Haven’t posted in a while, and that can be entirely attributed to one thing: Steve came back to Shanghai.

When Steve (Xu) is back, it usually means that I call in sick and wander around town in a hung-over, zombie-like state. It also means that we sit around in a lot of karaoke places, drinking the nectar of the gods and risking our livers at various games of chance involving dice and lots of yelling.

In my younger days, I used to pontificate on the beauty of karaoke. Whenever I came across someone who was too shy to sing, I would express to them how happy it was for me to hear others belt out tunes with passionate bravado, often with eyes closed, oblivious to the regard of others in the room. I used to say: “It doesn’t matter how good or bad someone’s vocal talents are, it just fills me with joy to see someone else letting go and throwing it all out there and having a good time.” I think this all started out as a ploy to get girls to think I was a sensitive, in-touch-with-my feelings sort of guy, but after repeating it over and over again, for a while there I actually started to believe it.

And then, I met Steve. When I first went to karaoke with him, he certainly looked the part of a singing machine. Gripping the microphone, he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and started to croon. Except that the sound that came out of his mouth was a god-awful wail that snapped me to attention from my previously well-inebriated state. Just as it is difficult to use words to describe the beautiful voice of a classically-trained soprano, it’s impossible for me to convey the sheer awfulness of his attempts at manufacturing music. Suffice it to say that I’d rather listen to a symphony composed entirely of Shanghainese cab-drivers hawking loogeys out of their windows.

Now, I have to stop using my whole “I love watching the joy of someone singing” schtick when I’m at a karaoke with him, because then people point at him and challenge me: “You find joy in THAT awful sound?” And that usually shuts me up.

That being said, Shanghai and I are anxiously awaiting Steve’s next trip out here so we can do it all over again. I rather enjoy watching people clap their hands over their ears and run out of the room. Because I’m a sadist you know.

*I love you man*