Ich bin ein King of Pop
October 8, 2013 1:55 PM   Subscribe

 
Don't mess with Michael Jackson Bilie Jean Texas.
posted by nevercalm at 2:12 PM on October 8, 2013


Stop clapping offbeat European people. Stop it. STOP IT. STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No more offbeat clapping.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 2:24 PM on October 8, 2013 [6 favorites]


Potomac: It's like those offbeat roofers whose hammers never hit the nails on time with the sound.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 2:26 PM on October 8, 2013 [2 favorites]


This guy is good. Could he be a plant by the organizers to put on a great show? Who knows. Nothing is real. This could be a viral video for the next season of Sing For Your Supper where contestants busk for food and travel around the world sleeping under bridges. Which now I'm thinking is actually a great show. Wow I've had way too much coffee today.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 2:26 PM on October 8, 2013 [6 favorites]


Could he be a plant by the organizers to put on a great show?

I dunno, one time at Chopsticks Express II karaoke on Burnside I saw some old gal lay into a remarkably enthusiastic performance of The Pussycat Song and I'm pretty sure no one on earth would have paid her money to do so. It's, like, two sides of the same coin, or whatever.
posted by cortex at 2:31 PM on October 8, 2013 [4 favorites]


Outdoor karaoke is a thing! In Germany! I can't tell if I'm more impressed by the guy's performance or the size of the crowd he's attracted.
posted by somespecialist at 2:32 PM on October 8, 2013


I'd like to see this coin, cortex, this coin with two sides.
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 2:38 PM on October 8, 2013 [2 favorites]


No, he's not a plant. This is a thing.

This is the weekly "bear pit karaoke" at Mauerpark. It happens every Sunday during the Summer, and it's always very well attended. If you want to sing in front of a few hundred very enthusiastic and semi-drunk people, you should come here and try it.
posted by sixohsix at 2:43 PM on October 8, 2013 [9 favorites]


Wow. Someday maybe that'll be me. I hear Jim Steinman's big in Germany...
posted by asperity at 2:44 PM on October 8, 2013


I don't get it
posted by 13twelve at 2:45 PM on October 8, 2013


I don't get it

Better-than-average karaoke singer (busker?) lures disproportionately large crowd, I'm guessing.
posted by The Giant Squid at 2:59 PM on October 8, 2013


The crowd there is always kinda big. The Mauerpark is a kind of Treffpunkt there in Berlin. Around the corner is a huge flea market with beer and sausage stands. Most of the time people are just sitting there, shooting the shit with friends, drinking beer and chilling while people do random karaoke.
posted by chillmost at 3:22 PM on October 8, 2013


Hasselhoff numbers being integers with the unusual mathematical property of resembling their own crotches.
posted by cortex at 3:33 PM on October 8, 2013 [19 favorites]


I was born in Texas, but I live in the wrong country, obviously.
posted by Annika Cicada at 3:51 PM on October 8, 2013


Mauerpark Karaoke!! That is pretty much the number one thing that I tell people they should do in Berlin on a sunday afternoon. Sun! People from all over the world with unique takes on your favourite songs! Beer and sausage vendors!

It's really just a guy who shows up each week with a battery-powered sound system on a cargo bike, but it's become a remarkable institution. He always ends the day with Minnie the Moocher.

Somewhere on youtube there is footage of me massacring Just a Gigolo, but I'm so sorry to report that I don't have the link handy.
posted by jeffj at 3:58 PM on October 8, 2013 [7 favorites]


I was born in Texas, but I live in the wrong country, obviously.

