Thursday Feb.3rd  was a night I had been waiting for, for a long time. In a meeting almost a month before, Tukso Okey and I had agreed on doing a dual stream live reading, where he would be the music back-track to my poetry. His funky hypnotic beat would serve as the rhythmic background for this unique reading, which instead of being intensely planned and structured out as it usually was, would be  free-flowing, more of a “Jazz experience” of the moment. We had one rehearsal before the show which was really a tweaking of my sound and an explanation of how dual streaming worked. Since he was in Seattle and I was in Costa Rica, my stream would serve to broadcast us both, but the tricky part was although I could hear him, and therefore choose and weave my poetry around his playing, he could not hear me. This is how it is when we dual stream here in Second Life. I was nervous but excited too, to try this new form of reading,and already knowing I could feel his music from my bones out, I was really looking forward to this night. At 7pm sharp we began, as people started arriving at my Kantina and from our first “greetings” to the audience, I was locked into his beat, I began to dance, and my words floated over his sensual guitar.

"here we go" photo by Sanne Brune

I recited my latest poem “Soul Eyes”but this time to the funky beat and subtle lead lines of Tukso’s magic guitar and then I offered one that I had written for him (see post “Tukso Tukso Tukso”) entitled “Train Ride Down With Tukso” Please right click the following link in a new tab to hear it, while I tell you the rest of this  twisting tale of mistaken identity.
Train Ride Down With Tukso~Tukso & Karima

"to the bowels of your guitar, the sexy dirty alleyways.." ~photo by Sanne Brune

Little did I know that he was being spooked and taken out of his groove by my Aussie friend Sanne Brune, who had a big gigantic fake video camera on her shoulder with the unmistakable title over her head “Karima’s Film Crew” It looked real but all she was doing was taking these great pictures. While I was lost in my poetry, Tukso was feeling more and more uncomfortable to be staring into a big machinima maker wondering what she was planning  on doing  with the footage afterward. He started to feel nervous as to her intentions and actually, he had a good reason. He had a formal complaint lodged with YouTube against a video filmed of him doing his original song “My Fallen Angel” one night at a show that he had never authorized and had no idea he was being filmed.

On top of that, as luck would have it, Sanne stationed herself right down in front and aimed her menacing paparazzi weapon directly at him. His heart began to thump faster than his rhythm track and every second he was feeling more uncomfortable. Meanwhile the 30+ people in the audience, and myself included, had absolutely no idea that this was going on

It sure did look like a video camera.. ~ photo by Sanne Brune

I finished up my last poem and leaped off the stage, ready to just dance the last half hour or so to the music. I invited everyone to jump on dance balls because I expected any minute Tukso to break out in  “Red Hot Poppa” or “Shattered” or any of the great songs he does. We still had 25 minutes left to go on the hour and I was geared up to just dance and enjoy… my “work” was over.

my work was done and I was ready to dance ~ photo bt Sanne Brune

Instead of turning up the sound and cutting loose, Tukso seemed to be coasting in neutral and then all of a sudden he just took off  his guitar and said good night to everyone and disappeared in about 20 seconds flat. I was shocked. At first I thought he had crashed, but he had said goodnight before that. When I got an Im from him a minute later saying he could not handle being filmed, I all of a sudden realized the mistake and what was supposed to be just a cute animation and a prop had turned into a show stopping situation.
It took a bit of talking later on after everyone went home to see it was only a case of mistaken identity, and my tears of disappointment turned into understanding as I saw that the whole situation of illegal filming was a “thing”that Tukso was living at the moment. I will back him on this. Last night he announced that YouTube ruled in his favor and took off the unauthorized and  illegal version of his beautiful song “My Fallen Angel” Now my hope is that he gives a good soundtrack of it to Menubar and let’s him make the official video for him. I also hope he does his funky rendition of “Shattered” and sends it off to me.

"So good night everybody" ahh "what?" ~photo by Sanne Brune

Well it was a happy ending in the end. Friendship, understanding, and mutual respect won over hard feelings and misunderstandings. A special thanks to Sanne Brune for all the pictures above. She might not be my “film crew”but she is now my official event photographer (as long as she drops the camera prop:) Tukso’s win in YouTube will hopefully discourage any others who might get the idea to film him unawares.
That is a big “No-No”
Thank you Tukso..it was a unique experience to read my poetry to your music. I would do it again in a minute if we ever got the chance.