PASIC! Part One...

From State Marching Band Contest to PASIC, it's been a busy and very involved week. Of course, SMC was in San Antonio, so on Wednesday (the following day) Mr. Kennell dropped me off in Austin and I spent the day regrouping for PASIC. I got registered at PASIC and did some laundry as well as getting some writing done for school.

Thursday is when things really start. Now, I'm not at PASIC to take pictures, so there aren't many to narrate about, but trust me, there's been LOTS going on!






This is Todd Sucherman. I didn't know who he was from his name, but I definitely have heard his playing. He's played with Spinal Tap, Styx, Eric Marienthal, Peter Cetara, R Kelly, Billy Ocean, David Hasselhoff (!), Tommy Shaw and Jim Brickman as well as many others.

He did some playing and talking and even though he was an AMAZING player, he seemed like an even nicer and down to earth guy. What did I learn from his clinic? That I'm not a very good drum set player...


So, I'm a big dork. Not exactly headline news, but definitely the truth. And while I don't need YOU to remind me of that, things like taking a picture of your sweet hotel room and putting them on your blog do that more than adequately.

Anyhow, did I mention how sweet this room is?


















































Yep, big dork. Just a big dork with a nice hotel room...














I stayed away from the Marching Contest today so I could see some other concerts and spend time in the exhibit hall, but toward the end, I thought I should at least see what was going on. When I got there, they were in the College Standstill competition and the UNT Bass Drum Ensemble was performing. The pictures aren't great.




A blurry, but lighter shot of them playing on a cymbal rack.














Now, this is interesting. There was an attempt to break the Guiness Book of World Records record for largest drum roll. To beat the previous record of 1400+, there would need to be around 1500 drummers. Well, unfortunately there were only about 200 present, so we could not have a fighting chance of breaking the record. But the coordinator had thought of that, so he came up with a contingency plan to break (or set, I'm not sure) the record for longest mass-drumming. So, the group of us played a roll for six minutes and three seconds.


While we didn't break the record we set out to, it was still fun. It was fun to see all of the ages of people it drew in. Also, it was interesting to see all of the different drums people brought.

Here's my plain-jane drum.









And here's a custom-made, carbon-steel shell, rope-tension drum. The guy who had it, said that the top head was calfskin, the bottom goat and that the drum was made in Switzerland.



Now, who's the big dork???



(Man, I know that's mean... but I just couldn't resist.)

5A State Marching Band Contest!

Yesterday was 3A Contest, so that can mean only one thing: it was the 5A's turn!

Getting to make this trip with both a first year teacher and a person new to the state has been a lot of fun. Certainly, there are FAR more qualified people to show him "the ropes," but he isn't from around here. Therefore, I have the monopoly of being pretty much the only person he knows...

Anyhow, all of that to say this: We were discussing how many of the 3A bands played very well and marched at a very high rate of skill. But for the ones that played and marched well, there would be another that just didn't do either one particularly well. That would not be the case with the 5A's. We didn't see a poor performance all day. Now, granted, that doesn't mean that you couldn't discern between which ones were better than others, but it must be similar to judging at the Olympics. With everyone performing so well, the difference between places is minute.

I could get easily carried away with lengthy commentary on my opinion of the state of marching band, but I won't. Instead, let's just see the pictures I took today that DID turn out!

Disclaimer (again): I think I finally found a camera setting that worked well with marching band, but there are still some rough photos. I also didn't have strong enough batteries to operate my camera for the early portion of the contest. Eventually, Wurtz came up and had some kickin' duracells. Noticable photographic ommissions? Hebron, Cedar Park, Haltom, The Woodlands, Langham Creek, LD Bell, Richland, Klein, Spring. Not all because of camera problems -- some because I simply forgot that I had a camera with me.


Here's Bowie. They made finals and had a very interesting show called "A Little Night Music." We stood behind some Bowie band parents waiting to get in for Finals and they were some very nice, down to earth folks. You might think that down to earth pretty well describes all band parents, but the parents from another band who were standing next to us, were pretty obnoxious and came off arrogant. I hope that was just those parents and is in no way indicative of all parents from that particular school.



