I hate the realization that I forgot my camera...
Thank God for blackberry's.
It happened a lot in Scotland.I had this lovely wee bag me ma picked out for my new video camera. Not as festive as you might think, just black, with the Guinness logo on it. Still attaching said small bag to my person for the jaunt to the Todd seemed a bit Fanny Packish.
Alas some of my fondest memories of the trip remained uncaptured, only to be relived in my mind.
Probably for the best....
This weekend Wes and I are pointed the Chevy due south for Sioux Falls. I've written about the Dakota and District pipe band before, a great organization with a heart of gold. Wes and I pop down round Burn's day to celebrate and work with this wonderful group. However this year, I left my camera at home.
Last years video was my own attempt at a documentary on prairie pipe band life (driving through rain, sleet, frozen fog, and near death) and I genuinely enjoy watching those clips. Alas this year shall be a no go.
I'm sure the drum corps are glad my memory card is full of videos from Scotland and Christmas instead of rehearsals, but I'm vowing to change that this week.
Out comes the camera and I'm going into John Madden mode.
"Now you see here this guy wants get the paradiddle there , BOOM, and this guy needs to crescendo the this there, BOOM" I'm sure the corps will be pleased.
Have a great weekend....
Hey, you know who had incredible rolls.... BRETT FAVRE!!!
Cheers,
Sean
Friday, January 21, 2011
Thursday, January 13, 2011
January and Cold
Happy New Year
It's cold here in the Peg, and snowy... I haven't left the apartment today as I'm dealing with a touch of the flu. Not surprising given the past weekends schedule.
We have had a busy week or so since returning from our time off.
Grade 3 and Grade 2 bands had a great weekend workshop with our good friends Jake Watson, and Graham Brown. Both are leaders in the Peel Regional Police Pipe Band, and experts at their craft. Needless to say both bands learned a great deal.
I know the grade 2 band enjoyed their time together. The band actually started to sound great. Not balls to the walls like June would be, but solid, tuned, tight, and generally improved from last season. That's always our goal.
The grade 3 band, on the other hand, I think learned the most. This was the first time that section of our association got to spend some time with Mr. Watson, and have a workshop in general. For those who have worked with, or watched Jake work, it takes a few moments to toughen your skin. He tells it like it is. Which is how Wes, and I, like it. He never pulls a punch. I think this was a bit of a change for the grade 3 band. They're used to Wes harping at them, however I think they just chalk that up to him being constantly grumpy : )
What I think they learned, and after speaking with a few of them I've confirmed this, is that there is always work to be done, and that Wes and I aren't nuts... well we may be nuts, but we have a clue as to what we're talking about.
It's difficult when you only hear one person tell you how to this, when to do that, why we do the other, you tune them out a bit after awhile. I know I do. These workshops are great, because though Jake comes in a reiterates a lot of what has been said, he says it in a different way that clicks with some folks.
Then he just fixes everything else.
Either way, both bands sound awesome out the gate this season, I'm very pleased.
We also had the wonderful chance to keep Graham a few extra days. Graham is a fun loving, experience driven type of dude. "what would you like to do today Graham?"... "well if we go for lunch I'd like to hit a mom and pop 'best of' type joint" he seems to like new things and stepping outside his comfort zone. Needless to say he fit right in.
So after hitting a local diner for lunch we went out to Juvenile practice on Monday night, Graham gifted some of his knowledge to our youngest students, I hope someday they'll remember that experience. We also managed to keep Graham in town long enough to have him at Tuesday's band practice where we got to confirm our changes and decisions we'd made on the weekend.
Generally, I like making friends in the pipe band world, I can confidently say Graham has been adopted by the SASPB gang much like John Fisher, and Jake, and I'm very glad to have another high level player I can email when i'm in a jam.
I think it was a fantastic weekend and we all will be pulling for Graham at Winter Storm this weekend coming up.
Stay warm folks,
Cheers,
Sean
It's cold here in the Peg, and snowy... I haven't left the apartment today as I'm dealing with a touch of the flu. Not surprising given the past weekends schedule.
We have had a busy week or so since returning from our time off.
Grade 3 and Grade 2 bands had a great weekend workshop with our good friends Jake Watson, and Graham Brown. Both are leaders in the Peel Regional Police Pipe Band, and experts at their craft. Needless to say both bands learned a great deal.
I know the grade 2 band enjoyed their time together. The band actually started to sound great. Not balls to the walls like June would be, but solid, tuned, tight, and generally improved from last season. That's always our goal.
The grade 3 band, on the other hand, I think learned the most. This was the first time that section of our association got to spend some time with Mr. Watson, and have a workshop in general. For those who have worked with, or watched Jake work, it takes a few moments to toughen your skin. He tells it like it is. Which is how Wes, and I, like it. He never pulls a punch. I think this was a bit of a change for the grade 3 band. They're used to Wes harping at them, however I think they just chalk that up to him being constantly grumpy : )
What I think they learned, and after speaking with a few of them I've confirmed this, is that there is always work to be done, and that Wes and I aren't nuts... well we may be nuts, but we have a clue as to what we're talking about.
It's difficult when you only hear one person tell you how to this, when to do that, why we do the other, you tune them out a bit after awhile. I know I do. These workshops are great, because though Jake comes in a reiterates a lot of what has been said, he says it in a different way that clicks with some folks.
Then he just fixes everything else.
Either way, both bands sound awesome out the gate this season, I'm very pleased.
We also had the wonderful chance to keep Graham a few extra days. Graham is a fun loving, experience driven type of dude. "what would you like to do today Graham?"... "well if we go for lunch I'd like to hit a mom and pop 'best of' type joint" he seems to like new things and stepping outside his comfort zone. Needless to say he fit right in.
So after hitting a local diner for lunch we went out to Juvenile practice on Monday night, Graham gifted some of his knowledge to our youngest students, I hope someday they'll remember that experience. We also managed to keep Graham in town long enough to have him at Tuesday's band practice where we got to confirm our changes and decisions we'd made on the weekend.
Generally, I like making friends in the pipe band world, I can confidently say Graham has been adopted by the SASPB gang much like John Fisher, and Jake, and I'm very glad to have another high level player I can email when i'm in a jam.
I think it was a fantastic weekend and we all will be pulling for Graham at Winter Storm this weekend coming up.
Stay warm folks,
Cheers,
Sean
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