Matt of All Trades blog, like the title suggests, is by a Vermont author and offers offbeat musings on pop culture, media, journalism, humor, weirdness, stupid people, smart people, my life as a journalist, landscaper, photographer, married gay man, dog lover and weather geek and more. It's run by me, Matt Sutkoski, a native Vermonter living in St. Albans, Vt.
The proprietor of Cullman Liquidation introduces us to his team, and gives us some intriguing personal biography. For instance, he tells us, for no apparent reason, "My wife's boyfriend broke my jaw with a fence post."
There's quick cuts to the team looking menacing, a woman smoking a cigarette and a few sound effects. It's really a terrific short film.
Lady Gaga has one of the best voices in the music business, and of course I'm a huge fanboy of hers. She can do no wrong. And the song "Shallow" is absolutely gorgeous.
The reason I bring this up is that viral video, perhaps the most viral video of the year, of a woman who was accosted by a man in the London Tube who sang the first lyrics of "Shallow" and demanded the woman sing the subsequent lyrics.
The man in the London Tube, Kevin Freshwater, is a video blogger who did this as part of his shtick. He was clearly not prepared for what the woman, named Charlotte Awbery did. Hesitant at first, Awbery built up and belted it out with Freshwater's encouragement.
In that moment, well, a star was born. The video of Awbery in the London tubewent extremely viral. It's had something like 60 million hits on social media. Her Instagram following went from 4,000 to 400,000.
This moment changed her life. Awbery was already a professional singer, but she hadn't hit it big until now. She is a singer and songwriter by profession. There are previous clips of Awbery floating around out there of her singing classics like "Purple Rain" by Prince and hits by Celine Dion and Sia.
She's also had a steady string of gigs at clubs, bars, weddings, parties and such, but nothing big time.
The viral video of Awbery in the Subway singing "Shallow" pushed the original Lady Gaga/Bradley Cooper back on the iTunes Top 40. Last week, Ellen Degeneres had her on her daytime show to sing the entire song. I'm sure a record deal is in the works.
You never know what will come of this, of course. Will Awbery be another flash in the pan, or does this establish her as a star. It's yet another case of how big breaks, or at least potential ones, can come out of nowhere.
This is the second time in about a year that music in a subway causes a sensation.
In any event, here's Awbery's performance on "Ellen"
Inexperienced singer Doug Kiker impressed the judges on the episode "American Idol" that aired last week. Let's hope this underdog does well!
As anyone who looks at this here blog thingy knows, I'm a sucker for those talent "reality" shows in which stars are allegedly made.
I just like those surprises when people really just surprise everyone.
I got hopelessly hooked way back in 2009 at theiconic moment when Susan Boyle, an awkward appearing middle aged woman, blew everybody away with her version of "I Dreamed A Dream" from Les Miserables
I don't watch "American Idol" as much as other shows of this genre, like "The Voice" and "America's Got Talent." But one moment in the season premier of this year's "American Idol" got my attention, and that of a lot of other people. I guess I'm attracted to these "come from nowhere" stories.
Doug Kiker of Grand Bay, Alabama is a garbage man. Apparently, he likes to sing on the back of the truck as he's working.
He auditioned last year for "American Idol" and by his telling, he failed miserably.“I couldn't even figure out what I was gonna do, I kept trying to remember the words to the song I was gonna sing, and when it came out, it came out horribly,” he explained. But he wanted to teach his daughter, age 2, to not give up, so he tried again. "I'm trying to show her if you put your mind to it, there's nothing you can't do." His efforts aired on "American Idol" Sunday evening. So there he was, echoes of Susan Boyle. In this case, Kiker appeared on TV, a little overweight, a few teeth missing, wearing a cheap baseball cap on backwards. Star struck at judges Lionel Ritchie, Katy Perry and Luke Bryan, mumbled something about the three judges being beautiful. Kiker confessed to having no performing experience, though Bryan was impressed with the calluses on Kiker's hands. Ritchie was horrified, in a friendly way, that Kiker didn't even know to warm up his voice before performing for the judges. So American Idol host Ryan Seacrest, he of the perfect hair and perfect teeth, led him out to show him how to warm up. Fifteen minutes later, Kiker was in front of the judges again. This time, he sang briefly. It was good. Perry was unconvinced just yet. "Show us your range," she said. "I don't know what that is," Kiker said. So, Bryan ran over to the piano to help. Trouble is, Bryan tried to set Kiker up with the proper key to a song. Kiker didn't know what that was, either. Which made the ever-helpful Bryan start singing a line in different ranges and getting Kiker to try to do the same. Let's just say Kiker might not have had any training as a singer, but he's apparently a quick learner. Bryan said, "There's so much in there," and the other two judges seemed impressed. Ritchie told Kiker he's a hell of a man, and I can't argue that. Perry was in tears as they passed him on to Hollywood, the next stage of the competition "You just stay who you are and you're going to go so far," Perry told him. Of course, it's too soon to know what will happen to Kiker. He's in for a wild ride. Will be continue to learn and grow? Will the pressure crush him or energize him? I guess we'll have to find out. These rags to riches stories are always more complicated than the reality shows make them out to be. But like almost all viewers, I wish him the best of luck. Meanwhile, The Voice in the United States has its season premier next week. Like I said, I'm a sucker for this kind of thing. I'll be watching. Here's the video:
A rather buff dad in a football shirt and shorts looks like he wanted to entertain his smiling young daughter at Disney World.
Justin Gigliello belts out "Ave Maria" during a visit to Disney
World with his young daughter.
The dad, named Justin Gigliello was at Disney World with his young daughter.
He posted the video on Twitter, and wrote: "I just wanted to share this video for a Disney experience! We just went to Disney World ast week and my daughter asked the pianist at the Grand Floridian if I could sing while he played."
The best part besides the singing is the proud look on the face of the young daughter as her father performed.
Naturally, the clip has gone viral. I'm also sure that producers from shows like "America's Got Talent" are beating down Gigliello's door trying to get him on these shows.
The Voice, for those who don't watch reality shows, is one in which accomplished singers act as judges and pick worthy contestants based on their voices, not their looks. (The judges listen to contestants' auditions facing away from them.)
Once contestants are selected as the show's season progresses, contestants pair off in "battle rounds" in which the judges pick one of two contestants who perform duets.
During a break in The Voice UK, fellow judge Olly Murs was asked what his dream battle round would be. He responded he'd like to see Hudson and Jones go at it.
The result from Hudson was what you'd expect out of her: Just incredible vocals that will blow you away. The surprise, at least to me, was Jones, age 78. He totally knocked it out of the park, too.
It's totally worth watching and listening to this "battle round." Here it is:
Adam Lambert's version of Cher's "Believe" was stunning and moved many to tears, including Cher at this past month's Kennedy Center Honors. Strip down that song, and it can be pretty amazing. A 14-year-old Britain's Got Talent contestant had the same idea two years ago, to magnificent effect.
There's always a gala televised thing for these honorees and of course, the highlight was people performing songs by Cher.
For some reason, I've never been a huge fan of Adam Lambert. Nothing against the guy; he just never wowed me. Until now.
One of Cher's biggest hits was "Believe" a sort of dance club, Auto-Tuned but catchy hit from 1998. Hidden in that dance tune is some heartbreaking, great lyrics and Lambert took full advantage of them.
The result was a great rendition that moved Cher and many others to tears.
Below are two videos. I'm doing that because Lambert wasn't the first person to strip down and slow down "Believe." In 2016, a contestant on "Britain's Got Talent,"Jasmine Elcock, who was only 14 years old at the time, did an even more outstanding job with "Believe" than Lambert, if you can believe that.
First video is Lambert's, second is Elcock's. Which one do you like better?
Pecos Hankis a storm chaser, the kind of guy weather geeks like me love. He spends days, weeks, maybe months out in the Great Plains, chasing after tornadoes and other severe weather.
Unlike many storm chasers, Pecos Hank emphasizes creativity and art over the usual yelling and screaming and shaky images of tornadoes that most storm chasers embrace. Pecos Hank's storm videos, which he narrates, are moody, beautiful, beguiling.
I think his creativity with the storm videos comes from his other job, his other passion. Pecos Hank is a musician.
Pecos Hank last year was wise enough to combine one passion, storm chasing, with the other, music, to create a haunting music video that I just can't resist.
OK, I'm a fanboy of this guy. So sue me.
The song is called"Drive Under The Moon." It liberally uses outtakes of his storm footage to create a dark, mysterious, almost morbid music video. I like songs that have a darkness, so this appeals to me wonderfully. Pecos Hank's deep voice, combined with his sort of Tex-Mex sound, is just perfect. And the 1950s styles in the video add to the retro, brooding mood.
Is the creepy guy driving the car the Grim Reaper? Is the glamorous woman adventurous and oblivious to her fate, or is she a willing participant in this tornadic, deadly story? You decide.
Check out this guy doing "Bohemian Rhapsody" in 42 musical styles.
