TRUE LIFE: If Drumline Is On, I'm Watching It.

When I was in high school I did a lot of music - I sang in the choir and I had a hilarious attempt at french horn.  I also got it in my head that I wanted to be a drum major, so our director, Mr. Cain, told me if I went to George Parks' Drum Major Academy, I could be the drum major.  Never one to back down from the challenge, I went, and loved it.  I didn't get to use all of what I learned because we were basically a concert band occasionally forced to march in parades at a small high school with no football team.  Regardless, it was awesome and I had a lot of fun drum majoring around and occasionally producing column turns like you see to the left here.  I met a lot of terrific people at Drum Major Academy, too, many of whom allowed me to write field shows for and guest conduct with them.  Bless those dear souls for putting up with my chronic 2-beat hitch and inflicting it on their bands.

Many of us talked about joining a Drum Corps International crew and going off to mobile percussion our faces off before going to college; for the vast majority of us that was a total pipe dream (warning: do not click above link if you do not want your face rocked off) but it was cool to think about.  This led to me watching a lot of drumline and marching band videos, so needless to say I was thrilled when the movie Drumline came out and went to see it with a bunch of my fellow drum majors.  (You have no idea the depths of dorkiness to which I can sink, my friends.)  It ruled, and if you wrote it off as a Black People Movie For Black People, which is kind of how it was marketed, which sucks, you should check it out the next time it's on TV.

Shit yeah.