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You are here: Home / Open Threads / A Band Camp is Back This Year

A Band Camp is Back This Year

by John Cole|  August 2, 20213:44 pm| 100 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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A high school band camp is back in town, and it’s actually quite nice. As long as I have lived here, there have always been tons of band camps here in the summer. It’s a great place for them- lots of athletic fields and college dorms for them to stay in, a cafeteria, and in the middle of nowhere so there is not much trouble for them to get into other than typical shit they could and do do anywhere.

They weren’t here last year for obvious reasons, and this year, there is only one, but it is nice. I have the windows open listening to them playing out of tune. I didn’t know I missed it.

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Reader Interactions

100Comments

  1. 1.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    August 2, 2021 at 3:46 pm

    Band camps are alike from sea-to-shining sea – they smell of moldy clothing, clearasil, desperation, clumsy sex and angst….

  2. 2.

    West of the Rockies

    August 2, 2021 at 3:46 pm

    Anything that is normal after the last four and a half Trumpian years feels lovely.

  3. 3.

    WaterGirl

    August 2, 2021 at 3:51 pm

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I am in love with the giraffe from the OTR you just submitted.

  4. 4.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 2, 2021 at 3:57 pm

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: You really are a bitter dude.

  5. 5.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    August 2, 2021 at 3:59 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    He was amazing – a really chill guy.  I’ve got shots of us standing just a few feet from him.  Have others of giraffe heads outlined by the light of a setting sun in the background of a beautiful landscape.  Elephants that way, too.

  6. 6.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    August 2, 2021 at 4:01 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    C’mon – everybody went to band camp or the equivalent (I had the ever enjoyable Southern Baptist thing of “Choir Tour”).  It always went the same way – tears, drama, the impermanence of teen romance.

  7. 7.

    rikyrah

    August 2, 2021 at 4:02 pm

    That sounds so sweet, Cole.

    I bet they are so happy to be there :)

  8. 8.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    August 2, 2021 at 4:04 pm

    On the subject of “in tune”, is it ever really possible with a trombone?

  9. 9.

    Chief Oshkosh

    August 2, 2021 at 4:06 pm

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: If you have 76 of them, whatever they’re playing IS in tune.

  10. 10.

    Eunicecycle

    August 2, 2021 at 4:10 pm

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I recently copied our family VHS tapes to DVD. Some of the more torturous videos were my kids’ elementary school band concerts. I thought about not copying them, but in the end left them in.  But yeah, they were pretty bad.

  11. 11.

    Major Major Major Major

    August 2, 2021 at 4:12 pm

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: absolutely! Somebody’s never heard a good trombonist

  12. 12.

    Roger Moore

    August 2, 2021 at 4:12 pm

    I have fond memories of band camp.  I was in both school band (which usually didn’t have camp) and an outside band, which owned a band camp in Grand Lake.  We would occasionally have weekend camps, but the really big one was a full week in the summer where we would get into shape to march in parades.  We would march for a couple of hours every morning and afternoon, and have regular band classes, too.  By the end of the camp, we’d be in great marching shape.  When we were judged in parades, we didn’t always do that well when the reviewing stand was at the beginning of the parade route, but we always won if it was at the end.  The other bands were worn out by the end, but we had done much tougher marches in camp and were still in good form even after a long parade.

  13. 13.

    Suzanne

    August 2, 2021 at 4:13 pm

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: And Axe body spray! Lots of Axe!

  14. 14.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    August 2, 2021 at 4:15 pm

    @Suzanne:

    My day was Drakkar Noir.

  15. 15.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 2, 2021 at 4:15 pm

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I did not.

  16. 16.

    HumboldtBlue

    August 2, 2021 at 4:16 pm

    Band camp was a pain in the ass. But we were an excellent marching band and we regularly practiced on the streets of the local neighborhood, it did get us ready for the school year.
    I loved band and chorus.
    Now, the annual band trip was a blast, as was football season.

  17. 17.

    Miss Bianca

    August 2, 2021 at 4:16 pm

    @Roger Moore: 

    So, kind of a band/boot camp combo, eh?

  18. 18.

    Roger Moore

    August 2, 2021 at 4:19 pm

    @Miss Bianca: ​
     
    I think the people who ran our band camp figured we’d be less likely to get involved in hanky panky if we were physically exhausted at the end of the day.

  19. 19.

    FlyingToaster

    August 2, 2021 at 4:20 pm

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: As a veteran of 7 years of marching band, I can attest…

    @Suzanne: Thank heaven I predate Axe. I first smelled it while cataloging books in the middle school library, and would crank open the casement windows to dissipate the miasma.

