This coming weekend, both Saturday and Sunday, from 10:00am to 4:00pm, I’ll be hosting a karaoke event at the Super Flea & Farmer’s Market, on the main stage on the South end of the promenade.

The event is sponsored by my friends at Starshine Karaoke (located at the end of C-Row near the North end of the promenade), who are graciously providing the latest and greatest in sound reproduction equipment, along with the best selection of karaoke music in the state of Florida.

Also in attendance will be my friend S, whose “official” role will be to sit, point and laugh at me (heh!), but whose “unofficial” role will be emcee (as she is more than qualified to run the show with me) and singer, assuming I can coax her onto the stage a few times here and there.

Super Flea is positioning this event as a “kid’s karaoke” event, to go with the rest of their Halloween events geared at bringing in lots of kids. It’s worth checking out the other events they have on offer while you’re here; there’s a fantastic haunted house (also on C-Row) and there should be plenty of other treats as well.

While “officially” this is a kid’s karaoke event, the entire music collection that Will’s Kamikazi Karaoke & Mobile DJ is renowned for will be available for singers young and old (kids, you’ll have to get your parent’s approval before I’ll let you sing Baby Got Back, though ). As always, the show itself will be presented on my own custom-developed software platform, improved for 2007 with new visualizations, all-digital playback, and all the multimedia extravaganza my regulars have come to expect. There’s lots of new gear to play with this time, so expect a fantastic show for all ages!

Stop by this weekend and sing with us! Click here for maps and directions!

Will’s Kamikaze Karaoke & Mobile DJ performs at the Super Flea & Farmer’s Market Saturday, October 20, 2007 and Sunday, October 20, 2007, from 10:00am to 4:00pm. There is no cost for admission or for participation. All ages are welcome. Parents, please stay with your children at the show while they are participating. Singers may bring their own discs for performances, but assume all responsibility and liability for using them.

Tonight I attempted to belt something out that’s a bit different from my usual repertoire — “Feel Good Inc.” by the Gorillaz. Rap is seriously not my strong suit … I can belt out a decent opera tune, hit a classic Journey song, sing Depeche Mode all day, do Elton John justice, and perform a reasonable job at singing Seal tunes. But rap is just not something I’m very good at (I tend to be annoyed by the “form” in general and have found very few rap songs I like — all those I do like are parodies).

I’ll need practice before I can make that work, but methinks I have some new Weird Al rapping to emulate … that’ll give me some good practice

Of all men’s miseries, the bitterest is this: to know so much and have control over nothing.
— Herodotus

Sorry for the lack of updates these past couple of days, my intrepid readers; I’ve been swamped with work and Real Life^TM and haven’t had a chance to post. That changes now that I have a bit of breathing room.

Tonight was a very strange night at the karaoke show. Very different than usual. The crowd was different, the mood was different, and the antics were consistently annoying, stupid, and rude. Read the full story...

My friend S (no, not the obnoxious “S” that coaxed me to move to Florida back in April … that twerp is now going to be referred to as “B” (figure that one out), but a real friend whose name also happens to start with an “S”) made the astute observation tonight that we might as well just rename Halloween entirely. These days adults don’t seem to celebrate the holiday by dressing in scary/spooky costumes, but instead by dressing in as little as possible, showing as much skin as possible, and being as suggestive as possible. Read the full story...

[acidfree:414 align=right size=200 title=”At the Dog House on Friday night”] This weekend definitely stomped me in the energy department; I’ve crashed into bed so hard these past three days from physical exhaustion, it’s not even funny. The good news is I have been sleeping like a baby. And, come to think of it, I can’t say there’s really any bad news at all from this weekend.

Read on for news about the busiest weekend I’ve had in a long damned time… Read the full story...

[gmap |id=starshine_map |center=28.120535,-80.708117 |zoom=10 |width=300px |height=200px |control=Small |type=Map |float=right |markers=28.120535,-80.708117] Heh, well, just a quick one here this afternoon; I’m still tearing down equipment from Saturday’s show and Sunday’s, but I needed a breather. All went well though; lots to write about. I’m sitting here at Starshine Karaoke resting my tired old bones for a bit before it’s time to pack all the gear up again and resume Normal Life^TM.

I’ll post lots of pictures, rants, and raves soon here; there’s just lots of stuff to clean up

…for an absolutely kick-ass karaoke show tonight at the Dog House! With 23 singers in the rotation (not a huge rotation, but not an awkwardly small one), lots of smiling, happy faces, and a minimum of computer-based screwups, tonight’s show was really damned good. I’ll have a few pictures and more details to post soon; I’m dead tired tonight so I’m going to bed now, but I just wanted to toss a quick “thank you” to everyone who attended my show and to everyone who sang. Many thanks to the Dog House as well for the opportunity to host a show at their venue.

One, with God, is always a majority, but many a martyr has been burned at the stake while the votes were being counted.

Read the full story...

For the first time in a good long while, I’m actually tired enough to go to bed and fall asleep before midnight. Kick ass.

Tomorrow’s going to be busy again, with a short stop to make in Palm Bay for a visit with a friend and a certified letter to mail (to someone who is most definitely not a friend anymore, and probably never was, given everything that’s happened) before I hide myself away in my apartment again for another day of coding. Last night at a meeting in Orlando one of my colleagues pointed out the main disadvantage to working from home — it’s very isolating. Fortunately I have lots of friends (online and off) that help keep that in check but it does still sometimes get to me a bit. Read the full story...

[gmap |id=map |center=28.016756533195803, -80.62548637390137 |zoom=14 |width=350px |height=300px |control=Large |type=Map |markers=28.016885,-80.622253]

Don’t forget to stop in and check out my debut karaoke show at the Dog House in Palm Bay, Florida! Experience state-of-the-art karaoke, with an all-digital, custom-written rotation management and display system, full multimedia entertainment (lights, videos, etc.), and the best live KJ’ing in the state!

Lots of friends and colleagues are turning up and we’d love to see you! The show starts at 9:00pm and runs through 1:00am. If you love to sing, you belong in the Dog House!

Click here for a full-screen interactive map for directions (and just in case the little one doesn’t show up here properly