DAYS OFF TO PICK UP PAOLA IN PHILADELPHIA

My friend Paola at Philadelphia 30th Station

I took two days off from tour to hook up with my friend Lisa in Wilmington. And my Jubal buddies Luigi & Trinet and their son were staying there too.
They all came and pick me up in Downingtown this morning. Unfortunately my laptop showed some major errors and I can' seem to start it up any more. Oh well... there's probably some wizzkid in the corps that can figure out what's wrong with it.

After going by lisa's house, I dropped Lisa off in Moorestown, since she was performing with her Wind Symhony tonight. To make the day even more hectic... I drove to Philadelphia to pick up my friend Paola from Italy at the station.
Back to Moorestown to get Lisa and some of her drums. Fortunately her fellow musicians helped her out by taking some of her drums home, so we had more room in the car.

We got to Lisa's at about 11PM. Had a couple of Samuel Adams (my favourite beer!) and I'll crash on the couch pretty soon. All beds are taken with this full house.

Enjoy,

HK

IT'S NOT WHAT YOU KNOW, BUT WHO YOU KNOW...

in Dutch we have a similar expression/saying: "Het maakt niet uit wie je bent maar wie je kent!" And it just proved that this is so very true!
I think it's thanks to my many trips to the States & DCI and the many people I have met over the years that I am now actually in the back seat of a car on my way to Philadelphia... to Downingtown to be precise.

It took ONE phone call after I had found out the Mandarins drum & bugle corps were driving to Pennsylvania after last night's show in Centerville Ohio (about 10 hours from Philadelphia).

I contacted Ray Mar, corps director for the Mandarins, whom I have seen and talked to at many shows already this season, since Mandarins and BD are doing just about the same tour. I have known Ray for maybe 15 years now. In fact I got to know him through his son Greg, who taught the color guard and visual when I first met him many years ago.

I dropped my problem with Ray, said I was willing to ride any kind of vehicle. I didn't care...
I just didn't want to miss my appointments in Philadelphia and Delaware!

He had a little issue since his corps had a lot of sick kids over the last few weeks. They are still not all fully recovered. They keep all the sick kids and those that had had the flue together on one bus and sort of quarantize them. That means that the other two buses are very full. Manarins field 118 members this season.
Ray first didn't know where to put me, so I was going to see him at the show. I packed some luggage (I'm only going to be away for 2 days) and the presents I had brought for Lisa, and got a ride on the Cheeseball to the stadium.

I was introduced to Harold and Howie, who are both drivers in the SUV I'm currently in It's about 2AM right now. It pulls a little trailer with instruments.

I feel like the luckiest guy in the world right now! I get to do everything tomorrow and Friday as originally planned! That's great!

It's a ten hour drive to the Philadelphia area. We talked quite a bit the first stretch of the route. Howie is the talker of the two. I explained a lot about Jubal and drumcorps in Europe. We also chatted about work and the world's economy and a whole lot of other stuff.

Just heard one of the Mandarins' corps buses broke down at about 1AM. One of the axels broke. So they will be getting to Downingtown a lot later than we will.
I think I will take nap in a little bit. I'm pooped.

Enjoy,

HK

HOUSING SITES CANCELLED

We have a problem! WE recently heard that the housing site Blue Devils had blocked for DCI Championships in Indianapolis has "thrown us out". It was the same school we stayed at last summer, and when DCI had its regionals in the RCA Dome: Ben Davis High School.
They Blue Devils and Ben Davis HS have had a long relationships. Several BD instructors teach at Ben Davis too. Wayne Downey write their brass charts.

That all didn't help securing the facilities. Now,.. I don't know exactly what happened here, but these situations are usually the result of decisions made by the sports coaches, who need the gyms and the fields, especially since school is starting pretty soon.

With another week to go before we actually have to be in Indianapolis for the first events, you can imagine people are getting pretty nervous around here. And honestly,.. I don't know what's going to happen.

I know the corps is too important for DCI to let this happen, so I assume they will jump in. I know that just about all Open Class corps are on their own as far as arranging housing. DCI primarily coordinates the housing for World Class.

The other problem we have is that yesterday we heard that the housingsite (which is where we were originally going after tonight's show) for Thursday and Friday is out too. We were going to stay at Reading High School, but that fell through as well.

Cancelling a site one day before arrival is unacceptable, but hey.. that's what happens, even to top-corps such as Blue Devils and the Cadets.
Now normally I wouldn't worry too much about where we're staying for a show, but this news really screwed up my plans as well.

I suggested to Pete Emmons (corps manager) that I was willing to contact some of the people I know in the Reading/Allentown area from the year I marched Reading Buccaneers, but there was no need for that for there were people on it already.
This morning still no news on a possible ralternative housing site. I suggested he'd contact Al Moffat with Zildjian. He helped me find housing for Jubal in 2006 at a military academy near Allentown.

I am now figuring out what to do tomorrow, because right now it looks like we're coming back here to Bellbrook Ohio tonight after the show and spend another day here tomorrow and then go to Allentown on Friday. So it looks like I'm screwed.

My long-time friend Lisa from Wilmington (I lived with her when I marched there in 1987) was originally going to pick me up at the Reading High School tomorrow morning; some other Jubal friends are staying over at her place too tomorrow night. Then early eveing tomorrow I am to pick up another friend - Paola - in Philadelphia. She's flying in from Italy and will spend a year in the States for work & study. In Italy she marches in the Truggio Marching band. Since she has never seen a drumcorps show before - beside the Blue Devils in Italy in 2005 - I suggested she'd come to the Allentown show.

Well,.. I gotta run... am going to try and find someone that can give me a ride. I already put a request on Facebook. Bluecoats are going to Pittsburg from here tonight, so that won't work. The Academy perhaps!

And it's going to rain pretty soon. NOT GOOD!!


Enjoy,

HK

PICS OF ERIK @ CROWN

Here's some photos I took of Erik at the show in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta last Saturday:







Enjoy,

HK

SMALL SHOW IN SEVIERVILLE

Last night we were in Sevierville Tennessee. Glassmen were there too, so I hung out at their warm-up a little bit. Some of that stuff they played didn't sound all that much better to me than our own jubal warm-ups back home.

