Jaminbenb Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 at this stage we accept cash, or in lieu of cash, diapers for the daughter to be If that's the case...I'm sure babysitting is high on the list as well.... Didn't know you two were expecting (or had too much on MY mind lately to remember you telling us that)...congrats on slipping one past the goalie! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted February 15, 2012 Author Share Posted February 15, 2012 (edited) If that's the case...I'm sure babysitting is high on the list as well.... Didn't know you two were expecting (or had too much on MY mind lately to remember you telling us that)...congrats on slipping one past the goalie! we have 4 grandparents already fighting over babysitting rights. At this stage, I'm wondering if we'll ever get to spend time with her LOL Thanks! Now Wally will have a grandson from my brother and a granddaughter from us! Edited February 15, 2012 by Jeff Ream Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaminbenb Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 we have 4 grandparents already fighting over babysitting rights. At this stage, I'm wondering if we'll ever get to spend time with her LOL Thanks! Now Wally will have a grandson from my brother and a granddaughter from us! That always works....Grandparents will let them do everything they told you NOT to do! We never had any children...I tell people that my wife is "barren"! She's not, but it's better than saying "we don't want any" (well it's better to me, she usually whacks me when I say it!) What's funny is that when I say it (usually with a straight face) it shuts them up and they go "oh sorry, we didn't know!" before I start laughing!) Yeah...I'm an a**! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigW Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 That always works....Grandparents will let them do everything they told you NOT to do! We never had any children...I tell people that my wife is "barren"! She's not, but it's better than saying "we don't want any" (well it's better to me, she usually whacks me when I say it!) What's funny is that when I say it (usually with a straight face) it shuts them up and they go "oh sorry, we didn't know!" before I start laughing!) Yeah...I'm an a**! Dude, that's @*(&% up. Can't stay, have to do some detective work to see if I can locate my stolen property. Lemme put it this way Ben- how would you feel if someone swiped and damaged some of your scuba gear? The guy's in trouble already, I hope to give him more at this point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted February 15, 2012 Author Share Posted February 15, 2012 That always works....Grandparents will let them do everything they told you NOT to do! We never had any children...I tell people that my wife is "barren"! She's not, but it's better than saying "we don't want any" (well it's better to me, she usually whacks me when I say it!) What's funny is that when I say it (usually with a straight face) it shuts them up and they go "oh sorry, we didn't know!" before I start laughing!) Yeah...I'm an a**! oh I dunno, I've seen Wally with my brothers son...he only gets away with so much Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaminbenb Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 Dude, that's @*(&% up. Can't stay, have to do some detective work to see if I can locate my stolen property. Lemme put it this way Ben- how would you feel if someone swiped and damaged some of your scuba gear? The guy's in trouble already, I hope to give him more at this point. Unfortunately, it didn't bode well with the relatives that kept on us to have kids...one time, I got nasty about it and went "FOR GOD'S SAKE SHE'S BARREN CAN WE DROP IT!" That WOULD have worked if I didn't start laughing!!! Damage or swipe my scuba stuff! I'd be ballistic! Drum gear as well! (God knows I got enough of that junk as well!) DO that voo doo that you do! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigW Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 The bum even kidnapped my Dr. Ullrich figure I got as a gift. (no, NOT Gary, this guy is Ullrich with 2 L's!) I'm a HUGE Audi racing fan- if you run into my Dad he wears a hat I got him from Germany as do I when it's a nice day out. THAT was what took the biscuit. He's at 3 cars missing valued at about 205 bucks, one Dr. Ullrich figure at 12 bucks and 2 damaged cars at 16 bucks repair parts. Add to that the fitty pounds of meat and poultry he shoplifted from the Giant- he's in a heap o' trouble. I figured when I helped him take the meat downstaris to his apartment- me being a good guy and this guy is disabled... I thought- well, he's likely on food stamps and disability, he can afford all this crap... And yeah, thank GOD he didn't swipe my Euphonium. I would kill on that issue. The Bugle's stashed in the Wagon and okay too. Part of me digs the Kanstul I use for almuni because it's kinda like an old, fast, beautiful race car that will kill you if you don't drive it juuuust right. I find it very rewarding when I can get it to click and make things happen the way they should happen. But Gawd, I felt bad for Fisher when I lost it on the last note of Explosion at last practice. Whoa, I hit that high D spot on, then musically crumpled into a ball of plasma! I need to ask Fisher if I can try his Kanstul Grande once to compare. I KNOW Mike's King bari, even short one valve IMHO is superior to both, and I know Kenny Norman would agree ad do some other cats. I played it once BITD and when you play it, the sound comes out like paint off a brush, not like tracer bullets spewing from a minigun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaminbenb Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 Ok...we sort of stalled after some of the Canada trip and Norm, but there was STILL some drum corps to be played! One of the other things in 1982 that annoyed me was the Rochester show that year....a "purported" DCA Regional, and we got jobbed by the Hurricanes who didn't beat anyone else that year! Yeah, I don't mind that Sun won, and by lots, it's a