Boom Goes the Dynamite

This oddly appeals to the little boy in me who blew his GI Joe collection up with Black Cat firecrackers one fateful 4th of July...

stop looking at me like that, you know you did it too...

enjoy:

Seriously can't give the phrase, "These two are the dog's nuts of the periodic table" enough props. We need to import that one across the pond...

via digg

Midwest...

... definitely going, for the first time since I was an undergrad. Very, very excited. That is all.

A Spot of Catch-Up...

It's been some time since I have been able to sit down and update the blog for the handful of people who read it... and since I am up here at school administrating the Cavaliers Houston Audition Camp, I thought I would take a few minutes to bring it all up to speed.

A few weeks ago, I had the good fortune to go to BOA Grand Nationals - professional development well spent - and soak in the experience. Got some great insights and observations about everything from logistics to pit equipment to show design to contacts and resources. Great, great experience overall. Here are a few pictures taken by Waller's lovely guard instructor Alicia Lopez.

This is the view from outside our hotel room... on the 19th floor of the Hyatt Downtown... as has been stated before, I am terrified of heights... obviously Alicia took this picture....

These were our seats for Finals... pressbox, front row. The best seats in the house, easily.

And Tarpon Springs takes the field... neat show, and about the size of the Waller Band... the target has been acquired... Yes, we aim high. :)

Aaaaand Finale. Very surprised by the champion, Broken Arrow - well played show, and derivative of some other groups that I have enjoyed, but not who I expected to walk away with the eagle... Congrats to them, though. Must also give props to Plymouth Canton (especially my homeboy Martin): easily the best visual package of the evening
(as well as the best performance overall, in my opinion).

From Finals, we made our way over to the perennial hang-out, Rock Bottom, to visit with friends and colleagues. Yes, visiting occurs via many mediums and through many modalities.

Alicia and Jason Greenawalt (FMM 01), our peripatetic chum on this excursion.

Me at 3am... the picture is fuzzy, but it's not too far off of how awake I felt at that hour...

All-in-all, a great trip. Got to catch up with some old friends and meet some new ones. Ran into Daniel, one of the handful that read this textual drivel, as well as Kevin Nix and Daniel Cuevas. Very rewarding and useful experience - can't wait to start designing Waller's 2007 show. Quite excited.

After that, it was a whole week of preparation for the Winter Concert and the Cavaliers audition camp. Somewhere in there, I did find time to go see a pre-release screening of James Bond: Casino Royale with Sarah. We both agreed that, while long (2.5 hours!) it was a good Bond flick. Laden with innuendo and some stunning action sequences (I want to learn how to move like the bomb-maker at the beginning of the film) it definitely was worth the time spent. The more aesthetic aspects of the film weren't bad, either.

Well, that's about everything that's going on here. Watched "Shine" and going to see Rach. 3 with Sarah tomorrow - an excellent end to the weekend, if you ask me. Flying back to PA on Monday and Thanksgiving with the fam. Lots to do, lots to eat. Looking forward to sleeping later than 5:15am for a few days, too. :) Hope that everyone has a great Thanksgiving and enjoys the time with their loved ones - truly the best use of time in the world. Peace out.

For those days...

... when you are just pissed at the world.

Watch this.

via Neil Gaiman

Finis

Just got home from the BOA Super Regional in San Antonio - saw many friends, kids performed well, watched finals. Myself, Sarah, and the Waller staff had a great time watching the show... But then, we are all band nerds, so that should be par for the course. :)

Not a whole lot to relate, as it is 4:00am and I haven't really slept yet. Thought I would share the "warning" sign found in the bathroom on one of the coach busses we used today. Exceedingly odd. Enjoy.

Yes, that is exactly what it looks like. Not sure what's wrong with the guy who is sitting down, but it appears that the gentleman standing up is making great conversation.

I mean, really : who designs these things? I want that job. Oh wait...

Silly Rabbit...

I really wish laughing this much were a more common occurence. I know my days would be a lot better if it were. :)

via digg

Ben Folds : Live

It's always nice when you can scratch something off your list of things you'd like to do while you're able - seeing Ben Folds perform live was one of those things, and the experience was nothing short of amazing.

Sarah and I had purchased tickets to the Ben Folds/Houston Symphony what seems like eons ago (actually in August) and the anticipation had been building ever since. I have always heard that he is a particularly electric peformer, and most music is better live anyways - needless to say I was pretty pumped. Day of the concert, bolted from marching rehearsal, touched base with the booster meeting, and all but sprinted down 290 to pick up Sarah and go to Jones Hall.

After parking in the most labyrinthine parking complex ever, we left the realm of the Morlocks to go stand in the longest will call line ever. Happily, that was for A-L... we hopped over to the line with 4 people in it (yay for the end of the alphabet) only to find that they had lost our tickets. Reprints were quick, though, and in we went.

Our seats were... well... amazing. Upper tier, just off stage right center - basically in line with the best view you could imagine of the centrally placed piano. The symphony was set up behind, as it would be for a piano concerto (as we thought some of the less likely concert-goers may have expected). The only tell-tale that this was an unusual concert was the drum kit in the back, and the fact that the percussion setup was something more akin to a piece by John Mackey rather than Rachmaninov.

Note: The thing I found most humorous was that all the orchestral players were going through their normal, pre-concert paces - orchestral excerpts and all (whoever was playing Pictures was pretty damn good, too) - for a Pops concert. A Rock-Pops concert at that (or Pop-Rocks... that would be fun... but I digress)

The concert itself was excellent - the color pallete available to these pieces with the addition of the full orchestra made for some really cool takes on things (Not the Same and The Ascent of Stan most notably). Ben is a phenomenal performer - wicked amazing, especially on his more pyrotechnic pieces (Philosophy, et al...). Simply amazing. Just a lot.

Dinner afterwards - Star Pizza and Dos Equis - all in all a ridiculously great evening. What a nice way to begin closing out my first marching season at Waller - part 2 this weekend! San Antonio Super Regional - can't wait for the kids to perform and see everyone and their brother. That, atop Grand Nationals the weekend after, means I get to check out marching band two weeks in a row. Sweet.

In closing, I leave you with proof that Thanksgiving is apparently no longer a holiday - taken at the CVS here in Waller today. Somehow, I know "The Man" is behind this, nefarious bastard that he is...