To: vocalist
Subject: Happy Holiday signoff and documentary alert
Date sent: Mon, 27 Dec 1999 12:08:18 PST
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

1) My mom sent me a tape of a documentary shown on the local PBS station:
"Sing Faster!: The Stagehands' Ring Cycle." It's an hour-long look at the
backstage crew at the San Francisco Opera's last "Ring". Trust me, these
guys (and a couple of gals!) are earning every penny of their union wages,
especially the fellows working the dragon in "Siegfried." I'm now wondering
if, to become full-fledged IATSE members, the stagehands have to demonstrate
that they can tack down a floor canvas in less than five minutes, without
swallowing any tacks or smashing any fingers with the hammer. Anyway, it's
lots of fun. Look for it.

2) I'm signing off for a week while I go visit my family back east. I plan
to see in the millennium on my brother's farm near Hughesville, PA, equipped
with champagne, cats, a well, generator and canned food. The Christmas
service music went better than I deserved; I was fighting a miserable cold
(and won!) but still had nice folks tell me how much they enjoyed "O Holy
Night."

See y'all in the year 2000.

Elizabeth Finkler
mightymezzo-at-hotmail.com

"...for we are all bound, one to another, in licentious benevolence, for one
day only, and that day was nearly over." --John Cheever, "Christmas Is a
Sad Season for the Poor"

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