MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!

Ladies and gentlemen...I'm freakin' as happy as I've ever been!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! You can't begin to know...wait...you don't even know what the heck I'm talking about do ya?

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN--it is an OFFICIAL done deal. I have "verbally signed on the dotted line"...

I AM THE OFFICIAL DRUM CORPS INTERNATIONAL DIVISION II/III CHAMPIONSHIP ANNOUNCER!!!! Boooooooooooooooooooooooooo yah!!! Even if that means NOTHING to you, let me be the first to tell you that this is just a freakin' BLAST to get this gig. WHY!?!?!?!

BECAUSE.

That's why!!

Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo hooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!

There's a back story to this--where is there NOT a backstory to something in my life--but yeah. It's sort of cool. Because of the way I'm wired, it's these "strange" things I realize about certain events in my life. WHAT THE HELL TURNER???? You're babbling.

OK OK OK...let's start at the top. This past summer, I went to DCI World Championships in Madison, Wisconsin as a guest of my friend, John Donovan, publisher of Drum Corps Planet, and with the loving support of my wonderful wife. I was doing "live blogging" for Drum Corps Planet from, what I refer to as, "The Ninth Level" of the Camp Randall Stadium Pressbox. That's basically where the VIP's could sit in relative comfort and watch the show. Great vantage point.

Anyway--as the story goes--I flew in and out of O'Hare. When I was at O'Hare to leave, I ran into Tom Hope, the DCI-Pacific Coordinator. He basically runs all the west coast/western states drum corps shows, at least from the DCI side of things. I've worked with Tom several times over the years. He's a demanding, no-nonsense, "get 'er done" type person that expects a lot, and I like to work with him. Well, at O'Hare, we got to talking. He told me, and I quote (to the best of my memory), "By the way Turner, next summer, don't go anywhere." Curious, I said what most would say..."WTF?!?!?" No, I said, "Why?" He said there was a chance--and he made it clear he was NOT OFFERING ME A JOB..lol!!--but that there was a chance that there would be a need for DCI to have an announcer for the Division II/III Championships at Pasadena City College. He said for me to not make plans, especially during DCI Week. Well...duh...I'm not going to be anywhere BUT in Pasadena that week, but cool. He was opening a door for me, and I appreciated that. He said he'd get back to me...and that was that.

Fast forward to about 3 weeks ago, and the suspense was killing me. Now remember, the last time I talked to Tom was in August in Chicago. So I emailed him--typical Ryan H. flair--"Hey Tom, just letting you know that I'm camped out by my phone and I'm ready to rock and roll for DCI. Just say GO and I'm all over it." In typical Tom fashion, he types back almost instantaneously, "Name forwarded to Dan Acheson and Sue at DCI." Ahhhh. In other words Turner, PIPE DOWN. And at that point, I knew that there was literally nothing else for me to do. Besides, I have a ton of things on my plate anyway, so I put the DCI announcing possibility back on the back burner and plodded on. Today...THE CALL. A very nice sounding young lady by the name of Missy called, left a message, and I called her back a bit later, and not wanting to sound TOOOOOOOOOOOOO desperate, explained to her my extensive background in announcing. After 15 minutes of dissertation, all in one breath, she said "YOU'RE HIRED YA FREAK!!! WE'LL CALL YA LATER!!!" No she didn't....but she was laughing [at...with...] because I was VERY VERY VERY VERY enthusiastic. THE H WAS PLAYING THE GAME!! Ya know what I mean???

Good.

Well anyway...the story goes...we're chatting, and I tell her about the announcing I've done (SCSBOA, WBA, DCI-P, the old DCW, WGI, WGASC, The Voice of the Kingsmen, 911 Dispatcher, voice over for video projects, blah blah blah...I threw more acronyms at her than she's ever heard in her life). I guess she was impressed--oh wait, she was snoring. ANYWAY--she starts telling me a little about what they need, what they're going to pay for, blah blah...and she says, "So...are you available for the times we need you at Pasadena City College?" Uhhhh...yeah. There's no issue. THEN she says, "So, do you know where Pasadena is and everything?" And I say, "WELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL, as a matter of fact, I was born and raised in Pasadena. And you know what I just realized if you want to hear some truly useless trivia [really--I DID say that...ask her!! LOL!!!!]? The VERY first time I EVER announced...was AT PASADENA CITY COLLEGE!!! Would you look at that???"

Stunned silence.

Then the tentative, "Ohhhhh ahhh hanh...that's great. So...." IT WAS CLASSIC!!!

Oh I love it when I geek out and people go...WTF IS WRONG WITH THIS GUY!!?!?!?

Anyway...she hired me for that AND for the Bakersfield doo hickey show the weekend before...and THEN...

In typical "this just ain't enough for Ryan H. Turner" fashion, I say, "So, I'm good to go, but I'm not going ANYWHERE this summer, so, I know that you guys are going to be busy out here with shows and what not. And I'm sure Mr. Crocker will be busy [to my non-DCI readers, "Mr. Crocker" is Brandt Crocker, THE Voice of DCI for the past MILLION years]. But if he needs a day off, let me know. I'm your go-to guy."

The chutzpah. The noive.

More stunned silence.

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhkay, I'll be sending you more information shortly." CLICK.

No...actually she thanked me for my willingness to help and looked forward to meeting me [you freaking whack] and...well...THERE YOU GO!!!! I'm in like Flynn baby!!! The call I've been waiting for. BREATH TURNER!!! Now...I'm going to go through all my yearbooks I've purchased off of EBAY and practice my ASS off reading show descriptions and getting names down...because I'm not going to do just a good job for DCI.

Oh no no no no. This represents to me a MAJOR door opening. HENCE, I will do a SUPREMELY PERFECT job for DCI.

So...share in my happiness...it doesn't come often, this kind of elation of reaching a major goal like this. And really...when you step back and look at EVERYTHING that you COULD be freakin' overjoyed about...this is really small potatoes. But for ME...it's the BOMB. I'm on Cloud 9.

NOW...to go put in my vacation time.

Oh....there'll be more updates coming shortly. Lots of OTHER news, including The Tale of The Laser Printer (and How The ATM Network Failure Almost Killed Me The Other Day), the SONGS drill experience (what?????), the WGASC experience, friends, my kids and my daughter's teeth....ANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNND....

MORE PICS!!! Because this blog ain't CRAP without pics. I just figured out how to get the pics from my digital camera to my computer. Oh yeah. Time for kid pics and sorts of fun things.

Thanks...

Now get OUTTA here.

I blame Lee Rudnicki for all of this...

I think the human body and mind can be pushed to extreme limits, especially the mind. I think we are WAY untapped in that department. THAT being said...I'm at that limit. Thank you. I'd like to get off the ride now. I've had fun. Thank you. Hello?? Anyone?? Can we stop this ride now? I just want to take a breather for 5.

Anyway...the reason I type this was because I came to work, and opened my email, and there was an email that is a GIGANTIC door opening for me in the world of the marching arts. Really and truly it is. Until I can get a formal deal on this and everything is kosher, I won't say for now what it is. But I'm HUMBLED AS HELL to be given the opportunity, and now, I'm putting my skills WAY OUT THERE FOR SCRUTINY. Time to put up...or shut the hell up. And how, pray tell, did I get into this situation?

Because...this opportunity I'm talking about falls right into the plans I formulated about 8 years ago--basic as they were--to build bigger the Empire of the H. MANY things have occurred over the last 7 years that I directly attribute to this goal. It really started as a plan to get my name out there NATIONALLY as both a drill designer AND a quality adjudicator. The dividends of setting a goal like that--stupid as it may seem to some of my non-marching arts-related readers--is actually a testimony to the strength of "focus" and goal-setting. I'll be honest. The timid, doubtful part of me is ALWAYS there trying to trip me up saying I'm not qualified, that I'm not good enough, that I can't nor will I EVER be as good as this and that or so and so. But part of this journey we go through in life is learning how to peservere. And I think I am doing just that, and sometimes, the payoffs are unbelievable. It seems like this past year and a half has been EXCEPTIONALLY telling in what's happened. And of course, my LOVE in life surrounds my participation in the activity of marching arts and pageantry...that's not to say I'm not grateful nor am I unhappy at the Fire Department, which is my career. But this career in the Fire Department fills the need for a stable and secure income, benefits, and protection for my family. I don't necessarily love it. As for the pageantry world, it fills the need for me to have a creative outlet and to give back to something that I think helped mold me into the person I am now.

SORRY...PREACHY ALERT...SORRY...didn't mean to get preachy.

But one more thing. You see--I only started a blog because my friend Lee Rudnicki had a great one going (still does--duh!!) and because a couple of people at work sort of pushed me to. But there are two people that come to mind when I start feeling sorry for myself that I am overworked or too tired to go on...my father in law, who is the hardest working man on the planet, and Lee, who by his example to me, showed what setting a goal and laser sighting on it was all about. Completely independent of me and in a totally different arena of life, he did what I did. He was just better and faster at it because he was clearer about what he wanted than I was. Still is for that matter. But when I read his blog I marvel at how he can juggle what he juggles, and since he has one of his many arms of influence in MY world of marching and pageantry, than HIS example becomes even more meaningful to me. And I know he probably hates this because I'm talking about him and I always seem to talk about him. But I have always been a person that--good, bad or indifferent--holds up those I respect and don't mind talking about it one bit. At least people know where I get my inspiration from at times.

OK...so anyway...sorry about all this deep stuff, but this email to me--and maybe I'm the only one it will mean this to--was just awesome. And I hope it comes to fruition. And I hope I can rise to the challenge. More to come...

