Stranger in a Strange Land - NYC Karaoke

For only the second time ever, I ventured out of my Central Jersey comfort zone to test the waters of New York Karaoke. The first time was for Dan Flan's birthday party, wherein we got plastered on smuggled beer in a small room in a Korean establishment.
Since the rest of the evening was spent wandering the streets of Brooklyn, bar hopping and tree climbing, the brief hour in the Karaoke room is less prominent in my memory than it might've been.
On Friday, I took the train into the city, then walked a few blocks to meet up with the group. It struck me that despite having spent almost two decades living 30 minutes from NYC, I am still a tourist. I love the skyscrapers, the bright lights, the loud noises, and while I try to look jaded like a local, I'm still obviously not.

I called when I was close, asking for specific directions to the apartment. Along with the street address (useful), I was told that the apartment is located on the northwest corner of the block. Fantastic. Unfortunately, I hadn't brought my compass, and sun had long since set. I was eventually able to find the North Star between the buildings, though, so I did manage to orient myself.

As fun as it is to look down my nose at the city from my high suburban horse, New York does have its merits. For example, in the winter, the smell of garbage isn't overwhelmingly strong. The new touch-screen GPS devices in taxicabs keep you entertained during your inebriated, expensive ride home. In the end, it is the Korean Karaoke bars that take the cake.

I love that we're given options from both English- and Korean-language music. I love that every room gets tambourines, a disco ball, and microphones set to echo. I love that we can't control the option that gives a grade after every song, although I'm not too thrilled that my performances are consistently low-scoring.

I simply adore the accompanying music videos. There's no telling what possessed the production companies to make them, but they're fantastic. In the spirit of cheap knock offs reverse engineering hilariously cheesy copyright avoidance, these videos are just awful. The best I've ever seen was when Ted was laughing too hard to sing "Don't Fear The Reaper" because the video was of a vampire chasing a woman around his mansion.

This post was meant to be a treatise about Karaoke itself, as illustrated by the differences between Harvest Moon Karaoke, Korean joints in Manhattan, and maybe even the Golden Rail. However, as usual, I've had too much fun along the way and will have to save that for another time.