The Blue Devils

January 30, 2017January 30, 2017

Michael “Mike” Braga 86’d from 2017 Santa Clara Vanguard Alumni Corps ….

Breaking LATER ASSHOLE! Space Park Management to violent coward: Thanks but NO THANKS -or- Wife-Beater Takes Beat-Down
Part I.

Around about every five years; the most consistently prgressive, entertaining, competitive and downright bad-ass drum & bugle corps* in the kh2own universe puts together an Alumni Corps….for fun, for old times sake, cuz life starts to suck after age 21, cuz playingin a large group of talented men & women is better than (sex * drugs + rockNroll) ….. to get easily-explainable time off from work/family/friends/poker/kids/your dog/home [all the things that society INSISTS you take part in and enjoy……So we’re all cut out on what-the-world-expects-of-us and why not? If that’s all we did, [musicians especially] it would make for a rough world. (did you know Hitler was a band-geek? yeah-Basson —God I would knock him out just for THAT! AAAAANYHoooooo……)

WHO IS MIKE BRAGA?

I’ll tell the story as it unfolded for this writer in 2007. The timeline is quite jagged; so put on your “Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul/Star Wars/Pulp Fiction/Memento style plot hats cuz the timeline here zigs, zags and jumps…
That year I ran two assembly lines for Metagenics (fmr. makers of professional quality dietary supplements, protein powders & functional foods; my lines always packed that finished-goods, and pills from horse tablets to the barely visible. I digress. I’m running line 4– the phone rings. It’s Joe Rybus, a heavy in Kingsmen Organization and a head-hunter for the hornline. Someone fronted me off to the guy — he knew my name & cell….at least it was a welcome call.

“Am I interrupting” (he is; but…take a guess how many fucks I gave…)
“No….”
“This is Joe Rybus, did you know The Anaheim Kingmen are putting togther an Alumni Corps this year? This is the first time DCI will be held at the Rose Bowl to commerate our innaugural victory at Whitewater in 1971…anyway you wanna join?”
“I never marched Kingsmen”
“Yeah … well see we want to have as big a hornline as possible; so we waved that requirement; in fact; so far most of the members are alums from up north; like yourself!”
“Are you guys gonna play cool shit?”
“Yeah, Mambo, Folk Song Suite, So Very Hard To Go….Firebird...”
“That sounds cool…cant go wrong with Mambo, Williams, ToP or Stravinsky…. how many horns?”
“We have nearly 80; shooting for 120….” (now my crew knows im , not evem trying to work so they take over; a good crew…)
“So you wanna fill the rest with ringers right?”
“Yeah Chris; get it now?”
“….Practice? How do we not get the cops called?”
“One of the members is a principal at school in Anaslime [Joe didnt really say that, but u get the idea] He says we can use the band room and that no one will call for noise if we pack it in by sundown…and its just 30 miles north.”
“Joe I wanna do this, but $ is tight, I can’t tale time off work …..”
“We’re camping at Long Beach State for about 3 weeks before Semis [our last show] all you need is 1 weekend a month till summer, then every weekend, then get most of august.”
–NOTE: Joe’d made this call in 2006 so I had plenty of time to arrange this; plus my work OWED me a decent VAYCAY; I’d never taken even a sick day three years in ….
“$ is tight Joe….I can squeeze the time but I need rides, a uniform, theres no way I can pay fees. I want to help…really is th-
“[cutting me off] “look it’s free; if you need a ride ill get you one….”
“I can drive dude; just one more thing; now that im older? 2nd Barry? Lower Lead? ….my chops are in pro-condition so …”
“Got it; Upper Lead Baritione, comped…the next camp is at….”

The rest is history. Sops like legendary sops like Ralphie, Jim Sobacki, Phil Norris and a few other (not Ray!) along with many Big Bore idols, Carl Allison (Freelancers), Doug “Pooh Bear” Kenyon (BD, Colts), Tony Pon (SCV), Charlie Groh(1st Marines, 2nd Battalion, 5th Regiment, Item Company, WWI/WW2/Korea)…..they really made it all worth it. Ther all could mop the floor with me; talent-wisae especially. *Fun Fact* – It would be Pooh’s last DC performance – he joined to surpise his daughter at DCI who was in the Colts – a rookie CG (coolest dad ever – RIP ol’ buddy!)
There were about 200 people in the Kingsmen that year; we rocked an honor guard with a full Color Presentation so of those 200, lets say 140 were holding an instrument. Here is a rough estimate of how they broke down:

