Over the past year, Carrie Dahlby and I were faced with the challenge of trying to figure out how we could continue to record our fortnightly-ish podcast "Luke & Carrie's Bad Rapport" while Carrie was tending to her motherly duties with her newborn son Alex, who is now 10 months old. As Alex got older and more vocal, he also became more intrusive. Mind you, he is a very happy and well-behaved baby, but his continual squeals of joy often made the podcast frustrating to listen to. It is the assumption of Carrie and myself that there are some people who used to be regular listeners who have stopped listening because of this. Well, I am writing this paragraph to let everyone know that Carrie and I have come up with a new plan for recording podcast episodes that will greatly minimize Alex's intrusions, by about 95%. In a nutshell, we record them on Sundays so Josh can watch Alex in the living room while we record in the computer room. The past 2 epsiodes (#76 & #77) we recorded this way and came out rather well. So we're encouraging those of you who stopped listening to come back and give us a try again. And if you've never listened to "Luke & Carrie's Bad Rapport" before, now would be a good time to give us a chance. Thanks. 🙂 (http://badrapport.com)

We've got lots of new news for the new year! So let's get right to it! 😀

~ Luke Ski, 1/2/2013

HEADLINES:

• THE 2013 LOGAN AWARDS NOMINATION SUGGESTION PAGE NOW OPEN!

Now that 2012 is over, it's time to celebrate the best comedy music of the year with the 2013 Logan Awards! The website has been updated, and the "Nomination Form" page is now open: http://www.loganawards.com/nomination-form . Be sure to check out what songs have already been suggested on the "Open Nominations" page first, so you don't nominate songs that have already been nominated: http://www.loganawards.com/nomination-list . Our categories are once again Outstanding Parody Song, Outstanding Original Comedy Song, and Outstanding Comedy Music Video. This year's esteemed Jurors are as follows:

Permanent Juror:
- Dr. Demento - host of "The Dr. Demento Show" for 42 years & counting

Fan Jurors:
- “Blasted Bill” Putt - founder of "Dementia Radio"
- Kristen Kerouac, a.k.a. “Kornflake” - Radio DJ & podcaster
- John “Hex” Carter - Founder and Executive Director for Nerdapalooza

Musician Jurors:
- DJ Particle - comedy musician, host of "Mad Music Top 20" countdown
- Jeff Smith - "Raymond & Scum", director of "Stupid Teenagers Must Die!"
- Tony Goldmark - comedy musician, he's also "Some Jerk With A Camera"

You can learn all about them at the Juror page:
http://www.loganawards.com/jurors

The Nominee Suggestion period will be from January 1st through January 14th, 2013. After that, our jurors will pick their favorites from January 15th through 28th. The five Nominees in each of our three categories will be announced during the live recording of “The Funny Music Podcast” on Dementia Radio on January 31st, 2013. The 3rd Annual Logan Awards Ceremony will be held at MarsCon in Bloomington, MN on Saturday March 2nd at 4:00 pm as a part of the MarsCon Dementia Track. Go to MarsConDementia.com for info on the comedy music track, and go to MarsCon.com for info on registering to attend the convention.

Well, what are you waiting for? Go to the Nomination Form and start submitting your favorite comedy songs of 2012, and please spread the word to your comedy music loving friends online about it!

Viva dementia,

~ the great Luke Ski,
Chair of the 2013 Logan Whitehurst
Memorial Awards For Excellence In Comedy Music
http://www.loganawards.com

• MARSCON 2013 DEMENTIA TRACK SCHEDULE ANNOUNCED!

