Nu nu este un nume de chinez…este chiar un vers!!!

Saraca …. nici macar nu stie sa pronunte versurile correct de la Mariah Carey.

Asta e varianta originala

Aici o sosie a fenomenelor inexplicabile de la megastar ne arata cat de bine stie ea engleza.

P.s: KEN LEEEEEEEE UBIDUBI DOUCH YOU!

Była kiedyś takie powiedzenie: dość pan… wstydu oszczędź. Ile się można biczować? Ała, boli. Ale zapraszamy na nowy cykl: w każdy weekend popastwimy się teraz trochę nad ocenami z AMG. A tam, jak doskonale wiadomo, dzieją się rzeczy równie (lub bardziej?) absurdalne, co w polskich reckach. Co nie znaczy, że rezygnujemy z piętnowania tych ostatnich. Ken Lee if living is without it.

Ja, ni läste rätt.. Maria Carey – Ken Lee.. Om man nu ska tro denna dåre från bulgarien som tror att hon sjuger en låt som heter Ken Lee..

HAHA, vet den är gammal och så, har sett den kanske 20 ggr själv, men den är fan i mej lika kul varje gång..

// lavett

Happy Raya to all!!

Jazzie so good invite us to her hse during raya!! ended up only me and stephanie were there only.

All of you fong fei kei ar!!!! Anyway it was quite nice….I like Jazmina’s baju kurung!! Sweet + Delicate. I hope to have one too!!!

Hey Jazzie!! even tough we don’t know the way to your hse.. we still went!!! THANK US!!! haha… we tried all the roads on the way back!!

We got lost…. did some U-turns…. honks…. took the wrong turn… honk honk…. drove from the left lane to the right lane rushly and more honkings!!.. from the other drivers…

Finally found our way home…. just follow the way to the zoo….

Anyway thank you Jazmina! You’re not a bad host… really… haha….

Smile :>

Happily Married

Pretty dress…. not the owner

Took quite a lot of pictures because steph and jazmina both wanna retake so many times.

Me stephanie Jazmina

Invite us again next year!!!

WE’RE GOING TO THE ZOO!!! actually… behind the zoo….. reach so early!! do wat?? watch rj juggle 3 balls with her lousy skils!! HAHA!

Then we started playing poker-Chor Tai Dee…. 5 person game…. KING QUEEN small ass hole and BIG ASS HOLE…

quite nice la… then guests started to arrive :> more more and more people came….

WAITING for the pizza!! FINALLY!! EAT!!!!!!!! wanna see my greedy pig face? look at the photos la…

Alex ready to take my picture :>

38 gang!!

Kah Ernie and Me

Me + Ru Jin… omg eye bag so ming xian

Ning Xin and Kevin

Kevin and Kah Ern

Me + Ru Jin + Kah Ern. y both of your hair brown?? mine still shiny black :>

Jamie…. nice hair band!!

SBU la….

Emerene :>

Alexie~~ my facebook profile picture~~

oh!!! i still rmb we played poker… 5 person punya Chor Tai Dee… nice game la… I started as the King ended as the ass hole….

Ken!! wake up Ken!!

Buh- bye Kevin!!

Kok Peng!! Long time didn’t see you ady!!

Foong Yee ah Foong Yee…. so chuan la!

I LOVE THIS PHOTO!! HAHA… I wasn’t ready to take picture!!! Y Ning Xin and Yee Vonne didn’t ask me get ready!!!

Damn Men-SIA-SUI-kan!!

Another SIA SUI punya photo… greedy + busy eating!!

Eager to play some game… the “UUUUUU” and ” LALALALALA” game

picture picture and more pictures

GO JAMIE! GO KEN!!

I will miss you Ru Jin!! come back must call us go yum cha ok?? byebyebyebyebyebye!!!

-.- zzzz sleepy…

]]> http://imlg.wordpress.com/2009/09/12/top-aversoes-musicais/ Sat, 12 Sep 2009 16:17:20 +0000 LG http://imlg.wordpress.com/2009/09/12/top-aversoes-musicais/

Sofrimento. Dor. Angústia.

Caos. Morte. Destruição.