NOW GET OUTTA HERE!!!

DANG IT!!!!!!!!!!

Sick again!!!!!!!!!!!!

WTF, OVER?!?!?!?!?

HI...JUST CHECKING IN....sorry, I was yelling...just checking in real quick because I have a couple of things I absolutely have to get off my chest.

• For those that are curious, the dotted line has been signed and I'm in. I'm back at Rancho Buena Vista. This is a long-time coming. I missed working with that group. The three years I was there we really turned the program around. We actually were quite good, winning the prestigious Savanna Tournament in my second year there and lighting the crowd on fire with our Kansas show. It was definitely a high point of my design career. So it's good to be back. And we were thinking of going one direction--but now...we're going a whole new direction, and I'm VERY excited. This is a band not afraid to take a few chances, to march challenging drill, and play challenging music (AND LOUD!!). Anyway...more to come on that. I'm pumped.
• Confirmed another large school just this morning. They missed 5A championships by a .10th of a point. We'll work on that. I'm also very excited about this opportunity because the guard guy there is a current member of the Cavaliers (Homer Lopez) and I've had a couple of nice talks with him. He seems VERY down to earth, knowledgeable, and not a "diva", which is nice to work with. I'm looking forward to this.
• Had a Strategic Management Meeting with Impulse last night, and our special guest was Pat Siedling, who I've heard so much about over my years in the drum corps world but never have met. He showed up with his wife last night and preceded to give us a 3-hour tutorial on how to get into Division I, and I just have to say this. I literally could have sat there for 3 more hours and listened to him. Sometimes in this activity, there are people that you would rather not listen to give you the time much less pontificate about how to take a corps to the next level. Pat was in a word--AMAZING. He was encouraging, brutally honest, optimistic, down to earth, and full of incredible knowledge. I was literally blown away last night. His experience and his willingness to be "behind the scenes" with Impulse is ABSOLUTELY the best thing that can happen to this organization. I'm very energized. The 6 Sure Signs of Success...and the 4 Legs of Stability. DUDE!!! In the words of Lee Rudnicki...GENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNIUS!!!
• Got close to signing on a HUGE talent for our guard situation with Impulse--that situation is still developing, but if we can get this guy plus some other talent, we could start to build up the fledgling guard situation and get some PROFESSIONALS that care about the kids into key positions. I believe in to a certain extent that things that are meant to be WILL be. We'll see how this plays out.

And lastly--my experience at the gym. As some of you know I've been very ill for about 15 days, and it totally knocked me out of going to the gym and trying to work on my stellar physique (yeah Turner...whatever). Anyway...I AM happy to say that I have been conscious and careful (carefuller?) of how I've been eating, so I'm maintaining the weight loss from the previous month's body bombardment and 24hr Fitness. THAT is encouraging. I played basketball with some of my youth at my church on Wednesday, which was with the exception of a three mile walk I took on Monday at work, the only exercise since being down and out with whatever the hell kicked me in the butt. Playing basketball. A pudgy white boy out there running around with a bunch of kids. THAT in and of itself should be the most hilarious thing you've ever seen. But it was a good work out.

So--this morning, up I get, take Sarah to school and off to the gym I go. Read on--because I have a major rant about ready to spew forth.

I have noticed (and I'm going to be very sexist here--so just deal or don't read) that not sometimes, not most times, but EVERY SINGLE DANG TIME I go to the gym, inevitably, there are going to be 2 or more women just yapping and talking and blabbing while they work out. What's wrong with this? Nothing in and of itself. You're obviously free to talk. BUT AT A GYM!!!???? Puhleeeeeeeeeeeeze. There's really nothing more grating on my nerves than middle aged women PRETENDING to work out, coked out of their gords having had a triple expresso latte cappucino with a side a block of caffeine before coming to the gym, discussing such interesting topics like A)What's wrong with my husband, or B)What's wrong with going to the mall and spending lots of money on stupid worthless things that don't matter anyway, and what's wrong with my husband and how come he doesn't get why I have to go there and do this, or C)What's wrong with the schools? or D)What's wrong with my ass?? I can't get it any smaller...I just don't get it?? And on...and on...and on...

Just today...on my first time back to the gym since being out, I get on a Precor Elliptical and start going. I'm literally off by myself, not bugging a SOUL. On the end of a row. And I like to concentrate and make sure I'm setting little mini-goals as I go and what not...it's a mind game for me. Two women show up and take the next two machines next to me. And they started. I like to do 60 mins on a machine, because then I know I'm really burning calories. Well, these two show up 10 mins into my workout, and procede to compare notes about their kids. My ear is naturally drawn to them because A) they're next to me, B) they're freakin' loud!, and C) they both have that southern California nasally coked out on Starbucks super fast high pitched oscillating sing song voice that makes me want to go get weaponry and...and...well...I better be careful now. I don't want to scare anyone! :-)

But SERIOUSLY!!! I mean...it was just NON-STOP!!! They NEVER EVER EVER EVER stopped talking. But was worse was that they tried to up one another, and they talked...get this...freakin' women...they TALKED AT THE SAME TIME. There was SUCH a need to get their point across that simple give and take and listening was just out the door. And how many times did I hear "Well, MY daughter is..." Uggggggggggh. But it got worse. YES. This was just the beginning. Because after 30 mins of pretending to work out and this back and forth yapping about NOTHING, they both stop "working out" (and I use the term lightly), and stood on the ellipticals...

....(gulp!)...and KEPT FREAKIN' TALKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOME!!!

I sooooooooo wanted to yell that. Really. I just wanted to hear the sounds of the gym, concentrate on my numbers, my pulse, my breathing exercises...but I had Chatty Cathy on Crack next to me. I'm SINCERELY going to invest in a IPOD. I hear those things are cool.

'Til next time...and now...GET OUTTA HERE!!!

This world...she's a spinin' fast...

Let me give you some brief highlights...

• Much healthier, mostly due to large does of illegally obtained Cipro because I was too damn lazy to go to the doctor. Sue me! I used some Cipro that my wife couldn't take because it made her feel like her head was a nuclear reactor on meltdown. I am in the throws however of the beginning of my annual sneeze fest. So Clartatin and me will start our affair soon.
• I've had reason to talk to separate people over the last week about the same damn regret I've had for many many years, and I'll probably go to my grave with the regret. I know we're not supposed to have any. But I can't get this out of mind. I regret not doing what I needed to do to get my degree and become a band director. I've seen many band director friends of mine--Tim Bryan, Phil R. Mortensen, Larry White to name just a few--successfully move up into admin positions. And I think I cheated myself out of a rewarding career in education because in my tender 20's, I was convinced that band directing was "dead end" in terms of career. What was I? A complete buffoon back then??? When one has a regret, one shouldn't assume that the regret has a twin regret of what is CURRENTLY going on in one's life. No no no...that's not the case with me. I actually have it pretty good. I'm not trying to say I'm NOT grateful for the path my life went and where I am today. But I can't get the thought out of my mind. And I kick myself when I think back to the time a certain band director had a very long heart-to-heart with me and GREATLY encouraged me to get up to Azusa Pacific College and finish my degree because big changes were coming to his district. And I didn't listen. Dang. STUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUPID. About as dumb as me selling my 1970 Dodge Challenger back in 1988.
• Had an Excel class at OCFA, taught by an instructor from New Horizons, the same company I worked with back in 1992 and 1993. And based on what he told me, their business model still sucks. How they stay in business and how people STILL get sucked into working for that crappy company is BEYOND ME. No...I'm not a big fan of New Horizons. Anyway...found out some things that Excel does that may or may not help me in my job at OCFA. Cool stuff though. That program is pretty dang impressive.
• Forgot to ask if it was OK to announce to the world who I am writing drill for that I sort of hinted at in my last entry. All I know is that they do feel the rhythm down there at the ranch, and they are happy to have me back. I'm happy to be back. Now can we pick a freakin' show?!?!?!?!?
• Called my old stand by Greg Flores yesterday from work to tap into his creative genius and see if he wants to join the team with this previously aforementioned band. He's game. Greg was the magic behind the hornline and brass book for VK from 1991-1996, and I hired him on and he took over for me after my 6 year run with Fountain Valley came to a crashing and dramatic (and sad) end. He knows how to make a hornline play and can write great music. He's been writing for Long Beach State's "Basketball Band" which is basically like "Tower of Power", as well as teaching and gigging and judging. Matter of fact, I hired him at the last minute to judge music when I was asked to be the Chief Judge for the Pacific Northwest Marching Band Championships at the 11th hour--and I pulled together an all-star judging crew from southern California and TORE UP WASHINGTON STATE!!! That was fun. Those northwesterners didn't know what hit them...Dan and Ron Zeilinger, Robert Whitaker, Greg Flores, Paul Locke, Dale Leaman, ME...holy cow!!! It was VERY fun!! i'll never forget that weekend.\

Anyway friends...I have some political/world views I want to spew out but I can't right now. Suffice it to say...things are soooooooooooooo nuts right now. If you don't spend time looking at the news...you'd be amazed at what's happening.

Hijinks and Tiddlywinks--WTF?!?!?!