Kingsmen Alumni = 22 percent
Freelancers Alumni = eight percent
VK Alumni = 10 percent
Concord Alumni = 25 percent
Santa Clara Alumni = 25 percent
Other or band-geeks living out their childhood fantasies 10 percent

Note there would be LOTS of crossover here: SCV/BD, VK/BD, Freelancers/BD, Kmen/BD …etc. Only Marty Jo Basset, Bill Varju and Tim Meehan having marched “the cycle” (VK, Freelancers, SCV & BD; with ho iarble mention that Tim SOLOED in ALL FOUR, Marty “The One Man Party” played upper lead sop in all four; and Bill Marched Contra, Barry (@VK in 95), Mello (BD, yr unknown) and Soprano – A DOUBLE CYCLE!!!!! Credit to Scott Steward as well for marching, though in just two that I know of; check out his 1990 semis solo when he’s like….a fucking 13 year old. (will add YT link if it still exists) Credit also to Jack M. for TEACHING VK/SCV/BD/Troopers and possibly Sac.
*sigh* better get to the meat here …. so we’re camping at LBSU and it’s like a biunch of adults with families/jobs/responsibilities are kids again (we were; well we felt like it; my room Anthony; whom partied 1000th as muvh as I did at that time – we got along famously and are still friends; having marched Renegades & Kingsmen Alumni together (links to follow). Each day we hit a practice field about 500 yrds from the dorms. Stretch. chat, plan, apply sunblock and Gold Bond, sectionals, lunch, ensemble, dinner, then either a show or more ensemble….then party, pass out, rinse & repeat. For us age-outs WE ARE ON CLOUD NINE; praying September never comes.
One week before Our final show (sniff…) at DCI I hear a rumbling that the cymbal section wants to quit en masse. Why? Apparently [to paraphrase] – WE CANT TAKE ONE MORE SECOND OF [MIKE’S] ABUSIVE BULLSHIT. CHOOSE. HIM. OR US. Our Fearless leader and DM Gary Kean investoigated, to find that Braga was running the cymbal line as though this were 1987 and THIS was the 1987 SCV Cymbal line. Lets start with some definitions.
A drum corps cymbal line – an extremely physical job from high school level up to division one (World Class) the cymbal line marches, attempts crazy difficult drill, accentuates the visual feel of the program. Musically all sorts of sounds can be made via scrapes, crashes, “shings” and tastefully marching in front of the battery so they have a crash or ride or (???) cymbal to use on the fly. Cyms are part expert dancers, military-precesion-marchers, elegant musicians and marching masters.
The SCV Cymbal Line – These guys are famous for being “so far over the top as to be obscene. Every time I saw them; they did everything together: they sit together on the drum bus. When the direcgtor (or any staff address them) they stand in a perfect rank, side-toe-contact. They rarely if ever make mistakes. Holes in this line are filled by an audition of 1000 competing for one spot. They eat togther – yes, in a rank. At night, they stack their bunks adjacent, in a rank. Every SCV member busts their ass; but NO ONE works as hard as the cyms. Finally; no one in their right mind would mess with them while on tour; they are tougher than any d-line for any college football team and were they soldiers? They’d return from combat HEAVILY decorated …. pardon the expression but you ever met a group of guys so tight they’s “eat each others’ sh!%?” —ok that’s the SCV Cymbal line for the past 30 years at least.
So Braga, even though, this ostensibly laid-back “Senior Corps” that only rehearses weekends (9-5 in stead of 9-sunup the next day, ‘EIGHT days a week’) and will not receive a score (Sr. Corps are usually exhibition at DCI shows) …Braga is not only acting like he is back in an SCV-hardcore-as-fuck-hand-me-that-bowl-of-shit Cymbal line….he is making threats, making some of his fellow Cym CRY. Doing the opposite of why we took off work and pissed off our kids & significant others – to make visually pleasing, aethetically beutiful, sonically sonorous, loud music – for us, for the fans, for everyone. The sxn reported; AND BRAGA (on the field of honor**) says [PARAPHRASED]

