The Lola LaRue Variety Show - Christmas Special 2023

 It was a lot of fun to figure out how to play all of these songs on piano. (Sh. Don't tell Lola she isn't the one playing them.) Just a little holiday cheer.

The Lola LaRue Variety Show - Thanksgiving Special 2023

 Here’s Lola’s Thanksgiving Special! She’s back at work today getting her Christmas special ready. But it’s never too early to celebrate and get into the holiday spirit.

The Lola LaRue Variety Show - Episode 10 "Mime V. Clown"

 It's all been leading up to this! This is the last episode of our first batch of series 2 shows. We're still editing the last batch. Hopefully we'll start posting them in September. I'm the editor, and I don't always have time to edit what with work and life and stuff.

I might cut an outtake version of this video. I was laughing so hard during Mimi's lines - the ones that didn't make the cut.

Next Episode of the Lola LaRue Variety Show - ASMR

 I forgot to post last week's episode, so here it is:

Lola "quits" smoking. That's my cat Karloff on the cigarettes! He's almost as famous as Lola!

And here's this week's episode where Lola tries some ASMR. Is she doing it right?

The Lola LaRue Variety Show - Episode 5 - "Do the LaRue and Look Like Lola!"

 Here's the next episode of the show I've been working on with my friend, Diana! We only have one more (next week) and then we're taking a little break to work on some new material.

Ruth Allen's Sunrise Around the World

 If you didn't know, I've been going with some friends of mine to sing/entertain at an assisted living center every Wednesday afternoon for several years. We weren't able to go there during the original COVID-19 lockdowns. When they had to go back into lockdown from Omicron, we decided to start live streaming our singalong so they could still have some entertainment. Here's the one we did last week:

We'll be live streaming again this week, so if you are reading this before Jan 26, 2022, please drop by YouTube to watch on Wednesday at 3:30 pm Pacific. If you are reading this after Jan 26, 2022, you should be able to find the archive of the live stream on my YouTube channel.

New Year’s Resolutions - 2022!

 Happy new year! It’s today! Today! The first day of a new year. You may not know this about me, but I like to set a yearly challenge for myself. I don’t think of it as a resolution. It isn’t vague like “be healthier,” or “be more connected with family.” It is something a little more specific. Often, I ask myself to do one thing a month, like last year’s “read a book each month,” which by March changed into “consume a book each month,” since, turns out, I absolutely hate reading. I finished out the goal by listening to audiobooks. It was still a challenge for me and I’ve not listened to an audiobook in about a month, since finishing up my December book early - in November.

One year I did a painting a month. Toward the end, they got to be a little simplistic, but I did them. One year I was going to record a song each month, but my mom got really sick and life interfered with my ability to learn and/or write songs. One year it was “say yes to everything,” which didn’t mean everything, but I said yes to anything I thought might be remotely fun/interesting to do. I went to a lot of shows at Largo that year and have some great memories, but again, there were a few tickets purchased that I ended up not using. Something can sound like a great idea in one month and sound like a not great idea when the day comes.

Well, the pandemic makes a “say yes to everything” year a bad idea. And even though I’d love to set a goal involving travel or going to places, that would just be setting myself up for failure this year. Maybe for 2023 I can do that. After last year’s monthly goal, I don’t want to do that again, at least not right away. So instead, I’ve come up with a little list of 2 things I’d like to accomplish by the end of the year. They are things which will require putting in some work, so not something I can wait until next December to do. Here we go:

 1.      Learn how to properly record a song, probably in Audacity, with multiple tracks. I’m only planning one song here, a song I started writing in 2015 when my dad died and my mom got really sick. I want to finish it and do a semi-decent recording of it and not just a “put the phone on the piano” version.

2.    2.   Learn how to draw a cat. It doesn’t have to be a lifelike cat. It can be cartoonish, but a little bit better than the wonky stick figure cat that would happen if I tried now. (I’ll try now to get a baseline starting point.) But I want to be able to draw a cat without looking at pictures of cats to copy. I’m not sure I can do this, but I’m going to give it a try. By the end of they year, at minimum, I want to have one stock cat I can draw. At maximum, I’d like to be able to draw an assortment of cats in different poses.

I think that’s it for this year. That’s enough, right? I will still try to be healthier. I’ll keep trying to get to the garden for more walking. I’ll try to be more focused on my personal writing to get a few big projects really going. I want to really tidy my house and loft. I want to get better on guitar and piano. I’ll try once more to get my roses to mate. (You read that right.) I want to make more YouTube videos and still want to get my channel re-monetized. But I don’t want to put undo pressure on myself to accomplish those goals. Those are the standing goals. They don’t depend on the calendar page turning from December 31 to January 1.

Okay, 2022. Let’s do this! Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit.

My terrible unaided attempt at a cat:

Hard to believe I'm looking at several live cats while this happened.

P.S. (added Jan. 2): I would also like to learn how to rip an apple in half, ala Bob Mortimer.

Ruth Allen Sings English Music Hall Songs (Mostly)

 

Ruth Allen was born on January 20, 1929.

On October 26, 2021, I asked her to sing some songs for me. She’s 92.

Here’s what she sang:

WITH MY LITTLE WIGGER-WAGGER IN MY HAND (1909)

Fred Earle, Frank Carter & Gilbert Wells

 WHEN FATHER PAPERED THE PARLOUR (1910)

R.P. Weston and Fred J. Barnes

 FIVE EYES (1922)

Poem by Walter de la Mare published in 1913

 DON’T DILLY DALLY ON THE WAY (1919)

Fred W. Leigh and Charles Collins

 JUST A WEE DEOCH & DORIS (1911)

Harry Lauder

 WAITING AT THE CHURCH (1906)

Fred W. Leigh and Henry E. Pether

 AT THE DEVIL’S BALL (1913)

Irving Berlin

 HE’D HAVE TO GET UNDER - GET OUT AND GET UNDER (TO FIX UP HIS AUTOMOBILE) (1913)

Maurice Abrahams, Grant Clarke and Edgar Leslie

 HE NEVER RETOUCHES ME

Ruth Allen

The Sparks Brothers Documentary

 Or is it just an excuse to share the latest song I've posted on YouTube?

Johnny Delusional Cover

I basically had no idea who Sparks were until I got to work way down the post-production stream on The Sparks Brothers documentary. It is really good. It is a love letter to the Mael brothers and you'd have to be pretty stubborn to not come away with Sparks as your "new" favorite band, at least for a little bit.

I have been a fan of Franz Ferdinand for a long time, but for some reason I decided to not buy the Sparks collaboration album, F.F.S. But I've bought it now and I love the song Johnny Delusional in particular. So much, that I decided to do a cover version. I've also been doing tap lessons on YouTube, so I did a tap to accompany myself on the song with., 

Anyway, go see The Sparks Brothers, which comes out in theaters on June 18, 2021. In the future from when I'm writing this you will probably be able to find it streaming somewhere. Then buy some of their music to support them. Don't just watch their videos on YouTube, but put some actual money into their pockets.

I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts! Song

 Finally got around to recording another song.  Not my finest piano play, but a silly song I thoroughly enjoy! Thanks to Katherine for indulging me.

Music Reaction Videos and Great Songs

Last night, when I was having my semi-regular bout of insomnia, I went down the rabbit hole of watching music reaction videos on YouTube. Luckily, YouTube keeps a record of everything you watch, so I can now recreate the playlist for you.

The Killers - Mr. Brightside
Right Said Fred - I’m Too Sexy
Moulin Rouge Soundtrack - Lady Marmalade
Crowded House - Don’t Dream It’s Over (if I was forced to make a top 10 list of best songs ever, this would probably make the cut)
Midnight Oil - Beds are Burning
Tim Minchin - Prejudice
(Diversion to Tim Minchin "Thank You God" with no reaction.)
(Diversion to Crowded House "Pour le Monde," no reaction.)
Adele - Rolling in the Deep
Deee-Lite - Groove is in the Heart
The B-52’s - Love Shack
Sweet - Ballroom Blitz
Pink Floyd - Another Brick in the Wall
New Order - Blue Monday
Radiohead - Creep
Guns N’ Roses - Sweet Child O’ Mine
Aerosmith - Dream On
Aerosmith - Dream On (again, different reaction)

And then I stopped.

I don’t particularly enjoy reaction videos. The reactions always seem to be, “Ok. Ok. That wasn’t what I was expecting. Mm. Yeah.” There isn’t any deep analysis going on. And because the songs are usually taken from comments recommendations, there is a certain quality to them which would make it unusual for a song to be completely panned. The songs are either excellent classics or off-the-wall goofs. It’s never just, “Please listen and react to this perfectly mediocre song which made it to number 100 on the charts.” I mean, who would listen to Aerosmith “Dream On” and not think it was kind of an amazing song?

The first thing I though of, almost immediately, was that “Mr. Brightside,” released in 2004, sounds like it could have been released today. Pop/Rock music has really stagnated for the past 30 years or so. You can hear something from the 1980s, and you know it is from the 1980s. And growing up in the 1980s and 1990s, you could hear something from the 1960s or 1970s and you could tell which decade it was from.

This isn’t a complaint. I happen to like the way music has sounded for the last 30 years, but aside from lyrics evolving slightly as people have evolved, the actual basic music hasn’t had a huge shift in sound. (I understand that popular music goes through phases of what BPM is hot, or how much autotune is expected, but a lot of music from the late 1990s through today, without context, would be hard to pinpoint to a specific decade.)

The song “Anything, Anything” by Dramarama is a good example of this. It’s from 1985, but if you listen to it and are forced to give it a year, having never heard it before and without any visual clues like the music video or pictures of the band, I doubt anyone would peg it as a song from 1985. Hot Fuss by The Killers sounds like something which could have been released today.