Dudes and dudettes...welcome back to my blog, long forgotten but not totally dissed. I'm on a drug that I am convinced has caused me to regress to the days before I actually knew how to type. Yes...I do know how to type for I took a typing a class in 9th grade at the behest...request...the command of my dearly departed mother, who in her infinite wisdom back in 1980, was able to tell that the ways of the future would demand that I at least know how the hell to type. Little did she know (or did I know in my freshman wisdom) that one day in fact, typing would be CENTRAL to my life. So...thanks mom. And sorry about the drugs. Wait. I mean, sorry about my typing. Or lack thereof. I'm sick!!! That's the ticket!!! I'm sick. I got sick on Sunday morning, the morning of a large vegetation fire that roared through the eastern part of Anaslime Hills. I rolled out of bed and came into work on Monday, and actually went to the fire, only to suck in a bunch of smoke and crap which didn't help me much. Had a really bad cough, laryngitis...the typical. But I was REALLY run down. Then, when I thought I was getting better, I go to Pasadena for a training class, and could barely make it through the first day. Fever of 102, body feeling like it was hit by a truck...really bad shape. I decided to leave early and forego the certificate saying that I was smarter than when I went in...and here I am. I stole some Cipro antibiotics from my dear bride, and apparently it's working. Fever is gone, body aches are all but gone for the most part, but the cough is still there. Also had a very weird throat thing going on. It wasn't strep. I know strep. It was different. It would be like someone just out of the blue would grab my windpipe--and I'd all of a sudden have a need to cough or actually choke. VERY strange. I also had a "croup" cough on Tuesday morning....CROUP!! I'm freakin' 40 years old!!! But it was the same painful dry nasty cough I used to get when I was a little kid. I still remember those days. And this was the exact same thing. VERY STRANGE. But what's worse--I've been sick for a LONG TIME. When I get sick, usually 3 to 4 days and the worst is over. This has just been lingering. Probably the government spraying crap on us...or the aliens. Or both.

Anyway...word got to me that somehow this blog has been viewed by more members of the OC"EFFIN"A. Great. As if my reputation as a Monster-drinking, Rockstar-snorting, rebel rousing loud mouth at the OC"EFFIN"A isn't enough. Well--I would like to say hello to my fellow OC"EFFIN"A-ites that read this. And I would like impart...empart...import...give you some knowledge and a helpful hint. With all the warts and issues we may have to contend with during our day-to-day schlepping we go through here to get our job done, I DO have to say without a doubt that, warts and all, I still believe the OCFA is a great place to work. There are SO many ways that the OC"EFFIN"A can be better, but IN COMPARISON, we do many things right. And I'm no company man. I'd just as soon rail on what's wrong. But sometimes, getting out of my hole/cage and looking around a little at what else is out there, I have to be honest with myself and simply be grateful for what I DO have. That's not a license to settle for less. But it IS a license to not feel sorry for oneself. Does that make sense? In the dispatch world, I may not know everything there is to know, but I know enough. And I'm glad that I am where I am. Hopefully, no matter where YOU work in the OC"EFFIN"A you can feel the same way. Be grateful, strive to be the best, don't kill yourself if you're not, and don't settle for less from the powers that be.

OK...let me take my cheerleading skirt off here. Just a second.

OK...I'm back. Several topics to touch on....

• Announcing for the WGASC every weekend. Been going well, except last weekend, when I could barely talk on the mic. Thank goodness for 200 watt amplifiers. The winter guard activity is VERY strong in southern California, and for those readers that think winter guard is something you buy for your car, go to www.wgasc.org and read up a little on what I refer to. If you're REALLY adventurous, go to www.wgi.org and you can see actually video clips of what it is that I announce for.
• This probably isn't for public consumption yet, but I'm gonna go ahead and at least announce it PARTIALLY. It was just confirmed over the phone with the director that I am now officially on staff for this fall for a major marching band as the show designer. VERY cool. Just an off-chance that I asked about the position, and that opened a door I didn't realize even had a doorknob on it, if you get my drift. Apparently the door FLEW open and well...here I am. Official announcement coming soon just as soon as the dotted line is signed and I'm free to say who and where.
• I'm confirmed now for 7 bands in the fall, and I'm good with that. I had 11 last season, and made the money I needed to get myself for the most part of debt. The CFO of the Turner Empire has now decreed that I no longer need to hustle for writing gigs, that we in fact can live off of less. Gee....thanks honey.
• Openers have been written for So Cal Dream (www.socaldream.org) and Capital Sound (www.capitalsound.org) and response has been the most positive I've received for first drafts. Either means I'm getting better at this, or, people just don't want to argue with me anymore. It's cool to be writing for these groups, especially Cap Sound. First time to write for a corps out of state. I can only imagine doors opening because of this particular client.
• Impulse (www.iyao.org) is up next. Music received and scores are ready--now have to meet with folks and get them a show written.
• Heard a unverifiable yet VERY reliable "rumor" that things are a-changing in the SCSBOA for the field show side of things, and the "what" is interesting. I think SCSBOA is realizing to some extent that there has to be some more controls over the QUALITY of what they provide for their members. And if what I heard is true, they are addressing these issues. I'm not sure everyone will be rip-roaring for it, but hey, you have to keep in mind, molasses usually outpaces SCSBOA, so for changes to happen at all...I'm ALL for it. You see, I used to be very critical of SCSBOA. But they've done some things over the last several years that have been great, annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd, I've realized what SCSBOA IS. Plus I'm older. And wiser. And less prone to speak before I think.
• Speaking of thinking before I speak, apparently I didn't when I responded on YOUTUBE to a stupid comment made by a person claiming to be a student of a band whose video was on the website. I called the "kid" an idiot for making that comment, and said I would have kicked his/her ass out of band so fast his/her head would spin. Apparently, someone thought shoving a bass drum mallet down my throat would be a way to solve me (big bad adult) saying something harsh to poor little student. Grrrrrrrrrrr...whatever.
• I'm still sick. Just not AS sick. So shut it, Jon!
• Speaking of Jon...http://jdaroundorange.blogspot.com/ He's one of my long-time friends and has a nice site. He's a dispatcher...and a politician of epic proportions. Today...city council. Tomorrow...state assembly. Soon after that...SENATOR?!?!?! Good GOD all Friday.

OK...I could think of more but the drugs are making me light-headed and ferclempt. So...I need to go. Besides, I have WORK to do. Thanks for reading.

NOW GET OUTTA HERE!!!!

It's supposed to MELT away...that's what they said!!!

One of the BIGGEST disappointments of losing weight and working out and trying to be at least SEMI-conscious of what you're eating is to get on the scale and look down, and you're NOT going anywhere. It really sucks. It's disheartening. It can really tear into your ability to maintain that motivation that gets your fat ass up at 0430hrs and on the road to torture and pain--all self-inflicted--for about an hour every morning. I did this bad thing--getting on the scale--last week. And I felt that old feeling come rushing back, where I wanted to go find the nearest gallon of Dreyer's Cookies and Cream and make shake after shake after shake and sit on the couch and watch TV. But THIS time...somewhere...somehow...I said, at least in my mind, "NOOOOOOO!!! I am NOT going to do this crap!!!!" And here I am...a week later...and I'm happy to report not one but two amazing things.

#1. I try to "report" to Nyleen how good it is to be working out again, because I want to make sure she supports me. In regards to working out, she's been very supportive as long as I'm not killing myself or hurting myself which I tend to do because I can get enthusiastic to the point of stupidity. In any event, last night, as I was unloading groceries I was telling her about my workout yesterday, and joked about the fact that it was a MAN that noticed me losing weight first. It would have been nice if it was a chick--and she laughed, and then said, "Well, I actually do notice it myself. I can actually see your cheek bones on your face." I actually looked at my wife there for a minute and felt pretty dang proud of myself and was feeling those warm fuzzies you feel...then...after a slight pause, she looked down at my belly and said, "But it would be nice if you'd start losing it there, fat boy!!!" DANG!!!!!!!!! Got me again!!! Nice one. We shared a good laugh...sort of. I didn't let her see me cry. LOL!

#2. Second amazing thing is a two-for-one amazing thing. On Sunday, I wore a new shirt and tie to church. That's not amazing...what IS amazing, is that I wore a pair of 42 black slacks that I haven't put on for, ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...about 4 years. And no...these weren't those cheater pants that have that elastic deal where you can be a tub'o lard and say "But I wear 36 inch pants"....yeah...because they expand to like 96 inches. Now--I'm not saying I'm all svelte, because I'm not. But to actually close the clasp on the 42's was reassuring. The fact that they came up over my rump was even more amazing.

Had good advice given to me today by a fellow supervisor. She said don't look at the scale--just judge what you can wear. And you know--truth be told, I have these heavy duty wooden hangers, the kind you can put suits on. Well, I have all my "Docker" and slack type pants on those...but I have one hanger for 44's. One for 42's. And then one for 40's. And one for 38's. SWEAR. I know...it's wacky. But I just torture myself a little by saying "Look how far you've come, fart knocker." Sort of bagging on myself whilst motivating myself at the same time. But yeah...my goal...humble as it may be...to get into those 40's. I only kept one pair of 38's. Don't know if I will ever be able to put THOSE on.

But then again...Hell MAY indeed freeze over.

My little emotional attachment to food that I've grown to understand about myself over the last year or so...I know where it comes from. So I'll leave you with a teaser to get you to come back to this stupid blog...you get to know what drives Ryan and food.

Other than the fact I call myself a musician. And you know how THEY are about food.

TEAMWORK!!!

LOL!!! That's me in the center...of course...because I AM the center of all creation. The guy to your right...he's my boss. The guy to your left. Some computer guru hack. We three have been known to create havoc in and around the OCFA. Just wanted to show you what you can do with Photoshop and half a brain.

Speaking of half a brain...

HI SCOTT!!!

SUCCESS!!!!!!

