Karaoke in San Luis Obispo

Last week, I had the great pleasure of speaking at a conference at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. I spoke on Jan 26th. I did not get into town until Jan 24th.

I make a big deal of the timing just to make sure there are no untoward allegations. It seems that at 11:03 AM on Jan 20th, police were summoned to a park bench on Higuera in San Luis Obispo, where "An elderly man with a straw hat was sitting on a bench in front of H&G Clothing, singing karaoke."
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2011/01/28/1462305/whats-your-emergency.html

This was not me. Honest. I don't own a straw hat.

Ryan Cabrera karaoke scandal

I submit my nomination for the single worst sentence in journalism for the year 2011. I know it's still early in the year, but this one is deserving of some recognition:

Ryan Cabrera and two women who sued the 28-year-old pop star, alleging they were seriously hurt after falling on the driveway of his home, have agreed to have the case decided by an arbitrator.

http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/ci_17194733

Cabrera was at a Burbank karaoke club in November of 2008. He was given a ride home by two ladies. They had a few drinks. On their way out at 3:30 AM, they slipped in his driveway, which they claimed was steep and poorly lit, and slippery. Both were injured. One woman claims to have been in a coma for weeks following the incident.

A lawsuit was filed in June of 2009, and the parties have just agreed to take this into arbitration.

I just don't know what to think of this. They went to karaoke with Ryan Cabrera?!?!!?

Celebrity karaoke - Fantasia

In 2004, Fantasia Barrino won American Idol. Since that time, she has appeard in a Broadway version of The Color Purple, she has written an autobiography, and she had her own VH1 reality show. As of September 2010, she can add "I have sung karaoke" to her list of accomplishments.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/fashion/05With.html

Celebrity karaoke - Bill Murray

I think we all remember Bill Murray's portrayal of Nick the Lounge Singer on SNL.  Just in case you have forgotten his smoothly polished lounge act, have a look.

Avid followers of my blogs may remember that Bill Murray is no stranger to karaoke. (See "Karaoke Goes to Hollywood" for a complete list of movies with karaoke scenes.) There was a karaoke scene in the movie "Lost in Translation" where he performed the song "More Than This".


It should come as no surprise that Bill Murray is a karaoke singer. It was a bit of a surprise, however, for a small group of people singing in a karaoke booth in NYC just recently. They got a knock on the door from someone who wanted to join them. They reluctantly let the guy in, but did not notice who he was. Fifteen minutes later, there was a knock on the door. They were told that the guy partying down with them was none other than Bill Murray.

More of the ongoing DSB-omania

I found this excellent version of Don't Stop Believin' as performed by Elton John , Lady Gaga, Sting, Blondie, and Shirley Bassey. Enjoy!

Celebrity karaoke - Kelsey Grammer

I loved him on Cheers. I loved him on Frasier. He played the same character in the two series - an overly-intellectual  psychiatrist with just enough of his own neuroses to keep the show going. I suppose that says something about me, that I can relate to an overly-intellectual, slightly neurotic psychiatrist?

Kelsey Grammer recently made the tabloid news for allegedly partaking in not one, but two, acts of such moral depravity that they were shunned by the more mainstream media.

The first (and more socially acceptable) of the alleged acts of depravity was the insinuation of his ex-wife that he enjoys a little cross-dressing. They are going through a divorce and she was appearing on the Howard Stern show, so you know that this is very reputable gossip.

But, that's all not that bad. Quite a number of accomplished actors have donned female clothes for various roles. Robin Williams, Tony Curtis, Dustin Hoffman, and Joel Grey immediately come to mind. I don't recall if George W ever appeared in such a role. Maybe not.

 The second act of depravity perhaps fits better with the slightly neurotic Dr. Frasier Crane, or even better with the character of Sideshow Bob on the Simpsons. Yes, you guessed it. Kelsey Grammer was caught singing karaoke. In public. And not just any song, but James Taylor's "Don't Let Me Be Lonely". You can judge for yourself, but I think he did pretty well. As for how well he pulls off the cross-dressing, I'm gonna wait until I see pictures to say how well he does.

