SOAR 2011 DISCOGRAPHY - CD3

Eighteen days to go before 2012 but we have enough songs for our third virtual CD release of the year. There may be more songs written before the end of the year but the last burst of songwriting in late November has left me feeling as if there are none left. This is rubbish hopefully :)
All but one of these songs was written in October and November (Dearest Caroline snuck into early December). In writing order (pretty much);
Home Again
The Edge
The Favourite Daughter
The Flame and the Arrow
The Hippie Retrospective
All of the Pieces
Comes the Wind
Into My Arms
You Stopped Listening
I Can be Your Fortress
The Promised Land
Hold On To Love
Dearest Caroline


"Love" in many of its variations features strongly on this album. Home Again speaks about what it feels like to see a friend being hurt by love and knowing that you can doing nothing about it. Dearest Caroline tells one of the many stories about the reasons why people can be left waiting for the person they love. The confusion of love and the rewards and risks of taking love to the edges of what we know rumbles around in The Edge. Comforting friends who have fallen out of love is the theme of I Can be Your Fortress, while You Stopped Listening wanders around the theme of all the songs that have been written for someone or about particular situations where the subject never hears the song.  And perhaps All of the Pieces and The Favourite Daughter are the hardest love lessons of them all - moving on when you feel it is what is best to do, while Hold On To Love mixes both the heartache of separation with a resonant message rising out of despair, to hold on to what you have.
Add to these the less challenged emotions of Into My Arms, Comes the Wind and The Flame and the Arrow, and the usual SOAR excursion into ecopolitical content in The Hippie Retrospective, and The Promised Land (yet to be debuted in SecondLife), and the album is complete.
I particularly like these songs as a group and i think they belong together. There were many other part songs written during this period and for now they live in the SOAR vault. Perhaps when i am next holidaying on a beach somewhere, or on that romantic hotel balcony in Geneva, cold bitter lemon drink or iced tea in my hand, sunglasses on, the twins fussing around me looking after all of my commands :) i will go digging into the vault and revisit October and November 2011.
I hope there are songs amongst these that you enjoy. I love what The Flame and the Arrow means to me and how the music of it lifts me up, so it shall be the name of CD3.
As always, thank you for reading!
Hugs
Bright

SOAR 2011 DISCOGRAPHY - CD2

Hehehe - the heading sounds vaguely impressive!
This blog entry covers the songs that make up SOAR's second imaginery CD in 2011 and features songs written between May and August and listed here in a rough order of writing.
Spirit
Love Letter
Love Wins
Wild Winds

The Sunflower
Tell Me About Tomorrow
All Through The Night
Fragile Notes
Kismet
From Another Page
I Used To Hear You Say A Prayer
If I Could Fly (Lalita's Song)
The Ballad of Hope and Prime
Three common threads in SOAR's songwriting are revisited in this album, secondlife based songs, ecopolitcal, and of course love songs which dominate this album. It is true that much of SOAR's earliest material sought inspiration, indeed thrived upon sweet naive love and the torment of relationship break down but this album sees SOAR reaching further into the pool of love related writing. The songs are matched with sparser and more intricate arrangements overall which helps gives this collection of songs a common identity.
I have an inkling that SOAR's upcoming Christmas CD compilation will be named Fragile Notes so i shall choose another title for this album - then let it be, Love Letter.
All but one song has been debuted in secondlife gigs (Wild Winds) and all songs except If I Could Fly, words written by Lalita Graves, were penned by SOAR.
Forgive the complete absence of a she-doggone-up-and-left-me song from this album - we will overcompensate for this in a future album :)
Thanks for reading and for being part of our reasons to write.
Hugs
Bright

The SOAR DISCOGRAPHY, of sorts.

