Intro is a tad too long, but it’s the club/extended version of Nneka’s “Shining Star” so I understand the reason for it. Vocals are strong; really strong and kick in around the 2:35 point in the song! Enjoy
“…And though you seem so far away
You pursuit me I can feel you
.. within my mind
And I know you’re sometimes lonely
Oh, I wish that I could change it,
Oh then I know you still got me
And I pray my love will give you life…”
Ah the poet Damien Rice, putting his all into “Woman Like Man”. This is such a great song played acoustically and Damien is very strong on the vocals with his interesting play of words he uses. The build up from the slow introduction into the powerful ending is what makes this song so interesting for me. Conflicts of top and bottom, bottom and top & what one whats and what one doesn’t want; perhaps!
Enjoy!
Nothing like the sweet hypnotic vocals of Ms Norah Jones singing “Turn Me On” Enjoy!
A busy week of DJ, & being a stage hand too I might add, is coming up for me on the Second Life “grid”. First up, and near and dear to my heart, is my DJ event for the Burn2 organization at the Centre (Canadian spelling) Camp; or as we burners like to call it the “La Playa”. For those not aware one of the key nutritional elements that helped to spur on the growth of the creative seed that was in the early stages of developing in Philip Rosedale’s minds eye while he was putting together the Second Life program, over 10 years ago, was a faithful trip he took to take part in the Burning Man festivities in the Black Rock desert region of Nevada. The creative & communal energy that Philip was able to take part in while at the Burning Man festival was a pivotal point that helped to spur on Second Life, to a large degree, to be the child of wonder it is today. The Burn2 organization is a group within Second Life that helps to promote and keep alive, that unique creative energy that Philip experienced at the Burning Man Festival. For more details on the Burn2 organization within Second Life, please check out the web page: Burn2 Web Site.
My DJ gig for the Burn2 SL9B event will take place on Wednesday, June 20th from 10pm to Midnight (pacific standard time which just so happens to be second life time “SLT”). So if your out and about on the grid on Wednesday June 20th please drop by the Centre Camp for a lively time of music and participating with an artistic and eclectic group of people who embrace the ideals of the real life Burning Man festival!
Not that anyone has noticed I’m sure, but I took my blog off-line for the last month for a bit of a break! The purpose of this blog hasn’t been to “sell” stuff so traffic numbers to my blog is not of prime importance to me and certainly not why I started this blog. I’ll leave the traffic count issues to those addicted to SEO crack and hyper-linking junkies. Whether or not I keep my blog online again remains a bit up in the air, but if I do keep the blog going, I think it’s time to re-brand DJ Splash Kidd a bit. Perhaps DJ Splash Kidd V2?
“Can’t Find My Way Home” was originally recorded by the very short-lived late 1960’s band, Blind Faith. Blind Faith was comprised of the following members Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, Steve Winwood & Rich Grech. One of the strongest tracks recorded by Blind Faith, in my view, was “Can’t Find My Way Home” that was written by Steve Winwood. Over the years since the song was originally recorded both Winwood and Clayton have preformed this song during various live performances. In 2007 Steve Winwood and Eric Clapton reunited for a live performance at the second annual Crossroad Guitar Festival held at Bridgeview Illinois. It is from this reunited performance of Steven Winwood and Eric Clapton that I share with you via YouTube (thank the Goddess for YouTube!!!) a video of “Can’t Find My Way Home”. This is an absolutely brilliant live version of this song that is being performed by two very good old friends who originally recorded this song almost 40 years after it was first released on vinyl. The various points in the song when both Winwood and Clapton are doing lead guitar solo’s together is magical in how they can blend so well with each other; true artistry.
Now anyone who actually knows me, or who has at least read some of my postings before (which is like maybe a half-dozen people at best) I like to dwell in the world of metaphors & similes now and then. So from a strictly metaphorical point of view, this song and the reason I’m posting it now has a lot to do with my use (or perhaps earlier use) of the avatar Splash Kidd. Splash Kidd recently turned 5 within the virtual world of Second Life in March of this year. It was an interesting point for me to reflect on the past, the present and the future. It reminded me to of a blog post from few years ago I read by a person who ended up totally deleting their entire Second Life account and the reason for doing that even-though the person in question avatar had been highly “successful” within the realm of Second Life. You see, Second Life is a lot like falling down a very deep virtual rabbit hole and then before you know it, you might not be able to find your way home again, if one doesn’t watch out. Well perhaps, but even in the darkest moment, one can still find their way back home again, or perhaps to a new better home! The tight-rope and fine balance between ones real life and ones virtual life is never easy.
In any event enough of metaphors that deal with avatars, this is a great performance by two exception song writers and guitar players who know exactly the three-dimensional aspect of what music really is! Enjoy!
I’ll be DJ this evening from 10pm to Midnight PST on my internet radio stream. For the uninitiated, Second Life is one of the largest and most successful three-dimension virtual world on the internet. Getting an account for Second Life is free and you can get information at the following link: Second Life. If you have virtually (no pun intended) no experience on the internet with virtual worlds you may want to do a bit of research first before joining. I suggest the following web sites to help you out before you take the leap:
Second Life Wikipedia
Virtual Reality Wikipedia
Second Life Wiki
Linden Labs: Makers of Second Life
The four noted web-sites all have valuable information at them and you should spend a bit of time checking each one out as they will help you greatly if you decided to join Second Life.
