Yesterday was the MACBDA social where CYO, Shadow Armada, Sound of Sun Prairie and the Lighthouse Brigade performed their field shows for each other in a relaxed setting. The weather was perfect and everyone enjoyed the performances. All of this was followed by the Racine Band Boosters putting together all you can eat nachos with all of the "fixins"! They really outdid themselves and every marching member also received an official Lighthouse Brigade frisbee to take home as a gift from us (that was a great touch!!). Everyone had a great time socializing and I think lots of friendships of members from other bands were made yesterday. Thanks to all of our awesome booster parents for putting on such a great spread for us!
The show is really coming along and the attitude of the members has been outstanding. They are really working hard to make this show great. We finally have our first competition tomorrow night in Prophetstown, IL and we will be spending the night at the high school. On Friday we will rehearse there before going up to Dakota (for all of you Brigade alumni out there - I will have at least 5 lemonades in your honor!!!!!!).
I'll put up the scores on the "latest brigade news" site as soon as I can.
- Rex out
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Band Camp '08 Update
Greetings from Gifford Elementary School and Band Camp 2008!
Tuesday was a fantastic day for the 2008 Lighthouse Brigade. We are now done learning new drill!!!!! We still have to tweak a few charts here and there and learn how to get on and off the field - but a HUGE hurdle was jumped yesterday. We also did a full run-through (without the "met") and the members got through it all in one piece. Sure - there were some pretty ugly moments right now - but they got that first "performance" under their belts and that is a really big first step as we get ready for real competition next week.
The members enjoyed a terrific lunch of four kinds of pasta from Noodles and Company yesterday! Many thanks to my wife, Karen and Jenny Miller for working to make that happen. The "booster dinners" are once again very yummy and I would like to thank our amazing parents for all of their hard work getting all of us fed. Yesterday the menu was: hot beef sandwiches, baked beans, chips, salad, fresh fruit, and assorted desserts. We always look forward to seeing what they prepare for us each night and our boosters are such an important part of our final product on the field each season!
The weather is PERFECT for band camp these days - sunny and not too hot.
- Rex out
Tuesday was a fantastic day for the 2008 Lighthouse Brigade. We are now done learning new drill!!!!! We still have to tweak a few charts here and there and learn how to get on and off the field - but a HUGE hurdle was jumped yesterday. We also did a full run-through (without the "met") and the members got through it all in one piece. Sure - there were some pretty ugly moments right now - but they got that first "performance" under their belts and that is a really big first step as we get ready for real competition next week.
The members enjoyed a terrific lunch of four kinds of pasta from Noodles and Company yesterday! Many thanks to my wife, Karen and Jenny Miller for working to make that happen. The "booster dinners" are once again very yummy and I would like to thank our amazing parents for all of their hard work getting all of us fed. Yesterday the menu was: hot beef sandwiches, baked beans, chips, salad, fresh fruit, and assorted desserts. We always look forward to seeing what they prepare for us each night and our boosters are such an important part of our final product on the field each season!
The weather is PERFECT for band camp these days - sunny and not too hot.
- Rex out
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Band Camp Update
Greetings from Gifford Elementary School and the 2008 Lighthouse Brigade Band Camp!
We have survived some heavy weather conditions, muddy fields and snow days and I am happy to announce that by Noon today the entire show will be taught!! Now comes the fun part - cleaning all of the drill moves and adding cool visual stuff. Our first real performance is this Friday at the "Madisonic" show in Middleton, WI with the Madison Scouts. This is not a competition, but it is a good chance for us to perform our show and get "judges tapes" from the Madison Scouts staff! It will also be a nice chance to see four of our former Brigade marching members who are marching with the boys from Madison - Tony Holm, Joe Bauer, Justin Haman and Mike Kowbel!!
We have about a full week to clean and polish our show before we enter into actual competition and I really look forward to seeing the daily progress of our production.
One new thing we will be doing this year is a MACBDA social next week - but more on that later.