  20. 20.

    Jeffery

    August 2, 2021 at 4:25 pm

    We had the high school band rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner every morning over the intercom. It was a painful 4 years.

  21. 21.

    WaterGirl

    August 2, 2021 at 4:27 pm

    @rikyrah: When I was growing up, band camp was where everybody went out into the fields at night to have sex.  I never went to band camp, but the stories were wild.

  22. 22.

    MomSense

    August 2, 2021 at 4:29 pm

    One time at band camp…

  23. 23.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    August 2, 2021 at 4:29 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    The wear ’em out theory.  Didn’t work with us.

  24. 24.

    Cameron

    August 2, 2021 at 4:32 pm

    I played a couple instruments that I quit when I became an alcoholic. As a buddy of mine observed “much easier instrument – it’s only got one hole and no keys.”

  25. 25.

    Roger Moore

    August 2, 2021 at 4:37 pm

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    I know it wasn’t completely successful with us, but a combination of “wear them out” and aggressive chaperoning managed to keep the number of pregnancies within acceptable bounds.

  26. 26.

    frosty

    August 2, 2021 at 4:45 pm

    Looks like I missed out. My summers were Scout camp and cross-country practice. Nothing coed. Damn!

    Nice description Cole. Sounds like it’s really nice to have them back.

  27. 27.

    mrmoshpotato

    August 2, 2021 at 4:48 pm

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Now now, tromboners have it hard enough as it is!

  28. 28.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    August 2, 2021 at 4:49 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    Ours were mainly scares, from what I ever knew for sure.

    I had the pleasure of running with with multiple crowds – my blue collar Catholic high school and a group of liberal city Baptist kids. And I was sporty, kind of academic AND blue collar-ish, all in one.  All in Hunter S Thompson’s old neighborhood with all the funkiness that entailed (side note – Dad went to high school with him).

    Back then, a D&C was quick and cheap, and there were no protesters. Plus, everybody (Catholic and otherwise) was fine with the procedure.

  29. 29.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    August 2, 2021 at 4:55 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    I chaperoned some of my kids’ things. I remember one dance that was a sophomore-junior thing at my oldest daughter’s high school. I’m standing with a mom that was pretty attractive, chatting. We notice some couple at an activity that was …. probably a lot of fun …. look at each other and made the joint decision to not interfere, figuring “they look like juniors, if they’re doing that here they’re doing more elsewhere, and are old enough to handle it”.

    We decided to only interrupt drug use or drinking.

  30. 30.

    Catherine D.

    August 2, 2021 at 4:58 pm

    I was wise early – I took up the oboe which can never be in a marching band.

  31. 31.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 2, 2021 at 5:02 pm

    @Catherine D.: Violin.

  32. 32.

    sab

    August 2, 2021 at 5:02 pm

    @Catherine D.: That is my favorite instrument

    ETA : I could never have played it. I play classic guitar and folk harp. Wind instruments are beyond me.

  33. 33.

    Alison Rose

    August 2, 2021 at 5:10 pm

    I never did band camp, but I was in marching band in middle school, and it was fun. Parades more so than band reviews because they were less intense. I still get sympathy headaches for my younger self, remembering having my French-braided hair shellacked with half a can of hairspray, then shoved into the plastic Stetson-looking hat. By the end of a warm day in late Spring, your head expanded and you had this deep imprint from the hat brim across your forehead. Very pretty.

    But the worst was my first year, 6th grade, before the band teacher demanded the school pony up more money for uniforms. Our school colors were blue and white. The uniform that year: white sneakers, white sweatpants (fucking sweatpants, for real), blue cotton polo shirt with our name and instrument embroidered on the chest pocket, and a white floppy beret.

    White pants, blue shirt, white cap.

    We looked like Smurf cosplay. Other schools would walk by our bus in the staging area, in their fancy uniforms, and sing the Smurf song at us. That summer after my first year, good old Miss Fredericksen had enough, threw a shitfit with the school board, and next year we had snazzy uniforms.

  34. 34.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    August 2, 2021 at 5:10 pm

    @Catherine D.:

    My folks stupidly stuck me with a clarinet, which I hated but was not bad at. I’d ditched it completely by 8th grade, and my all-male high school had no organized musical anything.

    Fun story – when I was 10 years old, my birthday present was nothing cool. Dad is an antiques hoarder, and I was gifted an ornate antique brass music stand on which to sit in my bedroom and practice the hated clarinet.

    I wanted a decent skateboard, which I ended up ultimately buying myself later that summer out of my bits of grass mowing and birthday money.

    Mom and dad still have that music stand and clarinet. I’ve never asked about them. But to add insult to injury, when I mentioned that middle daughter bought me a guitar for my birthday because I always wanted to learn to play one, Dad said “you did? I’d have bought you one….”

  35. 35.

    Kent

    August 2, 2021 at 5:11 pm

    Ha!  My 15 year old started band camp today.  Actually she is at “drumline camp” which they do the week before regular marching band starts.  She is a tiny 5’1″ and wants to move from bass drum to the heavier tenor drums this year and has been practicing her riffs all summer in the basement.  Next week she moves on to regular marching band camp which will be her first season of doing it despite being a rising sophomore because it was all canceled last fall due to Covid.

    My 18 year old is a sax player and will be playing on the UW Husky Marching Band in Seattle this fall.  They had zoom auditions in July and she successfully auditioned.  Her band camp starts in around September 10.  UW is on quarters and classes don’t start until about Sept 30 so she arrives at campus 2 weeks early and has band camp from 8 am until 8 pm for a week before their first game.  Sounds pretty hard core.

  36. 36.

    raven

    August 2, 2021 at 5:12 pm

    Band camp. . .right.

  37. 37.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    August 2, 2021 at 5:14 pm

    @Kent:

    A friend of mine has a kid at U of L doing marching band – their schedule seems brutal.

  38. 38.

    Drdavechemist

    August 2, 2021 at 5:18 pm

    @FlyingToaster: Another 7-year marching band vet here- three years in HS and four in college. My high school band camp was at a literal rural camp with cabins and a lake in Southeastern Ohio, and I look back with a weird mix of nostalgia for the fun with my friends as we worked at being the best marching band on the East Side of Cleveland and disgust at the adult-sanctioned hazing that new band members had to endure.

  39. 39.

    sab

    August 2, 2021 at 5:20 pm

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: My Dad hated music, resented his forced piano lessons, and never let us play anything. My first instrument was a ukelele I got with green stamps. I loved that thing.

  40. 40.

    Alison Rose

    August 2, 2021 at 5:22 pm

    @raven: Honestly, all I keep thinking is “This one time, at band camp…”

  41. 41.

    Catherine D.

    August 2, 2021 at 5:24 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Pshaw, have you never seen Nova Scotian fiddlers/cloggers?

  42. 42.

    raven

    August 2, 2021 at 5:26 pm

    I didn’t think much of marching bands till we went to the Rose Bowl. We went to the parade and the game. The Georgia band played at Disneyland the day before, marched in the parade in a 5 1/2 mile long  route and then played the entire game and double overtime. We sat next to them at the game and they worked their asses off!

  43. 43.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 2, 2021 at 5:26 pm

    @Catherine D.: I said violin.  I did not say fiddle.

  44. 44.

    raven

    August 2, 2021 at 5:27 pm

    @Alison Rose: IN my 3 years of high school I spent the summers carrying two bags for18 holes  on Medinah Country Club every day!

  45. 45.

    Catherine D.

    August 2, 2021 at 5:27 pm

    @sab: I played oboe while wearing braces. Weird to have callouses on the inside of the upper lip ??

  46. 46.

    Catherine D.

    August 2, 2021 at 5:28 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: hah! Ok then.

  47. 47.

    bluefoot

    August 2, 2021 at 5:30 pm

    @Catherine D.: ​
      In my high school the oboe players carried the banner(s).

    There was a brass band jamming (New Orleans jazz) in a local park a while back and it reminded me how much I love live music and how much I miss it.

  48. 48.

    Haroldo

    August 2, 2021 at 5:30 pm

    @FlyingToaster:

    Things weren’t all that great for us semi-Oldz.  We soaked ourselves in English Leather.

    (But we were able to steel ourselves for before-school marching band practice with an off-label use of Vick’s Inhalers.)

    Thank heaven I predate Axe. I first smelled it while cataloging books in the middle school library, and would crank open the casement windows to dissipate the miasma

  49. 49.

    schrodingers_cat

    August 2, 2021 at 5:31 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Me neither. I did attend summer schools for the gifted. Blech. I was impossibly nerdy and uncool.

  50. 50.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    August 2, 2021 at 5:31 pm

    @raven:

    Did the golfers ask for club/shot advice?

  51. 51.

    Yutsano

    August 2, 2021 at 5:42 pm

    @Catherine D.: Hey I played oboe too! I was still in marching band too. Tuba probably wrecked my back but I do not regret a thing.

  52. 52.

    FlyingToaster

    August 2, 2021 at 5:45 pm

    @Haroldo: I don’t recall any of the guys in my HS cohort stealing their dads’ Old Spice.  Mostly, they just stank.  We females were stashing solid deodorants (regardless of what you used otherwise) in our instrument cases, because our August BandCamp was 7am-12noon at the high school.  In the Gladstone/Kansas City hellrift. When it would be 85° by 8am.  Every break it was Gatorade and more deodorant.

    The Football players had it worse:  Noon-8pm.

    And the PomPoms and Cheerleaders were inside the gyms, 8-4.

    After school started, our practices were 6:30-7:45am; Football had the field 3-5.  I think the PomPoms and Cheerleaders were on the tennis courts, because the gyms were reserved for varsity sports.

    Uni was much more fun; Band Camp started a week before Freshman Orientation; 8-noon, 1-5, on field, dorms for lunch and dinner, 7-9 in the department of bands learning new music.  Learned to march the Script Indiana (just to show up those blowhards at the OSU).

  53. 53.

    MisterForkbeard

    August 2, 2021 at 5:46 pm

    Gonna engage the BJ brain trust here – I think I’m going to buy an exercise bike. Does anyone have a recommended one or know a good brand?

  54. 54.

    Catherine D.

    August 2, 2021 at 5:47 pm

    @bluefoot: Given how much I hated my school, never woulda happened! Skipped every grade I could to graduate at 16.

  55. 55.

    Catherine D.

    August 2, 2021 at 5:48 pm

    @Yutsano: I love the sound of double reeds.

  56. 56.

    FlyingToaster

    August 2, 2021 at 5:53 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: A distinction without a difference (as a violinist’s parent).

    Lindsey Sterling, then?

  57. 57.

    FlyingToaster

    August 2, 2021 at 5:55 pm

    @Drdavechemist: The nice thing about city schools (or even inner-suburban schools) is that they can’t afford to send us away for band camp.  Or Football Camp.  Or, basically, anywhere further than 50 miles away for a day trip.

    The bad thing, of course, is that they’re always fucking broke.

  58. 58.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 2, 2021 at 5:55 pm

    It’s the little things.

  59. 59.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 2, 2021 at 5:55 pm

    @FlyingToaster: Oh, but there is a difference.  Just let your left arm droop a little during a violin lesson and is fuck around and find out time.

  60. 60.

    artem1s

    August 2, 2021 at 5:55 pm

    @Drdavechemist:

    literal rural camp with cabins and a lake in Southeastern Ohio

    Hocking Hills? Zeleski? Lake Hope? or somewhere else?

    My high school had band camp at Rio Grande College, home of Bob Evans Farms. F**king middle of nowhere in a dry county. I’m pretty sure that was most of the point of selecting it.

  61. 61.

    Ohio Mom

    August 2, 2021 at 5:57 pm

    I didn’t go to band camp, my urban high school did not have one, or any team sports for that matter. Besides, I am completely unmusical.

    But I can appreciate Cole’s satisfaction at the return of a band camp to his little town. Watching the signs of the seasons is a joy of mine.

    This week it’s been seeing the first monarch butterfly fly by — always a sign that fall is on its way — and on Thursday afternoon, after a year off for COVID, the return of the summer rummage sale at the nearby Conservatice synagogue.

    I don’t know where they get all that stuff but they always seem to have something for me and I look forward to finding it.

  62. 62.

    sab

    August 2, 2021 at 6:01 pm

    @Catherine D.: I will be more tolerant of my invisiligner braces.

  63. 63.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    August 2, 2021 at 6:02 pm

    Never went to anything like that: single mother, poor, who dragged me around so much that I went to 5 different schools in 4 different cities from 6th-10th grade.

    Old friend of mine, he won a Grammy a couple of years back, ran a “rock camp” in Houghton MI of all places for a number of years. It’s somewhat based on a concept that was pirated to make the Jack Black film:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_School_(film)

    If you can find it streaming, watch it. Keerist those kids are good.

  64. 64.

    Drdavechemist

    August 2, 2021 at 6:03 pm

    @artem1s: It was called Camp Conestoga in Minerva. Looking at a map, I see it was less far south than my memory placed it, but still a substantial drive from our community in Geauga County, and it felt like the end of the world.

  65. 65.

    Ohio Mom

    August 2, 2021 at 6:03 pm

    @MisterForkbeard:

    I know nothing about exercise bikes. If there’s one near you, I’d go to Play It Again Sports and try out what they have available. Because I don’t have it in me to buy new when I can buy used.

  66. 66.

