Dolmere Talamasca - Second Life "resident"

You may remember that Paisley recently interviewed Crap Mariner as well.

First up was Circe Broom who is a popular live music promoter. She has tirelessly given of herself time and again in promoting various live music in Second Life. During her interview she announced that she has made a deal with RatePoint to move her concert hall (1/4 sim large) onto RatePoint Island where she will be able to host her live shows. It sounds like a great move that will benefit many. I wish her and her business partners the best of luck with this endeavor. To hear more about Circe, how she came to second life, her musical background, the first artist to stream under her production banner (hint: amphibeans unite!) and other tidbits watch the video when it posts.

The presentation, organization and overall show is very well done. The ONLY thing I dislike about the audio is the same thing I HATE about live shows in Second Life - that stupid, horrible, terrible canned fake applause. I can turn sound effects down on my own computer so I can avoid the ear splitting nastiness that are thrown about, but for Tonight Live you're listening to an audio feed complete with the sound effects that they choose to insert.

Second up was my dear friend Cylindrian Rutabaga! She performed one of her original songs for the audience and answered some interview questions. The song she chose to play was "The Open Door" which is one of my favorite new songs. It'll be included on the new CD that she is currently working on. As always she offered a rousing performance. There was a slight connection issue at first -she was playing before her feed went live so the first few notes of the song went unheard by the studio audience.

Cylindrian admitted to playing this song at my request instead of another that she was considering playing, the title track to her upcoming CD named "The River". Haha, thanks so much Cylindrian! "The Open Door" is a wonderful song and has such a great line in it. I won't spoil it for you, you'll have to see her live and listen for it. Her new CD should be ready for release and sale at the Second Life Community Convention this year - fingers crossed.

I had noticed Cyl standing backstage before the show started. Things were still rezzing for me so at that moment I could not see audience seats, most of the stage or Cyl's guitar. However, her avatar was strumming air so I assumed that she was wearing her guitar. Later when she appeared on stage she was not wearing her guitar. She sat in the guest chair without a mic, guitar or strum animation while singing her song. I wonder why that happened? Probably because there is just so very much going on - so much to keep track of to make a show like this work. Keep it as simple as possible and it's most likely to succeed. Maybe it was something else? Who knows?

Another neat thing about the show is that as new guests are added the previous guests stay on stage and on mic. So Circe was able to interact with Cylindrian and Paisley as well. Circe said what all of us have thought - (paraphrased) The first time this girl opened her mouth I said "she's gonna be a star, she's going places". Cyl just has such a lovely singing voice. If you haven't seen her live why are you waiting? Paisely had some lovely things to say about Cyl's performances and as usual Cyl got a bit emotional when she received praise.

Oh, it's also amusing that you hear the Skype sounds as people connect and disconnect (crash and relaunch, etc). Some things cannot be avoided when you're using rather bleeding edge tech to do something like this.

The third and last guest was Haroldthe Burrel representing his work for the Relay for Life. Harold attributed Cylindrian for getting him interested in charity work in SL - apparently there was an event where the "hat was passed" around a live show and around the simulcast virtual attendees - and the SL audience raised more funds.

By the way, Harold is also an avid live music listener. You can find him at one performance or another throughout the grid. He's usually pretty quiet in the audience but rolls with jokes that are tossed out and seems to have good fun at shows. I'm happy to say that he has attended a few of my shows (from what I recall) and he had kind things to say to me afterwards.

Harold is a co-captain of an SL Relay for Life team with Elizabeth Antonelli. Relay for Life is a four month long fund raiser for cancer research. Harold tells us that there are 40 different twelve person teams raising money for RFL. More than likely you have seen those purple recycling bin looking donation boxes somewhere in your travels.

RFL participants have raised over 25 million Lindens for this year alone. That's roughly 125,000 US dollars, depending on the exchange rate at the time of removal. It's far more than they expected to do this year. A pat on the back to everyone who has been involved with this charity work and a thanks to everyone who has donated time, lindens and skill to the cause.

A link to the podcast with this episode was not ready at "press time". By press time I mean the moment I clicked the publish button on the blog interface screen and submitted this poorly edited and barely proof read article to cyberspace. Once I have an actual link to the podcast itself I will post it in comments. You're welcome to surf over to SLCN.TV and look around for it on your own of course. (Just noticed that it's been posted on the main page! This link may work to go directly there http://slcn.tv/tonight-live-paisley-beebe-22jul07

I wasn't able to figure out if these audience members wearing amusing signs were attempting to protest something, just weird or if they were participating in some form of inside joke that I was not involved with.