I've got some GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREAT news...and some not so great news

The great news....someone noticed today for the first time in 3 weeks since I started my "working out" and trying to eat better that I seemed a bit slimmer. WOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!!! That was awesome. And to be honest...my belts are having to be cinched up a bit more...

YEP!!! That makes all the sweating worth it....

Now...the bad news.

It was a dude that told me.

<>

Well...I mean...it was nice and all.

But still.

Couldn't you have been, say, the Intern in HR that I adore?!?! LOL!!! Or that cute waitress at Casa Camino?? Or...I'm really stretching...even my wife? Hahahaha...WELL????

Whatever. Thanks BOB!

A glimpse into my past...

My goodness...where do I start. Well...first off. HELLO!! Been awhile. It's been a crazy 2 weeks...but what fun. I had the chance to put my self-titled self to work as "The Voice of Southern California" and announce for the Kingsmen Alumni Corps at the NAMM Show a few weeks ago. This was a bigger deal than I thought it was going to be. I haven't been to the NAMM Show ever, but man oh man. It's HUGE. They basically take over the Convention Center and all the hotels down in the Anaheim Harbor Blvd South of Disney Kingdom. ANYWAY...the KAC performed to an incoming crowd of what I estimated to be about 500-700 people. WILD applause. WILD enthusiasm. It was cool. And then had a nice sound system set up for me which was good...because I thought I'd have to yell into a stupid Long Ranger. They actually had a real honest to goodness sound system. Got to "coordinate" things with my old trombone teacher/former hornline instructor Dr. Greg Woll. Always very cool to be in his presence--he had a big impact on my life but doubt he really understands that. Oh well...but nevertheless...FUN STUFF. Why...here's a pic of the yours truly doing what I do best apparently--babbling on a microphone...
Cool...

Now on to some more important issues.

I know a lot of people read this blog that may not understand this next part very well, but let me fill you in on the drama. I was involved with a nationally known and competitve drum and bugle corps out of Anaheim, California back in 1985, 1986, and 1987. They were called the Velvet Knights--a strange name but an organization with a vary unique and storied history. If I could provide a link to that history I would, but for now, just take my word for it. In any event, the Velvet Knights were regarded within the world of drum corps (which for all intents and purposes is just a sand pepple-sized activity compared to the rest of normal life) as one of THE most popular and entertaining and at times, FUNNY, drum and bugle corps out there. As you may guess, the activity of drum and bugle corps (or as we call it "in the biz", drum corps) has a military heritage and style, as most corps have that to some extent. We were the anti-thesis to that, at least in our style. We worked our asses off to perfect our shows and to be the best we could be and to learn about what it was to make goals and all that...in any event...VK (as we called ourselves and as the world of drum corps referred to us) was the "IT" corps. We were hip. We had people laughing, dancing, asking for our autographs after competitions (I swear...I'm not making that up)...it was life on the road of a 128-member rock band. Sort of.

ANYWAY...this organization, based out of a dingy, beat up, run down, nasty-ass bingo hall at the intersection of Knott and Ball, was sort of central to the life of Ryan H. Turner. I think a lot of my identity as a human being was sort of formed and molded during my three years as a performer with them. I certainly look back to some milestone moments in my life and some of them were during my tenure with VK. There is a very real and tangible connection between my success with VK and my deep multi-tiered involvement with the pageantry world of southern California (which I take actually sort of seriously believe it or not). In other words, I owe a lot to my time in VK. And I know I'm not alone. There are many of us in the world that can look back to our time in VK and drum corps in general and chart some real benefits that we enjoy today as adults. It's not that unusual. And others can point back to their experiences in the Boys Scouts, or their Little League team, or at their church group...whatever. But the drum corps experience...a very unique thing. It engenders a bond between people that can exist for decades. I know it does for me personally. I'm still very close friends and work with the guy that was in the duet with me in 1985 during VK's closer, "Catchin' the Sun". So--yes...a deeply bonding activity this thing drum corps is.

ANYWAY...I do have a point. The point is this organization, through many missteps and bad decisions, completely "folded" and ceased operations after the 1996 tour (which typically ends in mid August). The corps, both financially AND creatively, was at the end of the line. There was a glimmer of hope as there was some GREAT show programming ideas being bantered around by the then-newly hired David Weinberg, who was going to be the Program Coordinator and Drill Designer (another person who in my life, is CENTRAL to where I am now--which is really nowhere in the grand scheme of things, but still...I remember my roots better than most). VK folded, and it was a dark day in my book. Not only did I get the story as to why they folded, I was convinced that the WHY was completely avoidable. COMPLETELY.

ANYWAY...in 1999, that guy I referenced earlier that I'm still good friends with? His name is Ron Zeilinger, and he started, along with a small group of former VK alumni, a new drum corps called Impulse. When I first heard about this concept, of somehow continuing the "tradition" of the Velvet Knights, I was admantly against it. VK was DEAD...why try to call it something else and put a new name to it. I was confused. Angry. Dead set against it. And I had forum to voice my opinion. It was a discussion newsgroup called Recreation Arts--Drum Corps (RAMD), part of the old newsgroups that I'm quite honestly not even sure still exists. I also had this other forum called World of Pageantry. And I was, believe it or not, pretty anti-Impulse. Mainly based on a really immature, emotional, knee-jerk reaction to it. I can be that way at times, although after 40 years on the planet, I AM getting better at trying to get the whole story before turning into the Taurus that I am.

ANYWAY...my anger and frustration was picked up online by a man named Charlie Groh. Charlie, who for all intents and purposes, has been in the drum corps activity since the mid 60's and is considered one of the country's leading "visual experts" when it comes to marching technique and teaching drill. I was surprised out of my anger one day when he tracked me down and called me at home. He spent the next hour on the phone with me, trying to get a better idea of what was making me so angry about Impulse and so resistent to allowing Impulse to take the field and spread its wings. I came to understand a few years later that it was in fact Charlie who came up with the name Impulse (a story of legendary importance actually), and so, he was intimately involved in the genesis of this organization. I appreciated his patience and fervor and ability to explain things to me, and was able to use a very effective and persuasive argument to at the very least to get me to shut the hell up on line about Impulse.

ANYWAY...Impulse made an impact on the drum corps community. They were a fledgling corps, and did their best to set their style as their own, yet, they could not help but be compared to VK. But that was OK with the powers that be of Impulse. They had a multi-pronged approach to their organization. One of their goals was to "carry on the tradition of the Velvet Knights and the Bridgemen" (who VK was actually emulating to some extent--so much so that the famous Bobby Hoffman who CREATED the freakin' Bridgemen joined us in 1987 and helped propel us to 7th place in the world!!!!). But another interesting goal of Impulse which, quite honestly, I missed, was something they called "to aid in the proliferation of drum corps in Southern California". Well...now that's odd. Why would Impulse want to PROLIFERATE the southern California region with drum corps? In a nutshell, and I'm only guessing, but Charlie Groh, one of Impulse's founders, was also one of Velvet Knights ORIGINAL members back in the mid 60's...and back then, before and right after I was born, Southern California was a HOT BED of drum corps activity. It wasn't the activity it is today, but the similarities were enough that me, a person that marched in the mid 80's, could embrace Charlie, who is nearing 60 years of age, as my "brother" in the activity. Goes back to that BOND I spoke of earlier. So, Impulse, albeit in a way that was "unique", was wanting to somehow, either by example or by other means, to get the activity jump started back out here in southern Cal after a mid 1990's slump and we had only 2 active corps (Pacific Crest and Westcoast Sound).

ANYWAY--I'm getting to my point...soon...anyway, fast forward to today. It was announced several months ago that the Velvet Knights were starting again. Interesting. However, it started as simply "VK", and there was a large amount of ambiguity about if this was a group wanting to be "sort of" like the old Velvet Knights or what. It was confusing to an extent, as I believed up to the point that this new organization was started, that there was never going to be another Velvet Knights. WHY? Because part of the reason why VK folded in 1996 was because of some IRS issues with a HEFTY back tax and fine levied on the organization. I assumed because of what I had been told that the name "VELVET KNIGHTS" was owned to a certain extent and attached to that name was this IRS "problem", so hence, no more Velvet Knights. Fast forward back to today--and here comes the VKYAO, or the VK Youth Arts Organization. Sort of splitting hairs because I think THEY were trying to stay away from legal issues until they were absolutely positive they actually COULD say they were in fact "THE VELVET KNIGHTS".

ANYWAY--Now...take this for what it is, but I have a "BULLSHIT RADAR" that gets pinged when I see new groups starting or whatever. I can sniff it from a mile away. I was quite well known for haraunging "SHOCKWAVE", a supposed corps starting up north several years ago, as well as something else on World of Pageantry a few years ago. I have NO FEAR of asking questions of groups that may ping my radar. Strangely, with this new "VK", there was only ONE thing that was pinging my bullshit radar, and it was this---WHO WERE THEY!?!?!? I thought it was strange that the issue was being skirted somehow, but I also realized in my 40 years of wisdom, that I wasn't on the "inside" of this organization and perhaps something was on the horizon. In reality and in all honesty, I had several nice online chats with the VK secretary Mayra (last name is hard...I'll get to it later). She was VERY gracious, answered my questions and concerns, and I didn't have any real "reason" to doubt the veracity or legitimacy of this start up. I was however, as a former VK member, a tad confused. I didn't even really understand my own confusion--but I was in a wait and see mode.

