Category Archives: MySpace

The best karaoke place in San Diego

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Just to pick up on my post from last week, I have a _much, much_ better time at the second San Diego karaoke place I sang at.

After my 10-year reunion on Aug. 19, I drove around the corner from Shelter Point and pulled into the Captain’s Catch inside of a Ramada Limited. It was getting late in the evening, but I was able to sing TWO songs.

Sure the place wasn’t very crowded and the book was just all right, but people seemed to appreciate my music selection and were digging it. I sang Cake’s “Never There” and Cab Calloway’s “Minnie the Moocher.”

So, in my limited opinion, Captain’s Catch is the “best” karaoke bar in San Diego. Even if it’s not, it’s a million times better than the Lamplighter.

This is a feature? – Aug. 19

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Hey, Tom —

This text editor that you have to write blogs is dreadful, to the point where it is nearly unusable (at least on Firefox). I can use neither the arrow keys or keyboard commands to edit my post. It’s like I’m back on a terminal using PINE to check my e-mail.

This is almost as bad as trying to write a text message on your cell phone. Actually, it’s worse — nearly every phone I’ve used allows you to use the arrow keys.

I don’t know what the problem is, but I would really appreciate added functionality to these blogs.

Your friend,
Ryan

Shakedown – Aug. 19

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SAN DIEGO — I’ll expand on this latter, but there were several things that detracted from the enjoyment of my night on the town Friday. These are just niggles and didn’t take too much from my night.

— While attempting to buy tickets online for Friday’s Padres game, the site wanted to charge me $6.50 in fees … for a $12 ticket. That seemed a little too steep for me. Luckily I was able to buy the tickets for no added mark-up at the stadium ticket booth. Used the saved money to buy a program.

— I spent nearly 3 hours at San Diego’s “best” karaoke spot, The Lamplighter, and didn’t get to sing once. Apparently the KJ lets anyone who “tips” him a sufficient amount to go ahead of others. I wasn’t going to play that game — especially after paying a $5 cover — and thus didn’t get to sing (which was going to be “Shakedown”). After all, tips are gratuity and what did I have at that point to be grateful for? Zilch.

While I didn’t pay, the person before me did and sang an hour after signing up (“Bohemian Rhapsody”). I had dinner at ‘bertos instead.

It frustrated me because I shouldn’t have to pay to sing (and I don’t in Chico). From a different perspective, I _do_ pay to sing. I paid the cover charge (for karaoke) plus two beverages and tips.

I’m sure it’s all water under the bridge for the bar. My complaint isn’t a new one and I’m sure the bar keeps running with those people willing to pay or those who are satisfied nonetheless.

However, I hearby challenge the designation of The Lamplighter as “the best” as ranked by several local publications. The KJ has a great book and the bar’s pretty nice, but  I have no desire to return after my experience and would tell my friends the same. Karaoke at El Torito is probably a better time.

Worst 111: Round One

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The first round of the “Worst 111” karaoke countdown was launched at Madison Bear Garden on Monday night. I think it got a pretty good reception from the crowd although some of the songs were truely awful.

Some of the songs weren’t in the karaoke book, but I’ll try to catch up with part of the list on Wednesday at the Maltese.

111 – Rock Lobster — The B-52’s classic (but not as classic as “Love Shack”) was a little hard to master.
108 – Mambo No. 5 — I can understand why Lou Bega sold out on this song. The chorus makes the song. The melody? Not so much.
106 – Let Her Cry — It took a while for me to get into the song, but this Hootie and the Blowfish song really has some legs.
103 – Jenny From the Block — Kelly helped me with this song, but neither of us could capture the “magic” of J. Lo.
102 – Born to be Wild — I think I captured the Steppenwolf original better than Ozzy and Miss Piggy (whose version earned this place on the list). Maybe it was the two dancing women who helped.

That’s five down, 106 to go — minus the ones that aren’t in the books.

Counting down the worst

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Starting tonight at Bear-e-oke, we’ll be singing as many songs as possible from the Top 111 Worst Songs. My colleagues and I dispute many of the songs’ placement on the list. While not the greatest, they’re still pretty good songs.

They were apparently voted on by the users of AOL Music. I kinda question their taste — some of the songs were probably picked because they were overplayed (like “One Week” from Bearnaked Ladies). I also don’t know how many people voted for the list — I can’t use AOL’s service because they want a Windows machine.

Alas, it still should be a lot of fun to go through the list. It starts with “Rock Lobster” by the B-52s and ends with “Who Let the Dogs Out” by the Baha Men. Good times.

Random MySpace muse – 2 June

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There’s been a little pestering thought in the back of my mind as I browse through MySpace profiles. It’s nice to see what people are “here” for, but Tom only gives us four options. It’s not nearly enough.

