#colts2015

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This sky aprrecoation is brought to you by PTHS! Thanks OTown and te Panthers for all the support! See you in August!

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Day 1 Back Home:

I slept til 8:30. My body doesn't know what to do with this extra energy. Food is scarce and not readily cooked. I may die here. The search for the PB&J table continues, but I’m afraid all is lost. Send help soon.

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So when they said drum corps would be hard, I didn’t realize it would be pull a muscle, over do it, then have to go home for a week hard.  Only been home for an hour and can’t wait to get back to the Colts in DeWitt next Sunday. Pop ‘n lock, boys and girls. Pop ‘n lock.

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Please take a look at this giraffe.

Oh crap my bad guys. I meant graph.

That's much better. Ok so a quick rundown of this lovely thing right here that I have made with the glorious program that is Excel 2003. So, as the title reads, this is my DCI Fund. On the right side, you will see what each of these color coded slices represent. I need a total of $3,200 to march Colts this summer. This will cover everything I need/do save for a couple meals and laundry expenses. So far, I've paid off $1,428 and have another $50 in hand that can go towards paying off some of the fees. That leaves me with a (somewhat) measly $1,722 left to pay! It would be really awesome if you would help me by giving me money with nothing in return, by donating through the non-profit Colts Drum and Bugle Corps, or by helping me and my younger brother (WGI bass drummer) pay our fees by buying:

DCI Coordinate Bracelets! 

We'll have the Etsy shop up in the next few days, but if you would like one of these bracelets, please contact us either through here, on Facebook (Gabriel Cabrera or Cristiano Cabrera), or on Twitter (@Phan1994 or @BandAddict97). We will take your order, corps name, and will send you a payment link so we can finish the order before the shop is up and running. Right now, we only have the bracelet shown above. These are going to run $20 a piece plus S/H. We hope to have more options available in the future and will let you know when we have the capability to make other variations. All profit from these sales will be split 50/50 between us and go towards our DCI and WGI fees for the 2015 season!  I hope ya'll have a great day and will consider helping us pay our fees this season!

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And the show title is...

Well I'll get back to that in a bit. So this past weekend (February 20-22) marked the fourth Colts' camp for the 2015 season. It was only my third, but it was beyond incredible.  Now I will say this: getting singled out is not fun. Especially on an instrument you've been "playing" for all of a month. Most of you will agree. Those of you who don't? Well you might be slightly sadistic, but you do you. Anyways, so this camp was primarily about the brass (thank you WGI for giving guard and percussion an excuse out of coming) and the music for the show. And it's so boring yet so incredible! To sum up the experience, one must play the same four whole notes over and over and over and over again just to get an idea of what the ballad is like. To understand the opener's technicality, just take a grade three or four clarinet etude and play it on the tuba. Nothing overly difficult, really. But to be completely serious, this music is challenging but, simply put, brilliant. It all connects so well and tells the story exactly how we're wanting to tell it. The mood swings are all over the place and (I think bookshelfpeppermint will agree) the hit in the ballad is beyond description. I could already see the crowds standing to cheer and it's only February. We still have a closer to tack on, people! Enough about music: let's talk about marching. One thing that I really noticed a lot of (and I probably did it too honestly) was that EVERYONE, even vets, had issues with straight leg at tempo. Obviously some were worse off than others (I'll go ahead and point you to the Cavaliers with that bicycling horse shit), but for the most part the general issue was the breaking of the knee. So what I'm really saying is this: if you've got the playing down, don't let the visual aspect intimidate you. Sure, holding the horn will suck and the PT is a nightmare, but dudes and dudettes, I witnessed a four year vet who was breaking his knees during the block. It's hard. So please don't skip out on this opportunity just because you can't lift your horn/drum or can't nail that perfect roll step on the first try. Don't cut yourself before you even get to the camp! So we finished up camp with the parent performance (killed it) and by cleaning Thomas Jefferson Middle School (how is your mascot NOT the bald eagle???). On the ride home, my wonderful ride buddies fell asleep on me and I was left to my own thoughts and a little bit of Barber's Adagio. I really began to wonder why it was I do this. I guess everyone has their own reason. Some do it because friends/family did. Others do it for the placement or the score. Still others  do it as a way to enhance their musicianship. I personally don't do it for any of those reasons. I think my reasoning is a little unique, actually. You see, I don't really care where we end up score or placement-wise. Would it be cool to get that Saturday performance and a medal? Suuuuuuure. But that's not why I'm here. I actually just want to perform again at a level that I know I should be at. Now that's not to knock any other corps or even college marching bands (though I don't hold many in high regard). Far from it. It's just that the high school I attended instilled an idea of excellence in me that I didn't see in others at a drum corps until I got to the Colts. And bear in mind I've been going to auditions for close to 3 years now. I love to be on the field in competition. To be able to march into a stadium and know that the crowd is there for US and not some jocks in tight pants and pads. That's why I do this. Whether the audience is 10 or 10,000, I love to go out onto that field and give a damn good show. Nothing less.  Well I'm very excited for this summer and what the Red Team will do. Heads are going to turn, I guarantee that. Oh right, the show title! Well the show will be called... I can't tell ya'll yet. Sorry! But be on the look out. They should be letting everyone know in the next few weeks! NEW PEEPS I MET George - Trompeta Jackson - Tu-bahhhh Becca - Spinny Thingy Erwin - Yooph

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Last Colts member from O'Fallon made head DM in 2011. Last Colts member from the University of Kentucky was head DM in 2014. Shoes to fill? Possibly.

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Ayyyyyyyyyy

There's camp this weekend! Can't wait to see everyone again and get crackin on the ballad. Ya'll are going to love this show.

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Drum Corps

The only thing that makes you lose money faster than drugs and gambling.