Happy 100th post!

Happy Investiture!

No, I'm lying - Investiture was sad, not just for me I think, but for all of my batch. It's not as bad as I imagined it would be, but I still feel a pang when I think that I will no longer be an official part of RIMB anymore. Obviously, once a band member, always a band member, but we no longer have an active role in it.

Heh, I'll miss my juniors. All of them, including retards. All of SYF'09 is up to you now, whatever we could have done for it I believe we've done. Now, it's the Sec 3s turn to do their part.

Speaking of which, the posts are finally officially disclosed (obviously discounting the unofficial leaks), so I can post them right up here.




Congratulations to all the Sec 3 successors, and to those who didn't get what you wanted, I sincerely hope that you will still continue to contribute to the band to the best of your ability!

And now to Investiture itself. First off, I FORGOT TO BRING MY BLACK SHOES, so erm, yeah, I was walking around in black socks =D. What a dismal way to end my term as UD head.

Secondly, my camera was out of battery, which was a real headache, because when this camera runs out of battery, it keeps flipping on and off. Thanks to Benni who lent me some new batteries, but don't buy from that shop again, the batteries had lives of like, 10 minutes?

Batch performances started a little later than 4:15 PM, with the Sec 1s starting off with Centuria. Not too bad, but they were much better at their rehearsal just before the performance. Oh well, I guess you can't blame stage fright (I know you can play much better than that, especially clarinets!).

Sec 2s were next, and as they went up I realized how... small their batch was, nearly as small as ours, if not smaller. They played Crystal City Overture and John Williams in Concert. It was okay, not wonderful though, and not very confident. Keep working on it!

Then came our successors, the Sec 3s. In all honesty, I was expecting more from you all, especially for your very own batch song. Circle of Life is undoubtedly the easiest batch piece among the three. Wham! and Army of the Nile were okay.

But it's going to take a lot more than merely okay to get that GwH.

Sec 4s, Sec 4s... I think I overcame stage fright some time ago, but it all came back today, even in this friendly and familiar environment. I have a confession, sometime during the Sec 3's Circle of Life I sneaked out of the band room to warm up, because my mouth was so dry I could barely play.

I thought we did well, considering the inordinately minuscule amount of time that we had to prepare our three songs. Highlights from "Ragtime" was as expected, not so good (well we prepared this least), but at the major tutti midway through Wheels of a Dream I thought it became beautiful.

First Love was well done I think, even with the minor hiccup that we encountered - no James = no drumset player = Jerald having to take over drumset = Leonard having to take over conductor. I played this with all the emo-ness I could muster =D.

Centuria brought back fond memories. I remember when we were Sec 1, the Sec 4s at the time played it and we were all practically cringing in our seats because it completely pwned ours. Really strange to see the Sec 1s doing exactly the same thing when we played.

Our very last performance as a batch. Gone, in ten minutes.

Next up, the ceremony. Now, the word ceremony denotes a formal occasion, but this one was anything but formal. It was fun though! Kudos to our emcees Jerald and Lucas for their mad 当场发挥. Mr Oura gave a speech, summing up our year and telling us his expectations for the future.

Next was the whole slew of certificates and posts to be handed out. Obviously, this was the saddest part of it all, handing over the achievements made in the band to the next generation (batch) in the hope that they will bring glory to the band. So I handed over my clarinet SL post to Brandon, and UD head post to Andy.

Omg, why do I always look so retarded in photos?

We ended off with a speech by the new band major, Kirk. I believe that he will make a good BM; he has the mass support of his batch, and I believe that he has the discipline and the will to enforce it without compromising the relationships within the band.

Every band major has their own ideal or plan for the band, and we can already see the hints of one starting to appear, even from the first fall-in.

Yup, the future has hope.

So that rounds up the official proceedings of Investiture.

It's been great, being here, and now we have to let go. I realize that the number of posts in this blog of mine will drop drastically, because most of my posts are about band.

Which is not to say that I won't visit. In fact, I can't imagine going home at 3:30 PM on Mondays and Wednesdays, and 2:00 PM on Fridays. Hehe, clarinet section, prepare for a really bo liao senior to come and bug you all.

So as this large part of my life ends, a new one will begin. Mr Oura has invited us to join the RJCSB band practice even before entering RJCSB, but that's more than a month away. In the meantime, I hope that my batch will find something to do; I'll miss them terribly, miss seeing them three times a week.

And I just can't resist posting this up again:




Oh my dear batch, I'll miss you all, even if its just for this short time before we (all, hopefully) enter RJCSB.

All good things come to an end. To lose your purpose and direction which has been a really big part of your life is pretty awful, but I have the confidence that the band is in good hands. All that's left for me - us - to do is to look to the future and see what it brings.

I'll always remember and treasure the times that we had together. Thank you RIMB, for being the biggest and best thing that's happened to me these four years!

Labels: band