Birthday Karaoke :D

It was my Birthday a couple weeks ago on Thursday June 19th so my friends and I celebrated on Wednesday as well while I was Hosting Karaoke since I turned 28 'again' at midnight!  It also gave me another chance to celebrate with anyone who couldn't come to my Birthday Party on Thursday night at Brick+Mortar :)

Celebrating with Port Wine!

I decided on a Multi-Theme Night of music starting with a practice song to get everyone warmed up and mine was 'Like A Boy' by Ciara since it's a fast rap, perfect to prep for a night of singing!  After everyone had warmed up (and a lot of people showed up) so we had a nice long list, our next theme was Gender Bender.  So everyone had to pick a song sang by a member of their opposite sex.  My song was 'Rebel Yell' by Billy Idol; not only a great rock song but a crowd favorite!  Everyone was really great following the themes as the guys picked out some awesome female songs, and of course, there had to be some boy band music.  Gail had decided on 'Bye Bye Bye' by N'Sync and after I had a couple shots figured back-up singers would be a fabulous idea...sorry Gail!  All in fun, right?  The next theme was Decade's, and you had to pick a song from the decade you were born in mine being the 80's.  I decided on 'Shoulda Known Better' by Richard Marx as that song was a little bit of a guilty pleasure and one I had heard on the radio that week.  I think Richard Marx really gets forgotten about because I rarely hear his songs at Karaoke and there's some really good ones!  Lucky for me, I had a lot of friends at Karaoke, who were very patient since the list was so long, but unlucky for me, I kept trying to say no to shots, and I'm a pushover.  Judy brought a beautiful cake for Foxy and I so after everyone sang for our Birthday's and we blew out the candles we continued with our Decades round and then it was time for the Party Anthem theme.  This had to a be a song that everyone could sing along to, could be heard at a party, or was on any bar's jukebox.  I'm pretty sure I did a horrible rendition of 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' by Cyndi Lauper thanks to too many Gummy Bear shots and that the song is totally out of my range.  I really think everyone enjoyed the themes and I look forward to doing another night like that soon!

Birthday Celebration Karaoke at Gabe's...with Neil, Leanne and clearly worried about that shot,
and backing-up Gail with Tiffany for 'Bye Bye Bye!'

Thanks to everyone who came out to celebrate my Birthday with me on Wednesday night, who sang Karaoke, who bought me a shot (hmmm, maybe not that), and made the night so much fun!  And a special thanks to my Birthday driver, Neil, who made sure I safely arrived at my destinations throughout the week ;)

'Stealing A Man's Grill' Video Debut!

I'm excited to announce that 'Stealing A Man's Grill' music video has made it's debut!  Brad Coder, the artist, also wrote and directed the music video.  You might recognize him from his shark video that was rated the #2 video on MSN.com last year and has over 2 million views on YouTube.  You need to check it out!

We filmed the final scenes at the beginning of this month and after editing everything together, the video was released yesterday!  Lucky for me, I got to play two different roles in this video; I get to seal the grill and later I get to return it.  I'm playing good and evil, the best of both worlds because I'm definitely the type of girl you'd expect to steal a grill!

Our final days of filming were a lot of fun, as we got to enjoy the sun in Playa Del Rey and see Brad cry over his beloved grill's return.  We got in a nice little work-out running along the beach and got our groove on for the ending party scene.  Although, Brad was more excited about his grill than his bikini-clad heroines.

It was a blast to shoot this video and the song is super catchy...I think you'll enjoy it :)

Here's my original post for our first shoot of 'Stealing A Man's Grill': http://lyndseywegner.blogspot.com/2013/09/stealing-mans-grill.html

You can find Brad on YouTube and see his other videos including his famous shark video here: https://www.youtube.com/user/bradskillz

Ashley's Going Away Party :(

Ashley and I met almost nine years ago on Roommates.com when I was looking for a roommate since I knew I was moving to Los Angeles in the Fall of 2005.  She had this fun and flirty picture, looked like a really nice girl, said she was originally from Hawaii, and seemed normal enough to cross my fingers and hope she wasn't going to kill me in my sleep after I had moved to LA.  The first thing I remember about Ashley when I met her was how tall and tan she was ;)

Buddy Bing & Buddy Gellar

In less than two weeks Ashley's moving back to Hawaii.  She's been here for 11 years and comparing LA to Hawaii seems like a horrible idea, and I've never been to Hawaii but I can only imagine how beautiful it is, and how nice it'll be to be back around family and good friends again!  So last Sunday she had her Going Away Party at Freddy Smalls complete with snacks, pizza, and lots of candy!  Her friends from The Counter, where she's worked since she's been in LA, that I've gotten to know too, were at the party, some of her family that is out here, old bosses, and friends, and more were all in attendance.  As she's been doing for weeks, it's really hard to pack up 11 years of your life to take back to Hawaii!  Saying goodbye is even worse.

Of course, no Going Away Party for Ash would be complete without a dance party, some 'Baby Got Back,' shots, and tears.  Jeff was our resident DJ for the night and had everybody up and dancing (even on the bar at one point), and there was no shortness of alcohol either!  The party was so much fun and it was great to see everybody again for what might be the last time for a long time, but as we discussed, now I have a fabulous reason to get to Hawaii for a little vacation!

Once Carolyn arrived, it was nearly time to shut down Freddy's and move over to the San Francisco Saloon.  I got all of us one final shot of Fireball and put these two girls over their edge.  We couldn't celebrate properly without all of us taking a shot together.  Not only did we get 20 pictures in a row of us smiling, laughing, and crying, but an epic end to the night.  I got to meet Ashley's rats for the first time, Ben snuggled Ash as soon as she laid down, and I got to spend some quality time with Carolyn.

I LOVE these Ladies!

It was a late night but I wouldn't have had it any other way.  I love these girls so much, and as sad as I am that one of my best friends, and first LA friend, is moving back home, I'm so proud of her, and know she'll be happy.  And that's all that matters <3

Playa Provisions & City Tavern

I checked out two new bars this month for a little cocktail hour!  I'm definitely keeping up with that New Year's resolution, in trying new restaurants, new Happy Hours, and new bars and both places I checked out were awesome!

I'm not a whiskey drinker, from accidentally sipping on my Dad's Seagrams 7 & Coke as a little kid, to tasting his Maker's & Coke nowadays, I have never liked the flavor.  Plus, whenever I do drink Whiskey I tend to get a little fiesty so I just try to avoid it.  This was not the case at Playa Provisions, a new Restaurant & Bar in Playa Del Rey.  Their back bar area is pretty much all Whiskey, they had one bottle of Vodka, and I think I saw a bottle of Gin, but since their entire cocktail menu was Whiskey drinks, I decided to go with the flow and try something new.  I do admit when I'm home for Christmas and my Uncle is making Whiskey or Brandy Old-Fashions I will have one because we always make them really sweet in the Midwest and that just covers the taste of the Whiskey.  Old Fashions here in LA are made with water, so I've never liked them.  Whatever they do at Playa Provisions made me a believer in a Los Angeles Old Fashion.  It had a sweetness but I still tasted the Woodford Reserve which had a nice vanilla smoothness to it, and the drink was easy to drink and quite enjoyable.  I'd definitely go back for another one and I'm very excited to check out their food menu since they officially opened up on June 7th!

Next up it was time to check out City Tavern!  My friend, Jess, has worked there since it opened and he was working the night I went in too.  I checked out their beer menu first since they had so many different kinds on tap and tasted one of their ciders which was delicious and sweet but not sugary and also a fruity white ale that had an awesome finish.  I would have ordered either beer but then saw their cocktail menu and couldn't not try the Grape Goose.  It was Grey Goose, fresh lemon, Agave nectar, and white grapes.  It was so light and refreshing, a perfect drink to sip and enjoy on a Summer day, I wished it was the afternoon and I could have been outside on the patio in downtown Culver City.  Not only did they have some other fun drinks on their menu but the food menu looked awesome, including the desserts!  I can't wait to go and try their Peach Cobbler...yum :)

It was two for two on cocktails at these two new places and I'm excited to re-visit them again! 

Neil's Acoustic Show & Katy's Birthday :)

A couple weeks ago Neil played his first Acoustic Show in over a year!  I was excited to see him play at Universal Bar & Grill and also very happy that my friend, Katy, was having her Birthday Party in North Hollywood that night as well!

Neil's show started promptly at 8 pm as he had a bunch of new music to play but also some crowd favorites, and was hoping to get everything in with his 50 minute set.  He opened with 'Dizzy' which is a great starter to get the night going since most of the people at the show had seen him play before.  He swapped between new and old music, and also adding a couple covers too.  Since his parents had taken down his childhood basketball hoop, Rimmy, just that week he even made a dedication to his life-long friend growing up, doing his first cover of the night, 'Born To Run' by Bruce Springsteen and even played the harmonica.  I finally got to hear 'Winona' for the first time since he wrote it almost four years ago and the crowd loved it.  Well-written lyrics and a gorgeous melody equals a winning combination!  'The Seagull' is another crowd-pleaser but I love 'Veil of Tears' and he made it new by adding a little Lady Gaga 'Bad Romance' before he went into the song.  Neil's been writing a bunch of new songs lately so he played 'Like We're Brand New' which has more of a country feel and beautiful lyrics.  He had a great turn-out and I think everyone enjoyed hearing the new music and we're all looking forward to his next show :)

At Bow & Truss with the Birthday Girl!

