The Choral Tour – Day Two

And here I am, safelhy ensconsed in a hotel in Newtown, PA for the night.

We’ve done two concerts that went reasonably well. Yesterday was a bit rushed, as it was our getaway day and we got to Susquehanna University with just about enough time to dig our concert dress out of our bags in the parking lot, change, and start singing. The concert hall, though beautiful and as acoustically perfect as a singer could want, was God-awfully hot. That means that yours truly, the fat guy in a tux, sweated a lot and ended up with a very bad case of dry throat. That pretty much gets you lots of croaky notes.

But Professor Stretansky was incredibly gracious. He gave us some good feedback on our performance and praised us for, essentially, bringing a 90-minute program of a cappella music. It’s not every choir that attempts that feat (his included) and it was a good “shakedown” concert. We didn’t perform as well as we wanted and it gave us a chance to again fine-tune some aspects of our performance and make sure that we ameliorated the difficulties we faced that day.

Lesson Learned Number One was a basic one: leave yourself enough time to prepare for the performance. A rushed choir is a sloppy choir, mostly because the members don’t have time to warm themselves up and also because they haven’t had a chance to leave the “rushedness” in the waiting room. It’s eashy to get distracted on stage – moreso when you bring your own distractions with you.

Today’s concert was better. We made excellent time from Danville, PA to Newtown, PA, which left us time to eat lunch in relative leisure. That would have gone wonderfully if not for perhaps the worst service I’ve had at a restaurant in quite some time. I hadn’t intended on doing an impromptu restaurant review, but this place really does deserve a mention. Our choice of eatery was a place called Isaac Newton’s in Newtown. Admittedly, it can be daunting for any restaurant to get a party of 24 or so walking through the door, but we did arrange the visit in advance, so it’s not like we leaped out of the bushes and charged into the place.

Our first waitperson (waitress? server?) was a very nice young lady who was pleasant, attentive, and told us when we asked for separate checks that it would be hard to do but that they’d make it work. She took our drink an appetizer orders efficiently, with a smile, and didn’t get anything wrong. She was even “Johny On The Spot” with a refill for my tea – the only refill I got the rest of the time there.

Our second server was…well…a walking example of how not to wait on a party of any size. He was impatient with the time it took some of us to order, never once so much as asked to refill my tea (which stayed empty from about the time my entree hit the table), and told us that it would be impossible to even give us checks for separate tables (we were seated in three distinct groups). I also ended up having to find him and interrupt his social conversation with a couple of his co-workers just to get a bit of barbecue sauce that one of my fellow singers had asked from him 20 minutes before.

I ordered Linguine with Chicken and Shrimp, which was supposed to come in a wine and garlic sauce and have some crunchy veggies (such as broccoli and pine nuts). I assume that I got said sauce, though it looked like brown water and tasted like not much at all. Everything on the plate was soggy, which I consider an incredible feat because, so far as I know, it takes some doing to make pine nuts soggy. There wasn’t much of a taste to the meal at all. At least the mozzarella stick appetizer had some taste and body to it, but I don’t give the cooks any points for that because I could have done as much with a 50-dollar deep fryer and a bag of frozen sticks from Sam’s Club.

I don’t expect great food everywhere I eat. I do expect that a restaurant staff will do what they are able to serve their customers instead of throwing up excuse after excuse about why they can’t do something one of their servers had told us not an hour before that they could. That, more than the Bland Plate of Sogginess, left a bad taste in my mouth. Luckily, since I don’t expect to travel back to Newtown anytime soon, I won’t have to deal with the place again. I don’t know that anyone else should have to either. I’m sure there are other restaurants that do have an interest in at least attempting to please their customers.

The concert that night went quite well, actually. We didn’t sing perfectly, but we sang with some inspiration. There wasn’t a big crowd, but they enjoyed us and even stayed for a while afterwards to chat with some of us. I really like singing for folks who not only engage with the music, but also with the performers.

And now I’m here, in the hotel lobby, typing to you! Tomorrow we leave in the late morning for New York City, where we’ll be until the 26th. If you’re in the area, here’s where you can hear us:

Saturday, March 18 7:00 p.m. – Resurrection Lutheran Church, Garden City, NY
Sunday, March 19 3:00 p.m. – Grace Lutheran Church, Malverne, NY
Tuesday, March 21 11:30 a.m. – Nassau Community College, Garden City, NY
Thursday, March 23 4:00 p.m. – Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY
Friday, March 24 4:00 p.m. – Concordia College, Bronxville, NY
Saturday, March 25 7:00 p.m. – Cathedral of the Incarnation, Garden City, NY

All of the concerts are, to my knowledge, open to the public and we won’t require tickets or charge an admission fee. Come on by, hear us sing, and introduce yourself afterwards. I’d be delighted to meet you.

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