Talking the Bernstein Movie and Ultimate Cheap Beer Rankings with Chris Van Hof

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For the first Fifth Position of the new year, Nick and Sebastian are joined by their favorite Michigander Dutchman Chris Van Hof, professor of trombone at Ball State University and Grand Poobah Assistant Manager of the International Trombone Festival.

We start by announcing guest artists for this summer's Third Coast Trombone Retreat! We then give our thoughts on the movie "Maestro" as well as debating our top five cheap beers. Ever wondered if Stanley mugs could be the new Beanie Babies? Wrapping things up, we muse over the perks of social media sabbaticals, the bygone era of messenger pigeons, and the thrills of performing a co-commissioned concerto. It's an episode peppered with Tex-Mex cravings, an invitation to connect (don't be shy to share your own stories!), and a warm reminder of the camaraderie within our music-filled world.

Lastly, we pay tribute to our late colleague Lance LaDuke, whose impact on our community will be missed immeasurably.

Check out the International Trombone Festival at www.internationaltrombonefestival.com

Also introducing special features with Patreon: www.patreon.com/tromboneretreat

Learn more about the Trombone Retreat and upcoming festival here: linktr.ee/tromboneretreat

Hosted by Sebastian Vera - @js.vera (insta) and Nick Schwartz - @basstrombone444 (insta)

Produced and edited by Sebastian Vera

Music: Firehorse: Mvt 1 - Trot by Steven Verhelst performed live by Brian Santero, Sebastian Vera and Nick Schwartz

Thank you to our season sponsor Houghton Horns: www.houghtonhorns.com

Support the show

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
That was my favorite one that I that I hope that I
ever hosted was.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
That was that one, my favorite one.
Yeah, you did a great job, butyou always do great job, but
that one, I mean, that was myfirst one going to as a
professional.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I won't say which one'smy least favorite, but yeah,
we'll leave it there.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
We all know it was Nashville 1973.

Speaker 4 (00:22):
Yeah, we don't.
We don't talk about that year.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yeah, we don't speak about Nashville on this podcast.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
Yeah, we don't.
We don't discuss the incident.

Speaker 4 (00:33):
It is the fifth position.
Happy New Year, welcome,welcome in.
It is a podcast of a trombonepodcast about something.
I'm here with my friend podcastsection.
Yeah, it's an inception of atrombone podcast.
You'll get it after like the50th episode, so just keep
listening.
I Am here with my friend,nicholas Schwartz, and we have a

(00:58):
special guest today, nicholas.
Who might that be?
Our, our favorite Dutch friend,mr Mr Chris van Hoff, professor
of trombone at Ball StateUniversity, emerald Brass,
gontet and how many of you mightknow him?
The assistant manager of theInternational Trombone Festival,
which, first of all, I thinkthat title doesn't befit Like
the prestige and the amount ofwork you have to do.

(01:20):
That just sounds like athrowaway, like, oh, he's there
sometimes and does stuff.
You need like a much more likeprestigious, like title.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
Yeah, well, you know it's cuz we had the, the two
staff.
We had Karen Marston as thedirector and Justin Cook was the
manager, and then I joined on,and so we just call me the
assistant manager but yeah, Ithink the reason I'm sure.
That's how I usually introducemyself, I think, like you know,
you know Grand Puba, like Cruzdirector, I don't know, like

(01:53):
something like that.
I think would maybe suit.

Speaker 4 (01:55):
Director of operations.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yeah, something or it could be like what if the title
stays the same but you add,like, like that, another title,
so it's, it's assistant.
What is?
Assistant director of ITF?
Assistant manager.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
His His highest cheek , dr Christopher von Hoff or
this is, there's a, there's thiswebsite that creates academic
job titles, so I could just kindof go for that like.
Like, instead of the viceprovost over there, I could be,
like, the assistant manager ofpeople and culture and and and

(02:31):
community synergy or somethingseriously.

Speaker 4 (02:34):
I mean, that's the best part about having like a
job you can really make thetitle, just whatever.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
So along those lines, the festival I play every
summer in Lake Tahoe, like inthe, in the Pam the book, the
play bill, whatever you want tocall it, they have the whole
works for listed in.
Everyone has a bio and you canput whatever you want.
And our tuba player, who's alsothe tuba player I sit next to
in the ballet, dan Peck Everyoneelse's bio is like, you know,

(03:03):
plays in this orchestra.
I've, you know, soloed herethis or in.
Dan puts a Tuba player at ConeyIsland zombie, zombie fest,
burlesque show and he probablydid that perfect and he did yeah
he's not a lie.
I did do that.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
Yeah, but it was always wanted to Include in my
bio, like here's what people aresaying about Chris Vanhoen you
should.
You sure played a hell of a lotof notes Jay Friedman, a minus,
john Marcellus, like thosekinds of things.
I think what really had reallyfly.
Yeah, thank you.
The United States Coast GuardBand audition committee.

Speaker 4 (03:43):
I love that no more people do that, because I used
to my job when I was at theManus College of Music, where
Nick is a professor now I Usedto.
My student job was in theconcert office and I'd be
writing bios and programs foreverybody.
And program bios are just soFormulaic and everyone writes
the same cliches and it's justlike anytime you do something

(04:05):
creative like that it's it'salways just like you get to know
your personality right away.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
Praised for their beautiful sound, celebrated,
touted, you know, all sorts ofwhat the best of his generation
Generation yeah ground-breakingartist.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
Yeah, all, yeah, we gotta have like the Larry David
bio like pretty, pretty, pretty,pretty good, just leave it.

Speaker 4 (04:29):
My graduate recital I had at Manus.
I had Like a tuba player inbetween.
Every piece like play Curb.
Your enthusiasm segues and youjust like poke his head out the
door and just go Bop-Oh-Oh,oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh.
Another one was the bum brimbum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum,
bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum,bum.

(04:50):
In like three people got it,but I was loving it, it doesn't
matter.
We do that for ourselves.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
It's not about the audience, so that's fine.

Speaker 4 (04:59):
Yes, that's true, that's actually true.
Well, chris, thanks for joiningus.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
Yeah, thanks for the invitation.
I don't know why you're wastingyour time with me, but I'm
happy Please please, it was justa matter of time.

Speaker 4 (05:10):
You're a radio professional.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
I did work in public radio for three years.
Yes, it's true.
Wxxi Classical 9015 inRochester, New York.

Speaker 4 (05:18):
Can you give us like a typical, like coming back from
like a Tchaikovsky Symphony,like oh, yeah sure yeah, so
you're not nearly closely mic'denough, though.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
that's the problem.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
I know you gotta get like and.
I'm a nasal tenor so I reallyneed the help of the public
radio mic.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
But like that was a Oslo Philharmonic.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
Yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah, that was Mara Sianzons
conducting the Moose ShootSymphony of Montana,
tchaikovsky's fourth symphonyComing up later.
We have music of Leo de Liebesand now news from National
Public Radio.
Oh oh, beep, beep, beep, beep,beep, beep, beep, beep, beep,
beep, like that.

Speaker 4 (05:54):
Oh, that's awesome.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
Man, that was adorable actually.

Speaker 1 (05:58):
I never expected to have that job.
I kind of fell into it after aninternship.
This is wild.
When I was like five years old,a little teeny tyke growing up
in Grand Rapids, michigan, Iwould go to Mrs Vries and his
house every day for like daycareand then my mom, would you know
, she would go to work.
And there was another kid therewho was like my little toddler

(06:23):
buddy.
His name was Dirk and I feelreally bad, I forgot his name.
But another, you know Dutch boylike me, vonsome and like yeah,
it was something like that, andso I'm like an NPR addict still
.
So I'm listening to NPR one dayand I hear this report from like
a local.
Sometimes a local host will geton the national show.
So there was one from Portland,oregon, and they're like that

(06:44):
was.
That was Dirk van der Hart fromPortland Public Radio.
I was like, holy crap, that's,that's the kid.
Oh, no, kidding.
Turns out it's true.
Yeah, so like in this, in MrsVries and his house, there were
two future NPR people.
That's huge, me and Dirk, if heain't.

Speaker 4 (07:00):
Dutch, he ain't much.
So, mrs, what's her name?
Ver, the Mrs Vries and hisVries and Go was basically the
Nadia Boulanger of future NPRhosts West Michigan NPR hosts
yeah, wow.
I can only imagine the drillsshe had to do.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
It was intense, man.

Speaker 2 (07:16):
Well, chris, you'll appreciate this, being from the
Dutch country.
Out there in West Michigan, mysister went to Hope College,
which is in Holland, michigan,for people don't know and very
by the name you could imaginethere's a lot of Dutch influence
in the town and in the school.
And when my sister graduatedthey announced everyone who's

(07:39):
graduating, walking across thestage, all that stuff and flying
through the alphabet and thenwe get to the Vs.

Speaker 4 (07:46):
It's like a million Going out there for a good while
Yep.

Speaker 1 (07:52):
Yeah, that's the way we roll.
We like to alphabeticallyspeaking, at least to Dutch.
We like to maintain a sense ofsuspense.

Speaker 4 (08:00):
I used to have a.
It's been serving us well forcenturies.
I used to have a complex aboutthat.
Growing up I was so jealous ofkids with A last names because
they got to sit in the front.
I don't know what it was and Iwas always last.
I'd sit in the back.
I was obsessed with looking upin the phone book of who has the
very first name, and it was alast name of odd like AAD.

