There are a lot of things happening in the chapter. We just came back from a great visitation with the San Juan Capistrano Chapter. A group of us met at the church and caravaned down to Mission Veijo to Booster’s Tavern. At Booster’s Tavern we had an old fashioned afterglow with the San Juan Chapter. There was singing from the moment we entered until we left, and even when we were leaving there were guys singing tags to the very last minute. As a matter of a fact, when we got back to the church, we had to sing another tag in the parking lot. Reminded me of the old days of the Santa Ana Chapter.

What else is coming up, you ask? Keep your calendars open for a Summer Sing at Phil Roth’s house August 27. Anyone that has been to one of our Summer Sings knows that it is not an event that you would want to miss.

In September we will have an open house that will tie in with the International’s membership drive. We hope to take advantage of all the advertisements they are going to give us. We will be doing some of our own. Ken Tillmanns will be contacting both the Register and the Orange Daily News. We hope to take advantage of our own Gary Phillips at the Register. We will be having organized quartets in both the Orange Mall and the Main Place Mall prior to the Open house. So quartets, get your songs polished. We don’t want to look like a bunch of misfits under the lamp post.

The board took to heart the two articles about non-singers in the last Squeezin’s. We must have singers who can carry a tune with an ear for harmony, as these are required for singing barbershop songs. Therefore, the board is making it a policy to inform those new guests that can’t sing in a quartet that they need to improve their singing quality before they can come back. They will need to get voice lessons and learn to harmonize. We will teach songs but not give voice lessons. On Monday nights, all of us come to sing. And we want to sing with people that can hold their own in a quartet. That does not mean that we will sing only with singers that are of championship quality, but with singers that can sing their part and stay on key. The board made it clear that we will take care of this problem in the future.

So you singers, come on over and have a good time. Better yet, bring along another singer and make everyone happy. Do you know of a friend that sings in the church choir or a barbershopper friend that would enjoy singing in a quartet? Bring him over. Remember, If you’re too busy to sing, you’re too busy.

Off We Go to Capistrano!
One Dark Night Of Singing Fun
By Stanley Tinkle

Quartet chapters tend to have a good time every week. We don’t postpone the good vibes while we hammer away on two show tunes plus the dance moves for some contest, all the while hoping that this time at least we’ll beat last year’s competition scores. We perform every Monday, with our pleasure sensors wide open to enjoy any applause we hear. Of course, there’s a downside to this approach. It’s easy to drift along, feeding on courtesy claps, while we get sloppy on all the good stuff—such as listening to the lead singer, or developing a few good moves. But we know that. Don’t we?

Yes we do. If you’re in doubt, ask Mike Werner to give your quartet a free evaluation. Mike’s a friendly fellow, and he’ll find a nice way to break it to you if your BarberPole song has a heavy whiff of polecat to it. Anyway, the Orange Quartet Chapter meets every Monday at seven (six, actually), rain or shine, precisely because we need that weekly fix. So if we’re ever dark, there’s gotta be a major reason, like fire, flood, mudslide or Christmas or New Year’s.

Or--a visitation to Capistrano Chapter! So a week in advance, we warned our young guys (Steve and the crew) that we’d be dark. We wanted to spare them the displeasure and major withdrawal symptoms that can cloud a singer’s whole life. Then on June 13th we gathered outside our church and were gone by six sharp, guided by MapQuest printouts plus the Thomas Guide. My car had the additional help of road pilots Paul Sandorf, Ed Mowbray and Paul Gutierrez, three savvy Men About Town who assured me that the 55 freeway had a (get this!) Diamond Lane Transfer right onto the 5. Maybe some day, fellers.

Somehow we found Boosters Tavern, which had a comfortable back room. Capistrano President Warren Willard made us all welcome and started a parade of quartets, so that Balderdash, Indigo, 4/4 Harmony, and other foursomes had a chance to strut our stuff. Just to test our “sang froid”, I gave Indigo the wrong key for one song. Sure enough, we crashed, but we crashed without losing our cool, as I knew we would. A number of locally legendary barbershoppers were present, including Charlie Brown, who surprised the group with a rendering (look up “render” in the dictionary!) of “It Had To Be You”, backed up by our President Dave Gryvnak on lead, our Mascot Patrique Gryvnak on tenor, our Music VP Michael Werner on bass, and me on bari. Charlie is a past master of one-liners; we had to “Oo-oo” along as backup to groaners like “When you were born, the doctor slapped your mom!” Who said quarteting was easy?

We were settling down to eat Warren’s pizza when our Young Guys showed up! Steve had brought along two new guys (Jackson and Isaac, I think), and they hung around and practiced just outside the exit, listening to everything and popping in to try their hand at a BarberPole Song now and then. In fact, they contributed to the best song of the evening, a double quartet rendering of “Ain’t Misbehavin’”, one of my personal favorites. I think the Young Guys may now have their lead and tenor, with Steve as bass, of course. They are determined to form a quartet, and Orange is determined to help make it happen.

Now of course we’re back to our usual schedule. But a night on the town reminds us that it’s important for us all to “leave our hut, dear, get out of our rut, dear” and share the fun with a wider circle of friends. Let’s keep that in mind this fall when Phil and Phyllis Roth host us August 27th at their annual “Farewell To Summer” celebration. Now’s a good time to work up a couple of new songs for that happy event. See you on Monday!

The Fourth Annual Summer Sing-out
By Phil Roth

It's that time again. How time flies when you do a lot of singing. Mark your calendar for Saturday, August 27. The singing will start promptly at 3:00 PM and last until ??. Refreshments will be provided. Bring a snack to share.

The address is 3061 Ruth Elaine Dr., Rossmoor, CA 90720

International Barbershop Harmony Convention
By Dorothy Acton

I'm running behind because of summer travel. I got my news about the International in Salt Lake City by Internet, specifically the website of PROBE (Public Relations Officers and Bulletin Editors). I must say I was a bit bummed out that viewers had to pay to watch the webcast this year.

Top 10 competing quartets, in order: Realtime, Max Q, Metropolis, Riptide, OC Times, Vocal Spectrum, Saturday Evening Post, Flipside, MatriX, and Storm Front.

Choruses: Masters of Harmony, The Northern Lights, New Tradition, Alexandria Harmonizers, Great Northern Union, The Alliance, Sound ot The Rockies, Spirit Of Phoenix, Southern Gateway Chorus, and Midwest Vocal Express.

Peter Feeney, President of the Far Western District had already alerted us that FWD would be honored at the International Convention for being "Number One" in recruiting new members in 2004. The Society reported that FWD recruited 348 members in 2004, the highest district total in the Society for the year. Good job!

The College Quartet Contest of 2005
The Best Crop Yet
By Stanley Tinkle

Some of my favorite people gamble as a hobby. They say they’re good at it. One plays poker on the internet. Others spend a few days and a few more bucks at Laughlin, Nevada. They come home with a glow on, so I guess it floats their boat.

But back in 1960, when I lost a nickel to a “one-arm bandit” in Lake Tahoe, I decided I’d rather place my money on sure things, like music LPs and root beer floats. So lately my favorite ticket at any International SPEBSQSA/BHS Convention is for the MBNA America Collegiate Barbershop Quartet Contest. They can only get better every year. This year’s winners, Men in Black from Hartford University, sang “Forgive Me” and “That’s Life”, scoring 958 points. Silver Medalists New Release from Hagerstown, Cuyahoga and Penn State, sang “Love Me, And The World Is Mine” and “You’re Nobody ‘Til Somebody Loves You” for 930 points. In a major breakthrough, the Musical Island Boys from Victoria, New Zealand won third place with 917 points, singing “If You Were The Only Girl In The World” and “Hello My Baby”. I had been rooting for Men-So Forte of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, who scored 887 with “Come Fly With Me” and “What’ll I Do?” for seventh place.

In all, 54 collegiate quartets tried out for the contest. There were 9 repeaters and 13 new quartets, and the contest generated 300 new BHS members! Any of the 22 finalist quartets would steal the show at one of our local chapter programs, with their youth, energy, good looks, and vocal excellence. Nowadays, they can learn a great song by a top quartet from a CD and leapfrog ten years in a month.

Men In Black came onstage in street-smart black “city boy” outfits. Tenor Tony Nasto and bari Raymond Johnson flanked the lead and bass, like bodyguards or maybe refrigerators. Lead Oliver Merrill and bass Karl Hudson were about six inches shorter, but they have first-class pipes. Oliver can really sell a tragic lead part like “Forgive Me”, and Karl has that easy bass buzz that begs for encores. I will also look for the Musical Island Boys, who may well become an a capella phenomenon. They look like rugby players and sound like one voice.

These young quartets have been bitten by the barbershop bug. All of them will be back when they have stable jobs and family situations. For now, they form the crest of a wave of future SPEBSQSA stalwarts who will star in local chapters down the line. It was a thrill to hear these college quartets perform as a chorus, sixty strong, before the convention in the mammoth new auditorium of the LDS Conference Center, which seats 21,000 people. I hope they were taped for replay on television. Like Crosby, Sinatra, Como, Clooney, and other great young singers of the past century, they are honing their skills in contests. Whatever they sing will sound good to the public. I’ll happily pay to listen.

Ed Watson Hired As Chief Executive Officer
From LiveWire, submitted by Dave Gryvnak:

Ed Watson, a career Navy Captain with thirty-three years’ experience as a Barbershopper, has accepted the position of Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Barbershop Harmony Society. To read this entire article, link to Livewire

Handheld Microphone Trial Program
From LiveWire, submitted by Dave Gryvnak

The Society’s Contest and Judging Committee will be conducting a test of the feasibility of offering the use of hand-held microphones as an option for quartets in Society contests. This is undoubtedly the most significant change in the quartet contest format since the Society’s first contest. That is why this announcement is being made and your input is requested. This program is designed to test whether our art form can be broadened in quality, attractiveness, and/or image without altering the core definition of barbershop. The testing will consider input from all stakeholders affected by this concept, as well as periodic communications from the Team that has been established to test the concept. The decision whether or not to consider adoption of this concept will come after all test results are analyzed and feedback is received from the membership. The approach being used adopts a “bottom up” approach to the testing process.

To read the entire Press Release, link to Livewire.

Another Good Monday
By Stanley Tinkle

It should have been a quiet meeting night for the Orange Quartet Chapter. After all, some of our members had been away for much of the previous week, traveling to and from the International Convention at Salt Lake City. Phil and Phyllis Roth took their time so they could enjoy the Sacred Gold performance on Sunday morning, which featured the MOH and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, as well as several medalist quartets. It was a major wingding, held in the new Convention Center, which seats up to 21,000. But Barbara and I left early Sunday morning because of a previous commitment. Dave and Patrique Gryvnak were off summering on a well-deserved vacation. Michael Werner had cheered himself hoarse at a baseball game, so he couldn’t sing, but he still ran the entire meeting, and few noticed that Mike sounded a lot like Joe Cocker the rocker.

On the plus side, our young bass Steve was there as usual and eager to sing. Cap’n John Majzler reported that he had once again won a peck of first place ribbons at the Orange County Fair. We had a sheaf of new CDs to choose between for the raffle. Our Number One Fan came and stayed through the Afterglow, applauding every quartet. She also carried our food orders over to Dennys so that the refreshments would be timely. Who is our Number One Fan? I’ll give you a hint; she’s the lady who wears the “Number One Fan” name card. We’ll reveal her name next month.

As you’d expect, several leads wanted to take Phil Roth’s place that Monday. We auditioned Gary and Rich, who had several songs ready to sing with Indigo Lite.

In a pleasant surprise, the Fullerton-based quartet Gaslight Review arrived to spend the evening with us. Lead Spence Graves, bass Don Derler, tenor Bobby Faris and bari Bob Calderwood, who is a frequent habitué of our glows, participated in the random quarteting. Also, Jeff Parmer was in demand as an unattached lead, and at the glow we all tried out new songs and new parts.

For me the Convention had been a pleasure, except that I missed the frequent opportunities to quartet that our local chapters provide. We made up for that on Monday. That’s what the Orange Quartet Chapter is all about.

A Little History
By Paul Kelley

Our dedicated editor Dorothy Acton suggested that a retrace on our Orange Quartet Chapter might be of interest. Well, it will prompt a lot of arguments, at least!

The Chapter as it is today did not exist before about 13 years ago. Rich Lewis, Fred Robirds, and some others that I can't recall, decided that The Society was composed of choruses calling themselves members of a barbershop quartet society. They thought most guys were tired of standing on risers for hours and singing a few bars of a song between lectures by a director. Of course, different opinions will arise over that description, but that's mine. Anyhow, our prime movers put together a group of quartet men who wanted to do just that! No chorus, no director, etc. New ideas came and went. Some we used, many we discarded. Rich Lewis is sick of hearing me say, "All ideas aren't good ideas," but just tickle Rich at any moment and the ideas pour forth.

You really don't need me to tell you any more about our existing quartet (only) chapter. Maybe some of the things that have happened could be of interest in a future article. I'll bet if you could get five of us to write such articles for one issue, you wouldn't recognize what they were talking about.

Let's go back to 1960 when the Garden Grove Chapter was born. Meetings were held in the band room of Alamitos Junior High School, and one of the key men was Jim McKee, who was a one man whirl wind. He was chorus director, mover and shaker, and idea man. He was the instigator of the Novice Quartet Contest. Bet you could start a war by listening to guys who have been involved in that deal over the years. So -- on with some fading memories. Fred Robirds and Spence Graves organized the move from Garden Grove to the city of Orange. Reason? Most of our members were from that area, plus other stuff. The chapter charter remained the same, but the name became "The Orange Chapter." We had several chorus directors over some years, but I remember Bill "Much" Harper most vividly. Can't recall the dates, but the Newport Beach chapter was dickering with Orange for a merger to be called "The Santa Ana Chapter" or "The Golden City Chorus." That was done, and the chapter almost hit the magic 100 members during that period. I remember Tony Crain as our chorus director for quite a period, but others came and went.

Again time passed, and the Chapter moved to Westminster. People with good memories could cite dates, or lie about them. The Westminster Chapter of today consists of real sharp young guys who meet somewhere, sometime, when necessary to keep near the top of the competitive heap. A good many are dual members with the Masters of Harmony. Keith Sharpe maintains a small group that meets on Wednesday nights in the Westminster Senior Citizens Building.

So how do we switch from the Westminister Chapter to the Orange Quartet Chapter? We don't. However, a good number heard about the Quartet Chapter forming and either jumped ship or went the dual membership routine (like your writer).

This article hasn't really covered important stuff as was intended. But if you want to do battle on details, be my guest. Just remember that we started the first Quartet Chapter only and are still the most successful. Be glad!

P. Kelley, official curmudgeon.

Pioneers and BQPA Convention
Forwarded by Dave Gryvnak

The Pioneers and BQPA Convention is set for September 7-11, 2005, at the Chicago West Best Western Hotel, Elk Grove, IL. Contact Tom Neal, Founder of the Pioneers and BQPA, for more information. The BQPA is in the process of being incorporated, and their website is www.bqpa.com.

New Words
From Washington Post's Style Invitational:

Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

Sarchasm (n): The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.

Inoculatte (v): To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

Next Issue

Target publication date for the next Squeezins' bulletin is Aug 15 or whenever we get enough articles. Send your articles to Editor at dcacton@earthlink.net.