I have gotten totally sucked into Second Life this week. It’s all Adam Curry’s fault! I heard him talk about the online game on DSC, then Kevin Rose mentioned it on TWIT, and my curiosity was picqued. I honestly didn’t think it would run on my old iMac, but I seem to be able to get around just fine. Maybe things don’t rez as quickly as they should, but it seems to me that the game is mostly a fancy chat interface. I’ve been sharing a little bit of my experiences over at my Chillcast site, including a few jpgs of my avatar. Speaking of my avatar, apparently the work I’ve done on it isn’t up to snuff with the game’s old timers because 2 days in a row girls have urged me that I “need to work on it.” Sigh.

There honestly hasn’t been much time to learn how to create custom skins and all of that because I keep getting into conversations about how to perform live in-game, which is what I’m most intersted in. Several club owners have already offered to let me and/or Lovespirals play live, which is quite fascinating. One DJ suggested that I have a listening party first, where I could introduce tracks to the audience, which should be easier than full on performance. Now I need to start running some audio tests on my computer to see what all I can really do. Oh, the other interesting possibility is in-game podcasting. Prerecorded podcasts would, of course, be much simpler, providing I was working with someone who offers audio feed to the masses in-game. I don’t own any property at this point, so I don’t have an outlet of my own to do it.

Honestly, I am beginning to be afraid of how much time this game takes away from Real Life, or RL as they call it… I mean, my identity is a singer/songwriter, and that’s what makes me happiest to do. Podcasting is already taking a lot of that time away from me. Even playing live has taken time away from songwriting and recording, which I’m sure many fans wouldn’t understand, but it just isn’t the same to perform a song I wrote years ago as it is to create a brand new song for a new CD. I guess there are writers and there are performers, and I am the former. Anyway, SL has gotten me thinking a lot about myself, my goals, priorities, position and function in society, personal relationships — it really is just a microcosm of RL, and not just “a game.” Grand Theft Auto, which I adore, is just a game. The Sims, which I was obsessed with, is just a game. Second Life is just that, another way to live one’s life – without leaving the house, basically. In some ways, I am down with that concept, but in other ways, it is pretty frightening. I think for me, it is yet another great way to get my music – and my friend’s music – out to an open group of listeners. There’s just some learning curve that I’m trying to master before I’m ready to do somthing truly interesting for those who have been using SL for years.

Anyway, this ended up being much more personal than I had imagined. I guess that’s the effect of the game. Adam warned me that it “messes with your head.”

Just put up a new review on the site, from the lovely RadioGirl at Church of Girl. She mentioned an old interview I did with the genius Miranda July for KUCI radio, but it turned out that the link was dead! I went over to the KUCI site but didn’t see my alumni page on the list. Hmm… I’ll have to look into that more. I’m thinking that I should take some time one month to put together a site with all of my various interviews from my old zines and radio shows. I know a lot of the bands are very hard to find anything about online. I just don’t know when I’d have the time to dedicate to this big project!

The contractor came back today to complete work on the house. Between seeing him again and the sunny weather, I feel like I’m timewarped into last year! Hopefully everything will be wrapped up with a minimum of fuss and muss. Last year was a real disaster. I can hardly believe we managed to get out our album with all the shit going on in my live/work space! Its a testament to our iron clad will, to be sure.

The garden is coming up so strong this Spring. Last year at this time, it was all just dirt and pine needles. All my hard work has certainly paid off out there. Now I’m just taking seeds from one area and planting them into another, wherever there happens to be a little blank space. Those are quickly filling in, though! I guess the “cottage garden in a can” seeds worked pretty well. Ha! All the bulbs I put in this Fall have gone nuts, so that I’m actually cutting them and bringing them in to enjoy.

What does this all have to do with music, you ask? Not much perhaps, but our state of mind and circumstances have an awful lot to do with songwriting. I had been writing some pretty sad songs over Fall and Winter, but maybe now I’ll start writing happy ones again?

OK it was weird enough to hear my big Best Of Anji Bee feature thingee on Adam Curry’s DSC today but then I was driving around with Ryan listening to the Tom Leykis show on the radio, and I started commenting on the topic to him, and Ryan pulls out his cellphone to dial Tom’s comment line. I told the screener my thoughts and he said I was “the perfect demographic” and put me on next without any wait! I start talking to Leykis, which is already bizarre, but then he keeps me on the line for like 10 minutes! It was so odd to talk to him, because he’s such a radio persona – completely “ON” the whole time. He was going off about how someone should make a Hollywood movie about M.I.L.F.’s, starring an actress that was superhot in the 70’s and a starlet that is superhot now. Pretty good idea. Ryan was way into the Julie Cooper M.I.L.F. storyline on The O.C., as I recall. Anyway, I think I’ve had more than my share of media attention for the day. Right now I’m chillin’ a bottle of French rose to go with some French cheese and a baguette. Maybe if I’m lucky I can enjoy a little sundown moment out on the porch, looking out in the the flowering garden? Mmm…

Check out today’s Daily Source Code #369: Best of Charlie #5 that I put together for Adam. It is basically a collection of all of our conversations over the past year on his show with a bit of added commentary from me. Included are two Lovespirals tracks. It seemed like a good idea at the time I edited it together, but I’m a little bit embarrassed now…