The Original Film is Back Online

Thanks to Hugh for re-loading the original YMB project! It's back in all its glory.... well, silliness actually. Acoustically Unusual as ever!

Click here and enjoy!!! --> http://vimeo.com/18242035

The 2nd YMB film hasn't yet been added to the Vimeo library, but you can check it out on YouTube, silent movie style. As it is still muted, why not thrown in a really loud Funkadelic CD with a huge horn section, click on the link, and have a good laugh!

The Video is back... somehow!?

The 2nd Yosemite Marching Band film has miraculously returned! It somehow rose to the surface of the YouTube muck, and has been reborn! Click on the link at the upper right of the site.... Enjoy!!!!

Or, just in case, here's the link... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdJ5qZTAQ18

Part 2 has Vanished

Aaaaaghhh! Now YouTube just deleted our "YMB part 2" film! You can still view the first one, silent movie style, but the sequel has been vaporized. I'll try to figure out the rights & royalties someday soon... Until then... Sorry!

You Tube has Muted our Movie...

Yes, it's finally happened... We sort of expected that someday our YMB movie might run into this problem. YouTube now posts a message on our Yosemite Marching Band film that states "This video contains an audio track that has not been authorized by WMG. The audio has been disabled. More about copyright."

We used a couple of CD clips as the soundtrack to our YMB film, and tried multiple times to secure permission to use them. I went to various sites concerned with copyrighting music, and failed to find an easy way to either request permission, or to pay royalties for these songs. So I stopped trying. Now, with the audio blocked, the film is pretty pointless... So I can hopefully find the time to persevere and get authorization from Warner Brothers Music.

If anyone out there has experience with this, or can point me to an easy online site for royalties and rights, please do post a comment for me! Thanks....

Red Dots...

Here we sit in El Portal, CA, on a snowy sub-freezing night. The kids are sleeping on the floor between the cozy woodstove and the Christmas Tree (actually a 10-year old Manzanita branch that we use each year...). Karen is knitting on the couch beside me, and I am smiling about the Red Dots.

I never thought about how much I'd enjoy the Red Dots, but there they are... popping up across the globe on the YMB site's "Cluster Maps." It is so amazing to think about friends and family, around the world, logging in to view our silly YMB film. Poof! There's a dot in Bangalore! That one must be Sweety's family in New Delhi.... Dominican Republic? That's gotta be Leslie & Vic! Then up pops Maui Mark way out in the middle of the Pacific, and someone in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Has to be Apene, who Paul used to lead trips with in Mali. When he returns home, we might see a red dot appear in Bamako. Hugh and Mara are spreading the humor all around Nanjing, Jiangyin, and Shanghai.... they are giving Tuba lessons in China for a month-long exchange program, and producing a BIG dot in Jiangsu province. Dot dot dot all over the US and up into Alaska.... Hello Everyone!!!!

Red Dots. Pretty cool. Makes us feel connected to many loved ones far and near. MERRY CHRISTMAS! Happy Holidays! Savor the Solstice!

The New YMB Film...

Finally it's been uploaded... After a couple of years of languishing on the shelf, the "Yosemite Marching Band - Part 2" is now available for your viewing pleasure! Access it here on this blog, or go to YouTube - It's about 6 minutes long, and is a smorgasbord of the silliest YMB antics over the last few years!

H.A.M.B.A.R.F.

Being charter members of the High Altitude Marching Band Association, Region Five (H.A.M.B.A.R.F), poses its own set of acoustic challenges for the YMB. We have to maintain our instruments in top-notch condition, strictly adhere to our rigorous physical training regimen, and fill out countless accounting forms and travel vouchers for the award ceremonies and HAMBARF gatherings that we attend annually.

Of course, we rarely travel outside Region Five, which encompasses the mountain regions of the High Sierra, Cascades, Rocky Mountains, and the Brooks and Alaska Range. Someday we hope to join up with members of HAMBART (region 2) down south in the Andes, or perhaps go for the big Himalayan prizes available in Region 8 under the watchful eye of HAMBARE. We'd probably have to get back on eBay for some heavily insulated band uniforms... or borrow a few yak-fur cloaks and yellow wool hats from the HAMBARE members.

Hopefully we can get their complex and intricate high-altitude choreography translated from the Tibetan... Tashi delay!