After the show I went to see Marcel and his tuba-friends at their buses. We'll see them again on Friday in Allentown.

Here's some shots of Marcel:







Just like last year I shot the Blue Devils show from the back sideline, which gives you whole different perspective. First of all you get a lot better shots of the chair action and poses. And the crowd in the background gives it a neat extra touch.



There were only 6 corps at the show. I only go to see the last three.
Blue Stars were back in action. They had pulled out of a show the night before, aso because of illness of some of their members. This years seems to be a lot worse compared to previous years as far as this sickness is concerned. Mandarins still didn't have everyone back on the field.

Glassmen's tour director Rod Owens told me he had NEVER pulled his corps out of a show before. If Glassmen had marched that show they withdrew from, they would have ad 15 holes.
Erik told me Carolina Crown would have had over 30 holes in the show if they had gone out the show they missed.

In Blue Devils there are three kids ill right now. They're all staying in another area (room) at the school. Several members have made a trip to the hospital over the last weeks. Lots of anti-biotic pills are being used right now.

Enjoy,

HK

DEVILS FOOD

"DEVILS FOOD" is the name used for the food truck. In fact all Blue Devils vehicles have names. I posted about that last summer.

Here's a photo of the food-crew we have on board right now. Mel and Kathleen were here with us until San Antonio. Yvonne joined us in San Antonio and Annette have joined us in Atlanta. Joining me in the photo from left to right: Annette Zackey, Gail Marie Wright, Carol Vargas (head chef), Marianne Emmons and Yvonne Moss.

Great working with these people. It's not always all that well-coordinated, but we definitely put some great meals out for the members!

Enjoy,

HK

AIRCARD

Brandon Zackey (center, standing) - official photo for Vic Firth advertising

Maybe I should have found one of these for this tour, giving me access to the internet down the road. But even the prepaid version that can do 2GB of data seems to be quite expensive, so I'll just go with whatever Wifi signal I can pick up at schools or stadiums.

Yesterday Annette Zackey joined our food crew and she lets me use her blackberry hook up for the internet, so I can update more easily than before. Annette was here also last year. Her son Brandon is marching with the corps. He's a tenor player in the drumline.

So we also have more help in the kitchen this week, with booster club vice president Yvonne back on board and Annette.

I sometimes gets a bit too crowded in the aisle. Yesterday's lunch we did was a HIT!
Taco bake casserole, with layers of tortilla chips, cheese and a mixture of ground beef/kidney beans/tomato paste/and a lot of spices. Then in the over for a good hour. Excellent result. And to be honest.... we could have made another big pan, for we ran out! I can't believe they went through three and a half big pans in half an hour.

Last night we made spaghetti and garlic bread. I had already made the garlic butter in the afternoon so it could sit for a couple of hours and have the flavours & ingredients blend well.

Enjoy,

HK

MIDNIGHT CALL

I missed a call the other day. Now some people can call me ANY time of day, and they know it, but I had left my phone on the bus and didn't bring it with me unfortunately. No message on the voice mail either.
But a text message popped up on my screen... Text messages are always good! With the time difference a text message would be easier too, AND cheaper! If you don't carry your phone around, the message will be waiting for me when you wake up in the morning, or in this case when I get back to the bus.

Doing all this travelling from state to state, I sometimes don't realize what time zone we're in and what the difference is with the Netherlands. Right now we're on Eastern time, so that means a difference of 6 hours. I wouldn't want to wake anybody up in the middle of the night back home, and I don't think my fellow passengers here would enjoy my phone ringing at 3AM either.

Enjoy,

HK

A CROWD OF OVER 12000 IN THE GEORGIA DOME IN ATLANTA

Another fantastic event today! Too bad I only just walked into the Dome when the Glassmen were marching off the field. That's too bad! I did get to see the rest of the evening's performances. The show had started at 4PM, but there was no way I was going to make that, especially not with all the cooking still going on at Devils!
At the food truck I had put together 5 dinnerboxes for Promo (the people at the souvie table). I had expected some trouble at the gate of the dome for bringing in food, but the third guy I talked to let me in.
At one of the gates I ran into Jim Peterson. I marched with him in Reading Buccaneers back in 1987. So much fun seeing people back I haven't seen in so many years! I wonder who else I'm going to run into these upcoming weeks...
My friend Els from Belgium flew into Atlanta today as well. She will be volunteering with Bluecoats. She marches Calypso back in Belgium and used to march Beatrix for a number of years too. And all the way at the end of the evening Erik looked me up. The members of Carolina Crown who fell ill the other week are pretty much all back on the field. That's great! I was able to locate Erik in their show a lot more than in San Antonio, so I managed to take some great shots of him in action!
This dome is a cool place. For drumcorps it's not all that fantastic especially from a musical point. We know from experience that playing in a dome can be quite strange. It's great for the crowd! The stands go up very high. And when it rains you'll stay dry. Well,... not always. In 2006 when we performed here there was a major thunderstorm outside and part of the roof collapsed, so some of us got drenched alright!
Blue Devils swept this show tonight. BIG TIME!
The lead over Cavaliers is a strong 1.8 points, but that doesn't say all that much. We all remember what happened last season! 95.25 points is pretty darn high with another two weeks ahead of us!
Cavaliers placed second with a score of 93.45 points, then Carolina Crown (who had even be beaten by SCV last night..) took third with 92.60 points and upset the Holy Name Cadets who had to settle for fourth place with a score of....
It's all very close!! Should be exciting weeks coming up!

