When Janda had his touching speech after our final performance, it was kinda odd: it’s over.
We’ve spent over 100 hrs practicing for this show, and just like that, it’s over.
No more watching drill to find things to fix, no more playing this music, no more marching this drill. I’m not too sure how to feel, for our final performance felt really great, and it was a blast to finish on, and looking through all our struggles this year, it is truly incredible where we ended.
Yet I have this nagging feeling to could have been so much more.
It had probably the most brilliant tuba part I’ve ever seen/heard. Watching the other bands at the contest, I noticed that even though some of the tubas had some nice visuals, about all they did was stand in the back and play long notes. We had a crazy cool bass line, lots of attention in the front in the field, and just a fun part. Overall, the entire show was incredibly well written, with exciting music coupled with tough, tough drill and lots (at least for the JET band) of visuals. It still bothers me though, for as good as we felt after our performance sat, how would we have felt if we had played together, them columns had been evenly spaced, and those curves been?
To think that it’s already been 3 yrs of marching is shocking, and this past season as DI seems to have gone so quickly now. Marching is a serious pain in the ass, but it’s so much fun. Concert season has its perks, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s boring. In concert season, it’s just music; marching, it’s football games, music, and marching. Together. Can’t touch that.
So with marching season over, I should be devoting more time to school, AD, region band, etc. I can see that not happening (and at the moment, I’m blaming that on NOLF 2; it’s great).
The football game this week was another disappointment, though by now, I’ve gotten use to it. It’s odd how close the past couple games have been, and how a play or two have made the world of difference. But I’m just a band kid; I don’t know what’s going on.
The CS contest was finally sat, and I was there for a little bit. Mr. C. and Aditya seemed to have the entire thing in hand, so I wasn’t too worried about it. Skipped some runthru to help with some of the little things for the setup. I could describe the fiasco that followed the contest, but I’m sure most of you don’t care. Sum it up: our contest was crazy-hard, and ppl were pissed off that they did bad. Tough.
The Marching Contest was.. interesting. Spent some time with the boys, including an absolutely brilliant (but unfinished) game of Spades. Me and Willie (who had never played b4) dug a huge hole in the beginning after getting set pretty bad and a failed blind nil, yet somehow, Willie pulled off 2 BNs with a set of our own to bring it back even.
Tuba dynamics was a little different. I ended spending a lot of time talking and hanging with Trey, which is a little odd. You’ve got a fat white guy and a thin asian guy, and about the most we have in common is being easily amused and having played trumpet and tuba. It was hilarious. Funny anecdote (though… not entirely appropriate) follows:
So me and Trey really had to go pee after our last performance (specifically, I had to “pee like a cow, but not a big cow, just a heifer”, and he had to “pee like a racehorse”). Well, behind the trucks was a nice forest. And we had to go. So we walk out to the bushes, face opposite directions, and go. But there happens to be a police car off to the left. So we finish with the quickness, and then run off. Later, we find out from Chris that the police went around the trucks, and asked if the guys had seen “a big guy and a girl running out of the forest”. Me and Trey were laughing hysterically at this. There’s not a greater bonding moment than peeing in the bushes, and getting busted by the cops.
Other than some cool hang out time, the contest was pretty terrible. I thought our show deserved more from the judges than what we got, though I guess it doesn’t really matter. A lot of the other shows were entertaining and interesting to see what other programs are doing, though I guess I’ve really bought into the JET band way of marching. I noticed that, in general, the shows were really cool. Lots of visuals and props and effects and stuff, but not as much tough marching and stuff (just the easy, cheesy stuff, like parallel passthrus on horizontals or those “chain” like things). They didn’t play quite as much, and when they did, they usually were standing still, and subsequently, sounded incredible. I don’t mean to downplay the talents of the bands, for they really did sound and look incredible; it’s just different.
So we had to go out on the field, which was stupid, and we ended up being the “69” band. Nice.
After I got home, I slept until 11:30 (pre savings time), and woke up to a very short and unproductive sunday. It was nice. And this morning, after going to sleep late, I felt great. The whole “mind over matter” thing totally tricked me into thinking it was 7. I was very awake this morning.
So apparently the rain killed halloween. We had 4 different groups come to our door to trick-or-treat. I’m overwhelmed.