2011 Men's International Barbershop Contest - Day 4 Observations

Today was the chorus competition. It was a very long day given the very early start to it and no time to nap if I was going to hear all the choruses. That said, the actual time spent in the audience pretty much flew by. The choruses were an interesting mix of choruses performing their two songs and choruses performing two songs with a theme. Some choruses sang clearly barbershop arrangements and some sang songs that I would struggle to classify as barbershop.

Notes from today:

• The camera people still haven't figured out how to pan the whole chorus or quartet. I'm beginning to think they need another camera or something. They have gotten better as the week has progressed but even in the chorus competition, there were many shots of one person from belly to head and two chins over his shoulders. Had they focused the camera nipples up, they'd have had the heads to go along with the chins. Worst problem in my opinion is that they keep going back to the same faces in the chorus most of the time. Once they'd made you into a head with two chins, they'd do it again later in the song.
• Either mic testers need a job description or someone needs to make sure they actually read it. It's lovely to be chosen as a mic tester but you have a job to do. The sound people are supposed to be using your sound to set levels. If you aren't placed where everyone else will be placed, the sound people can't set the levels. I realize this limits your artistic creativity at times but this should be worked out ahead of time. Perhaps offer mic testers three songs so that one can be off the risers or one that invites quartets 20 through 12 onto the stage ;-) While part of me really enjoys the show, if the mic testers don't do their job, the show starts running late from the very beginning. Often shows have strict times they have to be done before they start to pay overtime to the staff so having to add mic testing time can literally cost the show thousands of dollars.
• BHS has a real push to get everyone singing the older songs. We've had mini-mass sings while after intermissions or as stretch breaks. While I love this idea and wish SAI did more of it, it would be so much easier if they ran the lyrics across the bottom of the TV image with the director on it. It's hard enough to woodshed if you haven't a clue what the melody is but when you don't know the words either, it is nigh onto impossible.
• The men's risers have a constant creak to the point of having a fifth note into virtually every chord. While you can't hear it during the louder parts, the riser squeak was louder than most chorus' quiet moments. I think the person who develops silent risers will make a fortune!
• Most of the choruses are completely hooked on the director during the ballad where the chorus members are clearly trying to create characters and sing directly to me as an audience member. The uptunes are all performance numbers which the director participates in and I get to watch but I am not involved in. At some point, I hope I understand why choruses need a director to talk to me. My comparison was that the chorus was Cyrano writing the poetry and telling the director what to tell me except that all I saw of the director during the ballads was his/her back.
• I like SAI's division of choruses into size categories and I think I wish BHS would have some sort of divisions for its choruses. Whether they use size as the divider or use choral vs. performance or some other criteria, some of the choruses were sufficiently different as to barely be in the same contest. How does a 21 person chorus doing a choral presentation of two songs fairly compete against an 80+ person chorus performing two excerpts from a recent show they put on?

After four days of listening, I begin to really understand why some people are irritated at what they perceive as the lack of barbershop sound in some of the competitors. Westminster sang three songs for their swan song while the judges were compiling results. This was my first time hearing them live and it was a real treat. I did find it very sad that the champion barbershop chorus for 2010 only sang one identifiably barbershop song out of their three. What they sang was amazing but at the same time, I felt sad that the champions who are supposed to be our best barbershop chorus didn't sing much barbershop. I think if I had been singing barbershop since I was knee high, I might be concerned for the longevity of barbershop, too.

Let me be very clear that I do not have the best ears. I'd probably have to say that my ears are pretty bad. One of the things I work at during all the conventions I've been to is to get to the point where I hear the barbershop chords and progressions to the point that I can predict them. I view that as an essential skill if I am going to be a good barbershop singer. I want to get to the point where I may not be able to define barbershop, but I know it when I hear it. I don't have a problem with a cappella music being sung, but I would hope that after listening to 4 days of music at a barbershop convention that I would be pretty good at identifying the barbershop sound, and I'm not sure I can. As someone new to the artform

In SAI, the winning chorus and quartet for each region go to international. In addition, the top 5 scoring quartets and choruses who didn't win their region wildcard into international. SAI adds a little twist as well by offering small choruses (under 30 members) and mid-sized choruses (under 60? members) to compete at Harmony Classic. The top 5 scoring choruses in each category who aren't competing at International get to compete on the international stage with similarly sized choruses.

