AROUND THE HORN
Vacation season has hit and as far as attendance, our meeting last night took a hit as well. But the evening was about as diverse as it has ever been. We did some “reading” (seven or eight songs in a row) from the Harmony Heritage Medley, worked on a brand new Christmas song, experienced some woodshedding of “Precious Memories” with the basses singing foundation notes based on finger clues (1, 2, 4 & 5 Scale positions…Tonic, Super Tonic, Sub Dominant and Dominant).
We divided up into two groups and spent a 20 minute focused session on the two fall contest song. We spent the last portion of our time, viewing the new DVD or our show video made a week ago. There is some nice video work and the DVD documents that the chorus and quartets sang well.
Guest Nick Turner
We had an interesting diversity of singers. Anthony Morrison has completed his first year as an EIU student and hopes to be active for a while. Doug Finkbiner (former member) returned again and is strongly considering re-joining the chorus. Jim Kraatz has been AWOL for several weeks, but he brought his baritone talent. Bruce Condill announced he’ll have his 93rd birthday (just kidding) on Friday and Gary Hawker became one of a handful of current CCC singers who now has a 30 year membership card.
It was exciting to have first time guest, Nick Turner (Oakland) visit. He is now studying agriculture at Lakeland College, he farms 200 acres, and thousands of others…helping his grandfather. He has sung since a youngster and had considerable singing experience while in high school. He attended five our of Youth In Harmony Festivals over the years and it was good to have him with us. He “posted” a couple of “high/hard ones” during the tag time at the end of our meeting. His youth brought our average age down by several years. He says he’ll come back next week.
DG after visiting AoH
To close the meeting, we asked Derek Gilbert to direct “Keep the Whole World Singing”. He joined us one year ago and we’re thankful for his talent and experience–25+ years of barbershopping and an excellent musician (tenor)–as well as our outstanding Web Master. Of course we also appreciate his talented an supportive wife – Sharon.
A week ago, he visited his former chapter (Ambassadors of Harmony (AOH) chorus from St. Charles, MO (150 members strong and competing for another gold medal in Portland, OR). He was asked to direct “Keep the Whole World Singing” at the close of their meeting, which was thrilling enough, however he got a big surprise when he “cut off” the chorus on the final chord. They kept singing. Derek may teach us the tag…or make up another one.
JUNE 12th thru JULY 31st GUEST NIGHTS Bring a friend….expose him to the CCC and our Musical Fellowship
JULY 3rd – 7th INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION AND CONTEST Portland, Oregon
IF YOU’VE EVER BEEN CRITICAL OF FOLKS WHO WRITE NEWSLETTERS, PERHAPS THE FOLLOWING WILL CAUSE YOU TO THINK ABOUT THE DIFFICULTY IN USING THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
English
We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth?
Then one may be that, and there would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!
Let’s face it – English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;
Neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren’t invented in England.
We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes,
We find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square,
And a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write, but fingers don’t fing,
Grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham?
Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend?
If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them,
What do you call it?
If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English
Should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.
In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?
We ship by truck but send cargo by ship…
We have noses that run and feet that smell.
We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.
And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,
While a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?
You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language
In which your house can burn up as it burns down,
In which you fill in a form by filling it out,
And in which an alarm goes off by going on.
And in closing……….If Father is Pop, how come Mother’s not Mop.???
