SEEING BACK LOTS OF FRIENDS

I was surprised I already woke up at 8AM. Must be the time difference and the body clock that tells me it’s time to get out of bed… Excellent donuts for breakfast!
Angela drove me to Gary’s house where I was to spend the day, hang out at the pool, have a few drinks and go to the Walnut show in the evening.

Gary was visiting his parents for the 4th of July weekend. He’s a great guy. I had him stay over at my place last year, when he was in France for clinics. We had a blast then,.. going to Rotterdam and Amsterdam for the day. Good times!
The house has a huge pool in the back yard, so obviously we ended up in the nice & refreshing water (with a beer!).

Got dinner at some Chinese restaurant before we headed out to the DCI show in Walnut.
It was great seeing all those Blue Devils friends back again. The rumour was already out that I’d be joining tour a week early. And apparently – as they told me when they got off the bus - some got really excited when they saw me in the parking lot when their buses rolled in. How cool. Especially the vegetarians are looking forward to some special meals.

Always good to hear they are all welcoming you back here! Such great people!
What a reunion it was in Walnut. Not only a lot of members from the 2009 season were still in the corps, but so many alumni living in Southern California came to the show to see Blue Devils.
My press pass was not at the will call office, but it wasn’t any problem going to the front sideline to shoot some of the corps’ performances. Lots of familiar faces in the stadium too.

Obviously my long-time friend Al Murray was there. We had quite a chat about lots of stuff. He was just in Europe early May. Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to meet then. Glad to hear he’s doing well. The System Blue program is working well! The Blue Devils just had a three day System Blue clinic weekend in Riverside. Al told me aout the new System Blue/King brass instruments BD are using. They (John Meehan & King) have designed a whole new line of instruments, and BD are already playing on the new trumpets and mellophones. Looking forward to trying out one of the trumpets myself.
I also ran into Ed Dempsey. I used to march with him in Reading Buccaneers back in 1987! And DCI announcer Dan Potter, who always has his specific way of welcoming me. Last time he said “When I see you at DCI, I know the summer has really begun”.
This year’s version “So they let you into the country again… That’s great!”
Always good to see him, and always interested in what’s going on back in the Netherlands and with Jubal. He was all excited that we’re bringing the corps back to the States next summer, and would like to do an interview with me about that one of these days for the DCI Field Pass reports. So we need to sit down one of these days.

Fellow photographers Jeff Sallee and Chris Maher were at the show too, and my good friend Charlie Groh. What a character he is! He is a former Vietnam helicopter pilot. Wonderful guy! He was shooting for drumcorpsplanet.com.
I didn’t get to see all the corps at the show. Liked Pacific Crest, which seem to have made a lot of progress over the last few years. Academy is pretty solid too.



Santa Clara Vanguard are playing Bartok. Good to see Thomas Claassen from Oostende in the tenor line. He’s doing an excellent job! Talked to him briefly after the show.

The Blue Devils show is something else. I know I will have to see this a couple of times before actually realising what is going on on the field. Very innovative,.. very new,… very unexpected. The mirrors on the field create a great extra dimension! It almost doubles the size of the corps visually at times, and used very effectively. I will have to get used to the music too. Stan Kenton’s City of Glass is not the most accessible stuff he produced, but a very challenging repertoire to work with for the corps. Good to “La Suerto de los Tontos” back!


After the show we hung out a little bit and went to the YARD HOUSE with the entire BD staff for a few drinks. Crashed at Gary’s parents for the night.
A very good second day on US soil!

Enjoy,

HK