I think BHS quartets qualify for International by a percentage score which makes it easy to see the relative strength of the various districts. The Johnny Appleseed District is clearly a powerhouse region for men's barbershop. They had 2 collegiate quartets (one of which won), 4 quartets in the quarter-finals (1 is in the top 10) and a chorus at this year's competition. That's not to say other districts aren't as strong; merely that with this sort of a qualifying method, it puts the spotlight on the strongest regions. Since quartets are attempting to be a percentage rather than their fellow competitors, it adds to the camaraderie at the district levels.

2011 Men's International Barbershop Contest - Day 2 Observations

Day two of Men's International brought many hours of the quartet quarter-finals. Once again, a very enjoyable day though the luck of the draw did give me one moment where I would have liked a certain lady's flask to ease the pain... None of the quartets were awful but I did become abundantly aware of just how long I could listen to different "B-level: boring but good" quartets. I begin to understand how difficult it is to put together a show featuring different groups. Not only do you need to vary the talent levels somewhat but you need to do it in such a way that no group follows a group that is significantly better than they are and you need to build up to a finish. Oh, enough about my learning here and on to my observations.

I think it is finally settling in that the men glorify the quartet. Men's International has three days of quartet competing. The first day is 52 qualifying quartets singing their two songs in the quarter-finals. The second day includes the top 20 quartets singing (hopefully different!) two songs in the semi-finals. The quartets get a day of rest while all the choruses compete for their one day before the competition rounds out with final 10 quartets doing their package.  There is no show of champions; the quartet finals _is_ the show everyone is waiting for.

SAI glorifies the chorus and likes the quartet. SAI has a day of all qualifying quartets singing their two songs, then a day where all qualifying choruses compete with their two songs. Next we get a day of  quartet finals where the top 10 quartets do their package followed by the last day where the top 10 choruses compete. Lastly, the women put on a show with their top winners of all the categories.

On the one hand, I like the idea of multiple days of quartet competition. To go from 52 quartets to 10 is a strict job and singing on the international stage must be nerve-wracking. Having the opportunity to have a second chance if you didn't bomb your first attempt would be nice. On the other hand, I don't think I'm looking forward to sitting in the audience for another 4 hours today for the semi-finals after sitting from 10-3 and again from 4:30-9:30 for the second half. If I were listening to choruses today, I think I'd feel better about the sitting.

I think I am going to miss seeing chorus packages. I enjoy the singing but I like a show, too. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Here are my observations from the quartet semi-finals:

• Many, if not most, of the quartets stand somewhat overlapping. The two in the center are rarely shoulder to shoulder but instead overlap. The two end people also overlap the people in the back. This makes the cup closer and probably makes it easier to hear each other.
• This works because there isn't nearly as much planned choreo in the men's quartets as there is in the women's. There is some planned movement but I would say that it is the exception rather than the rule. The men could use a few lessons in choreo that doesn't involve wandering hands. The hands tend to move as the individual parts move which means there is a constant flow of movement. It really distracting from my audience perspective.
• I am particularly tired of the "weighing a woman's breasts" move. Bring the hands up (palms up) to breast level, pause a moment to make the moment special, lift up your hands, smile, and gently lower your hands back to waist level. By the 4th quartet, I was really tired of this particular move. By the 52nd quartet, I just watched with my eyes closed.
• A few quartets did appear to have applied blush. No foundation and the blush was on the cheek hollows rather than the apples. And did I mention that there was no blending or feathering? Just a swash of color the way a 3 year old might do. Yes, the guys need makeup but when they see the results of what they are doing, no wonder they don't want to wear it!
• Many of the quartets had great chords but only the ones where the mouth-shapes matched had any ring that I could hear. I know I've heard this before, but watching 52 quartets ended up being a great way to get the experience I needed to really cement this in my brain. Time to haul out the video camera for my quartet...
• Lots of the quartets came out on stage before they were announced so that they had a shape on stage that contributed to their presentation. It worked for me and it varied the stage entrances to make the contest more interesting.
• Some quartets had the people going to the farthest side of the stage run or job across the stage. Not only did this leave two members with a breath deficit at the beginning of their set, it wasn't necessarily attractive to watch. Not every barbershopper is in great shape and not many people like to see bulky bellies bouncing like a basketball as the person runs across the stage.
• Many of the quartets began their set with the lead singing a solo, then another part joining in on the next phrase, followed by the last two parts on the third phrase. It made for very tender song beginnings but I think that would add immense pressure to the lead. I don't think that sort of thing is legal in SAI but again, it added some nice variety to the 52 quartet march.
• Again, a really nice mix of classic and newer arrangements. BHS is having a "disagreement" at the moment about whether modern songs with modern chording
  
  On the one hand, I understand better now how important those classic songs are. They really do have a different sound and it is the sound I associated with barbershop before I joined AJoy. It is a sound that brings back the feeling of the old times when life was simpler. The chording is easy to harmonize with which makes it much easier to woodshed. If people have a firm foundation in these older, square songs, they'll have a better sense of barbershop chord structure. That has to be beneficial.
  
  On the other hand, the old songs pretty much sound the same because they use the same chords over and over in fairly predictable patterns. Newer songs evoke more recent times and are more entertaining to listen to when there are a lot of them.
  
  Given 52 quartets, if they had all sung modern arrangements, I doubt I'd be able to tell you anything about barbershop other than it is 4 part a cappella harmony. Add in a healthy dose of the more traditional barbershop songs, and I could probably hum a few bars of what I'd call barbershop music. Better yet, I'd be willing to try to harmonize with you if you sang a few bars. If they'd all sung traditional barbershop songs, I'd have left after the 10th quartet to drown my sorrows.

Ok, off to the quartet semi-finals today. Theoretically, Daniel's studs for his tux shirt will arrive today. If not, I get to be creative since the chorus competition is tomorrow.

2011 Men's International Barbershop Contest - Day 1 Observations

Here I am in hot, humid Kansas City attending my first ever men's international barbershop contest. Last night was the opening contest featuring the collegiate contestants, and I have to say, WOW! If this is what the college kids do, I am in for a real treat. I've attended two SAI competitions (Nashville and Seattle) so I thought I'd give my impressions of this contest.

Women
The first thing I noticed is how many women are at this contest. Most of the people manning the ticket booths and sales floor in the merchandising area are women. While this isn't an astounding observation, it means that the men aren't trying to put on the show while preparing to perform.

• While there are men at the SAI competitions, it is mostly the women working to pull the show together as well as keep their heads in the competitive game so they can blast onto the stage. Wouldn't it be nice if the men spent the SAI week doing many of the jobs so that the women could concentrate on the competition itself?

Family
This is a family oriented contest. There is a BarberTots area where people can take their kids and still listen to the show. There are picnics planned. There is a women's breakfast and hospitality suite to make sure that women know they are welcome. There are tons of kids here already. There is a concerted effort to make this a family environment. Women are encouraged to be Associate members so that they can support the BHS and get discounted tickets to contest. (Wish I'd know about that aspect before I paid for my KC tickets though!)

• In contrast, the SAI competition seems to be a women's week away. Not only do I not find it particularly inviting to the male members of my household, the schedules made it hard to find any time to spend with them. I do understand that in the past, if a woman travelled with her husband or her kids, she never stopped being the wife and mother and so couldn't concentrate on the chorus/quartet experience. That's probably still true to some extent today but if we want SAI to continue, we need to figure out ways to encourage it to be supported by the whole family. If  contests aren't family friendly, Sweet Adelines becomes the way the woman spends money and time away from home. As long as the family isn't encouraged to support this hobby, we risk our members having to treat it as a "special" thing rather than a lifetime hobby.

Collegiate and YWIH
There were 21 young quartets last night who did an astounding job. Yes, many of them were nervous but they all did a great job.  There were two or three quartets that presented themselves as comedy quartets which I personally think is great. Music and laughter are both great healers of the soul, and it takes rare skill to combine them well.

The collegiate contest is free and was well advertised on local TV and radio. Daniel and I met some people coming to see the Collegiate show who had never heard of barbershop but were coming because it was free. I think they YWIH show in Seattle was free as well, but I honestly don't remember. This is a great way to get barbershop out into the community.

I think the thing that struck me the most about the Collegiate contest is how well prepared the quartets seemed to be. Yes, some quartets were better than others but only two out of the 21 had me cringing with bad chords. There was only one quartet that had my heart up on stage with them in that Tinkerbell-need of "You can do it! I believe in you!" I contrast that to the YWIH in Seattle where I had Tinkerbell-needs for easily a third of the quartets and some of them had me exhausted because of the work I had to do to find a chord as they sang.

• I attribute some of this to the fact that the collegiate quartets appeared to be fostered and sponsored by the Harmony Foundation which appears to give them $1500 to help cover costs as well as give them access to past Collegiate winners as coaches. Somehow these collegiate quartets are getting access to productive coaching. Most of the YWIH quartets had clearly been coached very well but at least one of them went looking for some sort of local support 4 weeks before the Seattle contest.  From first impressions, the guys are doing a better job of fostering the college kids so that their competition is a success for all involved.
• That said, the YWIH contest included a lot of high school quartets so the women are being exposed earlier. I think local choruses and quartets need to find these girls earlier to give them the coaching and support they need so that their experience is a success. SAI also includes a weekend before competition where local girls are formed into a chorus, taught excellent choreo, and then perform on the international stage during one of the contests. This seems to me to be another great way to encourage the young people to choose barbershop as a way to spend some of their time.
• It's a good thing the Collegiate contestants brought their own cheering sections. The crowd was pretty dead and there weren't that many people in the audience. I'm not sure the YWIH was much different. If we want young people to choose to spend their time and energy in barbershop, we need to be in the audience for them. If the prospect of free entertainment isn't enough to bring in the crowds, we have a major problem.

Judging


I know it takes a lot of time and energy to be a judge, and I sincerely appreciate all the effort it takes to be a judge in either organization. I do wish SAI could figure out a way to speed up the judging process somehow so that our competitions would be more show-like in tempo but I haven't got a clue how to do it. I wish I knew what the men were doing that allows their judging to be so quick so that I would have a better understanding of what the trade-off is.