Isso tudo resume o nebuloso segmento das versões musicais, que aterrorizam a vida de pessoas normais, como eu e você. De vez em quando a gente nem percebe que AQUILO que se ouve é uma versão, mas algumas vezes simplesmente não tem como não saber/perceber. E pior: algumas versões não se restringem a versões brasileiras de músicas estrangeiras, mas podem ser versões brasileiras ruins de uma música brasileira boa ou – pasmem – não! Agora o que faz alguém regravar uma música brasileira ruim na mesma língua? Fica no ar o mistério disso tudo… É uma dor sem tamanho pensar que uma música já ruim é reproduzida numa versão from hell por uma banda/dupla/cantor também from hell. Mas pior que tudo é ver uma música boa sendo destruída por pessoas sem MO-RAL, sem DI-GUI-NI-DA-DE. Vamos ao freak show que eu selecionei em uma GAMA – por que não semi-infinita? – de opções.

1. Latino & Daddy Kall – Amigo fura olho. Essa é de fazer a cabeça explodir. Vamos refletir: o que seria pior que uma versão ruim de uma música ruim cantada em português ou inglês? Resposta: uma versão em inglês de “Então é Natal”, de Simone? De certa forma, sim, mas a idéia de uma música ruim EM ESPANHOL virar uma música ruim em português também é perturbadora. De qualquer forma, Latino é PRO em fazer aversões musicais (vide o original de FESTA NO APÊ e o novo lançamento de Latino com BOCHECHA, numa versão destruída do tema dos caça fantasmas), tanto que tentei não bater muito na mesma tecla e não saturar esse top com várias opções dele. Enfim, voltando a essa música from hell: talvez seja o melhor exemplo de aversão musical. Não bastasse a porcaria que é a música original, de Don Omar (who?) e outro mané lá, Latino resolveu ir ao mais extremo nível. “Acho que a língua espanhola não transmite toda a mensagem que essa música pode passar”, pensou. “Farei uma versão em português, para levar aos corações brasileiros tamanha mensagem de amor”. Intrigado em cantar uma música-diálogo sozinho, pensou: “Quem deveria convidar pra fazer dessa música um sucesso? Por que não Daddy Kall?”. E fez-se apagaram a luz. Mas pra fechar com chave de ouro, nada melhor que um clipe IDÊNTICO ao original. Enfim, deu no que deu, a música é um lixo, etc. Adoro músicas com TRI-ÂN-GU-LÔ amoroso. (Destaques) “Quando as coisas tem que acontecer, elas simplesmente acontecem. E a gente tem que compreender” / “Essa é pra pensar!” em se matar / “Vivo um triângulôôôôô” / “Eu saí com tua mulher! Eu saí, saí, saí, saí, saí, saí!” / “O QUÊ!?” / “Perdi um amigo pro fantasma da tentação… Perdão!“, tá perdoado! Next!;
2. Chitãozinho & Xororó – Palavras. Palavras que eu não tenho pra descrever tamanha desgraça. Incompletos com as músicas sertanejas e o sucesso do Rei do Gado, surge a idéia de dominação mundial regravar Bee Gees, por que não? E foi o que fizeram com Words (pensem, podia ser pior… podiam ter traduzido como Mundos, há!). Tá certo, Bee Gees tem uma alta tendência de músicas de corno, mas transformar uma música já com tendências em um sertanejo é arrombar o armário e tirar a pobre música de lá com requintes de crueldade. Crueldade, aliás, recorrente na carreira de C&X, que fazem questão de regravar músicas alheias. Exploda a sua cabeça com a versão híbrida das músicas! (Destaques) “É tempo de amar, e quero me entregar, amor“, boooooring;
3. Sandy & Júnior – Imortal. Essa família da pesada vai fazer tremer as caixas de som e eletrizar as suas tardes de sábado! Considerando o item anterior, podemos estabelecer uma origem genética para o evidente dom de fazer versões musicais. Sandy & Júnior nos presentearam com essa bela versão de Imortality, de Celine Dion (reparem: Celine Dion canta com Bee Gees, o que nos remete claramente à preferência genética do legado Xororó com relação aos Bee Gees). Num universo onde “we don’t say goodbye” vira “o que é imortal“, Sandy e seu irmão coadjuvante (who?) fazem sucesso e o fim é próximo. Vamos dar um upgrade nessa versão? Veja a versão remixada imediatamente e babem no visual Matrix! (Destaques) “Eu cresci e agora sou mulher, tenho que encarar com muita fé” / “O que é imortal não morre no final“, acho que essa definição está no Aurélio / “Isso não vai ter fim“, toda vez me desespero quando ouço isso… Mas daí eu penso: é uma música, ela vai acabar / “Nem que eu quiser você sai de mim“, é o meu sentimento quando eu ouço essa música… / “Você no meu lugar faria exatamente igual“, ok, todo mundo erra fazendo uma aversão musical… Próxima;
