Category: Band

I’d like to apologize for the crotch shot. Kevin took this video and he was trying to zoom in on Jazz’s feet, NOT the girl’s lady parts. He was trying to be artsy-fartsy and came off instead as a dirty old man. HA!

I think I’ll be taking over videographer duties next time.

Also. The last song. I got frustrated with Kevin because Jazz played a lot of saxophone parts and he wouldn’t zoom in. GRR. And. Jazz said the kids were nervous on this song for some reason so they played quieter than they were supposed to – hence the reason you see the band director gesturing for them to play louder.

And yes. The band director only has one arm. He lost it in a farming accident when he was eight. But he’s incredible and the kids love him.

And may I just rant for a second? (Tune out if you’re not in the mood).

Several of the girls at this concert came in wearing skirts so short that I was seriously (no, I mean SERIOUSLY) concerned that they would end up displaying their goods for the entire audience to view when they sat down.

I understand it seems like the height of fashion and that they think they’re sexy, but if you’re a parent of a young woman (high school age) that is allowing her daughter to show up at school wearing a skirt so short that all it would take was the lifting of one arm to cover a sneeze to flash the world a shot of her underwear, then shame on you.

That’s right! I said it! SHAME ON YOU! I hate to judge, but I’m going to judge for a moment. It’s inappropriate! And crass! And uncomfortable! And disturbing. Women balk and bitch about how men only see them as sex objects and say things like “why don’t they see me as a PERSON” only to see them advertising their wares in front of a group of hormonal young men … I mean, DUH. What are they supposed to think?

I asked my young men what they thought of young ladies that wore clothing like that.

“Sluts.” Was their immediate response.

Do you really want your daughters thought of in that way? Because I assure you, not only do other girls think this, but so do the guys.

I don’t care how much they groan, complain, whine, cry. “But MOM, it’s the FASHION. All my friends are wearing the same thing!” It’s called NO. It’s called putting your foot down and being the responsible adult in the situation. These girls wouldn’t be wearing these mini-skirts if parents weren’t buying them for them.

Sorry. I don’t mean to go off in left field, but this stuff really bothers me. Women have come such a long way throughout history – WHY must we insist on resorting to sex appeal in order be noticed? To me, that just screams INSECURE. A confident, well-rounded young lady doesn’t NEED to put her body on display for the world to see – the world automatically sees her because of the way she acts and holds herself.

Anyway. My two cents.

ADDED: Interesting. This very issue is being debated here. If women over 18 want to dress in a provocative manner – go for it. Just realize, that by doing so, dressing that way may be perceived, whether rightly, or wrongly, as loose, easy prey and wanting unwanted sexual advances. Once again, it all boils down to personal responsibility. And may I just ask, what happened to being perceived as classy?

But girls under 18? There’s never a good reason to dress provocatively. Ever. Let them be girls, please.

Jazz had his spring concert last week. (Blonde boy, blue shirt) I always look forward to … wait, scratch that. I always look forward to ANY kind of concert Jazz is in. It never ceases to amaze me that he can even play an instrument to begin with, let alone play it WELL. He’s so comfortable with his saxophone, he really enjoys playing it, and it honestly warms my heart to watch, and hear, him play.

The band was split into three groups – freshmen, intermediate and advance. Jazz is in the intermediate group. He’s hoping to make advance band next year.

We all thought the band sounded fantastic, but Jazz wasn’t happy with the performance. He was okay with how he played, but he was disappointed in his band mates. He said that after they finished the first song, they started getting nervous and playing a lot softer than they were supposed to, which in turn, made him nervous and playing softer than he wanted to.

I love that he wants to be a better player, but I wish he wasn’t so hard on himself.

He comes by that perfectionist attitude honestly – both me and Kevin are pretty hard on ourselves as well.

At any rate, Kevin showed me how to manipulate his video program and I was able to slice the first song off the disk. I’ll work on uploading the other two songs soon.

I love Jazz’s look of concentration in this picture.

Or maybe it’s irritation, they’re sort of one and the same, actually. HA!

Because I know you’re all waiting with bated breath to hear how Jazz’s marching band performed this past weekend … (*snort*)

THEY PLACED SECOND IN THE GOLD DIVISION! (The divisions are determined by band size – Jazz’s school is pretty large, so they fall into the Gold division).

Can I get a HOLLA!

My mom was able to switch days at work and got to go with me to St. Louis on Saturday. (This like NEVER happens, so I was VERY EXCITED that she was able to go. This was her first time watching the band perform and it’s sooooo much better than watching a video).

We (me, Jazz, Dude, Kevin and my mom), all met at Wendy’s for lunch. Then I dropped Jazz off at the school so he could get on the bus, took Dude back home (because he had gone with us the last two competitions and was quite burned out on the whole concept), Kevin took off for his gig (his band was scheduled to play at a private party … he wouldn’t have accepted the gig, but the guy who sets this stuff up told him the wrong day and since he had already agreed, he wasn’t able to back out), so that left just me and my mom.

(If my mom hadn’t been able to go, I think I would have gone by myself. I really wanted to see their last performance of the year).

(Side Note: When I dropped Jazz off at the school, the bus drivers were closing up the huge doors in the cargo area, preparing to take off. Jazz was almost too late!! Talk about stressed! Jazz hurriedly gathered his stuff and later texted me: “I was almost late!” I felt really bad about that but the schedule the band director handed out for the parents said they were going to depart at 1:30, not 1:00! Jazz said there were quite a few kids that got there late, actually. Can you imagine if he had missed the bus!?! That would have been really, really bad).

I went and picked my mom up (their house is on the way), spent a few minutes admiring the new tile in their bathroom (they are redoing it and it looks really good – the tile fits my mom PERFECTLY), and then we got onto the road.

The time up there zoomed by. We hadn’t had a chance to talk to each other in months – we’ve both been so busy with our lives … which is sad, because we live in the same city! We stopped at Steak-N-Shake to grab some dinner and made it into St. Louis around 6:00 p.m. We walked into the stadium (they played at the St. Louis Rams’ Dome) as the first band in the Gold Division was playing so we had to wait until they finished playing before finding our seats.

(Side Note: They don’t allow anyone to leave or enter when a band is playing out of respect for the kids. It’s distracting and rude, quite frankly).

As I mentioned, this was the first time my mom has watched a marching band competition. I think she really enjoyed it. We commented on each band’s performance (like we knew what we were talking about HA!), and we picked our favorites (after Jazz’s band, of course).

Jazz’s band was the last to play, and the kids did really well. It was one of their best performances. I really enjoy the last performance of the year because by that time, the kids could do the routine in their sleep, they have perfected the music and their confidence shines.

I was SO proud of all of them.

The program was really sweet and fun and I know mom really enjoyed it. Again, there is NOTHING like watching it live. It takes your breath away what with the drums, the color guard (the dancing girls), the music and of course, all of the little extras the band does during the routine that is often missed in the videos.

When it came time for awards, mom and I had a pretty good idea who would likely win it. Though we wanted to say it was Jazz’s band, we thought another band’s music might have been a bit more sophisticated and it was beautifully elegant. Jazz told me that 60% of what the judges judge is the music … so, we wondered.

They started with the outstanding music, performance and visual awards and whoever wins those awards are usually a pretty good indication of who is going to win first place.

They began with fifth place and when it came time to announce the 1st and 2nd place winners, we were a nervous wreck.

Our kids placed second and the band that won first? Was the one mom and I thought would win it.

Quite honestly, they deserved it. It was a spectacular show.

We walked out exchanging notes and laughing about how nervous we had been. It was nerve wracking not knowing if they were going to place at all, so it was a huge relief when we heard their name called for second.

We navigated the crowds back to my car and worried that it would take us quite a while to actually make it back onto the highway because there was so much traffic, but we got out surprisingly fast and before we knew it, we were on our way back home.

I stopped for gas, mom bought some water and before long, we had to make a bathroom stop.

I wasn’t quite so worried about making it back into town before Jazz did because Kevin was home and he could always pick him up, but still, it would have been easier if I could do it, so though we stopped, we didn’t stop for very long not knowing how far back the kids were.

We got back into town (and I talked so much that I almost missed the exit) a little before 2:00 a.m. I dropped mom off and was on my way to the school (figuring I’d just hang out until the buses came in as opposed to getting home and then turning around to get back out) when Jazz called me.

We beat them back by about fifteen minutes.

The kids were exhausted, as per usual, and they stumbled off the buses. I located Jazz, took his uniform and his duffel bag off his hands while he secured his instrument in his locker inside the school.

I quietly congratulated him on his 2nd place win and we rode the rest of the way home in silence. (Jazz is simply too tired to do much chit-chatting).

We all slept in quite late Sunday (Jazz slept a solid ten hours) and spent the day in our PJ’s.

