New year's sing-a-long party

My third gig was a private party. The guy that hired me is a cheapskate, so I did the gig for free. Not that I minded, cuz this cheapskate happens to be me!

My lovely wife and I have a tradition of bringing a bunch of musically inclined people together for New Year's eve. They bring along their guitars or other instruments, and we have our piano. It has always been a great time for everyone.

This past New Year's, we invited the same sort of people over, but in addition to the guitars and piano, I had my karaoke gear set up in the corner of the living room. It was a bit crowded.

I naturally had to show off my gear, cuz guys are like that. Irv's interest was piqued. Irv is a softspoken fellow, very nice guy. He plays guitar well and sings well. He started asking what sort of songs I had, so I got out the book. He immediately found some oldies ... songs from the 50's and 60's. Songs he grew up with and knew well.

I played them. He sang. Several of us sang along. Someone else found a song they wanted. and we sang that.

I had originally set up the equipment so that the monitor faced toward the corner so that someone could sing out to the rest of the people in the room. That monitor naturally got turned around so that everyone could see the words.

The complexion of the party changed. It very quickly entered into new and uncharted territory. A completely novel karaoke genre was invented on that evening. The people at that elite party unwittingly became pioneers in an experiment that will become a landmark moment in the history of karaokeology.

No one knew, on entering our place that fateful evening, what lay in store for them. Not even I, as a trained scientist, a trained scientist who graduated with nine credits in psychology. I'm talking three whole classes, including one class in primate psychology.

Even that class in primate psychology with it's study of the behaviors of bonobo chimps could not have possibly prepared me for the auspicious turn of events.

Ok, so maybe we just had a good time?

I just hadn't anticipated the idea of a karaoke sing-a-long. I always thought of it as a solo, or maybe duet kind of thing.

Nobody got out their guitars that evening. The piano did not get played. And the party went well past the normal hour for folks like us. Way past our bedtimes.

We had fun.