i have read rob sheffield's two previous works love is a mix tape and talking to girls about duran duran. love is a mix tape was the story of how he lost his wife at a young age to a brain aneurysm, a sad yet great tribute to her via the music they loved. so i kind of have a soft spot for him. however, to be completely honest i don't remember what talking to girls about duran duran was about, i do own a copy, but i am sure it was entertaining. anyway, i like sheffield, he is a music geek and i love a good music geek. so when i saw that he had written a book about karaoke, i immediately put in a request.
for those of you who know me, i am pretty good at karaoke, please note i said karaoke not singing. i agree with sheffield that karaoke is not about singing ability. i always tell people that i can't sing but i can put on a good performance. my training ground for karaoke was high school. when i was in high school, mtv's say what karaoke (which i was shocked sheffield failed to mention in this book) was popular and i took the idea of their idea of random shuffle karaoke and turned it a noontime rally game (i was an asb geek). i may have forced my high school peers to play that game too many times, oh well, my friends and i loved it.
my first memory of doing a crazy wild karaoke performance was at an end of the year work "party" (i use the term "party" loosely because there were only like 12 of us there) from my first year at the front desk at ucla's covel commons. we had a karaoke party and i performed a song by my vocal doppelganger, gwen stefani. sheffield explained that everyone has a vocal doppelganger, "when you start singing you find out whose voice suits yours and who doesn't, and you don't always get to make the decision." he goes on to share that "the voice gets into your soul and this guy means more to you than he ever did before. your doppelganger becomes your spiritual mentor." and it's true, gwen stefani has always been my go to girl when karaoking; i do no doubt songs ("just a girl", "sunday morning"), i her solo stuff ("what you waiting for?" and "wind it up"----quick digression, i used to have the dj at westwood brew co, play my ipod but so that i could do those two songs because they weren't available as karaoke songs.) but back to my first karaoke "performance", i performed "just a girl" and was so into it that i jumped off of the speakers like i was some pop princess. i may have even done a push-up (i like to incorporate moves from music videos into my performances) but yes, i went all out, and set the standard by which i karaoked.
i have had some pretty memorable performances. "like a virgin" at brass monkey, the first time i did it and i did it in the style of madonna's vma's peformance aka i rolled around on the ground. i even added a little introduction to it when i would perform it at westwood brew co, i would ask all my fellow v-card holders to hold up their vs for me (my friend richard once thanked me for letting him know which girls were virgins.) in vegas, at this one karoake place my friend rolly took us to, i did a crazy rendition of system of a down's "sugar" and had some guys off the street come in to watch me perform. there was the time i did "don't speak" and my friends tiffany, jaye and i discovered the power that is "miss cleo karaoke" (my friend and i were going through a rough patch and this song expressed exactly what i felt.) i have also been known to do amy winehouse's verison of "valerie", and some selena (faking spanish of course). these two i perfected in my friend cody's apt. i don't know how it started but we would host karaoke nights at his apt. and not like filipino machines karaoke, but literally a mike and a CD player. you had to really know your songs. it was a little rundown but made for some amazing karaoke nights. i have also started to add "part of your world" from the little mermaid, i have perfected my singing of it at my friend's danny's dinner party.
as you can see i love karaoke, and when i heard about this book, i imagined it to be filled with fun stories of random adventures in karaoke bars, similar to the ones that i have shared. i saw each chapter as a song that pertain to some crazy night. however, the subtitle "the rituals of love & karaoke" hinted that there would be more. after reading the first chapter, i saw that it would also be about how karaoke brought sheffield and his new wife together. sounds sweet, i would enjoy that, but in reality this book was not limited to just that storyline too. in fact, it was more of a hodgepodge of stories that shared the theme of karaoke (and at times very loosely).
to be perfectly honest, turn around bright eyes felt thrown together. i imagined his agent calling him one day, telling him "ummm, remember that three book deal you signed? well they want that third book." and sheffield was like "hmmm i like karaoke, i can write about that!" so he started writing this book but realized he only had so many stories about his nights out karaoking and so he decided to add in the element of his wife for length. however, this topic only gave him a handful of more chapters. as a last resort, sheffield started to add in anything that remotely resembled karaoke, for example, the essay on rock'n'roll fantasy camp. seriously, i am pretty sure his logic about using this piece "hey, i have that rejected rolling stone piece, and i did sing at camp, so yeah lets add that in too for filler". some chapters would be some music related story and then sheffield would add in a concluding paragraph with the word karaoke in it somewhere to make it fit into the theme of the book.
i know i sound harsh, i am normally okay with a hodgepodge of essays (see: the fact that i have read everything by chuck klosterman), but sheffield narrowed his scope with his subtitle (though i guess ritual is pretty general) and didn't deliver on it. even with the lack of cohesion among the stories, there were some great chapters.
i enjoyed reading about how sheffield and his new wife met. it was adorable how he heard her voice on the radio and then stopped by to meet her. it was sweet to see how he was so unsure how to court her and how thoughtful he was in their relationship.
the chapters about 9/11 and post 9/11 were interesting. sheffield lived in the financial district near the twin towers which allowed me to see that situation in a different light. for example, i never knew that the financial district was a wasteland nor did i know there was a mall in the twin towers. i really enjoyed the chapter 99 luftballoons, seeing how the city and people started to piece themselves back together after 9/11. what an incredible scene and how therapeutic to sing a song about bombs after a tragedy like that.
i also enjoyed the beatles chapter, though again what did it really have to do with karaoke.
the parts about karaoke that i did enjoy; it's history, the story about the guy that is paid to perform at karaoke bars to get the crowd going (possible side job, once karaoking in k-town in a private room with my friends, i was instructed to sing so everyone could get over those initial fear), and of course the tales of sheffield actually performing karaoke.
this book was seriously all over the place, and it's lack of cohesion, left me bored. this is the kind of book you leave in your bathroom and read occasionally like a magazine. good but not great enough to devote a serious reading off.
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