πNEWS


 

July 3rd, 2009

MuMuPi would like to extend our warmest welcome to our official favorite Badger football player of 2009...Shelton Johnson!

(Photo courtesy of UWBadgers.com)

Shelton is a redshirt freshmen Defensive Back on the Badger football team, an avid member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, wears the number 24, and looks like he needs to cheer up a little bit in this picture. 

Also as the board at the Big Ten indicates, 64 days until Badger Football, which means about 60 days until Reg Week on the turf...do work.

 

May 23rd, 2009

Even more pictures from the Varsity Band Concerts:


May 17th, 2009

More pictures from the Varsity Band Concert! Still more to come once I get some files converted into a form that Google likes.

Just a friendly reminder that the whole album will be available HERE and you can order prints off of Snapfish and some other places directly from Picasa.

Enjoy

Dickey


May 7th, 2009

Looks like the Minnesota Band hymnal is online. Those idiots. For your viewing pleasure, we have linked it here: Minnesota "Band" Hymnal. 

Here also is something interesting I found, thanks Nancy for the contribution. I hate you. Other Song Page. 

Love, Spruce.

Ps, Owned.

Friday April 24, 2009

The current members section is now updated!

Sunday April 19, 2009

Soooo I ended up taking ~1000 pictures at the 2+ concerts I was at this weekend, I will be working on smoothing out the colors on them for the forseeable future. When I like the way they look I will be uploading them to HERE.

I will definitely put the best/coolest/funniest ones up on here, but that will be limited because I don't want the page to get too ridiculous.

Dickey

Sunday April 5, 2009

A few more updates on the rapidly approaching Spring Concert.


The feature guest is Randy Sabien, you can read up on him here

As far as I know, Randy has not played with the UW Band before so it should be a fun night for all involved. Here's a video of him performing on YouTube, it appears as though he has some talent...

Unconfirmed reports also have Grant Manhart making his triumphant return to the Kohl Center stage. Read more about Grant here. Grant is a former member of the UW Marching Band, is an excellent trumpet player, and routinely tries to outdo Mike's corny onstage jokes.

 That's really all I have for now, here is a sweet John Tesh video:


Saturday March 7, 2009

This hasn't been updated in forever because I have a real job now. Anyway, rundown of some things than have happened recently.

We've seen some new (and old) faces at Varsity Band this semester as several subs have been drafted to pick up the slack left by the notoriously absent upperclass.

The new people (as tradition would dictate) are all named after various types and styles of cheese:

Bet Saphner - Bleu

Kim Vosburg - Curd

James Madsen - Jalepeno

Mike Faust - ???

Kathryn Haberman - String

Kris Thoreson - Swiss

I'm not around anymore so feel free to email me if you know what one of these kid's names are.

In other news the 35th annual Spring Concert is rapidly approaching and the members and apprentices of MuMuPi have probably been practicing every night for hours to make sure the shows in mid-April are absolutely the best they can be. Latest word out of practice is Mikhail Leckrone is becoming incredibly irritated with excessive socializing during rehearsal and has been throwing numerous objects in order to hammer home his point. Back when I was in band, we never had such problems because we all played perfectly and no one was friends, so I have no personal experience with this.

Also, some dude named Randy is going to be playing jazz fiddle at the concert. I typed Randy into Google's image search and found these pictures, no word as to whether any are the Randy who will be playing at the concerts.


My bet is on Randy Hall, I think Mike has a similar suit.

Also, my Mom sent me an article today that featured this picture:

And all I can say is "Nice sweaters, weeds"

LINK to full article text and a more full size picture. 

More updates on the wide world of MuMuPi coming soon... 

Dickey


Monday December 8, 2008

Banquet!

I'm having all sorts of trouble getting pictures to appear here. But I'll be fooling around with this this week and I'll try to get some fun banquet pictures up soon.

Tuesday November 25, 2008

A few pictures from Saturday, I'll have a recap up soonish, depending on how creative I'm feeling this week.

