Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Trying to Expand My Musical Horizons in Second Life

I realized lately that I've been guilty of a huge amount of cultural arrogance. I was watching a performer inworld and thinking how terrific it is that he gets world wide exposure through Second Life - that residents from countries around the globe can hear him and enjoy him. How wonderful, I though to myself, that Second Life can do that for all these musicians.

I started to wonder, however, why I wasn't being exposed to musicians from other cultures and decided it's because I don't seek them out. I don't go past the english speaking venues that host the music I know in advance that I'll like. How arrogant of me to expect the rest of the world to come and experience the english music scene and yet not think about exploring the music in different languages on the grid.

So I set myself a new challenge - I would go seek out the various music scenes (which I'm convinced must exist)and then I'll report back. Sounds like fun doesn't it? The first obstacle is discovering live music events in languages other than english. I apparently don't have many skills in this area.

I did stumble on a portuguese performer named Gabryel Nyoki - this guy oooooooozes charm. He's a really great ambassador for romantic Eurpoeans! He was performing at Kenzie's and the description I got from his manager (Sher Salmson) is as follows:


Multi-instrumentalist singer, bringing 20 years of professional experience in the industry to his secondlife performances.

Music Influencies: Eric Clapton, Richard Marx, Dire Straits, Gary Moore, Jeff Scott Sotto, Firehouse, Whitesnake, Credence, Elton John, Luis Miguel, Toto, Lionel Richie, Tracy Chapman, Peter Framptom, Sting, Michael Buble etc.

Spoken Languages: English, Spanish and Portuguese.
Extra: French and Italian.


If you want a romantic evening with your loved one then I'd check him out if I were you. He has the whole inworld performing thing mastered.

The only problem as far as my personal challenge is concerned is that he speaks in english and many of his songs were in english. So I wasn't exactly experiencing the cultural differences I was looking for.

I'm trying various strange search methods to locate different live music scenes inworld but if you can help I'd appreciate it. Leave any hints or tips in comments or send me an im - I'll be grateful for any assistance you can give me and I'll report back on what I see and hear.

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