The Penn Band Experience (tm)

The Ever-Changing Penn Band

2008-05-20T00:02:00.002-04:00

This past weekend, my family and I had the privilege of spending yet another fun-filled day with the Penn Band on the occasion of the 2008 Alumni Day festivities. After serenading alumni of all ages and leading the traditional parade of classes, band members returned to their various, non-musical lives, while I and two of my fellow alumni went to the Glee Club Graduate Club reception.

Before I go any further, a quick word about the Penn Glee Club. The Penn Glee Club is a truly amazing organization. At 145 years old, they are Penn's oldest performing arts group. They have performed in nearly all 50 states, and in 35 nations on five continents. They've appeared on national television, at professional sporting events, and in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. They've also sung in the presence of various world leaders, and celebrities such as Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Stewart, Grace Kelly and Bill Cosby. In 1991, I had the pleasure of performing in their pit orchestra, which is what led to my presence at their graduate club reception last Saturday.

As a member of the pit orchestra, and a good friend of several club members, I've heard the club perform numerous times. I was always dutifully impressed with their rich, full sound and their polished, professional showmanship. They were always one of the few groups on campus that could easily hold their own alongside professional singing groups of any stripe. When the club regaled us with song at the GCGC reception, though, I had an interesting realization. The 2008 Glee Club sounded exactly like the 1991 Glee Club, singing various Penn Songs as well as some Club standards that the alumni knew well.

I commented to one of my friends that in a weird way, this made the Glee Club a little less impressive to me, since the achievements of the '91 Club seem to have been replicated precisely by an entirely new group of students, 17 years later. Not to take anything away from the current Club, mind you, but as impressive as they sound, it's likely that the 2025 Glee Club will sound equally as impressive 17 years from now.

I bring all of this up here on the Penn Band's blog to emphasize something unique about the Penn Band. Excellent musicians that they are, the 2008 Penn Band sounds very different from the Penn Band I knew back in 1991. The standard Penn Songs have all seen transformations (the trombone lick they added to The Red and Blue is brand new, but fits so nicely it sounds like it's been there since 1898, for example). Other staples, like Joshua and Mary Anne have disappeared altogether, replaced with new standards like The Final Countdown. And All Right Now, while technically still the same song, has undergone so many changes as to be almost unrecognizable to alums who haven't heard it in a while.

Tradition is a big part of what makes Penn special. If you prefer your tradition straight up, with every word, note and phrase exactly as you remember it, I couldn't recommend better than the Penn Glee Club. But if you prefer your tradition shaken, stirred, smashed into a million pieces, and then put back together in a way that is comfortably familiar yet distinctly new, fresh and modern, then the next time you're on campus, you've got to seek out the Penn Band.

Thanks for an awesome time, folks - see you at Homecoming!

The Penn Band wins a Women's Lacrosse game

2008-04-28T03:38:00.012-04:00

For those of you that don't know, in addition to playing euphonium in the band, I also cover Penn sports teams for the Daily Pennsylvanian, Penn's student newspaper. I've yet to cover either football or men's basketball, as these sports are normally reserved for juniors and seniors to cover. However, the biggest sport that I've covered over my two years has been the women's lacrosse team.

Now, once the men's basketball season comes to a close, the Penn Band normally goes into hibernation mode. Well not quite. We do a few scattered spring events here and there. And so far this year we've done two women's lacrosse games. Now, I've had to cover both of these games for the DP, so I haven't played with the band. Doing so would constitute a direct conflict of interest, since I'd be rooting for a team (by playing an instrument) and then covering said team for an objective media source.

However, a much iffier issue of conflict of interest occurred after the most recent Penn Band-attended women's lacrosse game. Yesterday, the No. 5 Quakers faced No. 1 Northwestern who was undefeated and on a 36-game winning streak. The Wildcats also had won the last three national championships. It was a huge game, so the band decided to come out and support the team.

Well the Quakers pulled off the stunning upset. (Here are my live game updates of the match; notice the Penn Band references). Anyway, after the game I was waiting to interview some players/coaches. Penn senior captain Rachel Manson, whom I've interviewed several times before and knows me by sight, turns to me completely out of the blue and says, "Because the Penn Band came." Since it seemed sort of off the record I asked her to state it for the record. So she repeated herself, "Because the Penn Band came we won today." I was sort of in shock she said that, but what a quote.
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Now here's where the conflict of interest comes into play. To give some background, the last time the Penn Band came to a women's lacrosse game was the Wednesday April 2 game against Johns Hopkins. I wrote the preview for that game, and I interviewed Manson for it. Being the idiot that I was, I told her that the Penn Band was coming and then asked her what her thoughts were. She was pretty impressed and said she remembered the band coming the previous year for the Princeton game in which the Quakers clinched the Ivy title and how it made that game really special. After the interview I told her I was in the band and that I'd probably play with them (eventually I didn't since no one else could cover the game for the DP).

I wanted to run her quotes about the Band, but my editors wouldn't let me since they said it was a conflict of interest since I had brought it up myself, and she responded to my theoretically biased question. Now I didn't really argue that too much, and retrospectively it makes sense.

Flash forward to yesterday. Before I even wrote my story I went up to my editor and explained the situation with Manson's most recent pro-Penn Band quote. However, he disallowed it yet again, saying even though she was completely unprompted to mention the band, she still knew that I was in the band and that potentially skewered her quote.

I didn't quite understand this logic since the previous time he had told me it couldn't run because I had brought up the band on my own. But then again, he has the final say, so I declined to write it in.

I also wrote an email on the band's list serve asking the journalists of the band whether they thought there was a conflict of interest. A band alum who works at a national media outlet yet wanted anonymity agreed with my editor that this might appear to be a conflict of interest since I am a member of the band. So if a professional journalist agrees, that's enough for me.

But even if it didn't make it to print, it's still true that at least one women's lacrosse player thinks we're the reason they earned potentially the biggest win in program history.

But it gets even better. At the time Manson said it, I thought maybe she was joking, or just reacting instinctively, something temporal. But last night after I sent her a facebook comment congratulating her on the win, she responded by reiterating her comment about the band: "I'm telling you on the record it is all because of the Penn Band," she wrote.

Moral of the story: The Band, despite all the s*** it can get sometimes from various sources, is still appreciated by athletes. And that's what matters in the end.

NB: Thanks to Brian for catching the mistakes up to the --- line. But I'm sure there's still some out there! Who wants more nickels!

Penn Band meets the workplace

2008-04-09T00:31:00.014-04:00

What a game it was last night! Two milestones were achieved:

1. It was the first time in over a decade (not since 1997) that the national championship game of the men's NCAA tournament had gone into overtime (very exciting!), and

2. It was the first time since I've been filling out these silly brackets (c. 2002) that I a) shelled out money to participate AND b) won (half the pool)

I went back and read the fine print, and it revealed that I was entitled to half of the winnings! I'd steadily held first place since the beginning of the tournament, but my UCLA/UNC fantasy bumped me down to (a still respectable) 5th place finish in the graduated points system that many brackets utilize. However, I was still head and shoulders above anyone else in terms of total number of games chosen correctly (47-- how does this number compare to other pools? For perspective, there were only 35-40 people in mine).