    FlyingToaster

    August 2, 2021 at 6:03 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: WT’s music school collaborates with a summer Fiddle Camp.  They teach you off-curriculum application, so once you learn Verracini Gigue they start you on Kesh Jig and Squirrel Hunters and, well, you get the idea.

    The Mass Suzuki Festival, every March, has breakouts for fiddle and improv.  The “cult” style Suzuki teachers won’t send their students, heh.

  67. 67.

    sab

    August 2, 2021 at 6:04 pm

    @Ohio Mom: My autistic grand-daughter has been in school and she absolutely loves it. Hard to get her to stop socializing with everyone she meets on the street, since that is one of the new skillsthey taught her.

  68. 68.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    August 2, 2021 at 6:19 pm

    Open thread? y’all saw Lindsey Graham has a breakthrough infection?


    Manu Raju
    @mkraju
    Sen. Joe Manchin entertained a small group of senators on his houseboat this weekend — and Sen. Lindsey Graham was in attendance, according to a source with knowledge of the situation. Manchin’s office declined to comment on the attendance on his boat.

    from the thread: Rosen, Cortez Masto, Thune and Coons were on the boat

  69. 69.

    Another Scott

    August 2, 2021 at 6:20 pm

    @MisterForkbeard: Stationary?

    If so, we have had a Sprit Fitness XBR55 for many years.  It’s been fine.  It’s reasonably quiet and the program adjusts the tension (don’t have to mess around with adjusting knobs, etc.).  It looks like they still sell it even though it doesn’t have fancy TV screens and subscriptions and all the rest.

    If you don’t want to spend anywhere near that much, rolling stands/trainers work well too and take up a lot less space.

    Good luck!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  70. 70.

    Baud

    August 2, 2021 at 6:27 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Since you declared this open.

    GDP Growth Under Trump Was the Worst Since Hoover

    The pandemic was partly to blame, and there are some measures that make his record look better. But it was not a stellar performance.

  71. 71.

    Eunicecycle

    August 2, 2021 at 6:34 pm

    @artem1s: Hey I went to band camp at Rio Grande College, too! This was in the 70s. Yes, we had band camp in the stone age!

  72. 72.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    August 2, 2021 at 6:35 pm

    @Baud: I would never make so bold!

    This post is in: Open Threads

    I have consulted the FAQs (I haven’t looked at D-Kos in years and I don’t even know if that joke is still cromulent)

  73. 73.

    Martin

    August 2, 2021 at 6:35 pm

    @Baud: Its odd. CA was the first state to close and the last to open and had half the GDP drop as the nation overall. It’s almost as though not reflexively firing everyone, kicking them out of their homes and otherwise at least trying to maintain a degree of normalcy is good for the economy.

  74. 74.

    Baud

    August 2, 2021 at 6:41 pm

    @Martin:

    That’s amazing. You should recall your governor.

  75. 75.

    Another Scott

    August 2, 2021 at 6:44 pm

    Missed out on band camp – not a make-musical person.  I do remember one winter Boy Scout camp jamboree thing when all the scoutmasters tried to make a huge bonfire from freshly chain-saw cut green trees and couldn’t get it started (even with flammable liquid help).  Not a good look.  ;-)

    ObOpenThread:

    Honestly, I’ve learned to brush off potential clients who immediately start to argue with me about everything. “Sorry, I don’t think we’re the right fit for you.”

    [Frequent response: “YES YOU ARE”] https://t.co/2bA0cAJuPv

    — HatInProSe (@Popehat) August 2, 2021

    I’m so glad I was never tempted to become a lawyer!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  76. 76.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    August 2, 2021 at 6:46 pm

    @Baud: Ed Kilgore and the O’Bros are urging Democrats to take the recall more seriously. Between Governor Arnold and 2016, I’d say take everything seriously, on the other, I haven’t heard of a candidate can imagine beating Newsome. Glenn Loury? Really?

    (Listening to the O’Bros podcast now, and Joe Manchin is citing the “brilliancy of the Founding Fathers” in his defense of the filibuster. Who wants to tell him? Not that it will do any good if someone did).

  77. 77.

    Elizabelle

    August 2, 2021 at 6:53 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:   Laughing.  Graham as a vector.  Maybe we will see with the GOP Congress and Senate who was posturing, who is vulnerable, and who has immunity through (undisclosed) vaccination.   I also wonder what this will do to the calculus of passing the infrastructure legislation.

    Some of the WaPost reader comments on the breaking news of Lindsey’s breakthrough infection were amusing.  The following are all by WaPost readers:

    Positive for Covid, still negative for a spine.

    The vaccines are designed to stimulate the immune system of a human being, not a worm.

    I know he’s in the Senate but Nancy was right: wear your masks morons.

    Lindsey was one of the first people in the country vaccinated since he jumped the line.  He got his only 11 days after it was released on December 22, 2020.  If he gets very ill we should suspect that booster shots are needed and know that karma is a beoch.

    Stay positive, Lindsey. Stay positive.

  78. 78.

    Another Scott

    August 2, 2021 at 6:57 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    I worry that Lindsey Graham’s COVID Contract Tracing List will be just one more thing Trump & Putin can use to blackmail him.

    — Mrs. Betty Bowers (@BettyBowers) August 2, 2021

    Hmmm…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  79. 79.

    Elizabelle

    August 2, 2021 at 6:58 pm

    @Another Scott:   Indeed.  Probably holds true for a lot of them.

  80. 80.

    Salty Sam

    August 2, 2021 at 6:58 pm

    @FlyingToaster: A distinction without a difference…

    I beg to differ- a violin has strings.  Fiddles got strangs.

  81. 81.

    Anonymous At Work

    August 2, 2021 at 6:59 pm

    So this one time at band camp…

  82. 82.

    Baud

    August 2, 2021 at 7:05 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I think California does recall stupid.  There’s no head to head choice.  If Newsom loses recall by 51-49, any other person with the highest vote wins, even if it’s like 25%.

  83. 83.

    Miki

    August 2, 2021 at 7:05 pm

    Not sure how the DNA mixed but my cousin’s son is a high school band director in Texas. I was raised to believe the music came from my mom’s side but apparently it’s gonna come from wherever, a good thing, imo. Anyhoo, he was named after his dad’s brother who died in Vietnam in 1966. So utterly thankful he found his heart and followed it, in spite of the could-have-been-an-anvil hung around his neck.

  84. 84.

    Miki

    August 2, 2021 at 7:11 pm

    @WaterGirl: Different generations, fer shure. In my day it was church camp.

    Kumbaya, baby.

  85. 85.

    Elizabelle

    August 2, 2021 at 7:13 pm

    NY Times: No, Cormac McCarthy Isn’t on Twitter. Don’t Be Fooled by the Check Mark.

    An account posing as the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “The Road,” “No Country for Old Men” and “All the Pretty Horses” was mistakenly verified by Twitter.

    The check mark gave it a semblance of legitimacy, but a popular Twitter account associated with Cormac McCarthy, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “The Road” and “No Country for Old Men,” that went from being verified to not is a fake, his agent said on Monday.

    The account, @CormacMcCrthy, had gained more than 49,000 followers since it was created in September 2018 by someone pretending to be Mr. McCarthy, a storyteller with a reputed aversion to computers.

    The twitter account fooled horror writer Stephen King, along with your basic randos on the internet.

  86. 86.

    J R in WV

    August 2, 2021 at 7:16 pm

    @MisterForkbeard: ​
     

    I think I’m going to buy an exercise bike.

    We have a Schwinn that’s pretty good, have had it for years, so I can’t really advise about a specific model.

  87. 87.

    Miki

    August 2, 2021 at 7:17 pm

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: You’ve obviously never had a D & C.

  88. 88.

    CaseyL

    August 2, 2021 at 7:17 pm

    Never went to band camp – I was in high school when doing *anything* related to “school spirit” was considered incredibly lame – but a few years ago there was a Sedentary Sousa Marching Band that used to play at holiday fairs and music festivals.

    They were exactly what they said: they played the marches while sitting on folding chairs.  They had similarly seated drum majorette, who did all the arm stuff and the baton-twirling/hurling stuff.

    They all wore band uniforms, none of which matched.  Some had hung onto their own high school/college marching band unis; others bought the uniforms at thrift stores.

    They were a hoot.  I should see if they’re still around.

  89. 89.

    Another Scott

    August 2, 2021 at 7:18 pm

    Biden White House statement today on what they’re doing regarding eviction moritoria:

    Statement by Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Eviction Prevention Efforts

    AUGUST 02, 2021

    Today, President Biden is taking further action to prevent Americans from experiencing the heartbreak of eviction. Thanks to State eviction moratoria, almost 33% of the country will be spared evictions for the rest of this month. But in the remaining States, action is needed.

    Thanks to the bipartisan COVID relief act Congress passed in December 2020 and the American Rescue Plan Congress and the Biden Administration enacted in March 2021, State and local governments long ago received Emergency Rental Assistance—a $46.5 billion plan to protect millions of Americans facing deep rental debt and potential eviction during the pandemic. Some cities and States have demonstrated their ability to release these funds efficiently to tenants and landlords in need. But even though funds began to be distributed in February by the Biden Administration, too many States and cities have been too slow to act.

