Skippy

No one I have known has ever died. It's gonna hit me really hard one of these days though.

I'm not gonna lie when I say that I only read the first paragraph. Man, he writes WAY too much.

The synth plus the eerie singing is what makes me enjoy the show so much. I LOVE IT.

SFA had their homecoming game/dance this weekend. It has NEVER been in November before, I don't know why it was this time.

Haha, you're lucky.

Ah yes, that's what I meant.

Nope, that did it at the football game on Friday. And you're absolutely right about my video not doing it justice. The ending is... perfect.

Truth.

Oh, I thought you were referring to the last one remaining.

What do you mean, when in the show did that happen?

No, LD Bell is going home and going to school on Monday.

Bell had the 2nd highest BOA Regional score of all time. The highest was Winston Churchill at Waco in 1997 with a 96.00. Man, Congratulations LD Bell.

In the words of Dean Westman after UIL State 2004: "Not making finals was the best thing that ever happened to this band". Basically, in that speech that he gave us, he delievered the message to NEVER let yourself get complacent. The SFA was on such a "success high" 3-peat Houston champs, a national top 5 finish in '02, top 3 at BOA San Antonio in '03. The band was just used to having the trophies "handed over to them". That UIL contest served as a reality check. Our band wasn't invincible. Our band "deserved" nothing. It served to get us in the right mindset for what we had left to do in the season. Had we won or whatever, we would've gotten cocky and arrogant, like we were the ultimate badasses, and might not have worked as hard as we did leading up to Grand Nationals. He talked to us immeadietly following our prelims performance, and we basically summed it up as being unemotional, and worthless. We had performed like we didn't care, like we had a free ride to the evening show, and we didn't need to "turn it on" until finals. Before the finalists were even announced, we knew in our hearts that we didn't deserve it. Westman actually said that he would've been pissed if we had made it to finals. So basically, don't take for granted the success your band has had, and look at every "failure" as a learning experience. That's pretty close to how I live my life actually. Any bad thing that happens to me, I don't get pissed off, I try to look at objectively and see the long-term effects, and see that I'm actually going to be better off for having gone through a difficult time and learning something.

No one disqualified LD Bell for being entirely composed of robots...

Lies!

Frisbee. Anytime, anywhere.

Don't let friends be much of an issue, because once you go to college, you aren't going to talk to any of them again anyways. (for the most part) The good ones, you'll keep in touch with, even if you move. Whatever you think is best for the future man.

And that's why no pass no play is a stupid rule in my opinion. If a kid is good at band/football/dance, but terrible at school, let's keep him out of the one thing he does that might actually get him somewhere in life. In turn, it negatively affects everyone that was in the organization of the inelligible member. Nobody wins, and the kid still fails. Of course I know the advantages of the system, I'm not stupid, but I still don't like it.

I was in high school for band. And I was that into marching, so I did join a drum & bugle corps. I did the best I could in my other non-music classes, just so that I was able to AP test out of about 18+ hours worth of courses and focus on music in college, and to get scholarships so I could afford it. If you think band takes too much time, quit. It's an elective course, you don't have to take it. And kid from Spring: Chill, you're making your band program look ridiculous.

In 2004, we couldn't do the last part of our show. Same with LD Bell this year.

My favorite story, that was told for years, was about this trumpet player that went up and started playing "Jingle Bells" while pelvic thrusting.

Not if you don't make it. But at least you'll go away knowing what level you need to be at to make it next time.

Well, he was having some "band director pms" today. (his words, not mine) He gets a little frustrated with the concert band sometimes.

That's why he was the only one to vote Yes on the proposal. I wouldn't mind though, it's not practical to field a sax section without drastically changing instrumentation on the field or increasing the size of corps, but it might be nice to hear an amplified solo every once in a while. I'm all for trying out new things.

5th place is a failure? He still has at least one more trick up his sleeve though... the saxophone!