Enjoy,

HK

TWO WEEKS

I can't believe it has already been two weeks since I arrived. Time certainly goes by fast when you're having a good time. A good time?? An EXCELLENT time!
This is an outstanding group to tour and work with. You won't believe how laid-back this whole organization is.
Where most corps get up early in the morning to hit the field and practice... these guys get to sleep in until noon a lot and then have a brunch, practice until 5PM, have dinner and get ready to go to the show. All very relaxed.
I remember we stayed at the same school with Cadets on our Jubal USA Tour in St Peters. I think we got there at about 4 AM (some might remember they had us get off the bus somewhere else first, taking everything off the buses and never responded to any calls, and then had us drive straight to the show-site) and cadets got in about 6:30AM.
Well, they were up and running around the field by 9 o'clock that morning.
Today we goto to Alpharetta at about 6:30. And brunch wasn't served until 12, so we had plenty of time to wake up and get the grill and the ovens going.
We're coming back here tonight and will have rehearsal here all day tomorow.
Today I spent pretty much all day in the kitchen. There is one other person - Annette - coming in today, so we can now start working in shifts. Annette was here lqst year as well. Her son is marching (tenors) and aging out this summer.
This morning we made breakfast pizza again. They're always a great hit.
For dinner - after the 4 1/2 block of rehearsal - we had made Philly Chesse steak sandwiches, a pasta salad, cucumbers in vinegar & sugar (remember, Ingrid??) and potato salad.
I'm now in the equipment truck with driver Bill Seeley. who has driven for the corps many years. His two daughters Debby and Kirsty used to march in the corps' color guard. Bill lives in Hawaii. Not bad!! I have to go there some day and visit. He says he wants to swop houses and he's come and visit the Netherlands. I think I could do that..
Unfortunately I will most likely miss Glassmen's performance tonight. But hey... the next three shows they will be there as well, so plenty of opportunities to get Marcel in the pictures.
Catch ya later!

Enjoy,

HK

MURFREESBORO JUST DONE

Tonight was the show in Murfreesboro. Jubal has some very good memories of this show, since this was the first show in the USA we performed at in exhibition back in 2002. Excellent venue! Great light!
And tonight... fabulous performances!

cadets were closing the gap the other night, but tonight Blue Devils easily topped the show again,... still going undefeated.

1st place - 93,20 - Blue Devils
2nd place - 91,65 - Holy Name Cadets
3rd place - 87,00 - Bluecoats
4th place - 86,05 - Phantom Regiment

Enjoy,

HK

PAIN RELIEF

This one is for Ingrid... There's a major need of PAIN RELIEF at Devils Food right now. Please send pills or whatever you think might work. Both Gail, Carol and I need some really badly. HEADACHE ARRIVED!

Enjoy,
HK

FOOD ORDER

Speaking of food... Every week (usually Friday or thursday morning) a truck pulls up next to ours. It's the food delivery! After we have made the menus for the next week we make a list of all the food we think we'll need. Then on Mondays the order is usually called in by Sheryl and additions of whatever we can think of we might need also can be made to the list on Tuesdays. You won't believe how much stuff comes out of that delivery truck.

Every week I am surprised at where we can put everything on Devils Food (the name foor the food truck). I am always afraid we just don't have enough room for all of it. Last week was a lot of stuff,.. this week certainly beat it. The truck was waiting for us when we arrived (eventhough they were told to come after 9AM), so it was straight to work,... no time for a little breakfast.

I don't remember the whole list of products that came in, but here is a reasonable overview of what we managed to stack away in our truck:
6 boxes of styrofoam cups (1000 in each box), 7 boxes of styrofoam plates (500 in each box), 5 boxes of bowls for fruit and pudding (1000 in each box), 6000 knives, forks and spoons, 100 pounds of ground beef, 50 pounds of bacon, 50 pounds of meatballs, 50 pounds of Philly Beef, 600 corn dogs, 6 boxes of beef patties (about 450 burgers), same for the chicken patties, 16 cases of canned fruit (6 #10 cans in each case), same amount of canned vegetables (beans, peas, corn), refried beans, 18 cans of pudding, 3 cases of egg in a bag, a case of fresh cucumbers, a case of bananas, a case of lettuce heads, a case of tomatoes, 150 pounds of potatoes, a case of ketchup, 8 gallons of Salsa sauce, several cases of spaghetti sauce, enchilada sauce, several big boxes with 2lbs bags of tortilla & nacho chips and Frito-Lay chips, frozen orange juice, 50 pounds of mixed frozen vegetables,...

I think I could go on for another while...
Well,.. with 4 meals a day, these corps go through an awful lot of food!

Enjoy,

HK

HATTIESBURG, MISSISSIPPI

Happy Birthday DAD !!!

I haven't got a clue what time we got here this morning. I hardly ever wake up when we get to our destination. Breakfast was biscuits & Gravy (YUCK!) All of the mere love it. I don't think this would go so well when we take Jubal to the States. There's a lot of food we would eat, but this just wouldn't be our thing I guess!
The corps did a SYSTEM BLUE CLINIC today.

They have organized a series of three of these clinics throughout this year's tour. I attended the previous one in Tulsa (Oklahoma) briefly. It's pretty much an inside look at what Blue Devils is all about. Pat Seidling is brought in to coordinate the event and introduce the staff people, tell the attendees a little bit of background of the corps and gets to give away some free stuff such as caps, lanyards and drum sticks. Most attendees at the clinic are marching band students from regional high schools or college bands. All of them join the rehearsal segment of the section they like best for warm-ups and secional rehearsal. Some of the drummers even got to play in the lines. Today there were about 110 students present.

After sectional time everyone got together in the stadium for ensemble rehearsal and runthrough. It's all more like an open house rehearsal, where staff explain about how the corps works, whay they do and why they do it, where the members are from (there's only one member from the state of Mississippi in the corps). Some of the students got to run around in the field and get an up-close look at "their" line. The instructor stayed close to them to make sure they wouldn't get hit.

Getting an inside look at this organization is very interesting for the students. About half of them had never even seen a drumcorps perform or rehearse before at all. I got to see some runs of segments of the show that I hadn' seen before.
Fortunately we didn't have to feed these students this time like we had done in Tulsa. I think only at the show and clinic in Buffalo we're feeding them hotdogs and salads again.

The evening's show was very well attended for a show in this part of the country.
Last week Carolina Crown was struck with some virus in the corps and had to pull out of a show. Tonight both Mandarins and the Glassmen had to pull out. I text messaged to Marcel, but he's doing fine. It was mainly members from the brassbus and he's on the color guard bus (I wonder why...). Glassmen haven't had much time for visual rehearsal since San Antonio.