(08:21):
And then one day there was akid in my class with that last
name and he was the biggestcelebrity I had ever met in
elementary school.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
That's immediate elementary school fame.
You're in front of the line.

Speaker 4 (08:35):
I keep trying to find some random story for my
childhood.
Nick hasn't heard yet, so thatwas a new one.
That's a new one Insight intomy techie.
So, nick, we do have some news.
We do.
The 11th Third Coast TremonerTreat.
This is actually breaking news.
We haven't We've had a softlaunch on our website, but it

(08:58):
will be June 4th through 10th2024.
And our special guest artistthis year will be Peter Steiner
and Kansanza, as well as.
As well as famous internationalsoloist Peter Steiner, who we
all love, we've interviewedearlier, and new principal
trombonist of the ClevelandOrchestra, brian Wendell.
How about that?

Speaker 1 (09:18):
That is it.

Speaker 4 (09:20):
That is an AOK lineup and the deadline is early.
We have an early deadline.
Save a little money.
March 15th and April 1st is thefinal deadline.
Find all the information youneed to know at
trombonercretecom.
Are you going to come hang outagain, Chris you?

Speaker 1 (09:36):
know I was like I pulled out my calendar
immediately because ITF is done.

Speaker 4 (09:41):
Yeah, it's the week after.

Speaker 1 (09:42):
Yeah, and yours is perfect Because, like, yeah, the
plan is because my kids aregoing to be in Grand Rapids with
my sister oh, andrea, becausemy wife is in her last year as
the ITF Youth Workshop director,so we're both down there, so
we're going to fly back to GrandRapids on that Sunday.
There you go.

Speaker 4 (10:01):
So, I want to come hang and I know there's nothing
more you want to do afterrunning a trombone festival than
coming and hanging out at atrombone festival.

Speaker 1 (10:10):
Yeah, but I don't have to run it Exactly.
It's weird.
Like me and Jay and Karen onthe staff, we don't hear much
trombone at all during thefestival, Like we're both
serious.

Speaker 2 (10:20):
You hear it all around, but just not
performances.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
You don't listen.
Yeah right, we're not actuallylike consuming it.
Yeah, our festivals are usuallyalone at our houses like
watching the video.

Speaker 4 (10:30):
You're like you trust that it's actually happening,
but you don't know.
It's like a tree falling in thewoods.
But yeah, I'll hang for sure,let's do it.
Cool, awesome, you were invited.

Speaker 1 (10:42):
And I'll give the endorsement and say that
everybody should apply, Becausewhat you all do, I think, is
truly unique and special.
I really appreciate it and if Iwas a student I would want to
go for sure.
Yeah, there's nothing like thatout there in the world.

Speaker 4 (10:58):
And a new brewery pops up every year.
We go there.
I feel like.

Speaker 2 (11:02):
Yeah, which is why Chris comes and the existing
ones get better and better.

Speaker 1 (11:06):
Yeah, beer, beer and trombone Best friends.

Speaker 4 (11:09):
So question pop culture.
Hashtag pop culture.
Did you guys see the Bernsteinmovie yet?
Yes, Maestro, Maestro.

Speaker 1 (11:20):
Yeah, I've got to be honest, I started it and then it
went to black and white and Iwas like, oh, this is a film,
it's not a movie and that's fine.
But when you have two kids andthey're both in soccer, you've
got to have time and a mind towatch a film.
And so I got through a littlebit of it and I was like, when's

(11:43):
the part where he berets JoseCarreras?
And they weren't getting tothat.
And then, I'm sorry, I watchedthe first 20 minutes.
That was all I got to do.

Speaker 4 (11:52):
I mean that kind of says something, though Possibly,
Maybe more than you were justsleepy.
It's true, but, nick, did youenjoy part?

Speaker 2 (12:05):
of it.
I feel like I'm one of the onlypeople who liked it.
Why'd you like it, tommy?
I thought it was a good story.
I thought Bradley Cooper wasexcellent.
Obviously, I mean, so manypeople are upset that, oh, why
didn't they cover more of hismusical theater stuff or more of
his whatever experiences, hisconductor around the world, and

(12:25):
it's like they focused on onearea of his life.
But it's like I mean, you can'ttell anybody's whole life ever.
Even when they did Lincoln, forexample, they didn't talk about
that he was a professionalwrestler, abraham Lincoln.
It's like someone could getpissed about that.
I suppose I would watch thatmovie.

(12:46):
Just Abe Lincoln in a stovewhat are they called?
Stove cap, stove pipe, stovepipe, hat Wrestling.

Speaker 4 (12:55):
What his nickname was .

Speaker 1 (12:57):
We need a hope.
I wonder if we could do an AIwrestling match of Abraham
Lincoln versus the Iron Shakeand just see what happens.

Speaker 4 (13:07):
Like who would win In an American flag body suit?

Speaker 2 (13:11):
I have a worse one Abraham Lincoln in FDR.

Speaker 1 (13:18):
Plus tough Franklin Delano Romanowski.
Chris, you're going to see howmuch I have to edit this episode
now that you're actuallyrecording live with us.

Speaker 4 (13:26):
Sorry, yeah, I mean I think nowadays it's so unfair
to be like bad, good, it'ssomething in the middle for me.
Obviously, I think it's such anawesome thing that this
person's life was brought moreto the fold, a little bit to pop
culture nowadays.

(13:46):
It was by every account by somany musician friends.
Bradley Cooper did his homework.
I mean, he spent so many yearsgoing to concerts and you just
kept hearing stories about himgoing to concerts and shadowing
conductors, so I do believe herespected them and took it
seriously.
I think seeing the RottenTomatoes score of 80, I think,

(14:08):
is like I'm OK with that.
Like for me it was, you know, Ithought it was very stylized.
They did a good job of creatingthe fashion, the culture, the
feeling of it.
I think they shot it on filmand he re-shot a lot of those
famous scenes that we've seenvideos of.
Some of the complaints were,you know, sometimes the language

(14:29):
.
I had to turn on subtitles like20 minutes in, because there's
just so much mumbling and fasttalking through cigarettes.
I thought that thechain-smoking, like cigarette
affectation, was a little overthe top at times.

Speaker 2 (14:44):
I don't know, I think that was pretty accurate.
I mean, I've never seen a videowhere he doesn't have a
cigarette, like a real video.

Speaker 4 (14:50):
Yeah and that's why I kind of like was OK with it.
It took me a while to like letgo of like I'm watching Bradley
Cooper, but eventually I wasable to.
But yeah, I mean the thecomplaints I read I kind of
agree with.
It's like, yeah, as musicianswe kind of watch it like a
little biased and we want allthese things to happen.

(15:11):
But like they really chose tofocus on his life and his
struggles with being publiclyhomosexual and it was just like
I just didn't think that was themost interesting part of his
life.
That's how I felt like what Iread about this kind of being
Oscar Bate and making it morefor these dramatic situations
that he could play out, ratherthan the extreme cultural and

(15:34):
musical impact he made onsociety, which it only kind of
talked.
That story didn't feel real asinteresting to me as far as I
knew as artists and I think thatthe comments about hisήσin

(16:00):
looking like that and Covid helpthe story while crossing its
main barrier to see his life arethe same as the time he went to
get to work impression.
But if I was like sitting inthe work show watching that, I
don't think that would have.
That would have driven me crazy.
But the biggest, the biggestcomplaint, obviously the biggest
failure in the film which wasjust shocking to me, is not one
LG Bermit B2 reference.

Speaker 1 (16:22):
Yeah, that right and that's this.
Is it again where I was kind oflike there were two things I
was looking for.
Well, first of all it was blackand white and again kids, tired
dad brain.
You know I need like punch,punch action.
You know this is what I need inmy life to keep my attention,
but like no berating of famousinternational tenders.
And then, yeah, no, no, likealeatoric kind of unaccompanied

(16:45):
trombone solo.
It's only two and a halfminutes.
You know how long was theruntime?
Like two hours 27 minutes.
They could have fit that.

Speaker 4 (16:52):
They could have started with it and ended with
it and maybe put it in themiddle.
It showed in the dog waggingthe tail yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (17:00):
Well, famously Bernstein, on his death bed,
when he was, his final wordswere don't let algae from hippie
get lost in the vast trombonemusical canon yeah, I heard.

Speaker 1 (17:13):
I heard that six months after he passed that um
that Ralph Sauer actuallyconducted a seance and he, and
from beyond the grave, bernstein, told him that you swing the
16th notes and algae from hippie, you know not a lot of people
know that.

Speaker 4 (17:30):
Ralph Sauer conducted seance, is you know, but he you
know he was west coast.

Speaker 1 (17:36):
Yeah, that's right.
Well, you know Los Angeles,there's crystals, there's all
kinds of things going on outthere.

Speaker 2 (17:41):
Yeah, he summers in Sedona to get closer to the
vortexes.

Speaker 1 (17:45):
Yeah, that he's a soothsayer yeah, but that's how
you learn how to interpret 16thnotes and burn size music.

Speaker 4 (17:52):
You know, otherwise we're just, we're afloat a drift
on a sea of of, uh, ignoranceand nick, you and you pointed
out, nick, they did a reallynice showing of fancy free, that
sailor bar scene in fancy free,which was really cool.