ANYWAY--things really got, how should I say, up and running when my previously mentioned friend, Ron Zeilinger, very publicly and quite frankly rather angrily started to question this group, and for his reasons, was not happy at all about what was going on. At first, reading his reasons, I actually could empathize with what he was saying. It felt weird to me as well--but to him, it was an insult. And as always in this wacky world of drum corps, there were hurt feelings and a lot of verbal judo. We have gotten to the point where now I believe Ron is accepting the creation of the Velvet Knights, however, he's still not happy. He doesn't HAVE to be. That's his right. But I think he's thought about the old "proliferation of drum corps" in southern California clause of why Impulse was started, and in all honesty, VK (Part Deux) is living up to this ULTIMATE goal, which is providing yet another entertainment venue for kids to participate in. It's just...well...weird. And I have to be honest...as long as this organization plays by the rules, puts the kids first, communicates honestly with them (especially in regards to whether they'll actually be approved by DCI in the first place), then...fine. I can't NOT say "good luck".
If you've read this far--then look at these wacky pics of me in VK back in the day. I just found these on a VK Alumni Yahoo Discussion Group. Pretty interesting...because I never have seen these.
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This is me...on the right...nice face Turner...anyway, the guy in yellow is Brian Neilsen, who was my co-drum major in 1986. I don't know where this picture was taken, but apparently it was in a gym. DUH. The guy in the back...that's Mike. I can't remember his last name. But he was a baritone player--I think we called him Brain Dead--he had some issues. But he was basically a GREAT guy underneath the issues. GILMORE!!! That's it. Just hit me just then. Mike Gilmore. Anyway--he cleaned himself up after VK and went on and joined the Army. I actually exchanged some emails with him several years ago, and he was living with his girl back in Arkansas I think--and doing well. Sent a pic of himself and he looked great. He grew up. And became a bad ass. And Brian--jeezo. I saw him 2 years ago at a drum corps show--he looked exactly the same, with a 13 year old trumpet playing son. I think he's a doctor or something. Boy was I in "like" with his sister for a time. Damn that Ron Dettman...DAMN HIM!!! (Note to Ron in case you learned how to use a computer--I KID!! I love you man!!!)

This next pic is of me and Dave Brunken, a lead soprano for VK in 1985 and 1986. Dave was a great guy. He was THE clown prince of the corps that was referred to as the clown princes of drum corps. Absolutely fall down funny guy. And complete with the strangest phobia ever--he hated going over bridges while we traveled across the country. FUNNY!!! He and I were never "close" per se, but he was part of the Bountiful, Utah Graverobbers Club in 1986. This pic of me and him was taken in the parking lot of Mt. Sac College. I have a very very vague recollection of this. I think this was at the Tournament of Champions band show in December of 1986. I actually think that's Arcadia's drum major standing behind us to the left!!! HAHAHAHA...uhhh
I was pretty dang skinny. I apologize for the glasses. That was back when Clark Kent glasses were in...and of course...I AM Clark Kent.

Last pic--that's me in 1987 at a show acting like an idiot. Don't know where that is, but I'm THINKING it's at the Sevierville Show in Tennessee...but I'm really not sure. Memory seems to get crappy after 20 years. That's Malcom Arnold, the contra...and the big scary guy to the left is Bob--and I can't remember his last name. He barely said two words all summer long, but he LOVED VK.

Well...that's for now.

I have LOTS more to talk about but there's only so many miles my fingers can walk in one day. Besides, I don't want anymore messages from a certain band director from the base of the majestic snow capped evervescent San Gabriel Mountains calling me and asking--"How DO you have THAT MUCH to talk about????" (I love you Tom!! And I'm NOT proud to say that...he gets the joke).

Found another pic that's cool...

I like this one...sort of funny....taking last summer here at OCFA.

Apparently I doctored it up a little. Anyway--see the dude with the cap on backwards in the snare line? He freaked me out one day. Comes up to me and tells me that he goes to drum corps shows here in southern California and didn't put two and two together but then it all made sense to him--I was THAT GUY that announces. So--he's like a financial guru dude here the OCFA, but he's loves marching band and drum corps. Never marched corps but always goes to shows and what not. True to his word, saw him at a show this past summer. Pretty cool, hanh?

And ONE MORE PIC--OK?!?!?!? Jeeeeeeeeeez...

This is our new SHIRT and PATCH design specifically designed for us. Pretty cool, hanh?? My buddy and dispatcher here at OCFA, Josh Goldmark, designed it and is coordinating the production of the patch and shirts. VERY impressive. Now I've been here twelve years, and SOME futile efforts have been made to do some team building around here--but I love it when someone grabs the freakin' bull the juevos rancheros if you get my drift and just freakin' DOES IT. That a boy my Hebrew Brudda From Anudda Mudda Shalom!!!!!!!!!!! This patch ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!

Now...

I am PERSONALLY offended however by the liberties taken to photoshop MY HEAD into the area of the orange as recently had been done by an unnamed cyber-assailant who works in our I.T. department. Suffice it to say, it was DOUBLY hurtful when you consider that this computer so-called PROFESSIONAL actually shares a drum corps heritage with you--yes, that's right. This so-called upstanding employee used to teach the Velvet Knights back in the 90's. WAY after me--the old veteran from the 80's. But still...a brother Velvet Knight. Tsk tsk...Of course, I had a Division Chief email me this morning commenting that I should be feeling PRETTY GOOD about things, because this is the first time in HIS career that he's ever seen an employee's likeness used for a character in a patch or shirt--referring to the large, orange head as seen above.

Right.

That's what a DIVISION CHIEF said to me.

Lovely. What am I going to do? Tell him to take a long walk off a short pier??? NOOOOOO!!! I said, "Yes sir whatever you say sir may I have another sir???"

OCFA. You just gotta love it.

Hello there!!!!! How 'ya doin? So much "stuff" has been going on over the last several days since my last update--I'm so sorry for taking so long to get back to this BLOG. Blog. What a funny sounding "thing". BLOG. How ya doin' today? Oh, I feel sort of BLOG today. Hey--we're being attacked by the vicious alien BLOG. I mean...what???

Anyway--hey. What up? What it be like? Get down, get funky--now get back up. Here's a pic I want to share...ready...here it is...

This where I was on Saturday morning--the Kingsmen Alumni Corps (KAC) performed as an opening act for the world famous NAMM Show at the Anaheim Convention Center. This picture is looking north--and you can see the tympani right there on the left side--the tenors behind them--the snares, and then--a little difficult to see but definitely there was 95 brass players and about 40 flags behind them. Now--this may prove impossible--but I'm IN THIS PIC. Find the drum major. He's the guy that seems elevated center right in the pic. Now--if you draw a line at a 45 degree angle DOWN from the right side of the drum major, you can clearly see half of my head. LOL!!!

Why was I there? I am the self-proclaimed "Voice of Southern California", and the KAC contacted me about 2 weeks ago asking if I could announce them to the crowd. It was VERY cool. I'm thinking about doing a review of the performance up on Drum Corps Planet. Anyway...it really was a SPECTACULAR performance. There were HUNDREDS of people outside listening to the corps, and they were hyping big time. They loved it, and so did the KAC. Great job by them.

Here's another quick pic for ya...This is my Sarah Bearah--sitting in the pilot's seat of her Uncle Jonathan's C-5 up at Travis Air Force Base. She's such a cutie. What a great little post Christmas trip we took. It was fun, especially for the kids. The tour of the C-5 was pretty fascinating to say the least. It was HUGE. It's a double deck plane, the lower half obviously being the cargo hold, and the top half being the crew quarters and the cockpit. It's really nasty in terms of cleanliness--really old--but wow. Pretty roomy!! Jonathan allowed me to go up another ladder just outside of the cockpit, and I was LITERALLY on top of the airplace, about 5 stories up off the ground. I won't be doing THAT again anytime soon.

And one last picture...My two most favorite children on the planet. This was taken about 4 months ago, but this is typical of the two. Michael and Sarah are just inseperable, which is actually pretty cool. I know siblings fight and don't get along some times, and that's to be expected. But I know that sometimes siblings aren't EXPECTED to get along. I will be the OPPOSITE of that as a daddy. I will EXPECT them to get along and be friendly and loving towards each other. And, I'll try to run a "fair and equitable" household so not one or the other feels slighted. Is this Pollyanna of me??? I don't know--but I DO know that right now I'm really digging this whole DAD thing!! LOL!!!! I love watching my kids play and how they interact and their personalities...it's great. Loving it.

Ok...well...that's it for now. There's a ton more to talk about, but I'm a little short on time. Career is going well...family is obviously going well...I'm healthy...fat...but healthy...and started announcing again for WGASC...and what else? That's about it--this is a boring post but hey. It's free!!!

Thanks for reading.

I've only just begun....TO HURT

Yes ladies and gentlemen...yours truly climbed aboard the old scale in my master bedroom, and was aghast at seeing the number 280 staring back at me. After I was disarmed by my wife of sharp implements as I was trying to end my life right there on the spot, I made a decision to--pardon the French--GET OFF MY ASS AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!!!!!!!!!!! I've had a membership to 24HR Fitness for about 8 years, and actually VERY successfully used it 7 years ago to lose a ton of weight and get in the best shape of my life (thanks to Bill Phillips and Fit for Life!!!). But then...CHILDREN happened. And stress. And a promotion. Yeah. Before I knew it--5 years later to be exact--I had gained 40 pounds....AND...I've gained 60 since I was married in 1995. 60. SIXTY!!! The freakin' number that comes after 59!!!!!!!! 60!!!!!!!!!!!