(Side Note: Jazz told me that on the way up to St. Louis, he ate the entire package of Twizzlers that I gave him [his favorite candy] and made himself sick so that by the time they were supposed to perform, he was swallowing bile back in an attempt not to upchuck all over himself and his band mates. Now maybe he’ll understand the whole “you’re going to make yourself sick” argument I give him whenever he wants to eat more than he should. Ahh, sweet justice 🙂 )

And that concludes this marching band season. I’m a little bummed because I love this stuff so much, but Jazz is quite sick of the routine and is ready to move on to something different.

Like Jazz band.

(Hence the reason I’ve nicknamed him “Jazz” on this blog).

Thanks for indulging me.

(Alternatively titled: Our Second Band of America Trip)

Busy weekend …

Friday, I dropped the boys off at school like normal. Only Jazz wasn’t scheduled to attend any classes, he went straight to band, who went straight out to the football field to practice their routine. At 9:00, they loaded the buses for St. Louis.

Kevin and I ran a few errands and then picked Dude up from school at 11:00. We ate lunch at Wendy’s, grabbed a few Pumpkin Spice Lattes from Starbucks and headed out to St. Louis.

To my surprise, we caught up to the band (they ride four huge green buses – they are very hard to miss) and before long, we were playing cat and mouse, passing, being passed.

We ran into some construction and traffic came to a standstill. Luckily, the road crews opened up the lanes and we got going again after about ten minutes.

(Jazz said he never saw us, which is weird because I waved like a crazed lunatic when we passed all four buses … perhaps he saw me but couldn’t push past his band mates in order to wave back … surely he wasn’t embarrassed of me?? … Nahhh).

We made it to St. Louis at 2:30 and proceeded to check into our hotel, which was the Drury Inn right next door to the Edwards’ Dome (where the St. Louis Rams play and this hotel? I HIGHLY RECOMMEND BECAUSE OMG, IT IS SO AWESOME!)

We were assigned room 604 – I’m recording the room number because we are totally going to ask for this specific room next year, too. It was a suite complete with a sitting room and a separate room for the bedroom. That meant that Dude could sleep on the pull-out sofa and watch TV without disturbing us in the next room.

It was awesome. Dude quite liked it, too. We were also positioned so that we could look out of our window and watch all of the bands walking into the dome – another plus!

After we got settled in our room, we walked to the dome (it’s next door, remember?? SOOOOO convenient!) and settled in to watch the bands leading up to our kids’ performance.

And they performed. It was really spectacular and I was so proud (I yelled so loudly my voice was hoarse afterward and in fact, I was so animated with, erhm, my enthusiasm that I embarrassed Dude. BONUS!)

Still. I was concerned. Competition at this level, the Super Regional level, is FIERCE. As in INSANE. The shows … they are simply breath taking. The PROPS, the DANCERS, the MUSIC … it’s all quite overwhelming and I love every minute of it. Though we had a good show, I wondered if it would be good ENOUGH.

Our kids were the third to last band to play that Friday, so after prelims were over that day, we walked (I mentioned the location of this hotel is AWESOME, right?? Just checking) back to our hotel. Drury served a hot FREE dinner that we took advantage of earlier, so we grabbed a few snacks out of the vending machine and settled in for the night.

Dude out lasted us. Kevin and I zonked out around 10:00, I think Dude might have gone to bed at midnight – maybe even later.

The next morning, we got up, ate our FREE hot breakfast (yes, I am a fan of Drury Inns – bite me), and we headed home. Even though we had to pay more for the suite, it actually worked out beautifully because we were not only next door to the Dome, we didn’t have to buy dinner OR breakfast so … yeah. AWESOME.

Bands were scheduled to play all day Saturday. The last band played at 3:30, then finals would be announced at 4:00. If our kids made it, they would perform, if not, they would come home.

Jazz’s band checked out of their hotel at 10ish.

(Side Note: Jazz and his roommates left the cleaning crew a tip. They didn’t have to, and no one asked them to, they just felt like it was the right thing to do. Jazz did this last year, too. It just warms my heart that he’s such a generous, thoughtful young man. It tells me that we must be doing something right).

They went to a mall, hung out, had lunch, then went to the St. Louis zoo, in essence, to kill time before they announced the finalists.

Since we had come home, I had no idea what was going on. I kept watching the clock, wondering …. wondering ….

I kept checking the band website. The band director is on Twitter and has a Facebook page, which is great, but he doesn’t update very often, so it’s a bit maddening. And to top it off, his Facebook page is private so I only see what’s going on by the summary of his status via his Facebook web badge.

