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. 

 

PicKle TEL records presents a Pickleball Parody compilation!~ By Rachael Chatoor ~ featuring guest Lee Whitwell ! @LadyGibraltar

I used to save my pennies and take them to the record store to buy records and I especially loved the bang for your buck I would get from a K-Tel record. I also love doing pickleball parodies. and when I realized I had enough for a K -Tel record style video, picKleTel records was born...... ;) Find me at https://linktr.ee/rachaelchatoor Mad props thanks and credit to the original artists and writers of all parodied songs: Don Schlitz - for The Gambler Steve Miller Band - The Joker Rachael Chatoor - Feelings for Sale Bryan Adams - Summer of 69 Barenaked Ladies - If I had 1,000,000 Pharrell Williams - Happy The Clash - Will you stay or will you go America the band - Lonely People Rachael Chatoor - Overboard TLC - Don't go chasing Waterfalls Rachael Chatoor - Everything Breaks Thank you Lee Whitwell @LadyGibraltar for your awesome guest appearances ~ #pickleball #pickleballsongs #pickleballaddict

Just a wee photo diary of our trip to Palm Springs, Margaritaville, Pickleball Nationals,

Posing in the VIP booth at Nationals. 

Also posing with my book wandering around at Nationals. 

I LOVED the clear bag policy!

Jac in hi GUITARious shirt, front row from the Chill Lounge

 

Hanging with our friends during a great men's match. 

VIP section again, this is Kerry the photographer to the pros. 

Met with my Forget Me Nots musical partner from the 90's and her hubby at Demuth park. 

Lee Whitwell wearing a custom hoodie I made for her. 

A cool Coffey's to Go Selfie!

More selfies with my friend Lee Whitwell, who dropped in on us for some pickle tips and tricks and left us with cheeks hurting from the laughter.  We followed up with some beers and snacks making it quite a perfect afternoon! 

 My Pickleball gals in Palm Springs for the PFFW event!

To view the song click HERE

My new PROXR paddle after watching Lee Whitwell play!

Rachael Chatoor Bio - From music to Pickleball

In my earliest days...

I toured around my province in Canada with a duo called the Forget me Nots. After a making a funny promo video (long before YouTube was a thing), our agents told us to put together a band so they would send us overseas.

A couple months later 4 girls wound up In the United Arab Emirates, rocking out night after night for a three month tour. It was there that I found my husband who himself had travelled to the UAE from the UK to work.  

Fast forward more than a decade, four continents and a couple of kids later...

I found myself back in Canada and on the road doing a rock n roll video series called "All Access Pass" with Kelly Brock (of famed Vancouver band Dr Strangelove) where we got to go backstage and interview music industry royalty such as Loverboy and Chilliwack and go behind the scenes with music industry bigwigs to lift the veil for viewers! (We were both working musician Moms, carving out a creative space for ourselves and we had a blast doing this series).

I also had the Rachael Chatoor Band rotating in and out of the River Rock and Hard Rock Casinos, was lead singer in Hitzone, and sang background with Catherine St Germain in the Indestructables; all of which rotated in and out of the big rooms.

I played Nancy Wilson in Barracuda, Canada's Tribute to Heart, (and shared the stage several times with original Heart guitarist Roger Fisher), and eventually created the Rockingbyrds with Russell Marsland of the R & B AllStars and Jeff Neill of Streetheart.

All of these dynamic bands were playing casinos, theatres, corporate events and festivals locally and nationally.

At the time I also subbed in with a few other bands who were on the circuit and I was doing solo shows, so, some weeks were, well really, a mind melt between all the different song lists and costume changes I had to prepare or pack for. I never minded the grind however, it was my job and I liked it.

While all of that was thrilling and exciting it was also complicated as it involved loads of set lists, costumes and schedule conflicts. 

Along the way I had the incredible good fortune to be asked to be a part of one of the groups I had previously subbed in for, Dreams and Arrival, two of the busiest, bands I've ever had the pleasure of working with. (Dreams and Arrival are the same band so they were as efficient as they were diverse).

This group is a well oiled machine and I had the time of my life performing on those big stages, it was always a good gig and we were always treated very much like rockstars.

I was on and off planes and in and out of busses and hotel rooms several times a month all year long for about 4 years. I loved playing the music and I especially loved the audience reaction when we played it for them. I fed off of the love vibes they gave, and gave it right back.

The energy loop of music is like no other.

