I Do Karaoke

Hi All!

Frankly, I have hit a bit of a rough patch lately and haven't felt much like posting.

The outcome for Mike Lemay has been determined, and should be appealed if possible. I don't see the point of sending him to a Philly detention center. He would meet just as many bad guys ready to turn him into God-knows-what sort of hardcase if he were to be sent to Red Wing, but at least he would get to see his folks and friends quite a bit more often.

The judge's snide, sarcastic remarks about Mike, such as Mike unable to participate in "Student Council Lock-in", whatever the hell that means (obviously the "hip" old jurist meant "Senior Lock-in" - cripes, there was no such thing in MY day -- I think we called it, "Lets Drag a Few Kegs way back into Crosby Where the Cops are Too Lazy to Go and Have the Best Senior Blowout Ever" -- but times have changed).

I was urged by the family on advice of their legal counsel and their own instincts to keep my yap shut so as not to "piss off" the judge. I guess the "honorable" Micheal DeCourcy didn't need my input to issue a "pissed off" verdict. Could as insignificant a pesky little gnat like Wog have made things worse? I dunno, but will always wonder. Gotta "do stuff" in life. If your intentions are good, you will likely end up doing better than nothing and much better than worse.

Just to let you know, I had a hard time expurgating the previous paragraph. I am terrified of judges -- more so than the cops that send you to them. Self-Exalted Egomaniacs, with few exceptions, and that is not a view that I just dreamed up. Ask any lawyer. Not ALL of them are judge wannabes, but it takes Self-Exalted Egomaniacs to pass such judgement.

To the topic:

My sainted wife agreed to accompany me on my recently established Thursday night habit of going to our local BW2 for karaoke.

I'm good at it, in my own mind, and I really don't care if others agree, kind of like how I feel about blogging. What I lack in singing and following lyrics capabilities I try to make up for in semi-unbridled enthusiasm.

I DID get a comeuppance last week at a "real" karaoke event at the Blue Fox, but it's boring to me to watch pro after pro equal or surpass the original performance. I like to hear drunks and amateurs, which is more of what you get at BW2, present company falling somewhere in between amateur and pretty good, but never drunk.

I was lucky tonight. It was a good crowd but a shy one. Many of the "regulars" had not shown up yet, and as we were early, I got great stage time during the two hours we were there.

Here is my set list. Almost eclectic enough for 89.3, The Current -- for all it's faults, it's the only music station left on FM, IMHO.

"Maybelline" by Chuck Berry
"All Day and All of the Night" by The Kinks
"You Got It" by Roy Orbison
"Fat Bottomed Girls" by Queen

The latter two contained lyrics that took my totally by surprise and left me adrift, but I am fairly good at improvising and somehow managed to not look as totally at sea as I was (Laura might disagree but she is my toughest audience).

Oh yes. I went over to St Kates to see if I could buy a scalper's ticket to the Elvis Costello show. $55/$65 was the pre-Ticket Bastard price, so I figure the paying customers had $70-$90 invested in their ducats.

Hey, the guy is fantastic, but I would only pay that much to see a private Kinks Reunion show at Paisley Park with Prince as the opening act with free booze and pot.

Well, it felt good to write and I am working on rustling up the stray cattle of my behavior so that, come October 3, I will celebrate a new, personal holiday which I haven't named yet, but am thinking of "New Life Day" or "Second Wind Day" or "Still Alive Day" or "God Forgives, Society Don't Day". I hate all of them and welcome submissions.

Not sure where to go with the blog. The traffic is pathetic. I mostly feel like it doesn't matter and that I am at least trying to do something which keeps my fingers out of my nose.

Perhaps I might pull something other than lint out of my belly button that might just be worth reading by somebody, someday.

I have shopped the idea of creating a couple of separate blogs for different kinds of writing, but have met with lukewarm response from fellow bloggers.

One that I am pretty well close to doing is "WogUnhinged" where I can post my really "out there" stuff that will read to some as being drug or alcohol induced, but really just be weird stuff I think about.

Well, some of the "older" material might have been WUI, like my A+ English paper from college that was entitled, "I Can't Think of a Good Topic and This is Due Tomorrow so I am Going to Drink Blatz and Listen to Led Zeppelin and Describe the Experience as the Music Gets Louder and I get Drunker." Prof Hague said it was about the best, most honest thing I ever graded. Oh, and I typed it up on the old Royal and the grammer, spelling and simple mis-typing got progressively worse as the piece unfolded. Kind of gave the finished mess an extra "edge."

Topics would be (and I write this to remind myself if nothing else) "Black Helicopters? No, White Pontiacs!"; "The Clorox Cap that Rolled and Rolled"; ""Preview" Dreams that Came True"; "Warped, Sadistic Things I Have Done or Thought About Doing to Innocent Wild Creatures"; and the one I have pretty much written out already in my head and will definitely post here or somewhere, an "Onion"esqe piece of absurd, black humor loosely based on fact, called, "Why Do Lesbians Hate Me?"

Ok, that felt good.

Maybe I'm back in the saddle, maybe not. I've got a huge week coming up, culminating in a very important appointment with the Transplant Team.

Have a care for yourselves, OK? And, if so inclined, send out a good thought for me to your Higher Power. TIA.

Cheers!