JoCo Day 2014

edited September 2014 in JoCo Projects
Hi folks,

I see Brett has beaten me to the punch in asking if there are any plans for JoCo Day this year. I don't have any ideas for this years video, so I'll just start with  a question. Do folks want to do our own recording, or just use something pre-recorded?
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Comments

  • I'll be glad to do an arrangement and a backing track if needed. What song?
  • My robot choir is better than it used to be, so it could sing along to something. Also, my computer is faster than before and I have Final Cut Pro which I don't know how to use yet, plus I have more free time than I used to have, and I know a little bit about music now and might also get Logic Pro to make assorted noises with. So hopefully I'll be able to help in one or more ways. I don't have an idea, though. Well, maybe we could do something with a really old, obscure song (Lunch Lady!), or one of the newest things (like the Going Deep theme?) I don't know.
  • I've already done something with the JoCo song that he seems to like least: Drive. He hasn't heard it yet, but I'll bet he'd at least be amused.
  • I've not recorded video before and am not sure how to do it, but I think I would like to be involved this year. 
  • @Colleenky: is pre-recorded "easier"?
  • I had a dream last night that I suddenly realised it was already December and we hadn't done this yet.

    Here's an dea: We could all sing The Doubleclicks' Nerdy Birthday song, just as it is, filming ourselves singing it and maybe other lyric-appropriate things (or if we feel like it, we could write additional verses.) It's short, so if a lot of people sing we'd have to switch between them pretty frequently in the video, but maybe the 'so say we all' at the end could show everyone in a grid like at the end of the first JoCo Day video. Hopefully it's easier nowadays; @chicazul did that one (magically, while I slept!) and I remember her saying animation was not her friend.

    For reference, here is a playlist of all the previous JoCo day videos.
  • I suppose we could fall back on The Doubleclicks, but would like to try to carry on the tradition of using a JoCo song. I already have backup tracks for "My Monkey," "The Future Soon," "Tom Cruise Crazy," and a few others ready to go if we want to use them... and can always do others.
  • @kate Prerecorded is easier in that several audio tracks wouldn't have to be mixed.

    I don't have strong opinions on this. @angelastic has come up with some pretty clever filks in the past, so maybe she could rewrite the lyrics to one of JoCo's songs. If we don't want to use The Doubleclicks's song, I know a fairly straight-forward four-part a cappella arrangement of "Happy Birthday" (oom-pa-pa style). I'm happy to follow other folks' leads. Ideas aren't my forte.
  • edited October 2014
    If we want to torture JoCo with a song he hates, we could filk "Jingle Bell Rock" ("JoCo Day Rock?"), which he lambasted last year as the worst Christmas song EVAR.
  • That would be fun. Perhaps we could even mash it up with one or more of his own Christmas songs... or Paul and Storm's.
  • Let me know a key and tempo and I'll start recording some oboe tracks :)

  • edited October 2014
    I'd just like to share that I am endlessly snickering at the idea of singing Jingle Bell Rock exactly as is with the only change being replacing "jingle bell" with "JoCo Day".

    ETA:
    JoCo Day, JoCo Day, JoCo Day rock
    JoCo Day swing and JoCo Day ring
    Snowing and blowing up bushels of fun
    Now the JoCo hop has begun

    JoCo Day, JoCo Day, JoCo Day rock
    JoCo Day chime in JoCo Day time
    Dancing and prancing in JoCo Day Square
    In the frosty air.

    What a bright time, it's the right time
    To rock the night away
    JoCo Day time is a swell time
    To go gliding in a one-horse sleigh

    Giddy-up JoCo horse, pick up your feet
    JoCo around the clock
    Mix and a-mingle in the JoCoing feet
    That's the JoCo Day
    That's the JoCo Day
    That's the JoCo Day rock
  • There's a horse in there, but no monkey. (Maybe you used too few monkeys?)
  • Just change horse to pony?

  • Possible Mods:
    "ShopVac is blowing"
    "prancing in Skullcrusher Square"
    "Mix and a -mingle in the Fancypants feet"

  • edited October 2014
    ..to sew monkeys to a one-horse sleigh?

