Friday, August 05, 2005

Something to Prove...

It sure has been a very interesting and challenging week! Now that work is finally winding down for the week I can focus on drum corps. Now would seem to be a good time considering we have a very big show coming up in Kingston, NY. Tonight’s departure time is kind of late, but it ensures us plenty of rest tonight once we get there. However the bulk of the corps won’t leave until 4:30 this morning to head out to Kingston.

***No housing site folks, that seems to be the trend of late with shows and or show sponsors. They want this top quality product and expect people to travel all through the night and get minimal rest and have a phenomenal performance. I hope the lack of housing all season long for all corps has been reflected with a larger appearance fee***

Fortunately I have a hotel for the weekend. So once we all shell out about $50 we have a place to sleep, and it’s a bed no less! We went in on it with some friends from Cabs, who said drum corps folks cant get along! We will be partying with a lot of drum corps folks from all corps on Saturday after the show.

On to the weekend...I hope that everyone feels like we have something to prove and comes in with a chip on their shoulder so to speak. The shows have been performed with great intensity and with significant improvements to performance, however it does not reflect in the numbers. All we can do is continue to perform and get better as members, my concern is going through all these highs and lows. You come off the field knowing that without a doubt you absolutely ripped the shit out of your performance. Then when the scores are announced you ask yourself, what do I have to do out there to get the numbers I want. There is no answer to that question, particularly when you know you did what it took to get the desired results. This is extremely frustrating, and while much of the veteran membership can handle it, I wonder what it does to some of the younger membership. Again all we can do is continue to go out there and put on remarkable performances. The feedback we have received from fans in the lot afterwards as well as from staff members of other corps has been very positive, right now that is all we have.

With that in mind, now it’s time to figure out how we are going to perform for the rest of the season. FYI...It’s August, sucking is no longer accepted or tolerated! Many of us knew this coming in…our performance has to be so lights out and so perfect from individual to individual that there is no denying our final number when it is written on the page. We can’t have 9 out of 10 on the same page because that doesn’t work, you have to have 11 out of 10 on the same page (don’t ask me how you do that!) It seems as though many people, particularly in the judging community, are overly critical of our performance. It’s either black or white, there is no gray area. No room for error from individual to individual, no room for difference of articulation, of foot position, or height of toe roll from person to person. We strive for perfection, but to be judged on that meticulous of detail is insane. We are not allowed to be close. You figure if we are 90% of the way there we get 90. 90% of the way there seems to translate to 85, I was unaware there was a curve in the performance captions.

All you can say is, “It is what it is.” This weekend be prepared to keep up with my level of performance from 9 am on Saturday until my uniform comes off after the show. I haven’t been this hungry or hell bent on performing my ass off for a long time. I am salivating at the mouth for a chance to prove to everyone what kind of performance machine this really is. You hear all the time, “Put up or shut up.”

This weekend we will “Put Up.”

1 comment:

Judy said...

as if you don't get enough s*** on here already... you're salivating at the mouth? as opposed to salivating at the pinky finger? HAHAHA... I'm a geek!
hopefully I'll see all y'all this weekend! :)