More pieces fall into place

Karaoke went VERY well Thursday night. It was packed. I just wish people would start singing earlier. We end up with one really long rotation in the middle of the show instead of three or four more balanced rotations.

Lot's of new folks, glad they're coming out. Brian is doing an awesome job promoting the bar. Plenty of former regulars have made it out, as well. One drawback of the bigger show is that it's harder to get to know everyone. No real drama this week, except that we now have a bouncer. And we have to end early, about 12:45, so that people get out.

I seem to be having picture uploading issues, so I'll get them up when that's working.

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Captain's Log; Kdate 091505

The long karaoke malaise is over...our new permanent Thursday night digs are ready and the inaugural show was a smashing success.

Things were slow 'til about 10:30pm but then picked up rapidly as word spread. At one point the rotation swelled to over 20 people, and groups didn't really get out of control. A couple of people did, though.

Something viral this way comes

Particularly one drunk chick, we'll call her Sally. Very pushy and demanding, "put this song in RIGHT NOW!" "Sorry, I've already got the next few songs lined up-" "RIGHT NOW, put it in RIGHT NOW!"

Naturally that shit just didn't happen. I ignored her til she came back a little more subdued a few songs later looking for hers. Then I told her to fill out a slip and bring it back so that I knew who she was and what she wanted to sing so I could put her into the rotation. I got an apology at that point, but it was one of those "I'm not really sorry but he's pissed so I guess I have to try to pretend to be a normal human being, even though I'm not, 'cause I'm drunk off my ass." I'm guessing that genital herpes and her will become good friends, if they aren't already.

But other than that, the rest of the night went well. The sound was good, I like the new board and the general setup. I'd like to find a place to use the projector, I'd like to find a way to record this so I can karaokecast it every week. It's loud in the front, bearable where I'm set up at the back of the stage, and you can still talk at the back of the room, which is a pretty good size and has a pretty good capacity. I'm guessing in the neighborhood of 100 or so, which is close to double the last venue we were in.

I may also experiment with a front barrier of some sort, perhaps a rope and some extra chairs would do the trick. Full-on police barriades would be nicer. It needs...something. People can enter/exit from stage right, and that way not press the singers. Might allow me to start putting the camera up as well.

Beer needs to be barred from the stage area, as well.

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Sunday Night Bowling

So I went bowling yesterday evening. It was fun, but my game was off. A lot. Didn't break 150 on either game. Still, I didn't do too badly. Had I been able to convert a couple of spares the first game it wouldn't have been an issue, since I did manage a turkey at one point.

All in all it was a fun evening. When I showed up with my bowling bag people kind of made a big deal out of it. Until I pulled out my 23 year old bowling shoes. Then they just laughed. I have to admit the shoes are in ridiculously bad shape and aren't really comfortable to wear, even. But they work ok.

Last night was the first time I saw someone bowl holding the ball with their thumb, index, and middle finger instead of thumb, middle and ring finger. Very odd.

Best Caption Award

Thursday Karaoke at Market Street

It's on, bitches!

9pm - Market Street Underground

This is going to be a weekly event PARTY.

Karaoke Smackdown Review

Stardate 090.805

So karaoke went well last night. Light crowd, small rotation for most of the night. Still the singing was rather constant. Still got in almost 50 songs in just under 4 hours. The crowd got a bit larger as the night went on, the last hour had a lot of people in the bar. Sang about 14 songs, I think Alec managed about the same. A few other people pitched in, too. Mark, good sport that he is, played karaoke roulette, Josh sang a few, Kelly sang a couple, Stevo hit a song or two, and Gibtown pussed out.

Bryan was good enough to let me borrow his PA, which I'm getting more comfortable with. I'll probably pic up a couple of mics for it and really play with it next time to see if I can get a nicer sound out of it. The biggest problem is the speaker placement: it's such close quarters in the bar that a number of people are too close to one of the speakers, so it sounds pretty rough in that area. But it looks like the Zachery's gig is going to end up being a once a month gig that I'm going to push for first Friday. That way we avoid all the holidays that come at the end of the month or on Monday's at the beginning of the month.

Lance wrestled the pavement and lost. He and the rest of AM/FM left their Vincenzo's gig at 1am and headed over to pick up the PA from Zachery's. Ever helpful, Bryan found the largest band-aid in existence to bandage the much smaller wound. Nice job.

Regular Thursday night karaoke should commence shortly at the new Vincenzo's Underground. Looking forward to that. Now I just need to figure out a way to podcast this shit every week.

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New Orleans may be dead, but Karoake LIVES!

The Friday show at Zachary's was packed. All night long. Partially from pent-up demand, partially from it being a football weekend, partially from the New Orleans gypsies hanging out in the restaurant as an alternative to their hotel rooms. We've been asked back this Thursday, so it's a go.

Thursday night 8:45pm-12:45am
Zachary's
Downtown Columbus

New music will be in the books.

I realized, though, that I may have to find a new source for karaoke disks: Phong Le's was on the West Bank in New Orleans. While their building probably weathered the storm without much difficulty and likely didn't flood very badly from the rain (the West Bank didn't have any levee issues, except in Westwego, apparently), I don't know when I'll get to go back there. So I'll have to find a new source. I hate to go strictly internet, I much prefer to support local businesses whether here or in New Orleans. But I may not have any other choice, for now.

See ya'll Thursday. I'll be working on posting a database with my entire catalog in it, maybe with a suggestion form. I've been wanting to do that for awhile and have just been lazy. Might be a good project for a lazy Labor Day.

And, I'm still working on a permanent Thursday night gig.

NOTE: country music will never be a large part of my catalog. I don't care how many people ask for it, large country selections are available at every other karaoke show in at least a 100 mile radius.

Karaoke Tonight

Just in time to give me a break from thinking about the complete devestation in New Orleans Hell, Louisiana.

Zachary's
Downtown Columbus
9pm-1am
Might start early if I feel like it.
Bring a buck or two for Katrina relief, donations will be added to my contribution through my company, who is matching employee contributions dollar for dollar.