We Finally Won One…

Beccano mallets away at the competition. Aren’t their new uniforms great?

…and didn’t win another one.

The one we won (I’m getting too wrapped up in this homophone, right?) was the football game Friday night. McNeil usually wins all of the out-of-
district games and loses most of the in-district games. This year we started out the opposite way. One of the kids in the stand prophesied that this trend would continue.

I don’t really care. I’m there for the band.

And that brings us to the one we didn’t win. Saturday was the first marching contest of the season—and the only one I’m likely to see. McNeil sounded really good and look pretty good. I thought they had a serious chance, but the judges thought otherwise.

McNeil was the only band that we saw who performed their whole show. That should have counted for something. The other bands had worked on adding flash, but just stood in place for their third movement. We marched the whole damned thing! And sounded good doing it. But apparently flash is more important than knowing your show, and McNeil placed sixth out of a number that resembles a nine but is of lesser value.

Grrr.

Granted, the last three places were determined by only a few hundredths of a point. But still…

So this week, I am grateful to get to hang out with so many dedicated kids who work really hard to put on a show each Friday night. They deserve better than they got.

Friday Night Lights Out

This injured marcher kinda sums up the game last night—down to the popcorn in his hair.

Suna did a great job of blogging our wedding planning session from Thursday night. So all I’m left to comment on this week is last night’s football game.

It turns out to be the last game of the season for the Mavericks, just as Tuesday ended the season for those other mavericks. McNeil put up a good fight for a few quarters. But in the end, Georgetown was just too much for them.

The final score was 24-0. It was 7-0 until the last quarter, which is really good. We were supposed to be trounced much harder than that. Georgetown moves on to the playoffs. McNeil moves on.

I share the mixed feelings about the end of the season that various members of the band expressed. I am glad to have a large chunk of my life back to do other things. But I will miss the band kids and riding to the games with them every Friday. I will miss the bickering, singing, swaggering, and sweetness. I will miss listening to W. rant about the quality of the coaching and how even he could have caught that one. I will even miss the other bus parents, with whom we shared a few laughs and lots of empty water bottles.

Senior Recognition Night

Two of the seniors whose names were called for Senior Night—most dressed up for Halloween.

The band seems very injury prone tonight—sort of like a football team. One kid showed up with a sprained ankle that the RN had to tape. Another had a bum knee. And yet another tripped and hit his head against a fence. He jumped up again really fast—I guess to avoid embarrassment—only to pass out. He seems to be OK, at least well enough to play with the band at half time.

Halloween seems to have kept most of the usual suspects home, even though it’s Senior Recognition Night. I’m posting a bunch of band pix on a Facebook album.

The kids all seem to have had fun, dancing and yelling. The drum line and cheerleaders even set up an improvised nosh pit after halftime. And it was fun listening to the director bantering with the kids as the game clock wound down.

McNeil even won. As Suna put it, “They sucked worse than we did.” Honestly, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with this team a decent coach wouldn’t fix. Put one on my Christmas wish list.

Marching Bands Galore

McNeil 2008 Marching Season T-shirt

So this weekend was jammed packed full of all the music in the world.

Friday night was the high school football game. We were the visitors. So I didn’t get to hear or see the band very well. We met the grandfather of one of the other Tubas. He went to the home side to watch and listen to the half-time show while the other chaperons and I cleaned up after the kids. I’m glad he had a chance to see his grandson play.

Saturday was the UIL Regional competition. Thirty-one 5A bands competed for six slots to go to State. McNeil placed dead in the middle and went home before the finals. Once again, I took too many pictures to do anything with. But because it was daylight, I think most of them will be pretty good quality (I haven’t looked at them yet). Anyway, the bands were good.

I didn’t add any pictures of this band to the Facebook album for the competition.

The most amusing was one that based their show on cars and traffic. It included a traffic jam where the drill team and other parts of the band kept getting in the way of marchers with cars. It also had a gas pump with prices that kept going up and up until one of the members fell over. An ambulance came rushing up. They performed CPR. Then they carefully laid their instruments in a stretcher and carried it off to the sidelines, leaving the “unconscious” band member laying by the pump. At some point he got up and started marching again, but my attention was fixed on the instrument stretcher.

Sunday, the choir sang “Sweet Day,” a really nice Baroque (?) piece at a service on preparing to die. Most of the rest of the music used in the service consisted of the songs from Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou? that I really dislike. The guest lecturer was a retired professor who talked over the heads of most of the congregation and droned on for way too long.

