Mulloskeys Adventures Abroad

This is a long overdue post and we should start by apologizing to our friends Miah, Ben, Michelle, Lindsay and Brian for whom the greatness of the time had this night more than warranted a posting much sooner. We are sorry and by no means seek to diminish the supremely record levels of “good times” that were reached that fateful spring night.

We all know that Japanese are big fans of the Karaoke.. in fact I believe that to be a Japanese word.. I just asked Erin and she said yes.. she is so smart. In fact she just taught me how to spell it.. k-a-r-a-o-k-e. Anyways.. about the Karaoke.. the Koreans could give the Japanese a run for their money. It is everywhere here. There are competitions, machines in malls, stores, even TV programs where ordinary people perform in front of an audience. You may remember our BLOG of the spring staff picnic/hike; even the coach buses all have built in systems for singing along to video.

So what is a nore-bang? Well, people here do not sing in bars in front of strangers. Koreans go to nore-bangs (singing-rooms). I swore you couldn’t drag me there but it was Erin’s B-day and she is the boss. Plus it helps having a few friends who are really good singers (Ben and Miah – Brian too) who can get the ball rolling (in combination with many bottles of Soju to keep it rolling). For about $10/hr you get your own huge room with a large horseshoe leather couch and table, banquettes, the whole deal. Surround sound, huge screen, 2 mics, private bathroom and a few cheesy rotating lighting fixtures that, for the briefest of moments, made you feel like a rock star. Okay.. so the fact that you get privacy, and are able to bring in your own booze are two major pluses. Clearly the difficulty for us less-than-Lawless singers out there is that people (strangers even… gasp!) are watching while you butcher ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ which, no matter how drunk you are, slightly robs you of the total enjoyment of the experience.
Miah and Ben start off with what is an obviously rehearsed “Bohemian Rhapsody” which definitely broke the ice. Then, Brian melted it with an intense version of U2’s A Beautiful Day. As expected, we half thumbed through the song list binder, drank our Soju and watched the boys make asses of themselves. That was, of course, before Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer” was selected by Miah. Looking back now, I believe that was the exact moment in the night where things started to escalate rather quickly… you know, that moment in a night when you think … ‘THEN, right then was when it all started to go downhill’… After some Robbie Williams (I didn’t know I liked that song) some Oasis (I didn’t know that I even liked that song) and some Journey (I knew I loved that song … unfortunately the lyrics beyond ‘just a city boy… born and raised in south Detroit’ – sorry Miah), we were all very drunk and now fighting over the book and who got next song. There are some amazing videos taken from that night that you will never, ever, see. However, here are some pictures taken just before we ended up dancing on the tables. They kicked us out at 4:00am, after 5 hours and, I think, 12 bottles of Soju (ouch). What a blast!

Here’s Brian and Ben

More good times….

Drunker and Drunken

Our only regret is that both Erin and I were sick when Jen and Mike were here. Otherwise they would have been in these post-birthday shots too. Overall, while it sounds a little out of the ordinary, something that we would highly recommend it and will most definitely be subjecting all future visitors to this epic time.