Now that the movie "Bohemian Rhapsody" the biopic of Freddie Mercury is in theaters, we might as well celebrate the song the movie references.
To do so, here's a guy who performs the song in the voices of 42 artists. Now you can hear how parts of the Queen classic in a way that artists including Frank Sinatra,Ozzy Osbourne, Abba, Prince,Johnny Cash and others would have done.
Anthony Vincent is the genius behind this video. It's something you never knew you had to listen to, but you really must listen
Willie K stuns with his rendition of the Star Spangled Banner
Recently, there was a forgettable football game in Hawaii that nobody ever would have heard of if not for a guy named Willie K.
Willie K is a wildly popular musician in Hawaii, but many of us had never heard of him, until now.
He's certainly a brave musician. He was asked to perform the National Anthem at this football game, and he had the temerity to change the melody of the song. Usually, messing with the melody of the National Anthem is anathema. Nobody likes it.
But in this case, it worked. Big time. With his ukelele, natch.
Plus his voice was so powerful, so perfect, so poignant. This, despite the fact the guy is battling lung cancer of all things. I would think that lung cancer would screw up a singer's voice, but I hear no sign of it in the viral video that resulted from Willie K's performance.
Meghan McCain, daughter of recently deceased American patriot John McCain, said it just as well as anybody could in this tweet: "This brought tears to my eyes - one of the most gorgeous performances fo the Star-Spangled Banner I've every heard. Just absolutely beautiful.
Randy Rainbow's parody songs on the Trump administration are awesome
His latest, the one that went the most viral is "If You Ever Got Impeached."
If you're a Donald Trump fan, you might as well move along to the next post, nothing to see here, you don't want to be offended.
Those of you who aren't such ardent fans of the president might like the video at the bottom of this post.
It's a little strange but brilliant.
Randy Rainbow has a YouTube page in which he gaily parodies famous old songs. He's got more than a bit of Broadway in him, and he uses these skills to great comic effect.
Each video starts off with Randy pretending to be one of those awful cable news reporters doing interviews, then he breaks into song. Before you start watching any of these awesome videos, do know they're definitely NSFW.
He does have a great voice, in addition to the comedy.
Before we get into that, he's got other gems you might check out. "Omarosa!" about Trump's former reality star performer and aide, is set to the music of "Oklahoma!" Another one, involving Rudy Guiliani, is "Rudy And the Beast," set to "Beauty And The Beast." From last fall, there's a performance called "How Do You Solve A Problem Like Korea,"which of course if from the "Sound Of Music."
Perhaps his song "Yes, We Have No Steve Bannon" is my favorite. Over the top, for sure, but awesome. There's a bonus reggae track in there in which Randy Rainbow comforts Bannon bh singing "Everything's Going to Be Alt-Right." Spoiler Alert: At the end of the video Randy, playing a fruit salesman says, "Can I interest you in a rotten orange with thin skin and no taste?"
There's many more Randy Rainbow videos to check out as well. This guy is brilliant!
By the way, I also absolutely love Randy's reading glasses.
Here, the performance is "If You Ever Got Impeached." It starts off as a bizarro world effort as a news interview with Trump, and then it goes from there. Worth the watch for some of us, at least:
Evelyn Williams, 81, who sang an incredibly moving
version of "Send In The Clowns" got a Golden Buzzer
from her new buddy Michelle Visage. The Golden
Buzzer was very well deserved.
As readers of this blog thingy know, I have a weird obsession with those talent "reality shows" like "The Voice" and "( Name That Country)'s got talent.
As such, I bring you some posts about some of the best talents from these shows.
Every place in the universe, including Pluto, has a "(Name That Country)'s Got Talent" and Ireland, of course does.
Recently, "Ireland's Got Talent" introduced us all to Evelyn Williams, an 81-year-old great grandmother. The video of her incredible performance is at the bottom of this post.
The biography package they always do on these shows with some of the standout performers, like Williams, reflects a full life of love, joy and tragedy. And through it out, Williams comes through as a wonderful, glorious, giving survivor that can't help but love.
I'll be mean and confess that I don't think that Williams is the best singer in the world. But she sang that song with such heart, such honesty, such conviction and such life experience that only a souless idiot wouldn't melt. Williams was absolutely brilliant.
Williams' performance was a master class in performing from the heart to incredible effect.
To pretty much nobody's surprise, Williams scored the coveted "Golden Buzzer," set off by very impressed judge Michelle Visage, which means she skips over the rigamarole and goes to the semi-finals of the show.