Random comments

• Can I please be jealous of how well-developed many of the male basses are? As young as they are, they have some great rumble and presence!
• It's time for the men to realize that they are on stage and need to wear stage makeup. Yes, I am aware that I am anti-makeup in just about every other situation, but after watching guys who look ghostly-pale or green under that stage lights, even I recognize that stage makeup is appropriate. At a minimum, many of the collegiate quartets had clearly been up way-too-late the night before and had eye bags half-way down their cheeks. As a mom, I wanted to tuck them into bed and drug them into sleeping for a week. As an audience member, I was cringing looking at the bags on the huge TV screens.
• The camera people have this fascination with the two center people in a quartet, showing three of the four people (often excluding the person currently singing the melody), or showing the four people so that they look like tiny people on a large stage. Could they please occasionally pan the quartet so I could see all 4 faces? Focus on the two wing people sometimes? One quartet had one guy essentially singing a solo with the other three pips singing behind him. Where was the camera focused? On the pips. For the whole 30 seconds of this guy's solo.
• The judging was fast but the crowd didn't think it was fast enough. As soon as the MC came out, they'd start that lovely rhythmic clapping to indicate they wanted the next quartet. I think the MC did a great job staying calm in the face of such offensive rudeness. As an audience member, I apologize to the judges and to the MC for the childish behavior of some of my audience members.
• Twenty-one quartets singing two songs each often means that I hear only 30 or so different songs in SAI. Not here. I think only two songs were repeated at the Collegiate contest. Not only that, but there was a nice variety of old standards and newer songs. There's a lot to be said about singing the old, square barbershop songs as a way of cementing one's sound. Those older arrangements may be "boring" but they offer the quartets an easy way of rocking great chords. As a great woman once told me, "Don't show off what you can't do. Show me what you can do really well." It's a challenge to choose music that your quartet can really ring and that isn't so boring  you tire of working it.
• There's an auction to earn the privilege of being a guest judge. This fundraiser for the Harmony Foundation lets people bid for being a trial scorer at a single event during this contest. Top bidder gets to sit in the judges pit with score sheets and then gets to hang out in the green room with the judges to talk about the experience. What a great fundraiser! What a great way of making judging appear to be a coveted and valued job, too.
• There is advertising by Harmony Inc but none by SAI in the program. How sad that the only barbershop being advertised to the women attending this convention is available primarily in the NE of the United States. A great opportunity to recruit new members has been missed here which is especially bothersome given the January 2012 SAI open houses planned and current membership push. 
• Harmony Marketplace is primarily just stuff by BHS augmented by a few choruses and quartets selling their CDs. I kind of miss the variety of stuff offered at SAI conventions and think the BHS are missing a golden opportunity.
• Another fundraiser being offered here is encouraging the purchase of a teddy bear. Proceeds from the bear purchase go to the Harmony Foundation but you are then encouraged to donate the bear to a local hospital. What a great win-win for all involved! This is yet another way of getting the word out into the community about barbershop.

OK, enough about yesterday. I'll let you know how today goes with the Quartet quarter-finals.

More Than Ready for Competition

Yesterday was AJoy's Friends and Family concert. We scaled it back this year because last year we had people standing in the entryway of the church and it was a wee bit of a fire hazard. I remember being so proud of how well we sounded last year, truly amazed at our progress since the year before. Contest was in mid-April in Alaska and by June, the chorus had improved so much that watching the contest videos was painful. By September, the June videos were too painful to watch. We haven't stopped that pace, and last night was the culmination of all our hard work.

We kept F&F small this year and required tickets for entry. The tickets were free but it meant that we didn't advertise the show to anyone outside our families and the church. Our audience ended up being about 200+ people excluding the 40ish members of the chorus. It meant that everyone had room to sit and nobody was squished. It also meant the chorus could sit down during the quartets.

AJoy started off the evening by singing our two competition songs. They felt strong and fabulous on the risers and from the reaction of the audience, they liked it. I liked that the building rang with our chords. The architect of the church's sanctuary did an amazing job creating a room that rings with energy naturally, and when we sing well and create the overtone, the building rewards us by humming along. Think of it as positive feedback every time we sing it right.

AJoy filed off to the left, and I filed off to the right to join my quartet-mates since we were next in line. This was definitely our best F&F concert of this season. We'd sung last Monday at Jet Cities' F&F, then again on Saturday at PSC's F&F, so this was our third performance in a week and everything just felt like it came together. I was nervous before AJoy unlike at Jet Cities or PSC - I guess I care how well I sing in front of my peeps moreso than when I sing in front of other people's peeps - but since we started with our uptune, I could direct that energy into our performance. I'm really liking starting with our uptune but we'll talk about our song order during tomorrow's rehearsal. Next up was our ballad. We started the chorus a wee bit too soft so there was no where softer to go for the next phrase, but other than that, I think we sang it as best as we are able. Since we had the option of singing a third song, we brought out "Codfish Ball". It's a funny song and we're still getting the choreo down while keeping the sound up, but the audience really seemed to like it. It's competable so maybe we'll perform it at competition next year but we're going to perform it this year at the Thursday night competition kick-off meeting.