Ms. T enjoyed watching the Festival of the Bands despite being cold. More photos are in the Facebook album for the festival.

And tonight is the ninth annual Festival of the Bands, a showcase of all the marching bands in RRISD. Even the middle school bands participate, so we get a preview of the talent in the pipeline. This year, that pipeline looks pretty good. Of course, the high school bands are at a near-professional level by this time of year—even if those that are not going to State are starting to unwind. The only drawback was the cold front that blew in today. It was cold in the stands.

So today I am grateful for a life filled with music. If I can remember where, I think I’ll even buy the DVD of Saturday’s performance.

20th USSBA Marching Band Competition

This over-the-shoulder shot shows how well the kids can behave on the bus.

Today we are heading into the wild lands of northern Hays county, just outside of Buda, for a marching contest. The band squoze onto five buses for the trip.

Taft High School Marching Band

Everyone practiced for an hour before checking out their uniforms, eating a bite, and boarding the buses. Percussion rehearsed for an additional hour plus before that. I worry that they—especially the percussion director—may be pushing the kids too hard right before the competition. I know Suna was worried about Beccano being out in the sun for that long.

But at least they are quite on the bus. (I’m starting this on the ride down.)

Taft HS did a very pretty/difficult performance called The Forgotten People, complete with Mayan props and Native American percussion. I really enjoied the visuals. Me—the guy who listens to the marching bands and ignores that marching stuff.

Maverick Color Guard Tosses Flags

We followed them with our rather uninspired choreography and arrangements. Our director seems to have something against the audience enjoying the show. I certainly don’t see how they can win anything with this show.

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Maverick Pit and Tubas
 

OK. I stand corrected. The kids played awesome. They made these tepid arrangements come alive. I didn’t even recognize it as being the. Same performance as they played Thursday. I am so impressed! The dynamics were better than ever, and tuning was impeccable. They ended up third of five in their division and were awarded the best percussion section. Go, Beccano!

LBJ’s Dancer

LBJ HS, who followed us had a balletino. He was spectacular until he lost a shoe. But he recovered well and rejoined the color guard smoothly.

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Weslaco Marching Band

The most impressive band of the evening—and I hate to say it wasn’t ours—played last and drove the farthest—all the way from the valley. Weslaco was musically impressive, and their marching was completely entertaining. They didn’t double-time; they ran full speed in some of their maneuvers. They danced. They swayed. They ran some more. And they did all this while playing some difficult charts. All this entertainment out of a small band from a city of about 26,000 people!

Saturday Update

I didn’t have any pictures of the game, so I added this playful picture later.

It has been a wild week. I have been so busy at the new contract that I haven’t had time to either blog or keep up with my blog lurking. That’s good. I like being busy, and I’ve been doing work I like doing—creating a web interface for a training department.

I have been so busy creating a web structure that I haven’t had much time to focus on instructional design. But I hope that will come later, once the structure is up and stable.

In other news, last night the Mavericks unexpectedly won a football game. It was close, and they had many opportunities to blow it. But they didn’t. It almost made up for the butt-kicking they took last week when they only scored a safety while the other team racked up almost fifty points.

On the ride home, the kids all sang some incomprehensible song at the top of their lungs. Suna told me they were singing their parts of the fight song. I didn’t recognize it as such.

Anyway, now I’m off to see my Dad.

Are You Ready for Some Football?

Tubaboy plays at sunset
Photo by: Suna

Last night I went to my first high school football game in more years than I care to mention here. I’ll admit I went primarily out of a sense of obligation, but I really had fun. Not yelling-yourself-hoarse fun, but fun. I did yell.

I sat on the top row of the visitor section in Temple, right next to the sousaphone section of the band. Tubaboy was within reach. Becanno was hidden in the percussion section much farther down.

The team was expected to lose by a big margin, but they won 38-28, even though the QB threw five interceptions in the first half. There was some really good play on the field, and I found myself sucked into the vortex that is football fandom. I don’t expect to learn each players’s stats (or even their names), but there are a few really good players.

But the reason I went was the band.

They were very impressive for the first performance. They all seemed to know their parts; Tubaboy even had many of the pep pieces memorized. The marching program was on the esoteric side: “This is what really happens when you go to sleep.” I would not have known it was a nightmare sequence if it had not already been explained to me. It was visual enough, and the playing was good. But huh?

Next week is a home game. I look forward to seeing the performance from stage front instead of backstage (that is, the visitor’s section). Maybe it will make more sense then.