While I was fleeing from bears in the Upper Peninsula, I missed out on a very important marching band event that took place here in the town I live. The Drum Corps International World Championship! Bad timing, because I totally would have gone to bask in the band geekiness and general awesomeness.
Fortunately, a friend of mine took a whole bunch of lovely photos and collected the eyewitness quote “It’s marching band on steroids”. Looking at the pictures, I think I’d have to agree!
Drum Corps International World Championship Pictures
The New York Times had a cool article about band camp yesterday. Marching band! The newspaper of record has discovered that lots of people are into it!
I think it painted a pretty good picture, though the profiled band camp definitely sounds more hardcore than any high school camp I ever attended:
…Ben and his snare drum strode onto the dewy grass of the band’s practice field on the Tallahassee campus. He had been awakened at 5 a.m. and the day’s last rehearsal would not end until 10 p.m. His feet screamed. His shoulders ached. Gnats swarmed around his face, daring him to break rhythm and lose composure.
Five a.m. AND gnats? That’s some serious dedication.
There are some really sweet YouTube videos of the Florida A&M Marching 100, too. What an awesome band!
Sluggish Sales Reported for “Sousaphone Hero” (from The Onion)
Well, I for one would be all over Trumpet Hero if they ever created that…I played a lot of Rock Band and Guitar Hero this past weekend, and while they were fun, I think the market is totally ripe for a similar game for marching band. You know, like some sort of combination of Dance Dance Revolution and plastic marching band instruments…it would be awesome! Right? Hello? Is this thing on?
This totally happens to me ALL THE TIME. (From xkcd.com)