4. Sex Pistols – My Way. Uma versão merda ilimitada de uma música foda. Deprimente. Não tem destaques. Próxima;
5. Kelly Key – Indecisão. Kelly Key, assim como seu ex, Latino, adora versões. Isso acaba demonstrando o envolvimento do ambiente no dom de versões musicais: obviamente há determinismo ambiental. Uma das primeiras OBRAS de KK foi Barbie Girl, uma versão tão tosca quanto a original, do Aqua. No entanto, 2009 é o ano da superação: KK resolve “aversionar” Britney Spears, alcançando os mais sujos patamares do mau gosto. Indecisão é versão de Sometimes, um dos primeiros sucessos da Britney. Lição do dia: há sempre uma forma de piorar. (Destaques) “Você diz que sente por mim amor sincero que nunca vai ter um fim“, quem lembrou do Latino, levanta a mão / “Mas algum dia eu sei, vai passar…“, basta cobrir a tatuagem antiga com uma nova! Próxima;
6. Julio Iglesias – Mal acostumbrado. Tão ruim quanto pegar uma música ruim em espanhol e fazer uma versão em português é pegar uma música ruim em português e fazer uma versão em espanhol! Tamanha desgraça é ouvir Julio Iglesias cantando Mal acostumBBBBBBBrado, versão do – PREPARE-SE – Araketu, mal acostumado. Achava que já tinha visto de tudo, né? (Destaques) “Un ticket de ida y vuelta, fuí tan sólo para tí“, what? / “Devuélveme un trocito de mi vida“, UÁTI? Próximo;
7. Stefhany – Eu sou Stefhany. Uma maravilhosa e bela versão de “A thousand miles“, de Vanessa Carlton. A música é bem poética, com assuntos de corno somados à necessidade de mostrar seu carro novo. A música só melhora com o desenvolver do forró. (Destaques) “Eu sou linda, absoluta, eu sou Stefhany” / “No meu Crossfox eu vou sair“, nada contra os fusquinhas, acho ótimo. Vai;
8. Mr. Catra – Adultério. Um exemplo claro de que uma música pode ser destruída até mesmo em sua língua mãe. Tédio, do Biquíni Cavadão, foi violentada sem dó nessa versão from hell do Mr. Catra. Há quem diga que “Esse é o meu drama”, da versão original, seria uma referência óbvia à aversão que surgiria,  pois desde aquele tempo já era possível sentir a cavalgada do infortúnio que viria. Como todo bom (SIC) funk, existem várias versões (proibidão, versão caldeirão do Huck, etc.). (Destaques) “Sua roupa tá cheia de lama e a cachorra tá na cama” é uma incógnita da música moderna / “Whisky e salame energético, quanta mulher boa!“;
9. KLB – Não devo mais ficar. Só me pergunto: WHY, GOD, WHY!? Fã é fã e gosta de KLB até estragando “Have you ever seen the rain”. Confesso que a versão não é do KLB, mas eles optaram por propagar isso tudo com seu dom da música. Tô perdendo as forças pra falar dessas músicas. Reparem: não parece Chitãozinho & Xororó cantando? Seria KLB os novos C&X? Dariam eles a luz à nova dupla de crianças-prodígio? Haverá amanhã?  Is this real life? (Destaques) “É você quem quer assim, vive a zombar de mim“, POR QUÊ SERÁAAA? Vai;
10. Calcinha Preta – Paulinha. Quero deixar claro que existem inúmeras aversões musicais de forró, mas se eu colocasse todas, podia fazer um top só de aversões de forró. Então deixo destaque pra não vale mais chorar por ele e Boa Sorte (já ruim na versão original e híbrida da Vanessa da Mata). Quando ouvi essa aversão do Calcinha Preta, minha cabeça explodiu. Originalmente de Harry Nilson, mas também cantada por Mariah Carey, a música original é bem bonita. Agora chegar a descobrir que existe uma música chamada PAULINHA, que está no TERCEIRO DVD da banda (SIC) CALCINHA PRETA faz a cabeça de qualquer um explodir. DVD? 3 DVDS? MEO DEOLSSSS! De verdade, prefiro a versão do Ídolos Bulgária, Ken Lee, até a sonoridade é melhor. Esses  forrozeiros from hell do Brasil tornam o convívio musical sofrido… (Destaques) “Paulinha” desfilando no palco na gravação do DVD, vejam no link acima / “Paulinha, me diz o que é que eu façuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!? Paulinha, te amo, amor!” / “Paulinha, por quê se casou!?????!??!?“

PS: como as (a)versões tendem ao infinito (ex. Amor e Poder, da Rosana, É isso aí, de Ana Carolina e Seu Jorge,  qualquer uma da Danni Carlos, etc.), provavelmente não coloquei várias que mereceriam destaque. E também achei bem difícil estabelecer uma ordem de desgracença pra elas, então a ordem acima não indica um grau de comprometimento real da música original.

Yeah I know this is not new. It’s just classic and it makes me smile in the midst of trials and tribulations, of seeing and hearing bad politics, of knowing how people can use you sometimes, of knowing you cannot do anything to change the system.

Whenever I watch this clip, it forces me to smile…

Oh i think i just crapped myself laughing.No joke.This is pure magic considering i posted something this morning of Simon Cowell praising some dudes singing ability.

Sit your ass down for this one folks and make sure you are not drinking hot coffee because this has got to be one of the funniest, most A-grade savage videos that anyone has ever sent me.Its from the Bulgarian version of Idols and this crazy woman wanted to sing Mariah Carey’s “Without You”.

Only she doesn’t speak the English good so she butchered the lyrics so hectically that its impossible not to laugh….when she hits the chorus even your bumhole will start laughing!!!I want this woman as my own personal laugh genie and use her essence as my deodorant.

(Thanks Marie)

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND—This is a little experiment.

I’m posting this both on my Facebook page and on my blog, “A Tail in Two Cities,” to exploit social networking to its limits and to test the power of this novel and seemingly limitless medium of communication.

I’m hoping that people will not only take the time to read this (for which I am always grateful), but that they will go one step further, forwarding this to people they feel could be interested or who have the resources or contacts—directly or indirectly—to produce a full-length documentary film or television series.

Here’s my spiel…

I’ve always lived my life believing that dreaming was a good thing, inspired by something I heard as a young man—that if you don’t have dreams, you won’t have any dreams come true. I guess that’s something akin to you can’t ever win the lottery if you don’t buy a lottery ticket. I fear that perhaps life has hardened me of late, and I also fear that I no longer believe in the “dream come true” adage. Maybe it’s just me growing up a bit more (naah!). What I have come to believe is that dreaming is a total waste of time, better left to, well, dreamers. Doing, on the other hand, is the only way of achieving anything—after all, doers get things done (that’s why they’re called doers).

I want to make a documentary film (which can alternatively work as weekly reality-style television series). Oops. Key word: Want. Wanting is also a form of dreaming, isn’t it? (Wanting is dreaming’s ugly stepsister!): I want to be a millionaire. I want a Porsche 911 Targa 4S. I want a Twinkie. I want white teeth. I want to win a Pulitzer. All these wants, these dreams, fantasies and desires are what drives people to do extraordinary things with their lives, and Twinkies aside there are indeed people who are millionaires, own Porsches, have white teeth and win Pulitzers. Perhaps they’ve even accomplished these things without ever actually dreaming about them.

Back to my dream.

The documentary—or TV program—in question has the working title “The Long and Winding Road.” Not terribly original, I know, but it’s the perfect title for the film as it best describes what the documentary is about.

The documentary, to all intents and purposes, is the story of my musical life, from humble beginnings singing in my Hebrew school choir and in musicals at the local JCC to my years playing in and fronting bands in Chicago, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Valencia, Spain. It’s also the story of the lives of those directly involved in my musical life, which has spanned four decades. It’s also a story about how sometimes dreams never die…

Thanks to the Facebook phenomenon I have not only reconnected with dozens of childhood friends, former colleagues, family members, teachers, students and a few old flames and rivals, I am now in contact with nearly all of the twenty or so musicians who were, from 1977 to 2005, the backbone, heart and soul of my musical projects—Strange Magic, The Convertibles, The Nots, Café Society and Brusby & Morris.

To begin with, I owe my initiation into the world of songwriting to Todd Berns (today an underground musician and political activist in Chicago known better as his alter ego Flabby Hoffman), who as early as the fourth grade introduced me to The Beatles and later on to songwriters, groups and soloists such as Todd Rundgren, ELO and Seals and Crofts. My earliest compositions, written on my mother’s old Wurlitzer spinet, were actually poems written by John Lennon in his book “A Spaniard in the Works,” a prophetic title as Todd and I would venture to Spain together in late 1987, where I subsequently remained for over two years and where I would return in 1996 to remain until this very day.

