Last night I decided to perform a special show for the Second Life group "Friends of Mankind" which I started as a fan group when I first started performing in SL in November 2006. Since that time, the group has grown into thousands and has become much more than a fan group, it is my family, WE are a family, and the group's premise is no longer as simple as the "fan group" which was my initial intent.
Over the years, many have joined our family, not only to get word of my shows and events, but to be part of a group of people from all over the world who enjoy each others' company no matter what we do. Most of the time we're laughing about something or another and the mood of the family even in group chat is always great!
2012 showed many new people joining and many long time members still sticking around. It also was a great year for my Second Life music career where I performed probably close to a thousand live events.
At the end of 2012 I started thinking and decided I wanted to do something nice for our group who have been so amazing to me in 2012, so I decided to plan an event just for us. It would be an all acoustic Pink Floyd show which I would perform live. The event would be for our family and anyone else who cared to join the always fun and often sarcastic insanity of the group.
Brandy (Kalli Birman) and I went to work to set everything up including setting the group to "Open Enrollment" (so anyone could join easily and free as always) and placing a group joiner outside Club Graffiti, which Brandy parceled off and set to the "Friends of Mankind" group. Again, since I wanted to do something in appreciation for the generous support I had received in 2012 specifically from our family group. Now with the club set to the group, only those in our group could get in, or those who arrived who weren't in the group, could join simply with one click on the group joiner already set outside the club.
Showtime had arrived and I was floored to see how many people attended. Since I love Pink Floyd, it was a really cool and very special night for me, and I thought it would be a nice way to say thanks to our family. After the show, Brandy and I got on voice, as we do after almost every show, and she told me about something that happened during the show. It apparently began in public chat, luckily out of my chat range, and came from a woman who started swearing in local chat left and right for "having this event for the group only" or something along those lines. Brandy respectfully told her that she and everyone else are welcome to join the group and enjoy the concert. (There were about 30-40 or so new people who did just that, without one negative remark or requests for help on how to join). What gets me REALLY is that even after Brandy explained why I was doing this concert for the family group, she went off and began cursing quite nastily. I mean WTF? Brandy said she could join the group and come in and being the pro that she is, Brandy of course kept her cool and took the conversation into private chat. From what Brandy tells me, this woman continued her abusive tirade until Brandy had no choice but to remove her from the event so as to keep this woman from disrespecting our guests at the club, turning a peaceful and fun event into something else.
So why am I even mentioning this? Well it's a matter of respect. No matter what medium we are conversing on, no matter how a misunderstanding or voiced opinion is communicated, I think it's of great importance that we remember to be respectful to others. On chat conversations, it's very hard to assume what the other person's inflections or tone might be and thus what their true meaning or intent might be, so we need to be even that much more careful and respectful until we can REALLY know.
For this, I want to express my pride in our family group, not for creating it, but for being PART of it. In the years since I first created the group, we have NEVER had such an incident - even though I have done Group Only events in the past - and it makes me that much more appreciative of the support, not only for my shows and music career, but support of each other as PEOPLE, from all over the world, who have come together, whose paths have crossed for whatever reason and who share time, respectfully, to enjoy and have some fun, to create and communicate.
So taking all this into consideration, I want to express my love and thanks to all those in our group. Thank you for a great 2012 and I look forward to the continued friendships and bonds we've created.
2011 was an amazing year for me personally. Second Life has continued to be incredibly generous to me in support of my music and other areas. In real life though, my life continues to be ever evolving. The main reason is one word... Aden. There is a lot of adaptation in parenting... who knew?!?! As Aden is growing, his needs and wants are ever changing.
Not too long ago, my Second Life friends and family threw a party for me, back in May 2008, the month Aden was born. Yes it seems like yesterday and those of you that are parents, PLEASE don't tell me "wait till he starts driving..." or "just you wait till his teens..." LOL! Trust me, I've heard A LOT of that.But he IS a little boy now and he wants to do little boy things with his Daddy.
I started late, admittedly, with being a parent. I had Aden later than I had hoped but you know, he was given to me when the time was right, when the planets aligned, or something like that. Either way, he's here now and hopefully he will be for a loooong time.