Even during the normally quieter months when many bands closed down entirely, we maintained our schedule. I was also blessed, because my solo gigs allowed me to be flexible to my travel gigs, and so I was somehow, able to do it all. I even got back into art and sold my guitar paintings on clothing and mugs and blankets and fun items. Rock stars, backstage crew, music fans and and radio DJ's purcased and shared my GUITARious gear as it was natural for me to create my own stuff and share the links to where I created it, as I travelled around. It worked well, I don't travel with gear, I share my ideas and the art that's inside me. It all worked.

About a month pre-covid, we as a band were lighting ourselves on fire, the Arrival band had just played Roger's arena during the Canucks game, and we launched a third band, Dixie Darlins (now called Gaslighter), a tribute to the Dixie Chicks. We were driving home from a theatre near Osoyoos BC when we got the news that the country was shutting down.

We figured it would last a couple weeks, maybe a month. You all know what happened next, gigs dropped left and right as the country shut down.....and it kept happening. One by one our bookings (which we had well into 2021 at that point) were cancelled, the ones that could be, were rescheduled for next year but immediately our calendar dried up and everyone's world changed. As far as bands go we did as much as we could, we were involved in the first Canada wide TributeWebFest 2020, Tracy Masson and I dusted off our Abba characters and joined the Rogers arena musicians in a tribute video for the Canucks.  But online work is a different animal: you don't get the energy loop. I missed it.

The solo venues that pivoted and kept music also kept me so I've been able to do solo work all year. And that's been soul filling. As a background performer the gig is inherently different, I have to blend in, I don't need the energy loop in the same way, I can do that show for myself, I just invite people in.

Thankfully I was able to work a little doing the solo gig throughout much of it.

In November however, Hallelujah, the band bookings started coming in.

But something happened and I didn't want to do it. I was still afraid of travelling.

Something in me had changed during the months away—I had slowed down and reconnected with my family and home life, and I liked it.

I liked not having a trip looming or packing, song lists, gear and travel to worry about.

My band, they are a machine, they are made for music and ready to play, and I wanted them to.

So I asked them to find a sub for me. They did and they had a fantastic show and the rock n roll machine that is Arrival and Dreams roared on without me and I was so happy for them and so glad they could work without me getting on a plane...

and then it hit me... I don't miss it, the travelling I mean. I do miss the audience but I don't miss the grind. I realized I was happier at home with my family .....and I think I'm done. It was the perfect time to really sub out, for good. There was enough break in the schedule which provided ample time to work a killer singer in to take my place.

And that is how they rock n rolled on without me. They were made for this. :) 

And so I am here, close to home and family, occasionally singing and strumming solo at a select variety of bistros, lounges, private venues, golf/tennis courses. Once in a while I have a girlfriend join me onstage, stay tuned for what might happen with that... 

Which finally brings me to pickleball. Like so many others, during covid I discovered that I love Pickleball. We moved to a new area just as the world shut down and found ourselves walking our dog past a pickleball court every day, (the only thing left to do it seemed).

We used to laugh at them all, playing a game with such a weird name...

HOW JUDGY WERE WE?

Very. Which is probably why I wrote the children's story: Where are the Pickles in Pickleball?" 

You see, my own reaction to the name triggered me to judge it, so I figured that if people can read this book to young kids and get them excited about Pickleball despite the name, then maybe when kids meet me in elementary school for Pickleball month, the mystery of the name will be old news, they won’t pre judge it and they might even look forward to it. That is my hope anyhow. 

And so now I am a full time pickleballaholic. 

My hubby and I play every day that it’s nice outside (when our bodies let us) and at a certain time of year, every year, I help the local Pickleball club teach at the schools. Because I want everyone to know the sport. It has brought so much joy and health (and injury that I only got stronger from) to my life, and I want everyone to know about it. And naturally, I started making my own patterns and art to wear for Pickleball, which I put out there for others to order if they like it. Just as I did with my GUITARious gear all the years I was performing and touring. I have some classic GUITARious stuff for you too by the way. Items which in their conception so many years ago set me up for today because it has translated to Pickleball, and that is how you wound up here. 

Very. Which is probably why I wrote the children’s story: “Where are the pickles in Pickleball”? (Now out onAmazon).You see, my own reaction to the name triggered me to judge it, so I figured that if people can read this book to young kids and get them excited about Pickleball despite the name, then maybe when kids meet me in elementary school for Pickleball month, the mystery of the name will be old news, they won’t pre judge it and they might even look forward to it. That is my hope anyhow.

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