31 January, 2009

First ever "LIVE" webchat...

Josh has just completed his first ever "LIVE" chat with fans.









This chat was announced less than 24 hours before it went live, and was restricted to FoJG. It took place at 11am PST (which for me in the land down under was 5am Saturday morning - YIKES!!!!!!) Only for Groban would I ever set my alarm for 4:45am on the weekend. LOL

There were a few small technical glitches early on, but it went a lot smoother than I'd anticipated. For the next one, they'll need to work on how to switch between the chat rooms, but apart from that, I thought it all went quite well.

I for one was glad we finally heard the story about the "Life is a Masquerade" song with Ben Folds... And yes, he confirmed it was a joke (and they were in fact aiming for the worst song ever written!!!).

There's no doubt there'll be some angst that it was restricted, but the mods on the jg.com boards have promised that "This is the first 'test run' for many future chats with Josh. We're looking at what format will work best. Sorry we couldn't include everyone this time."

My take is, one the one hand, I can understand that when you pay to be a member of a fan club, there is an expectation that you'll have access to exclusive content, after all that's what they promise, but I can also understand the disappointment of those who missed out because they aren't a member.

And with this type of thing, they'll go into it knowing they'll never be able to please everyone with there being so many variables such as the time differences around the world or the fact that people have to work, go to school, have a life etc, regardless of how much notice is given...

Hopefully the video will be up for everyone in a day or two, and if they allow it to be embedded on other sites, I'll post it here.

Anyway, here are a couple of tidbits to keep you going (my internet connection was very ordinary, my fault for reaching my limit for the month), so I've only got a couple.
  • He's starting to record some album demos next week. He anticipates being in the studio for about 5 months of recording with the tour to start about 2 months later (so it could be winter or early 2010) - in other words, start saving NOW!!!
  • PBS Soundstage - in the process of editing and he's hopeful it will air sometime in February or March
  • Favorite food - Japanese
  • He'd like to do some small shows in New York while working on the album
  • He sometimes checks out FoJG and loves how a thread develops
  • The Simpsons - Josh had spoken with Nancy Cartwright backstage while on tour. A script was sent to him with the concept, which Josh of course loved. He gave permission for the songs to be used, and Josh thought it was hilarious. Someone asked if Lisa Simpson was his new girlfriend and he said "Maybe? Creepy..." He even mentioned that it might open a door to an actual appearance down the track (how cool would that be???)
  • He talked about working with Rick Rubin
  • Plain or Peanut - he said peanut. Not that he was really sure what this one was about. He'll be out and about today when M&M's will pop into his head
  • "One of the best things about traveling is making kids...I have 100's." (and yes that was a joke too...!)
  • He'd love to do SNL and hopes they'll be able to organise that during the promo of the new album
  • Chris has finished a short film "Another Day" and Josh did the music for it. He'd like to see if he can get it posted somewhere on-line (fingers crossed for that one)
  • Josh knew there was a thread on FoJG that was trying to find him in this photo of the inauguration. He even gave a few hints (to the left of the tv tower, towards the back, in a seating area) as he didn't think anyone had found him yet, but he was surprised at the number of look a likes that had been found.
*** EDIT - The following update has been posted on FoJG "The webcast recorded, but for some reason the audio is out of sync. We're re-editing the video and should have it up soon."

27 January, 2009

Dreams come true...

UPDATE - the clip has been removed by YouTube :-( Not happy, but it goes to show that big business is just a pain in the a***.

Ok, I was bored...

So this is my tribute to Josh being featured on "The Simpsons"-


~

26 January, 2009

Josh & The Simpsons...

OMJ - Josh must be in absolute heaven at the moment after he was featured in the latest episode of "The Simpsons" (and I bet he thought singing for President Obama was the biggest thing to happen to him in the past 10 days) (LOL).

This brand new episode "Lisa the Drama Queen" (Season 20 - Episode 9) was screened in the US on January 25th, and sadly, although talk of Josh, Grobanites and his music dominate, he didn't get a guest voice [insert sad smilie here :-( ~ this is the best I can do], instead Emily Blunt (Michael Buble's ex) got the gig and voiced the character of Juliet in this episode.

Juliet is an intelligent and academic girl who befriends Lisa after they discover a mutual love for all things Groban.

Juliet - "... if you look carefully, you can see that the knight is Josh Groban, our young century's greatest vocalist."
Lisa - "Oh, another Grobanite!!!"




The girls start playing and then Lisa says "Let's do some Groban" and they start belting out "You are loved".




This is what Groundskeeper Willie and Police Chief Wiggum did while the girls were singing...


After a meeting between Homer & Marg and Juliet's parents goes astray after Juliet announces that "Lisa and I would like to perform a medley of Josh Groban's 12 most popular downloads." Juliet's father announces "Juliet, I'm worried this Josh Groban is becoming a bit of an obsession for you." The girls then run off into the garden and go into a bit of a dreamland called "Equalia". It's here they "hit shuffle on the royal my-pod"and "So She Dances" plays.


Towards the end of the episode, the girls find themselves back in "Equalia"when a boy turns into a dragon to protect the girls and save their manuscript "The Chronicles of Equalia". This is all set to the tune of "In Her Eyes".

