AGMC's Christmas Concerts (sponsor this entry for $10)

As part of my effort to "assimilate" into Atlanta, I hooked up with the Atlanta Gay Men's Chorus this fall to sing in the Christmas concerts. They just concluded last night, with full houses for all three weekend performances and some good quality if I do say so myself.

Alas, AGMC just isn't a super fit for me. As I was noting with my friend Dave over drinks last night, Atlanta sure seems to be a "jaded queen" magnet, especially around entertainment organizations like choruses and acting troupes. More than one member of the chorus seemed to believe that humor lies in skewering others, even viciously. It's just not my thing.

And then there's the overwhelming sense of beggary from the chorus organization. We are an all "volunteer" chorus - when we're on stage, virtually everyone else around us (the director, the brass orchestra, the harpist, the deaf signer, and so on) are paid; we are not. Even worse, we actually pay for the privilege of appearing on stage, starting at three figures for the annual cycle, then charges for pieces of the uniform, and charges to go on "retreat" (which is essentially an excuse for the chorus to drink and carouse). There's an omnipresent collection dish at rehearsals for the treats provided, and from Day One this year there were appeals to get all our friends and co-workers to contribute to the chorus, and even "sponsor" individual songs in the program. It's almost as if the mission of the chorus is to find money, which of course blurs the true mission of any gay chorus - community outreach through music.

So, although I was able to meet a few good peeps, the negatives have outweighed the positives for me and I'll bow out. If I'm still in Atlanta in 2010, perhaps I'll revisit the gay chorus idea.

Happy Holidays - I Hope!

I took the plunge into using the web for Christmas cards this year. Well, sort of - I still don't think e-cards are very personal (though I use 'em for birthdays) and so I tried out Hallmark's service to print up personalized cards and send them out direct from Hallmark to each of the addresses I wanted to send to. No muss, no fuss.

Or...some muss, a great deal of fuss and angst. You can select from many cards on Hallmark's site and add the traditional Christmas letter text and even pictures. But then you must import addresses or enter them manually, a tedious process. And if you make a mistake and hit the "back" button on your browser, Hallmark promptly wipes out all your personalization work on the Christmas card and you get to start over from the beginning.

I know this because I got to start over from the beginning three times.

Even worse, in my opinion: Once you finally do have the card set up and "approved," Hallmark won't let you see the card after you commit to ordering it. So, I've ordered what I think is a card for everyone this year, but because Hallmark doesn't store the information anywhere to view, I have to take it on faith that my list won't end up with a pretty, blank card.

Looks like Hallmark has a ways to go before this process would be used by a lot of people. If you do get a blank card from me this year...Happy Holidays and perhaps I'll blog my Christmas letter right here!