FAT ASS!! I know I know...the number 1 thing I've doing by deriding myself is going against all conventional wisdom that says you should LOVE yourself and be KIND to yourself, yadda yadda yadda. Whatever. I'm fat. I can't deny it. I'm tellin' ya the truth. Fat. And HORRIBLY out of shape. Well...after a couple of lurches and false starts over the last few months...let me tell you about my work outs.

Last week...worked out on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. All early morning. All at the 24hr Fitness in Brea (where the old Brea Improv used to be...where I liked to hang out and dream that someday maybe...wait...never mind....I'm not funny). THIS week, the Orange County Fire Authority started a 2 day a week Tues/Thurs in the parking lot circuit training using medicine balls, those big ass balls that you sit on, then these other balls called "slam balls"...and by just doing in place lunges, squats and various exercises...in 45 minutes....I was yelling "I WANT MY MOMMY!!!!" Holy CRAP on a plate. I was sweating my ass off. I'm actually getting ahead of myself. I worked out Monday morning at 24hr Fitness, then did the first day of this circuit training madness at work, then, Wednesday morning, did a REAL good work out even though my body felt like I had been hit by a truck from the previous day's workout...and then...TODAY. Thursday. During lunch, I head on down early, and this crazy exercise physiologist expert ran our butts through even MORE exercises. I had NO idea that one could hurt oneself so exquistitely by barely moving. I thought you like had to run a freakin' marathon. NO!!!! Actually, a marathon would be easier probably.

So...I'm now in my office. A little lightheaded. Very sore, especially my fat quadriceps and my hugmungous RUMP. But I hear pain is good. And that for all that pain, muscle is building, and for all that muscle building, it needs fat for energy. Well...in THAT case...you just go on little sore muscles, build away and chew up my fat. I would like to someday entertain the possibility that hanging on to my 38 inch pants was not in vain!!!

Oh...and by the way. People have known me to be a giant Diet Coke whack. I am. Or. Was. I'm off of it. No more. That aspartame sweetner is too suspicious for me. Heard it's been linked with lots of strangeness in the human body, one of which is, strangely, WEIGHT GAIN!!! So I'm off of it. COMPLETELY. Lots of water. My head hurts. Constantly. But I've had three seperate people tell me that once your body figures out you're not drinking that crap anymore, BAM! There goes the weight. WHATEVER. All I know...is by the end of January, if I don't see the magic number 275 on my scale, I swear to GOD I'm looking for the nearest cliff.

I'm back...

Had a pretty uneventful holiday vacation, granted to me at the literal last minute by my pretty cool boss. Was able to spend Christmas morning with just me, the wife and the kids opening presents and having a QUIET day (as opposed to last year's Christmas Hell on Earth 2006 production....and that's NOT an overexaggeration). Next day, packed the Sequoia and drove to Vacaville and spent a few days with Nyleen's brother in his house with his kids and wife. My kids + his kids = LOTS OF NOISE. Considering I'm like the loudest person on the planet and I love loud music (especially drum corps), what's a bunch of noise by kids? Well...perhaps I'm a little pre-menopause or something...but it drove me nuts. Oh...and the non-stop 50 mph winds with 40 degree temps. That drove me nuts too.

New Year's Eve was spent laying on my couch watching Season 5 of 24, and then turning it off long enough to watch the ball come down with a VERY VERY sad Dick Clark stumbling through the countdown. Don't mean to be mean, seeing as though my dad is a major stroke survivor, but SOMEONE somewhere in the production booth could have, I don't know, accidentally turned Dick's microphone off. Gooooooood Lord. 20, 19, 12, 15, 10, 9, NEW YEAR!!! Come on Dick. We all love you. Don't leave us with a memory of you drooling on yourself and screwing up the countdown.

The holiday's are always bittersweet for me. I had a GREAT time watching my kids and being with my family on Christmas morning. No doubt. But tugging at me in the back of my mind that I was keeping at bay was that nagging feeling of my past--and the Christmases of my youth. Then I started missing my mom, who's been gone for freaking TWELVE YEARS NOW. Holy COW. TWELVE!!! And New Year's...I don't know. I must be some kind of a freak. I always get melancholy around New Year's. And I have NO REASON TO BE!!!! Isn't that dumbest thing? Can't explain it.

But this coming up year looks to be exciting both in my career, my business, and my family. The career is going fine, but we're about to embark on a CAD replacement for the Command Center, and I fully believe I will be in the thick of that project team. For my business, things are REALLY looking up. I have my new computer set up (complete with my 24 inch DELL widescreen monitor! It ROCKS!!!!!!!!!), and ready to start learning Pyware 3D Java. All 11 bands are on board for next year, plus several more prospects. Possible website coming. Got word from a long-time friend and "composer in residence" in China that they are wanting to start a marching band program out there to compete in the World Show Band--and they may be flying me out to meet with the school administrators. I'm announcing for WGASC. I may be announcing for DCI this summer for the Division II/III folks, but not sure yet. Will be judging my ass off again I'm sure. Writing for 2 corps...maybe 3. Just BUSY BUSY BUSY!!!!

Sorry this blog entry sort of sucks. I'm distracted here at work where I probably shouldn't be writing in my blog. But it's...it's....my 15 minute break. Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeah...that's the ticket.

I can't think of a title for this entry...

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHA! I can't stand trying to think of a title. I hate that. So, I'm just going to type and hopefully something will come to mind.

This past weekend after a week or two of starting to get my chops back, I played trombone three seperate times. On Friday night, I played a trombone solo I adapted from a Chip Davis/Mannheim Steamroller arrangement of "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" for a church Christmas party. It went over VERY VERY well. I then met up with the Onyx Drum and Bugle Corps of Yorba Linda and hung with them for about 2 hours playing Christmas carols for the people walking around in the Eagle Hills development of Brea (side note--VERY VERY cool neighborhood of simply over the top Christmas decorations--you should go!). We were loud. Then, I went to a party over in Corona Hills in the ritzy richy rich area and played the same "Emmanuel" solo for a party...full of...MUSICIANS!!! Yeah...THAT was fun. I knew wasn't doing too hot when I heard half way through my solo a guy in the back do that kind of cough where it serves NO purpose other than to say, "OK--you've had your chance. Now sit down you amateur." Not my best performance in the world.

Can I tell you a little something? I CAN!?!?! Great.

I don't like Christmas very much.

GASP!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?

Yeah, I don't. Wanna know why? Because I'm a very very very complicated man, that while I may be goofy and whimsical or whatever on the outside, I grit my teeth on the inside during this time of year. It has nothing to do with the SPIRITUAL elements of this season. It's just everything else. I would hope that I could get this figured out, but I can't. I was in a REAL REAL serious funk on Monday. I mean--that sort of funk I ain't felt in a long time. It's a combination of missing my mom, longing for my past, remembering those GREAT Christmas' I used to have...and wondering why everything NOWADAYS is so damn complicated. You worry about getting the right gifts, you worry about getting the gift in the first place, you worry about the nutcases that would STEAL your gifts as much as look at you, you worry about the traffic, you worry about making your way to parties, you worry about the decorations, about wrapping the gifts, about whether your own kids are getting the right message about Christmas in the first dang place but you're too wrapped up in your own stresses of work and whatever else to be able to think clearly...arrrrrrrgh. Sorry. I'm a little on RANT mode right now.

I guess I got out of my funk a little today because I, along with the secretary for the Command Center, went and picked up about 300 pounds of donated toys from the north and west OCFA stations to take them down to El Toro Marine Base for the Spark of Love Toy Drive. It was nice to see the generosity of people. If you saw me YESTERDAY however, I would have told you that Orange County is full of the biggest bunch of self-righteous and selfish inbred rat bastards--because Spark of Love was almost 200,000 TOYS SHORT OF THEIR GOAL to get toys out to the needy. 200K!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Give me a FREAKIN' BREAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But apparently there was some "media blitz" put out, and the stations were all overwhelmed with stuff. So it felt good to do what LITTLE I could do to help. Nyleen called me and told me she was taking stuff that SHE had gone out and bought and was going to take it to the fire station for Brea Fire Dept who is also doing Spark of Love. Made me feel good. Or at least better.

I guess the bottom line is that I look around and see myself surrounded in Orange County by PLENTY. I mean...PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNTY. We are a VERY well-to-do society or culture or whatever you want to call it. But the price that's paid is that I find myself and my family getting "caught up" in the WRONG spirit of Christmas. And it's not so much that I want to sit with a Bible on my lap and read the Christmas story over and over--that's not what I'm saying. But on the other hand...

Can life just slow the hell down for a bit, please????

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

This has been a shitty day, and I apologize for the swear word there. But shitty is what it is and I would be dishonest to call it anything else. How was it in this state of shittiness? Let me count the ways...

--Got up this morning EXTRA early on a SATURDAY that I DIDN'T have any marching band stuff to do because my KIDS (love my kids, love my kids, love my kids--must keep loving my kids) are on a different biological clock than their big lug of a dad. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...up I was at 0715hrs today fixing oatmeal, getting on line and chatting with one of my best buds in the whole world (Hi Sheldon!!), and uhhhh...yeah...just kind of chilling. The Warden wakes up, waddles out to the kitchen, sort of grumpy, and takes over child care. I feel that having a Rockstar in the morning is a good way to keep from slipping into a coma, however, it also made me feel like I should repave the driveway, install a new engine in my car, write 108 different drill design ideas for the first 30 seconds of Capital Sound's show, and scratch incessantly at that itchy spot on the side of my left knee. I channeled that energy effectively and proceeded to do my annual post-marching band office cleaning so I can get set up for Drum Corps Hell. This story is WAY TOO FREAKING LONG TURNER!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry.

