HK PICS in BLUE DEVILS Thank-you video/slideshow

I took thousands of photos during my tour with Blue Devils last summer. Most of them can be seen in the Mediabox on www.bluedevils.org/mediabox.

Here is a selection of my Championships photos used in the annual "Thank You" video-slide show that Blue Devils produced and posted on their website.
Always great to see your own photography work back!!

Thanks John for the credit at the end of the video!

Enjoy,
HK

ADORABLE !!

So here I am spending the last few hours in the States, ready to fly home (well... obviously I haven't packed yet..).
What an amazing trip this has been!! After touring with Blue Devils I spent this week with my relatives in Grand Rapids & Kalamazoo (Michigan).
And the best part of this week was that I was here in time for my second-cousin "Anders Matthew" to be born.
My cousin Angela had her fourth baby last Monday, and the baby is absolutely ADORABLE!!

Her other kids are the cutest ones you can imagine too. What a wonderful family!

This week has been pretty hectic and beside the relaxing part (went to the Grand Haven beach too) I've been up & running all week.
Last night we had a family dinner get-together at my aunt & uncle's house. I made my sweet & sour stir-fry. OMG... was this a lot easier than making the same dish for 180 hungry members & staff at Blue Devils!

Haven't really had (or taken) the time to upload more about DCI here. Sorry about that, but hey... I only get to see these guys in Michigan once a year (if I make it here) so I decided to enjoy that precious time with them.

My flight departs little after 4PM, from Grand Rapids airport to Chicago O'Hare. Then I have a connecting flight to London Heathrow and the last stretch from London to Schiphol. I expect getting there around 11AM tomorrow. Am hoping to go by Jubal rehearsal in the afternoon.

Enjoy,

HK

BLUE DEVILS 2010 WORLD CHAMPIONS

DCI is over.
Blue Devils were just crowned DCI World Champions, their fourteenth title.
What a great season this was, and such an incredibly creative show!



It was great to have been a part of this wonderful experience.

Enjoy,

HK

ONE OF THE BEST SEATS IN THE HOUSE

Glassmen during World Class Finals


I CANNOT COMPLAIN...

Once again I think I got one of the greatest views of the field in Lucas Oil Stadium tonight. I am joining Michael Boo (who does the live updates on the Championships for DCI and Lauren Vogel Weiss (writer for Modern Drummer magazine).

The official Press Box is way up in the stadium on the 6th level (nose-bleed seats), but has windows, so is definitely NOT GOOD from a sound-perspective point of view.

I also got invited to the Zildjian suite and the Stanbury suite, will stop there during intermission. Stanbury is making our corps' new uniforms for the 100th anniversary year 2011. I already got a sneak preview of the sample model. It looks amazing!

I will update with a bunch of photos no sooner than Monday. I will just sit back and enjoy the event tonight, then hopefully party after retreat (it would be a shock if Blue Devils don't take this year's title), go back to the hotel - party some more - work on some photos for Blue Devils - brunch at the Omni with BD members, staff and parents, and then I will get a ride to Michigan with Ron Cefalo (Blue Devils alumni 1972-1977). Will spend next week with my relatives in Grand Rapids/Kalamzoo. Should be a great time.

Will need to catch up on some missed sleep too!

Enjoy,

HK

FIRST TITLE IN TE POCKET

Sorry about being a lousy uploader of my articles this week. Just too much stuff going on, and honestly speaking,... just having too much of a good time to sit down and write some articles for you to read. I will try and catch up on that! (I know... I have said that before...)

I just attended the last segment of the DCI Open Class Finals and saw Blue Devils B take this year's title topping evry single caption except for color guard.
First title is in the pocket... let's see how the evening goes! Looks like it shouldn't be much of a problem.

What a great show they had this year. They will get to perform again tonight before the World Class Finals start.
Rick Odello (corps director of the year) is running an excellent programme with these youngsters. A truly professional organization, just like their A corps.

I am now wnjoying a good beer with my friend Jim at his hotel across the street from the stadium. I will go back in in a little bit, for I have a meeting with Dan Acheson (DCI CEO) regarding the Jubal tour 2011. I talked to Dave Eddelman (Open Class coordinator) yesterday. Jubal will be competing in Open Class International Division next summer, for we have a bunch of members over 22. Well over 22 I would say! (My fault,.. sorry! but I will definitely be on the field again in 2011!)

