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Hello from Upstate NY
Greetings all. Steve here from Upstate NY. Watervliet to be specific. I signed up about a week ago and I must say I like it here. The sense of pride I feel playing a small part in allowing Team Wagner to continue doing things on their terms is worth the price of admission alone, and the treasure hunt I’ve been on, searching through the MLT Club archives, has been icing on the cake.
So, what brought me here? My Mona Lisa Twins discovery journey started in August of 2016. I was searching YouTube for instrumental versions of the ”59th Street Bridge Song” for a song parody I was working on and the Mona Lisa Twins’ cover was one of the videos returned in my search. I enjoyed the Twins take on one of my favorite Simon and Garfunkel songs, and appreciated the cute, quirky, humorous touches of the video, but it wasn’t what I was looking for so, I moved on.
That one view was enough for YouTube to consistently add the Mona Lisa Twins to my recommendations and over the years I’d occasionally taken YouTube up on those recommendations, but just the covers, not their originals. (Did I mention I’m a bit of an idiot?) I’m guessing it was about 4 months ago that the video for “Bus Stop” crossed my path and really caught my attention. What a brilliant cover and fun video. SUBSCRIBE! At that point I began actively seeking more, and fortunately there was plenty more to find, still without listening to originals. (Well at least not giving the originals a fair listen. Idiot. Remember?)
Fast forward to October 9, 2019. In the few weeks preceding, I’d been listening to my favorite songs repeatedly on YouTube (I lost count of how many times I listened to “God Only Knows”) and was about to make a nearly 3 hour drive to Connecticut. I decided it was time to get off the fence and pre-order the Christmas CD with the rest of the Mona Lisa Twins CD catalog as a chaser. I downloaded everything to a thumb drive. “Play Artist Mona Lisa Twins”, set the car radio to shuffle and I was on my way. For the first time The Mona Lisa Twins’ originals where getting the attention they deserved. A few were already familiar as background music from some of the available behind the scenes videos (clever girls). Most I was hearing for the first time, on their way to becoming new favorites. I was on I-90 in the Berkshires, autumn colors all around, when I heard “Still a Friend of Mine” for the first time. I teared up. My God, what a beautiful exquisitely done work of art, and I hadn’t even seen the video in all its 4K glory yet!
So, why am I here? Because this is a place for beautiful things and a promise of beautiful things to come.
I’m looking forward to what the future brings and following along,
Thanks,
Steve
Now for a humorous side note: In 1981 a friend pointed out that if you change the word lovin’ to laundry, “All My Lovin’” still makes sense.
Dream MLT Beatles Cover: “We Can Work It Out”
Dream MLT Non-Beatles Cover: “Hazy Shade of Winter”
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17 Replies
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A warm welcome Stephen! I can say I’ve been to NY, Niagara and Buffalo a long time ago. This place indeed is “..a place for beautiful things..” It was MLTs angelic beauty in their San Francisco cover that caught my attention, and then the Wide, Wide Land etc…Their music and everything they do is beautiful and remarkable. Glad you joined us!
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Thanks Jung. The western part of the state is 6 hours from me and I’ve only ever driven through the outskirts of Buffalo on my way to Cedar Point. “The Wide, Wide Land” is heavy in the rotation of things I’m listening to. I didn’t know the background story until I got home from my visit to Connecticut and could watch the video and read the text under the video. One of the most beautiful of many beautiful things…
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Welcome to the Club Stephen. You’ve certainly made the right decision. I still remember the excitement and pleasure I felt when I first discovered the MonaLisa Twins. In particular, their ‘Bus Stop’ and ‘You’re Going to Lose That Girl’ videos and then discovering that they also wrote beautiful songs themselves.
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Thanks Howard. I know I’m a little late getting on the bus but I’m here to enjoy the journey and that what matters.
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Hi again Stephen and Thankyou for your updated more in depth Intro of Yourself, enjoyed reading it but also wanted to say that I already had welcomed you on your first intro posting… Lol… That is also a dream MLT cover I hope that MLT do, “We Can Work It Out” and “Paperback Writer” and… “Long and Winding Road”…. The only part of USA that I’ve ever been to is Watertown NY area for DayTrip shopping and to see car racing (Super Modified class) in Oswego, NY… Both were last visited between 25-40 yrs ago… Welcome again and do enjoy getting your Groovy MLTBuzzing going on with the rest of us here!!
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Hi Jacki, I wanted to reply to your initial welcome message but it didn’t want to “take over” Paul’s thread knowing I would be posting my own intro when I had some time to figure out what I wanted to say. So, without further delay, Thank you for the welcomes. I’ve only crossed into Canada once in 1985 when I was attending collage at SUNY Potsdam but as a hobby board gamer, Canada is home to my favorite dexterity game, Crokinole. I’m right with you on “Paperback Writer” but “The Long and Winding Road” is a tougher sell. My memories of that song include watching a friend slow dance with the girl I had a head over heels crush on at a high school dance. Guess I’m still not over it. LOL. Anyway, thanks for the welcomes. See you around the Clubhouse!
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Holy Crokinole!!!! …. I haven’t played that game in years… I still have my Grandpa Rea’s (late Mom’s Dad) homemade Crokinole board and the checker things for it in storage…. It’s fun to play but your fingers can get sore from flicking so much… Lol… I’m glad to hear you like that game too… Lol
For those not familiar with what Crokinole is:
Crokinole https://g.co/kgs/SqZUsr
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If you end up taking it out of storage get a good coat of quality car wax on the board and the disks and you won’t need to flick so hard. The link you posted shows the Shut up and Sit Down review for Crokinole. Very entertaining video.
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Hi Stephen,
Welcome from another Upstater, in Homer between Syracuse & Binghamton…I’ve noticed several of us in the Club here in upstate (which the New Yorkers count as anything north of Westchester County!)
You’ll have a great time here!
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Hey All you NY State MLT Buzzers… Maybe one day we could meetup… It’s more probable for you to come to Ottawa area than for me to go there…. Lol… You are all about 2-3hrs drive from me… Also… You should try and meetup amongst yourselves too… That would be awesome… ?
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Hi Steve!
That was quite the journey of how you ended up here but we couldn’t be happier to welcome you to the Club and are glad you made it! 😉
We thoroughly enjoy reading things like that, it gives us an idea of what happens way before people ever decide to click “send” on a message or buy one of our albums. The fun real-life details!
As much as we love covering our favourite music, writing songs is what it truly comes down to for us (and what you’ll get to hear much more of next year) so we extra appreciate your words about those. ♥
Thanks for helping us make beautiful things by joining the MLT Club!
Stay groovy,
Mona & Lisa -
Hi Stephen, Tom down in Poughkeepsie here. Welcome! Big debate down here whether Poughkeepsie is “upstate”. I think of upstate as being further north of here but whatever! We’re about half way between Albany and NYC. A tad closer to NYC. Have fun here!
Tom
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Hi Stephen, Just wanted to welcome you to the group since we are neighbors lol, My mailing address is Watervliet, but I live just between Latham and Cohoes. Hope you enjoy the group and maybe we can chat sometime.
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Too funny. When you said you were Watervliet mailing address but in Latham I had to look you up, because I’m in the same boat. Watervliet mailing address, but on the Latham boarder. Turns out we are about a mile apart as the crow flies. I’m behind the old KMart off Haswell. Loving the group so far. There’s just enough activity to keep things interesting but not so much to be overwhelming.
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Lol… Paul & Steve… I’m roughly 2-3 hrs away from you both, I’m thinking…. We used to cross at either Cornwall Ontario Canada/Ogdensburg NY USA border Bridge or at Ivy Lea Bridge at 1,000 Islands/Ganoque to head to Oswego NY…. Maybe sometime we could meet up… I don’t drive… Lol…
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Hi Stephen, I sent you a friend request on FB, since we are neighbors, maybe we can chat sometime there.
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Quite a few groovy folks from NY in this thread. I used to live in Saugerties, myself. ’bout
10 miles from Kingston and/or Woodstock. So Hi Hi Hi to everybody!
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