Tales From Band Camp News

New comic and new store design

2008-05-16T11:45:00.002-04:00

Well whaddya know! I'm actually on time this week.

There's a new design up in the TFBC store. While the featured comic didn't fare so well in the ratings, it is popular among those of us who were born before the 80s. (Hint, hint - it would be a great Father's Day or band director/teacher gift ).

Spring Concerts a Plenty!

2008-05-10T15:08:00.002-04:00

My community band had its annual Arts for a Lifetime Concert last night with the Woodmont HS Band program. Go Wildcats!

Little Kid vs. Tuba Player:

Little Kid vs Tuba Player - Watch more free videos

Extra 12% OFF Scratch 'N' Dent Gear at MusiciansFriend.com! (valid thru 5/13/08)

Oops, missed last week.

2008-05-02T11:28:00.001-04:00

You probably noticed (or I dunno, maybe you didn't ) that I didn't update the comic last week. I kept thinking I would just do it late, but the days kept slipping by. Oh well. Call it spring fever.

Good luck to all of you with finals and graduation and stuff! Have fun, stay safe, and don't drink and drive.

Marching band - a threat to hearing? I was just talking about this topic with another member of my community band. I've personally noticed a worsening of my hearing since sitting in front of the trumpets. I've posted this on the forum as well.

New comic and Store changes!

2008-04-18T15:14:00.000-04:00

I made a few changes to the TFBC Store. I changed around the Band Nerd & Band Geek designs a little bit, plus added an I Love Band design as well. In the past, I've had requests for those designs, but in colors other than red & blue (the standard TFBC colors) to match your high school's colors. I've added a way that you can request a specific color combination without having to set up eleventy billion Cafepress stores. You can read more about it here.

I'm still working away on the 2nd book, but to be honest, I'm kinda doubtful that I'm going to have it done by May.

Happy 12th Birthday to TFBC!

2008-04-11T11:23:00.000-04:00

Twelve years - can you believe it?? I haven't been the most consistent cartoonist, but I do believe that Tales From Band is one of the longest running web comics out there that's still up and running. Probably some TFBC readers were born the same time it started! OK, I feel old now, so I'm going to stop commenting.

If you are receiving updates through email, just ignore any news articles that appear after this one, because they are old snippets that I'm still importing into Blogger. Sorry for the confusion!!

New comic and a couple of notes...

2008-04-04T21:29:00.004-04:00

Have fun on spring break for those of you on it!

Unfortunately, there's not a way to include this automatically on the emails that go out, but just a reminder that the new comics aren't on the blog URLs that are mailed out - they are always published on the front page of TFBC.

And thanks again to SaxGirl1010 for this week's band news:

Last October, the Penn University band broke the largest baton record:

FYI, I am still importing old news from the previous format into Blogger, so you might see some old posts being mailed out. I hope that doesn't happen, but I won't know until I test it out. I apologize in advance for any funky stuff you see.

Keep on Marchin'

2008-03-28T21:28:00.000-04:00

Here's another comic that I've wanted to do for a while... forgot to add apologies to Robert Crumb.

Happy Easter!

2008-03-22T15:38:00.001-04:00

Sorry for the lack of an update last week (and being a day late this week). I had visitors in town and didn't get a chance to work on the comic.

Thanks to Andy W. for this week's comic idea. It also appeared in the latest issue of Fanfare Magazine.

D'oh!

2008-03-07T14:39:00.003-05:00

Today's comic is one that I've wanted to do for some time.

Thanks to SaxGirl1010 on the forums for this week's video. Ouch!

Happy Leap Year!

2008-02-29T11:38:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday to those of you who have birthdays on the 29th.

If you are wondering who Gary Larson is, he's the cartoonist that drew The Far Side. Since a lot of TFBC readers were born after this comic was published, here's a reference.

And no, trombone players, I don't have it out for you!

New comic and Leroy Anderson

2008-02-22T15:15:00.000-05:00

There's a new comic up for the week! Thanks to Bonnie & April for this week's comic.

Did you know that we are celebrating 100 years of Leroy Anderson in 2008? No? Well, now you do. If your band is performing a Leroy Anderson concert or salute this year, the official Leroy Anderson website would like to know.

New comic!

2008-02-15T11:01:00.000-05:00

There's a new comic up!

This is sort of music related, so I'll share it with you:

Prayers and thoughts go out to the friends and families of Northern Illinois University.

Updates

2008-02-08T11:35:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to update the comic last week. My daughter just turned three years old (time flies!!), so I was overwhelmed with visitors and planning a party for her.

As I've mentioned before, I've been having problems trying to find the best day to update the website. I think at this point I've settled on Fridays. I've been getting pretty frustrated attempting to find a block of uninterrupted time in order to draw the comic and to update the site, so I appreciate your patience while I work things out. To be honest, I've just been feeling overwhelmed about a lot of stuff lately, but hopefully I can get back into some kind of groove here in the near future.

If you've been using the yahoogroups newsletter to receive updates, that's going away this week, so be sure to sign up for the blogger newsletter instead (look to the right) --->.

New comic plus switching over mailing list

2008-01-25T13:51:00.000-05:00

There's a new comic up!

If you've been using the YahooGroups mailing list to receive update announcements, I'll be discontinuing it in the next few weeks and using Blogger and Feedburner instead. You can still receive updates by email, but you'll need to sign up again in order to receive them. You can sign up by using this link.

New Bassoon Store and a couple of site changes

2008-01-19T16:28:00.000-05:00

First, I apologize for the comic being late. I'm still trying to figure out what date would be best because of my current schedule.

Second, I'm now using Blogger to update the news section. This should be easier because you can now comment, plus, it generates a RSS feed that you can subscribe to in your browser or (coming soon) email. This will eventually replace the mailing list. More details coming soon. I'm slowly but surely importing the old news into Blogger.

Third - not only is there a new oboe store, but there's a new bassoon store as well! FOXY! Double reeds of the world, unite!

Be sure to check out all of the TFBC designs!

New Oboe Store

2008-01-12T14:54:00.000-05:00

"IT'S NOT A CLARINET, IT'S AN OBOE!!!" Most oboists have said this at some point. Now you can wear it, too! It's also a great unique gift idea for your favorite oboe teacher or professor as well!

Visit the new TFBC Oboe Store.

First comic of 2008!

2008-01-10T14:57:00.000-05:00

And hey, I have it updated on schedule! I am still looking at changing the day of the week, but for now, let's see how continuing to update on Thursdays goes for the year.

My New Year's Resolution/Goal for the year? To publish a second TFBC book by May of this year! Wish me luck!

Thanks and Happy New Year!

2007-12-29T14:59:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to thank everyone for an 11th year of TFBC, and here's to many more! You've probably noticed I haven't updated the comic strip lately, and I apologize. Once we get into the swing of 2008, I am looking at changing (again) the day that I update the comic strip. Currently Thursdays aren't really working out as you can tell. Most likely there won't be a new strip next week either due to vacation -yea!

Thanks again and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Spoke too soon

2007-04-09T15:17:00.000-04:00

The hard drive DID crash. Ugggghhhhhhhhhhh.........

What a week

2007-04-07T15:16:00.000-04:00

For those of you who get the newsletter (you can sign up by filling out
your email address on the right), you saw that my hard drive crashed,
and I wasn't able to put the comic up. When I opened it up to put in a
new hard drive, it turns out the problem was lots and lots of dust! So
clean out your computers from time to time! And make backups!!!

Also, everyone in my family including me came down with a
rotavirus. Nasty, nasty stuff, including a trip to the hospital.
Everybody is OK now, but it will take some time to recover.

So, I will be taking the week off but hope to have a new one up this upcoming Thursday!

Affiliates and Cafepress Sizes

2007-03-29T15:15:00.000-04:00

Do you or your family do any online shopping? Be sure to take a look at TFBC's Affiliates page and click from there if you shop online with any of these vendors. Any little bit helps with web hosting costs.

Cafepress Adds More Sizes
I rec'd a note from Cafepress the other day: "Add new sizes to your
shop and expand your sales. Customers come in all shapes and sizes and
we've got them covered with popular products now available in plus
sizes." Sizes now run all the way up to XXXXL!

Shop the TFBC Store Now!

Ugh, what a WEEK!

2007-03-27T15:15:00.000-04:00

My daughter was sick with a cold early in the week, and then I caught
it around Wednesday. There was an accident nearby and the driver
knocked down 6 power lines, so I didn't have power for half of the day
on Wednedsay. On Thursday, I was in bed all day (had to call my husband
so he could come home to take care of our daughter) due to this
flu/cold. I feel better today, but I can barely breathe. Anyway.. not
sure when I'll have the comic up. Maybe this week. Not sure.

Taking the week off!

2007-03-09T15:14:00.000-05:00

I should have posted this earlier, but I planned on taking this week off. I've got a lot going on - whew! :-p

New Merchandise!

2007-03-01T15:14:00.000-05:00

Cafepress.com just added a buncha different colors other than white and
black for t-shirts (women's, short-sleeved, and long-sleeved) that are
now available in the Pimp My Horn, Band Nerds, Band Geeks, and Band Alumni stores!

Marching Idol Iron-On Design

2007-02-22T15:13:00.000-05:00

Cafepress.com didn't allow me to set up a Marching Idol store for trademark reasons, so I've uploaded it in PDF format
for you to use as a iron-on design if you are interested. Both files
are pretty large (3 meg each) in size. You can buy iron-on transfer
paper or fabric transfer paper for use in this.

Note: I actually haven't tested this out yet, so let me know if you have any suggestions or comments if you try it out.