Six More Random Things

Karaoke. It’s an Asian thing and something that makes me feel ashamed I am of Asian descent. I joke (well half joke) that I’m not a true Korean because I hate golf, Karaoke and don’t go to church.

While you’re at it, throw the Kardashians down the well, too. Also every wannabe with too much money, not enough brains and a desire to be a fame whore. One of the few good things about this meltdown is that those people will be in the same cannibal anarchy we will be in, but have no place to hide. Fame’s a bitch.

Flathead Steve Forbes is the patron saint of why the “death” tax should be jacked up. It’s one thing to be talented and rich because of it, but I’ve never been a fan of those who were born into it and assume that talent comes with money (it’s rather personal to me — see both sides of my family history and the morans spawned because of it.) Get a job, you loser. Failing that, see well that the Kardashians went down.

I lived in Japan for over two years, and more than four in Asia, and was lucky to get out with only one forced karaoke session in me. An Irish friend and I insisted on performing “God Save the Queen” (yes, this one), which went over about as well as you can expect.

As for Newsweek, I will never take seriously a weekly that was (is?) given free to all Peace Corps volunteers so that we (a) all had the same point of reference for things going on around us, and (b) had plenty of paper to use in those frequent trips to the latrine.

I just posted photos of Junior’s polar bear plunge, beautiful beach day, water temperature, 36 degrees. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005784&l=f867c&id=1087351072

@ManchuCandidate: My girlfriend is Japanese and has tried to drag me to a karaoke club. Part of the problem is that I have perfect relative pitch. A bigger part of the problem is I am reluctant to look silly in public. I have – don’t get me wrong. But I’m reluctant.

Man, I love me some karaoke! When I was in the Navy, for a while I was stationed at Camp Pendleton, a huge Marine Corps base that has miles of beach. Most of the beach is dedicated to Marine Corps operational stuff (right up to the nuke plant at San Onofre), but some of the beach is set aside for pleasure.

We used to rent a mobile home on the beach (there were a ton of them — full kitchen, two bedrooms, bathroom, etc), and outside the mobile home were fire rings, BBQ grills and volley ball, and it was all just absolutely fabulous.

The Navy used to discriminate against Filipinos who joined — they could either be cooks or (later) Hospital Corpsman (which is what I was). My Filipino shipmates were teh awesome! All were college-educated and just couldn’t find a decent job in the Philippines, so they joined the US Navy jumping through enormous hoops and overcoming tons of obstacles for the opportunity to possibly die for a country that maybe, just maybe would give them citizenship if they dedicated 20 years of their lives, if not ultimately sacrificing their lives, for their service.

So, one day my dept rented one of the mobile homes and we were barbecuing and sunning and playing volleyball and listening to Countdown to Extinction and Back in Black and drinking and just loving life and then…one of my shipmates pulled his karaoke machine out of his car. Yep! He owned his own personal karaoke machine, and it.was.ON! The only thing I remember with any clarity w/r/t my karaoking was that I sang the national anthem at some point. And maybe some George Michaels. (It is a dream of mine to sing the national anthem at a professional sporting event. Maybe one day.) Karaoke = Joy!

Karaoke. Hm. All I can say is that I was once in a P.M.S. Pinafore with a bunch of firece singers and the local hangout had karaoke every Friday. The locals still talk of it.

I’m not sure it’s intrinsically worse than what Madonna does.

Surely anything that makes a bunch of people want to get up on top of a moving train and do a dance number should be encouraged these days.

@Promnight: Those are great! I’m so proud of Prom Jr. Give him an extra hug from the Stinquers.

@Promnight: Ho, ho, ho! I’ve got the shivers just looking at them. You guys are awesome, because you could not pay me enough to get within 100 yards of that water!

@Promnight: Oh dear God. Sweet pictures. You people are crazy.

Shoes and skirt must be the same colour.
WTF??? Having these seminars is bad enough, but using them to distribute completely nonsensical fashion advice? Criminal. I can only imagine how the French are mocking this.

@Mistress Cynica: Think of their evening wear. For some reason English women wear frocks that look as if they’ve been made from shower curtains.

@Mistress Cynica: That’s still not as bad as the writer from Glamour magazine who gave a presentation to female attorneys at Cleary Gottlieb in NYC last year and showed pictures of black women with dreds, Afros, and braids and said that was a “Fashion Don’t” and encouraged black women in the audience to straighten their hair in order to look more “professional.”

@SanFranLefty: Oh, I remember that. And she was properly taken to task on Jezebel.