So far this year SOAR has had another year rich with new songs. We pretty much play them as we write them because that's why we write them - to play for people. I am ok with missing out on the thrill of a new CD launch and all the hype that can go with that but I am starting to feel that something else is missing - hence this blog entry.
I love going to allmusic dot com whenever I am trying to find out some info about a muso or band. It is a great resource of full discographies and thoughtful reviews. For me there is something interesting and revealing about the musical journey of a band as measured by their album releases, and this is something SOAR doesn't have. SOAR has only made one album of new material, our album titled, A Girl Like You, though we are coming up to our fourth compilation album this Christmas.
For a while now Experiment and I have been piecing together SOAR's collective songwriting into chronological order. This is made easier because Experiment has been the long time keeper of the SOAR music vault, and the history, recordings and dates that are important to our chronology. While it is an imperfect way to decide upon album groupings, it is the best we can do after the fact.

When I look over my own songwriting I know that there have been particular phases and influences that have resulted in a bunch of songs being written from the same burst of creativity. I see them having a context when grouped together over and above what they have as individual songs so I am going to try and put some structure to this. Thought I would begin with songs written this year, 2011 and attempt some kind of allmusic styled review as I go.
The first few songs from 2011 I am leaving aside to be added to the songs written in the latter part of 2010, these include Rise, Silently, and Cathedral because the first burst of concerted song writing in 2011 began with the bunch of songs I blogged about in late February.
Gonna Give You Reasons
On Our Knees
My Wandering Muse
Songbird
The Hummingbird and Bee
Story of Love
Straight From the Heart
Flying Back to Canada
Paris Hilton's Cell Phone
It's a Sad Moon Too
Your Candle Burns
Gina Gracemount
The Highs and Lows
This batch of songs was written between February and April - and may be added to if a couple of incomplete songs from then, such as The Mountains Where We Live, Life Goes On, and My One Tomorrow are finished. Thinks of an album title, mmm, let me see, I'd go with, My Wandering Muse. Yes :)
In my mind the foundation songs in this period are My Wandering Muse, Songbird and Flying Back to Canada. Each explores the reaches of sweet sweet love where fate rather than disaster or the falling out of love has intervened. From mystical enchanting encounters as in "Muse", to chance encounters with a lover from the past, in "Songbird", to the maddening intrusion of reality into blissful youthful love, as in "Canada", to the reflective look at immature mistakes in "It's a Sad Moon Too".
To these songs were added "The Highs and Lows" and "Gonna Give You Reasons" two songs about two kinds of mess people can get into, and the love and the years that can be wasted in doing so, and three songs, two lightly weighted love songs, "Story of Love" and "Straight From the Heart", and one exploring a more intense attraction, "Your Candle Burns".
The album is completed with four special purpose songs. The first, "The Hummingbird and Bee" was written in time to be sung at Relay For Life events in SecondLife, while "Paris Hilton's Cell Phone" was written as the 2011 follow up to the Juliette Trilogy, Bright's fruitless 2010 search for a girlfriend named Juliette, and "Gina Gracemount" was written for our sensational friend, Gina to try and gain the upper hand in our gig flirting war! SOAR WINZ. "On Our Knees" was written to augment our group of songs about the state of the world.
Now I feel better! OMG it's an album. Mmmm, now to decide a track order :) Perhaps i will do that separately. Ahhh - perhaps we will let others suggest a track order. Go right ahead :)
I will do the next two 2011 albums, in due course.
Thanks so much for reading.
Hugs
Bright

What became of "The Mountains Where We Live"?

