TRANSCENDING THE LANGUAGE GAPS: PART FIVE

I never used to sing Karaoke ... until an exotic night in the Fall of 2007. I remember the night well. THE PRIMETIME BAR infected me with the 'Karaoke Fever', another guilty pleasure on the uncontainable list that comforts and embarrasses me across time and space.

Fortunately for those lost in translation, sharing in some ear banging cackling can transcend the language gaps. Understanding the meaning of the lyrics can be happily sacrificed to enjoying the ridiculous joy of amateur howling.

Karaoke gets serious respect in Beijing. Tall hotel structures are devoted solely to congregating for Karaoke. The lobby of the ever indulgent Beijing Karaoke hotspot, MELODY, can be seen in the picture above. The immediate aesthetic shamelessly shoves electric cool into your face.

There are several corridors and stairways that lead to many, many comfortable rooms. You walk down hallway after hallway. Left and right, every room appears devoted to sharing intimate Karaoke sessions with a circle of judiciously selected friends and colleagues.

Here, you are not an exhibitionist in a strange bar full of volatile strangers, but are a group of acquaintances jammed into a glowing room with glowing screens and thy thumping speakers.

The room kept getting smaller, but the brother and I couldn't be stopped. Like a tornado in the middle of a movie theater, we destroyed Prince and Bono and Billy Joel. The night ended with a bottle of Glenfiddich and three kids riding a cab home across the sunrise.