Lets talk about U2 for a sec....

I just need to take a moment here to discuss the awesomeness that is currently traveling around the world in the form of U2's 360 tour. In so many ways, one cannot even describe what goes down at a U2 concert, and I cannot possibly do it justice in the little time that I have. In a nutshell, we were somehow allowed to get inside the circle around the stage that all the band members run around on, and couldn't believe that we were actually there. They had set up a gigantic space station sort of thing with a 360 degree screen hanging from the top and lights all down the middle, attached to each of the four spiderlike legs and all over the stadium. It was an amazing thing to watch, as the larger-than-life musicians appeared on stage through mist and beams of light, uniting the 60,000 people in Rogers Centre with their universally recognized music. They played for over two hours, playing all kinds of tunes from their early days to the recent release "No Line on the Horizon". There is not much more to say about this, other than nothing else compares to the U2 experience. It is a concert that sticks with you for a very long time, and leaves giant crowds of very happy people in its wake.

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This is causing some problems as you may have seen, but hopefully my new mobile blog approach will prove more effective.

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Football games.

I'm sure its no secret how much I dig playing in the marching band. I will skip that whole speech this time. Instead I was hoping to simply go over a few awesome things that happened to myself and the MASH Marching band during the first couple weeks of the season. Friday was the first home game, and there was a pretty good showing of fans despite the questionable weather. After our band winning/team loosing romp in Oil City, I'd say we were all pretty fired up, despite the fact that we didn't expect to win. It would appear that our band has developed a tendency to battle other bands that we run in to. On this particular occasion, the Warren band though it would be funny to try and one-up some of our stand tunes. They even tried to out-dance us. Our drum major made absolutely sure that didn't happen. With a lot of help from the basses. Yes, believe it our not, we have a surprisingly fun-loving bassline. By the end of the night, we all felt as though we had played better, moved more, and had more fun than anybody else. And the football team even won! That just iced the cake for one fantastic night.

But we weren't about to stop there. Oh no, because we had in fact been asked to perform at the Allegheny Gators' football game the very next night. And even if the Meadville fans had gotten nearly as excited about the band as the band had, it would have been no comparison to the loud, rockous appreciation that we received from the gold-clad gator fans at Bender Field. After our well-played but poorly-marched halftime show, the drumline and our trusty backup dancers made a pilgrimage to the student section of the bleachers. We played some crazy cadence jams, the band was dancing, and they ate it up. Those college students couldn't get enough, they were so energetic and into it that it made me feel like some sort of rock star. The MASH band moved to every groove from Soul Man to Jump On It. And of course the dancing bassline didn't fail to impress. I think it was a fantastic opportunity for all of us to give the show our best in front of an unfamiliar (and thankfully quite accepting) crowd of people. And the Gators even won the game!!! Everybody could see that the players were enjoying the band just as much as the crowd, and I personally believe that our team spirit helped the blue & gold Gators win out.

A couple of updates

To start this off, the first day of school went better than I though. It looks like I may have a chance of making some sort of a minor comeback presuming I don't get screwed over by any other situations beyond my control. I am especially excited to have an independent study in band class four days a week, which means a lot of potential progress in mallets, timpani, and other things that I can't access at home.

In other news, you gotta check out my YouTube channel!!!!! Its brand new and crazy cool!!! Its even called SutterSpeak!!! http://www.youtube.com/user/SutterSpeak

Any other youtube channels our URLs that you may have heard now cease to exist. Thanks!!

Last day of summer....

In honor of Summer's last day I feel compelled to say something here. Hopefully you all have some sort of an idea about how much fun I've had since the end of 10th grade, both while exploring opportunities in other parts of the country and discovering more about myself and the place where I live. It is just a bit scary to think about how important it is to not screw up this year so that I may have a chance of going to a big college in the west with a hella tight division 1 marching band. At least getting a chance to go somewhere that really interests me and has well rounded programs and students. The really scary thing is how easy it is to get off track. I learned this last year, which truly was not that difficult, but I was unmotivated and I'll admit that I pretty much blew it. I suppose that means I can only improve from here. There is really no other choice in the matter.

And by the way, this year's marching band season is gonna rock!! Stay tuned!