Rob Sheffield pays tribute to Shigeichi Negishi, whose invention of the karaoke machine "Sparko Box" changed the soundtrack of our lives forever.
    • jeffw@lemmy.worldOP
      8·
      9 months ago

      Do you mean people are celebrating him now by singing more karaoke? That would be dope

      • Immersive_Matthew@sh.itjust.works
        101·
        9 months ago

        2-3 times a week at least on my block at a volume you cannot get away from as it is outside in the square in front of my home. Lots of really bad singers.

        • FuglyDuck@lemmy.worldEnglish
          5·
          9 months ago

          I’ve never heard someone doing karaoke that wasn’t an awful singer.

          Most sound like a beached whale.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
            2·
            9 months ago

            Excuse me, but I got an ovation doing karaoke twice in two different places.

            It’s the only two times outside of high school plays anyone ever clapped for me, so I appreciated it.

            That said, I used to do VO work and I have (or maybe had at this point, I’m way out of practice) a knack for doing impersonations, including musical ones. The first time I did Minnie the Moocher with a passable Cab Calloway, and the second time I did Space Oddity doing a damn perfect Bowie if I do say so myself.

            I only got paid to sing once though. And it wasn’t to sing well.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq3tVrTFcKk

            Also, that show never made it to TV, so it only exists on YouTube. They were really nice guys though. (I only did the singing, not the puppetry, and I never met the kid.)

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
                1·
                9 months ago

                No one has in quite a while. I haven’t done it since my daughter was born. At first because I had no time and later because I’m just not into going to bars anymore. So it’s been a good 13 years. And even back then I didn’t exactly do it every weekend.

                • FuglyDuck@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  3·
                  9 months ago

                  FWIW, I once almost got offered an album deal.

                  The CIA ultimately went with crying babies because they didn’t have to pay them.

                  It’s not how I go looking for a note. It’s not even how I find the wrong note…. It’s how I find all the notes.

                  So everyone who’s not heard me sing. Your welcome .

          • Shyfer@ttrpg.network
            1·
            9 months ago

            I wish that was true where I live, then I wouldn’t be the only one. That supposed to be the whole idea of it, too.

  • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
    61·
    9 months ago

    Matt Alt’s book, Pure Invention: How Japan Made the Modern World

    Alternative title: “I’m a huge fucking weeb and so can you” 😂