NO, FUCK YOU GARY IM NOT GOING ANYWHERE

WIP 1/30

advert below

…again WIP this mess is about a quarter done. Sorry to put you blast Mike….no I’m not sorry….You suck….I’m ashamed to call my self any sort of “alumni” list that beats both our names. You are a disgrace to the Silver Star, The Green Shield and the memory of Gail & Myron. Start my NEVER HITTING ANOTHER WOMAN EVER. If you eant to hit someone….the comment section is below. -c

Part II

Braga decided (at some point) that as de facto Cym section leader of Kingmen Alumni; the best way to run the line was to act like a fascist white-power-prison-gang “grand-intimidator – thinking that excellence could be achieved via anger, cursing, threats, yelling and general douchery. If you’ve been incarverated or not; pictire that Napoleonic psychopath you pray never crosses your path. “I just want to do my time & get out with most of my teeth. Then you meet Braga. He wants to know “who you are, where youre from, what your deal is….are you a narc? He makes comments about your manhood to compensate for his lack of. I mean, what kind of man has two violent strikes for beating his wife? Usually the kind to scared to hit a dude.
Braga created an atmosphere of misery for the other Cymbal players in 2007, thinking this was the right thing to do …. One afternoon at Long Beach State; the Cyms had a meeting w/o their fear[full] leader; they decided marching in the Kmen Alumni no longer fell into the “fun” category. It would be fun if not for Braga; so they took the issue to Kean and said “Him or us.”
Simple, lose the douche. That’s where the story should end. With lightning-strike exceptions; an SCV member or alum obeys on0field orders from staff, section leaders, the Horn Sgt., all techs, consultants, caption heads and the director without question, so with my 1991 Kanstul 3v G Baritone at a pistol; I was shocked to hear Braga ARGUING with the fucking Drum Major!!! He was refusing to leave, saying he did nothing wrong. Kean is a smart, shrewd and peaceful man. He was not about to risk a figth with this hulking ,ass clearly looking for a violent outlet for his maniacy. The KAC rented dorms, a parking structire and a practice field; making the field (thank God) corps property. Member or no; the director/DM asks you to leave its not up for discyssion. NEVER on the field of honor. Before Kean could finish rationalizing “leave no you sciopath. Please leave and dont ever come back.” —several members hit 911 on their cells. The LBSU PD and LBPD showed up quickly. Braga was dragged off the field by them snarling and shooting red daggers out of his eyes, blaming the staff, the corps, the Cyms, Kean, the members, using words I woulnt place in a artice ABOUT the field of honor.
Not Familiar? Any field is a sacred place. Treat it that way if you ever want to march on Game (Saturday) Night. Since the 70s (60s?) Guards say a prayer to field before entering it. Batteries & Hornlines dress as nice as weather allows on the Field of Honor, they don’t swear on it, the NEVER sit on it, They use G-rated language on the field, they act professional; because they ARE. Only the teachers, leaders and technicians talk betweenn takes. Rehearsals are done with a purpose, memberws run back to their sets. Breaks only exist to keep memebers hydrated. We keep out ears open and our eyes up. We treat a painted field better than a board room in our chosen professions. To disobey chain of command, to shout vilent threats, to force law enforcement to drag you pff the field and worst of all; to stalk the corps after like a NeckBeard whose My Little Pony collection came to life…is deplorable.
—–next—–part III. Deep Background & Diane Feinstein….

May 23, 2015May 23, 2015

More fun with Java 1.8 -ASCII “Art” 101 using Arrays….

This is the type of assignment I would hand out to first year programming students. After introducing the idea of lists, I implore them to solve the following:
Use a list to build an ASCII pyramid using the character of your choice and make it: a) appear “pyramidal” that is, no leaning, no right-angles at the base and give it some semblance of aesthetic quality b) your logic should generate EVERY level of the pyramid, that is, no coding “special cases” for the top, middle or bottom rows. The logic must hold sound to construct the entire pyramid as a stand-alone algorithm. c) print your src (source code) and the output of your program to prove to peers that it works.

variable number of rows
each row knows how many spaces to print and how many characters
this involves logical analysis for the left spaces, the chars AND the right spaces
The algorithm must know when to “endline”/”newline”/
Careful analysis and monitoring (QA/QC) of the variables during runtime may be needed

