Music Island is showcased as part of Innovation InfoIsland Grand Opening

Innovation InfoIsland Grand Opening:
SATURDAY OCTOBER 3

Come witness the birth of a grand idea – a sim devoted to the innovative thinking and projects of educators, librarians and information technologists!

The grand opening of Innovation InfoIsland will be a day-long celebration Saturday, Oct. 3.

Innovation InfoIsland will be home to wide ranging projects created by some of Second Life’s most innovative and imaginative residents. The intent of the sim is to give these thinkers, inventors and designers a place to work, create and display their ideas in a beautiful setting reminiscent of New Orleans.

The Grand Opening will showcase a taste of what will be in store: an eclectic variety of live music, discussion from a panel of distinguished professionals, singing and dancing by a talented duo, a book discussion and, of course, dancing! Keynote address will be delivered by Pathfinder Linden at 11 a.m. SLT. Throughout the day visitors are encouraged to tour the island, see some of the projects currently underway and talk to some of the project developers.

Here is the complete schedule of events. All times are SLT.

8 a.m. Studying Psychic Experiences with Rodolfo Mirabella and Maggie Larimore of The AZIRE Library on Innovation Infoislands. Mirabella and Larimore will talk about their research into the psychology of psychic experiences, training a new generation of researchers and the importance of Second Life libraries and museums to the education process. Their almost 30 years of collaboration in RL research and education has focused on the out-of-body experience, and the history of parapsychology.

9 a.m. - Book discussion of "The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America's Leading Design Firm" by Tom Kelley and Jonathan Littman. The discussion will be led by Maxito Ricardo, who in real life is Tom Peters, founder and CEO of TAP Information Services, a company that helps libraries and other organizations innovate.

11 a.m. - Keynote, Pathfinder Linden, "Innovation in Education in Second Life"

12 p.m. - Music Island Concerts@Innovation Island presents violinist Young Zeid. Zeid (Xi Yang in RL) has had a distinguished music career, beginning with his solo debut at age 9. He studied at the Conservatory of Music in Beijing, China, and won the National Violin Competition in Shanghai. At age 17 he was a semi-finalist in the Jacques Tibaud International Violin Competition in Paris. He is a graduate of Indiana University School of Music at Bloomington. He is the the Assistant Concertmaster, guest conductor and soloist with the Raleigh Symphony Orchestra and is a member of the Arcangelo Piano Quartet and Duo Appassionato. He is also the founding music director and conductor of the Youth Symphony of Florida.

1 p.m. - Music Island Concerts@Innovation Island presents the ambient electronic innovations of AldoManutio Abruzzo. Abruzzo performs a unique blend of improvisational ambient guitar with inspirations from classical and world music. He has studied classical guitar, Renaissance and Baroque lute, trombone and recorder and he records and performs under his project name of "usr/sbin."

2 p.m. Panel discussion "Innovation in Education & Libraries.

Panelists are:

Valerie Hill (Valibrarian Gregg) 2-2:10 pm

Valerie Hill is a school librarian and doctoral student at Texas Woman’s University School of Library and Information Studies.

Topic: Innovative Librarianship

Esther Grassian (Alexandria Knight) 2:10-2:20

Esther Grassian is an adjunct lecturer at UCLA Dept. of Information Studies & Information Literacy Librarian at UCLA College Library

Topic: Innovative Information Literacy

Elaine Plybon (Celestia Cazalet) 2:20-2:30pm

Elaine Plybon is a Chemistry teacher and Instructional Technology Specialist at the Jack E. Singley Academy in Irving, Texas. She is the chairperson for the Discovery Educator Network Leadership Council in Texas and serves on the Leadership Council for the Discovery Educator Network in Second Life.

Topic: Innovative Emerging Technology Trends

Sheila Webber (Sheila Yoshikawa) 2:30-2:40

Sheila Webber is a senior lecturer at the Department of Information Studies, University of Sheffield, UK.

Topic: Innovative Media Literacy

Keith Mitchell (Larry Klugman) 2:40-2:50pm

Keith Mitchell is the Coordinator for Technology Initiatives for the Center
for Science and Mathematics Education- University of Texas in Austin

Topic: Building a Professional Development Community
with Second Life

Marianne Malmstrom (Knowclue Kidd) 2:50-3pm

Marianne Malmstrom is a Technology Teacher and machinimatographer.

Topic: Machinima in Education

4 p.m Krull Quar - Will discuss "Cool Tools in Second Life" and the dynamics of tying in real world informatics and Second Life. As well as discuss tools which allow administrators
and program developers to mine and collect data about their audience and participants. Show some of the tools available in Second Life that make it possible to interact with participants and viewers.