Yet another update on getting discovered through karaoke

Today I came across another near miss on my ongoing quest to find a star who got discovered as a result of singing in a karaoke bar. Well... it's not even really a near miss, but it is a sweet story.

Meghan Linsey was a karaoke host in a Nashville bar where she met Joshua Scott Jones. They started dating and formed a duo called Steel Magnolias. They entered a talent show called Can You Duet, which is a country music's answer to American Idol. They won the second season.

As I said, this isn't a story of them getting discovered in a karaoke bar. They discovered each other. There was no wildly excited talent scout in the audience who handed them a business card, saying "call me in the morning".

I suppose that someone could argue that Can You Duet is really just a karaoke competition on steroids. I have heard that comment made repeatedly against American Idol. It is usually intended as a disparaging remark. "This is not important culture. The contestants have no real talent. It's just glorified karaoke."  American Idol is a very popular show. And the winners and also-rans go on to get recording contracts. And what's so bad about glorified karaoke anyway?

Linsey and Jones did get a recording contract with Big Machine Records, so they did make it to the big time. They just weren't discovered through karaoke. Maybe this story fits better in the category of karaoke romances.


Want to know more about them?
Here's what Wikipedia has to say about Steel Magnolias.
Here is a review of the duo.

Conan O'Brien on Japanese karaoke

CONAN O’BRIEN


According to new reports, Facebook is not popular in Japan because Japanese people are traditionally introverted and private. The report was written by someone who has never set foot in a karaoke bar.

Laugh lines, NYTimes

Getting discovered through karaoke - Taylor Swift?

Was Taylor Swift discovered while singing karaoke? As my readers no doubt know, finding a singing who got discovered through karaoke has pretty much been a full time occupation for me since my first post on the topic almost a year ago. My most recent blog on the subject was Dec 23.

I came across a claim that Swift made it to the big time by getting discovered singing karaoke. Here is a quote from the article:

Taylor has taken the country world by storm, in a career that could have been made into movie magic itself, the Cinderella story of a girl who was discovered while singing Karaoke in a small-town restaurant.

This isn't exactly my definition of getting discovered, but I think it's close enough. The definition I have given involves a karaoke bar. If Taylor Swift was truly discovered by singing karaoke in a restaurant, I am willing to say that I have finally found a singer who made it big through karaoke.

I had a look at the Taylor Swift official website to verify this. There is a "My Life" page, but Swift does not go into how she got discovered. Next stop, Wikipedia:  

At age 11, Swift made her first trip to Nashville, hoping to obtain a record deal by distributing a demo tape of her singing with karaoke songs. She gave a copy to every label in town, but was rejected. After Swift returned to Pennsylvania, she was asked to sing at the U.S. Open tennis tournament, where her rendition of the national anthem received much attention.

From this, it would appear that Swift didn't make it big with the karaoke tapes, and that she didn't make it big until she found her way to the US Open. Lemme state this: peddling karaoke tapes to record companies does not qualify for my definition of getting discovered through karaoke. (Mary J. Blige was another artist discovered after peddling karaoke demos.)

A report from CBS News from May of 2008 had this to say about the discovery of Swift:

The 18-year-old Pennsylvania native, who grew up on a Christmas tree farm, started singing at the age of 10 at karoke contests, fairs and festivals in her hometown of Reading. With the support of her family, she headed to Nashville at age 11 to pursue her dream. By age 12, she was already writing songs with local songwriters in Nashville. Back in Pennsylvania, she landed an important gig singing the National Anthem at the U.S. Open tennis tournament, which got a lot of buzz.

This article says that Swift did the karaoke contest thing before she did the karaoke tape peddling thing. From this article, it would appear that she didn't get discovered until her post-karaoke contest days. (BTW I don't consider karaoke contests to fit my definition, either.)

The original article mentioned that Taylor was singing in a restaurant. Where did the restaurant thing come in?
I quote again from the CBS article:

After performing at Nashville's premier songwriters' café, The Bluebird Café, she was noticed by Scott Borchetta, who signed her onto Big Machine Records.

Cafe? Oh! Maybe that's the restaurant? The Wikipedia article on the Bluebird Cafe says that it is a nightclub, and it does not contain the word karaoke.