For the seasoned programmer this is fairly basic, but involves core mathematical concepts, an element of basic aesthetic design and a good grip on list variable storage; how they are both computed and sent to an output stream (System.out in this case) This is the rough equivalent of “cout <<” for you C/C++ guys

Add a user-interface to ask the user how big to build the pyramid. Include exception-handling for pyramid sizes that are not technically “pyramids” (height = 1 is not a pyramid) heights too large will lose their aesthetic, or their pyramidal structure entirely if built too large or too impractical for the user’s display. (I capped mine at 50 rows) – add warnings depending on the user interface).
Decorate the pyramid with one or more random characters in addition to your “foundation” block (I used hashtags for my foundation block).
Invert the pyramid.
Stack the pyramid atop the inverted one to make a diamond shape…make sure it lines up evenly. No bumps or other strangeness in the middle.

Here is a sample solution; note that I carefully tracked line size, space, building-block-count, row-count & the storage of each…this is crucial to accuracy and QC testing during development time.
This is an acceptable output:

a snap of the pyramid program in-process using the Netbeans IDE — seen w/in the Netbeans Integrated Development Environment. “I design them.”

Here is the source code – note brevity in my solution– ~20 lines-ungolfed!:/* author: Chris "Tapper" Welke This program generates an ASCII-art 50 row pyramid using hashtags as a building block. Solution provided for instructional/informational purposes in the areas of lists, integers, type-casting, dynamic memory allocation, and open-source programming. If you are new to Java, this is an excellent trial pgm to get you started. Dist. under the GNU Public License. Free to distribute: please attribute though, ok?: Last Stable Build: 5/23/15 at Tapper7.com and Self-Similarity Studios courtesy The Netbeans (Netbeans.org) IDE, Java 1.8 and the std. javac compiler OS: Win 8.1, Chipset by Intel. Laptop by Hewlett-Packard. Website provided by Media Temple */ package learn; import java.util.Arrays; public class HashTagASCIIPyramid{ protected static int charlinelength = 100; public static void main(String[] arg){ float[] asciiStorage = new float[HashTagASCIIPyramid.charlinelength]; int totalHashtags = 1; //initialize builing block total int charCount = 0; //count building blocks for QC testing int[] cclist = new int[100]; //record the char generation as it happens int leftspaces = (int)asciiStorage.length/2; int rightspaces = (int)asciiStorage.length/2; int height = 1; for(int i = 0; i < asciiStorage.length/2; i++){ for (int l = 0; l < leftspaces; l++){ System.out.print(" "); charCount++; } for (int t = 0; t < totalHashtags; t++){ System.out.print("#"); charCount++; } for (int r = 0; r < rightspaces; r++){ System.out.print(" "); charCount++; } System.out.print('\n'); /*QC Tracking: height++; cclist[i] = charCount;*/ leftspaces--; totalHashtags +=2;rightspaces--; }//end mn loop }//end mn }//end class #asciipyramid
Hints: I used space-fillers for the spaces (” “); – left and right brackets plus lots of variable outputs to see what was going on during run-time, my initial design yielded the following output:
run:

WHOOPS!
Heh…so clearly there were multiple logic faults, (and I started with tildas, not hashtags….) but it was easy to track the movement of the left and right brackets that debugged the left and right SPACES and not shown are my debugging outputs that checked the length of each row for consistency(it was going over and under 100 – keeping the length of each row equivalent was key to my particular legitimate solution)— also that my iterators and arrays were misplaced and thus not controlling and the output correctly.

increment blocks by TWO; not one
decrement spaces and increment blocks OUTSIDE the main loop rightSpaces--;leftSpaces--totalHashtags+=2;

Coming soon: Bill’s adventures at Los Alamos, More Netbeans experiments, tutorials and anything interesting that happens when I have my camera on me.

