34
Raise your hand if you've never participated in Karaoke.
For those with your hands up...you should be ashamed of yourselves.
Who wouldn't want to stand up in front of total strangers, who are probably all smashed, to sing a song from the 80s that has everyone jumping for joy at your vocal prowess?
Well, a week ago, Husband and I, along with our good friends Omaha and Allentown happened upon some of the greatest Karaoke that Columbia Pike has to offer (that's Arlington, VA to those outside of the DMV). After a few drinks for each of us, we all decided to give it a whirl on the mic. I mean, if old man rivers can get up there and sing an oldie with no inhibitions, we certainly can. Well, apparently no amount of libations could get husband up there and Allentown opted to sit it out as well after learning that the Lady Gaga repertoire consisted of Just Dance, Bad Romance and Poker Face, which had already been attempted. She was jonesing for a chance to holler (yeah, I said holler...you can take the girl out of the south, but you can't take the south out of the girl) "NEBRASKA NEBRASKA NEBRASKA" as loud as possible and the song list just didn't allow it.
Omaha and I were still up for it (I do love a good karaoke session). Omaha went with Africa by Toto and my song of choice, Redneck Woman by Gretchen Wilson. It's the only country song I can pull off. I have been told that while I might be Southern by the grace of God or whatever, I lack the necessary twang to sing country music. Thanks mom!
I'd like to think I tore it up, rocked the mic and ruled the floor...as did Omaha. I've never enjoyed Africa quite so much as I did that night.
By choosing songs like the 80s wonder that is Toto and getting all the drunk girls to scream "HELL YEAH" at the top of their booze filled lungs, we successfully carried out proper Karaoke. Not sure if you were aware, but there is a right and a wrong way to do Karaoke. Please allow me to elaborate:
- Pick a song everyone can sing along to or at least say "OMG! I Love this song!" as the lyrics tick across the TV monitor. Picking something slow might be a song you love, but not necessarily a great karaoke song. You want to have everyone singing along with you.
-Keep your beliefs to yourself. There should have been another Amendment to the Constitution stating the separation of church and karaoke. Though I'm all about loving Jesus, because yes, Jesus is my Homeboy, shouting "I LOVE YOU JESUS" during each instrumental break might make things uncomfortable for those that might not feel the same way. Also, proclaiming your religious affiliation while incredibly intoxicated might not sit well with the man upstairs.
-It doesn't matter if you can sing or can't. The point is to have a good time. That said, if you can't sing, take everything with a grain of salt. A karaoke bar isn't the place to attempt to be the next Carrie Underwood. You won't get discovered by a record label so don't act like it's the end of the world when you don't hit that note like Whitney or Mariah. And don't get upset when people might not agree with what they just heard. Remember, EVERYONE is drunk.
But most importantly, HAVE FUN!!!!!
Next time, I think Omaha and I are gonna give this a try.
35
36
37
38
Save your template, and you have successfully implemented redirection on your Blogger blog.
However, you still need to setup redirection on your WordPress site so that users are redirected to the proper posts.
You need to copy and paste the following code in your WordPress theme’s functions.php file or in a site-specific plugin.
If this is your first time adding code to your WordPress site, then you may want to check our beginner’s guide to pasting snippets from the web into WordPress.
01
function blogger_query_vars_filter( $vars ) {
02
$vars[] = "blogger";
03
return $vars;
04
}
05
06
add_filter('query_vars', 'blogger_query_vars_filter');
07
08
function blogger_template_redirect() {
09
global $wp_query;
10
$blogger = $wp_query->query_vars['blogger'];
11
if ( isset ( $blogger ) ) {
12
wp_redirect( get_wordpress_url ( $blogger ) , 301 );
13
exit;
14
}
15
}
16
17
add_action( 'template_redirect', 'blogger_template_redirect' );
18
19
function get_wordpress_url($blogger) {
20
if ( preg_match('@^(?:https?://)?([^/]+)(.*)@i', $blogger, $url_parts) ) {
21
$query = new WP_Query (
22
array ( "meta_key" => "blogger_permalink", "meta_value" => $url_parts[2] ) );
23
if ($query->have_posts()) {
24
$query->the_post();
25
$url = get_permalink();
26
}
27
wp_reset_postdata();
28
}
29
return $url ? $url : home_url();
30
}