Orchestra in OSLO (NOTAM)...

Here is a still from yet another performance of SLippery SLope - a piece I originally composed for London's PGUP Festival (curated by Spinster Voom) a few months ago. Since I lent my cello to our new AOM performer Humming Perra, I decided to undertake formal conducting duties this time. It seemed to work and look much better with me formally conducting the composition. I think I even managed to get the SLippery SLopes ascended in a record time of 15 academic minutes! ;-)

Hey there, NOTAMizers, Oslo-centric Orchestra fans, Virtual Vikings and Norwegian Woodgoblins!

Happy Halloween!

I certainly am envious of all you RL and SL Trick-o-Treaters out there as today has been more about "work" than about "play"... Well, work is play and play is work but...you know what I mean! I guess you could say that I was up to turning tricks more than merely tasting treats...sigh! ;-)

I was so busy today, I was not even able to make time for the official AvaStar Halloween dress-up party....sigh! You know a SLebrity is too busy when they cannot even attend their routine token appearances for the media.

Anyways, in addition to fetching documentation for Second LIVE 2007 and rehearsing for Second Front's next performance, I performed with the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse today for our 2nd show in Oslo (Norway). This time, we streamed live into the NOTAM centre in Oslo. Our in-world host was fellow orchestral colleague-in-crime, Gumnosophistai Nurmi (Leif Inge in RL)and we performed many classic compositions from AOM's official repetoire.

Speaking of the concept of "repetoire", this is why you have been seeing so many blog postings of me wearing the same backpack and interface many times over... Nope, it is not just a form of deja vu, you are also noticing probably by now that the Orchestra plays many of the same pieces from our developing "repetoire" of audio/visual standards.

Therefore, if you are not quite sick to death yet from seeing the exact same compositions (at different angles and audience members, admittedly), then feel free to binge more on these photo-documents below...the old is new again and then it is well... sorta "new" again", right? ;-()...

...here is a slightly closer view of me conducting the next wave of SLippery SLackers on the pink SLope.

As you can see from this pic, about 88% of the performers (not that I was counting or anything) had successfully completed all 3 SLopes as the eager and enthusiastic audience below cheered them all along the way.

It may look like Goodwind Seiling finished last but she was a winner just like every other performer. I should emphasize that is was not about "winning" or "losing" but how stylish and graceful you are able to SLip off the SLopes. Goodwind ended my composition on a wonderful low...er... high note ;-)

Next up, we bathed in the sonically ambient glow of Adam Ramona's (Adam Nash in RL) installation called A Rose Heard at Dusk. This was a fun piece because I had to entertain the masses outside the installation while 3 of us performed the installation first before inviting everyone else inside. It was like a New-Music peep show or something ;-) Soon enough, we turned the installation into a jumped up party-fest...Oh, I should explain that one "plays" Adam's composition simply by moving around the differently coloured zones... So, if you do not know how to play a classical instrument, you might as well... JUMP, JUMP! Go Ahead, JUMP!

I think this pic is from our dress-rehearsal the day before. Speaking of dress-rehearsals, it looks like Maxxo Klaar did the most preparation for the event because his camoflage pants was perfectly colour coordinated with Adam's rose tinted Garden of Eden....YES!

Here is another rehearsal snapshot showing in detail how expansive the fog was.

Here is the only pic I took of us playing the mutant hybrid performance that blended Miulew Takahe's Fragula with Second Front colleague Gazira Babeli's sculptural installation, Come Together. This piece was so energetic, I lost track of my photographic abilities (or lack thereof)... and speaking of lacking in photo documentation...

...I was unable to get around to taking pix of Bingo Onomatopoeia's composition WNK and Miulew Takahe's other composition, Rue Blanche...sigh!

Ok, time to prepare for Saturday's Second Front performance at PERFORMA in NYC...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

OSLOspace AUDIOspace and BIBBEspace...

The Avatar Orchestra Metaverse at Susanne Jaschko's Urban Interface in Oslo (RL) and in Amsterdam (SL)...

***BREAKING NEWS FROM THE NEAR FUTURE!***

The curator Susanne Jaschko has blogged about this event.