Lots of great ideas in the works…and let us not forget: Summer is Coming …. Go Santa Clara and Concord! Support your local drum corps by playing bingo, going to shows, donating your time, tailgating at shows and screaming your lungs out when corps brings you to it on the Field of Honor. All signs point to a another stellar season for Red and Blue Banners both; and I wouldn’t have it any other way (scratch that….I’d resurrect Bridgemen, Suncoast, Big 27, Star, Kingsmen, The Freelancers and The Velvet Knights) THEN it’d be roll-out time.
Under the circumstances, putting all politics aside; Thank God for Rosemont, Rockford, Madison, Garfield, Bloooooo, SCV/BD, Cru, Spirit and all other remamining “Big Time DCI” corps still in the hunt, still rockin’ it…gettin ready for the only kickoff I really care about: Memorial Day Weekend. A trial by fire where those who make it through will be ready for the best summer of their lives. Hang in there kids, you got this!
Music, Tech, Art, Love and Life; find it all right here at The SoCal Picayune. Your LA/OC home for Drum Corps, Culture, tech-security, experiments and solutions, the occasional off-color joke, scam-hunting, YT highlights and the best (and worst) direct from the minds of this writer, Tapper and Bill Feynman.
Maybe a Memorial Day Anecdote will inspire itself as we begin the approach. hmmmmm…..
[] Support my sponsors! All are reviewed regularly for legitimacy by the Senior Ethics Auditor: moi

March 18, 2015April 11, 2015

Rough draft of 1996 VK Judges tape is ONLINE! (finally!)….

I’ll be cleaning this up A LOT….but here’s a draft for ya’….check out Antii Karvonen (Solo Soprano) and moi (Lead in Small Ens. Swing to end of opener) during “The Jetsons,” ….to quote Antii, “Damn [We’re] Smooth.” This corps unfortunately did NOT peak at Finals…so Stillwater was as good a show as any we did that year. The GE judge certainly enjoyed it, but…whatever-we blew the ROOF of that joint; crowd went s#!t nuts and that’s all that matters. More pics and info about this historic recording coming soon. Credit to 1996 Soprano Plug and 2015 Legit Pro percussionist Chuck Lopez for rescuing this Gem:

I’ll add some anecdotes about the “issues” that preceded the show where we srsly took the Stadium in Stillwatwer DOWN at some point in the near future. We had to FOLLOW The Madison Scouts that night…. That’s right, FOLLLOW “A Drum Corps Fan’s Dream, Part Dos” on THEIR TURF. Good Lord that was one Bad-Ass show…A Mis Abuelos? Fugettaboutit…. (One of the tour buses broke down; hence VK closed the show—f—ing GUMBY*)

*Accchhem*

CVHS Pride. “Capo Yo!”

SoCal Billy Bad Asses!

West is Best.

Nostalgia See-tay!….eh…this is only a rough draft test…enjoy…speaking of Nostalgia City, while working on getting that old tape published on YT & FB for my associate…I’m listening to this rockin recording we made back in 96…then I note that one you treasured readers posted a link to a sick band – Die Antwoord – that’s Afrikans & OR South African-en for “The Answer.” Their breakout hit Umshini Wam – “Bring me my machine gun” was shown to me ages ago…by another treasured friend …one who’s ALIVE and NOT IN JAIL…but we just don’t live all that close anymore…ANYWAY the 1st time I saw it I found it “f—ing sweet” – it has a rad beat, the blonde chick and the dude are seriously tight rappers and the visuals are original, absurd.
I dug it right away; scope it out: Looking back there are several touching moments….
Let it be known that Tapper misses having a cool chick to hang out with.
…and I got a new bike: OC Craigslist STEAL OF THE YEAR THUS FAR. Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo F—ing Bomb.
—————–PIX!————–

…I’ll be Back soon kids…. here’s an ad for you, I hope it doesn’t suck. Plz tell me if my ads ever suck I’m ’bout to go back and start banning advertisers again. I saw a few cruddy ones recently whatever u get my drift ….advertisement:
*The Gumby was the Rookie Bus….I rode on the Schmee-the Hornline Vet Bus…No drummers, no rooks..even though I was one, due to my being 1st “chair” Baritone/Upper Lead Bar… 1st part in our award-winning I&E Mixed Ensemble and my solo/small ensemble (2 Barry’s + 2 Flugels) in the swing section of The Jetson’s….I powered through some serious bulls— from the vis staff and stepped up my marching game to rival my chops—it garnered a grip of respect…with that came regular beatings. Only the old school drum corps guys can understand why being talented or even “good” also leads to getting your @$$ thrashed on a semi-regular basis. Meh. It got me ready for what was to come. Made me harder than steel-reinforced concrete. There’s something about learning how to take multiple/repeated shots to the kisser, breadbox and/or balls that only makes a young man tough…+the ladies like it too. —Going back to high school and dating the girl the quarterback dreams about? AS A BAND GEEK? What can I say? I HAD NO COMPLAINTS JR. YR! HaHa!…BD/SCV/VK Vets in Mission Viejo in the 90s…we showed our respective football teams and other “popular” kids how business got DONE. ———->Dedicated to those who inspired and accomplished same: Brian Kettlehut, Jon Goldman, Sean Billings, Antii Karvonen and Travis Larson + many others. I can only pray today that at some high school…somewhere…as it was at MVHS and CVHS…it’s the guy who marches drum corps dating the prom queen/hottest chick in school…while the star quarterback/runinng back’s GF is characterized as “frumpy.” []

