Pickleball Party, sing-along to pickleball parodies~!

My whole mission from the get go was to get people singing along together. It always has been. Even when I was in a touring band I would hold the microphone out to the audience to hear them sing. It's my favorite part of being a musician, hearing you. 

Me onstage  as Agnetha in Arrival Canada's tribute to Abba....and the awesome singers who helped....

These last few months my brain has been filling with pickleball songs and images I need to create, but  instead of doing so I've been spending every blipping moment figuring out the Shopify  platform.

It felt like work. So I jumped ship. Well I jumped off the expensive superliner and onto little moterboat. I understand that boat much better and have no need to cross oceans anyhow so that ticket was just too expensive. 
 

The whole reason I started the Shopify is because my previous  ARTist shops were not related solely to me and so when I sent customers to my store they could easily get lost on the site (since it could direct  them to other artists). That's tough when you spend a lot of time catching peoples attention. 

So I thought if I controlled the store, then at least I wouldn't lose people. 
What I didn't anticipate was the enormous cost of involving a platform such as Shopify as well as all the other pieces of the puzzle which  eat up every penny you might make. 

If a shop owner gets lucky and needs a web developers help to deal with expanding, well  you now have to pay what feels like lawyers hourly rates to get things done, and finding someone you trust to do that in a faceless internet world, is not easy. 

So just as I was about to start ramping up advertising I pushed the big red button instead of the green one. 

You see as all this was happening the ARTist platforms began streamlining so that ARTists wouldn't lose their customers so easily, they gave us a shop, not just a spot in their shop. Smart. 

SO, my problem was, I was ahead of the curve and started solving my problem a just a bit too early. It took the larger platforms a bit of time to reach my needs. 

And I realized, since  they do now, just as I was getting more and more bills to my store, my old platform was offering to do it, right. SO I thought, why am I not making use of it? And so I dove into this place ARTIST SHOP



The result is I have time to do more of the things I love, including taking my Pickleball Parody songs out on the road. This Christmas season for any pickleball event I went to I brought my little guitar and a handful of parody lyric sheets. (Taken from my Pickleball Sing - Along book). and PS I realize I need to make a Sing Along book 2 because I have a whole paddle bag full of NEW tunes that are not in book one, so stand by for those..... but I digress....... on with the show.....

A few of these people had seen my videos but not even close to all of them....so this was the first time that MOST of these people had seen or heard any  of my songs. But with my handy lyric sheets, it was easy to get them singing.........so easy.........

 

How much fun will this be for any pickleball event?  Pickleball dinner, tournament, festival or getaway? 

I'm your Pickleball Parody girl, let me know if you would like to know how I can help you do this! :) 

Rachael! 

Is this my favorite Pickleball Parody?

 It's hard to pick a favorite but I do have a long list to choose from, I'm almost ready to write my next Pickleball SING along book in fact. 

The latest is a tune I've had in my head for well over a year but I just haven't gotten around to finishing the parody or making a track, until I blew up my shopify store so I could focus on just being a musician and artist rather than a web developer. (which is what you seem to have to be to have a shopify store)


Lee and I had just finished our Christmas parody and I had a few minutes to chew on the idea and well, without any further ado I should just let you play it! 

Get your singing voice out....this one you WILL want to learn and sing along to! 


Inspired by the song Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond. 

Santa Baby, Pickleball Carol - Featuring Lee Whitwell and Rachael Chatoor

 Just sharing a little holiday ditty we cooked up!  

Merry Christmas from PickleTEL records! 

Merry Christmas to all my wonderful Pickleball ARTwear  supporters!! (here are just some of your awesome photos, you'll find the rest on facebook)  I LOVE you!! 

An Older Mom's video response to: Used to be young, Miley Cyrus.

I was compelled to make this song/video after hearing Miley Cyrus's new tune: Used to Be Young. 

I took the song personally since I was one of the people who called her out. (not that she ever saw me or my video but this is my quantum world here so roll with it)   
I love the tune but I was triggered by it. While I have long grown past it and even made the video private for the last several years....I have relisted it and updated the description below. 

In the meantime here is the new video. Watch it then keep reading to follow the story. 

 I made the video NO SECOND CHANCES below, many years ago, with all my opinions, based on what was going on at the time..... and all of these ladies have since, grown up. As have I. You will have to watch my old video No Second Chances to understand where I am coming from here. Much like my art, things are layered, hidden right here in plain sight. You must watch to the end  to get to the punch line and eventually, the point. 