Why? Do you, too, clap on all 4 beats instead of just the 2 and the 4?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:57 PM on October 8, 2013


Verzeihen Sie mir, Herr Cortex, aber haben Sie einen Hasselhoferdősbaconnummer?
posted by zippy at 5:02 PM on October 8, 2013


Haseloff is not really a thing, outside of Hasselhoff's own mind. But Michael Jackson, there's a guy with a German following. I haven't really untangled it yet, but recently one of my kids came home asking me all about Michael Jackson, and if he was or wasn't one of the best musicians ever. Which was hard. Then it turns out the cause for this question was that they were singing (hold onto something) "We are the world" in class, and the teacher wanted to impress on them, uh, how great Michael Jackson was. Gulp.
I tried hard to provide a relatively neutral reply and later we had to watch the video because, you know, we have an Internet.
I hate that song, which my kid sang really well, and I feel wicked sad thinking about the whole Michael Jackson saga.
But the Germans are blind to all of it. They only hear the *gulp* music. Which, I suppose is a testament to the musical abilities of Quincy Jones.
So yeah, maybe some people in that crowd were a little drunk (MauerPark = Thompkins + Washington + McCarren parks) but the love was terrifyingly deep and r-e-a-l.
posted by From Bklyn at 5:03 PM on October 8, 2013


They only hear the *gulp* music.

Man, *gulp* music is some of my favorite! I mean it just kicks *sip* music's ass, and, it's got more power and oomph than *swallow* music. But it's not as irritating and abrasive as *choke* music. And don't even get me started on *vomit* music. Give me *gulp* music anytime!

goes great with beer drinking, too!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:10 PM on October 8, 2013 [5 favorites]


AnecdoteFilter: My brother has a buddy who can do four Michael Jackson songs, and after watching him walk off to a standing O in a absolute dive bar in Vegas, I felt the need to ask him "Why Michael?"

"Michael, because goddamn, the music. Michael, because I can do it all around the world. Everybody has heard those songs."
posted by Sphinx at 5:19 PM on October 8, 2013 [1 favorite]


Most of the time people are just sitting there, shooting the shit with friends, drinking beer and chilling while people do random karaoke.

Sad, but in the land of our freedoms, we could never have this sort of thing.
posted by jsavimbi at 5:58 PM on October 8, 2013


The best part is when Santa joins in.
posted by 4ster at 6:25 PM on October 8, 2013


Which, I suppose is a testament to the musical abilities of Quincy Jones.

And the musical genius of Michael Jackson.

Had it been just Quincy, he would've been able to replicate it with all his other musical proteges, which he never did.
posted by girlmightlive at 6:33 PM on October 8, 2013 [4 favorites]


chopsticks: how can be lounge
posted by iamabot at 12:06 AM on October 9, 2013


I always forget that that's the name of that lounge, every once in a while my wife will be like HOW CAN BE? about something and I'll have this moment of whiplash where I'm trying to figure out what forgotten web meme that's a reference to.
posted by cortex at 7:22 AM on October 9, 2013


Billie Jean came out more than thirty years ago. How old is "Santa"? I downloaded the video (probably infringing on at least three separate copyrights) and zoomed in. I think his hair is actually a bleached blonde. It's entirely possible that he was attending high school when Thriller came out. You are older than you think. And now you're even older.
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:48 PM on October 9, 2013


He said his name was TJ, and he had been in town for a few days with his job, which didn't involve music. Billie Jean is obviously super tough karaoke (as of course are most Michael Jackson songs) but we've had plenty people charmingly nail it down the years. Although nailing it isn't always necessarily top priority at Bearpit Karaoke. If you can recognize this as Dirty Diana before the first chorus, you're a better man than me.
posted by hatchiban at 1:26 AM on October 10, 2013


jsavimbi: Most of the time people are just sitting there, shooting the shit with friends, drinking beer and chilling while people do random karaoke.

Sad, but in the land of our freedoms, we could never have this sort of thing.


Yo, what is the land of your freedoms? I have done exactly this over and over and over again in the US and China (which have really widely varying freedoms) and no one (including the government and my very embarrassed/proud mother) has tried to stop it.
Germany is the only country I've lived in where I haven't done this.
posted by MsDaniB at 6:05 AM on October 12, 2013


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