Friday, 31 December 2010

At the very last minute!



At the very last minute that I have free  before scooting of to the Vodka and Cake party I shall be attending for New Years Eve tonight, I thought I'd come back to my blog  just before the New Year  kicks in.

 What a year it has been!

In between between dashing off to Dublin for Metameets earlier this  year,  packing a huge house up and kids,  settling into a new country,  trying to finish my next album 'Groove Passion'  (hopefully out early next year) and  starting a new and very exciting  project for Music in Virtual Worlds  I have had  my spirits kept up ( not the alcoholic type btw) by a plethora of wonderful people online.



 5 months ago I moved to Denmark and am now the proud owner of a very run down but beautiful  farmhouse which is in desperate need of love and attention and  an awful lot of  filler and  paintwork.

It is not  so easy to live in  another country and I try to keep up a bit, so each day  I read the Jyllands Post Thoughtfully but not always accurately translated by Google.
Biggest laugh so far has been this wonderful translation about  the recent eclipse that had me in stitches for days.

'Today's lunar eclipse began at .6.29. The end is the total.
Clock 8.40 will moon be gone, but when you must hurry to look up, while the Moon is about to crash'



My last blog for this year goes out  in thanks to the following people, who have at some point  have inspired me, made me laugh  and made a difference to my life  during the last year. It is by no means a comprehensive list and forgive me if I forget someone.




Joja Dhara, for bringing  people together through Metameets and becoming a close and dear friend.

Bevan Whitfield, for  our seriously long chats and laughs, my  confidante and Volcano girl extraordinaire.

Malburns Writer and Tara Yeats for being my generous  smart and  wonderful friends  and colleagues  in particular on Grumpy Old Avatars  and Metaverse Week in Review each week.

Ziggy21 Slade for being so generous after I closed Menorca and offering me a login place.

Loki Popinjay  for being the most patient man in the whole world when my macbook failed.

Ticious Trottier for being  a great friend and confidante

Chantal Harvey  and Elfay Pinkdot  for being so damn cool, beautiful  and also being awesome Volcano Girls

Sean McPherson for being  exceedingly generous and simply wonderful.


Timeless Prototype for  being so damn cool and fab 

Epred.. who is now a famoooose TV personality and still appears to be normal ;)

SecondLie for truly making laugh so much  I have had to buy a new keyboard after spilling too much coffee on it  reading his tweets 

Jon Himhoff from Rezzable  for his  advice and also for providing such an awesome  project with Heritage Key.

Dousa Dragonash  and Robustus Hax  at MBC  for being one of the most exciting media companies in SL  and for taking on the daunting task of filming and producing  Grumpy Old Avatars  this year.. thankyooooo

Kevin Tweedy aka Mystical Demina   (Extreme Reality) This is one seriously smart and talented guy!

The team at Reaction Grid, Chris and Kyle you are simply amazing!

Chris from Pandion Studios .. you simply Rawk!

Kirsty Hawkshaw for being not only an  amazing singer but a beautiful person.


All the guests on Grumpy Old Avatars this last year who have been fantastic


and thankyou to all the new friends I have made this year



and a very  BIG hello and HUG to my new niece Lola who was born tonight 







 Notable Musicians that I follow so  please do go and  check  their music out.










 and  finally,





 My Prediction for 2011 is ......




That This


Will  become This


Sunday, 21 November 2010

This is for You.


There have been Way too many times this year that death has stepped in through the door of our lives.

 I am so saddened to hear the loss of another exceptionally wonderful person, Delinda Dryssen
(Denise Williams) who passed away only yesterday.

 Todays  post from me is  short simply  because
  being able to say something very eloquent and express my thoughts in a meaningful way in type isn't going the way I want it to

some days it's just too damn hard.

 But for those of you who are my dearest friends who I know this year between you all
 have lost
 a Mother, a Child, a Wife, a Husband, a Grandfather, an Aunt and a Best Friend.

 and to those others who really DID make  a difference in their lives even at the very end

 This one is for you.


  


       -----------------Memory---------------------
Composed, Arranged and Lyrics: SlimGirlFat
Lead Vocals: SlimGirlFat
Backing Vocals: Al Ligammari

Sunday, 14 November 2010

It's All About You



Music Groups are of huge importance in getting the word out that your show is happening.
Not to be confused with Event Listings, Group Notices  and Group IMs are one of the main ways of announcing your event to  every group member in one go just before your event.

   As more and more musicians  start performing live  in SL of course the number of  these notices  increases each day.

Some of the music groups only allow the Musician/performer to post a notice. Some, also  allow a venue owner or host/musician manager to post for the performer.

By allowing  the  host or the venue to post the event  it can  take the pressure off the musician/performer in announcing his/her own set whilst setting up.

Along with the ever increasing  influx of new  musicians performing live, posting a creative and eye catching announcement makes some even more desperate as we all vie for attention

Common  Misconceptions about how to post a Music  Event
(or those guaranteed to annoy just about everyone who reads them)


Using All  Caps

 Typing  the event  notice or  group IM in capitals makes the  event more noticeable.

