Karaoke
With our stomachs full and things finally sorted out at the restaurant, we made our way from the side streets to the brightly lit main streets. After having eaten the aura of our group had lightened as well with more smiling, laughing, and talking. The hurried pace from before was slowed to a casual stride. I found myself clamming up as we walked through the streets, so I used my camera as an excuse to get space from everyone. It was also nice to have some shots with real subjects in them, as I hated to be in front of the lens myself.
Walking into a brightly lit lobby memories of times long past once again clouded my eyes. In my childhood there’s not a single year without Karaoke. If the number one filipino past time is drinking, number two would be karaoke, and number three would be karaoke and drinking together. At every party there was a karaoke, my mom loved it so much we eventually got one for our house. The truth is I loved it as well, I really enjoy singing. . . not that I’m any good at it, but I sing almost everyday.
If you don’t believe me here’s a photo of our last family reunion
The school I went to made us do Christmas concerts and plays, which most of the boys hated, but I really liked singing and dancing. So much so that when I played teeball having being put in the most useless position, right field. . . I mean no one, including left handers hits to right field in Teeball, I instead spun around or attempted to moonwalk. In eighth grade I even tried out for the main role, but was cast as the wimpy scribe instead.(Fitting right?) All my years of playing guitar, singing in the shower, and simply singing at work hadn’t made me any better so I was hesitant to even want to sing.
But then there we were being shown to our private booth. Muffled sounds of Japanese patrons singing their hearts out could be heard as we made our way up stairs and down dimly lit hallways. Finally we got to the little room and after the waiter took our orders and left us alone. There was an awkward silence as all eyes were on the mic and the small pad that made song requests.
The silence
was broken by people going to fill their drinks. . . I’m way too sober for this too, I also made my way to the drink dispensers. All you can drink alcohol. . . seems dangerous and awfully trusting considering they never I.D. anyone here. I needed to maintain a certain sense of control because I was going to my new hometown the next day. But that’s always easier to say and do before the first drink then after.
Even after getting our drinks the awkward silence returned like a bad memory that haunts the back of your mind. Until Rowan stood up and proclaimed.
“Welp someone’s got to do it, but I’m warning you in advance it’s not gonna be that great”
Grabbing the mic we tried to dial in the settings for the input volume and ending up causing feedback on accident. As Rowan began to sing, he was true to his words, but I held a deep respect for him to just go out there and have fun. It takes a great deal of bravery and confidence to perform in front of people. After seeing that I decided to put in one of my favorite songs and nervously waited until my turn. I had done a bunch of open mics in college, I’d even taken a singing class, but performing in front of other people always makes me feel like the world is ending.
When The Song Started
started I had no choice but to just go. So I sung my little heart out until the instrumental fill towards the end where a habit of mine just grabbed a hold of me. In the states sometimes as I was walking around or driving alone I’d put on hip hop instrumentals and try to make rhymes. When freestyle rhyming sometimes you enter this state that psychologists call flow and it just sweeps you away. It’s a blissful feeling that’s so rare that you keep on chasing it, but it seems the harder you pursue it the further away it gets. But I went for it anyway
From Seattle to japan from the two five three
Anywhere I go people staring at me
cause I wanna be a star traveled real far to get it
cause i’ve been on that grind from pullman to the five oh nine
drawing lines cause I’m an illustrator too
kick it in the back just doing what it do
After saying some bad raps I passed up the mic and started genuinely enjoying myself. I only sang in two more songs after that, but it was the lively atmosphere that had me elated. Rachel blindsided us with her amazing voice. The way things were going I wouldn’t have minded staying for longer as we went through all the English Karaoke classics, but the clock struck midnight and my train was leaving soon. So after some swift goodbyes I found myself partially inebriated trying to navigate the train and subway system again.
