Rich Desoto

We'll Miss You Uncle Funky Shoes

I'm very sad this week. A great musician and friend to many has passed away.

In Memoriam - UFS/Uncle Funky Shoes/Randy Walters http://www.carlislefh.com We regret to announce that UFS Hyde aka Uncle Funky Shoes aka "David" Randy Walters, RL and SL Live Musician, passed away Saturday, February 27. The obituary was posted today at the above link. Please take the time to sign the guestbook there if you are able. "He was a great musician who’s biggest love was his family, music and laughter. He loved everyone and showed that in his music. Randy’s humor was contagious, you could not be around him and not laugh. His huge personality was amazing. " In-World services are being planned for Sunday, March 7th from 7am SLT to 4pm SLT at Crazy Sharks. If you would like to speak, perform, have memories to share or contribute in any way, please contact Cher Harrington via IM in-world or by email at cher_sl@yahoo.com.

I regret that I cannot attend the entire day of memorial services. There are many friends and fantastic musicians participating to pay tribute to Randy. I will be there for the first hour or so, though. Here's the lineup as Cher Harrington recently posted:

Sunday, March 7 UFS Memorial Order of Service (all times SLT) Crazy Sharks, Serra Cove: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Crazy%20Sharks/42/195/22 Audio clips - Bob Shemesh 7 am - Dan Octavia 7:20 am - Dann Numbers 7:40 am - Rich Desoto 8-8:30 am - Audio clips - Bob Shemesh 8:30 am - Mambo Wells 8:50 am - Mel Cheeky 9:10 am - Picker Apogee 9:30-9:40 am - Audio clips - Bob Shemesh 9:40 am - Russell Eponym 10 am - KatRose Serendipity 10:20 - 11:20 am - Audio clips - Bob Shemesh 11:20 am - Grateful Stryker 11:40 am - Juel Resistance 12 - 12:30pm - VLB Band 12:30pm - Audio clips - Bob Shemesh 12:50pm - Astronimus Randt 1:10pm - DimiVan Ludwig 1:30pm - Etherian Kamaboko 1:50 - 2:20pm - Audio clips - Bob Shemesh 2:20pm - Spaceman Opus 2:40pm - Charles Coleman/David Csziser 3pm - Doc Firecaster 3:20pm - Edward Lowell 3:40pm - Minister Miles 3:45pm - 4:30pm - Audio clips - Bob Shemesh Hosts: 1. Amanda Steadham 2. Chuckie Breeda 3. Cher Harrington 4. Chely Lock 5. Drusilla Clapsaddle Donations to Randy's guitar case

THON Benefit 2010

I will again be performing at the THON Benefit in Second Life. This time I will be starting at 2:30pm SLT/5:30 PM EST on Friday, 19 February 2010. This year’s event will again be held at the PSU World Campus in SL. I'm pleased to be back at this event for my fourth year. The Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon, affectionately referred to as THON, is a yearlong effort to raise funds and awareness for the fight against pediatric cancer. Since 1977, THON has raised more than $61 million for The Four Diamonds Fund at Penn State Children's Hospital. Find out more about the THON benefit weekend at thon.org. If you would like to listen to the performance in WinAmp, iTunes or on your iPod Touch or iPhone, you can use the following address: thesongster.serverroom.us:9392 or richpalmer.com/a/9392

Benefit for Micki Underwood: Show Download

A friend and musician, Michelle Pillers (Micki Underwood in Second Life), has recently been diagnosed with lymphoma of the brain. This is a fairly early catch and the survival prognosis is about 70%. However, her treatments may take from six months to year.

It has been discovered that she doesn't have health insurance to cover this challenge. Because it will be considered a preexisting condition she will find it very difficult to get coverage for her medical expenses.

Today I performed a benefit show in Second Life to help raise funds for Michelle. Many artists performed throughout the day and people are being very generous. We still need to do all we can. So... I am offering a recording of today's show (warts and all) for you to download. You are certainly welcome to the recording for free, but I think Michelle and everyone else would appreciate it if you would donate a bit to the cause.

