CMD+Shift Design
Liz Andrade
Designer of print and web. Podcaster, Blogger, internet nerd and crazy cat lady.
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Karaoke Jams: February 2012
Last month I decided to post a monthly log of my Thursday night Karaoke hijinks. January was much more active, you can check out that post for last months song list (which included some obscure cuts from Babes in Toyland, Dokken, and Peaches.) Only made it out once this month! It was the Thursday before Valintine’s Day, we declared the theme ‘Sad Bastard Heartbreak Songs’ — the goal was to make some sad sap at the bar cry into their beer…
Prince – When You Were Mine
An upbeat sound with some more meloncoly lyrics, one of my favorite Prince jams — and i LOVE the Cyndi Lauper version, which is what is linked here since I couldn’t find the original Prince version on YouTube!
Adele – Someone Like You
I’m pretty uneducated when it comes to modern day music hits, i’ll admit. I only downloaded and listened to this song for the first time about an hour before heading out to Karaoke — and it being one of the most utterly heartbreaking songs I’d ever laid ears on — it was the perfect selection for the nights theme. If the lyrics to this one didn’t make anyone cry, my attempt to sing an actual ‘singerly’ song might have! ;)
Ladies Who Read
Tonight I just learned about the Vaginal Fantasy Hangout. It is a group of 4 nerdy ladies who share their Google+ Hangout discussion of a steamy fantasy books, (book club style.) The gang includes Bonnie Burton, Kiala Kazebee, Felica Day and Veronica Belmont. The later of which is also on the book club podcast Sword & Laser, which inspired the idea to start MY podcast, Pagebreak! Yay for books! :)
Check out the 1st Vaginal Fantasy Hangout, already posted on YouTube.
I Can Has Your Skulls?
My Tee Fury shirt arrived today and I am STOKED!
Reading is Cool.
Waiting in my mailbox for me today was some of the books I ordered to add to my collection. READING IS COOL.
Back in Black
After maybe 6 years with my natural dark brown, I dyed my hair black again yesterday.
Karaoke Jams: January 2012
You may or may not already know, that one of my favorite things to do with my friends is go out to sing Karaoke. We’re a group of misfits who award each other more kudos for choosing an obscure song than having noteworthy vocal prowess. The stage of choice is in my old neighborhood at a dark and unassuming pub that acts as sports bar until 9:30 strikes on a Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday night when Baby Ketten Karaoke takes over and the best karaoke in Seattle happens.
Why is it ‘the best,’? Well — to some roake lovers, this place might be a nightmare — it’s a little unconventional, with the song selection that you won’t find anywhere else — including old punk rock tracks, obscure nerdcore, and all other bits of randomness you have NEVER heard at karaoke. While the more traditional karaoke bar around the corner has a nightly performance of “Don’t Stop Believing” — Baby Ketten’s nightly anthem has become Danzig’s “Mother”.
Since I’ve shifted my blogs focus in 2012 to being a window into my life outside of the normal day to day of CMD+Shift Design — Karaoke is a big part of that, so each month I will be posting a log of the songs I logged on the Baby Ketten stage.
Babes in Toyland – Sweet 69
Prime example of the crazy unique song selection at BKK! Just added to the catalogue I was the first person in all of Seattle (or maybe anywhere) to rock this one at karaoke.
Dokken – Dream Warriors
Uhh… Nightmare on Elm Street 3 soundtrack, duh!
Hole – Gold Dust Woman
Since most of the Hole songs in the book are off of ‘Celebrity Skin’ (gag) I went for the Fleetwood Mac cover of theirs off The Crow 2 Soundtrack.
Le Tigre – Deceptacon
My favorite Le Tigre song! Only Kathleen Hanna can work the word ‘depoliticize’ into a dance number.
Metric – Combat Baby
The Canadaian band behind the ficticious Canadian Band, Clash At Demonhead from the Scott Pilgrim movie.
Peaches – Fuck The Pain Away
Another good dance song, but if you don’t have head phones — skip listening to this one in the office. As the title would suggest, the F-bomb gets dropped (along with the word, ”titties’.)
Technotronic – Pump Up The Jam
My buddy and I closed the place out one night with this one — a total train wreck, but the bartender wanted to hear this song and we were the people left in the crowd who #1 were not too drunk to sing and #2 were OK with making complete asses of ourselves.
Got out every Thursday this month! If you live in Seattle and wanna join me and my roake crew some night, @cmdshiftdesign me on Twitter! Let’s sing!
Kickin' Balls for Cash!
Update on my last post — Sunday was Dirty Fall Quickball 2011 and guess whose team walked away with the tournament championship trophy and raised a bunch of money for the Reateaching Gender & Sexuality Tour?!?!?!? :)
Had a lot of fun playing kickball with so many awesome people, can’t wait till next year!
To learn more about the Reateaching Gender & Sexuality Tour, visit reteachinggenderandsexuality.org and learn how you can help out.
Help me support a good cause?
Hey friends! I know I don’t post here very often anymore — so this MUST be important, right? ;)
IT IS! This Sunday I am going to playing Kickball (for the first time since elementary school) on TEAM GOLD for the Dirty Fall Quickball 2011. It’s a Kickball tournament, complete with halftime show, concessions and all sorts of FUN to benefit the Reateaching Gender & Sexuality Tour. Check out the video below and visit the reteachinggenderandsexuality.org site to get an idea of what the awesome organization is doing to re-define gender and sexuality all over the country and help queer kids lead happier healthier lives!
So — how can YOU help? Well I am glad you asked — make a donation in my team’s honor (TEAM GOLD!) OR if you are in Seattle and want to check out the festivities on Sunday, pick up advanced tickets!
Let’s kick some BALLS!
Did You Know I Make A Podcast?
It’s 2011 — CMD+Shift Design is almost 3 years old now and things are going well. I admit, I have gotten out of the groove with this blog, but I am still creating content! If you haven’t already you should be listening to Pagebreak Podcast.
Pagebreak is a podcast I started back in August with Niki Brown from the DesignOBlog. Niki and I spend our spare time reading a book about design, development, freelance or marketing and then at the end of each month we record a discussion on it! Throughout the month, we send out short-format shows where we read a blog post targeted to our industry and give our 2cents on it. We release something for you every Wednesday, so subscribe via RSS or on iTunes!
I am so glad we started doing the show and I have been having a lot of fun work on it. Our goals for the show in 2011 include revamping the website, having guests on Snippets from time to time, including our listeners more, and getting better at SPEAKING without saying like, ya know, kinda like or ummm… so much!
A bunch of designers (including me) weigh in on the way music affects their work process.
