PLEASE DON'T SING!

North Beach was relatively quiet, though one of the dives seemed to be jampacked with the flowering youth of the city, getting inebriated as is their wont. That's something with which I have no issue -- sozzled yugend meet with my approval, though I keep them distant -- but there was no place to sit down. So we went directly to the karaoke joint, did not pass go and didn't collect one hundred dollars, where Jenny put on some queer Hong Kong stuff from the seventies, featuring one cringy song from the flapper era.


So I looked up the song on youtube. Wow. The accompanying video from 2012 is ..... something else. No, shan't mention the name of the song or the original group.
Just, Jayzus. Mini skirts and coolie hats. Sweet Jayzus.

I've got a strong stomach.

As we left the venue, Chinatown's dumbest waiter started massacring a lovely song from a Shanghai movie made in the thirties. I know all the words to it, but because I like it far too much, I shall not sing it.


When I had eaten lunch earlier in Chinatown (late, so more like teatime or an early dinner) the restaurant had been just as empty as the karaoke place. Is something going on?
Are people staying home because of the colder weather?

The restaurant is on of my favourite chachantengs. Such places used to do Chinese versions of western food, but have shifted to a more Hong Kong cosmopolitan selection of offerings, convenient and slightly off-kilter. Not what you would expect from a Cantonese Restaurant in the American heartland and consequently not often patronized by non-Chinese. Which suits me fine. As long as there is a bottle of Sriracha on the premises, and a cup of milk tea, I'm okay. Three more tables showed up within minutes of my entry, one of which changed places several times for reasons I cannot figure out. American Chinese, speaking English, so feng shui had nothing to do with it. Maybe it was goofy paranoia?

Pipe after lunch

There was a weird vibe in the city today.
Probably from the earthquake.

Pipe before karaoke

All things considered, karaoke would not be a chosen past time or evening's entertainment.
But it seems to be the wave of the future, and can be educational or instructive.
And of course it's better than The Grateful Dead.
Or televised sports.



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