Golden Harvest Sharp Notes

Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America

Knox Metropolitan United Church, corner of Victoria and Lorne, Regina, Saskatchewan
Guests always welcome!

There are only 4 regular Monday night practices before our show. We need each and every one of you to attend practice nights if at all possible.

This Monday we are all officially 'off the paper' so each of us needs to spend time BETWEEN practices reviewing our words and music.

There are 2 additional practices scheduled for Sunday March 19^th and Sunday March 26^th – both 1:00 to 3:00 at the church hall. If needed, we may schedule a 3^rd extra practice for Sunday April 2^nd. Please try to make as many of these extra practices as possible.

Also, we'll need a few props, so keep digging through your rummage and let me know if you have any of the following:

Thanks to all those who helped spread joy and harmony throughout Regina over the Valentine's day weekend as our quartets performed for some 75+ "sweethearts".

A certain man was infatuated with a young woman, but was so timid he never had the courage to speak to her. In fact, he told his therapist that every time he got near her he felt like nothing more than a tiny pebble.

"Well," his therapist responded, "if you want to get the girl, you'll just have to be a little boulder!"

The Executive meeting scheduled for Sunday March 5^th at Stuart and Jeanne Reiley's was rescheduled – seems like everyone was out of town or unavailable (and then there's the Brier).

The Executive is scheduled to meet at the church at 6:30 tonight (Monday March 13^th) so any info from this meeting will appear in next month's bulletin. Next meeting is scheduled for April 2^nd (unless pre-empted by an additional chorus practice).

To get you in the mood for our show, here's a website with original soundtracks from radio shows from the 1930's, 40's and 50's – from Abbot and Costello, to Lux Radio Theatre, to the Shadow. They're fascinating listening 60-some years after their original broadcasts. Check them out at woodstock.fissiontech.com/otr/archive.html.

We have a guest night scheduled for the second Monday following our show - Monday April 17^th. So now is the time to start contacting prospective guests. Invite them to our show to see what we're about on stage, and then bring them to our guest night on the 17^th.

Immediately following our show on April 8^th, everyone is invited to the Royal United Services Institute Building on Elphinstone (just north of the Agribition entrance) for our show Afterglow. This is an opportunity to kick back, relax, sing, eat, hear our quartets, mingle, and celebrate a job well done. Tickets are $9.00 per person and includes a cold plate meal (3 cold meats and cheese, coffee/tea, buns/butter, pickles, salad & dessert). A cash bar will be available. Members and guests welcome – see you all there!

The Campbells are coming, I mean going, tra la la la. I don’t mean to be flippant, but since my last column was about how we were going to save labels for the Early Learning Centre, and that’s not true any more, I owe you an update. The fact is that Doug Pederson made arrangements for the labels we had on hand to go to Coronation Park School, 3105 - 4th Ave. N (791-8570) because the E.L.C. didn’t have the manpower to handle it. Meanwhile, people kept bringing me more labels. Finally, I had more than 900 of them on hand, but hadn’t been able to deliver them. One day, however, I was going to that school anyway, and took them. It was Feb. 14. The teacher that looks after the soup labels at that school was in the same room where we found the person we were to sing to, so I was able to hand them over after the valentine had been delivered. Everyone was happy.

That was the second school we visited that morning. Earlier we had been at one where two teachers had been selected to receive a valentine. But when we got there we found that one of those teachers had just left with her class to go to a rink several blocks away. We sang to the teacher that was available, and then went and tracked down the other one, and sang to her in the rink!

