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Everywhere here it's all about KTV. What's KTV? It's karaoke, but with a much better twist on it. Instead of going to a bar and spending the whole night listening to people you don't know sing bad versions of Elvis, or some guy trying to pick up the girl at the bar by singing Brown Eyed Girl to her, you go to a private place where you rent the room by the hour and get your own machine with thousands of songs on it, a huge TV and stereo system for your music, a computer to program your selections as well as leather couches, catering service and privacy. I have to admit... KTV rocks!!!
There are also smaller restaurants that have private rooms with a system in them to get you to spend a little more to sing. I don't know if it's a genetic thing or not, but I swear any Taiwanese male over the age of 35 cannot pass up the opportunity to sing at a KTV! It's crazy! They have them in their homes, in their favorite restaurants and I swear if they put KTV in bathroom stalls you would never hear any inappropriate sounds ever again from your neighbor, just him crooning as he does his business.
Over Chinese New Year we went for lunch at a small hot pot restaurant (mmm... yang roe/goat) and in our private room was a KTV system. There were about fourteen of us in the room and who do you think was the first and last to sing? Not me... grandpa! The man crooned like he was built to have a microphone in his hand and like everyone else I've seen do this, he was in his own world, just singing and smiling the whole time.
they wanted me to sing, but the English songs at these older places are awful. Everything is bad and old and the lyrics are wrong. At the bigger places like Holiday KTV, Cashbox and Party World they have a great selection of English songs, but the old standards at the mom and pop places are just scary. What's worse, no one thought to run a spell check on the books before printing. Here's just a few of the wonderful classics that popped out at me in the selection book...
     And here he is, the man of the hour just a few hours after letting me (a foreigner) see his farm and pick some different fruits from the trees as well as walk around and look a little crazy taking pictures of a stuffed Pumba toy on his land (yes, Pumba pictures coming soon). This is the man who sang for us right up to the very end of the lunch (did I mention how good goat actually is?)... GRANDPA... Now that is a man born with a microphone in his hand!!! |
| | Posted 2/15/2008 2:04 AM - 98 views - 6 comments
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