Drum corps season is here!

“For those who understand, no explanation is necessary. For those who don’t understand, no explanation is possible.”

It is starting now in Toledo - and in 1/2 hour in Rockford! From time to time I have shared with a small circle of friends a review of the drum corps shows (performance, venues, audiences!) I attend. So now I go public with my musings - but mostly from afar until I can see with my own ears what is on the field on July 12 (maybe) or July 25 (for sure!). Stay tuned!

It's the stupid economy

I am blessed now with a stable job and - although it is tight - I still have the ability to afford a few things this summer that others cannot ... like band camp fees, tickets to drum corps shows, and gasoline to get there and back. For that I am very grateful.

However, I wonder how tickets are going, I wonder if corps are going, and a lot of this is heartburn caused by gas ... gas being up 33% in one year. I would think not only drum corps, but band booster organizations planning trips are faced with skyrocketing costs.

I write knowing that in some circles things are not going well - tickets are indeed dragging in some places. Weather issues are probably compounding things, especially the floods in the midwest.

So if you read this blog from various points throughout the summer, come back or e-mail and tell me how it's going out there.

In the meantime ... here is something I will do. I don't know if you subscribe to Halftime magazine. In an online world, print still works for me! Anyway, here is the deal. If you subscribe to Halftime ($10!) by going through this blog, they will donate $1 to the "Saturday Night Lights Blog" gas fund.

Because I remember drum corps economics, though, there is a catch. I love the top corps ... I really do! But ... the gas fund will go to the non-top 8 corps that logs the most miles this summer. No, this is not an incentive to finish outside the coveted Masters of the Summer Music Games positions! But its a chance to help out the corps that isn't quite top tier in revenues.

So to subscribe and donate, follow this tiny link.

https://musemedia.magazinemanager.com/subscribe/subscribeOnlineMuseMedia.asp?source=SaturdayNightLights

Want to know more about Halftime? Click below!

Moving Pictures

It's getting closer to the start of the season! I'm getting my schedule ready for live shows, but it is going to be mid- to late-July before I actually get to see one. So far it looks like Murfreesboro, West Chester, and Westminster for this year's reviews. I'd like to squeeze in a few more, but right now I"m not so sure.

Until then, I'll have to settle for moving pictures. Not wanting to see repeats, however, I found this website to be intriguing. Maybe you will, too, until your summer begins!

World History and other subjects

Last week was finals week, which meant after a whirlwind weekend seeing my beautiful "daughter" married off it was helping my oldest boys prepare for their exams and papers. One of the subjects we reviewed together was for world history, particularly more recent (1800s and on) history.

The study of history is really the study of change, and change is often the result of conflict. Sometimes it is conflict among peoples, but often it is conflict among ideas. (Maybe even ideas values and tradition!)

As we quizzed and drilled for a final exam, the following musicals came to mind ...

The King and I
The Sound of Music
Pacific Overtures
Evita
Caberet
Fiddler on the Roof
Nixon in China
Miss Saigon
Big River (this for English 10!)

Not all of these I was introduced to by band, or even in my high school years. But as we quizzed I found myself singing a few lyrics, and I wondered how much easier the topics would have been for me if I had associated the story with a musical during my high school years! (And High School itself is now a musical!!)

Speaking of musicals, my oldest son's 2008 field show was officially announced - yet another story surrounding events of world history - "Les Miserables." And if that isn't enough, that means during my son's time he will have performed three shows from the vintage year 1989 ... Phantom Regiment's "New World Symphony", Santa Clara Vanguard's "Phantom of the Opera," and now the Cadets! (Hmm. What of the remaining 9 from 1989 finalists would I choose for 2009?!)

Is the fact that shows come from one year ironic (English term!) in and of itself, or is it also made ironic that the field trip made that year by a small group of people from Charlotte to Kansas City was not to celebrate the end of a vintage season (another "finals week!"), but to kick off of the next step in the evolution of the then Charlotte Drum Corps Association - Carolina Crown!