KatyLeigh

:3 I think it was like 2 in the morning when I posted that, and I was coming off a long night of working on college apps. I didn't realize I sounded that harsh until I re-read it just now. Eesh, I feel like a jerk...

I would just like to say that I LOVE that you guys killed Poteet at East Invitational. Still haven't seen the show because I was in charge of guiding another band while you guys were on and our schedule at UIL only allowed us to see like 2 bands, but I can't wait for it! I've heard it's amazing. :] The Plano East Marching Panther Band proudly presents Luminaries. Shooting Stars ("1000 Airplanes on the Roof" by [forgotten..]) The Moon ("Claire de Lune" by Debussy) The Sun ("Septimus and Finale" from the Stardust soundtrack) Drill by Michael Gaines Y'all watch yourselves at DMI, hear? ;]

Swing flags One of my guard friends using her swing flags as wings x] We're using them for our middler, and my rough guess is there's somewhere between 4 and 6 inches of pole out the bottom of the silk for a handle. One of the lieutenants also uses a set of metallic-ish swing flags with square silks to highlight a soloist in the closer. Weapons line includes both rifles and sabres this year, and we've got regular flags for the opener and closer... Though the silks on the opener flags turned out to be smaller than they expected, so they've got them on 5 1/2 foot poles as opposed to the regular 6 footers. There's also a dance feature in the closer during the solo. It was hard to tell from the press box what the dancers were supposed to be doing, so now they've got these big blue and silver orb things with a stick out the bottom for a handle and 5 points around it to make it look like a star to make their movements more obvious. We've fondly dubbed them "the huge-a** Christmas ornaments." :] Also, I would just like to tell you all that if your director ever starts talking about using particularly huge props, TALK THEM THE HECK OUT OF IT. Marcus' stuff was a right pain to maneuver at our invitational last year. Those stupid grapes didn't fit in the tunnel leading to the field, so they brought them up over the chain link fence, down the little hill on the other side, and pushed them on-field from there... It was absolutely terrible to deal with.

I can't imagine that at all; our sections are mega tight. Before every UIL or invitational, everyone gathers into their sections (excluding pit for unloading reasons) for their respective senior pep talk/section chants/section song and to wish each other "good show." It helps us all to take the peaks and falls together, which I think is really important when you're in a huge group effort like this. I've noticed it's also crazy important to interact with other sections, though. Again, it's the learning to take everything together thing instead of making it about singling out one person or one section. The band kids have been interacting a TON the past few months, and it's definitely made us stronger in leaps and bounds this season.