Video description for No Second Chances with update I appreciate where they are today, better places all of them. And I love Miley's new tunes, but in response to her latest deflection and lack of understanding or, empathy for the little man's reality (USED TO BE YOUNG), I do still hold the opinion that there were better ways for all of them to use their mega platforms. And she was young, I don't blame her. Whomever was handling or even just advising Miley at the time, however, would have known the various images would go viral, they likely expected it and were excited for it, maybe even hoped for it. But as a Mom of a Hannah fan at the time, it was such a cheap grab and also tone deaf. Because at the time, the internet was fresh, and children were being introduced to it, and it was heartbreaking to see so many young girls were being slut shamed and bullied for THEIR bad decisions, some to the point of suicide..... meanwhile their heroines were being celebrated right in the supermarket aisle on the tabloids sitting right at eye level near the candy in almost every grocery store. The images of starlets in my video above were not only pulled directly from pictures in the tabloids, many of them they made the talk shows, news and newspapers. So for kids and fans all over the country who loved their heroines and sometimes copied them? Those kids didn't have a big saftey net protecting them from "their" stupid young decisions. No, the world didn't celebrate them, in fact some of those kids are still dead.)

It is what it is.... find the song on iTunes if you like it xo http://www.reverbnation.com/rachaelchatoor A thank you goes to Miley Cyrus for providing the images I needed to complete this musical thought..... which had to be said....me being a Mother and all.

Lyrics for Video above: Hey girl with your fancy dress just who are you trying to impress? What's it like to get up everyday just to make sure your make up is all in place? Gee it must be a big heavy load since the whole world cares about your fancy clothes..... hey yeah. The front door don't work both ways.... do you know what's inside that place? Life is more than one big dance sometimes my dear we get...no second chances... Hey girl with your platinum key what do you want history to say? You've got everything right on your plate despite all you could do you choose to play it away you are not the only one out on the road surely you can afford someone to drive your Rolls.....hey yah Ch The young girls who want to be you think they are gonna live the way you live so be loud now, but be proud now make your choices like we gotta live with them...... even if you don't (no you don't)

More Pickleball Parodies and a challenge!! Pickleball on the BRAIN~

 ACED IT!!

 Here we have a fun little ditty that I created based off the cheeky looks my hubby gives me when he makes a killer shot I can't get..... Thanks as ALWAYS to the formiddable Lee Whitwell for playing along and including more pickleball pros in our madness! 



  DON"T NEED YOUR ADVICE!

 The original love song from Footloose (recorded and sung by Mike Reno and Ann Wilson) inspired this pickleball parody.

Lee Whitwell is my go to girl for Pickleball advice and we cooked this parody idea up together, please find her on Instagram @LadyGibraltar   / ladygibraltar   To my friends, thank you for being such good sports! I adore you all! Find more of these parodies at my pickleball song group on Facebook!   / 774898234227978   This video also features a harmony track with my friend Catherine St Germain! Catherine is often the go to girl to sing Almost Paradise in concert when the lovely Ann Wilson can’t make it. Please go find Mike Reno’s legendary band Loverboy online, they are touring all summer! https://www.loverboyband.com/ And locate Catherine St Germain on her pages to find her upcoming Ladies sing the Blues performances, also if you go to see Loverboy this summer you might see a real version of the original Almost Paradise song with her and Mike ! It’s epic! https://freshmag.ca/pursuit-365-day-2... Parody of Almost Paradise original love song to the movie Footloose written by Dean Pritchford.

  PICKLEBALL STAR!

In the spirit of Nickelback’s song Rockstar! I give you Pickleball Star, because we are ALL super stars! Disclaimer: As always, this video is made all in great fun with no message intended, and my thanks go to the great friends who play along with me to make them. (I have to make this disclaimer now because a 4.5 recently said to me that they didn’t want to give me any advice because of my parody of Almost Paradise; Don’t Need Your Advice. Oh my god please, I suck people, I DO want your advice…😅 this music stuff? its just art of my observations of what I sometime see online 😇😂) To the models who wear my Pickleball ARTwear thank you eternally for sparkling on the courts wearing my pickleball patterns with all the surprises and secrets right out in the open, and thank you for the photos! To Lee Whitwell my parody partner in crime thank you for sending me your cameos, you are a gem and a gift to the pickleball world! Many of the Pro player videos were taken on a Pickleball Getaways Vacation that hubby and I took. It was amazing and we are going again. Please visit the pros via their Instagram handles. I was lucky enough to catch some actual pickleball superstars! Tournament photos are from Nationals in Palm Springs and/or other travels! Also the first look at my custom doubles wear! Team Shurgelo at the end of the video are wearing their new crop tops with an original pickleball pattern I custom designed for them! (I can do this for anyone.) Have fun friends! If you have my Pickleball Sing Along Book (from Amazon) I will be linking the Pickleball Getaways QR code at the back of this book, to this video once I upload it to Instagram. #pickleball #pickleballsong #pickleballartwear #pickletel #pickleballgetaways

I DINKED THE BALL!! 