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And now...it's the first installment of a semi-regular series! "Penn Band and the Workplace," or something not quite as lame. Basically, I plan to mention the instances when something I learned as a bando has shockingly paid off in The Real World.

Photo: Wired.com (no individual photographer attribution), 2007.

Although this year's Quakers squad wasn't able to win the league's automatic bid and send 29 of us (plus Greer? Minus Greer? I can never remember) on an extended Spring Break, here is a potentially useful tidbit of information for the freshmen (and newbies...I'm looking at you, Class of 2012): claiming that you made your bracket selections based on your "past NCAA tournament experience" gives you total street cred (if you have a dorky job, like me). Acceptably dorky people/positions include, but are not limited to:

- graduate students (any field, but statistics is probably the perfect one)
- researchers (hard science, soft science, post-docs, lackeys)
- health professionals (physicians, nurses, MAs, health educators)
- computer people (programmers, IT)
- engineers
- people in the financial sector who are forbidden to interact with clients (awkward social interactions)

Why is this gem a winner? Because, short of being this guy, everyone will correctly assume that your "tournament experience" was as a member of a band, dance team, cheerleading squad, or as your school's mascot...but they'll respect you for it regardless! You could be as inept as Palo Alto's infamous tree at playing the bracket numbers, but you can stroke your bruised ego with a passing mention of tourneys gone by. A sample interaction (based closely on an actual conversation):

Dr. Stat: "Lisa...nice picks!"
Me: "Thanks, Dr. Stat!"
D.S. "What's your secret? I went down in flames the other day!"
Me: "Well, being a member of my college band, I had the opportunity to go to three NCAA tournaments, so I saw a lot of unbelievable things unfold right in front of me. Last year in Lexington, we caught the end of the Stanford/UW-Milwaukee game before ours, and Stanford ended up losing, despite the 7'0" twins! I think they're highly overrated, so I picked them to lose. It turns out they didn't, but I knew ("based on my tournament experience" heavily implied) they very well could."
D.S. "Well, I hope you win!" (fabrication)

Of course, if you make many correct predictions, they might assume you've figured out a way to beat the house!

Take-home message from these ramblings: play up your first-hand involvement in college athletics! It doesn't matter if you're intentionally vague about your actual participation because, well, people will put two and two together. And you will be perceived as too cool for school among your fellow nerds.

Thank You Seniors!

2008-04-05T20:40:00.001-04:00

as read on Saturday, March 9th at the Palestra ("Senior Night")

At this time, we would like to recognize the graduating members of the Penn Band for their dedication and loyalty to Penn Athletics. Not only do they show up at every men's and women's home game, but they travel to virtually all of the away games as well. And they are more than just the band; they are fans, too. In a hostile Ivy gym, they are often the loudest and most vocal show of support.

In supporting Penn and Penn Athletics, some of these students have logged more miles than some Heads of State - bus trips all over the North East to all of the Ivies, plus trips to such venues as Cleveland OH, Dallas TX, and Lexington KY to cheer on the men's Ivy Championship basketball teams in the NCAA tournaments.

For the many hours on buses, for all the nights in sleeping bags in some foreign lounge, and for all their time and dedication, we salute your following Penn Band Senior Starters:

On flute,

an Ancient History major,

with a minor in French,

secretary of the band’s honor society,

from Rahway NJ,

Megan Brindle.

On trombone,

a dual degree candidate with majors in American History and Political Science,

past low brass section leader and current president of the band honor society,

from Harrisville PA,

Melanie Foreman.

On flute,

a Cognitive Science major,

With minors in French and Psychology,

from Medford NJ,

Shannon Fouse.

On clarinet,

a dual degree candidate with majors in Chemistry and Nanoscale Material Science Engineering,

with minors in Creative Writing and Mathematics,

past president and current drum major,

from Rockville MD,

Rebecca Goldman.

On snare drum,

a dual degree candidate with majors in Management and Bioengineering,

with a minor in Mathematics,

from Ellicottt City MD,

Barry Huang.

On saxophone,

a Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering major,

with a minor in Music,

past saxophone section leader,

from Buffalo NY,

Janelle Johnson.

On clarinet,

an English major

With a minor in Cinema Studies,

past equipment manager,

from Aldan PA,

Annabelle Lyons.

On clarinet,

a dual degree candidate with majors in International Relations and European History,

With a minor in Hispanic Studies,

chair of the band’s CD committee,

from Newbury MA,

Sofie Owen.

On saxophone,

a Biological Basis of Behavior major,

from Staten Island NY,

past chair of the band’s honor society,

Brooke Prashker.

On flute,

an Architecture Design major,

With a minor in Economics,

from Oceanside NY,

Raimy Schutzman.

On bass drum,

a dual degree candidate with majors in World History, Finance, and Accounting

with a minor in French,

past percussion section leader,

from Pleasanton CA,

Sunaina Seelam.

On bass drum,

a Science Technology and Society major

with a concentration in Business and Information Technology

past percussion section leader,

from Potomac MD,

Elaine Simeon.

On snare drum,

a Bioengineering major

with minors in Economics and Mathematics,

from Millburn NJ,

Sagar Singh.

On bass drum,

a dual degree candidate with majors in Finance and Management,

past percussion section leader,

from Tualatin OR,

Connie Wong.

Let’s hear it for your Penn Band seniors!

EOTY Awards

2008-01-27T21:55:00.002-05:00

Yet another insight into the querkiness of the Penn Band. At the end of the year (EOTY) we have a gathering to give out awards. Most are sarcastic and funny. I got a great award this year (Most Valuable Bando!), and my section - along with the chops - got a great award, too. (There are army men hidden all over 322 S. 42nd.) Good times were had by all. Thanks to the old board for all you time. You weren't appreciated enough, and I am sure the next one will not be either.

*Fanfare End of the Year Awards, 2007*

The 43rd Annual John Baker Tossed Cookies Award- Lauren Fikse for redecorating the living room at 233.

The 40th Melons Award – Ellen Williams.

The 110th Annual Dealing with "stuff" Award – Annabelle Lyons.

The 12th Annual Ilena Olster Award- Rachel Mathisen for her outstanding contributions to the Bitchiness of the band.

The BFL Rookie of the Year Award- Stephen Abrams dash Downey. For his fearless physical assault in the name of football.

The 4th Annual Jevelyn Award- Skeast Girl (Cindy and Andrea) for their inability to be separated for even one song.

The Third Reich United Nations Award- Vicky "Colossus" Parysek. Because you're not really Polish.

The best-kept, shiniest, nicest instrument award- Mike Jarell.

