For the ex-band moms

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jfugina
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For the ex-band moms

Post by jfugina »

I know some of you ladies were band moms in your prior life. So I thought I'd post a video of our band's finals performance from last night. In the prelims, we took first place for our division (which was the "smaller" division - I think they went by band size on this one). We also won the caption award for best music and best visuals.

Then for finals, the top 12 bands all compete again without divisions. We were 2nd place overall, and took the overall captions for best visuals and best overall effect.

The show will have four movements when all is said and done. They did 3 of the 4 yesterday in prelims, and even though they got first, they must have lost major points on the third movement, because they took it out for finals. Anyway, we're competing for the next 4 weeks, adding a little more to the show each time. Here is the link to their finals performance last night. It's so hard to see the details in the video, but the sound is there. :-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-0SMleq5Jo
Julie Fugina
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pugmom
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Re: For the ex-band moms

Post by pugmom »

I'm not a band mom, past or present, but that was great! what instrument does Nicole play?
Sue in NC (formerly known as Sue in Colorado)
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pbp908
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Re: For the ex-band moms

Post by pbp908 »

:clap: Congratulations to all of the band for their achievements last night!

At this stage most bands don't perform their entire show. It's still fairly early in competition season, and they'll only improve as the season goes along. (The warm weather doesn't help a bit, either.) They have a great sound and I'm looking forward to seeing the complete show!
Pam P.
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jfugina
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Re: For the ex-band moms

Post by jfugina »

Sue - she plays trumpet, and loves it. :cool5:

Pam - I am SUCH a fangirl of this show! Marching band today is not at all what it was when I marched 30 years ago. What these kids can do on the field simply blows my mind, and I put in enough years on the field to know it's impressive. I did about 5 years with a mellophone, and two years with guard between HS and college.

I'll definitely share the final show. Someone is always doing a video. I've generally been on the track, which is not a good vantage point. I'll take a turn off of prop duty some home game so I can see the final show, but for the moment, the parent army they already have isn't enough, so I'll be on the field with them setting props (as will Jake). Rob has been on pit crew every single performance this year, and he's been on the equipment trailer crew every time we've traveled. Now THAT is a job! Our main trailer isn't big enough to just roll stuff in - it has to be packed very systematically or it won't all fit. And it takes at least 60 minutes to load. I've been on uniform duty for all of the home games, and most of the kids now recognize me as someone who can resolve uniform issues.

For the moment, Rob and I are the only new freshman parents who have volunteered at this level. And it's tough, because there are a lot of upperclass parents who are "alphas", and I was shocked to learn how exclusive they can be. But Rob and I wanted to be involved, so we pushed and shoved our way in, regardless of whether they wanted us or not (kinda how we did with scouts, come to think of it :lol: ). I've seen many other freshman parents show up once, and then just stay the heck out of the way. I need to keep this feeling in my head, because Rob and I don't want to turn into *those* parents a few years down the line. Jake is looking at starting on drums next year (6th grade), so we're potentially looking at 8 straight years of booster work, and could very find ourselves on the board at some point.

Next week will be extremely rough, because we're traveling 3 hours away, and we don't have nearly as many parents making the trip. AND, it's the same weekend as Rob and Jake's cub scout pack camp, and with Rob being a pack leader, he can't exactly skip. The campground reservation is in his name, and he's the pack cook. He does all of the shopping and cooking for 4 meals for about 100 people. :shock: I've found myself a carpool though, so I'm sure I'll be on the prop crew again.

Thanks for watching the video and taking an interest. I'm going to start sounding like Chirsty pretty soon - where the "what did you do this weekend" question can be answered on my behalf by anyone, because it's the same thing all the time. But I've been looking forward to this for a very long time, so it's all good.
Julie Fugina
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pbp908
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Re: For the ex-band moms

Post by pbp908 »

The track is a great place for taking photos, though. I did it for 4 years, games and competitions. :lol: That was in addition to pit crew, sound system, uniforms, equipment trailer, concessions, fund raisers - you name it, I did it, and carried that huge camera bag every step of the way.

We were very lucky in that we had a semi and 40' trailer to move the bulk of the equipment. The driver volunteered his time and his fuel to haul which saved the boosters a ton of money. The uniforms and whatever didn't fit in the big trailer George and I hauled in an 18' trailer. There was nobody available to pull the small trailer, so we bought an F350 specifically to do that. (I hated it when George started loosing his sight and we sold it. Loved that big truck.)

Enjoy this time - I miss it! Now one of "our" kids is the band director here, so it seems it's all coming full circle.
Pam P.
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Re: For the ex-band moms

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Our booster president tows our bigger trailer with his personal F150, and I think that fully loaded, it's right at the max of what his truck will tow. Rob could tow the uniform trailer with his Jeep, or he could tow the gator, but those jobs are taken at the moment. The booster president and the parents that tow the gator have juniors, so they'll need towing help starting with Nicole's junior year. Nicole starts driving (potentially) next school year, and we're hoping for her to inherit my Pilot, which will be damn near 14 years old at that point, but that leaves me to buy something new. We are legitimately pondering a big truck that will tow a minimum 8K lbs loaded camping trailer (something we don't own, but would like to own eventually). And if we can do that, we could tow the equipment trailer. However, while I don't mind having a truck as my daily driver, I do mind the likely cost of gas for my 60 mile daily commute. We'll just have to see.

We have a couple of photographers on the field, one of whom is the director's wife. Their daughter is a sophomore, so I'm not sure if her photography interest only correlates to her kids participation, of if that's just what she does. My photography equipment is worthy, but not my skills. :lol: So lugging camera equipment will never be worth the effort for me.

What I'm looking forward to now, is seeing how the booster meetings play out for the rest of the year, because I think that in November, they get all of their committees together for the following year, which is why the freshman parents are left so completely in the dark. Once Rob and I become better known by the veterans, we hope to contribute more effectively. Right now we just show up and and say "I volunteered for equipment; what do you want me to do?" and go from there. We do already know though, that this will be our life for potentially the next 8 years. We just have to get through the frustration of being "the freshmen", just like our kid.
Julie Fugina
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paddlegal
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Re: For the ex-band moms

Post by paddlegal »

Julie this brought some tears of nostalgia to my eyes. I miss those days but got to enjoy 7 years of Charley's MB experiences. Nicole must have felt pumped after that fabulous performance. Thank you for the link! Charley doesn't have time to play the trumpet much while in law school but he tutors trumpet to one student who is now a junior in his old HS and has been teaching him since 4th grade. MB is a wonderful community for kids to be in. Happy to hear Jake is going for drums.
FARLEY in Sacramento
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jfugina
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Re: For the ex-band moms

Post by jfugina »

Here are a couple of photos for you. It will be a bit before I can get everything scrapped, but it will get scrapped! I assure you! One is Nicole's "band button" photo. There is a professional photographer who takes these pics for free, and allows us to download the originals for free. The boosters use these photos to make photo buttons and sell them. Most parents buy new buttons every year, and wear them to games and contests.

The other is from yesterday, between prelims and finals, when the band kids change into their show shirts. We got a family selfie - the first picture that exists of the four of us in matching shirts. :-)

Sorry about the size of that button photo. Can't figure out the resizing on this mac.
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Julie Fugina
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paddlegal
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Re: For the ex-band moms

Post by paddlegal »

Wow that's really nice of the photographer! Great idea of the band button. That's a new one on me. Wish we had done something like that. Nicole is so pretty and darling photo of you 4 band geeks. :D
FARLEY in Sacramento
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jfugina
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Re: For the ex-band moms

Post by jfugina »

Thanks Farley. I adore the band buttons. The first time I saw parents with them on I immediately wanted one. We ordered 6, I think. My mom and sister will be attending two of the competitions, and wanted buttons to wear themselves.
Julie Fugina
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pbp908
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Re: For the ex-band moms

Post by pbp908 »

Love the button idea. And I absolutely love the photo of Nicole with her trumpet! You do know that you'll be purchasing a Bach any time now, don't you?? :lol:
Pam P.
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jfugina
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Re: For the ex-band moms

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pbp908 wrote:Love the button idea. And I absolutely love the photo of Nicole with her trumpet! You do know that you'll be purchasing a Bach any time now, don't you?? :lol:
Yeah, um.... NO. I mean, I'm proud of her accomplishments and all, but the child has two trumpets, one of which lives at home full-time and one that never leaves the band room. Yet she almost NEVER practices. If she practiced, and was obsessed at all with her sound and her accuracy, then I'd consider an investment. But not otherwise.
Julie Fugina
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Re: For the ex-band moms

Post by jfugina »

Our band almost swept the competition this weekend! First place in prelims, outstanding music, visual, percussion and guard caption awards as well. In finals, they got everything except the outstanding visuals caption, which actually went to one of our sister schools. That sister school also got second in our division in prelims and 3rd in finals. Overall, it was a great day for our district bands. :-)

The show is almost done. They stopped about half way through the final movement, but I have no doubts they'll have that last bit ironed out before next weekend's competition. And that next one is close to home, so that will be super nice.

Here's a video from finals last night. I'm in love with their music, and their show overall continues to excite me. I'm always on the track at competition, due to being on the prop crew. But when other parents post a video, I watch it over and over, because there's so much to see. Love it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss6Bge6 ... e=youtu.be
Julie Fugina
#26 in the order of the PAO
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Re: For the ex-band moms

Post by Debbie J »

Nice video, they sound good. I played clarinet in concert band and snare drums in marching, we always had fun!!
ScrappinJen

Re: For the ex-band moms

Post by ScrappinJen »

Congrats. I have no knowledge or experience with band people. Other than to know that it takes over your life. In our case, it was swim meets. Same thing, different event.
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