Well, here we are again.....

Another sleepless night because of a damn work e-mail I just had to open on frickin Sunday night. I tell you, true-believers, this is getting really frickin old. The funny thing is that this time I'm not worried about what may happen tomorrow. I'm pissed.... and surprisingly enough, I'm not pisssed at Principal Palpatine.

See, this is the thing that I was afraid of: Principal Palpatine is evil, sure... but on this paritcular issue (bands should be servants to the athletic departments) her opinion is shared by a lot of people. Not only that, but the general masses can't bring themselves to realize one simple fact:

My band sucks.

No really.... they do. It's not their fault... nor mine. But what do you expect is going to happen when you shove 60+ mostly 7th and 8th graders, mostly beginners in a band class, and then turn around and expect them to stand horn-to-horn with bigger high school bands? They can't play anything past medium-loudish, they're out of tune, they have bad rhythm.... hell half of them don't even know their fingerings....

And the crowd can't tell the difference.

But you'd better believe the kids can. They know when they're being pounded by a much more developed real high school band. And the other band knows it, too. I don't know how much spirit we give the home team, but I'm pretty sure we provide loads of entertainment to the opposing band.

Folks, I really hate to say it, but in the band world... we're kind of an embarassment. Maybe if we had a normal feeder system in our elementary schools, and maybe if the admin had the good sense not to flood me with random kids who don't even want to be in band... thus giving me a chance to work out a decent product. But never mind that. What's important is that we keep the football parents happy. And again, as long as you can pound out a recognizable rendition of "Go Fight Win"... who could ask for anything more?