The 11th Annual Clarissa Fesler Verbosity Award- Gordon Watkins, because none of us can get a word in edgewise.

The 17th Annual Susan Ross Memorial Award- Robert DeSocio
for his tireless commitment to the scanner.

The 3rd Annual "You know it's cold if he's wearing pants" Award- Tom Hensle.

The "You Graduated Morons" Creepy Old Guy Award – Jeanne and Erica.

The 1st annual "Penniless Sitar Player" Award- Jaci Rifkin.

The Most Valuable Bando Award- Mel Foreman, for everything she's done.

The 109plus-or-minus-one-th Annual Zookeeper Award- Becca Goldman for not killing us all.

4th Annual Mayuko Endo Stream of Consciousness Award: Joe Catania.

The 1st annual Dundee for Whitest Sneakers: Alex Kenney.

1st Annual bring your friends award: Ray Fung, for causing the percussion section to run out of instruments.

4th Annual "Evil Bob Kennedy" Award: Alvin Cheng, for always being so mean.

12th Annual Honorary Bando Award: Jose the bus driver.

The 11th Annual Joe Bando Award- Kyle Pickett for most embodying the characteristics of one's everyday Joe.

6th Annual Worst Excuse for missing band award: Jen Johnson, Dan Ross, Raimy Schutzman, and Sasha Renninger for just being too damn lazy to make it to rehearsals.

25th Annual Captain Francis "Gary" Powers Spy Award: The Brass sections for infiltrating Cornell territory and making it out alive.

3rd Annual too much information award: Zach Klitzman, for letting us all know about his random boners.

Most Likely to Have His or Her Name Mispronounced: Devanshi Jalan.

The 2^nd Annual Product of Bandcest Award: Katie Palusci, For her inevitable contribution to the propagation of the Bando species.

Running Disney LiveBlog

2008-01-16T09:07:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure how many people read this blog but don't read the Band's listserv, Oxymoron, but just in case, here are the blog posts I wrote while on our Disney trip. I'd have posted them in real time, but I didn't have Internet access in Orlando.

Day 1: The Penn Band . . . ON A PLANE!!!

Brian Greenberg here, intrepid alumni blogger, reporting live from the All Star Music resort in Walt Disney World. The kids are recharging for their first full Disney day, the wife has passed out while examining tomorrow's myriad of dining options, I'm writing this, and most of the band is in the piano-shaped pool playing Marco Polo (at last check, Adam Sherr's daughters were winning handily).

The day began at the Philadelphia International Airport, where 30 bandos and 20 "chaperones" (hah!) met around 7:30 AM for their 9:30 flight. Most folks had either coffee to wake them up, or iPods to keep them from waking up. Carly had a big, furry Russian ski hat. Still not sure what that's about.

The flight was uneventful. Adam and my son, Avery, had a Sudoku race in the in-flight magazine. I'd love to report that Avery won, but Adam did prevail. It was pretty close, though.

In Orlando, we waited on what I hope will be the longest line of the trip, while the Disney Welcome Center processed hundreds of people at once. Eventually, we made it to the hotel where we once again waited, this time for all of our room keys to be ready. Joe passed the time by learning how to talk without cursing, in deference to the children of Disneyworld (in particular, the ones we brought along).

From there it was a buffet dinner at Hollywood & Vine (the first test of our meal plan), then some free time, and then the Fantasmic show at Disney's Hollywood Studios (f.k.a MGM). Noah informed me that my credibility was on the line, since I had told everyone it was an awesome show. I haven't seen him since it ended, so I don't know the verdict yet, but I can tell you that it certainly met my high expectations.

That's the update for now. Until tomorrow. . .

Day 2 - The Band of a Thousand Dances

Howdy, folks. Brian Greenberg, intrepid alumni blogger, here again for a daily dose of Penn Band in Disneyworld news.

Today saw the band basically scatter to the winds, with different groups going in different directions to do their own thing, before we all get back together tomorrow for a Princess Breakfast & our command performance. But alas, I'm getting ahead of myself.

I can tell you the most about the travels of "the three families" (they being Greenberg, Gupta & Sherr - sounds rather like a law firm, no?). We started our day in Animal Kingdom with the safari, in hopes of seeing animal feeding time. We didn't see any feeding, but we did see lots of animals, including a white rhino that almost charged our bus. Also in Animal Kingdom, we saw the Lion King show (big thumbs up), Finding Nemo - the Musical (big thumbs down), and It's Tough to be a Bug (Meh...). Then we headed to Epcot, where we saw the newly renovated Spaceship Earth (now no longer predicting a future in which people communicate electronically over long distances), the Finding Nemo ride (also a big thumbs up), Turtle Talk with Crush (amazing technology, but none of our kids got called on, so the show wasn't so great), and Soarin' (simulated hang gliding - a big hit with everyone but Adam, who's not a fan of heights - real or simulated).

We ran into HHTT at dinner, who's group had abandoned him for their second steak meal in a row (way to make that meal plan pay, folks!), so he accompanied us to Test Track, which was a fun ride, but the wait was too long. Next was Illuminations, Epcot's fireworks show, which proves that Disney can basically turn any location into a production number with enough money, special effects and pyrotechnics. After that, Tom rejoined some bandos for their trip through Soarin', while we walked "around the world," stopping only to watch a draw bridge go up & down and for a late night snack of French crepes.

As for the rest of the band, stories I heard suggest a good day as well. Some were in Epcot all day, checking out "Honey, I Shrunk the Audience," which come to think of it, might explain how Noah lost all that weight. Test Track got good reviews as well, as did Mission Space. A bunch were in MGM (Beauty and the Beast got a fair to thumbs down review...); but Tower of Terror and Rockin Roller coaster were hits. Oh, and the award for Most Dedicated Grandfather most definitely goes to Greer, who went on It's a Small World *TWICE*, at the request of his granddaughter. He did give rave reviews about Philharmagic, though, which is a 3-D movie of Mickey conducting an orchestra. Talk about gravitating to stuff you can relate to, huh Greer?

Anyway, everyone had a magical day (or so we kept getting told by the Disney folks), and now it's onward to tomorrow, when we all pray that the rain holds out and the Disney marathon doesn't mess with our travel plans too much.

And for those who are starting to feel sorry they didn't come along, here's a little consolation: call tomorrow morning is 7:45AM, and it's for breakfast with Princesses, not a performance.

Day 3 - The Penn Band Goes Downtown (Disney, that is)

Day 3 started with a 7:45AM call. Or, as those running the Disney marathon call it, sleeping in late. We boarded a special character breakfast bus to the Ticket & Transportation center ("special" defined here as "waits in traffic like every other damn bus..."). At any rate, we finally made it to Norway for our Princess Breakfast at around 9:15. I'm happy to report that despite meeting the Low Brass section, Belle still identifies "The Beast" as a Disney character and Snow White can still legitimately keep her name. Mulan, on the other hand, was all about the flirting - trying on HHTT's "spy glasses" and asking others to "join her army.". (Editor's Note: I'm told this is less weird if you're one of the three people who saw the Mulan movie).

Anyway, the surprise sexual tension of the meal came in the person of Alexander, the Norwegian waiter, who not only saved the day by scaring up pancakes and waffles for my kids when none existed on the menu, but also spent a fair amount of time going over the bill with Vicky ("going over the bill" defined here as actually going over the bill). And so, despite encouragement to get Alexander's "digits," Vicky passed. The next suggestion was that maybe HHTT should try for some digits, on the off chance that he was more Alexander's type - not that there's anything wrong with that (Editor's Note #2 - you'll have to forgive me, this is what happens when you blog right after watching Seinfeld). Anyway, at the end of the meal, it was left to me to get Alexander's manager's number in the form of the restaurant's business card. Still no word if the back of that card ever wound up with Alexander's digits or not.

From breakfast, it was the monorail to the Magic Kingdom, where several band members met up to encourage my son, Avery, to go on Space Mountain. Not that he needed encouragement. He informed Koosh that he only made the 44" cutoff because of his hair. Koosh, of course, had no such concern, although he did have the opposite problem - concern that he was too tall to ride, and that a low hanging crossbar could make the entire hair discussion sadly irrelevant.

Then there was lunch, where I discovered that Adam Sherr is a Celine Dion fan. It's a long story, and I'll let him fill in the details.
Suffice to say, it ended with "you're going to put that on the blog, aren't you...". Oh yes, Adam - oh, yes.

By 5:30, the band was back in it's fabled Maroon & Khaki (made famous by that 1898 song, "Hurrah for the Maroon and the Khaki.". But I digress..). Anyway, aside from a brief threat of rain, which was quickly taken care of by the Disney people (these people really do control the customer experience out here), we hit the stage at 6:30pm. Our audience consisted of the four families (Greenberg, Gupta and Sherr + the Cheeseman crew), as well as Bjorn, Melody Joy Kramer, and that typical crowd that gathers whenever a Disney announcer says over the loudspeaker, "And now, ladies and gentlemen..."

The band formed a traditional semi-circle, with the exception of the drumline, which was behind the band, obscured from their view of the conductor, outside of the spotlights (to make music reading difficult), and playing the sub-par instruments provided by the Disney people. As we've come to expect of the drumline, there were no complaints ("no" defined here as "lots").

Despite these minor difficulties, the performance went off without a hitch. Well, OK - one hitch. But it was one of those songs the band doesn't know too well. A little tune called The University of Pennsylvania Band March. Something about "tempo" and "playing together.". I was a little confused. At any rate, when Koosh posts the postage stamp-sized Flash video, you can see and hear for yourself on pennband.net.

So after that, it was all over. Except for the time when Joe and Noah attempted to pick up a high school dance team with no shirts on (Joe and Noah had no shirts, not the dance team). And once again, we were all impressed with Disney's customer service, who improved everyone's experience by getting them to rerobe (Editor's Note #3: no, that's not a word, but it should be).

Thus concluded day three. Day four promises the opportunity to get on all the rides and shows that we missed thus far, and to spend as much as possible on the prepaid meal plan cards. Wish us all luck!

Day 4 - Ow, My Aching Feet

Another day of "scatter and do what you want," so not much to report in the Band Blogging sense. GG&S conquered the Magic Kingdom, hitting just about every ride once, and several of them multiple times (I'm looking at you, Buzz Lightyear). We joined up with the Cheeseman crew for dinner in Cinderella's castle, where Adam got chased down a hallway by two giant mice. Again, I'll let him explain.

The only other thing to note is the rain, which came rather impressively in the early afternoon, but stopped by early evening, leaving nice enough weather for an awesome fireworks show over the castle, but leaving behind puddles big enough to sell a couple of pair of Mickey Crocs to kids with wet feet.

As for the rest of the band, we were up so early, moving so fast, and left so late that I didn't even get to ask anyone else what they did yesterday. I'll leave those stories to my fellow bloggers.

One last note before signing off from Orlando: those of you who wanted to go on this trip but couldn't, you missed out on a great time. Those who could go, but decided not to, screwed up big time. The Disney attitude, atmosphere, and entertainment value is the professional equivalent of what the Penn Band does at the college level. Being here is always fun; being here with the Penn Band was a extra special bonus. If you get another chance to do it, take it. 'Nuff said.

On a related, personal note, the Greenberg family would like to publicly thank Greer, Adam and Koosh for inviting us along - it was fantastic. We'd also like to thank the rest of the band. These trips are mostly about making memories for the kids (and their parents), and without necessarily trying, you guys did that for us this week as well.

See you all at basketball homecoming and, of course, in OxyWorld...

A cool video to show your family this winter break

2007-12-16T23:49:00.000-05:00

I always had difficulty explaining to my extended family what interested me in becoming part of a scramble band. Surely it had to be the horrendous khakis and preppy sweaters, right?

Like many college band folk, I'd joined band back in elementary school and had never been humiliated enough to leave. I even won the "Best Marcher" award at the end of my freshman year marching band season-- resulting in my aunt collapsing with laughter over Thanksgiving dinner at what a loser I must be.

Most of my family knew that I'd had the opportunity to travel to some cool places, go to a few NCAA tournaments, and have a moderately successful social life (comparative to high school) as a Penn Band member. They could see that I was happy, so they too were happy. Then came the Great Mascot Scandal of '06...

The road trip was Brown/Yale, and we'd just played a Brown team hungry for revenge over the previous year's blowout. We ended up with the W, packed up our instruments, and loaded everything on to the bus...but there were some obvious omissions, most noticeably the Quaker mascot costume. We were staying with the Yale bandos that night, so we had no choice but to leave and drive to New Haven before it got too late.

Thankfully, Athletics had held on to our older Quaker mascot costume from the previous year-- we ended up making it to the NCAA tournament that year and had the old costume at the ready. We all figured that a Brown-affiliated person had to have been behind the stealing, but no progress was made into any kind of investigation...until six months later when a few of us Board members received a strange e-mail from an obviously fake address, which linked to this video (screen shot shown above, can't figure out how to embed videos yet).

Let's just say that this was one of the more bizarre things that we had to deal with as a Board that year. Shortly after that I received an accusatory e-mail from the then President of the Brown Band, stating that we should basically look within our own organization for the source of theft (yeah, right). The e-mail (legitimately) mentioned an amendment to the Brown Band's Wikipedia entry, "The Brown Band also has a long tradition of stealing other schools' valuable items," which I found hilarious (and I KNOW WHO YOU ARE-- but your secret stays with me to the grave). The missing mascot costume was un-mysteriously and anonymously returned after Penn Athletics intervened and officially filed a claim.

Long story short, the video always provides a good deal of amusement in my family, and it's a nice example of how college kids can creatively play pranks on their rivals without having to resort to petty ad hominem attacks (although, let's face it, plenty of that goes on, too).

