category: drumcorps

I Know People Who Have Done This

[via PostSecret]

 

End of an Era

I finally did it.

After turning the thought over in my head for months now, I finally submitted my resignation as LSM webmaster.

It's nothing against them. It's just a reorganization of priorities for me. I can only handle so many projects at a time, and can only keep focused on so much. I'm sure that there is someone actively participating in the corps who has HTML skills and can do just as good a job as I did. Or better, probably.

I just haven't been devoting the amount of time to the website that the corps deserves, and it's been like that for quite a while now. LSM deserves more than I'm currently giving them. And I deserve to be cut free of the guilt I've been giving myself over that very issue.

The announcement feels like a weight lifted from my mind.

 

Disappointment

I've been watching the 2007 DCI Finals on ESPN2 this evening, while recording it on Aaron's computer with the intent to burn a DVD of it before bed.

I just came downstairs and deleted the file. On purpose. I'm never going to be inclined to watch it again.

The corps' programs just didn't grab me this year. I knew that early on, and that's why I didn't attend the Toledo show or travel north to any Michigan shows.

I haven't heard a ballad that brought me to tears in years. It's been a long time since I left a stadium singing a riff from a show, wondering what song that was. The members still totally throw down; it's the design teams that are leaving me scratching my head lately.

I don't think I'm getting old and out of touch, per se... but maybe the activity is moving forward without me. I'll stick with my '88 Bluecoats and my '92 Blue Devils and my '95 Scouts and Cavies and my '96 Phantom and be content with the fact that my favorite years in drum corps seem to coincide with my favorite years in popular music, as well.

Just label me as stuck in the '90s all around, I suppose.

 

Drum Corps Cameraphone

[Posted on Flickr by dianaschnuth].

Taken at the Toledo All-Star Review, 17 June 2006.

(Yes, I just got the film developed...)

 

Drum Corps Withdrawal

Some years, I just don't get "into" corps. I always go to the Toledo show in June — usually the first show of the season for most corps involved — but sometimes, I can't really get excited about making two-hour drives to see other shows during the summer. This was one of those years.

Tonight, on ESPN2, I watched highlights from the DCI World Championship Finals. I recorded it on the PVR program on Aaron's computer, and am currently burning it to DVD. In a few more minutes, I will have a DVD of the two-hour program I just watched, complete with chapter stops to skip the commercials. Tomorrow, this DVD may even have a fancy label printed right on the disc, if I get around to designing one.

Some years, I get "into" corps right about the time the highlights are broadcast on ESPN2 or PBS or whatever medium they're in. I'm not sure if this is one of those years or not.

We'll see tomorrow, after I listen to the On The 50 podcast that's been sitting neglected on my iPod for weeks. If I bring my old DCI tapes downstairs and start digitizing them and burning them to DVD, that's a sign.

 

Twilight Sheen

I ended up taking a brisk walk around the neighborhood this evening, just before dusk. I'd strapped on my iPod, and the first podcast I queued up was On The 50 (a weekly podcast of drum corps opinion), and I'm sure that affected my mood on some level.

As I finished my first lap around the neighborhood, I'd also finished the podcast. The sky was that particular shade of blue that means the sun has set, and that it's going to be very dark in about five minutes. The stars had begun to come out, and a light breeze was cooling the sheen of sweat I'd managed to accumulate. Circles of light pooled under the streetlamps, spilling over curbs onto the street.

I queued up another podcast as I started my second lap, but my brain was still focused on a memory. Drum corps in the mid 90's.

read more...

 

Making Things Difficult

So, I finally decided it's time to get off my ass and work on the LSM page again. Figured I'd start with installing phpBB, the standard generic PHP-based forum. Simple to configure, free... can't go wrong. Right?

Well, I came across a problem. LSM's hosting only allows one SQL database. That spot is currently being used by my home-grown content management system, which is kind of important. So... now I get to figure out how to write a forum FROM SCRATCH. Or at least steal appropriate someone's code.

I'd just gotten myself all excited over figuring out how I might make an alumni database work. Now this... this is a little more daunting. I don't doubt that it's possible, but I also don't doubt that it'll be buggy as hell. I just hate to disappoint. Shout-out to all web geeks: any help here? Where can I find my holy grail of forum code?

I guess the bright side is that my users a.) will be able to access the forum with their site login, and b.) will *have* to sign up if they want access to the member forums!

Update, 6/9/06: Thanks to Sheryl's and Dan's patient explanations, I now have a brand-spankin' new forum installed on the LSM site! Now all I have to do is write a post about how to sign up, how to play nice, etc; add a forum link to the main site; and email the board of directors so they can be my guinea pigs to test the thing. :-)

 

It's Done.

I turned in my mellophone after last night's Lakeshoremen Open House.

There were several reasons I decided not to march in 2006, but the membership was definitely not one of those reasons. Everyone was supportive of my decision, and they all seemed to understand, but they really didn't want me to go. Kemo tried to convince me to attend a few early rehearsals, so we'd have an easier time recruiting mellos, and Ann and Mona kept asking if I'd changed my mind yet.

Really, though, after two years (winter, spring, and summer) of driving to Michigan every other weekend, I'm finding that I'd rather enjoy my weekends with my husband instead. Maybe we can be social sometimes, instead of cramming all our chores and laundry and shopping into one day. Maybe attend some of the weekend-long anime conventions we had to pass on last year. Yes, this is a bit of a selfish decision, I suppose -- but this is the time to be selfish, before Aaron and I start a family.

I felt a little more secure about leaving the mello line after seeing the new talent, though. Amber's returning, and there's two or three new mellos (depending on whether Courtney ends up being drum major); so, even with me leaving and Duane opting to focus on writing and cleaning drill instead of marching, there's still a solid core of three or four strong mellos (assuming we don't scare any of them off). The goal for 2006 is five mellos, so we're well on our way.

I was pleasantly surprised at not only the number of new people at the Open House, but also at the quality of the overall sound we produced. LSM just keeps getting better and better earlier and earlier every year. The hornline had 19 returning and prospective members total, and there are still a few returning members who couldn't make the Open House. I think that, if everyone does their part with recruiting, we'll fill out the hornline this year with no problem. Three tubas (or contras, if you prefer), five mellos, ten baris and ten trumpets (or sopranos, again, if you're old-school). I think we can do it.

