dan's 30th birthday!
(celebrated the night before his actual birthday)
saturday, february 22nd, 2003 @ village karaoke
before the singing madness starts, belgian fries are enjoyed at pommes frites.
while waiting for the others to arrive, alex b. picks up the microphone. shawn and greg open the first beer of the night while searching through the song books.
anxious to get his karaoke singing out of the way, marc grabs the mic for a rather poor, yelled version of the white stripes' "fell in love with a girl."
when dan sings, the room fills with the blinding flash of a half dozen cameras!
for her first performance of the night, shawn steps to the front of the room doing a prince favorite.
and then... MR. MET!!!
in a moment so unbelievable, dan can only hide his face in excitement. it's as if the bobblehead doll that lives on his cd shelf has come to life and appeared in the east village with a handler named mike.
mr. met encourages dan to sing a bit of the karaoke. a huey lewis song is selected and dan starts improvising the words, happily relating everything to the upcoming baseball season.
photo courtesy sujan
as kaci helps dan and mr. met finish the song, the signing of autographs and posing for photos begins!
with the fervor of a real fan (which she is), sujan hugs mr. met
anne and mr. met
photo courtesy sujan
like a patient five year old outside shea stadium, alex waits for mr. met to autograph a photo card and then poses for a picture that will be emailed to family and friends the next day.
jamie, the budding phrenologist, checks to see if mr. met is "juiced."
reenacting the meeting of two super powers - it's mr. met and chris! - is that the same n.w.a. hat that chris wore in april? did any of us believe him when he suggested the cap choice was just coincidence?
brooklyn educators & the baseball mascot (alex b., maura, mr. met, dan and sue)
the gang poses for one group picture and then the microphones are turned on - let the serious karaoke begin!
allowing exhaustion to sink in (he spent the week in ohio and got engaged to kaci), jamie somehow slumps from the sofa and onto the floor. he keeps singing and builds his energies, gearing up for a second wind that includes a dead-on impersonation of fred schneider (b-52's) during "love shack."
as a tune she programmed starts, maura jumps onto the table and unleashes some out-of-control dancing and singing.
with the crowd fascinated dan jumps in...until he stumbles backward and topples onto the ground, checking the screen for the lyrics during his entire fall.
as dan and alex sing, shawn enjoys cheesecake made by yu and really gets her dance groove on!
throwing the spirit of of the room into the early 90's, greg takes to the front of the room for an intense, high-energy proclaimers song.
at 30, dan HAS walked 500 miles...but when did he start embracing the frat boy look?
jamie works through his second wind as he and shawn duet to the delight of the room!
as the night wears on, everyone's inner karaoke spirit is released!
with mic in hand, jim keeps it casual.
upping the international level of the karaoke, yu takes the stage for some spirited japanese pop/rock!
with r.e.m. blasting through the speakers, dan expends his energies dancing, singing and twirling until he collapses (again!)
the karaoke closes as everyone chants about mickey being so fine. the party continues, as it often does, at o'connor's.
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