Bahlke House named Historical Site

The residence of Rob Cook & Maria Bruno, known locally as the Bahlke House, has been named a historical site by the Gratiot County Historical Society. Built in 1907, the 6,000 sq ft 3-story tudor was constructed as the residence of Wm and Mary Bahlke. Bahlke was a lawyer, farmer, postmaster, and village president. In addition to playing central roles in the startups of a bank and several important manufacturing concerns, Bahlke was a major benefactor of Alma College. He donated the land still used as Bahlke Field and his widow built a stadium there. Mary also started Alma's first library in a storefront. When she died, the Bahlke House was bequeathed to the city and it became the public library with meeting rooms for women's clubs. A residence since 1974, Cook & Bruno have lived in the Bahlke House since 1996.

Appraisal documentation for tax deductable donations

If you donate gear to a museum, school, etc. and plan to deduct the contribution from your taxes, you need form 8283 from the IRS. The first section of the form is for donations valued under $5,000 and you can complete it yourself. Section two is for donations valued over $5,000; for that one you need to attach an appraisal. I am a qualified appraiser; contact me if you need assistance! (I just completed an appraisal of Francine Bellson's donation gear which she gave to The Louie Bellson Heritage Days of Rock Falls, IL.)

Watch out for this guy!!

Before you spend $10,000 on a drum from an Ebayer with only one feedback, think carefully.

http://cgi.ebay.com/custom-collectable-KISS-snare-drum-Gene-Simmons-/170537103731?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27b4cdb173#ht_582wt_1137

This guy stiffed me for his drum show booth 2 years ago with a bad credit card and seems to have no physical address. I managed to get his stepfather on the phone, who was not at all surprised and said even HE does not know where the guy lives or does business.

Busy days

Where did the summer go? Maria starts teaching again next week (Michigan State University), and it seems like everything is happening at once. I'm still making some progress on the Gretsch book thanks to John Sheridan's assistance. A new project still in the planning stage is an autobiography of Jerry Shirley, drummer for Humble Pie. Jon Cohan will be editing the text and it looks like Chad Smith may be involved with translating some of the Anglo-centric comments. Casino video gigs were heavy in August; tomorrow is Donny and Marie Osmond, Sunday we have Paul Revere and The Raiders. In betweeen, on Saturday, the Lions have their first home exhibition game of the season so I'll be at Ford Field teching the visiting coaches intercom systems. (Cleveland Browns.) Next week I'll be shipping stuff to Winnie in Amsterdam for the UK Drum Fair at the end of September- I'll be flying to Amsterdam and driving (and riding the ferry) with Winnie to Birmingham, England, for the show. I'll have to miss the Amsterdam show and George Lawrence's Ohio drum show, both coming up soon in September.

Remembering....

Some tragic losses this year...
Terry Breese, co-founder and co-owner of Huber Breese Music as well as Southern Thumb Music, both in southeast Michigan. Terry was a longtime exhibitor at the Chicago Drum Show, a career music educator and the consummate supporter of the percussive arts. And all-around nice guy. Terry passed away suddenly and unexpectedly just before this year's show, which was dedicated to his memory.

I am headquartered in my home town of Alma, a central-Michigan town of 10,000. The community was rocked last week by news of a tragic plane crash. The superintendant of schools Don Pavlik was being airlifted to the Mayo clinic for cancer treatment accompanied by his wife Irene, his doctor and friend Dr. Jim Hall, pilot Jerry Freed and copilot Earl Davidson. The plane went down in Lake Michigan with Jerry the only survivor. For more details, just google "plane crash near Ludington" or search the stories at the site of the local paper, The Morning Sun.

First blog post

Welcome to the Rebeats blog. I'll be posting here instead of trying to keep the "news" page of the Rebeats site updated. To stay completely in the loop, please occasionally check the Rebeats home page, the drum show home page of the Rebeats site, and the Chicago Drum Show facebook page. Thanks! Rob