SCV Family Day
Monday, June 27, 2016
Santa Clara High School
Santa Clara, CA
It's Family Day! After checking out of the hotel, Bro and I hung out in the hotel lobby so that I could use the wi-fi to buy Rockapella tickets that had gone on sale at noon. We then made our way to Bro's old stomping grounds and ate a delicious lunch at Thai Basil. This chain is the reason that I have a standard Thai dish that I order upon going to any Thai place for the first time: chicken with basil. Mmmm.....so good!
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| Pad See Ew |
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| Chicken Basil |
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| Happy Bro |
We walked around a little bit and found nothing to buy, and then drove around to look for something to do. We checked out the sale in Sports Authority, but whatever we wanted was still not at great prices. No wonder this store is going out of business. V had an errand for us to run, so we went to the Party City in Cupertino; you know, where Apple is based. While we were in Party City, Bro tried to send pictures to V, but couldn't get a signal. On his iPhone. In the city where Apple is based. Lame, right? He eventually just ended up calling her when he got near the doorway, and it still took a while to decide on the product. Tiara with veil in hand, we drove to Santa Clara High School for some more drum corps goodness.
When we picked up our wristbands, one of the ladies at the table told Bro that he must be an alumnus because she recognizes his name. No, he's just an uberfan, that's all. Our wristbands were really cool: they have a picture of the SCV shield. It's a day later and I'm still wearing mine. Bro is going to try to wear his until Finals week. Whoa. That's a long time.
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| Best Wristband Ever! |
The seating was General Admission, so Bro found us seats on the top row near the center, on the right side of the field. We didn't have shade, but it was a good viewing position as we could stand up whenever we wanted to do so. We had arrived during SCV's rehearsal, so we sat and watched that for a while. I like how the corps director talks to them in such a positive, inspiring way. Like "You have to finish this moment...perform to the last breath." Between runs, he said, "Find something to make better." Not any condescending talk when he was being specific to certain people, just very respectful. I like him. Thank you for your leadership, Charles Frost, or whomever it was that was speaking!
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| SCV Leaf Formation |
We were then treated to run-throughs by all 3 corps present: SCV Cadets, Madison Scouts, and SCV. The horn lines of all of the corps also rehearsed the encore together. We giggled at how much they had to rearrange their arcs because there were so many of them. I texted Jen to ask if her daughter's friend was still in SCVC, and she said yes, Brandon is now the Baritone Section Leader! Great! Another friend, Tracer, is also in the corps, but I do not recall meeting this person. I thought I found Brandon, but when I sent a picture to Jen, she wasn't sure. So Brandon, if this is you and/or Tracer, hi!
The corps took a break to take showers and to have dinner together, and the audience was left to fend for ourselves. There was a Whole Foods truck there to promote the opening of their new store in Santa Clara, but I wasn't hungry enough to stand in line and I wasn't really interested in what they offered. Instead, I bought souvenirs. I bought a brown Madison Scouts shirt with a big fleur de lis on it, and writing inside the design. The guy that sold it to me said that it was designed by a corps member, and asked my advice for next year's shirt if it was offered again. I asked for a shirt that flared out a little bit more at the bottom. Thank you for asking! I also bought a pink/gray shirt that I'd been wanting at the SCV trailer. I got a free Scheherazade shirt with it! I have the teal one, and now I have the purple one so that I can match Miss O until she grows out of her dress.
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| Thanks, SCV! |
Bro refused to buy a shirt when I told him to go get one so he could get a free shirt, too. But...it's 2 for 1! He's so not like me sometimes. That's probably a good thing.
While we waited for the corps to perform, we were treated to a performance by the Santa Clara Big Band, which is sponsored by SCV. Its members include corps director Frost as well as other alumni and a couple of local high school kids. I liked the more upbeat songs because I was sleepy and needed a pick-me-up. Then the corps took turns performing their shows in uniform.
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| That's corps director Charles Foster pointing |
SANTA CLARA VANGUARD CADETS
I noticed while they were setting up that the pit members had a tattoo sleeve on their left arms. Bro said they were real tattoos. No. Then I noticed that everyone had tattoo sleeves. It matches the design on the drum major uniforms. Brandt Crocker was present and attempted to announce the names of the drum majors, but had a major fail with one of them. He kept trying and just cracked himself up, as well as all of us. He then just used their first names. Then while still giggling, said, "Seriously, is your corps ready?" He needs his own blooper reel. The corps performed beautifully anyway, like the pros that they are.
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| SCVC Drum Major |
MADISON SCOUTS
During the company front, they held their note longer than I remember them doing so before. I hope this is now part of the show. The low brass are hanging on the scaffolding at the end. We noticed that the brass players do a lot of poses as if they were on a cross, so we've decided that they are portraying Christ. The show gets more and more interesting as it develops. Oh, wow! As I was writing this, I found out that "Jesus Christ Superstar" will be shown on TCM this Thursday night! RECORD.
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| Disciples |
SANTA CLARA VANGUARD
Vanguard yell! They did it 2 or 3 times, so I'm choosing to do the yell during "Winter". I hope I remember by the time I see them again.
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| SCV |
Mr. Crocker then told us to stick around because "we have something special...special...special." It was cute and totally true. We let the lady in front of us stand next to us so that she could take photos/video of her son, a baritone in the Madison Scouts.
The hornlines of all 3 corps played a joint encore of both corps songs:
- Madison Scout's "You'll Never Walk Alone"
- Santa Clara Vanguard's "Send In The Clowns"
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| Drum Majors arm in arm as they listen to "You'll Never Walk Alone" |
It was awesome. I got all teary.
We got in the car and drove to Gilroy, and had a late dinner at Chevy's. Margaritas! The server could not resist photobombing my picture of Bro.
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| Mmmmm....Mango |
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| Hi! |
We checked in to our hotel and agreed to wake up early because Bro needed to get home in the early afternoon. In the morning, we had hotel breakfast, but since we were next to a Black Bear Diner, I needed pictures of bears.
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| Bear butt |
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| Fishing Bear |
I slept for much of the way home, sorry about that Bro. I hadn't slept well during the night. We had a great trip and Bro's already going through drum corps withdrawal despite the fact that we're going to another show tomorrow night.
I am having SCV withdrawal, though. We won't see them until August, at least in person. Thank goodness for the internet!
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