2012 is here and to you, oh Father Time, I say this... take it easy on me! While Aden grows and is becoming the beautiful, amazing, incredible little boy he is becoming, I have found myself maybe less patient than I would like to be. I see it in myself. I'm not really an impatient man, mind you, and I don't want to come off in a bad light as some neglectful, evil jerk. Anyone that knows me will tell you how devoted I am to the little guy, but he is after all, a little boy. He loves his Daddy, he loves spending time with me, playing, building, tinkering, having me teach him, etc. But sure, sometimes there are those minutes when I'm working or otherwise busy that when he keeps nipping at my hells, I feel, hmmm, what's the word? Well.. impatient!
So my resolution is to be conscious of my tipping point and when I feel I've reached it, give myself permission to take a deep breath and just look at him and REMEMBER how much I adore him. I mean, what if this is really my last day with him? For whatever reason. (God forbid something should happen to him... it would completely be the end of me). But I know there is always time when I can take a moment to look at his smile, at his eyes - and oh how bright his eyes are - when he looks up at me wanting something. It pains me that I even have to think about being patient with him. I love him so incredibly much!
So it's a decision I have made that in 2012, I will be more patient with Aden and remember that it's ok to stop what I'm doing for a few minutes to make him happy... and to MAKE him show me that smile!
Sometimes when trying to fall asleep, I'm kept awake by a melody and my mind tries to write while I'm also trying to fall asleep. Most of the time it keeps me up. So last night, I decided not to fight it. I dragged myself up long enough to get the root of this idea down on lyrics and guitar.
This morning I found what I had written last night front and center on my computer, right where I left it. I continued writing along the storyline and recorded. This is one of those songs I would consider a gift, not for someone else, but given to ME, right on time for the holidays. But it kind of took its own shape and in many ways, wrote itself. Here's what it ended up as. It's very raw and meant to be so.
I won't offer any ideas as to what it's about, it does tell a bit of a story but I prefer listeners make up their own minds as to what it may mean to them.
Listen by clicking HERE. free, free, music, marketing, blog, free, free, free, music, pr, seo,blog,free,free,free,free,free, live music, make money, money, free money, gift, gifts, seth regan, mankind tracer, secondlife, second life, sl, facebook, twitter, social, alexa rank
If you read my previous post, Thanksgiving Gift, you can probably understand that I was a bit nervous about being able to perform today. Thea and G Metal, both fiends and long time supporters of my live music performances in Second Life, are the owners of this fairly new Second Life Live Music Venue.
Kalli/Brandy and I had booked this event a few months back and I SO hate having to cancel last minute. The truth is, I had been looking forward to performing an afternoon show for some time, as my daily schedule doesn't allow for them as much as it used to. I've seen great support and friendship from fellow SL'ers across the pond. So much so that the "Friends of Mankind" group in SL banded together not once, but twice, to fly me out to Amsterdam to perform shows in Summer of both 2008 and 2009. So when I call the group "Family", I really do mean it.
Anyways, this morning I woke up feeling much much better and was really happy thinking I was going to be able to do this gig. Brandy and I got on the marketing at about 12PM SLT, and spread it out as we always do, to many different social sites, emails, SL notices, etc. I decided today, and this isn't an every day thing, to actually "MAKE" a set list for this show. Why? Well, as we all probably feel, we like to go that extra mile for people in our lives closer to us. Thea and G have been so amazingly supportive of me, of SL music and of fellow musicians, Brandy and I both felt that we really needed to pump it up for them. free, free, music, marketing, blog, free, free, free, music, pr, seo,blog,free,free,free,free,free, live music, make money, money, free money, gift, gifts, seth regan, mankind tracer, secondlife, second life, sl, facebook, twitter, social, alexa rank
At the gig, I was SO happy to see a lot of overseas friends and fans, I've missed you guys. Frankee, Renee, even Roos came in to the event along with about 60 others. An amazing turnout and not only because I was playing, but because I believe people in general will be more supportive of those that support others. Case in point: Thea and G. As I said earlier they are long time supporters of my own music but they work diligently to keep their venue booked with some of SL's best live artists. Further, I see them out there at other artists' performances as well.
So hat's off to you both and of course to Brandy for her amazing efforts and skills in marketing and promoting for our friends' venue. I really enjoyed performing at <<Ground Zero>> and hope to be invited back soon.
On a side note, I saw many new faces as well. It's good to see the music community growing with more people going to shows lately. The main thing is I saw a lot of audience interaction, not only to me and my show but moreover, with EACH OTHER"! I really love seeing people making friends and if it happens because of my show being the meeting place, then I'm truly flattered that much more.
Very large thanks to all who came out. It was a great time!