    As the Administration made clear last week, there is no excuse for any State or locality not to promptly deploy the resources that Congress appropriated to meet the critical need of so many Americans. This assistance provides the funding to pay landlords current and back rent so tenants can remain in their homes or apartments, not be evicted. No one in America should be evicted when Federal funds are available, in the hands of State and local government, to pay back rent due.

    Last week the Administration also made clear that given the spread of the Delta variant among those Americans most likely to face eviction and lacking vaccinations, the President would have strongly supported a decision by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to further extend its eviction moratorium to protect renters at this moment of heightened vulnerability. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court declared on June 29th that the CDC could not grant such an extension without “clear and specific congressional authorization (via new legislation).”

    Given the rising urgency of containing the spread of the Delta variant, on Sunday, the President asked the CDC to consider once again the possibility of executive action. He raised the prospect of a new, 30-day eviction moratorium—focused on counties with High or Substantial case rates—to protect renters. This temporary measure would spur States and localities to ramp up Emergency Rental Assistance programs to full speed this month, giving every landlord the opportunity to collect the rent they are owed and ensuring no eligible family gets evicted.

    To date, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky and her team have been unable to find legal authority for a new, targeted eviction moratorium. Our team is redoubling efforts to identify all available legal authorities to provide necessary protections.

    In the meantime, the President will continue to do everything in his power to help renters from eviction. The Administration has provided States and local governments with the flexibility to get funds out efficiently without burdensome documentation; to use funds to help those who are homeless or in need of new housing; and to use American Rescue Plan State and local funds to expand any effort to help those whose housing is at risk due to the pandemic.

    Today, the President is taking these additional measures:

    * Directing his White House policy, implementation, and legal teams to assemble all Federal agencies to reexamine whether there are any other authorities to take additional actions to stop evictions.

    * Calling on States and localities to extend or put in place evictions moratoria for at the least the next two months. Among those behind on their rent, 1 in 3 renters live in States that have already extended protections against evictions due to State eviction moratoria—which are not covered by the Supreme Court’s ruling. The rest of the States should follow course by also extending eviction moratoria.

    * Calling on State and local courts to heed the call of the Justice Department to pause eviction proceedings until tenants and landlords can first seek to access Emergency Rental Assistance—making evictions a last, not first—resort.

    * Directing his Cabinet Departments to use their powers to prevent evictions and tell landlords: If your government is backing your mortgage or providing you housing tax relief, you should not be choosing eviction over the Emergency Rental Assistance we have provided to make you whole and keep your tenants and their families safely housed.

    * Challenging every landlord to hold off on evictions for the next 30 days and instead seek out the Emergency Rental Assistance Congress and the Administration meant for them.

    * Challenging utilities providers to work with State and local governments to access Emergency Rental Assistance and other resources made available by Congress and the Administration to avoid cutting off services for those behind in payments due to the pandemic and at risk of eviction.

    * Directing the Treasury Department to make clear that States and localities can use emergency housing and State and local relief to support eviction prevention efforts by courts, legal aid, and housing counselors, as well as to give incentives to landlords who cooperate in these efforts by offering housing to those who have been evicted or are homeless, or by offering leases to the most hard-pressed tenants at a length that ensures true housing stability.

    * At the request of Congressional leadership, directing the White House, Treasury Department, and other relevant Federal agencies to continue examining why State and local governments have failed to distribute rental assistance Congress has provided, and explore any authorities the Federal government has to press the States and localities to make these distributions.

    The Administration remains deeply committed to doing everything in its power to keep people safely and securely housed, which is essential to the health, well-being, and dignity of us all.

    ###

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  90. 90.

    Roger Moore

    August 2, 2021 at 7:20 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    on the other, I haven’t heard of a candidate can imagine beating Newsome.

    The problem is that they don’t have to beat Newsom.  We’re going to be asked two separate questions: 1) should Newsom be recalled and 2) who should replace him if he is recalled.  There’s a serious worry people will answer yes to question 1 without a satisfactory answer to question 2.  Or rather they’ll say yes to question 1 and then split a dozen ways on question 2, and we’ll be stuck with whichever candidate manages to get a plurality.  It’s a stupid, stupid way of doing things.

  91. 91.

    Ohio Mom

    August 2, 2021 at 7:24 pm

    @sab:

    I’m happy for you — to see your granddaughter full of excitement and trying her best to join in.

