Posts made by neal085

@SSmith1226 and @Brian-Moon

That's all very interesting. Science is defined by observation, and there is no recorded observation for the millions of years, etc., which makes it all just everyone's best guess. Most people can't make an accurate portrayal of events 100 years ago, much less the supposed millions of years ago. Who can hope to authoritatively state such a record?

I remember looking into carbon dating a while back, and the margin for error is apparently astronomical. As a dating mechanism it has more questions than answers, yet it was taught as the standard for my entire school tenure.

Anyway, don't know how all this landed under the topic of humor, so, uh, here's a quick joke:

What is green and has wheels?

Grass. I was lying about the wheels.

FWIW, we had a great 4th of July. Hung out with lots of good friends, the kids all went swimming and had some very successful fishing, we ate too much good food and shot off a lot of fireworks. The boys all fell asleep in the car driving home, which means it was a wildly successful 4th.

Also listened to my patriotic playlist that includes lots of Sousa, which is always great.

Dang, one of the all time greats. That's sad - I love his music. He wrote some great trumpet parts into his scores. I've likely posted this a million times previously, but the trumpet part at 1:50 makes me happy.

<"

And if you happen to love cello (I do), this collaboration with Yo-Yo Ma will bring tears to your eyes.

<"

This was a great addition to my day. I've seen if floating around the interwebs quite a bit, so y'all may have already seen it.

<"

@Kehaulani said in Longest Layoff:

First off, I'm sorry for your "challenges". Just remember that old saying, "When one door closes, another one . . slams shut."

No, really, I wish you patience and good luck, sincerely.

To answer your question, with an exception here or there, there were three big chunks of time when I didn't, for the most part, play. When I worked; solely, as a composer/arranger - for about three years. When I was a conductor - about 16 years. And about two years when I had multiple strokes.

To add to that, I played woodwinds about 20 years while I also conducted. So, played but not trumpet.

So a total of 21 years off, if I read correctly?

And thanks for the well-wishes, sir. For the record, I should mention that mom is cancer free and doing well, the opportunities we've seen of late are exciting, the family is all healthy, and life is moving forward with much more fun than not. It just hasn't included much trumpet. That original post may have seemed a bit depressing, but it wasn't meant to be. Starting my own business has been challenging, but lots of fun.

So I've played my horn about twice in the last 14 months, maybe three times. Last February my company got sold, our 4th child arrived in March, I suffered a significant pay cut in April, concurrent with family medical issues, I started a new business in June, my mom was diagnosed with cancer in the fall, we just finished selling our house and moving temporarily into an apartment while we figure out where to build our next home.

The dang trumpet just fell off the priority list for a while, and I still don't even have a time frame for when it will get back on the list, but I'm feeling it, and missing it.

We were in the middle of our move this weekend, and I pulled an ancient spare trumpet out of my closet and fired off an old etude from memory along with a few hymns, and it felt amazing. I've had layoffs of up to a month or two previously, but this is easily the new record since I came back in 2012.

What was your longest layoff, what caused it, and what was it like coming back?

Was saddened to hear about this earlier this AM.

https://www.4barsrest.com/news/41506/death-of-ryan-anthony

@SSmith1226 said in The New Reality:

Leonard Cohen’s Halleluja performed by “United Trumpeters Peruvian”.

Loved the playing/sound of Cesar Horna and Jose Montenegro in that clip. They were all good, though.

Also, is that Fred Flintstone's car going past at the 5:08 mark?

@greatleather Those look really nice. Last year I was looking for a mouthpiece case just like the leather 2-Mpc case you offer. I was only able to find items of either lower quality or designs I didn't much like. Thanks for sharing.

Sadly, we sold this house 3 days ago, but this is part of what me and the wife built in the 14 years we were there. We put together every piece of it by hand, including both pergolas, the fence, fire pit, and outdoor bar. It was a haven for a million bird year in and year out. Broke our hearts to leave it, but we both knew it was time to move on to whatever's next. Photos taken on a very rainy day, unfortunately.

It was really gorgeous in the evening with all the lights on, but I don't have any of those photos on my computer right now.

