B LOOMINGTON ✹ A PRIL 21, 2011
SPORTS
SUN CURRENT 75¢
Vol. 41, No. 16
In the Community, With the Community, For the Community
PAGE 36
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Barbershop harmony lives on Bloomington’s Good Times chorus gathers for a cappella singing BY MIKE HANKS • SUN NEWSPAPERS Just about every Tuesday night Harlan Mellem of Bloomington heads out to the Bloomington Eagles Club hall for a couple hours of camaraderie. But it’s not cold beer and conversation that draws Mellem and more than 20 other men to the Eagles each week. They gather for the joy of singing. “I’ve sang all my life,” Mellem said. “I enjoy it so much that I keep on singing.” Mellem, 80, joined the Good Times chorus of Bloomington 34 years ago, after his youngest child had graduated from high school. The barbershop-style singing appealed to Mellem, and the social aspect of the group has kept him coming back. Barbershop-style singing is often thought of as a quartet. Members of the Good Times chorus can be found singing in quartets, particularly on Valentine’s Day, when they deliver singing telegrams across the Twin Cities. Throughout the year, however, barbershop singers gather in groups around the area to produce that same vocal harmony on a larger scale. Singing a cappella is more challenging than singing as part of a traditional chorus, but the end result of barbershop singing is highly rewarding, according to Mellem. The epitome of barbershop harmony is making a chord ring, according to Wayne Rasmussen of Maplewood, another Good Times member. When done properly, fourpart a cappella harmony can produce a fifth
Golfer snags scholarship
Frequent Mall of America visitor arrested... again Security injured during scuffle with 19-year-old suspect BY MIKE HANKS • SUN NEWSPAPERS
performances. She had intended to retire from directing last year, but was approached by the Bloomington group when word spread that she was available. Living in Oakdale, she traded short commutes to Stillwater for longer commutes to Bloomington, and did so because the Good Times chorus is a less competitive organization, which meant a less stressful and demanding schedule, she
A security guard was injured during a scuffle with a periodic Mall of America visitor who has been arrested for theft and trespassing several times. The 19-year-old Minneapolis man was arrested April 7 and faces a possible felony charge of obstruction after the security guard who attempted to arrest the man was injured. The suspect, who has been banned from the mall due to his previous incidents, was confronted outside a shoe store on the first floor of the mall. As the officer attempted to arrest the man for trespassing the man attempted to flee. The scuffle sent both men to the floor, with the security officer gashing his
BARBERSHOP: TO PAGE 11A
COPS: TO PAGE 27A
Members of the Good Times chorus fine tune one of their songs during a late March rehearsal in preparation for an upcoming competition. The Bloomington-based barbershop chorus rehearses weekly throughout the year for its periodic performances. Member Duane Breid of Lakeville demonstrates the choreography for one of the songs. (Photo by Mike Hanks • Sun Newspapers) tone. “That’s what a barbershop lives for, to hear a chord really ring,” he said. “It’s very challenging,” according to Pat Rygg, the musical director of the group. “It is a tough type of music to sing,” she said. Rygg was hired as the music director last summer, bringing to Bloomington her expertise as the 24-year director of the Stillwater chapter of the Sweet Adelines, the female counterpart to male barbershop singing. Rygg organizes and runs the rehearsals and directs the chorus during its
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