes they really do go away.

If everything is good, nothing is good.

There are no experts only people pretending to be experts

People in Second Life are… crazy. No kidding. But then people in First Life are crazy too.

So armed with this bit of hard won knowledge, what methodology do I employ to build my more perfect world?

Always play the best show I can. You never get a second chance to make a first impression.

Support as best I can the venues that support artist, and direct other artist to their door.

Be true to the people that support my music. Never change in order to broaden my appeal, but rather, change in order to challenge the listener and myself.

Enhance as much as I can, the organic community growing around me.

Point to the artist of worth, and ignore those that suck.

Write an interesting blog *smirks *.

This is the current methodology, and it may change as I become better informed. Let’s see how it all works out.

Building a more perfect world… for me… is a lot of work. But hopefully, in the end it will be worth it.

The saga continues

I’ve never had any problem with politics. I remember my Father taking me aside and telling me, “Son…everything is political and everything is personal”. My Dad never struck me as a deep thinker but the older I get the more wisdom I see in that.

Politics are just the mechanics of promoting an agenda. Politics are not bad in and of themselves and the only people without agendas are severely mentally challenged.

Soooo…(try and follow a long here it gets a little weird, but makes sense when you think about it), if you proposed the agenda of, “Hey, let’s put music first and not have a bunch of Politics mucking it up”, you would need to employ politics to promote that agenda.

Did I blow your mind?

DID I BLOW YOUR MIND????????

Anyway… back to the saga.

You may recall a new and much loved venue was about to have it’s staff trained by Pod People overlord Moody, and I mentioned she was crazy, ineffective and possibly EVILLLL and they canceled the training session.

The good guys win. But then… the saga continues.

Well it kind of continues. Seems “Someone” (quotations because I think “Someone” is my biggest fan) read my critical comments about Moody and MNP (I found out what it really means, “Management not performers”), and made sure Moody got an eyeful of my witty bon motts and pithy observations.

Seems The Moody didn’t enjoy my musings and decided it was time to TAKE ACTION!!! Of course she had already DESTROYED my career (snicker), so there was nothing more she could do to me. She decided to punish the impudent venue I so appreciate.

She told the venue she would not be renewing any of her performers there. Oddly, this is kind of… fucked up. But things being fucked up is Moody’s “A” game. The Venue is very supportive of good music and that is why I love it. It’s developing a reputation of presenting good music.

Moody has a couple of good acts, but most are… not so good. I’m not pointing figures or naming names, but the fact is Moody, aside from being crazy has little musical taste. I suspect she courts acts to exploit purely on audience reaction. And remember, popularity has almost nothing to do with talent in Second life.

Moody’s performers could have benefited by playing a venue that is developing a reputation for featuring good music. But the bottom line is, Moody’s ego is more important to her then what is in the best interest of her clients.

This seems to me a bit… wait for it… POLITICAL.

So in the end, the good venue continues to do what it set out to do in the first place. Promote some good music. Zorch continues to play shows, add members to the Zorch Nation and sell MP3s in spite of the fact he’s too arrogant to be a vital part of the Second Life music community.

So once again, the good guys win. I love happy endings.

Community

One of the most corrosive concepts in the Second Life music scene is the concept of the Second life Music community.

I’m well aware of the warm fuzzy feeling the word Community instills, but the simple fact is “community think” is never as all-inclusive as it seems. We always want people that think as we do in the community, so any attempt to create a wonderful all inclusive community involves a good deal of politics.

Community = Good feeling

Politics = Bad feeling

Once you attempt an all-inclusive community conceptually, you have to birth it into existence by including people. Every idea works until you get people involved.

Once you add people to the mix, suddenly the desire for establishing orthodoxy appears. Once the orthodoxy is established, heretics can be singled out and dealt with appropriately.

This is a totally normal group dynamic, but it’s a long way from all-inclusive.

I’m probably the biggest heretic of all because I recognize the fact an all-inclusive community is a myth, and frankly, a detrimental myth.

Why do I call it detrimental? Simply because it underlines methodologies that don’t work.

