Day 59 of 365: Red, white, and blue: 20 of 20 - An American Symphony

It has become very clear to me that I really had no idea just what it was I was getting into when I decided to take on this 365 project. It seemed like a good idea at first. I’d tested it with a seven day experiment, and things had gone well. I even asked a few folk round about the neighborhood how they felt about it, and those who spoke said “go for it”. So I did, and why not? I mean who doesn’t love Static…K, fine. So I ain’t exactly killer with a cam, but the fact of the matter is, I’m really having some fun, and with each passing day I’m trying to think of new ways to out do myself.
I’m only a few months into this mind crunching idea of the perfect mental torture device, and already it has become very challenging. Fact of the matter is…I like a good challenge.
Challenge in hand, I’ve decided to incorporate something new into the set. Music. What is the old quotation “If music be the food of love, play on”. And so it shall be. Oooooh, I do love my music. I have everything from vinyl LP’s of “The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly” and Arthur C Clark’s “2001 Space Odyssey”, to an eight tracks of Rush’ “2112” (To bad I don’t have an eight track player), to a veritable cornucopia of CD‘s stashed away, all the way into the new millennium with a music library on the old puter that could very well challenge the all mighty.
Yeah...Basically, I'm saying, I got a lot of tunes in my head.
I thought for a twist and maybe a new challenge I would attempt to count down 20 of my favorite tunes (happily not in succession), and go right on ahead and explain why I like them.
I can’t say they are my most favorite tunes ever, because the simple idea of suggesting that there is in fact an apical of best when it comes to music is basically an absurd reasoning, and I really can't have any part of that. I can however say that in one way or another these 20 songs that I'm in the process of choosing have touched me in one way or another, on more then just a few levels.
To start this off, I’ve chosen Michele Kamen’s “An American Symphony” from the movie “Mr. Holland’s Opus”. It’s value to me is priceless. Just call it ever so sweet nostalgia, if I may. My Senior year of high school, we had competed at state for the first time in fifteen years. It had been the first time in all those years our teacher had felt he had a band good enough to be a contender. We played Beethoven’s “Overture in b-flat”, A Lion King medley (Yes that’s just how long ago this was), and Michele Kamen’s “An American Symphony”. I’d played bass and the gong in the piece.
In the end we placed second, over all in state, having lost by three points to perfect. One point had been deducted for a trumpeter that had fouled a note, and two points had been deducted for the activity on the drum line. The drum line.
There really was a lot of activity on the drum line. There really wasn’t any other way to do it. It was a small school and with only five guys on the drum line, playing multiple instruments had become something we were use too. The drum line only consisted of five of us, and it was not uncommon for one, two, or sometimes even three of us to play one part of a song and then lay down our sticks in order to run over to another instrument, if not just to play but a single note, before charging to another. One guy would play harder while another switched to another instruments (or in the case of the gong, hold it up while I heated it before the crescendo, because it was older then I was, and had long since broken off it’s frame).
We didn’t win, but I still feel proud of that moment, and I am very proud of how well we had played this number.

Sorry the quality is not all that great. I really had to throw this together very quickly.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYo67-n7E-Q

Friday, June 27th. 2008

Taken on: June 27, 2008

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Sets appears in: • One a day: 365

Groups appears in: • Project 365 • Picnikers - closed more » • Anita DESITTER : PICNIK manipulations • Picniked 365s « less

Camera: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XTi, f/29.0, 1/60 sec, 30mm, ISO 400 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XTi
Aperture:	f/29.0
Exposure Time:	0.017 sec (1/60)
Focal Length:	30mm
ISO:	400
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	On, Fired
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	picnik.com
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