Jaminbenb

Was chatting with Ralph Hardimon on FB earlier...he said he remembers writing the parts to No More Blues for us in 83! He thought we won that year... had to give him the low-down! Didn't know he was working with the Blue Knights!

I DO remember an article in a paper way way back that referred to them as Westehoremen Inc. (78-79-ish?) I also remember being called the "Westshore-liners" at a show in Erie in 79.... (and speaking of Tater Salad...and the other thread talking about Robin Williams...I saw Ron live once....)

Alias'?

Yeah, I think we did it until 80 if I'm not mistaken... It WAS fun! I remember we swapped instruments half way through the parade a few times...the drums played Sky's street beat..I carried Geiger's big ### drum in one of them!

Donna and Sue came from Hershey with Larry for 1979 (along with me, Bowser, Rich Handy, Dick & Rich Adams, and I forget who else) The rest of that corps ended up in Reading, and we know how THAT year ended up!

I got a good one: "GO RICKIE LEE!"

UMass is playing in Happy Valley this year, (and they're bringing the band) I told Fred Pye to run by my spot and bring Hanuum with him. Fred was always a hoot!

Nah, he wasn't around when that stuff went down...

I'd consider it....maybe you should yell "HEY JOE WHERE'S YOUR RIFLE!" ;-)

Good luck! A friend of ours that DOES do the alumni band year after year said that it's tough to get in sometimes since there are so many people that want to do it! (and keep me posted if she does and you guys are at the game...we'll drink!)

Got to see Semifinals...(we were out visiting a friend decided to get at least ONE show in...I chose the bigger of the two) A few corps stuck out to me...One of my favorites were the Colts...I think they COULD have done with a little LESS narration, I GET that they had to tell their story in order for people to actually get their meaning...but thought they could have pulled it back a tad...music was actually pretty great from my perspective! Thought the Crossmen were good..wasn't a HUGE fan of their show, but I think it was great that they made it on their 40th anniversary! And thought that they deserved the spot! Good for them! Madison had a tiny drumline and as usual a LOUD hornline! Great show! Santa Clara's drumline was just tight..nice stuff to see. Blue Knights HAD to be my favorite show of the evening! Great music, love the new look, and thought the showw concept was just off the charts! I totally fell in love with them, and was pretty much bummed that I wasn't going to see them again since we weren't going to finals! Carolina had a great show! They feel like Star of Indiana when they were around in their presentation...nice show, solid hornline! Cadets? Not a big fan...thought the narration was OVER KILL and it felt like they were hiding a lot while that was going on...come on guys...it's a DRUM CORPS SHOW...let's hear the DRUM CORPS! Bluecoats are DRUM CORPS! To me them beating Cadets was a bit of a statement...they PLAYED like a drum corps! They had a few little effects that were cute, but the show is just crazy! Loved it! Devils were just amazing...no two ways about it....not sure I totally agree with the way they score these days, but it was a great show!

More news....just saw on PennLive that Penn State put up a job opening for band director! Dr. Bundy is retiring! I heard that yesterday... My wife went up yesterday with her friend (whom she works with, and went to pharmacy school) whose daughter just got the "Blue Sapphire" spot with the band! She had to go up and get her costume approved by Dr. Bundy, and got to meet him, AND got a tour of the band facility! Pretty wild place from what she told me...I'm hoping I get a tour one of these days!

Hopefully I run into some of you guys! Just read that Joe Itkor is playing timpani for Fusion Corps...

Hey I'm liking the fact that there's some actual competition this year! Granted I'm an old Bucs fan from the way back (only started admitting it in 1984) but they've been just overpowering the past several years, and seeing that the Cab's are bringing it, and Fusion Corps seems to be stepping up to the challenge is a good thing! Speaking of being an old time Buc's fan...I remember the Lewistown show in '79 hanging out with your dad and George and his mom afterwards! Good old times! (not to mention watching DCI at your house...thank God for the rainout, or we'd have missed it!) Just thinking...speaking of admitting to being a fan...I was a Sun fan since I first saw them in 1978, and only really started admitting it over the past few years while on here... (still not a Hurricanes fan)

Haven't done the battlefield thing in a while....what's funny is that one of the band directors I worked for years back has a house that's in the middle of the Antietam battlefield, I always thought that was cool! Oh, day trips for us are like Wildwood these days...ever since we started driving to the Florida Keys, my wife has this "we'll just drive" attitude...which is why Bloomington is on the "we'll drive there" list. The nice thing about driving to the Keys is that I can take all of my dive gear AND tanks! Trying to schlep that stuff on a plane is just a big hassle, and you end up "praying" that it all gets there and back without being re-routed...had some stuff arrive late years back, and that was a HUGE pain! Been hearing that there were good drumlines this season.. I got LOW tickets! Which is always fun! Any shows that really stick out this year? Haven't heard ANYTHING yet! I'm also going to the Big Sounds in Motion show, the 1984 line is getting recognized for the 30th anniversary of winning drums (I think they're adding in the 1974 line that Flowers taught since it's kind of convenient, and two of guys were there, too)

Since I'm in here..... Anyone going to DCI this year? I just got tickets to semi-finals....we have a friend that lives out in Bloomington that we wanted to go out and visit (plus there's an awesome winery not far from his house, and we need to stock up!) So we decided to take in the top 25! I'm also going to the Rhythm Discovery Center that morning...it has some great historical drum kits (one of Bonhams, and Neil Peart's first Slingerland kit from the "All the World's a Stage" era! )

I'll agree with that.....MANSON YOU OLD DOG! WTF? ;-) You still in the land down under?

What all footage is on that 50th anniversary DVD? Anything from, 84, 85, or 88? But yeah....those two years as much as a lot of people didn't want to admit, were off the charts! (I did get chastised for saying that Sun should have WON in 81 at a Bucs practice in 84....oooo that wasn't a pretty response! hahaha!)

The Flowers line in 78 was pretty good...it's a shame Colletti couldn't keep the "magic" flowing for 79...except for the tunes that carried over (Granada Smoothie and Impossible Dream) the rest were a bit lame from a writing standpoint except for the snare book... The bass line was better, the tenor line was as good if not better (2 of the 3 were there the year before) the timpani line was competant, and the mallets were primarily the same crew) It just seemed like a snare heavy book for the rest of the tunes, and no overall quality...Eyeler and Pomponio made the horns sound EONS better from 78. The best we did THAT year was add Rochester...Reading went ballistic so NO one was catching them that year...talk about a HUGE improvement from the year prior!

I'm still digging my favorite fruit beer...Mad Elf! THAT stuff will knock you on yerazz in a heartbeat if you aren't careful...

Kinda quite in here....

OMG....that's great!

Thinking of Alan and the Younger Brothers reminded me of a funny one... Don't really remember the year, but I was assisting Carlisle's drumline, working with Brian T. Schell an crew....I think it was for Atlantic Coasts, and they were down at Neshaminy or somewhere...so Alan procured the use of his band's nice RV...It was Dave, Brian, Alan, Hershman, Bowser Lori Rabeler and I forget who else... Of course we had "refreshments" for the ride home! We got about half way down and were told that the show was postponed due to the weather (someone got in contact with us via "CB") So Dave stopped at a rest stop, and made a phone call, and confirmed it. WELL...since we had this alcohol in the coolers, and no show to go to, we decided to start drinking! (well Dave didn't because he had to address the band/parents, once we got back, btu the rest of us were right into it) After we dismissed the kids, we figured that we still had the RV so we may as well have some fun(and go get dinner somewhere)... So Larry decided that we should run by John Bugosh's house and see if he and his wife wanted to join us...so we pulled up in front of his house and Larry got on the "PA" that was on the bus and started: "John Bugosh, come out with your hands up, this is the police!" "John Bugosh, we know you're in there, surrender!" We're all DYING! and John's neighbors are all coming out of their houses! it was hilarious! He finally DID come out, and his neighbors knew that he was being messed with, but it was great! (and they went to dinner with us) I forgot about that one...but after thinking about the pic of Alan on FB, it came right back to me!

Ok, Jeff...so retirement is on! Will you be able to do it?

Will he have any Genny Cream in a cooler?