Back in April, a friend and member of the Second Life Birthday events stage crew got in my private messages and dropped a link to apply to Second Life’s 20th Birthday event as a performer. I had missed filling it out earlier because I had been sick. I had lost a tooth and was still recovering from it as well when I applied. I had had a serious case of bronchitis that I was still recovering from. I filled out the application right away. Someone from stage crew made sure I applied and that made my day.
As I said in my previous post, I got my invite for Second Life’s 20th Birthday on the last possible day to get them. The invite I got said “Wait List and Final Invites- Welcome to SL20B June/1” but I got it on June 2nd.
Wait list? I was on the Wait List? On the list of Final Invites?
My performer’s ego took a hard hit.
I nearly refused.
I stomped around the house and cried. I had spent several weeks probing friends of mine from previous events that I knew did Second Life’s Birthday events to find out what they knew.
By Thursday the 1st, I had given up hope.
Friday the 2nd, I woke up to the notecard. “Wait List and Final Invites- Welcome to SL20B J une/1”
Was I wait listed? Was I one they wanted to invite? Was I one they were only going to invite if they had no one better?
I sat down at my computer and fired up Second Life and spent time trying to figure out if I wanted to do the event or not.
I chose yes. By the end of the 2nd of June, I had a day and time and started to work on my playlist.
My Songs
I started with a cute little song that I had to play. Llunr’s Rocketship. I feel like I’m flying around in outerspace when I play that little beauty. It would be a perfect starting point for my set.
The next artist I had decided on was Squirrel Dad and the Spaz Project. I was told where to find their music and I offered 7/11 points in exchange. Last I saw, my account had 300,000 Canadian 7/11 points because I had won the point contest back in 2020. Slurpees for his family in exchange for music? Sure! That was several hours of listening and downloading the songs I wanted. I picked three of the Spaz Project songs: I Don’t Care and Shine Again (Sunrise Mix). Ross Gaetz, part of the Spaz Project provided “Shine For You.”
The next artist I settled on was Artimus Wolz. He was enthusiastic and practically beamed when I told him I wanted to play his songs but that they had to be G rated. I chose “Incompedance” because that was the first of his music I found when I was cruising through the clock app. I have spread that song far and wide whenever I’ve run across women complaining about how their men don’t help. The second of his songs I picked was “Saddy Daddy-O.” I told him I wanted to use it but it was too profane while he was live on clock app. He pointed me towards a “clean” version. The way he chose to make that song “clean” is unique and I wish more artists would do it that way. The “wooo” sound he included to mask the naughty words is perfect.
I’m paraphrasing and putting weeks of conversations between Artimus and I and what he did for me for this year’s music. I love that man, I swear.
I asked if I could use his instrumentals for my voice over and filler music in my bookends. He was all for it. I chose Embers because there is an hour long loop version which is perfect for sound checks before the performance. The last song I picked from Artimus was “Leave her alone.”
I was about to give him a list of songs I could use if he re-edited them, when I was watching on his live and he grabbed his right side and said he was in pain. His live died and several days later he came back and explained that he had pleurisy. I sent him a message to heal up and I will do what I do with what I had. It was more than enough.
The rest of the playlist included but was not limited to:
- Prozzak – Never Get Over You
- Prozzak – Be As
- The Guild – Do You Want To Date My Avatar
- The Arrogant Worms – Log In To You
- 1 For All – Murderhobo Song
- Marianas Trench – Who Do You Love
- Marianas Trench – Stutter
- Red Dwarf – Tongue Tied
- No Resolve – Unstoppable
- Pinkzebra – Larger Than Life
- Bo Burnham – Welcome to the Internet
- Tyler Shaw – Love You Still
- Lewis Capaldi – Wish You the Best
- Tim Hicks – Stronger Beer
- Weird Al – Word Crimes
- Yogscast – Diggy Diggy Hole
- The Weeknd and Daft Punk – Starboy
- Shania Twain – I’m Gonna Getcha Good
- Harry Styles – Watermelon Sugar
- Maggie Linderman – Pretty Girl
- BubbleGum Crisis – Konya wa Hurricane
- Bryan Adams – Can’t Stop This Thing We Started
- Muppets Most Wanted – Moves Like Jagger
- Loreen – Tattoo
- Miley Cirus – Flowers
- Aaron Pritchett – Hold My Beer
- Carly Rae Jepson – Call Me Maybe
- Matthew Hussey – Come Together
- The Tragically Hip – Ahead by a Century
- Lisa Lougheed – Run With Us
- Simple Plan – Jet Lag
- The Greatest Showman – This is Me!
Those were the rest of the songs I picked by the time I finished my planned set on Tuesday at 10 pm.
My entire playlist was set up to be about 55 minutes long with 5 minutes of voice over time. I settled on the music the Friday Second Life’s 20th Birthday started.
I’m really glad I had the playlist set and sorted, with extra songs as needed put in during my sets.
Yes, sets.
Sunday, while I was djing at my normal Sunday wrestling gig and a request for a fil-in went out in the performer’s group. I was already live and it took a hot minute to put my playlist of choice in and zip over to the “backstage” for a voice check.
In less than 10 minutes, I was sound checked, and more, and on the stage performing the set I had spent three weeks to prepare.
An hour later, and it was all over and I was on a high for the rest of the day. That was Sunday.
Monday, another call went out and I said that I was available. The performer showed up 5 minutes before the set was supposed and, well, was denied. I was already up and running again, so there was my second set.
Between sets, I was supporting some of the Djs. Golan had gotten into my inbox on Saturday to make sure I was okay because I was a bundle of nerves, so what I was doing was paying it forward. Golan was one of the stage crew that helped me out the first SLB I ever did. I was still paying it forward just before I planned to log out for the night on Monday. I met a cute as a button dj, Tanzly and she did awesome with a little bit of hair fluffing.
Then Vee, our demon lawd have mercy, pinged me. I had seen her request for a fill in in the group chat and was hovering over the X when she pinged me just before midnight.. In less than 30 seconds, I had decided to do the one hour set that was needing to be filled and had run to our broadcasting room to do just that. Twenty minutes later, I was cackling and bouncing in our living room, asking Black Ort if I could extend it to 2 am.
I cracked my knuckles. I cackled into the mic and opened up requests.
I RAWKED!
My life is a work of He.art 