Historical musings
Dec. 3rd, 2003 01:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
darcydodoWent to a supposedly grad social karaoke thing with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
leech tonight. There didn't actually seem to be any other grads there (except possibly one girl who was wearing a shirt with the molecular formula for caffeine on the front and "will work for bandwidth" on the back, and who sang a song in German), but there was karaoke, so at least part of our mission was accomplished. This got me to thinking about my other karaoke adventures.
My first experience ever with karaoke was probably about 5th grade, at Lauren Warner's birthday party. I didn't even know of its existence, then, but there was this machine that highlighted the words to the song and played the music, and kids were singing with it in very large groups, and I didn't know the tunes to "Barb'ry Ann" or "Louis, Louis" very well, which are the only songs I remember being sung.
My next encounter with it was at referential second hand; in 10th or 11th grade I was studying Japan (I studied Japan a few times, which is why I'm kind of confused), and there was something I came across (on a video? I can't remember) about the Japanese liking to sing karaoke at their weddings. I didn't know what karaoke was, but my mom explained and expressed displeasure with it as an activity. Hence, I coded it as something bad.
When I went on my east-coast college trip in the spring of my junior year, one of the colleges I visited was Swarthmore, and I stayed overnight there. My host took me to a karaoke night at the college bar(?), and I sang Simon & Garfunkel's "Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover," with much shaking of the knees; I've never had stage fright when it came to doing plays, but put me on a stage singing a solo? Bad news for the butterflies. Besides, I was a 16-year-old among the hordes of college students.
Corpus had a karaoke machine that got dragged out upon occasion; at various points I sang "The Rose" and "From a Distance" and, the most fun of all, "Dancing Cheek to Cheek" one Mayhem, and various SJC friends who were there danced to it. Karaoke nights down in the beer cellar were fun, if occasionally tortuous due to spates of drunken English off-key bellowing, and Duncan and Gina and some of their friends always did a fantastic rendition of "Ride, Sally, Ride," which lasted even a year or two after they left, because they would come back to visit.
There was also a karaoke machine at the Mongolian wok over on George Street, and we went there after some show once (possibly "Iolanthe") and had masses of fun.
The last time I did karaoke was one Monday last fall at the White Horse, when Corinne and Deb and I went since I said I'd never been there. I sang something very well, and then sang "I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane" very poorly, because I realized I only knew the chorus, not the verses.
Strangely, despite how much I enjoy karaoke, I still always think of it with a slight twinge of disapproval, thanks to my mother's early condemnation of it. I'm sure I'll get over this eventually.
leech tonight. There didn't actually seem to be any other grads there (except possibly one girl who was wearing a shirt with the molecular formula for caffeine on the front and "will work for bandwidth" on the back, and who sang a song in German), but there was karaoke, so at least part of our mission was accomplished. This got me to thinking about my other karaoke adventures.My first experience ever with karaoke was probably about 5th grade, at Lauren Warner's birthday party. I didn't even know of its existence, then, but there was this machine that highlighted the words to the song and played the music, and kids were singing with it in very large groups, and I didn't know the tunes to "Barb'ry Ann" or "Louis, Louis" very well, which are the only songs I remember being sung.
My next encounter with it was at referential second hand; in 10th or 11th grade I was studying Japan (I studied Japan a few times, which is why I'm kind of confused), and there was something I came across (on a video? I can't remember) about the Japanese liking to sing karaoke at their weddings. I didn't know what karaoke was, but my mom explained and expressed displeasure with it as an activity. Hence, I coded it as something bad.
When I went on my east-coast college trip in the spring of my junior year, one of the colleges I visited was Swarthmore, and I stayed overnight there. My host took me to a karaoke night at the college bar(?), and I sang Simon & Garfunkel's "Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover," with much shaking of the knees; I've never had stage fright when it came to doing plays, but put me on a stage singing a solo? Bad news for the butterflies. Besides, I was a 16-year-old among the hordes of college students.
Corpus had a karaoke machine that got dragged out upon occasion; at various points I sang "The Rose" and "From a Distance" and, the most fun of all, "Dancing Cheek to Cheek" one Mayhem, and various SJC friends who were there danced to it. Karaoke nights down in the beer cellar were fun, if occasionally tortuous due to spates of drunken English off-key bellowing, and Duncan and Gina and some of their friends always did a fantastic rendition of "Ride, Sally, Ride," which lasted even a year or two after they left, because they would come back to visit.
There was also a karaoke machine at the Mongolian wok over on George Street, and we went there after some show once (possibly "Iolanthe") and had masses of fun.
The last time I did karaoke was one Monday last fall at the White Horse, when Corinne and Deb and I went since I said I'd never been there. I sang something very well, and then sang "I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane" very poorly, because I realized I only knew the chorus, not the verses.
Strangely, despite how much I enjoy karaoke, I still always think of it with a slight twinge of disapproval, thanks to my mother's early condemnation of it. I'm sure I'll get over this eventually.
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Just because I'm bored at work...
Date: 2003-12-03 11:04 am (UTC)Not completely relevent, but reminded me of a conversation with
Besides, I was a 16-year-old among the hordes of college students.
Somehow the image of you as a sweet innocent little 16 year old girl doesn't come to mind very easily ;)
OK, as I've nothing useful to say, probably ought to do some work...
no subject
Date: 2003-12-03 03:14 pm (UTC)