Those songs are starting to become part of you, your tickets are being sold at a rapid rate, the money is being turned in to Bert Brossoit, advertising is being turned in to Alan Kenley and we are getting excited about paying Bert for our afterglow tickets.

The afterglow is sold out, and your money should be given to Bert to make sure that you have your places. We will be having the women of the WI-SAI with us as well as our own gang, so don’t delay.

So that is why the Mini-Pitch is going out so late. To make a long story short, I have a new operating system (Windows XP Pro,) a new hard drive, a new power supply, and hours of fun reinstalling software, and to top it off, I have to buy a new printer.

Here is one of the joys of working with Windows XP. My 4-in-1 printer is not compatible with it!

Therefore, I have a nice printer/scanner/fax/copier available. Best offer.

Thanks to Harry Marks, the problem is fixed.

What’s nine risers wide (6 foot risers!), five rows deep? The Vocal Majority with a guest bass from Montreal!

There must have been about 125 guys there, about 10 guests, and about 50 spectators. Their practices are like shows! The sound just fills the hall! Thank you very much, Murray, for helping to set this up.

What a thrill that was last night to practice with the Vocal Majority. It started at 6 PM with a one-hour choreo session to learn the moves. They are quite complex with different interacting moves within the chorus and the constant effort to make it look effortless (how many times has Morgan told us this… many!)

From there I picked up a copy of the guest book, a 3-inch thick binder stuffed full of mostly Jim’s arrangements! The warm up started at 7:00 with a series of exercises not unlike our own. Then at 7:30 Jim Clancy took over. They made the guests very welcome, including us in all the pieces except about 4 (which had choreo) out of about 12. We started with some more popular music, Bridge Over Troubled Water (Simon and Garfunkel), then California Dreaming (Mamas and Papas)… I’m sure you can imagine the energy in that one. We then sang a number of more traditional barbershop pieces and started to work a new piece that they will be signing in Salt Lake City with other choruses to make a 600-member chorus.

The choreography (was superb). They have a numbers of simultaneous and different moves, creating amazing visual effects. Many of the comments we got on our choreo in Brattleboro that we should try to achieve, I saw implemented. Especially the comment that we make Rob work too hard. Not only does Jim make it look easy to lead the chorus, his lead is part of the choreo.

Murray, it seems your reputation precedes you in Texas. More members than I can remember their names have expressed their regards to you, including Brooks Harkey, who sent a greeting that I could describe as a warm up exercise to relax the lips. But all kidding aside, Brooks is a great guy and took great care of me.

The evening ended with the traditional closing song and then a trip to the local Bar and Grill for beer and eats.

The Vocal Majority is a terrific bunch of guys, I will be practising with them every Thursday while I am here. Of course, I did pick up their 8 CD box.

The Cornwall Chapter will be holding their show on Friday, May 6^th at the Aultsville Theatre in Cornwall.

Their guests that evening will be the Ottawa Capital City Chorus and quartets.

Tickets are $15 and are available from Ron Dawson or by calling Ron Symington (613) 932-8125 or John Hamilton at (613) 347-2856.

We are back to singing the Barberpole Cat Songs in quartet on Monday evening. Last week, Sebastien Malo sang Wild Irish Rose in quartet, and is on his way working through to the end.