This is my free write for “What is a Place” essay.
I’ll be spending 5 minutes roughly on each of the following questions.
My place is Stanford Stadium during my DCI show I preformed there last summer.
1. What do you smell in this place?
I can smell anything you can imagine here. There are 150 sweaty kids from 15-21 who have been stuck on buses for 2 ½ hours with broken air conditioning just to get off the bus and start warming up immediately in nice warm wool uniforms then do a complete run through in that uniform. So we are drenched in sweat from head to toe. Haven’t had a shower since last night. If you can’t imagine the smell by now you’re luck. Well I guess we were the lucky one; we were use to the smell by this time. Then there was the smell of the other corps and the food in the stand. All the burgers and hot dogs a heart could desire. I almost forgot about the smell of 5 different corps’ 5 diesel running vehicles
2. What can you hear in this place?
This one is really easy. Well kinda. You obivously here all the brass players warming up, practicing for their, or actually running through their show in the performance; then there are the drummers doing all of the same things that the brass players are doing, but much louder and not a “musical” by my terms. Then there are the guard members listening to their pop songs stretching and warming up, or you can here them counting to a warm up as well, but they’re more visual and not so much on the sound thing. Then you could here the roar of the stadium announcer and the crowd as the corps were finishing or playing a big point in their show. That is just all the big stuff you could. Then there was the sounds of feet going in time to the doctor beat. warming up our visual part of the show. The people talking between shows. Talking about what they liked or didn’t like about the last show.
3. What do you see in this place?
I see a lot of hard work and dedication to something most of America couldn’t give a rats ass about. I see rivals and friends. I see terrible marching technique and amazing at the same time, depending which corps I was looking at. I see a giant stadium, the like I hadn’t seen since the Rams dome at my last high school marching band. I see my adopted family for that summer working with me. I see my music tech trying to get from staring at the Blue Devils and Santa Clara Vanguard. That was always a problem I had last summer lol.
4. What do you feel in this place?
I think they better question is what didn’t I feel that night? I felt a wide.... I mean gigantic range of emotion. Ranging from rage to euphoria. I felt nervous and calm all in the same night. It all depends on when we are talking about. It was the first night that I true realized that I, Blayne Cantrell of all people was actually doing this. Until then I thought it was all just a dream or some weird off brand I had never heard about. When the announcer of DCI was really saying “Now taking the field, from Denver, Colorado the Blue Knightssssssss” Then the crowd cheered for us. That! that right there was when I knew I was really doing it. I didn’t feel a high that good again until finals night in Indy.
5. Quick story “mini first draft” 10min
My place needs a little back story to explain were and why I was there, but it starts off with me waking up from a nap on the bus driving to the show site. I got of the bus like I had the 5 or 6 times before. Feeling my usual ants and nervousness. I didn’t think this show was going to be and different from the other ones, boy was I wrong... but that comes later. I lined up, grabbed my plume for my shako, and took off to our visual warm up. There I saw the Blue Devils, who I loath for some many reasons it’s not even funny. We got to warm up in the same tennis courts as they did. Along with out sister corp, the Troopers. I was a little angry, for no real reason, other than I was in the same area as the Blue Devils. but that soon passed, because they left before we did and as they were leaving we played them a few loud cords. Getting a good number of them to turn and look at us. It was awesome. Then after that we get to the tunnel where the anxiety went crazy, because I had never seen a stadium that full and this big in quit some time. That all passed thou. Right after I heard the official announcer for DCI say his famous line “Now taking the field, from Denver, Colorado the Blue Knightssssssss” O! M! G! I can’t explain how I felt it was so over the top! Because that was it! It was the single moments I knew that I had did it! I wouldn’t believe you if you told the high school sophomore me that I would be the one that would be on the field hearing that one day.
I’ll be spending 5 minutes roughly on each of the following questions.
My place is Stanford Stadium during my DCI show I preformed there last summer.
1. What do you smell in this place?
I can smell anything you can imagine here. There are 150 sweaty kids from 15-21 who have been stuck on buses for 2 ½ hours with broken air conditioning just to get off the bus and start warming up immediately in nice warm wool uniforms then do a complete run through in that uniform. So we are drenched in sweat from head to toe. Haven’t had a shower since last night. If you can’t imagine the smell by now you’re luck. Well I guess we were the lucky one; we were use to the smell by this time. Then there was the smell of the other corps and the food in the stand. All the burgers and hot dogs a heart could desire. I almost forgot about the smell of 5 different corps’ 5 diesel running vehicles
2. What can you hear in this place?
This one is really easy. Well kinda. You obivously here all the brass players warming up, practicing for their, or actually running through their show in the performance; then there are the drummers doing all of the same things that the brass players are doing, but much louder and not a “musical” by my terms. Then there are the guard members listening to their pop songs stretching and warming up, or you can here them counting to a warm up as well, but they’re more visual and not so much on the sound thing. Then you could here the roar of the stadium announcer and the crowd as the corps were finishing or playing a big point in their show. That is just all the big stuff you could. Then there was the sounds of feet going in time to the doctor beat. warming up our visual part of the show. The people talking between shows. Talking about what they liked or didn’t like about the last show.
3. What do you see in this place?
I see a lot of hard work and dedication to something most of America couldn’t give a rats ass about. I see rivals and friends. I see terrible marching technique and amazing at the same time, depending which corps I was looking at. I see a giant stadium, the like I hadn’t seen since the Rams dome at my last high school marching band. I see my adopted family for that summer working with me. I see my music tech trying to get from staring at the Blue Devils and Santa Clara Vanguard. That was always a problem I had last summer lol.
4. What do you feel in this place?
I think they better question is what didn’t I feel that night? I felt a wide.... I mean gigantic range of emotion. Ranging from rage to euphoria. I felt nervous and calm all in the same night. It all depends on when we are talking about. It was the first night that I true realized that I, Blayne Cantrell of all people was actually doing this. Until then I thought it was all just a dream or some weird off brand I had never heard about. When the announcer of DCI was really saying “Now taking the field, from Denver, Colorado the Blue Knightssssssss” Then the crowd cheered for us. That! that right there was when I knew I was really doing it. I didn’t feel a high that good again until finals night in Indy.
5. Quick story “mini first draft” 10min
My place needs a little back story to explain were and why I was there, but it starts off with me waking up from a nap on the bus driving to the show site. I got of the bus like I had the 5 or 6 times before. Feeling my usual ants and nervousness. I didn’t think this show was going to be and different from the other ones, boy was I wrong... but that comes later. I lined up, grabbed my plume for my shako, and took off to our visual warm up. There I saw the Blue Devils, who I loath for some many reasons it’s not even funny. We got to warm up in the same tennis courts as they did. Along with out sister corp, the Troopers. I was a little angry, for no real reason, other than I was in the same area as the Blue Devils. but that soon passed, because they left before we did and as they were leaving we played them a few loud cords. Getting a good number of them to turn and look at us. It was awesome. Then after that we get to the tunnel where the anxiety went crazy, because I had never seen a stadium that full and this big in quit some time. That all passed thou. Right after I heard the official announcer for DCI say his famous line “Now taking the field, from Denver, Colorado the Blue Knightssssssss” O! M! G! I can’t explain how I felt it was so over the top! Because that was it! It was the single moments I knew that I had did it! I wouldn’t believe you if you told the high school sophomore me that I would be the one that would be on the field hearing that one day.
You have a good deal of descriptive items here to pull from. Nice post. ~Ms. A.
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