Sunday, September 25, 2005
Explanation
(The picures in this post are hotlinks ... meaning you have to click on them to see them full-size.)
I know that I have not posted to my blog like I did the first 6 months or so that it was up.
There are a lot of reasons for that.
The primary reason that this blog was started was to have an easy way for me to communicate to my family, as a whole, when I was in Iraq. General information for everyone in the family was posted here. It was a time saver, and an easier way to communicate as much as was possible.
The secondary reason was for me to have a place to put "my stuff". Multiple people in my life have told me that I am a pretty decent writer. Before you think something otherwise, let me just say that they might be right, but only if I have the opportunity to put what I have to say through a good proofreader and editor. My wife has been the best "filter" to run my output through since ... forever. Anything I have to say sounds better if she fine tunes it for me.
Since I returned from Iraq, the first reason has pretty much disappeared, and the second ... well, Amy hears firsthand most of what I would write, and it never gets here.
Then, there is the fact that I have been pretty busy.
Work has been pretty nuts, until recently.
Then, there is the last reason.
I/we have been having a blast!
Let me explain:
To put things in perspective, my last State-side duty station was in Lawton, OK. A town of about 100,000.
I am, currently, stationed in Bamberg, Germany. A major industrial center for this area of Germany, but it is about 2/3rds the size of Lawton. (If your car has any parts that are made by Bosch, they are, probably, manufactured a few blocks from where I am sitting at the moment.) I am in small-town, southern Germany.
All of these small towns in the region (to include Austria) have town bands or blaskapelles.
I play in one. I am a tuba/trombone player for the blaskapelle of the town of Schonnbrun.
In this area of the world, that is a big deal. My unit, the 1st Infantry Division Band, was sent to Austria, recently, to play at a fest (party) that involved the entire town of Grosse-Saint Florien because their blaskapelle was celebrating it's 150th anniversary, and getting new uniforms!
Lately, if my unit has not been playing somewhere on the weekend, the Schonnbrun blaskapelle has.
The nice thing is that, thanks to my wife, I have photos.
This first batch is from a town fest I played on September 4th in a town west of Bamberg called Kemmer.
This first picture is of all the blaskapelle's that were there for this fest. I am not visible in this picture, because my blaskapelle is about 60 yards away.
You can, just, see me playing in this "mass band" setting, a few minutes later. I'm the tall tuba player in the back.
I don't have a great command of German. No where near what I was able to do in Spanish when I was stationed in Panama. But, I have made some really good friends in the blaskapelle. At the same performance, I was able to get some good pictures of the group.
In this picture, starting in the bottom, foreground, the red hair you see is my wife, Amy. The woman next to her is the wife of Rudy Stark, the music librian and uniform keeper for the blaskapelle. Their daughter, Teresa, is the best drummer we have. Rudy is, also, next to Freddie (the other Army musician in the blaskapelle) the best euphonium player in the blaskapelle. The older gentelman that almost looks like he is looking into the camera is Herbert. He plays fluglehorn with the blaskapelle. He plays a solo version of "Amazing Grace" that is so beautiful that it will almost make you cry. The girl with the reddish hair (and the Z-shaped part in her hair) wearing the traditional Bavarian dress or dirndl is Anna. She plays trumpet. She speaks English very well. She is university student in Bamberg.I have never learned the name of the girl next to her, the one with the sunglasses on her head. She plays clarinet and sax.
This is Rudy. He runs a business like Roto-Rooter.
The way I ended up playing in this band is that the other player on my horn, euphonium, at work, Freddie Valenzuela, lives a couple of doors down from Rudy in the little town of Schonbrun. It's about a 25 mintue drive outside of Bamberg. Rudy, Freddie, and a few other people from the blaskapelle got to talking one night when Freddie was eating at the only restaurant (which is also the brewery, hotel, and convention center(BTW, that Gashaus/Braurei was founded in 1789, the year the US Consititution was ratified!)) in Schonnbrun. They told him how they were hurting for low brass players. I was looking for a good town band, and Freddie talked me into it. (He didn't have to try to hard.)
Rudy speaks less English than I speak German. But, I like to think we understand each other ... too well at times. Rudy embodies, for me, the German word "Gemuchlietkeit". There is no English equivalent. The best way to put it is that it is a combination of : good friends, good music, good food, good beer, good conversation, ... good times.
Starting with the guy grinning at the camera, that is Lothar. Lothar plays euph with the blaskapelle. He is one of the Information Systems (computer geek) for Bosch in Bamberg. He, also, has a really sweet new BMW 3-series. I drove it around Schonnbrun, once. (The B in BMW stands for Bavaria. The German state I live in. Having a BMW here is like own a Chrysler if you live in Detroit.) Next to him is Mattheus, one of the other two tuba players. The guy with the glasses in the foreground is Christoph. He plays trumpet in the blaskapelle.
Blaskapelle's are, generally, one of a town's local non-profit arts organizations. Not unlike Lawton Community Theater that Amy worked for while we were there. Christoph is the current President of the Board for the blaskapelle.
In this picture, starting at the left, you have Lothar, once again. Then, the young man that appears to be picking his nose, but is not, is another euph player in blaskapelle. The young lady with the mug of Coca Cola is Teresa, Rudy's daughter, and the best drummer in our blaskapelle.
Most blaskapelle performances are a parade followed by a performance in a fest tent at the end of the parade. These pictures were taken at a fest where we only performed at the parade. Here is a picture of the, comparatively, tiny fest tent that we ate lunch in:
I know that I have not posted to my blog like I did the first 6 months or so that it was up.