Enjoy,

HK

GREAT TO BE BACK IN INDY

We got to Indianapolis early Wednesday morning. Was a looooooooooooooooooong ride over there! 500+ miles! Feel sorry for Warner (our driver) who has to stay awake all night to get us there safe!

The housing facilities that Blue Devils were scheduled to stay at this week recently fell through, so a lot of time has been spent on finding us another school. That didn't happen!

So the good news about this is that we are all staying in a HOTEL now!
That's just great. Everyone gets to sleep on a REAL bed! And we have our Devils Food truck parked at the back of the hotel, so we can serve everyone as planned.

The rehearsals are at the Colts' practice facilities. A fabulous location. Unfortunately it's not open to the public, so all those parents who are in town can't come and see their children at practice.

Today I attended Quarter Finals, and was lucky I got to see ALL 23 World Class corps in competition. I got a ride into town with BD's DVD producer John Christensen and his crew.

One of the best moments of today was meeting up with my friends Jim (JUBALLLLLLLLLLLLSSSS!) and his wife Jo-Ann at their hotel across the street from Lucas Oil stadium.

more later...

enjoy,

HK

NIAGARA FALLS

I spent a few hours at Niagara Falls yesterday. Kelly (BD Promo) came along too.
I have been to the Falls several times, but it just keeps stunning me!
We took a public bus from our school housing site to downtown Buffalo, then changed onto another bus to Niagara Falls. Cheap trip too... only $4 roudn trip!
Here's a little video impression I put together:

Enjoy,

HK

TIME OF MY LIFE

I can't believe it.... It juyst doesn't stop! Ran into another bunch of people I used to march with last night at the show in Buffalo. All former or current Empire Statesmen! GREAT !

Had just had a great couple of days, and as cream on the cake I was treated on a performance by the Empire Statesmen. David Bruni is sill their drum major. (His dad, the late Vince Bruni - "Mr B" started the corps).
I was surprised to see "Juice" (Mark Sichewski) and Mark Sinden in the corps. Back in the dsy they drove from Canada every weekend.
Jimmy Steele, who used to be brass captionhead for Spirit in DCI, is back on mellophone and is CH for the horns.
Geoff Adeney still has to learn some of the drill, and will be in soon.
What a great evening!!!
The corps has a "Wizard of Oz" show this summer. Excellent musical book! Traditionally Statesmen add a lot of props and little tricks to their show.
A girl dressed as Dorothy worked her way through the programme, and a witch with a green face topped it off. I wasn't surprised to see the "I am melting" scene! Well done!!

I was the first ever foreigner (not counting the Canadians) to march Empire Statesmen. A few years later they hed two other guys from the Netherlands with them. Back home they're with Bicycleband Crescendo. This year one of their younger brothers (also of Crescendo) is playing in Statesmen's trumpet section: Leonard Tolsma. He was surprised alright when I started speaking Dutch to him in the stadium tunnel!

I missed Pioneer and Cascades (sorry Martjan!), but got to see Troopers and Boston Crusaders. And our own team of course, who scored 97.05 tonight!!!

Some other musical entertainment was provided by the Prime Time Brass, an ensemble of all corps alumni, that topped the DCA Ensemble Championships a few times.
Four more familiar faces from my 1992 Statesmen season in that group too! Fun to see all of them after so many years: Tom Allen, Bill Ray and Chris Castellon.
AND they play some crazy stuff! High screaming trumpet slos too!

Enjoy,HK

OMG... WHAT A GREAT TIME

See,... I knew this would happen.... I am taking some time off from Tour with Blue Devils and am having so much fun that I get WAY BEHIND in updating my weblog. I truly apologize for that! But these last four days were THE BEST!!
I only arrived in Buffalo (Orchard Park) earlier today, whereas I had normally would have been here since yesterday morning!

I already wrote about my Washington experience & hanging out with Lisa and the Trotta family on Wednesday. That was a great day.

Now,... on Thursday we talked about going to a mall and then later on going to the Westchester show. I hadn't originally planned on going there, but my friends were going and thought it might be neat after all. Westchester is always a good show. I remember doing an exhibition there with Reading Buccaneers back in 1987. Good crowd!

We were just about ready to go to the mall when Lisa came home from work. That changed all plans for the day. I like being impulsive, I know...
Lisa was going to visit her mother Ruth in Annapolis for a few hours. Absolutely wonderful lady! It had been 10 years since I last saw her. I can't really believe it has been THAT long, but that's what Lisa told me.
So off we went to beautiful Annapolis. "Mom G." as I always called her had recently moved to another appartment. Nice place. We stopped at her old house first to collect some things and we brought her some beautiful Hortensia flowers from her garden.