Other corps at the show were Boston Crusaders (they have a color guard to check out!!), Bluecoats (I think I know their show now,.. I have pretty much seen them at EVERY show so far), The Academy, the Crossmen (who have a long way to go, but are quite entertaining, Phantom Regiment (the defending World Champions (now struggling around seventh place), the Holy Name Cadets (I must admit,.. they're playing my favourite music: Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story), and of course the Blue Devils.
Scores went up again. BD are at 92.95 right now, Holy Name Cadets at 91.3 points. Still a decent lead! We're heading out to Antioch, Tennessee tonight. It's going to be a loooooooooooong drive of well over 420 miles!

Tomorrow morning we'll have another food order coming in. That should be fun! I will try and video-tape some of that so you get an idea. It's probably going to be about $ 5000 worth of stuff, which will have to get us through the next week!


Enjoy,

HK

WE'RE IN LOUISIANA

You'd think it'd be incredibly hot out here, but the weather wasn't all that bad. Especially not today! In fact... we had a few serious showers and storm blazing over the town of Monroe. This could have been our first "rain-out" show of the season. So far we've been very lucky with the weather at the shows. Corps in the Midwest and on the East Coast have had a few rain out events already. Even the major event in Orlando rained out!

We're staying at the actual showsite, so that's very convenient. Plenty of time after dinner for he members to relax. Yesterday the corps rehearsed in the big stadium where the show was going to be held. It's amazing to see what some of these school facilities are like! In fact... the gym they got to sleep in was impressive too! A giant round arena for basketball games! WOW! During the rain the color guard did their ensemble rehearsal in there. NICE!

The stadium itself is huge too! Blue Devils usually have the priviledge of rehearsing in the best facilities. Just a couple of days ago in Dallas (Little Elm to be precise) they had access to one of the nicest venues there!
Tonight's show was another good one fortunately. Scores went up again. Justs like last year they're staying well ahead of everybody else. A solid first place... but that's what we all thought in 2008 as well!

We're leaving Monroe pretty soon. We've just loaded the food truck and I have little time to finish this update. No time to go back inside to post it. Sorry! Will have to wait until tomorrow! Don't even have time to check on spelling mistakes...
Sylvia - who teaches the Jubal color guard - stopped by the food truck shortly after dinner and was going to check out BD's color guard warm-up.

At the show I saw Thomas and Demphy with Academy, Maarten with Madison Schouts and David with Bluecoats again. All four are from Belgium. And of course Anniek in Bluecoats color guard.

Enjoy,

HK

LIVE FROM SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

Yesterday I had a chat with Erik & Marcel about their tour so far and other stuff. It pretty much turned into a silly conversation about... eh... nothing really.

Enjoy,

HK

HOOTERS !!!!

Today was a free day for the corps in San Antonio. And what a great time I had!! I skipped laundry this morning. I think have enough shirts & shorts for the next week.. In fact I skipped breakfast too. I only woke up shortly before eleven this morning. (I knew that was going to happen, because we only went to bed at about 4:30 this morning) I showered really quick and took the trolley bus into town. Spent some time walking the riverwalk. Very nice actually! But this being the third year on a free day in San Antonio,... Yep... I've seen most of it!
I remember the 2007 season really well, cruising the city with Kotaro, the waterboy for the corps back then,m who was from Japan. A great kid!! He was trying out for the corps' snareline the next year, but unfortunately never made it. I wonder what he's up to these days.
So mid-afternoon I met Erik and Marcel. Glassmen had had another 4 hour rehearsal block that morning, and Crown went for laundry and a stop at Wal-Mart first.
After checking websites and updating weblogs via a wifi signal at the foodcourt, we walked round a bit,.. I did a little video interview with both of them (will try to post the result here,... as expected it's a bunch of crap about NOTHING!)
Then I took the guys out for dinner... at HOOTERS!!!
No beer for Marcel unfortunately. Erik was fine... he had signed a contract with the corps that he could drink on a free day. A pitcher of Coors lite would do.
They insisted on having a picture taken with some of the waitresses. OK... I didn't object to that!

Enjoy,

HK

EGG IN A BAG

I love scrambled eggs!! The only disadvantage... It's a pain in the "you know what" to crack dozens of eggs for so many people! A great invention is "egg in a bag". I think we have something similar in (milk)cartons back home in the Netherlands, but I never really see them at supermarkets anywhere.
This egg in a bag is great. Saves a lot of time! Just pour it onto the grill and go! Easy as can be.
Just like hash browns. That's another thing on the breakfast menu I like a lot. They come in big 1 gallon cartons. You fill the carton with water and store it in the fridge the night before you're going to use them. The potato soaks it all up overnight.

Enjoy,

Hans

JUBAL MEMBERS IN DCI

Two of my friends are marching DCI this summer.
Marcel van Zanten, who is also in our Carnaval band DE RAMMEN, is playing tuba with Glassmen.






Erik van Doorn is playing baritone with Carolina Crown.






Enjoy,

HK

After an interesting busride last night, with a flat tyre on one of the member buses, we got to San Antonio later than planned. Breakfast as scheduled: pancakes, bacon and the stuff such as cereals that goes out on the tables every morning.

Shortly after breakfast I started working on dinner which was MEAT LOAF. That's a pretty easy one! Just mix ground beef with a bunch of spices, chopped onions and shredded carrots, then make nice rolls again in a big pan for the oven, and cook it for about two hours. I started early because I wanted to go to the Alamodome early to see Glassmen. Carolina

Crown wasn't on until shortly before Blue Devils anyway, so I wouldn't miss those.
Just like last year I took public transportation to go to the dome. Easy going!
I got to the dome right on time, for Glassmen were next. Cool show! Marcel is doing a great job. Lost a couple of lbs too!! I got to chat to him briefly after the show, but we will meet again (together with Erik) tomorrow on their free day in San Antonio.

Erik was on much later. Carolina Crown has really made their way up to the top these last few years. Very unusual to see a lot of green in the uniforms. Especially the plumes on the shakos. i don't think I've ever seen those before. The color guard is all green too. Some interesting outfits. All different. I couldn't figure out why some looked like Tinkerbell.