The time to find out the finalists arrived. The band director’s status started naming off names … but it cut off so I had no idea if our kids made it or not.

I tried to hack into Jazz’s Facebook account (because he’s friends with the band director), but I couldn’t figure his password out.

AARGH!

Then, THEN, the band director updated his FB status again.

“We perform at 9:30.”

Wait. WHAT?? Did that mean our kids made finals?!?!?!

Then, Jazz must have gotten a hold of his phone because he text me, “FINALS!”

Our kids made finals!!!! At Bands of America!!!! Out of 48 bands, our kids were one of the 14 bands going on to finals!!!

I nearly passed out from the excitement. (Yes, I get THAT into it. Bite me).

I haven’t been able to verify this, but I think this is the first time our kids have made finals at Bands of America. This was their seventh year participating … lucky number seven!

So, our kids had to put their uniforms back on and prepare to play for the final time at 9:30.

I went to the Bands of America website and noticed that you had the option of paying to watch the finals via web stream.

So, of course we paid the fee and settled back to watch the final 14 bands perform.

We called my in-laws and they came over to watch the kids perform.

When it was time for our kids to play, I was a nervous wreck. I’m pretty sure I didn’t breathe the entire time they were on the field.

They played and … I was disappointed. Something felt off. They didn’t gel as well as they had earlier.

I had a bad feeling.

Finally, FINALLY, the last band performed and it was time to assign awards.

Beginning at number 14 … I started praying, “Anything but last place, anything but last place …”

The band ended up placing 11th. Which was a disappointment but not surprising. They were sluggish and their formations were a little sloppy. I found out from Jazz today that they had scored a 78.00 at prelims, and only a 72.00 at finals. If they had scored as well at finals as they had at prelims, they would have placed 5th.

I was (and still am) a little sick about that, but of course, I didn’t tell Jazz that.

But I have to be fair. Our kids HAD to have been EXHAUSTED. They had been going, non-stop, since Friday morning and I’m sure none of the kids got very much sleep Friday night. Then they went to the mall AND the zoo Saturday and then performed again Saturday night… it’s sort of surprising none of them tripped from exhaustion.

(Side Note: Jazz said that he thinks a lot of the band sort of gave up. They were satisfied with making finals and really didn’t make much of an effort from that point on. He was disappointed by that attitude because he’s into it even more than I am – obviously).

At any rate, though it was a little disappointing, the fact that they made finals at all was quite impressive. We’re all very proud of them.

So, the band has one more competition back in St. Louis this weekend and then the season wraps up. Jazz said he expects they will have some pretty intense rehearsals this week as they are all determined to end the season with one last win.

I’d like to go this weekend, but I’m not sure it’s going to happen. Dude is burned out on the whole band thing and Kevin has a gig so he can’t go. And I’m not sure I really want to go by myself. I’m trying to talk my mom into going, but she has to try and get someone to work for her and I have yet to hear back whether she was successful or not.

I try so hard not to get SO into band season but dang it, this stuff is FUN to watch and I KNOW how hard our kids work to pull off these amazing shows.

I hate to admit it, but I think I’m living vicariously through Jazz. I know he’s making some pretty awesome memories and I’m a little jealous, I think. It reminds me of my junior and senior year in high school when I was in drama and we took our one-act play all the way to state and WON it. It’s a memory I will always treasure.

These band experiences will likely be some of Jazz’s best high school memories as well.

We went to Jazz’s band competition this weekend.

It was in Broken Arrow Oklahoma and if you aren’t into the whole marching band thing, let me tell you, Broken Arrow Oklahoma is THE band that no one can beat. In fact, they win the Bands of America competition nearly every year because they’re THAT good.

They usually have a cutting edge program complete with unusual props, moves and fun (sometimes dark) music. Last year? Their girls dressed up as snakes and enticed the band the whole program. It was a bit, erhm, disturbing, but pretty awesome to watch.

They won, of course.

This year, as the final scores were being tallied up, they performed their program as an exhibition – their program is loosely based on the “Wizard of Oz” complete with bicycles and cutesy head bobs … yeah, it’s pretty awesome and though I’m glad our kids got to see their program, Jazz later told me, “Yeah, there’s no way we’re going to win now.”

However, I told them that though the Broken Arrow band is awesome, they’re all flash and little substance, sort of like a flash website, it’s cool for about two seconds and then it becomes annoying.

But enough about the competition, let’s sing the praises of Jazz’s band.