Here we are in Amsterdam waiting to score some.....er... well....actually....waiting for our orchestral colleagues Gumnosphistai Nurmi (Norway) and Nnoiz Papp (Germany) to find us. This sort of hide and seek theme seems to be deja vu for me as I did something very similar as an avatar in my past life... Anyways, it turns out that Susanne Jaschko and her audience was on the hunt with them to find us "spontaneously" performing Miulew Takahe's composition, Fragula. I was unsure if Dr. Jaschko had her own avatar lurking in the alleyways of Amsterdam but one can always hold conspiracy theories and daydream...I mean, trying to make Amsterdam look like Oslo is indeed some sort of Artworld conspiracy!

Ok, this pic was taken at the point where Gumno and Nnoiz finaly found us...All it took was one blast of Nnoiz's fog horn and he was able to locate their position in relation to the Orchestra and of course, using sonar in an "orchestral" context is nothing new ;-) Once they found us, Gumno and Nnoiz quickly joined in the Fragulan fray and began performing with us as if they had actually rehearsed with us ;-) Speaking of Fragula, I made a big boo-boo when criticizing Bingo Onomatopoeia's new Fragula version number as being non-linear...I thought he accidentally "upgraded" from v12.0 to v9.0...I did not read between the lines, because there was actually a decimal in front so it makes sense that v0.9 is newer than v.12...For the record, Bingo forgave me by saying that "even Einstein failed at Math"....sigh! Bingo at least gave me the official link for understanding the software versioning conventions... Maybe I had better cut back on that decimalized Dutch Hash and learn to leave the red-light district, eh? ;-)

Hey there OSLOspace, AUDIOspace and BIBBEspace cadets!

First of all, I want to officially announce that this posting is actually my 100th posting for this blog! I would like to thank all my readers for providing me with the necessary delusion(s) to believe that this blog is something worth writing...thanks a zillion! ;-)

Saturday the 15th was quite exhausting yet productive. The Avatar Orchestra Metaverse had two intense gigs and even my relaxation session with Bibbe Oh felt intense....can I ever relax? Hmmmm..maybe I can...

Since I do not think I have any more gigs lined up for the rest of September, I think I am going to use this precious "spare" time to get off my pixellated ass and continue composing my next official AOM composition to be premiered at Wien Modern in Vienna called Riesenrad.

Anyway, I just thought I would share those tidbits with you...If you do not see many blog postings from now until October, that is probably why...

I have just shown you the OSLO event in Amsterdam and now, I will show you some pix of the Audiospace concert before concluding this posting with my post-orchestral personal reception and gratuitous photo-shoot with Bibbe Oh...

The Avatar Orchestra Metaverse's performance at the Audiospace Festival at Open Space...

Here are a few of us having a seat and doing a bit of a meditation blitzkrieg before some of the audience members arrive... Gumno is disclosing a few RL details that most of us share behind the scenes...many of us SLebrities in RL are stay-at-home parents...sigh! If you have a close zoom towards this pic, you will notice tiny voice-chat icons above Miulew Takahe and Humming Perra (Audiospace Curator)...Yes, Second Life now has embedded voice chat capabilities. Miulew's silky smooth voice was a perfect compliment to Humming's hushed adminisrative tones. You will also notice that the score for Miulew's official Audiospace submission, Rue Blanche is available for all to see...Miulew later gave the Open Space gallery a demo of the process behind the 3 performed compositions...

As you can see, some more audience members are gradually arriving on the scene. It was great to see so many avatars at this event....alot of these people are good friends and important artists in RL so the whole experience was quite encouraging. Oh, I forgot to mention a minor detail for you...Yes, it is true... Since previous blog postings, my coffee cup has increasingly super-sized itself. For this event, I was in a generous mood so I shared the wealth since the refills are virtually endless anyway.... I am desperately trying to remember the name of the person who gave me this coffee at the earlier event in Oslo...sigh! Miulew has recently informed me that Merak Ur was the one who have me the new coffee but my mind is so foggy, I can barely absorb that information. I think I need another sip of steamy coffee!

