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That deaf, dumb and blind kid
Sure plays a mean pinball
- The Who, Pinball Wizard

This past week I've spent recovering from the wonderful flu bug I picked up during my trip to Tampa. I just wanted to close my eyes. I just wanted to shut my ears.

Unless you're a bot, you're a human, and as a human likely blessed with all five senses, you have probably asked yourself, "Would I rather be deaf, or blind?" Marching music - the with storyboard and soundtracks noted before - how do you choose?

Band and drum corps has opened my ears to all types of music I would not have listened to before, and composers I've never heard of, sending me to the record store in search of "the original" hours after hearing it on the field (Star of Indiana, 1993). My iTunes has some drum corps on it, but if you count the originals, probably more than even I expect.

With ears only I can hear my kids, talk to them, really listen (do we all really listen?), and listen to any future grand kids as they come careening toward me wanting to celebrate, as my youngest puts it, "Hop on Pop Week!"

With my eyes, however, I can see the music that I may or may not know. I may not be able to hear it, but I will feel it in the pulses and rhythms, see it in the kids faces as they suddenly discover the difference between playing and performing, and witness the silent victory at the end of the show of their lives.

Of course, then there was NightBEAT, Charlotte, North Carolina, 1999, after intermission. Carolina Crown. Santa Clara Vanguard. Blue Devils. The Cadets. The performance of a lifetime for one. 98.0, 98.1 and 98.2 for the other three. The memory of the sights and sounds of that night ...

... still render me speechless.