Karaoke Revolution

I do not mean to diminish the incredible posts starring the newest member of our family, but this story is too good to go untold.

Made famous by a video of Mom rocking out to U2 on Stephen's cellphone, I'm sure we are all aware of the recent phenomena of theses somewhat musical video games like Mom's favorite Guitar Hero II, or our dear cousin Jill's Guitar Hero III. Recently a new game, Karaoke Revolution, came out. As opposed to playing instruments, the object of the game is to follow the pitch by moving your voice along a neon line moving like a treadmill. At the end of each song, you are rated by America's favorite judges, Simon Paula and Randy, the judges on American Idol. I'll admit that I have now spent more than a few hours chasing my ambition of becoming a Guitar Hero 'HERO,' but I must draw the line at Karaoke Revolution. It's the same thing as Karaoke, nothing needed to be revolted against or revolutionized in any way.

That rant was somewhat irrelevant to the story that really needs telling. My work consists of two types of people. There are the college age kids working absurd hours to pay their tuition (unless they're me (thanks Dad)), and there are the 40 and up adults making some money on a relatively easy, quite, peaceful second job where most of the time can be spent reading a best seller. The day shifts are mostly composed of the college kids, and the night shifts create about a 50/50 balance of the two types. Andres is a college kid who works nights. At a recent company party, Andres won a portable DVD player. Sweet. He gets to watch Batman while he works (mostly the cartoon, and the making of the cartoon in the special features). In other recent news, Andres bought a portable Play Station II. Even more recently, he bought Karaoke Revolution. Andres was in choir in high school, but it's quite obvious he's never received any formal training. He knows how to hit those high notes, just not very well. Anyways, all of these recent events have lead to a truly revolutionized work place, where in our corner of seemingly endless cubicles, one can witness and more importantly hear a truly disturbing event - A two minute whistling solo for one of Bon Jovi's hits while every college age kid is trying hard not to urinate on company property from suppressed laughter while the 40+s are banging their heads against the carpeted/supposedly sound canceling dividers.

Along with my ambition to becoming a Guitar Hero HERO, i have another confession to make. I have indulged in a few episodes of American Idol. I don't think there is a person out there (excluding the group I am about to illuminate) who wouldn't agree that the fascinating thing about A I is not the talent it draws, but the LACK of talent. It's the completely disturbing auditions that everyone remembers (for example William Hung), no one really cares about yet another pop or country star (no offense Paul and Rebekah). I cannot help but hypothesize that this recent video game is only the producer's and writer's best way of recruiting those incredibly lack-of-talented people to believe they can sing. Take Andres for example. You know that one song which goes something like "I've kissed the rains down in Africa?" It used to be not that bad of a song. In fact, I believe this is one of the few songs written after the 70's and not produced by MOTAB that Dad will listen to. With the added "Personal Solos (la la la's)" and "humming riffs," Karaoke Revolution/Andres have turned this Delila favorite into a seven minute torture session. The government was recently sued by Rage Against the Machine (a hard rock band) for using their music as torture (playing it over and over again for hours and hours to detainees(a somewhat ironic move, because a lot of the band's songs are clearly anti-war/government...)). The Government could go through a lot less of a hassle if they only would exploit what our pop culture is exploiting-ourselves.

Again, I have strayed way of topic. The point is, Trina (48 and balding) quit because Andres wasn't fired.