Did you know Spain is trying to outlaw the siesta? Here’s a Florida denizen who’s been on siesta since midnight. I didn’t know that concrete parking curbs made good pillows. This is what happens when you don’t plan ahead and I have no mercy on those who refuse to. I just thought this shot was ironic because he’s got his bicycle and is crashing across the lane from some of the most expensive new cars made in America.
I promised you some facts about LK (my abbreviation for “live Karaoke”). These days are tied up with getting the show working. Fred drove out to Clewiston (Clueless Town) on the weekend and saw an excellent show with backing tracks. I’d like to point out some facts of such an operation and why every show you’ll see except mine features a guitarist playing to the tracks.The musician must create or buy the tracks, often in midi format. This is either time-consuming or expensive. If not a musician, the jockey will purchase the song in Karaoke format. This is also expensive because songs are normally sold in albums where you have to buy the whole disk to get one good tune.
For some reason, guitar music is the trickiest thing to get sounding right in Karaoke format. Thus, guitarists have an advantage in that they simply eliminate the existing guitar track, which probably sounds tacky, and play along. My show must leave the guitar track in place and I take out the bass track. This causes no end to the extra work I have to do and emphasizes my dislike for lead guitar which often drowns out the rhythm track I prefer to work with. It is guitarists that I have to compete against. I am lucky so many of them do the same thing ad nauseum.
The entire production is dependent on generated computer sounds. This is where Arnel is helping me to replace the bad-sounding tracks with realistic instruments, also an expensive process because the better sounds are sold separately. Also, other shows that say live Karaoke generally leave a Karaoke machine running while the band is on a break, as opposed to making the audience an integral part of the show. As usual, this allows one show-off to dominate the microphone.
My show lets everybody sing, as many as want to join in. This makes me less popular with the show-offs, but keeps my entire show novel enough for weekly repeat performances. Very few local musicians can boast that and I now know of several whose gigs were canceled because of their outdated material and presentation. I leave the vocals in, so you are actually singing along with the original artist but can see the lyrics in real time.
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