Example 1


' U MUST COME AND LISTEN TO THIS AWESOME  SINGER PERFORMER OMG HE IS AMAZING I CANT BELIEVE IT'S NOT BUTTER MUSICIAN. HE IS A ROCK LEGEND.THE VERY BEST IN SL. OMG ITS  FABULOUS EVERYONE IN SL IS HERE WE HAVE LIKE 500  NEAR THE STAGE AND U BETTER GET HERE OR U WILL MISS THIS INCREDIBLE ECLETIC UNIQUE SEXY STUNNING ORIGINAL ONLY ONE IN THE WORLD BUT ITS GREAT PLEASE TAKE UR TAXI/CABRIOLET/ARMCHAIR AND GET UR BUTTS HERE TO LISTEN'

  It doesn't make the show any better.

Wording:

Lets provide the  artist background info to make them look more interesting/more talented

  
 Example 2

 Born to  Mr and Mrs Notso n00b  in 1970  n00b Star  attended  rock school elementary high school and made quite a few friends.  Whilst spending an inordinate amount of time in school detention for failing to finish homework in time, the  young n00b Star decided that perhaps life would  be more fun if  there was music in her life. After leaving school she  went to a lot of pubs and listened to an awful  lot of  live music and  one day while she was in the pub she heard a singer and  decided then and there to become one herself..........



Posting  a complete Life biography of an artist is not only useless but most people will not read any of
it.



 Untruthful Statements

  Whilst trying to raise the profile of the musician, some posters become totally indulgent and OTT  in their event descriptions of the artist.

Example 3


Having taken the world by storm with her hauntingly eclectic spoon banging, n00b star has risen to the ranks of  legendary status here in SL. Reigning supreme over absolutely every musician/performer  in this virtual world, (in fact there aren't any other musicians  as talented or as amazing as n00b Star in the whole world actually) so you would be wasting your time going to listen to anyone else ever again after hearing n00b so come and join us

  and just how many other musicians have you heard?

Caps and Lowercase

 Choosing  to type in a mixture of caps and lowercase makes the show look more interesting.


Example 4

JoIn uR frIenDS aS wE RoCK SeCoNd LiFE  wItH n00b StAr aNd HeR sPoOn bAnGing


 Maybe you have a faulty keyboard but that is VERY hard to read.


Emoticons and Squiggles

 Dressing up an event post makes me look like a cool event host

Example 5 


➜➜     ♬   ♬ ☺ ☀ .: ★/ \  n00bStar >   ㄨ  ㄨ¶      .:  ✳WOOOT ✳ㄨ ㄨ ☺  ☀ .: ★
✳WOOOT ✳ㄨ ㄨ ☺  ☀ .: ★♬   ♬♬   ♬♬   ♬✳ㄨ ㄨ ☺  ☀ .: ★
☺  ☀ .: ★♬   ♬♬ Spoon Banging ♬♬   ♬✳ㄨ ㄨ ☺  ☀ .: ★
☀ .: ★♬   ♬


 Er... what time is the event?


Wrong Group

What I have to tell you all is VERY important regardless of  the  group  name or function

Example 6

➜➜     ♬   ♬ ☺ ☀ .: ★/ \   FREE  MONEY>   ㄨ  ㄨ¶      .:  ✳WOOOT ✳ㄨ ㄨ ☺ UR CHANCE TO WIN 250 $LS ☀ .: ★☀ . NAKED AVATARS ONLY ★☀ .: ★

Gosh, let me drop everything I am doing right now and  turn up!


The Repetitive Post

My Tips are commission based.

{15.29}  n00b Star Live at 4PMSLT spoon banging,  Awesome!
{15.31}  n00b Star Live at 4PMSLT spoon banging,  Awesome!
{15.35}  n00b Star Live at 4PMSLT spoon banging,  Awesome!
{15.40}  n00b Star Live at 4PMSLT spoon banging,  Awesome!
{15.43}  n00b Star Live at 4PMSLT spoon banging,  Awesome!
{15.49}  n00b Star Live at 4PMSLT spoon banging,  Awesome!
{15.52}  n00b Star Live at 4PMSLT spoon banging,  Awesome!
{16.00}  n00b Star Live NOW! spoon banging,  Awesome!


   I am so glad you posted that or I would have missed the show!


The Weeks Events in IM

I don't know how do a single post in  Event Listings

Monday: 5pm n00b star
                6pm n00b star
                7pm n00b star 
                8pm n00b Star

Tuesday: 4pm n000b star
             5pm n00b Star
              6pm  n00b Star

Wednesday: 2pm n00b Star
                        3pm OPEN MIC 
                    4pm  n00b Star




   I have all that memorized  completely!


--------------------------------

Of course I could write up  a few more examples and poke fun at the number of ways that people like  to post the music shows in SL. 

 BUT, if you are a musician/performer and you want to be taken seriously, then Do  check how notices of your events are  posted and how they may viewed by the rest of us.

 Don't  let  your managers/ hosts contribute to one of the main reasons people leave Groups


   Would be pretty sad to see a message like this on your screen
"You are the only participant  in this IM session. Your message is not being retransmitted or stored"













There is certainly  room for creativeness and fun and also mistakes, but when you truly DO see these  similar  examples on a daily basis, the  chances of people attending drops dramatically when they discover that on arrival, perhaps your hyped up super worded event  doesn't quite add up to the star  quality promised.

 or maybe
 no one cares
* edited to add*-  as we are all learning to  ignore the  notices all together