Day 69

Date: July 23, 2011

Time: 1:00am (CST)

Playing on iTunes: "Rascal King" by Mighty Mighty Bosstones

Location: Houston, TX Day 2

Big Tournament of Champions (TOC) day today! Waking up at the school bright and early then driving to the show sight to rehearse all day was how our day was looking. A very short rehearsal day at that since we were forced to be out of the stadium by 5p before the events started on the field.

This morning we received the new speaker carts from Tough Carts Co. These were great because we finally had all of our new equipment that we've been waiting for. The carts are much more sturdy and will last much much MUCH longer than the carts we had before. Everyone in the pit was very excited to get our new carts.

And in addition to the new carts, you will see below you, we got a new xylosynth and small synth cart. This helps out Maggie and Bri because they don't have to transport around the old long heavy cart when moving from place to place.

We had a very quick but intense storm after the lunch block. Here is the after effects. VERY cool clouds.

Since today was a TOC show, we started off with a clinic with a bunch of high schoolers. What happened was we had started our ensemble block, and the kids were just sitting in the stands watching how we were starting things, then the kids came onto the field to get a one-on-one marching technique lesson with The Cadets. 

As you see below, some kids went over to see the drumline warm up and play parts of the show.

Throughout the ensemble block, the kids were able to come onto the field while we rehearsed parts of our show. I saw it as sort of like if you were watching a football team live at a game, but being able to go on the field and going wherever you want and see whatever you want. George would take maybe 3 kids onto the field during a runthrough and cart them around different places in through the corps. That was a really cool thing. He as well as the drum corps really made all those kids day!

George also made our day! Since we had a good 3 or 4 hours between the end of ensemble and our warm up time, George brought the corps to Sonic! He bought us all one shake. It was a little bit of madness as you can imagine, but I'm used to it with the UMass band in the fall where we have 350 bombarding McDonalds and rest stops. So I guess 150 isn't that bad!! Nonetheless, I really enjoyed my vanilla shake!!

The corps waiting for their shake.

Tonight's show, as I said, was a TOC show. So we saw all the top 8 corps from last year. The Cadets had an amazing performance. The pit had their best performance of the year. I talked to some staff after the show and they said the corps was spectacular from up top the stands. In the end, it was a VERY close battle for first.

THE exSIGHTment OF SOUND

1) The Cavaliers - 89.80
2) Blue Devils - 89.40
3) The Cadets - 89.30
4) Carolina Crown - 88.60
5) Phantom Regiment - 86.156) Santa Clara Vanguard -  84.30

7) Bluecoats - 84.15

8) Blue Stars - 80.90

CPit Spotlight 2011

Taylor and I after a show in NJ

Today's spotlight is on my best friend from UMass, Taylor Yozwiak (yoz-wick). He's 20-years old from Columbia, Maryland and plays timpani. He's got a very demanding job in that, he only has 5 drums, but plays infinite amount of pitches where he changes from the foot pedal on each drum. Check out this video for more explanation.

Taylor started playing percussion in elementary school, took percussion lessons with Robert Miller until he graduated from highschool. In highschool he played in his school’s drumline, wind ensemble and jazz band. He was in the Maryland All-State Orchestra and Wind Ensemble and played drumset in the Maryland All-State Jazz Ensemble. In the fall, he will be a junior at UMass Amherst studying percussion performance and is the current section leader of the front ensemble at UMass along with Maggie and myself. Taylor really enjoys the performance energy from this year's Cadets. Especially the pit. He said out of all the ensembles he has been in, there has not been one that consistently performs at such a high level of emotion, passion, and proficiency.

I asked Taylor what he likes to listen to before a show: "I like putting on my headphones and listening to my own music before shows rather than the music they play on the bus. I usually listen to more relaxed music like Coldplay or Jack Johnson to clear my head and really put me in the right mindset to go perform."

Thought of the Day: "Most of us are just about as happy as we make up our minds to be." - Abraham Lincoln