rayfallon
-
Posts
3,685 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
12
Posts posted by rayfallon
-
-
In keeping with the Spirit of the Holidays - here's the USAF Band...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vniBBT7nRJg
Pretty cool stuff I think.
-
I don't feel as much sadness at Al's passing as I do awe - he lived as full a life as a person could hope to live.
Condolences to Al's family, but just a celebration of a man living full out for 9 decades.
Pretty much the best a person can hope to achieve.
Another Sunriser great passed on.
-
3
-
-
I have 2 shows that I remember as a performer, and 1 that I remember as a member of the audience:
The 2 shows in which I participated as a performer were 83 finals in Miami, and 87 prelims in Madison, and the thing that has stuck in my mind about those 2 shows was that it wasn't about the audience response for the performances...it was that we hadn't even gotten on the field yet.
'83 was unique because as everybody knows, no eastern corps had won DCI up to that point. We'd had a pretty good season, we lost prelims (kinda deservedly if you've ever seen the prelims video), but there was still a lot of anticipation that the audience could witness history being made that evening. All I can remember about that evening was the electricity coming out of the stands as we came through the gate. I believe we went on right after Phantom that night, and from the field, it felt as though the audience was thinking, "We need to be respectful to the performance on the field, but REALLY want to see what's up next!" Once we started moving onto the field and Mr. Crocker announced us, the crowd went NUTS!!! You don't ever really get to experience something like that on the Class A level, so it was quite the experience for me! From that moment, I was literally in a fog for about the next 2 hours. Don't remember playing a note, don't remember marching a step. The next thing I can literally remember about that evening was looking down & seeing a red, white & blue ribbon hanging around my neck. A pretty cool experience.
'87 prelims was similar for me. As I recollect, we felt a little flat through warmups, and a little listless lining up in the tunnel to come on for prelims. Then...the rains came....
We were shoved into the walkway under the back stands to wait for the shower to pass, and it was though everybody woke up at the same exact time. Suddenly, we were the bull locked up in the chute trying to throw this knucklehead off our back in less than 8 seconds. When the rain had passed, it was a COMPLETELY different organization lining up to go out, and it was another instance where the audience felt it, too. Don't know who performed before us that evening, but I've always felt bad, because whereas in Miami, the audience continued to watch the performance on the field, in Madison they most certainly did not. You could feel the audience's involvement in the performance on the field slowly dissolving. And once again, when we hit the field, the crowd response was unbelievable.
The one time I felt an "otherworldly crowd response" as a spectator was during prelims in Kansas City in '88. I was still marching, but that was the year that DCI decided to go with the BOA no-score-slotting to determine performance order, and no announcement of scores. You know....to heighten the suspense ;) We went on early enough in the show to be able to go back in and watch some corps, which we were rarely able to do because we usually went on late. I got into the stands and was able to find a decent seat just in time to see the Madison Scouts. We hadn't heard much about Madison that summer because that was the year they spent the early season in Europe, and I think we were only at 1 show with them prior to Nats. All I can remember was that they put on a performance that DARED you not to react. They did the "whirling dervish" move into the wedge at the end of Malaguena, and physically pulled me out of my seat along with 20,000 + other spectators. I was foolish enough prior to that moment to think that we were actually still competing with them, but suddenly found myself realizing that they were playing a completely different game than we were. I'd had the opportunity to witness a lot of great performances, but to have a performance completely strip me of my own control over my reactions was pretty darned cool!
Great stuff - Rick!
Hope you and yours are enjoying the Holidays.
Being around Cadets (Garfield) through those great years then guiding Crossmen through their best years is a pretty special accomplishment.
-
Today is 12-13-14.
Enjoy it... the last one like this in our lifetimes.
Unless someone lives until 3014.
Yeah, sure, but how about 13/14/15 next year?
-
1
-
-
I must be skipping...err, slipping.
I never met Smokey, though I did ride a few floors in an elevator once with Gladys Knight and a couple of her Pips. I didn't recognize her until someone else got on and exclaimed, "Hey, Gladys Knight and the Pips!" (Such a white boy was I.) Him, I could ID. Lionel Ritchie.