Based on this research, I am going to say that this rumor is false. I still have not found any credible evidence of a singer who made it big by being discovered singing in a karaoke bar.

Wisdom learned in a karaoke bar

Ok, so this guy, Alexis, went to the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas. No. Seriously. True story.

And of course, he went to sing karaoke. Cuz, like, what else does someone do when they are in Vegas? You know?  I mean, how many hours can you stand dazed in front of a one armed bandit? Especially after standing dazed in 1.6 million square foot of the absolute latest and greatest in consumer technology?

Yup. I would have been in the karaoke bar, too. Gambling just doesn't excite me. Save a bar stool for me, Alexis!

A singer named George told the crowd that he was missing his wife. Then he did a great rendition of "My Girl". Naturally, Alexis (Remember him?  The reporter who went to CES?) had a little chat with George after he sang. Alexis asked him for his secret to a happy marriage.

George told the following story to Alexis:
I've been coming to CES for so long, and all the guys would always want to go to strip clubs. So, I was on my phone at a strip club and there is this girl in front of me on a pole and she's dancing. She says, "You don't like what you see? Put the phone down." Then she says, "Who you talking to?" I say, "My wife." And she goes, "Get the hell out of here." I gave her the phone, and I said, "I'm here for [my coworkers] not for this."

My own secret to a happy marriage has been to sing with my wife every day. Maybe I should take George's advice, though. If I were to go to a strip joint and let my wife know that I was thinking abut her... What more proof of my love could a woman want?

My favorite posts from 2010

The Best and the Worst
Jan 9, 2010, Top slow dance songs of all time
Jan 15, 2010, What is the worst karaoke song?
Mar 13, 2010, What is the longest karaoke song?
May 25, 2010, What should I sing?
Oct 26, 2010, Best songs of the 80's
Dec 8, 2010, The most maligned karaoke song

Getting discovered series
Jan 26, 2010, Getting discovered through karaoke
Jan 31, 2010, Update on getting discovered
Sep 18, 2010, Air guitars and the best karaoke in Milwaukee  
Dec 19, 2010, Is this getting discovered? 
Dec 23, 2010, Yet another update on "getting discovered through karaoke"

Karaoke in the movies
Mar 7, 2010, Karaoke goes to Hollywood
May 20, 2010, More on karaoke goes to Hollywood

So you wanna be a karaoke host series
Mar 19, 2010, How can a KJ help bad singers?
Mar 23, 2010, Part 1, Generic karaoke system
Mar 30, 2010, Part 2a,  Examples of all-in-one systems
Mar 30, 2010, Part 2b, Working dog category
Mar 30, 2010, Part 3, File formats for karaoke files
Apr 4, 2010, Part 4,  Microohony
Apr 6, 3020, Part 5, Mixing it up
Apr 28, 2010, Running Dual dound cards
Apr 27, 2010, Part 6, Karaoke system amp
May 5, 2010, Part 7, Getting those karaoke vibrations going
May 5, 2010, Part 8, Watts and RMS and Ohms, oh my
Jul 10, 2010, Where can I download karaoke songs?
Aug 8, 2010. My new powered speakers
Oct 6, 2010, Rant on piracy

Jewis Christmas songs
Dec 30, 2009, Jewish Christmas Songs
Apr 9, 2010, Jewish Chjristmas Somgs, Update
Dec 12, 2010, Jewish Christmas songs, once more
Dec 25, 2010, The definitive list of Jewish Christmas songs 

Downright silly
Apr, 2010, Was Marvin Gaye?
Apr, 2010, Flickr mot accepting downloads
Mar 7, 2010, Which came first, the doobie or the brothers?
May 19, 2010, Rock On!
Oct 15, 2010, Waiting for the call (Nobel prize in karaoke)
Oct 19, 2010, Heaven 
Nov 3, 2010,  OMG is that bad PR!
Nov 19, 2010, Half naked karaoke that I have missed
Nov 22, 2010, Odd places for karaoke
Dec 12, 2010, New strange places to sing karaoke

