On the Origin of "Indians"

The Trombones' "Indians" section feature is music from "Go Go Gophers," a short-lived cartoon show from the late 1960's featuring two Dogs in the U.S. Army that are constantly after two Gophers that are, yes, Indians.

The actual tune is a combination of the introduction music and the actual theme for the Indians/Gophers.

An Episode of the Show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH7TXnFJNeE
(for the impatient, watch the first 10 seconds and then skip to 3:30 for the music in question)

Wikipedia Article on the Show: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_Go_Gophers

Band Booklet Article

To spectators, the Marching Band is not a collection of instrumentalists. To them, "The Band" is a single loud, powerful entity that breathes life in to the college sporting atmosphere. "The Band" moves around the field, creating shapes, words, and school logos at every game, without fail. "The Band" is the spiritual center of the student section, dictating when to cheer, when to chant, and when to sing. "The Band" mysteriously shows up, does its thing, and goes home with no indication to the process behind it. But, from the inside, "The Band" is much more than all of this.

Band is People. Members of the Minnesota Marching Band are drawn together like no other group. Not just because of the time spent together; many other teams and organizations spend just as much time practicing and performing as the band. The band is not only the sum of individual efforts; it is also collaboration on the part of every single one of its members. Every member of the band has a very specific individual task that, done on its own, has no particular meaning or impact to any person: moving to a set of places while playing a sequence of notes. However, when all of the band members perform their small tasks together, they become more than the sum of their parts, and collectively have the ability to invoke joy, tears, reverence, or any number of the most powerful of emotions. No single person’s performance can greatly improve the band’s performance; greatness must instead happen together. It is this collective responsibility to each other and the organization that forges the camaraderie and community that is the lifeblood of the Minnesota Marching Band. In my time here, I have had the privilege of making friendships with some fantastic people that I will never forget:

Trombones: Thank you for this year and all the years before it. Your hard work and tireless energy made it all worth it. Here's to the best section in the band!
Boof, Bill, Austin, and KatieJones: I can't think of anyone I would rather have gone through these four years with. Not only on the field, but outside of band as well; you were my first friends in college, and were always there, no matter what happened. Thank You for everything.
Mandi, Andrew, Adam, Rachel, Sam, Craig, Trevor, Ranger, Aubree, and Kenny: You are the best class of third-years I have ever seen. You all love what you do, and it definitely shows. Keep it up!
Amanda, Megan, Cathie, Codey, Steve, Boone, and Doug: My first rookie class! It has been a ton of fun watching you guys learn and grow over the last two years. As the band goes through the changes of the next few years, you are the ones that will guide it through.
John, Julia, Jennifer, Ross, Andy, Robert, Donald, Matt, Mark, Mitch, and Quentin: Thank you for your incredible effort this year. This year was tough to be a rookie, but next year is when you start making your mark. Make it a good one.
Old Bones - Stepnick, Beyer, Kim, Alex, and Smude: Thank you for teaching me what it truly means to be a Trombone; that identity will stay with me forever.
Bone Leaders: Thank you for making this year the best one yet, even though I wasn't there half the time.
Becky: Pregame Buddies forever! People around us came and went, but there we were, game after game, doing our thing. The fist bump in the tunnel was one of my favorite traditions. P.S. we finally got rotation to work!
Pregame Flutes: Long live the diag! Who knew that a Trombone player would end up leading the flutes? Thanks for being my adopted section for all this time.
ScottyT: If someone had told me at the beginning that my best friend in band would be a Trumpet, I would not have believed them. Your hard work and dedication have truly been an inspiration to me.
Angela and Brett: It has been 8 wonderful and memorable years since we first stepped on to the practice field outside of Olson, and we are the only ones that made it all the way. I am honored to have shared that time with such fantastic musicians and people as yourselves.
Meg: It still baffles me how someone like you could end up with a nerd like me. For all your support and confidence, putting up with me, and always being there, thank you!
Dr. Neal: You are a terrific addition to this band. It was a lot of fun to see you step up to the plate swinging. After one year, I truly believe you "get" this group.
Skeeter: Your knowledge and skill of everything band continues to amaze me. Thank you for being an excellent role model.
Dr. Diem: Thank You. Thank you for the opportunities you gave me; thank you for all your hard work; thank you for your wonderful attitude towards band and life. You claim that the band is what the students make it, but you are really the one that makes this band what it is.