bummer that we BOTH lost to Sky in Canada, but the fact that they were handing out "medals" at the Rochester show, and we lost for some reason that irk's me! Anyway...Looking at the Corps Reps site, and seeing that there was no show AFTER Canada, I thought that there HAD to be more so I searched out my old "schedule" and found the holes in Corps Reps list. August 28th was a contest in Philadelphia? Not sure what that may have been...Archie's show, maybe? Anyway....I may have already told this part of the story, but I remember after DCI finals, we had a line on using Garfield's snares for the rest of the season (we were using the clunky old 15" drums, Garfield was using sleek 14" drums, and hey projected rather well) so as we assembled at the bus, Larry, rounded up the drummers, and said "follow me" so I remember walking almost the WHOLE way around the stadium (Larry went left, we should have went right) to find Garfield's busses and truck. ONLY to hear that the drummers already packed them, most wanted to remove their heads as keepsakes, and that they would deliver them to us the next day on their way out of town...I DO remember the snareline feeling a sense of relief when they started using the much lighter drums. One thing I recall that was different leading up to finals was there wasn't a whole lot of "hosing parts" as we once did so readily the final weeks before...finals. Other years, I recalled the weeks leading up to finals, taking things that seemed to bog down the music, going for more "general effect" as opposed to difficulty and exposure. Ok, we had those CRAZY isolated attacks that we practiced CONSTANTLY at the end of "Blues" (and they either worked, or they didn't...never got better, never got worse, always hit or miss.) but nothing overly off the wall to change. The show stayed the same from day one until prelims, nothing changed, nothing improved after we peaked, but what could they do to give us that last UMPH over the hump at prelims and finals??? Sadly, nothing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted February 16, 2012 Author Share Posted February 16, 2012 Ben that was part of the beauty of 96...few changes. we did a death camp July 4th weekend....chopped out 32 counts after the Carnival (2nd) drum solo, tweaked the drill for that, added Blues tag as a standstill ending. 4 weeks later added a little drill to Blues. Other than that, we cleaned, cleaned, cleaned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaminbenb Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 (edited) Ben that was part of the beauty of 96...few changes. we did a death camp July 4th weekend....chopped out 32 counts after the Carnival (2nd) drum solo, tweaked the drill for that, added Blues tag as a standstill ending. 4 weeks later added a little drill to Blues. Other than that, we cleaned, cleaned, cleaned. From my perspective sitting in the middle of the drumline, and listening to the recording, 82's problem was that it was clean and not going anywhere! Apparently the staff didn't take any suggestions on refining, and the horn line never really got to a point of total excellence. (and the drumline was decent at best, and probably the weak link of the corps) Both groups had GOOD players but there were weak links scattered throughout. It think the biggest problem that year was that we had many GREAT individual players, but not the type of player that could play in a line and be a good LINE player! Manson, had one hell of a set of hands, but he didn't play well within a line, I REALLY found that out about him in 85 in Readings tom line... same with a guy like Jeff Kintz, or Mike McCann. All those guys had good chops, good hands, and talent, but put them in a line, and it wasn't working well. Although McCann DID get better in that respect a few years later. As far as my perception of the hornline, and I'm not saying this because I marched there and from WHEN I marched there, because this goes back to 79, and 80, but Reading always had a horn sound that, as Bowser used to put it, sounded like a pipe organ. He used to pizz me off when he'd stand there at a show and go "wow, listen to that" and wet himself. I didn't want to admit it, but it WAS something to hear. We didn't have that! Sun had one of those "cohesive" sounding hornlines as well...not the "pipe organ" sound that Buc's had, but they were "breathing out of one lung" and had their own sound. Our horn lines always sounded different. I'm not enough of a horn guy to be able to put my finger on it. Drums wise... we always seemed to have good individual sections, but never at the same time. (i.e. 83, we had a good tomline, but a crappy snareline...more on that when we get there) If we could ever get that total balance, we would have done some serious damage. Robb was a definite step in the right direction from Ric, but there were things that never seemed to get taken care of from a technique standpoint, the writing was great for some sections, and lacking in others. In Ric's case, it was all snare, all the time, everything else seemed to lack, with Robb, the snares were just ok, but had some individual issues, the tom book was simple in 82, but clean, the bass and cymbals lacked 'parts wise', but we had good keyboard parts, obviously, Robb was a keyboard player when he marched. I also think that he lacked in the ability to CLEAN a drum line...we were dirty...bottom line! Bringing people in at the end of the year wasn't good because we'd already had our bad habits. Surprisingly our marching wasn't more over the top (score wise) with what Eric did to us, Hard to judge where we were totally deficient, but we just didn't have enough momentum to push to the end. Listening to the recording, I can hear how close the corps was, and can listen to Sun, and see how different (in a good way) they sounded. If our hornline sounded as "one voice" I think that would have been the push to put us over the top with the drumline deficiencies that weren't going to get fixed. We were close, but not in reach of that #### cigar! Edited February 17, 2012 by Jaminbenb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.