So here's the last half of our day.

We went on our picnic thing, and had a small celebration at a park in Pulaski County. We loaded back up, and went on to North Laurel.

My good friend Amanda had sprained her ankle right before our Pulaski County competition. She plays 1st trumpet, and has a solo in Round Dance, as well as the catchy Petrouchka part I spoke of in my Pulaski County thread. She marched at Pulaski. That's dedication, I tell you. I had brought sports cream with me, and let her use it on the way to North Laurel, and helped her re-tape her ankle on the bus. By this time, she was feeling better.

We arrive at North Laurel. A guy boards the bus to mark our hands. Amanda and I asked him to put happy faces on our hands, explaining that we were happy people, to which he obliged. He laughed while drawing it as well. So, I was marked with a smiley.

We waited around, and had a good deal of sectional time while waiting on our warm-up time to get there. I called my small section together, and we spoke through about what we were going to do to make our performance better. The youngest girl in my section, an 8th grader, was distracted by her boyfriend who came along, which made me and I had to yell at her about staying focused, and asked her boyfriend to piss off for awhile...Which I'm sure made him happy. Heh!

So, we then get things back on track. My section is ready to go. I'm by no means the peppiest section leader in band, but we get things done.

We go on to warm-up, down on North Laurel's soccer field. Ackerman doesn't want us to play - he calls us around in a tight circle to talk to us. He gave one of the best speeches I think he's ever given since he's been in band. The man has a way of making you focus, and getting what he wants out of your performance. He gives confidence, and motivates you. I think that's what makes him a great band director, though I don't generally like him. I respect him a great deal.

Ackerman spoke about loving his job, and all of us, and so on. He had listened to the tapes from earlier yesterday from PC, and told us what we had to fix to win. We were ready to go.

We got in concert arcs, and played through the show, and then formed the line to go on field.

Now, I'll make my confession. On the way to the field, for every competition (except last week at Madison Central Pre-Lims, where I forgot, and gave the worst performance I've ever done in marching band competition...) ever since I began band, I sing Purple Rain, quietly to myself on the way to the field. I call it my "good luck" song. It helps me clear out my head I suppose. It's become a bit of a superstition, I suppose.

We line up on the back of the field, and get ready to be called up to go on. I also look right at Ackerman, right in the face, before we go on. It gives me a feeling of confidence for whatever reason. He always has on a game face. Makes me feel better.

We get a good look at the field our host told us was nothing but a mud pit. He had told us they layed down straw earlier, but it wasn't doing much good. The field was TERRIBLE, it was mud, and straw. Everywhere. We gave the speech, again, to our sections about what to do if you fall.

Lindsey calls us up. Snare gives taps, we march on. We relax, fix it, calls us up again. Lindsey salutes. "Russell County, you may now take the field in competition!"

Finale - Everything goes as it should. In the double time at one point, I could've sworn I'd fall, until I got used to the way the field moved under me, and I was fine. I marched like I knew how. There wasn't a phasing problem at the big hit this time, everything was right on. We finish the song in our 12 count hold, fp, and the crowd stands and applauds.

Petrouchka - No problems again, until my favorite part of the show, the part I spoke of in the PC thread. The drums came in a half a count early. Woodwinds step off, we think we're late, we're all trying to adjust, and we can't hear the trumpets. So we're thinking, "WTF? We're early!" We're still trying to recover, and then you hear the trumpets. This all happened in about a 5 count span, and then we realized we had originally been correct. Everything else goes really well though.

Round Dance - Goes on through, get to the big hit, we hit the first note of it, the crowd rises, everyone's cheering. I'm thinking, "Hell yeah!"

The Rite of Spring - I wasn't worried about falling this time, and didn't need to be. Everything went great. The hits, everything. No one fell...As a matter of fact, no one from our band fell in either performance, despite the mud. 91 people, and not a one of 'em fell.

So, we leave field, get our water provided by the host band, and get in our block to watch the exhibition performance by the host band, and to watch Campbellsville University.

Then, starts awards. North Laurel typically has 25-30 bands there. 30 were there last night. The awards ceremony drags on forever. And ever.

Awards start off by giving each of the field commanders a Field Commander Medallion...In performance order. We were last to perform, right after our enemies...GLASGOW! FUCKING KILT WEARING SCOTTIES! They march on to the sound of bagpipes, played by the percussion line, wearing their little kilts. Fuckers. They kicked our ass 3 times last year, and I do mean kicked our ass! And then bragged about it. Kicking our ass would've been okay, had they never ran their mouth! Wayne County, our other enemies in the Kentucky marching world were there as well. I've got a friend in the drumline there, however. Hi, Mickey...We kicked your ass!

Then, we have 9 classes to go through before ours. A1-A7, 2A1-2A2.

So, here's what we won.

