Reformed Villains Perform for the BQPA

Unlike the nonsense that I publish on www.reformedvillains.com, this site being my personal blog I can actually share with anyone who is interested my reflections on the biggest performance so far for the Reformed Villains.

Using our status as So Cal Novice Champs I got the BQPA to put us in their annual Quartet Parade. They slated us to sing next to last, right before the headliners (Audacity!) and right after the OK Chorale. This was a real honor. We all felt it was important to live up to expectations.

Singing so late in the program meant that we had to wait. And wait. After it was over I asked Greg Dodge (the bass of Audacity) how he deals with the pre-performance jitters. He said it gets easier with experience. Well I sure hope so, cause I felt like my health was collapsing as the time went on.

Finally they called our name. From that point on it was like riding a wave.

We swooped in, laughed maniacally, and hit them with our musical comedy. They really liked our first two numbers! And our shtick! Hard Hearted Hannah, our closer, left them a bit stunned. I chalk it up to the final joke that does take a bit of parsing. But when we left the stage they all applauded wildly! That has got to be good!

The only gaffe was mine: I left out a joke! I should be shot.

Afterwards, I was approached by each of my BQPA friends individually. They all told how much they liked our performance. Some mentioned that we still have room to improve our sound, but all were unanimous in their approval of the act itself and most offered suggestions for songs and shtick.

I flatter myself to say that no-one in the room will forget it anytime soon. I know I won't.

Cue the flying pigs.

By a strange twist of fate and the application of a brand-new set of rules the Reformed Villains, a quartet composed of true barbershop novices, won FIRST PRIZE in the Southern California Novice Quartet Contest.

No-one is more surprised than we ourselves.

When we found out about the contest, it was mid-January. We had very little time to prepare.

First we met with the great Bob Clark (of the Stage Hogs!) who schooled us on our stage presence and told us "For God's sake, learn your notes! You guys sound terrible!".

A week later we met with Stan Sharpe ( of Preferred Blend! ) who gave us some great vocal warmups and really helped us with our ensemble sound.

The result was that Brett Littlefield (Gold Medalist Bass of Nightlife) told us: "You guys are just barely good enough to sing in front of people!" He told us that while giving us our 'eval' after WINNING THE CONTEST!

How? Because of new rules creating a separate category for quartets where no-one is over 30. That meant we did not have to contend with those pesky kids. One of the 'open' category quartets dropped out leaving us with only one adversary. That quartet contained experienced barbershoppers with contest experience, so their handicap became our path to victory. I really do feel bad for those guys. They totally sang better than us.

But, that is the way the cookie crumbles as they say. The fact remains: the Reformed Villains are barbershop champions. The end of times is surely at hand.

So Far

This weekend I achieved a dearly held dream of performing four-part a-capella harmony with my beautiful wife and children in full Victorian attire. But that was only one of the triumphs of this most remarkable weekend.

On Friday, I attended the Harmony For Lunch Bunch at Giovanni's (Harbor and Imperial-be there or be left out!) which happens every week. As usual, I was with Th9om but this time we left separately. I hitched a ride with Tom Cook from the chorus and we went to the storage shed of the Orange Empire Chorus (which I have joined since I was last in the habit of posting on this blog!) We helped to get the sets out of storage for the annual Christmas Caberet. We proceeded to the Fullerton Senior Center where we assembled the sets, set up the risers, decorated the hall, arranged and set all the tables, etc, and proceeded to feed and entertain almost 300 people. This, I assure you, was a LOT of fun! Suffice it to say that I got to sing, a lot. And that makes me happy. (Sheila was also a part of this as she was making herself indispensable in the kitchen!)

On Saturday, I visited the park not for my usual finger picking fix, but to apologize for having to miss it. We did meet Tim's new puppy, though! Sheila and I proceeded back to the venue to prepare for the 12 o'clock matinee. Another show, another 300 happy customers!

