All Said and Done, Except for...

Yeah, except for one thing. We have one more run of the show to do and than will occur at 2:00 p.m. This has been a hard year. Maybe the show was just too hard for the band but they told me they wanted a show that could win state. So I gave them one. Maybe I just expect and demand too much, but they told me they wanted to win. So I rehearsed them that way. The moral to this story is be careful what you ask for, you may get it. I suppose everybody is just about done with me for the season at this point and that is fine. I tried my best and that is all I ask of the students so I feel pretty good about that. I bet there are plenty of students that will feel pretty good about they have done too. I know that they have tried their best. Tomorrow is a reward for hard work. I think we have great competition and hopefully a great panel of judges too.

A final thought for this season. What did the show really mean to me? Well the title says it all: "The Firebird: A Phoenix Rising from the Ashes". The idea was that we knew we were moving to AAA and that would be tough on everybody. We know Swansea has won the AA state championship 3 times before. So what does the title mean. Well most people in the band world thought Swansea's glory days were over. They won AA by sheer size and power. One year they were the largest band in AA by 50 students. They were impressive. I remember seeing and hearing them. Things have changed in that respect though. The days of the big bands in South Carolina seem to be gone. So what do we do to compensate? We do more complex shows and play more complex music. So how does that relate to the title of the show. Well with last years success, I thought we were ready to take the Swansea back to its place of dominance. A once powerful and feared band would again be at the top but not as the same band. A new style of band that moves more than any other and plays better more difficult music too. A renewal shall we say. A rising from the ashes. The beginning of this season sure did seem like that was going to be the way. Perhaps most of the problems are my blame. We went to BOA in Florida and never seemed to get back on track afterwards. Maybe we just weren't ready for that yet. Lower state seemed to really knock everybody for a loop. Everybody seemed to be ready to just give up after finishing 3rd. One thing to remember. Nobody will even remember where we finished at lower state if we...well you know what goes there. Perhaps our Firebird has one last attempt to rise. We will know in 20 hours.