Special Singing

Mark went all out in honor of Jessica Beer's visit: homemade pasta with 3 different sauces, garden salad, bread...
...baked eggplant, and a fabulous apple tart for dessert (thanks, Carolyn).
This is at least less blurry than the other picture I took before I finally gave up.

Golden Gate '08

Will says:

     "I've put MP3 files of the 2008 Golden Gate Singing at:

     http://entish.org/sh/gg_2008/

     Unfortunately, only the afternoon session was recorded. Still, enjoy!"

Thanks, Will!

Here are some of my trademark bad photos:

Tenors!



Jessica leading:



More tenors!



Connie leading:



Lara leading:



We had a lot of wonderful visitors from out of town, and Shelby passed on something Charles said that I thought was really apt: "This is what it looks like when people are cooperating." Thanks for a great singing, everyone!

May we all go home a-praising / and rejoicing in Thy love

Well, I couldn't make it to the party, so here's my unfinished business - and it's even singing related. Linda explicitly requested a report from the Western Mass convention. Be careful what you ask for! I'll try to be concise and keep the gushing to a minimum. If you didn't know already, WMSHC is my favorite holiday. It's like some kind of ultimate Christmas/family reunion montage of all my friends together, new babies, too much food, too many trips to the airport. Followed by that time of year when we compulsively check for pictures online and start counting the days until the next convention (340).

Uh, there's some singing in there too. Some of the best singing around. After an unprecedented year away, I'd started to chalk my yearning for Northampton singing up to nostalgia, but then I walked into the chapel on Tuesday night and it was better than I remembered. (As much as I love California, there's nothing like a little New England fervor.)

Thanks to the officers and everyone who made the weekend what it was, particularly those responsible for the seamless arranging.

Let us turn to photos, all shamelessly stolen from those more talented than I.

God bless Sheldon Finlay and his unmatched singing photography. This year's convention was so well attended (412 registered, it was standing room only on Saturday) that many people led in pairs or groups, which was a lot of fun and made for excellent photo ops. Such as this one, featuring my very best friends, who've just set their wedding date! (In the interest of not embarrassing Katie further, I will point out that contrary to popular belief, Richard is not about to kiss her in the middle of the square. He is merely leaning over to remark, "Oh, I don't hate this song!")



And this one of the Wojcik family.



The children's lesson, led by Jenna and Kelsey. (courtesy of Kevin, another Sacred Harp photographer extraordinaire)



Leyland del Re leads. (also courtesy of Kevin)



Look, you know this guy! (courtesy of Mary Whitehouse)



In conclusion, come sing with us next year! In fact, the WMSHC board is extremely generous in providing travel grants.

And perhaps Mark can provide us with something more resembling an objective report? Much obliged.

More All California Convention

Natalia and Inder gave better reports than I could, and there's also some nice comments from out-of-towners on the fasola singings list.

Right now, anyway, you can see my pictures on the slideshow on our sidebar. You can also see my pictures here, and  you can see Chris Thorman's pictures here. 

All-California Convention

Well, the California Convention in San Pedro was pretty dang nice.



Pat Keating (pictured above with Richard's nose) was a gracious and with-it chair, and the L.A. local singers were excellent hosts. Rick Russell and Bruce Hayes arranged; Laura Boyd Russell pitched, with assistance from Richard DeLong.

Mary Rose valiantly tried to keep it green, although L.A.'s recycling regulations didn't turn out to be quite as liberal as originally thought (let's face it; nobody believed for a second that those waxed paper cups were recyclable).

I liked how this convention was friendly to beginners while still keeping things together -- i.e., the front bench always had responsible singers on it, with few gaps.
Several new singers led, and were well supported by the class. The convention also drew visitors from all over, including many excellent leaders who stretched the class (in a good way!).

It was great to see Ted, Anne, Steve, and Lisa from Chicago; Richard from Georgia, Claire from New Mexico; Leyland and Mary Chris from Virginia, Kiri and James from Rhode Island; Jerry, Carla, Carroll, Midge, and Jeff from San Diego; Steve and Karen from Eugene; the Los Angeles singers; and some semi-locals like Cindy and Jeanette, who live nearby but who I don't sing with that often for various logistical reasons. There were just boatloads of people there with whom I'd sung before, and with whom I was glad to sing again. I'm missing tons of names in this list.

Lots of Bay Area locals went down, and it's always fun to see how we behave when not in our Bay Area bubble. Every Bay Area singer led, including Caroline, who claimed she hadn't meant to sign up to lead, but in fact led really well.

I wasn't able to take that many pictures before my camera batteries crapped out, but here are a few.


This is Linda in front of the Korean Friendship Bell in Angels' Gate Park. No, Linda, you can never escape the paparazzi.


Here are a few pictures as the convention was beginning on Saturday:

Mark, Ted, Carolyn, and Carroll (who was also the outgoing chair).


Claire and Susan


Wade from Utah, Cindy, Inder, and Xaris. Xaris, a treble, claimed to be a new singer but sang everything perfectly, including the shapes. Which makes me wonder: how many singers would be willing to make a dark Faustian pact in exchange for sweet Sacred Harp skills? Is that Darlene's secret?


Here are some leaders:


Anne from Evanston, IL -- who always rocks.


Carla from San Diego


Inder!


Kiri


Laura and the dude from the hostel, whose name I did not catch. Also, part of Leyland's face, because that is the nature of taking pictures from the second row.


Susan and, um, Richard's ear.


Betty from Oakland: my sole singing shot on Sunday before my camera ate Linda's batteries.


Here are some random singing shots:


Linda and Chris in the tenor section


Linda and Chris in the tenor section, with Chris taking a picture. He probably has some awesome ones; hopefully he'll post them.


A piece of the tenor section: Richard, Carolyn, and Mary Rose.


Some basses: Ron H., Steve W., James B., and Paul L.


Here are some (poorly taken) photos of the social:


Linda and fellow tenor Kasia


David and Susan, at whom I tried to pitch a truly brilliant film idea while they smiled and nodded and checked their watches


And finally, the Korean Friendship Bell:




In conclusion, why do we have a "Sacred Harp" label? Aren't all of these posts Sacred Harp posts?

Pictures from Portland, At Last

Flickr has been obnoxious... but I managed to get some pictures of the Portland convention 3 months ago loaded there before my laptop's battery died (it's a very good battery, by the way. Flickr was just three hours worth of obnoxious!). Jessica Beer of Portland has graciously supplied names, notes, and flattering comments.
I'm having trouble getting Blogger to cooperate as I try to post a few favorite shots here, but I think I've found a way to outwit it. Anyway, check out the Flickr link and have fun.

Here's Natalia's shot of Betty:

This one, also by Natalia, was added to Flickr's Global Spirit pool at their invitation:

I would like to repay Natalia for the oh so many shots of me posted here by posting tons of pictures of her. However, I'm really short, and she's not so tall, so all of my pictures of her are obscured by the taller people on the first few rows of the tenor bench. Sigh.

Not all my pictures were terrible, though. Here's one I like:

And this, while not technically perfect, did capture a great moment:

So now we should all be in the mood for the All-California this weekend!