What a week...WHAT...A...WEEK.

If you happen to have Facebook and checked in at all during the week, you'd see that I hinted at this not being a very good time for me with my "status changes". I'm back on a bit more solid footing now that I'm at the weekend, and I know I peaked a lot of curiosity as to what I was hinting at. Without going into gory details, I was reminded, rather bluntly, that I was nowhere living up to my potential. It may seem rather silly for me to "emote" about this online, but, I can't help but say I was rather devastated. My force of personality I think makes up for some deficiencies in my life, but my charm and natural rugged good looks (yeah...whatever Turner) weren't going to save me. It took me two days of licking my wounds to sort of grapple with things, and a dear friend who told me to get up off my ass and get to work (she said it nicer than that).

There's no lack of "things" in my life. I have 3 children, a wife, a home, a career, my marching band business that can be whatever I want it to be, opportunities to judge and announce galore, really great friends, a faith that if not strong is at least there in something BIGGER than just this stupid life...and I was reminded that (to paraphrase a popular "feel good" self help expression) "For every horse that bucks you off, there are 10 more waiting for you. Some are going to buck you off, some are going to take you where you want. The difference between Ryan H. Turner and the rest of humanity is having the courage to chance success or failure by getting up off your ass and picking the next horse."

Believe it or not--I just made that up. Just right now. But it's appropriate isn't it? Life got you down? You got a plate with a big steamin' pile of poop on it sitting in front of you? You feel overwhelmed? You got a boss that smacks you down? You got a love in your life that's not loving you back? You got more things to do on your list than you have space on the paper for?

You take it all one day at time. That's allllllllllllllllllllll you can do. One. Day. At a time. Slow down. Take stock. Take a deep breath. Chill. Reeeeeeeeeeelax. And remember those things that are far far far more important than trivial everyday-ism's.

Who loves you? Who do you love? Who do you appreciate? Who makes you smile? Who is important to you? Who do you wake up everyday thinking to yourself about? Now...ask yourself...did you tell them in the last 24 hours, 48 hours, 2 week, 3 years...did you tell them they're important to you, that you are grateful they're around, that they EXIST, that they bring meaning and significance to your life beyond the old "Hey how ya doin' dude" or "Let's go watch Sex and the City girlfriend!" pleasantries.

Because nothing is more important. And if your priorities are out of whack, if your focus is on the money, or the woman, or the man, or impressing this, or buying that, or looking like this, or losing that weight, or climbing that corporate ladder, or crushing that opposition...whatever...WHATEVER it is...if you're out of balance in your life, whether you tend to get bitch slapped like I do (and did), or you're oblivious, I can guarandamntee you some part of your life is suffering. And more than likely, some ONE is suffering because of you.

We are toooooooooooooooooooooooooo engrained nowadays in the riff raff. We're too ready to go ($1 to my friend Bill in Illinois) "chase the butterfly". We're forgetting what's REALLY important. We're forgetting.

And this little rant is only brought to you from recent personal experience. If my life was balanced, I probably would have been doing a better job at what i was supposed to be doing, and I would never have been slapped. Or, if my life was balanced, and I still got slapped, I would have brushed it off, recommitted to doing better without any drama, and would have hit the ground running.

So I was definitely out of balance. And it's been my experience after a 42 year career of being Ryan H. Turner that these...what I call..."life's bitch slaps" tend to, at least for me, realign my priorities a bit. Sure--this is probably just an exercise in "verbal judo" ($1 to Kino, and old boss of mine), a slightly metaphysical/self-help type rant from yours truly...but that's what a blog is for. It's my thought right now that I have to get out. Partly to explain what the hell was wrong with me this week, partly to show by example that even idiots like me can stand back up and persevere, and that really, truly, I was reminded by that same dear, dear friend of mine that no matter what, don't forget who you REALLY are, and don't forget to share with those in your life the fact you're grateful they're there.

I have someone who I regard as my best friend (not my wife...a long time band/corps geek brother) who I use regularly (and he reciprocates with me) as a sounding board for WHATEVER. Crazy business idea? We yak. Crazy drill design idea? We yak. Crazy vacation idea. We yak. But we're not scared to thank each other for being each other's friend during these crazy times while we both have to deal with our own "spheres of responsibiity" in whatever we're dealing with. How grateful am I that I have at least ONE person that I can rely on that way.

Sorry for the rant. Sorry the time it took to have to wade through this. But this has been a very strange and very wonderful week.

So...there you go.

Now get outta here.

Not Being Bored....Part II...

