Janet Reno sings karaoke

Note the colored tape on the mics...this is at some benefit for some thing in Miami or someplace. And no, that's not Aretha singing with her.

Karoke this week

So it looks like I'll be at the Holiday Inn lounge for a couple of weeks at least. Probably Wednesdays and Thursdays. This week didn't go too badly. I was pleased with the sound quality, the last few people I've heard in there didn't have things mixed properly, but I know when to ask for help. And who to ask. :)

It's going to take some getting used to. For one, I'm not used to a show that isn't just karaoke. For another, I'm not used to working with anyone else. Tony's great, but it's still going to take some experimenting to get everything flowing smoothly with this format. I don't like that people have to wait so long to sing and I've noticed that people just walk out after awhile if they've put in a slip but don't make it to stage fast enough. If it were just me I'd save the dance music for in between karaoke sets, but that's not going to work for the moment.

I ordered 400 songs yesterday, not sure if I'll get them in time to redo my books for next week or not. But that should bring me pretty close to 2700 individual songs without duplicates. I currently only have a duplicate rate of 5.7%. That's actually a little higher since there are songs that are duplicated with different artists (i.e., Dream a Little Dream of Me-Frank Sinatra; Dream a Little Dream of Me-Standard; and Dream a Little Dream of Me-Mama Cass). But I don't consider that too bad.

So the new music is...country. That's right, I finally put a saddle on the pony. Now, the good news is that I'm adding the country in sets by years, so there won't be any dupes in the new set, although they will duplicate some of my existing catalog. The other good news is that are for the most part 400 more popular songs from 1993 on, so there's nothing too old and not too many dead weight songs.

I'm currently debating about buying some other equipment, I guess it depends on how regular the Holiday Inn gig turns out. I'll probably just take that cash and plan to invest it back into karaoke. Things like a new PA and wireless mics.

Ya'll have a great weekend, I'll be at the AM/FM show at the Page tonight. The Alan Stephens Band was pretty good there last night. And I know AM/FM has been working hard, so I'm hoping that we'll hear some new tunes.

And yes, my pictures are still fucked up. I was supposed to call Monday to get the account straightened out, and I promptly got to work and forgot every single day that I had to do that. I mean, it didn't even occur to me one single time during a time when I could have called and fixed it. So maybe I'll remember next week.

MUST SEE: The Dormitory Boys

The Dormitory Boys: I Want It That Way

So fucking great. Guaranteed to put a smile on your face. They're tag line is, "Life is short, make fools of yourselves while you can!'

Great time at the Underground last night

Karaoke last night was a blast. I had a record set-up time. Left the house at 8:05 and was completely set up at 8:34. Cole was nice enough to help me load-in, since I had to park way around the fucking corner. Not that it's that far, it's just a pain. At least it wasn't still raining at that point.

Had lots of singers, the Corner Table was there in force, the infamous chick-group Click Click Click Click Click graced us with a song, and the Original Ghetto Mansion Bitches.com battled it out with the Ghetto Mansion Bitches Part Deux. Ok, they didn't fight or nothing, it was just for fun.

Not sure if we're doing it next Friday or not. But I do know for sure that I'll be at the Holiday Inn lounge Wednesday and Thursday nights. Drop on by and say hello, sing a song, or just dance a little ('cause they make me play dance music). Did I mention I got fucking heckled last week? I know, it's crazy.

Hope ya'll have a great weekend! I'm working on fixing the pictures. I'm oddly incompetent when it comes to certain things. I hope to straighten it out with tech support on Monday. Until then, I'm going to look around the web some more and see if there's maybe something else that will work better, although I really like the Phanfare service. But, for your viewing pleasure, I'm including a shot from last night. This is "Angry Bitches Plus Mike" singing You Oughta Know. (Mike joined in just 'cause he hates Uncle Joey from Full House).

Thank you, April!

Just wanted to give April a shout out and a thank you for letting me know about the Holiday Inn gig.

Friday Karaoke at the Underground

That's right, another Friday Karaoke at the Underground. Not sure what kinds of specials they'll be running, but karaoke will be fun. Seriously, it will be. Or I'll be breaking some legs.

Holiday Inn

Did a show last night at the Holiday Inn lounge, Fat Daddy's. The show itself was fine, I guess, and I'll be there next Wednesday (25th) and Thursday (26th) if anyone wants to come sing. The place isn't bad at all, the crowd is a little different than I'm used to.

I'll be downloading a lot of music from iTunes this week, because the crowd apparently likes to dance to more Usher, Nelly, and Black-Eyed Peas than I do. My "dance music" isn't the same as theirs. That's not a problem, I love facilitating other people's good time. I was just disappointed that I didn't do a better job of it.

But ultimately it's not the kind of show that I want to be doing. I much prefer a karaoke show rather than a karaoke/dj show. I just suck at the DJ part of it. The manager was very nice about it when I explained it to her, which is why I'm happy to go back next week while she tries to find someone that can do the kind of integrated show that the crowd there would like to have.

On a side note, I was actually heckled by one asshole. Sadly, this guy had zero game, so it wasn't even worth the effort to put him in his place. But the crowd from Old Navy seemed to have a good time, so that made up for it.

All that said, I think next week I'll at least have a better time because I'll know what to expect walking in the door. If you're out and about, stop by and put a song up. The rotation will probably not be very long at all, except you might have to wait for me to play something by Usher or Gwen Stafani between rotations. :)

Later peeps!