Colgate's Band

[Rico]

My sources tell me that Marty is the type to give his heart for transplant after being kicked in the balls. That is a most noble quality, something all of you fellow Colgate band members should aspire to. If you have balls anyway. I know at least one of you does..


..and Im spent

[Ana]

Well, this is going to be my very last post for the night!  Not that anyone cares, but we'll pretend for a minute to make me feel good.

In summary, while I have said my fair share of harsh things about Cornell, honestly....I respect you guys both as a pep band and a pep band (I hope you understand what I'm trying to say here) (sorry John).  You definitely have a lot of enthusiasm...yes, I'm trying to be really neutral here!

Oh, for those of you who don't take Chinese, xuesheng just means students, not anything bad....

See you on Thursday, Cornell!

Ana Kaufmann

[Gerber Baby 04]

Yo, Marty Bair, is he your biggggggg hero?  Oh yeah, well I know stuff about Marty Bair that would chill your bones.

Sure, you all think that Marty Bair is the type that would give you a heart transplant even after you've kicked him in the nuts, but did you know that his dog constantly kicked his ass every day?  The kid showed up to school wearing long sleeve shirts and when he rolled them up (on few occasions) he revealed massive claw damage.  Just remember that.

Oh yeah, and the nicest guy in the world eh?  Sure, he'd give me a ride home despite living across town, but his car was dirty and smelled bad and sometimes I had to drive around with his ghetto sister AND sometimes wait a whole 10 minutes because of her.  That's not the American Way.

Role Model?  It was well known that when he couldn't finish his lab reports on time, he tracked down the physics teacher at his home and FORCED him to take his assignments AT GUNPOINT and later encouraged other younger children to do so.

Besides this, he is an incompetent trumpet and doesn't know how to wear a beard.  Oh yeah, and his dad doesn't allow any horse play in his pool.

Oh, the kicker?  On applying to schools (if you couldn't infer this already - some of you ARE from Colgate - Marty and I went to the same high school, where he was a year older than me...anywhoo) he said he only regretted one thing: "My parents made me choose one school to apply to between Cornell and Colgate and I chose Colgate.  Man, a lot of times I wish I picked Cornell.  Don't make the same bad choice I did."

Where's your God now, Colgate?

-Gerber Baby, '04

[redraider13]

As far as Swanee goes, it dates back to a time where there was a stretch of games where we were seriously being treated miserably.  Taunt the team, have good natured taunting in the stands, thats fine.  But for a while, there were a lot of personal insults being thrown at individual members of the band while at Lynah.  So Swanee sorta became a symbol of that.   I assume there are two different groups of Cornell fans in regards to that one game.  One group who thought Swanee was fine, and had no problem with our actions, and another group who aren't terribly fond of Swanee, or our tuba with the phrase "jump" on it.  That was probally the worst it ever got.   There were some real hard feelings on either side.  You can see JTW still fuming that we had the audacity to bang a drum during the game.  I can assure you, we feel deep shame.   The Colgate band is usually reactionary, but after a few terrible experiences at Lynah, we decided to go on the offensive for once.  And it was bad, I mean, there were people looking for us in the parking lot after the game.  Things at Lake Placid weren't all that better.   My personal favorite moment was at the football game next year.   We were tailgating, and the Cornell drum major stopped by to say hello, and to say in a really condesending voice "Can we not play over each other this time?"  We agreed.   Then we continued to play for a small group of Colgate fans in front of us.  There were about 15 of us.  Just then, the Cornell marching band turned around, and came marching right between us and our audience.   This was less than 5 minutes after our agreement.  After that, both bands worked to tone things down, and work together a bit more.   There were a lot of e-mails going on behind the scenes that I was a part of, and Nate '01 was as well.  I think we've created something that can, and should be enjoyed.  And then, once the game is over, celebrate together, thank each other, and leave it at that until next time.

[Section A]

Wow, this was the most mind-numbing thread I've ever seen. Can't believe I just read the whole thing. In case anyone forgot, there's a hockey game on Thursday.

[JNB]

Dude, don't get personal.  This is about pep bands.  Marty is a great person, a great friend.  Leave him be.  We are all better off for him being here.  And you know it.  He doesn't regret his choice of Colgate in the least - that was during a rough time his first year.  We've all been there.  He chooses not to reply to this thread, but he's reading.

Goodnight all.

[DeltaOne81]

Being a non-bandie... and someone who's had a hell of a time keeping up with this thread, I just want to say one thing.

I understand now that there's a story behind it, but Swanee really isn't that bad. Telling someone to die and drop dead isn't any worse than saying "go to hell" (wouldn't you have to die to do that?) and much, much worse things are said at college hockey games. We do that cheer/song at every game - not just you - and no one else, so far as I know, has a major problem with it. Certainly no one plays over it. If you want to respond to it, come up with your own thing... make it rude (but not obscene), and we'll try to respond back. But playing over it is just mean and inappropriate - it's not like we're telling you to "f*** off".

I admire you all for being such big fans - it's nice to know that the ECAC has such passionate fans at some schools. Having been at SLU and Clarkson this winter (and Union, but it's hard to judge when you shut out the other team), there is definitely a crowd of passionate fans. As opposed to Hahvahd who had like 8 students at Lake Placid last year.

Sure, hate us, go ahead, it's part of the fun... but understand that it's all part of the game and part of the fun, and it should all be left behind off the ice. Oh, and, don't play over our damn song :-P.

-Fred

P.S. I'm serious about that last thing... and if you get some wussy band director to not play it, I'll get it going myself on Thursday :-P.

