Everyone has at least one long-standing friend. I count myself lucky to have many friends that I’ve known for a decade or longer, but having a life long friend is something special.

While he and I have never really shared the exact same set of hobbies, and our political and spiritual views haven’t been known as the ties that bind us together – those qualities are not why we are friends. At least it’s not why I think we are anyway. What it comes down to for me is that we both share a love of pop culture (largely music and movies), on of life’s great equalizers, and more importantly, we don’t judge each other’s life choices.

It’s quite a curiosity to me that something as simple as abstaining from obvious and unnecessary remarks can be what allow friendships to exist and then flourish. And that sometimes friendships become so strong that your friend won’t put up with your garbage behaviours and WILL call you out on whatever you are doing wrong in your life.

Think about it for a minute.

No one wants to go through adversity in life just because, there has to be value and a purpose for it. When we gain respect and trust with someone, that allows real connections to exist and we have a sounding board. So that no matter what the circumstance, that person will be there for you. They’ll see things through with you.

This is why friends are important dear readers. We all need someone for support and encouragement, a shelter to seek respite from our problems.

We all need people who can challenge us, encourage us, and share with us.

You never want someone in your corner that doesn’t let you grow and become a better version of yourself, and so it does help to have friends that challenge you – friends that will cheer for you, especially when life can seem difficult. When the chips are down and hope is in short supply.

This is why tomorrow night, I’m going to partake in one of my favourite pastimes for my oldest friends birthday. The musical kind of pastime that requires you to call up your favourite song on a screen and share it with a room full of strangers.

Ah the empty orchestra. A concept where you can sing along to known songs and pretend to be the lead singer all while you generate a fan-base and the accompanying cheers that arrive from hard-won admiration.

Websites like edmontonkaraoke.com exist for the people. It allows them to get their karaoke fix by location or date and to ensure this act of lovemaking never dies.

I love karaoke, because not only do you get to sing along and pretend you are an accomplished singer for 3-5 minutes, but there are challenges to tackle with it as well. It boils down to life choices really.

1. You have to decide whether to imbibe or not, knowing that you might lose your voice once you start down the path of yelling.
2. It forces you to think about sharing. Should you make friends with strangers and let them sing a song with you if they get super excited?
3. Know your audience. It might be better to sing a duet VS being a microphone hog.
4. Do you want an intimate affair with a handful of people or do you want to fill the room with your posse?
5. If you choose rock songs, there is a good chance you will be at the mercy of a guitar solo. You should have a game plan to fill that minute long silence
6. Which usually means you need to either commit to the song or know when to walk away. But don’t drop the mic.
7. Think about your song choices some. Theme songs and Disney songs are solid choices, and hip hop doesn’t require singing ability necessarily.
8. And last but not least – are you willing to give a performance to win the crowd over? Sometimes its a simple matter of having the most fun of anyone, and not how well you sing the song.

If you are looking for inspiration, this article about the 13 greatest movie karaoke scenes of all time might just do the trick. There is a particularily awesome live performance of Vin Diesel performing Stay by Rhianna in there as well, but I couldn’t just link to that. so I decided to share it with you direct.

I’ll be heading out to H2O Lounge myself this weekend, but don’t forget about this option to improve your social comfort zone. And believe it or not, you CAN sing karaoke without drinking, and it will build your confidence to perform in front of strangers. It’s a natural fit for it, but that’s just a theory. And one I’ll share another time!

Please leave some comments Have a great weekend folks!

Tim!