Raina Lee's Blog

I went down to Corpus Christi, Texas last month to celebrate my aunt's 29th birthday. How is it we're in the same age bracket but she has two kids and a few restaurants under her belt? Her secret must be either the humid Texas air or time travel.

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My cousin singing his standard, Paul Anka's Diana.

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Make someone else's home the party place. My friends Kozyndan were away and so the rest of us decided to make their home karaoke central. It's easy when you have a portable karaoke machine.

Vivian plays the wine bottle like a triangle.

During a ballad, Jen lights a flame. And my dog wears glasses.

Where can I find Jesse's Girl?

So this is one of my top 5 karaoke songs ever, that's what makes this hilarious and disturbing.

This korean boy is not in a sexy Santa outfit like Mariah (thank god). But hey, he's got that awesome accent. It's worth a watch to hear about "magic laindeer".

The sequence of events from last night: karaoke, dancing in a club, dancing in a VW Golf, dancing in another club, trampolining, singing Depeche Mode's "But Not Tonight" in the dark warehouse with camping lights, dancing to Italian Eurodisco, and eating 99 cent pancakes at sunrise.

This kind of night only happens when there are no haters in the group. You know, no one who says, "I'm tired, I want to go home." When you hang out with enablers, the party is everywhere you go.

Theme song for...

Made you look. It's not girl topless karaoke. Somehow after "The Promise" and "It Takes Two," all the guys were shirtless in solidarity. They were singing "Boys Don't Cry."

Like indie rock, hip hop is one of those underserved communities in karaoke. Yeah, they have Hip Hop Karaoke at a few venues, so you can satisfy your Biggie or Nas needs. And Rapstar the game soon too. You can karaoke "C.R.E.A.M", and get left breathless, and then realize how insanely hard it is to flow like the Wu Tang. Which makes this one man Wu Tang cover so sweet. Lewis Floyd Henry, a street busker in a tidy suit does Protect Your Neck.

Not that I believed she was a nerd for a split second but Taylor Swift is adorable with her droopy eyed glasses and Sharpied high school T in "You Belong With Me." It's the karaoke anthem of low key gals everywhere who are the antithesis of the halter top and heels wearing Meatpacking district hot girl. I just practiced it last night and it was awesome. A little fast so you'll have to practice singing into your hairbrush the way Taylor does here.

Ok, this isn't a new fairy tale. It's totally ...

I've never been with someone I had to sing "You're So Vain" to but I like to imagine a 70s post-disco party where everyone is wearing Halston and Miss Carly is singing it to her ex, James Taylor. He walks into the party like he was walking onto a yacht…

She's quite the style icon here, floppy hat and all. I'm going to have to run to American Apparel to replicate this look for my next performance. Practice "You're So Vain" right here!

This post is dedicated to my aunt. We can't stop singing t...

So it was my first time at SXSW and my excuse for going was because I was on a panel with the Whuffaoke (the Winnebago with karaoke that drove across the country last summer) folks : Tara Hunt author of The Whuffie Factor, the irrepressible partiers Karen Hartline, Emma Perky, Tony B. of New Work City, Brett Petersel of Mashable, and Roger Niner, the San Francisco's KJ. We're all pretty much karaoke royalty. Before the panel we were all joking about what happens when you put this many...

At SXSW I finally got to me the irrepressible Jeff Croft and Scott Phelps, creators of Barstar, the Foursquare of karaoke. If you haven't tried it, you have to go sign up for the beta right RIGHT NOW! It's a brilliant app that lets you share what you're singing and where. Like Foursquare, it makes going out into the world and doing stuff a competitive social sport. I mean, I just love that you get pointage on what you sing because it does matter! I don't know their secret algorithm for...