Friday, April 20, 2007

Iron Chef Midwest


This afternoon finds me alone and hungry. Everyone else in the house has better things to do than sit around playing video games, like school, or a job. I however, have a quest. That quest is to find food.

Like most normal humans, I woke up late, and stumbled downstairs in my PJ's to find some grub. After looking in the fridge, the pantry, the freezer, under my bed, and in the phonebook (in that order), these are my options



  • Peeps

  • Quesadilla using the last flour tortilla and a bag of shredded cheese

  • Foil-wrapped mystery food

  • Frozen hunk of pork

Well the quesadilla seemed the best option, but in my infinite brilliance, I pushed "4:55" on the microwave, instead of ":45" so my food is somewhat on the black and viscous side. I would make mac and cheese, but we're out of milk, and I would order chinese, but we're out of money. This leaves me with no choice but to mix the sugar-covered marshmallow bunnies with the pork and hope for the best.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Fundies

I've always felt that christians of the fundamental persuasion had their priorities a little... misplaced, but this takes the cake. "Hook 'em while their young," the cigarette companies say, and apparently it applies to intolerance and bigotry as well. Here's a picture submitted by Katie.


No no, that's right. That IS Jesus throwing bombs at Atheistville. Scary huh? For more info that is both hilarious and disturbing, go to http://objectiveministries.org/kidz/

Friday, April 13, 2007

DCI Finals

Working 26 out of the last 48 hours has left little time to blog (not that I'm particularly diligent as it is) but I feel the twinge of creative mania, and thus do I post:



I've been listening to quite a lot of music recently, most notably the 2006 Summer Music Games Finals. This recording, ordered from the DCI website in November, was recently garnered unto me, and was promptly iPodded. My top show concepts go as follows:



1st Place : MACHINE performed by the Rosemont Cavaliers. This show, reminicient of Frameworks ('02), was, as its name would indicate, mechanical to the "t." Every aspect of the show's design was robotic, including the music (similar at times to the ACME theme from Loony Toons) as well as the drill, which begins with gears turning, and includes a moment with the screech of bending metal, while the block in the center warps and bends as well.

Polio's favorite moment: the "broken record" section when the trumpet section plays the same riff over and over again until a guard member whacks one on the head to get it to finish playing. Classic.



2nd Place: Faust, performed by Phantom Regiment from Rockford, IL. Phantom Regiment, characterized by their impeccable musicality and orchestral sound, followed last year's Rhapsody in Blue, with the story of Dr. Faust and his pact with the devil Mephistopheles. While I won't go into detail about the Faust legend, I should remark that nearly every aspect of the tale is somehow included in Phantom's 11 minute production. This includes the summoning of the devils (guard guys in black bondage suits), the death of Gretchen (a guard girl who is covered in a black sheet, but later rises, reborn in a different, grander outfit), as well as Faust's redemption as the hornline plays Mahler's Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection." A well thought out and executed dramatic production with one of the loudest hornline's this blogger can remember, and possibly the most precise battery.



Polio's favorite moment: The end of the ballad, Franz Bibel's "Ave Maria," in which the percussion sections tacet, and the horns sustain a beautiful suspended chord, growing louder while perfectly balanced, until it resolves, leaving me in shivers every time.




3rd Place: The Godfather: Part Blue performed by the Blue Devils from Concord CA. This show's value lies for me in its listening value rather than its visual performance. The beginning is a shoot-out with the snare section running behind horn players, rat-a-tat-tatting at tenor drummers across the field. This section is a gripping start to the show, and sets the tone for the dark mafia themes that follow. The Blue Devils are famous for their jazz, and though it shows in certain sections, they opted not to rely solely on the same tried and true jazzy solos and stacked chords, but branch out into more symphonic and dramatic musical styles. While this may not have resulted in a championship, it makes BD much more enjoyable to my ears.



Polio's Favorite moment: Towards the end of the closer, a massive cross with the horns as outline and percussion crammed inside runs silently across the field, morphing suddenly into a dagger, as the entire corps recapitulates the main Godfather theme we heard earlier, though much louder this time, and with heart-stopping intensity.



Other mentionable performances: Santa Clara Vanguard's "Moto Perpetuo" in which the corps never stops moving, as well as The Glassmen, as they play Beethoven as though in a concert hall, with tuning, performance, and applause all included in the show.





Though some people's rating systems might need a bit of tweaking (cough), I do honestly give this summer and overall A- for solid shows from top to bottom.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Updates, but sadly no Dates

Today I was introduced to the head of Training and Management, whom I had heard of, but never met. We shook hands, and she politely explained that she was surprised we'd never met considering I have such a reputation. This surprised me too: apparently I have a reputation!
In other news, I've made tentative plans to attend a show in Atlanta this summer. My friends J and La have bought tickets for us, along with my friend Q, and it promises to be quite the excursion. It's the largest show before finals, which are in Pasadena this August. Of course a trip to SoCal is more tantalizing, as girls in bikinis are, in general, more appealing than the streets of ATL (I've been warned not to disrespect the ATL, so I should note that I mean no offense). Tripping to California does also mean another few thousand miles of road, effectively making it impossible to travel to those sandy beaches. Ahh I can smell the suntan lotion slowly slipping away...

Q called me this morning, inquiring as to my preference of hotel, my proposed budget, my method of transportation to and from the show, and then, as an afterthought, when we actually wanted to go. I recommended that we look at the DCI website for the date of the show, and try to shoot for something around then.

Lastly, my vision care provider has been, shall we say less than adequate. Let me clarify this: my contacts are of the "leave them in for a month, then toss them" variety, with cautions against leaving them in for periods lengthier than 30 days. Being frugal, and contacts being expensive, I opted to stretch the life of mine for, at first a month and a half, then 2 months for the next pair, and later a 2 1/2 month span for the 3rd pair. My fourth and final pair, have been in my eyes for, I shudder to say it, 6 months. This has left my eyes in a right state, requiring me to add 10 minutes to my morning routine devoted to rubbing my eyes and blinking. March 12th I went to Pearl Vision to order a new box of Maximum Strength contacts, and was told 3-4 days was all it would take before I could sleep in an extra few minutes every morning. A week later I went in, having recieved no phone call, and was told that it was actually 5-7 days for contacts, and I would just have to be patient. 3 days later they were still not in. I went in every 5 days or so just to check, but every time was told to be patient, as it often took more time for lenses with a prescription of my strength.
It has been almost 4 weeks since I ordered them.

They are still not in.