Still, I was not overly impressed. Unlike the Hurricanes, none of them had ever won the Dream.
Glady coulda won the Dream.
Pips could certainly have won Marching...
-
Pop Quiz:
Before turning to religion and wearing a cross, what piece of music related jewelry was Smokey Robinson known to wear around his neck?
Ike Turner's hammer?
-
1
-
-
Oy Vey!
You been a wonderful audience. I'll be here all week. Try the veal... Good night folks...
-
2
-
-
A rabbi, a priest, a minister and a Buddhist monk walk into a bar and order beers. The bartender asks each one, "Where is heaven?"
"Heaven is in the clouds", says the rabbi. "It's in the soul", replies the priest. "It's in the mind", says the minister. "Heaven is everywhere", answers the monk.
"Youse are all wet", comes a voice from the end of the bar, "Heaven is on the 50, at the Dream."
Guess who.
Same rabbi, priest, and Buddhist walk into another bar up the street and hear the tinkling ivories but don't immediately see the piano - after looking around they see a scale sized grand piano set up on top of the bar, down at the end and a little guy, just about a foot high, playing magnificently on the tiny ivories.
Amazed, they query the bartender who happens to own the joint. He says, "It's a long story - you really don't want to hear it..." but the clergymen will have no part of that and keep asking him, while plying him with drinks.
Finally the bartender says, "Well, as amazing as it sounds I was walking down the beach at Coney Island about six months ago, and I trip over something solid in the sand. I goes back to see what it was and find this very decorative bottle I got sitting on the shelf over there..." They all turn their attention to this very exotic bottle in a place of honor next to the bar. The bartender continues, "So anyhow, I pick this thing up and I begin to dust it off, and it starts to shake in my hand... I think 'Uh boy, there's pressure building up in there' so real quick like I pulls the cork. Out pops a genie, like in the Aladdin story and says to me 'You have released me from this prison in which I've been held for hundreds of years, bobbing along the Atlantic Ocean all the way from the land of ancient Arabia'" Here the bartender takes a break to down another drink. The three friends are leaning forward in rapt anticipation, feeling close to the solution of the riddle, but still confused. The rabbi raises his hand and says, "And so?" The bartender perks up as if awakened from a dream and continues on... "Well he was pretty hard to understand but after a few minutes I figured out that he was going to grant me one wish for helping him outta the bottle. I thought about it and thought about it, and then I asked for my wish."
At that point the bartender stopped speaking and went back to stacking glasses and straightening bottles. The three clergymen were now even more stumped than before he told the story. Finally the priest leaned across the bar and said, almost pleading, "Please, my son... we've listened to your story and we have to know what it was you asked the diabolical creature for?"
The bartender paused a moment then said, in an embarrassed tone of voice, "Well father, I really shouldn't say, what with youse being priests and all, but I can tell you I sure as hell didn't ask for a 12 inch pianist."
Next?
-
1
-
-
OK... while we await the next photo victim.... a joke taken from the FB page of a person who works at the U.S. Naval Academy, in light of the upcoming Army-Navy game.
My Army veteran friends, please take it in the spirit in which it's offered. LOL:
A Navy fan walks into a bar with his dog. He asks the bartender if it's alright if the dog comes in with him to watch the Army-Navy game.
Before the bartender can say no, the Navy fan tells him that the dog can do amazing tricks. "Whenever Navy scores the dog will walk across the bar on his hind legs! Whenever Army scores, the dog will walk across the bar on his front legs, and when Navy wins, he'll do backflips!"
"That's amazing," says the bartender. "What does he do when Army wins?"
"I don't know," the man replies. "He's only 12 years old."
Same dog walks into a bar, this time with a less than gorgeous woman. The bartender says, "Geez, where'd ya get that pig?" to which the woman replies, "My good man, I'll have you know this is a dog, a full-blooded..." the bartender cuts her off, "Hey, put a lid on it! I'm talkin' to the dog."
Brrrm Ch
-
Y'know, after seeing the growth they made last season, I'm pretty excited for this show.
