Yesterday, November 3, we had a contest in Dallas, Frisco to be exact. Our first perfromance was okay, but we were not real thrilled with it. It made sense that we weren’t spectacular; we replaced our morning rehearsal with a five hour bus ride. SUCKED. Anyway, we waited for the finals announcement. Turns out we were fourth in prelims, and after a little questioning, we found out that we were best in class as well. Sweet. I thought that our finals performance was good, and apparently it was really good. I was on the outside of the after-performance-band-huddle, so I didn’t hear what the directors had to say. It’s awesome that we had a great run-through before we go to State. Then we went home, but ended up stopping like 4 times. I woke up a few times just to see the positions my comrades had fallen into. Hilarious. We got home a little later than anticipated. Actually, we got home two hours later than anticipated… When I pulled into my driveway, the clock read 5:07, of course, with the time change, it was really 4:07 (am). But holy cow. I woke up at 6:30am Saturday (little late) and went to sleep at 5:30am Sunday. Man.

After years of keeping the “s word” under the table, the Dripping Springs band is going, We are going, to the AAAA State Marching Contest. It’s a big deal. It’s a Morgan was crying big deal. That’s why I’m blogging about it. (I noticed that all the band kids are “Myspace” bulletining this news, but the band website blog is most definitely the way to go.) I’ve been slacking a lot with the whole blogging scene. I know you all miss my wit and spunk, and I’ve missed seeing quotes from my blogs on the sweet pictures upstairs… So yes. We had a wonderful prelims performance, like really, really good. Then we went and caught some grub, chilled for a bit and headed back to the stadium for a finals performance.

Finals was NICE. We were smokin’; we had our music sounding ‘rad’. Everything came together and the results of our dedication and commitment to the “game” were quite evident.

Everytime we perform kids will ask me “how’d it go?” because they honestly don’t know. Everyone knew that “today we went from good to great.”

Michelle is here to blog again… after taking a break to *finally* adjust to high school marching band, homework, and whatnot. Our first contest (the Hendrickson contest) was last weekend and we placed third in the division above the one we were supposed to be in. Long story short. Remember what I said about our unluckiness and stuff a couple of posts back? We got rained on at Hendrickson, just like the Hutto football game! But unlike Hutto, we actually got to perform that day, after all the rain went away. By that time all of the bands in our division kinda got on buses and left so they squished us in with the 5A bands. During the rain we were in the school’s gym playing mind games (at least the flutes were), my little brain couldn’t comprehend half of them. Anyway, I felt really bad for the people who were sitting in the stands waiting for us when the tornado came (yes, we were under tornado watch… or warning, whatever). I had invited one of my friends from Round Rock to come out and watch us perform and she ended up getting soaked!

Speaking of my friend in Round Rock, I got to see her perform (with the Round Rock High School band) yesterday at the Capital City contest! I was so excited because she kept on telling my about her band’s drum majors having capes… and I got to see them for the first time yesterday! They were pretty nifty if you ask me, I think we need capes too! I had told Allie about my friend in Round Rock at the Hendrickson contest but we never got to see her because of the rain and all. So I told her that we would meet Helene at the Capital City contest. Their band performed at six thirty something and by the time they got up in the stands it was time for the awards. That’s when Allie started doubting that Helene actually existed. It was about this time that Mr. Lancaster moved us over to the visitor stands so we could get out of the parking lot faster and avoid bus traffic. We walked right past the Round Rock band but there were so many of them it was impossible for me to find Helene. Allie was giving me this look like, “You’re insane Michelle, where’s your made up friend?” Lol, but she found me at the end and Allie met her (for about five seconds) so it’s all good!

Our band placed second in the 3A division, first was Akins. Our colorguard won outstanding colorguard again and our band got the “Best General Effect” award at the very end. It was a pretty interesting day.

Sorry it has been so long since I have blogged (is that with two ‘G’s?) School and band has been CRAZY. The Tiger Band is doing excellent this marching season even though we have only been to two contests.  The USSBA contest was fun. We placed 3rd in the divison above ours. After a week of hard work, Cap City came along and we got 2nd place! Yeahhh! Some people were “angry” that we go 2nd. You can’t be angry about something like that; our performance was really good.  Anyways, next week is Westlake…my personal favorite contest. I think it is a lot of fun and I like the opportunity to perform twice…it’s always fun. This is also the one contest my mom chaporones with Paige’s mom…Every year at Westlake it is always different what place we get. in finals it is so much fun to listen “and 6th place goes to….(not DS)” and our band claps because we know it wasn’t us… “and 5th place goes to…(not DS)” and we clap harder, again, because it is not us…and until we get a place it is so exciting. I love that energy.
Reminder no Monday night practice…but a Tuesday night one…yeahhh…
until next time.

Today was our second contest at Capital City in Burger Stadium. I was so excited because I had been told that every year we’ve gone to that contest, we always got first, always. But we still kept our focus, and boy, you sure could tell. I think it was our best performance up to date, and thought for sure we were going to win first again.

Sadly, I was wrong. We got second with an (86.something) while Akins got first. We didn’t get to see them, but I had heard that they played VERY well and that their show was very entertaining. Plus, they were a 5A band. And we were sooooooooooo close to making first again!!! Still, we got Best Colorguard and Best General Effect (Or G.E. as we like to call it).  I think we’re suppose to add more G.E. moves onto the show for next weeks game, and contest. (All compliments to Mr. Woods) So, hopefully, we’ll continue becoming a better, stronger band, and be at least one step closer to going to state this year!!!

Megan

So you know that phrase, “It can’t possibly get any worse!” and how everytime someone says it in a movie or something…it gets worse. Well, I think that there was some of that phrase going around last night, but we proved ‘em wrong! First, let me just give you a brief of the happenings that occurred last night. I had to deal with a uniform that was ripping apart at the seams, which was the first of many problems. On Friday, when we got our uniforms we noticed that they had been washed, and we also noticed they SHRANK! So on Friday night when I took my uniform off it had about 3 holes in it, one of which is about 2 inches long. So we get to Hendrickson yesterday and everything is going peachy, nice breeze, good cloud cover, it was nice. We start warm-up everybody’s feeling good, then this huge gust comes out of nowhere and in the near distance you can literally SEE rain coming! We had an immediate INvacuation, everybody booked INto the arts department of Hendrickson H.S. where we sat, and sat, and sat. Luckily our band just happened to be right next to the door when the rain came, and the guard had just finished warming up in the adjacent tennis courts. So naturally we were the first inside, we got a nice spot in the gym with L.T. Band. Everybody kept their cool and after the instruments were dry, we started to relax. And F.Y.I. I went to the bathroom and the other bands that were in the cafeteria were pretty much like crazy monkeys, so I was really proud of our band. After a bit we sang through the show, got some applause from onlooking groups, did some standing runs and we were off the compete our 4a show with a bunch of 5a bands. Then we get the extra bit of news, the turf is soaked and if we wear our dance shoes they will get ruined, so it was barefoot for the guard. I got some splinters and my feet are still a little raw from the turf stuff, but I did not slip and fall on my face! Then we are ready to change out and enjoy the rest of the evening when we find out that the buses are GONE! I mean they are BIG, YELLOW, and they say DRIPPING SPRINGS on the side! About an hour later we found them and walked arcoss the campus to finally get out of our uniforms. About an hour after that we all left, (save for Mr. Lancaster and Mr. Woods) and went to get a bite to eat. So that was the gist of the evening, and these were the results! The band recieved 3rd place against the 5a groups! and Color Guard recieved 1st place! Yeah! Well I have home work to do so I gotta go!

nat-O-lie

Ok so everybody better eat well, and sleep a lot, cuz I have a big feeling that this week is going to be major crack down on the show. There is no game this weekend which means the directors have TWO WEEKS to make us what they will before the USSBA contest, and for some I don’t think it is going to be pretty. Better take a before and after photo, because I am thinking after these next two weeks we are going to be marching like robots, robots with good style! Plus Mr. Woods just got back from flag fest in Orlando and is probably itching to throw some cutting edge flag technology on our behinds. SO, be ready!

nat-O-lie

Ah, I love the feeling of being in uniform again! I love it way better than the informals. With the formals, I actaully feel like I’m apart of the band. I remember my first game in them as a freshman. There was no better feeling (except at contests). Even through all the scorching hot, and blistering cold games, you just had to love that uniform. However, at the game last night against, you couldn’t help but feel a bit miniscule next to the humongous Akins Band. They’ve always been a massive, 5A band, and I just had a feeling that someone was going to want to play “the hero” for the night. But I was so pleased that no one did though. We stuck to exactly how we rehearse it everyday, and that was what made such a great performance! Plus, the guy that wrote our show this year was there (I forget his name) and he was making notes like crazy on what to add to make the show even better! And although we have a LOT to clean by the Hendrickson Contest (which is in 2 WEEKS), I heard that he really liked what we’ve done with the show so far.

Oh wow, tonight (or I should say Friday night) was not only our first true away game (since Hutto got rained out), but also our first game in our uniforms! And guess what? I’ve already learned to hate Shakos (but not the plume on top since everyone loves feathers!) I told one of my friends that if I blow into my flute hard enough while wearing a shako I just might pass out. But I’m not going to test that anytime soon.

Anyway, we drove down to Burger center on Friday night for the football game against Akins. For the half-time show the band played for the Hi-Steppers first and then we did our show. That included Savannah River Holiday Opener, Mississippi Suite Ballad, and Huckleberry Finn. We spent this past week adding on the third section of our show but we only had about three days to rehearse it because we got rained out one day during the week (I don’t remember when it was).

That’s pretty much all I have to say about the game other than the fact that our uniforms are very hot and stuffy to be in. By the way, if anyone cares, we won football game against Akins. Also, if you’re wondering about the title, I think this is the shortest blog I’ve ever written for band, lol. Bye guys and have a nice day!

Well, I”m really tired so I’ll keep it short. I also want to apologize beforehand that I probably won’t make perfect sense with my incoherent mind. Anyways, we had our first away performance at the Tony Burger center. It was also our first formal uniform show so the band hall was a crazy mess before we left. The guard actually didn’t have to change on the bus this year which was nice. To be completely honest, Andrea spent both bus rides watching anime (FMA). Yeah, we know we’re dorks. Anyways, we didn’t stay in the stands long when we arrived because we wanted extra practice. I wasn’t as focused as last game so I had some problems in the practice. Not to mention in the show I had a drop and had to fudge some work to get back in. And my quad was a half too less which was irritating. I also want to mention that from my point of view, the band sounded a little timid. They weren’t as loud and proud as usual. In the stands, that seemed to mostly dissipate. Iron man was particularly good. So that’s my take on our game.