Baking Day

2007-12-12T09:47:00.000-05:00

So how awesome is it that I randomly decided to spend an entire day baking and half the band shows up at my apartment? Well, maybe not quite half the band, but I will say this: bandos are great about supporting crazy get-togethers (especially when they involve free food).

Of course, I don't think any of us got the optimal amount of studying accomplished (or really any).

Here's to finals and winter break!

<3

Just a test

2007-12-10T01:04:00.000-05:00

Test, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8.

Good.

Low Brass vs. Saxes

2007-12-09T22:56:00.000-05:00

This past weekend the freshmen members of the low brass and sax sections competed head to head in a Penn Band Challenge set up by the upperclassmen of the low brass section. Amongst other things, they competed in musicianship, humor, intelligence, and Lawrence Musketfeathers.

As part of musicianship, they sang the Ruff Ryder's Anthem and learned the cheerleader's dance to "The Red & Blue." (They were all pretty terrible on that last part.) However, the saxes came out on top for Ruff Ryder's, but the low brass won the "R & B" challenge.

As for humor, each section composed a song making fun of another Ivy League school. The saxes decided to make fun of Princeton to the tune of "The Final Countdown." Here are their lyrics:

The low brass, for their part, made fun of Yale to the tune "Bulldogs!" Their lyrics are as follows:

Pretty funny stuff, ha? I thought so, too. (The saxes won.)

As for intelligence, well, they now know a lot about the low brass section. And Lawrence Musketfeathers? Well, we all know what Lawrence Musketfeathers is, so why explain it? All that matters is that everyone was a winner this weekend in the Penn Band Challenge. Except Matt Conrad. No one wins with something like that...

Retroactive "live blogging": not as cool/funny as it sounds

2007-12-09T22:39:00.001-05:00

I promised a Loyola update, so here it goes:

(A view from the back seat of the Kooshmobile)

8:53 a.m.- Josiah and I make a stop at the 11th and Chestnut Dunkin' Donuts (can't cheer on the Quakers without caffeine).

9:03 a.m.- Koosh, Chloe and Deven pick us up at 12th and Spruce.

9:05 a.m.- Koob arrives! The radio tells us that there has been a shooting in one of Villanova's parking lots. Nobody cares.

9:06-10:45 a.m.- Deven sleeps, and Chloe learns how to spell all of our names. Smart kid (must run in the family).

10:46 a.m.- We pull into a parking lot next to Reitz (their athletic complex)...does 'Lot closed on Sunday' = free parking?

We wandered inside, got our tickets, and found a dining hall. Koosh convinces Chloe that M&Ms aren't suitable for breakfast. I drink a Gatorade (in case Miller decides to sub me in).

Something I always like to do whenever I'm on a college campus is check out the newspaper-- you can learn quite a bit in a relatively short amount of time. The front page of their paper ('The Greyhound', I believe) provided excellent game time fodder...apparently their mascot, Nicholas II (a greyhound), had just passed away. "Short-lived mascot (clap-clap-clapclapclap)?" Koosh suggested. Yes, very yes.

11:30 a.m.-ish- Noah et al. arrived. Loudly. Perfect.

12:00 p.m.- Tipoff!

12:01-2:00 p.m.- Heartache. Sloppy passing on our part and atrocious refereeing were the primary themes of the game.

A note about the student section:
Josiah and I were having a discussion about the dynamics of student sections, and we came up with an obvious conclusion: student sections will remain relatively silent unless 1) they are playing a highly-touted opponent (like #1 UNC), or 2) they are being antagonized by the opposition's student section. We were effectively the Red and Blue Crew for the day, and it wasn't until we began questioning the refs calls and supporting our guys that the 'dog pound' retaliated, albeit awfully. As the guy sitting in front of us told me, "You guys are good at co-opting cheers:

Loyola: "T-shirt (clap-clap)" (Grandieri is supposed to give a crap about this taunt? Seriously?)
Us: "We love t-shirts! (clap-clap-clapclapclap)
Loyola: -crickets-

Loyola: (game is nearly over) "Stick to reading!" (Wow, thanks for the compliment, guys)
Us: "We love reading!"
Loyola: no response

It was one of those games where you glance up at the clock with 15:00 to go in the second half and wonder what you can do to pass the time less painfully (Take Chloe to the bathroom? Make obscure historical references in chants to confuse the students? Buy another $1.00 hot dog?)

2:25 p.m.- Journey home. Slept almost the whole way back.

Next: a video that all Penn Band freshmen need to see, why high school parents make awful fans, and the semantics of fandom.

Monmouth University: Giving out HS Diplomas in School Spirit

2007-12-09T18:28:00.000-05:00

As Dr. Kushol Gupta (PHD), writes in his blog, the Penn band travels more than any other band in the country. And last night (Saturday) we were lucky enough to travel to the great institution of higher learning that's known as Monmouth University. (Two part trivia question: which President used the mansion on the grounds of Monmouth U for his summer residence? And what musical that was filmed in 1982 was partially filmed at the same mansion? Answers at end of blog.)

The game was at Boylan Gym, without a doubt the most high school-like gym I've ever been to in my year and half with the Penn band. (Cornell's stadium is a close second) How much like high school was it? Well for one they have banners for all of the championships that any one of their teams has won; the Palestra, on the other hand, only has championship banners from men's/women's basketball and volleyball (ie the sports that play in the Palestra). Two, it only sat like 2,2000, and was in your standard, two sections of bleachers on the sides of the court. And lastly, in the lobby of the gym, there was a bulletin board of their PE requirements (not kidding).

And to be honest, their fans were at the high school level. For one, they had absolutely no presence of a student section until the second half when about a dozen or less students stood up and did a few cheers every now. Instead, adults cheered and I don't mean just clapping after baskets; they were actually cheering during the game with "De-Fense" cheers and the like. But then again, it was just like high school where the parents of the players are the ones cheering. (In fact if you look at their roster, only one of their American born players is not within easy driving range.)

But the epitome of their "high schoolness" was their band. Even though we the Penn Band had limited numbers at the game, we still had more lowbrass (they literally had none and we had a tuba, euphonium, trombone and mellophone each), clarinets, and flutes. The only thing they had more than us was drum sets (1-0). Plus with their white and black striped uniforms they look like the Juventus soccer team. And their actual playing was as bad as their instrumentation and/or uniforms. They didn't sound that impressive at all, which is kind of sad considering they actually have auditions and applications for the group. Also, they play their fight song, which sounds crappy, all the time. Proof that it sucks? It was written in 1997. All good fight songs have to be written at least before the 1950's. Come on!