And, yes, I still say "we" because I'm still involved with LSM, despite my not marching. I'm still the webmaster, and I'm still a member at-large of the Board of Directors. (That said, anything I state on my personal site should not by any means be construed to be the official word of the Lakeshoremen. Check lakeshoremen.org for official news.)

It's like Dan said:

Once you grow up and move on, it's nice to actually MOVE ON. If you have something positive in your life to devote your attention to, why spend your time and energy on a chapter that is admittedly closed? The glory days of youthful summers are gone, but the heady days of mature summer can kick just as much ass, though in a different way.

I say you can give back to drum corps any way you want, but explore the next chapter of life with the same enthusiasm with which you explored your youth.

As much as I hate to let go of performing, I think I have to agree.

 

Conundrum

Here's the thing.

This past summer, I was waffling weekly about whether I wanted to march drum corps in 2006. I would be getting ready to drive the hour and a half up to a "camp" (aka six-hour-long rehearsal), or to a parade, or to a carpool site before a weekend trip, and I'd be absolutely positive that, no, I'm not doing this next year.

Then I'd arrive at said rehearsal or performance and wonder how I could possibly think to give this up. Not once would I contemplate what was going on at home, or the opportunity cost of marching drum corps. I was berating myself for not practicing more at home, and concentrating on my own personal performance at the moment. That's what corps is all about: focusing on a common goal, working toward a vision, doing my best not to be the weakest link.

Now that I've had some time away from it, though, I've been thinking about my reasons for wanting to march next year, and I'm finding them weaker than I'd previously thought.

First, I wanted to be a part of the very first competitive Lakeshoremen season. Since our debut at DCA was unexpectedly upgraded from mini-corps to Class A corps, though, I *was* a part of the LSM competitive debut. And we did well. We didn't come in last — in fact, we were quite near the middle of the pack. I even had my very own little mellophone solo (not actually a solo, per se, but a good measure or so where you can hear my very own countermelody line over the rest of the corps).

Second, I was under the impression that I'd be very interested in playing whatever music we ended up playing in 2006. Several ideas were bandied about at the end of the 2005 season, but I was particularly underwhelmed with the near-final song selection that was played at the banquet earlier this month. I could really care less about playing that music. No disrespect to the show design team, of course. It just was a total turnaround from the ideas that had been shared late in the 2005 season. So, the musical selection isn't such a pull factor anymore.

Third, and most importantly, I had wanted to march one more season of drum corps before Aaron and I decide to start a family. One more summer of selfish indulgence in what *I* want to do. Because, after we decide to pop out our progeny, the selfish days are over. Now that I think about it, though... wouldn't I rather spend my possibly-final childless summer with my husband? Not in a car driving to Michigan every other weekend? Or more? I think I'd rather go to anime conventions and on vacation and hit garage sales and go thrifting and do all the things that my drum corps activity curtailed last summer.

I might turn in my mellophone at the Open House next month.

I'm still an at-large member of the Board of Directors, and I'm still webmaster. I'd also like to take some photos for the corps, for PR and for the website. I want to stay involved. But not at the expense of my family, or my relationship with my husband.

I think I've convinced myself. But what do you think?

 

Google Ads Amuse Me

How utterly amusing. I'm sure there's some witty comment that should go along with this Google Ad, but it's escaping me right now. Something about various defunct corps — yes, the entire corps — gathering dust in some insano fan's basement after having been purchased at a price-slasher discount on eBay.

VK 1996: Hey, man, can we come out now? Our NASA jumpsuits are starting to smell funny, and our families think we got deported.
High Bidder: Only after you play that song from Star Wars again...
VK 1996: Dude, you suck.

 

Kilties Member Dies During Preliminary Competition

By Drum Corps Planet
Sep 3, 2005, 19:37

Joel "Lothar" Magnuson, mellophone player with the Kilties Drum & Bugle Corps, tragically passed away this evening after collapsing on the field during the corps' performance at the Drum Corps Associates' preliminary competition.

Following his collapse, the Kilties cleared the field mid-performance while medical personnel attended to him. The corps then restarted its performance after Joel was taken by ambulance toward a nearby hospital. Following the corps' official photograph, they were told of Joel's untimely death.

Joel was a charter member of the Kilties, from Racine, WI, when they reformed as a Senior corps in 1993. When not marching with the corps, "Lothar" worked as a chef at Amelia's Restaurant in Milwaukee, WI.

The entire Drum Corps Planet family extends our thoughts & prayers to the Joel's family, friends, and the Kiltie organization during this difficult time.

And I was there.

read more...

 

Corps Season is Almost Over

I'm leaving tomorrow evening after work to head off to the Drum Corps Associates finals in Scranton PA. Rehearsal is on Friday, with a brass ensemble performance that evening. Saturday we rehearse some more, and head out to the stadium in the early evening for our competitive debut.

Deep down, I'm nervous and excited... but I'm having one of those *meh* sort of days today, so I'm not excited about it right this moment. I'm feeling like I wish I could spend the long weekend with my husband instead. I feel like I haven't practiced enough over the past, oh, entire summer. It feels like the end of the semester, when I know that no amount of cramming will make me pass the final exam. But I know that when I get out there, in front of whatever crowd there may be, under the lights (if they have them on yet), I'll be excited and happy to perform and I'll feed off the energy of my corpsmates and the audience.

*checks Google maps for drive time*

Um.

OMFG.

Since I'm not taking time off of work tomorrow for a travel day, and my ride is swinging past Toledo around 6pm, we're not going to get to Scranton until TWO O'CLOCK AM. *facepalm*

I have made a bad decision. Shoulda just taken my last remaining half-day of personal time, I guess. Ah, well. As I recall, the guy I'm rooming with for the weekend isn't leaving until after work, too, so he'll probably be getting there around the same time. So, the plus side is that I won't wake his ass up. The minus side? I'll only get maybe four or five hours of sleep before breakfast and rehearsal.

Damn, damn, damn. What a double-edged sword this senior corps thing can be.

When I aged out of Junior corps, I would have given anything to be able to keep marching. Now that I've found a way, I find that I'm not entirely sold on it anymore. It would be different, maybe, if Aaron were into it too, and came with me. As it is, on drum corps weekends, I have to choose the corps or my husband.