My main thing with jazz on the field, is style. So many groups just don't get it right. Let's see what Hurcs can pull off, and what the guard can do... who's not excited to see the guard?
The thing is that Matt Krempanski has an approach to putting jazz on the field - he gets it at the DCI level (classic early 90s Crossmen shows - probably their best ever and IMO some of the great brass books in DCI lore); with Reading some years ago; with school bands - he flat out gets it.
As you say, or as I infer from what you said, some groups flounder with jazz - it's not their meat and potatoes, or maybe they play it like meat and potatoes instead of like jazz.
I love the Hurcs - I'm always proud of how their brass line seems to get more done with less - I think this new staff is going to make some glorious music this year. I'm looking forward to seeing/hearing it after being on the other side of the country for the past 3 summers.
Good points all (yours that is).
-
1
-
-
We've been marking time here - we've been doing our regular therapy, err I mean activities...
A little finger painting, some kick the can - huh that was the day after Kim Kardashian broke the internet - coincidence? I think not.
The usual stuff...
-
I hear ya... Hurcs were really strong in 1980, with the new bright new uniforms and everything else.
Not sure 3rd for Sun in '76 could be considered a disappointment, though... it was a big step in the corps' rebuilding process that basically got going in 1974. Tied for 7th in '75, 3rd in '76... that's a big stride. And it gave the rest of DCA something to think about going into the 1977 season!!!
Yes, I know the corps beat the Cabs and Bucs that season... but honestly, by 1976 the Cabs and Bucs had established their well-reserved reputations as relentless "closers"... corps that always found a way to get into the championship mix by Labor Day weekend. Sun wasn't quite there yet, since the corps hadn't contended for a title in... well... a long time. LOL.
You know, I've thought about that a lot over the past almost 40 years.
76 was a one of a kind season for me. Getting to arrange, play, sort of march, and then end up on the podium when less than 2 years earlier I was 14,000 mi away with no idea what was going on in Drum Corps.
But it was also a confusing, and in many ways disappointing year.
Mike D wanted me to take the podium after Callahan left - by the way without getting too deep into it, prior to running off, Callahan had tried to foment an insurrection on the staff - he was trying to convince people he could replace Dennis (as if) and asked me if I wanted to join him as the Brass guy of the revolution (as if).
Believe it or now, he had a few folks on board for this craziness. As you can imagine, I wouldn't have anything to do with it for a number of reasons, not the least of which as Fran points out - we had accomplished so much in such a short time.
The big 3 Sasso, Delucia, and Bennett are on my pantheon of "best evers".
Replace those guys? You'd have to be nuts.
And people forget that finals were the only time that Reading got us.
I guess if I were truthful, I felt that I must of let the corps down for us to dip like that at the end.
Part of being young I guess.
Plus I was a human wrecking ball during those years after I came back from overseas.
So yeah, 76 Sun - an unbelievable experience after being tied for 9th with the Rabbits in '75 - more than I could have hoped for - and because I'm a putz it left me wondering "what if" for the next 4 decades (so far).
I would take a mulligan on that one and do it over if I had the chance.
Probably a good thing you don't get do-overs.
-
3
-
-
I hear ya... the "bird incident" was the final chapter in a series of very wacky happenings that year.
Several of the best Sunriser "war stories" come from 1980.... we may not have contended for the DCA title, but we had a lot of fun.
On the other hand, 1980 was my favorite year with the Hurricanes. Great staff, pulled together masterfully by the late great Bill Duquette. A corps with talent, but way more heart, coming off the 1979 worst show ever. Third was a nice place to finish that year, in contrast to 3rd for the '76 Sunrisers, a placement that could only be a disappointment after a great year.
Both 2 of my favorite years of the activity (personally).
And there have been more since...
-
1
-
-
Dennis spent a year on Sun's staff, in 1980.... even though if you ask him, he doesn't remember it.
Then again, 1980 for the Sunrisers was not exactly a year you'd like to keep in your memory bank.
That was one seriously Bizarro World season for us.Right down to the Great Pigeon Slaughter on the starting line at finals.
