Monday, January 29

Videoke

We should rent a Videoke, says my friend. Honestly i was confused. I didn't know exactly what a Videoke was. I imagined it was some kind of a DVD sized Machine that holds a ton of Karaoke Music that plugs into the TV (and i was smart enough to figure out Videoke was Video and Karaoke put together). I suspected the old portly tape driven Karaoke Machine had evolved into something slimmer and better, something they now call the Videoke. When i saw this thing however, i wasn't sure if it was an improvement from the old Machine because it ballooned into the size of a Duke Box. Or at least it wasn't an aesthetic improvement. A 26 inch Tube TV sits atop of the bulky Duke Box (be careful not to tilt the TV because its not fastened secure). The colorful controls for selecting songs on the dash looks like the old Donkey Kong buttons. There is no remote control for the songs of course so every single song is punched in (literally coz the buttons are rock hard). For shipping convenience this Giant Karaoke Machine is on rollers (otherwise it would probably take 4 large adults to carry). The problem is, rollers aren't any help because we got rocks the size of baseballs leading up to the house. It was a struggle.

To its credit the songs (at least i think) are digitally uploaded to the TV. In function it beats the old Karaoke Machine by a long shot, I'm just not sure why they put it in a Duke Box. Couldn't they design a slimmer lighter version? Haven't they ever heard of the wonderful Magic Mic? It probably holds, if not the same, more songs than that monstrosity of a Karaoke devise. Not to mention you could easily transverse rocky roads without deploying four large adults to carry it...

Anyways, Videoke to the Philippines is what Baseball is to the United States of America. It's the national past-time. It's pop culture. The Pop Culture... Every one is smitten by this mighty ubiquitous machine. Everyone sings with gusto. I'm surprised no one has been seriously hurt yet from fighting over the microphone because no one seems to be bashful about singing, they all want their turn like Now. Except for my sister and i every single one in our clan can sing well (my sis and i couldn't sing if our life depended on it), like we have been cursed or something. During my younger years i remember watching my uncles and their friends sing in my Dad's Karaoke Bar. Now that i am grown i am watching my little cousins take turns singing while i sit there in envy lol. It's like family Karaoke evolution... Thanks to my sister i did get my chance at Videoke stardom while in the Philippines. The song "Wonderful Tonight" by the greatest Eric Clapton came on the Videoke at my my Aunts party in Calumpit, Bulacan (45 minutes north of Manila). Incidentally, a song i was forced to sing at my Grand Parents 50th wedding anniversary several years ago on stage with a full band after I'd been feverishly requesting the song. Naturally whenever the song comes on my sister can not help but go nuts then demand an encore. I refused initially citing bad voice but when she's got a chockful of optimistic family backing her up it's kind of hard to do without looking like a jerk. I'm glad a had a few brews though...

Anyway, maybe one of these days they'll figure out there's this wonderful invention called 'Magic Mic'. I guarantee when they do they'll go gugu gaga over Karaoke all over again.

2 Comments:

At 7:01 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

funny my mom had the magic mic with her in th phillipines and i thought she had bought it from there

 
At 11:03 AM, Blogger Marc Gabay said...

Yes they have the Magic Mic there, but in the province and most of the homes still do not have them. They rent that Huge Videoke Machine...

 

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