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bigmacbear) wrote2024-07-12 11:59 pm
bigmacbear) wrote2024-07-12 11:59 pm
GALA Festival Trip, Day 7 of 10
FRIDAY
I got up about six AM to pee and took another dose of ibuprofen before returning to bed. When my alarm went off at 7:30, I used the bathroom again, checked the schedule for the morning Coffee Concerts and decided to suggest to Gary that we skip them. He agreed, and I reset the alarm for 9:30. My tooth was still sore, but tolerable. We crossed the street to Nicollet Diner but there was a wait till the top of the hour, so we returned to the hotel. I was grateful for the big vat of oatmeal on the buffet, as I suspected (correctly as it happened) there would be no time for lunch.
We proceeded to Central Lutheran Church for the first block, which was to close with OurSong Atlanta. On the way, we stopped by the GALA store and picked up T-shirts and a water bottle. When we arrived at the church I was impressed with the setup of the large temporary stage and the flags and banners decorating the balcony. Of note: the Quarryland Men's Chorus from Bloomington, Indiana wore hi-vis construction vests. At least one of the soloists as well as their artistic director were big bears. Diversity: the Voices of Sarasota were very much a senior chorus, although their artistic director was a significantly younger bear with a bald head, thick, dark beard, and a kilt.
I stayed for OurSong's first number, then returned to the hotel for SMC rehearsal, which went well. Afterwards I went back to the room to stash our purchases. On the way down the elevator I had a nice chat with a cute otter-pup named Randy from Modern Men (Coachella Valley). He inquired about Dennis and Paul. I took the Skyway back to the Convention Center en route to the church. Along the way I had a brief chat with Fritz who used to sing with SMC and moved to DC three years ago.
We returned to Central Lutheran for the afternoon set entitled Southern Harmony. As I entered the front door of the church, I followed a hot bear, and I immediately noticed a cute cublet with interesting ink named Oblio, who introduced me to his buddies in the Eugene GMC, including Rob and the bear I'd followed, Seth. I missed the men's chorus from Charlotte, but got a seat in time to see the combined men's and women's choruses from there. The men then left the stage and the women completed their set. Before the next set began, I walked across the church in search of Gary, who ushered me to a seat beside him. I was surprised to find my other neighbor was Bill Eadie who I'd met in Cincinnati when he was Dennis Rosenbaum's roommate. He's retired from choral singing for health reasons. The Steel City Men's Chorus, from Birmingham, AL, opened with "Our Greatest Fans" by Eric Lane Barnes. When their director mentioned ELB had written the song for them, someone said loud enough to hear across the church, "Good Lord!" or some such. They were followed by the Appalachian Equality Tenor Bass Chorus, who gave a rousing rendition of "I Know Where I've Been" from Hairspray. The set closed with Nashville in Harmony, who performed three numbers we've done with the combined Seattle choruses, most notably Lauridsen's "Sure on This Shining Night".
After the final performance, Gary needed to use the restroom, and I had a brief conversation with Oblio and Seth and was introduced to their director, a cute cub named Evan. I found Gary on the outdoor patio. Since I hadn't eaten lunch, we went over to the remaining food truck outside the church. On our way, I overheard someone saying a member of his chorus was catching a "Goober" instead of an Uber. I grabbed a basket of fries loaded with pulled pork and cheese sauce. As I ate, we were joined by a contingent from the Sacramento GMC who had just finished a set across the street in the Convention Center auditorium.
The evening promised an embarrassment of choral riches. We hurried to Westminster Hall for the TransFusion Cabaret to see Mitch perform with the Trans & Nonbinary Festival Chorus. The queue to get into the venue was extremely long and wrapped around and around the church corridors. By the time we reached the hall, it was at capacity and they had to add an overflow space elsewhere in the church. The master of ceremonies was Dick Von Dyke, a drag king (not to be confused with comedian and actor Dick Van Dyke). The organizers made the wise decision to shuffle the program to bring the Festival Chorus on first. After their performance, we left to make space for others, went outside and listened to the band performing on Peavey Plaza across the street. We then proceeded to Brit's Pub for dinner; there wasn't space on the roof deck but we managed with a high table in the bar area.
After dinner, we returned to the hotel for showers and went across to the Millennium Hotel for Bear Soup. We chatted in the pool with Gianluca, a bear from Winnipeg with a choir, and Scott. LeDerek, an inked bear who reminds me of DJ from Seattle, left shortly after we were introduced. We talked about ELB's music, and when Gianluca asked what he was doing now, I used my Music of Assisted Living joke. As I was dressing to leave, Winnipeg bear pointed out that I was wearing swim trunks that matched the bear on my T-shirt. 😊
Bear Soup ended at ten and we returned to the room to chill. We ended up going to bed about 12:30 am.