Williams, apparently, does not understand what a powerhouse she is. "When I seen that buzzer thing, I thought someone was throwing a bomb in around the place to get me off the stage," she told the Irish Sun.
Oh, no, no, no. We all want to see and hear much more from Evelyn Williams.
Explaining why she hit the Golden Buzzer, Visage explains it better than anybody else could: "This woman has so much life. She commaned the stage better than anybody we've seen yet on this show. She's a storyteller. I'm not lucky enough to have my mother here with me on this journey, and then she stood here and sang one of the most incredible Stephen Sondheim songs ever written, only meant to be sung by a woman this age, who sang it with love."
Here's the video, and warning: This is a Kleenex alert clip:
It can be especially tough if you're dealing with the harsh light of bright sunlight, and shadows if you're photographing in glorious sunny summer weather.
The Zaring family found that out first hand.
They hired a photographer to take family pictures on a bright, sunny day. It took forever to get the photos back, and when they did, Pam Dave Zaring burst out laughing.
The worst part about this is the Zarings say the photographer won't return the $250 they paid her. Still, the Zarings say they hold no ill will against the photographer. My guess it was worth the laughs, and worth the traffic it got on social media.
Not "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)," popularized by Darlene Love. Musically it's an uplifting, take me to church melody. The lyrics are bittersweet. The emotional complexity of the song, at least compared to almost all other holiday songs, makes this one work
However, Letterman went off the air. So "The View" took it over, and now they're in their third year. Of course, as always, you will see and hear this year's video of her performance at the bottom of this post.
This year, Darlene Love got some help fromFantasia, the awesome R&B singer.
Love and her song have become such a national Christmas tradition that she's turned up elsewhere, too. Click on this link for a fun video of Darlene Love performing the song on "The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon" in which Love, Fallon, The Roots and Anna Kendrick perform the song accompanied by child classroom instruments, which is a regular feature on this show. It's a bit tinny but surprisingly good.
Without further delay, here's this year's Darlene Love's Christmas performance, with the fantastic Fantasia from this year. Merry Christmas everyone!!!
"Laughing Dormouse" by Andrea Zampatti. Looks like this little guy is having a GREAT time.
I've highlighted the annual Wildlife Comedy Awards in the past, but I cannot resist focusing on them again, because they are such a delightful distraction from the ills of the world.
The awards go to nature photographers who find usually inadvertent, but hilarious moments amont wild animals.
This year's winners don't disappoint. Go to this link to see this year's winners, and the winners from past years. It's SO worth the browse.
Meanwhile, see, below, a couple more of this year's wildlife triumphs. Click on the images to make them bigger and easier to see.
"Monkey Escape" by Katy Laveck-Foster. A very fun outing on a motorbike, it looks like.
"Mudskippers Got Talent" by Daniel Trim. Not sure if these frogs are in a televised talent competition or they just heard something Donald Trump said.
"WTF" by George Cathcart. These California seals look like they've been watching too much Fox News
Joan Jett and Debbie Harry deliver an apocalyptic newcast
in a dark and funny video for the new Blondie tune "Doom or Destiny"
Blondie, with Debbie Harry of course, and Joan Jetthave teamed up in a startling, but darkly funny video for Blondie's song "Doom or Destiny" and it's totally worth the watch. Especially since Harry and Jett have lost none of their considerable mojo over the decades.
In the video, Harry and Jett are off-kilter news anchors. The pair, asRolling Stone puts it, "tease a series of foreboding headlines, referencing global warming, Russian election meddling, nuclear war and President Trump's 'grab 'em by the pussy comment from the leaked Access Hollywood tape."
Rolling Stone continues:"Harry said she wanted the video to comment on 'the bizarre state of media and news in the current 'idocracy' by addressing issues like 'environmental collapse, fossil fuels, bee population decline, global warming, sexism, patriarchy, Trump and Russia, feminishm, consumerism, the marketing of war and more.'"
Yes, that's a dark vision. And the video has that dark vision. It's not for bright and cheery Pollyannas. But those Pollyannas would be missing out if they didn't watch the "Doom or Destiny" video.
Harry, age 72, and Jett, 59, are still the no-holds-barred women they've alway been, thank goodness. In the video, they are disgusted, world weary and fuming as these two "news co-anchors" deal with dinasour men rejoicing amid money, a Trumpesque orange sock puppet screaming "Fake News!" vapid fragrance commercials, a weather segment that forecasts, among other things, seven plagues and thermonuclear winter, and a report by Harry regarding global warming, "Hot as fxxxing hell"
You have to watch the video several times to catch all the very quick jokes and dark humor throughout the piece.