In the four or five years that Todd and I were together, we only managed to write about two-dozen songs together under the Berns & Morris signet (compared to the literally scores of original songs he penned on his own and the thousands he has penned since), but our youth-driven musical partnership proved to be the starting point of what was to become my deep love of music, songwriting and performing.

Todd and I put together the last incarnation of our band, Strange Magic (after a song by ELO of the same name) during the summer of 1980 and performed our first, only and last concert at the Dolnick Community Center on California Avenue on the 25th of September 1980, in fact it was the day that John Bonham, drummer in Led Zeppelin, died in Clewer, Windsor, England at the age of 32. Strange Magic’s lineup for that show was Todd and I on guitars, keyboards and vocals, Perry Myers (brother of my high school girlfriend) on drums and Eugene Canning on bass, who I borrowed from Rob Simon, with whom I was occasionally “allowed” to sing as vocalist and rhythm guitarist in his super rock band with Burton Korer (later of my Phoenix-based band The Convertibles) and drummer extraordinaire Dave Rubin.

After high school I moved to Phoenix, where my friend and bandmate from the Rob Simon Band, Burt Korer had moved a year earlier with his parents who opened up a dry cleaning shop in Scottsdale. Burt, a classically trained pianist had decided to try his hand at the bass guitar and we formed a poppy punk power trio with local drummer Monique Bera. Calling ourselves The Convertibles, we played together for about six months covering the local circuit of clubs and sarsaparilla bars around Phoenix, Scottsdale and Tempe. We also recorded what was my very first studio demo—seven original songs—at Camelback Studios in early 1982 that I have managed to digitally preserve. Burt went back to school and became a registered nurse, which would sound funnier than it is had he not started one of Phoenix’s first home healthcare businesses which he parlayed into a brazillian-dollar business.

I moved to Los Angeles in the spring of 1982 and immediately started looking for musicians to start a band with. One day at the gym I interrupted a conversation two guys were having about looking for a frontman for their new band. I mentioned the fact that I was a singer and guitarist and that I had my own material, offering to play them my demo if they were interested. I went to the drummer Ronnie Weiss’ house the next day where we were joined by the other guy at the gym, bassist Craig Nieves and a friend of Ronnie’s, Matt Evidon, who was thinking about joining the band as keyboard player. After listening to my demo, the four of us jammed and decided to become a band. We rehearsed for a couple of months until I had written enough songs for a full-length set and we decided to make a demo to shop to local clubs with the intention of getting our first gigs lined up. We recorded a six-song demo with a great Chinese-American producer and studio owner named Clive in the spring of 1983, just before my 20th birthday. We had quite a time coming up with a name for our new band and before settling on Café Society, we actually played a couple of gigs—the most memorable at Madame Wong’s in Chinatown, where the Police played their first gig in L.A.—as The N.O.T.S., which was an acronym for Name Open To Suggestion. Café Society in the Morris, Weiss, Nieves, Evidon configuration stayed together about two years. Some infighting led keyboardist Evidon and drummer Weiss to leave and Craig and I set out to find a new drummer and keyboard player. The drummer we found after a friend of mine had given me a couple of phone numbers of drummers his band auditioned and didn’t care for was Lee Coltman who agreed to join the band immediately and who was with me until Café Society split up for good when I decided to head off to Europe in the fall of 1987. In June of 1991, Lee, Craig and I—accompanied by Todd Berns, who had been living in L.A. at the time—reunited briefly to record my first seven-song demo of Spanish compositions I had written while living in Spain from 1987 to 1988.

Also back in the early days of Café Society we took on a friend of mine, Scott Metcalfe, to play keyboards. Scott’s grandfather was Mel Metcalfe, Sr., who won the Oscar for Best Sound for his contribution to the development of Sensaround which was featured in the 1974 Mark Robson directed “Earthquake,” starring Charlton Heston and Ava Gardner. Scott dropped out early on as he got a job assisting producer Don Simpson on the “Top Gun” and the “Beverly Hills Cop” movies. Scott was replaced by my girlfriend at the time, Sari Myers, who, when Lee, Craig and I were desperate for a new keyboard player for an upcoming gig, suggested she fill in until we found a permanent replacement. She shocked us all by getting up and playing all the keyboard parts which she had learned by osmosis having regularly attended our rehearsals and secretly practicing on my keyboard at home when I wasn’t around. Sari remained in the band until we parted company in August of 1985, seven years after we started dating after having met while working on a play together at the Henry N. Hart JCC.

