Sep 10, 2009

Applied for a Theme Camp!

As I wrote in a previous article,
I applied for live performance at Burning Life '09.
But I was sort of reluctant to apply for a Theme Camp.
I did what I really wanted to do in Burning Life last year
and Second Life 6th Birthday.
As a creator, I do not want to do the same old things….
Something new…oh, that does not comes to my mind these days.

It was one of those days winds Seiling,
captain of Yokohama Marching Band proposed me
we should do something together at Burning Life.
Collaboration? Yes! That will make something new!
I accepted her offer, had a meeting with her and her staff,
then my brains began working
and I felt something wonderful would happen.

Next morning I woke up with a very strange image
and a sound of music I know very well.
Confused about the combination of the image and the music,
I told winds about this.
She seemed to think it was interesting
and told me she had imagined similar combination before.
All right. This means "Go!"
I quickly posted our application for a Theme Camp
under the title "Yokohama 'Burning' Marching Band."
What will it be like?
I will tell you when we are granted our land. :)
Please pray for us getting our Theme Camp
and look forward to our performance.

We will, we will burn you!!

[Yokohama Marching Band Official Blog]
http://yokohamamachingband.blogspot.com/

Sep 5, 2009

Applied for Live Performance

As a live musician, I applied for performance
at stages of Buring Life '09.
I'm not sure what my schedule will be at last
and whether it will be the Center Camp or
Tokyo Plaza or whatever,
but anyway, I have decided to play at Buring Life this year.

I hope we will have good times together there!

Jun 7, 2009

Media & Music URL Set

There's 16-hour time difference between California and Japan.
So, before I went to bed yesterday, I sent a notecard
to Poid Maholvich, SIM coordinator in charge of Dimension,
asking him to set Media & Music URL as I wanted it to be.
When I woke up I found IM from him and URLs had been set
as I asked. Thanks, Poid! :)

As it seems impossible to change Music URL by myself,
I ordered AutoDJ service in addition to the streaming server.
AutoDJ activates my streaming server
and plays the playlist automatically and repeatedly.
This enables me, by using the same streaming server,
to stream my live performance when I'm logged in
and to broadcast my playlist when I'm away.
Isn't it nice? :)

As for Media, the following movie is played in my place.
This is the one in which I made a improvisational session
with naturalway Flow's Music StarMine:



To tell the truth, I would like to make an original video for SL6B,
if the time permits!
But, well, I don't know, for now....



The picture above is the present building of my place.
But I might change the appearance as well as scripts.
I don't know myself how it will look in the end.

Well, when I was working, I got an IM,
telling me I was not showing SL6B Exhibitor group tag
and that it would cause me some trouble.
No! I forgot to change it
because I was building at SilkRoad SIM until late last night!
Thank you so much for reminding me!

The guy was Kolor Fall, my neighbor at Dimension.
Yes, I noticed a group of cell-like objects
was gleaming and moving, like an organic being.
He told me he had already finished his work. Wow!

On the face of his place, there is a monolithic plate
and you can draw anything by left-clicking and dragging.
He showed me how to do it by drawing my name "HIRO,"
when a group of cell-like objects began to move....
Yes!
The objects takes the forms as it appears on the plate,
which means...I found a very tall monument - 400m high! -
in the form of my name! lol




Isn't it fun?
I was very much impressed by his work
and found something in common with mine.
Then, what is my exhibition like?
Well, that's a secret now.
Please check this blog and you will know. :)

Jun 4, 2009

Now I Got the Notice!

Today I got a mail from Dusty Linden
telling me mine has been selected for the exhibition
at Second Life 6th Birthday.
naturalway Flow has also received the mail,
so the two of us will be able to give shows
in the parcel allotted to us....

Well, originally the notice was to come on 1st June.
but in the afternoon of that day, Dusty announced
it was rescheduled to 3rd.
But it would not seem to come
even it was 5:00 pm...and then 8:00 pm....
As the notice was said to be sent to those
who were admitted to exhibit,
I was not sure about the status
whether I was not admitted
or it was only a delay again....
I almost gave up waiting for the notice. :(

And then, about 10:00 pm, it finally came!
I was at work then (because it was 2:00 pm in Japan!)
so I was so anxious to go home
and rush to my land.
But the notice also told me
it would take a couple of days more
for them to allot which parcel to whom!

Oh, they make me wait again....
But well, it's okay now I know they've been working hard
until, rather, past 10:00 pm!
As soon as I got detailed information from them,
I'll update this blog explaining about my exhibition. :)


May 30, 2009

I'll Appear in SL6B!

Electrolab Kayo from The Black Stripes wrote in her blog
that the band will appear in SL6B on 28th June.
And now, my appearance has also fixed:
8:00 am Friday 26th June and 5:00 am Sunday 28th.
Yeah, it's 6:00 am Sunday when The Black Stripes will play,
so you can enjoy the Japanese groups for 2-consecutive hours!
We are very much excited to play Japanese electronic music
in front of the audience from all the world over. :)

Please find our schedule as follows,
the detailed SLURL yet to be announced though:



















FridayJun.268:00 - 9:00 am SLTHiroshi Kumaki
SundayJun.285:00 - 6:00 am SLTHiroshi Kumaki
6:00 - 7:00 am SLTThe Black Stripes

We are looking forward to seeing you there! :)



May 16, 2009

Fantastic Stage Now on YouTube

2 weeks have been passed
since the collaborative show with naturalway Flow....
I'm very happy to know my friends fully enjoyed the show,
saying "It was wonderful! I would like to see it again!"
As a matter of fact, it was the two of us who enjoyed most. :)
So naturalway and I are beginning to feel
like giving this show on a regular basis, not as a singular event,
and showing it as one of the SL6B events....

