Karaoke and alcohol

If you are in Sydney, Australia, be forewarned that alcohol and karaoke don't mix. I quote  Superintendent Mark Walton of the NSW Police Force


... it's clear some premises [karaoke bars] are still conducting activities which encourage patron intoxication and that's of great concern to police,


Imagine... a karaoke bar that encouraged people to drink. Unbelievable.

In Japan, the situation is a bit different. 

Speaking of Venn diagrams, math teachers also seem to get the relationship between karaoke and alcohol.
A group of 70 math teachers spent nearly $2,000 in federal funds on alcohol at one dinner while on a KIPP retreat in New York City in January 2005, the audit states. And at two separate retreats for school leaders in Cancun, Mexico, KIPP charged the federal government more than $7,000 for alcohol and more than $2,500 for DJs, karaoke services, and basketball equipment, according to the audit, which was first reported in Education Week.

If you would prefer your karaoke without the alcohol, may I recommend the Drunk Karaoke machine, which simulates the drunken experience.

Question about home karaoke

Question:

Hello there!

I hope you don't mind that I am emailing you out of the blue, but I found your blog when I was trying to figure out if my dvd player would show lyrics from a karaoke cd. I am not very technically knowledgeable but from what I've read it seems that this is not possible. I was wondering if there was a machine specifically made for just playing karaoke cds, but not for microphones, etc... a karaoke dvd player if you will. My boyfriend has a number of speakers and microphones from a former music career and we are starting karaoke nights with some of his friends. We have microphones and numerous speakers so we don't need that, I just need something to show the lyrics on the tv screen. I read somewhere in your blog that they make ipod adaptions. Would this allow me to download karaoke music onto my ipod and then use this to take the lyrics and music from my ipod to the tv and stereo system? Again, I apologize for my lack of technological knowledge. 

Thank you for your time!

Sarah

Answer:

Hi Sarah,

No problem at all. I get these questions periodically.

First question:  Can you do it with a DVD player?  When I bought my first karaoke CD, I plugged it into my DVD player, and it actually worked. :) It played the music and the words showed up on my TV.  Because it worked, I bought another CD and another and another. All of a sudden, I was a karaoke DJ. A modern day success story.

I got another DVD player and it did not play karaoke.  :(   There was no indication when I bought either one as to whether it would play karaoke. So... try the karaoke CDs with whatever DVD player you can find. Maybe you'll get lucky?

Second question: Can you run karaoke on your iPod.  I currently have several hundred of the songs that I do on my iPod. All I need is a powered speaker and the iPod and I can sing for my supper. Your iPod can also drive a TV set, BTW. I don't know if you found my post on that, but it's a cheap cable and a setting on the iPod. (To read more, look at the tail end of this post.)

The movie files are not all that much bigger than an mp3 file. I just checked... I looked at 89 files that I had converted. The total disk space is 775 MB, or roughly 9 MB per song. If your iPhone has 8 GB, then it might hold close to 1,000 songs? If you have a 160 Gb iPod, then can fit about half a zillion songs.

But... it's gonna take some work to move them from a karaoke CD to the iPod.  First, you need to rip them from the CD to files. Each track will have a .mp3 file, just like those that we know and love, and also a .cdg file which has the lyrics. Second, you need to combine the music (.mp3) and the lyrics (,cdg) into a video file. Normally this would be a mp4 file, since this is a format supported by the iPod. (If you donwload a movie through iTunes store, it is stored in mp4 format.) Then you just load them to the iPod with iTunes or some other program.

Ripping... You can't use the normal ripping programs like iTunes or Winamp, since they don't support the lyrics part.  I use a program called Siglos Power CD+G burner. There may be a free add-on to WinAmp, but I haven't tried it.

Combining into mp4 file... I use another program from Siglos called Power CD+G to iPod Converter.

Another option... if you haven't already invested in a big pile of karaoke CDs... is to buy the karaoke songs in the iPod (mp4) format. Karaoke.com has a number of songs available in this format. When I last looked, the selection wasn't huge. That may have changed. I don't know if anyone else sells karaoke songs in mp4 format.

I think this might be enough to get you there? Feel free to ask more questions.
John

Karaoke Terror - the movie

Just to let you know, there is another movie about karaoke out. It's called Karaoke Terror. I'm not planning on seeing it.

Here is a review:
http://deadlydollshouse.blogspot.com/2011/01/sing-us-song-youre-karaoke-man.html

Subway karaoke contest

I debated about whether to write a post about Subway's karaoke contest. My first thought was that the contest is purely and obviously commercial. I mean... you have to sing their lyrics about about their new sandwich to "Sweet Home Alabama". Ok, I love that song, so I poked further.

The first prize is  £1000 (€1,500 in ROI in Ireland). I'm not even sure what that means. Pounds (I think) and euros, but ROI?  I dunno. I could look it up, but the contests is only open to residents of England or Ireland. Ok... I know some folks in Ireland.. I am related to some folks in England. Like King Henry VIII. Not a close relative, mind you. Through marriage.

Is it worth writing a post, though, that only applies to the 14 British and one Irish viewer I had in the past month?

Then I saw the video. Yes, this is worth posting. Good luck to you, unnamed Tubway goddess! I love your mic.

More karaoke quotes

Here are a few karaoke quotes from the web that I either found insightful, or incite-ful.

"Karaoke symbolizes a freedom that hardly any other actions in the field of entertainment can offer. It delivers persons the courage to come up in front of an unknown audience to sing songs even inside the face of potential shame."

http://articlesbase.cz.cc/refreshing-music-songs-information/

"The video below is a shining example of why karaoke should be made illegal, and why people taking part should be shot"

http://markjdaniels.wordpress.com/2011/01/20/karaoke-anybody-got-any-ear-plugs/

"I love the art of karaoke. Few activities are possibly better done drunk than grabbing a microphone in front of your friends and emoting your musical guts out as a computer generated rainbow and blank-faced extras project on a screen behind you. "

http://deadlydollshouse.blogspot.com/2011/01/sing-us-song-youre-karaoke-man.html

"Karaoke is like watching an Ashton Kutcher film—you need to knock a couple back to even consider it."

http://hermosabeach.patch.com/articles/two-times-the-charm

Update on Kate Moss' karaoke addiction

I reported earlier this year about Kate Moss' addiction to karaoke. Sorry to say, it gets deeper. Her new mansion, at 7.5 million pounds, will have a stage and karaoke machines. Rumors that I will become her live-in karaoke host have been greatly exaggerated.

Near miss on getting discovered

Ok... this is a near miss. According to the Sacramento Bee, James Garner was discovered doing karaoke. Yes, James Garner was discovered singing karaoke. He wasn't quite discovered by a talent scout. It was a drummer. But unfortunately, it is not the James Garner you might be thinking of. Not the James Garner of Maverick and Rockford Files. This is James Garner, the Elvis impersonator. I guess he's pretty good though.

Ashley Sullivan is another near miss. She got her start doing karaoke at Applebee's in her home town Springfield, MA, where she won first prize of $500. From there, she went on to American Idol, where she begged and pleaded her way out of a thumbs down.

Getting discovered the karaoke way?  Ehhh... not quite.