The PayPal link will allow you to donate online -- you can use any major credit card (Visa, MC, AEx or Discover) or your PayPal account to do so. Please contribute. Every little bit helps. Your donation will be send directly to Michelle.

UPDATE: This offer is now closed.

DivShare: File Storage and Sharing

Mark Forman (Chill Moksung) from Taichung, Taiwan (via Brooklyn) shared a site with me earlier today. You can upload music, videos, photos, files and such for storage. It includes flash players and other cool features. I thought that Second Lifers might like something like this to share photos, files and even music (from the SL Musician types). Here's the episode of Audio Gumshoe that produced today, via the DivShare player:

Hummingbird Jam 2009

MANY musicians and friends from Second Life gathered this past weekend in Indianapolis for a weekend of music and fun. Hosts DimiVan Ludwig and Leira Vaughan were fantastic. They provided a venue for the event and a tremendous amount of food and beverage. They were amazing. I wish I could remember all of the names that were there. Unfortunately I wasn't able to connect all of them, but here are many of the musicians that I know that played, sang, and enjoyed each others' company: Dimivan Ludwig, Edward Lowell, Dakota7z7 Pluto, Wendy Curtis, Kim Siefert, Ezcape Hax, Mimi Carpenter, Maximillion Kleene, Damien Carbonell (is that the right spelling?), Anek Fuchs, Gina Steele and I'm sure there are more. That Rich Desoto guy even showed up. Here is a short video from my phone. The sound quality is awful -- as is the video -- but what can we expect from a camera phone?

Virtual Herald and Phill Plasma

When you visit VirtualHerald.com you will find a tremendous amount of information about the virtual world, Second Life. Author and owner Phill Plasma covers such topics as live music in Second Life, interviews with the people in the environment, and venues and places that he finds interesting. In addition, Plasma covers topics about technology and the World Wide Web. He shares his experiences with blogs and social networks, music sites and more. I was fortunate that Phill Plasma was in the audience recently when I played during the monthly ORIGINALS showcase. He recorded video of my performance of "Future Retrospect" while he was there. He contacted me to let me know that he had posted the video to his site. This connection led to an interview and Phill has now released it at the Virtual Herald site. Please visit to hear the song and to read the interview! Phill recently also posted videos of ORIGINALS performances by Juel Resistance and Zorch Boomhauer. Be sure to watch them, as well.

The Originals - 24 May 2009

Here's info on the next scheduled performance for Rich Desoto:

Rastafairy Beach presents The O R I G I N A L S

Live from 10am slt (1pm US ET) Sunday, 24th May, Ten acts, 30 mins each, all original music! Formed in 2008 The O R I G I N A L S are the brainchild of POL Arida & The Shippe who wanted to bring more original music to the masses of SL! The ORIGINALS are a travelling group of varying artists, a selection of some of SL finest live musicians performing all original sets at different venues around the Grid. We are very happy to be bringing The ORIGINALS to Hexx & Jsmn's RASTAFAIRY BEACH today and hope you enjoy the great original music you will hear at event! ____________________________________________ The artists performing with The O R I G I N A L S today are 10.00am - The BORN AGAIN PAGANS - NL 10.30am - AMFORTE CLARITY - CAN 11.00am - LEXIE LUAN - USA 11.30am - BARA JONSON - SWE 12.00pm - POL Arida - SCOTLAND 12.30pm - ZORCH BOOMHAUER - USA 01.00pm - RICH DESOTO - USA 01.30pm - JUEL RESISTANCE - USA 02.00pm - ACOUSTICENERGY NITELY - USA 02.30pm - DANN NUMBERS - USA If you would like more information on The O R I G I N A L S please contact HARRIE SKJELLERUP or POL ARIDA in world or via our myspace http://www.myspace.com/theoriginals_sl We are now on Twitter also and you can follow us @TheORIGINALS_sl where we will be sending regular updates and also want to hear who you think should be part of next months line up, you can also email us theoriginalsinsl@gmail.com We hope you enjoy the showcase of some of SL's finest original musicians, and that you will continue to support them, Original Music and of course all Live music in SL. If you are unable to make the event in world, dont worry you will still be able to listen in, as the event will be broadcast live on INDIESPECTRUM RADIO at http://www.indiespectrum.com Please pass this along to your friends in both worlds and get them to come along or tune in too! Thank you for being part of The O R I G I N A L S!