Way back in February 2011, it's a long time for a songwriter, i invited some close friends over to the MP3 Lounge at the Colour Factory to test out some new songs i was working on. I will forget someone i expect, but let me see, Experiment, RebelMum, Precious & Mari sounds about right. This blog entry is about one of those songs, "The Mountains Where We Live" which is yet to find it's way into SOAR'S shows in SecondLife.
I routinely test my songs out on other people even when i am happy with them - because i get too close to them, and too close to them very quickly when i am writing them to be objective about their merits. Over a long period of time Experiment has been this person for my songs and i also do it with others from time to time - like this time. This was a songwriting period that saw the writing of a bunch of songs that have already made their way into SOAR shows, Songbird, My Wandering Muse, Story of Love, Straight From the Heart, On Our Knees, Cathedral, Flying Back to Canada, The Hummingbird and Bee, Paris Hilton's Cell Phone, and Gonna Give You Reasons, and a bunch of parts of songs such as "The Mountains Where We Live" (see the FEB 25 blog entry).
Some of the demos i played that day at the Colour Factory were more complete than others. With Songbird and Wandering Muse and Straight From the Heart i was sure the songs were complete enough to be properly considered by my friends, not so "The Mountains". I had 61 seconds of that to demo.
I still have 61 seconds of the song - exactly the same 61 seconds and yet in my mind and some of my friends this song was the most enticing of all. So what became of it and why isn't it finished? 
In the beginning i was so happy with the 61 seconds and so sure i could turn it into a good song that i put it aside while SOAR put the finishing touches to the songs closest to being finished. This is one of the greatest pleasures of songwriting, playing them in our SL shows. And i think they have worked out pretty good and still make regular appearances in our shows. But songwriting also takes a lot of nervous and creative energy and a self belief that is rarely constant for a week or more. And it is this factor, the self belief i think, that was the downfall of "The Mountains". Add to this our desire to get songs finished and into our shows, and our hectic performance schedule, and then even newer songs coming along and it is easy to see how this happens.
Throughout the years Experiment, Charles and i have been writing songs we have had plenty of songs end up in the SOAR vault to await the return of inspiration. Many are still waiting, including 'The Mountain".
But, this song, this one was one of the two i was most anxious to see survive the demoing to EX, Mari, Rebs and Precious, and i really want to finsih this song and for it to have its chance in our shows. I need pressure to do so - and you can help pressure me if you like :) Just ask me from time to time "how it is going" :) And then sound disappointed if the answer is still 61 seconds.
There's a place in my heart for you
and i know in my hearts it's you
in the mountains where we live
by the rivers and the oceans and the seas
Who knows whether these lyrics will survive the completion of the song - we shall all see, one day, perhaps....
The photos. One of Lake Tekapo in NZ, and one of what we actually call a mountain, where i live!
Thanks for reading.
Hugs.
Bright

THE FLAME AND THE ARROW across the USA

Once upon a time someone special in my life and i planned a road trip across the USA and Canada together. No matter what route we decided upon it always began and finished in the loving arms of our wonderful friend, Enchantress :)
Now and forever the latest SOAR song, The Flame and the Arrow will remind me of their sweet love. And if they don't like the song i just don't know what i will do!
Clicking on the title of this blog entry will let you hear the song.
Thanks for reading and listening.
Hugs.
Bright

BAD BLOGGING BRIGHT. I do love B's, but i still don't do B chords!

Hi Gang. Here is an update for you about some SOAR type things you may be noticing. I have just begun a series of solo Bright shows in which i will be singing some of the SOAR songs that have fallen off our regular playlist. I'm calling these the FORGOTTEN SESSIONS.
About six months ago we realised that some songs were starting to be forgotten and we have been keeping a list of the songs we sing at each show ever since. And, it is true. For a month or so we have been trying to include at least one of these songs in each of our shows but now with my Forgotten Sessions we hope to bring many more of them back to your ears, in a gig.
The first of these gigs was on Sunday at the Colour Factory. I sang our way through the following songs and finished off with our newest song, written the same day, called All of the Pieces.
Cry the Lucky Country
The Farmer
Rise
Cathedral
Did I Ever
In the Clouds
Traces
The Favourite Daughter
If I Could (Lalita's Song)
A Girl Like You, and
All of the Pieces


The Forgotten Sessions will likely be short notice impromptu shows, and promoted mostly in the SOAR group and SOM. So please get yourself into one of these if you would like to know when these shows are on.
As always, thanks for reading, and thank you for giving us so many reasons to write songs :)
Hugs
Bright

ART, the teacher.....