Brazoswood. "Out of the Blue." Yes, there were many blue colors integrated into the show, but these mats in green, pink and yellow (introduced at the end of the show), were very effective against what had been a mostly blue and green backdrop.







Churchill. Great guard. The show came off like a really excellent winterguard show with band in the way, but that's only from a design perspective. The band played really well and, of course, marched well.










Churchill again.














Coppell. Finalist. Good band.












I believe this is Duncanville. The best thing about Duncanville? Incredible sound and there wasn't a single microphone, amp, synth or sound system present. They did it all the orinigal way.











The next four are from Marcus - State Champions! What a super-cool show that was executed SO well. It was an underwater theme. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves (mostly).









Clams (and not the band kind... trumpets...). Reef.

Each little formation of students is actually a fish. Not the best vantage point, but hopefully you can make out the left, underside fin.









Crabs! Or are they lobsters? Anyhow, very clever and way-entertaining!














And the seahorses who were part of a horserace using the music from William Tell.














Regan HS. Finalist.












And here's the first picture of the blog one more time: Austin HS. My favorite drumline of the day! Too band they didn't make finals, I DEFINITELY would have liked to have seen that drumline again!




Well. I'm very tired -- it's been a really eventful couple of days.

3A State Marching Contest (Prelims & Finals)

Okay, I feel pretty dorky for doing this -- namely because my blog readership is like five people, and the occasional person who will accidentally land on it -- but I feel like I am doing a VERY small service to the "community" by posting some pictures and musings from The 3A State Marching Band Contest.

Disclaimer: There were many good bands that I didn't get pictures of and probably will not mention in this post, but this is not meant as an exhaustive survey of the contest. I'm just sitting in a cheap hotel room in San Antonio with my laptop. I'm also considerably distracted by Monday Night Football...

This is Robinson above and to the left.




This is a band that I enjoyed quite a bit today, but they did not place well enough to make it into finals, Princeton. Their program was original music inspired by Greek Gods (?). I use the question mark, because I didn't learn anything about mythology in school. I'm not blaming that on my teachers, I'm blaming that on me. I wasn't interested, so why should I pay attention? Oh yeah, because one day you'll see a marching show based on mythology...

Anyhow, the drum major had a wicked cool afro (which I really was hoping to see again in Finals), and narrated at the beginning of the show. He had a great speaking voice and was appropriately dramatic.



Here's another pic of Princteon.














Here's Pleasant Grove who did make finals, although they would not have been in my top seven. But hey, that's why I sat in General Admission today and not behind a tape recorder and critique sheets.

I really dug the large 'x' they used on the field. They took some vinyl material and spread different colors over the 'x' so it wasn't just a static prop. Some really cool ideas in their show.




Here's a picture of it right as they brought it onto the field. You can see how the mat is painted in white and charcoal. Later they would add yellow stripes and pink stripes to change things up a bit.











Here's the crowd's favorite band of the day: Pittsburgh. It is one of few military bands left in the state. (Before, you try to correct me and say that there are many military bands left in Texas and I don't know what I'm talking about, let me just counter that with this: Thinking per capita, the amount of bands doing corps style marching over military leans heavily in favor of corps style. So, while you might be able to name me quite a few military bands, I bet I can name you at least 50 corps styles bands for each one.

Here is the end of their show (pics are in reverse order).



Here they are in transition.















Here's a form that they suddenly stopped in and held silently for a moment. It was a very effective idea and it definitely drew the audience in deeper to what they were doing.










And here is State Champion, Canton. This is actually their third championship in a row. Congratulations, Canton!

Some notable exclusions from my picture-taking were Wills Point (my pick for tops), Canyon (home-town favorite and ahem... drum book -- you know who you are that actually thought that was funny), Rio Hondo, Crystal City and Argyle.

Tomorrow I'll have highlights from the 5A contest. That's gonna be a long day! But I love it or I wouldn't be here!