It's Singalong Time!

A friend and fellow blogger suggested to me this piece of early twenty-first century wisdom: "There are no bad times, only good blogs." Everything becomes translatable into blog terms - miserable experiences make the best subjects (food poisoning, nose picking). Be careful about the conversations you have because you don't want to waste any blog fuel before you have a chance to type it into cyberspace. I try not to think like this, but I confess there is a certain anxiety that goes along with this performance.
That's why I chose today to discuss Karaoke. I came to the Karaoke party pretty late - at least in its most obvious form (see Bill Murray in "Lost in Translation"). My brother's fortieth birthday party featured a Karaoke machine. I shook off the initial four minutes of shyness and began perusing the catalog of songs: Show tunes, disco, even a little Johnny Cash. Where to start? "Ring of Fire" of course!
What followed was a haze of music and songs that I had forgotten or tried to forget. I sang alone. I sang with friends. I watched others sing as I worked to regain my strength. "Highway to Hell" takes a lot out of your upper register. At the end of the night, I sang a duet with my brother - "Summer Wind."
But it didn't end there. Days later, I spoke to my brother and he expressed the same feeling I had been having since the party. Every song he heard on the radio, in the elevator, at home or in the car was now potential Karaoke. Suppressing the urge to break into song was now a legitimate chore.
I've had time to tame those feelings - I still eagerly anticipate the chance to belt out this or that tune. And I've had time to consider the times in my life when singing at the top of my lungs has provided major catharsis. Springsteen concerts, Jimmy Buffett concerts - both have offered that kind of salvation. It helps to know all the words. In the back of my mind, I return to a night many beers ago - with my older brother at a place called the Dark Horse. It was Beatles night. We both knew every word, chord and pause to every song, and we played pinball and sang into the early morning hours. It was a little like going to church.
There is no bad singing, only good Karaoke.