    I think 'swell' should be changed to something that rhymes with 'Day', since it rhymes with 'bell' in the original. JoCo Day time is our play time? Actually, it could contrast night time and day time:

    JoCo Night time, it's the right time
    To rock the night away (or, to throw [some bad thing from JoCo songs] away?)
    JoCo Day time is our play time
    To sew monkeys to a one-horse sleigh

    It's handy that this is a winter song, not a Christmas song, so we don't even have to remove any references to Christmas to make it appropriate for JoCo Day.

    ETA: One possible problem would be that this song, unlike the others we've JoCo Deified, is not Creative Commons.
  • Just to be abundantly clear, I literally did nothing more than replace 'jingle' with 'JoCo' and 'bell' with 'Day'.  If the joke is that we bombard him with a song he explicitly hates, I personally think that's the most amusing way to do it.  But if everyone wants to go nuts in an all out parody, go for it! :)
  • ♫ Giddyap, monkey horse.... ♫
  • edited October 2014
    We could always start with JoCo Day rock, then record-scratch into one of his own songs (Fandom is interesting... like a knife in your heart. Happy birthday from Chiron Beta Prime, where we're working in weird rhymes so there's no odd holidays... oh God, ebola days! I got infected!)

    ETA: @Thalandor46: JoCo Day has a history of people posting simple ideas and then people going nuts and making them almost inachievably complicated, and then somehow pulling them off anyway.
  • My gut feeling is that we should not use a song he hates... :/
  • edited October 2014
    You know what would be really simple, and easy to lengthen/shorten to the available video, and easy to show basically any feel-good JoCoey stuff to, even including clips from previous JoCo Day videos?

    JoCo Day is wunnerful,
    wunnerful with you, JoCo Day.
    JoCo Day is wunnerful,
    wunnerful with you, JoCo Day.
    JoCo Day is wunnerful,
    wunnerful, wunnerful with you.

    (repeat ad nauseam)

    If we wanted to have an actual structure to it, each 'wunnerful with you' could have one fan pointing to (or just posing with, at a concert or elsewhere) another fan they met through JoCo, or JoCo himself, so that we have sort of an eternal chain slideshow thing, e.g. a photo of Fan A with Fan B, then a photo/video of Fan B with Fan C, then a photo of Fan C with JoCo, then a photo of JoCo with Fan D, and so on (the pictures with JoCo would ensure we could easily link disparate groups of fans who have never met each other. If people who have never made it to a concert want to join in, we could have a picture of them interacting with JoCo or the community online somehow. [ETA: If the series of fans will always stay close to JC and never trend away, that chain is in the man-do-rock set]) This could be done with still pictures as well as short videos, and mostly they'd be still pictures we already have (from concerts/cruises we've attended) so it should be easy [famous last words].
  • We could mash up the two songs easily. Give me about a day to do an arrangement!
  • edited October 2014
    Curses, I earwormed myself with 'JoCo Day is Wunnerful'!

    Here's how it would go, if we used the idea I mentioned above (not incorporating @BrettGlass's idea, because I wrote this while on a train and hadn't seen that yet. But feel free to suggest any kind of change or alternative that could incorporate that and/or other ideas) :

    Things you would do:
    Option a) If you are able to meet another JoCo fan in real life, record a video of both of you together singing, 'JoCo Day is wunnerful, wunnerful with you, JoCo Day,' possibly pointing or lookng at each other during the 'wunnerful with you' part. If you can meet several fans all at once, film such a video with everyone, and also separate ones with each pair, if possible, because the more footage we have available, the easier it is to edit.

    Option b) If you can't do that, but can record video, record a video of yourself singing that. Also send a picture of yourself with another fan, or with JoCo.

    Whether or not you can do those things, send a picture of yourself with another JoCo fan, and/or with JoCo himself. If you've never met JoCo or another JoCo fan in your life, or you did but don't have pictures of it get creative... maybe you could film yourself typing the words into the forum or onto a fan's facebook or Twitter.

    If you want to be heard, send audio of yourself singing the entire verse (or just say that we can use the sound from the video) and any instrumentals you feel like recording. I imagine the sound from all of us would be mixed independently from the video, so if you want to do a video but don't want your singing to be heard, or vice versa, that's fine.

    The tune, for those who don't know it, comes from Christmastime is Wunnerful. Crazily enough the closest I can find to a live performance is the ukulele melee doing 'JoCo Cruise is Wunnerful'. I guess he doesn't do this one live much. Ask anyone in that video (e.g. @Colleenky, @BrettGlass) for ukulele chords if you want to contribute a uke track. :D
    What the video would look like:
    There are three ways each 'JoCo Day is wunnerful, wunnerful with you, JoCo Day.' part can go:
    1. We use a video from option a above, for the whole line.
    2. For 'JoCo Day is wunnerful' we show that part of a video of a solo fan from option b above. For the 'wunnerful with you' part, we show the still picture of that person with another fan. For the 'JoCo Day' part we show solo video of that other fan, if available.
    3. In the case where neither fan can shoot a video, we just show a photo of two fans together.
    The second 'JoCo Day is wunnerful' in each verse would ideally feature one of the fans from the last one, and one new fan, so we have the fans connected like dominoes. For the final, 'wunnerful, wunnerful with you' of each verse, we show a picture of a fan (the fan who was introduced in the last line) with JoCo. In the instrumental bit we transition to a picture of another fan with JoCo, and then we go to that fan singing 'JoCo Day is wunnerful' and continue as above.
  • Just chiming in to say y'all are awesome! I'll keep an eye out for when the idea is finialized, but in the meantime, I'll practice 'JoCo Day is wunnerful' in a couple ways. Might find some other JoCo folks here in Seattle at the Molly Lewis show next month too!
  • I like @Angelastic's JoCo is Wunnerful idea. :)
  • @kate Seconded! :-)
  • So I just noticed that there's only 12 days till JoCo Day. In my head there was still a couple of months. This is the traditional time to get started! I have some more experience in Final Cut now so I think I should be able to do a good job editing video, if people make some and put it here.
  • Let me know if you'd like audio from me. Turnaround time would likely be only a couple of days if I do it over Thanksgiving.
  • edited November 2014
    So, JoCo Day is Monday. Should we aim to get all media subissions uploaded by Saturday, leaving Sunday for editing? If I understand @Angelastic's description, is this what folks should submit?
    - pic of themselves with JoCo fan(s) and/or JoCo
    - video singing one verse
    - audio singing/playing (One verse? Whole song?)

    I don't think there's enough time (or participants) to implement Angela's plan of passing the visuals from one fan to another.

    IIRC, Alice just simplified the chords to I, IV, and V for the cruise. Off the top of my head, I don't remember which key.
    • Video of yourself (alone or with another fan, if you can do multiple videos with different fans that's even better, but I don't expect people will have time) singing one verse (from 'JoCo Day is wunnerful' to 'wunnerful with you')
    • Audio of the same, if you think the audio on the video isn't good enough, or if you want to add instruments or whatever.
    • Photos or short videos of yourself with other JoCo fans and (separate pictures/videos) with JoCo, preferably ones who will also contribute to the video, but the more the better (I can splice them into each 'wunnerful with you' line, and a JoCo one into the 'wunnerful, wunnerful with you' and then switch to the next person's with-JoCo picture to transition to their verse)
  • edited November 2014
    Folks can sing along with JoCo's recording, which is in G. Here are the simplified chords if anyone wants to play. I might get a uke recording of one full verse uploaded in the next few hours.

    G
    JoCo Day is wunnerful

    Wunnerful with you, JoCo Day

    C
    JoCo Day is wunnerful

                                     G
    Wunnerful with you, JoCo Day

    D7
    JoCo Day is wunnerful

                                               G
    Wunnerful, wunnerful with you
  • Do we upload photos to the same place (I'm not going to make a video), or could we email them to you, Angela? (If so, email address?)
  • Just uploaded a crap-ton of files. Wheeeee!
  • edited November 2014
    It's probably easier if you also upload photos to the JoCo Day 2014 folder on Box. Then everyone can see what's already there and I'm less likely to forget something. :)

    Yay, that is indeed a crap-ton of files! Edit: Good to see we already have a link photo between two of the participants!
  • edited November 2014
    I uploaded some things earlier today (couldn't figure out how to do video, sadly), and I don't know if I got the audio right...would be happy to redo it if it doesn't work with yours, @colleenky (also: yay pic of us!!! :))
  • @Angelastic: Please let me know if there's anything I can do to help.

    @CamannWordsmith: Yay! :-)
  • @Colleenky, you two are amusing, and wunnerful, wunnerful with JoCo Day. Can I use that bit where you swear at JoCo, in some kind of bloopers section?

    As far as help goes, well I don't have much experience with musicy stuff (though I'm taking music classes on TWednuesday midnights, so I can no longer say I know nothing!), so if anyone wants to help with mixing audio, that'd be great. I can perfectly well line things up in GarageBand and twiddle knobs, but now we have two separate sets of backing music (one from @Colleenky and one freshly-uploaded by @CamannWordsmith) which is awesome, and and I want to use both of them, but I bet someone else can think of a better way to transition between them or merge them than I can. The files are all here.

    I'll add the vocals myself along with the videos; that way the audio and video will be sure to be in sync, and I can choose the order of singers according to what other material we have and who we have pictures of together.

    More videos, more vocals, more photos of people together and/or with JoCo would be great! :)
  • @Angelastic: Yes, please use any of the goofy bits you like. That's why I left it all in. ;-)

    @CamannWordsmith: I don't have a lot of experience mixing. I can cobble something together in Audacity, unless you'd like to take a shot at it.
  • edited November 2014
    @colleenky - unfortunately, I have no mixing experience or programs..I've heard of Audacity, but haven't used it. Would be more than happy to download it and give it a try, though you'd definitely be the expert. 
  • I can *mix*, I guess, if it just means lining up the pieces; I have GarageBand which is probably better for that than Audacity. I just thought maybe a more musical person would have creative ideas about how to fit things together.

    For the purposes of my own education (and choosing the right settings in GarageBand) what is the time signature and tempo of this song?
  • I'm working on the mix right now, @Angeleastic.It's in 4/4, at about 112 beats per minute.
  • By the way, how many verses do we want?
  • edited November 2014
    @CamannWordsmith: What tempo did you use? It seems quite a bit slower that the JoCo track. (Sorry for getting to this late. Had to deal with some family stuff today.)
  • edited November 2014
    @colleenky I'm sure it is slower. Because the way I have to record, I couldn't listen to the original as I was doing it or use a metronome, so I had to guess, which is not a particularly good way to do things. I think I've found a way to base off your tracks and I'm re-recording them now.  
  • edited December 2014
    OK, friends. It's not perfect, but it's finished and uploaded. ('Cause it's after midnight, and I have to go to work in the morning.) The sound file is the full length of the original song, so @Angelastic can edit it as needed. I have not mixed in @CamannWordsmith's vocal track (lovely as it is), since I figured Angela would mix that in with the video directly at the spot where it should be. I'm going to sleep now. Back online in about 6 or 7 hours, if needed.

    Edit: The file name is "JoCo Day Is Wunnerful (Instrumental)."
  • edited December 2014
    How did--what--but it wasn't working and then you--holy rusted metal, that's amazing. 

    A hundred Thank-Yous, @colleenky. And to you @angelastic.
  • I knew I would wake up to something amazing! Thanks, @Colleenky! Now I'd better hurry up and actually record my parts. @MjStrwy, @Gina, @BrettGlass, @Thalandor46, @Kate, @Oboewan, are you still interested in contributing? If so… JoCo Day is upon us! Go ahead and do something or everything from this list and send it in. Even just photos of you with the other contributors would help.
  • Tagging @MjStrwy again because it didn't work in the last message.
  • Oh, goodness. Thanks. Your guitar and bass playing are great. And your recordings came out, like, a hundred times better than mine. :-)
  • Video is up! It was a rush and there are things I'd like to have spent more time perfecting, but we got it done before midnight on JoCo Day! Huge success!
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