We can be here for “dating,” “serious relationships,” “friends” and “networking.” I’m certainly here for more reasons that the four stated. I sometimes use MySpace for work, there’s not really an entry for that (although I suppose “networking” would qualify).

Tom — How hard would it be to include a box for people who are “here for the party.” 😉

Good night, folks. Try the veal.

MySpace musing – 14 May

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Animated greatnessAfter a brief hiatus, my animated profile image is back. It was down briefly because I wanted to look respectable. However, what’s more elegant than the inflated Garlic Dude from the Gilroy Garlic Festival? Nothing!

It’s interesting, but some people are impressed about how I animated the graphic. There’s nothing much to it — it’s an animated GIF. Somehow it adds an extra touch to the page without a lot of loud noises or videos.

Speaking of loud noises, how is everyone enjoying No Luck Club? I first heard them on the CBC Radio 3 podcast. They’re pretty good, but they’re no Dick Dale and His Deltones.

At the same time, No Luck Club hasn’t prompted my friends to say “Change the godawful music.” I guess that’s a good thing.

BTW, do you want to see the most information-rich MySpace profile I’ve ever seen? Check this guy out. For some reason he’s tracking my blog and I wanted to learn more about him. There’s a lot to learn about him it seems.

The cool thing is that he puts all the information together in a classy way. It’s a ton of information and photos, but it’s as readable as things get on this site. I do miss the animated fish that follows my mouse cursor, though.

Well, I guess that’s enough of the classic stream of consciousness writing that keeps so many people coming back to this blog.

Duet nite – 4-12

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Tonight seemed like duet night at The Maltese. Four of the five songs I sang were with others. It was pretty cool although I probably need to work on singing in harmony with others. At the same time, it sounded all right and I had a good time. That’s what counts, right?

Oh, I want to thank my mom for listening to the love song radio station. I remember constantly being inundated by these duets like “I’ve had the time of my life” while we drove to clarinet lessons on a backroad in Georgia. While it’s not always my cuppa, those were some good times and it really prepared me for singing with others.

Here’s the rundown:

  • Picture (with Alice). The fun part is screaming “I was off to drink you away” at the top of my lungs.
  • End of the World. OK, that’s the one non-duet, but I’m practically required to sing the song. As always Ronnie sang backup. I thought it was rocking tonight.
  • Summer Nights (with Colleen). I still enjoy the end where the duo sings “NIGHTS” in the most off-key way possible.
  • Whip It (with Heather). Not really a duet in the strictest sense of the word, but we sang it together. I practiced my “dynamic” dance moves.
  • Seven Spanish Angels (with Colleen). Colleen and I helped bring it home with this ballad popularized by Ray Charles and Willie Nelson. She wanted to sing a Disney duet, but I’ve been wanting to sing this song for a long time. It’s cool when people dance with the music.

So that was Wednesday. Maybe I’ll post the 26-song playlist when I dominated the mostly empty stage in Marysville two weeks ago.

False advertising

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My frakking username is “Galatican” but I haven’t posted one lick of BSG commentary since the second half of Season Two started. Is that false advertising or something else?

I just haven’t felt the great urge to write about BSG on this space, although maybe I should. Still, there’s other things I could write about. I don’t know, I never seem to capitalize on these sorts of sites.

OTOH, my real blog is hopping compared to this one. A whole whopping seven posts in the last 30 days.

Tube Talk: Super show

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I was going to take off after the Big Game ended, but ABC started airing “Grey’s Anatomy” pretty quickly. I hadn’t seen the show since the first episode left me uninterested. Although I was only vaguely familar with the show or its characters, tonight’s episode drew me in.

After opening with a rather pedestrian woman feeling down after a romantic situation ended badly, the show was off to the races. There were a dozen plot threads running almost to the point of implausabilty (for example, the cranky, pregnant head doctor in labor while her husband is going through brain surgery after an accident en route to the hospital), but darn if it wasn’t good TV with a engaging mix of comedic and dramatic moments.

Things were moving so fast, I told my friend that it was a two-part episode to minimize the bummage factor when the inevitable cliffhanger came. And it was a doozy — finding one of the main characters holding an embedded explosive in place in a victim’s body.

I didn’t say it to Joel at the time, but I really liked the bright image from his HD TV. True, the local ABC affillate wasn’t airing an HDTV feed, but the broadcast via Dish looked pretty clear. I must definitely mention this when I see him again. I’d be very interested to see how BSG looks when it airs on the NBC Universal HD channel.

OTOH, the remote for the DISH DVR looked like a control panel on a 737. There’s a ton of buttons and I still don’t know what a third of them do.

And lastly, I probably shouldn’t have been talking so much during the broadcast. People didn’t seem annoyed, but it’s probably a little rude and annoying. Also, my hit-to-noise ratio was probably a little low (although there was one good laugh somewhere).