- Rex out
We have survived some heavy weather conditions, muddy fields and snow days and I am happy to announce that by Noon today the entire show will be taught!! Now comes the fun part - cleaning all of the drill moves and adding cool visual stuff. Our first real performance is this Friday at the "Madisonic" show in Middleton, WI with the Madison Scouts. This is not a competition, but it is a good chance for us to perform our show and get "judges tapes" from the Madison Scouts staff! It will also be a nice chance to see four of our former Brigade marching members who are marching with the boys from Madison - Tony Holm, Joe Bauer, Justin Haman and Mike Kowbel!!
We have about a full week to clean and polish our show before we enter into actual competition and I really look forward to seeing the daily progress of our production.
One new thing we will be doing this year is a MACBDA social next week - but more on that later.
- Rex out
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Mud Camp '08
It's very strange that 10 years ago the Lighthouse Brigade was dealing with the mud at our old field down the street from Park High School. Two of our staff members (Guy Gregg and Matt Koscinski) can relate to all of your muddy legs, shoes and socks because they were marching members themselves that year! 1998 was the "Evita" show and is still one of my favorite Brigade productions. I have a feeling 2008 will join this list at the end of the season!
Things are going great despite having to deal with terrible field conditions and snow days. The rehearsal yesterday was supposed to be the last day of school and the 5-9 rehearsal tonight was originally a 1-9 rehearsal. In spite of all of this - we are already on chart #33! By the end of Thursday we will be through Goin' Home and by Saturday night it is very possible that we will be able to do our first full run-through of the season!! That is awesome! Last night was also the first time I started seeing the LIGHTHOUSE BRIGADE. What I mean by that is something started to click with the members and I am finally starting to see intensity and confidence and style and agression. That is great to see and we are starting to learn what it will take for this year's edition of Brigade to perform and be competitive. Bottom line is that we are on the right track.
I would like to thank the members for juggling their schedules to make this crazy week happen with final exams, graduation and end of the year stuff going on. I really appreciate all of your efforts! Let's try to make every rep. get better and every run-through get better so that by the time we have our first performance (Friday, June 20th in Middleton, WI) let's be proud of the product we have on the field.
- Rex out
Things are going great despite having to deal with terrible field conditions and snow days. The rehearsal yesterday was supposed to be the last day of school and the 5-9 rehearsal tonight was originally a 1-9 rehearsal. In spite of all of this - we are already on chart #33! By the end of Thursday we will be through Goin' Home and by Saturday night it is very possible that we will be able to do our first full run-through of the season!! That is awesome! Last night was also the first time I started seeing the LIGHTHOUSE BRIGADE. What I mean by that is something started to click with the members and I am finally starting to see intensity and confidence and style and agression. That is great to see and we are starting to learn what it will take for this year's edition of Brigade to perform and be competitive. Bottom line is that we are on the right track.
I would like to thank the members for juggling their schedules to make this crazy week happen with final exams, graduation and end of the year stuff going on. I really appreciate all of your efforts! Let's try to make every rep. get better and every run-through get better so that by the time we have our first performance (Friday, June 20th in Middleton, WI) let's be proud of the product we have on the field.
- Rex out
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Saturday!!
Yo Members!
I hope everyone is ready to work really hard this Saturday and the next few weeks of band camp! We have lots of charts to re-learn and new ones to start learning. Don't forget your:
- Sunscreen
- hat
- water
- correct clothes for the weather
- proper athletic shoes
- dot book
- drill/music binder
I will be handing out an order form for the official 2008 MACBDA tour shirt. These are due to me by Monday, June 9th. The shirts are only 12 bucks each. I will also be handing out the passwords for the "Member's Only" page which should be up and running by Saturday night. If my brother (the Brigade website webmaster) is still working on this page - you will still be able to get to a "test page".
See you all in a few days!!
Rex
I hope everyone is ready to work really hard this Saturday and the next few weeks of band camp! We have lots of charts to re-learn and new ones to start learning. Don't forget your:
- Sunscreen
- hat
- water
- correct clothes for the weather
- proper athletic shoes
- dot book
- drill/music binder
I will be handing out an order form for the official 2008 MACBDA tour shirt. These are due to me by Monday, June 9th. The shirts are only 12 bucks each. I will also be handing out the passwords for the "Member's Only" page which should be up and running by Saturday night. If my brother (the Brigade website webmaster) is still working on this page - you will still be able to get to a "test page".
See you all in a few days!!
Rex
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