Searching For the Woolly Bully (노래방)

Somewhere after a crazy, belligerent night out at the bars and clubs, and somewhere fairly close to the point of cramming an insane amount of dak galbi (닭갈비, chicken dish) into your gullet, and somewhere just before throwing your face onto a pillow at home or on a satin circular bed at a love motel or on a curb by your bus stop that ended its last route hours ago...somewhere in that evening, there is a good hour of singing your heart and soul and lungs out to Barbie Girl...or Under the Sea..or Sweet Caroline.  

Noraebang (노래방), otherwise known as 'singing room', usually comes at that point where soju has partially blackened the memory. The good feature about the soju (a vodka-tasting distilled beverage) and noraebang combination is the chemical reaction it produces; enter the karaoke singing room and your mind instantly mutes while your voice hits the maximum volume level. In the noraebang, you don't just sing Radiohead, you ARE Thom Yorke. You don't just sing Backstreet Boys, you ARE Nick and AJ and Howie. You ARE the Bohemian and you ARE the Piano Man. In the noraebang, you are a star and nobody can tell you different. That is, except for the scoreboard at the end of the song telling you quite different. Although, either the noraebang judge behind the screen is merciful, or I really am an amazing singer, I tend to score nothing less of 90 out of 100!

 The dimly lit Holiday Inn suite-style room is set up with disco lights, a large flat screen, a karaoke machine, and two sexy, shiny microphones. The first thing I do upon entering is throw my bag filled with snacks and soju and run to the songbook before anybody could even scan the room for it. I frantically flip each page, scroll my finger down every song, and rummage through the abundant English, Chinese, and Korean sections in search of the song title which slides out my lips in such a pleasant and semi-humorous manner. Where, I pant, WHERE is Woolly Bully? 

    

Each time I sing those satisfyingly simple lyrics I crave to find out just what Matty told Hatty. And although I know what she saw, I still jolt into a moment of shock when I find out that it was the Woolly Bully himself!  

95 percent of the time Woolly Bully is nowhere to be found, and I sadly set the machine for a few backup songs. Although a song or two isn't in that fat book, I can still sing Self-Esteem, Wonderwall, Brown-Eyed Girl, and of course...Don't Stop Believing. 

And just as all things come to an end, so does an hour of noraebanging. The machine turns off and your mind turns back on again. And you stumble out of the room wondering what exactly happened within that hour. The only evidence  taken with you is a shattered voice that lasts 1-3 days, from personal experience. And although Woolly Bully was not to be found, I had the Woolly Bully within me all along...

<3 ReneeInSK