During Café Society’s final 18 months, Craig briefly left and was replaced by Chicagoan Jon Grimson, a brilliant Berklee-trained bassist who now works in the music industry in Nashville and keyboardist Ken Lee, a high school friend of my cousin Ross Drucker. At that time, I took on three horn players to give the band that “Chicago” sound and to try and add something different that the other 20,000 local bands we played along side of didn’t have. After working for weeks with composer Dave Cushman on the horn charts, newspaper ads yielded trombonist Dan Levine, who went on to play with Yo-Yo Ma, Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles, and trumpeter Ann Petereit. Struggling to find a sax player I finally got a call from an interested party who told me he had just moved back to the L.A. area and was looking to get involved with “something new.” I had never heard of Cornelius Bumpus, but I had surely heard of the bands he had played in during the 70s and 80s—Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers. Sadly, Cornelius Bumpus died of a heart attack on a New York to L.A. flight in 2004. He was Café Society’s first saxophone player. After a few gigs, Cornelius went on to bigger and better things and Jeff Delasante took over on sax and continued with the band until the end. Café Society played their last live show at Madame Wongs in Santa Monica in March of 1987. In all, two studio recordings, four live recordings, a number of still photographs and one live video performance filmed in 1985 of Café Society remain.

After the impromptu recording sessions over two nights at a studio in Sherman Oaks, California in June of 1991 where Craig, Lee, Todd and I recorded my Spanish songs, I never reformed Café Society nor did I play with another band again. I did however play a number of shows as a solo singer-songwriter in Valencia, Spain from 1996 to 2001. The following year, just after Christmas, I met and started performing with Ian Brusby, an English singer-songwriter from Hull, England who shared a similar musical past of spending the 80s writing and performing his songs with a number of bands in England. His 1985 six-song demo included three numbers which featured the late bassist from The Who, John Entwistle, whose son he had befriended at the recording studio where Ian had been working on the demo and who had brought Ian’s music to his father’s attention. Entwistle liked the songs so much, he insisted on playing on the tracks. After two years playing at the few pathetic live venues in Valencia, Ian and I parted company. His self-produced first studio album—complete with bonus tracks of the original John Entwistle sessions—is widely available for sale on the internet.

Today, the long and winding road of my musical past has taken me, ironically, back to the place where my love of music began. To Liverpool, England, home of The Beatles, city of the Mersey Sound, which, in addition to Valencia, I now call my home.

* * * * *

The documentary starts out in Liverpool, on the famed Mathew Street where the iconic Cavern Club is located, the place where The Beatles played during their early days and where many up and coming Merseyside bands still take the stage in hopes of finding fame and fortune, perhaps even aspiring to be the “next Beatles.”

From Liverpool I will travel back in time, to Chicago, to the humble middle-class neighborhood where I was born. There I’ll visit the synagogues of my youth, the first places where I sang and discovered the beauty—and power—of song in the rich melodic chants of the old world Hassidic prayers and hymns. I will talk with a rabbi who was instrumental in my Jewish education and attempt to track down Josie Myers, the choir teacher at my former Hebrew school as well as reunite with some of my former Hebrew school classmates to reminisce and sing a few traditional Hebrew songs.

All told, those are the threads which will be woven throughout the entire film: music, friendship, love and the resilience of the human spirit to carry on aspiring to do great things.

In Chicago I will reunite with Todd Berns, with whom I shared my earliest musical adventures. We’ll talk about our youth which was spent passing hours upon hours emulating our musical heroes, writing songs and recollecting the sleepless nights recording “albums” on Todd’s hi-fi. Those days were also memorable for the Beatlesesque rooftop concerts atop his Lake Shire Drive and Irving Park Road high-rise as well as the ones at his father’s condo high atop Sunrise Boulevard overlooking Ft. Lauderdale’s scenic Intracoastal Seaway and the vast Atlantic Ocean during two memorable trips we took to Florida together as teenagers. The Chicago-Berns-Morris segment will culminate with a concert at a local Chicago bar where we’ll reunite with our grammar and high school friends, some musicians, such as Adam Szwarek and Michael Dorontich, who still perform to this day and who will join us on stage for a selection of original songs written by Todd and I more than 30 years ago. Additional material from the Chicago segment will include an interview with Al Jourgensen, musician and producer best known for his band Ministry. Al, along side other local musicians singer Franke Nardiello (known for his stint in the band My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult), bassist Marty Sorenson and drummer Harry Rushakoff (Concrete Blonde) were my earliest local influences.

