And In Time, We All Were Stars

My friend Biraj is in town from New York this week, so tonight (well, technically last night, as it is early Thursday morning) we got together at Julie's Supper Club with our friend Sheela and a bunch of Biraj's other buddies. Biraj is another friend from my days as an actor. He and I met at a playreading mere weeks after I moved to San Francisco, and then we did a couple of plays together in 1999 and 2000. And it was Biraj who introduced me to Sheela after he met her at a commercial audition in 1999. We commemorated our night together with this photo.

Anyway, I've written about this before, but it bears repeating. On Wednesday nights, Julie's Supper Club transforms from a sophisticated, hipster watering hole to a paradise of the greatest of all art forms: karaoke.

You may wonder if we sang. Oh, hell yes, we sang. Here I am letting my inner chanteuse break free. If you look closely and know the words of the song, you will be able to ascertain that I am, in fact, singing Dolly Parton. I also, with varying degrees of success, warbled my way through tunes by the Pretenders, Belinda Carlisle and Olivia Newton John. Now, before all you music snobs recoil in horror at the mere mention of Olivia and Belinda, please be reminded that one is supposed to select cheesy songs for karaoke. If you're going to waste time worrying about being cool, why are you there?

That said, Biraj actually kicked my ass in performing category. Not that he can sing at all. In fact, he's tone deaf. However, what he lacks in talent, he makes up for in charisma, which is, of course, the entire point of karaoke. He and his friend Woody sang tandem on a couple of songs, including "Peaches" by the Presidents of the United States of America, which I believe is what they're belting out in this photo.

Sheela also bellied up to the microphone, selecting songs by Meredith Brooks, Avril Lavigne (whom her daughter loves) and REO Speedwagon. Talk about an entertaining evening. We had cocktails, but with all that expert singing, we didn't even need liquor.

Ah, yes. I have my singing lesson this afternoon, which is probably a very good thing.