I don't know how much longer I can force myself to have to make that choice.

One more year, maybe.

*sigh*

 

A Confession

I'm still pissed at myself for my lame rehearsal yesterday. The entire rehearsal wasn't lame ? the corps made some fairly decent progress overall ? but my own personal performance was sub-par all day. What really gets me is that my poor performance is entirely my fault; I can't just chalk it up to a bad day. It could have been avoided had I actually practiced during the past two weeks.

It had to be painfully obvious that I hadn't practiced ? at least, it was obvious to me. My endurance was pathetic. I could barely play by the end of rehearsal, and my lips are still swollen, even today. I tried to admit it and shrug it off at the same time by admitting to my closer corps friends that I'd been working on the website instead of practicing my mellophone.

The truth is, I did neither.

 

Remembering Drumcorps

I was just reading a column on DCI.org, and one particular section caught my attention:

It?s funny how we all easily forget memories that are so important to us. What would we do without each other to remind us of all the funny things that happened? Would we try and remember the day that our caption head fell right on his butt trying to imitate how horrible we looked during a phrase? Or would we simply forget and let the memories fade with time?

The last thought is the scariest for me that comes along with leaving the activity for good. My caption head, Jamie Oakley, always said that we will never remember the bad days, only the good. That our struggle in the heat and torrential downpours would make us better but would never be our first thoughts when reminiscing about the entire season with our friends.

Maybe I just haven't schmoozed with enough alumni from my years in Northern Aurora and the Bluecoats, but I find that I think equally of the bad and the good times. They were fairly evenly dispersed throughout my three years in Junior corps, but I wouldn't have it any other way. (Well, maybe.)

read more...

 

Drum Corps Reflections

My practice gloves smell like sunscreen and sweat. I reach into the horn case and put them on. I lift out my mellophone, still shiny from the bath and polishing it got Saturday afternoon before the performance.

That shine was the first thing, back in the summer of 1995, that made me truly realize that I was part of a drum corps. I remember being on the practice field at the Memorial Day camp, looking around the circle of horns warming up, and seeing the sun shine bright off the silver. It spoke to me somehow, made me realize that I was part of something I'd never dreamed I could do.

Now, standing in the basement of my house, I pick up my LakeShoremen horn, blow some long tones and lip slurs to warm up, then play through the show, opening my music to look at a few bars in a couple songs that I can never seem to get right. I run through the trouble spots again, then warm down with "Contact," the horn feature.

It's up to me now. This isn't Junior corps, like Northern Aurora or Bluecoats. No one is going to make me practice. If I want to perform better at DCA than I did at DCM, I need to apply myself. Now that I've tasted performance again, now that I've roll-stepped out onto the turf and seen the stadium lights flash off the silver horns, now that I've heard the applause again and been congratulated by one of my own for a job well-done, now I can find the impetus to practice on my own.

How could I have thought of leaving? I'll have to take time away from LSM eventually, I know... but not quite yet. There's plenty of time to have kids and stay home on weekends. For now, I'm just starting to remember why I love this activity.

 

Sneak Peek

I don't think I'm quite ready to ask the Executive Director or the Assistant Director to look at my LSM website redesign ideas. I've put my first three Photoshop comps on one page with notes, and I think I'm going to wait until I have an even half-dozen before I give them the URL and ask them for a critique.

However... I think I'll let you guys have a look-see and let me know what you think of the designs I have up so far. Leave me some feedback, good or bad, in the comments here—maybe I can improve on my next three comps.

Oh, and I'd really appreciate it if no one, ah, *appropriates* my layout ideas? I'm really proud of myself for coming up with the second two, and I may recycle any layouts I don't use for the LSM site. ;-) Not that I think that any of my regulars here would swipe my ideas, but I get 30 entire hits a day, and that means that there are about 20 strangers reading this shit. o.O

 

Memorial Day 2005

My Memorial Day in a nutshell: drive to Michigan, 2½ mile parade, lunch, 3½ hour rehearsal, dinner, performance for returned Marines, drive home. Total time away from home: approximately 14 hours. Total driving time: approximately four hours.

Overall impression of the day: productive.

read more...

 

So Close

I was just congratulating myself on getting the first draft of the 2005 LSM brochure done, and remembering to print directions to the corps director's house, since I'm carpooling up to Saginaw with him tomorrow (instead of my normal carpool buddy). Not quite 11:30, and I can go to bed in time to get a satisfactory amount of sleep before having to leave at 9:15am or so.

Then I remembered: I haven't polished my horn yet.

Shit.

*trudges upstairs with silver polish and an old towel*

 

You May Be Right: I May Be Crazy

But I'm still planning to go to the LakeShoremen January Camp in Attica MI tomorrow. Leaving bright and early, before 8am, to get to Clawson (north of Detroit) by 10am, to carpool up to the Michigan Christian Youth Camp in Attica by 11:30 or noon. Rehearsal lasts from noon to 6pm, after which there's an optional pizza party and some cleanup to be done. Then back to Clawson, and back home to Toledo.

This could suck.

Aaron and I usually do our laundry and shopping on Sundays, so we went out and tried to find an open laundromat tonight. Hit the ATM, topped off the gas tank, no luck finding anyplace to wash our damn clothes. Everyplace closed up early due to the FUCKING SHITTY WEATHER. So, Aaron's going to just do everything tomorrow while I'm off drumcorps-ing. That's awfully cool of him.

Plus, I've promised to turn around and come home if the road conditions suck, and to keep the phone on while I'm driving. (Quite opposite of what most people would say, true, but we rarely have the need or desire to have the cell phone on. It's just good to know it's there if I get in trouble, or if Aaron starts to worry.)

So... wish me luck! (I must be nuts.)

 

Malaguena, Motley Crue-style?

Now that's a reality show I might get sucked into: Tommy Lee enrolled at the University of Nebraska, taking Chemistry classes and marching in the tenor line. Playing Malaguena. Now, I'm not a big Tommy Lee fan, but I can deal with watching a rocker take on marching band and The History Of Rock And Roll class.

For more drumcorps-related blogging weirdness, such as P.E.A.R.T: The Robotic Drum Machine, check out this site: They're So Old, They Played On Stone Bugles. Heh.