It was such a pleasure seeing her again after all these years! She will be 90 this October. There's no way one would get her age correct at the first guess.
We went out for lunch at Mike's, right on the Southern River. It's a seafood/fish restaurant - my favourite,... NOT! - but they fortunately served delicious chicken as well!




In the afternoon we went to Baltimore. I love that city! I remember very well that Lisa took me there (together with Paul, who marched Sunrisers) in 1984 after DCA. Inner Harbor is a neat location! We went to Fells Point first though. Introduced Lisa to Gelato. Now she's hooked! We walked around that part of town a bit. Saw a Morris Dancers performance.
The Baltimore Oriols had a home-game in their stadium. I guess everyone went there, for Harbor Place was deserted. We had a nice and refreshing beer (Sam Adams... my favourite!)
On our way home we picked up some pizzas and threw those into the oven.
The Trottas came home from Westchester around midnight. Chatted with Luigi for a little bit. They enjoyed the show a lot! And made arrangements for better tickets for the Allentown show.

Friday morning we didn't do all that much. Lisa had taken the laptop (that refused to start or show any activity really) to work, and her colleague fortunately managed to fix it and get all the data back on. That did take a bit longer than expected.

We hit the road little after 3PM and made our way to Allentown. Traffic was absolutely ridiculous!!! Roads were congested EVERYWHERE! And a few accidents caused
"rubbernecks" on our lanes.
We made it to Allentown right before the show started. The Trottas met us at the gate.


Skee & Connie always work the main gate. Wonderful couple! Skee used to march Reading Buccaneers with Lisa and me. Exellent drummer!
Shelly Fox always works the corps entrance, so I stopped by her as well. Then throughout the evening I ran into several other Buccaneers I know from the 1987 season. Unfortunately the corps was the weekend off. I had hoped they were scheduled to perform in exhibition here this Friday.



I was out at the frontsideline for most of the show, but had talked to Patty Bibeault (Matadors 1984) on the phone earlier, so knew where to find them in the stands. I had seen them recently on their short visit to Amsterdam, but they had brought their sister Jeanne as well!! My dear friend Jeanne!!!! Glad to see her!
We watched some of the shows from where they were sitting. I shot the Glassmen and Blue Devils of course.


Another surprise was seeing Laura! In fact she saw me in the stands and came over to say HI to us. Laura was a very good friend in Matadors. I admit... I had a serious crush on her back then.
Blue Devils won the show. Their score went down just a little bit compared to their last show.

Unfortunately I didn't see Lisa after the show. She had already left.
The Bibeaults had talked me into staying a day longer and hang out with them. Well,... that certainly was a challenge! There was nothing I'd rather do than spend MORE time with these friends, but I had planned on hopping on the bus again with BD after the show, and going to Buffalo from there. I almost got a ride with the Troopers or the Boston Crusaders, but that fell through so I ended up getting on our own souvenir truck after the Saturday show.


Right before retreat a tribute was made to DCI East show promotor Bob Bennett, who had unfortunately passed away earlier this year. Trumpeter Al Chez (former Garfield Cadet and known from the David Letterman band) played a beautiful rendition of "America the Beautiful" after which the DCI East committee released white helium balloons. Emotional tribute!
Bob Bennett was also my personal contact for getting Jubal into the Allentown show. I met up with him every year I attended the Allentown show.
I stayed overnight at the Bibeaults' hotel in Bethlehem, near Allentown, and after a late breakfast at a restaurant that was formerly owned by Perkins, we spent most of the day at the pool.



The hotel was packed with drumcorps people. One of the guys at the pool knew my friends. He used to be the guard caption head for the Sunrisers. And guess what... when I was introduced to him he mentioned some guy named Paul used to march Sunrisers in 1984. that was my Jubal buddy Paul Besseling. What a small world!!
We had dinner at the Hamilton Family diner just outside the stadium. We missed the first two performances, but that didn't really matter.
Allentown really is one big reunion every year! People come from a lot of places to see DCI. Lots of familiar faces.
Bluecoasts won the Saturday segment of the DCI Eastern Classic.
Went back to the hotel in Bethlehem and got up pretty early this morning, for the souvie truck was to pick me up at 7:15. Some 350 miles, and a good 6 hours later we got to Buffalo and caught up with the corps.
Many members said "Welcome back... we missed you & your cooking". Well... I missed them too, but wouldn't have wanted to miss these last few days for the world!

Enjoy,

HK

3 DAYS OFF FROM TOUR

I didn't watch much of the show in Salem last night. I did miss Glassmen's performance, and am sorry about that, but will see them again soon!
I watched the hornline warm-up before the show, which was all very relaxed.
They worked on some exciting parts in the show, bringing the voices better together yet. If you's ever get a chance, do check out "The Lot" and try and get in front of one of the corps' brass arcs. You will be blown away. Absolutely spectacular!!!

I also decided this would be the show I'd watch from the back sideline. I always do that at one show during the season. It gives you a whole different view on the show seeing it from this perspective. You will see a lot of things you don't even realize they're going on on the field when watching it from the front.
Musically it all sounded very weird. Obviously the mirrors block a lot of the sound.




After snack we hit the road to Fairfax. I had announced I'd be taking a few days off to spend with Lisa, my best long-time friend in the States. Today (Wednesday) was another long day since I didn't sleep at all last night.

Blue Devils drove from Salem to Fairfax overnight (well... ALL trips are during the night, so this was no exception!). I had agreed with our driver Warner that he would drop me off at the Vienna/Fairfax GMU metroline station on the way to the housing site (which was the University complex). This would be the easiest option, but would get me to Washington kind of early... VERY EARLY!!!



I was dropped off at the Metroline station exactly when the gate of the station was opened (4:50 AM) and could take the very first train into the city. I don't think I have ever gone to a big city, let alone a capital, at this time of day. I arrived at Union station at 5:40. That's ridiculous. Obviously I didn't want to walk around town yet when it was still dark, so I sat in the Amtrak lobby and checked out my email and stuff on my phone. In fact there was an excellent Wifi signal within the station!

Dropped off my bag at the bag storage desk and slowly started walking towards the capitol building. Yes.. SLOWLY. That was the motto for the day...
I spent all morning walking at an easy pace from the capitol all the way to the other end of the Mall to the Lincoln Memorial. Easy going, with a stop every once in a while on one of the park benches along the grass fields in the middle of the Mall. Made a quick visit to tweo of the Smithsonian museums (I admit... mainly to use the restrooms,... I have seen just about all of the museums over the years and different visits to Washington).

I always enjoy the architecture very much, and the monuments of course! Washington Monument, Jefferson Memorial (which could just be seen in the distance through the trees), the World War monument, the long wall of the Vietnam Memorial and of course one of my favourites: The Lincoln Monument, where a huge statue of Abraham Lincoln is sitting in an even so impressive chair,... all white marble.






Washington is by far one of the most impressive cities of all the cities I have visited in the States so far! I could come back here any time!
I felt like the ULTIMATE TOURIST today!! You should have seen me! Had my picture taken with just about all of the monuments... Hard to believe that was really me, but hey... playing the tourist ONE day out of 50 isn't all that bad is it??!!!

It was a good thing I got to Washington so early, for I had planned on meeting Luigi and Mike (also from Dordrecht & Jubal) at Union Station at noon, so had to hurry back on a public bus (free this time becsause the machine was jammed!)
The two of them were also staying at Lisa's these days, and we were all to pick his wife Trinet up from Dulles International Airport at 16:40.



We walked by them back of the Capitol building to visit the Library of Congress. Security there is just about as crazy as at the airports! X-ray machines! Nothing in your pockets! Take your belt off... What are they execting??

We had lunch at "The Dubliner", stopped at the post office and made our way to Dulles Airport. It took well over an hour after Trinet had landed for her to get through Immigration and Customs.
I took a nap in the car on the way to Lisa.
It was a great pleasure seeing her again. I see her every year - usually take the day of the Allentown show off to spend with her - but it's always good to be back here. Sort of my second home in the States. I used to live with Lisa when I marched Reading Buccaneers back in 1987. Wow... that's 23 years ago!!! Hard to believe it's been that long!



We had a few snacks and drinks and chatted before went to bed.

Enjoy,

HK

TOO BUSY ?

Jeezzzz... some of these days are just too busy to actually sit down and write more updates. I think I started this one about three times already. Sorry about that!

Saturday Atlanta was an absolutely fabulous day!!
I got to see ALL 23 World Class corps! ALL... yes I know... It's a long time ago when World Class/Division I/formerly Open Class counted so many corps that there was no way all of them could fit in a ONE DAY event! I am just hoping this activity will not lose any more corps.

As I wrote with the photo update on Kitty & Joury, it was a LONG day.
I got to the stadium very early. About 8AM. Helped out get the souvie tables installed (the trailer could not be taken inside the dome). Went on a mission to find stuff to put the Blue Devils banner up OVER the tables, so that everyone could see where BD was, instead of taping it to the front of the table.

Was able to take a shower in the Dome,... probably the nicest one thus far on tour!! Talked to some of the DCI officials and made my way to the CNN Center.
At the CNN Center you can get a $13 tour of the News complex.I didn't take the tour, but now I feel sorry I didn't. I am sure there will be another chance!

It would be GREAT taking JUBAL back here in Atlanta in 2011. Competing in the Dome would be another fantastic experience. In addition to that,... after free days in Chicago, New York City and Washington DC in 2002 and 2006, I think we should include some other cities in our upcoming tour. Atlanta would be a good stop on the tour. But then we have no idea where our 2011 tour will take us yet. That will all be decided later this year, and finalized at the DCI meeting in January.

At the CNN Center I ran into A.J., a Glassmen friend of Erik and Joury I met a couple of years ago. We had posted on Facebook back and forth that we would look each other up at the stadium... Haha... no need for that!

Had a good lunch at the food court inside the CNN Center, and obviously cruised through the different shops there. Bought some souvies. Oh.. I really felt like a tourist out there!

Back to the stadium for a full day of performances. Met up with all the other photographers. Some of them have been coming out just about as long as I have, and it's good to see them back every year.


Finally got to see Martjan actually PERFORM with Cascades!
In fact I saw all the Dutch members who are marching with DCI corps today. originally there were only 4 Dutch members in DCI corps this summer, but with the recent addition of my Jubal fellow members Joury & Kitty with Glassmen we're proud to have a total of 6 representatives of our Red, White & Blue.

Also in Cascades is Arnold Schut, enjoying his second year on cymbals with the corps.
Back in the Netherlands Anton is a member of Beatrix drum & bugle corps.



The Colts have Erwin de Jong in their Baritone section. Erwin marches with Con Spirito from Joure back home. He is one of the youngest Dutch members ever to join a DCI corps.


Danny Zuidhoek, member of Adest Music back home, is marching with the Blue Stars this summer. He plays the trumpet. The corps is having another great season. Their "Houdini" show is a hit. The crowd loves them!

The show in Murfreesboro the other night brought a lot of excitement along, having the top corps together for the first time. Today a much larger crowd got to enjoy the competition for the top spots.

All 8 corps that competed in Murfreesboro went up in scores except for Cavaliers, who scored the same 93.1 points both nights.

Phantom Regiment upset SCV by scoring a solid 1.5 more than the previous night and taking 6th place. The Cadets also went up an impressive 1.45 points over their Murfreesboro score!
\


Our team is still well in front with a 1.9 point lead over a highly entertaining Bluecoats.

Here are the scores.

enjoy,

HK

1 Blue Devils 95.650
2 Bluecoats 93.750
3 The Cavaliers 93.100
4 Carolina Crown 92.550
5 The Cadets 91.450
6 Phantom Regiment 90.000
7 Santa Clara Vanguard 89.550
8 Blue Stars 88.900
9 Boston Crusaders 86.150
10 Blue Knights 85.750
11 Madison Scouts 85.550
12 Glassmen 84.300
13 The Academy 82.600
14 Colts 81.800
15 Troopers 81.600
16 Spirit 79.800
17 Crossmen 78.500
18 Pacific Crest 77.850
19 Teal Sound 75.850
20 Mandarins 75.150
21 Jersey Surf 72.350
22 Cascades 72.000
23 Pioneer 71.700

THE DUTCH ARE IN !!!!

Today I spent all day at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta for the DCI South Eastern Championships. I will do a longer post from our next housing site, but just wanted to let you know that our two Jubal members are out on the field already with Glassmen.

Pretty amazing, knowing Joury and Kitty only took their decision last Saturday, so they learnt the whole show/drill in 4 days. They had their first show last Thursday already. That's great!!

Here are a few shots of them during in the Glassmen show and some close-ups at retreat.










Compliments to both of them. Now they're memorizing the music.
Currently the Glassmen are ranking 12th. let's hope they will make Finals in Indianapolis.

Enjoy,

HK