Another thing that really annoyed me about their band, and in some ways this might have been our Drum Major's choice, but we never got a chance to play our fight songs when the team came out. For some reason their Pep Band always plays songs in the last 6 minutes before the game starts. I have no problem with that as long as we play our fight song when our team comes out. Now I still don't know if they demanded it or if our Drum Majoresident Becca Goldman decided to, but instead of playing fight on as the Quakers entered the court, we sung the song. (Embarassingly, however, very few bandos knew all of the lyrics to our fight song; that shouldn't be the case). The same thing happened with Cheer Penn. Now I think it's unfair if they demand us to not play the fight song since back in the Palestra or Franklin Field we never care if another team plays their fight song while their team comes out if it's at the same time that our team does. Seriously, there's always conflicting fight songs going on. And frankly, there should be. It's a musical representation of the game.

So adding up all of these factors, a high school gym, a less than enthusiastic crowd, and a second rate pep band, and what is the result? The Penn Band steals the show. Maybe it's because everyone was so into the Carolina game and enjoyed it, but for whatever reason , the band kept up a high level of intensity throughout the night. We were so good that we even got another group of minors to adore us. This time it was a group of three boys that must have been around 12-13, right at the age when you starting thinking you're the coolest thing ever. They decided it would be hilarious if every time we did "De-fense" cheers they would say "Sucks, Sucks" right when we were clapping.

But mocking the band wasn't only restricted to prepubescent idiots. Their "Student section" of 12 did a cheer of "he's a freshman" when a freshman got an and 1. But when he preceded to miss the free throw, the band cheered back with "he's a freshman." So almost immediately after the "student section" yelled back at us "bandis, bandis." It was their only creative cheer of the night. (We responded with "we- can-read").

We were so impressive that a Monmouth-associated person came up to Koob, our amazing chaperone for the night, and complemented us. According to Koob:

Yeah, some Monmouth guy in a shirt and tie came up to me at one point and was like I'm from Monmouth, so I probably shouldn't be saying this, but you guys are awesome. He was really impressed with our energy and our constant cheering. Then he asked if he could rent us out. It was pretty funny.

Plus we got a sweet shout out from Vince Curran, the color commentator for the Penn radio basketball games. Obviously I didn't hear it since I wasn't listening to the radio, but Koosh said it went something like "look at the Penn Band dupe the Monmouth player by counting down 5-4-3-2-1 with plenty of time left [on the shot clock]." Thank you Vince, and yes it actualy worked a couple of times.

All in all, although the stadium was pretty worthless, it still was a great game to go to. Especially considering the Quakers finally got a road win!
______________________________________
Starting with this game, I'm going to keep track of all the songs we play in the band. There are going to be two categories of songs. One is songs that our Drum Major calls (this will be the wide majority of songs). There will also be songs that aren't necessarily called by our official drum major, but we play them anyway. As you'll see by the end of the year this category will mostly be filled by one song, Ruff Ryders' Anthem. (18 to Stop, Drop, read link). (Note I'm excluding Penn songs since we play them all the time.)

Songs played as of the Monmouth game:
DM called:

Land of 1,000 Dances
Video Killed the Radio Star
Free Bird
Sweet Child O' Mine
The Office theme
Holiday
The theme from Gummy Bears
Hip to be Square

Unofficially called:

Guns of Brixton
Ruff Ryders' Anthem

________________________________________
Answers to trivia questions: Woodrow Wilson and Annie

Ivy Season Preview

2007-12-07T19:35:00.000-05:00

This post is not about sports. It's about the third most important/fun part of being in band (1. The sports; 2. The free stuff) going on road trips to other Ivy League schools.

All the schools are equally worse than Penn, so they're all competing for number two, although some are more equal than others.

ON TO THE RANKINGS! (From expected to unexpected. I'll list the tops at least two and then the bottom, if applicable.)

Best Band (Musically)

1. Harvard- They're unparalleled musically in the Ivys. Great arrangements, great sound, sweet blazers.

2. Cornell- Not a true Ivy Band (they march, plus, it's for gym credit for many of them). That having been said there are lots of them and if there's one thing I've learned in music it's that the more people making music the louder the music sounds and the louder music sounds, the better the music is.

3. Yale- I put them here provisionally, one more horrible performance like the one they had at Franklin Field this year and they're off the list. Though their gun formation is great!

Worst Band (Musically)

6. Princeton- I heard it was their fall break when they played Penn at Franklin Field this year, I hope that's true.

7. Dartmouth- Horrible, when we heard them this year in Hanover they sounded horrendous, really truly awful.

Best Band (Socially)

1. Cornell- They have 2 members with superfluous nipples, if that wasn't enough they're also really nice.

2. Dartmouth- At least I think those were band kids. Maybe they weren't. Whatever. They were fun.

Worst Band (Socially)

7. Harvard- When we travel there we have fun, but not because of them.

Best City to Travel To (Sightseeing)

1. Boston- My personal feelings aside (I hate this city) there's usually fun stuff to do when we go here before a trip to Harvard.

2. Providence- Delicious hot dogs at Spike's and RISD, so a high number of weirdos. Nifty!

Worst City to Travel To (Sightseeing)

5. New York- Crowded, expensive, overdone.

6. Princeton- Not crowded, expensive, eating clubs.

7. Hanover- Horrible, the closest thing they have to fast food is an organic grocery store. There is nothing there, nothing at all.

Best City to Travel To (Partying/ WARNING 18 to read, 21 to understand)

1. Ithaca- Great, fun, plus if you've been drinking it's very hard to walk up their large, incline hills.

2. Hanover- There's a reason Animal House was based on a Hanover fraternity. Plus, they know what to do with paddles.

3. Princeton- This is conditional to one trip I made as a member of an a cappella group. An absolutely shockingly wild time.

Worst City to Travel To (Partying/ WARNING 18 to read, 21 to be depressed)

6. Providence- Eating hot dogs are the reason to go here.

7. Cambridge- Just sort of depressing.

Best Bus Trips (It's not the length baby it's how you use it.)

1. Ithaca- Only 5 hours. Time enough for some sweet quizo or a pair of movies.

2. Hanover- 7 Hours, we always get lost, it usually snows. Always excitingly unexpectedly horrible.

3. Princeton- Does not take very long to travel to or leave.

Not or Not (Ivy Bands in Terms of Attractiveness)

5. Harvard- Only raised because of Joe the Trumpet players love of French and tattoos, something they have in spades.

t.6 Yale

t.6 Columbia

t.6 Dartmouth

t.6 Princeton

t.6 Brown

7. Cornell- The ugliest band in America. Sorry.

Place I've Never Been Even Though I've Been in the Band 2 and 1/2 years:

1. New Haven- I always liked Old Haven better so I have a vendetta against them.

Also, the Harvard Bowl is pretty cool, no other stadium/gymnasium compares to Franklin Field or the Palestra though.

Individualistic Sections and Required Reading

2007-12-06T22:17:00.000-05:00

Just a couple of things tonight.

First, in response to Brain Greenberg's post from yesterday, I think it's good to know the development of the sections throughout the last 20 years or so. What's interesting, is that Brian refers to the sousaphones, trombones and "horneytones" as three separate sections. But the fact is, right now all of those comprise one section: the low brass. (You'll need a facebook account for that last hyperlink.) And like Brian implied, the low brass is now the "dominant" section.