I got up about six AM to pee and took another dose of ibuprofen before returning to bed. When my alarm went off at 7:30, I used the bathroom again, checked the schedule for the morning Coffee Concerts and decided to suggest to Gary that we skip them. He agreed, and I reset the alarm for 9:30. My tooth was still sore, but tolerable. We crossed the street to Nicollet Diner but there was a wait till the top of the hour, so we returned to the hotel. I was grateful for the big vat of oatmeal on the buffet, as I suspected (correctly as it happened) there would be no time for lunch.
We proceeded to Central Lutheran Church for the first block, which was to close with OurSong Atlanta. On the way, we stopped by the GALA store and picked up T-shirts and a water bottle. When we arrived at the church I was impressed with the setup of the large temporary stage and the flags and banners decorating the balcony. Of note: the Quarryland Men's Chorus from Bloomington, Indiana wore hi-vis construction vests. At least one of the soloists as well as their artistic director were big bears. Diversity: the Voices of Sarasota were very much a senior chorus, although their artistic director was a significantly younger bear with a bald head, thick, dark beard, and a kilt.
I stayed for OurSong's first number, then returned to the hotel for SMC rehearsal, which went well. Afterwards I went back to the room to stash our purchases. On the way down the elevator I had a nice chat with a cute otter-pup named Randy from Modern Men (Coachella Valley). He inquired about Dennis and Paul. I took the Skyway back to the Convention Center en route to the church. Along the way I had a brief chat with Fritz who used to sing with SMC and moved to DC three years ago.
We returned to Central Lutheran for the afternoon set entitled Southern Harmony. As I entered the front door of the church, I followed a hot bear, and I immediately noticed a cute cublet with interesting ink named Oblio, who introduced me to his buddies in the Eugene GMC, including Rob and the bear I'd followed, Seth. I missed the men's chorus from Charlotte, but got a seat in time to see the combined men's and women's choruses from there. The men then left the stage and the women completed their set. Before the next set began, I walked across the church in search of Gary, who ushered me to a seat beside him. I was surprised to find my other neighbor was Bill Eadie who I'd met in Cincinnati when he was Dennis Rosenbaum's roommate. He's retired from choral singing for health reasons. The Steel City Men's Chorus, from Birmingham, AL, opened with "Our Greatest Fans" by Eric Lane Barnes. When their director mentioned ELB had written the song for them, someone said loud enough to hear across the church, "Good Lord!" or some such. They were followed by the Appalachian Equality Tenor Bass Chorus, who gave a rousing rendition of "I Know Where I've Been" from Hairspray. The set closed with Nashville in Harmony, who performed three numbers we've done with the combined Seattle choruses, most notably Lauridsen's "Sure on This Shining Night".
After the final performance, Gary needed to use the restroom, and I had a brief conversation with Oblio and Seth and was introduced to their director, a cute cub named Evan. I found Gary on the outdoor patio. Since I hadn't eaten lunch, we went over to the remaining food truck outside the church. On our way, I overheard someone saying a member of his chorus was catching a "Goober" instead of an Uber. I grabbed a basket of fries loaded with pulled pork and cheese sauce. As I ate, we were joined by a contingent from the Sacramento GMC who had just finished a set across the street in the Convention Center auditorium.
The evening promised an embarrassment of choral riches. We hurried to Westminster Hall for the TransFusion Cabaret to see Mitch perform with the Trans & Nonbinary Festival Chorus. The queue to get into the venue was extremely long and wrapped around and around the church corridors. By the time we reached the hall, it was at capacity and they had to add an overflow space elsewhere in the church. The master of ceremonies was Dick Von Dyke, a drag king (not to be confused with comedian and actor Dick Van Dyke). The organizers made the wise decision to shuffle the program to bring the Festival Chorus on first. After their performance, we left to make space for others, went outside and listened to the band performing on Peavey Plaza across the street. We then proceeded to Brit's Pub for dinner; there wasn't space on the roof deck but we managed with a high table in the bar area.
After dinner, we returned to the hotel for showers and went across to the Millennium Hotel for Bear Soup. We chatted in the pool with Gianluca, a bear from Winnipeg with a choir, and Scott. LeDerek, an inked bear who reminds me of DJ from Seattle, left shortly after we were introduced. We talked about ELB's music, and when Gianluca asked what he was doing now, I used my Music of Assisted Living joke. As I was dressing to leave, Winnipeg bear pointed out that I was wearing swim trunks that matched the bear on my T-shirt. 😊
Bear Soup ended at ten and we returned to the room to chill. We ended up going to bed about 12:30 am.