"I AM NOT A HERO."


"I AM NOT AN ANGEL"


From Wikipeida this is a summary of the episode plot:

When Homer forces the kids to take classes at the rec. center, Lisa befriends an intelligent and imaginative girl named Juliet, who is, like her, a fan of Josh Groban. The two create a fantasy world named "Equalia", and grow ever more subsumed in it, becoming distracted from reality. Juliet in particular seems to be using "Equalia" to escape from her troubled relationship with her father, who neglects her interests in favour of his academic specialty of John Grisham. After meeting Juliet's family, and learning of Lisa's increasingly distracted performance in school, Marge becomes concerned about Lisa's friendship with Juliet, and forbids Lisa from seeing her. In response, Lisa and Juliet run away to a derelict restaurant (designed like a castle) to live out their world of "Equalia". Unfortunately, Jimbo, Dolph, and Kearney are also using the restaurant as a hideout, and imprison the girls. Juliet and Lisa manage to escape by entrancing Kearney with their tales of "Equalia" (causing him to turn on Jimbo and Dolph when they try to burn the "Equalia" manuscript), but when Lisa tells Juliet that she has to live in the real world, Juliet abandons the friendship (causing Lisa to conclude that Juliet is crazy).

Two months later, Lisa receives a publisher's rejection letter after attempting to get her "Equalia" book published, but she inspires Homer to create his own fantasy world (which goes no further than him re-imagining the family in forms more pleasing to him--Bart is a hot dog, Lisa is a starfish, Marge is a bottle of Duff Beer, and Maggie is a monster truck).

I was able to watch the episode here (and I guess with all things on-line, you should make sure your virus protection is up-to-date).
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Josh has since posted this on his blog with the caption
"I Heart Lisa Simpson!"...



19 January, 2009

Mr Groban goes to Washington...

I have no words... (apologies if the link doesn't work, but it appears that HBO and YTube are really policing this one)



And then to top off this wonderful performance Josh blogged... Yeah!!!




Here's Josh in another great inteview as part of "Greta On The Record". I tried to embed it, but unfortunately blogger didn't like it, so the best I could do was this link. Once again Josh talks about the thrill he got performing for Obama and then meeting him and the first family to be after the concert on Sunday. Personally, I love to hear him sound so excited about meet Obama. Watch the interview here.

15 January, 2009

It just keeps getting better...

It's now been confirmed that Josh will be taking part in at least two more events while in DC over the coming days.

On Monday 19th, Josh will team up with Martin Luther King III, actor David Arquette and Herbie Hancock to support the non-profit group Feeding America. People will be asked to donate the food or money they would have spent on lunch to help tackle hunger. For more information go to http://feedingamerica.org/.

On Tuesday night Josh will also perform at the Heroes Red, White, and Blue Inaugural Ball at the Warner Theater which will benefit military families and veterans.

The next few days are going to be EPIC!!! I can only imagine just how excited Josh must be to be involved in this historical event...
~

13 January, 2009

What a stage...



Finally it seems like the rumors have been confirmed and Josh will be performing at the kick-off event of the presidential inauguration festivities in Washington DC on Sunday night.

Reports are coming in from sources such as the LA Times and USA Today that Josh will be joining the likes of Bono, Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, Garth Brooks, Sheryl Crow, will.i.am, Herbie Hancock, John Legend, John Mellencamp and Stevie Wonder at the “We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial”....

Here are some quotes from the official Press Release from the Presidential Inaugural Committee:-

"Our intention is to root the event in history, celebrating the moments when our nation has united to face great challenges and prevail."

"We will combine historical readings by prominent actors with music from an array of the greatest stars of today."

"This is a great opportunity to capture an historic event in a very meaningful setting."

"We will have the statue of Abraham Lincoln looking down on our stage and a crowd of hundreds of thousands of people lining the mall -- a tableau any director would relish."

"We have found that the great artists are eager to take part and each one is working with us to find music that expresses the optimism and hope that people bring to the Obama inauguration."

This is such awesome news. I'm soooooo excited that Josh is going to be part of this amazing event.

Now the big question is "what will he sing"? Could it be "America"? Please add your thoughts by leaving a comment.

Congratulations Josh!!!

** EDIT - An Australian newspaper is reporting that "artists won't be performing their big hits, but will be asked to perform material appropriate to the occasion. One musician will be asked to perform "A Change Is Gonna Come,'' the song made famous by Sam Cooke."
~

09 January, 2009

Two pics and a promise...

Ok, so I'm a little late (please forgive me), but in case you've missed it, Josh has posted two pics on his blog. And as a tease, he's promised that a video blog will be coming soon.

But given his track record I won't be holding my breath (sorry Josh - LOL)... Let's hope I'm pleasantly surprised, and to be honest I know that I'll totally enjoy it whenever it's posted!

(BTW - thanks to aussiegrobie and all my other Josh friends for the heads up. Grobies are just the best!!!)

You can view the latest pics at here...
~

04 January, 2009

03 January, 2009

Happy new year...

Just sharing this from FoJG.



BTW Josh - please Blog soon, the natives are getting restless.
~