Not Redcoat related, but important.

UGA buses irritate me. 'Nough said. The following are a few unwritten (about to be written) rules for riding buses here at UGA.

1) Do not ride the bus extremely short distances. There are people who have to ride that godforsaken tin can completely across campus to get to a class in 15 minutes and your getting on and off the overcrowded bus can cause them to be late.

2) If you are riding the bus for only a couple stops, give your seat to someone who will be there longer. Standing is not that bad, especially when you are only going from Tate to Snelling.

3) When the driver says something like "Stand behind the line" or "Don't stand in the stairwell" obey them! They have not problem waiting on you to obey actual laws and causing the rest of us to be late to class.

4) Pay attention! This is very important while standing on the bus. No one likes it when you flail about the bus because it took off while you were texting your friend about something that has no eternal importance.

5) When boarding the bus, let people get off before you go barging in. When people are trying to move in opposite directions, the whole affair grinds to a halt. Save everyone some time and wait the extra couple seconds to allow everyone to get off the bus.

6) (Not really about riding the bus, but for people who drive cars in Athens) Respect the buses. Your lack of driving intelligence could cause someone to die. It could be you when your Prius gets run over by the massive bus or it could be an innocent person walking across the street when you illegally pass a parked bus.

If we all follow these rules, bus riding will be slightly less irritating. Thanks!

I can't get to sleep, so I will update the blog!

So band camp is now over, and classes have begun. Camp was a lot of fun, but VERY tiring! Several sections decided to do their Hype Night on Saturday, and in doing so, provided much needed comic relief that allowed my fellow Redcoats and myself to push through our exhaustion and pain to finish putting the last couple pages of drill for our first show onto the field. A couple notable Hype Night themes from throughout the week were "Number 1 Party School", "Robin Hood", "SEC Refs" (Ours),  "Luchadors", and "Toy Story 3". 

One aspect of The Redcoat Life that has already manifested itself is the family-like attitudes all Redcoats have about one another. I ran into fellow Redcoats twice today (well yesterday now) and even though we may not have actually known each other well, we still carried on a conversation simply because we had one thing in common, The Redcoat Band. I LOVE IT! It is an incredible feeling to know that I can run into a random Redcoat anywhere, and be treated like a brother or at least an old friend. It all boils down to one simple fact: being a Redcoat is a very unique experience that serves to the betterment of musical skills while being an active social community.

It's getting INTENSE!

END DAY THREE: Today was yet another awesome day of band camp! We started putting our first show on the field after getting the entirety of pre game on. Funny story, pre game had to be redesigned because we added over 50 players to our ranks (mostly sousaphones and trombones) so, everything is BIGGER! "Big" pretty well describes the 106th installment of the Georgia Redcoat Band. In terms of personnel, there are just copious amounts of people on the field who are among the most talented musicians, drummers (haha, band people should get that joke), dancers and baton twirlers in the world. I consider myself blessed to have the opportunity to perform with and become friends with all these awesome people. Not only are our numbers big, but our sound is too. All of the new low brass players are phenomenal and give our sound an awesome base (bass) that helps to carry the band. In section time today I nearly was raptured when I got to hear all 62 of us trumpets playing Krypton Fanfare! It was AWESOME! The sound that we made as just one section of the band was HUGE! I am excited to hear how we sound after some more practice!

The intensity I alluded to in the title is the drill for our first show. The music is fast! The drill is crazy! When you put those facts together, you get pure marching band brilliance. I give some serious kudos to the designers of this year's first show. I think this show may be able to grab the attention of even the drunkest, least attentive fan during half time.

Not going to give anything away, but tomorrow's post should be interesting as there is a lot going on tomorrow! "Ain't nothing finer in the land, than the Georgia Redcoat Marching Band! Go Dawgs!"

Second to NONE!!!

So, I just finished up day 2 of band camp. It has been incredible so far! The people are amazing, we really are like 420 brothers and sisters. I could not think of anything I would rather be doing than rocking out at Redcoat Field with my newly found friends (all 400+ of them!). I have yet to meet a single person who was even remotely not nice!

The trumpet section is HUGE! We are 62 members strong! (pause for holy crap moment) We are definitely the biggest, baddest, and best section! This is a huge honor because the 106th installment of the Georgia Redcoat Band is the most awesome band in the SEC America THE WORLD!!!

The best way to describe the sound that we put out is epic. The low brass sections' numbers increased dramatically so the bottom end is tremendous and then the trumpets and all the other folks that play in the higher range come in and fill up the top, creating quite possibly the most powerful sound I have ever had the privilege to even hear, much less be a part of!

In the end, the whole experience can be described quite simply as the most epically awesome thing to ever happen! :) All of this awesomeness has left me drained, so I am going to hit the hay to get ready for day 3 of Redcoat Band Camp 2010! GO DAWGS!!!