Speaker 1 (18:05):
Yep, I liked how they had Bradley Cooper.
Like you couldn't even tell,all of a sudden he was one of
the dancers.
I thought that was pretty cooland he's got dancers feet.

Speaker 4 (18:14):
Look at him man but yeah, they did a good job
showing like the fame orbit atthe end of how like bigger,
larger than life he was and howhe's just used to being, you
know, center of attention andit's like, yeah, you have to be
a little narcissistic like thatwhen you're constantly being
treated like that.
But you had the huge checksposition of like the home life,
of like hey, you're the dad hereand you need to be the dad and

(18:35):
the husband and yeah, yeah, so Idon't know, I liked it.
Nick doesn't want to get in hishead.
I did stop talking, stopplaying and what is the?

Speaker 2 (18:46):
what is this?
A film uh, film uh podcastpodcast.

Speaker 4 (18:51):
I love, I love movies .
Well, you're gonna love ournext topic, nick.
I love movies too.
I love them.
Oh, and also our friend DaveNelson, who's been on the
podcast, played in the film, orat least acted holding a
trombone in the film in one ofthe the New York orchestra
scenes and I think that also thebig mall or two was the London
symphony at the end well, thatwas juxtaposed right.

(19:13):
Well, there's two different,like big orchestra scenes I
think, and so there's like a newyork the mall or two, one I
think they.

Speaker 2 (19:19):
They film Bradley Cooper alone and then an
orchestra.

Speaker 1 (19:23):
Oh really, I think so oh, wow, yeah, I think you're
right, though it was.

Speaker 4 (19:26):
It was London, that was the orchestra interesting
well transitioning to a a muchmore serious topic.
Chris and I have been talkingabout this for a while and Nick,
I don't think I could have twobetter experts for this, this
topic but I thought it would bereally important to to list our
top five cheap beers.

(19:47):
Okay, I'm locked in, loaded,I'm ready.
Living in, you know, one of thegreat brewer brewer states, can
I say great brewer states ofMichigan come from a land, land
of hops and yeast in Cooper's inbarley isn't it like the most
breweries per capita, orsomething in Grand Rapids?

Speaker 1 (20:11):
in like Michigan, in the state of Michigan it might
be the state I know what, atleast at the time when I lived
in Fort Collins, colorado, whichwas in until that, was the most
breweries per capita for a city.
Hmm, when I lived there therewas like 120,000 people and 22
breweries.
Wow, but Michigan it might bethe winner for this day.

(20:31):
I know Wisconsin has the mostbars per capita yeah, what else
are you gonna do in Wisconsin?
exactly, yeah, but we're talkingcraft breweries.
Cheap beer, although I mightprove this wrong, tends to not
come from the craft brewery sowhat do you think, nick?

Speaker 4 (20:46):
do you think we should all say, like everyone
should just do their five, four,three, two, one, or we should
like rotate and do everyone dotheir five, then their four?

Speaker 2 (20:54):
I think I'll do the five, I'll do the four.

Speaker 4 (20:56):
Yeah, I'll yeah, like that okay, so I'll, I'll eat
off my number five.
Just, it's always, it's alwayssolid.
It was, it was a.
It was a staple during my gradschool days.
I like a good LeBat blue.

Speaker 2 (21:11):
Well, from our neighbors up north, the, the
apartment, the apartment above,a really good house party you
can find it in a lot of places.

Speaker 1 (21:19):
LeBat.
That's one that that's close tomy heart from the the five
years I lived in Rochester,because that was that was a
go-to beer in Rochester, newYork.
But yeah, it's, it's one thathas flavor.
You got a hand into that nicewell, what's your fifth?

Speaker 2 (21:33):
good old Miller light .
Nice, I like it, so it's mygo-to boat beer crisp.

Speaker 1 (21:41):
You don't have to think about it, it's basically
carbonated, slightly flavoredwater boat beer, and it's
superior to to the other leadingcompetitor by a mile, which is
Bud Light, of course that's truelike Miller light, far so out
of Bud Light, coors Light,miller light, you're putting
Miller light top of that.
Yeah, yep, all right, chris yeah, I'm, I'm gonna, you know, I'm

(22:05):
gonna stay in the same same area, but not light.
I prefer myself a Coors banquetmmm, mmm from golden.
Colorado the banquet yeah, ofcourse, coors banquet beer yeah,
that's a good one.
It has, you know, tastes likebeer.
You can, and then you know Ithere I'll be honest that you
feel a little bit better.

(22:25):
You can.
You can kind of inflate yourown little cheap beer.

Speaker 4 (22:28):
You go because you're like I'm having Coors banquet,
right now of the three mainflagship beers which you you see
way less of them in like a barthan the light versions, like
the light versions are always atthe bar, but like Coors
original Miller genuine draftand Budweiser, which do you
think tastes best?

Speaker 1 (22:48):
I, I mean, I gave it my number five on my list, as is
Coors for me.

Speaker 2 (22:53):
All the way, I think that is poppycock and Balderdash
language I am.
I am a fan of a Bud Heavy.

Speaker 4 (23:03):
Bud Heavy.
Is that what you call him, budHeavy?

Speaker 2 (23:05):
I've never heard that that my buddy Gray calls him to
differentiate from a Bud Light.
Got a Bud Heavy.

Speaker 1 (23:11):
God, that's great, my I learned that from my friend,
charlie Halloran, who's in liketop trauma employer in New
Orleans now, oh, he's from StLouis and he called he you know
he's called it a Bud Heavy and Iwas like what the hell are you
talking?

Speaker 4 (23:23):
about.
It's a perfect name.
Yeah, it's much better than aBud Light, that's for sure.
That's true.
Oh yeah, number four.
I'll have to go with anotherpretty major one.
Miller.
Highlife Just too much history.
Too much history.
You can buy the 30 pack of cans.
It's just there for you.

Speaker 2 (23:45):
I have a story about Miller Highlife.
I want to hear it.
So it's the champagne of beers,correct?
Yes, Correct.
We were drinking them when Iwas in college and my sister was
visiting and she leans to meand she doesn't drink like at
all.
And she leans to me and shegoes is it really made with
champagne?
And I was like Emily, don't saythat out loud to anyone else.

Speaker 4 (24:08):
Oh, you missed a big opportunity there.

Speaker 2 (24:10):
Oh, I had already roasted her enough that day.
She deserved a break.

Speaker 1 (24:15):
You can only call it that if it's from the champagne
region of France.
Oh, that's true.

Speaker 2 (24:19):
So it's really from the Miller brewery in France.
It's a sparkling.

Speaker 4 (24:24):
yes, it's their only import.

Speaker 1 (24:27):
Well, I mean you have one of those and it's all about
terroir or whatever that.
You have a champagne of beer,you can taste the landscape.

Speaker 2 (24:36):
Yep, yeah, you can really taste the industrial
complex.

Speaker 1 (24:42):
Yeah, yeah.
These hops were definitely likefertilized by a herd of free
range sheep off the New Jerseyturnpike.

Speaker 2 (24:52):
Oh boy, my turn.
I'm going way out of this one.
I guarantee it's not on any ofyour lists, but it is an
excellent beer Stroze.

Speaker 4 (25:04):
Nice, very nice.

Speaker 2 (25:07):
Stroze made a big comeback a couple years ago and
I picked up a 12 pack and I waslike this is a delightful beer
Right on when you're watching afootball game and you don't want
to sit around thinking aboutthe beer.
That brings me to another pointis I used to homebrew and the
guy who owned the only homebrewshop in San Francisco when I

(25:27):
lived there had like a YouTubechannel Grizz.
Rip Grizz.
He died, but crazy old man withdreadlocks that were down to
the floor and dragged behind him.
That's commitment they wereunbelievable and gross.
But someone asked him.
He was like someone asked mewhat my favorite beer is, and I
tell them my favorite beer isthe one that you drink.

(25:51):
And then you drink another ofthe same one, and about halfway
through that one you go oh thisis pretty good, yeah, and he's
like I don't want something thatpunches me in the face.
I mean, I can appreciate it, butit's not going to be my
favorite beer.
I want something that it's justso enjoyable you almost forget
that you're drinking it Stroze.

Speaker 1 (26:12):
Stroze I like to give the I got to hit it to Stroze
too for making it throughprohibition by pivoting to the
ice cream industry.
Yeah, really, you know, bravoto them, they figured it out.

Speaker 4 (26:26):
Stroze, did you just hit us with a Chris Van Hoff?
Fun fact.

Speaker 1 (26:29):
Fun fact yeah.

Speaker 4 (26:30):
A.

Speaker 2 (26:30):
CVHFF, that's right.

Speaker 1 (26:33):
Yep.

Speaker 4 (26:36):
And Nick, when you said that, when you said I used
to home brew, I was like bro, doyou even home brew?
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 (26:44):
What if yo-yo-ing became like the fad thing and
someone's like bro, do you evenyaw?

Speaker 4 (26:52):
You need to abbreviate yo-yo yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:54):
Brody yaw, All right.
Cvh Number four All right.

