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背景：菲律宾一男子KTV自娱自乐 唱歌走调遭保安枪杀

在公众场合唱K唱得差，竟会招来杀身之祸——菲律宾一名无业男子在卡拉OK酒吧展露歌喉，唱的是已
　　故好莱坞巨星弗兰克-辛纳屈的名曲《My Way》，但唱到一半时被一名保安指他走调，他不加理会继续唱下去，结果被该名气愤的保安拔枪击毙，保安随即被在场的休班警员拘捕。
　　事件于5月29日晚上在马尼拉东部圣马特奥市一家卡拉OK酒吧中发生，29岁无业男子巴利古拉出事前正高唱《My Way》，43岁的保安员奥尔特加大指他走调，前者没加理会继续唱，奥尔特加突失控拔出手枪向巴利古拉开枪。巴利古拉胸部中枪倒地，旋即气绝身亡。在场一名休班警察将奥尔特加拘捕。
　　报道指类似事件在菲律宾的卡拉OK并不罕见，弗兰克-辛纳屈的名曲《My Way》已于马尼拉多家卡拉OK被禁唱，原因是很多人往往唱到走调，引发打斗甚至搞出人命。
　　2003年6月，一名25岁男子在马尼拉参加一个生日舞会时，被要求高歌《My Way》，但唱至中途，一名48岁宾客突持刀冲前狂刺唱歌男子。事后目击者称，该宾客其实是受害者的邻居，因听到他走调而大感愤怒，更为此下毒手。受害者颈部中刀，送医抢救后不治。警方迅速将疑凶拘捕，并控以杀人罪。
　　事实上，菲律宾民众常因小故发生争执甚至酿成血案。2005年1月，一名警员与消防员朋友因争夺观看脱衣舞最佳位置，与国家调查局3名人员发生争执，双方拔枪互轰，结果警员被击毙，其消防员朋友及酒吧经理受伤。

**************转自Times，兔子翻译**************
GENERAL SANTOS, the Philippines — After a day of barbering, Rodolfo Gregorio went to his neighborhood karaoke bar still smelling of talcum powder. Putting aside his glass of Red Horse Extra Strong beer, he grasped a microphone with a habitué’s self-assuredness and briefly stilled the room with the Platters’ “My Prayer.”
菲律宾大叔GENERAL SANTOS在完成了自己一天的剃头工作后跑到他居住的小区里一间卡拉ok酒吧去，身上还带着一股爽身粉的味道。他把自己点的“红马超强劲啤酒”放在一边，轻车熟路地抓起麦克风，平静地唱起了Platters的“My Prayer"。

Next, he belted out crowd-pleasers by Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck. But Mr. Gregorio, 63, a witness to countless fistfights and occasional stabbings erupting from disputes over karaoke singing, did not dare choose one beloved classic: Frank Sinatra’s version of “My Way.”

随后，他开始扯着嗓子唱crowd-pleasers（由Tom Jones 和Engelbert Humperdinck组成的乐队）的歌。但是63岁的Gregorio大叔，在亲眼目睹了无数起因无法忍受别人歌喉而引起的斗殴，有时甚至是流血暴力后，再也不敢唱他喜欢的经典歌曲：Frank Sinatr版的My Way.

“I used to like ‘My Way,’ but after all the trouble, I stopped singing it,” he said. “You can get killed.”

“我以前很喜欢My Way,但是在这么多暴力事件后，我不唱这首歌了。”他说道，“你会因此丧命的。”

The authorities do not know exactly how many people have been killed warbling “My Way” in karaoke bars over the years in the Philippines, or how many fatal fights it has fueled. But the news media have recorded at least half a dozen victims in the past decade and includes them in a subcategory of crime dubbed the “My Way Killings.”
官方没有准确统计近年来菲律宾有多少人在卡拉ok吧因为唱My Way而丧命或斗殴。但是媒体在过去十年纪录了至少6名“杀手My Way ”直接或间接的受害者。

The killings have produced urban legends about the song and left Filipinos groping for answers. Are the killings the natural byproduct of the country’s culture of violence, drinking and machismo? Or is there something inherently sinister in the song?

这些杀人事件给地方志提供了话题，留下菲律宾人苦苦探索。到底这些杀人事件是这个国家暴力、酗酒、大男子主义文化的天然副产品？还是这首歌本身就带着诅咒？

Whatever the reason, many karaoke bars have removed the song from their playbooks. And the country’s many Sinatra lovers, like Mr. Gregorio here in this city in the southernmost Philippines, are practicing self-censorship out of perceived self-preservation.

不管原因是什么，很多卡拉ok吧已经把这首歌从歌单里去掉了。很多Sinatra的粉丝，比如住在这个国家最南方的Gregorio 大叔开始学习如何提高自我保护的素质(-_-!)

Karaoke-related killings are not limited to the Philippines. In the past two years alone, a Malaysian man was fatally stabbed for hogging the microphone at a bar and a Thai man killed eight of his neighbors in a rage after they sang John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” Karaoke-related assaults have also occurred in the United States, including at a Seattle bar where a woman punched a man for singing Coldplay’s “Yellow” after criticizing his version.

跟唱k关联的杀人事件并不仅限菲律宾。单是过去两年，一个马来西亚的男人就因为在酒吧当麦霸被不幸刺伤，一个泰国跟邻居唱完John Denver的Take My Home, Country Roads被其中八个邻居杀了(丢。。。这些东南亚人脑子有包阿。。。）唱k导致的殴打事件同样也在米国发生，其中包括一起在西雅图某酒吧发生的某女人在某男人唱Coldplay的Yellow后狂贬并狂扁该男人。（-_-!好具喜剧画面感的描述嘛）

Still, the odds of getting killed during karaoke may be higher in the Philippines, if only because of the ubiquity of the pastime. Social get-togethers invariably involve karaoke. Stand-alone karaoke machines can be found in the unlikeliest settings, including outdoors in rural areas where men can sometimes be seen singing early in the morning. And Filipinos, who pride themselves on their singing, may have a lower tolerance for bad singers.

尽管如此，如果考虑普遍性的话，在菲律宾唱k时被杀的基数要高一点。社交聚会总是包括唱k。更别说卡拉ok机能在最不可能找到的地方被找到（好爱唱歌的民族嘛。。。），包括乡下人们大清早在露天场所瞎嚷嚷那种唱法。再加上菲律宾人一贯以自己的歌喉自豪，可能比较不能忍受别人的唱得烂。（让我想起某女人啊。。。决定以后不跟她唱歌了，免得我被杀掉啊。。。）

Indeed, most of the “My Way” killings have reportedly occurred after the singer sang out of tune, causing other patrons to laugh or jeer.

事实上，“My Way”杀人事件多数发生在演唱者走音导致其他顾客嘲笑之后。

“The trouble with ‘My Way,’ ” said Mr. Gregorio, “is that everyone knows it and everyone has an opinion.”

Gregorio大叔说：“‘My Way’惹的麻烦在于每个人都知道这回事，每个人都要发表见解。”

Others, noting that other equally popular tunes have not provoked killings, point to the song itself. The lyrics, written by Paul Anka for Mr. Sinatra as an unapologetic summing up of his career, are about a tough guy who “when there was doubt,” simply “ate it up and spit it out.” Butch Albarracin, the owner of Center for Pop, a Manila-based singing school that has propelled the careers of many famous singers, was partial to what he called the “existential explanation.”

其他同样流行的歌没有杀人事件也从另一方面把矛头指向了My Way本身。Paul Anka 为Mr. Sinatra 写的歌词显然是他的巅峰之作，讲的是一个“彪悍的人生无需解释”的爷们儿。“流行中心”是马尼拉当地的一所培养了很多著名歌手的音乐学校，它的老板Butch Albarracin热衷于他称之为“存在主义的解释”。

“ ‘I did it my way’ — it’s so arrogant,” Mr. Albarracin said. “The lyrics evoke feelings of pride and arrogance in the singer, as if you’re somebody when you’re really nobody. It covers up your failures. That’s why it leads to fights.”

“‘我爱怎么招怎么招’(估计是my way的歌词吧）——这太狂妄自大了，”Albarracin老板说道，“这首歌的歌词激起了演唱者焦躁和狂妄的情绪，弄得你觉得自己仿佛是个人物似的——事实上你p都不是。它掩盖了你的挫败感。这就是这首歌导致人们打架的原因。”（可以理解为该大叔认为唱这首歌的人会陷入一种无药可救的装逼自恋找抽状态导致围观群众成全他么。。。）

Defenders of “My Way” say it is a victim of its own popularity. Because it is sung more often than most songs, the thinking goes, karaoke-related violence is more likely to occur while people are singing it. The real reasons behind the violence are breaches of karaoke etiquette, like hogging the microphone, laughing at someone’s singing or choosing a song that has already been sung.

也有人为My Way辩护说它只是因为太流行而受“诬陷”。因为它比其他歌被点得多得多得多，想想都知道，发生暴力事件的概率就多了。（丢，前面明明论证了同样流行的歌没有发生暴力事件嘛。。前后矛盾的）暴力事件的真正原因是某些人破坏了唱k规矩，比如当麦霸，别人唱的时候嘲笑别人或者点已经被唱过的歌。

“The Philippines is a very violent society, so karaoke only triggers what already exists here when certain social rules are broken,” said Roland B. Tolentino, a pop culture expert at the University of the Philippines. But even he hedged, noting that the song’s “triumphalist” nature might contribute to the violence.

“菲律宾是个灰常暴力的社会，所以唱k只是在某些规矩被破坏的时候触发了暴力情绪。”菲律宾大学流行文化专家Roland B. Tolentino如是说。尽管T专家回避，这首歌本身的“英雄主义”本质可能导致了暴力。（nnd,老外的逻辑就是绕来绕去自己跟自己打架么。。。）

Some karaoke lovers are not taking chances, not even at family gatherings.