 

Topless Drumcorps

As requested... I have delved into the drumcorps archives and dredged up the smuttiest and sleaziest drumcorps photos of the late 90's! (And don't forget... you asked for it!)

Here they are, in no particular order:

 
Here's a teaser: just a little midriff.

 
Mmm, some more midriff. Check out that hot... um, chick. Yeah.

 
Chad shaved his head for Finals in '95. That's sort of "going topless"...

 
When I think of topless drumcorps, *this* is my fantasy. Mmm... tasty.

 
But these two fine specimens are more of the reality than the fantasy.

 
And finally: bottomless drumcorps. Or pantsless, if you prefer.

 

A Measure of How You'll Be Missed

Last Sunday was the 2004 LakeShoremen Banquet. You may recall that I didn't attend for a couple of reasons, not the least of which was the two-hour drive. Anyway, I had assumed—or, perhaps, just hoped—that someone would miss me. That I'd catch some flak from someone for not being there. That someone would tell me that I'd won some award or other, and that they'd have it for me at the first 2005 rehearsal.

But alas. Nothing.

My egotistic assumption that someone would miss me at the banquet reminded me of a poem my Mom taught me long ago, that I'd nearly forgotten (and Google managed to remind me):

 

Supersizus Interruptus

I had just sat down to write a review of Super Size Me, the documentary that I went to see yesterday with Mark and Aaron, when Kris Heath called. Turns out that he and Jamie happened upon the PBS broadcast of the 2004 DCI World Championship Finals, and he wanted to let me know it was on—which was good, because I hadn't realized it would be broadcast so soon after Finals. Usually, it's not broadcast until Thanksgiving weekend.

As always, watching Finals on PBS was an experience best shared with no one. If I can't have fellow corps alumni with me, I'd rather not have anyone else watch me silently cheer the incredible drill moves, or tear up at the memory of aging out forever, or any of the other silly unexplainable things I do while watching the broadcast. Having been involved in the activity, these reactions make perfect sense; to someone looking from the outside in, I'm sure it seems... over the top?

Back when I was still marching Junior corps, I'd seen alumni from the 70's bawl like babies when they saw the Troopers perform their signature starburst drill move, simply because no one does that anymore, and it was once a staple of drum corps repertoire. I only vaguely understood back then what they were feeling, even with the drum corps experience that I had. I can't imagine what people with no drum corps experience whatsoever would make of this.

Even without the drum corps experience under your belt, though, the DCI PBS broadcast is a wonderful program. Back in high school, before I ever dreamed I could possibly age out of a Top 12 corps and play in The Night Show, I watched and admired the ability of these young people to perform with such intensity. All the corps put on a great show, and every last kid is giving it his or her best for that one final performance. Even without knowing it firsthand, you can see in their eyes their love for the activity and their corpsmates, and it can really move you if you let it. When I saw it back in high school, I wanted that feeling myself. I never thought I'd actually get it.

Even now, seven years later, it's such a great memory.

 

Random thoughts

Even though I marched two parades over the weekend, I'm still not sure how that, combined with eating three pieces of pizza, made me lose almost three pounds this week. ::shrug::

It's goddamned hot tonight. I'm even wearing one of my new tank tops from Fashion Bug (yay, $9.99 shirts!), and sitting in the basement, and I'm still sweltering. Yeesh. Aaron's gotta be having a fun time at work tonight.

I didn't have a whole lot I wanted to accomplish today, which is good, since I took another 90-minute nap this evening. —Oh, but I did want to boil some eggs. Hang on... I'll be right back.

*pauses Winamp, runs upstairs and puts eggs on to boil, sets timer*
*waters plants and takes ailing begonia upstairs to better window*

OK, I'm back. Damn, our stove is boil-a-rific. I'm not used to electric yet; this thing gets water boiling in, like, three minutes. Crazy. Must be one of those stoves Emeril talks about when he tells you to use your knobs.

Saturday night up in Michigan was actually quite a good time, watching drum corps videos and DVDs on a projection screen in Russ's garage in Clawson. Been a long, long time since I attended a drum corps party. This weekend, though, I'm planning to take a weekend off from corps instead of going up to the show in Kalamazoo. I've had enough of driving to Michigan for corps for a while. On August 7, I have to go up and carpool to Grand Haven for the Coast Guard parade and performance, stay up there overnight, and drive back on Sunday. I may take a personal day on that Monday, just so I feel like I've had a weekend. And before that, there's the Bluecoats' home show in Massillon (Canton). Since I'm skipping out on K-Zoo, I'm definitely going to that one, even though it's two hours away on a Sunday night. Hopefully I'll be able to get someone to go with me.

In other news, I have the last week of this month off. Yay, vacation! Aaron has it off, too, and the following week, as well. We still haven't figured out where we're going, although the consensus is that we want to use the tent we got for our wedding (and, no, we're not doing a backyard campout). Bring the lawn chairs-in-a-bag, the picnic basket (maybe), do some hiking, maybe some swimming... not sure where yet, though. Should be fun, anyway. I'm ready for a week off.

Hmm. Better go check on those eggs.

 

July 4th Drumcorps Fever

Aaron reported that while I was at work today, Paul from my senior corps called and wanted to know if I could give him a ride to the parade tomorrow morning. I had been going to double-check the timeframe, anyway, so I looked at the Lakeshoremen schedule to see when the parade started and when the brass line was meeting to warm up.

OMG. I have to leave the house at 6:15am.

Arrive at Paul's house at 7:30am; arrive at the carpool location at 7:45am, warm up at 8am, parade starts at 9am. Lunch at Russ and Barb's house (the aforementioned carpool location) after the parade... and the party will continue into the evening and night, as those of us from faraway lands (Toledo and northern-mid-Michigan) prepare to stay the night at the Braman household.

For Sunday morning's parade begins at sunrise.

Well, OK, sunrise is at 6:03am (according to the Weather Channel) and warmups start at 6:30am, so I guess it's not really at sunrise. We'll have to be up and ready to head off to the parade staging area in Plymouth before that, though. Of course, this is all assuming that it doesn't rain on our parade—literally.