Class 3A Awards:
Best Percussion
First Place

I was highly amused when they announced Glasgow was 3rd place. I laughed to myself, and couldn't keep myself from smiling a bit. Fuckers. That'll teach 'em to run their mouths, eh!

So then, they finally get to the Overall Awards.

Overall:
Distinguised Rating (83.1)
Mayor's Trophy (Goes to the highest scoring band from classes 2A-4A - the big bands!)
Reserved Grand Champion.

The Grand Championship goes to some dinky little A band no one has ever heard of. But eeeveryone has heard of their director - who taught at Harrison forever, before going to Williamstown. He and the director at Adair County are the Michael Jordans of band directing in Kentucky, so to speak.

As I believe Matt once put it:
Nuts and bolts, nuts and bolts, WE GOT SCREWED!

We lost by less than a point. Bullshit, isn't it? Traditionally however, we're not a big time band. We're just now making our name for ourselves, and Ackerman's only ever been at Russell County, this is only his 4th year as a director, so...We've got to build ourselves up the hard way.

Some of our band members are crying over our loss to Williamstown. We thought for sure we had the Grand Championship in our hands. I wasn't happy, nor was I sad. I was just sort of indifferent to it, and wanted to touch the trophy, which is taller than I am, standing at about 6'.

Alex comes over and says to me, "It was good. Very, very good." We walk back to the bus, I get my things to change, put up my instrument on to our semi.

After changing, my friend and I had to go to the restroom, so, we go. Brittany and I enter, only to stand in line behind members of another band. They're talking amongst themselves, and a girl looks at me and says, "What band are y'all from?" "Russell County." "Really? You all did AWESOME!" I was like, "Thanks!" A big, cheesy grin spreads across the face of my friend and myself, and I ask, "What band are you from?" "Glasgow." To which an even bigger grin spreads across our faces. I said, "Really? Small world, isn't it."

I then realized, though my intention was by no means to be rude, I was coming across as a real asshole, and I didn't want to get mugged in the girl's bathroom by a bunch of angry Scotties, so I said, "We didn't get to see you all march, but we heard you on our way to the field. The sound was really good!" To which she says, "Yes, we do sound nice, but we can't march for shit!" I sort of laughed, "Every band has that problem at some point, eh." "Yes, we've got all sorts of little kids who just don't give a fuck any more! Especially in the guard!" I didn't know much about what to say.

She then goes on to say, "When I heard you all were coming, I told everyone, I said, 'They've been kicking ass this year, and we kicked their ass last year, but they're going to come here, and they're going to beat us. And that's how it's gonna happen,' and you know what, you did!"

I was stumbling around for words, so I just grinned, and re-stated that I thought they sounded nice, tried to be as nice as I could without coming off as a fake. But God, it felt good to be in there and hear that from a Glasgow kid. It was about time to beat 'em!

Anyways, the ride home was great. Everyone was nice and quiet, and I sat near my friend, who was injured. She performed again at North Laurel, and did an amazing job marching with her ankle messed up. Alex slept, and was quite angry, as was everyone, when one of the band moms on the bus ran around waking everyone up. Alex says, "Tell me she just did not do this." I was like, "She did." He almost had a fit.

So, we get off the parkway, and there's all sorts of band parent cars, and firetrucks, and police cars waiting for us. It was about 11:15 PM, and it was time to parade. Firetrucks in front, and police cars, and some in back, and band parents following...We put down our windows, and woke up Russell County. Sirens, screams. My friend Amanda and I just yelled out shit like, "The Germans are coming!" And so on. We had nothing better to yell. "Wake up, the Germans are coming!"

Alright, so anyways, the end of a tiring weekend, with good results. Thanks for reading.
[This message was edited Wed Oct 2 16:03:54 PDT 2002 by BattierBeMyDaddy]

Good stuff!

Bottomline it for me Batts. Did you win or not?

This weekend, we head to our west, yet again, to Laure County...

We'll be performing at 6:15 PM, CST. I will, of course, post the results.

This is our last chance for a Grand Championship title, to add to what we've already managed to win, before state starts next week.

Our goal:

Win Grand Champions
Improve greatly over last week
Score in the 90s!

best of luck this weekend then BBMD!

BattierBeMyDaddy said:

Quick question. Would you find it distracting if bkw and I showed up in cheerleader outfits and cheered you on?

I don't wanna get into a whole thing here. A simple yes or no will do.

BattierBeMyDaddy said:

You will win!

2the9s said:

No.

BattierBeMyDaddy said:

Suit up Aussie!

2the9s said:

Yay! I will have Alex save a seat, for my favorite two cheerleader-suited men.

I loved this Battier! Great story. Solid begining, character arcs, and a nemesis.

nLA said:

Yeah, it's almost like it could be turned into a short story by Friday. Hmmm

2the9s said:

Come on, 9s.

2the9s said: