Not that I believed she was a nerd for a split second but Taylor Swift is adorable with her droopy eyed glasses and Sharpied high school T in “You Belong With Me.” It’s the karaoke anthem of low key gals everywhere who are the antithesis of the halter top and heels wearing Meatpacking district hot girl. I just practiced it last night and it was awesome. A little fast so you’ll have to practice singing into your hairbrush the way Taylor does here.

Ok, this isn’t a new fairy tale. It’s totally like Some Kind of Wonderful, where the cool punky Mary Stuart Masterson pines after Eric Stoltz who pines after the popular and pretty Lea Thompson. Breaks your heart, doesn’t it?

I’ve never been with someone I had to sing “You’re So Vain” to but I like to imagine a 70s post-disco party where everyone is wearing Halston and Miss Carly is singing it to her ex, James Taylor. He walks into the party like he was walking onto a yacht…

She’s quite the style icon here, floppy hat and all. I’m going to have to run to American Apparel to replicate this look for my next performance. Practice “You’re So Vain” right here!

This post is dedicated to my aunt. We can’t stop singing this song!

So it was my first time at SXSW and my excuse for going was because I was on a panel with the Whuffaoke (the Winnebago with karaoke that drove across the country last summer) folks : Tara Hunt author of The Whuffie Factor, the irrepressible partiers Karen Hartline, Emma Perky, Tony B. of New Work City, Brett Petersel of Mashable, and Roger Niner, the San Francisco’s KJ. We’re all pretty much karaoke royalty. Before the panel we were all joking about what happens when you put this many extroverts in one room. We found out– it’s not for the meek.

It seemed like there was karaoke every night of the week. There was the RVIP. There were stellar performances at Cogaoke, where I went on Saturday, most notably Roger Niner blowing everyone’s minds with a song no one knew and the Soul Sisters of Lady Marmalade. What a great excuse to dress up like an turn of the century French hooker! At the party I downed shots of free whiskey with Bradley and my new Minnesotan friends Sanden and Gillian. It’s also where I met Jeff and Scott of Barstar. Read more about them here.

We did our panel Don’t Stop Believing: How Karaoke is Going To Change The World on Monday and believe it rocked SXSWi. I mean, it wasn’t about Twitter or location based media or anything nerdy. We started with each one of us walk down the middle of conference room singing a line from “Don’t Stop Believing”. It was social media Glee!

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We gave 5 minutes talks about karaoke, then followed up with a song. My talk was on Asian home karaoke and showed from photos of Laserdisc entertainment centers and Chinese families rocking out. Check out the presentation slides!

I sang “Cabaret” after my talk. Miss Karen Hartline did an stellar mash up of “My Heart Will Go On” and “I’m On A Boat” which I’m beginning to think is the karaoke song of the year. Miss Perky showed hilarious photos of “karaoke faces” and then sang “Tubthumping”. The highlight of the panel was guy named George who started playing his ukelele during the songs!
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Since karaoke must be followed by karaoke, after the panel we drifted over the Tech Karaoke party at Six Lounge, organized by the don of tech parties Brett. It was great party, and techies were singing their hearts out. Too many good things to report, but the most memorable for me was Roger Niner’s “More Than A Feeling.” Holy shit, he rocked Boston harder than that stage could hold him. I love his use of the couch. I sang “Heartbreaker” (omg I just realized I always sing the same crap!) and The Warrior with Miss Tammy Lynn of SXSW. Hot! Keeping in tune with more Benetar, Karen Hartline did a sexy “Hit Me With Your Best Shot.” I always say yes to that one.

Late into the night Karen, Tara, Emma kidnapped me into a cab and made my dreams come true– we headed to the RVIP! It was parked in a place I’d never go alone at night, under sketchy bridge. But that’s where the best parties happen. As soon as I got on, I knew it was going to be one of the most magical nights of my life. We drove around town picking and dropping off people, so the party always stayed new. I stayed on that RV until 630am, met some awesome people, sang Buffalo Stance, Fleetwood Mac, and Rage Against the Machine, and even witnessed Will Forte karaoke. Had an awesome time with Roger Niner on the RV– thanks Ro9er! Anyway, it was an EPIC night of karaoke, one that will stay in my heart forever! Thanks everyone and thank you Austin!

At SXSW I finally got to me the irrepressible Jeff Croft and Scott Phelps, creators of Barstar, the Foursquare of karaoke. If you haven’t tried it, you have to go sign up for the beta right RIGHT NOW! It’s a brilliant app that lets you share what you’re singing and where. Like Foursquare, it makes going out into the world and doing stuff a competitive social sport. I mean, I just love that you get pointage on what you sing because it does matter! I don’t know their secret algorithm for pointage but I do know you get more points for performing across genres. Anyway, I love Barstar and the Barstar peeps!