    I always think (that is, I haven’t read an expert on this, it is just my made-up theory) that autistic kids who want to be social have a trait that will motivate and propel them forward in many ways.

    I don’t mean that they will naturally pick-up social Ps and Qs (of course not!) just that they will say yes to things and will be broadened that way. Ohio Son is a bit of a loner and he’s missed out on opportunities by saying No. But that’s his comfort level at this point of his life.

    On a related note, I spent part of my screen time today at LGM, I guess to try to see what the attraction is. I read (yet another of) Eric Loomis’ posts on school segregation and how prejudiced white parents are at fault. I slogged through the comments (in a nested system, you can never catch up because new comments are scattered).

    All I can say is, what those people know about children and schooling would fit in my proverbial pinky finger. I could also accuse them of ableism because they completely ignore special ed issues but I don’t think it is ignoring as much as completely not on their map.

  92. 92.

    J R in WV

    August 2, 2021 at 7:28 pm

    I was in band for 6 years, Jr High and Senior High. Camp was right there in town, summer all day. We once marched our show for halftime at the football game, off the field into the buses to ride to Bristol TN VA for competition all day, long parade, do your thang on the football field for the judges, band directors from away.

    I was in pretty good shape after high school, I carried a 55 pound brass sousaphone for miles and miles ever year. Got me through boot camp after I was drafted…

  93. 93.

    Dan B

    August 2, 2021 at 7:31 pm

    @Kent: We drive past the U District three times this weekend.  There’s a wall of 30 + story skyscrapers going up just west of campus.  The light rail station west of campus opens October 2nd  so the development is at fever pitch.  At the light rail station near us in the BIPOC majority neighborhood there’s finally Federal funds to develop a low income housing project to fill a vast vacant lot more than a decade after the light rail arrived.

     

    At least there’s no band practices…

  94. 94.

    JML

    August 2, 2021 at 7:34 pm

    Hated marching band in HS. all we ever did was march in the Christmas City of the North parade, and it usually snowed. Except for when we marched at Disney Magic Music Days and the entire band nearly got heat stroke from the horrid synthetic suit coats, overlays, and ridiculous hats.

    Pep band was way more fun, especially the hockey games.

  95. 95.

    geg6

    August 2, 2021 at 7:42 pm

    My niece is on the dance team at her University, which is not “in the band,” but always performs with and travels with the band.  She is very excited that they are booked to perform in Prague, Vienna and Munich this spring.  Her first two years of college have been so sad due to COVID-19, so I really hope this trip happens for her.

  96. 96.

    NotMax

    August 2, 2021 at 8:02 pm

    @Mister Forkbeard

    Only thing to offer is that have heard tell there are thousands of, as they say on the car lot, lightly used models out there, gathering dust in garages and basements or acting as laundry racks.

  97. 97.

    Ruckus

    August 2, 2021 at 8:30 pm

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    I have skills, music is not one of them, not in any way shape or form.

    Mom demanded that I take music. We tried a number of instruments. Due to being a humane person I demanded that we not continue the torture of anyone’s hearing within 20 miles of me attempting to play.

  98. 98.

    Ruckus

    August 2, 2021 at 8:46 pm

    @MisterForkbeard:

    I have a spare fitting bike, as I used to mfg them. A fitting bike is fully adjustable to fit a wide range of people, mine works from about 4’10” to about 6’8″. It has a computer (built as part of the bike) load generator which goes from 50-1500 lbs of load. If more than one of you uses the bike it is easily adjustable for multiple people. BTW 50 is an easy peddling load, I could 10 yrs ago go up to 500 and I’ve had a Cat 2 bike racer on the machine and he could pull 1200 and talk to me in a normal voice. Cat 1 racers are the Tour riders. He was close. You can change the bars and seat easily so if there are different riders, say a husband and wife, both could ride this very easily and comfortably.

    If you are interested we can get WG to exchange our emails and discuss further. There are cheaper exercise bikes but this is a much better proposition for exercise.

  99. 99.

    Ruckus

    August 2, 2021 at 9:05 pm

    @Ruckus:

    It’s not foot pounds it’s watts that the load is measured in.

  100. 100.

    HeartlandLiberal

    August 3, 2021 at 7:02 am

    If you want to see the most famous high school band in Japan, performing in a video with one of the top female pop stars in Japan, go to YouTube, and search for “kalen anzai Bokura wa tsuyoku nareru”.

    There a number of female vocal pop artists in Japan who rise so far above the J-Pop bubble gum crap it is amazing.

    My other favorite is “Shine” by leo ieiri. Just search on “shine leo ieiri” and you will find it. Fantastic voice.

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