Glenn Alsup's Reverie Blog

2011 Memorial Day trip to Colorado Springs

2011-05-31T09:24:00.000-07:00

Memorial Day typically signifies the official beginning of Summer in Colorado, but this year it seems like Winter has lasted longer than usual. It actually snowed just a few days ago in Vail and the A-basin ski area may be open on July 4th this year. In past years, we've been able to go camping in the mountains on Memorial Day, but this year it was just not possible.

Last year was colder than usual too so we went to Lake Powell in Utah and this year we decided to head down to Colorado Springs. First, we stopped at the Garden of the Gods and then drove to the summit of Pikes Peak. Most people can't imagine driving to the top of a 14teener, but not in America and the Pike's Peak highway is a good example. An old friend from Munich was in town and he joined us as well. Above are some photos.

Getting back into the Denver piano bar scene

2011-04-25T19:07:00.001-07:00

I'm playing a lot more piano these days and I'm hoping to get back into Denver's piano bar scene. I like playing all types of music and especially enjoy playing at neighborhood piano bars. It has always been a remedy for whatever problems may be happening around me. It's so much fun to have people join in with their favorite Beatles, Billy Joel, Elton John and James Taylor songs.

I contacted several piano bar owners and they all ask to see an example of my playing on the web. I've been playing my whole life and in the past, I'd always just show up mid-day, play a couple of songs and get on the rotation. So, I guess I need to record a bunch of songs and create a website now.

To start, I dug out some of the old video equipment I used many years ago. First, I wanted to see if it actually still worked. Second, I wanted to see how well it integrated with today's internet world. Here's two initial recordings using a single microphone; at some point, I'll create a link to a bunch of songs.

Dad celebrates his 90th birthday

2011-02-20T08:06:00.001-08:00

This year my brothers and I flew into WV to celebrate Dad's 90th birthday. I think we surprised him, I called early in the day from Colorado to wish him happy birthday so he wouldn't have a hint of the surprise. It's funny, how a few hours later we were having dinner together.

I always look forward to spending time with my immediate family. Although we were perhaps a little too competitive early on in our lives; today, we celebrate our unique opinions. Dad was quick to get the spirited conversations going and then sit back and watch us battle it out. I love you dad!

Looking back at 2010: 525,600 minutes

2011-01-01T12:00:00.000-08:00

I always enjoy looking over our family pictures during the Holidays. I like reminiscing the fun times I had with family and friends. This year we took several trips to the mountains and went to Lake Powell early in the year. During the Summer we went to West Virginia to see my parents and I visited with them again over Thanksgiving.

Every year we make a video on New Year's Day. Typically, its a skateboard video and I take the boys to a variety of skate parks around Denver, but it was just too cold this year so we decided to make a 2010 year-in-review video instead. It was so much fun that I think we'll plan to do it every year.

A West Virginia Thanksgiving

2010-11-27T18:27:00.000-08:00

I headed back East to West Virginia for a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving this year to spend some time with my folks. I can remember so many great times with family and friends during this Holiday and this year was no exception. The weather was a bit of a mixed bag, but it was mostly mild and I took walks nearly every day down the railroad tracks and across the golf course.

Early on, I was able to visit with Craig Clinton and we reminisced the old days. I saw a couple performances of RENT at the Parkersburg Actors Guild since I've always enjoyed the music. It was just the three of us for Thanksgiving. Mom and I dressed the turkey in the afternoon after a visit from Mike McAllister. Later, she made all the fixings and after a short prayer we sat down for an intimate memorable dinner.

Keeping your nose to the grindstone

2010-10-03T09:19:00.002-07:00

I always get excited when the weekend includes a skateboard competition for my kids to enter. Nearly, every town in the Denver metro has one during the Summer and if we are willing to travel a little way, so do the other front range and mountain towns. We've been doing these sorts of things for many years now.

I'm generally optimistic and tell my boys if they let the skateboard do the talking, eventually their time will come. My mom always said "just keep your nose to the grindstone and good things will happen". I guess the lesson here is that there really aren't any short cuts and anything worth having takes time.

It sure is sweet when everything comes together though!

A September drive just outside Denver Colorado

2010-09-22T20:41:00.000-07:00

Taking a drive down the Platte River near Deckers has been an Alsup family tradition for many years. This Summer we stopped at the Castle Rock Skatepark and had lunch at Chipotle before heading into the mountains. The drive is pretty simple and only takes a few hours.

