Mystery Solved!

Welcome to the world of the internet. Where people surf, reach out, and help others they don't even know. I recently received an email from BroBryce who sent me a link to his YouTube video of the one, the only, Rockin' Raymond! He seems to have been sighted at the New Phoenix Casino in La Center, where good old Danny Chavez has found his new gig. Just as promised, Raymond followed him there.

So, the quest has come to an end. But I believe a field trip is in order.

It's Stil Suburbia

Went across the river to the 'Couve to sing at Lindo Mexico. No smoking in Washington, which is a plus in my book. Plus, it is much better for the vocal chords (unless of course you are partial to singing like Tom Waits or Bonnie Tyler). This place has the same great book as The Green Room, which is a plus. But the clientèle, at least last Saturday, was nothing but young suburban kids who just know they could kick anyone's ass on American Idol (no, I will not link to that page). Some were indeed good, but they all started to look and sound the same after a while...

Bottom line on this place? If you go, bring friends. Lots of them. You won't be able to rely on the rest of the crowd for interesting people watching and diversity. And there are no drink specials, so plan on spending $$$ for your liquid courage.

Green with Envy

On Sunday we went to The Green Room in NW. Hosted by Kirk Mattoon, aka, "The Captain," singing there was a great time. But the talent! Pretty damn good -- almost too good if you are the least bit shy and/or haven't consumed enough liquid courage (which does not come all that cheap here). An amazing rendition of My Way and a woman covering Stevie Wonder with finesse made it hard for me to get up there and show my stuff. But I managed. So, in a sense, this place is the anti-Raymond: though everyone was polite, they weren't as "real" (maybe that is my way of saying many were too dang perfect) as the crowd that used to haunt the now defunct Grandmas. Still looking for that Holy Grail of karaoke.

So much for non-smoking action

We went to the Buffalo Gap primarily (OK, exclusively) because it was non-smoking. We knew this was not to be the end of our quest, but it was supposed to be a nice pit stop along the way...

So much for that idea. The song list was KICK ASS -- provided by Jesse of Unique Entertainment. Loved it. What freaked me out was the 50 (at least) people there who were all from some odd social club. Apparently they go there every week and pick a theme for their song choices. Unlucky for me, the theme of the week was "sing songs with dirty words in them." Now, mind you, I have been known to say shit, fuck, and the like quite often. But hearing swear words sung over and over and over again gets old. Fast. They seemed like nice enough people but I did get the feeling that they might try to sell me Amway or get me to join their cult which is probably based on the all-mighty powers of suburbia.

Didn't stay long enough to find out. Probably won't go back to give them another chance.

David Lee Roth & Steve Vai Wanna Pork a Statue!!!

I discovered this at our latest Yen Ha adventure. Being a dame myself, I love doing songs that men write about banging chicks ("Lick It Up," "Girls, Girls, Girls," "Cherry Pie," ad nauseum). On Saturday, I realized that I had inadvertently neglected everyone's favorite high-kicking loudmouth, David Lee Roth! I immediately rectified the situation by busting out "Yankee Rose." You may recall the unbelievably rad video which opens with Diamond Dave ordering "A bottle of anything and a glazed donut . . . to go!" and ends with him high-kicking a giant balloon, which releases many smaller balloons, equalling fun for all! In between, there's lots of nastiness that was censored when the video first aired on MTV in 1986, such as Dave shaking his bare (though painted) ass in the camera, and LOTS of "My guitar is a cock!" and "My microphone is a cock!" stageplay. I was so distracted by all of this blatant sexuality as a kid, that I never realized that "the original good time girl" they're talking about is The Statue of Liberty. In hindsight, of course, it's all embarrassingly obvious. Did I think it was just some hot, slutty groupie whose "rockets were flaring" and who could, on any night "prove that her flag was still there"? I can't say that my life is enriched by this information, but it's more interesting, dammit!

Not at the Yen Ha...

OK, we pretty much knew that going in, but how can we resist a trip to the HA? What song selection! What crowd support! What cheap strong drinks! I love it there.

The gang was pleasantly surprised by a game set up by the KJ -- a round of karaoke kamikaze with a twist. First off, if you signed up, you had to sing whatever came up on the monitor. Second, those songs were determined by asking the bar patrons to list their most hated karaoke songs ever! Recipie for disaster? No way? In this case, two wrongs did make it oh-so-right. We were treated to a burly guy singing an amazing rendition of Tori Amos's "Cornflake Girl" and enthusiastic (and quality) performances of the painfully bad "I Can't Drive 55" and "Macho Man." I never enjoyed a rendition of "Love Shack" as much as I did that night.

Other songs featured: "Hello, I Love You," "Black Velvet," "Stairway to Heaven," and Sheryl Crow's and Kid Rock's "Picture." I had never heard that song before. I hope to never hear it again. The people who had that card dealt them were strong folk.

Thank goddess there was no "American Pie" or "Greatest Love of All." Maybe next time?

And another Happy Birthday wish to Mikey, bar tender extrodinaire and singing God. He can woo you with "Love Boat" like no other. Hope it was a good one!

Raymond doesn't do trivia

But we do! Since our social lives can't completely revolve around singing (as tempting as it may be), we played some trivia last night -- ShanRock's Trivia to be more precise. I even went despite missing the Sharks beating the Predators 5-4 in double overtime in Game 1 of the NHL playoffs.

Our team came in second, but that was because we couldn't remember that Porche is a German sports car. Oops. We DID know that Vince Carter performed the famous "Dunk of Death" in the 2000 Olympics and that Cameron Crowe directed Say Anything.

I have no idea why I love trivia so much. I am not very good at it (Thank goddess many of my friends and teammates kick ass, otherwise I would fester in last place everytime I went). For whatever reason, I love hearing a question, not knowing the answer, hearing the answer, and then promptly forgetting it. So, it's not even that I learn anything. Someone diagnose me.