With up to 80,000 people online at any time, best numbers shows around 1,500 are attending “Live music events”. And I feel should mention “Live Music” includes DJs.

I’ve also been told there are around 300 musicians performing in Second Life, if all of them were playing at the same time, 1,500 attendee divided by 300 performers mean would be pulling in five people per-show.

I understand it does not work like that. But getting a practical model of how it does work is almost impossible. There are “Live music events” listings and you could look at that and say there are four live music events happening between 1 PM SLT and 2 PM SLT. But that would not be accurate. It seems the venue owner doesn’t list most the events I play at all. I’m sure this is more of a norm then people realize.

Of course all of this is mathematical masturbation. There is NO practical model to analyze the performance of the current methodologies. All we can say with certainty is it’s not making any significant headways in getting people involved with live music.

Instead of an all-inclusive community, we need to develop the growth of “Organic communities”?

Organic communities happen naturally (hence the name). An example would be the help POL gave me at the start of my epic climb to the upper part of the bottom. He saw a musician that fit in with what he was doing and started featuring me at his shows. Of course, venues open to what POL was doing would also be open to what I’m doing.

Another example would be recently, Blindboy and myself made a “Lanny sandwich” with a new artist we both like named Lanrete Moonite. I played before him, drawing my crowd, and Blindboy played after him drawing his crowd. In the overlap between shows, people got an ear full of Lanny.

I feel Artist, Venues and Listeners make up an organic community. It’s informal and works pragmatically because there is no need for orthodoxy or politics. The informal nature also prevents it from trying to be all-inclusive. If we ever did try to establish it formally, suddenly things would change drastically.

When people wake up to the fact, community is where you find it, suddenly things will move toward growth.

Technology abuse

The following are my thoughts and I’m not implying anybody else needs to subscribe to my particular esthetic.

In Second Life there are a whole slew of people that sing with back up tracks. I’m not addressing these people at all. They really have little to do with music I don’t consider them part of the actual “Music scene”. They are really one step away from being DJs and I don’t consider them musicians either.

What I want to talk about today are musicians that play with recorded tracks they’ve recorded themselves.

Most of theses enterprising fellows are writing their own music and putting a lot of effort into presenting it in the best way they know how. However, I’ve never once seen it work. The end result is always seems to be that of a frosted turd. Lots of creamy sweetness covering shit.

Why does this happen? I have a theory and let me bounce it off you.

I think when you conform to the norms of music (words rhyme, cord progression works) things sound musical. Put behind that the bombast of drums, bass, syntho sampled magic, automated back up vocals, and suddenly something mundane can seem very musical.

But it isn’t musical it just SEEMS musical.

Music is not about conforming to the norms, although that does work 90% of the time. Music is about expressing musical ideas. The problem is, most so-called musicians understand the conventions of music, but have no grasp of what a musical idea is.

Of course, the vast majority of music listeners don’t understand what a musical idea is either. It seems the more fresh and original a musician’s expressions become the smaller their audience becomes.

I’ve seen more “Wank masters” then I care to mention in Second life. These are people that imagine themselves the next Joe Satirani, They dial up the “METAL SOLO INSANE” pre-set on their stompy pedal and Wank furiously. They record their own backing tracks… whoopee. The end result is an hour of blues scales playing as fast as possible and a bunch of musical challenged listeners emoting “YOU TOTALLY ROCK”.

Now I’m sure the Wank masters spend hours working on their back up tracks and invest hours in playing their licks super fast. They invest a lot of money in stompy pedals that sound “TOTALLY ROCK” and have tons of gizmos.

Good news/bad news, most listeners don’t know anything about music/ your music is a joke.

Conversely, I’ve seen a few brilliant musicians in Second life plying their trade with nothing more then and instrument and a voice. POL Arida ROCKS harder then any Wank Master. He pounds his gee-tar, stomps his foot on the floor and screams like his penis got slammed in the door.

Good music in my estimation is about musical ideas and emotional content. POL as both covered in spades.

