Tag Archives: Milkshake Band

Joke Blog #1

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Anyone who’s seen a Milkshake concert since we released the Great Day CD may have caught us doing “Happy Place” live. It’s a song off that Grammy-nominated CD, and has become a big favorite of ours, not just because it’s a neat song, but it allows us to connect with the kids in the audience in a unique way.

 There’s a line in the song that goes like this: “someone tell me a joke…” which I repeat as the band pauses and Mikel or some other bandmate tells me a joke. It’s usually pretty bad, causing ughs and head shakes from the audience. So I reach out to the kids, asking them for another joke, since after all it can’t be hard to top the one we just heard. Inevitably, hands shoot up and the jokes start flying. It’s a really a cool time in the show. Some jokes are just okay, others are really funny, but it’s the immediate sense of sharing and community that really shines. I love it. Unfortunately, I forget most of the jokes so I’ve taken to tapping them into my iPhone as soon as I can after the show.

Jokes are great things, and as I can attest, there’s an art in the telling. I am not a good joke-teller. But I sure do love hearing kids tell me one. So here is the first of what I hope will be many Joke Blog posts, featuring jokes we’ve heard at our concerts. Enjoy and share them as you like, and if you have a joke you want us to include in the next post, post it on our Facebook page or share it at the next Milkshake show!

What’s the best place to hide from zombies? – In the living room.

Why did Mickey Mouse go to outer space? – To find Pluto.

What did the egg say to the other egg? – You crack me up.

Why do chickens sit on eggs? – Because they don’t have chairs.

Why did the boy chew the calendar? – He wanted to eat a Sunday.

Why did the whale cross the ocean? – She wanted to get to the other tide.

Why didn’t the skeleton ride the roller coaster? – He had no guts.

Why was the broom late for school? – He overswept.

What do you call a bear with no teeth? – A gummy bear.

Why don’t bears wear shoes? – Because they have bear feet.

Why is the Sun rude? – Because it peeks through your window.

What did the math book say? – “Boy, have I got problems.”

tell me a joke!

 

 

Remembering the warm months.

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Fall is in full force here in Baltimore, and the leaves are beautiful. Last night, it was cold enough for a fire, today Mikel and I brought in the first of what will be at least four Santas at malls and holiday events, and tomorrow holds a full day of raking. But at this moment, I want to post a quick look back at summer and the lovely warmer months when Milkshake played outdoors. The band had an incredible outdoors season, and Mikel and I enjoyed visiting many parks and libraries as well. Highlights include two shows at Strathmore Center for the Arts in Rockville, MD, an early evening show at the Levitt Pavilion in Westport, CT and a rainy, fun show at Kidstock in Long island, NY. But without a doubt, our hands-down favorite show was a late-summer stop at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA in August.

There’s something magical about the place. Yes, the gardens are beautiful, with so many special trails and secret nooks and big, flower-filled spaces. A few times in the past, we’ve played in the amphitheater fronted by fountains. It’s lovely, but we never feel as close to our friends in the audience as we like. So we were very happy to find that this year, Milkshake was playing in front of the lighted fountains on a low-to-the-ground stage. There, in front of the stage was a warm grassy area to dance and play, and that’s exactly what we did. The people working at Longwood obviously love what they do, and they always spoil us with a generous green room, incredible sound and stage crew, and they kindly ride our kids and family around in golf carts. This time, it was raining as we pulled into the gardens.  But by a half hour before showtime arrived, so did the sun, setting warmly over the gardens. From 7 – 8:15 PM, both band and audience were transported by the perfection of the place, and afterwards, everyone was treated to a lighted fountain show. I sat on a picnic blanket with my daughter, Jesse, eating some finger food, watching the fountain show and feeling absolutely, blissfully happy. Thank you, Longwood Gardens, for the most delightful last show of summer.

Check out the summer gallery posted here, all taken by our friend Bill Auth (Thanks, Bill!). Click on the pics to see them larger, in a photo stream.

Now it’s on to the holiday season. Hope to see you at one of the upcoming shows (MA, NY, MD etc.)…indoors, of course.

xo,

Lisa

Rumpus Room Fun at SiriusXM Radio’s Kids Place Live

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We’ve performed at the Rumpus Room at SiriusXM Radio four times, now, and every time it’s a memorable and joyously messy experience.  Live radio is usually an anything-can-happen idea in the first place, but radio in front of a live audience is something a bit more open to a find-a-balance stress, especially since our audience is so young and loves when we dance with them. Unfortunately, that’s hard to do connected to head phones and wired for recording, and kids wonder why we have big things covering our ears and don’t seem to play with them as much. It’s a fine line between doing a great performance for this audience, and trying to get a stellar recording. Inevitably, the star rating for each song will vary depending on the perspective. But what I love best besides the incredible SiriusXM recording studio and the warm, friendly people behind the Kids Place Channel is that we are encouraged to try new things we might not do live.