....I'm coming to you LIVE from Dallas/Ft. Worth International, just having devoured a Beef Brisket sandwich from a suspiciously nasty sounding joint called DICKEY'S. Yeah. At least I didn't have the sausage.... :-/ MOVING ON...

Now where was I?

--Belleville East HS, the band for which I came out to Illinois fortwith to clinic and judge their home show and then get on a bus and go to ANOTHER competition where they competed...this is a band as I described to them in my rather loud and motivating motivational "session" as being a "boiling pot of potential". I let them (the kids) know they could choose what direction to go. They have a pretty difficult show this season, full of LOTS of exciting music (props to John Meehan) and a pretty kicking drum line and a pit...OF 17 PEOPLE!! HELLLLLLLLLLLLLO!!! There's a whole lot of wood and metal in East's pit this year. But they're really good.

But by biting off a HUGE chunk to chew on with difficult music and challenging drill, well, instead of playing it safe and going with clean, they're experiencing the competitive reality of getting smacked around by the judges for "not being clean". I have gone through the same thing, most notably with Fountain Valley's Waterworld show and RBV's Kansas show, both VERY challenging and different levels. Both bands started slow, but both bands (in different years of course) roared to life by the end of the season, winning sweeps at the pseudo-championship mega-show Savanna Tournament. Belleville went into the competition last night with one goal--to simply do the best they can and soak up what happens with the audience. It was a typical high school stadium, not the tallest in the world, but it was a VERY long set of stands, so people were all the way out to the 10's. And it was PACKED. VERY cool to see that. And as we were walking over to the starting gate, the crowd was polite for the band before us (Oakville...HOLY COW...clean clean clean band), and gave them a nice round of applause at the end. But when "we" took field, our kids were pumped and right off the bat, the audience came alive. It was VERY VERY cool. Lots of clap traps built into the show (THANKS AGAIN MEEHAN!!!), and we've added a couple of doozy's. And with only 3/4's of a show on the field (they're still trying to figure out how to do my crazy rotating blocks...or how to arrange my death for writing them in the first place!!), they sort of got spanked last night. I mean...not HORRIBLY...lots of VERY positive comments with the admonition to clean the show (I agree obviously), but when they DO clean this show...watch out.

SPECIAL NOTE TO ANY SOUTHERN ILLINOIS MARCHING TECH PEOPLE...like they're reading this but hell, people know people so read on. If there are any tech people in the eastern Missouri southern Illinois area that want to hook up with a great band, search out Belleville East. They could use some eyes for the rest of the season--as long as you don't want to come in and change the world, you may be able to help this old man out and a GRRRRRRRRRREAT band full of some great kids. Director is on his own for the most part. Word.

--Guess what? Politics exist in the minds of band directors in the midwest too!!!

--Guess what?? Some judges have the unfortunate banner above their head in the midwest of being biased. GASP!!! That NEVER happens. ANYWHERE!!!! The shame...
:-/

--McAlister's Deli?? Midwest thing. It rocks. Thank you midwest for adding yet again to my waist line.

--To the manager at Starbucks in O'Fallon, Illinois just outside my hotel. Thank you for not making me feel like a complete loon for ordering (wait for it) a glass of milk to go with my apple fritter. Yes. A glass of milk. Isn't that sweet? Whatever Turner.

--Dallas/Fort Worth International is the most rockingest bitchin' airport ever. I think it gives Tampa a run for the money. This place is REALLY REALLY nice, with this elaborate "Skylink" metrorail system that gets you from gate to gate. And as I people watch frommy perch high atop a stool here in the dining area outside of DICKEY'S, I really am impressed with how nice it is here. Of course, I'm easy to impress. But it is what it is...RIGHT THOM WILLET!!!??? It is.

--Facebook is going to be the death of me.I'm just going to be so stuck on it that I will lose all sense of time and I will come to and my daughter will be 22 and married with kids on the way. Damn that Facebook. DAMN IT.

--OH OH OH OH!!!! BIG NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm anticipating an email from a major marching band in the western United States that quite possibly is interested in entering into discussion about next year. This is actually such a shock that apparently it shocked it's way out of my memory. But seriously. It's a case of yet again being in the right place at the right time. And I have to rely on the old "If a door closes, another opens." I just didn't ever think it would be THAT door. For obvious reasons, I'm mum on who this is, but obviously I'll yap about it up here on The Observations of the H...

