What You Missed By Not Being at Millennicon
Posted on March 22, 2009 Posted by John Scalzi 34 Comments
Me, making an ass of myself doing karaoke. Yes, I know, I do not need karaoke to make an ass of myself, thanks much. Even so. For those of you either fascinated or horrified enough to wonder what songs I slaughtered, they were “Tainted Love” (shown above), “Let’s Dance,” “Superfreak” (with Tobias Buckell and Kaza Kingsley) and “Sledgehammer” (with Kaza again). Hey, I was guest of honor, I needed to make multiple appearances. And no, I didn’t do any versions of “Purple Rain.”
Oh, stop looking at me like that. We had fun.
I await the fan video. Because you know it was filmed.
Recently, I’ve come to terms with karaoke.
See, for a long time I thought, “Why would I do that, I hate singing.” But, after explaining it to people over and over again, I eventually realized that I don’t actually hate singing. I hate hearing myself sing.
Which, it turns out, you don’t really have to do during Karaoke, due to some mystery of microphones, echo, and being deaf.
Though, I do absolutely insist on doing Karaoke Japanese style in private boxes, without strangers (give or take blind-dates, and friends of friends).
So, I support your decision to have fun at Karaoke. And if somebody’s got a problem with that… joke’em *ahem*.
No “Purple Rain”? You could have done “Open Arms”. You should have.
No “Don’t Stop Believin'”?
It was my first con, and I had a great time. Got to sit in on the GOH Q&A and “Mixed Marriages”. Enjoyed hearing and meeting you. Thanks for being part of a great weekend!
Apparently I missed picking your toes.
For some reason, that doesn’t bother me.
I took quite a few pictures (jpgs; sorry, no video) at that Karaoke last night. I’ll have them up on my site sometime tonight (I’m busy this afternoon) and post a link here. :)
Sounds like it was fun. Everyone I know thinks karaoke is unbearably stupid, and so I have never experienced it. I would literally die if I had to sing, but would love to be in the audience with friends making asses of themselves.
You were ordered to post videos, dammit! Do you think we’d be satisfied by one lousy picture?
These “photos” are useless to me.
The mob demands video!
But while we’re sharing photos of karaoke singin’:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/onalark/3376207848/
When I play Rock Band, I play to win.
Steph, was the microphone tasty? ;)
I always think of karaoke being done in darkened clubs. Seeing it in broad, convention-hall lighting just seems… wrong. Off. Exposed.
“Bohemian Rhapsody” FTW!
Girlzz Rule.
One way to look at it is that the essence of karaoke is to go singing with a cast of a musical revue. And not caring if you keep up…
(why, yes….i’ve done that plenty of times….)
I’m not sure “missed” is the appropriate word here.
Was that the howling of banshees I heard last night coming from the direction of Tri-County? I thought the weather alarms were malfunctioning, even though it was a clear night.
@MarkHB
It tasted like victory.
My favourite Karaoke was the one of you and Renee doing Green Day’s “Minority”. The only time I ever regretted no jumping on stage when asked, the two of you had a serious blast.
It wasn’t just the karaoke. It was a lot of fun getting to see John and meeting other (and new to me!) authors. Thanks for coming, John!
At least you have awesome taste in music. No one can ever take *that* way from you. :)
We can haz videos?
Sledgehammer? On Karaoke? Really?
Don’t get me wrong, I love a lot of Peter Gabriel’s work, but that song’s the epitome of “uncatchy”, and the urge to sing along to it is a non-existent thing for me.
Also, it needs to be permanently placed on the list of songs that talk show bands are banned from using to play guests onto the stage with.
Photos shmotos, let’s see some video of those masterful musical performances.
I took some video –small ones on my digital camera–I don’t think I have any entire songs recorded and no guarantees on the sound (although I’ve gotten good sound from this camera in video mode before). I’ll post in a couple of days (unless I hear objections). I have to hit the ground running this week.
Nice emo expression. But where is the guyliner?
From the sounds of things you had a good time, which is exactly what we (ConCom) hoped.
(BTW, if a certain bacony item in your basket meets with your approval it’s available over at Jungle Jim’s. If not, I don’t know where it could have come from.)
I am so glad you had a good time! I will get the photos posted as soon as possible. We are so thrilled you were able to share your weekend with us! Congrats on the nominations. You deserve the best of everything!
Until a few weeks ago, I would have laughed at this in scorn! But my kids (teens and 20s) roped me into singing for them on Guitar Hero World Tour — “Mom! We don’t know ‘Hotel California’ or ‘Rebel Yell.’ Would you do vocals for us?” I fear I now understand the insidious lure of karaoke, and I can no longer mock those who fall prey to it. (That is, I CAN and WILL mock their performances, but I will no longer mock the very fact of their participation.)
Anyone can make an ass of them-self doing Karaoke. Your true superpower lies in getting other, normally sane and rational people to make asses (assii?) of themselves doing Karaoke.
Not every GoH has that sort of motivational power.
Thanks to all that is holy there are only still photos.
Mary Fitz:
“Your true superpower lies in getting other, normally sane and rational people to make asses (assii?) of themselves doing Karaoke.”
I did indeed tempt many. I feel proud of that.
Perhaps John has the Karaoke Fairy.
By the time I’m drunk enough to want to sing, I’m too drunk to get up and do so. So karaoke is safe from me. Other humans aren’t blessed with such failsafes…
Scalzi’s powers transcend hooch. No booze involved at Millennicon. That I know of…
@28 Mary Fitz actually, I have just now uploaded short snips of video. However, I apologize in advance that I did not have a tripod and I was also having such a good time that some of the video is shaky and my very off key voice can be heard on some of it.
Okay, videos can be found here. here: