Karaoke

I have never understood the addiction of Pin@ys to karaoke. You sing to music that has been sung by professional singers. Erm, don't you want to just play their CD's on the player? Why do you have to sing the songs? You already bought the CD/record/album.

The SO's family gatherings often revolve around karaoke. There is nothing better than to watch her uncles sing after they have finished off two bottles of Johnny Walker. Perhaps they need to intoxicate the senses before they can let go of their shyness. Her uncles did grow up during the 60's and 50's of the Philippines which was not as wild and wooly as that time in America. At any rate, slurred words and barely coherent mumblings are a staple in karaoke by Johnny Walker.

The SO is a wonderful singer in addition to being a martial artist, a performance artist and a poet. Singing is another gift that just has to lie in wait for karaoke because all the other things must come first. I have always envied her singing. I am a monkey, but sometimes, I am still a shy monkey. Maybe I need several shots of that Johnny Walker. Hahahha.

Last night, the SO was going along at a pretty good singing rate when I finally got bored. I sat next to her and started singing. Everytime it got to the chorus, the SO would place the microphone to my face. And I being shy would shut up. Did I mention that there was no one around at this time? It was the SO and her sister and her sister's boyfriend and the hostess with her one year old child who loves karaoke singing. Every time the karaoke singing stopped, the kid would start to cry.

What I eventually found out is that my voice is not that bad when I sing songs that I actually know. How about that? Hmm, we are now thinking about buying those microphones that contain 3000 songs. We probably have to even get the chip which contains an extra 1000 Pin@y songs.

The karaoke system last night used VCD's. Karaoke is a great way to see the world because the background scenes often show different locations around the world. In fact, one of the karaoke discs supposedly has a scene in which one of the SO's aunts can be seen walking the streets of Manila.

There are several objections to the VCD format however. First, some VCD's are titled "Beauties Around the World" and show women from around the world. The women usually prance around and act sexy. How that is supposed to let me sing a song, I don't understand. I suppose I would not mind so much if what the background scene is showing has any connection or relationship to the song. But usually, there is absolutely no connection. For example, the song "Dancing Queen" was on. There were two men and two women in the background scene. The song is disco. The dancers were dressed in T-shirts and jogging pants and they were dancing hip-hop sytle!!! This is not even irony. This is just plain corny.

And of course, in one VCD, the scenes were shot in Vietnam. In one song, we see several Caucasians aged fifty or so running in the beach. And of course, they were followed by Vietnamese women about twenty years old or so. And just to be balanced, there are of course some Vietnamese men who looked twenty years old. Now, how many of you out there think that these Vietnamese women were "servicing" the Caucasians? How many? I tossed in the Vietnamese men because those things happen too, ya know?