Next up was Frenzy. Can I just say that I want dibs on their first CD? They don't sound at all like they did two weeks ago when I thought they were amazing. They've transformed in these two weeks from a region-winning quartet to a quartet worthy of being on the international stage. It's a monumental change and I could have just melted last night while listening to them. Larry's comment was that the bass' voice was like buttah - it just enveloped the sound and provided that perfect feeling that the other voices could layer their flavors on top of. The tenor's voice is so quiet and unassuming until you realize that she's singing those high notes so perfectly that you weren't even aware of them as separate notes but rather as just part of the notes the lead is singing. When she brings out her voice on the gospel song (whose name I should know but don't), you are suddenly laser-focused on how amazing she is - and how amazing she's been without you realizing it before. Nikki, the lead, has a voice that I thought I knew very well but when she sings with Frenzy, her voice is transformed into a sound that weaves seamlessly into the other voices so it becomes difficult to pick hers out of the mix. She is still undeniably the leader of the group but its more her presence than her sound. Having learned how challenging bari parts are - challenging note progressions and constantly rebalancing each chord to make it work - I have nothing but admiration for how seemlessly it was done. I think this Frenzy gestalt is the real difference from Frenzy two weeks ago. They were 4 fabulously talented singers singing really well together but now they are far surpassing what they can do individually. It's been an amazing transformation and I am privleged to see it happening.

Next up was Sunbreak, a brand new quartet. Not only is the quartet new, but two of the people have been singing barbershop less than a year and a third member has been singing for barely over a year. The fourth member (the bass)  is experienced but that's quite a load to take on. The good news is they are all fantastically talented. I learned last night that the lead wrote their humorous tag song! The bad news is they had a coaching session three weeks ago where the coach basically told them to change most of the way they are singing. While they are all talented enough to make the changes requested, they are under significant time pressure with competition barely two weeks away. They sang really well but they are clearly still thinking about the mechanics. Overall, I think they are a better quartet than Champagne but we have more experience. They have a good chance to win the Novice Quartet Award if Frenzy doesn't qualify. I'm sure they'll be in the top 25% next year but this year is harder to tell because they don't yet have a lot of consistency in their performances yet.

Finally, AJoy took the stage again and sang our competition songs followed by "No More Sorrow", "Come Fly With Me" and "Happy Together". The last song is a really hard arrangement that Nikki thought would take us five or six weeks to pull together. Two weeks later and 15 minutes of sectionals, we were ready to add choreo :-)  AJoy has worked so hard this year and we are really building on the firm foundation of basics we've been studiously getting down for the last few years. I don't know that we'd win the region but we are at least contenders and that's a good feeling. It's also a great feeling that nobody is getting anxious about scores. We don't have to score X in order to be happy. We're fairly consistently singing at 95% of our best and that is a great mindset to enter contest with!

Let's Twist Again, Like We Did Last Summer

Actually, I'd rather not. The performance went OK but during the choreo for "Codfish", I twisted my ankle slightly then almost fell when I had to support myself on that foot later. I'm jumping the gun though so let's get back to basics.

Champagne, my quartet, had a fabulous time coaching with Lea yesterday. The two hours just flew by! Lea managed to help us tweak our two contest songs just a bit without overwhelming us with details. She's such a supportive person to start with but she has an innate sense of how much to push without being overwhelming. She did suggest that the lead and bari exchange notes on the last note of our ballad. The note is the one crack note our bari has and the chord wasn't balancing. The lead and bari are great musicians and were able to make that change easily and perform it later flawlessly.

The Pacific Sound Chorus' Friends and Family concert was packed well past overflowing. People had to stand in the hallway to hear quartets. It's a good problem to have but I kinda hope that AJoy, PSC and Jet Cities can coordinate into one Friends and Family night next year. Yes, it would mean fewer opportunities for the quartet to practice, but we could perhaps get a real stage so that it would be more like contest. PSC was sounding the best I've heard them. They had a relaxed energy about them which made being a guest a pleasant experience. In the past, they've often  had a frantic or fearful feeling about them and it was nice to see what they could do when they were relaxed. They also had more character and engaged faces that made them so nice to watch.