The Ministry of the current Australian Government.

A painting by Gustav Klimt.

GRAND OPENING OF THE COLOUR FACTORY

What can i say about this place except that it exceeds my craziest hopes for it. This is the third build of the Colour Factory done by the sweet, hehe, and exquisitely talented, Scarletti Laval. It is very much it's own place but also a wonderful evolution of the previous two builds. It is a masterpiece Letti - thank you so much.
Letti and i set out to build places that add to the wonderful tapestry that is SecondLife and given Letti's particular interest in art, and my interest in music, to build a place where music and art combine, wash over each other other, clash, inspire, soothe and entwine in ways that shouldn't be defined. You will love it, or hate it, but you are unlikely to be ambivalent towards it. Sobeit.
On the top floor is Letti's gallery and the gallery stage, and on the mid floor is a cavernous space that nonetheless draws you irresistibly towards the main stage. You really should come and experience the effect for yourself! I love it!!! Musos walk up to the stage from the musos private green-room beneath the stage. The photo is of me looking down towards the main stage and through the windows to the mountains beyond.
The official opening features seven hours of live music, beginning at 5am Friday 16 September SLT with three shows, SOAR, MichaelJames Magic and Avantegarde Frequency, and concludes with four hours of live music from 5pm Friday SLT featuring Damian Carbenell, Christopher Quan, TerryLynn Melody and Gab Nyoki (dual streaming), and SOAR. Damian, Chris, TerryLynn, Gab and SOAR are presented by virtue of a wonderful gift from Precious Rallier and her venue Under the Willows, to the people and the place that is the Colour Factory. I can't thank you enough Precious (not to mention the time you spent hunting down lag here :) )
We have some wonderful plans for the Colour Factory and i will blog about them in future posts. But for now i wish to thank the people who have helped the place live and breathe and whose energies have got us to this day. I know you will continue to make it a place of art, music, community and all manner of wonders - in particular Letti, Rebs and Whis. Big hugs for you girls. It wouldn't be what it is without you!
Thanks for reading!
Bright

FRAGILE NOTES

It falls short of fact when a band member and/or songwriter tells the world that their latest CD or song is fantastic. Roll your eyes and begin to get skeptical i say. And should you read anywhere in this post any hint that the guys just had a whole lot of FUN recording this, or that we have gone back to our roots to create magic. Then i say switch off. Tune out. Throw up.
This song, Fragile notes, is the latest song written by Experiment and Bright. Mostly the beautiful lyrics from Experiment's hand, and mostly my music. It took a month or so to finish because after i recorded the first demo of it Experiment had some different ideas for the phrasing of the song and it took me some weeks to get the original phrasing out of my head so i could sing it without reverting to the earlier version.
I believe this is some of Experiment's finest work and i am sure the song will fit wonderfully into many of our gigs in SecondLife. May you especially enjoy the lyrics, below, and also the song. Click on the title of this blog entry for a link to the song. I hope.
Hugs.
Bright

Fragile Notes

Words Are Falling From The Sky

Like Tears Upon The Stage

Thoughts That Lie Beneath Life’s Dust

Escape Onto The Page

i Take My Heart and Lay it Bare

With Fragile Notes, Upon The Air

My Winter’s prose, Turns Into Prayer

Never cry,  For I’ll Be There (i'll be there)

Salt Adorns His Tired Eyes

Like Rust Around His Heart

Mem'ries Made of Broken Glass

Reflections From His Past

Hear Soft Voices From My Soul

With Stories That They'll Leave

I Take The Feelings From My heart

Place Them Gently at Your Feet

Paper Blank With Written Words

Yet No Words Can Describe

The Music Weaves Itself Into

A Love I Cannot Hide

Take My Heart and Lay it Bare

With Fragile Notes Upon The Air

My Winter’s prose Turns Into Prayer

Never Cry For I’ll Be There (i'll be there)

