Thursday, July 29
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Given the fact that earlier this month Prince decreed that “the Internet is over,” I’m fairly certain this video doesn’t really exist, I’m not sharing it with you and he certainly doesn’t sing “Raspberry Sorbet” at 14:50 to a Muppet.
The dueling piano community in Central Florida is all abuzz with the announcement of a new dueling piano bar opening on Church Street in Orlando. Slated to open later this summer, Baby Grands Dueling Piano Bar is taking over the 6,700-square-feet space that was formerly the Olive Garden…mere steps away from where Howl at the Moon used to be.
Howl at the Moon on Church Street was wildly successful, drawing a steady flow of downtown regulars in the waning years of Church Street Station’s glory days. I know, because I was one of those regulars, and it was my first exposure to dueling pianos as a concept (my mom suggested that I audition, something I actually did many years later).
Baby Grands is opening in a city not without its share of competitors. Howl at the Moon operates over 10 locations around the country, and its International Drive venue has been one of the company’s flagship stores for at least six years. Pat O’Briens in CityWalk and Jellyrolls at Disney Boardwalk also do nightly dueling piano shows. I’ve also heard there are a few bars in the Lake Mary area that have been experimenting with the format on weekends.
To its advantage, the entire 55 West area of Church Street has slowly been making a comeback in recent months. The area already boasts 377 of the most centrally located apartments downtown, Amura Sushi, Panchero’s Mexican Grill and Gino’s Pizza & Brew. Now, in addition to Baby Grands, they’ve announced plans for a new bar called Blend in the old Sharper Image space and Mad Cow Theater is moving into the old Hooter’s space. And apparently Baby Grands will be be serving food…something that most other dueling piano bars (including Howl at the Moon) do not do.
The question on everyone’s mind is: who is behind this new venture? The Orlando Business Journal reports that the principals own restaurants, bars and other franchises in Florida, New York and Virginia.
More importantly: Who’s going to be playing there? There are a limited number of experienced “A” duelers in town (I’ve met or played with most of them) and without exception, all of them have steady gigs at one of the already-established venues. Will the new bar be able to attract talent from the other clubs? We shall see.
One thing is for certain…lips are sealed tight. If anyone is jumping ship, they’re keeping mum about it. But I peeked in the space, and build-out has commenced. Banners are flying in the windows and this week’s “Best of Orlando” issue of the Orlando Weekly featured a 1/4 page color ad for the new club. Baby is on her way.
Piano bar on tap at 55 West – Orlando Business Journal
Baby Grands Dueling Pianos in Downtown Orlando « Pulse of Central Florida.
The Pythagoreans were a persecuted sect, sometimes violently persecuted. They were a threat to traditional religion, like many new sects. Plato’s teacher, Socrates, was famously executed for religious heresy.
“The Pythagoreans realized that when we hear beauty and music, when we hear notes harmonizing, that’s because the notes have simple ratios, like 1:2 or 3:4. So the beauty of music is direct perception of the mathematical order underlying the world. They worshipped that mathematics.”
“Simply put, they were threatening to overthrow the gods on Olympus and put numbers and mathematics in its place. Prior to Socrates being executed, a number of other philosophers were banished or fled because of threats to themselves. It was dangerous in those days to be a philosopher.”
Now it appears that Plato may have hidden secret musical message in his writings. Read More: A Musical Message Discovered In Plato’s Works : NPR.
“The internet’s completely over. I don’t see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else. They won’t pay me an advance for it and then they get angry when they can’t get it.
“The internet’s like MTV. At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated. Anyway, all these computers and digital gadgets are no good.
“They just fill your head with numbers and that can’t be good for you.”
THE INTERNET IS COMPLETELY OVER? Funny, that’s what I thought about Prince when I first heard “Bat Dance”.
via Prince – world exclusive interview: Peter Willis goes inside the star’s secret world – mirror.co.uk.
Of course, Kevin Smith already outed Prince’s batshit crazy…
So it’s been a couple years since Los Diggaz split up, although Johnny Diggz (that’s me) has been continuing to play solo gigs at the Red Fox Lounge in Winter Park, (filling in for Mark and Lorna) and playing for Howl at the Moon, sadly the core Los Diggaz fans have had no home.
Recently I was talking to a friend about how it seems everyone and their brother is promoting some sort of “reunion” show….and she asked me about Los Diggaz and whether or not Carlos (the LOS of Los Diggaz) and I would ever perform on the same stage again.
