Karaoke.

My plan to take Sarah and some friends to a cozy sports bar named "Standings" in the East Village ended up a bit of a bust; it was fun enough until the baseball games ended an hour after we arrived, but ten minutes later the place was empty. It's the first time I've ever been part of the only group in a bar at 11PM on a Friday night.

So Sarah's friend Kelly led us to "Planet Rose", an astonishingly sketchy-looking karaoke bar on Avenue B just south of 14th. The facade was of metal and glass-brick, with only a porthole in the door to let outsiders peer in. The bar was bathed in dim red light, and several seating areas were bordered by long couches built in to the wall. It wasn't particularly swanky, and that was perfect. The karaoke line was long, and we ended up sitting around for a couple of hours before we got to sing, and had several (reasonably priced) drinks in the meantime.

One of the best performances of the evening was "Kevin Jesus" (the moniker by which he was summoned to collect his microphone) singing Prince's "P Control". He was dead on, which is really saying something for a skinny white guy. He also inspired me to purchase the single online this evening.

I had signed up to sing "Any Way You Want It" and "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey, while Michelle had volunteered to sing "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix-A-Lot. Unfortunately, the bartender, two songs before we were to start, decided to sing "Any Way You Want It". Prick. He was also phenomenally good.

However, we got everyone off the couches for "Don't Stop Believing" ten minutes later, strung them along with "Baby Got Back", and then brought the house down with "Sweet Caroline". It was a stirring finale, made far more fun because the whole crowd decided to sing along. If there's anything four years of college taught me, it's that everyone always sings along to "Sweet Caroline", especially if drinks have been quaffed.

A fitting ending to an abnormally crazy night. Love that muddy water.

COMING NEXT TIME: Adventures in Home Decorating, Chinese Tea For White Guys, and some other crap.

Wayback Machine: Grape Nuts of Wrath.

In searching the local video archives, we discovered this breakfast incident:



Filmed in Sarasota, FL. ::sigh::

Back From China.

We landed at JFK two weeks ago tired, happy, and stuffed. I'm not sure I've ever eaten so well on a vacation; hopefully Sarah will soon upload her pictures of all the food we ate in the ol' Orient. Macau was particularly (pleasantly) surprising, full of spicy prawns and African chicken and Portugese soups and tasty wines. Having lived under Portugese rule since the 16th century, the Macanese have had quite a bit of time to practice their fusion cuisine. And it's damn tasty.

I've started putting pictures up on Flickr, and I'll keep them rolling over the next week. First, there are pictures from Hong Kong, and then ones from Guangzhou. Still to come are the pictures of Macau, which was a wonderful old-world oasis, and then more from our last few days in Hong Kong.

Hopefully before too long I'll find time to write more about China. Experiencing the culture was even more interesting than I expected. It's quite evidently a society in transition, and there are tens, hundreds of millions of people at each stage of that transition. The situation makes for some strikingly imperfect markets: meals for 2 to 1000 yuan; shirts for 20 to 400.

I'm really just a huge dork.

Good News Abounds.

Ceiling: Really That Short
Originally uploaded by ispivey.

As you can see to the right, I really wasn't kidding about the height of my ceiling. I'm worried that when Jeff comes to visit, he won't be able to stand (or at least not without dodging the light fixtures).

But wait, wait, even more important: I've replaced my camera. My D70 may be gone, dearly beloved, but its heir apparent (the Nikon D50) is more than fit for its older sibling's shoes. I'm not sure what this says about me, but bringing a new camera home felt like filling a hole in my life that's been extant for a while. Photography is one of my few creative outlets I really feel like I'm any *good* at (though my minor-league photography rehab start has been rough, so far). Most importantly, the new camera is just in time to accompany me to China in ten days.

TEN DAYS. That's pretty soon, and I still don't actually own a guide-book. Thankfully, I have an in-house guide. Needless to say, I'm insanely excited. We leave Monday, spend a few days in Hong Kong, a week and a half in Guangzhou, another day or two in Hong Kong, and then return to New York. I plan on eating staggering amounts of delicious and intimidating food; Aaron VanDevender described Guangzhou as "the Louisiana of China -- everyone else in China thinks they eat ridiculous stuff." And strangely enough, I'm more worried about my camera than about my personal safety. I'm fairly confident I'm twice the size of any would-be muggers, but those Chinese do have such dextrous little fingers...

Sarah and I also attended Elder Weekend at Zeta Psi last weekend, which was quite a lot of fun. I'm glad to have moved on, but I could use more frequent doses of the house; it reminds me what a unique environment MIT is.

But who am I kidding, I get called a douchebag enough the way things are.

New pics on Flickr, expect them to keep rolling. Adios, kids and cadets.

P.S. Made the mistake of digging out my MP3 backup CDs from 1999 and 2000. As a result, my iTunes just randomly started playing 2gether's "The Hardest Part of Breaking Up."
P.P.S. PAPELBON.