You Had to Be There
Monday, October 3, 2011 at 11:34PM Previously on Adventures In Hauling Around A Vastly Uncomfortable Hat:
- Sometimes holding it becomes a D Row group project
- Like all things Drum Major, there is nothing inherently natural about having this... thing... on high.
- Go ahead, you try to hold it
We may now add "rolling up on the Everglades with a parking pass from Ohio State still on the dash" to The List Of WTF Things I Find Myself Doing These Days. It's a long list. There's still plenty of room at the bottom.
"Do you have to go to every rehearsal?" I've heard this question several times, most often from myself, but the answer remains the same: No. I don't have to go to any, really.
But I don't like what missing what I miss when I don't. You should see what this Band does in a week. You should see what this Band does in a day, in fifteen minutes. Each rehearsal of each passage hauls the performance level up another rung of OSUMB acceptability, and even when tens of thousands are keening their soaking, tailgate-fueled love, there's one baritone player who put one toe out of place on one maneuver and he is standing there haaaaaaaaaaaating that fact. You could airdrop The Ohio State University Marching Band into your average third world country armed only with their instrument cases and their spit valves, and they would have free and open elections established by sunrise. Then? Concert at noon at the warlord's compound! BYO string of wives!
So no, I do not like to miss rehearsals, let alone a two-week set of rehearsals, which is what I'm doing now as I undertake a stint as a writer in residence at Everglades National Park. I applied for the program pre-book, when Script Ohio was to me but a few moments of especially loud cursive. But this is a necessary thing I'm doing, a good thing; a fortnight of forced perspective.
The little buckeye I scooped out of Buckeye Grove last month rattles around an empty cupholder as the sawgrass and the marshes slide past, and I am where I am supposed to be. I am content. I am content until I see mosquitoes the size of B-1 bombers splatter on the outer dash, and then I am a little less content, but I am still, for some reason, where I am supposed to be.
The clouds are spread thin and the sun is an egg yolk set on still waters here. The crowd in Ohio Stadium wore winter gloves and woolen hats this Saturday; I was dumping sand out of my sneakers each time I re-entered my car, wilting against the frame of the door, a sucker to the sticky decline of rainy season. On Sunday OSUMB were in my hometown, playing the halftime of the Bengals game; I was watching a single blue-bodied insect negotiate a marsh fern, contemplating the fact that the difference in elevation of an inch or two in these parts makes for an entirely different eco-neighborhood. I read these things in National Parks Service brochures; I saw the panoramic HD pictures. None of this prepared me for the acumen of the little blue bug.
When I first arrived here, I explained to a park ranger what exactly it is I do with the rest of my life at the moment, and he said, "You'll find it somewhat quieter here."
I wasn't looking for quiet when I started chasing down a 192-member brass and percussion band. That's not their specialty. It's not necessarily mine, either, but the wideness and the insistent flatness of the landscape here demand hushed tones. There is no app for this.
But there are different kinds of quiet, even TBDBITL quiet-- the sousaphone player I saw the day of tryouts facing a pillar with his instrument about two inches from the wall, forcing a sheath of musical privacy in a rehearsal room screeching with trumpet arcs, snare beats, and stripped-off nerve endings. The rest before the entire Band propelled itself down on one knee on a final note, body on the ground, instruments flung up towards lunar apogee. The terrible pause on a Monday afternoon, instruments up, a last nanosecond of ambiguity before the destiny grinder known as challenges begin, when about twenty minutes will decide who gets to add a ramp entrance to the lifetime memory bank and who gets to stand there and watch somebody else adding a ramp entrance to the lifetime memory bank.
And even within the great and twisting vortex of screams of appreciation, sometimes, there is Everglades stillness. When Ohio State played Toledo last month, I stood on the floor of St. John Arena at the Band's hybrid practice session and pep rally known as the Skull Session. They played "Zoot Suit Riot."
I should have known what was coming when Jason The Ridiculously Awesome Drum Major shouted for the graduate assistants who were standing on the opposite side of the floor to get out of the way.
He then performed, which is an inadequate verb-- but "pretty much rearranging time and space in 4/4 time" also seems, I don't know, something of an understatement. In the nine months I have known him, it was the best I had ever, ever seen him do his job.
It wasn't just that the high tosses were arrow-accurate or that he'd leapt particularly high or pulled the crowd in the upper decks along with him like a hijacked freight train. There was an edge of undistilled self he was laying down, a vibrant purity of craft and art and athletics. I heard the crack of the ground bounces. I saw his fleeting eye contact with entire bleacher sections and the felt the trembling aftermaths from the detonations of the percussion section. And I'd captured it with a video camera.