Some years just go like that.
-
1
-
-
Gunga Din was stabbed in the back with a bayonet, climbed up the side of a temple, stood up and played a one armed bugle call warning four or five times while they shot him and went down still playing.
I know it’s only a movie, but you always wanted a guy like that in your squad. J
I think that happened to Manny Salort one night at the Town Hall in Union City NJ.
Sounded like it...
-
A reason why you, and later Tony, ended up on the DM podium for Sun???
I ended up there because Brian Callahan ran away from home to Texas in the middle of the 76 season.
There's some parts of that season I don't think a lot of people know about - Brian was an enigma wrapped in a riddle, stuffed in a burrito, wrapped in a blueberry pancake, and baked in a calzone.
For an amazingly good season there was a lot going on behind the scenes.
-
1
-
-
Vitually every corps did the one hand hold and arm swing in some part of their show up through the early 60's ... another feather in the cap for early players to hold a tune and carry their military bearing ...
:-)
Not only could I NOT play and swing my arm, I couldn't even hold a feather in my cap.
Gene Bennett said I was the single worst marcher he ever tried to work with, God bless him.
-
My son Dan and daughter Tammy did the parade in '92 (and maybe 93 - I forget) with the All-Star corps.
Take the "All-Star" title with a grain of salt - Cupcakes played in the group.
I was asked to float above the parade once, like Snoopy, but I was too wide to fit down 5th Avenue so I had to pass.
-
Will make a donation tomorrow.(just started to turn in). Chuck is a good friend and a great guy. One of the cornerstones of Archie (and other great corps). And a terrific gentleman. I'm so sad to read about his accident. Could you DM me contact info - he would give it to me, I promise. We go back...
Thanks...
-
1
-
-
Jeez, a bunch of sergeants philosophizing,... and I thought that was the domain of officers. Most of the brass I met couldn't hold a candle to a decent 2nd soprano section leader.
The difference between drum corps and the military was that the drum corps usually had adult supervision.
One of my proudest military moments was receiving a "Letter of Reprimand" at Da Nang for "Inappropriate Use of an Official US Military Form"
We had a suggestion contest to boost morale one month and I wrote an official suggestion that officers clean their own latrine (yes - they had their own latrine and yes, we airmen had to scrub it on the overnight - I was an E3 A1C at the time). I used as a business case my opinion that it would help enlisted morale while improving officers' "hand to eye coordination" which could be "extremely critical in combat".
One of two letters of reprimand I received - I framed them both and hung them over my bed - in my International Orange dorm room at Kadena, Okinawa. The paint was so loud I couldn't sleep there - between the paint and my Wurlitzer Spinet Piano.
Good times in a bad war - maybe there's a book in there - we could do a collection of stupid non-war stories?
-
1
-
-
Thanks for your response Frank. You got the old mind thinking. I guess the V/N war can be blamed for the demise of Reilly in addition to a lot of more serious subjects.
I I left Reilly in April of '66 to go into the army. Most of the guys my age who were with Ridley Park, Bracken. Vasella, Vagabonds & many others moved on to Reilly & Archie for the '65 season. We all never made it to the '66 season, after answering Uncle Sam's call. Many went to the Marine D&B but the majority just blended in with the rest of 19 & 20 year olds.
The '66 seson, as you know, saw the Archie-Reilly merger. I never got to see them on the field but heard it was a bit of a debacle.
And thank you for your service.
Ron Cook
Sp5 E-5
519th MI Btn
I don't know Bobby - I've seen him at a million shows, mostly as a judge - and caught a lot of groups he's taught for, but never knew the Viet Nam connection.
I always thought that Bobby was that "different drummer" when people said someone "marched to the beat of a different drummer" because he had his own sense of good and bad, right and wrong, and is not an easy person to dissuade when he has made up his mind.
He frequently seemed to be contrarian with respect to other judges or instructors - didn't take the mainstream opinion, and I never saw him "come around" over the course of a season (i.e. buy the company line and begin to accept a group because everyone else had).
Suddenly some of that makes sense to me. We used to have a saying "What are you gonna do? Send me to Viet Nam?"
