Paul Cooper, a founding member of legendary a cappella group The Nylons,and chorus director of the Battle Creek, Mich., Chapter, passed away December 29. This past summer in Toronto, The Nylons were inducted into the Society as Honorary Life Members, with a reunion of seven of the surviving members of the group. This sparked more reunion ideas and shows, and they were planning shows in Toronto in May.

My Honey's Lovin' Arms is a quintessential Don Gray arrangement. It's peppy, joyous, and fun from start to finish. Plenty of noteworthy quartets have sung this over the years, and you should, too.

Love Me, And The World Is Mine  Sung by 1994 champ Joker's Wild and recently renewed by 2012 champ Ringmasters, this is a classic ballad complete with gutbustin' tag. (Because what says "I love you" like blasting an F# in someone's face?)

HAVE MORE FUN SINGING MORE

Extreme quartetting: Make it a Brigade weekend

If you're aching to sing and sing and sing in a wide variety of quartets for a full weekend, your best bet is to hook up with the Harmony Brigades movement.

"Brigaders" are Society members dedicated to Extreme Quartetting, "freelance quartetting of high quality arrangements made famous by medalist-level quartets." Members of Brigades and prospective-member guests gather annually for Brigade Rally weekends. The 10- to 12-song repertoire for each Rally is selected roughly six months in advance. Sheet music and a professionally recorded learning CD are sent out after a registration is received.

Brigade Rally attendance is by invitation only. A Brigade Member who knows both your quartetting ability and your preparation capacity may nominate you to be a guest. Brigade participation is not a woodshed activity, not an average chorus-member activity and not a ride-my-credentials activity. When it comes to Extreme Quartetting, full preparation is everything ... and it's the only way to Brigade Membership.

Learn more at www.harmonybrigade.org, and read the Harmonizer story.

Two current activities of note:

The Atlantic Harmony Brigade is offering ten FULL scholarships for men aged 18-25. Scholarships are NO BORDER ; they're open to men in all districts. First to apply and qualify are first awarded. For an application or info visit www.atlanticharmonybrigade.com/scholarships.html

By now, we're pretty sure everyone knows where the convention will be this summer. You've figured out that it will be a riot of barbershop fun. You've seen the attractions it offers. You've started pitching your spouse on the fun you both can have in this luxurious vacation destination -- but at a bargain price!

 You'll get the full rundown in the next issue of The Harmonizer, or you can sneak a peek right now. 

Now, you just need to buy those registrations.

What would you say if we told you that you could save thirty bucks on each registration? You can -- purchase before January 15 for the special Early Bird price.

What are you waiting for? GO! Or must we force you to watch that adorable video again? 

Our Vegas: Episode I

YouTube is a big, big place. There is a niche for everything, including channels of guys who make snarky comments about videos they've found. YouTube entrepreneur Ray William Johnson runs one such channel, garnering millions of views each week and when his eyes fell on a video of 2006 champion  Vocal Spectrum's Tim Waurick hanging a 31-second tag to "Cruella DeVil," the rest of the world went along for the ride.  As of this writing, the show had already reached 1.6 million views, and growing. 

Jump directly to the VS segment at http://bit.ly/waurickpost. (Warning: some coarse language by commentator is NSFW (Not Safe For Work--use headphones for first listen.)