Club Graffiti in The Village

Click here to visit Club Graffiti

When I think of the many, many venues I have performed over the past 5 years in Second Life, there are really only a few that stand out. Some for the event itself, others for the fact that good friends may have owned them and maybe a couple of others that are/were just incredibly supportive of my music and of live music in Second Life as a whole and a few others that are/were really solidly designed and well thought out.


Club Graffiti is among these that stand out. First off, I own the place along with Brandy... so yes it does have a special place in my heart. It actually came about when Brandy and I were thinking of opening a place together. We were speaking about my Real Life professional touring years and I touched on a few places I had played early on in Greenwich Village, NYC. There was the Back Fence, Kenny's Castaways among others. But the highlight for me was performing one particular place, just those few times, sharing the same stage as so many greats before me like Simon and Garfunkel, Bob Dylan, The Talking Heads, Blondie, The Ramones and on and on. I'm speaking of the legendary CBGB's.

Click here to visit Club Graffiti

I was fortunate enough to have played there, but only once. But man I tell you, you can SMELL the vibe in this place! The walls were splattered with old stickers and posters from the 70's through the late 90's hen I played there. The stage was beat up. Old mic stands were strewn about and the graffiti was rampant. I LOVED IT!!!


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So Brandy and I kept talking and we agreed, why not model a club, like CBGB's, only throw it back to the late 70's... create that vibe all over again... in Second Life. And that's just what we did.

Click here to visit Club Graffiti

Planted in "The Village", our 1/4 sim build, Club Graffiti is indeed modeled after CBGB's of the 1970's, complete with all the trimmings. One look inside and, as I'm repeatedly told (and agree with this), there is this standout "vibe" that I personally have not experienced in SL. We wanted this place to be different, welcoming sure, but definitely different than what Second Life residents were used to. If you have ever visited New York and checked out the "dive bars", Club Graffiti would definitely qualify!


Personally, I love being able to play my live music and hold our other events at Club Graffiti. When I place my avi's camera angle just barely above and behind my head, I can honestly say, it feels more like a real gig than anywhere else I've played in over 5 years in SL. While Brandy and I do own the place, what I'm saying still holds true.

Click here for your free Tshirt byGizza

Club Graffiti offers realism and many of the artists who have generously performed at our stage and with whom I've spoken personally have all agreed. It's just a very cool place. Cudos to Emile for such an amazing build and also to Brandy for working with me decorating, trimming it out, as we placed those subtle nuances that make it more realistic. I personally love the beat up taxi cab outside Gizza in the alley to the left of the club and then there's the sewer vents shooting out steam.


We put our hearts into this venue and when I perform, I can feel it. So if you're not busy, Most Sunday nights at 9PM SLT, I play a live gig there. Come on out.


You'll be among friends.

The Right Questions

I've been trying to find a solid block of time to be able to continue recording the new "Underground" album. As I've been saying at my Second Life shows, I hope it will be done soon... I've been saying that since probably March!


With the title track also called "Underground" already in recorded and up on iTunes, I am really working to find the time to get the next one done. I've been playing "Promise to Love" for probably over a year in SL now, but it's always been just acoustic and vocals, like all of my shows, other than a few originals on which I play and sing over my self produced backing tracks. So I am really looking forward to being able to add the backing tracks on this song and play it for the SL friends and fans.


One thing that's really prevented me from being able to get going fast on this album is, as with almost all my music, I write and perform all the parts: drums, guitars, orchestral instruments, vocals, etc. So before I can do anything in the way of recording, I need to first write all the parts. But I think this time around, I'm going to just start recording what I have one already. For "Promise to Love" the arrangements are all done, same with guitars and vocals, and a few string parts. The trickiest part, for me anyways, are the drum parts.

So here I sit with the main acoustic line recorded along with a scratch vocal track (used only for reference) which will of course need to be rerecorded right. As I'm listening back to what I've already recorded, I;m finding a bit of a shift in direction. I came up with this drum beat, nothing really ostentatious, but a solid driving beat and now the entire vibe of the song has changed. I love it, I do, but I've been pining over this song for so long, the way I've listened to it in my head probably for 8 years and all of a sudden I have this drastic change from a mellow acoustic tune to a kind of Metallica vibe. Not a bad thing of course LOL!


Now that I've had to restart my computer, it gives me a few minutes to digest all I've done and it got me thinking. How many times in my life have I thought I had something right, that I knew the direction I was going, then all of a sudden out of left field comes this completely new direction which opens doors I never even thought of. Like this sudden shift in this song's direction, that's the way life is. Here I am recording a song and then I'm thinking of how the recording process, not the song itself, shifted my thinking.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

I believe it comes down to the questions we ask. Through the course of our days we ask ourselves a billion questions, day in, day out. Questions like "What if I turn left?", "Did I add too much garlic?, "Do I need something to drink?". These are all well and good but I'm talking of the more profound questions. Asking myself things like "Why can't I get this right?" or "Why is this taking so long?" I believe are the wrong things to ask, well not the wrong "things" but maybe more limiting. I take pride in knowing myself and being able to effect changes when needed, quickly. My point here is sometimes, I think it's important to remember that the one question we ask ourselves will only lead us down one specific path.


From recording this song, I have learned that instead of asking myself for example, "Why can't I get this right?", I should be asking the more positive questions like "What do I need to learn to make this perfect?", or "Where can I find more information to help me make this right?" This will open the door to more that that one direction of logical answers and these are more positive and optimistic ways of dealing with a problem. Now I can look at a situation with my eyes wider and my brain more open to other possibilities.


It's really the questions we ask ourselves that lead us down the paths we travel every single day. For me, I will try to work on this, trying to remember to ask more than one question in a given situation, more positive questions. Even when I might be frustrated or angry at not having a quick solution, it's important to step back and see the possible outcomes of asking different questions on a given problem.


Anyways, I thought I'd share this. Maybe someone can understand and relate.


Back to recording!