THE BASS DRUM JOURNAL March 2014 of THE HARVARD UNIVERSITY B AND Vol. 94 No. 1 TO THE AGE THAT IS WAITING BEFORE ’ve always wondered how much of my love of the Band is tied to my family. IWhich is a little funny when you consider just how far away I travelled for school to avoid my family (although just in case my mom and dad are reading this: I’m only kidding guys! Love you both!). At this point in my life, still not yet even three- quarters of the way through my college career, it’s already incredibly difficult to imagine back to my freshman year to a time before I felt like I was a part of Band, which I suppose just reinforces my point. I can try and hazard some guesses, though. The Band Room is the closest thing to my living room that I have experienced on campus. Everything about it harkens back to my upbringing, from the comfy couches where I relax or do homework, to the abundance of pictures across the walls, to the memorabilia strewn about the room, to a TV for group movie nights HAVING A JOLLY GOOD TIME! THE BAND FROLICKS IN FRONT OF and video games, and more importantly, MEMORIAL CHURCH BEFORE THE GAME AGAINST DARTMOUTH. to an ever-present group of people who I love to be around and who make me feel known as reunions for generations of people to with them over the course of the year. at home. Although I guess that in the case come together. Speaking of which,this fall brings And what a year it should be! The Reunion of my family, part of that may have been about the 95th anniversary of the Band, and with it, will be just one highlight from what looks biological obligation on their part (still our 95th reunion. It’s scheduled for our Columbus to be 12 months bursting with excitement, kidding!). Day weekend (October 10th through 12th) game gigs, trips, music, and memories. Ally, Ian, Like with my family, which was against Cornell, and several plans for big things are Louis, Kim, and Katie set a high benchmark borderline nomadic between our frequent already afoot. The most notable will be the honoring for a staff to live up to, but Ian (now in moves and car trips, some of my favorite of longtime Director and newly-minted Director his second term), Annie, Scott, Garrett, memories come from my travels with the Emeritus Tom Everett, but there will be plenty of and I are eager to meet the challenge. We Band. This year has continued the trend other fun things along the way. Make sure to check will continue to make Band the exciting, with three successful road trips in the fall out our website, www.hcs.harvard.edu/~hub/95th/, to welcoming family that captivated us when for football season (to Ithaca, New York RSVP for it or find more information. Also, another we joined. Hopefully we get to give back City, and the wretched hive of scum great resource for staying up-to-date is our and share that experience with all of you and villainy that is New Haven), alumni newsletter, which will not only this fall. Let us know if you want to stop with highlights like giant Pokéballs be covering the reunion, but also the by and see us at a gig, and don’t forget to at Cornell and a large Viking general Band shenanigans over the RSVP for the Reunion! ship hunting a yale dragon. coming year. Email manager@ For whatever those weekends harvardband.org if you are at all INC, lacked in sleep, they made up for interested in getting subscribed. in memories. Speaking of large legacies to On top of that, over the last celebrate in the coming year, another few years, we’ve gotten to long-time band institution will be travel further than ever honored this fall: Bertha. Yes, our before as the Band has quinquagenarian bass drum Theo Gerome ’15 currently serves the accompany the basketball team THEO GEROME has seen better days, and so plans Band as Manager for 2013-2014. He is an on their unprecedented runs to Manager to create Bertha Mark III are well Applied Mathematics concentrator from NCAA March Madness. After a under way. Barring the onslaught Houston, Texas. trip to Albuquerque my freshman year, the of bad luck, it should be here by this football season, Band extended its footprint even further just in time for the reunion. Look for more on that NSIDE with a triumph in Salt Lake City. We even in the coming months. I ... became minor celebrities after a picture Moving from a celebration of the past to an excited Drill Master’s Report ... 2 of us celebrating Harvard’s second round anticipation of the future, the Band family has grown Over the River and... 3 upset last year went viral, with images of in plenty other ways in the past year. The class of new The Legend of the bandies recruited this fall (numbering some forty- us appearing on websites like the New York Katzenjammer... 4 Times and Fox Sports, and entire articles strong) has been one of my favorite groups of people focusing on HUB on major national sports that I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. Their Why Schneider... 5 sites like Grantland and Deadspin (some of cheery dispositions, incredible wit, and boundless Special Thanks... 5 which still show up on the first page of a enthusiasm for everything has brightened my day Reunion Reminder ... 6 countless times this school year, and I know they will Google search for “Harvard Band”). Conductor’s Corner... 7 And like my family, the Band holds set an incredible course for HUB over the next few periodic massive gatherings, otherwise years. I highly look forward to working and playing Student Awards... 7 Check out our website for a digital copy of the Bass Drum Journal and band updates! www.harvardband.org I THINK, THEREFORE I BAND his past year was full of tremendous achievements. The Men’s Basketball team made headlines with their first ever NCAA Tour- nament win in a massive upset of the New Mexico Lobos, and the football team finished their season off strong with a rout of TyAle and a serendipitous share of the Ivy title. All the while, the Band marched, or should I say, walked at roughly the same pace, steadfastly forward. We continued to support Harvard both on and off the field, as the Band has done throughout its storied 95-year his- tory. How did we do this? Let me count the ways: Men’s Ice Hockey vs. Princeton Band laid out newly discovered (Tigers 2, Crimson 1) evidence proving that the HUB The Band took to the ice at Bright- had actually fought alongside Landry Hockey Center for a game Washington in the American of GIANT CURLING, a titanic Revolution.[citation needed] take on an already titanic winter We described the Band’s heroic sport, as indicated by the type- achievements (it was a HUB setting in all caps. With the Band percussionist at Concord who lined up as the track, Prop Crew fired the “rimshot heard ‘round slid down the ice, sweeping an the world”) as well as our set- enormous curling stone from one backs—let’s just say that our end to the other. Though we start- flutes learned the hard way that ed just a bit too late to qualify for you should never bring a fife to Sochi, we are confident that GI- a gunfight. ANT CURLING will soon be a Winter Olympics staple. RESISTLESS OUR TEAM SWEEPS GOALWARD! @ yAle THE HARVARD UNIVERSITY VIKINGS CHARGE HEAD ON (Crimson 34, bulldogs 7) TO COMBAT THE BEASTLY BULLDOG. vs. Brown Our final and biggest show (Bears 23, Crimson 41) mately, we realized that despite our many of the year took the form of a In our first football halftime show of the differences, those Princetonians are pretty Viking saga. In order to vanquish a dragon year, the Band had our dreams of finally alright. to the south, the Band is send on a quest hitting it big crushed when we realized that across the barren wastes of Connecticut to Harvard’s Capital Campaign is not in fact vs. Dartmouth the even barren-er wastes of New Haven. a $6.5 billion fundraiser entirely for us. (Big Green 21, Crimson 24) Upon arrival, the Band is beset by a tre- Nevertheless, we mused about the motives The Band took to the field in celebration of mendous, blue, filthily-laundered dragon, of big-time donors like “Dolla Dolla” Bill the Red Sox’s 2013 World Series win, but but with little difficulty, the dragon is slain. Gates, and even daydreamed about what we our homage to their Sox-cess was cut short Prop Crew supplied a set of truly impres- could do with those billions, from landing a when our conductor was abducted from the sive props: a Viking ship with sail, a gigan- band on the moon to curing insomnia once podium by mysterious kidnappers tic axe, and of course the dragon, complete and for all. who were definitely not just with bright crimson “entrails” that erupted Prop Crew members upon its defeat. @ Cornell (Crimson 34, Big Red 24) in disguise. It was Our odyssey to Ithaca culminated in a a classic whodunit, All in all, it was a great year. I have to show that commemorated the release of the and we went through thank my Prop Crew Managers, Ellen much-anticipated sixth generation of Poké- all the likely sus- Robo and Eloise Wheeler for mon games.