PS-RIP Ray Arias (Euphonium) and Jen Lee (Color Guard) …my girl and my boy. Miss youse guyz much. Love, Tapper.

December 25, 2014December 25, 2014

Christmas day….and the classic pics I promised! ….

a photo of rich skare in his 89 bd uniform

Featured: one of the special photographs I promised. Rich Skare in 89 BD garb w/ Meehaphone. RIP brother. What I wouldn’t give to be chillin’ with best friend today. I am in a way. heh….
Below: the other I recently obtained permission to publish. Gail Royer and Jerry Seawright at DCI. Bridgemen are seen in the background. ca. 1984 (???).
Photos Courtesy: Tim White and Sylvia Skare…special thanks to both of you and happy holidays!.

Sorry for the cliche’ but…wow. ‘talk ’bout a picture being worth a 1000 words, this …what are they discussing?
Not a whole lot going on today. I found a relevant video to what I’d posted on trumpetherald.com, a lame brass forum I just got banned from. I was particularly active in the /range-building section (or whatever it’s called…), where people dropped useless spam EVERYWHERE and bad information about how to develop your range. I highly doubt you can read my “Rules for ‘Playing high'” which was only tongue-in-cheek for ONE of the rules, the rest were actually useful and appear here. I think my IP is banned. “Tapper7” is ABSOLUTELY banned. I must admit I started out TRYING to troll the site, but then I felt bad for the students reading the forum posts and learning poor brass performance practices that would limit their ability and I wanted to post something helpful. Funny it’s what got me banned.
Here is the OP in it’s full naked glory:
Rules for "playing high" For the last time: 1. Play through the center of the horn, even if you like to place the mthpc a li'l off-center. 2. Vibration creates frequency, therefore MORE and FASTER air is req'd for each subsequent partial. 3. GET YOUR STUPID TONGUE OUT OF THE WAY DURING LONG TONES AND SLURS 3a.articulation should be "HA" not "Dah" ...."Dah" is for accent or legato, "Tah" is staccato. 3b. YOUR TONGUE WILL NOT HELP YOU PLAY "HIGH"! 3.4(Weed helps you "play high") 3c.anyone who says "tighten" "pressure" "spc. trick" "buy this mthpc" "do x w/ your cheeks/face/tongue"...anything that's not related to the PHYSICS of how sound is produced by a human using their lips and a horn as an amplifier is a f---ing liar and prob. has some bogus book or vid for sale too. IGNORE OBVIOUS LIES. 3d.anyone who uses or buys a special "shallow cup mthpc" or buys any add-on or uses a special material in hopes of "playing high" should quit or at least kill themselves. Your CG3 or 1 and a half is FINE. 4. You should have a solid "high C" by 6th grade. 5. You should be able to play confidently above a high C (as a soloist) by freshman yr. of HS. 6. dub-C by jr. year of HS(and go march drum corps like a man) or GTFO. NO EXCEPTIONS. 7. More air. 7a. The inspiration of the Billy-Bad Asses who came before you, that inspire you, met these req'mt's. 7b. A few of them did not march drum corps. Louie Armstrong, Clifford Brown and other legends like Jon Faddis and Adam Rapa. All OTHER RULES WERE/ARE FOLLOWED BY THE ABOVE PLAYERS TO A T. 8. More air. 9. Read rule 7. 10. Still needs more air. Breathe. 10a. Grow a pair. If female, do this figuratively. 10b. Not enough air. Re-read rule 7. 10c. It's not "all about practice" some people will never be able to play above a G on top of the staff (treble-Bb). Some have it. Most don't. 10d. Joey Pero can bust out "Gospel John" better than you. NO EXCEPTIONS. 10e. Scott Steward is an all-around better musician than you. NO EXCEPTIONS. 10f. Sean Billings is louder and can play way higher than you. NO EXCEPTIONS. 10g. Jim Prime. If that name is unknown to you---> fix that. 10gPrime. If any name listed is unknown to you---> fix that. 10h. Rick South said to tell you that "YOU ARE NOT USING ENOUGH AIR. MORE AIR." Notes: Yes I am the OP so that makes me a fa---- by default. Feel free to point it out. Don't buy anyone's bull$#! chop development book. You want to know some slur-patterns I will post them NO CHARGE. Same for breathing exercises and common warm-ups. Hell I'll explain Jack Meehan's hand signals if you want. HE GAVE IT AWAY. His sons built on top of it...then ALSO gave it away, to jerks like me. I've in turn built my own conglomeration of their exercises, Arban's, Rochut's, those taught to me by Mike Hoffman, Dean Westman, Greg Flores and Gordon Henderson INTO SOMETHING I CALL MY OWN AND ALSO WANT TO GIVE AWAY. Cuz we love brass performance, not spamming dorky web forums or making $ off bs. Information is free. If you have a "how to play high" book and you want to spam this site and impressionable kids? OK-maybe you know something I don't: post a YT vid of yourself PASTING a dub-C....no warm-up, no lip-up...just HIT the m-fer and don't blow sharp like a retard! Bonus points if you can shake the E above it and kiss it off. THIS OP REFLECTS THE VIEWS OF TAPPER7 AND NONE OF THE PERSONS LISTED-