Handed Erik the chocolate his brother asked me to give him. Hope it didn't melt.
What a great show Carolina Crown is putting on the field! WOW!
They came in fourth tonight.

Enjoy,

HK

ANOTHER FRIEND I HAVEN'T SEEN IN MAYBE 15 YEARS STOPPED BY !

Wow... it's almost as if this tour is turning into sort of a reunion. First Megan from Beverly Massachusetts, then Charles Kendrick with his wife yesterday, and guess what...
We travelled to San Antonio last night for the big regional today - we're flipping the pancakes on the grill and there's someone on the stairs of the food truck peeking in... and he looks REALLY FAMILIAR.

I couldn't believe it, but it was one of my best friends back in 1987 (yes,.. nineteen eighty-seven!) when we marched Reading Buccaneers together: Don Morabito.
I had only recently found him on Facebook among some other Buccaneers alumni members. I haven't seen this guy since,.... shit I don't know how long!

He marched Suncoast Sound color guard shortly afterwards- if not the year after we both marched Bucs - and I got to see him at DCI in orlando. He almost talked me into taking those seagulls the guard was using in the show that year back to The Netherlands. Then, a couple of years my phone back homes rings,.. and he's at the Dordrecht airport! Only spent a day then.
What a pleasant surprise. He was in town for some sort of convention, looked at Ticketmaster to see if there was a musical or game going on, and found out DCI was in town. he had read on Facebook I was touring with BD, so looked up where we were staying. Too bad his flight back to Pennsylvania is later today, otherwise we could have spent some time and hung oiut downtown San Antonio tomorrow, since it will be our day off! Don lives in West Chester now. There's a dci show there on July 30, but we're not in it. I might just end up there with Lisa. we'll see what happens.
So far from home, but accidentally so close... I like it!
I wonder who will be next.

Enjoy,
HK

BEAUTIFUL SKY IN CYPRESS, TEXAS!

It almost looked like we were going to have some serious lightning tonight, but fortunately that never happened.
The result of threatening weather was a most spectacular sky during the Colts' show!

Enjoy,

HK

MEETING MORE FRIENDS
Another surprise today. Charles Kendrick and his wife stopped by today as well. I had expected to see him yesterday, since he lives in Dallas. Charles is a great guy. I think I first met him on tour back in 2004. He builds maquettes (model buildings). Check www.charleskendrick.com !
And he is a talented photographer too! He used to come to shows in the Dallas area and shot great pictures of the corps. Just like last year he stopped by Starbucks and broought delicious frappuccinos for all of us. I had something strawberry. Excellent! I think he is staying for the show tonight.
The band director Damon let me use his computer to add a new update. That was nice! Unfortunately this school didn't have wifi. And if it did, the blogs and gmail would be blocked just like at other schools.
It almost looked like rain whe rehearsal was over and the members came back to the school for dinner. We made about 400 hamburgers on the grill. Gail was the head griller today. I took care of two other cakes: white cake/peach and chocolate/almonds/marshmallow. The marshmallow gave a great effect to the cake. Tonight before snack I will decorate it. It's one of the tuba's birthday today. I'm looking at making fondant for some of the cakes in the next three weeks. That would give the cakes a different look. I can add some more colour too then. I'll try to put this year's show logo on one of the cakes, but that's going to be a difficult one!
We just got to the stadium. Corps are getting ready for their warm ups. Megan just brought me a little present: A CASE OF MY FAVOURITE BEER! Thanks megan!! Let's see if there's a wifi signal there.
Enjoy,

HK

FRIENDS FROM A LOOOOOOOOONG TIME AGO

What a surprise to hear that this girl I have known since she was about four years old I think lives right around the corner in this town we're staying at.
Megan was already spinning a flag and sabre at the age of two I guess. Good seeing her back.
Last time I saw her she was marching Cadets. She's very good friends with the Bibeault family,.... some of my favourite Americans!

Megan and her boyfriend Jay stopped by at rehearsal today. Jay is teaching the high school band here. They'll bring me some BEER tonight!! YEAH !

Enjoy,

HK

HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM

I've always wanted to say that but it just never made sense.
\We've been joking with this expression, but now it's reality! We arrived in Houston this morning, and when I got up I heard the bad news that the food truck is NOT here.

So YES,.. we HAVE a problem! Apparently it broke down somewhere between Dallas and here, or at least the fridge unite quit and it in for repairs somewhere.A run to Wal-Mart is in proress already since the corps is getting up in an hour to have breakfast. So cereals and milk and things are being bought as we speak in order to get the corps going and have them ready for rehearsal. We'll see what happens for the other meals today.

I already heard a rumour there will be pizza tonight! I bet the kids would love that.I was just talking to the band director here at the school. His band is 300+ members this season. The school is only 4 years old, and his band grew from 70 to 300. I am so jealous of themusic programmes that American high schools have! Here they have an extended music programme including a marching band, two jazz band, two concert bands, a full orchestra and a couple of choirs. One of the assistent instructors came and joined in our conversation and once again it turned out drumcorps is a VERY SMALL WORLD!

This guy - Jonathan marched Madison Scouts (baritone/euphonium) from 2000 to 2005. So I said "You must know some of our Jubal members then". "Oh... You know Robin", he said?

But the bigger surprise came when I introduced myself and he said: "Oh YOU'RE Hans!" He had heard all about me from a friend of his - Megan Horne - that I have known since she was a little girl. Her dad and I were in the same corps together way back in 1984 when I marched my first season of DCA with the Rhode Island Matadors. Apparently she moved to Houston some time ago and lives with her boyfriend now.

They have just returned from a trip to England and Scotland. Unfortunately they couldn't include a short stay in The Netherlands. That would have been nice! Jonathan called them immediately on the phone to tell them I was here. They will stop by at rehearsal some time today. It will be great seeing her again. Last time I saw her was a few years ago, when she marched Cadets.

I haven't seen her dad Greg for a long time! I think I should plan a trip to the Boston/Providence area some time soon.

Enjoy,

HK

INTERESTING SCORES IN HOUSTON

While Bluecoats were still on the field doing their show, announcer Dan Potter called me over to show me the scores of tonight's show in Houston. Those corps are going to be here tomorrow, and all corps that competed here in Dallas are going to perform in Houston tomorrow.
But what a surprise there in Houston tonight!
Not only did the Holy Name Cadets beat Carolina Crown and take first place,.. BUT guess who came in third place!!
BLUE STARS!!
The beat Phantom Regiment, who ended up in fourth position.
I bet you it's going to be exciting in San Antonio when all corps will be in the show together for the first time this season!

Devils won this show in Dallas tonight and is the first corps to break the score of 90 points! GREAT JOB!

DALLAS SCORES

1 Blue Devils 90.700
2 The Cavaliers 88.950
3 Santa Clara Vanguard 86.350
4 Bluecoats 85.450
5 Blue Knights 81.200
6 Colts 77.700
7 Troopers 77.450
8 Madison Scouts 75.200
9 The Academy 75.150
10 Pioneer 70.150
11 Cascades 67.850

HOUSTON SCORES

1 Holy Name Cadets 88.600
2 Carolina Crown 88.050
3 Blue Stars 83.250
4 Phantom Regiment 83.050
5 Boston Crusaders 82.750
6 Glassmen 81.200
7 Spirit 75.050
8 Crossmen 74.250
9 Pacific Crest 71.750
10 Mandarins 70.100

Enjoy,

HK

GOING TO DALLAS

July 16,.... Happy Birthday, bro!!!

Well,.. I should admit.. I had a float as well last night, but NOT with root beer. I hate that stuff! I took one with orange soda. Tasted pretty good actually. The soda makes the ice cream foamy. Lights were out at 11PM last night, so that meant getting up early this morning fix breakfast.

Devils Food (the nickname for the food-crew) usually gets up an hour and a half to two hours before the corps does to get brekfast or brunch ready in time before the corps gets out of bed. Quite a variety of food on the table this morning. Hash browns, scrambled egg, fried ham, breakfast pizza (from the other day), home fries, and PB&J sandwiches, but they're out at every meal. There are always members who don't really like what we serve.

I finally got to work on the band director's computer some time today and was able to check my email and look at some websites. Unfortunately Facebook, MSN and weblogs are blocked, so I still couldn't post a new message. Perhaps at the stadium in Dallas tonight.

I read that some good friends of mine had a baby girl yesterday. CONGRATS Jasper & Vera!!! On the Jubal website I read that the corps officially announced our scheduled trip to the States in 2011 too now. Perhaps I was a bit too enthusiastic when I already posted something here the other day.

Spaghetti tonight was pretty darn good and tasty! We're on our way to Dallas now for the show. It's about an hour's drive. Two more shows after this before our free day and laundry. I think I'll just dod my laundry at one of the schools and go downtown San Antonio early to enjoy the whole day off. I am hoping to see my buddies Erik and Marcel and hear all about their experiences with Carolina Crown and Glassmen respectively. I am sure they're having the time of their lives.

Erik already marched two seasons with Glassmen and has now been winning all shows so far on the East Coast. They beat the Holy Name Cadets with quite a margin last night. Good for them! Marcel is in his rookie year with Glassmen's tuba section. The corps is having a good season as well.Too bad we can't go to a bar together this Sunday. I bet they miss being on the road with Jubal, where you can't miss finding six-packs of Jupiler in the buses.

Sheryl went to the post office today and picked up some stamps for me. Every other couple of shows the corps has a mail stop. Lots of parents and friends send stuff to the members. Cookies are among the kids' favourites. The cafetaria floor is usually full of packages and boxes. This year with the financial crisis hitting the country pretty bad, it's noticable there is not as much mail as in previous years.

Enjoy,

HK

BLOODY HOT IN TEXAS

We got to Little Elm in Texas early this morning. I had fallen asleep in one of the seats up front in the bus. Before brunch I walked a few miles, and ended up at Wal-Mart. You HAVE TO go to Wal-Mart if there's one in the area. I remembered from the last two years we were here that there was one not too far away from the school.

This school - Little Elm High School - is a spectacular complex. It's amazing to see the differences between European (Dutch) high schools and some of the schools out here. The building itself is unbelievable. Great architecture! Huge hallways, a couple of gyms (for all different sports), a theatre, sports fields,... the expression goes "Everything is big in Texas"... well for this school that certainly is no lie!

As I said we were here in 2007 and 2008 as well. The band director - Frank Felice - is a very friendly guy. He always gives the corps a warm welcome. This year he even organized a shuttle service back and forth to Wal-Mart and Starbucks in the morning. Unfortunately I only found out about the shuttle until after I had already walked back.

Today's dinner was on my account: Stir-Fry Chicken teryiaki and Sweet & Sour. I am glad it was a success again this year! The "pindasaus" (peanut sauce - not common here in the States, or unknown rather!) was a big hit too. The whole parking lot smelled like garlic and soy sauce all afternoon when I was cooking.

I am pretty sure we will repeat this meal some other time these next three weeks!

The corps rehearsed at the school in the afternoon, but just went to a stadium nearby for the evening block. Unfortunately the lights at the stadium don't work, so they will be back early.

Tonight's snack is Root Beer Floats. Not my favourite,... I'll just have the icecream I guess.

Enjoy,

HK

WHAT IT TAKES TO BE SENT HOME FROM TOUR

No,.. not me... I only just got here, but the other day something unusual happened that nobody had expected. In Denver a rookie member from another (top-5) corps had gone into the Blue Devils truck and "stole" a uniform, that ended up in one of their own member buses. Of course this must have caused quite some excitement on that particular bus, but this sort of news travels fast and reached their corps director the same night.

I assume this has most likely happened before among corps, but it's not something corps brag about. Some would consider it a fun act, but in this activity or any activity I think it's a very low-class act to do such a thing.Before the show started the member showed up at our truck with his corps director and apologized to our tour manager/corps director.

He also apologized to the member whose uniform he had stolen. As a result of his dumb act he had to leave the corps and was going to be sent home from tour.

No chances for a ring for this guy!

The same thing would have happened in Blue Devils if this had been one of ours.

Enjoy,

HK

WHAT A BIT IF WIND CAN DO

I couldn't sleep all that well last night, so I went back out again at 2AM to check my mail and work on the computer a little bit, when all of a sudden at about 3 oçlock somebody was knocking on the door of The Nest (our staffbus) and shone a flashlight into the bus.

It was the security guard of the school complex. He warned that wind of 60-70 miles per hour was expected. And he was right. All three tents that are used over the food tables had laready gone up in the air and had been blown all over the place. One had ended up all the way over on the next parking lot.

I didn't nee dlong to decide and fold them together and store them underneath the food trailer. When busy with the second tent all of a sudden the wind caught the juice table - filled with about 5 big waterjugs - and blew it over. The watercoolers were rolling across the lot and obviously all that was in it was now generously finding its way on the concrete.

It was quite a surprise to the others when they woke up and thought somebody had played a joke on the corps' food truck. We made pancakes for breakfast. Plain ones, chocolate chip ones (and we switched to M&M's when we ran out of chocolate chip chuncks) and blueberry pancakes. Rebecca (color guard member who also marched in 2008) remembered I had made banana pancakes for myself last year and tried one too then. I love banana or apple pancakes, so decided to make some again.

Lunch was sandwiches,.. and believe it or not,.. that IS a lot of work to prepare. And it is one of the most expensive lunches for the corps as well.

Right after lunch we visited a little neat air & space museum located right behind the practice field. Pretty cool! They even had a replica of a space shuttle.

I watched some more of rehearsal in the afternoon and after dinner I went to the stadium and watched the second half of the evening. Enjoyed Bluecoats a lot again tonight. Mid-show the drumline and hornline take off their uniform jackets and helmets to continue the rest of the show in very cool shirts with cloud-prints, just like the guard is wearing.

Cavaliers have another show which you have to see and hear. I imagine whenever they do a standstill encore concert after a show the crowd have no clue whatsover they are playing.

Blue Devils won tonight's show as well with little over a full point difference. Staff though they didn't ddo the best job they could have done at this spoint in the season, but hey... still undefeated!It's only this coming Saturday in San Antonio that BD will go up against Carolina Crown, Phantom Regiment and the Holy Name Cadets. That will be an exciting event!

Another few minutes and we're off to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Tomorrow the corps is doing a System Blue clinic. We'll have to feed about 100 high school kids for dinner. Yikes!

Good night!

Enjoy,

HK

HUTCHINSON – KANSAS

The corps had rehearsal all day at the stadium where the contest is going to be held tomorrow. In the evening I surprisingly ran into Steve Vickers, the publisher of “Drum Corps World”, the magazine I have been writing for since 1984/1985. Apparently it shouldn't have been so much of a surprise, since Hutchinson used to bee Steve's hometown. Steve is a great guy. He runs the magazine pretty much all by himself. I enjoy providing material for his publication! Especially nowadays with the impact of the internet and the speed at which news can be spread, it's tough running a magazine about a relatively small activity.

Steve Vickers

The runtough Blue Devils did was amazing! This show is VERY entertaining!

Enjoy,


HK

WHAT THE HELL WERE THEY THINKING???

OK,.. the WMC has never been among my favourite events to play at. This year I had to miss Performing there with Jubal, since I flew to the States on Friday.

I heard the good news about the scores via text message on my phone when I was at the DCI show in Denver: Jubal had scored 1217.5 points. That's great.... I think...

Today I saw a photo on the Jubal website... what a bunch of idiots in Kerkrade!!!

The official award paper said: Jubal - from Hilversum... hahaha absolutely ridiculous.

I heard that on the jumboscreens in the stadium we had already been announced as Jubal from Dedemsvaart... but this really is the limit!

Jubal - from Hilversum... that's like hearing here over the speaker: Ladies and gentlemen, entering the field... from Concord, California.... PHANTOM REGIMENT!

Enjoy,

HK

FIRST CAKES

My first day here has been a very productive one...

After the show in Denver we left for Hutchinson (Kansas), which was about 500 some miles. You bet I slept alright!

Once up I helped out in the kitchen pretty much all day and got to see some of the ensemble rehearsal and tonight's runthrough as well. Kids were asking if they were getting dessert now I was here. i decided to make two cakes.

They hadn;t really had any dessert on tour up until now, mainly because there simply wasn't any time making them with the available three ladies on Devils Food staff.

The Chocolate/coconut turned out pretty neat, with the "1930" title of the show. The other one was an experiment: a double layer spice cake (no... not a space cake!) with strawberry preserve. I kinda liked the icing on the top!

We had meatballs & gravy on rice for dinner.

I think I will hit the sack early tonight!

Enjoy,

HK

TIRING DAY, BUT GOT TO SEE A GREAT SHOW BY BLUE DEVILS

Blue Devils color guard

It was a looooooooooooooooong day, but I got through it alright.
From my front door in Dordrecht to my arrival at the housing site Blue Devils were at took a total of 32 hours!! Some trip!!
That was quite a bit more than I had expected. Unfortunately this thunder and lightning storm over Denver sort of ruined the schedule.

I did catch some sleep on both flights and a little on the busride from Cheyenne to Denver, but not enough to match a full night’s rest (as if I ever have a full night’s rest… haha).
Then when I arrived at Denver airport I sat there for a couple of hours before they finally had a car available to pick me up.

Just like last year Toby - who drives the Cheeseball all summer – picked me up from the airport in Denver. I got to the housing site during lunchtime, so a good time to meet everyone. The welcome was great! Many members came up to me to greet me and said how happy they were to have me back on tour. That was flattering, especially since most of them mentioned food in their conversation. “We ready for some more spices and flavours” some said.

We’ll see. I know they way I cook is a bit different from what they’re used to, but I always have to go by what head-cook Carol Vargas decides. The good thing is though that she came up with the saying: “You can never use enough flea powder” (referring to garlic powder).
Some said they were looking forward to my stir fry Chicken Teriyaki and Sweet & Sour Chinese meal.

After an already tiring day I obviously didn’t want to miss the Drums Along the Rockies show at the magnificent Invesco Field stadium of the Denver Broncos. What a spectacular site.

Right before I went in to get my passes I ran into David Dewyn (from Drumspirit in Belgium), who is marching bass #5 in Bluecoats this summer, and Jort Wierema (Beatrix’) who is in Santa Clara Vanguard’s baritone section.
Only after the show I met Anniek who used to be in Jubal’s color guard in 2007 and is now marching Bluecoats color guard and doing a great job! I will have to wait until later this week to see my Jubal buddies Erik and Marcel.

I got to see quite a few shows. Madison Scouts didn’t mean much to me. They have a long way to go. Unfortunately I missed the Troopers. They have had a couple of down years, but they’re back alright.
Santa Clara Vanguard brought back good memories of their late 1980’s early 1990’s shows. Very stylish! Bluecoats has another fun show. Great drumline! Both Anniek and David are doing a fine job there!

Anniek in action with Bluecoats

Last night was the first night Blue Devils met Cavaliers in competition. Cavies have their color guard dressed as mountain climbers. Quite a different look! Very effective stuff going on in their show. I only saw it from field level though.
Blue Devils have brought back some of their old style. Very catchy tunes!! I love that!

Blue Devils

The field is full of white chairs. Neat effects! The color guard is a real eye-catcher again. They’re dressed in bright yellow. Very cool show!! Still dirty in execution though.

Devils won last night’s competition. Another week to go before we go up against Carolina Crown and the Holy Name Cadets.
Can’t wait for that!

Today we’re in Hutchinson Kansas, where we’ll have a show tomorrow night.
I had a very good night of sleep on the way over here! Only went out at the first truck stop. Apparently we made three stops, but I never wake up during the night trips.

I heard the corps haven’t had many desserts yet on tour so far, so Carol already talked to me about making some cakes.
It’s going to be a hot day! The corps can sleep in a little bit. Brunch only starts at 1 PM.

Enjoy,

HK

FINALLY IN DENVER

It took a while.... but I'm finally here. At Denver International Airport, where I should have arrived EIGHT hours ago!!! Man, what a ride this was.
We sat at the airport for a long time, and were litterally just dumped there by the Northwest Airlines staff/crew, who had to rush to their hotel to get some rest. Nobody bothered about this group of 150-160 stranded passengers. OK... they arranged buses for us to be transported to our original destination DENVER, but other than that... NOTHING!
No vouchers for a drink or a meal or anything, no voucher as a compensation for the delay... We just sat there and waited.
The three buses had plenty of room for all of us and the ride was OK. We only got here little before 5AM though!!
I decided to find a Northwest Airlines supervisor to file my complaint about the ridiculous way they had dealt with this situation. I got a voucher for future travel out of the pretty irritated way I had this conversation with him. So that's a start. He suggested I'd contact the KLM customer's service in Amsterdam for dealing further with this. I will try and get a mail out ASAP.
In the meantime I am enjoying breakfast at the airport (which happens to be very lively at this time of day!!), got my webcam installed and just talked to my colleague Jurrie on MSN.
So,.. NO I am NOT bored.
I simply don't want to wake up any Blue Devils people at this early hour yet!
I'll just wait until they're starting breakfast over there. They're not that far away from the airport. Brighton, CO is only about 15-20 miutes away.
I bet I will be taking a nap some time today before heading to the show. I think I could use a little more sleep!

Enjoy,

HK

DAMMIT !!!! ANOTHER TRAVELLING DISASTER

Well… and here the FARCE begins.
Boarding in Detroit went fine. I had plenty of time to cruise the A Terminal, and get a bite and a drink. Took another nap on the plane, took some photos and some video of the clouds, sunset and the lightning over Denver. And then passed out again.

When we hit the ground and I woke up I heard the stewardess say: “Ladies and gentlemen… Welcome to Cheyenne!”
Did I really wake up??
Yes I sure did. This was not a dream… but the beginning of some nightmare.
We ARE in CHEYENNE, WYOMING (of all places…). The smallest airport I have ever been to. Even SEPPE is bigger! Only one little conveyer belt!

Many planes took a little detour here because of the severe weather in the Denver area. We sat in the plane on the runway for about 2 hours, with three planes lined up in front of us and a couple of planes behind us.
Most planes just landed to refuel and then move on again.
Our story was different!! Quite different!

The crew had already worked too many hours today, so there was no way they were going to take us to Denver later tonight. Various options were discussed among the passengers. The captain announced that buses would be coming to pick everyone up at the Cheyenne airport and take us to Denver (a drive of a good couple of hours!), BUT the busses would take another few hours before they’d get to Cheyenne. NO buses available right away. The n they announced that the luggage would have to stay on the plane and would be taken to Denver in the morning. Many passengers didn’t like that option. The airport wasn’t fit for this kind of situation at all. Luckily we were the ONLY plane that actually stayed here. Otherwise the airport would have been a circus with so many people stranded!

So here we are… 160 people in a terminal the size of a large bathroom… Hooray for the fresh popcorn!
The bar is still open so I am enjoying my first American beer of this summer. It looks like there will coming up a few more while I’m waiting.
Hooray also for the free WIFI internet! Good way to kill the time,.. updating my weblog and my Facebook page (there’s more photos there!)
We’ll see what happens…

While I am writing here, my Jubal buddies are on the bus to Kerkrade. GOOD LUCK in competition (whatever the competition is worth for the corps…) Better news for our corps was that last night it was announced to the members that we will go on our USA TOUR in the 100th anniversary season. So 2011, and not 2012 as management had first decided. I wasn’t there when it was announced, but I am sure many many members were very happy about this. Logistically we would have gone in 2010, but not enough preparation on financing had been done, so the trip had to be postponed.

Our corps director told me last week that they had reviewed the members’ opinions from the survey that was held earlier this year after I had suggested at the annual corps meeting to make the tour an Anniversary Tour. I am convinced doors will open in the States when a corps that is celebrating its 100th anniversary is coming over!!

I’ll go for my next beer… catch ya tomorrow!

Enjoy, (but pissed!)

HK