From which Sheila and I then had to catapult out the door, home, and into our full Victorian garb before hurrying with Thom and Jess (also in full garb) over to the Fullerton Arboretum Heritage House to sing Christmas Carols out of our lovely Episcopal Hymnbooks in full SATB splendor. All of us had put in a lot of time in the form of rehearsals with Donna to learn our parts well and subsequent sing-throughs. It paid off. The sound we made was very pleasing to my ear, and everyone who encountered us seemed to enjoy our performance. The cold wind, however, taught us all that we must dress warmer. Even the schnapps could not keep off the chill! :}D

From the Heritage House back to the Senior Center for the Saturday Night Dinner/Show. Sheila and I attracted some stairs as I promenaded her to the kitchen! We looked like a beautiful damsel being menaced by a Villain! I then did a full costume change to get ready for the show, which was followed by the complete cleanup of the hall, breaking down the sets, risers, etc and waiting patiently till all the toys were put away before helping ourselves to the leftover Chicken Cacciatore and all the beer we could drink. I had two before Sheila dragged me home to collapse of exhaustion.

Sunday started with choir warmup and then Church, just like every other Sunday. I took the family to CoCo's so that we would not have to cook brunch. Then we all napped before getting dressed up all 19th century style again and heading back over to the Heritage House for more Christmas Carols. Much warmer this time as we were all very well prepared AND supplied with hot cider from Oak Hall where the tourists were being shown how people used to get dressed, and how to dance. We would have loved to stay for the cast party, but ...

From there we raced down the freeway to Orange to attend the awards and installation dinner of the Orange Quartet Chapter of SPEBSQSA.

We were monstrously late when we arrived, but that had been expected. Our entrance was certainly grand as the first one to walk in was Jessica who, as the night before, had crimped her hair and done it just so that she looked not only like she belonged in the same period as her clothes, but so damned adorable that people could not help but remark to Sheila that her daughter must outshine even her beauty. Thom on her heels was exceptionally dapper in top hat and tails, with a silver chain across his vest and that amazing facial hair of his that is always doing his bidding. Sheila and I brought up the rear and thus managed to stand out in a company of people who were all at that moment very well dressed.

This would seem to be enough for any mortal at this point, to say that they had enjoyed a singularly wonderful week-end. But no, there was one more surprise in store. It seems that I have been named the Orange Chapter Barbershopper Of The Year for 2009.

At the moment that it happened, when Steve Moore read such a fine statement that said such nice things about me that I must admit that I found myself completely at a loss for words.

As a perfect denouement, there followed a Parade of Quartets that lasted an hour and a half in which I got to sing an embarrassing number of times with almost everyone present.

If I die tomorrow, don't you dare feel sorry for me.

A Murder of Crows at Orange Barbershop Chapter

I am so excited about this that I am making a blog post. After almost a year of silence!

Last night the Reformed Villains appeared at the Orange Quartet Chapter. All named 'BILL' (like so many other villains) they swept in wearing black hats and capes. They schmoozed the ladies and scowled at the men. Then they broke into beautiful barbershop harmony. They sang of love (with a mild threat!), villainy (of which they are experts) and a certain damsel named Hannah.

They came back for an encore of Don't Be a Baby, Baby with even more villainy in it.

Altogether, a very different sort of barbershop quartet!

My New Business Venture

Ok, so this blog is not supposed to be about work-related stuff.

But it is also supposed to be updated daily, and that has been a joke for quite some time.

So on to my new business:

www.freesoftwarespecialists.com

It is my sincere hope that I can grow a business that provides helpful services to people who are smart enough to stop drinking the Microsoft Punch and use the wonderful free software that is available.

Right now, the Geek Squad is making a fortune providing help to people who paid for their software. Having to pay for help with something you had to pay to use is like having to pay for the air that a service station puts in your tires. Of course you should pay the mechanic for whatever work he does on your car, but if he puts water in the radiator and air in your tires, then you see 'Air' and 'Water' on your invoice, you would have a legitimate complaint.

My offer is to charge for the time I spend helping my clients. My expertise is valuable.

The software, however, is available at no charge. It also comes without a Draconian End User License Agreement (EULA) that most people would reject if they ever read one.

Anyway, that is what I am up to. This could, conceivably, be the last post for another great while. At least it is more positive than my other recent posts.