Vivian plays the wine bottle like a triangle.

During a ballad, Jen lights a flame. And my dog wears glasses.

Where can I find Jesse’s Girl?

This kind of night only happens when there are no haters in the group. You know, no one who says, “I’m tired, I want to go home.” When you hang out with enablers, the party is everywhere you go.

Theme song for the night!

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!

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!

<

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!
<

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!

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!