After Neil's show, I knew I had to see my good friend, Katy, since she was in town from Sacramento for a few days to celebrate her Birthday with friends and family.  I've missed her so much so I was glad to catch up with her at Bow & Truss which was just down the street from Universal Bar & Grill in North Hollywood.  It was my first time there and although they had a great cocktail menu I decided to stick with wine.  It looked like they had an awesome menu, and one of the girls at the party, said her brother was one of the chefs, so I'll definitely go back to try the food!  Katy had a bunch of activities planned throughout the weekend and just a short time to fit everything in.  I knew I had to speak in Church on Sunday to the Confirmation class so I wanted to spend as much time with her as I could before she left for Nor Cal.  Lucky for me we got to see a movie together on Saturday night, and she was able to squeeze in some more time for me during her busy schedule.  There's a post about Maleficent here on my blog!  Katy, I hope you're moving back to LA soon because I miss you like crazy and love our 'Bachelorette' nights in or going out for drinks!

It was definitely a fun night out and great to catch up with friends, hear some awesome music, and enjoy being out!  I have so many friends with Birthdays in June so this is a month of celebrating especially since my Birthday is in a few days.  It's nice to have a couple days off before the craziness begins...

'Still falling for you...Like we're brand new.'

Check out Neil's music here: Neil Daly on YouTube

Spanning Decades at Karaoke!

Two busy weeks of Karaoke are in the books and this week's Karaoke will be a celebration for my Birthday since I turn 31 at midnight!  Two weeks ago at Karaoke it was more of a span the ages kind of night as I sang songs from the 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's.  This past week since Justin had organized a group of us from Creating Arts to come in, we had a Musical Theater theme going for a couple rounds, and it was a really busy night at Karaoke!

Two weeks ago I decided to build my history a little bit and sing some songs I hadn't sang in a while.  I started with 'Then He Kissed Me' by The Crystals and then 'By My Baby' by The Ronette's.  Mr. Massacre Billy Joel happened to walk in the bar so singing Carly Simon's 'You're So Vain' couldn't have happened at a better time.  Getting into the 80's I did Joan Jett's 'I Hate Myself For Loving You' and moved to the 90's with my new song of the night, 'Because You Loved Me' by Celine Dion.  I meant to lower the key but forgot and the song actually went really well.  I'll be excited to try it again when I'm more confident with it!  Next up it was 'I Dreamed A Dream' from Les Miserables and I closed out the night with 'Don't' by Jewel.  It was kind of fun to sing songs from all the different years and see how much music has changed.  Those classic songs still hold up while the new ones may become classics 20 years from now!

This week's Karaoke started with a lot of 90's music, and I opened with 'Sunday Morning' by No Doubt.  Justin and Zach sang Barenaked Ladies, Britney Spears, Savage Garden, and even more artists from those years.  My next song was Duffy's 'Mercy' and Ace asked me to sing a duet with him so we did 'Cruisin' by Huey Lewis and Gwyneth Paltrow.  We moved to the Musical Theater theme and I did 'Part of Your World' from Little Mermaid while we heard other songs from Rocky Horror Picture Show, Rent, Hairspray, and Little Shop of Horrors.  My new song of the night was 'No One Knows Who I Am' from Jekyll & Hyde but it was a really bad version of the song (thankfully we have two) so it was a little confusing and next time will go much better with a more true to the melody version of the song.  I joined Bob for a duet of 'A Whole New World,' from Aladdin and then closed out the night with 'Is This Love' by Whitesnake since everyone sang rock songs on their last round.

I'm excited for Karaoke this week!  We always have a lot of fun when it's someone's Birthday, and hopefully Gabe's will be filled with lots of my friends so everyone can get up to the microphone to sing a few songs throughout the night and celebrate my 31st with great music!

My NEW Website!

I just launched my new website!  It's important for anyone in the entertainment industry to have their headshots, resume, and reel available for other industry people including Agents, Casting Directors, Producers, etc.  This way, instead of sending multiple attachments, I can include my headshot and resume in an e-mail, and then send the recipient to my website.  It's simple, fast, and shows everything in a concise manner!

One of my favorite headshots...find it on my website!

Aside from it taking quite some time to format my resume and make sure everything was just right, I'm really happy with how it turned out.  I'll continue to update it along the way with new projects, photos, and credits.  If anyone has any feedback, it's greatly appreciated :)

Check out my website here: Lyndsey Wegner's Website

Thanks for all your support and following me along on this adventurous journey!