This takes me back to a month or so ago when I posted on Facebook asking if “Birdhouse in Your Soul” by They Might Be Giants was a great song. Yes, it is, by the way. But what makes a great song?

 I’m working on my formula, and this is where I’m at. The lyrics and melody have to be at least interesting. So something like R.E.M.’s “The One I Love,” which is a good song, doesn’t quite make it to great because the lyrics are too repetitive.

 How to determine if the lyrics and melody pass this test? Sing the song acapella - for someone, if possible. If you find yourself doing something like, “and then that repeats,” forget it. That song fails. Or if you find yourself thinking, “I hope the person I’m singing this to isn’t getting bored,” then that song also fails. It needs to be interesting and compelling. Even if you have trouble keeping hold of the melody, which might be a difficult one, you can get a pretty fast idea if the song has potential to be great by attempting a small performance of it. My cats get to hear Billy Joel’s “My Life” in about 4 different keys each time I attempt to sing it. For some reason, I can’t hold that one in the right key when doing it acapella. (I also have trouble keeping the key straight on “Birdhouse in Your Soul.”)

I took voice lessons for a long time, and my teacher insisted all the lessons be acapella. It really drove home the idea that some songs just didn’t cut it. There is nothing as painful as starting a 3-minute song and realizing after the first couple of lines that the song, which you love, doesn’t go anywhere. It doesn’t say anything. It doesn’t stir anything.

If the song passes the lyric/melody test, then move on to the music. I would venture to say that a great song can suffer from a poor performance. So while the bones of the song would qualify, a particular version of it can fall way short of being great. I think The Killers “All These Things That I’ve Done” is a great song. And that Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” is a great song. But I doubt I’d feel the same way if different artists had presented those song originally. The Killers made that song great. Queen made that song great.

I love the music in Cats, but there is a reason why “Memories” is a hit and the other songs are only known by us fanatical fans of the show.

I’m not slighting good songs, I’m just saying that I need to recognize that even though I might love a song, doesn’t mean it is a great song. And I also don’t think there are a finite number of great songs. New great songs come out each year. We haven’t reached the end of the road with great songs.

A great song spans generations. It spans genres. Someone who does reaction videos, even if they don’t love the genre, will be forced to admit that the song hasn’t something going for it. There is something inherently great about the music and lyrics and the way they work together. It’s why “White Christmas” is still popular, despite being written in 1942.

Since the reaction videos rely on suggestions, they are automatically biased toward listening to good, if not great, songs. And the reason I watched them for so long last night? It wasn’t for the reactions. It was because I was getting to revisit songs I hadn’t heard in a while. The playlist was varied. When I watch a regular music video on YouTube, the autoplay feature will then run through videos either by the same band or from the same era. I don’t want to hear “Hold Me Now” by the Thompson Twins after “Don’t Dream It’s Over.” And I may or may not be in the mood for “Better Be Home Soon” next. But the reaction videos gave me a playlist of good and great songs with no connection other than they were someone’s favorite (for the most part - “I’m Too Sexy” is no one’s favorite song). Almost like having my own iPod set to shuffle.

First Song of 2021 — Moon River

 After a “break” during the holidays, when I had too much stuff to do and couldn’t learn a new piano song, here’s our first duet of the year!

Hazy Shade of Winter

 Katherine posted an autumnal picture to Facebook with lyrics from this song, so I decided we had to do it next.

Happy Together

 Yes, we are celebrating this weekend. 

Calypso

 Katherine and I did a new video. Her bell sounds appropriately nautical for this one. A favorite song of mine. I had a 45 of it that I would listen to every time I went “home” to Texas, where my record player resided.

Take Me Home, Country Roads, take 1

 This is take 1 because my sister might also sing this with me. Here I am joined by my talented friends Katherine (on camera) and Alex (off camera).

Big Yellow Taxi

My friend Katherine and I are at it again. Big Yellow Taxi.

 I tuned the guitar to D and out the capo on the second fret, for anyone interested.

 

Daydream Believer

Acapella app exploring continues. With my friend Katherine. 

Trying Acapella App

My friend and I tried Acapella and this is the result.

Yes, I sing the words out of order. I learned this song when I was about 12 and time jumbled it in my brain.

On a Wonderful Day Like Today!

You're Never Too Old - Ruth Allen at the Canyon Theater Guild

A few weeks ago, depending on how soon after publication you are reading this, I was able to help out with a one-night only production at the Canyon Theater Guild in Newhall, California.

I've been lucky enough to become friends with Ruth Allen and her family over the past few years, and in celebration of her 90th birthday she starred in a production of her original songs. She wrote, or co-wrote with her brother, Alan Berry, all but two of the songs in this show.

My friend and I made the banners for her piano, so now we're ready to go into the banner-making business.

The whole show is now available to view on YouTube.