I think it might be different if the Toledo Glassmen had a senior corps being funded out of their organization; then I could do parades in, say, Maumee or Toledo or Perrysburg or BG, or even Lima or Wauseon wouldn't be horrible. I enjoy being in the corps and marching again, don't get me wrong. It's just that I don't enjoy trading off for the only potential quality time I have with my husband in order to do it.

Maybe once we field a show and the returns feel more "worth it," it'll even out. Maybe fielding a show will push me over the edge and make me not want to do it anymore—after all, most "real" DCA (Drum Corps Associates; senior corps) shows are in New England. That's a bit of a haul for everybody, not just Yours Truly.

Anywho, I'm going to go play some Civ III and wait for Paul to return my confirmation I'm-giving-you-a-ride call. —Er, check that. Just got a 30-second call from Paul. I guess he's going to leave his wife the car so she can attend the post-parade party for a while, too. I wonder if that means he'll a.) be going home with his wife, or b.) be staying the night at the Bramans' with us out-of-towners. I guess we'll see...

I'm still gonna go play some Civ III, though. :-P

 

Toledo Drum Corps

I'm crashing early tonight, so I'm going to keep it brief.

I don't think I mentioned it here yet, but I got a new job within Sky Bank. As of today, I'm working in Loan Corrections, and driving 15 or 20 minutes to work across town instead of 30-35 minutes down to BG. So far, I have no complaints... except having to be at work at 7am this morning to unpack my desk and get everything situated. That, plus the fact that there's very little beginner work coming in for me to work on. I think it'll be cool once I learn everything I need to know, though. It'll be a while, I'm sure, since there are so many different functions that Loan Corrections does.

On Saturday night, I headed out to UT's Glass Bowl to watch the first drumcorps show of the season. Arrived early—was planning to meet Garza and his group at 6:45 by the ticket booth, and arrived at 6:20 instead—and got to schmooze with several people I hadn't expected to see. A couple techs (instructors) from Northern Aurora, the first corps I marched; a couple alumni; a couple members of the LakeShoremen; and my high school band director. I shit you not. We must have talked for a good ten or 15 minutes or so. Very cool.

Oh, and the nice lady at the Bluecoats souvenir booth recognized me! Sure, she might have gotten help from the "Diana" embroidered on my jacket and the 1997 Bluecoats member shirt I was wearing, but hey. Even if she did cheat with context clues (which I don't think she did), she gave me the best compliment ever: she told me that she recognized me because I hadn't changed  much.

Bless you, Souvie Booth Volunteer Lady, bless your pea-pickin' heart. Little did you know that I gained 50 pounds after I left corps, and only just recently lost it again.

 

So much to say...

...so little motivation to say it.

As I'm generally disinterested in posting today, I'll keep it (relatively) brief.

Aaron took Friday night off of work, just because. I like having my honey-muffin around.

Saturday night was Mark's gathering of friends and brohams, at which Aaron and I joined Mark's friends and UPS co-workers in games of Crokinole and Hearts. Hot dogs were grilled and eaten and low-carb beer was imbibed (though not by me). Overall, a very fun time. It made me realize how much I miss playing cards.

Sunday was the Bavarian Festival in Frankenmuth, where the LakeShoremen performed in the annual parade. I left the house at 8am to meet Russ and Barb at their place in Clawson (north of Detroit) at 9:15am. Took another hour and a half to get to Frankenmuth, had lunch, warmups started around 11:30-ish, parade step-off was at 1pm. Overcast all day except when we were marching in the parade. (Go fig.) Impromptu group photo after the parade, post-parade party after that, got to eat bratwurst and meatballs and sausage and all sorts of low-carb yummies. Finally got back home to Toledo at 7:30pm. Fell asleep on the couch by 10:30pm, and was whisked to bed by my honey.

Today, when I got home from work, I tried a new photo transfer technique I read in this month's Popular Photography & Imaging magazine. After a few paper jams and a few test prints, this was the result:

It reminded me of the Polaroid transfer technique Beth was telling me about some time ago. When I have a photo-quality color printer (or even just a color cartridge for our current printer), I'll have to try this again.

 

Memorial Day Parade

...went well, overall. After leaving the house at 7am, I did zone out on the way up to Novi and missed my exit at the I-475/23 split, and had to backtrack down 23 from Michigan to get back on 475, losing about 15 minutes or so. Then, of course, Mapquest failed to mention that 8 Mile Road was under construction at the I-275 ramp, so I had to do a U-ie in the "Authorized Vehicles Only" lane to get on 8 Mile coming from the other way. All told, I was a good 20 minutes late to meet the hornline. At least they waited for me, though—we were all meeting at the end of the parade route, and carpooling to the start to save us all some headaches after the parade.

Our brass caption head and his brand-new wife were off either getting married or starting on their honeymoon, so we faked our way through warm-ups. That was pretty fun. We also got to fake our way through F-Tuning—anyone who's heard a marching band or drumcorps warm up just before a performance, facing backfield, playing six chords in a row, you've heard it before. (Beth, I'm sure you've heard it. Donna too, if you still read this thing. Dan, certainly.) No sheet music for us, just listening to our drum major rattle off notes to play.

"OK, concert pitch. We all start on F, then you guys stay there, and you guys go up to C and stay there, then you guys go to A, then you go to D while they stay on F and you guys go to B-flat, then baris go to C and..."

Confusing, sure. But fun. Oh, so fun.

The parade itself was... long? Weird? Yeah. Two miles or so, which isn't killing, yet also isn't comfortable. And apparently Novi has no actual downtown area, so we just marched down a stretch of 10 Mile Road. There were stretches with gobs of people, then smatterings, then absolutely no people for a good quarter-mile. We did get to chill out in the spots with no people, though, which was cool.

Senior corps is increasingly different from Junior corps. In Junior corps, all members are expected to stay at attention during the entire parade, be intense, eyes front, watch your posture, no smiling and waving, etc. Remember, this is your time to practice basic marching technique, so make the most of it... blah. Yesterday, we all did stay in step, and we were serious when it mattered; but once we'd played through the parade tune a few times, we had no qualms about calling back to the drumline, "Cadence or taps for a while? Our chops need a rest!" The baritones also switched which hand they held their horns with every now and then, since their left hand would get tired from holding the horn down at their side after a while. And topping the category of Never In A Junior Corps: our tuba player, Russ, unabashedly answered his cell in the middle of the parade. :-)

By the end of the parade route, we'd played through Moorside March at least seven times, and once we got to where the TV cameras were, I'm sure we sounded like the freakin' Salvation Army band. But we made it.