We were asked several times that weekend whether we were raising money for a charity. We allowed that we were, knowing that we do support the Early Learning Centre. I want to mention another charity, not by way of suggesting that we should support it monetarily, but because what it is doing is interesting, and unique. If we still had the Award of Harmony project going, this charity would be a good candidate. The charity that I’m speaking about is creating harmony through community building. Community building is about teaching people wherever they are that in fact they are part of a community, and by working together they can move mountains. There are communities in which a large number of the members have an unhealthy, negative attitude, brought about, without any doubt, by being kicked around from infancy. These individuals tend not to take ownership of their lives, or fancy themselves as a part of the community, but wait for someone else to do things for them. They figure that they are so low on the totem pole, and so lacking in skills, that there is just no use in trying. E.g., one girl keeps waiting for the Civil Service Commission to call her up and offer her a job. When it is suggested that she go and get a job as a volunteer to get some experience, she is not interested. What the charity is doing is working with people like that to try to get them to see that they do have something to offer, and to motivate them to go out and offer it. Like the young woman that I counseled one time. She couldn’t get a job, even though she had a degree in economics, and as the months rolled by she got so she would have taken any kind of job at all. I said to her one day, why don’t you go and offer your services as a volunteer. To cut to the chase, she did that, and in three months she had a salaried job. That’s the kind of thing that this community building is all about. The charity in question is the United Way. Theirs is a local initiative, as yet, but Saskatoon is interested, and I am sure the movement will spread. It offers great promise from an economic point of view, but whatever successes there might be of that kind, they pale before the real miracle, namely the amount of happiness and personal satisfaction that is created when people discover that they are important, that they are somebody, and that they can make a difference. It is a long-term project, this community building, but one with a whopper of a pay-off. The United Way deserves a lot of credit for embarking on this far-seeing way to improve human life.

We create harmony in song. They are doing it through community building. It takes all sorts to make a world better!

Thank you for your donation to the Early Learning Centre. A receipt is enclosed. Your commitment to helping less fortunate children is deeply appreciated.

Many children have gone through the Early Learning Centre's door since 1977 and, as a result of their experiences in preschool, they have entered kindergarten better prepared to learn and with a strong sense of themselves as valued young people.

Now the Early Learning Centre has a wider focus. We are currently piloting an expanded support programme as part of a national demonstration project. With funding from this five year initiative, we are able to offer an educational and support programme to those of our parents with children 0-3 years. We are also offering increased family literacy and support to all parents. Neuroscience research is clearly indicating the importance of the early years and the need for child and family support in that vulnerable period.

Your support of the Early Learning Centre helps children learn and grow in the knowledge that they belong in a caring community.

The Regina Golden Harvest Chorus was listed among the "Friends" of Heartspring for 1999 for our donation to this worthy cause last year.

Tickets are now on sale for the much-anticipated Broadway 2000 revival of "The Music Man"!

The show will run at the Neil Simon Theatre, 250 W. 52nd St. in New York City, starring Craig Bierko as Harold Hill. Craig Bierko is a talented film and television actor, who is generating much excitement in anticipation of his first major Broadway role.

"The Music Man", directed by Susan Stroman, will also feature the celebrated leading-lady, Rebecca Luker, as Marian "the Librarian" Paroo, Max Casella, perhaps best known for his funny portrayal of 'Vinnie' on the TV show "Doogie Howser M.D.", will be in the role of Marcellus, and Paul Benedict, who was Mr. Bentley on "The Jeffersons", will be Mayor Shinn.

The original Music Man production opened on December 19, 1957 and ran for 1,375 shows. It was the winner of 8 Tony Awards including Best Musical, Author, Composer and Lyricist. Its cast album won the Grammy Award (the first ever), while the score for the film won an Academy Award.

The original Broadway version and the subsequent movie version featured the 1950 SPEBSQA champion quartet, the Buffalo Bills. When the final curtain rang down on the Buffalo Bills, they left behind a record that may never be topped in the world of barbershopping - 1,510 performances on Broadway, 728 concerts, 675 radio shows, 672 night club and hotel appearances, 626 conventions, 216 television shows, 137 state fair performances, and a major motion picture. Their fifteen record albums are another permanent record of their great singing.

