Hungry March Band: It's John Barker

I believe the sousaphone is the finest instrument known to this modern age.

The skies went on and on forever and when I, we lived in Arizona,
The skies always had little fluffy clouds in them.
And, they were long, clear there were lots of stars. At night.
And, uh, when it would rain, they'd all turn.
They they were beautiful-
The most beautiful skies as a matter of fact.
The sunsets were
Purple and red and yellow and blue and on fire.
The clouds would catch the colors everywhere.
That's it's neat 'cause I used to look at them all the time.
You don't see that anymore. You might still see them in the desert.

Tyger, Tyger, burning bright
in the forests of the night
Can thy mortal hand or eye
Frame thy fearful symmetry?
-William Blake

other projects	iowa boys film, DJing at iona in billyburg, HMB documentary, IA based film projects, web projects, dvd authoring, php/mysql programming (like... these pages), and other fun stuff. you know
interests	Sousaphones, My Fiancée, Mo' Horizons, Kruder & Dorfmeister, Troublemakers, Hawkeyes, Ralph Myerz & The Jack Herren Band, DJing, collecting & organizing music, writing, Williamsburg, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Dandy Warhols, writing, Coco Cafe in wmsburg, Skizzo Franick, creating php/mysql sites, Geto Boys, and Duran Duran
HMB Stories	Doing 22miles in 6 parades in Mardi Gras in 2005. Recording our 3rd album over 3 days in 2004. My first Mermaid Parade in June 2001. Lollapalooza '03, all our recording sessions, taking over 3 subway cars as a part of the Blue party, Mummer's (hey, my trombone slide froze up. again), getting lost trying to find my first Rub-U-Lad gig (arriving an hour and a half late, which was, of course, plenty early by the time we actually went on), actually finding out about the HMB (my old band is the Hawkeye Marching Band). Anytime I put that sousaphone on, I'm a walking target for people wanting to throw stuff in the bell. it's hard to be inconspicuous with a sousaphone. Lollapalooza? i was a sitting target.

John Barker's HMB Web Diary

Wed, Nov 01, 2006 HMB Does the NYC Halloween Parades
The HMB in Action

Tue, Jun 27, 2006 Mermaid 2006
Another year, another Mermaid. This time- the rainy variety. Fortunately, it just kind of sprinkled all day until we finished. THEN it poured.
This year we brought up the rear of the parade. And we had a greek 'The Odyssey' theme. One of our members wasn't sure people would be able to take in the entire classical work by Homer, but I was quite sure people would get the desired effect of Homer's epic poem. There were some clever outfits on our part, but sure enough, but the time we made it to the judges, the "sailors fall down! see circe! see the oracle! etc, etc, was lost on anyone who might notice. We did a nice redition of Squared's Vjerin Sa Sa. Sadly, the 'bribe the judges' schtick hasn't worked for the HMB for a number years.
My first mermaid parade in 2001- we triumphantly marched straight to the water. It was quite the climax- finish the parade- march down the boardwalk, down the beach, and down to the water where we played. Not this year, sadly. It was wait around, then walk to the beach. THEN we were following some mermaid people and a big group of other peeps. Doing something, I don't know. I started to pull away, towards the beach, then I had some guy tell me to wait.
Hold on a second- I thought this was the HMB's tradition... I was like "WTF?" to a few bandmates. We agreed we'd been co-opted. Then I got told by a power that be in the band that we were being paid to serenade the Mermaid People down to the beach for some ceremony. The same Mermaid people who didn't think we were the parade's best band anymore.
And here I thought we were an "Anarchist Band" (according to the VV). I honestly didn't care- by the time I made it down to the water, I stood in the surf for a few moments, just looking out over the sea, with my sousaphone. Remembering back when what we did used to be kinda cool. But I had my moment. Then it was time to get out of the rain.

Thu, May 18, 2006 A Great Proposal!
Barker Proposes!!

Wed, Dec 21, 2005 HMB Gallery!
Check it out: HMB Gallery

Sun, Mar 20, 2005 Return to Coney Island
It wasn't bad for an overcast Sunday morning in March. Certainly great to hang out with 17 other members of the band, have some great photo ops, and be able to usher in the opening of the Cyclone, and take the very first ride on it. The Cyclone is still so jarring and trepidatious to ride on, it's a whole lot of fun.
The band got taken care of, with our very own green room, and while there wasn't a huge crowd, any excuse to get together and play in Coney is fine with me. And Coney opening wouldn't be complete without a ride on the bumper cars, in this case it was me, Ruth, Julie, and Rich smashing each other about ("no head on bumping").
The wonderful Tim LeGasse showed up and it was great to see him.

Sun, Feb 06, 2005 The Fourth Day- Sunday
I was bracing for the long-ass 6 mile Krewe of Thoth parade. But since I had gotten a good night's sleep, was adequately hydrated and nourished, and the fact that the parade stopped all-the-time and we had plenty of breaks and nourishment supplied to us on the route, the parade went pretty easily.
The parade wasn't without incident, until it was done and JoeTuba picked the wrong place to relieve himself and was seen by NOLA's finest. Joe was lucky in that an apology and extreme scolding were the only things he had to go through.

I had a most excellent meal (calimari poboy) at Mother's afterwards. Mother's is pretty much the Katz Deli of New Orleans. Ended hanging out with Veronica (Piranhica, Demonica), Jason, Sasha and Tim, finishing off the vast amounts of food that was being past around.

It was interesting playing tbone again. I did have the opportunity to switch off with Joe a few times, to give him some relief for carrying the Sousa. But I found myself playing either the bass/sousa line on my bone, or the trombone part. I didn't stick to either part. The last time I played bone was the Mummer's parade on new years day 2002, and the slide kept freezing. But it was just like riding a bike.

Sat, Feb 05, 2005 The Third Day- Saturday
Another long-ass parade, ending up tooling around Canal street as we finished. Lot's of people. Priority for the band was then to secure rides to transport us out of the area (eat, rest, party, etc). So a bunch of us made a long-ass walk to Quince's car. My leg's and feet were killing me, so I was eager to get out of the area as wel, or at least chill before the Hi Lo party that night.
We get to Quince's car, which was parked under the overpass, and immediately note that it's boxed in by a pickup.
We quickly went through our options as how to get the car out. Okkon made the suggestion that we try to push the pickup. So a bunch of us get in front of it and pick it up slightly, then push. To our amazement it moved back (it was a stick shift). It went back about a car length, leaving a small space that Quince could possibly angle out, but it wasn't enough. By now a number of revellers had taken interest in our plight, and we decided we had enough muscle to use our previously discarded option of picking up the back end of the pickup, moving that 4 or 5 feet so that the pickup could be pushed back further. Tim had helped to assemble the crew and it was 1-2-3 LIFT and we could the task done with no back injury to anyone.

Quince manouevered his car out sans difficulty and we were on our way. We decided to lift the pickup once more so that it could be angled and pushed into a new parking place, and accomplished that feet in a few seconds. We could only then speculate what the errant driver would think when/if they located their displaced vehicle.

After our third long parade, it was decided to go to a Thai place, that Michele had worked at. I was totally wiped and just wanted to chill. I had walked around the french quarter for a few hours before hooking up with everyone. Finding the Thai restaurant, and the band members, i noticed that the seating was such that you sit on the floor and eat. I have nothing against such practices, but damn, i just wasn't in no mood to sit on no floor. Adding to the ruckus, band members kept showing up, rearranging tables, and the server was completely overloaded. Not wanting to add to her frustration by having to deal with my desire to order food, i joined Quince, Jason, a recovered Sasha, and JenEmma in the downstairs part, where my dining order was taken (and the teriyaki steak was excellent).
While upstairs, we discussed the parade goer's desire to see exposed breasts. One person had queried Urania to that ends to which she commented "I couldn't do that with children... and Barker... around".

Wed, Feb 02, 2005 1st Night at Mardi Gras
The ever awesome JoeTuba picked me up. we then got Sasha later at the airport. she wasn't feeling too hot. Then she was really sick. So a little later we dropped her off at the hostel and she just crashed out. I hope she feels better tomorrow.
Finally everyone got together at the parade site, and things finally fell into place. The parade was longer than i thought, but by the time it was over, it was no huge thing. It was weird playing trombone again, switching between playing the trombone parts (thanks Ben!) and my more familiar bassline. I can definitely say it was great playing with everyone. We sort of marched in formation (much moreso than we normally had, and I thought it cool folks gave it a try.
Joe, Sam, Nat, and I went to 'Verti Mart' in the Quarter and I got some chips. We ran into Anton and Tim. That was a lot of fun hanging with them. Joe dropped me off at Nowe Miastas, the place I would crash, and i was pretty happy to call it a night!
Though, when finding a bed to crash on, we had incorrectly surmised which room was the guest room. And since I picked wrong, that next morning around 8am a member of the house walked in and wondered who was sleeping her unmade bed (there were no sheets, just a mattress). Apologetically, I took a place on the comfy couch.

Fri, Jun 25, 2004 The Recording Session
Three days of recording sessions at the famed LoHo Studios in Manhattan. We got to the studio around 2pm, got mic'd, and then started playing. JoeTuba and I were placed between the trombones and the rhythm section. It was helpful to keep time that way. And the trumpets weren't too off. Plus I don't think i've seen that many mac powerbooks in one place at once. It seemed like everybody had one.
Samantha and i took a stroll over to a nice mexican place to get some carry-out.
I was really happy in the end when we re-recorded 'Underground', then took a group picture you see on that page. The recording session was a blast.

Wed, Dec 31, 2003 New Year's Eve Parade

Walking up and down Bedford, ring in the new year at various establishments... And a fun time was had by all.