Author: RTOlson

Wednesday night at The Maltese

Had a good night inside the small bar with a lot of heart. Ari was back in the saddle after two weeks away and sang the classic “Wanted” with a little back-up from yours truly. He also sang Snoop Dogg and brought the house down, like always. Karaoke king Sam showed up and rocked some songs (including his standards like “Mack the Knife”). He ruled over Bearnaked Ladies’ “One Week.” Ronnie had me counter with “It’s the End of the World …” It was clear that Sam did a better job.

Still I had a lot of fun, although I missed singing Elton John songs for the two ladies that were there a couple of weeks back (although I could’ve done a better job of it). Tonight, I was trying to get one lady to sing behind the mike (she flatly refused). I hope I didn’t press the issue too much (it seemed like she was taking it in stride).

Here’s the run down of my songs:

  • Down on the Corner — I thought it was an OK song to warm up to. I don’t think I’ve got the resonant voice to make it sound like the classic.
  • Short Skirt, Long Jacket — I’m still working on singing to match McCrea’s rythym. It’s tough as heck.
  • It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) — I stumbled on a couple of lines. I downloaded the song from iTunes and I’ll hopefully get a better sense of the movement in the song.
  • Hit the Road Jack — Ray Charles’ classic as interpreted by me (not Ray Charles)
  • Don’t Bring Me Down — From Electric Light Orchestra. “Don’t bring me down … Bruce.” Why didn’t I know that song a couple of years ago? [ 😉 to the eight people in the world that might get that joke.]
  • Seven Spanish Angels — It’s a duet and I realized tonight that I sound neither like Ray Charles nor Willie Nelson. Ah well, I like the song even if others don’t.
  • I helped sing — Wanted, Love Shack, Hotel California and some LL Cool J song (to try and get the lady to sing). She playfully flipped me off. Drat. Maybe next time.

Circling the wagons

Is it bad of me when I consider buying a minifridge for my room? I’m having some problems with some items in the common fridge being “misappropriated” by my roommates, and I’m getting tired of it.

Am I just avoiding the problem? They’re not too cheap, but I think it might save me some headaches in the long-term. It might also encourage me to remain at home more often — I would know that I have stuff to eat and drink in the apartment.

Recent releases

I’m just dying to hear the Cal Aggie Marching Band-uh!‘s take on Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl.” I saw a blurb that a Davis-area station was playing the song occasionally.

I liked the song’s sound featuring low brass and bass drums (totally dug the live band on SNL in April). I think a marching band of the Band-uh!’s caliber could rock that song.

Now I have a big reason to go to Picnic Day next April. I know I sound like a geek, but marching bands can totally rock some songs (like the Leland Stanford Jr. University Marching Band’s take on “Welcome to Paradise”).

In other news, The Digital Bits has reviewed two awesome films that recently underwent “special edition” DVD releases — Office Space and The Big Lebowski. I only need to say “TPS reports” or “The Dude” and many, many people would know what I’m talking about. Just as if I were to say that I was going “to go ‘office space’ on the fax machine.” It’s nice to see them getting new releases, but it’s kind of a bummer that the extras weren’t super according to the review.

Dis ‘n dat

Just some random stuff surfing around the ‘net this weekend —

– Pluming the depths of MySpace, I rediscovered “The Gleib” — aka Ben Gleib (name seems shorter than I remember). Anyway, The Gleib is a comedian and is responsible of dispelling two beliefs that I’ve held for a while — that Screech from “Saved by the Bell” is funny and that dating shows are real. Sadly, Screech (Dustin Diamond) was dreadful live a few years back and “Blind Date” seems capable of pulling fast ones over its audience.

– Saturday Night Live hasn’t been super funny this season. I don’t know why exactly. Interesting seeing Catherine Zeta Jones sing (and wondering how different she looks “live”), but it wasn’t very funny. One positive note is Tina Fey’s return to Weekend Update after becoming a mother. I got some belly laughs over some of the jokes there.

