[Harp-L] SPAH Convention Cities

[George Brooks <gbrooksvt@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

John Walden writes:

>Detroit was GREAT in '97....!

To which Michael Peloquin replies:

>That was the next to last year of the "Golden Age
>of SPAH" I wasn't there, but I know that it must be
>better than any SPAH I have been to!

Easy there, big fella.  That was John Walden who posted, not that 
person who, without naming names, has wasted no opportunity to apprise 
the List of his or her firm opinion that the SPAH convention was a much 
better event when he or she had a hand in running things.

I attended SPAH for the first time in 1998 (Romulus/Detroit again).  
The venue was horrible for anyone without access to a car.  Although 
the hotel was convenient to the airport, alternatives to the hotel 
restaurant were almost non-existent.  There was a chain restaurant 
right next door (Bob's Big Boy?), the food from which sickened several 
people including, if I remember correctly, a close personal friend of 
mine.  Then there was a sub-Subway quality sandwich place in a forlorn 
strip mall and, at some additional remove, a mediocre Italian place one 
got to by traversing terrain last used as a location for the filming of 
Mad Max.  That was it.

But the convention rocked because of the people and the stellar 
entertainment line-up.  Members of The Greatest Generation, 
historically the backbone of SPAH, were ten years younger than they are 
now and consequently both more numerous and more vigorous.  Blackie 
Shackner was there.  Pete Pederson was there.  Doug Tate was still with 
us.  Between the official entertainment and the attendees, there was an 
embarrassment of extraordinary talent.  Well, there is at every SPAH, 
but this was over the top.  Kim Wilson, Curtis Salgado, Steve Baker and 
the amazing Chris Jones (RIP), Jerry Portnoy, Cham-Ber Huang, Charlie 
Leighton, William Galison, Carlos del Junco, Steve Guyger, Robert 
Bonfiglio, Stan Harper, Joe Martin....Yikes!  And ex-World Harmonica 
Champion Jim McGlaughlin, who arrived in someone else's Oldsmobile 442 
(remember, JR?) and who at one point dumped out his whole bag of harps 
on the hotel carpet, revealing several Filiskos and a pink plastic 
harmonica in the shape of a penis, which is the one he put in his 
mouth.  Randy Singer led the best jazz jam ever, with a killer local 
trio that played absolutely top-level music and that genuinely seemed 
to be having a blast.  And, while it was great to see Richard Hunter in 
Milwaukee last month, in 98 he was accompanied by his lovely wife and a 
bottle of Bushmills that, at a critical juncture, mysteriously lost its 
cap.

A long way of saying that to me, it's the people that make the 
convention, not the place.

George