Winning and whinging
Well, kids, the competition season is over. What's that? Well, the local pipe band competition season, of course. Silly.
My pipe band, the defending WUSPBA InterMountain Branch Champions, once again had a kick-ass weekend in Estes Park. Though you'd be hard-pressed to know that, unless you're in one of the bands. Oh, wait.....
Saturday brought gorgeous weather (although fairly windy in the morning), for which I'd like to thank CBB. ;) We competed in the Quick March Medley, which is 4 marches, all the same tempo. Not my best piece, but I managed to not screw anything up too much. And we took 1st place. Quite handily, I might add.
And since we drew 1st in the lineup, I was then free to spend the rest of the afternoon with CBB, exploring the games, and doing something I'd never done before -- watch some of the guest bands. What a marvelous afternoon that was!
Sunday was a much busier day. We competed in the Timed Medley (where you can put together any bunch of tunes you like, as long as the whole selection fits into a specific time length). This is my strongest piece personally, and I think I did fairly well. And once again, we won this one handily.
We turned right around & competed the same piece in a Grade 3 (one grade higher than we're ranked). I messed up a few flourishes in this one, but nothing major, I don't think. We took 2nd behind the only actual Grade 3 band (and our pipers were scored higher than theirs -- wa-hoo!).
The drum salute was a different story. We had no more than 10 minutes from the end of the Grade 3 Medley to warm up & go through this, before performing. We didn't really compete, as there were no other drum corps entered. But still, ya wanna put forth your best effort. And apparently my best effort was wasted in one of the run-throughs. Boy, did I fuck that up. Missed entire phrases. Flubbed flourishes. Ugh. All in all, though, was I less upset than after falling on my arse in Salt Lake? Yes, I guess so. Really wasn't happy, though.
But CBB was right there, not telling me "It's okay", "You were great", all the crap that people generally console you with. He was just there, and let me be cranky, and put his arm around me. Have I mentioned how much I love that?
Now at the last post (massed bands) on Sunday, we find out how we did. We march in, with not nearly as much structure as we should have, play the 2 tunes that the entire massed bands knows, and then patiently stand around, listening to the announcer drone on & on about this Best Clan of the Games and that Best Dog of the Games. And then, as we were expecting to hear the band competition results announced, he asked the drum majors to retire the bands. Wha'? Wait, I mean.....who.... um.......Hey!
He let several hundred pipers and drummers leave the field without knowing the results of their hard work. And BOY, were we cranky about it. Whinging & moaning about how the organizer of the games really just has something against pipe bands. Lots of ideas about how to get the point across to him that the public really enjoys having us there.
Oh, well. It really was a great weekend, all around. Great weather, fabulous company (I got the CBB for the whole weekend.....*grin*), winning stuff, beautiful scenery. And I don't get to do it again until next year.
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P.S. My bad. Credit for us winning really must be shared with our fantastic cinematographer, a.k.a. Video Bitch. We couldn't have done it without him. Okay, technically we could've, but we wouldn't be able to improve nearly as much for next time, without his efforts. MUCH appreciated. Honestly.
My pipe band, the defending WUSPBA InterMountain Branch Champions, once again had a kick-ass weekend in Estes Park. Though you'd be hard-pressed to know that, unless you're in one of the bands. Oh, wait.....
Saturday brought gorgeous weather (although fairly windy in the morning), for which I'd like to thank CBB. ;) We competed in the Quick March Medley, which is 4 marches, all the same tempo. Not my best piece, but I managed to not screw anything up too much. And we took 1st place. Quite handily, I might add.
And since we drew 1st in the lineup, I was then free to spend the rest of the afternoon with CBB, exploring the games, and doing something I'd never done before -- watch some of the guest bands. What a marvelous afternoon that was!
Sunday was a much busier day. We competed in the Timed Medley (where you can put together any bunch of tunes you like, as long as the whole selection fits into a specific time length). This is my strongest piece personally, and I think I did fairly well. And once again, we won this one handily.
We turned right around & competed the same piece in a Grade 3 (one grade higher than we're ranked). I messed up a few flourishes in this one, but nothing major, I don't think. We took 2nd behind the only actual Grade 3 band (and our pipers were scored higher than theirs -- wa-hoo!).
The drum salute was a different story. We had no more than 10 minutes from the end of the Grade 3 Medley to warm up & go through this, before performing. We didn't really compete, as there were no other drum corps entered. But still, ya wanna put forth your best effort. And apparently my best effort was wasted in one of the run-throughs. Boy, did I fuck that up. Missed entire phrases. Flubbed flourishes. Ugh. All in all, though, was I less upset than after falling on my arse in Salt Lake? Yes, I guess so. Really wasn't happy, though.
But CBB was right there, not telling me "It's okay", "You were great", all the crap that people generally console you with. He was just there, and let me be cranky, and put his arm around me. Have I mentioned how much I love that?
Now at the last post (massed bands) on Sunday, we find out how we did. We march in, with not nearly as much structure as we should have, play the 2 tunes that the entire massed bands knows, and then patiently stand around, listening to the announcer drone on & on about this Best Clan of the Games and that Best Dog of the Games. And then, as we were expecting to hear the band competition results announced, he asked the drum majors to retire the bands. Wha'? Wait, I mean.....who.... um.......Hey!
He let several hundred pipers and drummers leave the field without knowing the results of their hard work. And BOY, were we cranky about it. Whinging & moaning about how the organizer of the games really just has something against pipe bands. Lots of ideas about how to get the point across to him that the public really enjoys having us there.
Oh, well. It really was a great weekend, all around. Great weather, fabulous company (I got the CBB for the whole weekend.....*grin*), winning stuff, beautiful scenery. And I don't get to do it again until next year.
------------------------------
P.S. My bad. Credit for us winning really must be shared with our fantastic cinematographer, a.k.a. Video Bitch. We couldn't have done it without him. Okay, technically we could've, but we wouldn't be able to improve nearly as much for next time, without his efforts. MUCH appreciated. Honestly.
posted by PammyJean at 12:31 pm
1 Comments:
What? Not a single word of credit to my cinematography? Anyone would think you performers won the contest by yourselves. Hmph! ;-)
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