City Girl: singing tree

Last night Tanya and I met at the South Street Seaport to see the Chorus Tree, an annual New York tradition. There is a 50-foot tall lighted tree on display in the square at the seaport, and the Big Apple Chorus, a men's acapella group, sings carols on tiered risers in front of the tree. The performance was set to begin at 6:00, but we met at 5:20 and walked over to see the Brooklyn Bridge from the pier. Then we waited with the rest of the crowd for the singing to begin. We even got our pictures taken with a very real Santa! (They're on Tanya's camera, though.) At about 6:30, they finally announced that the sound engineer had gotten a flat tire and they couldn't start without him. We talked to the director, and he told us they'd probably begin at about 7:00 (which is when the second show usually starts), take a break, and then do their second performance at about 8:00. So... we went to dinner! I had a bowl of delicious clam chowder. When the show finally started, we were able to see the singing tree from inside the restaurant, but we couldn't hear them. Unfortunately, they must have decided not to do a second performance, so we didn't get to hear them at all! Such a bummer. We decided to spend the rest of the evening browsing the shops at the South Street Seaport mall.

I was quite disappointed about not hearing the chorus, so I went back today for their 3:00 performance. It was such fun! And the men looked like they were having a good time, too. Almost all of the singers were elderly men with big bellies and gray hair, so they fit right in with Santa! The music was really good, too. I wished I would have had some cash so I could get the CD! After the show, I went to Prince Street to do some more Christmas window shopping. I didn't buy anything, but I had fun!