Music history
Apr 4, 2010, Which came first, the doobie or the brothers?  How bands got their names
May 3, 2010,  More origins of band names
Jul 16, 2010, How a song about a woman became a state song
Sep 26, 2010, Where did AC/DC get their name? 
Oct 25, 2010, Heavy metal, horror flicks, and Jewish music

Sociology of karaoke 
Aug 21, 2010, Is karaoke a performance or a sing-a-long?
Oct 12, 2010, Bad karaoke dates, and one good one
Nov 24, 2010, Finally some real research on karaoke!
Dec 22, 2010, Stories of losing your karaoke virginity

Celebrity karaoke
Jun 17, 2010, Kelly Clarkson sings karaoke
Jul 14, 2010, Undercover karaoke (with Jewel)
Sep 28, 2010,  Gloria Estefan?  Sings country??!?!?!? 
Oct 2, 2010, Quote from Davy Jones 
Oct 9, 2010, Jennifer Aniston is a karaoke -phile
Oct 30, 2010, Claudia Schiffer "admits" to singing karaoke 
Nov 8, 2010, Gwenyth Paltrow on Glee!
Nov 15, 2010, Celebrity karaoke - Gerard Butler
Dec 16, 2010, Celebrity karaoke - Paul Rudd
Dec 27, 2010, OMG!!! Miley Cyrus sings karaoke!

More on "Cat's Meow"

Faithful readers of this blog will recall that I have done a bit of mocking of the "karaokecam" that is located at Cat's Meow in New Orleans. It started with this post, where I let my adoring fans know that the webcam was not working.

When I ran into a site that listed KaraokeCam as one of the best 25 webcams in the world, I naturally had to post a followup.

I had the pleasure to visit New Orleans in March of 2009. I went down there with high expectations, since I had wanted to visit there for a long time. I was fully expecting that I would be disappointed, not so much because of Katrina, but just because I was expecting so much.

I was not disappointed in the least. New Orleans was fabulous. The cuisine, the 24-7 party atmosphere, the friendliness of everyone, the music, the music, the music, and yes, the music!

I also stopped in to sing karaoke at two places. Sorry to say, that was a tiny bit of a let down. Each place had a song "book" that was a single sheet of paper, printed on front and back. Neither place had more then a few hundred songs in the library. That blew me away. I don't think a KJ could survive in Milwaukee with less than a few thousand songs. But it was ok, really. I didn't visit New Orleans to sing karaoke. And maybe that's why they don't need more than a small collection of songs.

I ran into an article that has me confused again. The article talks about the top five nightclubs in New Orleans. The Cat's Meow is on that short list. To my surprise, the article had this to say:


it was one of the first clubs in the US that had karaoke, and fanatics say that it is one of the best (if not the best) karaoke club in the whole world.

Wow.  I am not sure that the Cat's Meow was one of the places that I sang at. I was there for a week. I was looking for karaoke. I think I would have found it. If it was one of the places that I sang, then I really don't understand the fanatics would say this is the bests karaoke spot in the world.  If didn't sing at the Cat's Meow, then I guess I really missed something big. Yet another reason for me to take another trip to New Orleans!

More celebrity karaoke - Amy Adams

Amy Adams was recently on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, singing karaoke with Jimmy Fallon. She was plugging her new movie The Fighter, and showing off how svelte she looks after giving birth. I couldn't find an online clip of this karaoke experience, but I came across this video on Hulu from last January of the very pregnant Amy Adams and the not pregnant Jimmy Fallon.

The karaoke is pretty good. Amy Adams was of course Princess Giselle in Enchanted, so she is expected to know how to sing. Jimmy Fallon does pretty well, too, hitting the high notes on Livin' on a Prayer and bringing in a not so bad Neil Diamond in a duet of You Don't Bring me Flowers.

Icelandic karaoke marathon

I apologize for the late notice on this post. I only became aware of this recently.

For those readers who are lucky enough either to be near Reykjavík or to have access to a personal jet, the good news is that Björk has scheduled a three-day karaoke marathon! The event is scheduled to start on Threttándinn (Jan 6), which is the last day of the Icelandic Christmas.

The purpose of this event is to increase awareness of the need to protect Iceland's natural resources. Hmmm... maybe I won't fly my personal jet in for this.

http://www.icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_news/?cat_id=21123&ew_0_a_id=372160
http://grapevine.is/News/ReadArticle/Bjork-And-Omar-Ragnarsson-To-Sing-Duet

Karaoke is more popular than mud wrestling and cosmetic surgery!

Google has a new app with the catchy title "Google Ngram Viewer". I was so excited, I couldn't wait to use it.

What does this mean?

At my behest, those nice folks at Google searched every novel written in English between 1980 and 2008. I tried to get them to extend this to 2010, but they stopped at 2008. I thought about going back and asking again just a bit more loudly to make sure they understood my request. I decided not to worry about it, though, since they were so nice to me. I figgered that it would be good enough just to complain about it passive aggressively in a blog.

They counted the occurrences of a number of phrases of my choosing. I decided to look up a few popular Saturday night activities: karaoke (in blue), mud wrestling (in red), and cosmetic surgery (in green). As can be seen in the chart, karaoke overtook mud wrestling in about 1988. Yet another wonderful that happened in the 80's. It was about 2000 that karaoke took over from cosmetic surgery as the preferred was to spend a relaxing evening.

In English fiction books written in around 2007, the word "karaoke" appears 0.00007% of the time. That means that you can expect to run across the word karaoke about once 1.4 million words. To put this in perspective, the typical novel is about 100,000 words. If you read novels from 2008, you would likely run across the word "karaoke" every 14 books.

In my own novel reading, I see the word karaoke about five times a day. From that, you could conclude that I read about 70 novels a day. It doesn't leave a whole lot of time for blogging.

While I was at it, I figgered I might just as well contrast the popularity of two very popular public figures. Since I had been thinking about mud wrestling and cosmetic surgery, I naturally though of Sarah Palin. Since I am always thinking about me, I thought we should have a face off. Sarah Palin is in blue and John  the Revelator is in red. As can be seen, there is no contest.

Kate Moss - karaoke addiction?

According to the Telegraph fashion section, supermodel Kate Moss recently did a little karaoke. In the picture below we see her charming a lady with a Campbell's soup can on her head. Is Kate Moss a karaoke addict?

This is, of course, the fashion section, so we don't know whether to take it seriously. I mean, fashionistas don't take me seriously. Why should I believe someone with a soup can on her head? (Eye makeup by Crayola.) Rather than take the Telegraph fashion section as the final voice on whether Kate Moss is a karaoke addict, I decided to do a little research on my own. I provide the facts. The reader can decide whether this is a true addiction.

In March of 2009, Marie Claire reported that Kate is a karaoke queen. Marie Claire is an authority on celebrity gossip, so now the story is getting a bit more credible. In July of 2009, Kate sang Billie Jean for the most despised karaoke host who is not really a karaoke host. Yes, none other than Simon Crowell. That's pretty hardcore, Kate. With Simon?!?!?  Doing a little K with Simon?

There's more to the story. Kate Moss threw a karaoke party for her daughter's birthday in Oct of 2009. Possibly this is an attempt to legitimize your addiction?  By getting an innocent seven year old involved??!?!

In March of 2010, Kate started seeking positive outlets for her addiction, excuse me. Alleged addiction. Here we see a picture of her at the Mummy Rocks charity event. Really?  Did she invent this charity to feed addiction.

In June of 2010, she brought in $77,000 in donations by singing my favorite Dont' Stop Believin'  at a fundraiser for the Hoping Foundation. Yes, that is David Gilmour on guitar. And yes, Kate is on the floor. Need I say more?

So, take that soup can off your head and decide for yourself about whether an intervention is necessary.

Siskel and Ebert

 I am sorry to have not posted this in time to make people's Christmas lists!

Pioneer has come out with a LaserDisk karaoke machine. Selling for the unbelievable price of $200, it will play eight inch karaoke LaserDisks. Microphones are extra.

Here is the Siskel and Ebert review of the technological miracle from 1989. Stay tuned for the end to hear these gentlemen team up to sing California Dreamin'