I am majorly bummed that I didn't get to hear much of Sunbreak. They're a new quartet filled with superb singers and but they are mostly all new to barbershop. They've come a long way since they started and I like listening to their progress. Airwave was one of the other quartets that is largely a reconfiguration of two previous quartets. I think I like the sound of Airwave better than either of the two previous quartets so here's hoping they score better at competition. I think that would put them in the top 5 of the region  (out of 22).

Frenzy was down having a rehearsal weekend and they came to see the PSC show. I'm sure they were ready for a break after all their hard work, and it was really nice of them to come watch. I'm glad I'll get a chance to hear them on Monday night at AJoy's F&F night. It's interesting to me that there are some quartets I could listen to hour after hour and others that I find challenging to listen through an entire song. Their level has nothing to do with it; I'm talking about the top fifty quartets here. I find it fascinating that quartets can have such a wildly different sound from song to song, too. I don't hear that inconsistency at the world-class quartets so I'm thinking that is one of the hallmarks of an international-ready quartet. In any event, Frenzy is one of those quartets whose sound I find very cozy and warm.

Kay, their tenor, sent me a really sweet note after the PSC show telling me I have a voice similar to Shannon Harris. Nope, I didn't have a clue who Shannon Harris was but I discovered she was the bass of Brava!, Sandy Marron's quartet that won international. It was an inspiring comment that I have to live up to but not yet :-) I have a lot still to learn and another child to fledge, but I think I'd like the experience of winning regional and having the opportunity to attend international as a participant. I have a long way to go and so much to learn but I'm  a sponge.

We're off to see "Iron Curtain" at Village Theatre today. It's billed as a communist comedy and since Village has a history of doing fantastic shows, I'm excited for an opportunity to turn off my brain and enjoy  a good show. I won't be able to see much of it. I tried a new mascara last night and my eyes are not happy with me today. Good thing I'm a touch typist else my daily blog would have died in under a week :-)

A Day's Work is Better with a little sleep

Too bad I didn't get much of it.  Personally, I think I'm just trying to channel the Heir :-)

I got home very late last night after the drive from Green River CC and for some reason woke up at 4am. Yes, I can handle a day of coaching and a performance on too little sleep. Call it my version of a beta-blocker. I think I might be afraid to see the video later (if anyone videotapes it). Part of learning how to perform is learning how to put life and thinking aside so I can just perform.

I'm still looking forward to the day. It's hard to believe that in two, very short weeks, the quartet competition will be OVER. We are sounding good and we've worked very hard for our improvements. I'm not sure that all of us are over our obsession with the numbers from the judges but I sure am. It's only 6 minutes of my life and if I try to live every six minutes of my life as if they'll be judged, I'd become too afraid to try anything; I'd only do what I knew I could succeed in doing. That's not a bad thing when you are competing. Show the judges what you do well and don't show what you are still learning to do. Of course, they care about the sound first so even if you can tap dance while singing, they don't care if you can't ring a chord. Remembering those sorts of things helps keep my singing priorities in order.

Oh well, off to turn myself into a streetwalker so the audience can see my eyes.

SingSpiration

Yes, I know it's the name of a quartet but after listening to all the Div2 quartets tonight, I feel inspired. It was a way-too-long drive complicated by a lot of "you can't get there from here" at the Green River College Campus, but it was worthwhile.

None of the quartets were clinkers, some were very good, and most had people I have seen/heard before. It was lovely seeing how much some of the quartets and individuals have improved since I saw them last in Portland. The whining of the air system was incredibly annoying but wasn't nearly as bad as the smell from the oil the maintenance guy used to "fix" the problem. It didn't alter the sound or the frequency but did give the room a slightly nauseous feeling. The quartets muscled through and did their best to ignore the distractions. I wish I could go to the chorus competition tomorrow and then to the quartet finals and show of champions but my quartet is singing on the Pacific Sound Chorus Friends and Family show so I get to miss it.

Another highlight of the evening was having a (way too late!) dinner with Jen. We tried to find a Mexican restaurant that my GPS said was only 1.8 miles away. More than six miles later, we had driven round the hill and through CasinoLand but the restaurant was closed up tight. We found our way back to highways and a Denny's where good conversation was punctuated with OK food. I so rarely take the time to talk to people in the chorus. I'm moderately anti-social but usually there is just too much going on or it is getting much too late. Jen's a neat lady and I've always enjoyed by heretofore brief conversations with her. It was nice having some uninterrupted time to just chat.

