KARAOKE NIGHT!!

There is a standard fun night with our friends at the ARC, it is Karaoke night. It's interesting in that the participants prefer to be singing along with their favorite songs, NOT doing the singing with only back-up music. So everyone brings in their CD's instead of using the standard Karoke recordings. A few of them know the lyrics and really do sing, but then for the majority of them, there are some mumbled verses until the chorus, at which time they give it their all!

For Kathleen, there is her standard - It's A Small World. She knows all the words and holds the tune really well as she quickly sings a capella. The sameness of it just fits well with her Autism, I suppose.

Then there is her boyfriend, Jeff. (I call them Jefferson and Katarina.) He almost always sings along to John Denver's Country Roads, but tonight he came with something entirely new, he sang Da Do Run Run... not certain whose version it is, perhaps Shawn Cassidy?? But Jeff doesn't realize he's not got the lyrics quite right, he keeps singing incorrectly, "Da Do rah rah rah, Da do rah rah." *I* am not going to point this out to him.

That's actually the cool thing about the ARC, all the friends there just accept everyone and all they do, whether it is done incorrectly, or half-way.... it is the attempt that is encouraged, any and all accomplishments are valid and applauded. It shows how well the Special Olympics Oath, which is recited at the opening of each Special Olympics venue, fits the participants -

"Let me win. But if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt."


Okay, back to our show: Gloria almost always sings Edeweiss, also a capella. But this week she had a CD and sang her other favorite, Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline.

We had a wonderful surprise in Xochi's performance, she got up and 'sang' and danced. Xochi (say Tsochee) can't speak at all, she just makes little sounds to us, sometimes loudly, and you try to get from her emotions and hand gestures just what she is trying to communicate. It is clear she understands most everything, and is excited to share something, but it just doesn't leave her brain to be communicated to us. She knows some sign language, but rarely uses it.
And as she is Mexican, her English may not be so great anyway. But she enthusiastically tries everything! And tonight was no exception. She brought some Latin song and sang along, and DANCED with it! It was so cute to watch, her shaking her hips and moving around. I'd never heard the song before and there weren't actually a lot of words, but she howled a great deal of the time, loudly! It was clearly a favorite and she knew it well, and totally enjoyed performing.



Becky likes to perform, and she is another one who cannot talk really, but she has this speaking machine - if she touches pictures of various things and activities, the machine turns it into speech. She carries it around but really doesn't use it much with us. But she DOES love to dance, that is a common phrase she will express on her machine, "I want to dance!" Her dancing usually is leaning and jabbing her elbows - basically her upper body looks like a speed skater - and Trevor (an enthusiastic ARC employee) got down with her tonight and they danced a bit in PERFECT synchronization - it was SO fun to watch!

A karoake night wouldn't be complete with out one of Poco's heartfelt songs, he is SERIOUS about his singing! He brings intensity and emotion to just about anything, and this time it was Aerosmith's I Don't Want to Miss a Thing... he knows the tune, all the words, and all the moves and facial expressions that make it his own. He also went up at the end to finish things out, but with one of his classic made-up songs... he just starts singing, making up the tune and lyrics as he goes. Usually it is something about how much he loves us all, loves the ARC, how great everyone is there. They finally had to put time limits on his crooning, he would just go on and on if we let him.

And then finally , the evening ended with everyone singing along to the Bieber's "Baby." I don't know any of the words and never recognize it until the chorus, but everyone ELSE knew it, jumping up and singing and dancing. I considered putting in a little vid of it the man himself singing his famous song, but then thought better - whoever reads this would then be destined to hum ALL DAY, "Baby, baby, baby, Oooh like, Baby, baby baby...... "

(Oh great, that was a mistake. ;c)