Thursday, December 23, 2010

Looking Back on the Dec. 21st Chapter Meeting

A hearty gang of singers came out this week to go caroling in Old Town. We met at Durant at 7 and there was a lot of getting White House Ornaments to guys who needed them from guys who had extras. Some guys came out to be sure and extend holiday greetings to their buddies.

A big cheer went up when Chuck Hunter arrived. He was ending a 72-hour ordeal to get to the U.S. from his post in Damascus, via the closed airports in London. Chuck was here to get in some tag singing and see everyone. He returns to his post on Jan. 4th after a brief visit with his family in CA.

At 7, Tony Colosimo got up on the stage and we gathered standing on the floor for warm ups. Then Joe worked for a few minutes on the 2011 uptune. (This allowed our reconnaissance team of Klostermeyer and Van Gilder to go make arrangements with restaurants for us to sing for them)

But Director Joe had a lot of news to pass along to the guys. First – CAPITAL FORCE is doing great in their prep for their singing in Vegas in January. Joe reports that Tony is doing a great job as director of the group and he also expressed appreciation for the admin leadership for CF from Patrick Kim. The group has two young guys, age 11, who are holding up the tenor part for the group. There are young guys from several chapters around the metro area who are in CF.

Then second, Joe announced big news that the Harmonizers will appear as one of the feature groups in the Cherry Blossom Parade this spring. Stay tuned for details on this one. (This is a result of good work on July 4th for the producer of the event we sang early that day in Philly!)

Joe also welcomed the Russian film crew who will go with us on our caroling trek tonite.

At about 8:15, Joe got a text that the “recon team” had things lined up downtown. So we synchronized watches and agreed to assemble at Market Square. Many guys had Santa hats and other neat hats or scarves.

As usual, we started with Gadsby Tavern, but this year we had to do two sets there since it was full in every one of their dining rooms. Then we walked toward the river and stopped at three places before ending our nite at Chadwicks. The film crew worked hard to get great shots of guys in the various eateries. They also filmed us singing as we walked among the lights on the street outside the Christmas Attic store.

A few interested prospects were given chapter business cards during the various stops. Was great to see our buddy Rob Korsan manage getting into all the restaurants – and great to have the guys give him a hand in getting his chair right into the center of the action! Dennis Ritchey’s son, Adam, was a second-time guest and came along for the sing too.

After we got back to our cars, many of us went back to Theisman's for an afterglow to end our 2010 year!!!

In other news, YeEd reports that Alan Wile was MC for the recent Potomac Harmony Sweet Adeline show last weekend. Chris Buechler was MC for the Alexandria Singers holiday performances.

Don’t forgot – we are not meeting at Durant on Dec. 28th but we are all invited to attend the BLAST on Tuesday nite, Dec. 28th, 7 – 11 pm at Michael’s 8th Avenue, 77220 Grayburn Drive, Glen Burnie MD. It’s just $15 for ticket at the door to include your beer or sodas, snacks and hotdogs. Quartets sign up and sing. CAPRI will appear, as will TOUCHSTONE (Steve White’s quartet that just won the district contest.) Get a car load and go over. YeEd went for the first time last year and it was a blast. There were over 30 Harmonizers there last year.

AND FINALLY – save the date for the annual Holiday Harmonizer Heat Glo, Sat. nite Jan. 8th at Jack Pitzer’s home. The music team is working to line up a sing out prior to the party. Save the date and stay tuned for this event for the whole Harmonizer family

Until next time – editorjack!

(This message is prepared for your review if you were there, for your information if you had to miss, and as a historical record of the great things going on each week at an Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter meeting. —Ye Ed.)