5 p.m. Kate Miranda and Jay Ackroyd - Music Island Concerts- - Virtually Speaking - stand at the intersection between the Arts and public conversations about the social, economic, political and scientific issues that confront the modern world. They will discuss the particular challenges and opportunities that confront them as content providers, the trajectories of their two programs, and their emerging collaboration.

6 p.m. Satin Galli and Erin68 Frog take to the stage to sing a mix of duets and solos highlighting the music of hit vocalists from the past 30 to 40 years. Come prepared to dance to their delightful music. Galli and Frog were winners of the Anthology Awards 2009 for Best Duo and the Live Entertainment Music Awards 2009.

7 p.m. Music Island Concerts @ Innovation InfoIsland will present a concert at the island jazz club, featuring Cindy Ecksol. Ecksol has been making and teaching music with voice, autoharp, fiddle and a variety of other instruments for as long as she can remember. She is particularly interested in traditional music of many varieties, and her repertoire includes everything from Irish tunes and Israeli dance music played on autoharp to dark Appalachian fiddle tunes from the mountains of West Virginia, as well as amusing modern songs about real life.

Glad to See Thom Dowd is Recovering!

Our good friend Thom Dowd, the Second Life master of the Renaissance flute suffered a motorcycle accident that took him out of commission with a broken thumb for a few weeks. We were relieved to see this posted video of his first try at playing with the mended thumb!

Way to go Thom and we look forward to more flute concerts with you and your students coming soon in Second Life.

Find more videos like this on Music Island Concerts

Christine Montgomery, Sun. Sept. 27 @ 12 pm SLT

PROGRAM (revised Sept.26):
Caulfield Introduction with tape
Ashbridge Dreamspheres I
Caulfield Freddie goes to town
Caulfield Everybody Gotta be Somewhere (premiere)
Caulfield Spring Rondo
Massenet Meditation
Caulfield Hallasan Blues for solo Bassoon
Caulfield Boar Ring (solo) (premiere )
Bartok Wedding Song
Bartok Pillow Dance
Caulfield The show that never starts


Biography

Christine is a Principal Software Engineer at Red Hat, working on Linux clustering and storage technologies. She has has been playing violin since the age of 7 but gave up in her teens (to a lasting regret) and didn't restart until her early 20s. She currently plays violin with the Sinfonia of Leeds and the CoMA (COntemporary Music for Amateurs) Yorkshire Ensemble.

As a composer, Christine is largely self-taught, but has taken tuition and advice from Ben Oliver and John Habron (both now at Southampton) and anyone else who will listen. Her compositional style is eclectic and takes in a number of diverse influences from the baroque masters to Schittke, Swedish folk music and silly noises you can make by hitting a cheap fiddle with a paint brush. She is, as Douglas Adams would have it, "a great fan of science" and frequently uses scientific and mathematical themes in her music, though is not above tweaking mathematical systems for musical effect.

Although highly technically literate (see job description above) she prefers to compose sat in a comfortable arm-chair using a pencil and manuscript paper. Oh, and a calculator ... and possibly a martini. She lives in Leeds with a large number of cats, some strange instruments, and possibly too many computers and/or microphones.

AldoManutio Abruzzo Sept 22-- Equinox Concert

The Balance of the Matter
September 22
5 pm SECOND LIFE TIME (PDT)
Music Island Concerts @ Sea Turtle Island

Our biggest celebrations as a species tend to focus on the extremes of our seasonal cycles, Mid-summer and Mid-winter solstice celebrations. In these times, hopefully the human species is evolving to have a considered and worshipful regard for the idea of balance.

Join us in musical contemplation of the balance of day and night, winter and summer, as the earth is perfectly balanced between the Light and the Dark, the Heat of the Sun and the Cold of Winter Nights.

I don't know what surprises Aldo may have in store for the concert audience on Tuesday night. (He is being unusually secretive). But every concert with Aldo has been a delight for the ears and senses and the hearts of listeners are filled with calm and contemplation.

Aldo plays a unique blend of improvisational ambient guitar. You have to hear it to believe it! In real life, this avatar studied classical guitar, Renaissance and Baroque lute, trombone, and recorder. He records and performs under his project name of "usr/sbin".

He contributes regularly to collaborative recording efforts for The Ambient Collective (http://www.ambientcollective.com/), has released an EP for the netlabel Mandorla Records (http://www.mandorla.com.mx/), where his work is also showcased in their MANDORLA AUTUMN TUNES NET-COLLECTION release, and regularly participates in the National Solo Album Month (http://usrslashsbin.angrek.com/audio/nasoalmo/).

His CDs are listed in iTunes and Rhapsody, as well as several other online music services. A quick search for "usr/sbin" with your favorite online service should turn up his recordings; if not, let him know! His recordings can also be heard regularly at http://www.stillstream.com

AldoManutio Abruzzo (RL: Dennis Moser, aka "usr/sbin")
http://audiozoloft.com
http://www.myspace.com/usrsbin

Zachh Cale Sept 19 in his first performance at Music Island

I heard Zachh play while I was out and about the Second Life club scene and we chatted for awhile after his set. This young man is loaded with talent. Those who have heard him in the clubs may be familiar with his light classics and stylings of popular music but there is more here and we're going to experience that this weekend.

