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University of Pennsylvania

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The Young Trumpet Player Within the Crowd

Friday, January 7th, 2011

Continuing my recent tradition of having very little to say and instead filling space with pictures, I present this (predominantly for my Penn friends). Can you spot the ten-year old amongst the slew of college students? Makes a father proud, it does…


(No? Try clicking on the picture to make it bigger!)

Two notes:
First: his brother, who also makes his father proud, was below and to the right of the frame, teaching himself the drum parts to all the Penn songs (age 8).

Second: the Penn Band Sousaphones rock…

Categories: Family Matters, University of Pennsylvania | 1 Comment »

Disney 2010 – Frozen Mouse Ears

Monday, January 18th, 2010

So what have we learned from this trip? That depsite being “The Most Magical Place on Earth,” Disney does not actually control the weather in Orlando, Florida (or, as my friend Adam posited, they do control the weather, but turned the thermostat down two weeks ago so they could restock all their ice cream fridges without running out). Also, we learned that if Mickey does, indeed, have teeth, they don’t chatter. And finally, the University of Pennsylvania Band can play in the cold, the wind and the rain – even simultaneously!

How cold was it? This cold:

Click on the frosted mouse ears above (or click here) to see 57 of the 400 pictures I took over six days. And be thankful I spared you all the video…

See ya’ real soon!

Categories: Family Matters, The Disneyverse, University of Pennsylvania | 1 Comment »

Go Penn, Beat Harvard!

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

If you’re an Ivy League football or basketball fan, you’re used to the occasional news story about Penn beating up on schools like Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. But here’s one area where you don’t often see Penn atop the standings:

The University of Pennsylvania, the Ivy League school founded by Benjamin Franklin, beat Harvard University

Categories: Money Talk, University of Pennsylvania | 1 Comment »

More Disney – This from a year ago…

Tuesday, December 30th, 2008

Better late than never, I always say. Here is The University of Pennsylvania Band (including yours truly) performing at Walt Disney World in January of 2008.

The MST3K-like commentary is from a fellow band alum and her family.

Categories: The Disneyverse, University of Pennsylvania, Words about Music | Comments Off on More Disney – This from a year ago…

Quarters for Laundry? Thing of the Past…

Monday, September 8th, 2008

The University of Pennsylvania has signed a deal with a laundry equipment manufacturer that will allow them to put laundry machines in their College House dorms and offer them free to students for two years.

Categories: The Future is Now, University of Pennsylvania | 1 Comment »

Paging Melanie Foreman…

Thursday, May 8th, 2008

I’ve just been informed that Mel (Melanie to all you Google fans out there) Foreman wishes to be mentioned on my blog.

Since this is the first time anyone has made such a request, I figured the least I could do is comply.

Mel Foreman – this post’s for you!

Categories: University of Pennsylvania | 1 Comment »

Penn Reference in The Simpsons – That 90’s Show

Tuesday, January 29th, 2008

For the Penn grads out there (and anyone who’s ever visited the Penn campus, I guess), check out this screen shot from this week’s episode of The Simpsons, entitled “That 90’s Show.”

For the uninitiated, that button in the background is a representation of Claes Oldenburg & Coosje Van Bruggen’s Split Button, which sits in front of Van Pelt Library at the center of the University of Pennsylvania’s campus.

Penn grad in the art department, I take it?

(Hat tip: Zach Klitzman)

Categories: Primetime TV, University of Pennsylvania | 2 Comments »

One for my Harvard Friends…

Friday, October 26th, 2007

Since being linked to by IvyGateBlog, my site stats tell me that I’m getting quite a few visitors from Harvard University. Welcome, one & all. I thought, given my new audience, I’d share a joke I heard back during my (Penn) college days:

A Harvard Man and a Penn Man are standing at adjoining urinals. After both men finish urinating, the Harvard man goes to the sink to wash his hands, but the Penn man heads straight for the door.

Disgusted, the Harvard man says, “You know, at Harvard, they teach us to wash our hands after we go to the bathroom.”

The Penn man turns and replies, “Really? Well, at Penn, they teach us not to pee on our hands.”

Categories: University of Pennsylvania | 1 Comment »

The World’s Largest Conducting Baton

Wednesday, October 24th, 2007

It all started, as most things do these days, with an e-mail.

The Harvard University Marching Band has set a Guinness World Record in October, 2006 by creating a baton measuring more than twelve feet long and using it to conduct the band during their halftime show.

As a proud alumnus of the University of Pennsylvania Band, I sent an e-mail to the band’s director, R. Greer Cheeseman III and it’s Assistant Director, Dr. Kushol Gupta, suggesting we show Harvard who’s boss by shattering the record at our homecoming game the following year.

What ensued was a coordinated four month effort by more than a dozen members of the Penn Band (including several engineers) to build the baton, issue a press release, and throw a kick-ass party after the game to celebrate (complete with actual batons for the kids and other cool souvenirs!).

Here’s a photo collection from the event, and here’s the video:

Categories: University of Pennsylvania | Comments Off on The World’s Largest Conducting Baton

One for the Record Books…

Friday, October 19th, 2007

OK, now I can finally talk about why I’ve had so little time for blogging lately.

I’ve been helping the Penn Band to break a Guinness World Record:

Penn Band Attempts to Set Guinness World Record for Oversized Conductor’s Baton
October 18, 2007

Penn Band Attempts to Set Guinness World Record for Oversized Conductor’s Baton

WHO: University of Pennsylvania marching band
WHAT: Unveiling of 15 foot, 8 inch conductors baton
WHEN: Oct. 20, 2007, around 1 p.m.
WHERE: Franklin Field
33rd and Spruce streets

Penn’s marching band will unveil the world’s largest conductor’s baton during the halftime program at the Penn football game against Yale. The band has submitted the baton for inclusion in the Guinness Book of World Records. Band Director Greer Cheeseman will lead the band using the oversized, nearly 10-pound baton. Its more than 15 times the size of an ordinary baton, which weighs several ounces and is 12 to 16 inches long.

Band members, many of whom are engineering students, and alumni crafted the baton using wood and cork, the same materials as an ordinary baton.

For full coverage, including pictures and behind the scenes commentary, watch this space on Sunday…

UPDATE: Did I say Sunday? OK, so it’s late Tuesday night. Took a while to get the video done & uploaded. So sue me. Anyway, the full report (including links to pictures and video) is here.

Categories: University of Pennsylvania | Comments Off on One for the Record Books…

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