I said I wanted to release my own brass method – for free, right? I presume that’s what got me banned. My 1st few posts were just awful and INTENDED TO OFFEND but people like…agreed with me. Some old guy from NC posted that my OP was reminiscent of an old-school brass forum he missed and that he thought it was hysterical and informative. I replied. “North Carolina knows what’s up,” then. BANNED. It will prob. publish on this site, why not? Cost – zilcho. I’ll even transcribe some cool solos for the back. I’ll write it in “Bb treble” so whatever tin-can you play on you can read it w/o having to transpose. I prefer “C” like as-written for a piano, but hey it’s just a whole step for me in my head – a minor 3rd for G Bugles and the exercises needn’t be transposed at all.
I also insisted that hacks spamming that forum with all their tips and tricks to “play high” that are “for sale” on their site to PROVE they can play above a double-C: in fairness. Here’s me. It’s not that hard.

If you are visting this site FROM trumpetherald.com…WELCOME! I’m not the greatest writer OR musician, but at least you’ll occasionally have a laugh with me…and I won’t try to sell you anything. Go buy a beer. or 36.
Also made the upgrade to WP v4.1 as-promised. Can’t really say if it’s better and I’ve yet to review the 2015-theme PHP (for now I’m sticking w/ my most recent customized CSS and variation on an old theme)…but it’s ALLEGEDLY MORE SECURE (This site is locked up hard…whatever security upgrades the WP people added is like throwing an extra padlock on a Kittner-Redoubt, but hey it can’t hurt! Happy holidays to all my wonderful readers. You know how it is with ol’ Tapper. I got mad love for ya’ …have a great holiday.

Christmas day….and the classic pics I promised! ….

00:00 /

1X

Download file | Play in new window

Posted on November 22, 2014August 1, 2016
“They’re payin’ for it… YOU EAT IT!!!” Another war story from the front lines @DCI

Subtitle: The guy from 89 BD who f—— up the solo on Finals Night. An update.
“When are you gonna post the link about the 89-guy?” OK OK OK … on behalf of the publisher, the editor would like to apologize for the writer who keeps giving the readers what they want…Drum Corps News, Reviews and “Tales of Yore!”
Let the West Coast Legacy live for all time…even it’s …….regretable moments. All I’m sayin’ is…I’M NOT THE ONE WHO INSISTS THAT WE WATCH the chum-fest during “If We Were In Love” which is my favorite ballad of all time, at EVERY FUCKING GET-TOGETHER, #amirite? heheh… the fuckup is NOT posted on this site and you maniacs that don’t have the 1,000 DVD set or a mountain of old VHS tapes and/or bootlegs…use your noodle and search Youtube….the search terms should be obvious…find it there.
(Confession: the troll who tacked “keyboard-cat” on as a stinger – you are unoriginal and an asshole, but you made me laugh so +1 …dick).
Let me also credit the rest of the corps, Including John and Tim Meehan, Rich Skare and scores of others who were SPOT ON Saturday Night…just like every other night.
Click on the truncated pages to read them as PDFs, you may need to use the lil magnifying glass to make it readable.
My apologies, but Office 365 and WP don’t talk to each other all that well. I blame Microsoft.