Zachh is a composer/pianist whose style is a mix of popular, classical, jazz and new age genres. Schooled in classical piano, he later rebelled against tradition and learned to play by ear - now he blends both traditional and popular approaches to composition and performance. The result is usually a fresh combination of melodies and rhythms, which hopefully stimulate both hearts and minds of his listeners.

It will be great to welcome Zachh to Music Island and a community of serious musicians within Second Life who have really become like a family in helping each other with both Second Life and RL music projects.

Finding interesting stuff to do in Second Life

Under the heading of "Frequently Asked Questions":

New residents frequently arrive at Music Island, discover that there is no concert that day and say, "But how do I find stuff to do that I'm interested in? I have been exploring empty spaces for DAYS!!!!!"

1. First understand that Second Life is organized like the rest of the Social Web. People move in response to events and associations. So finding events of interest by simply popping about the SL Grid is not likely to work too well.

2. Find active groups that interest you: Search on groups via key words in the SL search engine. Find one that looks interesting and with open membership and join. Now look at past notices to see if the group is active. If you don't see notices that interest you, then drop the group and look for another one. Another way to find groups that interest you is to use the same search terms under the "places" tab in search. Visit places of interest and see if there are groups to join. Soon you'll be getting notices of events of interest.



3. Use the SL "Events" search engine: Select "live music", "education" or any other category from the drop down menu in the Events Tab in Search. Then press the search button. Lots of events will appear. Since the listings are not too well-policed there will be some irrelevant returns, but you will still likely see a number of events of interest to you.


What could Linden Labs do to help people find things that interest them more easily?

1. Make the Search Engine more intuitive. People don't expect to have to press "search" after opening a Search tab and selecting a category.

2. Increase the number of categories or create sub-categories.

3. Police the listings more aggressively for spammers and off topic postings.

4. Allow people to view notices on groups without joining or at least to have the number of archived notices viewable. Joining groups only to see that there hasn't been an event in living memory is a pain.

Professor Blackmountain, September 17

Thursday September 17 at Virtually Speaking

Professor Blackmountain is an electronic/ambient artist better known for RL music projects Palancar, Copal River, and Cluster Balm. He is also the owner of ambient radio StillStream.com and music labels Earth Mantra Netlabel and Blue Water Records. His music is meditative and mood altering, with the goal of bringing audiences into a state of harmony both inner and with the world around.

For more information visit:

http://stillstream.com
http://earthmantra.com
http://bluewaterrecords.com
http://palancar.net
http://myspace.com/copalriver
http://myspace.com/clusterbalm

In a new joint venture with the Virtually Speaking series featuring important thinkers of public affairs, a series of concerts will bring the global language of music to set the stage for the contemplation of important issues of our time. Arts and Letters evenings will enable the audience to experience the best in SL music and thought-provoking discussion.

At 6 pm Virtually Speaking will welcome special guest Marcy Wheeler. She is best known for her book, Anatomy of Deceit, which served as a primer of the CIA Leak case, and her live-blogging of the Scooter Libby trial. She covered efforts to hold the Bush Administration accountable for its illegal warrantless wiretapping and torture programs.

Blogging as 'emptywheel,' she built a following at DailyKos.com and now blogs as at FireDogLake.com.

What's next?

Yesterday as we were concluding a wonderful concert by Astronimus Randt... you have to catch one of Astronimus's concerts if you haven't previously... I received not one but several IM's saying "What's next?" as in some expectation that there would be a back to back line up of live musicians performing all afternoon.

I wanted to go and smack my head against the wall. Organizing, booking, promoting and running one concert a week involves what amounts to a parttime unpaid job. Originally I organized only one or two concerts a month. Then I felt that momentum would be better if I could come up with a weekly concert. That effort has proven impossible with a fulltime job so I have changed my employment situation to parttime to explore options with the SL project... and that's still not enough? What are these people thinking???

rant

rant

rant

Astronimus Randt, violin, flute September 12

Astronimus Randt
Original jazz compositions
Electric violin & flute
Music Island/Sea Turtle Island
September 12, 2009
12 pm (noon) Second Life Time (PDT)

Astronimus began his career as a musician when he was a child, singing in choir and playing the violin. Soon after this, he picked up the guitar and began songwriting and composing. He began playing professionally at the age of 15. In college, he majored in composition and minored in applied violin. He’s worked in recording studios as a musician and in production/engineering. Astronimus has also performed in musical theatre, both on-stage and in the orchestra pit.