It's Not Time To Let it Go

Though The Winter Winds of Age Blow Slow

And I’ll Be There For You

It's Not Time To Let it End

For The Winds of Age Won’t Let Us Pretend

But I’ll Be There For You

It's Not Time To Watch it Go

Though The Winter Winds Will Let Us Know

And I’ll Be There For You

Incredibly 150 songs

Hi folks. The SOAR song TELL ME ABOUT TOMORROW is about to become the 150th original song sung by SOAR in SecondLife. It is a song especially for anyone who has ever wished for just one more day with a parent.
Clicking on the title of this blog, and/or the following link will take you to where you can listen to it.
http://www.box.net/shared/490fjumdk4n445s3dyd2


Warm hugs
Bright

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

Um yeah - i've been missing from my blog for like ages. It has been such a busy month that some things were bound to fall off the bottom of the list. And did i mention the weather! LET THE SUN OUT! And quit it with the wind already.

And now - to some brief updates.
The Colour Factory. Rebuilding is going GREAT and maybe this Friday we will be able to reopen for shows. The Friday after for sure :) It is sweet as. More info as soon as it is finished.
SOAR Gig Schedule. As most of you would know Charles is just back from a family holiday in New Zealand, and Experiment is unable to do our full schedule of shows for the time being. This means that there will be a few more SOAR shows done just by me, Bright, or Charles and Bright. We will be sure to advertise the shows we do each week with all three of us so you can get your full SOAR fix then :)
New videos. Never ceases to amaze me the sweet things people do for SOAR, unasked. This week it has been a handful of new youtube videos for some of our songs. Thank you SO much for doing these. HUGS. They join other beautiful videos done for us in the last couple of months. HUGS for you people too :) These are most easily found by going to www.brightoh.com and following the links.
New songs. Well write songs is what we do :) and we are up to 22 new songs written this year and debuted in our shows in SecondLife. And there are more to come, hopefully. A couple of the new song covers are included in this blog entry.
Blog threads. Before my month off from writing this blog i had begun a number of threads that i intended to make regular features. I will get back to these shortly :)

As always, from the boys in the band, and Mari, thank you all for the joy and friendship that you bring to our lives, and for the reasons you give us to write songs. BIG HUGS
Thanks for reading
Bright

A GOOD CRY NEVER HURT ANYONE

This is so very heartwarming, and wrenching.
A life you couldn't imagine.
Talent that you can't buy.
Humility to put me to shame.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BewknNW2b8Y&feature=share


Enjoy all that this man and video are straight from Korea's Got Talent.
Hugs
Bright

SUPERMARKET TRICKS 101 - packaging

Yo! I love shopping at a supermarket. Well, overall, as it is contingent on parking and queues. But something puzzles me. A lot puzzles me. So one by one i am going to go through some of the tricks supermarkets play on us and you sweet people will let me know if i'm missing the meaning of life in all this somewhere.

Let's start with a simple one - as i was only very recently enjoying a cheap garlic bread from my local supermarket. 
NO NAME ITEMS. That's pretty much the generic name for low cost versions of any product. There are no name versions of a big range of stuff too. The word on the street outside my local pizza joint is that the goods in the no name packaging are often exactly the same as in normally packaged/higher priced versions, and that they are made on exactly the same production line in many instances. So how do supermarkets justify having different lines of exactly the same product i hear you ask, well in some instances they do annoying stuff to put price conscious people back in their rightful place in society. My fave is milk in cartons.
What happens if you buy the cheap milk is this - when you pull on the tab to open the container of milk it either doesn't work at all and snaps off in your hand, OR, it comes off so easily that you aren't paying attention, and you lose a quarter of it on the floor, the bench, the carpet, the table, your dress or your jeans. But, that is supermarket revenge delayed, and supermarkets want your trauma at having the audacity to buy the cheap milk to also be immediate and public. This is how they do it. Implanted in the barcode of the item is instructions that checkout aisles can read and the checkout assistant goes into annoyance/embarrassment mode - time to change over till - person before you appears to forget their CC pin - printer roll on the register runs out - person in front of you insists on finding the exact 98 cents in the bottom of their bag.
You know this is true.
You only don't know all this is true if you've never bought a no-name item :) Personally i can recommend the garlic bread :)
Okies on with my day.
Thanks for reading. I would love to hear your stories too!
Hugs
Bright

