Billy Joel Song Quiz

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!