--Cool side note to the trip...one of the judges was a local band director by the name of Jo Smith. Didn't recognize her. She judged visual ensemble, and my happy butt was on visual G.E., you know, where I talk about THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE MUSIC TO THE OVERALL DESIGN OF THE SHOW AND IT'S EFFECTIVENESS (sorry...I was hoping someone in SCSBOA was reading this...DOH!!!)...where was I?...oh yeah, so we introduce ourselves and she says, "Sooooooooooooo you live La Brea, right?" Uhhh...no...that would be a tar pit. I explained where I really live. I live in the hills that used to be a huge oil find back in the 1800's. OHHHHH...she said her son lived in Van Nuys. Oh...that's cool. Is he someone I should know (non sarcastically stated of course...if you know me...I could be QUITE the OTHER way with a question like that). "Oh his name is Nathan Smith....he's the assistant director for The Cavaliers." OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH...THAT Nathan Smith. That's exactly what I said. OHHHHHHHH...HIM! Still not quite connecting the dots, I said "Does he judge out in southern California?" And she said the keywords that activate the gray matter to remember things...she says, "Ohhhh he is more now, but he works in the movie industry, so his schedule isn't normal." DING DING DING DING!!! And in classic Ryan H. Turner, I bellow, "OHHHHHHHHH I KNOW YOUR SON!!!!" And I did. I met Nathan when I went and judged my very first show for SCSBOA 3 years ago at the Simi Valley Tournament. He was the guard judge. Thinking my crap didn't stink back then (and I still do of course), and thinking I knew EVERYONE, I had never met him before. Cool dude...we talked...I remember him telling me he was in set design or something blah blah blah for "the industry". So of course I checked IMDB and YEP, he's for real. So...cool...just wanted to share it. Jo gave me some 411 on DCI and judging and stuff. She's a VERY VERY nice lady and a VERY VERY good judge. I wilted in her presence as I could hear her while we were working. Anyway...cool side story.

That's my peeps...I'm winding down on my layover here, thinking it may be time to strategically place myself closer to gate C12 (I'm all the way down at DICKEY'S at gate C6 because I just had to go to DICKEY'S apparently. Hope all is well with the 5.3 people that read this tripe.

And now...for a little tradition...a sign off that I used to use all the time when I first started this blog...

Thanks for reading...now please...GET OUTTA HERE!!

I just paid 7.99 to NOT be bored!!!

Oh God, why did you give me this disease called Adult Attention Deficit Disorder??? Why can't I just sit quietly by myself in an airport terminal in St. Louis, Missouri, be pleasant, sip on a Diet Coke, contemplate my naval fuzz, smile at people, and just relax?

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...I can't do that, now can I? So I have a laptop (thank the Lord!) that when I travel mano y mano, becomes my link to the outside world. Most terminals are cool. They have free wireless. But not St. Louis. Oh nooooooooo. I have either have an account with some wireless provider, OR, I have to sign up with something that sounds like the beginning of a title of a porn movie. BOINGO?? What the?? So hear I am...$7.99 spent. Sitting in St. Louis, raining like a mutha outside as the last dying part of the giant Ike comes a'rollin' through, desperately missing my Sarah Bearah, Michael Ryan, and Mr. Chubs Benjamin Wallace....oh yeah, and I'm missing my wife too. :-) Here's some observations from my 3 days away...

--I love Ontario International Airport. They have their act DOWN. Surreal moment of my trip. I had just gotten up to the check your bags security area at Ontario on 9/11 at 8:44am. Yeah. To my surprise, some TSA dude all of a sudden yells "ALLL STOP!! ALLLLL STOP!!!! DISCONTINUE CHECKS!!!!" I'm thinking, "Great...Osama is in the house. We're all going to die." And then the coolest thing that I ever think I've seen happened. All of a sudden EVERYTHING stopped. EVERYONE stopped. Of course I'm dense and at the very first I was seriously thinking something was wrong, but then, DUH, it was 8:44am. And then the president of Ontario International got on the speaker system, and then the weirdest dang thing I've EVERY seen happened...it got DEAD ASS QUIET. NO ONE was talking...except for this disembodied voice from the speaker system. And in a quick, eloquent, meaningful, and dare I say heart-tugging moment, he asked all of us to pay our respects with a moment of silence on this horrible anniversary. And we did. I'm a big softy and I cry---OK!! Just get over it. I CRY. And here I am, choking up in a freakin' airport terminal, because I'm experiencing this "thing" with everyone else. Usually airports are a seas of humanity that has absolute no connection with each other with the exception that we all have to pack ourselves on aluminum tubes with wings and fly to destinations unknown. But we were there all sharing in the memory of that horrible day. Earlier in my blog archives, you can read where and what I was doing on Sept 11, 2001. A cool, sad, surreal, and impactful moment to start my trip.

