Love this pic from my Oktoberfest gig last night.

[BopEuph]

[Three Valves]

Looks like money!

[BopEuph]

Oh man, there's probably celebrities that live at this place. I used to live in the neighborhood next door with my ex, and her daughter has a friend in there, so I'd regularly take her to and from the house. Every house in there is humungous. $130k/year to be in the country club. A helicopter landed on the helipad about 100 yards away during our last set.

Funny thing is, there might have been 50 people throughout the night, even though the food was excellent. Can't really blame them, though, it was still 85 when the gig was over at 9. But I wonder if the club is going to even bother with an Oktoberfest next year with such a turnout?

[Mary Ann]

That's cute with the kids sitting around the bell of the alphorn. It isn't nearly as loud as a brass instrument.
Where is that? With all the columns it looks Southern.
Maybe next year they will have it near the end of the month instead of at the beginning of the month. It's been really hot this year.

[BopEuph]

It was so funny because they kept sticking their heads into the bell. I had such a hard time keeping in the laughter.

Yeah, Central Florida. I don't think we ever have much of a hope of a cool Oktoberfest gig here...it doesn't always drop below 80 before Christmas!

[bort2.0]

Oh man, there's probably celebrities that live at this place. I used to live in the neighborhood next door with my ex, and her daughter has a friend in there, so I'd regularly take her to and from the house. Every house in there is humungous. $130k/year to be in the country club. A helicopter landed on the helipad about 100 yards away during our last set.

Funny thing is, there might have been 50 people throughout the night, even though the food was excellent. Can't really blame them, though, it was still 85 when the gig was over at 9. But I wonder if the club is going to even bother with an Oktoberfest next year with such a turnout?

That's someone's house?

[bloke]

Oh man, there's probably celebrities that live at this place. I used to live in the neighborhood next door with my ex, and her daughter has a friend in there, so I'd regularly take her to and from the house. Every house in there is humungous. $130k/year to be in the country club. A helicopter landed on the helipad about 100 yards away during our last set.

Funny thing is, there might have been 50 people throughout the night, even though the food was excellent. Can't really blame them, though, it was still 85 when the gig was over at 9. But I wonder if the club is going to even bother with an Oktoberfest next year with such a turnout?

That's someone's house?

Yeah.. the back side of it.

It's sort of fun to be around those sorts of folks from time to time, they are nicer than you might imagine, genuinely cordial, usually... and most of them were not born wealthy. During the big shutdown, we played some orchestra brass quintet deals outdoors at places like that, and then they would ask people to donate to the orchestra. You would hear somebody say something like "I'll chip in ten thousand" and then hear a friend of his say something like "Well hell, I will too"...(etc... and not so loud that everyone hears them, but just loud enough for the person at the microphone asking for money to hear them.) Just don't fool yourself into thinking that they are your close friends or that they remember your name, though they actually might remember your name.
============

I really love the picture.

[BopEuph]

Actually, this is the country club's clubhouse with a very highly secure gated community. Inside the clubhouse is a couple of food and beverage establishments that would be 5 star id they were in the city proper...in both quality and cost.

[BopEuph]

Something that's amusing to me is that I got the alphorn just to have something to practice when I was a tuba sub at the German pavilion at Epcot. After they stopped calling me (we have enough subs), it collected dust for a while. During the lockdown, I decided to do a deep dive in the instrument: its history, its literature, who plays it, etc. This has been really very difficult since there's very little information on it in English, and since it's technically a folk instrument, I've had to call other players around the country to answer questions I can't find answers to.

Then I realized that if I started marketing my playing on the instrument, it would give me an edge in having my phone ring over other local players. Not only did it work, but the interest in the alphorn from the audience has been astounding. Like 80% of the guests will undoubtedly pull out their phones and start recording. Kids are mesmerized. I got a great deal on the horn, but it's been the best $650 I spent.

I'm really working on figuring out a better mouthpiece since most of the literature sits inside the treble clef range in concert pitch, which is VERY exhausting after 20 minutes on a mouthpiece that's about the size of my euphonium mouthpieces. Once I get the right equipment, I think I could do some full solo acts and sell them to clients wanting a specialty act.

Along with the alphorn, I'm doing a couple of very flashy baritone solos on tuba that people just stare in disbelief--that whole "I didn't know tuba could do that" type thing.

I'm just having a blast, as before this, the only time I've played polkas is the very few times I played at Epcot. And I feel like some of the most fun gigs have been kept away from me! Fun, low-stress music, good food, and a place to occasionally show off. I wish I could do these gigs year round!