And my lips are still swollen.

After the parade, we all drove our own respective vehicles to Pizza Hut, where we overtook the joint with no one having called ahead. The one server and one pizza cook suggested we all go with the buffet, for the best service. They weren't very happy with us.

It had been a long time since I met up with a bunch of music folks at Pizza Hut. Back in high school, Mel and I used to do Pizza Hut all the time with our woodwind section (and we left the best tips, though it was all change). Anyway, it was also great to get to actually socialize with these people I've been rehearsing and performing with for a while now. I did that a little at the picnic after the Birmingham parade, but not so much as at Pizza Hut. I finally got to hear different corps stories—I think that, by now, Paul knows all mine and I know all of his, since we've carpooled to so many events over the years. :-)

And, best of all, I was home by 2:30. Rock on.

Next parade: Frankenmuth, June 13. Definitely finding a carpool buddy for that one.

 

Parade Aftermath

I really need to stop going to bed so late, being tired all day, and taking hour-long evening naps after work. It's just not working out.

So, on Sunday I was in a parade in Birmingham, Michigan. Why was there a parade in the middle of May in Michigan, you ask? Well, let me tell you: it was the Basset Hound Parade. I shit you not. Upwards of 500 Basset Hounds brought up the rear of this relatively short parade (and those of us who marched in it were glad they were at the back of the lineup, so as to avoid any... surprizes).

Anyway, it was the first public performance of the full Lakeshoremen Drum & Bugle Corps, and we did fairly well. I did discover that I need to do some more aerobic cardiovascular-type exercise, because after the first run of our parade tune, marching uphill—hell, remembering how to march at all—I was pretty winded. But once I remembered how to breathe properly and pace myself, I did OK. I'm not really muscle-sore at all, except for my shin muscles. The... gastrocnemeus, is it? I seem to remember that from stretching and calisthenics in the BGSU Marching Band. Yeah, my shin muscles. The ones that crank your toes really high when you march in a parade. Those are still sore today. Other than that, my face got a little sun, despite my application of sunscreen, and my bare forearms got a little toasty.

But worst of all: the part in my hair got sunburnt. My scalp. A teeny little strip of my scalp.

Last night, I sat watching TV, and realized that it kind of hurt and was a little moist, like it wished it could blister, or like it had. I picked away the few gummy nasty parts I found, thought little else of it, and went to bed. This morning when I woke up, I had freaking little crystallized crusties growing in my part. It was like rock candy or some shit, kind of crusty but gooey and clingy to my strands of hair. Really, really gross. I managed to get it all out and look presentable, since I didn't have enough time this morning to shower before work, but all day it was still sore. In a while, I'm going to go upstairs and take a cool shower and ever so gently massage my scalp. Maybe I'll put some lotion or something on my scalp, although I'm not so sure how that's going to work out...

I was sick of the cat bugging me a while ago, so I closed the door down here to the basement for a little peace and quiet. I'd better go open it now and make sure the cat isn't causing havoc.

 

This Weekend

Yesterday: Aaron and I went to BG to meet up with Timmay for lunch at Campus Pollyeyes. Their salads are friggin' gigantic, so we weren't too sad about watching Tim eat his yummy breadsticks. It occurred to us that they always kinda sit funny in your stomach, anyway—not in any sort of "sour grapes" sort of way, but in thinking of how Aaron and I would react to so much bread right now.

We spent two hours there at Pollyeyes, talking and catching up. Tim told the best drunk story ever, including him passing out on the train and being awakened at the end of the line and having to walk five miles home while calling his passed-out roommate who's locked Tim out without his keys and then Tim eating breakfast at a local diner and finally breaking into his own apartment to find his roommate passed out in the bathroom. Classic story, and better than anything that ever happened at BGSU. I miss Tim. Heh.

After hanging out with Tim, we hit Goodwill and the Woodville Small, then went back up to Best Buy to purchase a scanner. Scanners these days are so cool. We got one that scans transparencies (most do now) and comes with this spiffy-assed scanning software that automatically detects where the pictures are on a strip of film and brings them up as thumbnails. Holy crap! Soooo cool. (Or maybe I've been away from cutting-edge technology for a while, having graduated college and all, and am just out of the loop.)

So, that was Saturday in a nutshell. Today involved me getting up and leaving the house around 9:20, getting ass-raped by the National City ATM (since the Sky ATM isn't exactly close to home), getting half a tank of gas, and driving up to Clawson. There I met Barb and Russ, and they drove the rest of the way to the first official LakeShoremen full-corps rehearsal in Montrose, Michigan. Basically, a three-and-a-half hour trip one way for me. Rehearsal was from 1:00 to about 4:00, and was quite productive and very cool. We got to rehearse in an Ensemble setting with the percussion, then put the colorguard with the group as we figured out a parade formation. It'll be interesting to see how the parade goes in two weeks—we didn't get to actually move the parade block outside of the gym, as outdoor practicing was noise-prohibitive. (The drumline tried it and got called by the superintendent within five minutes.) In other related news, I started getting that old familiar twinge in my middle back, below my shoulder blades—the one I get when I stand at attention with my horn up for extended periods of time. It's not an "ouch I hurt something" feeling; more of a "hmm I don't use that muscle much and it's really starting to feel hot and cold at the same time and it'll be sore later" kind of feeling. And, yes, it's sore right now.

Anyway, I finally got home around 7:15pm. Long day. Aaron had dinner just about done when I got home: barbecued chicken and grilled yellow squash. Mmm. He's off doing food shopping now. He did my job of laundry earlier in the day. He's so cool. I'm so lucky. *contented sigh*

 

My Butt

There were some of my friends in drumcorps who thought it would be great if a corps named themselves "Your Butt." Not a name like the Cadets or the Vanguard or the Scouts or anything like that, but Your Butt. The one-liners would be great:

Ladies and Gentlemen, from Flint, Michigan: Your Butt! Drum Major Dan Clouse, is Your Butt ready? Your Butt may take the field in competition!