Now before you yell at me for calling the low brass dominant, here out my explanation. First off, we are the loudest, so we theoretically dominant the music. But I'm not implying all other sections have inferior musicianship. Also, our cheering dominates during the sports games. But that doesn't mean non-low brass members don't cheer. I'm just saying we're the most ubiquitous section; it might seem we're goofing off in practice, but we're also the section that has asked the most questions, both serious and not, during rehearsals. (Of course Noah's "with repeats?" does inflate this, but it's still true.)

One thing we don't dominate is Newports consumption. That would be the trumpets. (We are a distant second.)

But the important thing here, is that all of the sections have their own role, and that role is important. Just like our songs require different instrumentations at different times, so must the band as a whole need different sectional personalities. Not everyone can be the "rowdy, party" section of the band, because then we'll just end up being like this. (Of course I'm not implying only the low brass has fun.)

Secondly, tonight I interviewed the author of Jumping Through Hoops: Why Penn Wins, a book about Quaker basketball as illustrated by the 2005-06 season. It's a really interesting read, and definitely a must for any Quaker fan. There are some references to the band throughout the book, and the author even said we're "the best band" he's ever seen. Although he followed up by saying not in quality of music, but in quality of school spirit. (At the same time he was a rambling old man, so who knows). Here's the story.

The Penn Band - A Hetero-Sectional Organization

2007-12-05T22:58:00.000-05:00

Picking up on Mel's point about how the band changes over the years, I want to talk for a minute about sections.

Anyone who's ever watched the Penn Band perform probably sees it as a cohesive group, working together toward a common goal - the song, the halftime show, the cheers, whatever. Those within the band see it a little differently. Yes, we're all part of a larger group, but we also have affiliations that make our experience in the band, both musically and socially, slightly different. The closest non-band analogy I can think of is a group of good friends that happen to be of different religions. They hang out together and share common experiences, but in certain circumstances (holidays, Sabbath, etc.) they break off into smaller groups and share experiences that are different than the rest.

When I entered the Penn Band in 1987, the dominant section was the Trumpet section, or the Chops, as everyone called us. The Chops were one of the largest sections (Koosh can check me, but I'd guess we had 15-20 in good standing), not to mention the loudest, the most boisterous, mischievous, and enthusiastic section in the band. We accomplished what the current band calls "cheers" almost exclusively with our horns. I'm sure there was a rule about the band playing during the game, but when the Chops played something on their own, it wasn't really the band playing, it was more like fans cheering (at least that's how we rationalized it - and no one ever called us on it, so there you go). There were the generic cheers (Michigan, Mambo, Tequila), as well as cheers for specific circumstances (injury: Quincy, bad call: Mickey Mouse, great play: Superman). There were also fanfares written specifically for (and often by) the Chops (Love-15, the Chops Medley, the Random Fugue in F Major). We even had our signature song, Joshua, which still exists today, although it's reputation seems to have degraded seriously in the intervening 20 years. Back in the late '80s, the Chops would start Joshua whenever they didn't care for whatever the Drum Major called, and the rest of the band would enthusiastically join in. I have vivid memories of then-President Michael Brose complaining to then-Director Claude White that Joshua should not appear on our album, Live at Smoke's because, "This is not a Chop album!" Today, Joshua is generally met with more of a groan, even by some of the Chops themselves. Sad. Very sad.

I could go on and on about the Chops, but there were other sections with their distinctive personalities as well. The Sousaphones come to mind immediately. Back in the day, there were no fancy Sousaphone covers with professionally printed Split-P logos on them. The Sousaphones would get together before the game, agree on a word to spell, and then paint letters on octag paper and tape them to their bells. The crowd would see it as a statement/joke made by the band, when really it was just the Sousaphone section expressing themselves. The Sousaphones would also (literally) run circles around cops directing traffic when we marched in the streets of Philadelphia, usually to the enjoyment of both the surrounding spectators and the cops themselves.

Then there were the Drummers and the Trombones, who basically combined to form the, well, the rowdy/party crowd in the band. Most belonged to an organization that has existed for decades, but one I hardly hear about anymore: the PGA (Koosh's rules about keeping this blog relatively clean prohibit me from divulging that the acronym stands for). Again, the rules were different back then, but these were the folks who would put a keg of beer in the back of the bus for long road trips, use beer in their cereal instead of milk on the morning of games, and occasionally have trouble showing up on time for and/or staying conscious throughout the entire football game. These folks had their detractors, to be sure, but they definitely added a certain element of fun and spontaneity to the band that wouldn't have been there otherwise.

As the years went on, the membership and personality of these sections changed. In the early '90s, two guys named Howie and Kevin started a brand new section known as the Horney Tones (made up of people who played marching French Horns or Baritone Horns). Howie and Kevin were extremely enthusiastic bandos, arranging events like "The Penn Band Olympics" over senior week (I still have a paper plate with the words "Winner - Longest Wiffle Ball Hit" written in Red and Blue on the back), and various parties and other social activities. As the section grew more popular and visible, Claude wrote them a few fanfares, their membership grew, and they slowly became the new Chops (as defined by the late '80s).

Today's band reflects still more changes. The Trombones are clearly the new Chops (or, perhaps, the new Horny Tones?), complete with fanfares, cheers, and sectional traditions (e.g., "Bonegiving"). The flutes also seem to have their own camaraderie as well, although, as with my experience on of the late '80s/early '90s, it seems to be more inward facing and, on at least one occasion, involved a wild Saturday Night of watching Gilmore Girls DVDs (talk about change...)

I'm sure these personalities will continue to evolve over time, and alums coming back for Homecoming, Alumni Day, etc. will help it along by demonstrating some of the old ways to the young blood coming up through the ranks. The changes are sometimes discouraging, but in the aggregate, they keep the band interesting and enrich the experience for everyone involved.

Wednesday Shorts

2007-12-05T21:54:00.000-05:00

As Zach pointed out, there was a big game yesterday between number 1 UNC and Penn. A loud Penn crowd (and an unsurprisingly large, under informed and embarrassingly silent North Carolina contingent) and a red faced Governor at a non-Eagles game, that's how you could tell it was significant.
Contrast that with the Penn Women's game tonight which featured the band, some screaming elementary/middle school girls and some old folks there to watch Lafayette. (It was snowing but the way the university treats womens' sports like second class citizens is remarkable.)
Tuesday was also a day to debate whether or not spreading lies ("Duke will without a doubt win the ACC." "Carolina will lose at least 8 games this year.") after a game is funny or not. It is.
Zach and I are trying to get on a regular schedule (with him updating Tues., Thur. and Sun. and me on Mon., Wed., Fri. and alternating Sat.) so with that in mind I encourage you to only check on my days as my posts are significantly more informative and funnier.
Friday: A look forward to Ivy Season featuring rankings of EVERYTHING (seriously).

