MASH Marching Band brings the heat..... And Meadville drumline supplies the spice.

You may know that I've asked my band director if I could write the drum feature for next year's show as my senior project. She graciously accepted the offer. As of now I have a good section of it done and revised, even played it for the drum section. But of course I must endeavor a bit further than that. Following the regular corps-style section of drumming, there will be a break into an entirely different funky Latin section. Or shall we say, Spicy (the theme for next year is "Hot"). The problem is that I'm a white guy living out in the country where there is a hoedown for every 10-gallon hat and a metal mosh for every pair of skinny jeans. But Latin? It's a dead language to everyone else, and here it might as well be a style of music that never even lived in the first place. A tad frustrating, but I am determined to watch videos on YouTube and practice what Salsas and Mambos I can on the drumset until something comes into my head that will get the Friday night football crowd onto its feet. 'Cause we're pretty sure the football team wont be doin' it..... OH SNAP!!

Band Trip (sorry I'm so behind on this one)

If you haven't noticed, I have been doing a lot of pretty awesome stuff as of lately. In an effort to not get too far behind on blogging this awesomeness, I present to you The Story of the MASH Band's Trip to Virginia/DC, abridged.

Lets just say it was a really long bus ride. A fun bus ride, but still a long one. And the band bus is unlike any other buses that anybody rides on at any time, because the people on it are just that cool. I would say the most fun part is when we attempt to play card games between two rows of seats. Fast forward to our arrival at the parade that very same day. There was much rushing around to unload all manner of uniforms, hat boxes, and insturments from the lower compartments of the bus. After warming up we set out on the long journey to the beginning of the parade. On our way we saw a lot of other cool bands, some of which had way more stuff than we did, some sounded way better than we did, some just looked better than us. But not all of them. By the time we made it to the start we everyone was more than ready to get going. I was fairly impressed by our overall performance. We made straight lines, our turns looked good, and naturally we sounded quite good as well. Of course, the drumline was tight and precise the entire time. By the end everybody was significantly tired out, and we all celebrated by drinking cold water and changing out of our uniforms upon reaching the bus. Then we drove aimlessly around the Virginia countryside until we found the hotel.

Here in Alabama!

Merry Christmas! Here is my first report from Birmingham, Alabama.

We arrived late last night and had dinner with the family. The drive was about 10 hours, but we had good food along the way and it was a good time. Although we did get lost at least twice on the way to the hotel, it meant that i got to see quite a few very exciting and beautiful Christmas light arrays. At some point I hope to take pictures of them to show y'all (that is what I have to say now that i am in the south). Nothing much has happened since, but I'm am looking forward to "cosmic bowling" tonight, and hope to have something really interesting to tell you about next time. And, this keyboard is really annoying, so I'm gonna stop now. Thanks, y'all!