As I was playing live,
I am always unable to take pictures of my own stage,
But, wow! someone took a video of that fantastic show!
With his permission, I edited the video,
entitled it as "Vision Quest" and uploaded on YouTube.

Those who enjoyed the show to the spot
and those who missed the show,
I would be happy if all of you would enjoy this movie. :)





May 10, 2009

I'll Play 20 Hours This Year!

It's been a week since the 6-day Niseko Radio Festival.
In that radio program, kenmi Lomu announced
this year's Niseko 24-Hour Radio.
Yes, I remember...it was about this time last year
Sena Pinklady was running to gather signatures
to make the 24-Hour Radio come true in SL
and kenmi, decided to launch the program,
asked me to write music for it....

24-Hour Radio 2009 will be larger in scale!
It will be broadcast from a cottage in real Niseko, Hokkaido
and motimoti Campese from Step Up!, a very popular band in SL,
to give a live performance there.
So it will be actually a TV show, not a radio,
that will be broadcast on the Internet and in Second Life. :)
Oh, I got excited to know these plans and I can hardly wait!

I might not be in real Niseko with them,
but of course I will participate in the program some way.
Yes, as kenmi host the show for 24 hours,
I will give a 20-hour live performance in SL to encourage him.
The exact time and place will be announced later
when the details of the program is fixed.

And, as the radio program includes the live images of real Niseko
through Stickam,
My 20-hour live will also be broadcast through Stickam.
Thus the program will cover and be broadcast in
both real life and Second Life.
You can enjoy it in Second Life, on the Internet
and even at the real Niseko!

Got excited?
Yeah, I'm excited myself.
So please check out this 24-hour radio program
on 27-28 June, 2009! :)

Apr 13, 2009

[New Song] "Call for Peace"

Yesterday, Monthly Daichi Music Webzine vol. 68
(Japanese version) was published:
http://www.tierramusic.net/2009/04/12/

In that issue, I released "Call for Peace,"
a song I wrote protesting Israeli attacks on Gaza in January.
Yes, it was in January, to know the situation
where many lives of innocent people were taken,
I could not help but make some action
and organized a peace concert like a bolt from the blue.

It was immediately after I wrote the song that I gave the gig,
So there were no time for elaborate arrangement
and I played only the chords on the guitar
because the concept the song in protest of war
reminded me of Bob Dylan. :)

Now three months since the live performance,
the song was renewed featuring the keyboards, not the guitar.
And the lyrics have the second verse too.
(As a matter of fact I sang the same verse in January.)
Please find them here:

CALL FOR PEACE

One day in a holiday season
A man was killed for some reason
And the war has begun
Revenge on revenge profits for none
At this very moment women and children cryin'
At this very moment soldiers and citizens dyin'
Oh no...

Let's cry out for peace
Let's stand up for peace
The way out we should seek
Together let love speak
And all the fire cease....

Where is a fear, there comes a fire
And the fire grows, makes all expire
Now we can see it clear
Only love and peace can conquer the fears
At this very moment there are children in hunger
At this very moment there are citizens in anger
It's time...

Let's cry out for peace
Let's stand up for peace
The way out we should seek
Together let love speak
And all the fire cease....

I'll play that tune at a gig in the near future,
so please look forward to it and make sure to come!

Mar 15, 2009

"On Air" Sign!

It was at umanosuke Runo's web site
I found and got interested in "on air" sign.
It was just like the one at the radio or TV studio
and it turns on when he's playing in Second Life. :)

Working on broadcasting my live performance in SL,
I also made this sign and put it on the left side
of this site.
As Slmame does not allow PHP working,
it was difficult for me to install this function,
but I finally made it. Phew!



As the picture above left shows, it's usually turned off.
But, when I'm giving shows, or the streaming begins,
it turns on brightly as the picture above right shows.
Of course, when Ustream TV broadcast begins,
it turns on too.
Thus this sign tells you whether I'm playing inworld or not
at that very moment! :)

So - ,
if you find the sign shining bright, please listen to my music
through Internet radio, or, it would be highly appreciated
if you could log in to join the show inworld!

Mar 11, 2009

You Can Watch My Live Here!

Many hear about Second Life, but most of them have not entered
the World and do not know what it would be like.
This is one of the reasons I have been trying to broadcast
my inworld live performance to the real world.
When I first became a resident of Second Life,
it seemed very difficult to broadcast inworld event to real
and vise versa.
But now, Ustream or Stickam enable us to broadcast ourselves
with web browsers only and without any professional instruments!

These days I've been making experiments
on broadcasting my live performance by Ustream.
And now, you can watch it at this site!



On the left of this blog, under "Music & Video,"
You will find my picture playing piano under the sea.
When my gig is broadcast, the picture turns into a live image
and you can enjoy the show without logging in !
By Clicking the image itself, you can watch it
in a larger size by moving to the Ustream site.
Of course, by clicking the Internet radio link below,
you can enjoy the music only, without images.

The schedule will be announced here
prior to the Ustream broadcast,
so please check out this site closely! :)

Jan 5, 2009

A New Year Card of Music

It's 4th day of the new year and I have to work from tomorrow.
New Year holidays are over! I can't believe it!
I wish they should last longer for a week or two. :)

My friends have got New Year Cards from me
and the card shows the New Year Dawn of this year,
the one I took at Oiso beach.
And you know, there's a video version of that picture
and I edited it, added my music,
and uploaded onto YouTube as usual.

This is a New Year Card of Music.
I hope you'll enjoy and like it.
Anyway, Happy New Year to you all. :)