Speaker 1 (27:01):
So this one.
For me, this is like it'spersonal thing.
I spent a lot of time again inWestern New York the five years
I lived there, which was animportant formative beer for me.
And it's, but it's not Genesee.
And I'll tell you why it'snothing from Jenny.
Because one time we wentcamping on the Mohawk River,
just kind of outside of Utica,new York, and we got a bunch of

(27:25):
Jenny cream ale and I had a verybad experience.
We went to Walmart and boughtsome floaties and tried to float
down the river and it endedpoorly.
So Jenny, jenny cream ale and I, we have a bad time.
No for me.
Sebastian, you'll like thisliving where you do.
It's yingling, oh, yingling,get out of here with that.

Speaker 2 (27:47):
No, but just think I just had an argument about
yingling last night.

Speaker 1 (27:51):
But it's a specific kind of a thing.
So this is what it has to be.
Is it's one of two things?
Either you drink it warm out ofthe can, because nothing
matters and you just need boozeASAP, or ice cold in a frosty
glass.
And I'm talking this is like,like, all kidding aside, it's a

(28:11):
landscape thing for me.
There's this bar in justoutside Bloomfield, new York,
just south of the Thruway, wherewe used to go and drink, called
the Cottage, and you get afrosty glass with ice cold
yingling out of the draft.
Chef's kiss, nothing beats it.
So that's it for me.
Like I'm not going to go buysome yingling, but for me it's

(28:32):
like yeah all right, that's onethat I'll have, because it
brings me back to a time andplace.
That was a happy thing.

Speaker 4 (28:37):
So there's an interesting one, nick Wozier.

Speaker 1 (28:40):
America's Oldest Brewery, by the way, America's
Oldest Brewery.

Speaker 4 (28:44):
Nick, what was your beef with yingling?

Speaker 2 (28:48):
I mean it just kind of tastes like Ram's piss, I
don't know.

Speaker 1 (28:52):
Well, maybe it's like cilantro, Like to you it tastes
like that, oh interesting.
But to me, you know, it tasteslike some, like well, I don't
know what I could, I don't knowwhat I'm allowed to say on this
podcast.

Speaker 4 (29:06):
You get it there in Michigan, though, right?
Or is it more local?
You can get it everywhere, okay, yeah, yeah, I mean it's a very
above average cheap beer.
It's just I've had it so muchhere that I've had it in a lot
of varying like.
It needs to be fresh, it needsto be cold.
In a lot of bars of like heldonto it for a while, and when

(29:28):
you have bad yingling oryingling that you can tell has
been there a while, it is notgood.

Speaker 2 (29:32):
It gets skunky, it's like rolling rock, gets skunky
too.

Speaker 1 (29:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (29:36):
Is that your next favorite rolling rock?

Speaker 2 (29:40):
I'm going to call it right now.
I think Sebastian and I aregoing to have the same number
one.

Speaker 4 (29:46):
That's probably true.
It's probably true.

Speaker 2 (29:48):
We're going to Because we both, I mean we could
say it right now together, butI'm not going to.

Speaker 4 (29:52):
We need to get a sponsorship.
But that's the real reasonbehind this episode, you know,
Because a beer company reallyneeds to advertise with the
Trumbone podcast.

Speaker 1 (30:01):
I know, I've been trying.
I tag them online, I'm tryingto be a Bell's performing artist
and they just they never reply.
They don't know that they needyou.
You know what I'm saying?
Your taste, yeah, I think it'smore.

Speaker 4 (30:13):
I need them.
And then you know, some peoplehave some issues with the
political ties, with yinglingtoo, but we don't have to get
into that.

Speaker 1 (30:22):
Oh yeah, big donors Damn it.
Okay, well, you all right,maybe I got a Can't change it,
all right, fine, locked in.
My number.
Four sucks, but I told you why.
The cottage in Bloomfield, newYork.
You have a personal experience.

Speaker 4 (30:32):
That's special.
I mean, it's like, yeah, ittastes like Ramsmith.
So my number three.
You know I was a huge Coronafan for a long time, I don't
know why.
It's just always smooth.
I really like it, but Iactually I feel like I elevated,
even though it's a lotdifferent to Pacifico, being one
of my favorite crisp, warmsummer day beers.

(30:54):
That's a fantastic.

Speaker 1 (30:55):
Mexican.

Speaker 2 (30:56):
Lager With a little lion.
It's a good one.
Goes well with tacos.
I don't know if it's not quitea cheap beer.
It's a cheaper beer.
It's cheaper.
Yeah, who owns it?
Who owns it?
It's probably one of the fewCromerites, I'm sure.

Speaker 1 (31:09):
Probably.
I'm looking.
I need to know.

Speaker 4 (31:13):
So there's a tree with like only three
corporations that own everysingle beer.

Speaker 2 (31:16):
Yeah, I'm pretty much , yeah.
So my number three, along thesame path, we're going south of
the border, baby, we're goingwith those Echies Nice.

Speaker 4 (31:29):
There's a couple of different ones, right?
Yeah, which one?
Nick?

Speaker 2 (31:33):
I like the amber, the amber Classic.
Yeah, Green bottle Classic Limesalt.
Maybe you could even make likewhat do you call it?
You put a little grenadine init.
You ever done that?

Speaker 4 (31:45):
Whoa Now you're getting fancy.

Speaker 2 (31:48):
It's very interesting , that's a thing.

Speaker 4 (31:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (31:50):
Yeah, you can't remember the call it though.

Speaker 4 (31:52):
Huh, okay.

Speaker 2 (31:54):
It's very nice Good one.

Speaker 1 (31:55):
This is interesting because we're all kind of going
in the same direction and Iapologize, but I'm going to be
very broad in my number three.
When you're travelingthroughout Central and South
America, I'm going to say anybeer from South America, period,
because the way you drink it isice cold and it's always out of
a gigantic one liter bottlewith a bunch of other people,

(32:17):
it's like no matter what, italways hits the spot, it's
always the perfect beer.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
There's a beer from Singapore Tiger.
The way that they drink inMalaysia and Singapore is they
actually pour it over ice.
At first people are like, oh,that's crazy, but have you ever
had a Michelada before?

Speaker 4 (32:37):
Yeah, it's like same thing.

Speaker 2 (32:39):
Well, they pour it over ice with tomato juice.
I mean it's like it's iced down, diluted, it's flavored, it's
like what's the difference whenyou're in Singapore and it's 100
trillion degrees?
It tastes pretty damn good tohave like refreshing ice.
Yeah yeah.

Speaker 1 (32:51):
Exactly, I think it's the best thing in South America
and beer, because when it's hotand gross and then you're with
other show home players, perfect, can't be bad, with one
exception, and the one beer thatI won't drink from South
America is Brahma from Brazil,oh yeah.
Talk about Rams can Shots?
That's like bad fired, that'slike sweaty Brazilian.

Speaker 2 (33:13):
Rams, but it's bad.
What's the one from Costa RicaImperial?
Is it Imperial Imperial?
Yeah, With the black eagle onit.

Speaker 1 (33:21):
Yeah, that's a good beer.

Speaker 4 (33:23):
That's a very good beer.
You ever had prestige fromHaiti.
I should have included that one.

Speaker 2 (33:28):
I think I've had it at like a Caribbean restaurant.

Speaker 4 (33:32):
It's basically like the only beer you'll see there,
but it's like it's in a redstripe bottle, it's like tastes
very similar.

Speaker 2 (33:41):
Yeah, man, maybe I should have said red stripe, red
stripe.

Speaker 1 (33:44):
That's good.

Speaker 2 (33:45):
That is good on a beach.

Speaker 4 (33:46):
This is a good discussion.
It's a good discussion app.

Speaker 1 (33:49):
I like how our number three, they all basically
aligned, though it's basicallylike a we went south of the
border.

Speaker 4 (33:53):
Yeah, that's right, yeah, we're like get out of
America.
And Chris and I had a veryshared experience, just
different years, of going toTrombonanza in Argentina.
All right, santafé In Santafé,and something I always found, I
mean I would just chuckle everytime when they asked you what
beer you wanted.

(34:13):
Do you remember what theycalled IPAs, ipas, ipas, would
you like Tina's Ipa?
And I think like Ambers werelike Rubia.

Speaker 1 (34:23):
Yeah, I have tried to enjoy craft beer in South
America and it always justtastes like the end of a long
game of telephone.
Like IPA has been described andtranslated many times.
It's like no, not quite.

Speaker 4 (34:41):
Just go with the other things, drink the wine and
eat the meat there.
Yeah, what are we on?
What are we on?
Number two this is one of myfavorites.
Anytime I see it, I will orderit.
I don't see it very often.
Sometimes it's in that hipsterbeer category.
I love how the artwork looks onthe can.
It is a pork slap.

Speaker 2 (35:03):
Yes, I don't know if they ever had a pork slap Such a
good beer.

Speaker 4 (35:06):
Should Google image search?

Speaker 2 (35:07):
it.
Let me look this up.

Speaker 4 (35:08):
Yeah, it's a classic man, that's a.

Speaker 3 (35:13):
It's two naked pigs like jumping in there and
slapping their bellies togetherFrom butternuts, from butternuts
.

Speaker 1 (35:19):
Right, that's a great beer.

Speaker 2 (35:21):
That's the name of the brewery.

Speaker 1 (35:22):
Big fan.
Yeah, you can just go can aftercan of that.
That's from New York.

Speaker 2 (35:27):
I should go to the brewery.
Where is it?
Yeah, it's, let me look here.
It's, I mean, it's middle of afreaking nowhere that checks out
it is.
I mean, it's so far off thehighway that I'm still zooming
out.
I have no idea where.

