MoonPies & Mistletoe

Una Voce presented the first performance of MoonPies & Mistletoe, their annual Christmas concert, last night at St Pete College here in St Pete. They did a wonderful job, mixing comedy and traditional Christmas and Hanukkah numbers. I was a ticket taker at one of the doors. During intermission we passed out free MoonPies. My first time having a MoonPie! I'll stick to Mallowmars!


Act 1.

Act 2: dressed in a tux!

Sunday Afternoon in Tampa

From October 2 - 12, the 19th Annual 'Clip' Tampa International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival is being held. One of the films shown today at the Tampa Theatre was a documentary entitled "A Song of Courage". It was made to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of GALA, Inc. After the film, both Una Voce and Crescendo performed.

This is a drinking fountain.

Wayne made some cupcakes for Linda and Debbie.

Go Rays!!!

End of Summer Approaches

Una Voce had their annual pool party at Tom's and Nelson's this afternoon. Master chef Wayne made two dishes: the roasted shrimp and orzo salad (previously made for Valentine's Day. And he made a raspberry trifle with cake and custard with Amaretto. Another yummy! I'm not eating all this week!

Before desserts were served, there was this "contest". Contestants were to be blindfolded and then with arms behind their backs, they had to eat thru the whipped cream to get to the hidden quarter. The first to find it and spit it out on the table was the winner.

The contestants. The fellow on the right is Derek, the Artistic Director of Una Voce. Unfortunatly for him, this was a set up. After all were ready for the starting gun, the blindfolds of the three others were removed and they stood by as Derek dove in!

He's a good sport! He vowed to work their butts off at rehearsals now.


Two trifles!

GALA Photos

Street banner . . .

At check in.

Knight Concert Hall . . . the venue where Una Voce performed.

Una Voce on stage at the Knight Concert Hall.

A standing ovation!

Bringing Down Broadway

Una Voce's June Concert was held this past weekend. They did three performances; Friday and Saturday nights at the St Petersburg College Music Center in St Pete and a Sunday matinee performance at the University of South Florida Tampa Campus. I had seen a lot of the rehearsals, but I was completely blown away by the performances. Great music, beautiful voices and lots of fun!

On Saturday Wayne come over and I was going to ride to the concert with him. We stopped at a fast food place to pick up something to bring with us, since his call was an hour before the show. As we were pulling out of the fast food place, Wayne asks me, "You have your ticket, don't you?" DUH! Well, since it was back at my apartment, we quickly drove back to get it. As we later entered the theater, I went to give my ticket to Nelson, and he asked me if I would be one of the ticket takers. Of course! And then he asked me what it was I was going to give him, and I said, "my ticket." He replied, "Since you're the ticket taker, you can just take your own." Now I guess I owe Wayne some money for gas?

I attempted to take some photos using the available light and no flash, but most of the shots came out way too blurry. But here are a couple of the 'clearer' ones.

After the show a couple dozen of us went to Chili's. Oink! Oink!

A Message of Love / Do You Believe in Love?

Una Voce: The Florida Men's Chorale with the Pinellas County Center for the Arts (PCCA) presented a benefit concert "A Message of Love" for The Hospice of the Florida Suncoast this past weekend. Performances took place Friday and Saturday nights at the Gibbs High School in St. Petersburg.

Two works were performed. The first was Song of Wisdom from Old Turtle. Douglas Wood, the author, did the narration. "Soon there will be a message of love from God to the earth, and a prayer from the earth back to God."

The second part of the concert, When We No Longer Touch: A Cycle of Songs for Survival was performed. This is based upon the book How to Survive the Loss of a Love by Peter McWilliams. The music is by Kris Anthony. To paraphrase the notes in the program:

When We No Longer Touch is a cycle of songs about the grieving process. Each movement describes the emotions one faces in grief according to Dr. Kubler-Ross: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Kris Anthony carefully chose the text from How to Survive the Loss of a Love and the Requiem Mass to represent each emotion. The result was a score that not only communicated these texts but also chronicled the deep emotion behind their creation. Kris was writing this piece in the midst of his own death.

It was a very emotional program. The orchestra and both the PCCA Symphonic Chorus and Una Voce were amazing. The PCCA Chorus and Orchestra are made up of primarily high school young adults!

The above photo was taken in February 2006 in Carnegie Hall when Una Voce took part in a performance of When We No Longer Touch.

Lastly, as a fundraiser, Una Voce is sponsoring a benefit raffle to raise money to benefit their general operating fund. The prize is an All Expense Paid Las Vegas Trip which includes:

• Two (2) VIP tickets to the Cher concert on August 23rd at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace - Rear Orchestra Fourth Row Seats

• A Two (2) night Luxury Accommodation at Caesars Palace

• Round Trip Airfare for Two (2) from anywhere in the continental US; maximum value of $500

• And $500 Spending Money

Tickets are $20 each and only 1250 tickets will be sold. The drawing will be held on Monday July 21, 2008.

Tickets can be purchased online line at Una Voce's web site. If you decide to buy a ticket, please indicate that Wayne Cooper sent you there!

"Lilac Tree", Southern Food and Baseball

It seems that for the past week or so, I've noticed these trees in blossom all over the place. Their color reminds me of the lilacs that begin to bloom in early May up in New York. This tree is a few blocks from my apartment.

On Saturday night we (me, Scott, Keith and Wayne) went to dinner at Savannah's on Central Avenue in St. Pete. On the way down we ran into traffic all backed up from the sellout crowd heading to the Tropicana. The Boston Red Sox were in town and unfortunately for them, lost all 3 games in the series to the Tampa Bay Rays.

Fried Green Tomatoes

Baked Flatbread

Chocolate Chip Pie

On Sunday afternoon, Una Voce (well, some of the chorus) sang the Star Spangled Banner at the Dunedin Blue Jays / Sarasota Cubs game.

It's a nice stadium, but as you can see, there was hardly anyone there. But a beautiful day for a baseball game!

Sunday Concert

The men's chorus that Wayne sings with had a concert on Sunday with the Richey Community Orchestra. It was held at the Center for the Arts at River Ridge in Port Richey.

It was a first in several ways for me. It was the first time I got to hear Una Voce in concert. Secondly, it was the largest group of Golden Girls and Golden Guys and walkers and canes that I have ever seen under one roof. And that was just the orchestra! Only kidding . . . but the audience was made up primarily of senior seniors, reminding me that LOTS of people retire to Florida!

The concert was wonderful. The orchestra played selections from various Broadway musicals, and Una Voce sang some selections, some with solos. My favorite from the orchestra were the themes from West Side Story, James Bond, but I was especially impressed with the Pirates of the Carribean piece. Una Voce did some wonderful selections. I liked Oklahoma, Someone Like You from Jekyll and Hyde and Love Changes Everything (Andrew Lloyd Webber).

After the concert, we went to Angellino's in Palm Harbor. The pasta dishes come with at least a pound of pasta . . . enough to feed a family of six! I had Penne Agustino (only with angel hair). "Artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes, roasted red peppers, black olives and fresh garlic
sautéed in extra virgin olive oil tossed with penne pasta, Romano cheese and fresh bread crumbs." Needless to say, I have my dinners planned for the next week.