Lost in Transcription

i am ScarJo. well, almost ScarJo, minus the boobs and the divorce proceeding....but pretty much I am following in her footsteps from the flick Lost in Translation. let's see - she had a LOT of free time on her hands (like me), she spent her days touring around a foreign city (like me), she hung out with an old actor dude (not yet) and she loved to get her karaoke on.....like i did this weekend.

all this build up to tell you i sang with a bunch of people, perhaps a little unnecessary, but i really did feel like i was lost in translation.

here's a quick rundown of the evening - start with a buffet of traditional Chinese fare - hot pot, and a whole bunch of other things that will remain somewhat of a mystery, but you can't really go wrong with meat & noodles. the group of ~25ish peeps had a private room, which just happened to be stocked with a bunch of 40's of whiskey and a few cases of carlsberg. my kind of karaoke already...and a side note, the drink of choice was whiskey and green tea. didn't know what to make of that as a mix, but it was downright tasty....i recommend if you ever find yourself out of coke...or pretty much any other mix.

yes, there was singing...and aside from not being able to understand the song selection machine as well as any of the selected Cantonese/Mandarin tunes, i still managed to bang out a few bars (proof to follow).

a unique part of the night was learning a few HK drinking games, known as jiuling to the locals. certainly a little different than the one's i used to play as a young man....my 2 faves:

-Finger Guessing: kinda like rock/paper/scissors, but with fingers and numbers....sounds a little juvenile, but actually pretty fun as you add more people into a circle.....a lot of fingers, be careful not to bang as you go.


-Dicing: again, similar to what i imagine Yahtzee to be like, but given i've never played, it follows the same cup & dice setup. players shake their cup, and then based on the numbers showing on your multiple dice, you suggest how many other people have the same numbers on their dice...., trust me it's more fun than it sounds. don't judge me for the games i play.

without any further delay, here is a sample of the sweet melodies from yours truly. it lasts :90, and you'll likely be tempted to stop it after :15...and feel free to do so. a side note - without an iphone, i was left to record this as just an audio track via my ipod. youtube doesn't like audio-only files, so i had to slap on this really crap image of the aforementioned ScarJo and Mr. Bill Murray.
For relaxing times, make it Suntory time.