This pix shows a little more clearly the size of the in-world audience... Yes, it is true, my new buddy Blued Food arrived at the exact moment this pic was taken...I guess I am getting too SLeepy these days to spend quality time in Photoshop censoring out my private life...a celebrity's life is public property anyways, right? ;-)

Here we are playing our classic Fadheit that was composed by the Orchestra's founder, Maximillian Nakamura. I should point out that those squares you see on the screen are usually only for the eyes of the Orchestral performers but this time, Miulew gave the Open Space audience a behind-the-scenes demo of the mechanics of this particular telepathic user-interface...

Here is a great close-up of myself and Gog Mannonen. I actually know Gog in RL but due to privacy issues, I cannot disclose Gog's RL identity. I really hope Gog joins the Orchestra as I am sure some very unique compositions would begin to take shape in our repetoire...

So, after two consecutive concerts, I was feeling rather burned out so I decided to wind down a bit with my new friend (not so new in RL) Bibbe Oh...

My post-orchestral personal reception with Bibbe Oh at the Third Rail Gallery of Current Art...

Here I am enjoying some red-wine and refined gallery art with Bibbe Oh. I did not realize how much shorter she is than me! I tried my best not to accidentally nudge her into the sculpture next to her...I was worried it might tip over and shatter...yikes! Bibbe was telling me that she does some hosting here sometimes with Channing Oh but officially, the gallery (a tribute to Al Hansen of Fluxus fame) is owned by her friends (who also happen to be siblings), Cleo and Demara Hultcrantz.

We eventually went over to Bibbe's personal studio and sat underneath a sandwich...well, a photo of one, anyway! All the photos on the wall were taken by Bibbe herself...there are more to show you if you persist with me a sec and continue to scroll down...

My colleague in Second Front, Man Michinaga eventually dropped by to hang out with us....yaaaay!

In this pic, you get a better sense of what Bibbe's own photography work looks like. She takes found pix of murders and suicides (and yes, sandwiches) and actually embroiders them onto paper in RL....whoa! Sounds eerie, zany and creepy-crawly to me!!! Hmmm...what do you think of the premeditated murder wound on that guy's forehead? Man is pointing to something much more abstract yet in a sense, just as extreme...lets just say it kinda looks like a starfish (use your imagination!)...

Ok, that was my day in a nutshell! Good thing I scored some of that red wine at Bibbe's place because I could sure use some extra time in "R&RL" (RL + R&R = R&RL)...

Media and Planning Daze...

Here are some members of Second Front being interviewed by the Globe and Mail in Toronto for an upcoming video report. Unfortunately, some of us had to leave because the paparazzi only needed visuals of those SF members they had conducted an audio interview with a few weeks ago...sigh!

Hey there performance art, contemporary classical music and mass media fans,

These past couple of days probably seem somewhat banal to the casual blog reader or SL audience member but for me, these are exciting times. The moments themselves were not that exciting but the events that were being planned during these photo-documented sessions sure kept me wired all through the night...well, through the forced-midnight, anyways! ;-)

Both of the primary groups that I am involved with in Second Life had major media meetings and coordination activities....

The first such group is one devoted to performance art and is called SECOND FRONT. Here are a few more photos from our interview session with Skza Pinion and Grayt Arai from the Globe and Mail in Toronto...

Here is another camera angle from my avatar's point of view...I am guessing (based on Grayt's massive cam-traption) that the Globe and Mail crew had many camera angles to choose from... For the record, we spent most of our time posing and looking good....It is a good thing that we are already used to being media-accessible SLebrities :-)


When this pic was taken, Man Michinaga had just arrived to join us for the interview...

Here is a direct screenshot of the website where an earlier video feature by Skza Pinion documented Second Front at Inter-Access Gallery in Toronto. for some reason, I was unable to capture a still from the actual online video but it should still be archived online and available by clicking on this link here.

The second ensemble that I am involved with is one involved in the "new music" or "contemporary classical" scene of Second Life. They are called the AVATAR ORCHESTRA METAVERSE... Here is the only pic I took of our meeting that took place slightly less than 12 hours ago....

The Avatar Orchestra Metaverse has collectively decided to choose an underwater venue for our performance in Berlin on August 25th at the Berliner Langen Nacht der Museen am Kulturforum Potsdamer Platz. This Berlin show will launch our official European (and possibly World) Tour which also includes concert dates in Regensburg, Oslo and Vienna.


Ok, now it is time for me to get ready for bedtime in RL..I simply cannot stay awake forever, can I? ;-)