Karaoke madness

I did something that qualifies as totally scary for me: I sang karaoke solo in front of a group of about 30 people on Saturday night.

Sure, it was about 1:30 a.m. and I'd been warmed up by singing, as part of a group, "American Pie" (now that's an exhausting song to sing -- all eight-plus minutes of it), but it was a major accomplishment for me.

What did I sing? A favorite of mine: Queen's Crazy Little Thing Called Love.

Several (I mean several) years ago, I went up with my sister and someone else and mutilated the same song in a karaoke setting, and then there was that contribution to the "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" ensemble at a Christmas party years ago, but this was my first solo endeavor. I think I can say with confidence that I didn't suck this time. All that practicing in the car over the years must have paid off (apologies to any other drivers who might have overheard me).

This time, when I went up there, I tried to remember my successes in my acting class, and when the lyric "I gotta be cool, relax" came up, I took it to heart.

I wasn't the only person in the family to brave the waters with solo karaoke. Dave "the crooner" did Sinatra's "Summerwind", Van Halen's "Ice Cream Man" and Radiohead's "Creep". I have to say that his "Summerwind" was a big crowd-pleaser.

So, my scary goal for June has been met. Now I need to backtrack and collect that goal for May. I will yet master a manual transmission.