Here's who's performing on the Main Stage at MarsCon 2013, and when!:

FRIDAY, MARCH 1st:
7:00 pm – Opening Ceremonies, with sketch by Luke Ski & Earl Luckes
9:00 pm – POSSIBLE OSCAR
9:45 pm – STEVE GOODIE
10:15 pm – INSANE IAN
10:45 pm – TV’S KYLE
11:15 pm – WORM QUARTET

SATURDAY, MARCH 2nd:
2:00 pm – THE GREAT LUKE SKI
2:45 pm – FLAT 29 – Music Guest of Honor concert (60 min)
4:00 pm – 3rd ANNUAL LOGAN AWARDS (90 min)

SUNDAY, MARCH 3rd:
1:00 pm - MAX DEGROOT
1:30 pm – POWER SALAD
2:00 pm – MIKEY MASON
2:30 pm – THE FUMP JUKEBOX
3:00 pm – DEMENTIA SMACKDOWN (60 min)

Yes, furry filker MAX DEGROOT will be doing a main stage concert, joining our list of other Main Stage first-timers; nerdy comedy rocker & stand-up comedian MIKEY MASON, and Music Guests Of Honor FLAT 29, the British comedy music trio doing their first ever performance in the United States!!! 😀 (Music GoH sponsored by Dementia Radio .org!) For links to all of these band's websites, click on their names at this page: http://marscondementia.com/dementia-track-schedule

Stay tuned, because as soon as I can get it done, I will be posting the MarsCon 2013 Dementia Track Fund Raiser album on CD & MP3, featuring all the best live music & comedy from MarsCon 2012!

• "WHEN YOU WISH UPON A DEATH STAR" #18 ON DR. DEMENTO'S FUNNY 25 OF 2012!

Listen to the Funny 25 countdown here: http://drdemento.com/online.html

2 years ago, I was shocked to see "It's Good To Be The King" hit #1 on Dr. Demento's Top Ten so late in the year, and that act alone put it on the Funny 25 that year. In case you hadn't noticed, I pretty much decided to take 2012 off from making new major songs, and I had early on resigned myself to the fact that I would not have a song on the Funny 25 this year. But in November, once I decided to answer the call of my fans and the good Doctor himself, I was crossing my fingers and was hoping that the same "King" thing would happen again. I believe Dr. D's words last month were that my Star Wars / Disney song "took the request page and ran off with it" or something to that effect, because it hit #1 after just one week, placing it at #18 on the 2012 Funny 25 countdown.

Thank you so much to Dr. Demento and my fans without whom this song would not exist, literally. Your incessant nagging brought forth what could be my next "Grease Wars". Thank you to the AMAZING Bob Emmet for the incredible music. Thank you Carrie Dahlby and Chris Mezzolesta for your fabulous vocals.

If you'd like to see "When You Wish Upon A Death Star" make the Top Ten in January, you can request it again here: http://drdemento.com/request . Be sure to include your email address so it counts towards the Top Ten!

"Green Eggs And Peas" by Cirque du So What (written by Devo Spice) was #24 on the countdown, so hooray for that as well. Congrats to Ookla The Mok for snagging 3 spots on the Countdown, including #1, as well as Devo Spice at #4, Carrie Dahlby, Flat 29, Steve Goodie, and Art Paul Schlosser!

For more fun overanalyzation of the Funny 25, check out my LiveJournal post about it: http://lukeski.livejournal.com/730883.html . It includes a list of all 18 of my songs that have made the Funny 25 over the past 15 years, which you can turn into a nifty iTunes playlist and/or mix CD!

• DEMENTIA RADIO INDIE GOGO FUNDRAISER

http://www.indiegogo.com/dementiaradio - ONLY 2 DAYS LEFT!

The website for the 24-hour online streaming comedy music station "Dementia Radio" has long been in need of a major overhaul. Meanwhile, web programmer Devo Spice found himself suddenly unemployed and looking for freelance web work. So "Blasted Bill" Putt, founder of dementiaradio.org, decided to start a fund raiser that helps two entities at the same time! The purpose of this new Indie Gogo campaign is to raise the funds to pay Devo Spice to overhaul DementiaRadio.org! Some of the new features the updated website will have include: a database of all songs played with links to purchase those songs and request them for "The Dr. Demento Show" & the MMT20, ratings, keyword list sorting functions, pages for individual shows, staff, and DJ bios, integrated podcast pages, current song playing display, pirate cast button for DJs, a Dementia Radio App, and more!

