By Ron VandenBoom
Last Saturday, I was privileged to be able to attend Get Along Little Doggies, the annual concert presented by Havres own Bullhook Bottoms Barbershop Chorus.
While not the first time Ive heard this talented and dedicated group of performers, it was the first time I felt I had a full understanding of why they do what they do.
Behind the joy of music and the love of rich harmonies lies a sincere dedication to the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America or SPEBSQSA for short.
More than 34,000 members in 800 choruses and 1,800 quartets belong to this organization whose goal of preserving and promoting barbershop singing is equaled by their dedication to the Harmony Foundation a nonprofit subsidiary of SPEBSQSA that supports SingAmerica (Sing Canada), Heartspring, the Heritage Hall Museum and other worthwhile projects.
Heartspring School, located in Wichita, Kansas, is for children 5-21 with mental or physical disorders. At Heartspring they receive specialized training, often through the use of music and singing, to help meet their individual learning challenges.
Their Web site located at www.spebsqsa.org offers surfers a complete understanding of what it is they do and why they do it. It also offers a barbershop music jukebox. I mention this primarily to get you to listen to two songs.
Click on Listen to the Jukebox in the upper left-hand corner of the home page and choose from a long list of Real Audio barbershop tunes. Particularly seek out Teach the Children to Sing and Sing For Life two of the songs written especially for SPEBSQSA to be used for fund-raising purposes.
After visiting the site, be sure to check out the next concert Bull Hook Bottoms Barbershop Chorus performs and contribute to its efforts.
Meanwhile, on a different subject, if youre one of those people who has managed to catch the TV show Americas Dumbest Criminals and would like to see more, check out www.dumbcriminalacts.com.
Have you heard the one about the man who walked into a convenience store and asked for change for a $20 bill?
The clerk opened the till to get him the change when he demanded all of the money in the register. The clerk complied and the robber grabbed the money and ran out the door leaving his $20 bill on the counter.
How much did the bandit get for his efforts, you ask? $15.
Then theres the one about the two bank robbers who made their getaway in the old junk-heap car that they had been trying to sell. On the side of the car, written in paint, was the bandits home phone number. They were arrested shortly after the robbery.
Dumb Criminal Acts gives the surfer a categorized list of criminal topics from which to choose and limits the number of stories per page to five for easy surfing. No subject is sacred at this site and no act too stupid to be included on the list.
Take your time and let your mouse do the walking. Its fun, funny, and if youre a criminal in training, its a good training manual full of things not to do.
