Rice MOB get's into a bit of trouble

oops.........



Yikes, did they really need to say that last part?

Purdue with a Capital P

Purdue Article

Wow, that's alot of people!


Interesting historical trivia:

"History records it was during a football game in 1907 when the Purdue band became the first to break ranks and make a formation. They formed a block letter P on the field, and this year's homecoming band helped to celebrate the 100th anniversary of that first block P, forming the world's largest block P formation."

A new Marching Band Movie

An upcoming marching band movie
http://www.fromthe50yardline.com/

Looks interesting, in a band geek sort of way......


...

Penn Band Executive Board Elections

Every student organization has their own leadership structure, and more importantly, their own mechanisms to choose said leaders. Some bands have your protypical President/Vice-President/Secretary/Treasurer. Some have a parade of managers. Some just have a Drum Major and Manager. Some of these students are selected by calendar year, while others are chosen by academic year. Some are chosen by the Director of the group. Some are chosen by vote among their peers. Some are chosen by other leaders. Some are just figureheads and spaceholders. And if their groups are lucky, the students actually lead!

Tonight, the Penn Band had its annual Elections - we have a President/Vice-President/etc structure that runs during the Calendar year. Our constitution dictates that our elections are to be held within two weeks of the end of Football season. Students sign-up to run for a position, give speeches, and get elected by a majority vote. Honestly, this paradigm of election and function hasn't changed much in decades.

The first student leadership structure of the Band arose in the early 1930s, when the Fanfare Honor Society was formed - the President, Vice-President, and Secretary of this Society led the organization, outside of the auspices of performance. This was in contrast to the prototype of a Drum Major and Band Manager common to all marching bands of the time. Lost through the fogs of time are the exact details of how the changes occurred, but by the early 1960s, the Band had evolved to the prototype we have today, with both a Constitution and Fanfare Honor Society Charter that have changed relatively little.

The Penn Band Board is a very important entity - the students choose a council of leaders (including section leaders and a variety of managers), working with the "Alleged Adults" (the Director and other staff), institute policies concerning performance and the whatnot, write halftime shows and student activities budgets, organize roadtrips, and all-in-all are intimately involved in the day-to-day operations of the Penn Band. All in all, the Band really cannot function without these leaders.

How can one organization go almost 50 years without a major change in its primary leadership structure? Golly, I don't know - one would think that some evolution would occur over time. But really, it doesn't seem to have changed much. Yeah, there are things like web managers and the whatnot, but little in terms of fundamental changes.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it?

UVA/VT Benefit Performance

http://www.charlottesvillenewsplex.tv/news/headlines/11780686.html

A real classy collaboration between the two Virginia schools - must have been one heck of a concert!

A New Marching Band at Old Dominion

http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=137499&ran=19324

A nice article on a new marching band being formed at Old Dominion University.

Michigan Band Superfan

Michigan Band Superfan article in New York Times

I would say that this is kinda creepy....if I hadn't been the same brand of crazy when I was a graduate assistant! (sans the cape, of course)

25th Anniversary of 'The Play'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_VGBxfAdDM

on November 20^th, to be precise. ESPN has a nice little featurette on Sportscenter, with interviews with the players, the coaches, and that famous Stanford trombone player.

Genetic Memory

Undergraduate organizations are remarkable phenomena, in that they have no short-term memory but remarkable long-term memory. How is this possible?

Upperclassmen. They take on the role of teacher. They teach the new members. The new members become upperclassmen. These upperclassmen do upon their new members as was done upon them.

This is why quirky traditions (like the Band's Bus Driver Song) live on for decades, yet no current member remembers what happened on Black Tuesday in 1999.

This "circle of undergraduate life" is the foundation for any good organization, and the very basis for that institutional memory that is so important.

How geeky was that?

The Penn Band Adopts a Zoo Animal

http://www.pennband.net/zoo.html


In what has now become an annual exercise, the Penn Band selects on candidate animals to vote on and adopt from the Philadelphia Zoo. Personally, I'm partial to the Gila Monster, but it seems that won't be the case this year!

take it easy - KG

Video Game Halftime Show

http://www.satori.org/2007/11/marching_band_video_game_songs.html

I'm insanely jealous.

Scientists mess with Marching Band Formations

http://www.physorg.com/news114103938.html

It was only a matter of time.

Red Lights and The Great Escape

En route to a basketball game at the Palestra, one of the Penn Band members boldly walked into the street (a red light), with traffic oncoming. After I freaked out, the student jokingly told me about how she doesn't usually care about silly things like traffic lights while she's at Band!

This got me thinkin' (a dangerous past time, I know). At a place like Penn, you're immersed in a 24/7 occupation workaholic lifestyle. For its members, The Penn Band is a Happy Place - a great escape from real life. We don a uniform and assume a different persona and enter a different world - we have fun and act in ways we normally do not.

What's interesting about this phenomenon is what people are willing to do while in this happy place. For example, the sport fans among the band membership will swear and gesticulate like a pirate (sadly, I'm as guilty of this as the next person!). Band members will paint their entire bodies in the name of school spirit. But remove the uniforms, and they are suprisingly reserved.

What's my point? Well, when our Happy Place and Common Sense begin to diverge, I would argue that the whole point of making our Great Escape is defeated. Collegiate pranks are such an example - shenanigans such as theft, kidnapping of mascots, and destruction of property that wouldn't normally occur outside the context of the college campus. Another example is what I mention above with swearing pirates.

I guess in the end, it's important to keep one foot firmly planted in Common Sense, most especially when you're in your Happy Place - otherwise you'll get hit by a car!

take it easy - KG