For this Rumpus Room Concert, we thought we’d be more radio-focused and created a couple skits purposely for the show. Nodding to the beginning of the new Got a Minute? CD, we started the show with a skit, inviting bandmates to come on down to the SiriusXM Studio. Each one had something else they were doing – Cord, for instance, was still cleaning up after a Super Bowl Party, trying to get bean dip out of the X Box, and Tom discovered he was just outside, standing on the corner of Florida Avenue in DC. Tom created a sarcastic question and answer with me we fondly titled Yep. In between these bits, we played mostly songs from the new CD, and it felt good. Got a Minute? is full of variety and I can’t wait to play the songs at our CD Release Party at Rams Head Live April 14. It was wonderful to see Program Director Mindy Thomas and Kenny Curtis again, and we hope SiriusXM Radio listeners enjoy the concert if they catch it on the channel. Our concert airs March 22, 23 and 24.  Check the radio website for exact times.  Special thanks to good friend and photographer Bill Auth for capturing the event in pictures.

Finally Finished!

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FINALCOVERcolored4x4It took more than just a minute, in fact a bit longer than we anticipated, but the new CD, Got a Minute?, is finally finished.  We have a lot of people to thank: All the Kickstarter friends who pledged to help us make the CD, artist/teacher Danamarie Hosler who did the cover and inside poster, Steve Parke for taking new band pics and putting the CD cover together, Bill Auth for documenting our time in the studio in pictures, Dave Nachodsky for co-producing and continuing to be our favorite studio dude, the kids who suggested song topics: Ethan & Sara Scally, Savannah Radz, Addy Velasquez and Luca Zamero, and of course the many fine musicians who joined us on some of these new songs. Previous posts have mentioned some of them: Adrian Cox played tuba on “Fish,” Willem Elsevier added violin and viola to “Starry, Starry Night,” and “Anyday Waltz,” Dave Hadley played incredible pedal steel on “Looking Out the Window,” Howard Markman added some great guitar playing to “Workin’ Kid Blues,” ” Seabreeze,” and “Anyday Waltz,”  Duncan Parke played upright bass on “Seabreeze,” Kyf Brewer sang on “Starry, Starry Night,” and “We Just Wanna Have Fun,” adding bagpipes to that last one, Cathy Fink added banjo and sang on “Snowy” and Marcy Marxer played mandolin and sang on “Snowy,” and added ukulele to “Tiptoe Thru the Tulips,” Alex Handy rapped on “More Than Me,” and Vance Thomas did the same on “Baltimore,” and sang in the kid chorus of “Workin’ Kid Blues” and “Hiccup,” Lauren Reilly sang on the kid chorus of “Workin’ Kid Blues,” and “Hiccup.”

And then there’s our kids: my daughter Jesse played and sang her original song “One Day,” and Mikel’s son Eric played drums on “One of a Kind,” and both of them sang for the kid chorus.  Remembering back to our first CD (Happy Songs, 2002), when Jesse’s baby gurgling was heard at the beginning of “When You Were Born,” this is full-circle in a way, as our kids have made guest appearances on our discs through the last 10 years, but now are so very grown-up.  I can’t help but feel the Milkshake project of reflecting our kids growth and adventures through childhood has been a worthwhile and beautiful one. In some ways Got a Minute? is almost a retrospective of this because of the combination of simple songs we wrote for PBS KIDS in 2006, and the newer, more musically and thematically complex songs, both found on this new disc.  I look back fondly over the 10 years doing this project, and each CD takes me back to that certain place and time.  We learned how to count with “Fingers & Toes” (Happy Songs, 2002), signed and sang our ABC’s with “ABC of Me” (Bottle of Sunshine, 2004), played and pretended with “Superhero” (Play! 2007), learned about friendship with “Enemies” (Great Day, 2009) and found strength in ourselves in “Let ‘Em Know”and “More Than Me” (Got a Minute? 2013).

Got a Minute? will be released worldwide March 26, 2013, and we’re excited to share this new disc with you.  Advance copies will be available via our website beginning in January, and we’ll be having an official CD Release Party at Rams Head Live in Baltimore Sunday, April 14.  More on that later 🙂

Summer In Pictures

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Milkshake had a lovely summer, mostly spent in the studio recording Got a Minute?, our new CD set for release early 2013.  When we did get out for concerts, some show days were quite hot, and I will never forget a particular show in Rockville, MD July 17th, when it was 104 degrees in the shade, and we were not.  Even the astroturf the audience was spread upon had to be close to melting point.  The Milkshake Trio will also fondly remember an August trip to Kalamazoo, MI, playing in Branson Park for the end-of-summer reading celebration concert for the good folks at the Kalamazoo Public Library.  Everyone was especially kind and we had to admit we “Geek Our Library!” after that.  Hope your summer was full of music and fun.