A letter to:
joltforum.com
by Johnny Stewart

I submitted the following letter to the "Jolt Forum" regarding the fact that some of them were giving Louie Castellanos a hard time with his purposed Karaoke Convention. Some members felt that Louie had not done enough planning even though the convention was only in the planning stages. Louie was looking for help and ideas, but got criticism instead....

Karaoke Konvention
by Johnny Stewart

Karaoke: Empty Orchestra / Karate: Empty Hand

I am the president of the Pacific Karate. NO not Karaoke! Karate! Did you know that Karaoke is not on my Microsoft Word spell checker? Karate is though. Hmmm well maybe it has just been around longer.

I was there at the first Karate conventions. They were called the Long Beach Ed Parker International Karate Conventions. The convention became massive, utilizing the entire convention facility. In the early days they were in one small room at the convention facility. Ed Parker was very well known on the West Coast then. In fact Elvis Presley was one of Ed Parker's students. Ed Parker knew he would have a slow start but took on the challenge of putting on the first Karate convention himself.

Not many showed up for the first meet. After a while the small room in Long Beach became much too small. Soon this small room pulsated with the energy of Karate Kei's (the yell,) the roar of the crowd, the sweet smell of success and UN-washed Karate uniforms. The room was full, hot and stuffy. We knew we needed more room. You see other Karate enthusiasts started to hear of this new annual convention and things built from there. One Sunday in those early days a Chinese fellow showed up at the convention to demonstrate his style. Not many had heard of this new style or of the Chinese fellow. We American enthusiasts were stunned when Bruce Lee took out several of our best.

I found the members of the Long Beach International Karate Convention to be a very tight group. Yes, there were many competing schools there, but we all knew we were helping each other put Karate in the dictionary.

To hear some of you talk, it's a good thing you are not Karate enthusiasts or you might hurt yourselves. One thing for sure, you are all singing loud and clear. I think it would be great if you would learn to sing together. I mean get along. I think some of you are afraid someone else is going to have the only Karaoke Convention. I know, you thought of it first didn't you. But did you do it first, No.

Louie, if you want to have your first convention in the back of my Toyota van I will support you. I do wish I'd thought of it first though. Johnny Stewart, President of the Karaoke Federation

Ps: I did find Karaoke in Some Dictionaries.