As soon as Carson (the host) saw me walk into last night’s Kickass Karaoke, he attached something to the mic stand. It was an instrument boom. He’d bought it just to make it easier to set up a second mic for the accordion.
Holy crap.
Thanks, Carson! You’re the best!
Some of the nice people you’ll meet at Kickass Karaoke. Dorian, Carson (the host) and me.
Don’t forget that Kickass Karaoke takes place tonight at the Bovine Sex
Club (542 Queen Street West, just east of Bathurst). To catch a bit of
the flavour, check
out this video of the last Kickass Karaoke at the Bovine [1 MB QuickTime] featuring Johnny O singing The Kinks’ Apeman and the Bovine “regulars” (regular attendees, not “regular” as in “average” or “normal”).
“Nothing succeeds in this world like imagination,” says Eric Weber, narrator of the audiobook Picking Up Girls Made Easy.
“Think about it! Einstein had imagination. Casanova had imagination.
And Romeo had a great imagination. Didn’t he score Juliet, one of the
greatest pick-ups of all time?”
(A couple of notes: 1. For my British friends: what we call “picking
up”, you’d call “pulling”. 2. I’d hardly view a pick-up that lead
directly to my death as “great”.)
That’s how the audiobook chapter The Walking the Dog Pick Up
[4 MB MP3] begins. The narrator’s dated slang and “Eddie Haskell’s all
grown up” voice, the cheesy voice acting and the advice that sounds as
if it’s coming from Larry Dallas (Jack Tripper’s swinging single friend from
Three’s Company) make this an unintentionally hilarious gem.
“There’s no doubt about it: you’ve got to use your imagination,” says
the narrator at the close. “If you’ve haven’t got a dog, try an antique
car. If you can’t afford that, try an antique bicycle. And if
that’s too fancy, try antique roller skates. Remember, it’s not what
gimmick you use, but how you use it, and how you use your imagination.
Good luck!”
Here’s a photo that just landed in my inbox. It’s from the “Give Me Liberty” party that look place last Thursday.
The accordion is the true rebel’s instrument.
I am just one of the buskers on Queen Street West,
a lovely stretch of trendy boutiques, electronics shops, off-beat
stores, bars and restautants, the CityTV/MuchMusic/Bravo/Space
television headquarters and street vendors. Another busker is Mysterion the Mind Reader, who performs feats of magic and mentalism for passers-by on the weekends. I occasionally provide backup music for his act (Meryle’s written about it).
He likes trying on my accordion, and I got took some photos. You can check them out the photo album or the slideshow.
Doesn’t he look like Jon Stewart’s evil younger brother?
If you’re in Accordion City this coming week, be advised that there are
not one, not two, but three Kickass Karaokes taking place!
The dates and locations are:
Photo by Frank Lemire. Thanks, Frank!
Details later.