Cube'd

1. What have I learned...

- Karaoke never fails to bring in the world's worst singers, but can also lure in some surprising future American Idols... who are only seven or eight years old.
- People have more fascinating stories to tell after a few drinks, either because the alcohol is starting to affect them or because they feel more comfortable telling stories knowing that half the people around them won't remember the night at all within a few hours.
- The best way to embarrass your seventeen year old son is to play the most toddler-associated song from his iPod you can find.
- Dark, quiet atmospheres with occasionally obnoxious singers are great places to meet with friends and just talk about whatever's going on in life. It can be a great stress-reliever, which I think is why most people go to karaoke - not to sing, but to find new people to talk and relate to.

2. An example of how karaoke can be a great stress-reliever would be a conversation I had with my friend's family friend Dani about the suicide of a childhood friend she'd been told about only that morning before karaoke.

3. I think karaoke places (the one I went to wasn't in a bar) can be compared to really any other kind of social gathering - only in this case, the thing bringing everyone together isn't just love of football or a specific kind of movie, though it can be. It's just a place to hang out with friends and unwind. The fact that karaoke is going on at all is really more of an excuse.

4. The fact that karaoke works so well at bringing all kinds of people together (regardless of whether you like them or not), even though a lot of the people who frequent the karaoke scene never actually sing shows that humans really can just sit and talk to others without any kind of prejudices - both parties want to talk to someone about their lives, and both are willing to listen to the other. An example of this would be when a family from outside Lincoln came in to support the opposing team in the game the next day - everyone acted as if they were wearing red and white like the rest of them, and no nasty words were exchanged. A few people even invited them to come back or go elsewhere with them at a later date.

5. Karaoke really only consists of a bunch of tired people looking to unwind from the stresses of the work/school week, some guy with a karaoke machine, and the occasional 'HAY LOOK I'M 21 NOW LET'S DRINK', though those, thankfully, don't pop up too horribly often. The karaoke itself is like glue - without it, the 'regulars' would rarely see each other, if at all, since the common interest (aka excuse to go talk to a bunch of usually pretty cool strangers) wouldn't exist. Without the people, there would be no karaoke. And without the drunk 21 year old, my friend's stepdad wouldn't have a job as a 911 dispatcher.

6. I use it to have an excuse to see a number of people I wouldn't normally hang out with, as some of them, including Dani, are a fair bit older than me, but it doesn't really seem to matter when we're all together - everyone wants to just hang out and have fun, no strings attached. Without it, I think me and the rest of the 'regulars' would have a lot less entertainment and company in our lives.