The song "Doom or Destiny" itself is at once catchy, dark, cynical, driving and some of the best work I've heard from Blondie, Harry and Jett I've heard in years.
Here's the video, which is not really NSFW, if you dare. It's so worth it.
This woman, on the French version of "The Voice" show
us the right way to do the YMCA.
As people who read this blog thingy know, I'm one of those hopeless people who's a fan of some talent competition shows on TV, with "The Voice" being one of my favorites.
I missed the season debut of "The Voice" this week, so I was rummaging on YouTube to see what happened, and there's was some great auditions here in the Great Old U.S. of A.
But as you know, every place in the universe, probably including Neptune, has a "The Voice" franchise, and I stumbled upon some recent auditions from France.
One of them was by a woman named Nathalia, who did a version of the Village People song "YMCA"
The original song has frankly become a tired cliche of a tune that is played at every bad wedding you've been to. However, Nathalia turned "YMCA" into something flirty, gorgeous, new, powerful, playful, soulful and sexy.
As you might know, during "The Voice" auditions, the judges, all musicians, sit in chairs with their backs to the stage so they can't see what the performer looks like. They must rely just on what they hear. If the judges like what they hear, they press a button and their chair turns to face the performer.
Not surprisingly, all four French "The Voice" chairs very quickly turned for Nathalia.
Boy George does a terrific, quieter version of the Village
People classic "Y.M.C.A"
I know, I know, you're all sick of that Village People ditty "Y.M.C.A"
It's a staple at every bad wedding reception, and karaoke bar you've ever seen.
And aren't you tired of forming the letters YMCA with your arms?
"Y.M.C.A" was, however, a daring - for the era, anyway - of acceptance toward LGBTQ people everywhere.
Was the Y.M.C.A. of the Village People's imagination a wholesome place for young men to grow up? Or a gay nirvana? Or both? Probably both.
"They have everything for young men to enjoy You can hang out with all the boys."
As The Daily Telegraph notes, Boy George started thinking about marriage equality, and other issues like mental health and youth unemployment when he was approached by the Y.M.C.A. to do a cover of the song.
At first, Boy George said no way. But he got to thinking about it, and thought it would resonate.
It does. He does a toned-down, quieter version of "Y.M.C.A." and it's actually pretty terrific.
HOPE, Maine - While jogging on a familiar, overgrown wooded trail near her home on a recent warm afternoon, Rachel Borch thought to herself, 'what a beautiful day.' Little did she know she was about to be attacked by a rabid raccoon she would end up killing with her bare hands."
The story goes on to tell us about our normally mild-mannered vegetarian jogger drowning the offending raccoon in a puddle.
Bangor Daily News reporter Alex Acquisto proved herself as one of the best writers and journalists out there.
The raccoon bit Borch on the thumb and wouldn't let go. "Imagine the Tasmanian devil," Borch told Acquisto.
Acquisto's article has sentences like this: "Connecting the dots quickly, Borch, then on her knees, dragged the still biting raccoon, which was scratching frantically at her hands and arms, into the puddle."
Kaylee Rodgers, who has autism and ADHD gives an incredible performance of "Hallelujah" in a viral video.
Social media and YouTube is hot with yet another viral version of the Leonard Cohen song "Hallelujah" and it's a good one.
It's done by a 10 year old girl at theKillard House School in Donaghadee, Northern Island.
On the face of it, she does an awesome job, by any standard. You can watch the video at the bottom of this post.
What's really amazing is the girl, Kaylee Rodgers, has autism and ADHD.
I have ADHD and can barely get my act together. Throw autism on top of that and you get a performance like this? Incredible!
According to the BBC,music teach Lloyd Scates spotted Kaylee's talent and convinced her to sing solos. She was extremely shy and quiet when she first arrived at the school, and the singing is developing her voice and confidence.
"She always loved singing, but it wasn't until she started at Killard House School that she really came into her own," said Kaylee's mom, who gave loads of credit to Scates. "He's like her safety blanket. He's amazing."
So is Kaylee. Give her a listen and hear for yourself:
Aretha Franklin wows, as always at a Thanksgiving NFL game
as she sang the National Anthem.
I can never resist posting an epic Aretha Franklin performance every once in awhile, like the time Aretha Franklin sang for Carole King at the 2015 Kennedy Honors.
The Aretha Franklin performance making the rounds today is really something.
She sang the National Anthem at Vikings Vs. Lions NFL game on Thanksgiving Day.
Here's the video. Worth the watch and especially listen:
