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eCSRUAugust 2008
Welcome to the latest edition of the FVPB e-CSRU, your source for Virginia Pep Band and Alumni news, notes, and more! Please email you comments and news to caitlin.vogus@ orangevest.org. [All email addresses in the eCSRU have an extra space added to reduce spam.]
Keep in Touch with FVPB!You can now subscribe and unsubscribe yourself from the FVPB email list. The FVPB email list is used to disseminate information about the VPB, alumni, and upcoming events. To subscribe, go to: http://tethys.ringofsaturn.com/mailman/listinfo/chowder. Pass the word along to other alums, and if you know someone who wants to receive these newsletters and doesn't, please direct them to the site to subscribe!
Trivial Pursuit – Pep Band TriviaTest your VPB knowledge with this new feature of the e-CSRU, a trivia question. The person who comes up with the correct answer first will have their names published as the winner in the next edition of the e-CSRU, upon which glory and bragging rights will rain down upon them. This edition's trivia question is: What is the farthest the Pep Band has ever traveled by bus or car? Please email your answers to caitlin.vogus@ orangevest.org and look for the winners in the next e-CSRU! In addition, why not post your fond memories of bus trips in the FVPB forums.
We Want You! – Upcoming VPB EventsJoin FVPB and VPB at these upcoming events!
Meet the Virginia Pep Band Managing BoardThe Pep Band recently amended its constitution to change the way the managing board will be elected. Director and one board position will be elected at the end of each fall semester. The remaining two board positions will be elected at the end of the spring semester. However, that still means that the current board members will serve the band at least until the end of the fall (if they survive that long). They are: Director Alexander Houck (CLAS '10): Alex, pause, HAHAHA SWAG!, is donning a new name and new instrument to begin his tenure heading the band's directorial duties. After finding a poor second year schmutz to take over as conductor, Alex will be able to kick back by engaging in his favorite activity: micromanaging. Alex plans on leading the band to infinity and beyond while strengthening the bond with alumni that he feels has weakened during his two years as a member of the band. Alex is a third year SWAG/Government major as well as a member of the Army ROTC program on grounds who rocks out to Journey and Queen songs in his basement bedroom.
Board member Sara Herbst (NURS '10): Sara transferred to U.Va. last year, fell in love with the band, and is excited to be on board this year. She plays percussion in the band and is a nursing student. Sara also enjoys frolfing and is looking forward to living in the Bait Shoppe this year. Board member David Leon (CLAS '10): “David,” more commonly known by his muppet name, Rowlf, is a short member of the band that plays trumpet, snare, bass drum, drum set, djembe, triangle, tambourine. Man. Rowlf is a double major in Biology and Kinesiology, with a concentration in kicking ass and forgetting to take names. He currently resides in the Cider House, or the house with all the rotting apples in the front yard, and he is well known for his bottomless pit of a stomach and his feat at ScavHunt '08 where he finished two 6 oz. bottles of very hot hot sauce and followed it by downing an entire can of whipped cream in the span of 15 seconds. Board member Ellen Reifler (CLAS '11): Ellen, a physics major in the college, plays flute in the band. However, she is learning alto sax under the (sometimes helpful) guidance of the band's current sax section, and will be playing alto sax with the band in the near future (a.k.a. this semester). Ellen will also serve as the merchandise chair for the band this year, so any suggestions, questions, or complaints about all those magnificent band items can be sent to her at esr3d@ virginia.edu.
What Are Those Crazy Undergrads Doing? – Recent Pep Band Activities
The Pep Band kept busy bringing joy to the hearts of students, faculty, and community members throughout the spring semester and summer. Highlights include:
Ye Olde Story TimeEveryone knows that VPB alums love to reminisce about the good old days, from wild halftime shows to even wilder band parties! As a new feature in the e-CSRU, FVPB invites you to share your favorite story on a specified topic in the FVPB forums. This edition's question: What is your favorite pep band show and why? Post your answer the in the FVPB forums, and FVPB will publish our favorites in the next newsletter. (Please note in your story if you do not wish to have it published in the next newsletter.) While you're there, check out the rest of the forums! They're a great way to learn about band events, alums, social events, and other VPB info in between newsletters!
What About the Old Farts? VPB Alumni NewsPep Band alums somehow manage to continue to trick people into marrying them, having children with them, and giving them jobs. Here's a brief smattering of alumni news. If you have news you'd like to have included in our next newsletter, please email caitlin.vogus@ orangevest.org.
From the Bar with SeanMike and MarshallAs July turns to August a Cavalier's fancy turns to that noblest of sports, football. As we all know, the classic accessory for a well-dressed Pep Bander during football season is the squeeze bottle. Your two scofflaws fondly remember our Saturday morning practices. Waking early to that lovely hangover (or still slightly intoxicated from the previous night's shenanigans), sipping on a Jim Beam and Coke, or perhaps, when feeling more fancy, a luscious bouquet of Goldschlager and Mountain Dew. It's making us thirsty just thinking about it. (Not for that last concoction, though. What the hell were we thinking?) Wistfully thinking of the feel of foam rubber and plastic in our hands, or a chipped clay goblet if you're of the age of Dave Black, we started thinking of the liquids contained in our trusty squeeze bottle and the idea of bottled cocktails. First, however, it needs to be noted that we are discussing cocktails rather than “mixed drinks.” “Mixed drinks” generally contain only a spirit and a mixer (bourbon coke, orange juice and vodka (aka the screwdriver), etc.) So what the hell is the difference?
A bottled cocktail is simply a way to prepare a cocktail for a group prior to the party starting. Rather than mixing up 15 individual Manhattans or martinis, for example, you can prepare enough for the gang in one batch to be served pre-chilled and ready to drink. Or if you're like us, you can make yourself one-big-ass cocktail to keep in your fridge for whenever the mood strikes. The cocktails that are best for bottling are those that are shaken or stirred with ice (more on that later) but served without ice in the glass. The key to having an enjoyable cocktail batched in this manner is water. Ah ha! You're probably looking at this right now askance, thinking, “Don't water down my drinks, you intolerable hussy of a fink!” Water, however, is a key component of any drink. Let your ole pal SeanMike share with you an anecdote: It was the summer of 2005. Put in charge of organizing the bachelor party of a friend, SeanMike decided to start off with a squeeze bottle of the guy's favorite drink, a Long Island Iced Tea. The ingredients are simple: vodka, tequila, rum, gin, triple sec, lemon juice, simple syrup, topped with cola. So SeanMike mixed them up in a bottle and off they went. Needless to say, the drink was INCREDIBLY strong. Sure, it helped get the carousers drunk, but they had to keep adding Coke in order to be able to continue drinking the concoction. Of course you may also be questioning whether Long Island Iced Teas are ever worth making, drinking or discussing. Marshall certainly falls into this camp but SeanMike will ignore those protestations – it's not his choice of beverages, even if he did make YouTube videos on how to create them. Anyway, if you've made drinks before you might recognize something missing from SeanMike's Long Island Iced Tea debacle. The missing piece was water. Normally a Long Island Iced Tea is shaken with ice and strained into a glass. As you shake a cocktail with ice, not only is the ice chilling the drink to a nice frosty temperature, it is also melting. This dilution factor helps make the drink more palatable. This also occurs with stirred drinks though stirring takes longer to reach the same dilution as shaking. Let's assume you have decided to make a bottled Manhattan. Your Manhattan recipe calls for 2 ounces of bourbon and 1 ounce sweet vermouth plus two dashes of bitters per cocktail. You plan on keeping the bottle in the fridge until the party (or 10 a.m.) and you certainly want it to taste good. As we've said, you'll need to make the drink with the addition of water in order to have the correct dilution for palatability. The fridge will do the work of cooling the bottled cocktail.
Using information from The Joy of Mixology (that invaluable tome we mentioned in the previous “At The Bar”), Gary Regan says that 1/3 of the volume of all the other ingredients should be included as water. Thus, his recipe is: 12 ounces bourbon Let's look at this a little bit more mathematically. Using a 25 ounce bottle for your cocktail will mean you have to have 8 ounces of water (25 x 1/3). This leaves a total of 17 ounces for the other ingredients (25 - 8). Of the 17 ounces 2/3 is bourbon and 1/3 is sweet vermouth. To get your ratios for the bourbon and vermouth look back at your original recipe above. Add the total number of ounces (2 + 1 = 3) and this is your denominator. Then use the number of ounces for an ingredient as the numerator (bourbon is 2; vermouth is 1). The bitters are hard to scale because the original measurement is in dashes. A good rule of thumb is to think about how many total servings are in your bottle. Here we have roughly 8 servings in your bottle (25 ounce bottle divided by 3 ounce recipe). So the 2 dashes of bitters per serving is multiplied by 8 servings giving you 16 dashes of bitters for your bottled cocktail. Using the ratios figured out above our bottled cocktail will look something like this: When you have your ratios figured out, simply mix everything in your bottle, shake it a bit just to make sure everything is incorporated and chill in the fridge until drinking time. Once you have the hang of making up bottled cocktails down, you'll find that it makes it a lot easier to prepare for parties. Just bottle up a few of your favorite cocktails and spend the time drinking and having fun rather than playing bartender. It makes it easy to give a party a theme, lets party-goers get their own drinks, and also gives people immediate ideas of what they might want to drink. And it also makes life easier when going to a party – just bring a bottle of your favorite cocktail. It's classier than drinking whiskey straight out of the bottle and tastier than the usual keg of Natty Lite.
Donate to FVPBNo e-CSRU would be complete without a call for you to donate to FVPB to help keep the VPB going strong. For five years now FVPB has been providing monetary support so the VPB can keep doing all the activities that make it great! With plans in the works to travel to the Nats game, William & Mary, and recruit new members in the fall, the band needs your support. Donations can be made at http://www.donortownsquare.com/donate_redir.aspx?ai=569&qs=XLJQL or by sending your donation to: Friends of the Virginia Pep Band, Inc., P.O. Box 4524, Charlottesville, VA 22905-4524. As always, donations are tax deductible!
Viva la Pep Band!Friends of the Virginia Pep Band
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