For those people that don't participate in Second Life or that would like to hear the show through another player, please listen to the show at IndieSpectrum Radio.

Tonight at Fibber Magees

It just seems easier to post the information as publicized at Eventful.com. :)

Dublin Live Music Showcase! Each week featuring well-known artists for your enjoyment and introducing new artists for growing the spirit of live music in SL! 5:00pm pst/slt - Rich Desoto Live Music - Fibber Magees Nightclub, Dublin 3 Pop, Rock, Folk - Acoustic, Vocal Come hear such SL standards as Avatar Girl, No Copy No Mod and I Used to Sleep! LISTEN IN ON DUBLIN RADIO! http://66.34.54.162:8000

Music Awareness 2009

I'll be one of the hundreds of performers playing at this year's Music Awareness event in Second Life. My show is scheduled for 10 a.m. 14 April 2009. The event will be held on Money Island, with many simulcasts locations available.

From the Music Not Politics web site

Music Awareness 2009 takes flight this Friday, April 10th as Washington, DC rocker Kevin M. Thomas kicks off 100 hours of live music concerts set in the virtual platform known as Second Life (). If you are not a resident of Second Life you can still catch all or portions of this historical event via streaming technology. Butterflies Radio will simulcast the entire 100 hours at http://butterfliesradio.com/ . You can listen live from the MUSIC NOT POLITICS website. BZoO Radio will be simulcasting portions of the event and you can listen directly in to the stream. Although the initial intent for Music Awareness is to help reach new audiences within the world of Second Life it is also meant to bring the music community together and begin building bonds between musicians, ultimately strengthening the community. Additionally with the streaming technology, it is hoped this year’s Music Awareness event will reach well beyond Second Life and into the real world where fans can see they have a choice and musicians can see that there is a platform for exposure for them. The traditional music industry has long held control over what artists get air play and what do not. We believe every musician has a right to be heard and that fans do have a choice. During Music Awareness we try to bring this all together in a party that continues to ring in everyone’s ears long after the event is over. There are over 90 musicians coming together for this event, all performing from their home studios via streaming technology and coming directly to you. If you are in second life, the musicians are fully interactive with the fans that are represented by virtual avatars. Efforts are underway to ensure that all residents of Second Life can enjoy the event. If the Money Island sims are full there are several venues available for audio simulcast. The entire 100 hour event will be simulcast at Z’s Music Club. Additionally, other venues will be simulcasting portions of the event including but not limited to: Bay Vista, Cuddler’s Cove, Blueberry Hill, Sicily, JSP Island and Anthology. If you are not in Second Life you can still tune in and support indie music and your right to choose. For more information, check out an interview about Music Awareness on SLCN's Tonight Live and check out articles about Music Awareness at thinkerer.org and at the SL Enquirer (click on the music tab) Wheelerwood Films has created an awesome promo video you can check out to see some footage from last years Music Awareness event you can search Music Awareness at http://youtube.com/ Updates for the event can be found at MusicNotPolitics.com.

Storyteller Night at the Hummingbird Cafe

Please join me Wednesday, 8 April 2009 at 5 pm SLT/8pm EST as I take the stage for the first ever storyteller night at the Hummingbird Cafe. I'm very excited to have been invited to participate in this event. As I work on my new album, I continue to revisit how and why I have created many of the songs. I'll share some of these background stories during the hour as I play my original tunes for you. If you cannot join us in-world, please listen via WinAmp or iTunes. [Stream Address]