– If you’re looking for some interesting stuff to watch or listen to, there’s ZeD from the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. It’s a combination TV show/Web site featuring a mix of short films, musical performances and trippy stuff.

– While I’ve previously plugged CBC Radio 3’s podcast, I don’t know if I mentioned their magazine. It features lots of music and articles about culture and music in a solid Shockwave presentation. Hours of fun listening and browsing.

Monday night

Songs sung Monday at “Bear-e-oke”: 1) You and Me and Bottle Make Three. 2) Danger Zone. That went down extremely well. 3) Quando, Quando, Quando. For some reason, the audience didn’t dig this song. 4) Man of Constant Sorrow. Sang it with “Puff” to end the night.
 

Destroying my belief system

Pluming the depths of MySpace, I rediscovered “The Gleib” — aka Ben Gleib (name seems shorter than I remember from college). Anyway, Gleib is a comedian and is responsible of dispelling two beliefs that I’ve held for a while — that Screech from “Saved by the Bell” is funny and that dating shows are real. Sadly, Screech (Dustin Diamond) was dreadful live a few years back and “Blind Date” seems capable of pulling fast ones over its audience. More on my random thoughts on TV and music, here.

Grrr, why is MySpace’s music utility so lame? Where can I mark that I’m listening to the deleted tracks from The Blues Brothers soundtrack — specifically their cover of Johnny Horton’s “Sink the Bismark”? (BTW, you can download the songs from The Digital Bits’ review of the movie). It’s true that they recently rediscovered the missing tracks (they were on a reel deleted from the final cut of the film), but there’s no Blues Brothers listing at all. It’s crazy lame (just like MySpace eating this post). I don’t think Tom is truly my friend. 🙁

 

Since I’m a roll…

I wanted to link to comedian Rick Mercer’s blog. He’s definitely a pretty funny guy. I can get behind his trips to foriegn nations to support Canadian forces in war zones. Speaking of Mercer, I’m watching The National from CBC News. Of course, there’s no option for TV shows on the “Tell us” section. That’s a shame. What’s not a shame is the fact that I can watch the news program again after the legnthy lockout.

 

Clever people

Current mood:full

Good job to the bands effectively using this site to find people near them. At the very least, they’ve gotten me to check them out a bit. So, music groups — cool. Bars that aren’t my scene — not so much. Although I’m not into “thrash punk,” I added the groups to my friend list. After all, I don’t want to look like a über loser with just Tom on the list (no offense, Tom). The other person on the list though is cool (and I actually know her!)

 

Woh, lookit the time

Gee, I think I’m being good and going to bed early, but I’ve gotten snared by browsing the site, filling out my profile, putting up my photo for ranking (because I’m insanely curious about what others think about me) and stuff. I came to the site to figure out where my sister’s space had gone to (from Xanga) and now it’s just blossomed into this great experience. In addition to my sister, I found another sister, a co-worker, classmates from my high schools, etc. It’s darn interesting stuff. I promise to use the knowledge solely for good (or not at all). So I’m having fun. Sure, I was prompted to register and join the merry News Corp. family and the site organization could be a tad nicer. While I still like the space I’ve carved out at rtomedia.com, it’s a lot better than Xanga.

 

Being sociable

It seems I’m sucked into wacky online communities to see what my family’s up to. First, I signed up for a Xanga site to post comments. Now, I’ve plunged into the depths of MySpace.

It’s nice. I found my sisters and some people from around town. I’ve been engrossed with my profile (esp. if it’s to be used as an epitaph). It’s interesting how my tastes have progressed over the years.

Now that I’ve got such a nice little pad over there, I’ll probably use it to post TV show reviews or something. After all, my user name is “galatican” after “Battlestar Galactica.”

I’m such a geek. Anywho, off to bed. Busy day tomorrow.

Late update: When I say “epitaph,” I don’t think I’m going to kick off anytime soon (I hope). However, if the time comes I want there to be enough information about me. Maybe I’m a little paranoid. – RTO