Once again I wake up way too early for my own good. I take my shower and try to fumble around in the dark of the hotel room doing my best not to wake Josh, Steve or Adrienne. I just put on the clothes I was wearing the previous evening. I don't even bother with my hair or skin care regimen. I do the minimal amount that would make me fit to venture outside the door.

As you may recall I had a plan before coming to Miami and I totally abandoned my plan to have fun with friends. It is now necessary to take a trip and go to a convenience store because I have no shaving cream, no toothpaste, etc. I had borrowed that stuff up until now. That's part of why I look a mess. I don't have all the tools to make myself presentable. I head out of the hotel and walk over to the Omni Station to take the Metromover south. Lucky me! (read with heavy sarcasm) The Metromover is closed down for maintenance. Instead, they are running a shuttle bus. I am so used to the shuttle bus routine using SEPTA (Philly's public transit) that it doesn't faze me in the least. The Metromover is scheduled to be back in service at 10 am. The bus carries all three passengers to someplace in the direction of where I want to be. Ordinarily, in situations like these, the shuttle bus takes the same route as the train. It's just a different mode of transport. Not so today! Today, the bus drops me off someplace completely different than the Bayfront Park Metromover stop that was my original destination. Lord, I do not know where I was dropped off, but I had a map. I'm usually very good with maps. I had nothing but time on my hands this morning anyway. It's a Sunday and it's early. Have map, will walk. I check my map and make my way over to Flagler Street. As I'm walking I encounter a Walgreens, but it is closed. I run into one of the liquor stores that I had found for the chorus. Since it's early Sunday morning, it's closed also. I take a picture of its sign. This is important for later on in the week. I continue walking because I know further east will be a CVS. I eventually see an open Walgreens; but just past it is a CVS. I have a CVS card that provides me with added savings. I decide to go to CVS.

It was a very nice CVS, clean and organized. After finding the personal hygiene products that I needed I noticed the food aisles. I picked up some bread, peanut butter, jelly, breakfast bars, paper towels, plastic utensils. It was a very productive visit. It is still quite early. I figure I'm going to wait until the Metromover is up and running again.

On the way to the Bayfront Park stop is a Starbucks. I decide to have a leisurely cup of tea. Before leaving Philadelphia I put a few dollars onto a Starbucks card. I'm so glad I did. I ordered a Chai Tea Latte with a shot of vanilla, mmmmm. Once I sat down there were a couple of other GALA attendees sitting near me. They were from the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, DC. I wish I could remember their names; but it has been several weeks since that day and I've killed off too many brain cells in the interim. One of them used to live in Chicago just as I did. As I enjoyed my latte the three of us had a good conversation discussing the festival, their chorus, PGMC, Chicago, etc., etc. GMCW and PGMC are performing opposite each other on the same night. We would not be able to see each other perform. It's a shame. I enjoyed hearing them when we did a joint concert in February 2007 in Washington, DC.

I felt the need to warn my new friends that they never saw me this morning. I don't normally look this disheveled. In fact, that was my mantra that morning. All who encountered me really didn't see me. That was just a shadow of my true self. 10:00 am - it was time for me to catch the Metromover. I made my good-byes and wished the guys well for their performance.

The ride back to the Omni Station was uneventful. I made my way to my room and did all that personal hygiene stuff I so needed to do. I also had a bite to eat from the stores that I purchased at CVS. I am free until 1:00 pm when we have a music rehearsal in the Symphony Room of the Hilton. I was rather vexed that the rehearsal prevented me from seeing Chicago Gay Men's Chorus perform. That was one group I knew I wanted to see even before arriving in Miami. I wonder what would have happened if I didn't show up to the rehearsal? I didn't have a solo. They didn't have a dire need for me to be there. Sometimes it just doesn't pay to be responsible, does it?

This was one of those moments I didn't know what to do. My game plan had been thrown off. In retrospect, this would have been a great time to go to the Expo and explore. I did do one smart thing. I saw into the future and realized now would be a good time to iron my tuxedo shirt. My tuxedo and tuxedo shirt were folded inside a compartment of my carry-on piece of luggage during the travel day. As soon as I got to the hotel room I let them hang in the closet. They still were in need of pressing.

Once I finished my chores, I found myself poolside at the Miami Marriott Biscayne Bay. I was wandering; basically looking for people with whom to socialize. I stopped by the pool and chatted with folks down there. We PGMC'ers like to chat. I am one of the chattiest. I believe that I spent all of my free time just shooting the breeze.

I do recall Paul G. being in the spa with a bunch of guys from New York City Gay Men's Chorus (NYCGMC). Paul can be great fun. He turned around to face me as I sat on a chaise lounge. He made all sorts of provocative faces towards me. I am great at flirting when nothing will ever happen with the other party. If I am interested in a guy, all the flirting behavior just dries up. Ugh! Anyway, Paul and I are going back and forth in a provocative and silly way. The downside was NYCGMC folk only see MY side of it. So they just see me licking my lips, doing things with my tongue, etc. They don't see Paul instigating the whole thing because his back is to them in the spa. I see the looks on the NYC guys' faces. They are confused, disgusted, or intrigued. I just kept on laughing. I was laughing at the ridiculousness of Paul's actions. Laughing at the looks on his spa-mates faces. Laughing at how silly I must be appearing. What a great way to make a first impression! Who's going to want to meet me now!?! Eventually, it is time for us all to leave and head over to the Hilton for our rehearsal.

When I get up to the room I run into Adrienne and we have a nice little chat. She is feeling out of sorts. She is not happy with her hair and is wondering if she should go to the salon that is within our hotel. At first, I'm thinking anything inside this hotel they are going to be gouging you for all you are worth. Adrienne had already done a scouting mission to see what the salon was like and how much everything cost. It turns out it wasn't anything more than what I pay at home. Prior to the recent upheaval in my life, I was very satisfied with my good buddy Charlie Potje styling my hair. He's now the proud owner of Charlie Salon, 203 S 12th St., Philadelphia, PA 19107 Phone: (215) 923-3123. I pay Charlie roughly the same amount of money the hotel wanted to charge Adrienne for her hair. I told her that price was very reasonable. Furthermore, I encouraged her to have her hair done. "You're on vacation! Treat yourself! Indulge yourself to make yourself feel better." The more we talked, the more I convinced her she deserved to do this for herself. When we were finished talking she was very excited and looking forward to getting this treat.

If I give a plug for Charlie, then I MUST do justice and give a shout out to divo hair stylist to the stars - Jonathan M. When I was facing the recent money crunch, Jonathan stepped in and cut my hair during the months of June and July. We had a hair cutting party at Dan's house the Wednesday before we flew out to Miami. His friend Beth came out to help us out. Craig, Dan, John L., and I all had our hair cut at the party and were charged a nominal fee for the privilege. Heck, the cocktails in Miami were more expensive and they don't last nearly as long! Since I was facing the squeeze money wise I had to end up coloring my hair myself out of a box (wince). Jonathan is a stylist in beautiful downtown Delran, NJ. Feel free to seek him out. While we're on the topic of my hair, when you look at the pictures of this trip you can tell how early or late it is in the trip based on my hair color. As the trip progressed my hair got lighter and lighter, more golden-red.

It's rehearsal time. At this rehearsal we are working with our orchestra for the very first time. Philadelphia Gay Men's Chorus is sharing the Community Women's Orchestra with the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus (SFGMC). Kathleen McGuire directs both SFGMC and the orchestra. Yes, I have it on good authority she is a workaholic (but in the best possible sense I am sure). Kathleen has been very supportive of our chorus and I am truly appreciative of all the help that she has provided. Our own Jeff N. supplements the orchestra playing flute. This is our last rehearsal before we perform later this evening.

We suck! That's my reaction from this rehearsal. We suck big time. We can not get it together and new mistakes keep on popping up. How frustrating. I'm trying to do my best. We really don't have the opportunity to work on the music much. This is more about the orchestra than anything else. We just need to make mental notes of errors and go back on our own after the rehearsal and make sure these mistakes do not happen at the performance. On the not sucking side of things, I notice Sandy has improved in his listening skills. He is reining it in more and it makes for a much better balance.

After rehearsal lets out everyone kind of scatters to the winds. I am hungry. I want to get something to eat. It's a little after 2:00 pm. Somehow I invite myself to lunch with Kent, John L., and Damien. Kent decides to check with the concierge desk at the Hilton to get a good food recommendation. We wanted something nearby, tasty, and affordable. We were sent to The Daily. The Daily is a local sandwich shop just a bit further north on Biscayne Blvd. Its theme is daily newspapers. I ordered the Sun Sentinel Turkey Club which is turkey breast, bacon, lettuce, tomato, provolone and Russian dressing on a Kaiser roll. My drink was a good sized cup of ice tea. John had a vegetarian tuna salad. I believe Kent had a Cobb salad. I don't remember what Damien ordered. I'm lucky I remember what I ordered. My meal came to about $10. It was just what the doctor ordered (not too pricey, tasty, and close by). The thing I remember best about this meal is my conversation with Kent. Kent is great at looking at the big picture. He sees the forest, not just the trees. I always enjoy hearing his insights. He did not disappoint during lunch time. Damien was quiet as always, but you could tell he was enjoying himself. Smiling is always a good sign. John is my closest friend in the chorus so of course I enjoyed sharing my meal with him.

Next on my agenda is a MUST DO. PGMC has a small ensemble called Brotherly Love. They are performing in the first concert block of the day. I decide I am going to see the entire concert block. Brotherly Love is an auditioned group that performs more demanding music. They rehearse on Sundays. When asked why aren't I a member of Brotherly Love I always respond, "Sundays". Another good reason is that my sight singing skills aren't what I would like them to be. I'll see a B flat and you might get a B or an A. At least I'm close! At the time I enter Ziff Ballet Opera House I run into Scott H. from Phoenix Metropolitan Men's Chorus. We strike up a conversation and end up sitting near one another in the first balcony as close to center as we could get. For some reason they had the center area of the balcony reserved. For the entire three hours of the concert block no one ever came to claim any of those seats! Scott is able to strike that balance of making comments at the appropriate moments without interfering with folks' enjoyment of the music. He says enough to heighten the enjoyment of the moment without saying too much that is distracting. Plus, he's funny. Scott is the director of an instrumental community group in addition to singing with Phoenix. I was really enjoying myself and cheering for the initial small groups. Then it hit me. I was singing later tonight. I can't be shouting and yelling over the course of the next three hours! So I just clapped my way through most of the block. Scott was kind enough to do enough shouting for the both of us.

Something that irked me was the fact that people kept on leaving and entering at any moment throughout the concert block. I just was not used to that behavior at a concert. I thought the ushers should have waited until an ensemble was finished before they allowed people to enter and exit. As the week wore on I came to understand better why that exists and got used to the coming and going. By the end of the week it didn't faze me in the least. The ensembles varied in entertainment value and musicianship. Among my favorites were ENCORE! from Dallas TX (I'm assuming they are part of Turtle Creek Chorale), Inner Voices from Kentucky (I think they are part of Voices of Kentuckiana), and Harmonic Vibrations (the small group from Phoenix Metropolitan Men's Chorus). Phoenix had costumes that were a flashback to the 70' s to go along with their ABBA music. Of course I loved Brotherly Love!

Brotherly Love had a wonderful sound that evening. The blend and balance was on target. They just seemed more stiff than usual. It's hard to seem energetic in a tuxedo.

Scott and I exchanged contact information. I had my camera with me and tried to take pictures of Harmonic Vibrations and Brotherly Love. I am not very good at taking photographs in low level lighting. Most of the pictures I took during this concert block I just deleted due to fuzziness. It might have gone better if I had brought a tripod and used a timer.

I did make an exception to the moratorium on shouting and yelling for the sake of Brotherly Love. The host of this concert block was the best emcee of the festival. I love this man. I wish I could recall his name. I just remember he now lives in Palm Springs and used to be with the Twin Cities Gay Men's Chorus. He was a total natural on stage. He was entertaining and informative. You felt like you got to know him a little bit, yet he kept the show rolling. I can't say enough for the amount of respect I have for his on stage presence. When he introduced the men of Brotherly Love he was reading his script which describes about how they are a select group of talented singers, I bellowed out from the balcony a "Hell, yeah!". The emcee responded back, "That's right!" I loved that moment.

It's showtime! It is time for me to get ready for my performance. On go the tuxedo shirt, the cufflinks and the studs The shoes are shined. Don we now our gay tuxedo!

Adrienne enters the room and looks incredible. The ladies in the salon may not speak English, but they sure can style hair. There is nothing like a new do to put a bounce in your step. Adrienne has a bounce, swish, and a strut to go with this new do. We both are so happy and pleased at the result. She ended up being the talk of the evening. Everyone loved the new hair.

We walk over to the Ziff Ballet Opera House in time to see the other acts in our block. We sit ourselves as far back in the orchestra seating as we could. We wanted to make an easy and graceful exit. Uptown Express opened the block. Hot Damn! MMmmm can those boys sing! What an incredible set they performed. I loved every minute. I am buying their studio CD. James Followell is an excellent arranger. I heart him! I think PGMC should perform the last song of their set, "Love Grows Here". It would be perfect for us. On my way to go backstage to perform I told the guys of Uptown Express that I loved their performance out in the lobby. They were very appreciative and were looking forward to hearing PGMC.

Connecticut Gay Men's Chorus were sweet. They are a smaller chorus. This isn't surprising since they have to contend with the monster that is NYCGMC. I'm sure a number of the NYC chorus members actually reside in Connecticut. Their set had the theme of the seventies. ABBA and the 70's were very popular this year at GALA!

Once Connecticut was finished, I and others made our graceful and swift exit out of the theater and headed out to our backstage entrance. As usual, it is hurry up and wait. I took the opportunity to tell Sandy how much I noticed his improvement in creating balance. He told me he attended a workshop that morning and found it very helpful and insightful. I told him if he could rein it in just a tad bit more he would be even more on target. Whatever he picked up from Tim Seelig (at least I think it was Tim) keep on doing what he learned because it's working.

Eventually, we march our way onto the stage of the Ziff Ballet Opera house at 9:45 pm. It was a great feeling hearing the applause of the audience as we took the stage. Of course, I couldn't see the audience. They were out there in the dark somewhere, while I had huge gugundo lights (that's right, I made up a word, jew-gun-doh) on me. There was that magical energy in the air. It was electric. I love when that happens. As soon as I started to sing I knew I was on! On fire! I knew it was going to work. Guess what? It did!

We started the set with our commissioned piece, Open Road, by Robert Maggio. Unless you heard us sing this music at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, June 2006, you've never heard this piece of music before. All of those mistakes that happened at the rehearsals this week went away. I was really proud of us. My favorite movement is the second movement, "Toward Something Great" probably because I like some of the phrases that I get to sing. The text is by Walt Whitman. Walt Whitman is very popular source material for gay choruses. I heard a lot of Whitman this week. Once Open Road was finished we mixed our arrangement of singers up. I hope we did Open Road justice. Robert Maggio was in the audience that night. Thankfully, no hiccoughs happened at this point.

Bridge Over Troubled Water was fun to perform. The audience seemed to really enjoy it. Howard did a wonderful job in his solo. I'm so happy that he got to do it. I noticed that other groups used soloists that could not have been their best singers. I'm glad Joe took the philosophy that at GALA we are showcasing who and what we do best. Howard deserved the solo. I remember the first time he heard the song at rehearsal. We were sitting next to each other. He wanted to do it right then and there. I'm glad it all pulled together for him.

Our finale was Joyful, Joyful from Sister Act II. What a great way to end our performance. Our chorus has a tendency to suffer from white boy disease. We're a little stiff and staid. The pictures that were taken prove that we can loosen up a little. Joyful, Joyful was pure joy. Royal tore up the stage with his solo. He didn't even need a microphone, god bless him. He definitely cranked it up a notch for the performance. I think we all had fun performing that number.

The glitch. You knew it couldn't be perfectly perfect in every way, could it? Joe knew that we had a time limit. If you go over time they will turn out the lights and the sound. When we were finished, he got off his podium and walked a little off to the side. He didn't quite bow. It was more like a head nod. He seemed to be acknowledging the orchestra. I thought for sure he would return to center stage and do our usual bow like we do at every performance. But no, he just motions us all to leave. Most of us didn't bow. Every other performing group waves good-bye to the audience. Joe felt that was unprofessional and didn't want us to wave either. So we just ran off stage. It was awkward. But if that's the worst thing about the performance, then I'm happy as a clam.

Speaking of Joe, I never saw him more tense than when we were on stage. It seemed to me like he was trying to use all of his will to pull all of the musicians and singers to get it together. He seemed crazy tense instead of enjoying the moment.

The crowd's response from our performance was enthusiastic and appreciative. The opera house was jam packed. It probably was filled to capacity. There is nothing like performing for other performers when things go right. I wish all performances could be as magical as that night was. Oddly enough, the other performance that had a similar type of energy was when we had performed after a snow storm and the chorus rivaled the audience in numbers. I don't know what creates that great energy on stage, but it is sheer fabulousness (please note that I hardly ever use the word fabulous or variations of it - but it was worth it to emphasize my point at this juncture) when it does.

After having our formal portrait taken, we exited out and re-entered the theater. We had to go all the way to the tippy-top in the nose bleed seats to see San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus. Kathleen and Eric Lane Barnes do a wonderful job in arranging music. I missed the excerpts from U.S.S. Metaphor. However, I got to see the rest of their performance. San Francisco was an excellent choice to close the concert block. They did an outstanding job in showmanship and musicianship. They deserve to be very proud of what they accomplished. There probably was only one other concert block that vied in quality as ours did. More on that later in the week.

After a performance like that you need to let off some steam. Chad, Mark and I had already decided we wanted to return to Twist. Others were thinking the same thing. Twist became the official, "unofficial" after party for PGMC. We ran back to the hotel to change out of our tuxedos. Party time ensues.

Photo courtesy Mark McClurg