My gigs are always lively, fast paced and interactive between myself and with the patrons/listeners who come out to relax and enjoy themselves. At any one particular time I’ll have more than fifty (50) avatars (i.e. the virtual representation of a real person) in the club and over the course of my two (2) hour set I might have one hundred to one hundred and fifty avatars come in and out. As such people from all over the globe can get access to Second Life and do so, which as a DJ is really cool and fun to be able to share my love of music with.
So if you are a member of Second Life, please drop by the hear me DJ this evening! If you haven’t joined Second Life yet, take the leap; virtual worlds are becoming more and more acceptable and part of the leading edge of the digital revolution that we are all a part of! I hope to see you soon in the avatar form of your choice!
I took a few new pictures of Splash this morning to test out the visual look of Viewer3. Take a look at my most recent pictures and let me know what you think? I’m far from the most gifted photographer in Second Life. All pictures were taken directly from Second Life and have not been further edited via Photoshop or any other form of photo editing software.
Radiohead’s “House of Cards” doesn’t really need my take, because the lyrics and music speak for themselves. Really! I will say this however, I think it’s sublime in its delivery and way we have allowed ourselves to become more and more virtual as a race. I hope you enjoy the meaning behind this song in however you want to interpret it as it relates to your own life.
My last blog posting about Peter Frampton’s song, “Lines On My Face” got me thinking about the various lead electric guitar players who have had a major influence on the music scene over the last fifty-years or so. Specifically it got me to thinking about those lead electric guitar artists who are now gone and no longer with us. As such, I think I’ll dedicate the next series of postings to a few of the many outstanding late electric guitar artists that have had a major influence on a number of music genres; notably Rock, Blues, Jazz & Country. In addition I want to concentrate on those lead electric guitarist, who in my view, had this incredible creative talent to be able to really channel their emotions and feelings into the style of the particular song they were playing. I certain won’t be able to cover off all the outstanding guitar artists over the last fifty years by any stretch of the imagination and I’m sure some of the readers of this post (assuming any) will have other favorite guitar artists they feel should be highlighted (if so please post a comment and link perhaps about your favorite guitar artists)!
For this post I want to dedicated it to the late Stevie Ray Vaughan (“Stevie Ray”). Stevie Ray was a Texas’s born and bred Rock/Blues guitar artists who had a major influence on the music scene during the mid 1970’s up until his death in a helicopter crash on August 27th, 1990 while in route to Chicago after performing at the Alpine Valley Music Theatre in East Troy Wisconsin. Wikipedia is typically a very good source of information on most topics so instead of me recreating the wheel on the various factual information on Stevie Ray, here is the link to the write-up on him at that site: Wiki on Stevie Ray if your interested.
For the die-hard Stevie Ray fans out there, my posting only touches on the surface on information on the web about Stevie Ray. Instead what I want to do is share just one song of Stevie Ray’s that I feel really demonstrates his incredible artistic talent as a lead guitar player in how he is able to channeling his emotions and feelings while he plays. I’ve included a YouTube video piece originally posted by the user “wash61” of Stevie Ray performing live the song “Riviera Paradise” in Austin Texas (Austin City Limits if I’m correct). The video quality isn’t the best on this feed, but Stevie Ray was from Texas and grew up for the most part in Austin so I felt this was a fitting video to include in this post. There are several good close-ups of Stevie Ray playing the guitar which is great, but ultimately it’s in the listening to this song and appreciating how Stevie Ray is able to translate his feelings via playing the electric guitar that is what I find so appealing about this performance. Enjoy!
I have not been spending much time recently in Second Life, for a variety of reason, other than my regular DJ gig that I do on Thursday nights each week. As such when I recently got a notice via the BURN2 Performers group that I’m a member of, that they were holding a community event on December 17th called “SantaCon” and needed live performers and/or live DJ’s for, I jumped at the chance and send a message off to the organizers that I was interested. I ended up getting booked to DJ from 9pm to 11pm, which was perfect as it fit nicely into my demanding real life schedule of events.
I’ve had the pleasure to have been able to perform as a DJ on several different occasions now for the BURN2 community in Second Life over the last couple of years. Each occasion has been an important step for me, as both a DJ, and as a community member of Second Life, on learning more about what it means to be a volunteer within this unique metaverse environment. BURN2, for me at least, has become one of those center points in Second Life that helps to keep bringing me back to Second Life and believing still in the creative aspect of what can be accomplished within a digital virtual world structure. Life to me, be it “real” or “second”, at its basic structural components, is this constantly evolving “work in progress”, where goal setting, reaching for goals and achieving goals, is important, but not as important as being in the moment of life’s constant stream of activities that makes one realize that all aspects of our life’s are a “work in progress”.
So DJ for the SantaCon event this last Saturday night, was a time for me to be in the “moment” and allowing myself to enjoy this never-ending “work in progress”!
I typically don’t publish my set list of the songs I play from my DJ gigs, not because I don’t want to share them, but more out of the fact that I don’t have the time to rewrite them down again! I will however share one of the songs I played last night, that is a favorite of mine now; “What the Water Gave Me” by Florence and the Machine from their 2011 album “Ceremonials”. It’s just such a powerful song and Florence is at her Celtic best as she pours her feminine emotions into the delivery of this song. I hope your enjoy it as much as I do!
I’ll share a couple of pictures I snapped quickly too from the end part of my gig at SantaCon last night. I’m not much of a photographer, but I still like to record a few memories now and then for post reflections!
DJ Splash Kidd's Blog 