HELLO!?!?! Is this thing STILL here?

Hi everyone--like there IS an everyone--coming to live from a month of hi-jinks and hecticness that has kept me from keeping this blog up-to-date--and in turn, keeping apparently the ONLY person in all the world that gives a crap about my blog happy because I actually am UPDATING THIS NOW!! Of course, he's probably long since not given a crap. Wouldn't know until I read my comment section.

OK--here's a few factoids--

1. In my meeting with lots of people over the last semester through my involvement in the marching band world, I have CLEARLY realized that people really do read blogs. So, I REALLY need to do a better job keeping this updated. I apologize if anyone really cares that much. I always feel far from being witty or funny or even interesting when I'm blabbing away here on my blog.

2. I have used the World of Pageantry Discussion Forum more as a blog than anything. That's probably why I haven't spent too much time up on this blog. That will be corrected. As one famous band director said the other night: "I have NO idea how in the heck you can type THAT MUCH STUFF up on WOP!" I don't either, Tom. I don't either.

3. This past season I judged with the SCSBOA as a visual performance judge. I have had a great time for the most part. There have been a couple of unfortunate glitches, like the one band director that thought greensheeting would solve the problem that this director is having with ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL of the visual judges, but namely me. Apparently I "raised my voice" on the tape and that I didn't give any hints how to fix things that I was noticing that was wrong. Oh jeez...that's right. When I say a form is out of alignment, I should quickly add "So line it up." There's your fix. Good grief. The things people worry about sometimes. I had another semi-unfortunate face-to-face with a director that I think the world of, but apparently, he wasn't too thrilled with my decision. The job of the judge is something I take seriously, and whether or not my personality allows people to actually take me seriously is one issue. But I am here to tell you I DO take it seriously, and I couldn't help the director in question was no more attempting to intimidate me as he was checking to see if I really was a "real" judge. I would say offensive--but I sort of understand. And it was just sad. But I sort of knew the job was going to be tough when I took it, hanh?

On top of that, I had two VERY interesting phone calls from two EXTREMELY--wait, strike that--one EXTREMELY well-respected band director who also has spent a great deal of time teaching visual for a pretty famous corps (yeah--I'm not going to identify him because he didn't say I could). The other person that called me is also from the drum corps world AND a band director. I'll leave it at that. :-)))) In any event, they both wanted to express "their concern" about my judging the visual caption. They both were very professional and very nice and both phone calls were actually not bad in the least. What WAS hilarious was this. One came at me with the "you don't talk enough about technique" complaint when on the visual performance sheet, that sub-caption has the most point alloted to it. The OTHER guy came to me with the "you talk TOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH about technique" argument, but actually was very informative as he was pointing out that SCSBOA DOES in fact judge the WHAT as well as the HOW. He was feeling is WHAT was FAR greater in complexity and musicality than anyone else's WHAT, and that his HOW was good enough. He also didn't agree with the point structure presently on the sheet, but there's not a whole lot I can say about that, is there? In any event--good education to me from these two guys. They actually helped me--albeit a little late in the season--to open my eyes more. And to be honest--that eye-opening is what I think really ticked off the first director I'm referring to.

Again--that's sad. But we'll get along I'm sure and all will be well. Not to talk just about the "bad"...I've received a LOT of support from some VERY suprising sources for my efforts as a judge. I have been BLOWN AWAY by what people have said in my "rookie" efforts (even though I've been judging for about 6 years prior to SCSBOA). I really do love judging. I know that I have some refining to do in my delivery. I think I can do a better job matching my comments to the criteria reference and the scores. I probably could stand to even out my temperment and be less "angry" sounding (thanks to Jeri Webb from Westview pointing that out) and less "hyping" when things are going great. But really...that's just ME. The unrefined, "untrained" judge.

4. Had a GREAT conference call meeting with the design staff of Capital Sound. Some great talent. I'm sort of tickled that most everyone on staff are upper 30's/early 40's, except the guard dude. He's 21. Hilarious. But a GREAT GREAT talent, and I think this will be a great education for him (and me) to work with an "older" staff. I think we know what we're doing--and we're setting out to make the organization as strong as we can. My part is to make sure the drill is attainable, performable, and interesting. I can do THAT in my sleep. So Cal Dream had their first design staff meeting--this time at MY house--and it was a BLAST. I had a lot of fun, getting to know the guys, getting to see how we work, getting things rolling for the corps. If we can keep our heads on straight and try not to let the "old guard" of DCA get their panties in a crunch because the west coast senior scene is starting to really make an impact, I think So Cal Dream can once again go back and make a GREAT name for themselves. We're going to go for the gold in Class A again, and that's just fine with me. One problem though. Interest in So Cal Dream is VERY VERY high. And last but not least, Impulse had apparently their most successful open house. Doesn't hurt to be able to say World Champion Impulse, because they are. And it also doesn't hurt DCI is coming to Pasadena this year. So interest is high. And my theory is DEFINITELY going to be put to the test. You wanna know what that theory is.

It's called the Ryan H. Turner Theory of Drum Corps Sustainability. All things being perfect, the southern California region, which runs from Santa Barbara County of the west and Kern County to the east all the way down to the Mexican Border could EASILY sustain several Division I drum and bugle corps. SEVERAL. Why? Because we have a lot of talent both instructor and performers. And if people came out and experienced the drum corps activity in droves, it would be no problem. We have something like 20 million people out here. GIVE ME A BREAK! I'm sure we could get 1000 kids interested in drum corps. Right now--Impulse (and So Cal Dream to some extent) is going up against Gold, Mystikal (who is now in Long Beach), Pacific Crest, and to a lesser extent, Esperanza down south. The new upstart VK--not the Velvet Knights--also are generating their own little hype, but I'm not too entirely worried about having to "compete" with them for bodies. Impulse is an established group, with a name, and great talent running the corps. I think we'll be fine. But add to this though Kingsmen Star Corps. They ARE starting up NEXT year...and they will have some MAJOR backing and they are serious. Dead serious.

5. Work is going great. I have nothing much else to say about that. Because I'm lying. Work is NOT going great. But I'll just lie and say it is and we'll go from there. Whatever.

6. Family is great. I'm great. Wife is great. That's it.

I'm tired...I'm going now. I have SO much more to talk about but not right now--