一些唱k爱好者不再冒险了，即使在家庭聚会上也不。

In Manila, Alisa Escanlar, 33, and her relatives invariably gather before a karaoke machine, but they banned “My Way” after an uncle, listening to a friend sing the song at a bar, became enraged at the laughter coming from the next table. The uncle, who was a police officer, pulled out his revolver, after which the customers at the next table quietly paid their bill and left.

在马尼拉，33岁的AE和她的家人经常唱k聚会。她的一个当警察的叔叔曾经听完朋友唱My Way被邻座的暴笑激怒，随后掏出他的警枪，邻座见况急忙买单走人。从此之后，AE的家人禁止他们唱My Way。

Awash in more than one million illegal guns, the Philippines has long suffered from all manner of violence, from the political to the private. Wary middle-class patrons gravitate to karaoke clubs with cubicles that isolate them from strangers.

菲律宾有超过一百万非法枪械，人们长期忍受着从政治纠纷到私人恩怨的各种暴力。小心谨慎的中产阶级消费者喜欢去有隔间的卡拉ok，这样可以隔开他们和陌生人。

But in karaoke bars where one song costs 5 pesos, or a tenth of a dollar, strangers often rub shoulders, sometimes uneasily. A subset of karaoke bars with G.R.O.’s — short for guest relations officers, a euphemism for female prostitutes — often employ gay men, who are seen as neutral, to defuse the undercurrent of tension among the male patrons. Since the gay men are not considered rivals for the women’s attention — or rivals in singing, which karaoke machines score and rank — they can use humor to forestall macho face-offs among the patrons.

但是在一首歌5pesos或10首歌$1的卡拉ok,陌生人常常摩肩接踵，有时候就不那么消停。一些有G.R.O.'s（说全了叫客户经理，说难听了叫鸡）的卡拉ok常常会聘请一些看起来很中性的同志来消除男性客人之间潜在的紧张氛围。由于这些同志既不是女人也不是演唱者唱歌评分的敌人，他们能用幽默化解客人们剑拔弩张的对峙场面。

In one such bar in Quezon City, next to Manila, patrons sing karaoke at tables on the first floor and can accompany a G.R.O. upstairs. Fights often break out when customers at one table look at another table “the wrong way,” said Mark Lanada, 20, the manager.

奎松城（靠近马尼拉）的一家这样的卡拉ok，客人们在一楼可以围着桌子唱歌，在二楼可以找G.R.O.陪唱。20岁的经理ML说，矛盾常常从一桌以“异样眼神”打量隔壁桌开始。

“That’s the biggest source of tension,” Mr. Lanada said. “That’s why every place like this has a gay man like me.”

“这是矛盾的最大源头”，ML说道，“这就是为什么每个这样的地方都有一个我这样的人。”

Ordinary karaoke bars, like the Nelson Carenderia here, a single room with bare plywood walls, mandate that a singer give up the microphone after three consecutive songs.

普通的卡拉ok,比如这里的Nelson Carenderia，有着以裸露的三合板做墙的单间。他们会强制演唱者在连续唱三首歌之后让别人唱。（最讨厌某些人那着麦就唱个没完的。。。）

On one recent evening, at the table closest to the karaoke machine, Edwin Lancaderas, 62, crooned a Tagalog song, “Fight Temptation” — about a married man forgoing an affair with a woman while taking delight in their “stolen moments.” His friend Dindo Auxlero, 42, took the mike next, bawling songs by the Scorpions and Dire Straits. Several empty bottles of Red Horse crowded their table.

最近的一个晚上，离卡拉ok机最近的一张桌子坐着62岁的EL大叔，他低吟着一首讲陶醉于婚外情的男人的塔加路族歌曲。他的朋友——42岁的DA,在他唱完后接过麦，高歌了几首the Scorpions and Dire Straits的歌。几个红马的空瓶子挤在他们的桌上。

“In the Philippines, life is difficult,” said Mr. Auxlero, who repairs watches from a street kiosk, as he railed about government corruption and a weak economy that has driven so many Filipinos to work overseas, including his wife, who is a maid in Lebanon. “But, you know, we have a saying: ‘Don’t worry about your problems. Let your problems worry about you.’ ”
The two men roared with laughter.


“在菲律宾，生活很艰难，”A先生如是说。A先生的工作是在街边的亭子里给别人修手表，同时他抗议腐败的政府以及落后的经济导致那么多菲律宾人要到国外去工作，其中包括他在黎巴嫩当女仆的老婆。“但是，你知道的，我们有种说法：‘别担心你的问题，让你的问题担心你。'"

俩男人哈哈大笑。

“That’s why we come here every night — to clear the excesses from our heads,” Mr. Lancaderas said, adding, however, that the two always adhered to karaoke etiquette and, of course, refrained from singing “My Way.”

“Misunderstanding and jealousy,” in his view, were behind the “My Way” killings. “I just hope it doesn’t happen here,” he said.

“这就是我们每天晚上都来这里的原因——把垃圾从脑子里清空。”L先生说着，还强调尽管如此，他们俩从来都紧跟卡拉ok的规矩以及忍住不唱My Way.

在他看来，“误解和嫉妒”是My Way杀人的真正原因，“我只是希望这样的事件别在这里发生。”他说道。