From Chicago I’ll travel west to Phoenix, Arizona, where I lived briefly from 1981 to 1982. There I’ll reunite with Burton Korer and Monique Bera, bassist and drummer respectively in my first band, The Convertibles. I will also locate and interview the musicians who played in The Jetzons, one of Phoenix’s best loved local bands during the early 1980s and whose shows I saw at Merlins in Tempe, who played a big role in my growth as a performer. Additional scenes from the Phoenix segment will be filmed at my former residence in Scottsdale, Camelback Studios where I recorded my first demo, and one of the clubs The Convertibles played at where Burt, Monique and I can play some of the songs from 1982.

From Phoenix I’ll make a short stop over in Las Vegas, where my earliest mentor Rob Simon lives. Rob was a child prodigy who by the time he was 15 could have taught Jimmy Page how to play “Stairway to Heaven.” I met Rob when my father introduced me to a young man, David Rubin, who he worked with at a Kosher grocery store, The Milk Pail, in Lincolnwood in 1977, the year I started high school. Dave was a drummer in a band led by Simon who had been looking for a new bass player to replace Eugene Canning (who later played briefly with Todd, Perry Myers and I in Strange Magic). They were also looking for a lead singer so I auditioned for both jobs. My bass playing wasn’t up to Simon’s standards back then, but he liked my range and took me on as his band’s lead singer, which in addition to Dave Rubin was rounded out by Burton Korer on keyboards. Rob was a perfectionist and while we were the same age, his musical abilities were light years ahead of mine and I learned a lot from the short time I sang in his band. Additional material for the Las Vegas segment will include an interview with my cousin Ross Drucker, who now makes his home there and who was Café Society’s manager in L.A. during the three years we played most of our live gigs.

Next I’ll travel from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, where my musical life was lived to its fullest from 1982 until 1987. There, I’ll reunite—first individually—with the former members of The Nots and Café Society and then in segments where all of my former bandmates are brought together to talk about our “glory days,” jam and plan and rehearse a show to be given at a local venue. The L.A. segment, which will be the second longest, will include the original members of The Nots and Café Society as well as secondary source interviews from recording engineers, club owners, former fans and relatives who will share their recollections of the music and mayhem we made back in the 80s. Additional material will include a short segment about LAMAR (L.A. Musicians for African Relief), a project that I put together in 1985 during the time when the supergroup USA for Africa released their hit single “We Are the World.” I wrote a song, “There’s a Voice in the World That’s Crying,” that I intended to present to Quincy Jones with the intention of getting it on the USA For Africa album. In a matter of just a few days I assembled a group of about 40 musicians who I knew from the local L.A. band circuit and in one magical afternoon at Sunswept Studios in Studio City, California, we recorded my song. I’ll try to locate some of the musicians who participated in that session as well the owner/engineer at Sunswept or at Amigo Studios where the song was mastered in the studio next to where Exene Cervenka, John Doe and Billy Zoom of the L.A. band X were recording their new album. The L.A. segment will also include visits to venues where I performed, shops, restaurants, hotels and places of significant relevance to my years as a local musician.

The next and penultimate segment will be filmed in Spain, first in Granada where I lived form 1987 to 1988 and where I wrote my first songs in Spanish, and then in Valencia, where I have lived since 1996. I will introduce my Spanish songs performed with a backdrop of emblematic sights in the two Spanish cities where I have lived. I’ll reunite with English singer-songwriter Ian Brusby with whom I performed as part of the acoustic duo Brusby & Morris from 2002 until 2005. I’ll also pay a visit to Tabalet recording studios in the town of Alboraya on the outskirts of Valencia, where over the years I have recorded dozens of jingles, voiceovers, children’s cartoons and television commercials.

The final segment will be filmed at a country estate in the town of Picassent, just a few miles from Valencia, where I will be joined by all of the musicians who have appeared in the documentary, flown over to Spain where they’ll spend a week reminiscing, rejoicing and rehearsing a live concert to be performed under the stars on the grounds of the country house to an audience of friends and family members who will be flown in for the special event.

The film will close with the concert in its entirety; an evening of music, memories, friendship and love beneath a full Spanish moon on a warm summer night.