Speaker 4 (35:45):
That's how you know.
It's in the mill and nowhere.

Speaker 2 (35:47):
It's like it's the closest city's connectivity.
Oh wow, so I got it's like Westof Albany by like an hour.

Speaker 4 (35:56):
It looks like is that where we're going to have our
next term bone retreat?

Speaker 1 (35:58):
retreat, oh dude apps of freaking Lutley, you got to
go.
You guys got to go to the poorside brewery.
That'd be amazing.

Speaker 4 (36:05):
It's like it's like one guy in there, just like he
has had a guest in years.
It's like the Indiana Jones.
When you discover the HolyGrail, oh, come in, come in.

Speaker 1 (36:16):
I wouldn't, I wouldn't give you a dusty.
Can you take a sweet?
He says you have chosen wisely.

Speaker 2 (36:24):
He grabs the glass and he's like that's good for
the beer in it.
I went to a wine store with mywife and the Catskills this is
like seven years ago and wewalked in and this wine store
looks like it had just beenrobbed.
I mean there was like noselection of anything.
So we pick, I mean, the onlybottle of wine that is possibly

(36:48):
drinkable and we're not pickyabout wine at all.
I'm talking about, like a winethat's made from grapes.
That was, that was our standard.
And so we pick out this bottleof wine, bring up to the
register and the guy standingthere and he's like I'm
surprised you found anything atall.
What?
I was like really.
He's like really he goes.

(37:09):
Yeah, I mean, nothing in hereis very good.
It's like wow, your, yourheart's really not in it.

Speaker 4 (37:17):
Is it support small business owners?

Speaker 1 (37:19):
No, Montsear, do you have the Boone's Farm blue
varietal?

Speaker 2 (37:26):
I.
I enjoyed the strawberrydaiquiri sunrise.

Speaker 1 (37:30):
Do you have the new Ecto Cooler Boone's Farm?

Speaker 2 (37:35):
I would legit drink that.

Speaker 1 (37:37):
I would drink this shit.

Speaker 2 (37:41):
My one of my roommates in San Francisco, we
discovered that neither one ofus had had Mad Dog 2020 before.
Have you guys had that before?
Malt liquor?
It's like a sweetened maltliquor.
And we we had just eaten lunchand we were like, let's get,
let's get a couple bottles andtry them, you know, and we had
each of us have like a quarterof them and we both of us got

(38:04):
like gut rot and we had to go tobed and this was like one of
that one in the afternoon andnever again we learn, we make,
we make decisions and we learnfrom them.

Speaker 4 (38:13):
Yeah, never Life.
What's your number two, nick?

Speaker 2 (38:17):
My number two is the classic blue ribbon.
Wow Paps.

Speaker 4 (38:22):
Oh, though it won a contest like once, like a local
contest, like forever ago, 1872.

Speaker 2 (38:29):
Yeah, this is our branding.

Speaker 4 (38:30):
Yeah, what do you like about the paps?

Speaker 2 (38:33):
I think it's the in some ways the quintessential
cheap beer, but it's not thebest one.
That used to be my number one,perhaps women, but it's cheap.
It tastes like something.
It doesn't taste like much, butit's just a very agreeable beer
.

Speaker 4 (38:52):
They really own that cheap beer demographic.
They've got their distributioncrazy and it's like cool to have
it and it's non-pretentious todrink it.
I don't love the taste.
I actually have one in myfridge right now.
I think you bought it, Nick.
I think it's been here sinceyou were here.
That's very possible.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
Man, all right.
So you say it's a veryagreeable beer.
It's my number two as well.

Speaker 4 (39:13):
Whoa Synergy.

Speaker 1 (39:16):
Yeah, I love me a pipper, it's just.
It's the one beer I reallydon't feel bad drinking.
The 16 ounce cans too, oh, thatgot her on.
Yeah, that's right, and I agreewith Nick, it's like.
It's like if an alien landedand they had no experience of

(39:38):
the human life or earth oranything and they said and they
just pointed to the word beer,you could give them a PBR, and
that's pretty.
That pretty broadly definesbeer.
I think I mean like, at leastas far as like well, we can get
in this country.

Speaker 2 (39:52):
Right.

Speaker 1 (39:53):
It's the.

Speaker 2 (39:53):
American, the American one.

Speaker 1 (39:55):
Yeah, it's nothing more.
It's good.
Like I feel like it used to bea hipster thing and then somehow
it survived, the hipster thing,and it's now.
Anybody can drink it.
You don't have to be.

Speaker 4 (40:08):
How much does a PBR cost at like a Michigan like
normal dive bar?

Speaker 1 (40:12):
I mean.
Well, the best, the best is in.
Sorry this isn't in Michigan,but in Muncie there's a place
called Savages and it's a buck50.
Oh man For a PBR.
They have $4 PBR pint days oncea week, or a pitcher days.

Speaker 2 (40:30):
Oh, that's gonna say four dollar pints.

Speaker 4 (40:31):
That's not really for a pitcher.
There's your recruiting pitchfor Ball State right there.

Speaker 1 (40:37):
Oh yeah, there's nothing to do except drink PBR
in practice.
That's why you should go toschool at Ball State and you
won't.
You won't lose any money,that's right.

Speaker 2 (40:44):
The pub in Whitehall where the retreat is pub 111,
they have normally, I think it'stwo dollar, two dollar PBRs,
and one day a week they're abuck, and you go there on that
day and all the people gettingoff their, their factory shift,
they just line them up at thebar, you know.

Speaker 1 (41:00):
I think it's in my.
In my opinion, it's maybe bestaccompanied at a bar, at least
not at home, but at a bar withjust a shot of Jim Beam.

Speaker 2 (41:08):
Oh, so are you talking about an?
Actual boiler maker ordeconstructed boiler maker.

Speaker 1 (41:14):
No deconstructed like shot of Jim Beam boom and then
enjoy the the PBR.

Speaker 2 (41:19):
For the remainder yeah, they do have synergy, they
do.

Speaker 4 (41:23):
Yeah Well, since Nik and I are the same, why don't
you, Chris, why don't you goahead and say your number one?

Speaker 1 (41:29):
Okay.
So now you said best cheap beer, yes, but, but weirdly I'm not
going macro brew on this.
I'm going with a craft brewery,but one that is from my beloved
home state of Michigan, andthey create a beer that has all
the great qualities of cheapbeer but is significantly better
, and it's from short brewing inBella Michigan and it's called

(41:51):
Locals Light.
Wow, and the reason I love thatbeer is because you can drink
it all year.
It's perfect.
It's like camping sports ballmiddle of the winter.
It is a it's a light Americanlogger, but it's really good and
you can get like a 20, at leastat my local liquor store here
in Indianapolis you can get a 24pack for 18 bucks.

Speaker 4 (42:15):
I'm no mathematician.

Speaker 2 (42:17):
That's pretty good deal.

Speaker 1 (42:18):
It's from like a real brewery but it's cheap, so it
qualifies, I think, and thatbeer I want to.
I'll advocate for that beerbecause it's real Short is a
fantastic brewery too.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:29):
I love short.
That's like great hang, goodplace to go Back to your
previous one, Chris.
I wanted to mention this.
Our old principal, Tremonist,Rick Chamberlain, rest in peace.
We used to go to this dive barthat doesn't exist anymore near
Lincoln Center, and first time Igo in with him he goes in and
he looks at the bartender and hegoes like this Thumb up thumb

(42:49):
down.
Do you know what that means?
No idea, and the bartender knewit right away.
It's like and I was like what,what is that?
And he was like a shot and abeer.
Whoa, that's the beer, that'sthe shot, and it could be a
handshake.
Yeah, you put it together withyour body, and he was surprised.
I didn't know that, butapparently, like I don't know,

(43:10):
when he was growing up, that wasthe thing.
We didn't have so muchselection either.
It's just like whatever ways,whatever beer you know, just
give me something Shot and abeer.

Speaker 4 (43:17):
Yeah, do you think that would work?
I think the bartender needs tobe at least over the age of like
55 for that handshake.

Speaker 2 (43:23):
Oh yeah, the bartender was like an old crusty
bartender.

Speaker 4 (43:26):
It's like I got you.
Yeah, that's cool.
Well, we are.
We are to our number one andthe audience is on the edge of
their seat Waiting with batedbreath, and I don't think anyone
that doesn't know us directlywould guess this.
But the number one beer and wehaven't even communicated this
yet, but I assume it's the sameone.
Do you like to do the honors?

Speaker 2 (43:47):
Nick, our number one beer is hams.
Let's go.

Speaker 4 (43:51):
It's a hams house.
Ham podcast.
This is a hams podcast.
This is a hams house.
H A M M Ham's down.
H A M M Yep.
What's their slogan?

Speaker 2 (44:03):
It is a tasty beer and it is so freaking cheap.
It's like I don't know how theymake money Like the aluminum
itself must cost more than thebeer.
I mean it's crazy From the landof sky blue water.
Hams is really good.

Speaker 1 (44:20):
I recently had a really fantastic evening at a
spot that will remain anonymousfor professional reasons.

Speaker 4 (44:29):
Yeah, you know what the groupies do.

Speaker 1 (44:30):
But with my buddy, rich Dole, who's a great bass
drum home player here inIndianapolis, he and I, he and I
closed a spot down with nothingbut hams.
That's amazing.
That is a high quality, that's.