Note: The above picture represents one of the few times Dickey wasn't making a mistake on Saturday.

Thursday November 20, 2008

I realize this hasn't been updated in a month, I'll have the usual entertaining write-ups for the past few games (complete with some pictures!) soon.

-Dickey

Monday October 13, 2008

Check Out the new hot tub for a post about a project Spruce and I are trying to put together. LINK

Any comments/contributions anyone has would be greatly appreciated, email them to coogan@wisc.edu. If any of you stinky alumni want to be contributors to the new hot tub blog thing, shoot me an email and I'll get you signed up as a contributor, however you have to have a Google account.

Thanks for reading.

Monday October 13, 2008

After a one-week suspension The Wisconsin Band featuring the Mu Mu Pi  Allstars was back in action on Saturday evening as the Badgers played host to the Penn State Nittnay Lions. After a long week of practice, midterms, and answering hundreds of questions about what got the band suspended, sitting down in our chairs at Union South was a relief. Marching over to the stadium was a bit different due to leaving several things out of the cadence and generally having to be more subdued. After hitting the rank brick and heading out on the field, most of us took a quick look around and soaked up the nighttime atmosphere at Camp Randall. It was the first time most of the saxes marching pregame had come out of the tunnel at night for such a big game and was certainly a thrill for everyone involved. The band got a tremendously warm reception from the crowd and nary a boo was heard (the same can't be said for the football team, zing!)
Pregame went off without a hitch, however shortly after marching off the field to "On, Wisconsin" it was clear something wasn't right with Fiskars. In fact she could barely stand and overall wasn't looking very good. Spruce and Lipid got her up the tunnel and out of the public eye and did not return for quite a while. Most of the other saxes paced around nervously as the game began in hopes that Fiskars would be able to pull it together and march halftime. It become very apparent after about 15 minutes that Fiskars was not coming back and after a brief consultation with Mike, Whiting, and Pound, Bleaker was tapped on the shoulder and informed that he would be marching. After marking his music, "marching" the show once through near the concession stands, and a lot of studying/praying, it was time for halftime and our presentation of "Jesus Christ, Superstar." During the Punt, Pass, and Kick thing, Bleaker was visibly shaking and the upperclass were taking bets as to when/how badly he was going to mess his first show up. Turns out the kid did very well and really impressed both the seniors and everyone around him. This show featured some "flair" in the form of flash cubes utilized at the end of the show. Everyone loves flair.
The second half of the game went on seemingly forever as the Badgers did not show up to play at all. This was an embarrassing loss and it has completely dashed the preseason hopes for the team. This was the worst loss a Badger team has suffered since the much 1989 when one of Don Morton's teams was totally blown out by Miami 51-3, but at least we scored first in that game.
Other notable "firsts" from this "game"
-Largest margin of defeat (41 points) since 1989.
-First home losses in consecutive weeks since 1990.
-First three-game regular-season losing streak since 2003. (Three-game losing streak in 2004 included bowl loss.)
-First 0-3 start in Big Ten play since 2002.
-First consecutive losses in night games since 1994 and '95.
-Worst record after six games (3-3) since 2001.
Yikes, that's bad. However, it should be noted that this is the first time since 2005 that the band has walked out of Camp Randall with their hats on forwards, and is only the second time the Seniors (and 5th year) have done the 5th Quarter at home following a loss.
It was a very nice night and no one took the loss particularly hard (Guida might have been inconsolable a few hours later though when the Red Sox lost to the (Devil) Rays). Most of us were just happy to get back on the field and have Game Day back to normal.
We're looking forward to getting our next show ready for a (possible) trip to Green Bay this weekend. Beat Iowa.
Also see below for some general Pi news unrelated to Saturday's game.