Band is Tradition. Tradition links members of the band across years, decades, and generations. It becomes a common ground that represents the legacy of the band to hundreds, if not thousands, of people. Because of this, unremarkable (and sometimes just plain silly) actions take on an entirely new and higher meaning. Tradition is anything from saying "beef" when someone drops their mouthpiece, to singing "Hail! Minnesota" in the lobby of Northrop. Regardless of what it is, what it means is more important by far. Possessing the knowledge of exactly what these rituals mean creates unparalleled unity on scales from small groups of people, to sections, to, the band, and beyond. It is the catalyst that builds a community, but remains well after they are gone to start the process over again. Pulling on the uniform every Saturday, as countless band members before you have, pays homage to what is, what has been, and what will become.

And, finally:
Band is Forever. It is absolutely fascinating to me to think what the Minnesota Marching Band has been and will become. In 117 years, its members have literally been witness to history: through the world’s ups and downs, the band was there. At the turn of the century, when the State of Minnesota was only 50 years old and the University only covered a few blocks of the City of Minneapolis, the band was there. In the 1940’s, when many joined the armed forces instead of going to college, the band was there. And now, while our society continues to change and evolve before our very eyes, the band continues to exist, the same as it always has. I look forward to the times 10 years, 20 years, or 50 years from now when I will be able to return, and the band will still be here.

Thank you for four incredible years!

Fun Quote

Me (teaching Cascade): "Forward 8, 270, forward 4, mark time 4, left flank"
Ross Kaner: "Story of my life"

so true...

...and it's over

No more solar car for the rest of the summer.

I have no idea what to do with myself for the 8 hours of free time that I suddenly have.

Marching band starts again (for the last time) in two more weeks.

It seems like I have some need for myself to be chronically busy, otherwise I'm just confused.

Mmmm, cookies....

Tonight was Hockey Mom cookie night, when the Hockey players' moms make the band cookies for the game.

It's nice to know we're appreciated :-)

School?

Spat Camp: Long, tough, fun
Leadership: new, exciting, more work than normal marching band

Solar Car: Dead as of Aug. 1, Back on as of Aug. 30
Solar Car Timeline: Unknown
Solar Car attitude: Mixed

Classes: none on Tuesday, only one on Thursday! Should be a good semester.
Lib-Ed's: Mus1001 - Clapping for credit as a night class

Apartment: nearly fully moved in; Gopher shrine shaping up

Sports: can't wait for hockey, still pretty excited for football despite loss

Off on the right foot (or the left...)

The year is off to a great start already! Spat camp was amazing, even though it was a lot more tiring than last year (8 marching rehearsals in a row... yuck), everyone seemed like they were about to die on friday morning. All the rookies are really cool and we went to see snakes on a plane with the trumpets.

On the floor (5th & 4th this year), most of the people are back from last year, we went to see snakes on a plane as a floor (my 3rd time, for those of you keeping score at home) on move-in day, and yesterday ate as a massive group at UDS (still crappy food), went on a late-night taco bell run, watched battle royale, and pranked the 7th floor. Ultimate game is soon to come. Its gonna be a sweet year.

Band, Solar Car, Sun, High School Freinds, and Fun!

Week = So-so. Weekend = Awesome!

My excellent weekend began with a physics test. I'm pretty sure I got at least a 90, which I really needed since I have been getting 70s to 80s for the rest of the semester. In the afternoon, we had a VERY productive SVP design meeting, where we essentially laid out the entire design for next year's car (presumably titled Borealis IV). Unfortunately, I missed an ultimate frisbee game in order to attend. That night, we all dressed up and went as a floor to the IT ball. At first, it was pretty awkward (think: middle-school dance), but eventually the DJs started playing good music and everyone got out on the dance floor. It was a good time, I threw down a few dance moves (i.e. robot, funky chicken, shopping cart, and the worm. yes, I can do the worm.), which is pretty rare for me. Afterwards, we went to Big10 for food, still in our formal clothes. Good times all around.

Saturday was also a very good day. I woke up early to go to solar car, me the team at the Gopher lots by Mariucci. Since the car wasn't starting due to electrical issues, the Aero team (who had been sent to set up the course) decided to go to Chipotle for breakfast (this was at 11:30, so more like lunch) - continuing the fine Aero Team tradition of finding food when there is nothing else to do. Since the car wasn't going to run, we picked up the cones and took the connector back to St. Paul. Bty: riding the connector with traffic cones and burritos is very fun. Back at the shop, we did our first big-time layup on our new rear fairing mold and beautiful new kevlar-carbon fiber blend fabric.