Speaking of which, more later. I have a coaching later today and a show in full competition makeup and costume. Well, almost. I don't have to use the formal stage base so that'll save me 3 hours: 2 hours getting it on me down to the clothing line and another hour trying futilely to remove it at the end of the evening.

Puffing Your Peeps

 I’m a geek and sometimes I don’t quite get analogies. At a recent chorus coaching, the coach, Beth, kept talking about "puffing your peeps" as a way to think about growing our sound and sharing it with others. I could envision what Beth was talking about with her “puff your peep” analogy, but I decided I really needed to try it for myself to really understand it. After enduring the scorn for bring home Peeps because no one will touch the things in my house, I told the rest of the family that Evil Nikki, the chorus director, and her partner in crime, Bodacious Beth, had given me homework. No surprise, the whole family had to watch this.

Beth and Debbie, another chorus member,  were quite adamant that peeps could be puffed no more than 5 seconds else the wrath of the world would descend upon us. Being the cautious type, I carefully placed 1 peep onto a plate, put it into the microwave, and watched my peep as the timer counted down: 5,4,3,2,1, OBNOXIOUS. Well, to be honest, I didn’t see much puffing going on but sure in my faith in Nikki and Beth, I dutifully popped the peep and grimaced. It was still that icky, sticky peep, now just vaguely warm and gooey.

Well, at least I’ve provided a few minutes of laughter for the family as I struggle to eat it. After all, a mom who says to her children “once the food goes in your mouth, you have to swallow it” can’t exactly break her own rule…

But there are four more Peeps looking forlornly at me. They are cute, and well, part of being a geek is understanding just why a rule exists. So, I dared to try again for 6 seconds. As I watched, I detected a small slight crackling in the pink exterior and a slight bulging around the belly. Ok, I guess I’ll eat a pregnant Peep with stretch marks. It was better than the first one, but honestly, there were only hints of goodness. At least there was somewhat less laughter at my weird faces this time around.

Ok, now I’ve broken the magic 5 second rule with no evil consequences, endured eating two of these vile things, and understand even less than I did before I started. Once more into the microwave went a Peep to be sacrificed to science. We went a daring 7 seconds this time and I watched as the Peep’s belly swelled to quints at 9 month proportions. There were stretch marks up to the little duck’s beak but the stretch marks promptly turned into wrinkles as her pregnant body collapsed in the cool kitchen air, and she hadn’t heard a scream from them yet, much less tried to get them into their snow gear. Putting her out of her misery, I popped her into my mouth as my family watched eagerly to see what faces I’d make this time.

Wait a minute, this thing is good. Like boyfriend good. Like burning bridesmaid’s dresses good. Like perfect shoes good. Like I’ve been watching too many of those silly yogurt ads. Realization dawns: I have puffed my peeps and they are good! Even better, I have two more to puff!

Being a real daredevil, we go for 8 seconds. I watch that Peep puff, and puff, and puff before the OBNOXIOUS bell forces me to open the door to shut it up. Cold air hits the peep and all the puffing becomes Lake Peep on the bottom of the plate. Ok, we have officially achieved uggggggggllleeeeeee. Even my faith in Nikki can’t make me touch Lake Peep so I leave that in the sink for Sharron to clean up since it’s her week to do dishes.

I only have one more peep left, but now I know not only where ugly is, but I know how good one step back from ugly is. I also have crossed over the line set for myself and pushed beyond what I thought was right, proper and merely good  to the place where it is great.

Unfortunately, Sharron’s puppy eyes over my delight in the goodness of peeps and the torment of being saddled with the cleanup overwhelms my sense of righteousness and I puff the last peep for her.  My adventures were just a memory on my lips and another inch on my hips.

Hmmm, I wonder if the store might have another box of Peeps?