And so on. I'm only reminded of such things because I was thinking about my butt.

If you were too squeamish to read the LJ-cut from my last entry, you may not know that my butt is not exactly in shape yet. (Have you been looking?) Anyway, I located the post I was thinking of:

15 December 2003: Ladies—have you ever been walking behind someone, maybe someone at work, and finally taken a good look at their ass? And then you say to yourself, 'My God... I hope my ass doesn't look like that!'

While searching for this quotable, though, I did discover that I've been feeling uncomfortable about my ass for some time now. Almost exactly one year ago, in May of 2003, I said, "BTW, I never realized how dimply my big ass was until I cranked around and looked at it in the mirror at home, framed by the wondrous thong. I know, you didn't want to think about that. Well, neither did I. Deal."

Heh. Yeah. Except I wasn't on Atkins then, and I was 41 pounds heavier than I am now. (!!!) Now I know I can do something about my butt if I give it a good try.

One other thing: You know when you're sitting in the back seat of a car, and all you can see of yourself in the rearview mirror is your nose, chin, and neck? I used to hate that; I'd crane my neck to get my double-chin to finally almost disappear, and then just get depressed. Well, today I went to lunch with some folks from Lockbox, and sat in the back seat—and saw no double-chin! Holy crap, it's gone! It's really, totally gone.

And I don't miss it.

 

LakeShoremen Brass

Yesterday's LakeShoremen Brass rehearsal wasn't all that bad. I drove an hour and a half up to Clawson and met my ride, Barb and Russ, and then rode with them the 40 minutes up to Holly from their house. We ended up arriving 15 minutes late—and not because of me, either, thank goodness. Rehearsal lasted about three hours total (two hours playing, one hour bullshitting). Paul, incidentally, didn't show up and didn't tell anyone for sure that he wouldn't be there. He told one person that he might not make it if he couldn't find a sitter for the kids, but that's not the same.

Next Sunday's full-corps rehearsal is up in Montrose... another half hour farther north than this Sunday's. I'm leaving my place at 9:15am to be at the Braman household by 11:00am, and to Montrose by 1:00pm. Is this really worth it for a four-hour rehearsal?

I guess we'll know for sure when our first parade happens on May 16th...

 

w00t... yardwork.

My fingers aren't too keen on typing right now—I just got back in from doing a little over an hour of yardwork. Forgot to take a picture of what it looked like beforehand, but I've got almost all of the out-of-control forsythia bushes hacked down. Don't worry, I took cuttings, so they'll be back... only much more controlled next time.

This afternoon, Fries helped Aaron pick up our free washer and dryer from Aaron's buddy Joe from work. I guess he had some issues getting the washer hooked up—the hose connector squirts everywhere, which is ungood. We need to hit Lowe's tomorrow and get some new hoses or hose fittings or something.

Actually, we have a whole crapload of stuff that needs to be done around the house, especially outside. Doesn't it just figure that this is when the drumcorps season starts to kick in with extra weekend rehearsals and parades and such? That pretty much wipes out about every other Sunday from now until early September, with a few exceptions. To make it worse, the initial joy of being in a drumcorps again has been overshadowed by the insanely long distance I have to drive to get to rehearsals now. But I can't back out: 1.) because I know I'd regret it later, and 2.) because I committed to stick out at least this season and probably another one or two on top of that. Oh, yeah, and 3.) because I'm the only damn mellophone. Four or five trumpets, four baritones, a tuba, and one lowly mellophone. Poor Diana. No pressure, none at all. *crosses eyes* Oh, yeah, and did I mention I can't get excited about practicing at all?

That reminds me: I need to e-mail my potential car-pool hookup from Clawson to Holly. I'm not planning to ride with Paul again. The caravan thing didn't really appeal to me. Nope. Kind of defeated the purpose. So, not again.

 

Did You Know...?

From the Sky internet policy: "Sky Financial Group Inc. retains the copyright of any material posted on the internet."

Any material? Anywhere? Better tell Viacom and all the other media giants that they're infringing on Sky Financial Group's copyrights.

In other news, last week's trip to Holly MI was almost a waste of my time. I finally managed to contact Paul, my supposed ride, once I was 20 minutes from his home in Hazel Park. Got to his house, and he springs on me, "Why don't we caravan? I have to leave early. Oh, do you have directions?" On top of that, his POS car can't go over 70 MPH—so after stopping for a good 20 minutes at Paul's house, crawling along I-75 (I would have preferred to go 80 with the rest of the traffic), and getting mildly lost in Holly, we ended up being a half hour late. Rehearsal only lasted two, maybe two and a half hours, then Paul left, and we discussed uniforms and rehearsals and other crap for a half hour. So, all told, I ended up spending twice as much time in the car as at rehearsal. Which, IMO, was pretty much a waste of my time. Everybody else lives in Michigan, and had to drive as far to this rehearsal as I usually do to the Detroit area. Boo-hoo. Ah, well. Next time, I'm carpooling with the Brass Caption Head / Board Member / Whatever-He-Is and his wife, instead of with Paul, who may or may not be back from his barbershop quartet convention by then.

*deep calming breath*

And now for something completely different... I've also discovered that the crazy insano out-of-control shrub in our backyard is a forsythia bush. I plan to take some cuttings of it before we chop it down and dig it up. It's crazy. I should take a picture of it before we take it out. It looks like the previous owners tried to chop it down, not realizing that it would only come back stronger. And wilder. Hmph. I am bound and determined to have a nice, pretty-looking yard, dammit. You'll see.

 

Home Depot

Yesterday, Aaron and I used our 10% off coupon for Home Depot to purchase:

• a 6-foot ladder
• hedge clippers
• grass clippers
• two rakes
• a shovel
• lawn soil
• ryegrass seed
• a Clorox wet-jet mop

Then we bought two 10-packs of leaf bags at Kroger, and spent an hour and a half raking and bagging leaves. And those were only the ones next to our driveway, on the fence. We now have 12, count 'em, 12 bags of leaves sitting by the curb, waiting for trash day on Tuesday. And we still have quite a bit of other work to accomplish this week... but at least the front yard looks a little more presentable. Aaron has this week off, so he's planning to do some of it while I'm at work.