Anyway, their friend Woo made a video of highlights from SXSWi including footage of the legendary RVIP Lounge, Kestrin and Jonathan’s awesome NIng sponsored RV with KARAOKE INSIDE. OMFGZZZZZZ.

From the video I’m pretty convinced that Scott is a sweet transvestite from Transylvania. I wish they had more footage of Jeff doing “I’m on a boat” from Cogaoke. That boy knows how to tear up the mic. Can’t wait till next year guys!

Karaoke at SXSWi 2010 from on Vimeo.

So I’m starting a new endeavor called the Infinite Garage Project. I’m going to sell 35 years of my parents (and my) belongings over the next 365 days, out of our giant 3 car garage. More of an explanation here.

We accumulated a ton of crap over the years, including karaoke Laserdiscs and players. But I’m glad that at least now I’m using all the stuff to create a narrative of objects, helping me uncover a personal history of my parents. Here’s more on family karaoke, in case you don’t hear family singing on this blog!

My BFF Emily told me of a transcendent experience. KARAOKE NAILS on Mott and Grand in Chinatown, NY. I don’t think it happens daily, but this one Chinese salon hosts Karaoke Nails day, where their tagline (I kid you not) is “Harmonize While Your Nails Dry.” GENUIS. This is an amazing business model that should be global megachain catering to vocal ladies (and men) around the world!

And it’s a merging of so many worlds too. Asian own nail salons AND karaoke machines. I have to go to town next month for a wedding and this is the first place I’m hitting when I train in from JFK.

Here are Emily and Paige (the lovely model on the back cover of my book) singing “What’s Love Got To Do With It?”

Black lights, neon, and multiple lyrics screens inside a cab? When I get to Austin for SXSW for next week’s the karaoke panel, I’m going to have to hail this car down for the ride of my life. Austin’s “Land Yacht” as owner Scott Powell calls it is equipped with 30,000 songs of all genres and drives UT Austin students around on the weekends probably because they are all drunk.

He’s watched riders’ taste in music change through his years of cab-driving. Sorority girls seem to pick a lot of Journey songs, he said. The most popular genres in the cab are rap, R&B and hip-hop. Although he names James Taylor as his favorite artist, Powell said he enjoys all of those genres, as well.

From the Daily Texan via cousin Liren.

Is it that they’re singing Wicked or that they’re live action? Kristin Chenoweth eat your heart out…

Via Patrick on Google Reader.

Sometimes you just need to recharge the batteries in your karaoke mic. Took a mid-winter sabbatical to Florida and it was delightful. I got to swim with manatees in Crystal River on the west coast. Hundreds of them snuggle together in the hot spring during the winter, and I was able to snuggle in between them! They’re so giant (1-2 tons) that it was like swimming with dinosaurs. But they’re friendly like dogs! Still haven’t decided if they are ugly or cute. I guess they are more jolie laid.

Also experienced the one of the most beautiful things — the last evening space shuttle launch at Cape Canaveral. Thanks to my friend’s brother who works at Boeing, we were able to get access to the bleachers reserved for NASA VIP. We waited from 2-4am in the cold, watching the countdown clock, hoping that the clouds would clear since they had scrapped the launch the previous night due to weather. But it was worth it. A sonic boom across the sky, a blinding rocket of light, and lift-off.

We also went to Disney World Magic Kingdom, the inferior Disneyland and did some globetrotting at Epcot. The Magic Kingdom is a dry land but we were glad that Epcot with it’s global influence had a variety of booze from all around the world. There’s oddly no karaoke in Japan, so Epcot still has some homework to do.

My most fave Epcot land was Morocco, with it’s mosaic tiles and quiet courtyards. But I had a special place in my heart for Italy, just because it had the fourth Venice I’ve been to this year— including the real one, the Venetian Vegas, and the Venetian canals at the Villagio mall in Qatar. It’s a sign that I need to make a Venice pilgrimage every year.

It’s powerful enough to cause people to remove it from their songbooks. And trigger people to kill.

“The trouble with ‘My Way,’ ” said Mr. Gregorio, “is that everyone knows it and everyone has an opinion.”

Others, noting that other equally popular tunes have not provoked killings, point to the song itself. The lyrics, written by Paul Anka for Mr. Sinatra as an unapologetic summing up of his career, are about a tough guy who “when there was doubt,” simply “ate it up and spit it out.” Butch Albarracin, the owner of Center for Pop, a Manila-based singing school that has propelled the careers of many famous singers, was partial to what he called the “existential explanation.”

“ ‘I did it my way’ — it’s so arrogant,” Mr. Albarracin said. “The lyrics evoke feelings of pride and arrogance in the singer, as if you’re somebody when you’re really nobody. It covers up your failures. That’s why it leads to fights.”

More fascinating is that in the Philippines, karaoke bar employ gay men as the “guest relations officers” to mediate disputes between male patrons. They’re neutral forces because they don’t compete for female attention.

Via NYT.