I had a lot of fun in this hobby job. Hobbies are supposed to be fun, right? And it's great when you can earn enough money at a hobby to buy the toys that you need to do that hobby. That I did.
But, it was not about making money. And it wasn't even so much about singing karaoke. I could have sung karaoke at any number of places any number of times per week without having to schelp several times my weight in equipment.
It was about people.
I remember vividly a dream that I had while still in high school. I was at a bar (go figger) and Mr. Dumbrowski (proprietor of the bar affectionately known as Dumbo's) was talking to me. "Life..." he said, "... is pipple. Jus' pipple. Thas it." He held his fingers together, holding his hand up as he said this. Then he poured me another tap beer. I'm not sure what the beer symbolized in the dream. Clearly, it symbolized something else that's important. A few more years of therapy, and perhaps I'll figger that one out?
This blog marks the ending of another era in my life, the ending of the "John the Revelator, KJ par excellence" era. I am stepping aside, and passing the mantle on to a very good friend of mine, Anthony "Sven" Chojnacki. Anthony knows that it's all about pipple. That's how I knew I could pass the business along to him. I invite you to have a look at his site, just unveiled this week.
What's next for me? Stay tuned for the next blog post!
He played a rocker wannabe in Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny. He played a rocker wannabe in The School of Rock. He played rocker wannabe Paul McCartney in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.
Yes, I am talking about Jack Black. It should not be a surprise that he sang a little karaoke for the recent UNICEF benefit. The pic is of him singing War Pigs from Black Sabbath.
I missed this play: Karaoke Suicide is Painless. I kick myself. But, I was busy that night. Or maybe I wasn't in Seattle? I don't remember. April was sooooo long ago.
The play is described as "A multimedia karaoke comedy that explores the correlation between air guitar and personal choice." That sounds like my kinda stuff. Intellectual and stupid at the same time.
This is a pic of the actress, Teri Wegant. It really looks like I missed out. I understand that she was in Cider House Rules (I loved the book and was disappointed by the movie.) and also in The Search for Intelligent Life in the Universe. My daughter did a reading from this Lily Tomlin book when she was in high school, so I have a deep personal connection.
The judge at the forensics meet did not give her the grade that my daughter deserved, by the way. My theory is that crazy people make judges uncomfortable. Like, it's too close to their own inner outer-limits? I have no clue what that means, but I thought I would throw it in just in case someone thinks I'm brilliant.
Terri Wegant is holding a Shure SM58 mic, BTW. Oh, and she got a great review for the one woman show.
You know... I may have come off sounding a bit sarcastic about the play? Seriously... I do wanna see it. Someone bring it to Milwaukee, ok? Or Madison. I'd drive to Madison to see it. Meet me there. We'll go to Karaoke Kid after and have a good time on State Street, having gyros and way too much beer.
Sigh... just before I posted this blog I heard about yet another karaoke play that I missed, this one in Bloomfield, NJ. This one is a murder mystery, entitled "Karaoke Kills".
At least, that's what Wikipedia has to say about Stevie Wonder's song: "[Pastime Paradise] drew on the first eight notes and four chords of J.S. Bach's Prelude No. 2 in C minor (BWV 847)"
I had to listen to both songs many times to finally get it. It's there, though. Same chords. But I dunno. Did Stevie Wonder about Johann Sebastian's Box? It seems a bit of a stretch.
Pastime Paradise is track 8 on his Songs in the Key of Life album, which was released in 1976. Rolling Stone ranked this album 56 on their list of 500 greatest albums of all time. I have that album. The song caught me the first time I heard it.
What does the song mean? Back in those days (I should explain), songs had to mean something. ABBA came out with Dancing Queen in that year, and, speaking of Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody came out that year as well. I tell ya, songs meant something back when I was in high school.
Here is what Rolling Stone magazine had to say about the meaning of the song -
"Pastime Paradise sounds like a parody of a well-meaning protest song
with its meaningless shuffle of words
("Consolation/Integration/Verification/of Revelations ... Though the words to "Pastime Paradise" may make you want to run from the room, the music will keep you there."
Nice. Remember, these were the guys who put the album at #56?
Rolling Stone may not have thought much of the lyrics, but I find meaning in them. "We've been spending too much of our lives Living in a pastime paradise Let's start living our lives Living for the future paradise"
In 1995, Coolio did a rap remake of the song. In his version, the words are less hopeful. And it comes along with an admonition for young black men.
