Wednesday - In the Beginning...

I’ll start this off by mentioning the fact that over the months, I have well run out of apt descriptors for rain. So I’ll kick this off with an epic simile – enjoy.

The rain tumbled to the earth very much in the manner of a boss, spreading his pre-eminence over the land of Mordor. This was quite a change from the October rehearsal, which was by all reports hotter than satan’s armpit.

Either way, we clearly offended more than one rain deity, because the downpour was not only consistent, but consistently heavy. Oh joy.

Once at Cumberland, everyone assembled in the hall (the school being full of students) for much greeting and a music warmup before we all ponchoed (I think that’s the participle, although that in and of itself hinges on ‘poncho’ actually being a verb…) ourselves and headed out to the basketball court to work on the show. Much to the amusement of the Cumberland students watching from the canteen. And much to our dampness.

After about five minutes outdoors, everyone’s feet were squelching around pleasantly in their shoes (N.B.: when I say pleasantly, I say it in a purely ironic sense. Just so we’re clear), with the exception of Imogen and myself who were as always, equipped with the greatest piece of apparel ever invented: gumboots. Moral of the story – gumboots are good.

And whilst on the subject of apparel, those of you who are terribly observant will notice that the new Drumline jumpers have some exciting spelling. Milennium Marching Band indeed.

But on with the story, eventually Katrina took pity on us (rejoice, rejoice) and sent us inside, where we got started on the highlight of every spec experience – the finale dance. Although first we faffed about with our fantastic capes. I won’t really go into that particular experience, because I now have a new entry in my list of ‘things which I have done, but rather wish I had never experienced’: flinging a cape over one’s shoulders whilst wearing a sousaphone. Give it a try some time. It’s harder than it looks.

So, the Spec dance. Another marvel of choreographic technique (this is my sarcasm face). I wept when I saw its genius, the emotion it conveyed (still the sarcasm face). It was a frightfully fun dance though. Especially when in the vicinity of not only Peat and Naomi, but also Keevers and Anthony. I was, however, horrified to discover that a vast majority of students (you know who you are) can’t tell the difference between spirit fingers and jazz hands. Go watch Bring It On. That’ll clear it right up.

There was then more show rehearsing (golly we’re loud), followed by more dance, lunch, and then Thunderbirds. Which brings me to this question – what in the name of all that is shiny and metallic and resonates at frequencies which we interpret to be notes is a Flugelbone? I am at a loss. The mellophones also threw me considerably.

We then Beethovened (another iffy participle hinging on ‘Beethoven’ being a verb) and danced until 3.05, at which point school let out and we hied ourselves to the COLA for some rehearsing on a Spec sized field. And all I can say is that gosh we’re snazzy.

And that was all for the first day of what is arguably the most epic week of the year.