RAIN

Great weekend. The weather held off long enough on Saturday for us to learn and then beat the crap out of all 18 pages of the ballad. This puts us at 61 total pages learned, and about 7.5 minutes of show on the field with music and drill.

We were unfortunately unable to attempt a complete run through of everything we know due to the weather. It started raining on us during ensemble rehearsal on Saturday night, and by the time we got to the point where we could do a run...there weren't any lines left on the lot. Those are important...right? Anyway, it started raining on Sunday during lunch. We broke into sectionals for a while, but called it quits altogether at 2:30. It was just getting too wet out, the pit and guard couldn't do anything, and it was just miserable.

Normally I'd freak out a little bit because of the timeline and everything that needs to be done (and there's still TONS that needs to be done between now and the first show), but because we got so much done on Saturday morning we're now able to take all of next weekend to review what we know...no new drill. Saturday is a tweak/change/solidify day with the goal of getting the entire show to a point that we can start doing runs in ensemble. I'd like to do 4 complete runs of the known show between Saturday and Sunday...we'll see how that goes. Building stamina in July doesn't make any sense to me. We need to start NOW.

The battery will be learning "Ride" this weekend. They have a really good grasp on the first 2/3rds of the show, and now it's time to just add on the closer. The brass has been working it for quite some time, and it's really starting to come together nicely. The pit knows most of it as well...although there are some really challenging parts that they're about to come up on. Unfortunately, we lost our most experienced mallet player. The rest of the pit has done a ridiculously awesome job of stepping it up and working hard. We have people who have been playing for less than a year flying all up and down the keyboards. The staff has done a good job with them for sure, but you have to give it up to the members in this kind of situation. We still need a marimba player, but it's not like the pit will suck without that position filled. They're doing a great job!

The guard began filling in work, and it looks great so far. So much movement and velocity in this show. I'm impressed with the product. I didn't know what to expect from the design team...including myself. The whole thing is turning out to be a mature, polished production...and I couldn't be happier with the way the whole team, including the rest of the staff, does whatever is best for the corps. They put their individual egos aside for what is best for Fusion. I think we're all getting used to each other, and the mutual respect is really beginning to happen. Good times lie ahead.

If you're reading this and are looking for something cool to do this weekend, come out to our Wal-Mart rehearsal facility on Sunday evening and have a BBQ with Fusion! We'll be doing a standstill performance of the show, I'll be talking about the show, the director will be talking a little about the year and what lies ahead...it'll be a cool day. We're performing around 6, but you can show up whenever and check things out. Hope to see you there.