[The following article is from our “High-Brr-Nation Cannabis Guide” which is packed with fun, interesting stories about surviving the winter with weed. Check ’em out here!—eds.]
This pandemic is full of surprises, and few of them are pleasant. But I’ve discovered something over the past few months that is one of this era’s rare silver linings. It’s stoned Zoom karaoke. Or, if you want to call it by its proper name: quaraoke.
One of the things I miss most from pre-pandemic times is karaoke. Birthday karaoke. Holiday karaoke. Just-for-the-fuck-of-it karaoke. But I can’t uncouple the thought of bar karaoke from “superspreader event.” So, from my socially distant perch, I’ve watched special occasion after special occasion slide by without proper karaoke acknowledgment. Depressing.
And then a few months ago, a close friend suggested we do “quaraoke” for her birthday. I was interested. A little hesitant. Mostly I was thinking: How the fuck do you translate the rush of drunkenly scream-singing “Underneath It All” in a bar… to Zoom?
While it’s imperfect and laggy, it turns out that forcibly making your friends listen to your rendition of “Dreams” through videoconferencing software is just as sweet from the comfort of everyone’s COVID bubbles.