straight-up karaoke

Six days after the failed attempt at finding a karaoke bar, I organized a pre-meditated karaoke outing with coworkers.

Google Local said the only place that offers karaoke in Mountain View is the "King of Clubs", a gay bar. I selected it as the evening's destination.

"Why are we going to a gay bar?" said one coworker.

"I've been there," Galileo said. "The focus is on karaoke. Don't worry, no one will hit on you."

"The next closest place is 15 minutes away by car," I said. "Come on, we won't know anyone there. We'll just go and sing. It'll be fun!"

That evening, after arriving at the squat one-story club, we approached the door just behind a group of three. They turned around, and I recognized one of them as a Googler.

"Niniane!" she said happily. "I didn't know you were coming tonight! I've never seen you at these events before."

"What events?" I said.

"Aren't you here for the Gayglers get-together?"

Gayglers is the gay, lesbian, and transgender group at Google.

My coworkers and I spent the evening sitting in a red leather booth. Periodically Googlers came in and greeted us with surprise. "I didn't see you respond to the RSVP on the Gayglers list today!" "We're so glad you came out to join us tonight!" etc.

At first, we would say, "No, it's a coincidence, we just came out with our team to sing karaoke." But after a while, we gave up and just mumbled, "Yes, great to see you too."

...

We petitioned Galileo all evening to sing for us. In college, he double-majored in computer science and opera. After an hour of prompting, he treated us to this delight.

That soundtrack you hear -- the music which resembles a professional record -- is actually him singing.