--St. Louis, Missouri...the city...is one SCARY ass city. It's embarrassingly nasty. If there is anyone from the St. Louis city council reading this blog, do me a favor. At least TEAR DOWN the burned out tenaments and buildings that line the freeway. For God's sakes. And don't even get me talking about the war zone known as EAST St. Louis. Crimeny sakes.

--Belleville is a cute little midwestern city. Everything is green. EVERYTHING. I suffered through humidity levels that would have made a yak puke. It was just the nastiest thing in the world. I don't EVER remember VK tour in the 80's ever experiencing humidity the likes of which I had this past weekend. Well...except for that time in Omaha when I thought that possible someone left a door open....TO HELL!! That was bad. But the weather reports were all ominous the time I was here. Thunderstorms...heavy rain...wind...we didn't think we were even going to be able to rehearse for the show, much less have the competition. But the weather NEVER materalized until this morning, and then the hounds were released. I'm tellin' ya...if we had rain and wind like what I saw this morning in southern California for longer than 17 seconds, I swear to you, people would simply die. They would fall over dead from fright. We don't get this kind of weather.

--Belleville East HS is a former community college campus. Big, nice, all brick, well kept, and an interesting demographic of 50/50 whites and blacks. I only notice that because I think I saw one Hispanic. Oh and an dude from India. But what I saw was VERY heartening. For all the crap we hear in the media about racial inequality, and racial tension, and racial this, and racial that, I was watching the band kids and to some extent because I was there during the school day, the general population. Groups of kids were pretty mixed. Didn't hardly see big roving groups of one race. And everyone seemed very friendly to each other. Encouraging.

--Belleville East HS Marching Lancers is, as I told them during my "motivational session" a "big boiling pot of potential". They have had significant - more to come...they just called me to the plane...gotta go...check back!!!

What am I? A Walking Information Kiosk?!? Live from Phoenix...

I'm coming to you live from Phoenix Skyport Skyway Skytower International Whatsitdingy, as I embark on a cross-country trek to the beautiful city of Belleville, Illinois, home of the nation's biggest/largest/oldest/newest something or other. I have no idea. I'm actually on the way to a marching band clinic gig and then to judge a show. They do things differently in the midwest. They're a tad earlier in the world of schooling than we are in southern California. SOmething about snow storms, blizzards, being stranded in your house, blah blah. Anyway, their marching band season is WELL underway. Ours...well...they're still certifying judges I'm sure. (Grrr.)

ANyway--odd experience today. Don't know if it's my naturally angelic, even dare I say cherubic looks or what, but I've been the parlayer of information to a random assortment of freaks today. Dude sitting next to me on the plane I think has never flown before. Why? Because he asked when we started to pull in to Phoenix, "So, uhhh...what do I? Do I just try to get off the plane as soon as I can?" It caught me off guard. I should have said, "Well of course dimwit. YOu claw and fight your way to the front as fast as possible-and you better watch out. I'm fighting too!!!" But I sort of chuckled to myself and said, "No...it's sort of like an orderly system. You'll get it." Just as soon as I said that, some impatient fossil of a man sort of shoved his way down the hallway right past my rookie flyer friend. Idiot.

But yeah....random questions today. Right along those lines. But it's to be expected. All of my life--well, my ADULT life--I'm always been approached by people asking me questions of like where to go, directions, opinions, etc, etc. My lot in life. Never fails to amuse me how many times I'm in a store and people automatically think I work there...Circuit City, Walmart, freakin' DENNY'S, whatever..."Hey man, do you work here?" NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

So there you go....Hey I got some good news for once. And no, it's not about Sarah Palin, the next best thing that's come out of Alaska since its oil (that we sell to Japan--go figure). No, I do have good news about a subject of great concern I've had over the last few months. If you go back to my June archive, you'll see a story about a former love of my life that was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor and the resultant shock it was to my life. Well, I'm VERY happy to report (finally because this is sort of old news) that her surgery was a bonafide success, she's under close care by some world-renowned doctors and specialists, doing some minor chemo to make sure they kick the cancer in the ass, and she's got a support system that LITERALLY spans the globe. I mean that. So keep going M....

I'm out.

Vicious Attack!!!!

Having been the owner of a Rottweiler for several years, I can attest to the biting power of this massively powerful and potentially violent dog. This video, graphic in nature, shows what a Rottweiler can do to a kitten. Have a barf bag ready...


Mean Rottweiler Plays With Kitten - Watch more free videos

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh the HUMANNNNNNNNNITY!!!!

A Legend of Voice Has Died...

I didn't even realize he had been sick. But Don Fontaine, a TRUE voice legend, has died.

Very sad. And I care because I have always harbored this secret fantasy of being a voice over dude some day, but I've always been....just been too...what's the word??