Truth be told, I have always wanted to continue the IDEA that we started with Los Diggaz…just without the “Los” part of the equation.
After the break up of Los Diggaz in 2008, I temporarily changed the name on our MySpace page (remember when we all used MySpace?) to Lounge Diggaz. Since then the name has continued to grow on me. And with the new name, I decided that instead of a power duo, we needed to become power trio.
(Yes, ladies…there are now three of us.)
I’ll be introducing the new band members soon…as well as hopefully a date for our debut live show.
Yes I know I totally stole that logo from Richard Cheese. But he totally stole it from Las Vegas….so….
It’s actually just temporary until we get the real new one (hopefully designed by the same genius behind the original Los Diggaz logo…Doug Berger at R3M13D Orlando Graphic Design)
For now you can follow us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/loungediggaz
Or LIKE us on Facebook: Lounge Diggaz on Facebook
I’ve also started a blog here: Lounge Diggaz
For the curious, if you want to read about the end days of Los Diggaz…you can check out our no-longer-updated Los Diggaz MySpace Page
In Web ads and at campaign appearances, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul sometimes has called on the music of the band Rush to give his message a little pop.
It turns out the campaign wasn’t using the music with the band’s permission, according to Rush’s attorney, Robert Farmer.
Farmer, general counsel for the Anthem Entertainment Group Inc. in Toronto, which is Rush’s record label, has sent a letter to Paul campaign officials informing them that they have violated copyright laws — and urging them to stop.”This is not a political issue — this is a copyright issue,” Farmer said in an interview. “We would do this no matter who it is.”
Besides, all three members of Rush — Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart — are Canadians, not Americans, he pointed out.
Rock band Rush says Rand Paul’s campaign can’t use its songs | The Political Carnival.
I was blowing up Mixie Moxie via SMS because I knew that she had gotten to see the Portland show of Amanda Fucking Palmer’s newest project: Evelyn Evelyn.
Evelyn Evelyn is a character–actually 2 characters…conjoined twin sisters (both named Evelyn) played by Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley. I’m a sucker for theatrics, and this project goes way beyond “concept album”. It’s a traveling circus side show musical…with a huge back story that was weaved with the assistance of Neil Gaiman, to whom AFP is engaged.
So I asked Mixie Moxie how she enjoyed the show. She wrote:
“The show was amazing. The Crystal Ballroom dancefloor is on ball bearings so it bounces! 4 and a half hour show. Brilliant theatrics from e/e. Finally got to see Jason perform and AFP was spectacular as usual. You must see it. I think you’ll really like Sxip! Look him up, he’s amazing. Sxip Shirey”
Well, I did look him up. And I do like him. And now I’m sharing. All thanks to the Mix:
Back in March, Johnny Diggz played the opening weekend at a new club in Miami Beach called Kill Your Idol (or KYI). A buddy of mine name Chris Graham had somehow climbed the Miami Beach marketing ladder from handing out flyers back in the 90’s to booking talent and becoming one of those “new-fangled go-to guys club owners and concert promoters call on when they’re in need of some swingin’ expertise.“
Rumor has it we’ve got a Yacht Rock party coming up later this month. I’ll keep you posted. Until then, you can read about Chris on NBC Miami: NiteTalk: Chris Graham Wants You to “Kill Your Idols” | NBC Miami.
Doug is a master of ceremonies.
I gotta give the full back story to this one:
Last Thursday I had the opportunity to play at Howl at the Moon in Orlando with 3 of the most amazingly talented guys in the dueling piano business. These guys are true modern day musical vaudevillians. The two guys in this video combined represent over 25 years of on-stage experience.
It was early in the night…shortly after 8pm.. The 4 of us had already been there since 5:30 for a quick rehearsal, afterwords we ate some Thai food and then came back to an open club with a completely empty room…save for 2 women who said they had tickets to go see the Blue Man Group.
Ken and I sat back as Joe and Brian took the stage and asked the women if they had any requests.
They didn’t.
Then, after some coaxing, one of the women said, timidly, “Do you know Brown Eyed Girl by Bobby McFerrin?”
This what they got: (oh, and they never made it to the Blue Man Group show)
Oh, and in case you can’t make it out, the back of Joe’s shirt says : (withheldoforpayment)
YouTube – Howl at the Moon Orlando – Joe and Brian Brown Eyed Girl Acapella.