@Dale-Proctor
I somehow ended up as jury foreman of a murder trial about 5-6 years ago. It was intriguing, amazing, heart-rending, exhausting, and about the most stressful week of my life. (Only a week because the defendant changed his plea to guilty on Day 2, so we moved to sentencing). The case involved a husband/wife, and it was just painful all around. The lawyers were a complete dog and pony show, and all the private dirty laundry was aired out in court, stuff that was pertinent and relevant to the case, but stuff that should never have been any of my business. Two flawed and hurting people struggling to reconcile their personal issues until it ended in disaster. Death is a part of life, but man.... we weren't created to kill each other.

@ROWUK said in PLEASE KEEP CIVIL!:

My problem is that I am not really motivated. Many threads develop in a similar way:

1. original post
2. a couple of thank yous
3. maybe a subject supporting post or two
4. Class clown attack that has nothing to do with the original content
5. Derailed post can go just about anywhere - but not without devils advocate posting

I can say that the feeling is like with certain teachers that I had - for one or 2 lessons. My general feeling here is of suffocation. Extreme efforts (in my opinion) are being made to keep it "clean", "friendly", "family". The general feeling is not digging in and accepting reality, rather a lavender painted over.

I a pretty sure that if I started posting like I feel, that the threads would last 2 days. In that case, why bother. At Trumpetmaster I made a point about getting to the meat immediately. Here we seem to be afraid of blood.

I agree on posts getting derailed pretty quickly. I was reading a post from this morning where someone asked for advice, and three replies later it was guys joking about stuff that had zero to do with the original post.

I'm all for civil discourse or even animated discourse if it doesn't devolve into name-calling or profanity.

When I joined TM, I was looking for help and interaction on trumpet playing, and I realized I'd stumbled onto a great community of players. I think this site has unrealized potential, but may take time.

I'm personally at a stage in life and music where I'm not just full of trumpet questions as I once was, so I hop on here for camaraderie more than insight on playing trumpet. TM seemed to get a lot of younger trumpet players asking questions, and this one seems not to, or at least not yet.

I hope it keeps going. I'm a big fan of the middle ground between censoring vulgarity and name-calling while keeping a relaxed atmosphere that encourages more interaction.

On the old TM threads, some of the hottest debates were what gave it character and made it interesting. And yes, some of them were just asinine, but it all somehow worked.

Keep it going, boys.

My first horn was whatever they were renting out at JT Hutchinson Junior High in Lubbock, TX. After 7th grade, when my parents saw that I actually wanted to play trumpet, they bought me a Jupiter of some description from a music store that was going out of business. Don't remember the model. Several years later I bought my own Yamaha 2335 at a Ft. Worth pawn shop. Played a lot better than its price tag, fo sho.

@flugelgirl My grandpa listened to Guy Lombardo when we were kids, and we all loved it. I still give that a listen every so often.

My first adult experience with jazz was when I bought a Coltrane album and then a Miles Davis album. I feel like I kinda started at the top.

A neighbor knocked on my front door at 3 AM. At 3 AM, mind you!

Luckily for me, I was already up playing the bag pipes.

@barliman2001 Yeah, that was what I found mostly - just Anita Kerr with only generic names for her groups. The Tijuana Brass angle is, well, intriguing. I would have guessed that.... never.

When I was a kid, I remember mom and dad had this. I went a few decades without even thinking about it, but when I acquired a record player several years ago, I immediately went on the hunt for this thing. I enjoy it, and the kids love it.

Great recording, but does anyone know any of the personnel or who recorded it? The label says Chapell's Studio in London, but doesn't give any more details.

Curious.....

I found this:
https://www.discogs.com/label/264595-Chappell-Recording-Studios?genre=All&limit=100

@Niner And if I went for a Remington, I'd get the 1875. Those look amazing.

@Niner I was at the Colt Collector's Show last month, and there was a group that had a very large display of original Colt 1851 revolvers in factory boxes. Super cool. I love the 1851's.

Most awesome thing I saw all day was....

I had gone with the specific stated goal of laying my hands on a real, honest-to-goodness Walker Colt, which you're probably aware is insanely rare. There are more fakes than real ones.

I handled nearly a dozen of them, most of them from a single collection. Real, documented Walker's, although he also had a few known fakes.

Saw several Dragoon's in different variations. Super cool, but if I ever get one for my personal collection, it would probably be the 1851, partially because they're affordable.

A cheap Walker Colt in poor condition is about an $80,000 chunk of steel. One recently went at auction for 1.75 million.