For some reason this year, I had to bribe the boys with the lunch at Chipotle and a quick stop at an area convenience store to stock up on sunflower seeds and sodas. I'm not sure I can explain it, but once we got to the river everything just seemed to make sense.

Summer road trips to West Virginia

2010-08-06T18:39:00.000-07:00

Every year our family heads back to West Virginia to see my folks. They are getting older and we all cherish every second with them. There are so many ups and downs in life; on one hand, I was able to attend my 35th high school reunion this year and reminisce memories with old friends, on the other hand, mom had just had surgery and was planning to start chemotherapy.

I suppose the more things go around the more they come around. You see, a lot of my childhood was spent in the back of a Delta 88 headed to Kansas and now I find myself looking forward to taking that road trip to West Virginia from Colorado. This year seemed so bittersweet, watching my boys shred the new area skate park I couldn't help remembering Dad taking me to the tennis courts in Arkansas City while visiting his parents 40 years ago.

Lake Powell, an American adventure

2010-05-22T14:28:00.000-07:00

I met Patrick Burgun in Paris nearly 25 years ago and we have been best of friends ever since. Over the years, we've made it a point keep in touch and see each other once or twice a year. He and his wife Marlene have taken me to so many interesting places in Europe and I have watched their two daughters grow up.

We've been to many places in Colorado, so this year I tried to come up with someplace that would be really unique. I've always enjoyed the landscape in Southern Utah and Lake Powell is truly a gem. It's sort of a long drive and the boys got a bit cranky, but after a couple of verses of Kumbayah everything was fine.

Our family @ the Millennium

2010-05-17T20:30:00.000-07:00

It's funny how quickly we forget the specifics of the photographs we take. Thank goodness digital cameras save the date and time of pictures now. I'm still in the process of scanning old pictures from days gone by and I admit that instead of trying to track down the date and time of each one I've grouped the pictures below under a single heading "Millennium" since I know they were all taken around that time.

Carolina and I moved from Washington Park to Englewood on Halloween 1996. We were married the following year and these pictures were all taken around that time. Oriana was in the forth grade, Alejandro was an infant and Andre was still a glimmer in my eye. Looking through these photos reminded me that the early years of raising a family are truly magical for everyone involved.

1420 South Lafayette Street

2010-04-14T20:19:00.000-07:00

I've been doing doing some Spring cleaning lately and during the process I've come across a lot of photos from past years. Well, I've been organizing the pictures by the address in which I lived at the time. For the record, I moved to Denver from California in 1989 and in 1991, I purchased a home at 1420 South Lafayette Street and lived there until 1997. Here are some scanned images from that time.

Dassault Systemes, a French software company, moved me to the area to manage their Catia (engineering software) clients in the surrounding area, mostly in Colorado and Kansas. I quickly became disenchanted with working remote and in May 1992 I decided to start my own company, in April 1995 Viewmark was born.

In the interim, I taught piano from the house known as the Washington Park Piano Studio and during the time I met Carolina Paez. We fell in love, became a couple and gave birth to Alejandro in 1996. She had a daughter Oriana, who is truly the rose of my heart, and our family moved to Greenwood Village in 1997. More to come!

Billy Joel Song Quiz

2010-02-17T19:56:00.000-08:00

It's hard to ignore the power of Facebook. Since becoming a member several years ago, I have connected with dozens of my high school and college friends. There's even online tools to coordinate many of the issues around your high school reunion now. This got me thinking about recording a music medley from the era using songs from one of my favorite songwriters.

One thing lead to another and before long I had strung together several bars from 16 of my favorite Billy Joel songs. The total length of the medley turned out to be less than 4 minutes. Then, I wondered if the soundbites would be as familiar to my friends as they were to me? I got a lot of responses, but no one was able to guess all 16. I decided to upload it to YouTube for others to join in and enjoy.

The 2009 Colorado tennis season comes to a close

2010-02-16T19:59:00.001-08:00

The 2009 tennis year was a bit of a mixed bag. I started off the year with wins over Randy Sonthheimer, Chip Hudson and Mark Scruggs, but then had early round losses in the State and Denver City tournaments. I teamed up with Dan Almanza in doubles and we had good results at the Austin Scott and the Denver city, but lost early on at the State and the Greenwood Double Challenge.

