NOTES FROM PIPEY'S CORNER

Volume VI Number 6; Christmas 2000

IT'S 'HO HO HO AND A BOTTLE OF RUM' TIME

Christmas comes but once a year - jeez, it's Xmas time already! Hard to think that only two weeks ago I was screaming with 'spinal headache' and getting a four inch needle shoved into my spine for a blood patch - a truly exquisite experience I hope you all miss - well, most of you, anyway.

PLEASE NOTE: We will be CLOSED from Dec. 23-29 for a much needed Christmas break. We'll reopen on the 30th if you need anything locally. Otherwise, we'll be back here for mail/phone orders on the 2nd.

I can't adequately stress the importance of the MacDonald Regional on the tenth of this month, If you're anywhere near San Diego on that date, please join Black Part and the other competitors at the Hyatt Islandia , 1441 Quivira Rd, on Mission Bay in San Diego. Competition starts at 8 a.m., and tickets are only $5.00 for this important open competition. That's exactly what it means - OPEN. Two grades, Professional and Grade One, MSR and Piobaireachd events for each grade. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN COMPETING, CONTACT: Robbie McKnight, 4956 Perkon Place, San Diego, Ca. 92105, IMMEDIATELY to get your entry in. This competition honors the memory of one of the finest gentlemen pipers of the 20th century; his legacy is the hundreds of students he knew and taught, and the winner will go to the USPF in June of 2001.

As a little Christmas bonus for all of you we here reprint two of our favourite pix - one sublime, one ridiculous. Let's start with the good one, from Gerry in Nova Scotia, 2/Bn Black Watch in Germany 1962, P/M Willie Gilmour, D/M Mike Phealin - a classic formal band pic of the 1960s:

Many thanks, Gerry!

The Pipe Major, William Gilmour, composed the hornpipe 'John F. Kennedy' for their North American tour the following year.

Now for the Idiot Photo of the year, found on Ebay, no less:

This Nimrod was trying to sell the set of pipes - a 1970s set of Graingers. Note the stance; the perfect posture; the drone positioning - hell, we've got ourselves a Gold medallist for sure! Wow! I wonder what reeds he plays - MacShite?

Black Part Speaks:

Well, its Holiday Time again. Last year some of you may recall that Black Part initiated some complaints with the WUSPBA. ALL OF THEM LEGITIMATE; ALL OF THEM IGNORED!!! This resulted in the initiation of a lawsuit in U.S. District Court-Reno. (NO! WUSPBA is not immune to lawsuits! NOBODY, and certainly NO ORGANIZATION in this country is!!) Anyway, I have only one major gripe this year. And it is, or should be on everyone's mind this year, particularly with the Dysfunctional Presidential Election of 2000! Your vote, especially if you happen to be a Florida resident DOES MATTER! But in the DYSFUNCTIONAL WUSPBA your vote don't mean squat! If you are a solo performer, you only get to vote if you can make it to the Las Vegas Annual General Meeting! And if you do manage to get there, the bands get SEVEN VOTES to your ONE! OUTRAGEOUS!!!! Also against the law!!!! The ACLU would have a field day with this. It is time that the WUSPBA gets its act together on this. The solutions are simple: Allow absentee ballots; Every single vote counts; Bands, all, or most of which are incorporated SINGLE entities get only one vote, not seven; All solo and band members, as well as games sponsor members, vote on all issues. Don't like the solutions? Then be what you started out to be: A Pipe Band Association! Let the solo members go! Then you can go off and do your band politics! Most solo members didn't want to be involved in your petty politics anyway. Most soloists just want to play! Of course without some positive movement to resolve this major gripe by the WUSPBA, somebody could pay a visit to the Reno Federal Court House again. But we'll wait until after the Annual General Meeting in February. Hopefully I won't have the flu this year. So Happy Holidays to All!

 John Eric Partanen, Ph.D.

If you'd like to reply directly to Black Part's tirades, you can do so here: bagpipr@gte.net. It will save me having to forward it to him.

Note: The opinions expressed by Black Part in his monthly column are HIS and HIS alone. The fact that the management of Cuillinn Craft wholeheartedly endorse his position is entirely coincidental!

until next month....