New Thing #8: I karaoked several songs I barely knew.

Gosh, doing a new thing every day and then blogging about it can be exhausting, or maybe "exhausting" is me being a bit melodramatic, but it's still time consuming, at the very least.

I need to go to sleep. But the day isn't over until I've reported back to the blog. However, this'll be a short post.

My friends Todd and David are karaoke freaks. Big time. They have a computer dedicated entirely to holding millions (I'm not even exaggerating) and millions (okay, maybe I'm exaggerating slightly but it feels like millions) of karaoke songs, and they have a projector that projects the lyrics up onto the wall, and a mic on a microphone stand and the whole shebang, you know, the whole nine yards. (What does that even mean? And am I using the phrase correctly? I know it's a football term. Or at least I think it is. I am so sports-dumb. I think I'm using it correctly, but if someone could explain to me why we say "the whole nine yards," I'd appreciate it. Thanks.)

Anyway, Todd and David are karaoke freaks from way back and they've converted most of their friends into karaoke freaks, as well. They have these great karaoke parties every few months, where everyone who comes to the party is required to sing, and you're required to sing a lot. You might be reading this and saying to yourself, 'no way would I ever get into that,' but the thing is, when everyone is doing it, when everyone is singing like an idiot and really going for it, then you're all idiots together and it's a lot of fun, and you never know when you're going to surprise yourself with the kind of performance that brings the rest of the party to their feet, whooping and hollering--amazed, in awe, ver klempt, blissed out.

My two standards are "Welcome to the Jungle," as sung by Guns 'N Roses, and "She's Like the Wind," as sung by Patrick Swayze.

So, I guess what I'm trying to say is: Karaoke is nothing new to me.

But Todd and David had a karaoke party tonight in honor of our friend Larra's birthday, and there was a twist to the evening--no one picked their own songs, songs were thrust upon you, songs you wouldn't normally sing, songs people wanted to hear you do. So, tonight, instead of sticking to my traditional, well-worn crowd-pleasers, I sung a shitload of songs that I otherwise never would have sung before. So I'm letting that count as my New Thing for today.

The songs I sang tonight were:

Opposites Attract (by Paula Abdul)--I totally bombed this one. I thought I knew it, but didn't, at all, and I had to abandon it. Pathetic.

Hot Blooded (by, um, who sings this song? I'm too tired to google)--I may not know who sings this, but I knew the song, and I think I did okay with it. Not stellar, but okay. I couldn't quite decide which key to sing it in.

People Are Strange (by the Doors)--this song killed. Or, I killed with this song. Whatever, people were so totally metaphorically dead, they loved it that much.

Under Pressure (by Queen and David Bowie)--I sang this as a duet with Jessica and we were pretty damn good. This was definitely the highlight of the evening for me.

I'm a Believer (by the Monkees)--I don't really love this song, and I definitely wouldn't have ever chosen to sing it myself. Which I think you could feel in my performance. I give myself a C+.

Dedicated Follower of Fashion (by the Kinks)--I love this song. Never sung it before (sang it before?) (just like I was too tired to google and find out who sings Hot Blooded, I'm too tired to figure out which tense of the word "sing" is gramatically correct in this context) (forgive me), but it was fun to sing. And I think I sang it (sung it?) it pretty damn well. I would sing it (well, I know that's correct) again.

Aside from singing Under Pressure, the other highlight of the evening was the entire party singing along to a melody of God Bless America/We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions. If you've never sung a melody of God Bless America/We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions with about twenty people, then you haven't really lived. Truly. Inspiring.

The only thing better, of course, would be to sing this kinda medley with an entire stadium full of people. That would rock. But then again, as this previous post explains: I love me a little bit of sing-a-long action.