After we were done in the shop, I headed back to the 'brook to get ready for drum major auditions. I didn't even get up to my room; people were leaving just as I walked in the front door. At DM auditions, I got to see lots of people that I hadn't seen in a while, and it felt good to be out on the field again. I didn't get leadership, but I wasn't really expecting to, so I was hardly disappointed at all. I mostly tried out to get a feel for the interview for next year. Congrats to all who did get on to leadership! During deliberations, I played in a game of ultimate with the trumpets. As usual, I could out-jump all of them :P. It was a pretty sweet game, since I could basically go all-out and not worry about my landing on the soft, forgiving turf of Bierman Athletic field. During this time, we also found our about the music we're playing next year: shows include Heroes (i.e. Bond, Indiana Jones and ROBIN HOOD PRINCE OF THIEVES), Earth Wind and Fire, Tower of Power, Latin (yay Malaguena), and video games (we better march Tetris Blocks down the field). Molly Watters got Drum Major, which makes her the first female DM in the 115-year history of the band. Congratulations to her! Afterwards, a whole bunch of 'Bones and 'Tones went to Chipotle (just like old times), bringing my daily Chipotle total to 2. We sat on the grass in front of MacNamera and joked around, it was great to just sit around and relax with a whole bunch of band-o's again.

After all the band stuff was over, my dad picked me up in front of Chipotle to go to Jefferson for the Connection Special (show choir, for those of you not in 'the know'): the show wasn't nearly as good as last year's, but still a lot of fun to watch. I got to see even more people I hadn't seen in a while and gave out plenty of hugs. Kari, the only graduating 'bone from JHS, is unfortunately going to Madison, but not marching in the band, so I forgave her (almost). Steve, one of my best H.S. freinds and another 'bone, is going to be DM for the other 'Pride of Minnesota' next year, the 2nd bone DM in 3 years (yeah, that's right, we're awesome), and also said U of M is currently his top college choice, which made me happy. We stood in the parking lot talking about band for quite some time.

After Connection Special, I came back to campus and watched 'The Matrix' and 'Equilibrium' in the TV lounge (I highly reccommend the latter to anyone who enjoys the former), then hung out until 5AM in Katie H's room, talking about god knows what with band people. Good times indeed.

Today, I once again woke up early-ish and went to Solar Car. We pulled the fairing off of the mold from yesterday, and it turned out BEAUTIFULLY. Once again, the car was broken, but it was fixed after about a half hour. I was once again appointed crew chief for the day, which basically means that I will be crew chief for at least Formula Sun this summer, and mabye for NASC next summer (for band people: this is essentially the equivalent of being Drum Major, but for solar car). HAPPY! It even makes up for not making band leadership, and I honestly don't know if I could handle both. We stood out in the Gopher lots running the car around the slalom course. There was a very scary moment when one of the drivers hit the curb and there was a sickening crunch, but only the fairing/wheel cover was damaged, and the incredibly awesome aero team did some quick fixes and we were back on the road in 5 minutes. Also, we got 2 pits that were 5.5 minutes long, our target was under 5 minutes. I stood out there for over 3 hours, watching the solar car while facing the sun; I'm told my face is a little pink (the first sunburn of the year, more to come, I'm sure).

Finally, we drove back to the shop and packed up the car, and went home. We stopped at Frontier to drop people off, and I saw a familiar-looking BMW 750iL sitting in the parking lot. It turned out that my HS freind that goes to school in California was visiting for the weekend, so I went down to river flats and threw the frisbee around for an hour (more time in the sun for me!), and just joked around a little. It was at this point that I realized I had not eaten anything and only had a sip of water since ingesting the aforementioned burrito. Dinner was good, even though it was UDS (the first UDS since friday dinner), and so concludes my awesome weekend. I am tired and sore, but very content with life at the moment.

4 months until spat camp! :D

Why do I always write so much? Mabye because I suck at telling stories in real life? Probably.

A final note: look around campus Monday morning. My fun weekend's not over yet!

So long, farewell...