Speaker 4 (44:41):
Bravo For how good it tastes and how cheap it is.
It's like I feel like anyonethat catches on to the secret.
I mean, I have a drive throughbeer place like a couple blocks
from my house.
That will just like throw up 30pack in the back of your car,
for I think it's something inthe 20s.
It's, it's nothing.
So good.

Speaker 2 (44:59):
Sebastian introduced me to the hams.
We were at the retreat and wewere shopping at the local
grocer and he threw he justnonchalantly throws a 30 pack of
hams in the cart and I was likewhat the hell is that?
Sebastian gave me that look,the look I've only seen twice in
my life from John's fashion era.
I don't want to know what theother?

Speaker 4 (45:19):
one was.

Speaker 2 (45:21):
I knew I must trust this man.

Speaker 4 (45:24):
And they have some amazing like old, like branding
and artwork.
That's really awesome.

Speaker 2 (45:30):
Well, there's an antique store next to a brewery
in Monoguue.
The antique store is now gone,but before, during the pandemic,
before it disappeared, I wentin there shopping around and I
found a vintage hams mug.
It's a handle, beautiful, andthat was a house gift for our

(45:51):
friend Sebastian here.

Speaker 4 (45:52):
You know, I drank out of that mug last night while,
while the soul, left my bodywatching the Dallas Cowboys.

Speaker 2 (46:00):
Oh, that was.
I was playing a show and I andthe game started pretty much
like right when the second halfof the opera started, and the
second half is like almost it'slike an hour and 40.
So I turned on my phone whenthe show was over and it was
halftime.
I mean, it was funny in thelocker room everyone had the

(46:22):
same thing happen.
It's like we turn on our phonesand it was like holy shit, oh
my God, the Cowboys are losing.

Speaker 4 (46:28):
You know, the least shocked people are deep down or
Cowboys fans, because we've justwe accept high expectations.
You know, I'd be okay if, like,we're just in, like we're just
terrible for decades one thingand you just like kind of lose
interest.
But the amount of hype and theamount that gets you to believe
every single year we've won 12games the last three years they

(46:50):
just always fold when it mattersand it's just.
It's a painful existence, but Iam happy for your, your lions,
to win their first playoff gamein a long time.

Speaker 2 (46:59):
That's great for the city Elated.

Speaker 1 (47:01):
Yeah, I had some friends.
I've been a football fan andI'm excited.

Speaker 2 (47:06):
I had a friend over from the great state of Michigan
watching some lines last nightgetting rowdy.
I mean cause?
No, no, honestly, no matter theoutcome.
Of course I'm very happy thatthey won.
You know, I would have beenokay if they lost not as okay
but it was a close game.
It was a really, really closegame.

(47:27):
That Cowboys game wasfrustrating as hell because I
just hate seeing any game thatin the playoffs is that.
It's a total blowout like that.
It just sucks to watch.

Speaker 4 (47:38):
Yeah, I love, I love our quarterback.
But he and he's either amazingor and when he's, you can tell
when he's nervous, when he's offand like as a performing
musician, like I have empathyyou know it's like when you're
off or if you're really nervous,everything feels different, you
know, and it's like you can'tbe your best self.
But he's.
Yeah, it's not a good trackrecord, but welcome back to the

(48:02):
third coast, welcome back to thefootball retreat podcast, beer
podcast.
Thank you for your top five.
I think we nailed it.
I think we got all the correctanswers.

Speaker 2 (48:12):
There's only one wrong answer.
Yeah, I feel bad about my don'tfeel bad, hey, there's a lot of
people love yingling.

Speaker 4 (48:20):
I mean that brings up the whole debate of like.
Can you separate the art fromthe artists?
Are you not allowed to enjoyMichael Jackson songs, if you
like?
Think maybe any of those thingsthat were said about a merger?
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (48:31):
Yeah, yeah, and you know how hard you want to edit
this.

Speaker 2 (48:36):
I could tell some Michael Jackson jokes.

Speaker 4 (48:39):
I hate you so much.
If you want this to ever comeout.

Speaker 1 (48:43):
So Michael Jackson and Richard Wagner walk into a
bar and order a yingling.

Speaker 2 (48:49):
There's some, there's some meat on that.
That fruit is worth a squeeze,you know, so I have a.

Speaker 4 (48:55):
I have a quick quora question.
Wow, that was, that wasalliteration and that is a quick
question Quora QQQ, q, q, cubed, triple Q, clear, with the
majesty that is quora.

Speaker 1 (49:09):
I think it's something on an internet.

Speaker 4 (49:11):
Yeah, it's like it replaced Yahoo Answers.
It's where you can just askquestions to the universe and
maybe someone will answer.

Speaker 2 (49:18):
It's the place that proves that, indeed, there are
such things as dumb questions.
Oh, good.

Speaker 4 (49:25):
This one's fairly interesting, though.
I searched the depths for weirdtrombone questions, but I found
this one.
So if you strum a guitar, youhit a drum, what do you do with
the trombone?
You strum a guitar, you hit adrum.
I mean you could say you slideone.
I guess that's the easyeffervesce you blast a bone.

Speaker 1 (49:49):
Buzz.
Will you activate the aircolumn?

Speaker 4 (49:54):
Oh yeah, that's the trombone.

Speaker 2 (50:00):
I can only imagine there are some answers like that
, some responses that are likewell, you know, you set up your
own machine.
I don't know the answer.

Speaker 4 (50:10):
There was a guy?

Speaker 1 (50:11):
I don't.
What is the trombone for?
How do you verb trombone?
I mean you slide.

Speaker 4 (50:19):
Slide seems like the safest, easiest answer Blast.
Or we could just make up likestrum.
That's not a word, let's justmake up a verb.
Yes, strum is definitely madeup.
Let's tromb a trombone,trombone, yeah, tromb, tromb,
tromb the trombone.
I gotta go tromb, trumb it out.

Speaker 1 (50:40):
That's one letter away from getting a little
political.
That's the problem there.

Speaker 2 (50:45):
Well then, okay, you obama, trombone you obama
trombone Thanks obama?

Speaker 4 (50:53):
What about a?

Speaker 1 (50:53):
what about Van Buren?
Like, let's go back to thepresident's.
You, grover Cleveland Van Buren.
Yeah, grover, you Grover.

Speaker 2 (51:01):
Grover, oh, grover Cleveland.
What a great name Grover is.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
Yeah yeah, nobody uses that anymore.
I feel like that's onlyadmissible if you have like for
a cat these days.

Speaker 2 (51:10):
I bet you there are.
There's a kid in Brooklyn whohas two parents and hyphenated
last name and definitely namedGrover and is allergic to
anything that casts a shadow.

Speaker 1 (51:23):
Yeah, his middle name is serendipity.

Speaker 2 (51:25):
Spell the Z.
You gotta figure out where thatZ is, you know.

Speaker 4 (51:30):
There's just a random Z in there.

Speaker 2 (51:31):
Yeah, exactly, the Z is silent.
My name's Nicholas, the I andthe P of serendipity.

Speaker 1 (51:39):
Yeah Well, I think it's like a dumb trombone
question.
Somebody at work asked me lastweek who's like at Ball State,
who's not.
He's like a scientist orsomething like an actual
academic, not like me and hegoes.
I've never heard this onebefore.
He said, hey, I got a question.
Is the trombone the instrumentthat's the easiest to tell if
it's being played wrong?

Speaker 2 (51:59):
Hmm, whoa, that's actually a really good question.

Speaker 1 (52:02):
And what his rationale was.
He's like I just went to mykid's fifth grade band concert
and he's like I knew that allthose trombones were wrong
because they were not movingtheir slides at the same time.

Speaker 4 (52:12):
Oh yeah, that is yeah .

Speaker 2 (52:14):
And so with that explanation, I was like, yeah, I
think you're right, but ifthey're, yeah, if they're all
playing the same part,absolutely.

Speaker 1 (52:19):
Well, that's what you're saying.
He's like I used to playtrumpet and he's like fifth
grade band.
They're not doing three partharmony in the trombone section.

Speaker 2 (52:25):
They're not.
They're not doing.
Transcriptions of Jez Waldomusic.
Yeah, there's no motets up here.
Six part motets, you know yeah.

Speaker 4 (52:35):
Yeah, visually we can't really hide because it,
like you know, the second thatyou make the slide start going
the wrong direction and thenyou're like, oh no, it's flat,
and then you try to change itlast second.
I mean everyone can see that, Isaw.

Speaker 1 (52:48):
I was watching the the NCAA tournament a couple of
years ago in.
Western Michigan, in my almamater.

Speaker 2 (52:52):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, WMU .

Speaker 1 (52:57):
Go Broncos.
They were in the tournament andand here's they show the pet
band.
And here's this, this young manin the trombone section of the
Western Michigan University petband.
They're playing the fight songwhich is in E flat major homeboy
plays second position for a D.
That's not acceptable and I'mlike bro that's.

Speaker 4 (53:16):
Well, was he playing alto trombone.

Speaker 1 (53:19):
There was, and it was not, a secondary dominant.

Speaker 4 (53:22):
It was like I know the line this is it's a
descending skier Doctor, doctorChris Vanhoef.

