First of all, I feel like I am using Prodigy on a 2400 modem as my DSL is more like DOA. I wonder out loud if Verizon is slowing down all the DSL customers on purpose so that they will all switch to their new Fios service. Hmmm.
I just returned from an evening out with some friends where I was able to participate in one of my favorite pastimes of karaoke. We went to a place in South Everett that was definitely a younger place. I had heard that the host there was awesome, according to the friends that recommended the place. Well, the regular host was not there... and so the challenges began.
A host is supposed to make you welcome. This host decided that he was going to run the show his way and came off as intimidating and unapproachable. There were few people in the bar when we started at 10 PM, and my friend Malia kicked off the night with a great rendition of Walking After Midnight. No one applauded except me. I wanted to do a warm up song, so I tried an improv version of Billy Joel's You May Be Right, playing it off as something fun as I can't carry a genuine tune. Many of the patrons laughed and got the joke. The host did not.
Later in the night, a very drunk guy got up and started throwing F Bombs all over the place and was warned to stop. The song he was singing was called Sober. I had put in for Mika's Big Girls but told the host that I thought I should change to my old standard Rehab as an answer to the very loud performance of Sober. He said you want to do Amy Winehouse, and I said, yes... that is why I asked.
I grabbed a cup and looked like I was drinking heavily and approached the microphone.
Those of you who don't know me well don't realize that I love doing Rehab because I don't drink, and do an improvised performance that includes some of Amy's stage show at times.
Again, the host did not get the joke. I saw people laughing and seeing that it was a performance and not a serious attempt at singing the song. The host said something like "That was one of the strangest things I have ever seen here. Hey dude, do you dress up as her, with the heels and makeup. You need to if you're going to do that." Those might not have been his exact words... but the cynical tone told me that I was not in the right place.
So Malia and I were going to do one song, and suddenly "the host's rules" started to come out as he decided that he didn't want songs that he didn't want to play. Anything by Sheryl Crow, or Bohemian Rhapsody or Paradise by the Dashboard Light. No Summer Nights. And off he went to get a smoke and cranked up some hip hop tune and left for a break.
It was then that the strange crowd started appearing. A very drunk dude started singing a song I had never heard. My friends told me it was a big stoner song - which explains why goody two shoes me didn't know it. Then another song by a very pierced man who yelled his way through a number.
We left... it was then I realized that I was too old for the place, and that it was not Karaoke I loved to do. It is doing karaoke with people who get me, like my improv group. My friends understood where I was coming from, and felt out of place themselves.
So there are good experiences, and bad ones. The good from this is spending the evening with some people who have become friends, and that it's nice to have new friends.
On a final note, it's less than 12 hours till my Honey comes home. The beard's gone and I am ready to be a married guy again.
Good Night, and You May Be Right - I may be crazy... but it just might be a lunatic you're looking for... otherwise, why would you hang out with me???
Yours truly,
Johnny Blogger
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