And sing them I will.

Because these kids played their hearts out. And their formations were tight, their music was spot on and I’ve never seen them perform as well. Their band director added some moves, so a lot of the show was new to us and WOW. It was spectacular.

(Side Note: And I’m not just saying that because of Jazz. There were two veteran OK band members sitting behind us and I amused myself by listening to their critiques. When our school finished their show, one girl sat back and said, “Welp, that’s it. They’re going to win.”)

The show is called “No Strings Attached” and it’s about some marionette dolls that escape their strings and cause mischief throughout the program. What’s really cool about this show? The band director got ALL the band members involved. (Hence the above picture where they’re all sitting down in various poses).

We arrived shortly after 1:00 p.m. And the day was gorgeous, but it was hot. And we ended up sitting directly in the sun for several hours (we all have lobster necks to prove it). So by the time they breaked, we were already all pretty worn out. And our kids hadn’t even played yet.

But it really was the perfect weather to have a band competition.

Twenty bands competed and we stuck around to find out if our kids made finals. We figured, if they didn’t make it, then we would drive the three hours home. If they made it, we’d end up getting home at two o’clock in the morning.

The time came to announce the twelve finalists. Our kids won the visual performance award, which was a good sign, but still, my heart raced and I felt weak. Would they make finals?

Our kids were the first group to be announced to the finals.

It looked like we were going to be driving home in the middle of the night.

We honestly didn’t mind. 😀

After we found out they made finals, the bands that didn’t make it took off and the place thinned out a bit. Me, Kevin and Dude drove around until we spotted a Sonic and ate dinner. When we got back to the school, we ran into Jazz as we were heading back to the stadium.

He acted like he was glad to see us and he was excited to be performing in finals. He was hanging out with his buds and they were blowing off nervous steam. He didn’t think they were good enough to win and though they WERE good, there was a lot of tough competition. I didn’t want to lie to the boy, but I didn’t want to get his hopes up too, so I told him, “You guys definitely have a good enough show to make the top 5. Just do your best and have fun.”

He seemed a bit cheered up by that.

The kids were set to perform at 9:00. By this time, the sun had gone down and there was a cool breeze. In fact, I had the foresight to pack some jeans for me (which I changed into before finals began) and to take jackets (which we all used), so we were actually pretty comfortable. (The stadium also had fancy theater seats as opposed to the normal stadium benches).

Nine o’clock came around and our kids marched out onto the field. Even though I was nervous for them, I wasn’t petrified for them like in other competitions. Whatever happened, happened. They made it this far and that alone was something to be proud of.

They performed. And they did a spectacular job.

When it was time for the winners to be announced, I was on the edge of my seat. Every time the announcer called off a name, I was like, “NOT (insert school name here).”

He kept reading. Ninth place ….. sixth place …. fourth place ….. my heart was in my mouth by this time and the girls behind me? Were totally cheering for our school.

When third place was announced and it was just our kids and one other group left, I nearly had a heart attack. Crossing my fingers, we waited to hear who won ….

(Jazz is the skinny saxophone dude in the middle).

Unfortunately, it wasn’t us, but we came in SECOND PLACE and we were all ecstatic with that honor. It was a TOUGH competition, not to mention a CLOSE competition. (The announcer read off the scores and the difference was literally a tenth of a difference).

We drove straight home, though we had to stop just inside the Missouri state line so Dude could go to the bathroom. We nearly stayed too long because we were in a race to get back into town before Jazz did (he insisted on riding the bus home with his band mates) and though we made it back, we only beat Jazz by twenty minutes.

(Side Note: I had given him a key to the house as a backup plan, just in case we didn’t make it back in time. At least he wouldn’t be stranded in the middle of the night).

It was a loooooong day, and we were all exhausted, but it was fun and I’m so glad we did it!!

The band goes to St. Louis this weekend for the Bands of America competition. They’re scheduled to play Friday night with more bands competing on Saturday. They won’t find out if they made finals until Saturday night, which means a looooong waiting period for our kids.

Me, Kevin and Dude are planning on going up Friday, watching their performance Friday night and then driving back on Saturday. We didn’t feel like sitting around all day, watching other bands perform before finding out if they made finals. Plus, there’s no guarantee they WILL make finals. (Not to mention, tickets are expensive!) There are 50 bands in the competition and only 12 make finals. Though our kids are good, well, the odds are against them.

But we’re thinking positively here. At least we will have gone, yelled our support and got to see them perform again.

Man, I love this time of year. 🙂