Some reward prizes have recently been added to the campaign. One of them is an exclusive download album of 8 tracks that are either very rare or have never been released anywhere else before! Contributing acts include the great Luke Ski, Cirque du So What?, Carrie Dahlby, Devo Spice, TV's Kyle, Insane Ian, and Carl Hatmaker. You can get that for a $20 donation, estimated delivery January 2013.

Their goal is to raise $4,300 by the end of the day on January 4th, 2013. Right now they have only raised $787. So if you have the means to do so, please donate something so we can help Devo Spice and help Dementia Radio! And please spread the word to your comedy music loving friends online! 😀

• THE FuMP JANUARY SUBSCRIBER SPECIAL

The FuMP is having a special on subscriptions. If you subscribe during the month of January you will get 1 month free and a free FuMP branded USB drive with all of our 2012 releases on it.

Subscribers get unlimited high quality downloads, digital compilations, high quality RSS feeds, 20% off compilation CD purchases, and Level 2 gets you the CDs as they come out as well.

For details and to subscribe click here:
http://www.thefump.com/subscriptions.php

Please pass this on to any of your friends online that you think would enjoy being subscribed to the FuMP dot com! 😀

• LUKE SKI SONGS CHARTING ON OTHER 2012 COMEDY MUSIC COUNTDOWNS!

The fans did not forget me this year in others corners of the web...

---THE MAD MUSIC TOP 50 OF 2012, hosted by DJ Particle!---

#39 - "When You Wish Upon A Death Star"
#12 - "I'd Buy That For A Dollar" by Scooter Picnic, featuring Luke Ski
#2 - "Luke, Are You Carrie?" by Carrie Dahlby, featuring Luke Ski

That last one is all the more befuddling when you consider that "Devo, Are You ShoEboX?" was #41, and the original that started it all "Kyle, Are You Ian?" by Scooter Picnic was in the low #50s.

You can listen to the show here:
http://www.madmusic.com/playlist.aspx?Show=MMDT20_12-FY

---WACKED-OUT 40 OF 2012, hosted by Anthony "A-Log" LoGatto!---

#25 - "I'd Buy That For A Dollar" - Scooter Picnic, featuring Luke Ski

You can listen to the show here:
http://www.madmusic.com/playlist.aspx?Show=AOTA-121229

---THE WACKY 30 OF 2012, hosted by Wacky Ben Pulliam!---

#21 - "I'd Buy That For A Dollar" - Scooter Picnic, featuring Luke Ski
#18 - "Luke, Are You Carrie?" by Carrie Dahlby, featuring Luke Ski
#16 - "When You Wish Upon A Death Star"

You can listen to the show here:
http://www.madmusic.com/playlist.aspx?Show=BWR-13-01-01

Thanks so much to Emi, Anthony, and Ben for playing my stuff, and to their listeners who have been requesting and voting for my songs to get played again!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

REMINDERS:

• "STEALING LIKE A HOBBIT" MUSIC VIDEO FINALLY ON YOUTUBE!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWHbX6kKu5s

You may not have heard about this, but "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" is in movie theatres NOW! This seemed like the perfect excuse for me to get off of my old-media, outdated-business-model butt and finally post my music video for my most popular song of all time, "Stealing LIke A Hobbit" to YouTube. At the end, I added a plug for my new piece "When You Wish Upon A Death Star" at the FuMP, in the hopes to give that some more attention as well. So as you and your friends online get hyped for part one of "The Hobbit", please help get me some publicity by sharing "Stealing Like A Hobbit" with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, and anywhere else that nerdy web traffic is generated. Thanks, and enjoy your second breakfast!

The song was also mentioned by the Houston Press:
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/rocks/2012/12/hobbit_songs.php?page=2

• TOUR DATES:

--- MIDWINTER GAMING CONVENTION 2013 ---
http://www.midwintergamingconvention.com
Hyatt Regency Milwaukee - Milwaukee, WI
January 17th, 18th, 19th, & 20th, 2013

I'll be doing a concert there on Friday night at 5 pm.