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one time at band camp

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Have you ever noticed how when Kirk swears, he swears in one long streak? Have you noticed how this tends to happen more in front of video games than other times?

There is relief! If he is playing video games with his ever lovin' mother (YELM), he doesn't swear at all. Not a peep. Barely even a "Jeeeeeeezzzzz" passed his lips.

Of course right after his mom left the room, the engine sputtered to life. A few fitful four letter forays into foulness escaped his mouth. But when he got loud enough that his mother could here him upstairs...... a simple "Kirrrrrrk" in a warning tone throttled the engine back to neutral. Even the next "Jeeeeezzzz" to pass his lips was muted.

Now I did not write this to put Kirk on the spot. To know Kirk is to have heard him swear at least once, so this is not a secret. I wrote this because I am in awe, with my impending parenthood, to be reminded that , "Mom is always Mom".

PS. Even if you are a 30+ year old urban hipster playing video games in your Mom's basement on Memorial day. :) (Yes, I know, I was there with my wife too. Pot, meet kettle, kettle, meet pot.)
--Evil B.
(2 comments)
(5 comments)
2006.05.29
I've appreciated this four day weekend, but vacation always makes me nervous for this reason: I'm afraid I won't want to or be might be unable to get back into the groove of the daily work grind.

Band of the Moment
One of the side effects of Netflix is that the barrier to entry for "guilty pleasure" movies is that much lower. Case-in-point, "American Pie Presents: Band Camp". It definitely harkened back to the old "teenage sex comedy" tradition, plus there were enough semi-realistic marching band references to keep me entertained.

It got me to googling, where I found the old rec.arts.marching.band.college FAQ. My favorite section was 2) Which band was banned from where? and my favorite incident listed in that section was
1972 Columbia is banned from West Point for "forming" the napalming of a Cambodian Villiage, complete with flaming villagers.
That, my friends, is chutzpah.


Me and my mom at Tufts Pep Band, Parents' Weekend. I like how she's sporting some major Jumbo the Elephant (Tufts' mascot) Bling.
I got to reading about Scramble Bands, where players just run from one formation to the next. (I remember once or twice where my high school band did a "scramble" when we already had a complex enough show and didn't want a highly scripted switch to the next formation.)

In trying to track down a factoid that some Ivy League bands play in suit and ties, I found my way back to the site for the Columbia University Marching Band, aka CUMB, aka "the cleverest band in the world". (In Euclid we called ourselves "God's Favorite Marching Band", as evidenced by a sudden downpour erupting with the opening gong strike of "Carmina Burana" and being finished by the time the piece was done, but I suspect the "God's Favorite" moniker isn't too original.) Anyway, I didn't see a reference to the West Point incident, but I liked their list of other scramble bands, all that intra-Ivy snarkiness. I wish Tufts had had its act together to have a scramble band rather than just a stand band, we'd only take the field once or twice a year.

I'm still trying to figure out where I could borrow a tuba or sousaphone from for a day or two, or even rent. Ksenia's dying to hear it. Or more likely, see it. Tubas are meant to be Seen as well as Heard.