BklynMario

While nothing will ever be more important than our own families, there's something very special about knowing that we are privileged to belong to yet another family, whose lives we share in spite of the reality that we may not even know one another personally. Our lives have crosses, not in time spent at our obligatory workplaces, but rather in sharing those few precious hours and days and nights when we have trudged through otherwise crippling snowstorms, and sweated through torrid, sunburning sessions of, "Let's try that one more time!" We have endured unimaginably improbable disappointments, simply for the ultimate joy of spending scant minutes insisting that strangers see us in all our gaudy splendor, and hear and cheer our nearly ephemeral performances. And we do this again, and again and... And there have been times when we were better than you were. And times when you were...But that doesn't really matter. All of that is forgotten with, "How've you been?", "Didn't you march with...?", "Remember when...?", and , "Hey! Two beers (or sodas), please." Then we laugh until it hurts, and quietly cry with the same result. As much as we care about each other, we live with the realization that we will never change the world. And yet, we find ourselves in a kind of noisy solace, that makes us feel just a bit better than we felt before coming to rehearsal. We are glad to see that Tom is here. That Betty was able to make the trip down. After all, we're going to work on a new piec tonight, and without them... Christmas. And all the merry, little Christmases we have known, or have yet to experience. May they continue to be filled , shared, and blessesd by our family. mario

ALL....just received a call from his wife, Filomena. Sonny has passed away. Visitation will be from 3-8 PM tomorrow ONLY. Scalia Funeral Home 28 Eltingville Blvd. Staten Island, NY 10312 718-356- 6363 For Directions, etc., go to http://www.scaliahome.com/ Sonny was a member of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Cadets (Along with Pepe, Cluna, Gennero) Also Our Lady of Loretto, member and Director. Director of St. Joseph's Patron, member of Sky Chorus. Truly one of the good guys. We will miss him terribly..mario

HORNS......please excuse the sheer stupidity. They ARE 2 valve? OK...you can reach me at: BklynMario@aol.com Delicate question....how much? Or, in Caballero-speak: ¿Cuánto cuestan?

DCPFAN...thanks much. I do have a REAL flugel, which I got when one of my fantasy dreams came true: “A Friggin’ Flugelhorne!” Okay, I know that it's somewhat juvenile, but I really need to share this with the only people I know of who'd appreciate my total surprise and wonderment when I was handed a gift bag with an airplane take-on, weighty, but compact piece of luggage inside of it. Could it be the Super Deluxe, Grand Master Engineer Roebling Erector set that only proud, tie-wearing, pipe-smoking fathers gave their blonde/red-haired, toothy-smiling, freckle-faced male offspring nearly fifty Christmases ago? Had my time actually come, now that I could enjoy it more (or less) in this early stage of inevitable senility? But Erector sets of Verrazano Bridge capability came in aptly befitting steel containers. This was not the case-- my dreams of suspension would have to be suspended. For now, I was confronted with the plasticized metal Yamaha tag on the exterior of the very serious brown, genuine, imitation, mock Naugahyde luggage. I am frozen. The familiar, friendly, family voices call to their fatuous member in a fait accompli phalanx: “Open it, stupid!” I defer to their dictum, and unclasp the shiny locks. Bright chrome reflects the sparkle from last-minute-half-price lights from the open-24-hours-Walgreen’s. “A friggin’ flugelhorn!” I repeat the same phrase five times more. To be certain, this rivals the "Christmas Story" elation/euphoria of any Red Ryder BB rifle-- and, unless I am really, really careless, it will take an extraordinary effort to take out my eye with a flugelhorn. As the fifth incantation ends, we cut to Chuck Mangione at Lincoln Center: "And now, on flugelhorn, my main man, from Brooklyn, New York..." Coolly, suavely, I offer a small, one-handed, Pope-like wave to the adoring, anarchically applauding audience. Bouquets and single red roses are tossed. Chuck has his arm over my shoulder, and we raise our horns in salute to the benediction of bravos. “...my paisan,...’” “Hell-o-o-o! Are you still with us?” Reality --maybe. “Well, what do you think? It isn’t new. You know how much a new flugelhorn costs. ”With grail-like reverence, I remove the sacred entity from its velvet embedded tabernacle. Kneeling ( I’m already there) with priestly devotion, I raise it to eye level. (Soliloquy) “New? Why should it be new? Was Aladdin’s lamp new? Weren’t Dorothy’s shoes ‘second foot?” Once again I intone the enchanted words that transmute all that I am into all that I ... “A friggin’ flugelhorne!” “ ...give it up for Brooklyn Mario!” Merry Christmas! (I will look again on eBay.....mario)

Hey, thanks! I recently picked up some of Bobby Bellarosa's stuff for the Drum Corps Heritaage Society, and my appetite was whetted. I found a DEG horn, but one valve is missing, and the rest of the thing needs work. I just wanted a two valve middle voice thing. *NB I hardly know what I'm talking about. I'm not bad at writing stories, but nomenclature of anything beyond a single valve soprano, confuses me. Please let me know if you have any thoughts. Appreciatively....mario bklynmario@aol.com

...at a very reasonable price? Grazie! mario

DPEmerald...are the FHs still around? mario

I.L. ....I think that you've got it right! Going by your research, I found this: I can't thank you enough...... mario

Is this for real? http://www.shapeways.com/model/687406/tri-wing-mouthpiece.html?li=productBox-search mario

Click here: Tri-Wing Mouthpiece by mdahlgren on Shapeways http://www.shapeways.com/model/687406/tri-wing-mouthpiece.html?li=productBox-search Or is this a "demo" of what 3-D "printers" are capable of? Please excuse my NSH ignorance! mario

Click here: Tri-Wing Mouthpiece by mdahlgren on Shapeways http://www.shapeways.com/model/687406/tri-wing-mouthpiece.html?li=productBox-search Or is this a "demo" of what 3-D "printers" are capable of? Please excuse my NSH ignorance! mario

Click here: Tri-Wing Mouthpiece by mdahlgren on Shapeways http://www.shapeways.com/model/687406/tri-wing-mouthpiece.html?li=productBox-search Or is this a "demo" of what 3-D "printers" are capable of? Please excuse my NSH ignorance! mario

PLEASE forgive the personal note to Mr. J: John and Kay Keays visited us today. mario (I don't have Mr. J's e-mail.) BklynMario@aol.com

Click here: 1990 Archer-Epler Musketeers Senior Medley - YouTube Once upon a time......