Adventures in the METAVERSE 1 - Alternatives to SecondLife

Yo! I love this topic. In all the time i have been in secondlife (SL) i have been aware that there were alternatives to SL, but whenever i tried to open the door to them they were closed. I tried left-click I tried right-click. I gave up. It was clearly a place for nerds and linux types :) and i went back to the wonderful world of SL. And it is truly wonderful.
Recently more of my friends have been muttering alternatives to SL noises - in particular Inworldz and Avination so i have been looking around again. This time i found at least some of the doors open and even welcoming and i want to tell you about them - just in case you are in anything like the same position as me on all this stuff - curious and interested, but lost. It will be inaccurate and your worst source of definitive information so don't feel bad about stopping reading as soon as you start slapping your forehead with the palm of your hand :) And i will break all this down into easy to chomp morsels, always from the perspective of someone who knows SL and is curious about alternatives.


CONCEPT. Best place to start is prolly with a definition of the Metaverse from wikipedia - the Metaverse is our collective online shared space. The term was coined in Neal Stephenson's 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash, where humans, as avatars, interact with each other and software agents, in a three-dimensional space that uses the metaphor of the real world. Cool! I see where SL fits into this then.
WHERE DOES SL FIT. It is just a part of the metaverse. Keep imagining that the metaverse is a virtual real world, well then SL is like a continent on that real world. This means that there is a lot of space for more secondlifes. And there are.
WHO OWNS IT. No-one owns it. You can create your own part of the metaverse OR you can attach yourself to parts of it created by other people - such as SL, Inworldz and Avination (and many others). It can be very cheap (host your own virtual world on your puter) or expensive (own an island sim in SL $295/month).
DO YOU NEED SL TO ENJOY THAT PART OF THE METAVERSE. No. Plenty of other places do pretty much what SL does. However, depending what makes up your enjoyment of SL you may find that no other place does things as well as SL. So i'm not trying to find a replacement for SL, i'm just trying to add expand my metaverse.
WHY THE HYPE ABOUT SL THEN.  SL do this part of the metaverse better than anyone and they are the biggest by far, and were for a long time and for a variety of reasons (not all bad) in a monopoly position for people like me wishing to explore the metaverse.
WHY THIS WHOLE THING IS CONFUSING. Same reasons as the real world. Why dont PCs and Macs talk together better. Why isn't their just one generic phone and computer recharger device. Why are some avatars gorgeous like me and other like Experiment and Charles just plain ugly? Because there is a battle for control and fame and fortune going on in the metaverse just like there is in real life. As wonderful as the internet is some of the exploitative parts of the capitalist model in real life working against real people, in particular lack of competition and monopolies, are at work in the metaverse. Many people are trying to nail down a part of the metaverse as their own and try and turn it into their own fat cash cow. DON'T LET EM. As much as i love ebay and amazon and google and apple and secondlife and facebook and twitter etc, we will all be better off when their is true competition in the parts of the internet that they dominate, so that they will continue to innovate and provide good value for the consumer.
CAN WE JUST BE CONTENT WITH SL. Sure we can. BUT. Linden Labs are controlling your experience of the metaverse (as is their right) when you choose to be in their part of it, SL. But, they do control you. They could let you teleport to inworldz and avination and a thousand other places if they wanted to. They could let you have 45000 prims instead of 15000. They could let you make a prim 256x256x256 instead of 10x10x10 if they wanted. They want a closed metaverse where they own your avatar, where they control what you can do with content created in SL, they want to promote their own currency and establish an economy free from true market forces (read this as inflate the value).
WHAT ARE WE TO DO THEN. Well my answer to my own questions is just to widen my experience a little. There are open source worlds out there, fledgling SL's, indie SL's and they all have something to offer in  expanding your experience, and freedom of experience, in the metaverse and that is just what i am doing. I love and admire the vision of LindenLabs and SecondLife and never want to leave it, but the anarchist in me doesn't like to be controlled and manipulated so i'm off to explore.
Remember back at the start of this topic i said that i now felt that other doors to the rest of the metaverse were opening, well that's what the next post in this series will start to explore. Maybe, like me, you will be pleased to find them open now.


