To all who are headed home - best wishes for a great trip. Travel safe!

And when you get a chance, please tell us about your experiences at the conference.

I just got home. I have to get up early for traffic court. I missed not meeting you ST but I know it will happen in the future. Ken, Tom and the others told many stories about you (all good). Your presence was felt and missed by all. Roy

Well I've been home since about 6:00, but the grass was out of control. Had to mow.

I had a great time in Lil' Switzerland. Good venue, weather, folks, and music.

Cliff's band rocks.

Got to match several new faces with screen names and avatars. All nice people with loads of talant.

Old friends showed up as well.

I only slept about 4 hours a night. (Sat. Sun. and Mon.) I left today totally fried. Will have more to say later.

Missed you ST. You still amazed us with your presentation. How do you do it??

O..

On the road again...but not quite headed for home yet. Swinging through the Biltmore Estates in Asheville, NC tomorrow...then headed home! Will post after I've had some time to decompress from the weekend. Lots of energy flowed on top of the mountain and I'm kinda still in a daze about everything that I experienced, heard, and participated in...more details later...gotta get some sleep...John

Hey all,
I got home about an hour ago.

The conference was great, as usual, with so many high moments it will take a few days to figure what to share.

How blessed we are.

Rick

I got home just before 10:00 MDT.

This was a GREAT conference, guys. Thank you for all you gave!

Tom

Here's a travelin' photo from Little Switzerland from my cell.

Wednesday morning, head still spinning.

Still processing the conference.

It was so good to finally meet all of you (ST, you were definitely missed - looking forward to meeting you in the future).

As much as the conference features and items were great, the best thing was the people. I've made so many new friends. I'm still amazed by this community.

Hope you all got home safe.

Got home ~11:30pm ... now I need to cull through some pictures ... (& mow the grass!)

Got in around 11:20PM.
Wonderful safe drive home. Tres, I cannot thank you enough for your willingness/desire to drive 12 hours (11 with me) each way.
The drive out, taking the Parkway, was much better then 226A winding up the mountain. That would have been great for Ray & Mike with that motorhome.

Well, my lovely wife, painted my music room while I was gone, (it looks great) and she wonders how much I am going to pay her for playing the "Porchboard", that I acquired. Actually just meeting those 3 people was a winner in itself.

As I sit in amazement and wonder of all that transpired, like many of you, I will have to take a little time and sort through things. Other than "It just doesn't get much better than this", I am at a loss for all the right words.

To name names, would require a very long list of everyone who was there. Even ST was there in spirit with his exceptional presentation ( I love the mind map thought summary, which I am just getting into with Photoreading). I am looking forward to finishing the rest of that contribution from him.

My thanks to Bose itself and all of it's fantastic, real, down to earth, caring people for bringing all of us together for this memorable event.
Thank you - all

Hello All!

Got the RV down the mountain without incident, arrived home just shy of 1am Wed morning.

Many, many memories were made in Little Switzerland - finally meeting some of the people behind the screen names - sitting in awe of so much talent concentrated in one place, the musical talent, the engineers who've made this whole thing possible, the innovators who created the Porchboard, and who can forget the multi-talented Eve?

Musically speaking, every performance was moving, but like Ken, there were ones I found competely mind-boggling: rjw (Rick), Drumr (Pete) and John Nell as a trio; Col Andy's performance; Billy from Porchboard, and; Cliff's band. Those performances will forever bring a smile to my face and a tear to my eye. (The wide range of emotions that music stirs...) I hope the release of Cliff's CD is prominently announced on the forum, I don't want to miss it. And any song the Wiek-at-Bose sat in on was better for it - what a sax player!

Conference-wise, the presentation on psychoacoustics was phenomenal. Ken's doggedness in pursuit of the Monk 'Town Hall' concert charts introduced me to a whole world of music I've not really explored through the Jazz Loft Project. I'm saddened that I couldn't meet ST and see him give his presentation in-person, but hardly surprised that he still found a way to make it happen. ST, you are an amazing individual.

At the risk of rambling on too long, I can't end this post without saying a little about the spirit of 'family' this forum nurtures. Tom Munch, always ready and happy to share his experience and knowledge, was in afterburner mode at Little Switzerland - helping performers get ready, sharing his knowledge through his presentation on tone, sharing his talent in solo performance and as a 'session' player during jam night. Dan, capturing the entire conference both on his Zoom H4 (I hope it recovered from it's swim in the water cup), taking notes on his laptop, and sharing his talent on and knowledge of keyboards...and of course, Col Andy's wife, whose generousness
amazed us all when she traded her door prize with Ray. (ColAndy, please check your PM.)

OK, I've gushed out a portion of the emotions, I'll let the rest percolate for now and try to post some even-keeled messages on topics and issues in a bit.

PmP

Mike - If you can write a song about granny's driving cars then theres got be a song in you about getting that camper down the mountain. I kept looking over the side for wreckage. Glad you and Ray are home safe. Roy & Martha

Home safe and sound. Sleep walking now. More later.

Maximum Respect

Col. Andy & Pam

Thanks for keeping an eye out for us, Roy. It was a blast meeting you and Martha and an honor to hear you both play.

Hope to see you here in Florida - there's always room on our stage for musicians like you two...if you give me a heads-up, I'll bring the Clavinova for Martha.

V/R,
Mike

quote:

Originally posted by PmP:
Hello All!

Got the RV down the mountain without incident, arrived home just shy of 1am Wed morning.

PmP

Thank goodness you guys got down OK. We decide to try the Parkway and it was just so much easier. Unfortunately, my ears were still popping and plugged up for the next 100 or so miles.

Nice songs you guys wrote. Thanks for the opportunity to play Bass on them.

On another note, I did my Parrot Heads gig tonight and one of the members had a son home from duty. Naturally they asked for "God Bless the USA", it was very moving. As the mom and dad, started to cry near the end, I had all I could do to finish the song and not completely lose it.

Home as of 7:10 this evening (Wed), following the 14 hour trip from Virginia.

Oh, initial conference thoughts?

Treeeeeemendous.

More to come,

N

The trip back seemed so short, some of it because I bought "Look Homeward, Angel" (Tom Wolfe) from the guy at the bookstore at L'il Swiz. I never read this and it sucked me right in, thanks also to QC2. Ken, GW, Tom Yates, E.V., Weik and I all were on the same flight to Motown. We were having a very loud little party in the Ashland airport, listening to James Brown on Ken's iPod, eating Evie's pistacios, making bad jokes and laughing at GW's impressions (Walter Brennan, Ethyl Merman, various farm and jungle animals). By all rights we should have gotten either thrown out or compensated for the (possibly very entertainging) gig. I got home to catch most of the second quarter of the Celtic/LeBron game, where all the stars didn't even show up but The Boyz took it in the last 8s. My brain still doesn't work and it's a miracle I found my way in today, not to mention figure out how to operate this thing here ("computer", whatever that means).

My heart and soul is packed-full and bursting (byeursting). I took some of everyone home with me. You were/are all The Best.

More when I recover better.

Taking the Parkway out of Little Switzerland, made coming down from the mountain a little easier.

Coming down from the Conference is going to take quite a while, although positive memories will always remain.

How could one event have so many contributions, that put out 100% plus. Wow!!

I mean, just when you thought, "Man that was good", someone ( a sleeper, a ringer, whatever), just blew you away.

Even the food and the service was exceptional.

I have never been at an event where everyone, I mean everyone, participated and contributed such positive energy, team spirit and sharing.

I made it home finally, after a couple of sightseeing side-trips on the way! Rolled in about 5:30 PM this evening... I still have photos in the camera from the conference that I haven't loaded onto the computer yet. I'll work on those over the weekend and post a few more.

It's been a couple of days now, since we were all gathered at Lit'l Switzerland, but I'm still feeling remnants of the emotional "highs" coming over me from time to time. Some put a smile on my face, others grab my heart strings....some really good things happened there...I know and feel it! All the best to those who have re-entered life already, and to those yet to arrive home. I suspect I'll have "splash down and mission complete" by tomorrow, when I mow the yard!

John