The over arching narrative???

The experts continue to babble on about how this whole Second Life Music Thang works, with certainty only matched by their cluelessness. Hypothesis abound, but lets move beyond the perfumed hyperbole and tell some stories.

A few weeks back I was playing a show at Guthrie's and a face from my past popped up. It was a face I never expected to see at any of my shows. Without naming names, suffice it to say the person that pronounced me too arrogant to be a vital part of the Second Life music scene showed up at my gig.

I was even more surprised when she tipped me.

After the show, she sent me a note card explaining she was sorry for calling me to arrogant to be a vital part of the Second Life music scene. She had been quite upset at the time and perhaps spoke too harshly. Then she went on to inform me she was leaving the music business and going back to college.

Good and more good. I'm a giant of grammar.

Once again, no names being mentioned, this woman was also suppose to be a Vice President in MNP Records, and was chipping away at her unemployment, and then savings waiting for her ship to come in. Big money in the Second Life music biz.

The fact she is getting out of the music business, and going to college says a lot about the situation at MNP (what the hell does that stand for anyway???). I bear her no ill will and hope she does well in her new endeavor.

For those of you new to this blog, you may be unfamiliar with the MNP records saga. A short recap, a nut job named ThroughTheseWalls Moody figured she could run a record company featuring Second Life musicians, if she convinced legitimate businesses it would be a profitable method of promoting their products, and through the power of corporate sponsorship she could run a record company that really doesn't sell many recordings.

I predicted it would not work months ago, and the projected start up time frame was mid June. It's mid June now. Anybody heard anything about the big MNP Records launch? I haven't. Maybe it's a big secret. Or maybe it didn't really work...just as I predicted.

I'm not psychic, I'm just paying attention.

While some might write off the magical thinking of people like Moody as harmless, it seems people put a lot of stock in these fantastic ramblings. When you say what people want to hear they are very inclined to believe you. Sometimes people take action, or fail to take action based on the promises of music business wealth. This can have detrimental effect in people's real lives.

But not all stories are sad stories. Some are stories of Heroes.

Norge and Nya are the Dynamic duo behind the North Norway Sim. Back when I first started out one of my very first regular bookings was at the Artic circle Dock. Norge basically said any time you want to play just let me know. It became quite a beehive of musical activity.

Norge had a dream, but he was not a magical thinker. He wanted to build a place where music flourished and had no grand scheme for making money off it. However, due to a personal set back he had to close down the Artic circle dock, and scale his Sim way back.

As small as the scaled back Sim was, he still managed to make room for quality music oriented venues to operate in.

When I was homeless, Nya asked Norge if he could give me a bit o land for my personal use, and he gave me a home. When Norge opened a mall, he gave me a shop. All at no cost to me. What a sweet guy.

Norge and Nya had a dream, and now it seems that dream is coming true.

I was standing on my front porch the other day. As I looked to the right, I saw the base camp for the Lost Continent Music venue. Across the water I can see my shop, and the Note Shack, another venue I play at. To my right was a new compound being built by POL Arida. Just beyond POL's place is the new Melodies/Harmony mall. A place I play several shows at per week. To the left of Melodies is the new "Hotspot Exstream" location, the place I rent my stream from.

Of course to the left of my little shack, just over the bridge is Nya's house. This is becoming a neighborhood, and quite a nice one thank you very much.

At this point, it seems the good guys are winning. I love that so very much.

It's possible, even likely there is no grand over arching narrative to the saga of Second Life's music scene. But there are stories. There are heroes and villains, success and failure, darkness and light.

The world, even a virtual world is defined by decisions and actions. What do you decide, what actions do you take?