Must still be dealing with Rockstar poisoning. My day. That's right. Shitty.

Start cleaning office, than The Warden wants to go to our church so she could practice some Christmas dealybobs on the organ. Brought the kids as well, and let them ride bikes around the church parking lot. Begins to RAIN. A LOT!!! That wasn't fun. Get a phone call while my kids are dodging rain drops from a hereunto unidentified friend from another state that wanted to compare notes with me on a similar concern in the drum corps world (not Drum Corps World the news paper) and wanted to plan "some strategy" (which I cannot divulge at this time but the words "fraud", "killing the dreams of kids", and "deceit" were used in this phone call...A LOT...and I, with a nod towards my idol Lee Rudnicki, will CERTAINLY be turning the southern California drum corps scene on its ASS if what I think is happening IS happening...and I will HANDLE with great swiftness and prejudice...that's all for now on THAT). Drive The Warden to Kinko's for last minute copying. Drive around the unbelievably crowded parking lot looking for a spot to wait for her, only to find there WERE NONE, and those of us driving LOOKING for a spot were all (with the exception of me) crazed lunatics ready to kill for a spot. I picked The Warden up a little bit later, drove to the nearest El Pollo Loco because I had a freakin' JONES for a Chicken Verde Quesadilla--HOLY COW those are good--and drove home. I eat the food--actually had a nice lunch with the family around the table in our quaint little dining room. I become very tired...and decide to go to bed. Sleep like a man without sleep for weeks for 2 1/2 hours...God knows I needed it.

Nyleen's stomach, while I'm asleep, decides to make sure she pays dearly for the El Pollo Loco lunch and begins to cramp badly. Don't know what THAT was all about. But in between bouts of wanting to barf, she came up with the idea that we should go to the Mission Inn in Riverside and see all the pretty lights. Pretty lights? Mission Inn? How would you know about that? Ohhhhhhhhhhhh...I see. AOL told her it was one of the Top 10 places in America to see Christmas lights as they had over TWO MILLION strung up. TWO FREAKIN MILLION!?!?!?! Dang. THIS IS GOING TO BE GREAT.

We go pick up sister in law who is recovering from a horrible traffic accident several weeks ago (constant back pain thing), and hit the 91. Allow me to rant for a second. It's freaking Saturday night. It's about 7pm. And the traffic is JUST horrid. It is TIME for something to be done about that freeway. It's just STUPID. Anyway...it's raining and I'm cramped up in the back of my Sequoia because I wanted my SIL to be in the front seat so she could be comfortable and Nyleen gets car sick if she's not in the front--so she drove.

I KNOW THE STORY IS TOO LONG BUT YOU WANTED TO READ THIS DAMN BLOG SO SIT DOWN AND KEEP READING!!!! THERE'S A POINT TO THIS!!!!

As I'm driving out...my boss calls. One of our veteran dispatchers was rushed to the hospital and she's NOT doing well. She's had some significant health issues these past couple of years, and I just fear she's not going to get too far now. I hope this isn't the case, and it was sad news to hear. We show up at Mission Inn, park, walk a freakin' block and half in the rain, walk around, notice about 40,000 of the 2 MILLION lights were actually on (lots of strands were out), and generally...just thought the whole trip sucked. Nyleen started crying because she was frustrated, Michael Ryan wanted to run into the street multiple times in what I can only assume was either misdirected 3 year old abilities to behave, or perhaps, he too was very frustrated and wanted to end his life by getting plowed over by a horse and carriage. Yes. I said horse and carriage. For 20 bucks...you could ride around in one. Uncovered. In the rain. Yeah....REAL fun.

Anyway...we get back ON THE ROAD, head back to the Orange Curtain, and we're hungry. Pull into the Don Jose's on Imperial Highway just off the 91 and get into our seats and order. All by about 8:15. Being 20+ year customers of Don Jose's, we are pretty used to getting our food, even on ULTRA busy nights, within about 10 minutes. IT'S MEXICAN FOOD FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!! 25 minutes later...and 7 buckets of chips later...still no food. I start getting irritated. I look around and see my waiter kabittzing with another table. I make mental note. Next time I see him come out, he goes to another table. Talks to them. Strike 2. Third time I see him, he's hold fried ice cream and a troupe of crooning Mexican waiters is following him to a table to sing whatever the hell they sing in Spanish for a birthday. Strike 3.

I go, quietly might I add, to the front desk, ask for the manager, who happened to be right behind me. Big oaf. Scared the crap out of me. Anyway, I said, "Look, I'm sorry to complain but I'm hungry enough to snap your head off and use your brain as an appetizer. I've been waiting for 30 minutes for our food. Isn't that just a tad long?"

The dude actually looked at me...I SWEAR THIS IS TRUE...looks at me right in the eye and says, "You the party of 20?" First...unless I was struck blind, there was no party of 20 anywhere in the restaurant. Second, where I was sitting, in the very back, was where a party of 20 would be. DEFINITELY no party of 20 back there. And thirdly...I don't care if I was a party of freakin 200, GET ME MY DAMNED FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh...for those that know me and can hear my voice, I VERY irritatedly answered him, "Noooooooooooooooooooo...I'm a party of five. This is outlandish." Now, why I chose the word outlandish I know not. I WAS hungry. Perhaps my speech center in my brain was not up to snuff. Not sure. OUTLANDISH. That's a pretty gay word. Wait. Not gay. More...European. No. More sort of uppity. AND I LIVE IN A MOBILE HOME FOR GOD'S SAKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway...with 23.5 seconds of registering my complaint, magically, my food appeared. And no, I'm not too far off with those seconds. I saw the manager go in the kitchen, and next thing I know, not one but TWO waiters are running to my table with food trays with piping hot food.

Anyway...it was just a day of lots of other little things that would make this entry in the Observations of the H go on WAY too long.

Perhaps tomorrow will be better.

Oh...but no. I had to end the day on a downer note. Just before I started this entry, I found out Yamato is folding for the season. FOR GOD'S SAKES!!!!!!!!!!!!

Milestones...

First time I ever marched a parade
Trombone player--7th grade, with the Boys' Club of Pasadena Marching Youth Band. Somewhere in Huntington Beach, some time in the summer, and the march...March Grandioso and Hey Look Me Over.

First time I was ever a drum major
I think it was the summer before my 9th grade year. For the same Boys' Club Band. Marched in the parade in "downtown" Mammoth Lake. Grand Marshall that year...Erin Moran. Figure it out...

First time I ever performed with the Pasadena High School Marching Band
Football game in 1980. Can't remember. Remember "sketchy" memories of setting up in old Lot 4 at Pasadena City College outside of the old Horrell Field and being nervous as hell because I was about to do what I spent 10 years earlier watching my big brother do. Pretty cool.

First field show I ever performed in with the Pasadena High School Marching Band
I think it was the West Covina Field Tournament but I can't be for sure. I DO remember that we performed there, the Savanna Field Tournament, the Westminster Field Tournament, and the Palmdale Field Show and Band Review. March--Eagle Squadron. I would like to now fully admit, 26 years later, that I never did fully memorize that HARD ASS MARCH. I apologize to Mr. Wickham. I might as freakin' well. Everyone ELSE is reading my stupid blog.

First time I ever almost beat the holy living crap out of a drum major for being an ASS at the West Arcadia Band Review (true story)
Current "courtesy" and tradition is when a drum major passes another drum major they salute each other. Sort of geeky, but sort of cool. Some weird ass military whatever. West Arcadia Band Review--1981, Pasadena High School's drum major (and BAD ASS) Kevin Ramsey was leading us south on Baldwin Ave. We had just gone through the SECOND area where we were supposed to play, called the Tournament of Roses viewing area. That's where TofR folks watch all the bands and take notes. WHATEVER. So we're heading south. I'm a trombone. Front rank. I believe I was right guide--maybe 2nd in. Can't remember. I played loud. What's more to remember? As we're going south, I see a drum major walking by himself northbound on my side of the street. Perhaps he lost his dog. Or his band. I have no clue. He stops--snaps a salute at my drum major. That would be the aforementioned bad ass Kevin Ramsey. Kevin didn't SEE the salute. Saluting drum major felt that was a slight. So he did what any good, decent, ethical drum major in full uniform representing his school would do...and I can see it as PLAIN AS DAY IN MY MIND--I was looking RIGHT at this joker...he flipped off my drum major.

Ohhhhhh...take note, this would be the Pomona HS drum major. I was incensed. He's lucky I didn't drop out of the block and knock him out right there. There was just something inside of me that snapped. I remember getting back to the bus, checking with my DM if he had seen the other DM salute him (He did not), and then, that little obsessive compulsive "I hold a grudge FAR too long" demon inside of me awakened. Either the Pomona HS drum major was going to die...or there would be a very unlucky cat in my neighborhood later that day.

Busses took us to Arcadia HS for food and to get ready for the awards. Out on the big lawn of Arcadia's music building, where little did I know several years later I would actually be an instructor and drill designer and be PART of Arcadia, many different bands sat around and ate their lunches and were relaxing. I was still in uniform, but we wore "togas" to protect our uniform so we could eat. I don't remember the specifics of what happened, but out of the blue, I saw the offending drum major. And in my 10th grade 15 yr old mind, I had a mission. I had to protect my drum major, I had to defend Pasadena High School, and I most CERTAINLY had to teach this guy a lesson that he should NEVER EVER EVER flip off another drum major. EVER.