That’s my dream. To return once again down the long and winding road that has taken me on a far-reaching and meaningful musical adventure, one that I long to revisit, rejoining those who shared the journey, the music and the magic, to try—if only one more time—to recapture just a small piece of the past.

Finally, I’m not famous. My songs have not been made into albums or heard on the radio. I’ve not made videos seen on MTV or VH1. In fact, my songs—both in English and in Spanish—are very simple, most of them three or four chord progressions and highly unsophisticated both musically and lyrically. What my story and my songs do reveal is my lifelong desire to sing and entertain people, a desire that I share with perhaps millions of people all over world who have aspired to be rock stars, pop idols, country music legends or music video gods and goddesses. I’m hoping to be able to tell my story and share my simple songs and to prove to myself once and for all that I can be a “doer,” and that the unfulfilled dreams I’ve dreamed all these years have always been within arms reach.

English is a global language so we are studying hard to master it.We spent about 15 hours at school per week and then at home doing our homework which is not little!However some people have a natural talent and can speak or even sing in english really fluently and this is an example … I hope you enjoy it if you haven’t seen it already!kissezz!!

This video never gets old, enjoy a good laugh:

Noch Fragen? Nein? Dann könnt ihr wohl englarisch, eine Mischung aus bulgarisch und stark individualisierten englisch. Zunächst dachte ich an eine bulgarische Susan Boyle (unbedingt ansehen!), aber die famose osteuropäische Sängerin ist von Susan Boyle soweit entfernt wie Schottland von Bulgarien. Wie wohl Mariah Carey auf diese Version reagiert?

VOLTA LOGO, VAMOS CANTAR PAULINHA JUNTOS!

Quem me mostrou foi Tata. E quem mostrou pra Tata foi… GUTIERREZ. JURO. Quão maravilhoso?

Ken Lee, né, gente?

Certeza que ela roubou o figurino do nosso armário.
Não fiquem com pena. Valentina se superou depois, em cadeia nacional. História de superação É ISSO.

Everyone’s done this. Your driving along, or shopping, or cleaning… whatever it is that you’re doing… you’ve got the radio, or your favorite CD, or your MP3 player going straight into your brain… and that song comes one… the one you can NOT help but sing along with. You sing along, almost without even realizing it… loudly… and someone who’ve you either forgotten or didn’t even know was there says, “What’d you say? That’s not the words!”

Today’s VVW is dedicated to those moments.

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This first video was the first “Misheard Lyric” vid I saw on YouTube. Unless you’ve looked up the lyrics to this song, you probably wouldn’t know what the real words are anyway, but you sing along because it’s got a great beat and an infectuous melody… it sounds like a magic spell for fun.

Sean Paul’s Temperature:

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And of course… There would hafta be a Numa Numa misheard lyrics video. Songs in English are often hard enough for English-speakers to understand, and one in another language… especially one so popular… is like Christmas at Ritchie Rich’s house, the presents just keep coming!

Numa Numa misheard lyrics:

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I once saw a commercial with the next vid’s song part of their own misheard lyrics joke. Rock the Cat’s box? Rock the Cash Bar? Sadly, this song is ACTUALLY in English.

Rock the Casbah:

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This next song is on my MP3 player, and I know I always sing along. Whether I sing the right words or not, I don’t know… though, after watching this vid, I’ll probably never sing them right again. They’re hilarious!

Fall Out Boy’s Thanks for the Mmrs misheard:

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And finally, this last vid is one of the best known Misheard Lyrics singing. Thanks to the popularity of American Idol and the globalization the Internet has brought us, the Bulgarian Idol show has made us all wonder…

who in the heck is “Ken Lee?”

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Next week’s Viral Video Wednesday topic: LOST

So what’s your favorite songs to sing out loud and along with whenever you hear them? What’s the worst case of misheard lyrics you’ve heard? or even sang?

Los dejo con Susan Boyle, prepárense para reirse como con la chica Ken Lee

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Navegando por TuTubo

so i may be the mayor of the town of schadenfreude, but i take a perverse delight in watching ridiculous people do ridiculous things on camera. Like this woman, who auditioned for South Africa’s version of “American Idol” in what is quite possibly the messiest and most hysterical audition since “Ken Lee”. While her rendition of The Fugees’ rendition of “Killing Me Softly” is enough to make your ears bleed, it’s essential that you watch this audition all the way up to the dance, and your life will officially be complete. WASSA! WASSA!

[thanks christine]