What happens now that’s he’s prob. out? Well Halpern is on PAROLE – jail w/o the bars…one tiny f—up and it’s automatic 90 days in County Jail (SC County? hopefully he moved away…) It’s 45 days, Felons call it a “Flash.” It is compared to “Three-to-Five”
In short – as if he hadn’t fucked over the people and music that made up one of my all-time fav. shows and my all-time fav. ballad…he clipped $800 LARGE that a couple about to divorce entrusted him to keep safe while they hammered out the details of who got what.
Did Halpern keep that $800G’s safe? Nope…he spent it.
The Merc was kind enough to say he put $ “into his failing practice…” ask me and what I know? Most of that mtn. of cash went to a casino. And that’s that.

Fuck you Dan Halpern.
Fuck you for getting high b4 Finals.
Fuck you for chumming your big solo that Wayne, Jack and others trusted you to nail.
Fuck you for jamming their wisdom and guidance in their faces with weak-sauce and irresponsibility.
Fuck you for being the reason BDs “Through the yrs” recordings use 89 as the ONE YEAR they play Semis instead of Game Night cuz you are such an embarrassment.
And now…fuck you for jacking 800 boxes of ziti from a couple w/ a divorce in-process.
JUST….FUCK YOU DUDE.

Mr Halpern, you’ve qualified for the official Tapper7.com shit-list and it’s accompanied to-do list: ($1 to Greg Hughes and Jim Norton)
-STEP ONE: Get AIDs
-STEP TWO: Die.
-STEP THREE: There is no step 3, rpt 1 until you get it then move on to step 2.

In fairness to BD; let us not act like the Red Team is w/o it’s regrettable alumni-list.
Semi’s night-ballad is posted below in all fairness to the staff and members who are NOT Daniel Halpern, Attorney-at-Law (ret.) Don’t count his bs alongside the eloquent beauty of arrangements by Wayne Downey and Tom Float, nor against striking performances by the Meehan Bros., and the Left-Coast Drum Corps Family as a whole…we have bad eggs, but our good eggs BURY the four I KNOW turned rotten. So Halpern is on blast….(Tapper muses to himself) Do I out the SCV alum who almost beat his wife to death or the kid-toucher? OR the alleged (*sigh*…also SCV alum) rapist? maybe after the holidays.
“IF WE WERE IN LOVE” FRIDAY, August…1989: enjoy and forget the bs… just crank it.

Posted on June 6, 2014June 6, 2014
Forget the judges and the scores, just bring everything you got….

Reasons to NOT CARE about numbers that band directors in green shirts mark on a score sheet. Ever.

http://www.corpsreps.com/scores.cfm?view=scoreshow&showid=1997128

From getting 10 pointed out of the gate to tie ballgame and corpsreps.com still lists The Blue Devils as having “won” this show:

Q’s

You can also view the PBS broadcast (or order it thru dci.org) to see who “Reliable Rondo” picked to win….(Hint – it wasnt BD or Garfield)

Just remember dear reader, the real “score” is the emotion you can put into the audiences heart – from your heart.

Numbers are just that and nothing more….Numbers. Myron, Dean and Jdub taught me how to forget about the noise and just do my job, do it well and to keep artistic and physical momentum accelerating until the LAST SHOW (Finals) is done and we did that thx to them and many others like them that came before, during and after that year.

Everytime you troop the line…and you know that not only yourself, but 120 brothers and sisters gave it their all? – No one phoned it in. One collective consciousness sending love out to 50,000 fans? That’s a win. No more no less – just EVERYTHING. Take your entire world and just give it away. That is the best feeling in the world.

Much love Xmas tree…I can’t wait…so grateful that both sides are coming through SoCal…and the Xmen too.

Posts navigation

Page 1 Page 2 Next page