Maybe Bobby has a little of that ingrained.
Interesting guy that just got a little more interesting to me with that additional information.
You guys beat me over by 4 years or so - I was still over there when the cease fire went into effect.
But I was never hard to reason with. : )
Right, guys?
SSgt E-5 (USAF)
6924th SS (Da Nang) and 6990th (Okinawa)
-
jersey surf on facebook
In Drum Corps that should be referred to as a "digeridon't"
-
"Thanksgiving", when we recall the story of the original Americans sharing their food with a bunch of undocumented aliens from Europe.
Totally subjective list of things for which I am thankful:
- air
- the Vincent Bach 3-C
- the other Bachs
- the Dream
- the "stratospheric upper register" (thank you , Andy,... and Joe, and John, and Hightower , and Maynard, and Arturo...etc.)
- the Guess Who Historical Society, especially you, Nanci
Later I'll be counting how many of the old guys from Madison actually make it to the end of the parade in NY. I'd like to hear "Slaughter on 10th Avenue" (how apropos), but it's probably going to be "Jingle Bells".
Not particularly grateful for any of the Bach mouthpieces - play on a Schilke 51D for years.
Grateful for friends - not FB friends where you get thousands (Pepe - "Tow Zunds") Real friends.
Grateful to have met and sometimes worked with some of the all-time greats - I often feel like Forrest Gump, whose path seemed to cross every significant person of his era.
Grateful to my folks for putting me to work at 13.
Grateful to a few great teachers, from Brother Mulvihill at Chaminade who would accept nothing less than the best you could do, to John Sasso (who coincidentally was the same way) to his brother Ted, to Ernie Fesier, to Robert Gramm on trombone, to Gene Glickman from Queens College, to David Patterson at UMass Boston. I've left out a bunch.
To hundreds of great drum corps people I played and worked with.
To my kids for following their hearts without breaking mine.
To my wife Carrie for owning it.
To people who have been forgiving enough to include me in a couple of halls of fame (that I probably shouldn't be allowed to buy tickets to)
To some incredibly great corps like Sun, Hurcs, Bridgemen, Crossmen, Boston Jr and Sr, Archie Alumni, DCA, and Alumni and more that have hired me, fired me, hired me back, refired me, and mainly been good to me for an awful long time.
To Ralph Parkhill who drove me to practice and I&E shows in Oceanside.
To the people I competed against (and with) week after week at those I&E shows.
To Sasso, Delucia, and a couple of others that trusted me enough to give me those first jobs.
Like the Baseball been berry berry good to me guy on SNL, Drum Corps (and life) been berry berry good to me.
To JetBlue, which was a great place to work and to retire from.
And to this group, that seems to be the only social medium that doesn't make my head want to explode.
Happy Thanksgiving.
And to Dorritie, who does most everything better than most people, including gratitude lists, and is just that good a guy.
-
2
-
-
Great organization, John. Like your own.
My time with BOSCRU Senior was a blast, and I don't mean the players' sound.
Great people that take their music and their organization's legacy wicked seriously.
Can't wait to catch them now that I'm back in Beantown - just couldn't get to Plymouth.
The audience issue I believe is simple demographics - the audience is largely folks that watched these corps on the field, i.e. folks older than you and I.
As you know, folks older than you and I have to be wheeled out to events now, and I don't mean that insensitively - it's just a fact - Alumni corps have an older demo that's getting older every day.
I hate to throw this in, but it's a reflection of my own experience.
In my 60s I don't drive as well after dark - I suspect that that may be true of many Alumni corps fans.
Maybe something to think about for scheduling Alumni events?
On to the BHoF I&E Indoor season - can't wait.
Wish Mass Brass were still out there defining the mini-corps activity for the Boston area (don't want to get in trouble with Star, Donnie, or Frankie Ponzo - I know they've done plenty of defining themselves).
Thanks for the info - happy Thanksgiving.
-
1
-
Guess Who?
in DCA All-Age Corps and Alumni Corps Historical Forum
Posted
Ya see? You're making my point!