The Beauty of a Deadline

My barbershop quintet just pulled of a nice performance last night. It was not perfect; there were moments of "what was that?" along with "Ooh, that was nice." Perfectly acceptable for our debut.

We had been discussing and planning and putting off this performance for about a year. I had a terrible work and travel schedule in 2010, and it just didn't work. In March this year, we settled on a date range and venue. In early May, we booked the date. Magically, committing to a date crystallized a lot of things.

"Axel F" would not be ready. "Ward, the Pirate" would not be ready. "Old Man Noah" needed some notes fixed. And so did every other song we were targeting, except for "Wings". Our concentration improved, rehearsals became much more focused.

We're a very democratic group, and rely mostly on self-correction. If I'm missing notes, it's my job to say so, stop rehearsal, and get them fixed. I can also work on them at home if I have a piano. From time to time, some notes will be consistently missed, and then someone else will point them out, and get them fixed. We don't spent much rehearsal time working on blend or diction. I don't think we purposely ignore them; we all just assume that everyone else is ok and doing his best.

A concert deadline changed that entire dynamic. We're comfortable enough with each other that we don't get offended when corrected. And we started doing that more. We started spending more effort on diction, taming the volume to help blend and pitch. We made some decisive changes on dynamics to give the music more shape. And we were able to hit 10-15 pieces of music in a rehearsal, instead of the usual 5 or so.

Our musicianship improved. Our focus improved. And the final product that we put out is worthy of a listen.

In the end, the deadline pushed us to bring our product from 85% polish to 100% polish. We could no longer ignore the unfinished bits and pieces. For an amateur group like ours, that made all the difference.

What's next? Preparing for another concert, of course. We already have the venue and parts of the program chosen. This one will be better. You'll find information on us and upcoming events at www.themorningstars.org.

Part of the Adult American Experience

I spent my childhood from 4-12 years old on 2.5 acres in rural Oregon (Barlow, to be exact). For a few years there, my parents had a large garden. The whole family was supposed to weed it. My dad was going to school at the time, and mom was supporting a family of 5 on a bus driver's income. Money was tight, and I suppose that was a pretty good reason to have a garden. I don't think that idea crossed any of us kids' minds, though.

The point is, I hated the garden. The sunflowers were pretty darn cool, but nothing else was worth caring about. The weeds grew, the veggies did ok, but it's because Roundup doesn't even kill things in this state. Everything grows in the Willamette Valley.

And now, I am proud to day that we have had 4 blueberry bushes for 6 years now. They hardly produce anything, but they are all alive. We have had 2 columnar apple trees for 5 years now. They were just about 2 ft tall when we planted them. Now they are 10 ft tall and are loaded with fruit. So we don't kill everything we try to grow. But our gardens have been a couple attempts that did not end well.

This year, I got the best spot in the back yard. The spot where the weeds grow fastest. And I tilled it and planted. Now I have sprouts and seedlings, which I now water with a soaker hose that I bought so they wouldn't die from the heat like our last garden did. And I am thrilled that they are mostly all growing.

The sweet cuc isn't too healthy. I'm hoping it recovers. The zucchini below seems to be a favorite of the slug population. This hill has lost its seedling leaves completely. The other 2 hills are fine, though. I'm hoping this one recovers.

The pumpkins are doing really well. I don't know what we're going to do with 4 pumpkin plants worth of stuff, but I expect we'll do something with them. The muncher cucs are don't too well, either. I don't know what their issue is. It may be that they are planted in a spot with too good of drainage. They seem to whither quickly. But they are looking better now than they were 5 days ago.

The yellow squash at the bottom appears to be happy, just not as robust as the zucchini or pumpkin. None of the cantaloupe have sprouted yet. Hope I get some - it's the only sweet thing I planted this year.