I walked up to the guy, and told him who I was. I then explained to him that he was #*#&$, and a #()$)@)@$*, with a nice big helping of warning him that a sure and swift death would come upon him and his posterity were he to choose to be that rude again. Funny...his body language was such that he was broadcasting that A) he didn't believe me, B) he didn't want to listen to me and C) should I remain near him, he would in fact kill ME. So therefore, without a word, he turned his back on me. And started to walk away.

Perhaps I wasn't clear...so I tapped him on his shoulder and said I wasn't done. He sighed, you know, that big HEAVE of the shoulders, and turned around.

His attitude changed suddenly. For unbeknownst to him, and to myself, a large contingent of some of our, uhhhh, rougher and darker members of the PHS Band had seemingly come out of nowhere, and were standing behind me.

Message delivered.

First time I competed as a drum major
Tom Peacock competition, some time in March at Katella High School in 1982 at those "L" Pattern Competitions. My first judge ever--Brian Fox. Brian used to be drum major at Pasadena High School back in the 60's. Small world. Since I was totally self taught and didn't know my ass from a hole in the ground, after my "roll off" and 4 whistles, I stepped off, did a nice little flourish with my mace to get it around so I could start beating time, and then, promptly SPIT my whistle out. I still have the tape of Brian Fox laughing at me. Got 2nd place. Laugh at that.

First time I competed as a drum major in a band review
Fall of 1982, Pasadena High School in the Chino Band Review. Was a total and absolutely emotional sack of crap that day. But you wouldn't be able to tell it. I was cool, calm, ultra collected, and we were ready. Got the band lined up at the starting line, waited for my cue from the starting judge, did my roll off routine, did my 4 whistles, did NOT spit it out this time (LOL!), and started to "beat time". In drum major world, you're supposed to cue your salute routine so that when you snap your salute it happens 6 steps before the "salute line" and you hold it for 6 steps AFTER the salute line. I don't get it. But those are the rules. Remember I said you couldn't see I was a nervous mess before? Well you could on my salute routine. Oh, the routine was fine. I even did a "half moon" in the routine--difficult maneuver--and snapped my salute...and realized, I was saluting some other line that was about 40 feet away from the TRUE salute line. So my salute timing was like 29 steps and 6 steps after. Drum major judge said I was great--just learn the damn rules. Gee thanks.

More "firsts" to come...

OK...allow me to geek out for a second.

First...I HAVE to get this off my chest. There's been a lot of press about Princess Diana and her tragic death and whether there was a conspiracy or the driver was drunk or the paparazzi killed her...whatever. My point is this. Is, or was, Diana not one of the most BEAUTIFUL women ever? I sure think so. Just wanted to tell you all. Thank you.

Second...today was the OCFA Holiday Luncheon. All of us at headquarters went over and congregated in this really big open area and had a turkey dinner. As I'm sitting there eating, the A/V guy for the fire department came up to me and says, "Dude, you wanna announce?" My ears perked up. Ohhhhh COME ON!!! ME?!?!?!? ANNOUNCE?!?!?!? :-))))) In any event, one of our big wigs was going to be the MC for the event, and they wanted someone to "announce" him on to stage. So I was "volunteered". LOL!! Oh, I forgot one thing. Said big wig was dressed up--like Borat. On the fly, I was able to announce him on to the stage. It was fun. However, what was even WEIRDER was sitting backstage and "Borat" had two "assistants" who were his "band". Well, ONE of these band members happened to be a former student of mine from my days WAY back in the 80's when I used to teach for the Arcadia HS Apache Marching Band (now California's largest marching band, thank you very much). SMALL WORLD. But it got smaller. Because as I joking around and waiting for my cue to do the announcing, said former student said, "Ohhhhh, and by the way, I read your blog." DOH!!!!!!!!!!!!! And then he said, "And you sure don't spend anytime talking about work!! You just talk about band and judging!" WOW!!! So...now I'm writing about work! YA HAPPY!!!!!???? :-) And how the heck did you know I had a freakin' BLOG!?!?!?!

Third...it tickles me to no end when I consider someone "FAMOUS" reads my blog. I have a vast amount of respect for this person and for HIS blog and for his unbelievable ability to do amazing things with the talents he's been blessed with. I know that sounds geeky, but this is a person who I've given great credit to for me starting my own blog, and I tend to idolize people that make impacts on my life. Not in a weird stalker sort of way. Not in a notebook full of his pictures sort of way. But in a totally HEALTHY manly sort of way!!! LOL!!! But seriously--this person made a goal a couple of years back to pack his bags and head to LA LA Land, and either fail miserably at what he was going to do, or be unbelievably successful. Apparently the LATTER occurred. Which is actually mind-blowing considering that he's breaking into--LITERALLY--the movie making business. And trust me, it's not that I would ever aspire to BE what he is doing (because I have the talent level of a piece of lint in comparison) however, it's HOW he sticks to his guns and makes life a freakin' adventure that just continually inspires me. He makes it seem like being SCARED of doing MORE than what you think you are capable is for PUSSES. And THAT my friends is partly why I wrote 11 shows this season, judged every weekend including NEBRASKA, why I'm sitting in my own office now at the Fire Department, and heading up a whole new "thing" AND organizing a Dispatcher Academy AND doing CQI for EMD's AND being a family man and raising two kids AND doing several music related projects for church. Yeah. I would probably be able to do all of this anyway, but I found a new inspiration this past year.

Soooooooooooooooo...with that--my hats off to Lee Rudnicki--and you can read about his exploits and to what I specifically refer to on HIS awesome blog at http://drumlaw80.blogspot.com/ . And thanks Lee for your example and humor--whacked as it may be.

Let's see...that's about it.

Marching Band is oooooooooooooooover...or IS IT?

Hi fans and friends and fellows...what is? What up? What it be like? Get down, get funky, now get back up...

Boy WHAT a season this has been in the world of marching band. I wrote 11 shows, all of which have indicated to me that apparently I will be returning in the fall (NOT holding my breath--I know the nature of the business MOST definitely). I thought--or I think--or whatever...that I had my MOST successful season in that I had a good time writing, I was pretty dang disciplined (thank you Project Manager part of me), and I just had some really great feedback from some directors. I REALLY do like writing drill--actually, I love it. And I hopefully was able to make it show this year.

But on TOP of the drill writing, I had what I think is a far more successful season judging for the SCSBOA (and that one trip to Nebraska--brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!). More than drill designing, I love judging. The SCSBOA is in some need of some SERIOUS "thinking" about their field show side of things. They have a very capable Vice President (and friend) who hopefully will continue being PROGRESSIVE when it comes to the field competition part of what we do in the music education business. But--I'm quickly turning this paragraph away from what I REALLY want to talk about...AND THAT'S ME!!!!!!!!!! LOL!!! (Those that know me--know I don't like to type ABOUT me--I just like to type about THINGS that I happen to be involved in!!! LOL!!). ANYWAYS--stay on target Turner--judging...yes, judging. As indicated earlier in my blogocrap, I have been a visual performance judge for this past season in SCSBOA. Judged EVERY single weekend plus 2 weeknight shows. Pretty busy. What made this season great for me was the feedback.

You know, it's one thing to have someone email you and say "Thanks for the great tape" or "Your comments were RIGHT on" (which I REALLY appreciated hearing), but it's WHOLE OTHER LEVEL to be on the phone for a substantial amount of time with not one, but TWO different VERY prominent DCI people talking about and in a way defending your judging ability. The two guys I spoke with this semester I respect a lot, and both were professional, friendly, and were able to help me see THEIR viewpoint without bashing me over the head. That was a very cool deal. I felt like the reason that all the trouble was being made by these two to talk to me was that because I MUST have been doing a somewhat decent job in the first place. I mean, I know if I was in their shoes (which I am technically when I put my designer/instructor hat on), I could give two poops about some visual judge's opinion if I felt it was someone not really doing their job well or not really respected in the first place. So...that was cool.

I also had the very unique experience of judging the LAUSD Championships this past weekend. Now, it's pretty well-known that, with very few notable exceptions, music, and more specifically, MARCHING music, is NOT supported in the LA school system. I think they are the 2nd largest school district in the country, but have a pretty horrible music system. Well, someone must have sent them a memo about that a few years back. Because LA has started to turn things around. Their marching band championships was always judged independently--and like I said before, with very few exceptions, there was very little in quality. About 3 or 4 years ago, LAUSD Championship folks contacted SCSBOA and asked for SCSBOA to handle judging of the event. It was the first attempt to bridge what had been described as a bit of a gulf between LAUSD and SCSBOA. To be on this panel was an eye-opener because there were still some bands out there that simply didn't have a clue. BUT, according to some colleagues, what I saw last Saturday was a HUGE improvement from 3 years ago.

SOOOOOOOOOOOO...that being said...CONGRATS TO LA. Some of your bands are WAY on top of it (Granada Hills, Garfield--BIG TIME, Van Nuys, Verdugo Hills, Los Angeles, San Fernando...and yes, EVEN LOCKE HS), others are on the right track. VERY encouraging. Good job LAUSD. And I have to give out a special recognition to someone who seemed to me to be the man in charge of the whole event, and that was a guy named Tony White. What a GREAT guy--and he talked to us judges before the event, and talked about a program called "Beyond The Bell". Some kind of funding or something so maybe music is going to get the lift it needs in LAUSD. Sure hope so. For all the good that I got of instrumental music in high school (especially in marching band), I can hardly believe that anyone would think it's NOT worthy to have for kids nowadays.

OK--well, that's the end of THIS blog. I have a new interface I have to get used to and figure out how to make my blog look better. I'm increasingly tickled by hearing from people that say "Hey man, I read your blog." That AMAZES me.

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--