As for my own music (yes I’m aware how self serving this may seem), I find it rife with musical ideas simply because there is not set Zorch sound. My music seems quite Genre free almost to the point of handicap. The unifying element is the emotional content. Simply put, my songs bleed. When I play live on Second Life I’ll be honest and tell you I’m emotionally spent at the end of the show.

I’m not anti technology. I don’t really have a particular bias against instrumentalist. I’m just a bit tired of… crap.

Saved

You may be wondering what happened in the little drama that unfolded in my previous entry.

Well I did have a chat with the operators of the venue in questions, and they seemed very willing to drop the training session with Moody.

Willing? Nay, eager.

The venue owner admitted to having a bad feeling about Moody, but was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. Once I confirmed her intuition, she was quite relived to tell Moody, “no thank you”.

Mid conversation, the group notice went out, “Training session with Moody candled”, and the lady had to excuse herself because her staff was “Freaking out”. I wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad kind of freaking out.

Moments later, my IM board started lighting up with happy staff member saying, “You saved us, you saved our venue”. Seems a few of the more experienced residents knew Moody was trouble, but didn’t feel it was their place to say anything. I made a lot of new friends that day.

A short while after the chat, I went to a POL Arida show, and POL remarked, ”Oh Zorch is here. He is, with out a doubt Second life’s best Blog writer”. Once again people started sending me IMs. Kudos all around, and nobody seemed to feel I treated Moody unfairly.

Many had actual accolades to lay before me, admittedly undeserved. I was not trying to be courageous or heroic. I was trying to save a venue I love playing at from the greasy tendrils of Moody. All I really did is speak in my own best interest.

The bottom line here is a really good music oriented venue was spared the intrusion of a bad influence. Music wins, Musicians win, the staff wins, and the venue operator wins. Did Moody lose? Not really, she’ll just slither off to her next target. You can’t stop Moody you can only hope to contain her.

Writing the poison out

This entry is purely therapeutic. That being said you might not want to read it. I’m upset, and my feelings are keeping me awake. It’s 1:55 am and I don’t feel like dumping my purse on some well-meaning friend. So… I blog. Emotions running wild and probably saying more then I should, but I do that all the time anyway. The only difference being this time you are warned in advance.

There is this venue I’ve been playing lately and I really came to love it almost instantly. They said in their introduction literature they were an artist based venue, I didn’t have to beg my fans for venue tips, play covers or even play my flagship songs. Very cool indeed, and after playing there, they seem to be everything they said they were and more. I was hoping for a long and fruitful relationship with another good venue.

Today I received a notecard from my new favorite venue. It contained a schedule of the week’s events. Yes I was on it (good) but as I looked further down I saw a very disturbing entry. It seems Throughthesewalls Moody is doing… staff training for the venue. It’s on the schedule people… IT’S ON THE SCHEDULE!!!

Are my new friends in cahoots with the EVILLLL that is MNP (still not sure what MNP stands for, the only thing I know for sure is it doesn’t mean “Music Not Politics”. Moody is not cleaver enough to pull off that feat of irony)???? (Once again, the numbers of question marks indicate my shock)

I’m trying to think they probably don’t know what a useless sack of shit Moody is, and are blissfully unaware of the unrelenting iniquity she represents. In all honesty, Moody talks a good game, but her results are… well frankly, pathetic. Lots of people hate her. I of course don’t hate her; I just hate the EVILLLL she seems to embody.

I’m like Jesus that way.

Moody likes to pretend she is an expert. This is utter folly, and I’ve pointed that out before. Nobody has really achieved the kind of success in Second Life that would qualify them as experts. Of course being unqualified doesn’t even slow Moody down.

The Mood/MNP (Marsupials nagging Penguins…. Nah) paradigm is pretty simple. Make outlandish promises, fabricate numbers, imply some sort of corporate sponsorship and people start to take notice. But from my short-lived experience with Moody I found her to be all talk… then not so much talk… then a lame gig at a strip club… long story short, unimpressive.

If I had bought into her phantom record company, or real life management bullshit I would probably be bitterly disappointed. All I really wanted was some help building my group, and a few more gigs booked. When Moody and I started our relationship I had 137 members in my group. By the end, I had 180. Making a lump sum gain of 43 members. I feel I should mention 7 of those members where MNP (Monkey’s nilistic pantomime… nah) employees (Pod people) bringing the actual grand total to 36 new members.
Contrasting that, we went from 180 members, to 310 as of last check, post Moody. Totaling up a lump sum gain of 130 Members. I feel I should point out, the moment my relationship with the Dark Queen of the Pod people was terminated; the 7 Pod people left the group as an act of solidarity, so the post Moody membership wasn’t even 180.

The effectiveness of Moody’s group building paradigm was vastly less effective then what I like to refer to as the Nyx method.

As for Moody’s ability to find me work, I think she might have booked me about five paying gigs during the relationship. I book more then five paying gigs a month, and a lot more then that in tip gigs. I’m better at booking then the self-proclaimed expert.

By the time I was… fired from MNP (Manhandled nurf patriarchs… nah) I was honestly trying to figure out a polite way to say, “This isn’t working out… it’s not you, it’s me”. But frankly, it was them. I was not expecting much, and I guess in that aspect I was not disappointed. Moody managed to fail gloriously.

A part of me wants to leave all this unpleasantness behind me. But it seems I cannot. It seems Moody want to impress upon everyone what an expert she is, and she’ll continue misinforming and supporting the same lame ass bullshit that has been hamstringing Second life since… well… Moody became involved with the music scene.

Now if Moody and her MNP (Masturbate neatly please… nah) cronies were just delusional, I guess I could let it all slide and get on with my life. But since I’ve left the MNP ( Marry Nancy Pelosi…. Nah) fold, I’ve been threaten, harassed, and bullied. They aren’t the harmless nut jobs they may seem to be.

Wait, I’m making them out as dangerous and I’m sure they would really enjoy that. If they could do harm, I’m sure they would, but in actuality all they are is annoying, and extremely unpleasant.

One of Moody’s Pod people actually has the position MNP (May need psychiatric help…. Whoops that would be MNPH) Bulldog listed on her profile. At one point her profile even said “Mess with my friends and you’ll regret it”, or something to that effect.

If Moody’s gang is really “All about the music”, why do they need a Bulldog? Why does someone warn people not to mess with their friends? I don’t need a Zorch Bulldog and I’m an arrogant bastard. If anybody needed some intimidating canine help it would be me.

A lot of really disturbing accusations have been made about MNP (Mindless No Personality… ohhhh… getting closer I’m sure), but I won’t repeat them here. Suffice it to say, ask around I’m sure you’ll find plenty of people to fill you in on the gory details.

Moody prattles about claiming to be an expert, making outlandish claims, and if anybody even remotely affiliated with her at any time achieves some success, she’ll claim she gave them their start. If she were just a harmless delusional wretch it would all be fun and games right? But considering the thuggish nature of her little clique, the serious and possibly baseless accusations against her, it might seem her agenda is somewhat… wait for it… Political.

Think about it, this is all an attempt on Moody’s part to position herself as an authority. I’ve lost a gig because I was at odds with Moody. My music didn’t change, why did I lose the gig? Because a certain venue owner was more interested in maintaining the good will of a women that claims to be “All about the music and not politics”. What a load of crap.

I don’t know if Moody is Evil, crazy or stupid, but I do know she is full of shit. I’m giving my new friends the benefit of the doubt that they don’t know what a waste of time Moody really is, But I will be asking about their relationship with her tomorrow. If they are friends of the Dark Queen of the Pod People, I guess I’ll have a few Wednesday open. I’ll not be involved with any venue associated with Moody.

I wonder if I just pulled the trigger?

Thinking aloud, where do I go from here?

Okay, I’m looking at my situation and wondering what is next. Seems the beachhead each artist must establish is a fan base. I’ve seemed to have gotten that foothold firmly established. But I’ve been thinking… what it next?

As I ponder the Second Life music career paradigm, as it exists now, it seems to revolve around developing a following so you can pry a few Lindens out of a venue operator in fees. During my brief involvement with management, I was told to play less shows to maximize my draw at the shows I do play.

Allow me a moment to explain the logic behind that because I know at first glance it sounds a bit crazy. If you play a show at 1 PM and draw 20 avatars, and then play a show at 3 PM for 20 more avatars, in theory, if you only played one show at 2 PM, you would have played for 40 avatars. That would mean the venue would have been “Maxed Out” and the venue operator would have gotten their monies worth.

While this does work at a certain levels, it does ignore a whole fist full of “X factors”, like not all venue operators pay a fee for a draw, some pay because they feel it just compensation for the artist time. And “Real Fans” attend every show they can. And some people just come to a show because they are bored look at the live events listings and end up at a show. Frankly, the X factors are almost incalculable. The limited availability /maximized draw mindset works kind of like bees can fly but they aren’t aerodynamic.

Now I bring all this up to point out where I’m diverging from the norm. My goal is not to fill a venue up 5-8 times a week and wrestle a few Lindens from some well-meaning venue owner. My goal is to get my music in front of as many listeners as possible. As a matter of fact, stating my goals might be a good idea.

To provide the best music I can for my supporters, both listeners and venues. Job one.

To grow as an artist, maintain my dynamic. Keep looking toward the next transcendent step.

To develop a bigger group membership in the Zorch Nation, and maximize traffic at the web site and perhaps the blog.

To promote the distribution of recorded music.

While not in any particular order, those are my cardinal points. On a less direct and or personal level, I might add nurturing the budding original music scene in Second life. I feel I should mention I’m not talking about some abstract all encompassing, in quotation marks, “Original Music Scene”, but rather a loose knit, informal confederation of artist I respect.

So where do I go from here? I’m thinking about branching out time slot wise. I’m currently playing one morning show. The attendance is pretty good and I seem to e playing for new people. There is not much going on in the morning and it could be simply I’m one of the few events going on at that time. Regardless of the reason why, if it furthers my agenda I’m going to use it. I might look in to playing more morning shows.

Of course I could play more evening/night shows, but that might prove to be less fruitful. Lots of shows go on at night, and many of the BIG ACTS play exclusivity at night. I’m also aware that later show times mean a different audience. When I play mornings and afternoons, I’m playing for the Euro/UK people. I seem to do well with them because they seem more open to original music. While some Americans are very open to original music, it seems most want to hear passionless performances of songs they know. They seem very content to listen to the Karaoke types.

I guess I’m saying there is still ground to be broken. All it takes is lots of hard work. At this point I feel like I’m not taking the path less taken, but rather, walking off in the woods. Nobody is really trying to do what I’m trying to do. Make deep inroads into a larger audience simply to promote music, and not to improve my marketability in the eyes venue owners. While money does work into the equation at some point, it’s never the primary factor in what I do. It’s always first and foremost about the music.

January, now the tale can be told

I like to keep people informed as to how things are progressing as far as the numbers goes. While some find numbers kind of boring and bordering on anal retentive, I feel they are an empirical indicator of action. Stuff happens, the numbers goes up.

Unique visitors to the site for January hit 154, and that is a good step forward from the 138 we had in December.

Overall visits are 540. Meaning 386 former visitors to the site found a reason to come back.

If you are interested in hits, we’ve had 2149 hits in January.

Bandwidth usage for MP3 downloads shot up to 1.61 GB.

Breaking it down by collection

23 downloads: The sound of RED
17 downloads: Stoopid Rock Song
9 downloads : Hit List 2008
5 downloads: Love songs Hate songs in-between.
4 downloads: Songs in the key of Green
4 downloads: White and Black
3 downloads: Black and White

Total number of MP3 downloads 550 files.

Not bad at all. The last time I heard somebody in Second Life bragging on MP3 sales they mentioned the number 23. I’ve move a few more then that.

Well February lies before us now, let us not become complacent. Keep pressing on.