Thanks for reading.
Bright.
Hugs.

LOVE WINS - If I Could Wish

LOVE WINS is the second song written as part of our LOVE LETTERS from SECONDLIFE happening in secondlife (SL). The lyrics started out as a letter dropped on the grounds of the Colour Factory in SL waiting for a reply, and in this case, a song.
The letter/lyric has already received its first reply and you can read this on the loveletters website and in the loveletters conservatory at the Colour Factory. Puff.
The song cover for this song was adapted from a wonderful photo taken by our friend Lucky Trouble - you can see her work on flickr. Thank you Trouble :)
Click the TITLE of this blog entry to go and have a listen to LOVE WINS. 

If i could wish upon a star

i'd wish a dream upon your heart

I would paint i would sing

i'd throw caution to the wind

If i could take you anywhere

i'd take you everywhere you've never been

the pyramids the eiffel tower

to the other side of the moon

If i could tell you anything

i'll tell you why you're my everything

you are pink and i am blue

but on your own you changed my world

If i could write i'd write to you

i'd share the wonders of loving you

you are spring and i am fall

but with you i have it all

If i could buy you anything

I'd buy the house that you adore

we would love and we would live

there together for evermore

If i could change one little thing

i'd make the world a smaller place

so i could walk right to your door

from the other side of the world

Chorus

Because love wins it's everything

and i'm nothing if i cant tell you every single day

no other thing makes me sing

with all the joy your love gives me every single day

Hugs

Bright

Between mist and snow, my friend the rain.

Just can't imagine a world without rain so i just wanted to write a post to the rain to let it know. This post is the first part of my blog series - WHAT I LOVE.

I bet it rained quite often, right up to the time i first started to notice rain. I remember swimming in a river, a calm still river, and stopping and stalking it like a crocodile with my eyes just above the water level, watching big drops of rain splash into the river just inches from my eyes. And umbrellas! man they are fun. They don't always work that well but who doesn't enjoy walking in the rain under an umbrella - even just a bit - until your hair goes frizzy. I like your hair that way - honest. And then there was driving in the rain and being hypnotised by the windshield washers - you know the noise they make - unless they don't make that noise on fancy cars :) And sometimes on long country drives when it started to rain heavily i would pull over to the side of the road and just sit there listening to it beat down on the roof. 
And a house with a tin roof!!! They are the bomb! You ever really listen to the sound of the rain on your roof - how it transmits every slight variation in the intensity of the rain - how you can hear and follow the passage of the wind as it first eases off and lets the rain fall more directly onto the roof but then as the wind increases the intensity of the rain flows and cascades over the roof. 

Who never imagined and who is yet to find out how sweet love making is under a tin roof, or on a tin roof - erm, i digress :)

Some people live in places where it rains a lot and some in places where it hardly rains at all. Some people live in places where it only rains in the monsoon season and others where it only rains in winter but everyone has something in common - we all know when the rain isn't what it is meant to be. I have friends who live where it rains on lots of days during the year, and when it does it rains lots, and they have rich deep soils that soak up the rain so that every tree and grass and root and flower and pumpkin patch is happy any time of the year. I have other friends who live where the cycle of rain and growth is more pronounced, where grass begins to grow after the first rain in early winter and ceases when the rain stops  for the year sometime in early spring.