Today was my last WAB game. Women's Hockey lost the national championship game to wisuckSIN. I was suprisingly not distraught about it. It was, however, the best WAB game of the year by far. I was unusually belligerent before and during the game (yelling "better dead than red" to a wisc. fan's face, and screaming "stop desecrating the [U.S.] Flag" to bucky were the two highlights). I pretty much became the yell-starter for WAB, which I never thought would happen, since I'm usually pretty quiet. We played awseomely, completely blew the badger band out of the water (no bones, but a cowbell player instead? what the heck is that?), including stealing "time warp" from them before they could play it (they did anyway). Frodo also dirty monkey'd bucky. It was amazing, I can't think of a better person/place/time to do it. Remeber, the real losers are those who have to go home tonight to Wisconsin.

All things considered (despite the loss), this was not a bad way to exit WAB. I will miss WAB, its trips, and all of it's wonderful people dearly. (don't worry, I'll come back to visit, I promise!)

Hell Week: I am confident that this coming week will be by far the worst of the semester. I have 2 papers, 2 homework assignments, and one midterm this week, most of which I have not started. One paper is a 10-page research paper on music downloading that I have yet to begin (due Friday), another is a 5-page lab report on building a metal detector that doesn't actually work (due Wednesday). Math homework is 4 sections, of which I have completed 1 (due Tuesday), and physics homework (due Thursday). The miterm is for Physics, which is never fun. I also need to do laundry at some point. I am so stressed out about how much I have to do, that I have resolved to not caring. which is bad.

Nashville - Episode III: Revenge of the NCAA Postseason

Last weekend, I went to Nashville. For the third time. In a year. Episode I was in High School with Show Choir (no, I didn't sing and dance. I was in the band, of course). Episode II was none other than the Bowl Trip. Which now brings us to Episode III. The Women's basketball team apparently did pretty well this year (I didn't really follow them), which earned them a #8 seed in the tournament. This meant that there was an 11:00AM game on Saturday. Because of the early game time, instead of leaving the day before the game, we left TWO days beforehand, leaving approximately 36 hours to do whatever the hell we wanted. Among the highlights:

• FLYING THERE. No 18-hour bus rides this time!
  
• Twiggy the rah-rah was on the trip
  
• Staying downtown instead of at Opryland. There's only so much you can do in a mall and a hotel before you get bored.
  
• Walking across the bridge (yes, the one the 'bama fan jumped off) to the Coliseum, and contemplating breaking in
  
• Prank calling several people in the wee hours of the morning. The two best were suicidal Kermit the Frog (courtesy of Link) and Mittens telling Barmore that his uniform wasn't turned in and he puked on it.
  
• Watching "Trick my Truck" on Country music Television. It's exactly like "Pimp my ride," except without the black people, and they do it to Semi-Trucks instead of normal cars.
  
• Walking 3 miles to the Parthenon, an exact replica of the one in Greece. Nashville has culture outside of Country music? Who knew? We found out that I am 1" shorter than the statue of Nike. She wins. Also cool: we managed to get the group rate despite not actually having an appointment
  
• A Ghost Tour of downtown: apparently there are a lot of spirits not at rest in the area. The guide looked like the guy that played Arthur in "The Hichhikers Guide to the Galaxy."
  
• St. Patrick's Day: JoeD and Gary went on an all-day bender. Buttons went out and came back really drunk and felt up Katie. The rest of us underage people watched The Boondock Saints. Cramming 20 people into a hotel room so that they can all see a laptop screen is not easy, let me tell you.
  
• The Vanderbilt basketball arena feels and more like a high school auditorium, despite Vanderbilt being a basketball school. Their "raised floor" was pretty lame, since there was only a drop off on the sides, and then only after about 20 feet of blank floor. Williams Arena is so much better.
  
• We threw down some pretty sweet songs before and during the game, I'm pretty sure I almost completely lost my ability to play at least once.
  
• The highlight of the game was when I yelled "Take her out to dinner first!" during a particularly silent moment in the game. I got the impeccable timing award of the day, and many people have told me this was the best moment on the trip. I may be inclined to agree.
  
• As we were leaving, Prof. Diem got hit in the head with a drum case. He went to the only hospital in Nashville that he had not been to yet and got 9 stitches.
  
• We lost the game. To a certian extent, this was a good thing, because there really isn't that much to do in downtown Nashville. I don't know what I would have done with myself for another day, had we won the game.

Overall, it was a pretty sweet trip. I might go so far as to venture that it was my favorite Nashville trip. Since now I have more or less done all there is to do, I hope that I am never forced to go back. However, in the back of my mind, I think that someone, somewhere, will find it halarious to send us back there again. I'm probably not done yet.

See? I've only been registered for an hour and I'm already addicted.