Syracuse Ska Forum

It's so sad. Ben will definitely be missed....

And yeah, I would be there if I could be, but I can't be, os I hope everyone who goes has a good time

I think I'm gonna go to it. Jaclyn Falk is really cool, and most of my band will still be in Pennsylvania recording. Mike is awesome too... I should go...

Yeah. I have no idea what I'm gonna do when Ben is gone. I mean, he's Ben. He's awesome. And he's been such a great friend, and we've done so much stuff with him the past year or so. I'm gonna miss his hair like crazy.

I just need to keep all the pictures I have of him on my computer. That way if I ever miss him I can look at them and be like 'oh sigh, my benny, i miss you so much.'

Haha. And then I'll talk to him online, or call him or something, and it'll all be better. And then we can all take a huge road trip next year to go see him, and it'll be awesome. Yay.

Rory, dude, you're not gonna come to Ben's going away party?

WOW. What a great, great time.

Big thanks to Brian Leigh for putting this on and being an amazing host. It was really impressive how much effort he put into the barbeque. Lots and lots of good food.

Jackie was wonderful as always. She's such a sweetheart.

Mike Park was awesome and so were the people he brought along. Hiro from Japan was hilarious all night long. His little notebook is amazing. He's learning lots of slang that'd make your grandma blush. "Oh! Hook me up, hook me up!!" We were admiring one of the bound copies he's completed. Very impressive.

It was also wicked cool how Mike and company wanted to walk all over Syracuse. Whoa, we walked from Brian's place near the Westcott, around the SU campus, along Marshall Street, into downtown and Armory Square. Best stop there was Sound Garden, which had just closed, but Eric (Panda) of STP came out and talked to Mike, which was awesome (even if it was a lot of shoptalk, lol). Then we stopped at the Jerry Rescue Monument in Clinton Square (one of my fave spots to show visitors) and ended up at Coffee Pavilion, where we camped for awhile. Then we walked straight back, while Mike and I had a very indepth discussion about the state of American ska and where it's going.

I especially like how Mike Park really wants to find a new, young version of The Specials. Said he'd sign a band like that in a heartbeat, if only he could find one. There's more to it than that, but hopefully you get the general idea. I got a lot out of our discussion. It was really cool to talk for awhile to his grrlfriend too, because she's very perceptive as well.

It's 3am and I finally left Brian's house. A great, great time.

I'd just like to thank everyone who came to the Mike Park BBQ at my house. I know I had a good time, and I think that everyone else did as well. Good food, good people, and good music equals good times. Since this went well, I'd love to do something like this again. So we shall see what the future has in store. Thanks again to everyone who came and helped make this possible. Especially my roomates, Danny, Gabe, and of course Jaclyn Falk for opening with her wonderful music.

Cheers!
Brian

Yeah.

Very rad of you to host that!

Thanks.

Gee Steven, I was really looking forward to your feedback on the formal part of the evening, good or bad. You always have interesting comments, even when you hate something. Whadya think???

My favorite part of the night was picking Mike Park's brain, seriously. He's a very smart guy who's travelled around the world a lot and experienced a ton of things. And he has very astute observations about the evolution of the American ska scene. That latter subject is what we talked about most and we had a very interesting exchange on that.

OMG, I just read Mike's journal for that night and it's hilarious. I was confused about the connection between Chris and Megan, but now I get it and sorry dude, but I was in the living room talking more with Hiro than Megan. Everyone loves Hiro. That guy is just amazing.

But Steven, I really wanna hear what you thought of the barbeque, Jackie and Mike Park ....