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The finest whines will serenade guests at WMNF birthday bash
By Susan Thurston, Times Staff Writer
Published September 13, 2007
WMNF Birthday Bash
The party will offer live music on three stages from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. Saturday at the Cuban Club, 2010 N Avenida Republica de Cuba, Ybor City. $23 advance, $28 door. (813) 248-2954 or www.wmnf.org.
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Whine, whine, whine.
We hear it all the time.
Soon, we'll hear it to music.
Mike Davis, head of the community choir Chorus Angelorum, has written a song based on complaints and rants from Tampa Bay area radio listeners, and people can hear it live Saturday at WMNF's 28th birthday bash at the Cuban Club in Ybor City.
WMNF-FM 88.5 solicited the top gripes last month for the area's first "Complaints Choir." Several dozen people responded with beefs large and small. Wobbly restaurant tables. Businesses that have two front doors but keep one locked. Complainers.
Plenty of the grumbling centered on our identity. Why is the area called Tampa Bay? What about St. Petersburg Bay or Clearwater Bay? And why do some locals say they live in Tampa Bay, a body of water?
Davis put together the project with DJ "Flee" Lee Courtney, WMNF's musical director. Davis, a vocal music teacher and a guidance counselor at Canterbury School in St. Petersburg, wrote the music, then plugged in the lyrics. The result: a5-minute a cappella rant.
"This is great," Courtney said. "We're complaining all the time. If it's not about (President) Bush, it's about the water department."
Courtney found some of the peeves perplexing. Like the one about the incorrect use of apostrophes - CD's vs. CDs. "I think people get scared of the big letter and the little letter next to each other," he said with a laugh. "They want to put something in between."
The idea of a Complaints Choir hails from Helsinki, Finland, where two artists wondered what could be done with all the energy wasted from complaining. Organizers say WMNF's Complaints Choir will be the first in the continental United States. Residents of Alaska reportedly formed their own choir, and Chicago plans to debut its song in November.
About 13 singers will perform with Davis' chorus, and partygoers will hum along as they blow out candles and eat birthday cake.
[Last modified September 12, 2007, 16:46:49]
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