So here's the story. Band comsumes my life between the 27th of june and the 15th/16th of july. If you wish to contact me, email is still a good option. Another option is to find me down and the stampede grounds.

The Brief Daily Stampede Schedule looks like this:
12:30pm - Enbridge Stage (saddledome steps)
1:45pm - Various locations on park for brass choir (2pm back at the endbridge stage for the lazy ones)
6:45pm - more various locations on park with brass choir
8:45pm - enbridge stage (big show)
10pm - Grandstand show (act 1 for us)
10:30pm (mon-thurs only!) The late show with... the stampede showband (no guests :P)
Tuesday of stampede - 3pm&6pm - Saddledome (our field show! come watch!)
Wednesday of stampede - Mcmahon Stadium - 6pm - MACBDA Finals (last field show for us! be there or be...cool?)
and of course, find us at the front of the stampede parade.

That wasn't too brief. In fact that was quite detailed. Fuck it, I don't want to delete it now.

So, tour in 2 days, b-day in 1. Still undecided what I want to buy for my bday, be it stuff for the studio or stuff for me. Can't decide between nice digital camera for myself or microphones/control surface for the studio. Funny enough, the microphones are cheaper than the camera bundle. But the control surface is on par. Now the question is what would I use more......

Band has taken an upward swing from my last post. It's alot beter than I made it seem. I love the band for what it is. its just that I may be starting to move beyond the band. My sights are set on the ultimate, the top of the sport. DCI. Blue Devils. One of the best brasslines in the world.
one day...

First off a funny story. Actually not too funny, just crazy. One of our delivery trucks was stolen from work today. The back door had just been closed as some idiot jumped in the cab and drove off. Of course we stress all day, and at 5pm we get a call from a lady who can't get out of her driveway because a willow park truck has been parked in front of it all day. Of course it's our missing truck, and it traveled 10 blocks away. Pitiful thief...

There is a man who has great visions for change. However, the change he envisions may not be the best changes for the organization.
I don't really know why he's doing this. We do not need a 'Guest Rhythm Section' , we're a frikin marching band. But maybe we're becoming less of a marching band. Several woodwind players I've talked to hate their instructor. That's fine, maybe he's not suited for teaching. It's a very tough job to be a great teacher. Some can't stand him enough that they are quitting or switching sections for next year. If that keeps up. we'll soon be a corps. We're not supposed to be a friggin corps. There is another instructor who needs to realize that as well. Yes we now have great volume. It doesn't mean we have to use it all the time, drowning out the woodwinds. At the same time, you don't need to keep introducing fresh exercises/pieces this late in the year. Why learn new stuff when we should be spending our time working on our current music? Oh wait, we don't do that anyways. We warm up all the fucking time. Oh, and if you want us louder, how about getting more numbers to bulk up the sound, as opposed to making us blast the whole time and sounding like ass? But, oh wait, we'd be a corps then.
This organization needs a staffing adjustment, either in attitude and approach of some insructors, or replacement of current instructors.


The flipside. Maybe everybody is just complaining too much. Maybe people need to learn to suck it up and start working hard. These guys are great instructors, and they are trying to make this band the best it's ever been. Maybe its the members who are the problem, viewing this as an easy social activity. We're more than that, we're performers. By nature we need to be top notch, espically considering the audiences we'll be getting on tour. So maybe, just maybe, we should actually take to heart what the instructors are trying to get across to us.
Who knows, maybe this 'Guest Rhythm Section' is just an evolution of this band.All I ask is that you keep it out of brass choir. All we want is a drummer, and we have one.




I don't know what to think anymore....

So once again I nearly forgot I had a blog, and had nothing interesting to say. To bring you all up to speed:

Red Deer festival of champions came and went. It was really solid for red deer, comparing it to red deers prior. The show has also gone thru some recent changes too. I think this is shaping up to be one of my favorite shows to march. not too insane in any aspect and with the newest changes, a great impacting show too.

Grandstand is a waste of our time, yes, but its at least decently fun this year. During our main piece, we rock out with the drumline for the whole tune. So fun and retarded.

Moonlight knights went well. Spent alot of the night chatting and playing with lights. Good times, poor jazz 1. Alot of them don't care too much anymore. too bad. The grade 10's sounded really hot.

I did one final SAIT application a week or 2 ago. Still waiting to hear back, but Ifeel very confident about this one. I really don't want to work for another year, and if I do, not at willow park. It's just boring now.

Still don't drive, still no credit card, but I am now booked on a flight to DCI this summer. I wish I had a bit more time/money...

I'm in a really good mood, after only being awake for a half hour. I went out and bought myself a suit yesterday, its very nice for only being $300. I look dashing (or insert other descriptor here) in it, and it works well with some of my other shirts. For some reason, I like to look good, so I'm very fashion conscious. But at the same time, I have my dad's genes in me, so I also look for good deals. Who wouldn't want more money to do more stuff/buy more stuff with?

SAIT sent me another email today. They're still looking for applicants for Television, so I still have a chance of going back to school. I just can't fuck this one up, like I did for the last round, where I couldn't get the day off work, and didn't write the research paper. As for film and video, that will just have to wait for another day. I won't mind working in television for now.

Final Countdown Productions is officially disbanded. My partner in crime is just too unstable for me to continue working with. I am now a sound man for hire, an independent recording engineer. My saving grace is that all the gear I have is my personal stuff, bought with my hard earned money.

I hate taxes. So confusing when you make alot of money in a trust fund that I wasn't in control of. Oh well, the advantages of a 300% return outweigh the disadvantages.

I am in no way a religious blogger, in the sense that I try to post regularly. In fact, I've had very little to say lately, that's why I haven't been posting.
I'm also getting the feeling that people aren't reading this anymore.

I do have something to say. It's more of an experiment than anything. Here's the logic behind this:
I will blog about my business and business partner and any problems involving them. This way, my partner will actually contact me and then we can try and discuss things.

So, lately I've been apporached by my partner's clients, wondering about the overdue projects that he was doing, and if I've had any contact with him. I have had no contact whatsoever for the last 3 weeks with him. He is proving to be unreliable, so much so that I'm considering leaving/disbanding the company. He is obviously busy with his other jobs that our company no longer holds any importance to him. Regardless, I've lost my trust in him. I'm also hoping to move onto other ventures, mostly school and such. I don't need the extra stress that this is creating.

If I'm lucky, I will get a unfriendly email from my partner saying that any personal problems between us should be said to his face. I don't care, at least I will have made contact with him.