“the real me”

“TALENT SHOWS”

(started our first ‘ensemble’ in ‘junior year’ of ‘high school’)

(i didn’t bother trying out for the ‘talent show’ freshman / sophomore year)

i took advantage of the breakup of nick guarino’s old band to snag him as my ‘drummer’ and audition for the ‘talent show’ (“that very day”/ “as a matter of fact”))

“as a matter of fact…”
“come to think of it…”

(at first, we billed ourselves as “the real me”)

(after the 1973 song by “the who”)

(this was my idea)

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1 george li on bass guitar
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(we didn’t win the talent show…)

a few months later, we renamed ourselves “lost horizon”

(after the 1933 james hilton novel)

(this was bassist george li’s idea)

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1 john birckhead (keyboards : vocals)
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2 nicholas guarino on drums
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(we also didn’t win the “musicfest” that year…)

that summer, i attended the governor’s school of international studies @ ramapo college…

(performed at the “talent show” on the last night of camp)

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1 philip augustin on piano and vocals (and saxophone?)
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(by senior year, the band has re-christened itself “eighty-8”)

(after the number of keys on a standard piano)

(this was pianist john birckhead’s idea)

(can you now start to observe how the naming of a band is an inherent power struggle among the members??)

after many line-up changes, the band was ultimately unsuccessful…

(we performed @ ‘bridgewater high school’ in spring 2002 for one of george li’s “asian culture club” concerts)

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1 reh hussein (zaf bajwa) on vocals
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👈👈👈☜*“ENSEMBLE JOURNALS”* ☞ 👉👉👉

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💕💝💖💓🖤💙🖤💙🖤💙🖤❤️💚💛🧡❣️💞💔💘❣️🧡💛💚❤️🖤💜🖤💙🖤💙🖤💗💖💝💘

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*🌈✨ *TABLE OF CONTENTS* ✨🌷*

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🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥*we won the war* 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