Why is it that wherever I move I am surrounded by karaoke? My old flat mates would drunkenly wail to "Eternal Flame" every Monday night until 4 in the morning. Now, I've landed across from a gay bar that does karaoke every Friday night. OK, that's only twice, I can't claim it's the result of cosmic influence just yet. I do find it interesting that the dictionary entry for karaoke reads: "from Japanese. Literally 'empty orchestra'". Empty orchestra indeed.