Packed Palestra + Frantic Fans= Awesome Atmosphere

2007-12-04T22:36:00.000-05:00

Tonight was the biggest basketball game of the year: the No. 1 North Carolina Tar Heels @ the Palestra on ESPN2. And as with all of the biggest Quaker sporting events, the Penn band was there. While the result of the game was disappointing, that doesn't mean the game wasn't fun. In fact, for the first half of the game, the sold out Palestra was absolutely hopping (or rocking, or whatever sweet gerund you want to use).

(Even halftime was sweet. While Joe went out for his usual Newport break, a two-man "Extreme Team" made some sweet acrobatic dunks using trampolines, including one where the Quaker held two balls out and each of the guys ran, jumped, grabbed the ball in midair and dunked it while doing flips.)

This game was one of those sweet instances when I'm glad the band is involved. Yet again, as with many of the not-as-important games, the band was leading the Palestra in cheers. The most important of these cheers were in the second half. Unfortunately at this time the game got out of hand (we were outscored 57-34), but more unfortunately the Red and Blue crew severely cut back on their cheering. To be fair though, I was impressed that nearly the entire Palestra stayed for the duration.

On an aside, I wasn't too impressed by the Carolina fans. For one they didn't send any band although this isn't that shocking since no ACC bands travel for conference road games by rule. Yet at the same time there were still tons of Carolina fans, perhaps as many as 45% of the Palestra. Clearly UNC is one of the most popular (read bandwagon) teams in America. And considering the Tar Heels never come to the Philly region, it makes sense why a lot of UNC fans would come. Yet, despite the high attendance, the only chants they tried to start were some feeble attempts at "Let's go tar heels" and their go-to cheer where one group of fans yells Tar! and the other responds with Heels! This is what it's supposed to sound like. (Well at least that's with a nickname, and not the spelling of the state your team's from.)

But the highlight of the night came from a non-bando. Ed Rendell, the current governor of Pennsylvania and an avid Penn Hoops fan (class of '65) was in attendance as he is for many Penn games. At one point the head ref reversed a call a fellow official made (a tied up ball) and instead called a foul on Penn. (Worst referee ever; he might not have called a single foul on UNC the whole night.) All Penn fans booed and others did even worse things. And good ol' Gov Ed was one of them. Turning nearly red in the face he stood up and proceeded to yell at the top of his lungs at the ref. If only he had a snowball.

The Penn Band's A-Changin'

2007-12-02T20:21:00.001-05:00

so, i'm sitting at the info desk in the library, staring at the gorgeousness that is eric swanson. and of course that prompts me to write in the blog. swanson can have that effect on people. (oh, and yes - he is "in another state." at the library. go swanson.)

last night members of the low brass section got together to hang out at geezer billloth's apartment. in attendance were myself, kettler, palusci, klitzman, big stunna, ellen, and lauren. and of course bill! we just listened to music and shared stories. oh, and we played duck hunt! seriousy - duck hunt! it was awesome!

anyway, listening to all the stories everyone was telling about the band got me thinking. (yes, i'm a senior and a lot of my posts will therefore be reflective/nostalgic.) i feel like in many ways i am a bando caught between various waves. (in fact, last night at nova, i was told by klitzman/joe that we will be staying with the cornell band in the spring b/c "[my] generation" is the old one and the "new generation" doesn't want to stay with columbia.)

on one hand i am very proud to see this new wave taking over for the penn band. (for instance, seeing klitzman speak so well at election made me both proud and happy that younger students are blossoming into leadership roles.) but on the other hand it makes me sad. a lot of people don't like the cheers we did my frosh year - like u-g-l-y and and the baskeball "who's your daddy" cheer. i just hate that these cheers might die as soon as i leave.

and again, i could very much identify with bill's stories last night b/c my frosh year i hung out with a lot of geezers. but then again, the people in my section now are probably the reason i still show up to band. (i have come to the realization that if i didn't like them so much my attendance might have dropped off when i came back from abroad.) it's just really hard to feel like i have no set place in this band. i don't know. i know that i don't need a set group - honestly i love that i am a part of both. it's just strange. and i am sure that many seniors go through this. it is just strange to put it into words.

i look at the future and i know that i will always have a place to come back to. at the same time, i see some of my friends that are now alums and they are sort of bitter. i just hope that doesn't happen to me. (honestly, i won't. i'm not that type of person. not that those people are bad in any way. i'm just not like that.)

alright, i have to switch desks right now. gosh, i'm such downer when i post! although swanson is still stumbling around as i look over at him, and how can anyone be depressed knowing that?!?!?! (and yes, the greatest question i got last night was from a frosh who asked if swanson is really "like that" all the time. and of course the answer is "yes." another new thing that i absolutely love!)

ps - got a text last night from my buddy xavier at columbia. it read, "you know willow joined cumb now. she says she's totally over the penn band..." :-(

Wednesday without Field Rehearsal: I'm crying on the inside

2007-11-28T21:44:00.000-05:00

Tonight is the first real Wednesday without a band field rehearsal since the football season ended. (The night before Thanksgiving doesn't count since no one's here anyway). And in some ways this is sad. As Vice President elect Michael Kettler said during his campaign speech on Monday "field rehearsal is great because the band comes together and plays some music, jokes around and has a good time" (definitely not a direct quote, but a very loose paraphrase.)

I couldn't agree more Mike. I'd say Field Rehearsal is one of the sweetest things about being in the band (besides free stuff all the time). For a hour or so we get to march on the field in the oldest two tiered college football stadium in the country, the same place where the Eagles played for 13 years from 1958-1971 , and home to the nation's largest and oldest track and field events . And the beauty is that we have the whole of Franklin Field to ourselves.

What's really cool is that unlike other colleges and probably most high schools, our field rehearsals are fun times. While we're serious about learning the formations and whatnot, we still joke around and enjoy ourselves on Franklin Field. Like during the one on Halloween when I threw a football right at Joe Coyne who was wearing a Newports cigarette box as a costume. Or the time when Greer tackled Joe.

But without a doubt the best part of Field Rehearsal is something we call Band Football League. After the rehearsal is "over" the real fun starts. Since we still have Franklin Field all to our selves we play a little pickup game of football. And since its the band, anyone can play, regardless of skill level. This year alone we had superior athletes like Handsome Hands Tom Tom, to old men like Greer to freshmen sensations like Lauren to our Drum Majorident Becca and loads in between.

In fact one of my regrets about Basketball season is that we don't have something similar to BFL or to field rehearsal. I mean seriously, how sick would it be to play pick up basketball in the Palestra? Probably sicker than Greer was after playing BFL (just joking, Greer did awesome).

UPDATE: Today's the first Saturday since the start of the year (Thanksgiving weekend aside again) that didn't have a football game. Unlike last Wednesday, I'm glad about this since I got to sleep in to 2pm. Nice.