The Karaoke Chronicles: Recent Sound Bytes

In an effort to streamline "The Karaoke Chronicles," here are some smaller reviews that were buried in other blog posts recently.

The Mobile Karaoke Unit

April 1 was also Phoenix's monthly "First Friday" art walk, which has become less about art and more about adolescents offering "free hugs" to oblige their attention-starved hormones. That night, my friends and I found the Mobile Karaoke Unit, a bicycle-propelled karaoke machine that tours First Friday and other events in metro Phoenix. Much to my delight, I sang the Monkees' "Daydream Believer," and many passers-by stopped to sing along. The MKU is an ingenious idea, I give credit to its K.J. for combining my two favorite hobbies (riding bikes and karaoke) into a virtual portable event. I'll endure hundreds of offers for free, sweaty hugs if it means singing another Monkees tune to the beautiful Phoenix skyline.

*****

Song Choice: T.O.I.L.

I was excited to discover recently that Hazelwood's First Place Bar & Grill has a very decent selection of David Gray songs ("Babylon" is usually the only one to be found), so I signed up to sing "The One I Love." When David includes this song on concert song lists, it's abbreviated "T.O.I.L.," which I think is an ironic way to describe the one you love, but you can't find the alphabet, plain and simple.

You also can't fight a large lady on her fifty-third birthday. Hazelwood's has a Celebrity Room apart from the main bar, and I like to sing to the folks that think they may be safe from the karaoke. In this case, when they saw the title of the song, they were more than eager to have me dance for their birthday girl. They didn't suspect the gravity of the song, and honestly I didn't let it stop me from simulating a lap dance, to the best of my ability. So, I was singing lines like, "I'm leaking life faster than I'm leaking blood," while this rather large woman slapped my butt and pulled me onto her lap. I sang, "Don't see Elysium, don't see no fiery hell" when my head was in her chest. Well, I guess David got that right.

So, "The One I Love" is a song of juxtapositions. I'm really not surprised.