Speaker 1 (53:27):
Yeah, it was over.
It's over a four chord, it's aLydian sound and like this
second.
Come on bro.
Well, if we're using Shankariananalysis, and let's synchronize
the WMU fight song.

Speaker 2 (53:44):
Yeah, that's.
That's what if someone presentstheir thesis in its Shankarian
analysis of college footballfight songs?

Speaker 4 (53:53):
Hey, you're a professor of manners.
That's like the bastion ofShankarian analysis.
Yeah, it is Go NAR walls, goNAR walls.
I was going to just say like ageneral go cats.
When you mentioned ball state.
I think I'm just going to.
Anytime someone mentions theircollege, I'm just going to be
like go cats, go cats.
No, we're the Cardinals.
Chirp, chirp is our thing oh doyou see that is so lame, that's

(54:14):
intimidating, very threatening,that's intimidating.

Speaker 2 (54:17):
Yeah, cardinals is a fine name, but chirp, chirp
Really.
How about, like peck your eyesout, right?

Speaker 1 (54:23):
Yeah, shit on your car Like something.

Speaker 4 (54:25):
Exactly, and Stanford has made it more like
dominating by just making itsingular.
The Stanford Cardinal.

Speaker 2 (54:33):
The Cardinal.
And then there are mascots atree which my cousin was the
mascot for Stanford.

Speaker 4 (54:39):
Wow, oh wow.

Speaker 2 (54:40):
He was.
He was the tree.
Dream big, that's the dream,yep.
And the thing is, you know,stanford, they're the mascot.
You, of course, you apply forit, try out for it, and part of
it is you make your own costume.
Every mascot has a differentcostume.
It's all a tree, but it'shomemade and that's part of the

(55:01):
judging process.
How like you need to?
Whoa, yeah, he was on an ESPNcommercial one where they had,
like, the offices in Connecticutand he was like there, dressed
as the tree.
They flew him in from Stanfordto Connecticut.

Speaker 4 (55:17):
I didn't know that you knew a celebrity, Nick.

Speaker 2 (55:19):
They flew him from Stanford to Stanford.
Whoa Yep.

Speaker 4 (55:24):
Wait, could you say?

Speaker 2 (55:25):
that again.
Yes, so, christopher, can Icall you Christopher?
Christopher, no, dr.
Vanho Dr.
Can I call?

Speaker 4 (55:31):
you Stoff, that's an old thing.
I'll take that Bro.

Speaker 2 (55:41):
What's any news you'd like to announce?

Speaker 4 (55:43):
with the festival International.
Trumbo and Festival.

Speaker 1 (55:56):
Oh yeah, well, you know it's.
It is happening slightlyearlier in the summer than it
has in years past.
This year's edition is going tobe at TCU in Fort Worth, texas.
Dave Begnos is our host.
Who's the Lovely?
Lovely man TCU.
He's super easy to get therebecause DFW is a gigantic

(56:17):
airport, or you can find in.

Speaker 4 (56:19):
Lovefield Get a lot of burger out there.

Speaker 1 (56:24):
And yeah, so it'll be cool, and Dave's put together a
really great artist lineup.
You know, some of the personalhighlights for me that I'm
excited about is the AmericanBrass Quintet with oh, that's
right, they're coming yeah thelongtime bass trombone player,
john Rojak, of course, and thentheir brand new tenor trombone
player, hilary Sims, is going tobe there.

(56:46):
She's also going to be playingas a solo artist, and so is John
, so they're doing the Quintetand solo stuff.
Somebody who's been at ITFbefore and we're really happy to
have him back is Jose MiltonFiera from Brazil.
Who, man?
I think he's just one of themost beautiful players on the
planet.
He's incredible.
Yeah, he definitely has, andthen he had 2024 is a big year

(57:08):
for us in the trombone world.
It's the centennial year of theone and only JJ Johnson,
Indianapolis' own JJ Johnson.
So we'll be celebrating JJ'slegacy on the evening concert
with a big band backing up somegreat soloists Vince Gardner
from Lincoln Center, GuntherBolman from the Frankfurt radio

(57:30):
big band in Germany, Nick Finzerfrom right there in Texas.
So that'll be cool.
Oh, and then this is also hugetoo.
This is a huge thing that Davehimself helped put together.
He convinced the FortwoodSymphony to extend their season
by a week at a concert thatincluded a brand new trombone
and piano double concerto byKevin Day for your upcoming

(57:56):
retreat guests, Peter Steinerand Constanza Hawkworter.
So double concerto for tromboneand piano with the orchestra,
and then on the second halfthey're playing Mahler five.

Speaker 2 (58:06):
So that'll be in that .

Speaker 1 (58:09):
Yeah, that concert.
They're playing it three timeslike a normal subscription
series concert.
But the Friday night one islike going to be ITF night.
We'll get a block of ticketswhile we'll be over there.

Speaker 2 (58:19):
Can you imagine being a violinist in the Fortwood
Symphony and being like thewhole audience is trombone
players because there's afestival happening down the
street?
Probably just like mind blowingto them like what the hell is
happening.
Got to give the people whatthey want.

Speaker 1 (58:35):
I know, I know Right.

Speaker 4 (58:37):
That's awesome yeah.

Speaker 1 (58:40):
We've heard enough of the Sibelius violin concerto.
He's had his say.

Speaker 4 (58:44):
Now it's time for Kevin to have his day.
Thank you, thank you, goodnight, thank you.

Speaker 2 (58:53):
If this concerto is anything like his other music,
it is going to be on the edge ofunplayable.
That's really cool.

Speaker 1 (58:59):
Yeah, our mutual friend Evan Conroy.
He and I commissioned Kevin towrite a duo.

Speaker 2 (59:05):
Oh that duo is crazy.

Speaker 1 (59:07):
It's a badass piece but like it's freaking, it's so
hard it ends six octaves apart,of course, like double pedal E
and triple screamy E and likethat's really cool.
You need someone to play cajonas well.

Speaker 4 (59:20):
I need some cajonis.

Speaker 1 (59:21):
I remember that.

Speaker 2 (59:22):
Yeah, and Renee Orrth , the piece that you guys also
commissioned.
Yeah, she brought a great piece.
She's a friend and she sent methe recording you guys made.

Speaker 1 (59:34):
Oh, wow.

Speaker 2 (59:34):
Yeah, that's just.
That first piece is really cool.
It really is, yeah, so I lookforward to hearing the whole
album.
Yeah, we need to get it on theservices.
I know when you're going to getthat out there.

Speaker 1 (59:46):
Well, we got all the masters, it's all done, I think
I just got to package it up andthen figure out how to get it
self released.

Speaker 2 (59:52):
Oh, I guess I should say that you recorded an album
with Evan Conroy, my dear friendthat I went to high school with
outside Detroit, and now thebassist of the Louisiana, phil,
and you went to Western Michiganwith them.

Speaker 1 (01:00:06):
That's right yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:00:07):
There we go, the small world we're both in.

Speaker 1 (01:00:08):
Bronco marching band and yeah, so yeah, we did it.
We did this album with fivepieces we commissioned and it's
finally all done.
It was kind of a pandemic eraproject for us, but it's all
done.
We just got to get it out inthe world a little bit.

Speaker 4 (01:00:22):
Yeah, I heard your duo recital at the ITF in
Columbus.

Speaker 2 (01:00:27):
That was in Columbus, yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:00:29):
Oh yeah, the time is like some it was like.

Speaker 2 (01:00:32):
Collins.

Speaker 4 (01:00:33):
Williams recital or something.

Speaker 2 (01:00:34):
So it's like it's either Collins or Sassra's or I
can't remember, but anyhow, butI was there.
I remember I went to bothconcerts.
I was like I listened to onepiece of Collins recital or
George's or whatever, and then Iwent over and listened to like
one piece of you guys's becauseI wanted to catch both and it
like.
So I heard half of each recital.

Speaker 1 (01:00:53):
Sounded great.
Yeah, that's the challenge withthe ITF.
It's just not a real ride.
We do get things archived soyou can go back and listen to
things Absolutely.

Speaker 4 (01:01:01):
So that helps Absolutely and we're going to
make our best efforts.
We're planning to be there andwe're working on scheduling
another podcast, but if and whenwe do, we will share the news,
for that.
It's always really fun.
We've gotten to do livepodcasts there the last three
years with Joel Essie, christianLimburg and Bill Reichenbach
and Alan Kaplan last year andthose are all up on the feed

(01:01:23):
that you can listen to.
But always a lot of fun.
So if I can just shift to ourgratitude of the week, I just
wanted to take this time.
We actually the three of usscheduled, we're scheduled to do
this podcast a few weeks agobefore the new year, and it was.
It was the day that theyannounced that we lost Lance
Laduke, and so we it just didn'tfeel right to record that day.

(01:01:45):
But you know, as many of youknew, no, lance was related to
the Turnbone retreat for manyyears and a guest speaker to our
our camp and what youtragically lost him early.
He was a professor of music,entrepreneurship and and
euphonium at Carnegie MellonUniversity and many of you know
him from being on the brassjunkies podcast, which we love.

