panic at the karaoke!

My life lately has been boring, mundane, dull, the whole package laah! So i was quite excited and worried at the same time when the ALSA team from my campus persuaded me into going for a round of karaoke.. i was excited because i've only been a couple of times to the karaoke but i find this a relaxing leisure to channel stress out, and i'm worried because with the ALSA kids coming, there's sure to be a risk on getting kicked out by the employees there, because we're a group of lunatic people who tend to wreck havoc.. read on :)

The lunatic people involved in this story is;

- Me obviously

- Jiwo (you've heard of him before)

- Andit (the guy who wet my matress on the stairs --")

- Meiske (she was the one i thought was drooling before realizing the flood)

- Adi (housemate and the guy who let his room get flooded)

- Lena (specializes in Melayu songs :p)

- Luksi (a girl who likes to scare people while remaining a scaredy-cat herself)

- Irma (Adi's best friend who came from Solo for a one-night visit)

- Nanda (a magical and "special" housemate --Adi's alleged little brother--)

- Tasya (Nanda's girlfriend, apparently doing ice skating lessons in a country who only knows ice as a friend of drinks to cool it)

Okay this isnt the full strength of our lunatic people, but it should've been enough to bring the house down.

Jiwo picked me up and i was surprised that the karaoke thing was gonna be on that day, because no one told me (i would've prepared heavily for it had i known; you know, sufficient rest, vocal tests, fasting, the lot, hahahaha). We felt quite stupid during the journey there, shows just how tropical and undecided weather Indonesia has (we went from the house with pouring down raining cats and dogs, but the other half of the journey was sunny like hell, and apparently people find it amusing to see 2 guys in raincoats in the sunny weather the north par of town was having)..

Upon arrival we find that we were among the last ones to come, all the rest was eagerly waiting for us (it concerns me that the kids are very punctual when it comes to games and fun while in debate trainings it usually an hour behind schedule --"). I'm a person who learns from experience, and i know that when you karaoke, you probably are gonna need lots of liquid, so me and Jiwo stopped by a Circle K shop on the road to get some drinks (i wont be detailing the "drinks" we bought, its just another one of those echi echi plurks :p)..

So we finally managed to book one of those mid-sized rooms they have, with a capacity of like 10 people (i personally consider this very large already.. i mean who goes to the karaoke with like 20 people? The Twilight Orchestra??).. We immediately turned most of the lights out to simulate a wannabe disco ambiance, i had difficulty to see everything else but whatever..

A few observation results of this karaoke place from me and probably lessons learnt for you;

- Don't get a heart attack once you see some of the video tracks playing along with the song, as some songs dont actually have a video track (or either the place don't own the official videos who knows), so they would improvise the video that you see. Women in this case is discriminated, because you either get a video of this chick in bikinis doing some poses on the beach (woohooo!!! kawaiii for the men) or you get a video of a horse prancing around ON THE GROUND as if it just had an ephilepsy(i've no idea how to write the word)  attackand was going round and round on the grass. Okay there's one footage of a guy, but he was both old and unattractive, and apparently was doing moves with his hands which he calls "dancing" or "tripping" or "jojjing", whatever, my word for it is "fiasco"..

- Pick your song list wisely. Because of the very very  genious list we picked, we went from beat, to a kiddy song (yes! a KIDDIE song! fun nonetheless ^^), to rock.. all without paying attention to art, harmony, and ethiquette.. One, it just sounds like you're in a bad merry-go-round carnival, and two, it depletes your energy.. hahaha

- Don't be easily fooled. Luksi and Andit was doing a duet on the song "Lucky - Jason Mraz and Colby whatshername", and it was Luksi's turn to do the piece, in the first 5 seconds we thought her voice was extravagant! we started applauding and i was thinking of giving her flowers in awe when we realized at a point her mouth wasnt even moving. Curses! Apparently it was the voice of the actual singer. Not so lucky Luksi :D

- Do not let me and Jiwo and Meiske on the same side. We're pure rockers hahaha.. as the three of us was sitting side by side together and as major fans of songs with people banging their heads and shouting and rapid drumbeats and major DJ action, when the others were singing like mellow and love songs we had to stay quiet (since we dont know the song. That is until we started the rock revolution and demanded more airtime on songs that we claim we like and can sing it. This is a bad idea to agree to. We went crazy and at a moment i thought Andit was going to faint listening us basically shouting, not singing.

- Never trust the scoring system. Jiwo apparently had nothing better to do up until a point where he identifies that ALL the songs we always get 90.. This is probably some shitty marketing strategy, so that people dont get embarassed, thus if people thought they did great and have potential, they'll return for another good time at the karaoke. Most do this, some of the rest became so narcisistic they signed up for idol competitions, which is why you see lots of "tragic" singers int eh audition (yep, result of overcomplements from their environment haha)

- If you go with a crazy bunch of people, make sure to lock that room door tightly. Every time i go the karaoke i find at least once or twice the employees take a peek thru the door hatchet. Now for those who is optimistic they might think its because their singing was so good. Fools, its because the employees was pretty sure you guys checked in with 10 people but you're making noises as if the whole Cirque du Soleil crew was in there training the monkeys and elephants to sing in harmony..

Ater two hours of jumping up and down (both physically and in musical notes) vicariously, we were flopped. The room was like an aftermath of the Battle of Ardennes in south France in 1944 or the wrecked Forts of the Maginot line after Operation Barbarossa in the Sovyet Union in 1941. I'm pretty sure the floors were wet because a couple of times our drinks went spilling and i swear i can see a tiny crack on the large flat panel screen on the room hahahaha *run*

I think karaoke is not as overrated as i thought it was in the past (i was against the idea of going for like 4 years until the first time i went, i think they had to issue a restraining order to get me not to come veryday hahaha). It's good for the soul, its good for the bond (no this isnt something you could do alone for reasons i dont think i even have to explain), and its worth every penny, especially since Sunday's jam session was fully financed by Jiwo ^^v *cleterrrrrrr - whiplash*

So when's the next time you're going to the karaokes? Take me us with you, we'll have a blast!! :">

*pics and videos of us there will be up soon as Irma sends 'em to me, hold on your puke for now, you'll wanna puke even more after seeing them hahah*