@LadyGibraltar  aka Lee Whitwell helped me pull this one together by getting some of her talented Pickleball PRO's to join in the fun of this parody! Kudo's to Katy Perry's tune of course and watch for her making waves with some pretty massive heavy hitters in the Pickeball world.  
Even though I am a supporter and  their customer they still manage to  miss me completely but hey, it's a big world out there, one day they may  notice me. 


Next......if you have been following along with my parodies you might know all of these tunes represented on my latest shirt: Pickleball on the BRAIN.
ITs a brain full of paddles. Plus the names to all my pickleball parodies because they become such earworms. But here is the fun part. If you know the tunes you can get this shirt then challenge people to point to any item and you can sing a pickleball song for it. 
Who can do it? I know I can.   Find it at my Nifty Pickleball Gifts store!~ rachaelchatoor.threadless.com

Am I wearing my top backwards? Not on purpose I'm not.....

So my new clothes have arrived ( a couple of my samples, anyhow ) and I am more in love with them than I hoped I would be. I immediately set to work on trying them on and decided to film the process and intro the clothes with whatever film I captured. See the video below to get a glimpse of my new goodies. 

If it seems like I'm delighted with the quality of the items I am, I am  so happy the colors in real life look as beautiful as  the colors in my imagination and on-screen, plus the make and fit are reliably supeior to the ones I could design on before.  These are all I was hoping for and I'm so excited.

This video I must admit I laughed at and watched a few times. It was because it made me laugh that I even kept my ass in there as I was pulling  my pants up over it. But it looked so ridiculous to me and I tried so hard to recover and the dragonfly looked so cool I decided to keep it in. 

And guess what. 

The dragonfly goes on the front. 

How 

did 

If it seems like I'm delighted with the quality of the items I am, I am  so happy the colors in real life look as beautiful as  the colors in my imagination and on-screen, plus the make and fit are reliably supeior to the ones I could design on before.  These are all I was hoping for and I'm so excited.

This video I must admit I laughed at and watched a few times. It was because it made me laugh that I even kept my ass in there as I was pulling  my pants up over it. But it looked so ridiculous to me and I tried so hard to recover and the dragonfly looked so cool I decided to keep it in. 

And guess what. 

The dragonfly goes on the front. 

How 

did 

I

miss

that?



Honestly until a friend of mine asked me which way to wear it?  I had NO idea I was wearing it backwards. 

What an introduction. I've decided it's perfect and I'm keeping it in. 
If anything it will give people something to scratch their heads over. Giggle.

Anyhow, I don't expect people to wear all this stuff together by the way.  My items are not meant to be worn "party on the top and party on the bottom" always, unless you love literally being ALOT. Then by all means have at er.

Personally I usually wear a top OR a bottom and  then I pair them with a matching solid from one of my other favorite brands.  The pants I am wearing in this video are Lululemon  




The fit is true (I'm a large in most brands. A medium in generous brands and XL in fancy shit)  I'm wearing large for everything. 

Have fun and enjoy the new stuff, I sure am! xo  

The Pickleball Sing - Along book (with art and memes) is HERE!! now on Amazon!

 

Do you love to sing? Do you like to laugh??

The Pickleball Sing along book is for YOU!! Full of QR codes that take you to videos you can sing along to.... plus some memes, drama and a couple pages to color. This is where pickleball meets art and music!

Pickleball Sing - Along Book: With art and memes: Chatoor, Rachael: 9798397629911: Amazon.com: Books

Pickleball ARTwear's first pop up tent!

So I recently set up my first booth at the BC Provincials and I couldn't be happier with the results. Well actually I'd be happier if I'd had more product with me, and with that I would have made more people happy.

Being my first booth I only arrived with a skeleton load of goodies and ran out of sizes quickly. A bit of this a bit of that, I wasn't sure so I took it easy when choosing samples. It was great to see what resonates with people and of course the real reason for going (showing people samples) was achieved. Customers got to see the items in person (my business is really online, custom order on demand)  touch it, feel it, check the sizes out. Now when people order they can be sure it's the right size. I'm glad to say I observed  reactions towards the many different designs and noted I am hitting a lot of pickleball nerves, in a very good way. 

Head to my facebook page @4theloveofpickleball  to find discount codes and  see photos shared of customers rocking their Pickleball  ARTwear. Find it all HERE

This amazing 100% wool (so lightweight and soft ) wrap is not available in my store any longer. It's a special custom order direct from the manufacturer: Yes that's a special edition of my artwork. :) 

Feel free to contact me directly for special orders.