Having sufficiently recovered enough from the LA swing to jot down a few weekend highlights …
The weekend started for me on Friday at 9:00 when I headed down highway 5 to LA. Made just two quick stops and ended up hitting the LA border about 2:30 only to sit in traffic between there and Torrance for two hours. Ugh! Found the LMS LA site about 4:30 and the first corner I turned ran straight into the Kingmen’s drumline rehearsal … had to watch that for about 15 minutes before checking in at 5:00. After that things happened pretty fast. The show started at 7:00. My job was “backstage runner 2” which meant me and my good friend Al were responsible for getting the acts to the stage on time. We lost the “Lost Disciples” and had a moment or two of panic before finding them on the opposite side of the stage from where they were supposed to be. All worked out in the end. I was up close and personal when Kingsmen took the stage. They were everything I hoped they would be. Dream sounded great and did a good job of blowing everyone’s hair back. Last on was Renegades and, as usual, loud was good. It all went by so fast. I met many DCPers and it was great to put faces with screen names. Afterwards a band of us headed to the local watering hole. I had dinner with Mac and Joellen Mccentire, fellow Gades Al and Christine and guest star Cozy Baker … what a kick Cozy is and what great stories he has. Ask him about the American Flag sometime and watch what happens. Opting to not annihilate myself before what I knew was going to be an intense Saturday rehearsal, I checked out of the party early and went back to the hotel and tucked myself in.
Saturday’s performance was a loooong drive away so Saturday’s rehearsal block was super short and fast paced. A handful of us wore “I heart Emily” shirts to show support for our girl Em who is standing by us through some very tough times and we love her for it. The rehearsal was chock full of new work that, in the end, the staff intelligently decided NOT to include in Saturday’s performance – whew, good to let go of THAT stress. Although it was full of bugs, glitches and tempo issues, it turned out to be a high energy performance and by all accounts went pretty well. I think the best of any we’ve done to date. Stayed and watched most of the remaining show with friends Alton and Nancy-Boy Pookie Bill (we also heart Bill). I really liked Academy … although the skirts are a bit overused… maybe. Good show clearly within the grasp of the members to really knock this one out of the park at finals. Also watched the somewhat controversial Jester. From the outside looking in I say let the kids take the field in competition. In this day and age of disappearing corps I applaud their efforts.
Saturday night found Alton, Andy and myself headed back to Torrance and searching for a Taco Bell we'd seen earlier in the day. En route we found an SUV that attempted to make a liquor store into a drive through establishment with poor results. We actually made 3 u-turns in an attempt for Alton to get a picture of that only to finally have the tow truck pull the vehicle out of the liquor store entrance at the exact moment we'd manuveured into position for the picture. Ah well. Another lost opportunity. Finally finding the Taco Bell we got our stuff and headed back to the hotel room where we discovered we had all the wrong food, I'd eaten Andy's burrito, one of us had over-indulged in recreational items and it was quite simply time for sleep.
Sunday morning I lost my car. I really did. I exited the hotel, walked to where I parked it the night before and was stunned when I didn't see it there. I remembered parking it in front of a hedge row there the night before. WTF? Was it stolen, towed, what? For a solid five minutes I paced the parking lot, Alton beside me, trying to figure out what happened and running a million scenarios through my head. I pressed the "panic" button on my keys .... nothing. Thank God Alton was there because he kept me from truly freaking out. I looked back at the hotel and started running through the events of the previous evening. It was the point at which I remembered giving Joellen a lift back to the hotel that I remembered we had entered through the main entrance ... and then realized I was now standing in the back parking lot of the hotel. Doh! A quick trip to the other side, a press of the panic button and ...... honk, honk, honk ... there it was! Another crisis averted.
Sunday’s rehearsal block was identical to Saturday’s but far more productive in terms of getting the new stuff to work in the drill. So it was included in Sunday’s performance and I think the increase in our numbers and the righting of the pecking order is evidence of that working out really well. Hung out in the parking lot with my bud Alton and some fellow Gades afterwards drinking and yakking for awhile then watched a little bit of Anaheim’s warm up before going back inside to watch the rest of Sunday’s show. All pretty similar to Saturday’s but with the addition of Anaheim’s Alumni corps. It was great to hear Folksong Suite on the field again and see a colorguard that understands uniform great technique and snap. I’m looking forward to their performance next year at DCI. Finally hooked up with my friend Andy and headed out to the valley to stay at his family’s house and delay the long drive back to Sac until Monday morning.
All in all a really good drum corps weekend. I saw friends I hadn’t seen in a long while … Mike Braga (Tansea), who I hadn’t seen in 32 years, came and gave me a big hug :)... also saw friends and fellow SCV alums Maureen and Chris and watched them perform as part of Anaheim’s alum. Met Ron Housley (DCP’s ffernbus) for the first time along with numerous other DCPers. Really impressed with Ms. Julian who wrapped her mind around this show in few brief weekends and looks like she’s been doing it forever. Go Sara! I got sunburned, got a little tipsy, worked really hard and finally had a decent personal best of this really difficult Renegades show. Hooray for me!
Back to the grind as of yesterday but with another show on the horizon this Friday. No time to let down now, right?