Except... I hadn't. This is what Jason and OSUMB did, but it is not what I saw. What you have here is some pretty impressive twirling backed by a terrific marching band; what I saw was phosphorescence in epaulettes, unadulterated spirit and energy and essence burning through a tired old gym with note-sucking acoustics and a dingy board-covered floor.
And in a moment past the end, even beyond the instant when many in the crowd vaulted to a standing position, Jason stood there, after his bow, after saluting them with his baton-- he stood there, utterly still. The kinetics were done but the message was not. He stood there and stood there, four or five beats longer than strictly necessary, chin up and set but eyes absolutely blazing. He stood there because this thing, this thing he'd been training to do since the age of ten because it was fun and he loved it-- he'd done this thing well.
I mentioned to Jason's excellent mother that I was on the floor at that session and would send her what I'd shot. Jason had his back to his main videographer, his father, for much of the performance. He could not see his son's face, as I had.
"Did you get pictures?" she said.
I shook my head. "They wouldn't show what I saw anyway."
She nodded. She knew.
You had to be there.
Today's Tasting Room Musical Note is sponsored by live albums:
Reader Comments (27)
Swamps agree with you, Miss Belle.
Jason Stuckert, you are one badass mutha.
Thank you for this beautiful post Mary Beth, I sure needed something nice to think about today :P
WOW! Jason, sit down! Band, sit down! You earned yourselves a break from all that!
MB? Jason The Young?
Now you're both just showin' off.
Quit topping yourselves.
Infinity, etc.
rokkit tbdbitl!
Wonderful writing and music :)
Jason The Ridiculously Awesome: "I am running through the world's best brass band in front of 105,000 screaming fans!"
MB: "'I am standing in a swamp staring at a marsh fern!"
...Yes I totally see the parallel.
"...Yes I totally see the parallel."
Dude you saw the highlights from that Ohio State-Michigan State game right? She was better off with the marsh fern. WAAAAY better off.
Leave me out of this.
MB's latest tweet:
"Dear Dave Barry: DATELINE: Miami: I've read every word you ever published about South Florida drivers. You were UNDERSTATING."
lol! He always was talking about how Miami drivers fired shots in the air instead of using car horns.
That is some seriously vintage JB there, Tink. One of my favorites of course.
I made sure to watch at the end of the vid for the pause Mary Beth describes. Blink and you'll miss it, but it's there, and once again she takes a tiny little moment and recognize it as a part of a whole experience and person.
Just terrific, the performance and the description of it.
Leave me out of this.
Well I rather like the attention.
Holy *#%& Belle, you were RIGHT THERE for that song! That one ground bounce couldn't have been more than a few feet from you! Great shooting! (And writing of course!)
I should have known what was coming when Jason The Ridiculously Awesome Drum Major shouted for the graduate assistants who were standing on the opposite side of the floor to get out of the way.
LMFAO. "I don't want anybody gettin' hurt, here...."
Check this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXum0HlZv6k&feature=related
RAMP!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXum0HlZv6k&feature=related
I do not mean to cause trouble here because I don't hate/root for the Buckeyes one way or another, but after reading this post and watching this as well as Our Jason's performance, I have to say... after what I've heard of Ohio State's football performance on Saturday, that team should be EMBARRASSED to be sharing that field with this excellent band. EMBARRASSED. To have that kind of introduction and be putting up stats like allowing 9 sacks, in your own house?!
Just my 2 c,.
As always, Miss Ellis, you are stunning.
As always, Mr. Stuckert and TBDBITL, so are you.
Here they are at the BENGALS game, the big win over the Bills.... WHO-DEY!!!!!!!!!! It is a double Script Ohio so we get to see Kyle Who Owns! He is on the far side of the field, looks like.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUesQiPJf0E
Listen to the guy with the camera, "They're going to spell Ohio, pretty cool" * "That guy with the baton is awesome!" and my favorite, "Are you watching the baton guy?!" LOL!
Cincinnati loves you, Baton Guy!!!!!!!!
Great find, Reenie!
It is a double Script Ohio so we get to see Kyle Who Owns! He is on the far side of the field, looks like.
Nice spelling Kyle!
(pointing to top of the page)
Our Fair Webmistress has added an FAQ and post index about the Band, and had the good sense to quote a certain intelligent and well-versed The Reader... (preens)
Jason The Formerly Young that was seriously an incredible performance. The hours this guy must put in. The rest of the band too.
Whole new Blonde Champagne page tab!
http://blondechampagne.squarespace.com/mbeosu-wtbdbitl-wtf/
YAY
TBDBITL is the BEST, great halftime show this past Sat!
Every single thing about this post is spec-tacular.