There are a lot of reasons for that.
The primary reason that this blog was started was to have an easy way for me to communicate to my family, as a whole, when I was in Iraq. General information for everyone in the family was posted here. It was a time saver, and an easier way to communicate as much as was possible.
The secondary reason was for me to have a place to put "my stuff". Multiple people in my life have told me that I am a pretty decent writer. Before you think something otherwise, let me just say that they might be right, but only if I have the opportunity to put what I have to say through a good proofreader and editor. My wife has been the best "filter" to run my output through since ... forever. Anything I have to say sounds better if she fine tunes it for me.
Since I returned from Iraq, the first reason has pretty much disappeared, and the second ... well, Amy hears firsthand most of what I would write, and it never gets here.
Then, there is the fact that I have been pretty busy.
Work has been pretty nuts, until recently.
Then, there is the last reason.
I/we have been having a blast!
Let me explain:
To put things in perspective, my last State-side duty station was in Lawton, OK. A town of about 100,000.
I am, currently, stationed in Bamberg, Germany. A major industrial center for this area of Germany, but it is about 2/3rds the size of Lawton. (If your car has any parts that are made by Bosch, they are, probably, manufactured a few blocks from where I am sitting at the moment.) I am in small-town, southern Germany.
All of these small towns in the region (to include Austria) have town bands or blaskapelles.
I play in one. I am a tuba/trombone player for the blaskapelle of the town of Schonnbrun.
In this area of the world, that is a big deal. My unit, the 1st Infantry Division Band, was sent to Austria, recently, to play at a fest (party) that involved the entire town of Grosse-Saint Florien because their blaskapelle was celebrating it's 150th anniversary, and getting new uniforms!
Lately, if my unit has not been playing somewhere on the weekend, the Schonnbrun blaskapelle has.
The nice thing is that, thanks to my wife, I have photos.
This first batch is from a town fest I played on September 4th in a town west of Bamberg called Kemmer.
This first picture is of all the blaskapelle's that were there for this fest. I am not visible in this picture, because my blaskapelle is about 60 yards away.
You can, just, see me playing in this "mass band" setting, a few minutes later. I'm the tall tuba player in the back.
I don't have a great command of German. No where near what I was able to do in Spanish when I was stationed in Panama. But, I have made some really good friends in the blaskapelle. At the same performance, I was able to get some good pictures of the group.
In this picture, starting in the bottom, foreground, the red hair you see is my wife, Amy. The woman next to her is the wife of Rudy Stark, the music librian and uniform keeper for the blaskapelle. Their daughter, Teresa, is the best drummer we have. Rudy is, also, next to Freddie (the other Army musician in the blaskapelle) the best euphonium player in the blaskapelle. The older gentelman that almost looks like he is looking into the camera is Herbert. He plays fluglehorn with the blaskapelle. He plays a solo version of "Amazing Grace" that is so beautiful that it will almost make you cry. The girl with the reddish hair (and the Z-shaped part in her hair) wearing the traditional Bavarian dress or dirndl is Anna. She plays trumpet. She speaks English very well. She is university student in Bamberg.I have never learned the name of the girl next to her, the one with the sunglasses on her head. She plays clarinet and sax.
This is Rudy. He runs a business like Roto-Rooter.
The way I ended up playing in this band is that the other player on my horn, euphonium, at work, Freddie Valenzuela, lives a couple of doors down from Rudy in the little town of Schonbrun. It's about a 25 mintue drive outside of Bamberg. Rudy, Freddie, and a few other people from the blaskapelle got to talking one night when Freddie was eating at the only restaurant (which is also the brewery, hotel, and convention center(BTW, that Gashaus/Braurei was founded in 1789, the year the US Consititution was ratified!)) in Schonnbrun. They told him how they were hurting for low brass players. I was looking for a good town band, and Freddie talked me into it. (He didn't have to try to hard.)
Rudy speaks less English than I speak German. But, I like to think we understand each other ... too well at times. Rudy embodies, for me, the German word "Gemuchlietkeit". There is no English equivalent. The best way to put it is that it is a combination of : good friends, good music, good food, good beer, good conversation, ... good times.
Starting with the guy grinning at the camera, that is Lothar. Lothar plays euph with the blaskapelle. He is one of the Information Systems (computer geek) for Bosch in Bamberg. He, also, has a really sweet new BMW 3-series. I drove it around Schonnbrun, once. (The B in BMW stands for Bavaria. The German state I live in. Having a BMW here is like own a Chrysler if you live in Detroit.) Next to him is Mattheus, one of the other two tuba players. The guy with the glasses in the foreground is Christoph. He plays trumpet in the blaskapelle.
Blaskapelle's are, generally, one of a town's local non-profit arts organizations. Not unlike Lawton Community Theater that Amy worked for while we were there. Christoph is the current President of the Board for the blaskapelle.
In this picture, starting at the left, you have Lothar, once again. Then, the young man that appears to be picking his nose, but is not, is another euph player in blaskapelle. The young lady with the mug of Coca Cola is Teresa, Rudy's daughter, and the best drummer in our blaskapelle.
Most blaskapelle performances are a parade followed by a performance in a fest tent at the end of the parade. These pictures were taken at a fest where we only performed at the parade. Here is a picture of the, comparatively, tiny fest tent that we ate lunch in:
