Before anyone gets _too_ upset, I promise that this will be my final letter to
the DL about bands.
 
My first letter:  (the "dead horse" one.)  With the reference to "billions of
households" and several other aspects, it should have been obvious that the
note was just an amusing addition to the Clarkson/Cornell discussion.  I
thought the topic was a dead horse then - little did I know the derby had just
begun!  If anyone else has "just one more" idiotic, inane, childish, anti-RPI
"so there" one-up, please send it to me personally.  (where did this
black-and-blue nonsense come from?) (Please try Ross_Bracco.Wbst207V%XEROX.COM,
hope this works!)
 
Road Trips:  I know the RPI band went to four or five away games last year.  We
have not gone to Clarkson in a few years because their fans rolled our bus
once.  Very funny, if you consider vandalism a joke.  So we do travel.
 
The Knick: It was at a Patroon game (minor league basketball, i believe) this
year that our band started talking to the PR people there.  Since i am no
longer a student and do not live in Troy I don't know much more about that.
 
Please fill me in on this: a band with police escorts?  I'll be honest - i
dislike Clarkson as much as anyone (they are arguably the most hated team in
the ECAC, based on the mail i have seen here  :) ) and would sooner root for
the Iraqi Nationals or the Cleveland Axe Murderer Skating Satanists, but I
would not do something to physically injure a member of the band or team.
Students who cough up a few bucks for a seat at a game (or endure painfully
long bus trips) really have the right to say whatever they want, but when it
comes to physical confrontation, that's ridiculous.  Has anything like this
happened? (Of course, it's one more reason to take up the Tuba, which provides
almost full body armour.)  Not that i condone what appears often to be boorish,
arrogant behavior by Clarksonites who are proud of a very successful hockey
program.
 
Re: Skating Cheerleaders:  we have done a nifty Pep Band on Ice after a few
games, I think we got the idea from Brown.  The Zamboni and this dopey "hit the
puck through a miniscule hole from center ice" win-a-car thing take up a lot of
between period time.
 
As a final thought, I hope the Clarkson and RPI bands will make part of their
"Missions from God" to get together on stage to squeeze out a song or two, we
know about four "Blues Brothers" tunes and a lot of other standbys, so I am
sure there is common ground.  After that, you can go back to your seats and we
can hate each other again.   Ah, humanity!
 
Ross Bracco RPI `91 Totally Terrific Tuba Talent