The last word on the Broadway 2000 revival is that several barbershoppers auditioned for the quartet role, but in the end this revival won't feature a real Barbershop quartet after all. But, as one barbershopper put it, Music Man is "still the greatest single piece of publicity and promotion our Society has ever had. I want to be shouting at the top of my lungs that The Music Man is the BEST piece of theatre ever produced, AND that our International Champion Buffalo Bills set the standard for those that are doing the show today."

The Regina Sweet Adeline Choruses are hosting Harmony Unplugged - the Region 26 Sweet Adelines Annual Competition on April 27-29 at the Centre of the Arts.

The Golden Harvest chorus will be providing assistance to the Sweet Adelines for this event. They are looking for helpers to move risers to and from the facilities (from O'Neill High School, Thom Collegiate, Miller High School, Prairie View Community Church and Knox Metropolitan United Church), as well as 3 or 4 van drivers (and driver coordinators) for the Friday night (5:00 - 9:30).

This will be a great barbershop event for Regina and a great opportunity for our chorus to participate in making this event a success.

There once was a Mexican Indian brave by the name of De-su Lopez. He had a tragic accident as a boy when he slipped crossing a stream and badly fractured a kneecap on the rocks of the shallow rivulet. Of course, he was subsequently known as De-su One-Knee River.

After the accident, De-su had two chores to keep him busy. One was to collect bird and goose feathers for stuffing into pillow and quilts that the Mexican Indian women would make and sell to tourists. And he also ground corn into a flour or meal for the senoras and senoritas of the region to use in their cooking.

These two tasks required him to be very careful in his work. He needed to precisely measure the amount of goose feathers for each article of bedding and cautiously weigh the exact amount of ground corn to be packaged for sale. The amount had to be determined on a very accurate scale. Too many feathers and the finished pillows and quilts would be too lumpy and if there were not enough goose feathers, then the customers would be cheated. Similarly, he didn't want to be over or under on the quantity of corn meal measured.

Young De-su became so proficient at his job that he was well known for his skills. People came from near and far to watch him work. And they would ask him which job he preferred? ... "Weigh down or pone, De-su One-Knee River?"

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this issue of your Sharp Notes. You, too, can see your name here in print – it's easier than you think. Just drop me a line or email and I'll see that the info gets into the next issue.

COMING EVENTS

Bingo Thursday, March 16^th

Extra Show Practice at Knox Met Sunday, March 19^th

William Booth singout Wednesday, March 22^nd

Winnipeg show March 25^th

Extra Show Practice at Knox Met Sunday, March 26^th

Bingo Tuesday, March 28^th

Extra Show Practice at Knox Met (tentative) Sunday, April 2^nd

Executive Meeting Sunday, April 2^nd

Bingo Wednesday, April 5^th

Golden Harvest Annual Spring Show, Darke Hall Saturday April 8^th

Afterglow at Royal United Services Institute Building Saturday, April 8^th

Guest Night Monday, April 17^th

Easter April 23^rd

Performance at Sweet Adeline Convention Thursday, April 27^th

Western Canada Regional Sweet Adelines Competition, Regina April 27^th-30^th

Saskatoon show May 5^th, 6^th

LOL Prelims / Spring Convention, La Crosse, WI May 5^th - 7^th

Chorus coaching with Bruce Odell Monday, May 8^th

Mothers Day Sunday, May 14^th

Victoria Day Monday, May 22^nd

Mini-HEP, Clear Lake, Manitoba June 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th

Trans-Canada Trail singout Wednesday, June 7^th

International, Kansas City, MO July 2^nd

Golden Harvest Annual Spring Show Saturday, April 7^th, 2001

Articles in this bulletin do not necessarily reflect the views of the chapter. Unless carrying a byline, they are those of the editor. Items received may be referred to the executive before publication. All chapter officers and members are encouraged to submit articles to the Sharp Notes. Submissions will be credited to the author. Please address any comments, suggestions or submissions to the editor – Bruce Fish, 761-2503 / bfish@cableregina.com. Current and back issues of the Sharp Notes can be found on our chapter website at www.gpfn.sk.ca/culture/arts/gharvest.