Monday October 6, 2008

As many of you have heard, the band was not allowed to perform at Saturday's game due to reoccurring inappropriate behavior. If you are an alumni with any questions regarding MuMuPi, please email Matt "Dickey" Coogan at coogan@wisc.edu. I may not be able to talk in specifics but I will try to give any interested alumni updates that are not available in the media. I will be posting something about how MuMuPi is going to move forward from this and what changes are going to be made, once the suspension has been lifted and the seniors get a chance to talk about how we are going to change and grow from this. 

Thanks for reading,

Matt "Dickey" Coogan 5th year Sax and Section Leader

Wednesday October 1, 2008

This past weekend, MuMuPi set sail eastward for Ann Arbor upon The Bookmobile for Wiley-fest 2008. The upperclass had spent weeks preparing the freshmen for the ill-will of the Michigan crowd by repeatedly taunting them and lashing them with the chains of justice. As Friday morning approached, the upperclass prepared much as they usually do for such occasions, by drinking heavily the night before and getting little to no sleep before the all-important trip to the Big House.

Surprisingly Friday morning everyone made it to the bus with plenty of time to spare, and no one forgot any parts of their uniform, which was a huge improvement over the last time we went to Michigan. Friday night in Dexter was interesting as always, Spruce and Dickey spent the evening sipping Michalobs while reliving memories of the Longhorn Marching Band with their host Tricia. Tubby, Pound, Nando, and Marc had the entire neighborhood (and most of Dexter's sophomore girls) over to their host family's house for a party. Brim clogged up the shitter at his house and left it that way for the duration of our performance at DHS, only properly unclogging it when the section leadership admonished him and threatened to bring out the 2x4 of terror. Of course certain members of the section were forced to sleep with one eye open as they we taken in by all maner of weirdos, but no one reported anything matching the Diedrik fiasco of 2005.

Saturday morning came early for most and after tearfully saying goodbye to our host families, it was time to focus on the task at hand during morning practice. Even this was unable to be accomplished, as Tubby immediately rushed to the bathroom during pregame to clear his thoughts. Heir Leckrone was pleased with the focus and performance of the band and after practice he had some kind words and a rousing speech to share with the 300 members of his band. As everyone hopped onto the Bookmobile and prepared to head out, the weather was cloudy and cool, a perfect day to open Big Ten football.

We arrived at the Big House nearly four hours before the start of the game and then proceeded to amuse ourselves by playing a number of frisbee games (when Peaches wasn't throwing the disc over the fence), napping, or sharing hilarious stories. Surprisingly no one hurt themselves during these activities and around 2:15 the venerable Chinstrap instructed everyone to get into their uniforms and get ready to go. During the march to the stadium, the members of MuMuPi were verbally assaulted on all sides by the Michigan "fans." At this time Dickey looked around and wondered what could drive these people to drink so much at such an early hour? Oh yeah, Michigan had only won one game this year and could not even beat lowly Utah at home. After a few Badger Band members politely reminded people yelling "Go Blue" of that fact, we marched into the tunnel at Michigan Stadium and began to mentally prepare for our shows and the game. Tubby said this was like a scene out of "300" or another equally badass movie, and indeed it was as frightened Wolverine players poked their heads out of their locker room and began to cry once they saw the legendary Badger Band marching into their stadium.

After relaxing for a while on the portable bleachers set up for us, it was time to saddle up and do this thing. As soon as the drums kicked into the cadence, boos and insults rained down from the Michigan "faithful." The freshmen immediately cowered and sought refuge from the Michigan student section by huddling around Papa Spruce and completely missing their spread kick. Meanwhile, the banditos who were marching pre-game had their knees at or above their waist for the entire run-on while chanting along with the drums, much to the surprise of nearby Michigan football recruits. This brought a few smiles to people sitting in the first few rows of the stands and those who were being tempted to go play football for the evil empire.

Pregame went off without a hitch. Despite a shifty double prepare by Tubby, Nando was unphased and continued to march with high knees the remainder of the show. After the final notes of On Wisconsin and the band marching off the field it was time to take a knee and watch the Michigan Band "perform." It was thrilling, it was exhilarating, it was one of a kind, or something like that. Their flag twirlers were some of the best marchers in the band which completely confused MuMuPi. Perhaps we could get some flag twirlers to replace the bums in Rank 25?

After finding our seats on the 4th row of the bleachers (editors note: apparently sitting on the 5th row of the portable bleachers is totally not allowed at any time) we all settled in to watch the opening kickoff. The Badgers had quite the first half but were unable to capitalize on a ton of Michigan turnovers and turn them into touchdowns.

At about 8 minutes left in the first half it was time for the Varsity side of the field to saddle up and go find their spots for halftime. As we were waiting and stretching out, Guida got one of the biggest thrills of her lifetime when Michael Phelps walked by. M. Phelps looked as though he had drank a case and a half of beer before entering the game and was in no mood to take pictures with his adoring fans in the UW Sax section. After he staggered into the tunnel it was focus time for Rank 24 (and C). However, we quickly noticed something was amiss when a Michigan band member carried their passed out drum major around the field and up the tunnel. We wondered out loud if sitting around in the stands could really take that much out of you, or if someone in the UM band had a little too much to drink the night before the game. Whatever happened, Whiting reminded us all to focus and concentrate on the task at hand.

The show went well. Perhaps too well. No mistakes, no wrong turns, perfect playing (as always) and some of MuMuPi's trademark intensity (see picture of Dickey's impression of high knees). After marching off the field it was time again to observe the Michigan band and see what their idea of a halftime show was. The beginning of their show looked quite familiar, oh yeah because they were doing their run-on again, hmmm. This time though, no drum major appeared from the depths of The Big House and everyone looked confused. As the video boards in the stadium began playing a video, it became completely evident what had happened to their drum major. He was up on the big screen, doing a parody of Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Needless to say, this was dumb, boring, and really not worth watching. I guess they spent most of the two weeks leading up to the show filming the cute videos that went up on the jumbotrons.

A puzzled sax section went back to their seats and got fired up for the second half. Apparently we were more fired up than a flat Badger football team, who proceeded to squander a 19 point lead and eventually lose 27-25. What a disappointment! But hey UW has only beaten Michigan 18 times ever, why should 2008 add to that total? A dejected MuMuPi took a knee on the sidelines once again and watched the Michigan band mill about and perform their post game show. After they were done with the music portion of their show, they spent another 10 minutes on the field taking a picture. Woohoo. No UW Band members were allowed to have even one foot on the field because no one in Ann Arbor has heard of photoshop. After a long wait, the Badger Band was out on the field and 5th Quarter tunes rang of the thousands of empty bleachers in The Big House.

After heading back to the buses and then off to the hotel, MuMuPi was looking for an evening of celebrating each others company and everything that is good about attending the University of Wisconsin. After an entertaining fashion show, SNL was turned on and the SoCo was flowing. The opening of SNL featured Tina Fey once again assuming the role of Sarah Palin and hilarity ensued. All manner of political talk broke out and eventually Ernest told us to shut the hell up and go to bed. After one more hearty "Men" chant, everyone dispersed to their respective rooms and passed out.

Sunday was a bright and sunny day, a great day to be stuck on a bus for 8 hours. As the Bookmobile headed westward, everyone slept for quite a while until our one stop for the ride back. Don, Guida, Dickey and Marc all headed to Steak and Shake and beat the entire band rush, while Spruce slept off his hangover on the bus and other members dispersed to many of the outstanding fast food establishments in Benton Harbor, MI. The remainder of the ride to Madison was relatively uneventful, with a few songs sung, and an excellent skit performed by most of this years freshmen class. Everyone returned safely, dropped off their uniforms and headed home for some much needed rest and studying.

Road Trip 2008

 Check the new hot tub for pictures as soon as Dickey gets them all photoshopped and nice looking.

Sunday, September 14th, 2008

Scavenger hunt was last night, congrats to Team Blows for taking home the crown this year.