I have a hornline rehearsal up in Holly, Michigan today, and I'm supposed to be carpooling up with a friend from Hazel Park (Detroit), but he hasn't gotten back to me about when to be at his house, or if we're still even doing it at all. I gotta go call him now, because I'll need to leave in about a half hour to be there in time, either way we do it.

I don't wanna drive two hours up and two hours back myself. Ugh.

 

Landscaping and other randomness

I gave some more thought to landscaping the house today at work, and over lunch I drew our a couple plans for the front flower bed. I was thinking, for anyone into the whole HGTV-ish gardeny landscapey thing, that first we could hack down the overgrown bushes in the front to normal bush size. Then, I plan to mix some purple and some white flowering plants along with some white flowering ground cover, so as not to cover up the windows. I do have some ideas of flowers I'd like to use, like Lavender, Petunias, and Christmas Roses, among others that I haven't decided on yet. The trick is going to be finding just the look I want, with flowers that like the shade, since it's beneath an overhang on the north side of the house. I was also hoping to plant some stuff that blooms at different times, so there'll always be some color out there... but that might be a little beyond my scope. Maybe I'll save the rotating garden concept for when I tackle a backyard flower garden...

OK, girlie time is over. *whew*

The dude upstairs came home after I got back from my walk this evening (enjoying the weather), and proceeded to turn up his stereo. He doesn't do it often, but it's annoying when he does. So, I proceeded to fill my 5-CD changer with stuff—nothing too overbearing, though. Peter Gabriel's latest, and Catherine Wheel's last album, and 24 Gone (their only album), and Depeche Mode's most recent album (I'm seeing a trend), and the Cure Acoustic Hits (which I think was their latest release, too. Weird). It's turned up a little louder than I would normally keep it, but it's by no means blasting. Just loud enough to drown out whatever music he decides to turn up every now and then.

That got me to thinking... I kind of miss college, but not really. I miss it in that pleasant nostalgic way, where the memories are fun to look back on (like radio wars, which is how my brain got from there to here). Not the kind of missing where I would want to do it again. Not like drumcorps.

Speaking of... I've been practicing more this week, when the upstairs dude isn't home—more out of a need not to embarrass myself than to be considerate. :-) I've been getting better, and my relative pitch and pitch memory seems to be returning slowly but surely. The muscle memory is sort of there, but the endurance isn't. I've been practing for about a half hour every day this week, doing a slow warm-up to try to rebuild my range (which wasn't that stellar to begin with). After I warm up, I have about enough stamina and concentration to play through the warm-up tune once, the ballad twice, and to woodshed the march. Then I'm done, and I warm down with some pedal tones (reeeally low notes).

I'm also recalling why I stopped being a music major: I hate to practice. If I'm going to do this, though, I'll have to crack down. Senior corps doesn't coddle like Junior corps—and I can't believe I can think of it like that now. It was so physically exhausting... but everything was planned out and served to you, from your rehearsals to your meals to your everything. Now, in senior corps, I'm going to have to practice on my own time, and hype for shows and parades on the weekends only. It's a lot easier when it's your entire life for three months. I hope I've still got what it takes. We'll see.

And on a final note: On the front of my package of round Avery labels, the generic name on the pictured envelope is Tyler Durden.

"In the ear?! Why'd you have to hit me in the ear?"

 

New house and old chops

My weekend:

Saturday was house shopping day. We met Rebecca the Realtor at her office at 3:00 and headed off to look at the seven houses on our list. The first one, which we'd initially thought was one of the more promising ones, turned out to be just too damned small. Nice and bright and clean and open, but just too damn small. The other two that we'd thought would be just perfect from the exterior photos and their descriptions were actually the most skanky inside. Nappy carpets, smelly, and generally run-down. There was one tri-level that had some serious potential, though—of course, that house was owned by a cat-lover, and I made friends with the longhair in the cat window-seat. :-)

The house after the cat-lady's, though, was almost identical. The owners left music playing for ambience—sounded like something mellowish you'd hear on 94.5. At any rate, I think it helped our opinion of the house. As did the glass-pane door (French door?) down to the finished basement. We liked it so much that Rebecca inadvertently referred to it as "our new house" several times before we were even finished looking at the rest of the houses.

So, after we were done, we ended up going back to Rebecca's office and making an offer on the house on Ventura. (!!!) After that, we went out to dinner with Kris and Jamie at Ruby Tuesday's (yummy low-carb cheesecake...), then went home and began agonizing over whether the sellers would accept our offer... Well, not really agonizing, per se... well, not really at all. More contemplating how much more furniture we're going to need to buy to fill up our new house.

Sunday was my day to drive up to Clawson, Michigan for the LakeShoremen brass rehearsal. Saturday night, I'd crammed for half an hour, getting the notes "under my fingers," as they say. I hadn't played in seven years, so I was afraid I wouldn't be able to read the music as well as I should.

It should have occurred to me that my weakness wouldn't be my noodley-finger-speed; it would be my unused chops. Like, the actual real chops. As in, my lips. OMFG. After one third of the rehearsal was over, my chops were already gone. I have no range left, very little pitch memory, and I feel like I'm having to start all over again. Like my year in the Bluecoats was someone else.

My lip muscles are so underused (hey, be nice!) that, since I had no endurance, I started shoving the horn into my face. For non-brassers, this is how you are not supposed to combat fatigue, but it's an automatic habit. After a while, I just started blowing air. I tried to play, but got nothing but air. And I was so pissed off, because I had everything under my fingers... I just couldn't make it speak.

My lips are still swollen.

So, back to the saga of the house: After rehearsal, I called Aaron on the cell, and he said that Rebecca had given word that the sellers had rejected our offer and made a counteroffer. He told me what the offer was, and I agreed that it was fine with me, so he called Rebecca and she wrote up a new Purchase Agreement. Aaron and I drove up to her office today, separately, to sign the PA and send it on its way.

So, barring a piss-poor home inspection, we (almost) have a house! Next on our agenda is paying the appraisal fee, getting a home inspector, and talking to the Teamster lawyer about coming to the closing with us. The closing will be no later than March 5th (hopefully sooner), and we get possession 30 days after closing. If all the cards play out like they should, we may not even need to ask the Smiths to extend our lease at all.

How about that.

 

view main archives »