Karaoke Night

Even though my sister, Liz, and I are big music-lovers (our father added the grand music factor to the parenthood equation with daily jam sessions and an everlasting flow of tunes from his music machine gadgets while we were growing up), we are two of the world's worst lyric decipherers. We still joke now about how she vehemently insisted "Yackety-yak, don't talk back!" was "Yackety-yak, don't go back!" and how I truly believed Glen Medeiros was swooningly crooning, "yuwannanummahno," rather than "you wanna know, my love" (he was an exotic Hawaiian, after all). There are scores of similar misheard words between the two of us, and, apparently, for many other music consumers of the world. Old habits stick like crazy, even when we do learn the proper lyrics, and we often speculate how incredibly badly we'd do at Karaoke. Wouldn't it rock to rat out your pals' bad music-listening habits with your own rousting good night of karaoke?

I am no seasoned karaoke-er, but I would think the main venues for hosting the karaoke shindig would be within the comforting confines of your home or the scarier outside world of bars and restaurants that actually do the karaoke thing. If you'd rather not turn your pad into a hep, happening karaoke joint, I would suggest combing the local websites, papers, and local college campus notices for possible locations. Some bars and restaurants will actually advertise their karaoke events on banners or mini-marquee signs outside their establishments. During summers back from college, my friend Lisa and I would go for Karaoke Tuesdays at the neighborhood dive, Doolittle's Pub, but back then I hadn't yet developed the gumption to actually get up and sing in front of all the drunken people. Here in Chicago I've seen 'karaoke night' banners outside Friar Tuck's and a couple random bars (can't recall the names) in Lincoln Park.

If you opt to go out for singing shenanigans, the hosting duties are fulfilled once you've gathered all your buddies at the place of many bad singers. If you choose to host the karaoke get-together in the cushier, more user-friendly home, prepping the place doesn't need to be an extravagant affair either...

Invite, invite, invite. Whether you'll be crooning to a crowd of strangers or belting out a tune outside the shower/car walls, it'll be a lot more fun to have a good safety net of people who like you along for the adventure. Because karaoke isn't something one does daily for an audience, you might spring for some fun and campy paper invites. As always, emails and evites will suffice just as well. I'd send the paper invites about two weeks prior to the do, and electronic invites/notes usually are fine to send out the week before. Tantalize and entice your would-be guests to join in by jotting down possible songs you think they'd do more justice than the original artist had. Challenge their moxie to be the divas and rock stars they are. Dangle a few prize categories and party favors for being swell sports.

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