(01:02:06):
But anyone that knew himpersonally just incredibly
inspirational person you just,anytime you're around him you
were just so excited about.
He wanted to hear about yourcareer goals and how, if he
could help you.
He was one of those people thatif he could help you, he would
help you.
He played in the River CityBrass Band that I am in and when
I first started and he was oneof the big draws for me wanting

(01:02:28):
to play there, and I can tellyou from all of his colleagues
here and many of his studentsthat are around here, it still
feels not real.
It just doesn't.
I think my colleagues said itbest.
It's just like it doesn't makesense that Lance is not here.
So he had a bad fall and youknow, especially with things
getting icy now, just be careful.

(01:02:49):
But you know, when we announcedthis podcast for example, nick,
you may remember this I sent outa big newsletter announcing it
and the very first email I gotimmediately back was from Lance
being like congratulations onthe launch.
That's so cool, like he couldbe, like I think we're in
competition or view it that way,and he's the first person to
reach out and countless studentshave been inspired by him.

(01:03:12):
So it's.
I just wanted to honor him alittle bit and you know I can't
wait to hear more of what AndyHitz has to say on his podcast.
But, lance, there's gonna be amemorial March 23rd in
Pittsburgh at 1 pm if you happento be in the area.
It's just a big celebration oflife for a great, great human.

Speaker 1 (01:03:32):
Hmm yeah, thanks he's a person in our, in our
industry, who you feel like youknow him, even if you've never
met him, because of the storiesof everybody.
Everybody speaks about him thesame way like your.
Your words are so accurate.
I never met him personally, butit's like you feel like you,
even just hearing about him,like you feel you feel good,

(01:03:53):
like oh yeah, that's, that's howpeople should be in this
business or just in life ingeneral yeah, definitely,
definitely role model in a lotof ways and Nick I mentioned in
a post we made about him.

Speaker 4 (01:04:06):
How you know, the first year we had him come speak
the retreat, I think he did anonline session, yeah, and Nick,
properly skeptical, like didn'tknow him very well, he's like a
euphonium player what are youtrying to do to me here?
And I was like dude, this guy'sjust awesome and I just I
wanted our, our camp not just tobe only trombone, but like life

(01:04:27):
as well and creating a careerand opening people's minds to
certain paths.
And he had such a unique way ofcreating a career and he never
did anything that he wasn'tinspired by and he gave this
talk and, like Nick, nick gaveme a hug afterwards because we
all felt just so inspired afterthis talk, you know, and we
wanted him to be a fixture and,you know, huge influence to the

(01:04:51):
retreat, huge influence to us.
It breaks my heart to say it,but so I'm.
I guess I'll just formallyannounce here I'm, I'm starting
a position at the ClevelandInstitute of Music, starting the
semester, and I'm gonna do somechamber coaching, but I'm also
gonna teach a course on kind ofmusic, entrepreneurship and
digital media, and I wasliterally planning to call him

(01:05:13):
like that week to get advice,because it's it's very much what
he does at Carnegie Mellon,right and, and like I was, like
you know, I'll catch him nextweek.
Yeah, I'm kind of overloaded andthen you know, you hear the
news of being in the hospitalistis another lesson of like
always tell the people aroundyou you love them, always reach
out to the people you care about.

(01:05:33):
You know, turn off the TV showand make a call to someone you
haven't talked to in a while.
It's like it's one of one ofthose kind of things.
That's my news.
That's yeah, so things comingup.
More podcast I have a few funideas.
Albeit the Texas MusicEducators Conference team yay,
coming in February if anyone'saround for that.

(01:05:54):
It's always a cool spectacle.
I'll be with Houghton hornswith the debut of my signature
mouthpiece that I'm extremelyexcited about.
So please come by and say helloif you're there, chris, how can
people find you?

Speaker 1 (01:06:09):
probably the best, although in the best by on
Instagram at CVH Trombone, youhave a great Instagram, although
, if I'm honest, I've I've beentaking quite a quite a
significant break from thesocial medias for my own mental
health and it's proving to besuccessful.
That might continue, but I'mchecking in there once in a
while when some things come up.

(01:06:29):
Yeah, yeah, soccer dad lifewhat about smoke signals?

Speaker 2 (01:06:33):
would that?

Speaker 1 (01:06:34):
work for messenger pigeon.
They're more environmentallyfriendly.
Mmm, that's true, go up go upthere very little yeah, like
pigeon farts are not as bad ascow farts.

Speaker 2 (01:06:46):
So well, if you knew anything about birds which I
know quite a bit about birdsdon't fart.

Speaker 1 (01:06:51):
I've my understanding when internet birds aren't real
.

Speaker 2 (01:06:53):
They're actually right, there's government.
Their government plans to spyon us yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:06:58):
So you know, given that you know they're great for
transmitting messages as well?

Speaker 4 (01:07:01):
yes, of course go say with Chris at at Ball State.

Speaker 1 (01:07:06):
It's an awesome school yeah, you can find us on
the Instagram to Ball StateTrombone, and then I will
shamelessly plug that I'm veryexcited at the end of February
to.
This is really cool for me.
I'm playing a concerto, a piecethat I co-commissioned by Jim
David me and drew Leslie out of.

Speaker 4 (01:07:22):
Colorado are two.
First, names.

Speaker 1 (01:07:24):
Co-commissioned it David yeah, great piece.
So is Drew.
Leslie yeah, true, but Jim's agreat composer at this piece is
super cool and I'm playing itwith the Castle High School band
in Newburgh, indiana, which isa huge band program, and this is
just cool for me.
I want to say and give a shoutout because it's my, my former

(01:07:44):
student at Ball State, grantWintran Hymer, is the band
director there now, so that'skind of cool for me.
I guess that's awesome pieceand with my student conducting,
I'm excited about that and Ididn't awesome.

Speaker 4 (01:07:54):
That's very cool.
And I forgot to mention, like,if you don't want to come to ITF
for the Trombones, come for thefood yeah, we are gonna be in
Tex-Mexland, which is Nick'sfavorite.

Speaker 2 (01:08:06):
I love Tex-Mex and barbecue.
I will say when you're cravingMexican food, tex-mex doesn't
quite, quite get you there.
There's a difference.
It's it's its own thing and butthere's sometimes you're just
craving a plate, like a mixedplate of enchiladas and some
floutas or something and somereally, really fatty refried

(01:08:28):
beans baby.

Speaker 4 (01:08:31):
Oh, it is lunch time.
Yeah, hey, chris, thanks forhanging out with us.

Speaker 1 (01:08:34):
Man this is a treat.
Thanks for the invitation weshould do.

Speaker 2 (01:08:37):
You say it's a retreat wait, could you say that
?

Speaker 1 (01:08:43):
again slapper in comedy.

Speaker 4 (01:08:48):
That's what they call a callback hey, oh, thanks for
hanging out with it.
I know you have a very busyschedule with teaching and with
having children, so is alwaysgood to hang out with the real
radio professional that actuallyknows how to do this kind of
thing.
So we are honored and we lookforward to hang out in person
sometime very soon yeah it'llhappen.

(01:09:10):
We shall make it soon.
If you see Chris at the ITF,give him a hug and just say hey,
you're doing great, you'redoing great.
Did you get enough sleep lastnight?

Speaker 2 (01:09:19):
well, I got a better one can.
Can they go up to Chris andjust grab him by the nape of the
neck and go what happened?
And then walk away that?

Speaker 1 (01:09:28):
they know that doesn't need to happen, because
I do that to myself everymorning, that's that's.
They could just break, justdrop by with some PBR or hams
now they know.

Speaker 4 (01:09:38):
Oh man, if someone showed up with your top five
favorite beers and just like alittle pack for you, oh, you
know what I do I borrow mywife's 40 ounce Stanley mug and
just see what happens if youwhat's up with the Stanley?
Why is everyone obsessed withStanley mugs right now?

Speaker 2 (01:09:55):
the internet.
I love the.
I love the people that aretrolling their wives, making fun
of their Stanley mugs by likecarrying around like a like a 40
gallon trash can with a handleon it is that also?

Speaker 4 (01:10:08):
that's neat about it, it's just really big it's
insulated big yeah, hasn't thattechnology been around already?
They?

Speaker 2 (01:10:15):
keep yeah, pump these by hot day.

Speaker 1 (01:10:16):
Hot, yeah, and they made them in cool colors and
then they got influencers toinfluence.

Speaker 2 (01:10:21):
See, and you can add little trinkets on them.
Right, can't get little littledangly things to hang off the
straw and stuff?
Yeah, they're like the.

Speaker 1 (01:10:28):
They're like the beverage version of Crocs.

Speaker 4 (01:10:31):
I've seen these videos in Walmart of people
tackling each other for likethese pink Stanley mugs.
I was just like what?

Speaker 2 (01:10:36):
why it's a they're they're like beanie babies or
tickle tickle me almost orfurbies okay.

Speaker 4 (01:10:45):
Well, this has been the fifth position, and I wish
all of you to make it a greatday and if you're feeling off,
find you some hoff oh, likeDavid Hasselhoff, but don't
hassle the hoff, don't hasslethe hoff we're trying to come up
with like taglines to end with.
So, chris, if you got anythinghot that you just some some

(01:11:06):
pithy thing you want to say,feel free, pithy pithy like a
nape, not a kind of a headgear,yeah, but piths, piths also the
part of the like citrus fruit.

Speaker 1 (01:11:20):
I think we're nailing it right now.
Actually, guys, we got it, yougot it.
If you're seeking a citrusflavored headgear sold to you by
an academic trombone influencer, look no, flow doesn't really
held it.
I'll keep the day job.