Select this link: Alsup 2009 tennis season, to see the results. I ended up ranked 4th in 45 singles and 6th in 50 singles in Colorado for 2009, while Dan and I ended up 3rd in 50 doubles. It was just that kind of year, with economy and several other issues being so unpredictable. In any case, I'm looking forward to 2010.

Jazz on the Becky Thatcher in Marietta Ohio with Marty Alsup playing Sax

2009-01-24T20:01:00.000-08:00

Recently, I came across some old music recordings from my days back in the Mid Ohio Valley and I couldn't help digitizing one of them and uploading it for friends and family to hear. Growing up, music was always an integral part of our family life and for my brother Marty it was particularily rewarding.

In the early Spring of 1978, I met with the owner of the Lafayette Hotel in Marietta Ohio and pitched him on the idea of staging a Jazz band on the Becky Thatcher, a showboat docked in Marietta Ohio, which they owned. I remember him saying how much he liked the name "A Touch of Class" and the rest is history.

That Summer my brother Marty, who has since passed away, came into town from North Carolina and we played together one Summer night on the Muskingum river with the other members of "A Touch of Class" (Dave Skaugerud:Guitar and Mike Lewis:Bass). I recorded the night on a cheesy cassette tape recorder, but I'm sure glad I did!

Some of my favorite music memories come from those nights on the Becky Thatcher showboat. There was always a pretty good crowd and I remember celebrating with friends all Summer long. I'd enjoy hearing from anyone who was there.

Piano duet recital recorded at Marietta College on April 12th, 1977

2009-01-18T14:33:00.000-08:00

Since the advent of Facebook, I've been connecting with a lot of old college friends and several of them have asked if I had any recordings of music recitals from our more idealistic days in southeast Ohio. Well, I was able to find one of my favorite performances, Billy the Kid composed by Aaron Copland. Originally written as a ballet, the premiere was given in Chicago on October 16th, 1938 using this two piano version of the score.

Now this performance was recorded quite some time ago (April 1977), but I think it is one of my most memorable ever. My duet partner's name was Steve Cooper. I can tell you that we practiced most of the semester and had never played it from start to finish until the night of the final performance. Enjoy, and please no comments from the peanut gallery.

The 2008 Colorado tennis season comes to a close

2008-11-05T08:30:00.000-08:00

The 2008 tennis season is now over! The Denver Winter Clay Court Championship at the Greenwood Athletic Club seems to always be the last tournament of the year in Colorado. This year I played 4.5 and won a couple of rounds before losing to the #2 seed in the tournament.

The 2008 year was a good one! Select this link: Alsup 2008 tennis season, to see the highlights. I'll be ranked #1 in Colorado for 4.0 singles in 2008. Our Adult and Twilight teams won the state championships, while our Senior and Mixed teams lost in the final rounds of the playoffs. Individually, I won a majority of the 4.0 tennis tournaments I entered including the State and the Boulder city championships.

Original music from the last millenium

2008-10-25T15:23:00.000-07:00

Throughout the 80s and early 90s I wrote numerous original songs. It was an era when digital recording technology was still fairly limited and many songwriters recorded in a hybrid midi/analog environment. Recently, I converted the old analog tapes to mp3 and placed them online for family and friends to enjoy. Select this link: Original Music of Glenn Alsup, to go to a library of songs

The instrumentation for these songs was created by syncing an Ensoniq Mirage and EMU Proteus through a midi track on an eight track cassette tape. At some point I was hoping to replace the vocals since I was never a very good singer. The songs capture the trials and tribulations of my early adulthood.

Please let me know what you think!

The official launch of my personal blog

2006-09-16T16:04:00.000-07:00

Recently, I read an article that stated that only one CEO from a fortune 500 company had a blog. I believe it was the new CEO at Sun Microsystems. Well, I have several blogs and others that I contribute to. Select this link: Glenn Alsup's professional blog, to see my postings on our company's blog. The main objective of my personal blog is to occasionally add interesting blog postings on life in general. They could be related to my professional career, music endeavors, tennis conquests or family stories.

For years, I've been saving those old notebooks, you know the ones we all use to write down our thoughts, in the event that someday I'll want to make reference to them. I have all sorts of audio cassettes from my song writing days and what about all the Hi8 videos of the family? Well, I'd like to think I can collect them, digitize them, and manage them online. That way I can share them with my friends and family and we can all reminisce the good times we've had together. Select this url: Alsup family pictures to enjoy.

So please stay tuned!