Karaoke - Chapter I

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Ill have to admit, the powers of Karaoke rested latent inside me until somewhat recently. Not unlike a young Clark Kent who discovered his talents set him apart from other mild-mannered journalists, yours truly has leaped his own tall building of sorts and came down nothing short of super. The Korean people take their Karaoke frightfully serious and any type of foreign invasion could tip the balance of an already slippery sino-american state of relations. I, of course, took this great responsibility into consideration before I stormed the stage last Saturday.
A brief note on the history of Karaoke: The year was 1895, a young Korean man named Sang Kim-Long was working in a small, out of the way, soju joint in the area now known as Busan. The nation was still reeling and rife with grief upon hearing of the assassination of the beloved Empress Myeongseong at the hands of Japanese agents. The proud Korean people were staring at the unavoidable prospect of Japanese imperial occupation and inevitable pillage and rape. A powerful and bloodthirsty Japanese invasion force was at the ready. Any sort of insurrection by the Korean populace could make an already precarious situation deadly. A plan for organized resistance was in the works but the channels of communication had to be kept hidden at all costs. Enter Sang Kim-Long........
The port-town of Busan was, and still is, the quickest and safest landing area for any sort of Japanese land invasion. This obvious advantage could however be made a liability if the resistance could mount a large scale, last ditch strike on the landing Japanese marines.
Sang Kim-Long was an unlikely hero. Born to an unmarried, blind, prostitute he never knew his father. Rumors swirled that Sang's biological father was a Buddhist master who left his temple in search of the "Golden Lilly of a thousand songs", a flower that grows only once every five hundred years and was, according to legend, said to grant the holder an unnatural ability to master any song and instantly grant the listener pure enlightenment and inner peace. The ruling elite would not hear the appeals of Sang's mother regarding her child's father. Even Sang had long since given up the hope of learning the truth regarding his father.
The shame endured by Sang and his mother was legendary in Busan. He was ridiculed and beaten unmercifully by the other men of the village. With no prospects or education, his status in the area drove him to become a janitor in the seediest bar in town. No reputable establishment would employ the bastard son of a blind prostitute.
The only joy experienced by Sang was the weekly performances by the musicians in the town's more upper class, bourgeoisie establishments. Sang would work tirelessly to finish his job early enough to stand in the alleys straining to hear the newest arias by the countries finest singers. All the while he dreamed of becoming a renowned star in his own right.

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