If you’re going to try to sing “My Way” at a Filipino karaoke bar, you should maybe think twice about trying to sing “My Way” at a Filipino karaoke bar

I’m just a little surprised that this is getting attention. Karaoke is inordinately popular in Asia, and mixed with alcohol and machismo, sometimes leads to regrettable violence.

Any major Ravela family gathering in Nueva Ecija inevitably centers around a videoke machine (the men are always better than the women, even at the dancing), grilled meats, and a shitload of beer (two Christmases ago, I saw my 14-year-old cousin chugging away at a San Mig Light. It was horrifying). None of us has tried to kill each other. Yet. (But if my mom starts reaching for the microphone, run. Run away)

fallingandlaughing:

The authorities do not know exactly how many people have been killed warbling “My Way” in karaoke bars over the years in the Philippines, or how many fatal fights it has fueled. But the news media have recorded at least half a dozen victims in the past decade and includes them in a subcategory of crime dubbed the “My Way Killings.”

Karaoke-related killings are not limited to the Philippines. In the past two years alone, a Malaysian man was fatally stabbed for hogging the microphone at a bar and a Thai man killed eight of his neighbors in a rage after they sang John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads.”

“Sinatra Song Often Strikes Deadly Chord,” NYT

This is Quezon City, under some serious flash flooding. Apparently, ‘in three hours, as much rain as normally falls in two weeks soaked the Metropolis’. There are people stranded all over the place, trapped on roofs and needing rescue. My sister was stuck on campus for a while, but I think she’s made it back to her flat now.

We walked our dog today, and found some monkeys going through our neighborhood’s trash bins. Unfortunately, I could not get better pictures as

a. I only had my mom’s phone, and

b. due to an unfortunate incident involving a hungry monkey a few years ago which left me with a monkey-related scar on my face, I have an aversion to monkeys. It is rather difficult to photograph them while simultaneously hurrying the hell away, but not running, because that might provoke them. One never knows with these creatures.

I live in the jungle, quite literally.