I know it may be hard, but try to see past the silly hairdo and listen to the depth of the words: "Tell me why are we, so blind to see That the ones we hurt, are you and me"
When this version came out, I instantly recognized it. Of course, in 1995, our electric toothbrushes and sandals didn't come with Google search apps installed. Back in those days, we had our internet delivered to our doorstep every morning.
So it took me a while to track it down. But when I did, I dusted off the turntable and played it for my daughters. If you can say nothing more of my fathering skills, I took my kids' music education seriously. From the way they rolled their eyes, I could tell that they were very proud to have a father who was practically a professor of musicology. Or, maybe they just saw me as a fat old man trying to convince them that the 70's were cool?
Then, of course, Weird Al made a parody called Amish Paradise. This continues to be a popular karaoke song. In some circles, anyway.
What brought this all up? A good friend of mine, Steve, sent me this video. He knew that I would enjoy the song, since I am also a bearded, singing scientist who is just a bit nutty. Steve did not know my rich history with previous versions of the song.
You may not recognize the rapper in the video. He is IBM Fellow Dr. John Cohn. He is actually a very good speaker and a champion of the cause for getting kids interested in being engineers. If this video can reach just one aspiring rapper and inspire him or her to take a serious look at MIT...
Who woulda believed it? Penelope Cruz? Karaoke?!?!?!
Here is a quote from her:
"I've gone to karaoke bars in almost every city I have been to. Every time I am on a movie location, we find a karaoke bar and take the crew out."
And another:
"I have a karaoke machine at home. I'm one of those people who do it by
themselves when they are alone and I'm not embarrassed to say it."
Her go-to artist? Eminem.
But can she sing? Her singing voice was dubbed in the movie "Volver", but here is a clip of here singing in Nine.
But can she sing? I'm having trouble paying attention to the music.
Tonight, my wife was watching an old episode of Ally McBeal. A song was performed that caught my attention. It's called More Today Than Yesterday. It was released in 1969 as a one hit wonder for the one hit wonder group Spiral Starecase. (Tell the spell checker to shut up, cuz this is the proper misspelling of the group's name.)
Anyway, I like the song. I liked it so much that I dug up the karaoke version, thinking, "I can make that song sound good!" My intuition about this sort of thing isn't always the best. Especially when it comes to trying to sound like guys with really really good very high ranges.
After I decided that this was a song that I could not possibly make sound good, I inexplicably started humming a song from a commercial from way back. A catchy tune... upbeat, jazzy. Sung by Bobby Short. It was from a perfume commercial. How catchy was it? It was released as a 45.Yes, a song from a commercial became a 45! No, I am not talking about I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing, but that's a good guess.
How catchy was the song? I have not heard it since 1976 (back when they still sold 45's), but I still wake up whistling it every morning. Talk about an ear worm!
By now, I am sure I have everyone whistling the song from the Charlie commercial by Revlon.
But was the Charlie song a parody of More Today Than Yesterday? You be the judge.Try singing "Every day's a new day." and then sing "... and they call it ... Charlie." I dunno. Call me meshuga, but I think the songs fit together.
In 1993, Revlon came out with another music video perfume commercial for Charlie fragrance. This time they picked the inimitable Little Richard (who I like to imitate, by the way), and paired him up with the gorgeous Cindy Crawford. This time they end in a parody of Little Richard's hit "Good Golly... Charlie... Good Golly .. Charlie."
I was reminded today of a music video that I saw years ago. The music video might well be my favorite music video of all time. At any rate, it is my favorite music video of today. It features one of my all-time favorite Muppets, Ernie.
And it also features an incredible cast walk-ons, including: Itzhak Perlman, Rhea Perlman, PeeWee Herman, Jane Curtain, John Candy, Winton Marsalais, Joe Williams, Paul Simon, Woodie Guthrie, Dannie DeVito, Jeremy Irons, Ralph Nader, and last but certainly not in any way least, Madeline Kahn.
Here is the video. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did today.
Oh... and not only that, there is an Israeli version of the song under the title "Sim Et Barvazi". The DVD version is bound to be a big hit for Christmas, so order from Walmart early!
Just in case you were wondering, Celia Cruz sings this in Spanish: "suelta el paquito".