[Paul Husserl]

[Q] P.S. I'm serious about that last thing... and if you get some wussy band director to not play it, I'll get it going myself on Thursday [/Q]

Well DeltaOne81, just wanted to let you know that "wussy band director" you referred to is actually reading all of this, despite never having posted to the forum before.  It's nice to see what you really think of the band and the people that run it, knowing how big a fan you seem to be by constantly posting.  But anyway, there's probably good reason why I am in charge of the band and have been a conductor, and not you.  So why don't you just leave the job of "getting it going" to the band, as usual, and just be supportive.  Afterall, it was me alone that someone in the Colgate band decided to share their views of our band with, before I shared it with the rest of the band and watched it make it's way onto here.

I never thought my first post would occur in the midst of a thread like this to reply to one of the Faithful!  ::rolleyes::

See you all on Thursday!  It's going to be an exciting trip!  :-)

[Kevin]

I'm not usually one to involve myself in such ridiculous bickering.  However, as the Colgate band's most senior member (and an insomniac), there are a couple of things I would like to clear up...

1)  It's unfortunate that most of the responses in this forum have come from freshmen in our band.  I would encourage that to stop.  Boys and girls, until you've weathered a hockey game at Lynah in a Colgate rugby, you have no idea...

2)  I was the band's Drum Major for the Swanee incident in early 2000.  My decision to play over it had nothing to do with the Cornell band.  It was late in a very intense and close game.  First and foremost, I thought it would be a benefit to the team to hear Colgate's Fight Song as opposed to hearing however many Faithful were crammed into Lynah telling them to die.  I was also... angered... to put it midly... by the personal insults being chanted directly toward me by a large portion of the Cornell fans.  There is, of course, nothing wrong with an exchange of cheers and taunts, but personal insults caused me to lose any respect I had for the general Cornell population.  To its credit, the Cornell band had nothing to do with that particular portion of the horrific evening.  As a matter of fact, the only regret I had about choosing to play over Swanee that night... twice... was that it was disrespectful to my fellow musicians at Cornell, who, if they're anything like most band members I know, get their share of disrespect from everyone else.  Playing over it was merely a tactical maneuver.  I like to think that it, as well as the other actions of our band that night, contributed to our team's victory in what was probably the best hockey game I've ever seen.  The full-out rumble with, what?, 10 seconds left in the game... something like that... was a priceless hockey moment we should all look back on fondly.  If I were conducting in Ithaca on Saturday, I wouldn't even consider doing it again.  Realistically, the game probably won't be that close... but when your team's in the top of the national rankings, you do what you gotta do.

3)  After that game, as Gary mentioned above, I traded several very amicable emails with whomever was in charge of Cornell's band at the time... I think her name was Kim.  We expressed our views and laid the groundwork for the system of tolerance and compromise that has been between our bands since.  I did lose some measure of respect for the Cornell band when they sabotaged some of our songs at Lake Placid by sending some low brass (with the help of some RPI members, as I recall) to the balcony above us to play random noise during our songs.  The tension was furthered at the football game Gary also mentioned when their attitude toward us was intensely condescending and the full force of the marching band was used to drown us out after they had agreed, no - suggested, we avoid such petty competition.

4)  Then again, that was the marching band, not the pep band.  And Kim is probably long gone.  I've mellowed on the Cornell issue in the last three years.  I think my attitude is the same as most of the band's.  We don't have a problem with Cornell's band.  That would just be stupid.  We're all hardworking musicians just there doing our jobs.  I hate your hockey team.  I hope some of your more vicious fans are subjected to eternal hellfire.  But hey, that's just the way it goes.  Love us or hate us, it doesn't really matter.  We'll be here hating you, and loving it.

5)  That Beirut game would have been very different had the current mellophone section been represented.

Peace, all.
~Kevin '03

[jtwcornell91]

I think someone needs an emergency dose of Ritalin...

[jtwcornell91]

Josh Herman '99 wrote:

B)  Playing over it is no less rude.

Actually, playing over it is a lot more rude.  RPI's band tried to bring this point home by playing over one of Colgate's songs at the aforementioned 2000 consolation game, and the 'gate band totally missed the point by misinterpreting it as the two bid bands ganging up on the little band rather than as a neutral observer weighing in on the childishness of one of the combatants.

[jtwcornell91]

I'm all for banging drums during a game in Europe, where it's part of the protocol.  At college games, where all other bands go to great lengths to stop playing when the puck is in motion (witness the a cappella ending Gary Glitter which will eventually be featured on the second pep band CD), it's just annoying.  (Clarkson is entitled to special dispensation because they do it as part of an excessively long post-goal ritual, which is an admirable thing (cf BU).)

[jtwcornell91]

2) The "parking lot" cheers at Lynah were totally uncool and not at all clever.  I think most of us would apologize on behalf of those louts.

3) The brass playing over you from the balcony at Placid was all RPI, with the possible exception of the one Cornell Tuba who was already there.

[jtwcornell91]

Clarkson's band has occassionally tried to play over it, but never got so passionate as 'gate's.

[DeltaOne81]

[Q]Well DeltaOne81, just wanted to let you know that "wussy band director" you referred to is actually reading all of this[/Q]
Paul,

I want to point out that I said "if some..." I had no idea who you were and am very glad to hear that you're not planning that. I love the pep band didn't mean it to be taken personally, as it was completely theorectical / 'what if' and I never really expected it - just kinda a note to Colgate to not even try.

I'm sorry if you thought I was calling you, personally, a wuss. It was just an off-the-cuff remark and in no way meant for you to take offense to it. I'll certainly leave the job to you cause you always do a great job.

Sorry again,

Fred