One thing people all around the world know is when the rain isn't the way it usually is. Too much and floods rip across the landscape - too little and dams and streams and water holes begin to dry up and the scourge of drought on all living things begins to take it's hold.

And so rain, you are on my list of what i love. On the list of things that i will tell martians about when they arrive and ask me what is so special about this place our earth. I will always notice you and miss you when you are gone. You, can rain on my roof anytime.

Wanders off to check the rain gauge :)

Thanks for reading folks.

Bright

FACEBOOK ME erm ADD ME erm JUST DO SUMFIN

OMG!! Twitter has been a HUGE success so far. I have 8 followers and i'm following 19 people - hehehe. I have a young niece who was giving me the low down on twitter the other day and her explanation of how to do it and to judge how well you are doing it, went like - she is following Britney Spears and is on of 17,ooo,ooo doing so. Britney follows 70,000 people, and my niece is one of them. Her point is clear - i am a twitter loser :)

So here is the thing - Britney!! follow me and i will follow you, It's all up to you pumpkin.

Oh yeah, the reason for this post. I can never have enough friends :)

Tweet me at BrightOh1

Add me at FB Bright Oh

Thanks gang

Bright

Celtic Amazon Warriors Hunt For Life

The Colour Factory is happily following up its involvement with Relay For Life (RFL) at the Fantasie Faire with our inclusion in the HUNT FOR LIFE. Here's the goss on it :)

The Hunt for Life is a Fantasy/Roleplay themed hunt with awesome stores taking part and fantastic prizes! The Hunt for Life is being run as a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society through the RFL in SecondLife.

The hunt runs from May 16 until July 16.

You can read the Hunt blog - just look for the link in the right hand column.

The vendors used to accept donations for the hunt huds are provided by the RFL SL group which is a BBB accredited charity - www.bbb.org/

More information about RFL SL - www.relayforlife.org/secondlife

All hunt queries to Mairearad Islay in SL or via her hunt blog.

Checks Bright's picks in SL for a landmark to the hunt HQ in SL (for purchase of the hud to use in the hunt etc)

Thanks for reading.

Hope it's a great event for you Mairearad :)

Bright

OH YEAH BABY Gina Gracemount

Yesterdays SOAR show at the Colour Factory was a funkalicious hoot!!! Thanks everyone for being there. We debuted three brand new songs

Your Candle Burns

Straight From the Heart

Gina Gracemount

Um yes :) that would be correct - we have written a song about our sweet sweet friend and supreme secondlife performer, Gina!! But you will have to come to our shows to hear it :)

Try these for a sample of the lyrics -

Oh yeah baby Gina Gracemout, where you been hiding all of my life. As you can see they are lyrics to die for.

Thank you Gina for being wonderful and letting us get away with this. Find out about Gina here

http://www.ginag.info/

Hugs

Bright

You'll be a happier person after you watch this short video :)

still laffin :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGeKSiCQkPw

MATTY! You are a legend. Trust me on this folks :)

I don't quite know how to put this. See, i was at my Mum's and she and the rest of the family were watching TV. I was making polite conversation, eating and doing the dishes. Well, on comes Australia's Got Talent. Yeah yeah i know what you are thinking. Somehow i did catch three acts, and, my face still hurts from laffin so much.
This guy, Matty, I thank you. You have artistry, timing, humour, strength and humility. You so WIN dude.
So just do it folks. Head off to Utube and take a look at Matty :) Link is at the end of this post..
The sooner EX gets rid of the keyboard in our shows and replaces it with a pole, the better for everyone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgDbGVb9PqA