BAND CAMP for the WIN!

THAT COMPLETELY (well, most of it) ROCKED.

Its just so sad that this is my last band camp, cos this is my last year in RIMB. But, as our dear Ben Ni put it, a glass can be half empty or half full, as long as you think of it that way.

I only have an hour to do this post, then I have to get back to work. Pictures... when I get them from the other Sec 4s I'll stick them in the next post or something.

Another word for the Sec 4s. Honestly... I didn't quite approve of you guys sometimes in the camp, and I kept quiet mostly. I'm assuming that's not a good thing (ever since all the teachers have apparently been telling my parents that I should be more ASSERTIVE).

--- 11 March 08 ---

Fall in - 7:45 AM. Most of the band was amazingly on time today, and all quite cheery and pumped. I can remember chatting with people that I usually do not have conversations of more than three sentences or questions with.

Bag check - 8:00. I do not understand the concept behind it at all. Even if someone had brought like, a book or a PSP, there was absolutely no TIME to make use of it. At all.

Sectionals - 8:15 AM. OK. This is the start of the hardcore part of band camp. Never had I ever practiced for so long in a day, even with a lunch break. And as most of my section would know right now, if I go on for about two and a half hours, my mouth starts leaking air (see previous post), and then it makes a REALLY loud noise in concert. The other thing is, Sec 1s, I'm sorry; I didn't actually plan anything for you all to do, so I just randomed and tried to teach you all the notes from low C (Bb) to tuning C (Bb), then tried to do Doe A Deer, THEN realized I forgot to bring the fingering chart. Note to self: must do some more prep.

Concert - 10:20 AM. More hardcoring on Symphonic Festival and St. Francis Something. It's good that Mr Oura hasn't made many (in fact, none I think) comments on the clarinet section's tuning or notes, which USUALLY (I said usually) means that there are no big glaring mistakes we're making. I must be really thankful that Dao Bo and the rest of the J1s left me with such awsome juniors to continue on with. The last half an hour before lunch killed my mouth, and even lunch couldn't revive it.

Lunch - 1:00 PM. Auntie Azah rocks. Enough said.

Concert - 2:00 PM. Again. Not that I don't feel that we need the practice, but every few bars I had to breathe to stop my mouth from *pfffting*. Then when it came to the long solo part I had to refrain from playing the two bars before to rest. Arrgh.

Dinner - 6:00 PM. Did I say that Auntie Azah rocks?

Station games - 7:00 PM. I always knew playing the games was fun, but organizing it is even funner (funnier? more fun? check english). I was the Games IC, but didn't actually do much because the games got revamped by Jerald and David over and over again.

Anyway, my station, Treasure Island, involved five people standing on four chairs (per team), using the chairs to hobble around and pick up rubber bands on the floor using straws without touching the floor. It's curious to see the esoteric techniques that they employ; kudos to Razeen's (oops did I spell that correct?) team for their turtling strategy which really showed teamwork, and Brandon's group for their coordination in using a caterpillar strategy.

Other stations included Quizzicato (typical quiz by Ben Ni and Austin), Hanging Notes (pull ups to a tune, hosted by Ying Zhe and Lucas), Breaking Wind (blowing ping pong balls, station masters Eric and Leonard), Extreme Charades (or sadistic charades, by Russell and Ryan). The only down side was that no one found the wasabi I bought hot enough to elict any amount of distress - think doing charades with wasabi in your mouth. Apparently everyone had fun here!

Emotalk - 10:00 PM. It's warming to see how we Sec 4s as a batch have grown since Sec 1, to be able to pour out our feelings and stir the rest of the band. Except me I think... because my speech was the stupidest and most irrelevant impromptu one. But the rest... never mind. You had to be there to feel it; I was nearly tearing (tee-ear-ing, not ripping) when the longer speeches were being said. Sec 4s, friends forever.

Sleep - 11:00 PM. It's probably a bit of a misnomer to call this time sleep, because we didn't sleep till nearly 1 AM plus. Especially after our little adventure, or misadventure, which shall not be elaborated here. And I happily slept straight through my sentry duty (cheers, Lucas). We were talking about various things for a few minutes before sleep, laughing and chatting. I do remember being irked enough by the running conversation which Russell and Lucas were having even after the rest of us had shut up that I took my towel and swung it backwards, cutting out the weird humming noises (turned out to be Lucas).

--- 12 March 08 ---

Awakened - 6:30 AM. I still don't know who's brilliant idea it was to have the temperature perma-fixed at 21 degrees Celcius, with an actual output of way way below that. It was FFRREEEEZZIINNG when we woke up. Went to wake up the rest at 7:00.

PT - 7:30 AM. Here's one of the parts that I really feel like shouting at some of the Sec 4s. Ben Ni, James, and I were running at the forefront of the block, with Ying Zhe and David(? not sure) taking PT, which includes seven rounds round the admin block, fifteen pushups, crunches, and squats, ten cycles of jumping jacks, and five compass starjumps. Not that the PT was unbearable, but going into the band room and finding the rest of the Sec 4s slacking off there, then asking me why I was stupid enough to do PT was. Sorry if some of you did the PT and I didn't mention it here, but it's still not so encouraging to see that we can't be bonded enough by trauma.

Breakfast - 8:00 AM. I just couldn't stomach anything, not so sure why, even though the Bee Hoon was nice.

Sectionals - 9:00 AM. No comment here, just good to see Brandon taking the rest of the section while I attempt to do something with the Sec 1s. And sorry percs, we invaded your section circle.

Concert - 10:30 AM. My mouth still hasn't recovered from the beating it took.

Lunch - 12:30 AM. AUNTIE AZAH R... wait did I say that already?

Movie screening - 2:00 AM. First was Riverdance, then Billy Elliot. Half the band stayed awake enough to appreciate Riverdance, which was a really good performance. The tap dancers were so pro; they can tap beats faster than the percs can roll. And I remember enjoying the ensemble performance, what with the shamelessly blue violin and the crazy percussionist. For Billy Elliot, I have seen that movie three times already, but have never seen the ending. Checking it up now on Wikipedia...

Billy (Jamie Bell) is a young boy living in a state of poverty in County Durham. His father (Gary Lewis) and older brother (Jamie Draven), are miners during the UK miners' strike (1984–1985).

Billy's father is an admirer of real life world boxing champion Ken Buchanan, and hopes that Billy would become a champion boxer. Billy, however, is more interested in music, a passion he inherited from his late mother.

Billy is taken to the boxing gym by his father, but he finds out that he doesn't really like the sport, and has no real talent for it. Part of the boxing gym is used by a ballet class because their usual studio in the basement of the sports center is being used as a soup kitchen for the striking miners. He is drawn in by the dance instructor (Julie Walters), and with her help, secretly starts taking ballet class.

As a consequence of Billy's brother being arrested, he had missed an important audition for the Royal Ballet School. His dance instructor goes to their house to tell his father about the missed opportunity. Billy's father and brother, being men of their times, and fearing that Billy will be seen as a "poof" become outraged at the idea of him becoming a professional ballet dancer.

Once having seen Billy dance however, his father realizes that ballet is his future. He has to pawn the family's last memories of Billy's mother to take him to an audition in London himself. Billy is accepted and moves to London on his own at age 11 to attend the school.

The movie concludes with a scene that takes place years later, where his father and brother arrive at the ballet. The film ends as the older and more mature Billy (dancer/actor Adam Cooper) takes the stage to perform the lead in Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake.

The film may have been inspired in part by A.J. Cronin's novel, The Stars Look Down, which similarly focuses on an English mining community in the midst of a strike, as well as on a miner's son who breaks away from tradition in forging his own path.

The massive amout of vulgarities and relationship scenes kept everyone awake. O.o.

Section dinner - 4:00 PM. After attendance taking and batch/section photos, we went for section dinner. A whopping SEVEN sections went to Pastamania (Fluboes, Clarinets, Saxophones, Trumpets, Trombones, Basses, Percussion), which was actually a move instigated by Brandon wanting to get a free Garlic Bread (ROFL) from a voucher. In the end, the Garlic Bread wasn't eaten until we finished our main courses. The ordering and paying was a big mess though; thanks for doing the maths Brandon. Oh wait, where's that reciept...

LANning - 6:00 PM. As dictated by band tradition, the whole band took the MRT to Doby Ghaut and went to Paradiz, a popular building with lots of LAN shops. I played my first game of CounterStrike, and we played some stage which involved sniping the opponent, all 1-hit KOs. I must interject here to say that I (in the name of variety) kept running to the opponent's side and knifing a few people still looking into their gun sights to death (lol Russell).

We then switched to DOTA, and I learnt how to use (noobly at least) Jakiro the Dragon, who is apparently a beginner hero (but I don't care, his Ice Path and Auto-Fire rock. still unsure as how to use Dual Breath). In the second game, I got my first Double Kill with Macropyre, then I realized I just DKed Austin and Justin, who had left and were stoning anyway (no other meaning intended).

Home sweet home - 9:00 PM. Feeling very tired but very happy.

All in all, a wonderful two days. I just realized that photos can be found on the Sec 4 batch blog (link is in the list). Will do some selection some other time. 1911 words, whee!


-- quotable quotes --

there's a massive retard in bar 67 (ritardando)

Labels: band