Also, big ups are in order to the Badger football team for winning a tough one last night in Fresno. Despite the refs receiving a large unmarked briefcase with non-sequential used $100 bills before the game from Fresno coach and all-around d-bag Pat Hill, P.J. Hill was looking good and the football team rambled to victory.

Its starting to feel like fall outside which can only mean Big Ten Conference football is just around the corner. Next up for MuMuPi is a journey to Ann Arbor Michigan for Wiley-fest...err road trip (blows).


Wednesday, September 11th 2008

Lumpy has now pointed the mumupi.org frontpage here, hooray!

Sunday, August 31th 2008

Yesterday the 30th edition of MuMuPi took the field at Camp Randall for the first time this year. Despite the heat, humidity, and smell of the alumni band, the performances were an excellent starting point for the remainder of the season. Highlights included Dickey being spotted from Row 50 of Section H downing a hot dog during run-on, Lumpy really nailing his trills during the alumni band's "performance" and P.J. Hill rumbling for over 200 yards. 

The best part of Saturday though was the fact that Reg Week is officially over and Spruce and Tubby won't have to think twice before screaming things with hilarious double meanings at practice.

The list was posted today and we are very pleased to welcome 5 new freshmen into the section. Congrats are in order for those five and you can head over to the hot tub to check out some pictures of our new best friends (sorry Sam and Steph, I didn't have ones for you). Thanks to Spruce are also in order for hosting a kick ass party last night.

 Woo! We're done, lets go drink!

Thursday, August 7th 2008

Hello All. The season is a couple weeks away, I hope everyone is getting ready. There is some news on the horizon. This is very IMPORTANT. THERE MAY BE PROBLEMS WITH THE NEW FIELD. Keep your ears to the ground on this, because our reg-week schedule may get real interesting real quick. Some jackass poured the asphalt wrong and about a week ago they had to start it over. Be prepared, as always, to be on your toes during reg week/the entire season. Keep checking the band website. Once again, make sure you guys come ready to work. That is all, enjoy the rest of the summer.


Wednesday, May 21st 2008

Indiana Jones opens tonight. And I'm going. And you all are probably not. That being said, the last few pages of the website are now up and running. BIG ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR GUIDS, who put in the vast majority of the work on them. I hope you are all enjoying summer, but that is no reason to be slacking off. You need to be getting ready for the next band season... by posting random shit on the Hot Tub. Which reminds me, the link is on the left now somewhere. Any who, keep your eyes to the horizon and your ears to the ground, cause eventually a work out notice will be posted here and the hot tub for all you intrepid, daring, lazy sax of shit. (<-HAHA its a play on words!!!!) Hope you all did good on finals, or did well on finals, or which ever is grammatically correct. Until later, EAD&OYM.



Sunday, March 23rd 2008

Happy Easter All! The site (of which none of you are aware) is coming around quite nicely. The active phonebook will most likely not be published due to security concerns, but we all know each others numbers anyway. After my exam on Thursday I'll finish up the freshman pages and then, pending the completion of Varsity band, the Members and Alumni Pages will be published. Then all is good to go. Over the summer work out information will be posted here online, most likely on the front page. If anything important comes up, it will be posted here and emailed from the page email account (anything the appears in the announcements that you wouldn't know already etc.)

Sunday, February 24th 2008

Today marks the first test of the new and less cool mumupi homepage. By doing it through google.com we hope to streamline the update process, making the page much more relevant to daily operation. This site aims to mirror closely the old site, which hopefully will remain on the internet for reference purposes. Hopefully it will have the usual active contact list, and most likely an old folks page. The pictures section will be limited due to space, but we see this function as becoming increasingly irrelevant with the advent of facebook and whatnot. The members info page will be redone and whanot, updated if you will. Looks like the hottub stuff will just be too much of a hassle to deal with, and who used that anyway? Any suggestions? Email the site at mumupi24@gmail.com. Unless you're a freshman. Then your ideas mean nothing to m