Karaoke Magic

Here's the paradox about blogging: When I have time to write, nothing's going on. When I'm doing fun stuff that people want to know about, I'm too busy to sit in front of the computer waxing poetic about football and GI Joes. It's a vicious cycle. That said, who wants to hear a story about Karaoke on Ramya's birthday from two weeks ago?Apparently, there are a couple of pretty choice Karaoke bars in the DC metro area, and there's this one too. Not that it wasn't without it's charm, but whereas some places have a nice stage in a corner of the bar, this was a TV in the attic/overflow seating of a Chinese restaurant. No matter! We were there to sing and party, and sing and party we did.

The music catalog was interesting. The goal was to have an 80's night, so the fact that Ironic was the most recent song didn't faze us for a second. The fact that half the catalog was in Chinese was a surprise. Some of them had English titles as well (the group's favorite seemed to be "I Want to Pet My Little Pussy"), but were all in Chinese when they were cued up. Which is really a shame, because that probably would've brought the house down. Sadly, there was no Wild Challenger.

I know what you're wondering: "What did you sing?" And the answer is, what didn't I sing? When the genre was the 1980s, I found it pretty hard to stay away from the mic. The first picture is Ramya and me belting out Against all Odds, which was a bit of a disappointment. I understand that in some karaoke places, the music sounds just like the original song, only without the words (by which I mean real instruments). These were more of the "crappy webpage background midi" variety. I feel that this helps the audience focus on the vocalist, but things didn't always seem right- sometimes I swear the song was in the wrong key. Also, the words weren't always right. They read a little like stereo instructions- you know how you can go to Bablefish and translate English to Japanese, then back to English, and the meaning is kind of still intact but the words aren't right? Well, that's how a lot of the lyrics were. Take the song that I was dying to sing: St. Elmo's Fire. My favorite line is "You broke the boy in me, but you won't break the man." When we got to that part, it wasn't right. It was something like "Those broke my boy, but the person is not broken."

It was a good night. Ramya and I teamed up for several songs, including You're the Inspiration. Then we joined Claire and Fernando to sing...are you ready...Fernando. It was too perfect an opportunity to let it pass! Ramya and her friend Kavel laid it all on the line with a stirring rendition of The Greatest Love of All- and if they had added I am Woman, Hear Me Roar they could've hit mom's two favorites. I even found another kindred spirit in Ramya's friend Dave, and we did a handful of duets including Eye of the Tiger, and other 80's rockers that I don't remember right now. I probably should've done this earlier. I do remember that we wrapped up the evening with We Are the World (which was surprisingly hard to sing) and Turning Japanese (at which the waiter rolled his eyes- and when you see the words written out really does seem to be about...well...you know).

A good time was had by all, as evidenced by the fact that I stayed out until 2:00 am. Not only is this in itself unheard of, but I had just gotten back from England so that was like 7:00 am to me. I swear I was falling asleep standing up in the metro station on the way home! Plus my voice was totally gone by the third song. I guess I thought that a lifetime of singing in the car would have prepared me for this, but it takes a lot out of you to sing out loud so that others can hear. I will now conclude with this awesome picture Claire took: